Ranger Theory: Green with Confusion

Welcome everyone to an all-new Ranger Theory, where today’s topic revolves around Jason David Frank’s iconic role as Tommy Oliver! Now, love him or hate him, Tommy Oliver is the embodiment of Power Rangers to many fans. The character’s arrival marked an immediate shift in the show, as things got serious for the fact Rita made Tommy her evil Green Ranger. As the Green Ranger, Tommy decimated the Power Rangers until her spell on him is broken, and he is immediately redeemed. This story arch easily captivated the audience, and led to Tommy becoming the breakout character.

 

Tommy Oliver’s history is very prolific too, as he is one of three Rangers to appear in all three seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; having been the Green Ranger twice during that time, and the White Ranger. In addition, he goes on to be two Red Rangers, back-to-back, and a Black Ranger for a total of five different Rangers. Furthermore, by the time Tommy became the Dino Thunder Black Ranger, he also became a doctor of paleontology and high school teacher. Yet, this Ranger Theory is to discuss the possible reasoning for Tommy’s return as the Mighty Morphin’ Green Ranger during the Power Rangers Super Megaforce “Legendary Battle.”

 

Now, besides the obvious answer that the Green Ranger is the character’s most popular role, or even the actor’s preferred Ranger its existence does not make sense! The Green Ranger’s powers were destroyed during the events of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season two, but even with its destruction come odd possibilities as to how they could return. However, to understand how the powers could be restored we are going to need to address several past events starting with the Green Ranger powers, and its ties with Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger’s Dragonranger!

 

In Zyuranger, the Green Ranger is referred to as Dragonranger Burai; Burai chooses to be placed into suspended animation to follow after the Zyurangers and the witch, Bandora. However, the process to preserve his life is tainted, and upon awakening in 1992 he discovers his life is currently limited to mere days. Yet, Burai was permitted to preserve time by being locked away in a magical dimension; there a burning candle measured Burai’s life-span and was the basis for the “Green Candle storyline.” In Zyuranger, Burai dies whereas, Tommy’s powers as the Green Ranger nearly fade from existence. However, Tommy would regain the powers when fans demanded the character return to the show, but without source material Saban Brands would have to commission new footage from Toei. Luckily, Toei supplied Saban with new footage, which fans call Zyu2 footage, it allowed Tommy to return and bide time till Saban could transition to Gosei Sentai Dairanger footage.

 

During the Zyu2 footage, the series heavily focus on the fact that Tommy’s restored powers were temporary, and could be exhausted. The behind the scenes reasoning was Saban Brands contemplated whether to move Jason David Frank to star in another production, Cybertron which eventually became VR Troopers. Once the decision to keep Jason David Frank on the show was finalized, Tommy soon became the White Ranger, which was derived from Dairanger’s Kibaranger. Yet, even with the powers being depleted, the Green Ranger would continue to appear! Many of the characters following reappearances before the Legendary Battle were through flashbacks and hallucinations; but for one appearance the Green Ranger’s return came in the form of an evil clone; which ironically, it ties to our first theory as to how Tommy got these powers back!

 

Towards the near end of Season 2, Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa summon the Wizard of Deception to create an exact duplicate of the Green Ranger powers, and an evil Tommy clone, who identifies as Tom. Now, the method behind creating the cloned Green Ranger’s powers are cloaked in mystery, and have their own theories connected to them. However, these cloned powers are confirmed to be genuine since the Dragonzord responds to them. During the course of the battle with Tom, Tommy manages to defeat the Wizard of Deception and purify Tom. Tommy then takes his clone with him to the past to the historical-paradox, Colonial Angel Grove (a west coast British colony in 1744), to stop the Wizard’s mutant rats. There Tom decides to live in the past, and subsequently becoming their own ancestor.

 

With the cloned Green Ranger Power Coin staying with Tom, it either became a family heirloom, or it was lost to time! Tommy could have tracked the coin down deliberately, searching for Tom’s descendants or locating his biological parents. For those who may have forgotten, Tommy Oliver is adopted, but it is easy to remember that if people recall his brother, David Truehart. However, if the item began to change owners over the 270+ years since 1744, it eventually would have to resurface following Dino Thunder. Heck, the Power Coin could have reactivated itself and emitted signals to return to Tommy due to his fading health in “Fighting Spirit.” Yet, by obtaining Tom’s Power Coin fans could think of it as an unintentional self-fulfilling prophecy, or a message in the bottle. Whereas, if it was the restoration of the original Green Ranger Power Coin, its story could tie-in with events that are bound to Season 3, In Space, and Operation Overdrive. These events could even explain how Tommy came in to possess Saba during the Legendary Battle.

 

In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3, Rito Revolto causes the Rangers to overload the Morphin Grid and the original Power Coins, as they are defeated. The Rangers then search out Ninjor who gives them the Ninjetti Power Coins, but due to weird time-paradoxes the Rangers seemingly lose them. It also does not help that Command Center was destroyed, but the Rangers thankfully had the Zeo Crystals to fallback on. After fending off the Machine Empire, and graduating High School in Turbo the “original” Rangers leave, passing the torch to a new team. When In Space occurs, the new team runs into Adam, who decides to help Carlos regain himself after injuring Cassie (Always a Chance). During the training Adam is forced to used his destroyed powers when the current monster attacks them; the results show that morphing with damaged or destroyed powers may lead to possible death, and temporary usage. Yet, this is overlooked in “Forever Red” when Jason morphs into the Mighty Morphin Red Ranger again. However, there are several inconsistencies with “Forever Red,” which arise from alleged budget cuts and production problems. Furthermore, we may cover that episode later since some websites refer to it as “The Forbidden Episode,” and we especially enjoy forbidden things…

 

Never the less, after Adam makes his attempt to use the Mighty Morphin Black Ranger’s powers during In Space it is not the last time he uses them. Adam regains the ability to become the Black Ranger again in Operation Overdrive’s “Once a Ranger.Thrax, the son of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa, manages to gather the Overdrive’s villains to unite and defeat the Rangers, so the Sentinel Knight goes to recruit past Rangers to help the team. Instead of gathering Rangers who still possess their powers he mostly recruits ones who no longer have theirs like Adam. The Sentinel Knight restores the select Rangers’ powers, even though he could have just fixed the Overdrive team’s powers. Then again it was a morale of the story scenario to teach the Overdrive Rangers a lesson.

 

Anyways, fans think that when Sentinel Knight restored the powers for Adam, Tori, and Kira, he may have actually restored every power related to MMPR, Ninja Storm, and Dino Thunder. If that is the case, then the original seven power coins were restored and it would explain how Tommy is able to possess both powers at once. In addition, with “Dimensions in Danger” coming up soon in Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel, it could explain how Tommy is Dino Thunder Black too. However, since there is no information currently as to how Tommy is Dino Thunder Black again, production may gloss over it or have another explanation as to how it is possible.

 

Also, other theories for Tommy to have his older powers relate to unused “Forever Red” concepts, repairing the powers himself, or even he searched out Ninjor. With Shattered Grid existing and Lord Drakkon going to the main continuity’s Ninjor for help to fix his damaged powers, it would not be crazy for the actual Tommy to do the same. In addition, the examples we addressed in the article are not the only cases where Rangers recovered lost powers, as Justin Stewart and TJ reacquired their Turbo powers through means associated to their series. Furthermore, our focus was on Tommy’s Green Ranger Powers and briefly by association the other Power Coins; so, it is possible for us to address Tommy as Zeo Ranger V whenever we do “The Forbidden Episode, Forever Red,” or the return of Turbo if we decide to tackle the concept of Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster.

 

In conclusion it is not unheard of for Power Rangers to lose and regain their powers. However, when the powers are re acquired off-screen it can lead fans to question how did the characters do it. With no explanation provided it then leads us, the fans, to do our part and try to figure out. Whether, the concepts we create make sense or not, it is up ourselves and others to accept them since we may never get actual answers. So, for those reading this Ranger Theory, what theories that we addressed as to how Tommy can be the Mighty Morphin Green Ranger again do you agree with? Are there theories we did not cover or explore? If so, please tell us in the comment section, or on our various social media pages. In addition, readers can suggest possible new topics and theories they want to see discussed for Ranger Theory. Furthermore, to stay up to date on Hero-Club.com please make sure like the site on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter!

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