My 10 Personal Favourite Power Rangers

This may surprise no one, but I am a complete and utter geek/dork. And as with most geeks/dorks/etc that grew up in my generation, I am a huge Power Rangers fan. Now I’m not quite as ranty or analytical about the series or about the production of it as others, but seeing as how this IS Jyger’s Rant, I’ll most likely be getting to that in the near future. For now, I thought I’d put my nostalgia glasses on and look at 10 of my favourite Power Rangers from the entire series (in no particular order). Now of course, this is entirely opinion based, so don’t freak out if you disagree with me anywhere. Also, I’m gonna try to avoid referencing each Ranger’s Sentai counterpart, hard as it may be for me as I’m actually a fan of both Power Rangers AND Super Sentai, and before you ask, no, on a whole I do NOT have a preference. So with that said, let’s start off with…

"It's Morphin' Time!"

Trini Kwan, the Yellow Mighty Morphin’ Ranger

Ah Trini, my one true love…Err, that is until I met my girlfriend…Okay, so I had a HUGE fanboy crush on this girl as a kid, but can you honestly blame me? She was beautiful, she knew kung fu, and she had a passion to protect the environment. She often-times was seen assisting Billy with his devices and would also provide English-to-Technobabble translations between himself and the rest of the team. Oh, and apparently her favourite superhero was Wonder Woman. How awesome is that? Sadly, her time on the show only lasted a little over a year. Even sadder, Thuy Trang, the woman who played Trini on the show, tragically passed away in a car accident 10 years ago. She remains dearly missed.

"Lightspeed Rescue!"

Carter Grayson, the Red Lightspeed Rescue Ranger

For some reason, a few fans tend to think of Carter as being kinda bland and uninteresting. And to quote Lewis Black, “I wonder where exactly one can find a drug that would make one so delusional.” Carter was frigging bad-ass! First episode, there was a monster attack, and he tried to run it down with a humvee. When the Zords were brought down by monsters, he just charged them with hand blasters. When a monster cloned itself and was attacking one of Carter’s friends and fellow Rangers, he got out a couple of oversized blasters and held the monster at point-blank range, threatening to blow him away if he didn’t call off the clone. You mess with Carter Grayson, and you’ll either live to regret it, or you won’t live through it at all.

"RPM, Get In Gear!"

Dillon, the Black RPM Ranger

A lot of Power Rangers seasons fall into a pattern where the Red Ranger hogged most of the spotlight. RPM was NOT one of those seasons, wherein all 7 members of the team were very well-developed characters that shared the spotlight…though if any one member got more than the others, that would’ve been Dillon. Much like Carter, this guy is a bad-ass. A lot of times he prefers to work alone, often fighting enemies on his own away from the others when fights broke out. Also, as someone whose past was taken away from him and made part cybernetic by the main villain, he had the biggest score to settle, making his story a very personal one, made even more-so by the discovery that he had a sister that was missing somewhere in the world. Ultimately, he does embrace the team as his friends, but he still prefers to do things his way and is always bad-ass while doing so.

"It's Morphin' Time!"

Tommy Oliver, the Green Mighty Morphin’ Ranger, White Mighty Morphin’ Ranger, Red Zeo Ranger, Red Turbo Ranger, and Black Dino Thunder Ranger

C’mon, are you really shocked this guy’s on my list? Tommy DEFINES what it means to be a Power Ranger. He’s strong of mind, body, and spirit. He is willing to put his life on the line if necessary to protect the world from some of the worst villains known in PR continuity. He’s had to live through the trauma of being placed under a spell that made him possibly the biggest threat to the Power Rangers in their early days, and after being freed from it had to make it through a long process of trying to hold onto his powers as the forces of evil tried everything to take them away or exhaust them to depletion. But even in losing them, he kept up the fight, earning new powers and the role of leader of the team. As the longest serving Ranger in Power Rangers history, he’s led multiple teams, and served as the mentor to a newer team of Rangers while in his adulthood, eventually joining the team himself as their Black Ranger. A running joke among many is that he won’t be satisfied until he’s worn every colour known to man as a Power Ranger. But let’s be honest, at the end of the day, Tommy is no laughing matter.

"Time For Time Force!"

Jen Scotts, the Pink Time Force Ranger

The first and only Pink Ranger to lead a team, Jen is the leader of the Time Force Rangers. Smart, driven, athletic, passionate, and let’s face it, beautiful. I think she actually tops Kimberly as the best Pink Ranger of all time. For a while, she seemed like a woman possessed in her goal of capturing Ransik and bringing him back to the future, but when he genuinely felt repentant for his crimes, she forgave him. She had something of a love triangle with Wes and Alex, but ultimately concluded that she loved Wes, even though they could never be together due to coming from different time periods. Oh, and when she came back for Reinforcements From The Future, she came decked out in leather and heavy artillery. Now THAT is the sign of an awesome Ranger.

"I am Deker. Nothing more, nothing less."

Cole Eva-…Wait, that’s not right…

"Wild Access!"

Cole Evans, the Red Wild Force Ranger

Okay, I know I’m gonna get some tilted heads for this pick, but I like this guy. The Blazing Lion, Cole was chosen by the Lion Zord to be the leader of the Wild Force. Yeah, his actor could ham it up really bad in scenes, but he was also involved in some really brutal fight scenes, my favourite being his one-on-one battle with Master Org. He could speak to animals because he could connect to the heart of other living creatures, thus being able to understand the Wild Zords as well. His most notable accomplishments include helping to save the world from the Org threat and also destroying Serpentera…though the means by which he did so still piss me off, but I can’t really fault the character for that.

"It's Morphin' Time!"

Adam Park, the Black Mighty Morphin’ Ranger, Green Zeo Ranger,
and Green Turbo Ranger

Before you call favouritism towards MMPR, I would just like to note that two of them that I picked were on multiple teams. With that said, Adam started out kinda bland and generic. There wasn’t anything wrong with him, he just didn’t do much to stand out at all. I think it wasn’t until Zeo that he started to stand out, but at that point, his character grew far more. He became Tommy’s main sparring partner, as well as his second-in-command. He became more proactive too, as seen in an incident where Tommy couldn’t pilot the Red Battlezord, a Zord that utilizes a psychic link with the pilot, and asked to have it reconfigured so he could pilot it instead. He would leave the show halfway through Turbo, but managed to return twice in Power Rangers In Space and Power Ranger Operation Overdrive, both times using his original powers passed down to him by Zack, the original Black Ranger. Asd such, he is the second longest serving Ranger in history.

"SPD Emergency!"

Bridge Carson, the SPD B-Squad Green Ranger, SPD B-Squad Blue Ranger, and SPD B-Squad Red Ranger

Meet the only guy to shown on screen as three different Ranger colours for the same darned team. Bridge started off as the Green Ranger of Space Patrol Delta’s B-Squad, serving as such from the beginning of the season right up until the finale, wherein Jack Landors, the Red Ranger, retired from SPD and Sky Tate, the Blue Ranger, was promoted to Red, leaving his old position to Bridge. Sometime afterwards, Sky was promoted again, leading to Bridge becoming B-Squad’s Red Ranger by default. Some would call Bridge the most unlikely Red Ranger ever due to his quirky off-the-wall behaviour, but I think he’s pretty cool. He has the power of psychometry, though apparently he needs to wear gloves to keep such power in check or he’d read everyone’s auras uncontrollably. He also has the ability to achieve an epiphany by doing a handstand. Both are actually powers belong to two members of Dekaranger, SPD’s Japanese counterpart, but I’m trying not to talk about Sentai so let’s move on. Overall, Bridge is pretty cool. I do wanna punch him though, because now I can’t say the word “buttery” without wiggling my fingers. Thanks Bridge, really.

"White Ranger, Dino Power!"

Trent Fernandez-Mercer, the White Dino Thunder Ranger

…Okay, I said I would keep Sentai references to a minimum, but I cannot keep this one down. Trent is frigging awesome, but he is also a VERY underwhelming counterpart to Mikoto Nakadai, AbareKiller. Seriously, if you have not watched Abaranger, let me just say that it is worth watching, if for no other reason than AbareKiller.

…Okay, mini rant over. Trent is the adoptive son of the man who would turn out to be the main antagonist of the show, and would later become the White Ranger for Dino Thunder, though he was actually a major antagonist to them for a while due to possession from his dino gem. When he was freed from his possession, he joined the team, though not before having his powers cloned into an evil White Ranger. For a long time, he had to grapple with loyalties to both his team and his father’s Jekyll/Hyde condition, as well as being in a constant grapple with his clone over the White Ranger powers. However, Trent’s will eventually saw him through both. Oh yeah, and did I also mention his powers let him move at light-speed for a few seconds at a time?!

And the last of my 10 favourite Power Rangers is…

"It's Morphin' Time!"

Linkara, the White Zeo Pimp Ranger

Alright, chillax, I’m just kidding. I just couldn’t possibly resist that one. Seriously though, I WANT that hat.

"Let's Rocket!"

Andros, the Red Space Ranger

How could I possibly not include the Ranger that saved the universe from the United Alliance of Evil? When the Turbo Rangers were without power and needed someone to lead them through space against the forces threatening the entire universe, Andros was just the man they needed. He taught them all about space and their new powers, and in return, they taught him about Earth and how to be a part of a team, something he’d forgotten since his friend Zhane had been critically wounded in action. In the final battle, he found their great leader Zordon, only for Zordon to insist that Andros shatter his energy tube, thus destroying him but leaving a wave of energy that destroyed or purified every single member of the Alliance, thus saving the universe. And with the war finally over, Andros, who had learned so much about being part of a team of friends, elected to go back with them to Earth, claiming his real home was with them.

So those are my 10 Favourite Power Rangers. I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane, feel free to leave your comments below, and hopefully I can remember to talk more on Power Rangers in the future. Thanks for reading, and may the power protect you all.