History Main / SixthRanger

** ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' featured a sixth member for [[OneShotCharacter exactly one episode]] in the form of [=X1=] Mask, a warrior in a green prototype suit who volunteered for the Maskman project but ended up quitting before the rest of the team was recruited after the villains killed his girlfriend. Though he manages to regain his will to fight with some encouragement, he doesn't stick around because he loses his powers shortly after as a result of shielding the other rangers from an explosion. Other shows had guest heroes who would assist the team for two or three episodes at most, but none of them ever became recurring characters (most notably ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' had a two-part storyline about a man who wanted to become the sixth member of Bioman, but ended up becoming a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] EvilKnockoff of the rangers and didn't keep his powers after being set free, while ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' had a team of three birdman warriors who fought alongside the Jetman team but all got killed off, with two of them dying before they ever got to transform and the third dying after his first transformation).

** ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' featured a sixth member for [[OneShotCharacter exactly one episode]] in the form of [=X1=] Mask, a warrior in a green prototype suit who volunteered for the Maskman project but ended up quitting before the rest of the team was recruited after the villains killed his girlfriend. Though he manages to regain his will to fight with some encouragement, he doesn't stick around because he loses his powers shortly after as a result of shielding the other rangers from an explosion. Other shows had guest heroes who would assist the team for two or three episodes at most, but none of them ever became recurring characters (most notably ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' had a two-part storyline about a man who wanted to become the sixth member of Bioman, but ended up becoming a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] EvilKnockoff of the rangers and didn't keep his powers after being set free, while ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' had a birdman warrior who fought alongside the Jetman team before he was killed off).

** ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' featured a sixth member for [[OneShotCharacter exactly one episode]] in the form of [=X1=] Mask, a warrior in a green prototype suit who volunteered for the Maskman project but ended up quitting before the rest of the team was recruited after the villains killed his girlfriend. Though he manages to regain his will to fight with some encouragement, he doesn't stick around because he loses his powers shortly after as a result of shielding the other rangers from an explosion. Other shows had guest heroes who would assist the team for two or three episodes at most, but none of them ever became recurring characters (most notably ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' had a two-part storyline about a man who wanted to become the sixth member of Bioman, but ended up becoming a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain-of-the-week]], while ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' had a birdman warrior who fought alongside the Jetman team before he was killed off).

* ''Series/KikaiSentaiSentaiZenkaiger'' has Twokaizer as the sixth member, who uses a golden suit based on the red ranger and mech of ''Gokaiger'' and wields Sentai gears with powers based on the Sixth Rangers of past teams.

* ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'' plays with the trope quite a lot. Nate, who was MissionControl in the first seven episodes (much like Cam) and the [[GadgeteerGenius genius]] behind the Rangers' powers, gains his own Ranger form in episode 8, and, like his Super Sentai counterpart [[Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters Masato Jin]] has a robot buddy as the second SixthRanger of their team. Steel, who is a LargeHam and a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} as opposed to Nate's more down to earth personality, is basically a Sixth Ranger taken to the max, only having been built in the episode of his debut and being enthusiastic as heck about all the Ranger-y stuff. Not to mention the fact that he's easily the strongest when Ravi's not using his gorilla strength.

** Seemingly averted in ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'', which so far hasn't debuted a new Rider in its second story arc and instead sticks with the ones established during the first (Revi and Vice, Evil/Live, Jeanne, and Demons). %% Written as of Episode 20, which is a month after the start of the arc where most other Rider series have debuted their Sixth; and magazine previews seem to indicate that nobody will be joining in the next month either.

* ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}'': After adding David, as canon did, and [[SixthRangerTraitor having to remove him]], the Animorphs end up adding Tobias's mother, Loren, to the team. Loren, understanding the stakes and being motivated to help as David never was, has friction with her teammates sometimes but is a much better Animorph. Later in the series, Tom also receives the morphing power, [[spoiler:but it [[ShapeshifterModeLock doesn't last very long]]. Afterwards, four other human refugees become morphers: Melissa, Julissa, Jamal, and Walter.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}'': After adding David, as canon did, and [[SixthRangerTraitor having to remove him]], the Animorphs end up adding Tobias's mother, Loren, to the team. Loren, understanding the stakes and being motivated to help as David never was, has friction with her teammates sometimes but is a much better Animorph. Later in the series, Tom also receives the morphing power, [[spoiler:but it [[ShapeshifterMode Lock doesn't last very long]]. Afterwards, four other human refugees become morphers: Melissa, Julissa, Jamal, and Walter.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Daemorphing}}'': After adding David, as canon did, and [[SixthRangerTraitor having to remove him]], the Animorphs end up adding Tobias's mother, Loren, to the team. Loren, understanding the stakes and being motivated to help as David never was, has friction with her teammates sometimes but is a much better Animorph. Later, after the Animorph's families are evacuated to the valley, Tom also receives the morphing power [[spoiler: and it's not as disastrous as David, but it doesn't work out anything like as well as Loren]].

** Officially, however, the band seem to consider their late lead singer Chester Bennington to be their Sixth Ranger. Of the LongRunnerLineUp that the band would carry until his death in 2017, Chester was the last member to join, having replaced [[ThePeteBest original lead singer Mark Wakefield]] in 1999; the only one to not have any past connection with another band member prior to joining[[note]]founders Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson met in high school, while Joe Hahn met Mike in the Art School College of Pasadena, and Phoenix met Brad in the University of California[[/note]]; and, being a child of Phoenix, Arizona, the only member to not grow up in California[[note]]Dave was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, but moved to California when he was five[[note]].

* Music/LinkinPark's bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell. He was a part of the original lineup, known as Xero from 1996-1998, but had commitments with another band called Tasty Snax, so left the band until 2001, when he returned. During the period he was away, the band recorded their first album Hybrid Theory and got their first mainstream exposure, which brought them great popularity. On the back cover of this album, only the five main members are shown, which led many to assume those were all the people in the band. On the Hybrid Theory album itself, bass duties were split between usual guitarist Brad Delson, touring bassist Scott Koziol and session bassist Ian Hornbeck. When Phoenix returned in 2001 shortly after the release of One Step Closer as a single, many fans who didn't know about him felt that he was the Sixth Ranger joining an established band, and to many it still feels that way.

* One of the key plot points in the ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'' story arc "Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands" is who the seventh champion of the Magic Lands could be. The first six champions are established to be [[SuperFamilyTeam the Shazam Family]] -- Billy, Freddy, Mary, Pedro, Eugene, and Darla. The eighth issue of the story ends with Billy sharing his power with [[spoiler: his own father, C.C. Batson]].

* The Iroquois Confederacy (originally the Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, and Cayuga nations) became known as the "Six Nations" after the Tuscarora joined.

Named for the introduction of the Green Ranger in the original ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' as well as its Japanese counterpart Dragon Ranger in ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger''. However, the term became an Main/EvolvingTrope, since many teams don't have this character as the sixth member of the team. It should be added that Toei started to use "Additional Warrior" instead of "Sixth Ranger" or so.

Named for the introduction of the Green Ranger in the original ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' as well as its Japanese counterpart Dragon Ranger in ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger''.

[[caption-width-right:320:Above: [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers The original five]] Franchise/PowerRangers.\\
Below: The original five Power Rangers...\\

* ''Super Sentai'''s sibling franchise, ''Franchise/KamenRider'', also carries on the practice of adding a major new Kamen Rider to the cast about a third of the way into the show. However, ''Kamen Rider'' tends to be less black-and-white than ''Super Sentai'' is; so the new Kamen Rider is usually not immediately presented as the heroes' ally and instead may be introduced as part of a new third faction in the conflict or even as one of the villains. Even ones that are unambiguously good generally start out as HeadbuttingHeroes that clash with the established group to a degree. Sooner or later, however, they will align themselves with the main hero and his supporting cast and become part of their team.

** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has several Riders, some good and some evil, that weave in and out of the story. The main heroes are Ryuki and Knight, who work as allies through most of the series with Ryuki as TheCape and Knight as TheCowl; the one who fits this trope and makes their duo a PowerTrio midseason is Kamen Rider Raia. [[spoiler:He eventually dies TakingTheBullet for Ryuki.]] Its adaptation ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'' has a similar setup with their counterparts Dragon Knight, Wing Knight, and Sting (complete with [[spoiler:Sting getting [[NeverSayDie "vented"]]]]); but later on it takes another Rider, Siren, and makes her an AscendedExtra (compared to her ''Ryuki'' counterpart Femme who was only in the questionably canon/retconned ''Episode Final'' movie) as she joins the heroes' team as well.

** ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' has many Riders, starting out with the PowerTrio of Hibiki, Ibuki, and Zanki, who each have (at least one) protege as an apprentice. Zanki's apprentice eventually becomes the fully fledged Todoroki and joins the main riders as their 4th regular member [[spoiler:until Zanki's death late in the series]]. Ibuki's protege Akira Amami steals his transformation device in one episode to fight as an unnamed Kamen Rider, later dubbed "Amaki" in her parallel world appearance in ''Series/KamenRiderDecade''. Hibiki's first protege Asumu Adachi never gets his own Kamen Rider form, turning into Hibiki in a special DVD minisode as does his parallel world self in ''Decade'', while his second protege Kyosuke Kiriya does get a Kamen Rider form but it is unnamed in canon (dubs himself "Kyoki" in stage shows) and also gets to become Hibiki in ''Series/KamenRiderZiO''.

** ''Series/KamenRiderRevice'' is unique in that the show ''starts out'' with Kamen Riders Revi and Vice as a duo stemming from the show's concept of demonic possession with Revi's civilian identity Ikki Igarashi as the human host of the AffablyEvil Vice. The HeelFaceTurn Rider is Ikki's younger brother Daiji who is possessed by his own inner demon Kagero who transforms into Kamen Rider Evil but Daiji later learns to suppress Kagero (his own resentment towards Ikki) and gains the ability to transform into the heroic Kamen Rider Live. Then their younger sister Sakura joins them as Kamen Rider Jeanne out of her own desire to fight alongside them and materializing her own inner demon Lovekov...who is a manifestation of her own innocence and weakness and must be protected during Jeanne's fights. Outside of the family is Kamen Rider Demons which originally belonged to the hero Hiromi Kadota before its TransformationTrinket began [[CastFromLifespan killing him from the inside out]]; [[spoiler:Olteca, TheDragon and/or BigBad, eventually steals the Demons Driver from Hiromi and becomes the new Kamen Rider Demons.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderAgito'' starts out with the titular Agito who is joined by G3, but the premise of the show is such that there are many people who have the potential to become an Agito, resulting in the later appearances of the flawed Gills and Another Agito.
** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has several Riders, some good and some evil, that weave in and out of the story. The main heroes are Ryuki and Knight, who work as allies through most of the series with Ryuki as TheCape and Knight as TheCowl; the one who fits this trope and makes their duo a PowerTrio midseason is Kamen Rider Raia. [[spoiler:He eventually dies TakingTheBullet for Ryuki.]] Its adaptation ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight'' has a similar setup with their counterparts Dragon Knight, Wing Knight, and Sting (complete with [[spoiler:Sting getting [[NeverSayDie "vented"]]]]); but later on it takes another Rider, Siren, and makes her an AscendedExtra (compared to her ''Ryuki'' counterpart Femme) as she joins the heroes' team as well.

** As Series/KamenRiderDenO and a group of Imagin allies work to protect the timeline, Ryotaro runs into Yuto Sakurai, another Kamen Rider (Zeronos) fighting the villains for personal reasons; as well as Yuto's own Imagin partner Deneb. In contrast to kind-hearted Ryotaro, Yuto is bad-tempered and antisocial, but he does mellow out over time and he and Deneb start to work more closely with the Den-Liner crew. Sieg also qualifies; he's a friendly but arrogant Imagin who is perfectly willing to lend Ryotaro a hand, but the rest of the Imagin hate him and keep him from becoming a permanent member of their team.

* ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger''/''[[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce Power Rangers Super Megaforce]]'', keeping with its team's premise of [[PowerCopying transforming into any of the previous Sentai or Ranger teams]], features a sixth Silver Ranger, who wields the Ranger Keys of fifteen previous "supplemental warriors."[[note]]Although he can use other Ranger Keys as well[[/note]] He has the ability to merge all of his Ranger Keys into the Gold Anchor Key, which allows him to transform into his "[[SuperMode Gold Mode]]," where he wears a golden armor adorned with the faces of said warriors.
** ''Gokaiger'' also has Ranger Keys for ten so-called "extra heroes," representing warriors beyond sixths, such as [[Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger Deka Master, Deka Swan]] and [[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger Lady Shinken Red]], or unusual allies, such as [[Series/GekisouSentaiCarranger Signalman]], [[Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman Black Knight Hyuga]] and [[Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger Zubaan]].
* ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'' plays with the trope quite a lot. Nate, who was MissionControl in the first seven episodes (much like Cam) and the [[GadgeteerGenius genius]] behind the rangers' powers, gains his own ranger form in episode 8, and, like his Sentai counterpart [[Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters Masato Jin]] has a robot buddy as the second SixthRanger of their team. Steel, who is a LargeHam and a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} as opposed to Nate's more down to earth personality, is basically a sixth ranger taken to the max, only having been built in the episode of his debut and being enthusiastic as heck about all the ranger-y stuff. Not to mention the fact that he's easily the strongest when Ravi's not using his gorilla strength.
* ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'' is a rather unique example. It actually ''starts'' with nine members (assembled over the first few episodes) and later adds three Sixths: Ryu Commander, Koguma Skyblue, and Houou Soldier. Played with in that Ryu Commander and Koguma Skyblue were introduced ''right after'' the core team was assembled,[[note]]For context, the main team fully came together in Episode 5, Ryu Commander was introduced in Episodes 8 and 9, and Koguma Skyblue debuted in Episode 10. In contrast, Houou Soldier didn't show up until Episode 21.[[/note]] so it's not really true to say they joined "late" compared to everyone else; plus Skyblue doesn't even have the special equipment/mecha/etc. that usually sets a Sixth apart from the rest.

** ''Dekaranger'', in fact, went even further. "Deka" is Japanese slang for 'detective,' but since the 'deca-' prefix means ten of something, they went ahead and had ten Rangers total with the aforementioned seven full-time teammates and three {{One Shot Character}}s: [=DekaSwan=] (MissionControl getting to suit up for once), [=DekaBright=] (a DistaffCounterpart to [=DekaBreak=], one of the regulars), and [=DekaGold=] (a movie-exclusive character who barely gets to do an AssKickingPose before being blasted). ''SPD'' carried over the first two as the Cat Ranger and Nova Ranger, respectively.

Their power and coolness is inversely proportional to the number of episodes since their début, since GoodIsDumb. Expect them to be [[CurbStompBattle single-handedly defeating enemies]] that the main team struggled against during their first appearance, falling in line as they become integrated into the group, then finally getting [[SoLastSeason overtaken]] by the original heroes. In fact, they almost invariably tend to become a magnet for TheWorfEffect so the writers can show off how powerful the new villain is.

** ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' featured a sixth member for [[OneShotCharacter exactly one episode]] in the form of [=X1=] Mask, a warrior in green who volunteered for the Maskman project before the actual team was formed. He doesn't stick around because he loses his powers in his first appearance. Other shows had guest heroes who would assist the team for two or three episodes at most, but none of them ever became recurring characters (most notably ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' had a two-part storyline about a man who wanted to become the sixth member of Bioman, but ended up becoming a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain-of-the-week]], while ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' had a birdman warrior who fought alongside the Jetman team before he was killed off).

** ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'' featured a sixth member for [[OneShotCharacter exactly one episode]] in the form of [=X1=] Mask, a warrior in green who volunteered for the Maskman project before the actual team was formed. Other shows had guest heroes who would assist the team for two or three episodes at most, but none of them ever became recurring characters (most notably ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' had a two-part storyline about a man who wanted to become the sixth member of Bioman, but ended up becoming a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed]] [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain-of-the-week]], while ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' had a birdman warrior who fought alongside the Jetman team before he was killed off).

** As Series/KamenRiderDenO and a group of Imagin allies work to protect the timeline, Ryotaro runs into Yuto Sakurai, another Kamen Rider (Zeronos) fighting the villains for personal reasons; as well as Yuto's own Imagin partner Deneb. In contrast to kind-hearted Ryotaro, Yuto is bad-tempered and antisocial, but he does mellow out over time and he and Deneb start to work more closely with the Den-Liner crew. Seig also qualifies; he's a friendly but arrogant Imagin who is perfectly willing to lend Ryotaro a hand, but the rest of the Imagin hate him and keep him from becoming a permanent member of their team.
** ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'' introduces Keisuke Nago AKA Kamen Rider IXA, a colleague of one of Wataru's friends who takes a liking to the guy and begins informally mentoring him -- but as IXA he's an overzealous VampireHunter who thinks Kiva is a threat, [[LikesClarkKentHatesSuperman not realizing that Wataru and Kiva are one and the same]]. And then later in the show comes Kamen Rider Saga, who goes through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor as he's Wataru's friend [[spoiler:and half-brother]] but doesn't understand why he sticks his neck out for humanity so much; plus they're in a LoveTriangle over the same girl.

** Other candidates for the role of "Fifth Beatle" include their producer George Martin, and sometimes their manager Brian Epstein. Others who were involved with them are ex-drummer [[ThePeteBest Pete Best]], ex-bassist Stuart Sutcliffe (who quit the band to get married before they made it big, then died of an undiagnosed aneurysm a year later), and Music/EricClapton (he played on several of their tracks and was seriously considered for membership in the band at one point).

** ''MMPR'' is also a key example of just how much PopularityPower a Sixth Ranger can have. The trope-naming character, [[Characters/PowerRangersTommyOliver Tommy Oliver]], is a [[LongRunners mainstay]] in the Power Rangers setting, and he (and his actor, Creator/JasonDavidFrank) has been a regular for ''five'' seasons (two and a half of ''Mighty Morphin'', ''Zeo'', half of ''Turbo'', and ''Dino Thunder'') where the cast is now usually refreshed yearly. The only ones who even come close to such a record are ThoseTwoGuys Bulk and Skull (all three seasons of ''Mighty Morphin'', ''Zeo'', ''Turbo'', and ''in Space''; plus Bulk's semiregular appearances in ''Lost Galaxy'' and ''Samurai''). Big One is similarly popular after he completely stole the show in ''JAKQ'', becoming one of the three possible candidates for being the BigGood of every ''Sentai'' team in existence, the other two being Akarenger and the recurring anniversary hero (And Creator/ToruFuruya voiced) [=AkaRed=], who first debuted in ''Film/GoGoSentaiBoukengerVsSuperSentai'', and has been a mainstay in every anniversary season since (Except for ''Series/KikaiSentaiZenkaiger'').