Series / Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

The signal is calling! Our planet is falling! The danger will test you! Better make it a Lightspeed Rescue!

"Lightspeed Rescue!"
"Titanium Power!"

—Morphing calls, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

The eighth season of Power Rangers, successor series to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and adapted from Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV. It was the first Power Rangers series to be completely independent from its predecessor, and to drop the secret identity trope, seeing as how Lightspeed Rescue was a government-sponsored agency, dedicated to protecting the city of Mariner Bay from the return of the vile demon Queen Bansheera and her many demonic minions.

Captain William Mitchell, accidentally made aware of the threat, assembles a team of rangers, including his eighteen-year-old daughter, Dana, a paramedic; Carter Grayson, a firefighter; Kelsey Winslow, extreme sports enthusiast; Joel Rawlings, stunt pilot; and Chad Lee, a whale trainer and martial artist. At first, the potential Rangers, except for Dana, want absolutely nothing to do with it, but upon witnessing the threats the demons show with their own eyes, they embrace their position as civil servants.

It turns out that Mitchell was prepared for the arrival of the demons because he has had experience with them in the past...

Lightspeed Rescue is the first season to feature an entirely American-made ranger, the Titanium Ranger, as Go Go V did not have a Sixth Ranger. It also was a military-esque, government-funded and organized team, with Secret Identities entirely non-existent.

Lightspeed Rescue is somewhat divisive among the fandom; some consider it to be one of the better seasons, while others consider it to be sub-par. Most people cite the villains and some of the acting as weak points, while the storyline, action sequences, and the walking testament of badassery that is Carter Grayson are often claimed to be the show's saving grace. The fact it was succeeded by what is considered by some to be the best season probably didn't help matters much. In general, this season is considered the weakest of the Judd Lynn era, although that claim has been challenged by Ninja Steel as of recent.

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Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Batlings take over the Lightspeed Aquabase. Rather uniquely for a Power Rangers series, the Rangers responded by Storming the Castle, invading Bansheera's temple for the finale and destroying it!
• All Your Powers Combined: The Spectra Blast, the Rangers' V-Lancer finisher. They fire their beams into the air where they form a large golden sphere of energy (which occasionally flickers with a big gold V).
• Beware the Skull Base: Skull Cavern was the base of the Demons and features a giant skull at the top of the pyramid structure.
• Big Bad: Queen Bansheera, with Diabolico and later Prince Olympius as The Heavy.
• Big Good: Captain William Mitchell is the authority figure the Lightspeed Rangers answer to.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Has a brand new story. No references or elements to the Zordon Era, aside from team-ups with the Lost Galaxy Rangers. This is a result of the franchise adapting the Super Sentai formula of treating each season as its own self-contained story. The crossover episode with the Lost Galaxy Rangers was a special episode that doesn't count.
  • No involvement with aliens.
  • The Rangers' identities were known to the public from the onset, as opposed to previous incarnations where a Ranger's identity was to be kept secret, revealed only in extreme circumstances.
  • The Rangers' powers, Zords, and weapons were man-made and had no mystical origin whatsoever.
  • A Power Ranger without a Super Sentai Counterpart.
  • The Ranger team was run by a military/public service organization.
  • Each member of the team were an adult in a career before becoming a Ranger.
  • None of the Rangers had met prior to becoming Rangers.
  • Not to feature an Alpha robot.
  • The Rangers are credited in the opening with their full names, as opposed to the standard convention of simply listing their first names.
• Chest Insignia: Operation Lightspeed logos on the belts, personal shield shapes as the faces of the helmets. The design on the chests (eighths alternating white and colored) is also pretty distinctive, and looks a lot like the Umbrella Corporation's logo.
• Chrome Champion: Titanium Ranger has a chrome costume.
• City of Adventure: Mariner Bay
• Compressed Adaptation: Was given 40 episodes to GoGoFive's 50. This included the two-part team-up with Lost Galaxy^note GoGoFive vs. Gingaman was a direct-to-video supplement to the series; "Trakeena's Revenge" was also released direct-to-video as Power Rangers in 3-D, but was also aired on TV.
• Cycle Of Virtue: When he was a little boy, Carter Grayson was saved by a firefighter. This inspired Carter to become a firefighter when he grew up, which led to him becoming a Power Ranger and saving even more lives. It is later revealed that the firefighter that inspired Carter is his superior Captain Mitchell, whose son Carter would also save twice.

• Humongous Mecha: Besides the obvious, the Supertrain Megazord deserves special mention — it's formed from the vehicles that carry the Lightspeed Megazord into battle, and because of this, dwarfs most monsters and all of the other Megazords that Lightspeed used.
  • Combining Mecha: There are three separate team combinations in the Lightspeed, Supertrain, and Omega Megazords. The Lightspeed Megazord can also combine with the Max Solarzord to make the Lightspeed Solarzord.
  • Transforming Mecha: the Max Solarzord
• Made of Explodium: It just wouldn't be Power Rangers if the monsters the Rangers fought didn't explode after being defeated.
• Make My Monster Grow: Jinxer does it with cards.

• Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the Pink Ranger's costume, averted for Yellow since She's a Man in Japan.
• Mooks: Batlings
• The Psycho Rangers: The Cyborg Rangers for this season. They weren't intended to become Mariner Bay's own Psycho Rangers though — General McKnight just wanted them to replace the Rangers just because of their lack of human frailties. However, one bolt of lightning was enough to make them malfunction and turn them into deranged androids considering that they were only programmed to fight and not use moral reasoning or sound judgement. Just as Ms. Fairweather said, they lacked a heart.
• Recycled IN SPACE!: Power Rangers as RESCUE WORKERS!

• Sealed Evil in a Can: The villains are released from the Tomb of Forever by some unwitting nomads. The villains then go about trying to free their still-sealed Queen. They all more or less end up that way again in the finale when they are either destroyed (sending their spirits back) or by physically being thrown back into the Tomb of Forever, sealing them in the Shadow World.
• She's a Man in Japan: Kelsey is the counterpart of the male Daimon, aka Go Yellow.
• Thememobile:
  • Cool Bike: The Lightspeed Cycles and Carter's Trans-Armor Cycle
  • Cool Car: As civilians, the Rangers used the Rescue Rover.
• Transformation Sequence:
  • With the call of “Lightspeed Rescue!”, the Rangers would cross their arms out front before hitting a button on the bottom of their morpher to activate it. The would form a shield in front of them that don their ranger color which they would pass through, forming the suit over them, with the final bits being the visor on their helmets to complete the morph.
  • The Titanium Power was pretty much the same only instead of a shield, a “V” shape symbol would form above the Ranger and lower down over them to form the suit.
• Transformation Trinket: The Rescue Morphers and Titanium Morpher. There's also the Battle Booster, which is a multi-button device that can do different things based on the code punched in; it can also combine with the Thermo Blasters for the expanded, rifle-style Booster Mode, remotely command the Max Solarzord, activate Zord combinations, and summon the Blue and Green Mega Battles.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Power Rangers, we generally get a MOTW appearing with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them. Justified in that our Rangers for the year are a rescue force.

• Word Power:
  • By the Power of Grayskull! or Invocation: "Lightspeed! Rescue!" for the core five Rangers. "Titanium Power" for the Sixth Ranger.

This subseries contains examples of:

• Acquired Situational Narcissism: When Dana becomes the Glitz Girl and neglects both her Power Ranger duties and her friends in "In the Limelight".
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Several bits from the Sentai went unexplained here, mostly relating to the special cards used by Diabolico or Olympius in certain battles^note Like the Golem Cards, which revives a fallen monster at the size of the Supertrain Megazord and gives them additional armor. There was also no explanation as to why the Rangers attempted to use the "toss the enemy away" finisher on Whirlin, then use the Lightspeed Megazord Saber, when they'd already used the Saber the episode prior (the Whirlin battle was Sentai episode 2; furthermore, the reason why they had to use the Saber to start, that being the Saber's positive energy would destroy the demon's negative energy, was also absent).
• Adaptation Species Change: Power Ranger's first aversion; for the first time the supernatural villains from Super Sentai get to still be be supernatural instead of being changed to aliens.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Cyborg Rangers go nuts after being struck by lightning.
• Alas, Poor Villain: When Bansheera forces Diabolico to shoot Loki. Loki laments prior to expiring that he devoted all that time to serving his Queen, only for her to turn on him instead — rendering it all pointless. This is what fuels Diabolico's Heel–Face Door-Slam.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Joel to Miss Fairweather up until the season finale, where she asks him out. They marry just before the Lightspeed/Time Force team-up.
• Alpha Strike: The Lightspeed Solarzord's Finishing Move, which basically consists of blasting the living tar out of the target with everything it's got (specifically, blasters on it's head, chestplate, gauntlets, and two massive hip cannons formed out of the Solarzord's arms).
• And the Adventure Continues: Even though their time as Rangers is over, the end of the series features the rangers running off to help with another fire. Later seasons imply that Lightspeed Rescue eventually got up and running again.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: "No such thing as monsters" in "Trakeena's Revenge". Even discounting the prior portion of the season, it's the crossover, confirming that yes, the last seven years of monster attacks count. Because of this, Linkara has labelled the woman who said this "The Dumbest Woman In Power Rangers Ever." What makes this even worse is that Lightspeed Rescue is the first season where the Rangers didn't have secret identities — they were openly known as the Power Rangers in public. Furthermore, their non-Ranger identities were rather well known.
• Avengers Assemble: How all the Rangers (except Dana) are recruited in the first episode. Each of them is in their element (Kelsey's rock-climbing, Carter's rescuing someone from a fire) when they're approached by Lightspeed agents.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • The Supertrain Megazord. While it's larger and more powerful than the Zords it carries, it required a lot of power to operate, and overloads would often harm the Rangers, until Ms. Fairweather stabilized the Megazord's power output.
  • The Lifeforce Megazord. It was potentially more powerful than the Supertrain Megazord, but its power source was drawn from the Rangers' Life Energy, making it a weapon of very last resort. The Rangers are forced to use it when all of the other Megazords were either destroyed or disabled.
• Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Diabolico swore revenge on Queen Bansheera for the way she treated her supporters. He got an excellent revenge in the final battle, helping the Power Rangers seal her away forever.
• Badass Family: the Mitchells.
• Bad Boss: Queen Bansheera. Quite possibly one of the worst people to work for. Unlike previous villains who had comedic sides, or had genuine love for a friend or family member, Bansheera has neither. Even her own son is expendable to her.
• Big "NO!": From Captain Mitchell, twice in the episode "Truth Discovered". The first time happens when a young Ryan is about to fall to his death and his Mr. Mitchell cries out for his son to be saved. The second time is when Diabolico as a spirit takes away Ryan and decrees to Mr. Mitchell that he will not see Ryan until his 20th birthday.
• Belly Mouth: Queen Bansheera's final form has a mouth on her stomach.
• Black Cloak: The Ghouls.
• Breaking Old Trends: As this Power Ranger team consists of active-duty public servants, it is the first season to eschew the traditional Secret Identity rule.
• Breath Weapon: Vypra.
• Breather Episode: "A Face From The Past" was immediately followed by Queen Bansheera returning and nearly wiping Mariner Bay off the map, and Ryan leaving to find a way to seal the demons away.
• Cain and Abel: Ryan and Dana respectively, just not for long. But before doing his Heel–Face Turn, Ryan was raised by Diabolico to believe that his father loved his sister more than him, among other things. Note, too, that Ryan is the older one of the two — though not by much significantly (2 year-difference). They also go one-on-one in one episode with Dana being able to hold her ground in spite of Ryan having easily kicked hers and all the other Rangers' asses in the previous episode, all the while trying to talk some sense into him.
• Canon Foreigner: The Titanium Ranger has no direct Sentai counterpart.
• The Captain: Captain Mitchell, obviously. Also Carter.
• Car Fu: The first thing Carter does when getting assigned the Red Lightspeed Ranger powers is attempt to run over the Monster of the Week with the Rescue Rover.
• Casanova Wannabe: Joel. He does get the girl in the end.
• Catch and Return: The Lightspeed Solarzord's solar panels can absorb an incoming attack to augment its own.
• Chekhov's Gun: A submarine is used in the first episode to transport the future Rangers to their underwater Aquabase, then is seemingly forgotten when it's revealed they can travel to the city and back via an underground tunnel. In the finale, they use the same submarine to escape the flooded Aquabase, and Captain Mitchell takes out the Batling-piloted Lifeforce Megazord with it.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The fireman who saved Carter as a child, inspiring him to become a fireman, is revealed to be Captain Mitchell.
• Chekhov's Skill: All the Rangers were selected for their skills in certain fields, which come up specifically in different parts of the season.
• Clip Show: "The Last Ranger", when four of the Rangers try to regain their memories after a run-in with an amnesia monster, while Dana tries to battle said monster alone.
• Command Roster:
  • The Captain: Carter, although Mitchell technically has the rank of Captain.
  • Number Two: Chad
  • Ace Pilot: Joel
  • The Marine: Kelsey, largely in her attitude in jumping into action without thinking
  • The Medic: Dana
  • Wrench Wench: Miss Fairweather
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Mitchell
• Cool Train: the Rail Rescues/Supertrain Megazord
• Continuity Nod: Episode 31 has Dana declare "back to action".
• Crazy-Prepared: If the Supertrain was either already deployed, damaged or under repair, they'd have Aero Rescue 3 bring in the other Rescuezords via a giant platform tethered to it.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Notably subverted compared to other Power Rangers seasons, as the Rangers' have rescuing civilians are part of their mission statement, and thus spend about as much time keeping people safe during their fights as actually fighting, with a large part of the first launch of the Zords being saving civilians from a building the monster knocked over. In fact Med Rescue 5 is built to justify this trope by being able to evac civilians from the danger zone en masse.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • With a bit of Fridge Logic, this series actually fits. It has one of the vilest villains the franchise has ever seen, got away with saying "dead," had a real gun in one episode, and, perhaps most impressively of all, averted No Endor Holocaust, with the carnage caused by the monster attacks taking center stage quite often (they don't go so far as to actually show any dead bodies or anything like that, though). This is quite fitting, as these Rangers are rescue workers first and monster fighters second.
  • There was even one episode, called "Yesterday Again", where Carter cannot come to the other Rangers' aid on time because of his difficulties in piloting his Mobile Armored Vehicle (which started to malfunction, on top of that) and actually witnesses the other Rangers getting killed by Olympius (yes, you read that correctly; and it was onscreen — but no blood). And no, they did not pull a Kendrix, if you know what we mean. Luckily, and oddly enough, his malfunctioning vehicle gave him the chance to do some time-travelling, thus repeating that same day, which allowed him to prevent their deaths.
• Deader than Dead: One way to interpret Queen Bansheera's fate is a death so permanent that even her spirit is no more; a horde of demons rip her soul apart.
• Deal with the Devil: As the main villains are literal demons, they make these multiple times. The most prominent and plot important one being how Diabolico got his hands on Ryan in the first place.
• Decomposite Character: The sentai's Kyoko Hayase had a direct counterpart in Nancy Cooper (shuttle pilot rescued by the heroes), but her assistance with the team's gear was given to Ms. Fairweather and her temporarily becoming the Sixth Ranger was given to Ryan (though unlike Kyoko Ryan stuck around for much longer).
• Decoy Convoy: While the rest of the team is guarding a fuel cell, Dana is tasked with giving her father's friend a ride. It turns out the real fuel cell was with Dana and the friend while the others were guarding a fake.
• Demoted to Extra: In GoGoV, the Grand Cross planetary alignment — at which point the demons would hold the ceremony to restore Grandiene's body — was the demons' driving goal through the first half of the show (indeed, the show's broadcast was timed to occur with an actual planetary alignment); here, the demons' goal is to restore Queen Bansheera's palace and the planetary alignment only figures into "The Queen Returns" (with a brief mention in a couple of episodes preceding it).
• Disc-One Final Boss: Diabolico is set up as the main villain before eventually being usurped by Olympius. He comes back eventually, but is then done away with by Queen Bansheera.
• Dragged Off to Hell: Queen Bansheera's final plan is to release all the monsters from the Shadow World — every monster ever, going back to MMPR season 1. She is eventually pushed in by the Red Ranger, and latches onto him. The deceased Diabolico, however, appears in spirit form, severs her tentacle, and sends his former mistress to her fate. The last thing we see before the Shadow World tomb closes is all the monsters closing in and starting to pound on her. It's nothing more than she deserved.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: An unusual example; while Olympius' first appearance chronologically occurred in Olympius Ascends US audiences were first introduced to him in Power Rangers in 3D which was actually the Lost Galaxy team-up Trakeena's Revenge which was produced and released months earlier as a double-length episode on VHS as part of a McDonald's promotion. In the episode, Olympius is portrayed as a lot smarter and calmer than he would otherwise be portrayed in the series (which his voice especially sounding very sedate). As a result, when the movie was edited into a two-parter and aired during the series (at which point Olympius had been around for a while) the difference in personality is very obvious.
• Elite Mooks: Demonite, Thunderon and Falkar, Diabolico's last monsters. They spend several episodes kicking the Rangers' butts. The Rangers usually had to resort to underhanded methods to level the playing field against them.
• Enemy Civil War: Once Olympius decides to get rid of Vypra and Loki, and they bring back Diabolico in turn, this starts. Notably, Diabolico and Olympius' first battle was taken advantage of by Carter, who used the opportunity to escape with the frozen Miss Fairweather and the Thermo Blasters.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Impus/Olympius dearly loves his mother, despite the fact that she's perfectly willing to destroy him.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Even Captain Mitchell drives one!
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode has all the main characters meeting for the first time.
• Evil Laugh: Queen Bansheera.
• Evil Will Fail: Apart from the Enemy Civil War, what causes the end of the demons is really Queen Bansheera's Bad Boss tendencies. First, she absorbs Vypra in order to use her energy to complete her body, then she uses Diabolico to shoot at the Rangers, despite Loki being caught in the blast, which results in Diabolico turning against her. She then turns Diabolico and Olympius into powerful giants, only for them to be destroyed by the Lifeforce Megazord. As a result, all that remains is Jinxer, who is soon destroyed along with the commandeered Omega Megazord, while Bansheera herself is sealed away by the Rangers with the help of the deceased Diabolico.
• Expy: The Blue Ranger is a Asian-American man, the Green Ranger is a bald African-American man, the Pink Ranger is a blonde girl, the Yellow Ranger is a brunette girl who's crazier than the the girly Pink Ranger, the Sixth Ranger is a sibling to one of the five main Rangers, and the Red Ranger is a Caucasian-American hunk. If this seems familiar, it's because it's the exact same thing they had one season earlier with the Lost Galaxy team.
  • The Cyborg Rangers and their commander, General McKnight, are basically expies of the Neo-Jetmen and their Supreme Commander Ichijou. However, the Neo-Jetmen were actually cyborgs (humans with integrated tech) as opposed to the Cyborg Rangers (who are full robots), and General McKnight is slightly less of a Jerkass as compared to Supreme Commander Ichijou.
• Extendable Arms: One of the unique abilities of the Lightspeed Megazord; as its arms are the ladders of Pyro Rescue 1, it can extend its arms, which it makes very versatile use of.
• Fate Worse than Death: The other way to interpret Queen Bansheera's fate; a horde of demons beats the shit out of her for all eternity. Most fans would agree she deserves this one more.
• Fire Alarm Distraction: A little girl named Heather has parents who are being held prisoner on the 13th floor of a building. The Rangers have Heather pull the fire alarm, forcing everyone to evacuate while they search the building for the villains and Heather's parents.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps: Carter was rescued from a burning building as a kid by a firefighter. He ends up becoming a firefighter too and also becomes a Power Ranger. Later on, it turns out the firefighter who rescued Carter was Captain William Mitchell.
• Franchise Codifier: This was the first Power Rangers season to be wholly self-contained, with characters from the previous season only appearing in the team-up episode. This would become the standard for almost two decades, until Hasbro bought the brand.

• Fuel Meter of Power: The Titanium Ranger. Specifically, he's cursed so there's a cobra tattoo on his back, and every time he morphs it rises higher. If it gets to his neck, he dies. Eventually subverted, as Ryan destroys the cobra statue powering the tattoo. This didn't mean he would appear more often, though.
• Gatling Good: The Supertrain's weapons are referred to as "Gatling Blasters", though the left arm weapon, which fires some sort of blast (it's unclear if they're energy blasts or really big bullets — what look like bullet casings are ejected), fits the trope closer than the right arm weapon (which shoots missiles, though not enough to be a Macross Missile Massacre).
• Government Agency of Fiction: Operation Lightspeed.
• Grand Finale: The series ends with the two-part episode "The Fate of Lightspeed", which has the Lightspeed Rangers finally defeat Queen Bansheera and her forces for good, then consider retirement before deciding to continue being Rangers to resume defending Mariner Bay from disaster.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: "Yesterday Again", which sees Carter getting a second chance at the day he just lived... and thus a second chance to save his teammates, who'd died in the original version events.
• Harmless Freezing: Possibly averted in the episode "In the Freeze one," where Miss Fairweather is frozen solid and seem to need medical assistance to thaw. However, we're never given a clear idea of how lethal the freezing effect was.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Inverted slightly. After Bansheera took control of him and forced him to fire at the Rangers who were battling Loki, who ended up being hit by the blast and destroyed, Diabolico vowed revenge against the queen. However, before he could act on his plan, Bansheera took control of him and forced him to fight the Rangers, who had no choice but to destroy him. Fortunately, he got another chance in the finale when he came back as a spirit and helped Carter trap her back in the demon world forever.

• Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted by Carter in the finale, when Queen Bansheera pulls Carter in with her into the tomb gateway. Eventually averted, though, when Diabolico's spirit appears and severs Bansheera's tentacle, sending her into the depths below.
  Carter: Close it!
• Homage: Besides the source footage's hat-tipping to the work of Gerry Anderson, Saban's adaptation (perhaps inadvertently) takes it further. Lightspeed is a technologically advanced government agency with clear similarities to the Navy, much like Stingray's WASP.
• Hospital Hottie: Dana.
• Humiliation Conga: Chad's old martial arts instructor Mr. Tamashiro is overly stubborn, proud, and actively condemns Chad choosing to become a Ranger instead of continuing to be his pupil. The demon who tricks him into training him predictably stabs him in the back the moment he's no longer useful, after which Chad proves he hadn't forgotten anything by curbstomping him in a quick sparring match. Chad then solo's the same Monster of the Week that beat Mr. Tamashiro twice in quick succession. To his credit, Mr. Tamashiro learns from it and finally accepts Chad's decision.
• Idiot Ball: During "Trakeena's Revenge", a young girl's mom is captured by monsters. When the little girl ask another woman's help, she says that there's no such things as monsters. This was midway through the season, after dozens of monsters had attacked the city. Not to mention that just a few years ago, Earth was temporarily taken over by monsters. And this was the team-up episode, confirming that, yes, the last seven seasons of monsters attacks did happen. Not to mention this girl says her mother has been kidnapped. It shouldn't matter what type of thing she says did it — her mom was kidnapped and the woman walks away giving no help, which is insane. It's with good reason that Linkara named this lady "DUMBEST PERSON IN POWER RANGERS EVER."
• Improbable Age: Dana's official age is 18, and she's a qualified paramedic. Granted, she's working for her daddy...
  • By next season's team-up, she has a doctorate. After an episode in Lightspeed predicated on her saving money for medical school. Which she graduated from in one year, according to the Lightspeed Rescue/Time Force team-up episode "Time for Lightspeed". Medical school does not work that way!
    • Paramedic training can shorten the length of time spent in medical school, but yeah it's still pretty messed up.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The Lightspeed Rangers' blaster preference makes this one something like Required Secondary Powers.

• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The crossover with Power Rangers Lost Galaxy features Kendrix on the team instead of Karone which spoils the fact that Kendrix doesn't stay dead after her Heroic Sacrifice to anyone who doesn't watch Lost Galaxy before this season.
• The Legions of Hell: Bansheera and her demons are basically this.
• Life Energy: Used to power the Lifeforce Megazord. (How exactly this works when the Batlings hijack it isn't explained.)
• Limited Wardrobe: Unlike the previous season there was no justification. They wear Lightspeed jackets over their street clothes. That's it. And their street clothes are the same every episode.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Averted, tomboy Kelsey Winslow is the one with long hair, while Dana Mitchell, who is the girly girl to Kelsey's tomboy, has short hair. However, it's played with as Dana, who is a paramedic, is still much less feminine than a lot of other pink rangers (which as Kimberly).
• Long Lost Sibling: Ryan turns out to be Captain Mitchell's son and Dana's older brother. Many years ago, their car fell off a cliff, and Diabolico offered to save Mitchell and Dana on the condition that he keep Ryan.
• Love Is a Weakness: Vypra believes love is Chad's weakness after he battles the Demons to save Marina the mermaid. Loki disagrees.
  Loki: Weakness? I'd say it made him a whole lot stronger!
• The Magic Versus Technology War: Supernatural Demons Vs. Lightspeed Tech built by humans.
• Mark of the Beast: Inverted with Ryan's snake tattoo, which he only gets post-Heel–Face Turn, and which is meant to kill him eventually.
• The Men in Black: Carter, Chad, Joel and Kelsey are approached by government agents dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses. Their rather shifty appearance may be why Joel was reluctant to go with them despite their benevolent cause.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Kelsey: "Crazy is my middle name!"
• Mildly Military: The Rangers are technically a military operation and do have uniforms and rank, but aren't in them 24/7. They are also given more leeway than one would expect of soldiers. Chad was allowed to give his sensei — who earlier that day had trained a demon — a tour of the Lightspeed Aquabase, Joel once invited a little kid he was friends with to the base and Dana was still allowed to resume her Ranger duties despite shirking them for a modeling career.
• More Dakka: The solution to the giant monster in "Yesterday Again" shrugging off the weapons of one megazord? Call up the other megazords and just unload everything at him. Credit due, it works.
• Mustache Vandalism: Kelsey draws glasses, a mustache, and a beard on Dana's picture on a magazine cover in "In the Limelight".
• Mythology Gag:
  • This isn't the first time some nameless Unwitting Instigators of Doom come along and foolishly open a Sealed Evil in a Can, resulting in the start of the series.
  • Combined with Freeze-Frame Bonus; if you look closely a few times in the Aquabase's Transport Bay (where the Rangers often head out to the Train Bay, or in the Rescue Rover), you'll see a small green robot standing around with the Lightspeed emblem for a face. This was Mint, the Robot Buddy from GoGoV.
  • The Titanium Ranger's suit shares some similarities to the Turborangers' suits.
  • The Titanium Laser, meanwhile, is a gun that can turn into an axe — the inverse of the Power Axe from MMPR (an axe that could also be used as a cannon).
  • Similar to the first episode of Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV, both Carter and Dana are introduced working in their respective emergency sectors.^note Carter as a firefighter and Dana as a paramedic Carter and Matoi also head into danger without considering their own safety when they try to get civilians out of danger.
    • At the same time, Carter uses a Humvee to take down a demon after he joins Lightspeed, similar to how Matoi uses a sedan to take down a demon at the harbor after GoGoV was formed.
• Noble Demon: Diabolico eventually becomes more benign, ultimately giving posthumous aid to the Rangers to get back at Queen Bansheera for killing him and Loki and making it clear she didn't give a fig about her underlings.
• No One Could Survive That!:
  • During a subsequent fight with the Titanium Ranger, the Lightspeed Rangers are equipped with the V-Lancers, basically lances equipped with a gun mode. They nail the Titanium Ranger with their combined Spectra Blast which, by rights, ought to have killed him. However, he's more or less fine, prompting Carter to invoke this trope in his incredulity.
  • It's also part of the season being Darker and Edgier. Never Say "Die" is still in effect, but their nearly word-for-word No One Could Survive That! reaction makes it clear they had intended and expected the blast they'd just delivered to a human enemy to be fatal. They were all prepared to fire a second volley when Captain Mitchell ordered them to stand down, and were angry that they'd had to let the opponent get away until he revealed that Ryan was his son. (Considering how close he came to beating them, and how his manner of calling the Rangers out tended to be to fire his ax-blaster at random — yes, hitting actual people sometimes — it's understandable. But still, at the time, such happening in Power Rangers was completely unthinkable.)
  • It's also said by Carter when they battle giant Diabolico with the Lightspeed Solarzord and they think they got him; he emerges from the smoke none the worse for wear. (It's shortly after this they demonstrate the Attack Reflector / Alpha Strike combo that finally brings Diabolico down.)
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Unlike most PR footmen who serve as mere Cannon Fodder (including their predecessors who had to perform kamikaze tactics in order to cause large scale damage), the Batlings show how dangerous they can be when they infiltrate the Aquabase, hijack the Lifeforce Megazord, and use it to completely demolish the place, nearly killing Captain Mitchell, Miss Fairweather, Dana, Joel, Chad, and Kelsey in the process. What's more, they accomplished all this without a monster or general to lead them.

• Official Couple: By the time they team up with the Time Force Rangers, Joel and Miss Fairweather have gotten married.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Chad's love interest Marina. Eventually operates by the Splash method, but she can only live out of water for so long.
• Palette Swap: The Lifeforce Megazord is basically the Lightspeed Solarzord in black and gold wielding the Lightspeed Megazord's sword in red, and apparently cannot transform.

• The Power of the Sun: The Max Solarzord, and by extension the Lightspeed Solarzord. It can also absorb whatever Diabolico throws at it, much to both side's surprise.
• Relative Error: "The Mighty Mega Battles" has Ms. Fairweather call a famous scientist named Clark to help her build some armour for the Rangers. They get along exceedingly well, and Clark is even given the honor of revealing her first name (Angela) to the audience. Meanwhile, Joel, who was in love with her, is seen getting very, very jealous, and even tries to sabotage one of their 'dates'. Finally, they get attacked by a Monster of the Week and, seeing Ms. Fairweather's obvious distress when Clark is still in danger, Joel decides he wants his beloved to be happy and saves his rival. Later, he gamely tells her how glad he is for her and that she deserves the best boyfriend ever. Naturally, this is when he is treated both to the reveal that Clark was Ms. Fairweather's brother all along and to a kiss on the cheek. In a No Hugging, No Kissing series, even.
• Rings of Activation: The Lightspeed Megazord's Finishing Move involves generating a ring of fire with its sword and then slashing through it to generate a fiery Sword Beam.
  • Also seen during the Grand Finale when the eclipse occurs and Bansheera unlocks the Tomb of Forever; the eclipse sends down rings of purple energy onto the Skull Cavern and the stone circle surrounding it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The three nomads who unearth the Tomb of Forever helps kickstart the events of the plot.
• Shot-for-Shot Remake: Zigzagged. While the season used most of the plot from Kyūkyū Sentai GoGoV, it also has given the characters their own personalities which are not too similar to their Japanese counterparts AND have its own many original plots as well (specifically: the Titanium Ranger, the Tomb of Forever, Bansheera's fate, etc.). The demons are also given a different goal, with the Grand Cross storyline being demoted in importance.
• Stay in the Kitchen: The series looks like it's doing this in an early episode, as Pink Ranger Dana is assigned a seemingly unimportant mission to escort an old friend of their mentor (and her father) back to the Aquabase so they can spend some time together, while the rest of the team is on a different escort mission, bringing a scientist with a special fuel cell back to the base. Dana is very annoyed with this, feeling her father doesn't trust her skills... until she finds out he'd subverted the trope and sent her to guard the real fuel cell while the rest of the team was protecting a decoy.
• Super Civil Services: The entire premise of the series are that various first-responders are hired to fight demons as Power Rangers, with all the crazy tech and superpowers this implies.
• Team Dad: Captain Mitchell serves as a father figure to the Rangers, helped along by the fact that he actually IS Dana and Ryan's dad.
  • And to a member of the team, at that. Eventually, two members of the team when Ryan arrives & takes up the Titanium Ranger powers.
• This Cannot Be!: Perhaps verbatim when Diabolico unleashes his full arsenal on the Lightspeed Solarzord... and it absorbs the energy. Carter's response: "Oh, sure it can, Diabolico! FIRE!" *BOOM*
• This Is Gonna Suck: Carter's reaction when Diabolico resurrects the Troika monsters.
• This Is Not a Drill: Invoked in one episode. Following the Rangers defeating Diabolico, everyone's celebrating the victory when the alarms go off. Carter asks if it's a drill, to which Captain Mitchell responds "We don't have drills". Sure enough, Olympius appears.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Justifies for this season by the demons finding out that Mariner Bay was built on the site of Queen Bansheera's palace, and they want to rebuild it for her when she returns.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kelsey and Dana are respectively a tomboy and a woman of traditionally feminine pursuits.
• The Worsening Curse Mark: Given to Ryan by Diabolico.
• The Unmasqued World: This is the first season with powers and Zords that are, to all appearances, entirely man-made with no alien intervention at all. Further, Lightspeed is quite public about fighting demons and the Rangers don't particularly bother with secret identities.
• Tyke-Bomb: Diabolico raises Ryan to be his warrior.
  • Dana is essentially a heroic version; Captain Mitchell says he's been raising her since childhood to be ready to be the Pink Ranger when the demons return.

• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: At the beginning of "Operation Lightspeed", three nomads open the Tomb of Forever, which indirectly causes the demons to be released and sets the whole plot of the series in motion.
• Villainous Mother-Son Duo: Queen Bansheera and her weak-minded son Olympius whom she treats with utter disdain due to his repeated failures to defeat the Rangers. Olympius starts off as quite a sinister demon baby called Impus who absorbs the Star Power of Diabolico after the latter's destruction and becomes the grown demon Olympius who was powerful enough to singlehandedly curbstomp all of the Rangers and could change shape but in his first episode he falls into a pool of water, causing him to lose most of his powers. He's largely disdained as a result by his fellow demons and spends most of the series trying to gain his mother's approval, to little avail.
• Weaksauce Weakness: The demons turn out to be weakened by water. And yet, they somehow managed to rule the world in ancient times, despite said world being 75% water and their seat of power being right next to the ocean.
• Wham Line: "From Deep in the Shadows" when the team confronts Captain Mitchell for ordering them to retreat before they could destroy the man who stole the Titanium Morpher.
  Carter: Why, sir? Why did you stop us?
  Captain Mitchell: Because...he's my son.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Presumably Jinxer died when the hijacked Omega Megazord went down, but we don't see proof of this.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted big time. Carter doesn't have any conventional martial arts training, and thus is quick to draw his blaster when dealing with Mooks and the like. To say nothing of the bit when he has a Monster of the Week pinned up against the wall with a BFG in each hand, with the monster daring him to take the shot. He does. And it's awesome. Even two years later, his part in the Wild Force crossover sees Carter just unloading on Mooks instead of fighting them like the other Rangers.
• With All Due Respect: An angry Dana invokes this when she's sent to give her father's friend a ride while the others guard an important fuel cell. It turns out the others are a decoy, and the real fuel cell is with Dana.
  Dana: Father, with all due respect, call your friend a taxi!
• Would Hurt a Child: At one point, Diabolico was only seconds away from smothering Impus when Jinxer stumbled upon him.
• Your Size May Vary: The Supertrain Megazord. Due to the size of the suits and sets, it'll be massive in special effect-ed distant shots, but in normal shots, the same size as whatever Monster of the Week or mecha is also in frame.
  • The Train Bay too, as it looks huge above water, but looks tiny when it's seen ascending from within an Aquabase tower (blame this on the fact that in GoGoV the Train Bay was the entire base). Also, when the Lifeforce Megazord attacks the Aquabase in the finale it's way bigger than normal. Presumably Jinxer made it grow somehow (or the Aquabase had some sort of subspace-compression thing going on which allowed the Zords to be stored at a smaller than normal size inside their facilities, and would grow to usual size outside the base; the demons messed it up).

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