What I Learned from Power Rangers

These past few months, my blogs have been steadily growing longer and longer. I think it’s time for me to write something simple yet profound. Something that I learned a lot from but had a lot of fun while learning it. Something not sophisticated but extremely deep.

I’ll write about the Power Rangers.

Specifically, the things I learned from the Power Rangers:

      1)      You Dress How You Act

Several people have argued to me that Power Rangers (at least Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) is a racist show because all their colors match the colors of their skin. First of all, this isn't even true, because in the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the black ranger is an Asian-American boy and the yellow ranger is an African-American girl.

So, since racism cannot be the reason why certain personalities are matched with certain colors, I would go so far as to say that certain personalities match certain colors and outfits. Red, the color of passion, tends to be the strong-willed uncorruptable leader always wears Red. The voice of reason in the group tends to be Blue. The comical-yet-devoted one tends to be Black (in later seasons, he's Green). Yellow tends to be a strong and spirited individual. Pink tends to be a bit ditzy, but also cares the most about other people. The Green/White (who's color varies most of all) one is the one who starts evil or misguided but then becomes good.

Red - Strength

Blue - Reason

Black - Devotion

Yellow - Spirited

Pink - Compassion

Green - Redemption

What's cool about this is that this remains constant throughout every-single-series of Power Rangers, even when they have boys be the Yellow Ranger and girls be Blue. At least it makes sense to me; I tend to want to dress the way that I feel. Some days, I want to look sharp because I feel sharp. On days that I don't care, you can tell because I'm wearing some crappy t-shirt with torn up jeans. But hey, this could just be me.

      2)      Sometimes it Looks Like Evil Will Win, but it Never Does

Let me run you through an average episode of Power Rangers:

      One of the Power Ranger realizes they have some problem. Bad guys decide to send a monster to fight Power Rangers. Power Rangers fight and lose because of problem mentioned before. Teammates band together and overcome the individual’s problem. Monster comes back. Monster gets its ass kicked.

Now let me run you through an average series (season) of Power Rangers:

      Big bad guy shows up after some kind of object or power that will make them seemingly unstoppable. Five average teenagers from different social circles are chosen for their strength of character to become Power Rangers. They have success after success from keeping the Big bad guy from advancing until a mysterious new bad guy shows up who keeps beating them. A new ranger who has some kind of complex past joins the team and makes the team even more powerful. The push the Big bad guy into a corner and then the Big bad guy gets the power he (or she) was always seeking. The Power Rangers have to exhaust all their power but are able to defeat them as a result and, often times, get new powers as a result.

It’s a basic plot and it’s meant for kids, but I find it to be true. Sometimes, it looks like evil will win, but it never does. Good people band together and overcome their shortcomings and become, when united, the most powerful force in the galaxy. It doesn’t matter if the bad guy gets a crown that makes him into a god or summons the greatest evil from Hell, they’re always defeated because, in the end, they’re always alone.

There is strength in teamwork that lets people grow in ways that isolation will never be able to achieve, and this strength comes from diversity and not a homogeneous group. Ironically, the people who win are those who are different at first but grow to love each other, as opposed to the group who is united in loving evil.

       3) When The Problem Gets Too Big, Call in the Megazord

Megazords were the coolest part of Power Rangers.

To this day, I still want to find a way to combine 5 different cars to form a giant robot. Or giant animal robots. I’m not picky.

In every episode of Power Rangers, right before the monster was completely defeated, it would grow giant and the Power Rangers would have to summon their individual robots (called Zords) and combine them into one unstoppable giant robot (called the Megazord). Then the Megazord would win the fight with some giant sword or cannon or something. It was awesome.

It taught me that there are problems too big for me though, and sometimes you need stronger and bigger tools to deal with them. I guess you could make a case that the Power Rangers never really defeat a monster; it’s all because they just have good equipment. In that way, the Power Rangers are more humble than the evil they face. But I guess it’s easy to be humble when you’re facing a giant monster.

Maybe I have to view my life that way sometimes. It’d be a lot easier for me to recognize when problems are too big for me and that I need help.

      Power Rangers was a straightforward show that showed evil as ugly and good as good. You could expect bad people to do bad things and good people to, ultimately, do what is right. The bad guys saw each other as necessary evils and the good guys loved each other, even when they did not like each other. The bad guys did what they wanted, and the good guys did what needed to be done. Bad guys ended up frustrated, the good guys ended up laughing.

  

     I could never figure out when this show stopped being fun.