Meta - Our Thoughts on Tommy

We thought that it might be a good idea to discuss our issues with Tommy before we marathon Green With Evil tomorrow. Look, the thing is, we actually really want to like Tommy. We think that in theory, he is a really interesting character. In fact, we like Green With Evil and we're mostly looking forward to watching it!

But Tommy has some serious flaws that really bother us. It isn't so much his actual flaws - those are the things about him that are interesting. It's the way the show wants to portray him. So we thought we'd give you a numbered list.

1-We hate how Tommy drains the sheer awesome out of his girlfriends. Kimberly is awesome. As it stands now, she is the only ranger to have defeated a monster by herself, and she's done it twice. But once Tommy shows up, we know we're in for lots of screaming of his name as Kimberly (and later Kat) will not be able to handle herself anymore and will need to be rescued all the time. We're also really not looking forward to her fainting at the sight of his glorious majesty or whatever in White Light.

2-Every single episode is about him. Everyone has their favorite character. TSB's is Adam. QueenRiley's is Billy. We like seeing episodes about them. But we also enjoy episodes about the others. It is an ensemble show. It's not "The Amazing Adventures of Tommy Oliver with Occasional Guest Appearances by the Other Rangers." So it is really annoying when you're watching an episode that from the summary looks like it should be about Adam, and it turns out to be secretly about Tommy. Or when Tommy is always the one to solve the problem, even though you know that others on the team should be able to figure it out.

3-It is Tommy's flaws that make him interesting, but the show pretends he is perfect. To be fair, it takes a little while before we get to the guiding white light heart of the team nonsense. But look at Tommy. He was placed under a spell and did a lot of awful things. Now, we aren't saying that he should be the angstiest ever (especially because when he is angsty, he drives us even crazier) but the show could have set up a way better redemption arc than it did. In fact, most of what TSB does like about Tommy could be termed "Fanwank" for how his drive to be perfect really comes out of his need to atone for what he did, and also this is why he's addicted to the power. Unfortunately, that is mostly fanwank. In the show, Tommy is basically portrayed as being the perfect Ranger, and he is almost always right. It is annoying.

4-Lastly, we're pretty sure Tommy faked his doctorate. We could totally buy Billy having a doctorate by age 24, but Tommy? Who didn't even go to college immediately so he could go race cars or whatever? Hell no. Plus, the one flaw he does have is a lousy memory. No way in hell did he earn it.

We really do want to like Tommy, and in her younger days TSB even thought he was cute, but basically he drives us crazy. We know that lots of people in fandom love him and judge him to be the greatest Ranger ever, but we disagree. You should all write us fanfic to convince us otherwise. Or argue with us in the comments. Whichever works.