By luck of the draw, I'm writing the recap this time. Which is good, because if Queenriley was writing it, she's admitted that the recap would go something like this.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BILLY NEEDS ALL THE HUGS AND THE RANGERS SUCK AT BEING FRIENDS.
Which um, I agree with, but will write about with slightly less caps (in a weird reversal of our normal roles.)
Anyway, the episode opens at Angel Grove High, where Billy has been called to the principal's office. Here we find out that even though Billy claims he's a junior, he has more credits than anyone else in the school, including the seniors. So now it's time for him to graduate.
This is wrong on several levels.
1-Like Billy wasn't keeping track of how many credits he has.
2-So they're just going to dump the smartest student in the middle of a year instead of letting him being valedictorian, and they're not even giving him any time to apply to college. That is CRAP.
3-There is no way that they're still juniors. For the record, I FIRMLY believe that MMPR1/MMPR2 is junior year, and MMPR3/Zeo is senior year. I don't really care what the canon tells me, because I've stopped counting the amount of summer vacations they've had.
So yeah, Billy has now graduated with no notice at all, so the Rangers do the only thing they can do - party at the youth center! \o/
Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull are on garbage pickup duty at the park. Or rather, they intend to have slave!Rito and slave!Goldar do it. Goldar is getting annoyed about how they're being bossed around, but Rito is just glad they have a home. Oh, Rito. You need so many hugs. But this is interrupted when a spaceship lands. Hey, it's Cestro! He needs Billy, because Billy is the only one who can save the world.
Well, duh.
Also, Bulk and Sull have no idea who Cestro is, so we're guessing nobody remembers the whole turned into kids thing.
Anyway, Skull kidnaps Billy at his party, and Billy is very glad to see Cestro. Cestro explains that Aquitar is under attack by hydrocontaminators, and that is destroying Aquitar's computer systems, so they can't teleport, except they can totally still launch a space ship. Riiiiiiiiiiight. Billy offers to help Cestro build his weird device thing, that coincidentally, should also help out the Zeo team.
Back at the park, Lt. Stone has noticed that there's an alien ship being guarded, and comes to the brilliant conclusion that Angel Grove has been invaded by aliens. REALLY? I'm SHOCKED. SHOCKED. Lt. Stone then decides to be a superhero and chases them all over the park.
Billy and Cestro work on the device, when the Hydrocontaminator monster shows up and attacks them. Billy could totally have handled it, but the other Rangers show up and fight, and Mondo is all "Hmm, someone else is attacking the Rangers. Let me help!" and sends down some Cogs. Billy and Cestro go back to the Power Chamber to work on the device. They are terrified that if the Hydrocontaminator contaminates one lake, then all the water in the world will be destroyed. Except it doesn't work like that. Whatever.
Billy is all stressed but he's nearly finished with the device. Cestro claps him on the back of the head, which knocks out his contacts, making it seem like he can't finish the device. But never fear, Billy has backup glasses. LIKE HE'S SUPPOSED TO. He makes the final adjustments, but Cestro isn't sure that he can do it by himself back on Aquitar, so Billy says he'll go with Cestro, and Queenriley goes into an "I has a sad" blackout for the rest of the episode. (Understandably, considering what's coming in the future.)
Anyway, the device works, and Billy packs his bag and goes off with Cestro. His alien fetish is STRONG. But you know, I can understand and this part at least does make sense for the character. Billy totally grew up on scifi, and I wouldn't turn down the chance to go visit an alien world or go travel with The Doctor or join Starfleet or any of those things if I had the option. And Billy makes a good point - the Aquitian Rangers came to help them. Billy totally has to do the same.
Billy goes into the space ship and claims his parents gave him permission, and they head off. The other Rangers defeat the monster, and then go to find Billy, but they're too late. Billy is gone. Tommy says they'll miss him, but it isn't like they miss Kim or Aisha or Trini or Zack or Jason, so... Yeah. :(
In conclusion - Billy has an alien fetish and the Rangers are bad friends, and David Yost needs all the hugs in the world. BUT, Billy going to Aquitar actually does make sense for Billy's character development, so we will save most of our ranting for the end of the season.
Fish: 4. GRADUATION DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT, SHOW. Also, the nonsense about not being able to use a teleporter because the computers are down, but they can still launch a spaceship. RIGHT.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Episode 164- Invasion of the Ranger Snatchers
So this episode is the trippiest episode EVER. Like, it's even trippier than A Clockwork Orange, okay? And I'm glad we did this tonight, a day late, instead of last night, when we usually do, because I'm not sure I could have handled this supremely awesome and yet uber-WEIRD episode on the last night of Chanukah (in which there were piles of latkes and roast chicken and beer and gelt and dreidel and presents and very pretty candles and my new favouritest holiday story EVER, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming).
I... don't know if I can explain this episode.
Rocky, Tanya, and Kat are going to be extras in some movie/tv show/filming production of some sort. Rocky wants to be the star, though, and swears up and down he can act, he really really can, and I can't help but combine character and actor here because, no, Steve, honey, you can't. You really really can't. But you're VERY pretty in your blue not-really-a-toga and you have VERY lovely arms, so I can forgive the horrendous overacting. I'd watch him walk around in a toga any day of the week. Ahem.
Moving on. Bulk and Skull get placed on guard duty for said film production. Skull wants to be in the show, but Bulk keeps him on the straight and narrow. Daw. Sprocket, in his ever annoying whine, wants to make a movie of HIS OWN. So, despite the nails-on-a-chalkboard-grating whine, he comes up with a really good plan. He's going to make a movie, and trap the rangers in it! Good thinking, kid. Drop the entitled whinging, and I might actually like you.
Cogs end up at the production site to kidnap Rocky, Tanya, and Kat. Except everybody mistakes them for extras in costume and, despite Rocky trying to warn them, Director Guy puts them on set. They try to take out the main actor hero guy, but Rocky steps in and saves the day. Because he's AWESOME like that. He calls for Kat and Tanya, who have remained completely oblivious during all this (I maintain they were back behind one of the trailers "getting to know each other"). They run off set and morph, really failing at that secret identity thing.
Meanwhile, at the Youth Center, Billy has been super sweet and created a workout program for Adam and Tommy, using their biorhythms or something like that. It gets increasingly difficult based on what their bodies tell his program. There is lots of gratuitous rolling and sparring and then they get called to help the others. Billy goes to the Power Chamber to investigate while Adam and Tommy go to fight cogs.
Except somehow they get sucked into Sprocket's movie. Where they sit on a weird Alice in Wonderland room for awhile. Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out. They agree to play along with Sprocket's plan because, well, nothing else is working I guess? But it's just... ODD. Like, I can't even begin to explain what happens.
Somehow there is a room where things happen. Then Tommy and Tanya have to go do something through a doorway in another section of Sprocket's "movie studio". Billy gets a message through, and Adam declares that he must find Tommy and Tanya in order to live happily ever after. And a new threesome ship is born. So they all find each other.
But then they find chickens! Which came through a portal of some sort. Because a bus in the "real world" pushed them through. So the rangers all go through the portal. Into the "real world". Where they end up on horses chasing the bus. There are children crying in the bus, except there are no passengers on the bus whatsoever, which we discover when they all jump through the bus windows. They jump OUT of the bus holding onto adult passengers that came out of nowhere, and the bus goes over a cliff and explodes. The people vanish. But they're in the real world now? Or they think they're in the real world? I don't... um... yeah.
So they all think they've rewritten Sprocket's script and they get a happy ending and they're free. Except they're attacked in really bad splicing by four monsters. And they call the zords, which they shouldn't be able to do if they were in the movie world, but then what happened with the bus couldn't have happened in the real world so... fish? Definitely fish. Oceans and oceans FULL of fish.
I just call really bad FISH trip for the whole rest of the episode.
At some point the four monsters end up being a train, which they defeat by destroying the tracks. And that destroys Sprocket's plan and they win for the episode. Somehow.
Look, I said I didn't know how to explain this episode! And I meant it. It's seriously like they were all on a really bad acid trip when they tried to write it. We're just writing it off as a lot of fish and the rangers changed the plot of the episode. So there.
So back on the actual movie set, Rocky is all excited to do his first stunt. But this is where Rocky learns about stuntmen. Because he doesn't get to do it. His stand-in does. Meaning Skull. AWWWWWWWW.
I... am not quite sure what I just watched. But it was fun!
Fish: 5. 5 5 5 5 5. I haven't seen such a confusing, bad trip in... um... ever.
I... don't know if I can explain this episode.
Rocky, Tanya, and Kat are going to be extras in some movie/tv show/filming production of some sort. Rocky wants to be the star, though, and swears up and down he can act, he really really can, and I can't help but combine character and actor here because, no, Steve, honey, you can't. You really really can't. But you're VERY pretty in your blue not-really-a-toga and you have VERY lovely arms, so I can forgive the horrendous overacting. I'd watch him walk around in a toga any day of the week. Ahem.
Moving on. Bulk and Skull get placed on guard duty for said film production. Skull wants to be in the show, but Bulk keeps him on the straight and narrow. Daw. Sprocket, in his ever annoying whine, wants to make a movie of HIS OWN. So, despite the nails-on-a-chalkboard-grating whine, he comes up with a really good plan. He's going to make a movie, and trap the rangers in it! Good thinking, kid. Drop the entitled whinging, and I might actually like you.
Cogs end up at the production site to kidnap Rocky, Tanya, and Kat. Except everybody mistakes them for extras in costume and, despite Rocky trying to warn them, Director Guy puts them on set. They try to take out the main actor hero guy, but Rocky steps in and saves the day. Because he's AWESOME like that. He calls for Kat and Tanya, who have remained completely oblivious during all this (I maintain they were back behind one of the trailers "getting to know each other"). They run off set and morph, really failing at that secret identity thing.
Meanwhile, at the Youth Center, Billy has been super sweet and created a workout program for Adam and Tommy, using their biorhythms or something like that. It gets increasingly difficult based on what their bodies tell his program. There is lots of gratuitous rolling and sparring and then they get called to help the others. Billy goes to the Power Chamber to investigate while Adam and Tommy go to fight cogs.
Except somehow they get sucked into Sprocket's movie. Where they sit on a weird Alice in Wonderland room for awhile. Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out. They agree to play along with Sprocket's plan because, well, nothing else is working I guess? But it's just... ODD. Like, I can't even begin to explain what happens.
Somehow there is a room where things happen. Then Tommy and Tanya have to go do something through a doorway in another section of Sprocket's "movie studio". Billy gets a message through, and Adam declares that he must find Tommy and Tanya in order to live happily ever after. And a new threesome ship is born. So they all find each other.
But then they find chickens! Which came through a portal of some sort. Because a bus in the "real world" pushed them through. So the rangers all go through the portal. Into the "real world". Where they end up on horses chasing the bus. There are children crying in the bus, except there are no passengers on the bus whatsoever, which we discover when they all jump through the bus windows. They jump OUT of the bus holding onto adult passengers that came out of nowhere, and the bus goes over a cliff and explodes. The people vanish. But they're in the real world now? Or they think they're in the real world? I don't... um... yeah.
So they all think they've rewritten Sprocket's script and they get a happy ending and they're free. Except they're attacked in really bad splicing by four monsters. And they call the zords, which they shouldn't be able to do if they were in the movie world, but then what happened with the bus couldn't have happened in the real world so... fish? Definitely fish. Oceans and oceans FULL of fish.
I just call really bad FISH trip for the whole rest of the episode.
At some point the four monsters end up being a train, which they defeat by destroying the tracks. And that destroys Sprocket's plan and they win for the episode. Somehow.
Look, I said I didn't know how to explain this episode! And I meant it. It's seriously like they were all on a really bad acid trip when they tried to write it. We're just writing it off as a lot of fish and the rangers changed the plot of the episode. So there.
So back on the actual movie set, Rocky is all excited to do his first stunt. But this is where Rocky learns about stuntmen. Because he doesn't get to do it. His stand-in does. Meaning Skull. AWWWWWWWW.
I... am not quite sure what I just watched. But it was fun!
Fish: 5. 5 5 5 5 5. I haven't seen such a confusing, bad trip in... um... ever.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Episode 163 - The Puppet Blaster
This episode has a pretty old school feel to it, which I really enjoyed. Possibly because I watched a lot of Pee-Wee's Playhouse as a kid.
Anyway, the episode begins with Kat, Rocky and Tommy attending a kid's show held at the youth center. It's Captain Pete and Puppet Man! We spent a while debating whether Puppet Man was just a guy in a suit, which is what he should be, and then realized that no, apparently Angel Grove actually has robots. I'm impressed by the level of technology available to Angel Grove. (Also, he should be ROBOT Man, not Puppet Man.) Anyway, Captain Pete tells everyone that the secret word is Power Rangers!
I have no idea why the Rangers are watching this, because they are taking up seats that should be available to actual tiny children, so we're guessing that they were supposed to be bonding with an inappropriately young friend, but the writers forgot. Ernie is pleased to be giving back to the community, and aww, Ernie. We love you.
The kids are asked to name their favorite superhero, and they name the Power Rangers, so of course stuff gets thrown at them. The kid in front has an umbrella. That kid is smart. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull are baby-sitting Lt. Stone's nephew, who is named Arnie, and has a horrible mullet. The kid is also a giant brat.
Somewhere else in Angel Grove, Adam and Tanya are off training together. Adam is clearly showing off for Tanya, since he's showing her stuff that's way too advanced for a beginner. However, Tanya picks up on it, and they are busy being ridiculously adorable, and my little shipper heart is pleased. We cut away from them, probably so they can go make out, and then return to the Youth Center, where King Mondo has sent down Cogs.
And this is where things get weird. Rocky is all ready to go fight the Cogs, or at least get the kids out of there, but Tommy is all "NO, we must not escalate a battle." Which, fine. That is one of the original rules and all, but I figure that maybe there could be an exception made so they can GET THE KIDS OUT OF POTENTIAL DANGER? You fail SO HARD, Tommy Oliver. Anyway, the Cogs don't actually attack the kids, but they instead plant a device on the puppet-robot, and vanish. As soon as they do, the three Rangers go contact Zordon, and the device on Puppet Man is activated, turning all of the kids into brats with glowing eyes of doom The other Rangers are summoned, and they all teleport in to try and stop the children, who are now being used as human zombie shields. The Rangers realize there's nothing they can do, and teleport to the Power Chamber, while the children run wild throughout the youth center, and then the puppet goes to the park, where it spreads its spell of brattiness. (If there was a person in the suit, they would totally have had a discussion about not hurting it, but that didn't happen, so clearly it is a robot.)
The Rangers + Billy figure out that the plan is to broadcast the signal that Puppet Man is putting out, brainwashing all the kids in the world. They go fight it, and then Zords are summoned, and then Billy comes up with a new toy for Tommy in the defender wheel. Which, ok, is pretty cool. Of course, then there are more Zords, and somehow it's figured out that the monster's weakness is in its nose, and we guess the writers got this puppet confused with another puppet with a big nose. Anyway, he's destroyed, and Alpha puts the robot back together again.
This time, all of the Rangers + Billy are taking up seats in the kids show. Ernie is disturbed by the mess, and Bulk and Skull have been tied up. Arnie remains a brat, and threatens to have Bulk and Skull kicked off the force by telling his uncle how much they failed, but as he's explaining to Lt. Stone what happened, he says Power Rangers, and gets hit in the face with a pie.
At least it wasn't Bulk this time.
Fish: 4. Everything about that puppet is wrong.
Covered in food: Arnie. What a brat.
Anyway, the episode begins with Kat, Rocky and Tommy attending a kid's show held at the youth center. It's Captain Pete and Puppet Man! We spent a while debating whether Puppet Man was just a guy in a suit, which is what he should be, and then realized that no, apparently Angel Grove actually has robots. I'm impressed by the level of technology available to Angel Grove. (Also, he should be ROBOT Man, not Puppet Man.) Anyway, Captain Pete tells everyone that the secret word is Power Rangers!
I have no idea why the Rangers are watching this, because they are taking up seats that should be available to actual tiny children, so we're guessing that they were supposed to be bonding with an inappropriately young friend, but the writers forgot. Ernie is pleased to be giving back to the community, and aww, Ernie. We love you.
The kids are asked to name their favorite superhero, and they name the Power Rangers, so of course stuff gets thrown at them. The kid in front has an umbrella. That kid is smart. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull are baby-sitting Lt. Stone's nephew, who is named Arnie, and has a horrible mullet. The kid is also a giant brat.
Somewhere else in Angel Grove, Adam and Tanya are off training together. Adam is clearly showing off for Tanya, since he's showing her stuff that's way too advanced for a beginner. However, Tanya picks up on it, and they are busy being ridiculously adorable, and my little shipper heart is pleased. We cut away from them, probably so they can go make out, and then return to the Youth Center, where King Mondo has sent down Cogs.
And this is where things get weird. Rocky is all ready to go fight the Cogs, or at least get the kids out of there, but Tommy is all "NO, we must not escalate a battle." Which, fine. That is one of the original rules and all, but I figure that maybe there could be an exception made so they can GET THE KIDS OUT OF POTENTIAL DANGER? You fail SO HARD, Tommy Oliver. Anyway, the Cogs don't actually attack the kids, but they instead plant a device on the puppet-robot, and vanish. As soon as they do, the three Rangers go contact Zordon, and the device on Puppet Man is activated, turning all of the kids into brats with glowing eyes of doom The other Rangers are summoned, and they all teleport in to try and stop the children, who are now being used as human zombie shields. The Rangers realize there's nothing they can do, and teleport to the Power Chamber, while the children run wild throughout the youth center, and then the puppet goes to the park, where it spreads its spell of brattiness. (If there was a person in the suit, they would totally have had a discussion about not hurting it, but that didn't happen, so clearly it is a robot.)
The Rangers + Billy figure out that the plan is to broadcast the signal that Puppet Man is putting out, brainwashing all the kids in the world. They go fight it, and then Zords are summoned, and then Billy comes up with a new toy for Tommy in the defender wheel. Which, ok, is pretty cool. Of course, then there are more Zords, and somehow it's figured out that the monster's weakness is in its nose, and we guess the writers got this puppet confused with another puppet with a big nose. Anyway, he's destroyed, and Alpha puts the robot back together again.
This time, all of the Rangers + Billy are taking up seats in the kids show. Ernie is disturbed by the mess, and Bulk and Skull have been tied up. Arnie remains a brat, and threatens to have Bulk and Skull kicked off the force by telling his uncle how much they failed, but as he's explaining to Lt. Stone what happened, he says Power Rangers, and gets hit in the face with a pie.
At least it wasn't Bulk this time.
Fish: 4. Everything about that puppet is wrong.
Covered in food: Arnie. What a brat.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Episode 162- Every Dog Has His Day
If we could strike this episode from canon, we would. I'm on my third beer, and I still spent most of the episode wanting to headdesk. I wanted to make this entire recap be "And this episode is Kat running around failing a lot. It made me mad, but I had beer, and it's Chanukah, so all was well. The end." but I didn't think that would fly. So you get this instead.
But! It's the first night of Chanukah! Chag sameach! We're celebrating with alcohol and I am drinking my, unironically, favourite beer. He'Brew, the Messiah Bold. It's the beer you've been waiting for. And it's kosher. We did a group menorah lighting downtown tonight and then did candles and a present per Small Person at home. Emo Kid spent the hour leading up to his bedtime running around "singing" (by singing, I really mean screaming at the top of his lungs) "Oh Chanukah Oh Chanukah, I light the menorah! I want a party! We'll all dance with Dora!" over and over and over again. But Small People are in bed. And I have beer. And it's been a good first night of Chanukah. Except... well...
This episode is NOT a good way to celebrate Chanukah.
We start off with Kat presenting her completed Civics class project (and watching poor Steve trying to get that out during the outtakes just made me want to laugh). She has trained the very first police dog for the Angel Grove Police. Why they're letting a HIGH SCHOOLER train their search and rescue dog, I have no idea. Based on this episode, she clearly doesn't know what she's doing.
So Bulk and Skull end up in charge of bathing the dog. Instead they bathe themselves. And then the dog runs away. So they go tell Lt. Stone about it, and Kat overhears, so she has to go find the dog too. She ends up outside a cave, where she discovered Cogs trying to disrupt a lava flow (Kim's zord used to live here!) and destroy Angel Grove. So now Angel Grove has mountains, beaches, glaciers, and lava flows? It really is it's own country! Clearly, Angel Grove is Iceland (except the geography still doesn't make sense, even if it's Iceland, but we'll ignore that for now). Angel Grove just got TEN TIMES cooler in my book. *loves Iceland and snuggles it close*
Kat morphs and runs off searching for the dog again. Except oh noes! She falls down! And force demorphs! And breaks the communicator! And twists her ankle! And must run away from cogs on a twisted ankle where she can't morph or contact anybody! If my head hit the desk any harder, I'm afraid I'd break the desk.
So she finds a hiding spot and attaches her broken communicator to the dog's collar. He goes straight to Rocky, Billy, and Tommy. They are about to follow the dog back to Kat when Bulk and Skull, finally having found the dog, take him back to Lt. Stone. Billy goes to the Power Chamber to try to get a fix on Kat's last known location while Rocky and Tommy morph and go look for her. On the awesome bikes they got in the very bad splicing at the beginning of this episode. Why they don't just have Billy locate her and teleport her out we have no idea. I mean, he can teleport a baby FALLING THROUGH MIDAIR and yet he can't locate Kat? Whatever.
The dog manages to get away again and finds Kat. He brings her the zeonizer. How he knew to go get it, we don't know. The fish told him, we suppose. She morphs and is MAGICALLY ALL BETTER. Except partway into the fight against the cogs and fire hydrant monster that found her, she twists her ankle. AGAIN. OH NOES. Tommy comes to her rescue (are we supposed to swoon? Because I'm kind of... well... not).
A very boring fight ensues. They win. Of course.
Back at the Youth Center, Tanya and Kat tease Bulk and Skull because the dog outranks them and will likely be their boss soon. This is not funny. And Tanya and Kat really need longer skirts. And better hairstyles.
I need another beer.
5 fish. All the fish in the world. This is the episode that made more people dislike Kat. And I can't blame them for tuning out after this one. She could have been SOOOOOO much better.
But! It's the first night of Chanukah! Chag sameach! We're celebrating with alcohol and I am drinking my, unironically, favourite beer. He'Brew, the Messiah Bold. It's the beer you've been waiting for. And it's kosher. We did a group menorah lighting downtown tonight and then did candles and a present per Small Person at home. Emo Kid spent the hour leading up to his bedtime running around "singing" (by singing, I really mean screaming at the top of his lungs) "Oh Chanukah Oh Chanukah, I light the menorah! I want a party! We'll all dance with Dora!" over and over and over again. But Small People are in bed. And I have beer. And it's been a good first night of Chanukah. Except... well...
This episode is NOT a good way to celebrate Chanukah.
We start off with Kat presenting her completed Civics class project (and watching poor Steve trying to get that out during the outtakes just made me want to laugh). She has trained the very first police dog for the Angel Grove Police. Why they're letting a HIGH SCHOOLER train their search and rescue dog, I have no idea. Based on this episode, she clearly doesn't know what she's doing.
So Bulk and Skull end up in charge of bathing the dog. Instead they bathe themselves. And then the dog runs away. So they go tell Lt. Stone about it, and Kat overhears, so she has to go find the dog too. She ends up outside a cave, where she discovered Cogs trying to disrupt a lava flow (Kim's zord used to live here!) and destroy Angel Grove. So now Angel Grove has mountains, beaches, glaciers, and lava flows? It really is it's own country! Clearly, Angel Grove is Iceland (except the geography still doesn't make sense, even if it's Iceland, but we'll ignore that for now). Angel Grove just got TEN TIMES cooler in my book. *loves Iceland and snuggles it close*
Kat morphs and runs off searching for the dog again. Except oh noes! She falls down! And force demorphs! And breaks the communicator! And twists her ankle! And must run away from cogs on a twisted ankle where she can't morph or contact anybody! If my head hit the desk any harder, I'm afraid I'd break the desk.
So she finds a hiding spot and attaches her broken communicator to the dog's collar. He goes straight to Rocky, Billy, and Tommy. They are about to follow the dog back to Kat when Bulk and Skull, finally having found the dog, take him back to Lt. Stone. Billy goes to the Power Chamber to try to get a fix on Kat's last known location while Rocky and Tommy morph and go look for her. On the awesome bikes they got in the very bad splicing at the beginning of this episode. Why they don't just have Billy locate her and teleport her out we have no idea. I mean, he can teleport a baby FALLING THROUGH MIDAIR and yet he can't locate Kat? Whatever.
The dog manages to get away again and finds Kat. He brings her the zeonizer. How he knew to go get it, we don't know. The fish told him, we suppose. She morphs and is MAGICALLY ALL BETTER. Except partway into the fight against the cogs and fire hydrant monster that found her, she twists her ankle. AGAIN. OH NOES. Tommy comes to her rescue (are we supposed to swoon? Because I'm kind of... well... not).
A very boring fight ensues. They win. Of course.
Back at the Youth Center, Tanya and Kat tease Bulk and Skull because the dog outranks them and will likely be their boss soon. This is not funny. And Tanya and Kat really need longer skirts. And better hairstyles.
I need another beer.
5 fish. All the fish in the world. This is the episode that made more people dislike Kat. And I can't blame them for tuning out after this one. She could have been SOOOOOO much better.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Episode 161 - Rangers in the Outfield
I promised Queenriley that I wouldn't spend the whole recap going "ADAM/TANYA I SHIP THEM SO HARD" so let me get this out of my system now.
ADAM/TANYA OTP <33333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Um. Possibly I love this episode. It has my favorite things! Baseball! Adam being adorable! Tanya standing up for herself! Shawn getting what's coming to him! FAAAAAAAVORITES.
Pretty much, if there wasn't such a boring Zord fight, and if Adam's wardrobe didn't suck so hard, this might be my favorite episode.
Anyway, we open with a baseball practice. Adam and Rocky are on the team, and they are both very pretty. Tanya shows up to watch the practice because her asshat boyfriend Shawn is on the team. Adam tells Tanya that Shawn's nickname is the Sultan of Swat, because he's like Babe Ruth or something. Whatever. What Shawn actually is would be a grade A asshat.
A pitch comes towards them, and Tanya catches the ball and throws it back. She has never held a baseball before, but she is A++++ awesome at it. The coach sends his pitcher to take a shower, and then has Tanya pitch. She strikes out Shawn, because she is awesome. Especially considering the shoes she's pitching in. And the skirt.
Later, Shawn is being mocked by his friends for being struck out by his girlfriend. He comes over to Tanya, where the Rangers are all congratulating her for being so awesome. Shawn is all "Yeah, well, it was luck. I wasn't concentrating" and then there is RAAAAAAAAAGE. Everyone defends Tanya for being awesome, and she sticks up for herself, and if Adam wasn't wearing a ridiculously baggy sweatshirt, this would be the greatest ever. Adam invites Shawn to go to batting practice with them the next morning, and he admits that he needs the practice.
Meanwhile, Prince Sprocket comes up with a plan to use the batting cage thing so that if someone hits something, they'll be stuck in a monster. Bulk and Skull are supposed to be doing "refuse removal" but they try to bat, and fail to hit anything. Rocky, Adam and the asshat show up, but Shawn forgot his batting gloves, so he leaves. Rocky hits something, and is then trapped. Adam is very concerned.
Cue giant ridiculously boring fight scene. It took up half the episode, but it was just really boring. Tommy manages to get himself also captured, which means he's able to hand Rocky his zeonizers, and then they summon zords and use the stupid battle helmets, and blah blah blah, sword destroys robot. I don't really care.
Now, we get to the important part! The game! It's the bottom of the 9th, and Tanya is still pitching. A whole game? That is pretty damn impressive. She's clearly getting tired, though. She throws two strikes, but the guy manages to hit the last pitch, and it looks like it's going to be a home run, but Rocky manages to leap up and catch it! Because he's awesome!
I would have liked it if Tanya had managed to strike the guy out, but Queenriley had a good point - the next part wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying if she had. You see, Shawn shows up to yell at her for nearly blowing the game, but Adam defends Tanya, pointing out that it's a team sport, and she only had a 1 run lead, and you know, she did a great job overall. Shawn tells Tanya she's not good enough, and Tanya has had enough and dumps him. BECAUSE SHE IS AWESOME AND DESERVES BETTER. Like the guy in green standing next to her.
Adam tells her he's proud of her, and she's all "well, I guess I did ok with the game" and he's all "NO. For being awesome and realizing you deserve better!" Tanya is sad because she's lost a boyfriend, and Adam is so clearly going "Hi! RIGHT HERE" but sadly there is no smooching. :(
Possibly because Rocky shows up to cockblock them.
STILL. THIS EPISODE. HEARTS!
Fish: 2. The splicing in the fight scene was pretty ridiculous, and Tanya did learn baseball pretty fast. But you know, she's that awesome.
Fic we want: ALL THE ADAM/TANYA IN THE WORLD. ALL OF IT.
ADAM/TANYA OTP <33333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Um. Possibly I love this episode. It has my favorite things! Baseball! Adam being adorable! Tanya standing up for herself! Shawn getting what's coming to him! FAAAAAAAVORITES.
Pretty much, if there wasn't such a boring Zord fight, and if Adam's wardrobe didn't suck so hard, this might be my favorite episode.
Anyway, we open with a baseball practice. Adam and Rocky are on the team, and they are both very pretty. Tanya shows up to watch the practice because her asshat boyfriend Shawn is on the team. Adam tells Tanya that Shawn's nickname is the Sultan of Swat, because he's like Babe Ruth or something. Whatever. What Shawn actually is would be a grade A asshat.
A pitch comes towards them, and Tanya catches the ball and throws it back. She has never held a baseball before, but she is A++++ awesome at it. The coach sends his pitcher to take a shower, and then has Tanya pitch. She strikes out Shawn, because she is awesome. Especially considering the shoes she's pitching in. And the skirt.
Later, Shawn is being mocked by his friends for being struck out by his girlfriend. He comes over to Tanya, where the Rangers are all congratulating her for being so awesome. Shawn is all "Yeah, well, it was luck. I wasn't concentrating" and then there is RAAAAAAAAAGE. Everyone defends Tanya for being awesome, and she sticks up for herself, and if Adam wasn't wearing a ridiculously baggy sweatshirt, this would be the greatest ever. Adam invites Shawn to go to batting practice with them the next morning, and he admits that he needs the practice.
Meanwhile, Prince Sprocket comes up with a plan to use the batting cage thing so that if someone hits something, they'll be stuck in a monster. Bulk and Skull are supposed to be doing "refuse removal" but they try to bat, and fail to hit anything. Rocky, Adam and the asshat show up, but Shawn forgot his batting gloves, so he leaves. Rocky hits something, and is then trapped. Adam is very concerned.
Cue giant ridiculously boring fight scene. It took up half the episode, but it was just really boring. Tommy manages to get himself also captured, which means he's able to hand Rocky his zeonizers, and then they summon zords and use the stupid battle helmets, and blah blah blah, sword destroys robot. I don't really care.
Now, we get to the important part! The game! It's the bottom of the 9th, and Tanya is still pitching. A whole game? That is pretty damn impressive. She's clearly getting tired, though. She throws two strikes, but the guy manages to hit the last pitch, and it looks like it's going to be a home run, but Rocky manages to leap up and catch it! Because he's awesome!
I would have liked it if Tanya had managed to strike the guy out, but Queenriley had a good point - the next part wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying if she had. You see, Shawn shows up to yell at her for nearly blowing the game, but Adam defends Tanya, pointing out that it's a team sport, and she only had a 1 run lead, and you know, she did a great job overall. Shawn tells Tanya she's not good enough, and Tanya has had enough and dumps him. BECAUSE SHE IS AWESOME AND DESERVES BETTER. Like the guy in green standing next to her.
Adam tells her he's proud of her, and she's all "well, I guess I did ok with the game" and he's all "NO. For being awesome and realizing you deserve better!" Tanya is sad because she's lost a boyfriend, and Adam is so clearly going "Hi! RIGHT HERE" but sadly there is no smooching. :(
Possibly because Rocky shows up to cockblock them.
STILL. THIS EPISODE. HEARTS!
Fish: 2. The splicing in the fight scene was pretty ridiculous, and Tanya did learn baseball pretty fast. But you know, she's that awesome.
Fic we want: ALL THE ADAM/TANYA IN THE WORLD. ALL OF IT.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Episode 160 - For Cryin' Out Loud
This episode is not one of my favourites. It's not as bad as I remember, but it's still kind of... uh... fishy.
So we start out AWESOME. Adam and Rocky are MOCKING TOMMY to the fullest extent. They're even singing the wedding march and apologizing for not having time to get gifts. Tanya joins them and wonders what's going on. Tommy explains that he and Kat have to pretend to be married for a few days for a class project. Tanya joins in on the mocking. Because she is just awesome like that.
Kat finally shows up and, surprise!, she has a baby with her. A REAL baby. Not some soda bottle baby, or the flour baby, or even one of those high tech baby dolls I hear they use now. No, she has a real, live, flesh and blood, breathing toddler in her hands. I'd estimate he's about... oh... 14 months old? He's young. He's the most freaking adorable little baby I've seen on this show, though!
Kat apparently agreed to watch this little boy, whom she babysits for on occasion, for "a couple of days" while they're doing their project. First of all, who lets a teenager babysit a baby that young for "a couple of days"? I did overnights with kids when I was 17/18/19, sure, but they were generally older children and I DIDN'T HAVE SCHOOL. Nobody would say "Sure, take my kid for a couple of days and he can go to all your high school classes with you!" Uh... no. Second of all, it wasn't really fair of her to spring this child on Tommy "for their class project" when it wasn't actually a part of the class project. They just had to pretend to be married, no children involved. I mean, my kids are a prime example of the fact that more children are surprises than planned, but still... that's... more than a little extreme for a class project. And at least if it were real life surprise!baby, Tommy would have had a good 8-9 months to prepare for a wrinkly little alien invading his life. But hey, the kid is there now and there is nothing "Daddy" can do about it, so he will help out and do the best he can.
Anyway, back to the story. Everybody oohs and aahs over the adorableness of Joey, and then Tanya notices a distinct aroma. She and Rocky quickly make excuses and flee. Adam doesn't even bother with an excuse. He just runs away. Far, far away. Tommy tries to sneak off and Kat calls him back to help her change the diaper. I really can't blame her. She may have sprung this kid on him, but he's supposed to be "Daddy" here so he BETTER help her out.
On the moon, the Machine Empire is basically bickering over who had what idea. King Mondo wins, as usual, and creates the BooHoo Monster out of some of Joey's toys. This causes something to happen to amplify and alter Joey's cries so everything he begins to cry, he causes an earthquake. Suddenly we aren't so sure he isn't really Tommy's illegitimate son...
Joey ends up at school with Kat in what we're assuming is the next day. Bulk and Skull try to stop her from entering the computer area with the baby, as it's been designated a no-crying zone. She gets in anyway. Rocky says babies can't be THAT much trouble. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA Oh, Rocky. Joey wakes up and starts crying, causing an earthquake. Kat and Rocky get him outside and calmed down while Tommy and Billy go try to figure out what caused it. Meanwhile, Kat and Rocky get joined by Adam and Tanya just in time to get attacked by Cogs. Tommy joins them and they morph to fight, Kat running off to the side with the baby. Luckily Alpha shows up to watch over Joey while Kat goes to fight. We want a MILLION FICS of Alpha babysitting, like he did with Baby!Dillon. Unfortunately, cogs get hold of Alpha and fry his circuits, kidnapping Joey in the process.
There is some really bad episode splicing with Sentai and the rangers end up fighting downtown. "Joey" (who looks very little like the American Joey, and looks like she could be a girl in the Sentai...) is up on top of a really tall and flimsy metal staircase, so Tommy fights his way up. There is some dramatic scene where he nearly falls off, but the baby doesn't budge in his stroller, and he, unsurprisingly, eventually makes it to the top. He offers Joey a bottle only to discover it's empty. What a tease, Tommy. Unfortunately, the staircase gets attacked and the stroller falls off the edge. Tommy jumps after it, grabbing it in midair, and lands safely. Except it's empty!
Because Billy is SMART and teleported baby Joey to "help him out in the Chamber". OMG Billy with a baby? SO FREAKIN CUTE.
Back to the fight, they have to call out the Zords and there's a big boring fight and they win. As usual.
At school, they are all saying goodbye to Joey who is apparently going home now that the project that didn't really involve babies is over. The teacher comes up to Tommy and Kat and congratulates them, says he enjoyed their performance, and then just gives them their grade right there in front of everybody. Kat mentions looking forward to having kids one day, in the future, y'know, far in the future, not now by any means. The teachers says he was hoping to hear that because he and his wife need a babysitter for that Saturday. For their twins. And Kat just can't say no. So she agrees. And the teacher says he had hoped Tommy would join in. So Tommy has to help now too. Hahahhaha.
3.5 fish. It wasn't as bad as I remember, but it certainly wasn't great. The only reason I'd ever rewatch is for the adorableness of the baby. Dawwwwwwwbabies.
Fic we want: Alpha as a babysitter. Millions and millions of fics of Alpha as a babysitter.
So we start out AWESOME. Adam and Rocky are MOCKING TOMMY to the fullest extent. They're even singing the wedding march and apologizing for not having time to get gifts. Tanya joins them and wonders what's going on. Tommy explains that he and Kat have to pretend to be married for a few days for a class project. Tanya joins in on the mocking. Because she is just awesome like that.
Kat finally shows up and, surprise!, she has a baby with her. A REAL baby. Not some soda bottle baby, or the flour baby, or even one of those high tech baby dolls I hear they use now. No, she has a real, live, flesh and blood, breathing toddler in her hands. I'd estimate he's about... oh... 14 months old? He's young. He's the most freaking adorable little baby I've seen on this show, though!
Kat apparently agreed to watch this little boy, whom she babysits for on occasion, for "a couple of days" while they're doing their project. First of all, who lets a teenager babysit a baby that young for "a couple of days"? I did overnights with kids when I was 17/18/19, sure, but they were generally older children and I DIDN'T HAVE SCHOOL. Nobody would say "Sure, take my kid for a couple of days and he can go to all your high school classes with you!" Uh... no. Second of all, it wasn't really fair of her to spring this child on Tommy "for their class project" when it wasn't actually a part of the class project. They just had to pretend to be married, no children involved. I mean, my kids are a prime example of the fact that more children are surprises than planned, but still... that's... more than a little extreme for a class project. And at least if it were real life surprise!baby, Tommy would have had a good 8-9 months to prepare for a wrinkly little alien invading his life. But hey, the kid is there now and there is nothing "Daddy" can do about it, so he will help out and do the best he can.
Anyway, back to the story. Everybody oohs and aahs over the adorableness of Joey, and then Tanya notices a distinct aroma. She and Rocky quickly make excuses and flee. Adam doesn't even bother with an excuse. He just runs away. Far, far away. Tommy tries to sneak off and Kat calls him back to help her change the diaper. I really can't blame her. She may have sprung this kid on him, but he's supposed to be "Daddy" here so he BETTER help her out.
On the moon, the Machine Empire is basically bickering over who had what idea. King Mondo wins, as usual, and creates the BooHoo Monster out of some of Joey's toys. This causes something to happen to amplify and alter Joey's cries so everything he begins to cry, he causes an earthquake. Suddenly we aren't so sure he isn't really Tommy's illegitimate son...
Joey ends up at school with Kat in what we're assuming is the next day. Bulk and Skull try to stop her from entering the computer area with the baby, as it's been designated a no-crying zone. She gets in anyway. Rocky says babies can't be THAT much trouble. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA Oh, Rocky. Joey wakes up and starts crying, causing an earthquake. Kat and Rocky get him outside and calmed down while Tommy and Billy go try to figure out what caused it. Meanwhile, Kat and Rocky get joined by Adam and Tanya just in time to get attacked by Cogs. Tommy joins them and they morph to fight, Kat running off to the side with the baby. Luckily Alpha shows up to watch over Joey while Kat goes to fight. We want a MILLION FICS of Alpha babysitting, like he did with Baby!Dillon. Unfortunately, cogs get hold of Alpha and fry his circuits, kidnapping Joey in the process.
There is some really bad episode splicing with Sentai and the rangers end up fighting downtown. "Joey" (who looks very little like the American Joey, and looks like she could be a girl in the Sentai...) is up on top of a really tall and flimsy metal staircase, so Tommy fights his way up. There is some dramatic scene where he nearly falls off, but the baby doesn't budge in his stroller, and he, unsurprisingly, eventually makes it to the top. He offers Joey a bottle only to discover it's empty. What a tease, Tommy. Unfortunately, the staircase gets attacked and the stroller falls off the edge. Tommy jumps after it, grabbing it in midair, and lands safely. Except it's empty!
Because Billy is SMART and teleported baby Joey to "help him out in the Chamber". OMG Billy with a baby? SO FREAKIN CUTE.
Back to the fight, they have to call out the Zords and there's a big boring fight and they win. As usual.
At school, they are all saying goodbye to Joey who is apparently going home now that the project that didn't really involve babies is over. The teacher comes up to Tommy and Kat and congratulates them, says he enjoyed their performance, and then just gives them their grade right there in front of everybody. Kat mentions looking forward to having kids one day, in the future, y'know, far in the future, not now by any means. The teachers says he was hoping to hear that because he and his wife need a babysitter for that Saturday. For their twins. And Kat just can't say no. So she agrees. And the teacher says he had hoped Tommy would join in. So Tommy has to help now too. Hahahhaha.
3.5 fish. It wasn't as bad as I remember, but it certainly wasn't great. The only reason I'd ever rewatch is for the adorableness of the baby. Dawwwwwwwbabies.
Fic we want: Alpha as a babysitter. Millions and millions of fics of Alpha as a babysitter.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Episode 159 - Target Rangers
AHAHAHA DID YOU SEE THE NEW PROMO FOR SEASON 18? BECAUSE WE DID!
Have a link!
Anyway, let's talk about Zeo and how Rocky is a giant dork. These are things I love, so! The episode opens with Rocky trying to hit on his science partner, Jennifer. She is so not interested, it's actually pretty ridiculous. He falls off his chair at one point. She keeps babbling about the project and he's all "So, this dance?" and she ignores him. Their science project was apparently to create a videogame, which is pretty awesome, except the things they're saying makes no sense. Even with Jennifer being completely anal about the project, she still allows Rocky to keep the password.
Rocky and Adam go and talk about Rocky's interest in Jennifer, which Rocky is denying. Adam is pretty clearly going "Dude, I'm dating Tanya. So you should probably also find a girl." However, King Mondo wants the password for some reason, so he sends down Cogs to fight them, and they MORPH. What is with the lack of unmorphed fights? I miss it! :( Anyway, the Cogs steal the password.
Up in the Power Chamber, Billy is working on something awesome. He wishes that they'd had it when he was a Ranger, and Alpha mocks him. It's pretty awesome. The Cog that stole the password (which is MOOK. Hilarious, but also the worst password ever) uses it to turn some junk into a robot.
Just in case you were wondering, Bulk and Skull were supposed to be guarding the junkyard. This... ends pretty much how you would expect.
Rocky and Adam let everyone know that they've been robbed, and they go find the monster, which grows. There is a ridiculously long Zord fight, which ends with the robot trying to throw them into the sun. Billy calls with a solution - apparently the Zords all have special helmets, some of which have better powers than others. They use the new powers to escape from the sun's gravity. Then they destroy the monster.
Later, Rocky's lab partner is freaking out because their data has been lost. Rocky is all "My bad" and she is understandably PISSED. He produces the disc (it's a floppy disc. SO OLD) and all is well. He tries to ask her out again, and she is STILL PISSED as she SHOULD BE because he screwed up their project. (It wasn't really his fault, but um, I'm guessing she did all the work.) ILU Rocky, but you're being THAT GUY. He tries to convince her to go out with him again, and this time she's all "well, maybe later."
Fish: 4. For the ridiculous fight scene and the password thing.
Have a link!
Anyway, let's talk about Zeo and how Rocky is a giant dork. These are things I love, so! The episode opens with Rocky trying to hit on his science partner, Jennifer. She is so not interested, it's actually pretty ridiculous. He falls off his chair at one point. She keeps babbling about the project and he's all "So, this dance?" and she ignores him. Their science project was apparently to create a videogame, which is pretty awesome, except the things they're saying makes no sense. Even with Jennifer being completely anal about the project, she still allows Rocky to keep the password.
Rocky and Adam go and talk about Rocky's interest in Jennifer, which Rocky is denying. Adam is pretty clearly going "Dude, I'm dating Tanya. So you should probably also find a girl." However, King Mondo wants the password for some reason, so he sends down Cogs to fight them, and they MORPH. What is with the lack of unmorphed fights? I miss it! :( Anyway, the Cogs steal the password.
Up in the Power Chamber, Billy is working on something awesome. He wishes that they'd had it when he was a Ranger, and Alpha mocks him. It's pretty awesome. The Cog that stole the password (which is MOOK. Hilarious, but also the worst password ever) uses it to turn some junk into a robot.
Just in case you were wondering, Bulk and Skull were supposed to be guarding the junkyard. This... ends pretty much how you would expect.
Rocky and Adam let everyone know that they've been robbed, and they go find the monster, which grows. There is a ridiculously long Zord fight, which ends with the robot trying to throw them into the sun. Billy calls with a solution - apparently the Zords all have special helmets, some of which have better powers than others. They use the new powers to escape from the sun's gravity. Then they destroy the monster.
Later, Rocky's lab partner is freaking out because their data has been lost. Rocky is all "My bad" and she is understandably PISSED. He produces the disc (it's a floppy disc. SO OLD) and all is well. He tries to ask her out again, and she is STILL PISSED as she SHOULD BE because he screwed up their project. (It wasn't really his fault, but um, I'm guessing she did all the work.) ILU Rocky, but you're being THAT GUY. He tries to convince her to go out with him again, and this time she's all "well, maybe later."
Fish: 4. For the ridiculous fight scene and the password thing.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Episode 158- A Shooting Star
This episode can be summed up in two sentences. Cheating is bad, guys, just in case you didn't know. And the wardrobe department is seriously messed in the head this season.
So basically, we have two storylines. In one, Tanya is distraught at being the new kid in school. She's made a friend in Shawn, a boy she's tutoring in Algebra. There is flirtation! Shawn is a dumbass though. He wants to cheat, not study, and so he shows Tanya he has the answers to the test. She can't support him in cheating and so he throws a hissy fit trying to manipulate her by doing a friends-break up with her. She is clearly too awesome and doesn't fall for it. In the end, he realizes she's right and he turns the test answers into Principal Caplan. He goes to her for help and apologizes. Her respect is important to him (uh, for now, but we totes know what you're up to later, Shawn, and you're a jerky jerkface who deserves at least a slap, if not a kick in the balls, preferably both... and for you, we make a new tag, Sir) and she, after a minute of teasing, agrees to help. Problem solved. Or is it?
In the other storyline, Billy is building the Zeo Zords in a Super Secret Location. That the Cogs ferret out in all of about a minute. He's even skipping school to build the zords, which isn't surprising because he could show up for tests only and still get 110%. Once again we wonder why in the world Billy didn't graduate at the age of six and have his Master's by the time he was ten. Based on the fact that all the boys are wearing long sleeves, jackets, and baggy clothing, effectively covering them completely, I think it's safe to assume it's probably January or February and it's cold out. So why why why are the girls wearing scrap fabric for skirts and tight tops? Really? I mean, I don't think those skirts could get any shorter if they TRIED. And alas, this is a trend that continues all season. Anyway, Billy finishes the Zords and, despite warning them it's not safe to use them yet, the Rangers have to go fight their first Machine Empire monster. The battle is boring, but the Zord is pretty awesome and Adam is happy to finally have a cool Zord, however brief that may be (oh honey, if only you knew what was in store for you next season... because I am literally the only person in the world who LOVES minivans and did even as a teenager). They win, of course, and King Mondo is distraught.
Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull still have Rito and Goldar enslaved. Rito is now wearing a French Maid's outfit. Goldar gets snippy, but Rito grovels. It's... still very disturbing.
Fish: 2.5. It wasn't bad, overall, but... well... yeah. It's still Power Rangers.
So basically, we have two storylines. In one, Tanya is distraught at being the new kid in school. She's made a friend in Shawn, a boy she's tutoring in Algebra. There is flirtation! Shawn is a dumbass though. He wants to cheat, not study, and so he shows Tanya he has the answers to the test. She can't support him in cheating and so he throws a hissy fit trying to manipulate her by doing a friends-break up with her. She is clearly too awesome and doesn't fall for it. In the end, he realizes she's right and he turns the test answers into Principal Caplan. He goes to her for help and apologizes. Her respect is important to him (uh, for now, but we totes know what you're up to later, Shawn, and you're a jerky jerkface who deserves at least a slap, if not a kick in the balls, preferably both... and for you, we make a new tag, Sir) and she, after a minute of teasing, agrees to help. Problem solved. Or is it?
In the other storyline, Billy is building the Zeo Zords in a Super Secret Location. That the Cogs ferret out in all of about a minute. He's even skipping school to build the zords, which isn't surprising because he could show up for tests only and still get 110%. Once again we wonder why in the world Billy didn't graduate at the age of six and have his Master's by the time he was ten. Based on the fact that all the boys are wearing long sleeves, jackets, and baggy clothing, effectively covering them completely, I think it's safe to assume it's probably January or February and it's cold out. So why why why are the girls wearing scrap fabric for skirts and tight tops? Really? I mean, I don't think those skirts could get any shorter if they TRIED. And alas, this is a trend that continues all season. Anyway, Billy finishes the Zords and, despite warning them it's not safe to use them yet, the Rangers have to go fight their first Machine Empire monster. The battle is boring, but the Zord is pretty awesome and Adam is happy to finally have a cool Zord, however brief that may be (oh honey, if only you knew what was in store for you next season... because I am literally the only person in the world who LOVES minivans and did even as a teenager). They win, of course, and King Mondo is distraught.
Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull still have Rito and Goldar enslaved. Rito is now wearing a French Maid's outfit. Goldar gets snippy, but Rito grovels. It's... still very disturbing.
Fish: 2.5. It wasn't bad, overall, but... well... yeah. It's still Power Rangers.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Episode 157 - A Zeo Beginning Part 2
We didn't talk about the opening theme last time, did we? Nope. Okay, opening theme. I like the Zeo theme. It gets stuck in my head a lot. I mean, we haven't quite lost the go go power rangers yet, and I will sulk like crazy when it happened. So, theme song. Still acceptable.
We open with everyone looking worried about Zordon, but of course, he's fine. He apologizes for not telling them about the Power Chamber beneath the Command Center, because he doesn't want to worry them. Because having a backup plan is worrying? I... fail to see the logic in that.
Tanya tries to show off her new knowledge of the Power Rangers, but she is told that no, it isn't Rita and Zedd, but instead the Machine Empire. Everyone asks a bunch of questions, which overloads Alpha's sensors. Poor Alpha.
Meanwhile, the Machine Empire is bickering among themselves. I love the Machines. Sprocket is a brat, but I can't really blame him, since he's been programmed to be a kid.
On the other hand, I hate the Bulk and Skull storyline. They take Rito and Goldar as their servants. Frankly, I think this is a few steps back in their character development, and it pisses me off like crazy.
Rita clubs Zedd with her wand, and then they head off in Serpenterra.
Back in the Power Chamber, Zordon fills them in with a bunch of exposition. They are then told that it's time for them to become Zeo Rangers.
Knowing what happened to David Yost this part makes me cry.
Even if it does make a little bit of sense with what we know about Billy's character.
Billy says that his experience with the Alien Rangers made him realize that he was more valuable behind the scenes and passes his powers onto Tanya. Oh, BILLY. *cuddles him so much* (Especially because David Yost really does not sound happy about it.)
The Rangers all get their new powers, complete with color change. (Kat remains pink, Tanya is yellow, Rocky is blue, Adam green, and Tommy is red, of course.) Alpha pats Billy on the shoulder when Rocky gets his color. Poor Rangers, they all need to go shopping for new clothes.
They all morph to go fight the Machine Empire and... confession time. I don't like the Zeo costumes. I think the giant strip of white at the collar is ugly. Also, this was the first costume change for these Rangers (not counting Aquitians, because they were a separate set) and I loved the original PR costumes. The Zeo ones are... okay? I guess? But I have been bitter for the last 14 years that they changed the costumes, so I will continue to be bitter about it.
After the Rangers defeat the cogs, Mondo actually takes it pretty well. He's all "oooh, a challenge." This is a much better attitude then Rita and Zedd have ever had, I've got to admit.
At the Youth center, the male Rangers (including Billy) are all loudly talking about how they're back, and the Zeo Crystal. On the bright side, Adam has nice arms. Tanya and Kat also show up and let us know that Tanya will be living with Kat and she'll be enrolled in Angel Grove starting tomorrow.
Billy is all angsty, but they remind him that once a ranger, always a ranger. Aww, team.
Fish: 1. As much as we may bot be pleased by the Billy development, it does make sense in character. And yeah, a lot of exposition, but it worked.
Fic we want: More reactions to the color switch.
We open with everyone looking worried about Zordon, but of course, he's fine. He apologizes for not telling them about the Power Chamber beneath the Command Center, because he doesn't want to worry them. Because having a backup plan is worrying? I... fail to see the logic in that.
Tanya tries to show off her new knowledge of the Power Rangers, but she is told that no, it isn't Rita and Zedd, but instead the Machine Empire. Everyone asks a bunch of questions, which overloads Alpha's sensors. Poor Alpha.
Meanwhile, the Machine Empire is bickering among themselves. I love the Machines. Sprocket is a brat, but I can't really blame him, since he's been programmed to be a kid.
On the other hand, I hate the Bulk and Skull storyline. They take Rito and Goldar as their servants. Frankly, I think this is a few steps back in their character development, and it pisses me off like crazy.
Rita clubs Zedd with her wand, and then they head off in Serpenterra.
Back in the Power Chamber, Zordon fills them in with a bunch of exposition. They are then told that it's time for them to become Zeo Rangers.
Knowing what happened to David Yost this part makes me cry.
Even if it does make a little bit of sense with what we know about Billy's character.
Billy says that his experience with the Alien Rangers made him realize that he was more valuable behind the scenes and passes his powers onto Tanya. Oh, BILLY. *cuddles him so much* (Especially because David Yost really does not sound happy about it.)
The Rangers all get their new powers, complete with color change. (Kat remains pink, Tanya is yellow, Rocky is blue, Adam green, and Tommy is red, of course.) Alpha pats Billy on the shoulder when Rocky gets his color. Poor Rangers, they all need to go shopping for new clothes.
They all morph to go fight the Machine Empire and... confession time. I don't like the Zeo costumes. I think the giant strip of white at the collar is ugly. Also, this was the first costume change for these Rangers (not counting Aquitians, because they were a separate set) and I loved the original PR costumes. The Zeo ones are... okay? I guess? But I have been bitter for the last 14 years that they changed the costumes, so I will continue to be bitter about it.
After the Rangers defeat the cogs, Mondo actually takes it pretty well. He's all "oooh, a challenge." This is a much better attitude then Rita and Zedd have ever had, I've got to admit.
At the Youth center, the male Rangers (including Billy) are all loudly talking about how they're back, and the Zeo Crystal. On the bright side, Adam has nice arms. Tanya and Kat also show up and let us know that Tanya will be living with Kat and she'll be enrolled in Angel Grove starting tomorrow.
Billy is all angsty, but they remind him that once a ranger, always a ranger. Aww, team.
Fish: 1. As much as we may bot be pleased by the Billy development, it does make sense in character. And yeah, a lot of exposition, but it worked.
Fic we want: More reactions to the color switch.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Episode 156- A Zeo Beginning Part 1
We're on Zeo guys! This is such a great season. Let's hope the fish is low with this one.
So we start off in the smoldering ruins of the Command Center. It's pretty powerful, with the rangers running in slow motion through the flames and a voice-over from Tommy. It works. I don't think he was the best choice, what with his lacking emotional depth and all, but he handles it alright *cough*Davidwouldhavebeenabetterchoice*cough*.
On the moon, Rita and Zedd are throwing an awesome party. Finster is harshing their squee, however, but they try to ignore him. Rita finally listens and looks, only to discover the Machine Empire is at their doorstep. They're in big trouble, pack up, and get the hell out of Dodge. The Machine Empire is serious business, yo. They set up shop almost immediately, sure they can easily claim the planet as their own.
Back on Earth, the Rangers are despondent in the ruins. Adam notices the crystal buried in the rubble (because he's observant, unlike his younger counterpart) and they dig it out. It SINGS to them, cracks the ground at their feet, and down down down they go past the horrible green screen and cheap special effects. Billy recognizes they're in the lower chambers. They hear Alpha's voice and, like moths to the flame, follow it.
Elsewhere on Earth, Rita and Goldar are lost. They have no memory of who they are or where they came from. They try to ask some teenagers but get confused when the kids run away screaming. Poor amnesiac Rito and Goldar. I feel so bad for them this season.
Back on the moon, Finster warns them to conserve their power and carefully chart their course. They try to figure out where to go and Rita overrules her husband. She calls out, "Papa, can you hear me?". They're going to stay with her dad.
Back in the nethers of the Command Center, the rangers come upon a large, green, glowing vortex. Alpha tells them to go into the light. They're here! Rocky is hesitant to go into the light. Billy has to reach out and drag him through. Billy knows where they are! He's seen plans when he was poking through the mainframe. They wonder about Zordon. Alpha is mean and teases them, saying he should have told them right away.
And that's our cliffhanger, folks. What the hell happened to Zordon? (let's all pretend we don't know and act worried, mkay?)
Fish: 1.5 fish, and only that .5 because we're not sure how the Zeo Crystal ended up at the ruins while Goldar and Rito ended up in suburban Angel Grove.
So we start off in the smoldering ruins of the Command Center. It's pretty powerful, with the rangers running in slow motion through the flames and a voice-over from Tommy. It works. I don't think he was the best choice, what with his lacking emotional depth and all, but he handles it alright *cough*Davidwouldhavebeenabetterchoice*cough*.
On the moon, Rita and Zedd are throwing an awesome party. Finster is harshing their squee, however, but they try to ignore him. Rita finally listens and looks, only to discover the Machine Empire is at their doorstep. They're in big trouble, pack up, and get the hell out of Dodge. The Machine Empire is serious business, yo. They set up shop almost immediately, sure they can easily claim the planet as their own.
Back on Earth, the Rangers are despondent in the ruins. Adam notices the crystal buried in the rubble (because he's observant, unlike his younger counterpart) and they dig it out. It SINGS to them, cracks the ground at their feet, and down down down they go past the horrible green screen and cheap special effects. Billy recognizes they're in the lower chambers. They hear Alpha's voice and, like moths to the flame, follow it.
Elsewhere on Earth, Rita and Goldar are lost. They have no memory of who they are or where they came from. They try to ask some teenagers but get confused when the kids run away screaming. Poor amnesiac Rito and Goldar. I feel so bad for them this season.
Back on the moon, Finster warns them to conserve their power and carefully chart their course. They try to figure out where to go and Rita overrules her husband. She calls out, "Papa, can you hear me?". They're going to stay with her dad.
Back in the nethers of the Command Center, the rangers come upon a large, green, glowing vortex. Alpha tells them to go into the light. They're here! Rocky is hesitant to go into the light. Billy has to reach out and drag him through. Billy knows where they are! He's seen plans when he was poking through the mainframe. They wonder about Zordon. Alpha is mean and teases them, saying he should have told them right away.
And that's our cliffhanger, folks. What the hell happened to Zordon? (let's all pretend we don't know and act worried, mkay?)
Fish: 1.5 fish, and only that .5 because we're not sure how the Zeo Crystal ended up at the ruins while Goldar and Rito ended up in suburban Angel Grove.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Season 3.5 - MMAR Roundup
Hey, next week we get to season 4! I can't believe it! ZEO! I love Zeo!
So let's do a quick roundup of MMAR.
Higlights!
The Aquitians are badass.
Delphine is awesome.
First female leader of a team! \o/ We approve of this!
Billy is hot.
Billy is smart and badass.
Skull is a geek <3
Lowlights!
The Zeo Quest
Seriously, every single episode is "The Aquitians need water! Oh noes!"
There were a LOT of fish
Stereotype land!
Seriously, that's how we're saying goodbye to Aisha? REALLY?
Did we mention the Zeo Quest? Because, really. It should be mentioned.
So let's do a quick roundup of MMAR.
Higlights!
The Aquitians are badass.
Delphine is awesome.
First female leader of a team! \o/ We approve of this!
Billy is hot.
Billy is smart and badass.
Skull is a geek <3
Lowlights!
The Zeo Quest
Seriously, every single episode is "The Aquitians need water! Oh noes!"
There were a LOT of fish
Stereotype land!
Seriously, that's how we're saying goodbye to Aisha? REALLY?
Did we mention the Zeo Quest? Because, really. It should be mentioned.
Episode 155 - Hogday Afternoon - Part 2
We've reached the end of the Zeo Quest! FINALLY.
So, we open in Stereotype!Africa, where Aisha and Tanya (Tanya! ♥) meet Ashalla. Aisha remembers that she had a great aunt Ashalla, and wonders if it's the same person. Oh, Aisha. Aisha tells Ashalla about her quest, and Ashalla gives a big speech about how there's a legend that some girl will save them and how Aisha is that girl, and then she gives Aisha the crystal in the hope that Aisha will stay. It's decided that because Aisha volunteered in an animal shelter, she'll stay in Africa and Tanya will go back in her place. (Tanya has been with the tribe for three years, ever since her explorer parents vanished.)
Somehow, I get stuck with attempting to explain the time travel. Here's how I'm going to do it.
FISH.
I don't know if Aisha went back in time, or what, or how Aisha's family ends up with her in Africa. So I'm just going to state what I believe.
1-Everyone remembers that Aisha used to live in Angel Grove, and then she moved to Africa.
2-So no, Tanya has not always been there. People remember Aisha.
3-Tanya is awesome.
4-The fish are strong with this one.
5-Time travel makes no sense.
Meanwhile, in Angel Grove - all the water is gone in the world. Except for some bottles from the earthquake readiness kit in the Command Center. I guess they were concerned about Tommy following his heart or something. For some reason, the Rangers are only concerned about the Aquitians, even though all the water being gone is a really big freaking deal. The clouds are eating all the water. I can't even imagine how much damage this caused.
Billy aims a device at the viewing globe and somehow that makes it rain. The Aquitians fight Hydro Hog, and he stopped the Shogunzord's sword, which is pretty awesome. So then Billy takes the toy Falconzord and uses it to combine with the Shogunzord and they beat the Hydro Hog, which makes all the water come back.
Zordon talks to Aisha, who tells him her plan of staying behind. Zordon tells Aisha that he knew one of them would. Maybe there should have been some foreshadowing? Also, worst sendoff ever. Well, it's up there, anyway. After the awesomeness of how they got rid of Kim, you would think they could have done better for Aisha.
Tanya gives the crystal to Billy, and everyone turns back to their normal ages. Finally! The Rangers (minus Tanya) go say goodbye to the Aquitians while Alpha and Tanya talk.
Underneath the Command Center, Rito and Goldar are trying to figure out how to destroy the detonator. Rito suggests that it's hammer time. But just then, Rita shows up and tells them to steal the Zeo Crystal, so they just teleport into the Command Center. How do they do that? Did Zordon turn off the protections so that other people could get in?
The other Rangers get back, and then the Command Center starts to blow up. This was traumatizing to baby!TSB. Adam is concerned for Zordon! Rocky is concerned for Alpha! Billy throws himself on a console and gets hit with some sort of white light! Then they teleport out and the COMMAND CENTER BLOWS UP. OMGWTFBBQ. Everyone is traumatized, and Tommy (once again) wonders if this is the end of the Power Rangers.
And then we got a stupid preview for Zeo, and I spent the next two months wondering what the hell a triangle had to do with new powers.
Fish: FIVE. Was there even any doubt?
Fic we want: Aisha told Tanya enough so that she could identify Billy. What else did she tell Tanya?
Questions: If someone wants to take a stab at explaining time travel, or how they explain Tanya (I assume Billy will be doing some hacking) or why the Aquitians weren't affected by the time travel thing, or if anyone in Angel Grove even remembers the Aquitians, feel free to go ahead.
So, we open in Stereotype!Africa, where Aisha and Tanya (Tanya! ♥) meet Ashalla. Aisha remembers that she had a great aunt Ashalla, and wonders if it's the same person. Oh, Aisha. Aisha tells Ashalla about her quest, and Ashalla gives a big speech about how there's a legend that some girl will save them and how Aisha is that girl, and then she gives Aisha the crystal in the hope that Aisha will stay. It's decided that because Aisha volunteered in an animal shelter, she'll stay in Africa and Tanya will go back in her place. (Tanya has been with the tribe for three years, ever since her explorer parents vanished.)
Somehow, I get stuck with attempting to explain the time travel. Here's how I'm going to do it.
FISH.
I don't know if Aisha went back in time, or what, or how Aisha's family ends up with her in Africa. So I'm just going to state what I believe.
1-Everyone remembers that Aisha used to live in Angel Grove, and then she moved to Africa.
2-So no, Tanya has not always been there. People remember Aisha.
3-Tanya is awesome.
4-The fish are strong with this one.
5-Time travel makes no sense.
Meanwhile, in Angel Grove - all the water is gone in the world. Except for some bottles from the earthquake readiness kit in the Command Center. I guess they were concerned about Tommy following his heart or something. For some reason, the Rangers are only concerned about the Aquitians, even though all the water being gone is a really big freaking deal. The clouds are eating all the water. I can't even imagine how much damage this caused.
Billy aims a device at the viewing globe and somehow that makes it rain. The Aquitians fight Hydro Hog, and he stopped the Shogunzord's sword, which is pretty awesome. So then Billy takes the toy Falconzord and uses it to combine with the Shogunzord and they beat the Hydro Hog, which makes all the water come back.
Zordon talks to Aisha, who tells him her plan of staying behind. Zordon tells Aisha that he knew one of them would. Maybe there should have been some foreshadowing? Also, worst sendoff ever. Well, it's up there, anyway. After the awesomeness of how they got rid of Kim, you would think they could have done better for Aisha.
Tanya gives the crystal to Billy, and everyone turns back to their normal ages. Finally! The Rangers (minus Tanya) go say goodbye to the Aquitians while Alpha and Tanya talk.
Underneath the Command Center, Rito and Goldar are trying to figure out how to destroy the detonator. Rito suggests that it's hammer time. But just then, Rita shows up and tells them to steal the Zeo Crystal, so they just teleport into the Command Center. How do they do that? Did Zordon turn off the protections so that other people could get in?
The other Rangers get back, and then the Command Center starts to blow up. This was traumatizing to baby!TSB. Adam is concerned for Zordon! Rocky is concerned for Alpha! Billy throws himself on a console and gets hit with some sort of white light! Then they teleport out and the COMMAND CENTER BLOWS UP. OMGWTFBBQ. Everyone is traumatized, and Tommy (once again) wonders if this is the end of the Power Rangers.
And then we got a stupid preview for Zeo, and I spent the next two months wondering what the hell a triangle had to do with new powers.
Fish: FIVE. Was there even any doubt?
Fic we want: Aisha told Tanya enough so that she could identify Billy. What else did she tell Tanya?
Questions: If someone wants to take a stab at explaining time travel, or how they explain Tanya (I assume Billy will be doing some hacking) or why the Aquitians weren't affected by the time travel thing, or if anyone in Angel Grove even remembers the Aquitians, feel free to go ahead.
Episode 154- Hogday Afternoon Part 1
It's almost over. It's almost over. It's almost over.
So Aisha ends up in STEREOTYPICAL AFRICA! Because all of Africa is apparently the Savannah and it's all populated by lions. She is pulled behind a rock by Tanya to avoid a lion. They must be in Kenya (forget Norway!).
Rito and Goldar are STILL wandering around underneath the Command Center. It's been days upon days upon days and they're still down there. Lost. Must be pretty hungry too. They follow a sign and end up in the storage room (with the potential remains of Alpha 4), where they plant the explosives. Finally. Except Rita shows up and tells them to wait because Zedd wants the crystal intact first. Oops.
Zedd and Rita call the HydroHog from Aquitar. Rita flatters him, he comes, and he drains a lake of water. The Aquitian Rangers kind of fail at stopping him, so he dries up the lake. He calls them aliens. THEY ARE FROM THE SAME PLANET. *headdesk* They pass out from lack of water, and apparently there is now no water to be found in Angel Grove. Why this is only negatively affecting the Aquitian rangers, we're not sure. No wonder there are so many fish in this episode. They had to go SOMEWHERE once the water evaporated.
Aisha discovers the animals are sick. She worked in an animal shelter. Surely she can help! Because she's so much smarter than the Wildlife Rescue people who spent at least 8 years in college specializing in this sort of thing. Or something. Aisha and Tanya run through the setting sun, trying to get back to the village before nightfall, lest they be eaten by hyenas. Because don't forget, they're in AFRICA.
If only this episode had been eaten by hyenas.
5 fish. This gets ALL THE FISH of Angel Grove. LITERALLY.
So Aisha ends up in STEREOTYPICAL AFRICA! Because all of Africa is apparently the Savannah and it's all populated by lions. She is pulled behind a rock by Tanya to avoid a lion. They must be in Kenya (forget Norway!).
Rito and Goldar are STILL wandering around underneath the Command Center. It's been days upon days upon days and they're still down there. Lost. Must be pretty hungry too. They follow a sign and end up in the storage room (with the potential remains of Alpha 4), where they plant the explosives. Finally. Except Rita shows up and tells them to wait because Zedd wants the crystal intact first. Oops.
Zedd and Rita call the HydroHog from Aquitar. Rita flatters him, he comes, and he drains a lake of water. The Aquitian Rangers kind of fail at stopping him, so he dries up the lake. He calls them aliens. THEY ARE FROM THE SAME PLANET. *headdesk* They pass out from lack of water, and apparently there is now no water to be found in Angel Grove. Why this is only negatively affecting the Aquitian rangers, we're not sure. No wonder there are so many fish in this episode. They had to go SOMEWHERE once the water evaporated.
Aisha discovers the animals are sick. She worked in an animal shelter. Surely she can help! Because she's so much smarter than the Wildlife Rescue people who spent at least 8 years in college specializing in this sort of thing. Or something. Aisha and Tanya run through the setting sun, trying to get back to the village before nightfall, lest they be eaten by hyenas. Because don't forget, they're in AFRICA.
If only this episode had been eaten by hyenas.
5 fish. This gets ALL THE FISH of Angel Grove. LITERALLY.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Episode 153 - Sowing the Seeds of Evil
How did I get the Tommy episode? Whatever, we're still in stereotype land.
The plot.
IN ANGEL GROVE: Billy builds Cestro a shower. Tengas show up and destroy the shower. Billy fights unmorphed and is really pretty. Cestro tells Billy about the Hydro Hog, the Emperor of the Dark Water. Zedd and Rita decide to bring the Hydro Hog to Earth. Billy creates a shield to block them from doing so, stealing Rita and Zedd's plan from 2 episodes ago. Nothing else happens.
QUESTIONS: Why did they build the shower in the middle of Angel Grove instead of somewhere in safety? Wouldn't the Hydro Hog get weakened by Earth as well? Why wasn't there a Zord fight this episode? Is Hydro Hog responsible for there never being an ending to Pirates of Dark Water?
IN STEREOTYPE AUSTRALIA: Baby!Kat is all excited to be home. She meets teenage!Kat who pretends to be confused to see her. She tells Baby!Kat that she knows where the crystal is, and that she will take her to it. They run into Old!Kat who asks Baby!Kat for help getting home. Teen!Kat tells Baby!Kat that if she leaves, she will never get the crystal. Baby!Kat goes and helps Old!Kat anyway. Teen!Kat and her car vanish in a lot of pink. Old!Kat gives Baby!Kat the crystal and tells her that all those who sacrifice their needs to help others will be rewarded. This is a lie.
QUESTIONS: Everyone else is meeting their ancestors. How is Baby!Kat meeting two versions of herself? Why is Old!Kat lying like that? Why is Baby!Kat's quest so much easier than Rocky's?
IN STEREOTYPE NATIVE AMERICANS: There are teepees. Tommy asks a woman to find a big rock, and she points to a hawk. Tommy follows the hawk and meets True of Heart, who tells him he needs to get in touch with his roots and the true Tommy inside. Tommy starts seeing things as nature speaks to him and points him in the right direction. There's apparently a legend about him. (OF COURSE THERE IS.) Tommy tries to commune with nature which causes an earthquake and the two fake crystals to explode. Oh, and True of Heart gives him half an arrowhead. It's foreshadowing time!
QUESTIONS: WHAT THE FUCK. JUST. WHAT THE FUCK. (Also, so Tommy is responsible for all the earthquakes in Angel Grove? HAHAHAA.)
BACK IN ANGEL GROVE: Everyone worries about Aisha because somehow time is running out. Baby!Kat accent fails.
QUESTIONS: TIME TRAVEL DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
Fish: 4.5. RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.
The plot.
IN ANGEL GROVE: Billy builds Cestro a shower. Tengas show up and destroy the shower. Billy fights unmorphed and is really pretty. Cestro tells Billy about the Hydro Hog, the Emperor of the Dark Water. Zedd and Rita decide to bring the Hydro Hog to Earth. Billy creates a shield to block them from doing so, stealing Rita and Zedd's plan from 2 episodes ago. Nothing else happens.
QUESTIONS: Why did they build the shower in the middle of Angel Grove instead of somewhere in safety? Wouldn't the Hydro Hog get weakened by Earth as well? Why wasn't there a Zord fight this episode? Is Hydro Hog responsible for there never being an ending to Pirates of Dark Water?
IN STEREOTYPE AUSTRALIA: Baby!Kat is all excited to be home. She meets teenage!Kat who pretends to be confused to see her. She tells Baby!Kat that she knows where the crystal is, and that she will take her to it. They run into Old!Kat who asks Baby!Kat for help getting home. Teen!Kat tells Baby!Kat that if she leaves, she will never get the crystal. Baby!Kat goes and helps Old!Kat anyway. Teen!Kat and her car vanish in a lot of pink. Old!Kat gives Baby!Kat the crystal and tells her that all those who sacrifice their needs to help others will be rewarded. This is a lie.
QUESTIONS: Everyone else is meeting their ancestors. How is Baby!Kat meeting two versions of herself? Why is Old!Kat lying like that? Why is Baby!Kat's quest so much easier than Rocky's?
IN STEREOTYPE NATIVE AMERICANS: There are teepees. Tommy asks a woman to find a big rock, and she points to a hawk. Tommy follows the hawk and meets True of Heart, who tells him he needs to get in touch with his roots and the true Tommy inside. Tommy starts seeing things as nature speaks to him and points him in the right direction. There's apparently a legend about him. (OF COURSE THERE IS.) Tommy tries to commune with nature which causes an earthquake and the two fake crystals to explode. Oh, and True of Heart gives him half an arrowhead. It's foreshadowing time!
QUESTIONS: WHAT THE FUCK. JUST. WHAT THE FUCK. (Also, so Tommy is responsible for all the earthquakes in Angel Grove? HAHAHAA.)
BACK IN ANGEL GROVE: Everyone worries about Aisha because somehow time is running out. Baby!Kat accent fails.
QUESTIONS: TIME TRAVEL DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
Fish: 4.5. RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Episode 152- Along Came a Spider
I hate the Zeo Quest. No, I really really HATE the Zeo Quest. Epic fail, show!
So Billy is hanging out in his garage lab at his house with Cestro and Tideus. Unfortunately, the device he's working on... isn't working. He can't figure out how to get the sub-crystals to come together. Tideus suggests they find a more powerful device and Billy explains that Earth just isn't that far along. NASA and MIT might have one, but there's no use trying them. He suggests asking around Angel Grove University since it has one of the best science programs in the country (and here I burst out laughing because really? Angel Grove's education? MUST be it's own country... only explanation). Billy heads off, but first he gets snarky and winks at them. Oh Billy and your alien fetish.
Baby!Adam has made it to what it supposed to be Korea but... well it's about as much Korea as the last episode was Mexico. Everyone he encounters speaks English. He knows he's in the past and he's where his grandmother was born. He also is seeking some wise man. How he knows this, we don't know. We're assuming the fish are strong with him this episode. Baby!Adam is met with the WORST ASIAN STEREOTYPES EVER and the rest of our encounters with him this episode leave us both in CAPS mode... rather much like the last episode did with the Mexico Fail, and rather like the next three episodes will do.
Under the Command Center, Rito and Goldar are still lost. They try to draw a map on the wall with chalk and end up playing Tic Tac Toe instead. Clearly they learned Global Thermonuclear War was a bad choice. Perhaps they'll try a nice game of chess next? Rito totally outwits Goldar and wins.
Back in CAPSLOCK, Baby!Adam is a horrible little troglodyte to an old man that is trying to help him, even if he speaks in riddles. Baby!Adam is an idiot and cannot figure out that this crazy, yet wise, old man is the man he is seeking, and so he goes around asking other people and telling crazy old guy to go away. Because Baby!Adam is a douche.
Only good thing about it is the crazy old guy keeps calling him Little Frog. Awwwwww.
Billy ends up at Angel Grove University, where he talks to a very attractive young science professor. She is pleased he's taking such an interest in science and is sorry to hear that his high school lab is ill-equipped to help him with his experiment. So she lends him THE UNIVERSITY'S PHASE MODULATOR. Dude, it REALLY doesn't work that way, okay?
So Tideus is whiny and can't wait for water, so he drags Cestro out of Billy's lab and they track water. They find it at a car wash. Somehow they miss all the water in all the pipes in the entire city, and resort to walking through a car wash. *headdesk*
Rita and Zedd send down a monster. Billy comes back to his lab to discover the power out and he's attacked by the monster, except he's in his lab and the footage of the monster is clearly it in a LARGE abandoned warehouse. Splicing FAIL! Billy is encased in spider silk and I suddenly declare him Frodo (Trini is his Samwise, Rocky is totally Pippin, which makes Adam Merry... and maybe we spent a little too much time talking about a PR/LotR AU). The Aquitian Rangers all come back and fight the spider thing. It's very boring.
Meanwhile, Baby!Adam finally figures out that Crazy Old Guy is the wise old man he's seeking. Crazy Old Guy directs him up a very small waterfall, where Baby!Adam reaches into the water and pulls out the green crystal. Really? That's it? That's all he had to do? He talked to a few people, was a butthead, and then reached into a gently flowing small waterfall. Baby!Rocky had to climb into a freaking active VOLCANO and pull his from lava... some quest this is.
So the Aquitian Rangers are fighting, and the monster grows, and they call the zords, and they win. Surprised? I didn't think so.
All the spider silk magically disappears and Billy is free. He ends up at the Command Center, where he hangs out with Baby!Rocky until Baby!Adam shows up. Rocky is excited to see him and proclaims "He shoots, he scores!" and yes, he will score, one day, when you're both grown up. Ahem.
Billy informs them the Aquitian Rangers are at the car wash again. Really? There is such a thing as a FAUCET in Angel Grove, I'm sure. It's this magical thing that drains water from pipes. It's the same water as the car wash, so they really could have just shoved the Aquitians under the showers in Billy's house and it would have the SAME EXACT effect. *bangs head against wall*
Did I mention how much I HATE the Zeo Quest?
Five fish. Just... enough with the stereotypes, okay show? Two down, three to go.
Billy speak: "I can't align the Zeo sub-crystals into a cohesive matrix, so even if we do get all five crystals, we'll never be able to combine their energies."
"Well I've always been interested in crystal energy coherence, but unfortunately the phase modulator at my high school lab wasn't advanced enough for my experiment."
Best line of the episode: Goldar: "I'm thinking!" Rito: "You must find that painful."
Fic we want: LotR/PR AU y/y/mfy?
So Billy is hanging out in his garage lab at his house with Cestro and Tideus. Unfortunately, the device he's working on... isn't working. He can't figure out how to get the sub-crystals to come together. Tideus suggests they find a more powerful device and Billy explains that Earth just isn't that far along. NASA and MIT might have one, but there's no use trying them. He suggests asking around Angel Grove University since it has one of the best science programs in the country (and here I burst out laughing because really? Angel Grove's education? MUST be it's own country... only explanation). Billy heads off, but first he gets snarky and winks at them. Oh Billy and your alien fetish.
Baby!Adam has made it to what it supposed to be Korea but... well it's about as much Korea as the last episode was Mexico. Everyone he encounters speaks English. He knows he's in the past and he's where his grandmother was born. He also is seeking some wise man. How he knows this, we don't know. We're assuming the fish are strong with him this episode. Baby!Adam is met with the WORST ASIAN STEREOTYPES EVER and the rest of our encounters with him this episode leave us both in CAPS mode... rather much like the last episode did with the Mexico Fail, and rather like the next three episodes will do.
Under the Command Center, Rito and Goldar are still lost. They try to draw a map on the wall with chalk and end up playing Tic Tac Toe instead. Clearly they learned Global Thermonuclear War was a bad choice. Perhaps they'll try a nice game of chess next? Rito totally outwits Goldar and wins.
Back in CAPSLOCK, Baby!Adam is a horrible little troglodyte to an old man that is trying to help him, even if he speaks in riddles. Baby!Adam is an idiot and cannot figure out that this crazy, yet wise, old man is the man he is seeking, and so he goes around asking other people and telling crazy old guy to go away. Because Baby!Adam is a douche.
Only good thing about it is the crazy old guy keeps calling him Little Frog. Awwwwww.
Billy ends up at Angel Grove University, where he talks to a very attractive young science professor. She is pleased he's taking such an interest in science and is sorry to hear that his high school lab is ill-equipped to help him with his experiment. So she lends him THE UNIVERSITY'S PHASE MODULATOR. Dude, it REALLY doesn't work that way, okay?
So Tideus is whiny and can't wait for water, so he drags Cestro out of Billy's lab and they track water. They find it at a car wash. Somehow they miss all the water in all the pipes in the entire city, and resort to walking through a car wash. *headdesk*
Rita and Zedd send down a monster. Billy comes back to his lab to discover the power out and he's attacked by the monster, except he's in his lab and the footage of the monster is clearly it in a LARGE abandoned warehouse. Splicing FAIL! Billy is encased in spider silk and I suddenly declare him Frodo (Trini is his Samwise, Rocky is totally Pippin, which makes Adam Merry... and maybe we spent a little too much time talking about a PR/LotR AU). The Aquitian Rangers all come back and fight the spider thing. It's very boring.
Meanwhile, Baby!Adam finally figures out that Crazy Old Guy is the wise old man he's seeking. Crazy Old Guy directs him up a very small waterfall, where Baby!Adam reaches into the water and pulls out the green crystal. Really? That's it? That's all he had to do? He talked to a few people, was a butthead, and then reached into a gently flowing small waterfall. Baby!Rocky had to climb into a freaking active VOLCANO and pull his from lava... some quest this is.
So the Aquitian Rangers are fighting, and the monster grows, and they call the zords, and they win. Surprised? I didn't think so.
All the spider silk magically disappears and Billy is free. He ends up at the Command Center, where he hangs out with Baby!Rocky until Baby!Adam shows up. Rocky is excited to see him and proclaims "He shoots, he scores!" and yes, he will score, one day, when you're both grown up. Ahem.
Billy informs them the Aquitian Rangers are at the car wash again. Really? There is such a thing as a FAUCET in Angel Grove, I'm sure. It's this magical thing that drains water from pipes. It's the same water as the car wash, so they really could have just shoved the Aquitians under the showers in Billy's house and it would have the SAME EXACT effect. *bangs head against wall*
Did I mention how much I HATE the Zeo Quest?
Five fish. Just... enough with the stereotypes, okay show? Two down, three to go.
Billy speak: "I can't align the Zeo sub-crystals into a cohesive matrix, so even if we do get all five crystals, we'll never be able to combine their energies."
"Well I've always been interested in crystal energy coherence, but unfortunately the phase modulator at my high school lab wasn't advanced enough for my experiment."
Best line of the episode: Goldar: "I'm thinking!" Rito: "You must find that painful."
Fic we want: LotR/PR AU y/y/mfy?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Episode 151 - Water You Thinking?
Hey - there's still time to sign up for the holiday fic exchange!
Anyway. This episode. It is RAGE INDUCING. Look, I love the Alien Rangers, but I freaking HATE the Zeo Quest. Why? Because it is all "Let us hit EVERY SINGLE STEREOTYPE we can think of!"
Also, the fish showed up in this episode as an actual plot point. You know this is going to be bad.
So, the episode begins with the baby!Rangers preparing to go on their quests. Aisha is snarky, Adam is worried, and Rocky is confused and has bad hair. It is like, everything I love in the world. The Aquitian Rangers give the baby!Rangers advice on their quests, and they're told to look to their heritage, and there's some nonsense about time travel and ending up in different eras, etc. As soon as they all jump through the hole, Cestro nearly passes out again from lack of hydration. Apparently, finding a pure water source is really hard. Whatever. So they decide to go to the Aquarium and ask the fish. NO, REALLY.
Zedd isn't going to try to use a weak monster, he's going to call in an old friend. Also, he's going to put up a forcefield around the Earth to prevent the Aquitian Rangers from calling their battle borgs. Except, you know, don't they also have the Shogun Zords?
Rocky lands in stereotype!Mexico. I proceed to have a rage blackout over his entire "plot" so I'm going to put it here. Rocky speaks no Spanish, but it's okay, because the random kid he runs into speaks perfect English (his English is way better than his Spanish was) but he also speaks Gratuitous Spanish! Because, you know, he can carry on a (relatively) complex conversation about a crystal in a volcano and a legend, but he doesn't know the word YES. So the kid takes Rocky to the volcano, and Rocky climbs into the (pink) volcano, and pulls out the crystal, and the whole village was waiting for him when he gets out! Because it turns out that the crystal was destabilizing the volcano, and Rocky pulling it out saved the village. But everyone else was too scared to do anything. Oh, and the random kid is Rocky's grandfather. And then Rocky teleports out in a blue triangle. LET US NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.
Back in Angel Grove, Bulk and Skull are in detention. They have on Alien Rangers buttons, and Skull wants to know who would win in a fight - Darth Vader or the Alien Rangers. Bulk tells him he's stupid, because the Alien Rangers are real, and Darth Vader is not. (He should have asked about Batman instead. Batman exists in their universe!) Then Skull asks about Klingons. And then Dracula. I demand to know the answers to all of these questions. (I bet his next question was about Daleks.) Also, baby!Skull is such a geek, I love him. The boys then claim that they're going to do their science project on fish in honor of the Aquitian Rangers, and I start laughing.
At the Aquarium, Cestro communicates telepathically with a fish, which tells him to go to a quarry to find water. I think the fish are working for Zedd. The rest of the Aquitians stand around and are confused as Bulk and Skull ask to be beamed up to their space ship. So, Cestro gets ambushed and the others show up to help, and as predicted, they can't summon their Battle Borgs, so instead there's the Shogun Zord. The end.
Under the Command Center, Goldar and Rito are still trying to locate the Command Center. They separate, and Goldar leaves a trail of popcorn. Rito eats it. There are hijinks.
Fish: FIVE. ALL THE FISH IN THE WORLD.
Fic we want: AQUITIAN RANGERS VS EVERYONE.
Questions that need to be answered:
1-How are they explaining the disappearance of the baby!Rangers?
2-Where the hell is Billy living?
3-If there's time travel involved, why don't the Rangers reappear at the exact time they left?
4-How are they explaining Billy's friendship with the Aquitians? Is he their bodyguard or something?
5-How do the Aquitians speak Earth!Fish as well as Aquitian!Fish?
6-The only reason Doctor Who wasn't listed in the geeky things is because Skull is secretly The Doctor, Right?
Fic we want: AQUITIAN RANGERS VS DRACULA
Anyway. This episode. It is RAGE INDUCING. Look, I love the Alien Rangers, but I freaking HATE the Zeo Quest. Why? Because it is all "Let us hit EVERY SINGLE STEREOTYPE we can think of!"
Also, the fish showed up in this episode as an actual plot point. You know this is going to be bad.
So, the episode begins with the baby!Rangers preparing to go on their quests. Aisha is snarky, Adam is worried, and Rocky is confused and has bad hair. It is like, everything I love in the world. The Aquitian Rangers give the baby!Rangers advice on their quests, and they're told to look to their heritage, and there's some nonsense about time travel and ending up in different eras, etc. As soon as they all jump through the hole, Cestro nearly passes out again from lack of hydration. Apparently, finding a pure water source is really hard. Whatever. So they decide to go to the Aquarium and ask the fish. NO, REALLY.
Zedd isn't going to try to use a weak monster, he's going to call in an old friend. Also, he's going to put up a forcefield around the Earth to prevent the Aquitian Rangers from calling their battle borgs. Except, you know, don't they also have the Shogun Zords?
Rocky lands in stereotype!Mexico. I proceed to have a rage blackout over his entire "plot" so I'm going to put it here. Rocky speaks no Spanish, but it's okay, because the random kid he runs into speaks perfect English (his English is way better than his Spanish was) but he also speaks Gratuitous Spanish! Because, you know, he can carry on a (relatively) complex conversation about a crystal in a volcano and a legend, but he doesn't know the word YES. So the kid takes Rocky to the volcano, and Rocky climbs into the (pink) volcano, and pulls out the crystal, and the whole village was waiting for him when he gets out! Because it turns out that the crystal was destabilizing the volcano, and Rocky pulling it out saved the village. But everyone else was too scared to do anything. Oh, and the random kid is Rocky's grandfather. And then Rocky teleports out in a blue triangle. LET US NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.
Back in Angel Grove, Bulk and Skull are in detention. They have on Alien Rangers buttons, and Skull wants to know who would win in a fight - Darth Vader or the Alien Rangers. Bulk tells him he's stupid, because the Alien Rangers are real, and Darth Vader is not. (He should have asked about Batman instead. Batman exists in their universe!) Then Skull asks about Klingons. And then Dracula. I demand to know the answers to all of these questions. (I bet his next question was about Daleks.) Also, baby!Skull is such a geek, I love him. The boys then claim that they're going to do their science project on fish in honor of the Aquitian Rangers, and I start laughing.
At the Aquarium, Cestro communicates telepathically with a fish, which tells him to go to a quarry to find water. I think the fish are working for Zedd. The rest of the Aquitians stand around and are confused as Bulk and Skull ask to be beamed up to their space ship. So, Cestro gets ambushed and the others show up to help, and as predicted, they can't summon their Battle Borgs, so instead there's the Shogun Zord. The end.
Under the Command Center, Goldar and Rito are still trying to locate the Command Center. They separate, and Goldar leaves a trail of popcorn. Rito eats it. There are hijinks.
Fish: FIVE. ALL THE FISH IN THE WORLD.
Fic we want: AQUITIAN RANGERS VS EVERYONE.
Questions that need to be answered:
1-How are they explaining the disappearance of the baby!Rangers?
2-Where the hell is Billy living?
3-If there's time travel involved, why don't the Rangers reappear at the exact time they left?
4-How are they explaining Billy's friendship with the Aquitians? Is he their bodyguard or something?
5-How do the Aquitians speak Earth!Fish as well as Aquitian!Fish?
6-The only reason Doctor Who wasn't listed in the geeky things is because Skull is secretly The Doctor, Right?
Fic we want: AQUITIAN RANGERS VS DRACULA
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Episode 150- Attack of the 60' Bulk
It's the 150th episode! Guys! Guys, we made it to the 150th episode! How awesome! Thanks for sticking by us this long, and here's to another 550+ more.
Today's episode starts with the kids going to a water park with Mr. Wilton, the mean teacher that traded places with Rocky. Semi-continuity for the win! We assume he must have taught elementary school at one point since he's chaperoning this apparently school-sponsored trip. He's grateful for the help from Tommy's Uncle William.
While I love having Adult!Billy and the pretty he brings, I do kind of miss Baby!Billy. He was one of the better child actors. Anyway, they decide to sneak off and contact Zordon to see how the Aquitians are doing. Billy begins to lecture them on using the communicators for frivolous purposes, but he eventually caves to the demands of Tiny Children. The Aquitians are doing well and thank the rangers. We kind of love Delphine's hand motions. Zordon then reminds Billy that the Baby!Rangers may have their memories, but they are in physically young bodies and need the physical release. It sounds wrong, so we spent a lot of time telling ourselves he just meant for them to have fun at the water park and burn off some energy.
Zedd and Rita have a plan. They have an ancient scroll (that is not very ancient nor very scroll-like) that can lead them through the long forgotten tunnels beneath the Command Center. They're going to send Rito and Goldar through the tunnels to destroy the Command Center. It's a pretty good plan, minus the whole sending Rito and Goldar part! Rita and Zedd are adorably in love.
In order to distract the rangers, they're going to turn a bully into a monster. They observe the children at the water park and Zedd decides Earth children are so mindless they can't even be mean. I'm forced to wonder what planet he's watching because it sure as heck ISN'T the one I grew up on. Earth children can be plenty mean.
They stumble upon Bulk and Skull playing Pooh Sticks. They apparently had been laughed at (for reasons unknown to us) by Baby!Aisha and Baby!Rocky. In retaliation, they threw some inflatable tubes off a bridge at the baby!rangers and then ran to the other side of the bridge to see which made it first. Baby!Aisha is adorable and indignant because they aren't following the rules. Billy decides to teach them a lesson and goes to lecture them. Mid-lecture, Bulk gets zapped by Zedd and Rita and turns into a giant brain monster called Brat Boy. His suit is made of video game controllers. I'm going to choose to ignore that fact and hopefully not be offended.
Instead of using his watch communicator to contact Zordon, Billy uses a round purple disc that I think is supposed to be the mini-viewing globe the Aquitians used. It's wet, however, and they have to wait for it to dry, so the baby!rangers take a stand. Billy finally gets through and the Aquitians come all the way from Aquitar to save the day! But then Brat Boy grows and dumps polluted water on them and the water park. Somehow he makes it to the city and the Aquitians callCaptain Planet their zords. They are losing, however.
At the water park, Skull is running around trying to find Bulk. Billy and the baby!rangers try to convince him they haven't seen him, but Skull is sure they did because Skull was there when Billy watched Bulk get turned into a monster. Baby!Kat lies (in a bad accent) and tells him Bulk went in a random direction. Don't lie to him! That's rude.
So Billy and the baby!rangers go to the scene of battle and try to talk to Bulk inside Brat Boy. Baby!Aisha wants to help, but they keep telling Bulk they're his friends and... really? They're not. They never have been. They never will be. They certainly weren't friends when they were ten years old, as Bulk and Skull didn't know any of them except Billy. If they needed a friend to get through to Bulk, they should have gotten Skull. Skull would have been far more effective.
Bulk manages to break through and turns back into himself. He's confused and wants his Mommy, and Rita says she's right there. We now want AU fic where she is Bulk's mother. Bulk then gets turned BACK into Brat Boy, and fights it to get BACK to Bulk. It's... poor Bulk. It can't be fun. Rita decides she doesn't want any kids (oh Rita, if only you knew *cough*Thrax*cough*).
The Aquitians are grateful for the help, showing mind and heart can be more powerful than the fist. They go home. Zordon teleports the baby!rangers and unconscious Bulk to the water park, where he wakes up and they manage to convince him that no, they are not Power Rangers, and he just hit his head really hard. Poor Bulk, once again thwarted.
The baby!rangers and Billy teleport to the Command Center where Zordon tells them he has found the shards of the Zeo crystal and they must go on individual quests, through their roots, to get the shards. Billy is determined to go since he's the only one who's an adult again, but Zordon tells him the Zeo crystal will not work for him because he's no longer affected by the spell. The kids have to go, and they have to go by themselves. Confirmation that Billy will no longer be a ranger AND we are heading into the Most Stereotypical Things Ever (expect many rage-inducing episodes to follow).
And so it begins.
3 fish... relatively low for this storyline!
Fic we want: Rita as Bulk's mother. Y/y/mfy?
Today's episode starts with the kids going to a water park with Mr. Wilton, the mean teacher that traded places with Rocky. Semi-continuity for the win! We assume he must have taught elementary school at one point since he's chaperoning this apparently school-sponsored trip. He's grateful for the help from Tommy's Uncle William.
While I love having Adult!Billy and the pretty he brings, I do kind of miss Baby!Billy. He was one of the better child actors. Anyway, they decide to sneak off and contact Zordon to see how the Aquitians are doing. Billy begins to lecture them on using the communicators for frivolous purposes, but he eventually caves to the demands of Tiny Children. The Aquitians are doing well and thank the rangers. We kind of love Delphine's hand motions. Zordon then reminds Billy that the Baby!Rangers may have their memories, but they are in physically young bodies and need the physical release. It sounds wrong, so we spent a lot of time telling ourselves he just meant for them to have fun at the water park and burn off some energy.
Zedd and Rita have a plan. They have an ancient scroll (that is not very ancient nor very scroll-like) that can lead them through the long forgotten tunnels beneath the Command Center. They're going to send Rito and Goldar through the tunnels to destroy the Command Center. It's a pretty good plan, minus the whole sending Rito and Goldar part! Rita and Zedd are adorably in love.
In order to distract the rangers, they're going to turn a bully into a monster. They observe the children at the water park and Zedd decides Earth children are so mindless they can't even be mean. I'm forced to wonder what planet he's watching because it sure as heck ISN'T the one I grew up on. Earth children can be plenty mean.
They stumble upon Bulk and Skull playing Pooh Sticks. They apparently had been laughed at (for reasons unknown to us) by Baby!Aisha and Baby!Rocky. In retaliation, they threw some inflatable tubes off a bridge at the baby!rangers and then ran to the other side of the bridge to see which made it first. Baby!Aisha is adorable and indignant because they aren't following the rules. Billy decides to teach them a lesson and goes to lecture them. Mid-lecture, Bulk gets zapped by Zedd and Rita and turns into a giant brain monster called Brat Boy. His suit is made of video game controllers. I'm going to choose to ignore that fact and hopefully not be offended.
Instead of using his watch communicator to contact Zordon, Billy uses a round purple disc that I think is supposed to be the mini-viewing globe the Aquitians used. It's wet, however, and they have to wait for it to dry, so the baby!rangers take a stand. Billy finally gets through and the Aquitians come all the way from Aquitar to save the day! But then Brat Boy grows and dumps polluted water on them and the water park. Somehow he makes it to the city and the Aquitians call
At the water park, Skull is running around trying to find Bulk. Billy and the baby!rangers try to convince him they haven't seen him, but Skull is sure they did because Skull was there when Billy watched Bulk get turned into a monster. Baby!Kat lies (in a bad accent) and tells him Bulk went in a random direction. Don't lie to him! That's rude.
So Billy and the baby!rangers go to the scene of battle and try to talk to Bulk inside Brat Boy. Baby!Aisha wants to help, but they keep telling Bulk they're his friends and... really? They're not. They never have been. They never will be. They certainly weren't friends when they were ten years old, as Bulk and Skull didn't know any of them except Billy. If they needed a friend to get through to Bulk, they should have gotten Skull. Skull would have been far more effective.
Bulk manages to break through and turns back into himself. He's confused and wants his Mommy, and Rita says she's right there. We now want AU fic where she is Bulk's mother. Bulk then gets turned BACK into Brat Boy, and fights it to get BACK to Bulk. It's... poor Bulk. It can't be fun. Rita decides she doesn't want any kids (oh Rita, if only you knew *cough*Thrax*cough*).
The Aquitians are grateful for the help, showing mind and heart can be more powerful than the fist. They go home. Zordon teleports the baby!rangers and unconscious Bulk to the water park, where he wakes up and they manage to convince him that no, they are not Power Rangers, and he just hit his head really hard. Poor Bulk, once again thwarted.
The baby!rangers and Billy teleport to the Command Center where Zordon tells them he has found the shards of the Zeo crystal and they must go on individual quests, through their roots, to get the shards. Billy is determined to go since he's the only one who's an adult again, but Zordon tells him the Zeo crystal will not work for him because he's no longer affected by the spell. The kids have to go, and they have to go by themselves. Confirmation that Billy will no longer be a ranger AND we are heading into the Most Stereotypical Things Ever (expect many rage-inducing episodes to follow).
And so it begins.
3 fish... relatively low for this storyline!
Fic we want: Rita as Bulk's mother. Y/y/mfy?
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Episode 149 - The Alien Trap
Previously, on Power Rangers - Delphine and the Aquitian Rangers are awesome. Billy is an adult again, so we get some eye candy. There is angst over lack of water.
I do like the credits for this miniseason, except why don't the Aquitian Rangers get to be in the credits? That is ridiculous.
The episode opens with Tommy and Kat standing over Billy's science experiment. There's a ton of exposition, and frankly, I have no idea how Tommy is able to pronounce all of that stuff anyway. The device is going to do something to turn Earth water into Aquitian water. It's a vaguely freaky looking device, but this in no way makes what happens next ok.
Crazy grandma comes over and starts deciding that tiny children (and they're like 10) should not be allowed to be playing with science experiments. She starts ranting about handing them (and the experiment) over to the proper authorities and starts going on about irresponsible parenting. I think she needs a copy of Free Range Kids.
Luckily, a confrontation is prevented by the arrival of Billy! Who tells the annoying grandma that Tommy and Kat are his little brother and sister and he told them to stop playing with his experiments. Then he threatens to take away their allowance. It is pretty much the best thing ever.
Then we pause to wonder how they explained the disappearance of baby!Billy. The fish are strong with this one.
There's a lot more exposition (mostly delivered by Ms. Accent Fail) and we ignore it because we're distracted by Billy's arms. Nice arms.
Up at the Command Center, Cestro needs to rehydrate. For some reason the only place this will work is at the abandoned part of Angel Grove lake? Look, IDEK, fish.
Everyone is at the lake, and the Aquitian Rangers have discovered ice pops. Then they wander over to the lake where they discover Bulk and Skull fishing. They're horrified by this and attack Bulk and Skull, knocking them into the water.
Um. They're from a water planet. Are there really no predators on the water planet? Do they just eat plankton? Or do they just eat the water? I...I... FISH.
Zedd sends Rito and Goldar down to bother the Rangers, and they easily beat them. Zedd then realizes that the flaw in his plan is that they keep relying on Rito and Goldar, so he instead sends down surfer monsters. Who are going to put Lunar Toxins in the lake.
They're going to dump space shit into the lake, you guys. I don't even KNOW.
The Aquitians fly (WHY DO THEY FLY? THEY ARE FROM A WATER PLANET) and stand on the water (WHY? They are supposed to be ABSORBING IT. Shouldn't they be IN IT?) and start to rehydrate when the water gets all polluted by the space shit.
It turns purple, and we realize what they were really dumping. They were poisoning the lake with leftovers from Ivan Ooze.
Rita then delivers the best line in the episode - "look at the little fish squirm." Indeed they do, Rita. Indeed they do. Because the Rangers are about to steal back the device keeping the Aquitians in the poisoned water by playing tag. And Rito falls for it.
Then Zordon contacts the Aquitian Rangers telepathically and they have to go off and fight, even though they're weak. Because they are Rangers.
Sorry, just got something in my eye. There is a thing that I love, ok?
(Speaking of things I love - David Yost in a wetsuit. Hi there.)
The Aquitian Rangers morph, and then combine their powers to summon Captain Aquitar, and we're straight to a very long Zord fight. It's cool, just because I still like the telepathically controlled Zords, but they summon the Shogun Zords and then the fire sword, and yeah, dead monsters.
The episode ends with Billy saying he can't rebuild the device (... even though he built the original in like, a day, and he already has the plans for it) and the Aquitians have to go back to Aquitar. But they promise that they will be back.
Fish: FIVE. One fish for each Aquitian Ranger!
I do like the credits for this miniseason, except why don't the Aquitian Rangers get to be in the credits? That is ridiculous.
The episode opens with Tommy and Kat standing over Billy's science experiment. There's a ton of exposition, and frankly, I have no idea how Tommy is able to pronounce all of that stuff anyway. The device is going to do something to turn Earth water into Aquitian water. It's a vaguely freaky looking device, but this in no way makes what happens next ok.
Crazy grandma comes over and starts deciding that tiny children (and they're like 10) should not be allowed to be playing with science experiments. She starts ranting about handing them (and the experiment) over to the proper authorities and starts going on about irresponsible parenting. I think she needs a copy of Free Range Kids.
Luckily, a confrontation is prevented by the arrival of Billy! Who tells the annoying grandma that Tommy and Kat are his little brother and sister and he told them to stop playing with his experiments. Then he threatens to take away their allowance. It is pretty much the best thing ever.
Then we pause to wonder how they explained the disappearance of baby!Billy. The fish are strong with this one.
There's a lot more exposition (mostly delivered by Ms. Accent Fail) and we ignore it because we're distracted by Billy's arms. Nice arms.
Up at the Command Center, Cestro needs to rehydrate. For some reason the only place this will work is at the abandoned part of Angel Grove lake? Look, IDEK, fish.
Everyone is at the lake, and the Aquitian Rangers have discovered ice pops. Then they wander over to the lake where they discover Bulk and Skull fishing. They're horrified by this and attack Bulk and Skull, knocking them into the water.
Um. They're from a water planet. Are there really no predators on the water planet? Do they just eat plankton? Or do they just eat the water? I...I... FISH.
Zedd sends Rito and Goldar down to bother the Rangers, and they easily beat them. Zedd then realizes that the flaw in his plan is that they keep relying on Rito and Goldar, so he instead sends down surfer monsters. Who are going to put Lunar Toxins in the lake.
They're going to dump space shit into the lake, you guys. I don't even KNOW.
The Aquitians fly (WHY DO THEY FLY? THEY ARE FROM A WATER PLANET) and stand on the water (WHY? They are supposed to be ABSORBING IT. Shouldn't they be IN IT?) and start to rehydrate when the water gets all polluted by the space shit.
It turns purple, and we realize what they were really dumping. They were poisoning the lake with leftovers from Ivan Ooze.
Rita then delivers the best line in the episode - "look at the little fish squirm." Indeed they do, Rita. Indeed they do. Because the Rangers are about to steal back the device keeping the Aquitians in the poisoned water by playing tag. And Rito falls for it.
Then Zordon contacts the Aquitian Rangers telepathically and they have to go off and fight, even though they're weak. Because they are Rangers.
Sorry, just got something in my eye. There is a thing that I love, ok?
(Speaking of things I love - David Yost in a wetsuit. Hi there.)
The Aquitian Rangers morph, and then combine their powers to summon Captain Aquitar, and we're straight to a very long Zord fight. It's cool, just because I still like the telepathically controlled Zords, but they summon the Shogun Zords and then the fire sword, and yeah, dead monsters.
The episode ends with Billy saying he can't rebuild the device (... even though he built the original in like, a day, and he already has the plans for it) and the Aquitians have to go back to Aquitar. But they promise that they will be back.
Fish: FIVE. One fish for each Aquitian Ranger!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Episode 148- Climb Every Fountain
Okay, this episode is bad. Really bad. So, to distract me from the bad that is about to come parading our way, we have something Super Mega Awesome to share! It's the Power Rangers Holiday Fic Exchange! It's going to be so much fun, and I highly encourage everybody to take part! You write a power rangers fic, you get a power rangers fic. Awesomesauce! Sign up on dreamwidth here and on livejournal here.
And now I can stall no longer. This episode. Just. FULL of fish. And not just the alien kind.
So we start out with a new opening. I'm pretty stoked the kids get billing next to their unseen adult counterparts. Although Baby!Bulk and Skull do not make it into the credits and the theme song just doesn't quite flow with "Go Go Alien Rangers". It was a good try though.
So we start out with Billy being Super Genius! He's incredibly smart. Cestro gives him instructions for a device to turn them back into their teenage selves, and Billy is all "Yeah, it's cool, I got it." Because he's AWESOME. Even as a tiny child.
Unfortunately, he has to go to school instead of finishing the device. He promises to finish it after school, since Cestro can't because his hands are too big to make the wiring connections. Ahem. Why Billy couldn't just be "sick" that day, I'm not sure, unless it was a case of not encouraging kids to skip school. Though, frankly, if it was skip school and save the world or go to school and the world gets destroyed, heck yeah I want my kids skipping school! Save that world, kids.
Meanwhile, Rita and Zedd have a plan to get it, the power coins, and destroy the world. So they send down Rito and Goldar. They try to flush the kids off the school bus, but the plan backfires because the kids aren't afraid of the monsters and start pummeling them with balls and lots of popcorn. Where all these toys and foodstuffs were stashed I have NO idea. I remember elementary school. No food on the bus, yo. And I was in elementary school when this time warp would have landed these kids (1987 or 1988).
Rito and Goldar get shooed away and the bus driver takes them home. Baby!Adam decides to stay at Baby!Billy's house and help him out. They hang out in the YELLOW garage of the YELLOW house and Billy finishes up the device. It looks like a robot. Like a child's toy robot. So they leave Billy's house, which is now BLUE (I don't even know), and walk down the sidewalk. Rito and Goldar trail them and they don't notice. Oh boys. Billy can't wait to get back to the future so he can surf the internet. (for porn)
Back at the Command Center, Cestro suddenly begins to lose hydration. It's apparently catching because one moment everybody is fine and then Cestro starts falling over so everyone else has to start falling over too. Alpha transports them to the nearest body of water, which happens to be the fountain in the park. First of all, what kind of water do these beings need because not all water is the same! Secondly, what the crap? Alpha can teleport people to the farthest galaxy, but he can't teleport these rangers to the perfect body of water???? Fishy fish fish fish.
Baby!Billy and Baby!Adam meet up with the others and they all toss their power coins (which are non-functional, remember) into the robot. Somehow, this powers the robot and Baby!Billy manages to turn back into Big!Billy before Rito and Goldar attack. Tommy tries to run away with the robot but it's no good. Billy is attacked and the robot falls into enemy hands. Goldar gets the power coins and, with Rita and Zedd now on Earth, they destroy them. Powers gone. Just like that. And... it makes no sense. Whatsoever. Anyway, robot device gets turned into a monster and Billy is all "I'm so going to kick your ass, by myself, because I am fully grown now!" except Alpha teleports them away.
So at the fountain, the Aquitians are rehydrating and all the bystanders are just in awe of the aliens. Nobody is screaming in terror or running away or calling the authorities. They're just all "Oh, look, aliens!". Um... okay? Billy shows Baby!Tommy his authority in insisting he go to the Aquitians to let them know about the robot monster, seeing as he's not a Tiny Child any longer. Baby!Tommy pouts, but defers to Billy's Sheer Awesomeness.
Billy runs up to the Aquitians and is all "Hey, it's me, Billy, you know me, because we're BFF now. There's a monster coming?" and then the monster shows up, the Aquitians morph and begin to do battle, and Billy runs to stand with the other Grown Ups. Who then ask if he knows them and he says NO. Uh... dude, you clearly know them! You were just standing around having a chat! But the residents of Angel Grove totally believe him and are in awe of the rangers. People walk right up to the TENGA AND RANGER FIGHTING and stand very close being all admiring. Really people? Are you THAT dumb? Big monster and aliens in multi-coloured spandex fighting does not inspire me to walk right up to them and be up in their business.
Biggest fail of the show thus far? The Aquitians call THEMSELVES the Alien Rangers. *beats head against desk*
Rita and Zedd make the monster grow and he's suddenly at the abandoned quarry, where the rangers call the zords and do telepathic zord battle. And win. Because they're good like that.
There is a ceremony where a woman (potentially the mayor?) gives a speech thanking the Aquitians for helping them and then gives them all big gold stars. No, really, they get actual Gold Stars... like you'd give a kid on their 100% A test paper. But I won't complain too much because Jimmy Jameson, Reporter Guy, is there! Yay! And nobody wonders why a strange man (since none of them will know who Billy is now that he's All Grown Up) is hanging around with five ten year olds. Baby!Aisha is relieved things are going better now, and she's freaking adorable.
4.5 fish. I'd go with a full on 5 but... Tiny Children! And Billy is not only hot but a super genius so... I'm biased.
And now I can stall no longer. This episode. Just. FULL of fish. And not just the alien kind.
So we start out with a new opening. I'm pretty stoked the kids get billing next to their unseen adult counterparts. Although Baby!Bulk and Skull do not make it into the credits and the theme song just doesn't quite flow with "Go Go Alien Rangers". It was a good try though.
So we start out with Billy being Super Genius! He's incredibly smart. Cestro gives him instructions for a device to turn them back into their teenage selves, and Billy is all "Yeah, it's cool, I got it." Because he's AWESOME. Even as a tiny child.
Unfortunately, he has to go to school instead of finishing the device. He promises to finish it after school, since Cestro can't because his hands are too big to make the wiring connections. Ahem. Why Billy couldn't just be "sick" that day, I'm not sure, unless it was a case of not encouraging kids to skip school. Though, frankly, if it was skip school and save the world or go to school and the world gets destroyed, heck yeah I want my kids skipping school! Save that world, kids.
Meanwhile, Rita and Zedd have a plan to get it, the power coins, and destroy the world. So they send down Rito and Goldar. They try to flush the kids off the school bus, but the plan backfires because the kids aren't afraid of the monsters and start pummeling them with balls and lots of popcorn. Where all these toys and foodstuffs were stashed I have NO idea. I remember elementary school. No food on the bus, yo. And I was in elementary school when this time warp would have landed these kids (1987 or 1988).
Rito and Goldar get shooed away and the bus driver takes them home. Baby!Adam decides to stay at Baby!Billy's house and help him out. They hang out in the YELLOW garage of the YELLOW house and Billy finishes up the device. It looks like a robot. Like a child's toy robot. So they leave Billy's house, which is now BLUE (I don't even know), and walk down the sidewalk. Rito and Goldar trail them and they don't notice. Oh boys. Billy can't wait to get back to the future so he can surf the internet. (for porn)
Back at the Command Center, Cestro suddenly begins to lose hydration. It's apparently catching because one moment everybody is fine and then Cestro starts falling over so everyone else has to start falling over too. Alpha transports them to the nearest body of water, which happens to be the fountain in the park. First of all, what kind of water do these beings need because not all water is the same! Secondly, what the crap? Alpha can teleport people to the farthest galaxy, but he can't teleport these rangers to the perfect body of water???? Fishy fish fish fish.
Baby!Billy and Baby!Adam meet up with the others and they all toss their power coins (which are non-functional, remember) into the robot. Somehow, this powers the robot and Baby!Billy manages to turn back into Big!Billy before Rito and Goldar attack. Tommy tries to run away with the robot but it's no good. Billy is attacked and the robot falls into enemy hands. Goldar gets the power coins and, with Rita and Zedd now on Earth, they destroy them. Powers gone. Just like that. And... it makes no sense. Whatsoever. Anyway, robot device gets turned into a monster and Billy is all "I'm so going to kick your ass, by myself, because I am fully grown now!" except Alpha teleports them away.
So at the fountain, the Aquitians are rehydrating and all the bystanders are just in awe of the aliens. Nobody is screaming in terror or running away or calling the authorities. They're just all "Oh, look, aliens!". Um... okay? Billy shows Baby!Tommy his authority in insisting he go to the Aquitians to let them know about the robot monster, seeing as he's not a Tiny Child any longer. Baby!Tommy pouts, but defers to Billy's Sheer Awesomeness.
Billy runs up to the Aquitians and is all "Hey, it's me, Billy, you know me, because we're BFF now. There's a monster coming?" and then the monster shows up, the Aquitians morph and begin to do battle, and Billy runs to stand with the other Grown Ups. Who then ask if he knows them and he says NO. Uh... dude, you clearly know them! You were just standing around having a chat! But the residents of Angel Grove totally believe him and are in awe of the rangers. People walk right up to the TENGA AND RANGER FIGHTING and stand very close being all admiring. Really people? Are you THAT dumb? Big monster and aliens in multi-coloured spandex fighting does not inspire me to walk right up to them and be up in their business.
Biggest fail of the show thus far? The Aquitians call THEMSELVES the Alien Rangers. *beats head against desk*
Rita and Zedd make the monster grow and he's suddenly at the abandoned quarry, where the rangers call the zords and do telepathic zord battle. And win. Because they're good like that.
There is a ceremony where a woman (potentially the mayor?) gives a speech thanking the Aquitians for helping them and then gives them all big gold stars. No, really, they get actual Gold Stars... like you'd give a kid on their 100% A test paper. But I won't complain too much because Jimmy Jameson, Reporter Guy, is there! Yay! And nobody wonders why a strange man (since none of them will know who Billy is now that he's All Grown Up) is hanging around with five ten year olds. Baby!Aisha is relieved things are going better now, and she's freaking adorable.
4.5 fish. I'd go with a full on 5 but... Tiny Children! And Billy is not only hot but a super genius so... I'm biased.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Episode 147 - Alien Rangers of Aquitar - Part 2
I do not have a Delphine icon! This is unacceptable! Delphine is freaking awesome! And badass! And the first female leader of the Rangers! Plus, Rajia Baroudi is the nicest ever.
So! We open with the Rangers observing the viewing globe (Not in that way, they're kids!) and we see the five Aquitian Rangers looking back at them. Let's talk about the Aquitians for a second. First, the fact that they are constantly referred to as the Alien Rangers pisses us off. Second, the voice distortion thing is annoying. Other than that, we love them. I mean, it would be great if Tideus or Corcus would get a personality, but whatever. (And way down the road in Forever Red, it would be nice if they called Aurico by name.)
SO.
Delphine says that of course they will go to Earth and help out the Rangers, but she worries about the water content. Considering that like 70% of the Earth is covered in water, I don't really get the problem. Maybe it's the saline level? But they clearly have no problem breathing air, so I'm just going to stick a science doesn't work like that tag on this and stop analyzing it. (Or yell fish. Oh god, the fish jokes.)
We find out that Ninjor gave the Aquitians their Zords, and I would love to know that story. Baby!Adam does emo fairly well, and he wishes they had Ninjor, but apparently the time travel whatever means they won't find him. But they know where he is now and they've already changed things, so the fact that they can't go find him makes absolutely no sense at all. I still stick by my alternate reality theory. The Aquitians say they're going to teleport over, and the Baby!Rangers agree to meet them by the lake.
Then they notice that there's an implosion device (like a bomb, but worse) outside. Apparently making a long distance call weakened their security. I guess if they had to divert a lot of power I could possibly buy that explanation? Alpha insists he will teleport them away so that they'll be safe, and baby!Aisha tells him that they love him, and we start to tear up a little, especially when Alpha says that he loves them too. But he says it after they teleport out, because he can't say it to them, and oh, ALPHA. *cuddles*
Alpha uses a mini-squeegee to disarm the bomb. He's adorable. Master Vile is very annoyed that a mini food processor on legs disarmed his bomb and I can't stop cackling. Master Vile = favorite. The villains sense something good on the way to Earth, and Rita complains that she's allergic to good. Oh, RITA. ♥
At the park, Billy uses the mini viewing globe device to check if things are ok, and then Bulk and Skull show up, and Billy distracts them by babbling scientifically. Goldar and Rito show up, and they are not pleased to see the tiny children, because Rito is convinced he'll get beaten up again. Bulk and Skull run away. (Seriously, Rito says "Not the little people again!" and then we died laughing.)
But wait! The Aquitian Rangers are here! They summon something that is either water or blue energy and beat up Rito and Goldar. The Aquitians are badass, y'all. They exchange names and things, and then Billy stays with the aliens (We guess he got his alien kink early?) while the other Rangers go home since their parents will be worried.
Finster gets trampled by a whole bunch of monsters as Master Vile sends them down to attack. And they attack the Warehouse District. Angel Grove, I love you, but you make no damn sense.
Tiny Billy has finished transferring knowledge to the Aquitians, and then they morph. You guys, it is so awesome. And I love Delphine. I love that they made her the leader, especially because based on the footage it really does look like the Red is the leader. But they made the choice to let her lead, and she is awesome and bad ass and made of so much win.
Plus, they control their Zords telepathically. WIN.
(I do wish they'd used a different shade of blue for Cestro. That color is ridiculous.)
The Aquitian Rangers are badass, and they beat up all the monsters and destroy one using the Shogunzord, and the rest of the monsters run away. Master Vile is so disgusted by this that he has a temper tantrum and then goes back to his own Galaxy. Zedd is so glad to have his father-in-law gone that he kisses Goldar. Someone is shipping that somewhere, right?
Back at the Command Center, the Rangers all celebrate. And then they angst about the water content and how the Aquitian Rangers can't stay there forever.
In conclusion, Delphine is awesome.
2.5 - Except for the science whatever, this was pretty awesome.
So! We open with the Rangers observing the viewing globe (Not in that way, they're kids!) and we see the five Aquitian Rangers looking back at them. Let's talk about the Aquitians for a second. First, the fact that they are constantly referred to as the Alien Rangers pisses us off. Second, the voice distortion thing is annoying. Other than that, we love them. I mean, it would be great if Tideus or Corcus would get a personality, but whatever. (And way down the road in Forever Red, it would be nice if they called Aurico by name.)
SO.
Delphine says that of course they will go to Earth and help out the Rangers, but she worries about the water content. Considering that like 70% of the Earth is covered in water, I don't really get the problem. Maybe it's the saline level? But they clearly have no problem breathing air, so I'm just going to stick a science doesn't work like that tag on this and stop analyzing it. (Or yell fish. Oh god, the fish jokes.)
We find out that Ninjor gave the Aquitians their Zords, and I would love to know that story. Baby!Adam does emo fairly well, and he wishes they had Ninjor, but apparently the time travel whatever means they won't find him. But they know where he is now and they've already changed things, so the fact that they can't go find him makes absolutely no sense at all. I still stick by my alternate reality theory. The Aquitians say they're going to teleport over, and the Baby!Rangers agree to meet them by the lake.
Then they notice that there's an implosion device (like a bomb, but worse) outside. Apparently making a long distance call weakened their security. I guess if they had to divert a lot of power I could possibly buy that explanation? Alpha insists he will teleport them away so that they'll be safe, and baby!Aisha tells him that they love him, and we start to tear up a little, especially when Alpha says that he loves them too. But he says it after they teleport out, because he can't say it to them, and oh, ALPHA. *cuddles*
Alpha uses a mini-squeegee to disarm the bomb. He's adorable. Master Vile is very annoyed that a mini food processor on legs disarmed his bomb and I can't stop cackling. Master Vile = favorite. The villains sense something good on the way to Earth, and Rita complains that she's allergic to good. Oh, RITA. ♥
At the park, Billy uses the mini viewing globe device to check if things are ok, and then Bulk and Skull show up, and Billy distracts them by babbling scientifically. Goldar and Rito show up, and they are not pleased to see the tiny children, because Rito is convinced he'll get beaten up again. Bulk and Skull run away. (Seriously, Rito says "Not the little people again!" and then we died laughing.)
But wait! The Aquitian Rangers are here! They summon something that is either water or blue energy and beat up Rito and Goldar. The Aquitians are badass, y'all. They exchange names and things, and then Billy stays with the aliens (We guess he got his alien kink early?) while the other Rangers go home since their parents will be worried.
Finster gets trampled by a whole bunch of monsters as Master Vile sends them down to attack. And they attack the Warehouse District. Angel Grove, I love you, but you make no damn sense.
Tiny Billy has finished transferring knowledge to the Aquitians, and then they morph. You guys, it is so awesome. And I love Delphine. I love that they made her the leader, especially because based on the footage it really does look like the Red is the leader. But they made the choice to let her lead, and she is awesome and bad ass and made of so much win.
Plus, they control their Zords telepathically. WIN.
(I do wish they'd used a different shade of blue for Cestro. That color is ridiculous.)
The Aquitian Rangers are badass, and they beat up all the monsters and destroy one using the Shogunzord, and the rest of the monsters run away. Master Vile is so disgusted by this that he has a temper tantrum and then goes back to his own Galaxy. Zedd is so glad to have his father-in-law gone that he kisses Goldar. Someone is shipping that somewhere, right?
Back at the Command Center, the Rangers all celebrate. And then they angst about the water content and how the Aquitian Rangers can't stay there forever.
In conclusion, Delphine is awesome.
2.5 - Except for the science whatever, this was pretty awesome.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Episode 146- Alien Rangers of Aquitar Part 1
Once again we have Tiny Children! I love the episodes with Tiny Children. It's a... thing. Sorry.
So at the carnival, people are running around in fear. They know something is wrong, but nobody else has kept their memories. Also, there are NO other small children running around. So. What. The rangers were the only teenagers at the carnival? Everybody else was in their thirties and forties? Really? And what would have happened to the kids who were under 10 BEFORE time was reversed? Did they just disappear? Apparently, I ask too many questions. Let's move on, shall we?
So the Tiny Rangers decide to head to the abandoned warehouse district. Awwwww. Billy is clearly put in charge. Once there, they meet up with Tiny Bulk and Skull. They are clearly rebel daredevils because they are skateboarding through the abandoned warehouse district... while wearing knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and helmets. What baaaddddd boys.
Tiny Bulk and Skull do not recognize anybody but Billy, though the rest of the Tiny Rangers clearly remember them. Why are they the only ones that retained their memories? I just don't get it. Clearly the fish are strong with this episode.
So Rita, Zedd, Goldar, and Rito are huge and stomping around somewhere. Master Vile shrinks them down and reveals his plan. Rito must first go chase down the Tiny Rangers. He catches up to them with some Tengas and attack. The kids are smart, or more to the point Billy is in charge and they all listen to his wisdom without question, and split up. Tommy and Kat run off one way and manage to throw some trash cans at Rito and some Tengas. Rocky, Billy, Bulk, and Skull set up a trap where Rito and a Tenga stand on the end of a catapult and they jump on it, launching them into a shopping cart which careens into a concrete wall. Rocky owns his Bad One Liners by cracking a joke about not forgetting their receipt, and then the kids run away. Adam and Aisha use some construction equipment and rope to throw a beam at some Tengas. The kids try to meet back up, but a cop car pulls up, scaring away Rito and the Tengas. Bulk and Skull run for the cop car despite Billy trying to stop them, but it's too late. The cops have seen the kids and call them out. Tommy and Kat finally catch up but Billy waves them off before the cops see them. The other four attempt to appeal to the cops by calling on their authority as power rangers, except nobody has heard of the power rangers yet and honestly? Tiny Children claiming to be superheroes and using that as the explanation for being in the abandoned warehouse district without an adult? Not convincing. Sorry guys, but you LOOK like little kids. No adult will believe you. They get hauled down to the police station where their parents will supposedly be called.
Honestly, they're all about 10 I'd say. That's plenty old enough to be running around outside playing with friends without an adult. At least in my book. I'm not so sure the abandoned warehouse district is the place to play, but I can't really see a bunch of ten year olds getting hauled off to the station due to lack of supervision. Ushered to a safer area sure, but hauled in? Eh... not so much. Well, maybe by today's uber-paranoid standard, sure, but not so much for the early 90's. Anyway!
Bulk and Skull's mothers pick them up while our Tiny Rangers sit and wait. Tiny Kat, with the WORST accent fail since the inception of the show, calls the station and inquires about her "son" Billy and his friends. She's instructed she'll have to come down and sign for them to be released to her custody. So she and Tiny Tommy come up with a plan. She stands on his shoulders (sitting would have been sufficient, but whatever) and wears a long trenchcoat to cover them both. Billy uses his awesome police hat (that all four of them got, and ice cream to boot!) to cover the cops glasses so he can't see Kat clearly. Apparently NOBODY else in the busy police station notices either, because the kids just walk out the door with Kat on Tommy's shoulders. Mkay then. Angel Grove has a very incompetent police force. And what about their ACTUAL parents? Where are they? Didn't the police call them?
So the kids need to get to the Command Center, but they can't teleport for some reason. So they walk. For HOURS. They get about halfway there when a sandstorm whips up. Luckily, at this point, Alpha and Zordon have figured out that the Command Center itself went back in time too and so it's stuck in spring cleaning mode. The power was out due to a vacuum. Alpha plugs it all back in and power comes back, so he teleports the kids straight to the Command Center. They're so happy to see him! Frankly, they're acting like Tiny Children ought to. Which is confusing because they're supposed to only LOOK like Tiny Children but ACT like their teenage selves. But okay show, I adore Tiny Children stories, so I won't complain here.
So they discover Master Vile is throwing another awesome party in an attempt to draw together all the monsters of the universe. Monsters of the Universe, Unite! They all agree to help take over Earth. The Tiny Rangers don't want to leave it unprotected, but they have no powers and can't do anything. Billy shows his alien fetish and suggests they need Other Rangers (wink wink, nudge nudge). So they discuss calling the Alien Rangers from Aquitar, and Rocky manages to wrangle some continuity into the show by mentioning how they helped Dex! Way to go show!
But wait. What? Alien Rangers? Why are they called the ALIEN Rangers of Aquitar? Wouldn't the Earth Rangers be aliens to the Aquitians? If they are Aquitian Rangers on Aquitar, they aren't exactly aliens to themselves. Oh show. Way to be ethnocentric there. I'll let it slide though, because they are awesome, and, well, Tiny Children! (yes, I have a thing, deal with it)
So the Alien Rangers are Aquitians from Aquitar, which is a planet entirely under water. Far far away. That is ENTIRELY water. The whole thing. WATER.
So Alpha sends out a signal and it travels as a thick green pulsing beam all the way to Aquitar, where it penetrates all that WATER and reaches the underWATER pods the Aquitians live in. The DRY pods filled with AIR. Because on a planet made entirely of WATER, somehow, SOMEHOW, creatures not only managed to evolve that require some semblance of DRY LAND and AIR to breathe (whatever their air may consist of), but they became the dominant species! Of the underwater planet! Science really really REALLY doesn't work that way, show.
So the Aquitians respond and all we see are five faces looking quizzically through the Viewing Globe.
To Be Continued...
5 fish. Just... oh the questions.
Fic we want: What are Trini/Jason/Zack/Kim doing at this point? Do they keep their memories?
So at the carnival, people are running around in fear. They know something is wrong, but nobody else has kept their memories. Also, there are NO other small children running around. So. What. The rangers were the only teenagers at the carnival? Everybody else was in their thirties and forties? Really? And what would have happened to the kids who were under 10 BEFORE time was reversed? Did they just disappear? Apparently, I ask too many questions. Let's move on, shall we?
So the Tiny Rangers decide to head to the abandoned warehouse district. Awwwww. Billy is clearly put in charge. Once there, they meet up with Tiny Bulk and Skull. They are clearly rebel daredevils because they are skateboarding through the abandoned warehouse district... while wearing knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, and helmets. What baaaddddd boys.
Tiny Bulk and Skull do not recognize anybody but Billy, though the rest of the Tiny Rangers clearly remember them. Why are they the only ones that retained their memories? I just don't get it. Clearly the fish are strong with this episode.
So Rita, Zedd, Goldar, and Rito are huge and stomping around somewhere. Master Vile shrinks them down and reveals his plan. Rito must first go chase down the Tiny Rangers. He catches up to them with some Tengas and attack. The kids are smart, or more to the point Billy is in charge and they all listen to his wisdom without question, and split up. Tommy and Kat run off one way and manage to throw some trash cans at Rito and some Tengas. Rocky, Billy, Bulk, and Skull set up a trap where Rito and a Tenga stand on the end of a catapult and they jump on it, launching them into a shopping cart which careens into a concrete wall. Rocky owns his Bad One Liners by cracking a joke about not forgetting their receipt, and then the kids run away. Adam and Aisha use some construction equipment and rope to throw a beam at some Tengas. The kids try to meet back up, but a cop car pulls up, scaring away Rito and the Tengas. Bulk and Skull run for the cop car despite Billy trying to stop them, but it's too late. The cops have seen the kids and call them out. Tommy and Kat finally catch up but Billy waves them off before the cops see them. The other four attempt to appeal to the cops by calling on their authority as power rangers, except nobody has heard of the power rangers yet and honestly? Tiny Children claiming to be superheroes and using that as the explanation for being in the abandoned warehouse district without an adult? Not convincing. Sorry guys, but you LOOK like little kids. No adult will believe you. They get hauled down to the police station where their parents will supposedly be called.
Honestly, they're all about 10 I'd say. That's plenty old enough to be running around outside playing with friends without an adult. At least in my book. I'm not so sure the abandoned warehouse district is the place to play, but I can't really see a bunch of ten year olds getting hauled off to the station due to lack of supervision. Ushered to a safer area sure, but hauled in? Eh... not so much. Well, maybe by today's uber-paranoid standard, sure, but not so much for the early 90's. Anyway!
Bulk and Skull's mothers pick them up while our Tiny Rangers sit and wait. Tiny Kat, with the WORST accent fail since the inception of the show, calls the station and inquires about her "son" Billy and his friends. She's instructed she'll have to come down and sign for them to be released to her custody. So she and Tiny Tommy come up with a plan. She stands on his shoulders (sitting would have been sufficient, but whatever) and wears a long trenchcoat to cover them both. Billy uses his awesome police hat (that all four of them got, and ice cream to boot!) to cover the cops glasses so he can't see Kat clearly. Apparently NOBODY else in the busy police station notices either, because the kids just walk out the door with Kat on Tommy's shoulders. Mkay then. Angel Grove has a very incompetent police force. And what about their ACTUAL parents? Where are they? Didn't the police call them?
So the kids need to get to the Command Center, but they can't teleport for some reason. So they walk. For HOURS. They get about halfway there when a sandstorm whips up. Luckily, at this point, Alpha and Zordon have figured out that the Command Center itself went back in time too and so it's stuck in spring cleaning mode. The power was out due to a vacuum. Alpha plugs it all back in and power comes back, so he teleports the kids straight to the Command Center. They're so happy to see him! Frankly, they're acting like Tiny Children ought to. Which is confusing because they're supposed to only LOOK like Tiny Children but ACT like their teenage selves. But okay show, I adore Tiny Children stories, so I won't complain here.
So they discover Master Vile is throwing another awesome party in an attempt to draw together all the monsters of the universe. Monsters of the Universe, Unite! They all agree to help take over Earth. The Tiny Rangers don't want to leave it unprotected, but they have no powers and can't do anything. Billy shows his alien fetish and suggests they need Other Rangers (wink wink, nudge nudge). So they discuss calling the Alien Rangers from Aquitar, and Rocky manages to wrangle some continuity into the show by mentioning how they helped Dex! Way to go show!
But wait. What? Alien Rangers? Why are they called the ALIEN Rangers of Aquitar? Wouldn't the Earth Rangers be aliens to the Aquitians? If they are Aquitian Rangers on Aquitar, they aren't exactly aliens to themselves. Oh show. Way to be ethnocentric there. I'll let it slide though, because they are awesome, and, well, Tiny Children! (yes, I have a thing, deal with it)
So the Alien Rangers are Aquitians from Aquitar, which is a planet entirely under water. Far far away. That is ENTIRELY water. The whole thing. WATER.
So Alpha sends out a signal and it travels as a thick green pulsing beam all the way to Aquitar, where it penetrates all that WATER and reaches the underWATER pods the Aquitians live in. The DRY pods filled with AIR. Because on a planet made entirely of WATER, somehow, SOMEHOW, creatures not only managed to evolve that require some semblance of DRY LAND and AIR to breathe (whatever their air may consist of), but they became the dominant species! Of the underwater planet! Science really really REALLY doesn't work that way, show.
So the Aquitians respond and all we see are five faces looking quizzically through the Viewing Globe.
To Be Continued...
5 fish. Just... oh the questions.
Fic we want: What are Trini/Jason/Zack/Kim doing at this point? Do they keep their memories?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Season 3 Roundup
So, season 3 has ended! Well, not quite, but we're considering the Alien Rangers episodes to be their own separate miniseason. Plus, that means we get to do two end of season posts, and we like end of season posts. We get to feel all accomplished!
Highlights!
Kim's leaving was really well done. The best sendoff on the show, period.
Evil!Kat is freaking awesome.
Turned into children! We always like turned into children!
Rito. How do you not like Rito? And Rito loves Goldar!
Ninjor is seriously badass.
Speaking of badass - Zedd in the Command Center.
Potion Notion. (Aww, Rita and Zedd. And Skull and Kim!)
Excuse for hatesex (Thanks, Hate Master!)
Rocky got to be smart!
The Zords being destroyed. Wow, that was an awesome moment.
Master Vile. The villains this season were seriously awesome.
Lowlights
MASKED RIDER. UGH.
Sparkle armor.
There were some seriously fail filled episodes. We're looking at you, Face Stealer! And you, Tommy eats everything episode. (And you, Christmas Special!)
The serious amount of Kat focus. We like Kat, and we're glad that she got a good introduction. But she did not need every episode to be about her, when poor Aisha and Rocky pretty much got nothing.
Highlights!
Kim's leaving was really well done. The best sendoff on the show, period.
Evil!Kat is freaking awesome.
Turned into children! We always like turned into children!
Rito. How do you not like Rito? And Rito loves Goldar!
Ninjor is seriously badass.
Speaking of badass - Zedd in the Command Center.
Potion Notion. (Aww, Rita and Zedd. And Skull and Kim!)
Excuse for hatesex (Thanks, Hate Master!)
Rocky got to be smart!
The Zords being destroyed. Wow, that was an awesome moment.
Master Vile. The villains this season were seriously awesome.
Lowlights
MASKED RIDER. UGH.
Sparkle armor.
There were some seriously fail filled episodes. We're looking at you, Face Stealer! And you, Tommy eats everything episode. (And you, Christmas Special!)
The serious amount of Kat focus. We like Kat, and we're glad that she got a good introduction. But she did not need every episode to be about her, when poor Aisha and Rocky pretty much got nothing.
Episode 145 - I'm Dreaming of a White Ranger
Hey, it's Kim!
Wait, what is she doing here? Kim is in Florida! (Although it is really nice to see her. Kim!)
Ok, we know that a lot of fandom is under the impression that Kim has come back from Florida to spend Christmas with the Rangers, leading to approximately 87,000 Tommy/Kim fics from this time period and it's referenced in every single fic ever that deals with the breakup about how everything was fine at Christmas and she didn't mention any other guy, and you know what?
Because this episode takes place before she goes to Florida. Air date orders are weird but we had a long discussion (read: rant) about it during the episode, and we came to the decision that it is a flashback. It's still better than the other Christmas episodes. (One day, Queenriley and I will hang out, have a lot to drink and recap Alpha's Magical Christmas. This is not that day.)
So! It's time for the Holiday Special! Mostly Christmas, but they remember that Hannukah exists! (No other holidays are celebrated in Angel Grove.) The episode begins with Aisha conducting a choir of tiny children who can't lip sync, while Kimberly plays the guitar.
Somewhere in the background, Ashley is standing at a crafts table behind some guy.
The party at the youth center is apparently to help the underprivileged kids in Angel Grove. In Angel Grove speak, this apparently means that sometimes parents are too busy working to attend a kid's recital.
Tommy walks in with a poinsettia. Then he notices our inappropriately young friend of the week, so he asks her to help him. She can't act. She really can't act.
Kim has a sad. This is her first Christmas away from her mom, but she's really glad that she's staying with Aisha. Aww, they are such BFF, I love them.
Bulk and Skull come in, and we find out that they're going to be Santa and helper for the party. That is adorable! Bulk will make a great Santa. Although he seems to be seriously lacking in Christmas spirit.
Kim is trying to jump to hang up the mistletoe. Kim, honey, there's this thing called a ladder. We short people have to use one. Of course, that would prevent Tommy from coming to her rescue, and we can't have that. Tommy leans in to kiss Kim, when Skull walks by, interposes himself between Kim and Tommy, and kisses Kim on the cheek.
My Skull/Kim shipper heart is torn between thinking that is adorable and being really pissed at Skull for kissing her without permission. I am leaning towards being pissed at him. Not acceptable, Skull! Bulk also clearly considers kissing Kim, but a glare from Tommy stops him.
Up on the moon, Zedd is ranting about the evils of Christmas. Considering that Zedd has already been coded as Jewish once before, this has... really unfortunate implications. Especially when his plan to destroy Christmas apparently consists of sending evil dreidels down to brainwash children.
Hey, marketing department? If you want to start selling evil dreidels, I will totally buy one.
Plus, we get to find out that not only does Batman exist in Angel Grove, but so does Santa. (As Santa also exists in the DCU, I should not be surprised.) Man, kids in Angel Grove must need serious therapy. On the other hand, the parents have some seriously amazing threats to work with to get kids to eat veggies.
A bunch of the tiny children sing O Hannukah, except for the inappropriately young friend, who also has a sad. As previously mentioned, all she wants for Christmas is for her dad to come hear her sing. He is too busy working. Kim gives her advice on how to handle her dad (tell him how much she loves him so that he'll come watch her show! Because he has no way of knowing otherwise!)
And um, I'm not really sure if the show considered how it looks to have Kim solving the problems of an African American family? But it's a little bit on the fail side.
Up at the North Pole, we have the most annoying elves ever. Rito shows up and ties up Santa, and informs the Elves that they will all make Evil Dreidels instead. The main elf has a really annoyingly high pitched voice. It's awful.
Tommy and Kim are about to kiss under the mistletoe when Zordon calls. Hey, Zordon just cockblocked Tommy and Kim! That totally makes this episode worth it. The Rangers all head to the Command Center where Zordon explains the problem, and everyone is horrified that Santa is being messed with. Then Zordon spouts some nonsense about a cross current of holiday magic up at the North Pole will prevent them from morphing, but they decide to go anyway.
They are all seriously underdressed for the North Pole, even if Aisha pulled a jacket out of thin air. Rocky complains that he's cold. Don't worry, Rocky! Adam and Aisha will be glad to warm you up.
Santa is tied up in the center of the workshop with a giant bow stuck in his mouth. Everyone is concerned about Santa. This is ridiculous.
Back in Angel Grove, inappropriately young friend tells Bulk and Skull that Kimberly is missing. They pat her on the head and tell her not to worry. She is clearly not buying it.
The Rangers figure out that if they can't use their powers, then neither can Rito. Because apparently only good can win here at the North Pole? But in that case, why can't the Rangers morph? And how did Rito win in the first place?
The fight in this episode might be the most amazing thing ever. Kim and Aisha recruit the annoying elves to help, and then they lure Rito outsider. (Goldar has joined them for some reason). Did I mention that Rito is wearing a santa hat? Because it's awesome.
And then the Rangers beat them in a snowball fight. This might actually be the greatest thing ever. SNOWBALL FIGHT. And then they chase them into the workshop and the elves scatter marbles on the floor and they tie them up. This is possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. I love it. Rito and Goldar get tied up, and then returned to the moon. Why the Rangers don't just destroy them, I have no idea. (Right. Kids show. Destroying monsters of the week = ok, killing Goldar and Rito = not.)
Then the Rangers help Santa finish making presents. I think some other stuff might have happened in this scene, but Adam had suspenders that were falling off him and it was really hot and possibly there was a lot of capslock.
On the moon, Rito gave Goldar a present, and I ship those two so much it's ridiculous.
At the Youth Center, Bulk is actually a fairly good Santa! And Skull is his reindeer! Some really greedy kid has a whole list of stuff he wants, including an autographed picture of the Rangers. Don't we all, tiny child. Don't we all.
The Rangers all come in and pass out the toys that Santa gave them.
Inappropriately young friend's father shows up, and he tells her he loves her and will spend time with her, and then tells her that they should have hot chocolate, but she tells him to hold on so she can go thank Santa for getting her dad to come. Bulk's heart grows three sizes larger and he returns all the presents and oops, wait, wrong story!
Speaking of parents, Kim's mom and the step-artist show up as well. They got a last minute flight. Awww.
They sing one final Christmas Carol, and then break the fourth wall to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Fish: 2.5. Holiday magic, what?
Fic we want: How the Bulk stole Christmas. SERIOUSLY.
Wait, what is she doing here? Kim is in Florida! (Although it is really nice to see her. Kim!)
Ok, we know that a lot of fandom is under the impression that Kim has come back from Florida to spend Christmas with the Rangers, leading to approximately 87,000 Tommy/Kim fics from this time period and it's referenced in every single fic ever that deals with the breakup about how everything was fine at Christmas and she didn't mention any other guy, and you know what?
Because this episode takes place before she goes to Florida. Air date orders are weird but we had a long discussion (read: rant) about it during the episode, and we came to the decision that it is a flashback. It's still better than the other Christmas episodes. (One day, Queenriley and I will hang out, have a lot to drink and recap Alpha's Magical Christmas. This is not that day.)
So! It's time for the Holiday Special! Mostly Christmas, but they remember that Hannukah exists! (No other holidays are celebrated in Angel Grove.) The episode begins with Aisha conducting a choir of tiny children who can't lip sync, while Kimberly plays the guitar.
Somewhere in the background, Ashley is standing at a crafts table behind some guy.
The party at the youth center is apparently to help the underprivileged kids in Angel Grove. In Angel Grove speak, this apparently means that sometimes parents are too busy working to attend a kid's recital.
Tommy walks in with a poinsettia. Then he notices our inappropriately young friend of the week, so he asks her to help him. She can't act. She really can't act.
Kim has a sad. This is her first Christmas away from her mom, but she's really glad that she's staying with Aisha. Aww, they are such BFF, I love them.
Bulk and Skull come in, and we find out that they're going to be Santa and helper for the party. That is adorable! Bulk will make a great Santa. Although he seems to be seriously lacking in Christmas spirit.
Kim is trying to jump to hang up the mistletoe. Kim, honey, there's this thing called a ladder. We short people have to use one. Of course, that would prevent Tommy from coming to her rescue, and we can't have that. Tommy leans in to kiss Kim, when Skull walks by, interposes himself between Kim and Tommy, and kisses Kim on the cheek.
My Skull/Kim shipper heart is torn between thinking that is adorable and being really pissed at Skull for kissing her without permission. I am leaning towards being pissed at him. Not acceptable, Skull! Bulk also clearly considers kissing Kim, but a glare from Tommy stops him.
Up on the moon, Zedd is ranting about the evils of Christmas. Considering that Zedd has already been coded as Jewish once before, this has... really unfortunate implications. Especially when his plan to destroy Christmas apparently consists of sending evil dreidels down to brainwash children.
Hey, marketing department? If you want to start selling evil dreidels, I will totally buy one.
Plus, we get to find out that not only does Batman exist in Angel Grove, but so does Santa. (As Santa also exists in the DCU, I should not be surprised.) Man, kids in Angel Grove must need serious therapy. On the other hand, the parents have some seriously amazing threats to work with to get kids to eat veggies.
A bunch of the tiny children sing O Hannukah, except for the inappropriately young friend, who also has a sad. As previously mentioned, all she wants for Christmas is for her dad to come hear her sing. He is too busy working. Kim gives her advice on how to handle her dad (tell him how much she loves him so that he'll come watch her show! Because he has no way of knowing otherwise!)
And um, I'm not really sure if the show considered how it looks to have Kim solving the problems of an African American family? But it's a little bit on the fail side.
Up at the North Pole, we have the most annoying elves ever. Rito shows up and ties up Santa, and informs the Elves that they will all make Evil Dreidels instead. The main elf has a really annoyingly high pitched voice. It's awful.
Tommy and Kim are about to kiss under the mistletoe when Zordon calls. Hey, Zordon just cockblocked Tommy and Kim! That totally makes this episode worth it. The Rangers all head to the Command Center where Zordon explains the problem, and everyone is horrified that Santa is being messed with. Then Zordon spouts some nonsense about a cross current of holiday magic up at the North Pole will prevent them from morphing, but they decide to go anyway.
They are all seriously underdressed for the North Pole, even if Aisha pulled a jacket out of thin air. Rocky complains that he's cold. Don't worry, Rocky! Adam and Aisha will be glad to warm you up.
Santa is tied up in the center of the workshop with a giant bow stuck in his mouth. Everyone is concerned about Santa. This is ridiculous.
Back in Angel Grove, inappropriately young friend tells Bulk and Skull that Kimberly is missing. They pat her on the head and tell her not to worry. She is clearly not buying it.
The Rangers figure out that if they can't use their powers, then neither can Rito. Because apparently only good can win here at the North Pole? But in that case, why can't the Rangers morph? And how did Rito win in the first place?
The fight in this episode might be the most amazing thing ever. Kim and Aisha recruit the annoying elves to help, and then they lure Rito outsider. (Goldar has joined them for some reason). Did I mention that Rito is wearing a santa hat? Because it's awesome.
And then the Rangers beat them in a snowball fight. This might actually be the greatest thing ever. SNOWBALL FIGHT. And then they chase them into the workshop and the elves scatter marbles on the floor and they tie them up. This is possibly the most ridiculous thing ever. I love it. Rito and Goldar get tied up, and then returned to the moon. Why the Rangers don't just destroy them, I have no idea. (Right. Kids show. Destroying monsters of the week = ok, killing Goldar and Rito = not.)
Then the Rangers help Santa finish making presents. I think some other stuff might have happened in this scene, but Adam had suspenders that were falling off him and it was really hot and possibly there was a lot of capslock.
On the moon, Rito gave Goldar a present, and I ship those two so much it's ridiculous.
At the Youth Center, Bulk is actually a fairly good Santa! And Skull is his reindeer! Some really greedy kid has a whole list of stuff he wants, including an autographed picture of the Rangers. Don't we all, tiny child. Don't we all.
The Rangers all come in and pass out the toys that Santa gave them.
Inappropriately young friend's father shows up, and he tells her he loves her and will spend time with her, and then tells her that they should have hot chocolate, but she tells him to hold on so she can go thank Santa for getting her dad to come. Bulk's heart grows three sizes larger and he returns all the presents and oops, wait, wrong story!
Speaking of parents, Kim's mom and the step-artist show up as well. They got a last minute flight. Awww.
They sing one final Christmas Carol, and then break the fourth wall to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Fish: 2.5. Holiday magic, what?
Fic we want: How the Bulk stole Christmas. SERIOUSLY.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Episode 144- Rangers in Reverse
TINY CHILDREN! Rangers! As Tiny Children!
Ahem. This episode. Yeah.
So we start off in the Youth Center with incredibly attractive young men (Rocky and Billy) showing off their lovely lovely arms by hauling fruit boxes for Ernie. We approve of this opening scene! So we discover that it's soon to be Kat's birthday, which Rocky only knows because he helped her register for classes (AW), and she hasn't told anybody. Aisha decides it's a great idea to give her a surprise party. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that if somebody doesn't tell you their birthday, it's because they don't WANT a fuss or party. If you want a surprise party, you subtly drop hints about having never had one and oh yeah, did you know my birthday is [whenever]?
So on the moon, Zedd and Goldar are making fun of Master Vile. Rita defends her Daddy! Aw. Master Vile has a very fishy plan about how he's going to insert some crystal orb thing into some very precise coordinates and it will freeze the Earth on it's axis which will SOMEHOW reverse time. This... makes about as much sense as all the OTHER times they've tried to reverse time or travel in time.
At the Command Center, Zordon has deactivated AGAIN. Alpha starts to panic, but Zordon comes back from his PRIVATE CHAMBER (where he watches the rangers have sex) and reassures him that things will be okay... mostly.
So for Kat's birthday, they all take her to a carnival. But she's blindfolded, so she doesn't know where they're taking her, just that they all know it's her birthday and they all want to help her celebrate. So this is more a surprise destination than a surprise party. They are at a carnival. In Angel Grove. This canNOT end well.
Master Vile sends his dutiful son down to Earth to place the orb. It's supposed to be just to the north of Angel Grove, and I have to grumpily wonder, WHY is it ALWAYS Angel Grove? Couldn't they have gone to barren wastelands of Siberia or somewhere else Far Far Away? But no. It's in Angel Grove. Again. I'm beginning to think Angel Grove isn't just it's own country, but that it's really it's own PLANET.
Anyway, so Rito goes to place the orb and Zordon calls the rangers to alert them of the danger. They morph and go fight some Tengas on what appears to be the edge of the carnival, although they were made it seem like Rito was far away. Oh well. That's the least of the fish in this episode. So they fight for a bit and then they must call on the SPARKLEPOWERS and I'm reduced to capslock irritation. Stupid sparklepowers. We spend the rest of the fight ignoring the actual fight and instead figuring out how Kim relates to Jacob since Tommy is obviously the super-special-but-nobody-can-figure-out-why Personality of Cardboard Belle and Kat is, unfortunately, reduced to the Sparkle and Stalkery Creepiness of Edward. Kim just has really nice abs.
Oh. But they were fighting. Right. Um... so Rito gets past them and manages to place the orb and then Tommy gets knocked back because it can't be undone once it's placed. Rito and the Tengas go away and the rangers rush back to the carnival. Then time almost immediately reverses a good TEN YEARS. And... suddenly we're at my favourite part of the episode!
It's the rangers! As Tiny Children! ADORABLE TINY TINY CHILDREN! And Rocky has the worst hair EVER. Seriously, whomever inflicted such atrocious hair on that poor little boy ought to be forced into a different career in which they never ever ever get to give advice on hair again. Ugh. And for some reason Billy is now a dashing brunette and no longer blond. But the rest of them! Tiny!Aisha is scared! Tiny!Adam asks Tiny!Billy if they can still morph! Tiny!Tommy tries to morph and gets all upset when it doesn't work! OMG THEY'RE ALL SO DARN CUTE!
Meanwhile Zedd and Rita are on Earth and they grow all big and stomp around a bit. While scaring the FREAKING CUTE TINY RANGER CHILDREN!
And that is all.
3.5 fish. It just... it's fishy, okay? But there are Tiny Children! So that makes up for it.
Ahem. This episode. Yeah.
So we start off in the Youth Center with incredibly attractive young men (Rocky and Billy) showing off their lovely lovely arms by hauling fruit boxes for Ernie. We approve of this opening scene! So we discover that it's soon to be Kat's birthday, which Rocky only knows because he helped her register for classes (AW), and she hasn't told anybody. Aisha decides it's a great idea to give her a surprise party. Frankly, I'm of the opinion that if somebody doesn't tell you their birthday, it's because they don't WANT a fuss or party. If you want a surprise party, you subtly drop hints about having never had one and oh yeah, did you know my birthday is [whenever]?
So on the moon, Zedd and Goldar are making fun of Master Vile. Rita defends her Daddy! Aw. Master Vile has a very fishy plan about how he's going to insert some crystal orb thing into some very precise coordinates and it will freeze the Earth on it's axis which will SOMEHOW reverse time. This... makes about as much sense as all the OTHER times they've tried to reverse time or travel in time.
At the Command Center, Zordon has deactivated AGAIN. Alpha starts to panic, but Zordon comes back from his PRIVATE CHAMBER (where he watches the rangers have sex) and reassures him that things will be okay... mostly.
So for Kat's birthday, they all take her to a carnival. But she's blindfolded, so she doesn't know where they're taking her, just that they all know it's her birthday and they all want to help her celebrate. So this is more a surprise destination than a surprise party. They are at a carnival. In Angel Grove. This canNOT end well.
Master Vile sends his dutiful son down to Earth to place the orb. It's supposed to be just to the north of Angel Grove, and I have to grumpily wonder, WHY is it ALWAYS Angel Grove? Couldn't they have gone to barren wastelands of Siberia or somewhere else Far Far Away? But no. It's in Angel Grove. Again. I'm beginning to think Angel Grove isn't just it's own country, but that it's really it's own PLANET.
Anyway, so Rito goes to place the orb and Zordon calls the rangers to alert them of the danger. They morph and go fight some Tengas on what appears to be the edge of the carnival, although they were made it seem like Rito was far away. Oh well. That's the least of the fish in this episode. So they fight for a bit and then they must call on the SPARKLEPOWERS and I'm reduced to capslock irritation. Stupid sparklepowers. We spend the rest of the fight ignoring the actual fight and instead figuring out how Kim relates to Jacob since Tommy is obviously the super-special-but-nobody-can-figure-out-why Personality of Cardboard Belle and Kat is, unfortunately, reduced to the Sparkle and Stalkery Creepiness of Edward. Kim just has really nice abs.
Oh. But they were fighting. Right. Um... so Rito gets past them and manages to place the orb and then Tommy gets knocked back because it can't be undone once it's placed. Rito and the Tengas go away and the rangers rush back to the carnival. Then time almost immediately reverses a good TEN YEARS. And... suddenly we're at my favourite part of the episode!
It's the rangers! As Tiny Children! ADORABLE TINY TINY CHILDREN! And Rocky has the worst hair EVER. Seriously, whomever inflicted such atrocious hair on that poor little boy ought to be forced into a different career in which they never ever ever get to give advice on hair again. Ugh. And for some reason Billy is now a dashing brunette and no longer blond. But the rest of them! Tiny!Aisha is scared! Tiny!Adam asks Tiny!Billy if they can still morph! Tiny!Tommy tries to morph and gets all upset when it doesn't work! OMG THEY'RE ALL SO DARN CUTE!
Meanwhile Zedd and Rita are on Earth and they grow all big and stomp around a bit. While scaring the FREAKING CUTE TINY RANGER CHILDREN!
And that is all.
3.5 fish. It just... it's fishy, okay? But there are Tiny Children! So that makes up for it.
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