As the franchise begins to transition to the Disney Era, Linkara looks at Power Rangers Wild Force and sees how Power Rangers handled its tenth season.
Tropes:
- Alternative Character Interpretation: He calls Animus, Big Good in giant robot form, an Eco-Terrorist who talks as though he wants to attack humans for harming the environment, and even if it is a Secret Test of Character, taking the Rangers' powers away pretty much dooms the Earth. He also points out that Animus never takes away what he said about humans, so he doesn't accept the supposed apology:"So no, up yours, your preachy little brat! You got caught looking like a jackass and now you're trying to save face!"
- Anvilicious: He was not impressed with the very heavy-handed environmental messages, and had no love for Animus as described above. However, it should be noted he only hated the Green Aesop for being heavy-handed in said Animus arc specifically, he says that otherwise, the season wasn't too bad with it.
- Arc Fatigue: While the Zen-Aku Arc really wasn't that long, it was just so repetitive (Zen-Aku defeats the Rangers and steals a Zord, and nothing is learned about the character) that he got bored with it, especially when compared to how dynamic his favorite Sixth Ranger Arc, "Green With Evil", was able to be despite being made at a time when kid's shows really didn't have multi-episode arcs.
- Channel Hop: Discussed — While Linkara did mention it briefly in the original review, he goes more into detail in the re-edited version. With Disney buying Power Rangers as part of their acquisition of the Fox Family Worldwide Company, Wild Force is technically the first of the Disney Era seasons. However, Linkara notes that it was in pre-production before the acquisition and some aspects of filming, casting and production crew, make it feel like a transitional phase to next season.
- Clueless Aesop: Linkara criticizes the season as falling into the same trap that most environmentalist children's media falls into, that being how it oversimplifies the issues of pollution and need to protect the environment down to "nature good, humans bad because they pollute." He argues how despite the Green Aesop being a central focus, this season does less with it than previous seasons, where instead of delivering lessons that were proactive (such as encouraging kids to recycle), Wild Force doesn't relay anything other than hollow platitudes of "save the environment", failing to acknowledge the complexities of real life that impede the idea (the fact pollution has been around since humans first created fire, the fact a vast majority of pollution is the result of massive corporations rather than individuals, how some humans do fight to protect the environment through preservation groups, etc.) while also suggesting nothing actionable.
- Continuity Nod: While it serves as a stark contrast to the martial arts used by the other Rangers, he liked how Carter's unmorphed fight scene was largely just shooting the Cogs, as that was what Lightspeed Rescue was all about.
- Critical Backlash: He said that, while inferior to Time Force, Wild Force was nowhere near as bad as the Internet said.
- Crossover:
- While almost every season has a team-up with the previous team, he specifically points to "Reinforcements From The Future" as the absolute best team-up episode that he's seen thus far (as of Operation Overdrive), noting that not only were the fights excellent, the character interactions were great, music was superb (even commenting that the "horrible singing" that he had criticized Shayla for managed to sound pretty good once remixed), and most importantly, it continued the story of both Time Force and Wild Force.
- Likewise, he was pleased with "Forever Red", how it got nearly every previous Red Ranger actor back (Along with a Bulk and Skull cameo), character interaction between them, and showcasing their different fighting styles during the climax. Though does show annoyance at the fact it was hampered in its potential because Disney wouldn't give the special more budget to make it into a two-parter as the producers wanted. explanation
- Dawson Casting: While certainly not the only season to cast adult actors as teenagers (this is actually very common), Linkara notes that the actors in Wild Force looked about college-age, but the content seemed more suited for Rangers still in junior high, or even middle school.
- Easily Forgiven: When Shayla tries to convince Dr. Viktor Adler/Master Org to stop being evil, she mentions that Cole already forgave Dr. Adler for murdering his parents ... seriously confusing Linkara since said forgiveness never happened (on-screen, anyway). In the remastered version, Linkara states that while Cole did refuse to kill Dr. Adler, it wasn't really forgiveness as much as not wanting to go down the same path of revenge he did.
- Edited for Syndication: When the video was reposted on YouTube, the opening section addressing schedule-related complaints was removed since it didn't stop people from pestering him about the schedule and the information was outdated anyway.
- Elephant in the Room: In the beginning of the re-edited version, Linkara brings up the Ricardo Medina Jr. stabbing incident and how the latter was incarcerated for voluntary manslaughter for a few years. While it had no bearings on production of Wild Force or even Samurai as the incident happened years after those seasons aired, Linkara decided to address it because if he did not, people would have asked him. He even refers to it as the "Mastadon in the Room".
- Executive Meddling: Notes that this is what caused "Forever Red" to be shorter, Disney not being interested in funding the episode that they only saw as just promoting a bunch of toys that weren't sold anymore, which sadly prevented a planned battle with a bunch of old Zords taking on Serpentera.
- Fanservice: Compared to "Once A Ranger" and Megaforce as a whole, Linkara considers "Forever Red'' to be the one to do this correctly. It answered long unanswered questions, brought back multiple red rangers (minus Rocky due to Real Life Writes the Plot), some small references that long-time fans could recognize, and had great fight scenes that showed the evolution from MMPR to this point.
- Green Aesop: Linkara notes that Wild Force has a very strong environmental message... except, as is often the case with children's media, it isn't handled well due to being oversimplified for the target audience. In the rerelease, he elaborates that this extreme lack of nuance isn't helped by lingering influences from bad pop culture and pop science ideas from The 90's about nature's apparent "perfection". This results in the show, in his view, taking an almost reverential attitude towards its own subject matter without offering any solutions to the issue aside from "don't pollute", ultimately leaving it with nothing of actual substance to say.
- This gets especially frustrating to him during the Animus/Kite arc, when Kite starts ranting about how much damage humans are doing to the environment. The Rangers can't seem to think of any rebuttal other than "humans don't mean to pollute, it's a byproduct of progress", and even end up agreeing with him that humans aren't doing enough to protect nature, forgetting to address such things as conservation groups and alternative energy sources. Linkara also takes pains to point out that stopping humans from damaging the environment isn't part of their mandate as Rangers. While they could speak out about it as public figures, stopping the actual destruction caused by the Orgs should always be their first priority.
- Hand Wave:
- Ransik being healed of his mutation made no sense, "But hey, I like a happy ending."
- His answer to how Bulk and Skull were reunited is "SHUT UP AND DON'T QUESTION IT! BULK AND SKULL ARE BACK!"
- Internal Homage: Even if unintentional, he loved the Wild Force Power Ranger suits (especially the helmets) for being very reminiscent of the original Mighty Morphin' suits.
- It's What I Do: Of a sort. He actively wondered why he got so many people asking if he was going to cover "Forever Red" when such a thing is the very premise of the video series.
- Kid-Appeal Character: Theorizes that Wild Force was made to appeal to really little kids, as the season was wrought with child actors (all of them terrible, in Linkara's opinion).
- The Load: Shayla, who he rants does nothing besides getting kidnapped.
- He actually criticizes her about this later on, near the end, when she does fight back when a kidnapping attempt is made on her, claiming that she's not weak. He does this since, well, why would she suddenly be competent now when all those other times would have been really useful for her to not be kidnapped?
- Mood Whiplash: While the Zen-Aku story arc had its faults, Linkara at least liked how serious the story felt ... until it was just suddenly concluded by the Rangers getting two new Zords with the power of soccer, complete with a badly rendered CG-soccer stadium.
- The Magic Goes Away: Really annoyed by this ending. Shayla's But Now I Must Go didn't bother him so much but since, among other things, it means the Wild Force Rangers have so far never gotten their jackets and morphers back and it's entirely possible that none of them except Max and Danny ever saw each other again, he's still displeased about this while doing the next review. Whilst Power Rangers Megaforce would later show this wasn't the case, the Wild Force review was made several years before Megaforce began.
- Nature Is Not Nice: Frustrated with the show perpetuating the idea of the natural world being a harmonious utopia, Linkara brings up kudzu, cogon grass and privet - highly invasive and destructive plants - as an example of how nature can be the total opposite.
- Needs More Love: His general assessment; certain things could be better, but overall, there's a lot to love in this season.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Linkara directly calls out Animus's decision to take the Wild Zords away and start again on another planet. Not only does it effectively doom humanity and nature both to destruction at the hands of the Orgs, it also makes Animus come off as incredibly selfish, as though he doesn't really care about nature and just wants a garden to play in.
- Plot Hole: Is confused by the lack of explanation for where the Orgs originally came from if Animaria was so harmonious with nature and seemingly didn't pollute. There's also the awkward fact that the people would have needed to use nature for food, clothing etc., making Shayla's statement of everyone "respecting the importance of nature" confusing and frustrating.
- Prop Recycling:
- Notes that the Mut-Orgs from "Reinforcements From The Future" were actually from old costumes, even noting they were reusing old costumes by that point.
- Linkara does not hide the fact that the Machine Empire Generals from "Forever Red" used the suits from Big Bad Beetleborgs, even referring to them as the Beetleborgs for that episode.
- In the re-edited version, Linkara sees that the armor from the Animarium Warriors are parts from the Quantrons.
- Rookie Red Ranger: Finds it odd that Cole is made the leader of the group since he's the newest member. Linkara also finds the explanation for this, that 'the lion is the king of the jungle and so Cole is the leader because his Zord is the lion', very unsatisfying.
- The Scrappy: Lewis showed a special dislike for Animus/Kite, noted above, as he takes the Wild Zords away thus leaving humans defenseless against the Orgs & ignoring that there are humans that try to help the environment to justify his actions, and also noting that his offer to go another world wasn't extended to Shayla and that he's never called out on his actions. Linkara was especially frustrated that the rangers actually agreed with him that they weren't doing enough for the planet despite all their efforts to it keep safe from pollution and that the rangers' devotion should not have needed to be tested when Animus revealed it was all a Secret Test of Character. He also points that Animus never took back what he said about humanity.
- Shot-for-Shot Remake: Mentions the depths to which this happened, with the producer even bringing in Japanese directors to work on the show to recreate it. In the case of Tropes Are Not Good, he mentions that this might have contributed to the lower quality acting due to some direction issues since many of the directors didn't even speak English.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: While normally having a sword that turns into a gun is an instant-awesome button in Linkara's book, he was not a fan of the Lunar Wolf Ranger's sword that turns into a gun that turns into a pool cue, disliking the overall design for lacking any flash or substance.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In the rerelease, Linkara feels that the environmental message, if written with more nuance, could have lead to more interesting educational and storytelling moments. For instance, he floats the idea of talking about how pollution has been a problem since early civilization, even in a supposed utopia like Animaria, as well as how human advancement would always involve exploiting nature to a degree and what humans are doing to try and mitigate the damage. This, he feels, would have helped especially in the later episodes to counter Animus/Kite's preaching about the evils of mass-scale industrial pollution. It would have also, in his mind, provided a convenient explanation for the Org's origins - perhaps metal pollutions from forging armour and weapons could have triggered their evolution.
- Tranquil Fury: Linkara starts the original release of his review with this while addressing the overly demanding fan base of the series asking for the new episode.
- Wangst: Feels this way about Merrick's constant need to distance himself from the other Rangers and seek 'atonement' for his actions as Zen-Aku, since not only have the Rangers and Shayla forgiven him from the start, but Linkara points out the fact it was quite obviously the Wolf Mask in the driver's seat, anyway, not Merrick.
- What Could Have Been:
- All the possibilities of what became "Forever Red" are outlined. In the re-edited version, Linkara said that three different scripts were created until Amit Bhaumik wrote the final draft. Some of the planned ideas included a cult wanting to bring back Dark Specter (which would also explain his connection with Maligore from the Turbo movie), deleted scenes that were trimmed out in the final aired version, and big Megazord fight against Seperentera. Also, had Rocky end up coming on as planned, he would be Tommy's buttler and not a Ranger.
- At the end of the review, Linkara states that Wild Force was supposed to be the final season as Disney bought the rights to Power Rangers, and intended to end the show with the previous seasons of Power Rangers played as reruns with a lot of other Saban based projects Disney bought. As we know, however, the production crew convinced Disney to keep the series running by moving production to New Zealand which would save them money.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The first thing Linkara notes in the behind the scenes aspect of Forever Red is the absence of Rocky. He explains that Steve Cardenes was apporached to come on, but he was moving at the time and was unable to get back to production when filming began.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Calls out Merrick for playing pool with his Power Animal Crystals, which he says is just about the most disrespectful thing you could do with them.
- Wild Mass Guessing :
- In the "Forever Red review", Linkara goes through several theories on how some of the older red rangers got their powers back, focusing a bit more on Jason's. There are three possibilities he has laid out:
- 1) The Sword of Light didn't exactly transfer the powers to Rocky but merely copied them (as evidenced with Jason leaving the command center still morphed).
- 2) During Zeo, Rocky gave Jason back the damaged Tyrannosaurus Power Coin when Jason came back as the Gold Ranger, and Jason would later find a way to repair the coin (as hinted back from In Space when Adam used the damaged Mastodon Power Coin).
- 3) The official confirmation by Amit Bhuamik is that Jason got a new Power Coin from one of Lord Zedd's Dark Rangers that appeared in the comic book series. Linkara does admit though that may not be plausible given the circumstance of comic continuity to the show.
- On a lighter note, he makes a theory on how Bulk came back to Miranoi and reunited with Skull.
- In the "Forever Red review", Linkara goes through several theories on how some of the older red rangers got their powers back, focusing a bit more on Jason's. There are three possibilities he has laid out:
