u/Emergency_Argument29

So I had a passing thought that has slowly consumed me (this happens to me a bit) and I need some help.

Here’s the premise; the Wizard Shazam loses connection to all the pantheons and Billy loses his powers. Without gods and heroes of old to call upon Shazam decides as a stopgap measure to create a new SHAZAM! call using modern day superheroes so Captain Marvel is still in play. So the idea is to use 6 DC heroes for Billy to call upon.

Here’s what I have so far:

-The Strength of Superman

-The Endurance of Hawkman

-The Courage of Aquaman

-The Wisdom of Zatanna

The second A and the M have me stuck. I could do the speed of Max Mercury or Mas y Menos but then what do I do the power of? Animal Man? (That would be funny). I could do the Power of Martian Manhunter but then what do I do for Speed?

Any help would be appreciated and I’m not attached to the 4 I have so far so if you want to change it that be fine with me.

Many seasons of Power Rangers tend to focus on two or three main Megazords, usually the starter Megazord, the Sixth Ranger’s Megazord, and a third more powerful team Megazord. That’s not always the case but more often than not.

However there are a several seasons that have additional Megazords that are rarely used because the focus goes to the main 2-3 Megazords. These are the ones I’m curious about. The Megazords that aren’t the go to but when they got busted out it was special. Here are mine:

1. The Super Train Megazord from Lightspeed Rescue-this one falls more into the underutilized category than unappreciated as most fans I’ve interacted with seem to like the Super Train Megazord. It was always an awesome moment when this got brought into a battle.

2. The Phoenix Unizord and the Centaurus Phoenix Megazord from Mystic Force-both Red Ranger exclusive Megazords and we only saw both a total of 3 times. Once Brightstar the Unicorn was brought in I wish we could’ve seen the Phoenix Unizord a few more times, maybe even against the Centaurus Wolf Megazord.

3. The Kongazord from Wild Force-this one actually bugs me more than the others. The Kongazord was brought in when the Red Lion Zord got injured and couldn’t form the Wild Force Megazord. The Kongazord should’ve been the main Megazord for a while but it only got to be the go to Megazord for 1 episode before the Red Lion was healed. Whenever we did get to see the Kongazord it was cool but I wish it was utilized more.

4. The DualDrive Megazord from Operation Overdrive-while Operation Overdrive is nowhere near my favorite season I did like that the auxiliary Zords could form their own Megazord and wish that we got it in action more than twice.

What are your favorite under appreciated Megazords?

Sorry if this has already been said (I’m just too lazy to check).

So every season has started and ended with focusing on someone’s face. It was Rebecca in season 1, Nate in season 2, and finally Ted in season 3.

This season notably didn’t start with a focus on someone’s face but on Ted’s name tag at the grocery store.

I think they’re not breaking with tradition completely though with those bookend shots.

The opening shot was “Ted Lasso Assistant Manager” and I think that will be the final shot too. I think Ted will step down as Manager near the end of the season and allow our new coach Alice take the Manager position, but Ted will stay on as an Assistant Coach.

Admittedly my “evidence” for this is flimsy at best, but hear me out:

Mr. Hartford had 6 months from his discovering the Corona Aurora to when he recruited the team. He’d also been given instructions by the Sentinel Knight. Obviously making the powers and original 5 Zords were top priority, but given how the hanger bay for the Zords is designed I would go so far as to guess that all the Zords were in the works well in advance including The Flashpoint Megazord. Mr. Hartford would also be aware a sixth Ranger usually pops up sooner or later (the only 5 person team he’d be aware of would be Dino Thunder). Given that the Rangers would be living and working in the mansion it would be impossible to keep Mack in the dark forever so it stands to reason by the time the Flashpoint Zords were ready Mack would be helping the team in some way.

The Flashpoint Zords themselves are designed to resemble vehicles of first responders, heroes, which is what Mack desires to be, a hero. It would make sense if Mr. Hartford designed the Flashpoint Zords with Mack in mind.

The Mercury Ranger’s weapon is the Drive Detector which has three modes. The Blaster is standard, but the Metal Detector Mode is perfect for an amateur adventurer/treasure hunter like Mack also wants to be (also there’s a joke with the Metal Detector, I’ll get there in a second) also The Lance Mode is a perfect parallel to the Red Ranger’s Drive Lance. If Mr. Hartford had been Red Ranger and Mack had been the Metal based Sixth Ranger father and son would have similar weapons.

Also if Mr. Hartford can just cook up a new Morpher for Tyzonn there’s no reason he couldn’t make one for himself, unless he didn’t just whip it up out of nowhere and simply altered an already existing one for Tyzonn. One he couldn’t use because he’d designed it for a Ranger made of metal like Mack or Tyzonn. Also if you’re hanging around Spencer you’re picking up some of his humor like giving the Ranger made of metal the weapon that doubles as a metal detector, because that’s hilarious.

So I think Andrew Hartford fully intended Mack to become a Ranger once he felt Mack was ready. Mack took charge of his own destiny and became the Red Ranger, and suddenly Mr. Hartford didn’t have anyone to use the Sixth Ranger Morpher until another man made of Metal fell into their laps.

Is it a stretch? Absolutely. But I like it.

So I just finished the final book (so good) and of course we have the (albeit temporary) departure of Samantha and two new members to the party (well besides all the other Crawlers).

It got me thinking that while the AI loves Carl and kind of wants the Crawlers to succeed it can still be a total A-hole and loves to screw with them. Here’s how I think the AI could use our two new friends or Samantha to mess with Carl specifically (I’m gonna do this by doing the set ups and then the results because it’s all the same):

1. Samantha has been seeking a body since we met her and she’s now in an area filled with powerful entities who could give her the body she seeks.

2. Penelope the pig is now a crawler and assuming she doesn’t take a deal, she can choose a Class and a new Race upon descending to the 12th floor.

3. “Sexy” Scolopendra, is also now a Crawler and due to the effects of the Paramour Biscuit, in love with Carl. She is still effectively a god and while her powers are probably greatly diminished she presumably still has access to some god spells and she’s aware enough to realize she and Carl are not physically compatible. She probably has a shapeshifting spell of some kind and Donut, iirc, has a picture of human woman to use as an example.

Samantha’s new body, Penelope if she chooses human for her Race, and Scolopendra shapeshifting could be made to look like Beatrice…and Carl would have to live with that and work with them.

As I was typing this I thought of something also super messed up, Samantha’s new body being made to resemble Carl’s mom…that’d be rough.

Also I’m calling it now, Carl and/or Donut are gonna win the Ascendancy Game and become the new “gods” of their system. It doesn’t say a god has to claim the throne. Imani will be the first to exit Floor 18 and become the ruler of Earth.

…still not great though.

Just watched the finale and I can say it is still the weakest installment of the Disney Era, but it didn’t annoy or bore me as much as I thought it would.

I can tell what the production wanted to do but that they just bit off more than their budget could chew. I do think they could’ve made some stronger writing choices but that’s just me having the benefit of hindsight. I will say though that Florious could’ve been a better final boss with some changes to his character (have him complain less, be more calculating and instead of having everything fall into his lap at the end have him be a long term planner who carefully strategized. Think of The Light from Young Justice or a Moriarty type).

The Rangers are generally fine, none are making my favorite Rangers lists, but Mack and Tyzonn have good story arcs, Rose doesn’t get near the arc she deserved, Ronny and Will are okay but really needed some depth, and Dax…was there, I guess (I’m gonna be honest, I tuned him out at some point).

Also while I’m not a fan of the suits, their powers were cool and I actually did like their Zords. Although it does still confuse me how you’d recruit a race car driver and then not give them the Zord modeled after the Formula One race car (I still say Ronny could’ve been the Black Ranger). Anyway I did like the various support Zords and how they could even form their own Megazord (wish we had seen that more).

I also really liked their personal rivalries between some of the Rangers and the villain factions. You can tell they used that same style of writing in Jungle Fury for Jarrod and Casey (albeit more refined). I honestly think they could’ve used more of it though. Tyzonn fighting the Fearcats felt personal, Will fighting Kamdor felt personal and it elevated those fights. Miratrix tricked Dax and broke his heart, the writers could’ve played with that and made the fights more impactful. Have Mack have a grudge against Moltor or Florious so their final showdowns have more emotional stakes.

I feel like I’m ranting.

Anyway. It wasn’t a terrible season, just plagued by limited budget, questionable writing decisions, and missed opportunities.

On to Jungle Fury in my rewatch (so excited!).

So I just finished Once a Ranger in my Operation Overdrive rewatch. While it’s almost completely contrived to have the Rangers quit (although not entirely out of character, both Mack and Will had previously tried to quit, Will just a couple episodes before Once a Ranger, and Dax might’ve actually quit if he’d been offered a big enough role in a movie) it makes even less sense for Tyzonn to quit.

I can see the Overdrive Rangers seeing a more experienced and powerful team of Rangers taking over and trying to find purpose in their old lives, but Tyzonn’s entire reason for being on Earth is to take care of the Fearcats. And he was doing that before joining the Rangers. In fact he could hold his own against the various villains prior to getting his Ranger powers. Tyzonn literally has nowhere else on Earth to go and still has the goal to take care of the Fearcats which the Rangers are actively pursuing already.

Mack and Tyzonn should be the only remaining Rangers, not just Mack.

I had this idea and I had to share.

So I was recently reminded of the Voyager episode “The Thaw” (phenomenal episode). And this idea hit me like a ton of bricks. Here’s the premise:

The Prodigy runs into a standard run of the mill anomaly that affects the ship’s systems and ECH Janeway goes down. Turns out the hologram system is fine but the anomaly triggered a level 1 diagnostic check of ECH Janeway’s subroutines and she’ll be offline for hours. To help fix the ship’s systems faster it’s suggested they fire up another holographic interface to help. They find another hologram Janeway in the ship’s memory with the right level of complexity to be Prodigy’s holographic interface so the crew boots it up. Turns out this is the hologram that Voyager created to trick The Clown from The Thaw and Voyager had simply downloaded the data back into Voyager and it made its way onto the Prodigy’s servers. Turns out that the reason this hologram is more complex than it should be is because The Clown that was created from the fears of his hostages managed to accidentally be taken with hologram Janeway when Voyager redownloaded her. The new hologram Janeway seems normal at first but slowly turns more sinister as the Clown takes control and using the personnel files and the ship’s hologram emitters and systems turns the Prodigy into his own personal Fun House of Horrors using the crew’s deepest fears and insecurities.

They of course manage to beat him but it would’ve been a great character episode and an interesting follow up to one of Voyager’s best early episodes.

Anyway, just thought I’d share.

Thinking about the series a lot of seasons had villains with redeeming qualities, some of whom even had mini redemption arcs.

Ecliptor did genuinely care about Karone/Astronema. Villimax was an honorable and noble warrior who saw the error of his ways, especially after Trakeena went off the deep end after fusing with Deviot. Diabolico turned against Queen Bansheera and even helped the Rangers defeat her. Nadira and Ransik both realized that hate wasn’t the solution to their problems. Jindrax and Toxica both gave up their missions. And that’s just the Post Zordon Saban Era.

We even have precedence for former villains becoming Power Rangers with Karone, Leanbow, and Heckyl.

Personally my top choices are Jarrod, Camille, Tenya, and Nadira, and Villimax has already proven his capability as a mentor so he’d be cool to see in that role.

So I’ve been brewing this idea for a Valor Bard for awhile and have recently come to a crossroads with an important mechanical decision.

My plan would be to get to level 6 in Valor Bard relying on True Strike and getting Valor Bard’s Extra Attack feature. From there I’d multiclass into Warlock and grab Pact of the Blade to become SAD and grab Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade for battle cantrips that pair well with Valor Bard’s Extra Attack. Ultimately I’d want one more level in Warlock but I’m debating on what to do as I have 3 fairly good options:

1. I grab Agonizing Blast for both Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade further powering them up.

2. I grab Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast for Booming Blade for the amazing synergy but at the cost of Eldritch Blast being weaker.

3. I forgo Pact of the Blade, take the Druid Magic Initiate feat for Shillelagh and power up Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade with Agonizing Blast and Booming Blade with Repelling Blast.

What’s the best option?

Just started my Operation Overdrive rewatch (admittedly I’m only a few episodes in) and based purely on Zords wouldn’t it make more sense to make Ronny the Black Ranger? I mean you recruit a race car driver and have her operate the bulldozer zord? That’s just seems like a weird decision.

Like planning the season it would’ve been easy to swap Will and Ronny’s backgrounds, had him be the race car driver and her be the thief, but taking them purely as they are written in the show, Ronny would probably fit better as the Black Ranger (again based almost entirely on Zords). Will could then be the Blue or Red Ranger. Will has enough cool factor to be the Red Ranger and Mack taking the Blue Ranger roll seems fitting since he’d get the flying Zord and the first scene of the show is Mack jumping out of a plane.

Also, then since the yellow Ranger has to be a girl because of suit having a skirt and Disney not wanting to put a boy in a skirt (cowards) we could get rid of Dax and get a new girl Ranger.

I will say, I am only a few episodes in and I don’t remember this season super well, so if it doesn’t actually make sense in the long run I will happily admit to being wrong. But as it stands right now, Ronny as Black Ranger makes sense to me.