The 10th Anniversary of Power Rangers, with the surviving forces of the Machine Empire gathering on the moon in an effort to excavate Serpentera, and veteran Ranger Tommy assembling the Red Rangers of every team to stop them.
Tropes in this episode include:
- All for Nothing: After spending years in unearthing Serpentera, the Machine Empire's plan to destroy the Earth and avenge King Mondo backfires on them: the other generals and foot soldiers are killed by the 10 Red Rangers, Cole uses his Wild Force Rider to pursue Venjix as he is escaping with Serpentera and Cole rams his rider into Serpentera's cannon—destroying the Zord from the inside out and taking Venjix with it.
- And This Is for...: Before using his Wild Force Rider to ram it into Serpentera, Cole says "For the Earth."
- Artistic License – Space:
- There are horses and Rangers unmorphed, except for Aurico, on the moon, which somehow has (earth-normal) air and gravity. Which is entirely consistent with Rangers' previous trips to the moon, incidentally, as shown in MMPR, Zeo, and Lost Galaxy.
- During Cole's "fight" with Serpentera, he manages to hit the brakes and skid into a drifting slide, complete with actual glowing skid marks. In space.
- Ascended Extra:
- The Red Rangers in the original Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai are just glorious cameos save for GaoRed and Red Falcon. Here, they're the focus.
- Aurico was only around for ten episodes, and wasn't even the leader of his team. He's treated as an equal to the protagonists of eight other stories.
- Badass Boast: Once Venjix enters Serpentera, he says "Serpentera lives again! Now, no one is safe from the wrath of the Machine Empire!" Then, he flies off from the moon to carry out his mission.
- Badass Biker: Jason arrives at the hangar on a motorcycle.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Red Rangers vs. the Machine Empire's remnants.
- Big Bad Ensemble: General Venjix and his fellow generals—Gerrok, Tezzla, Steelon, and Automon—are responsible for the danger in this episode and stopping their plans to unearth Serpentera and destroy the earth to avenge the Machine Empire is the Red Rangers' mission.
- Big "NO!": When Venjix is outmatched by Jason and Cole, he tells them that he still has Serpentera. Cole yells "No!" before Venjix blasts the Rangers and enters Serpentera.
- Big "WHAT?!": Venjix yells "What?!" when Cole approaches Serpentera with the Wild Force Rider.
- Breather Episode: This episode featuring (almost) all of the series' Red Rangers going on a stand-alone mission, was just after the end of the Animus arc, and is followed by a two-parter that kicks off the final story arc when Master Org returns.
- The Bus Came Back: Tommy, Jason, TJ, Andros, Leo, Wes, Eric, Carter and Aurico all return for the team-up, as does Alpha and the Astro Megaship. According to
Amit Bhaumik, this is especially true for Alpha who is Alpha 5 rebuilt and upgraded. - Casting Gag: The villains are also voiced by former ranger actors: Archie Kao (Kai Chen) voices Venjix, Catherine Sutherland (Kat Hillard) voices Tezzla and Walter Emanuel Jones (Zack Taylor) voices Gerrok.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: A classic example. Each Red Ranger is able to take out a platoon of Cogs without breaking a sweat. When it comes time to fight the generals, they have to divy them up and fight two-on-one to save the day.
- Continuity Nod: Since Cole already met Wes and Eric in the usual team-up, they greet each other like old friends. Also, the Ranger who recruits Cole is Carter Grayson, the Ranger Wes met in his usual team-up episode, implying Wes is the one who told Carter where to find Cole.
- Continuity Snarl:
- The only thing that people don't like about "Forever Red" is the continuity problems that resulted from it, mostly of the account of the Machine Empire's defeat not lining up with the events of Zeo or In Space at all. This comes from the writers inserting references to the "Scorpion Rain" fan hoax which supposedly bridged the Zeo and Turbo seasons.
- "Where did the powers come from?", though, is more of fans not doing the research. Nothing was ever shown happening to the Zeo Crystals and a big question in Turbo was "where'd all the Zeo stuff go?" Though the Turbo powers were destroyed alongside the Power Chamber, "True Blue to the Rescue" revealed that Storm Blaster was able to provide Justin with a spare morpher, so Lightning Cruiser was obviously able to do the same for TJ. Adam was able to use his Mastodon Power Coin in In Space.
- While Word of God provided an answer for the MMPR powers in that Jason beat up a Dark Red Ranger (inspired by the comic) and stole that coin, the truth is Jason, Zack and Trini never lost their powers in the first place
.
- Crisis Crossover: 9 Red Rangers and a red-colored Sixth team up to stop the Machine Empire from getting access to Serpentera, a zord with the power to destroy an entire planet.
- The Dreaded: The Power Rangers are feared by the Machine Empire since King Mondo was killed way back in Power Rangers in Space.
- In turn, the Red Rangers especially Jason and Tommy fear Serpentera.
- Deus ex Machina: Defeating the planet-busting Zord Serpentera requires a motorcycle that was basically a gift from a near-god.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Serpentera can use its laser cannon to destroy any planet in sight. Venjix's plan is to use the Zord to destroy planet Earth in an effort to avenge Mondo.
- Explosive Instrumentation: Cole destroying Serpentera from the inside out causes Venjix's cockpit to explode as he admits his failure.
- Fake Shemp: Aurico, never demorphing and voiced by Christopher Glenn instead of David Bacon. (You'd think with the headgear and ability to use the original Aurico's stock morph scene, not demorphing wouldn't have been necessary). Leo Corbett infamously came close to this too, but production convinced a reluctant Danny Slavin to do a scene where Leo arrives in morph, and then demorphs for about five seconds, just so he can be part of the big morphing sequence with everyone else and do ADR.
- Flat "What": Venjix when he sees the Wild Force Rider closing in on Serpentera.
- Iconic Outfit: Andros is first seen spying on the Machine Empire generals wearing his iconic cloak.
- Intra-Franchise Crossover: The first one in the series but not the last one.
- It's Personal: Venjix and the Machine Empire's remnants want to exact revenge on the Power Rangers for their part in King Mondo's death by using Serpentera to destroy the Earth.
- Large Ham: Cole stands out with his overly serious lines, in stark contrast with his predecessors' more relaxed deliveries. Even Carter was more laid back in comparison.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Red Rangers get one when they realize that Venjix has taken off with Serpentera to destroy the Earth.
- The Mentor: Jason serves as this to Cole when they fight Venjix. Whereas most of the other rangers destroy their opponents by double-teaming them, Jason deliberately lets Cole get the final hit in on Venjix rather than trying to hog the glory for himself. Ends up backfiring when Venjix escapes and activates Serpentera.
- Number Two: Gerrok serves as Venjix's right-hand man in the Machine Empire's plot to destroy the Earth.
- Oh, Crap!: "What?! TEN Red Rangers?!"
- Our Founder: The Machine Empire erected a statue of King Mondo on the moon to honor him by the time Venjix makes his speech about their plans to destroy the Earth.
- Out of Focus:
- The other Wild Force Rangers only turn up during Cole's recruitment scene.
- Wes doesn't get a huge amount to do when he and Tommy double-team Gerrok. Every other general is taken out by a combination move from two rangers, but Tommy basically solos Gerrok with one kick.
- Only Cole was the one who took on and destroyed Serpentera with Venjix in it while the other 9 Red Rangers remained on the moon instead of contributing like providing backup from the Astro Megaship Mark II.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Red Rangers have a significantly tougher fight against the Machine Empire's generals than they do against their Mooks.
- Red Is Heroic: As the title suggests, the focus of the episode is the franchise's red rangers (save for Rocky).
- Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: Nearly all the Red Rangers get in on this at the end of the episode. Some had more impressive apex achievements than others, of course. Hey, did T.J. ever tell you about the time he got baked into a pizza?
- Rookie Red Ranger: Jason clearly believed Cole to be this, calling him a rookie, even after Cole managed to defeat Serpentera, which Jason himself couldn't do back in The Power Transfer Part 1.
- The Remnant: The Machine Empire has been reduced to a fraction that has been hiding ever since King Mondo was killed. Venjix leads this remnant to unearth Serpentera and exact revenge by destroying the Earth.
- The Reveal: "Forever Red" reveals that T.J.'s full name is "Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson".
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Once his fellow generals are defeated, Venjix uses Serpentera to escape from the Moon in his effort to destroy the earth. Cole uses his Wild Force Rider and rams it into Serpentera's mouth, destroying it and killing Venjix as a result.
- Shout-Out: Jason and Tommy's hand gestures when morphing are much closer to their sentai counterparts (Zyuranger and Ohranger, respectively).
- Supporting Leader: Tommy is the one who summons all the Red Rangers, delivers the Info Dump before their mission, and takes point as field commander once they arrive on the moon, but Cole is still the protagonist of the episode.
- Team Power Walk: The rangers walking shoulder-to-shoulder towards the Astro Megaship Mark II in direct homage to The Right Stuff.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Jason acts a lot more arrogant and generally 'angry' than he ever was previously and original dialogue indicates he was supposed to be even more cocky: "Back aside kid, I'll show you how the original Red Ranger gets it done." The reason is that apparently Austin St. John wanted to add some "bite" to the character as compensation for returning to the franchise, and this can be seen as early as Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie where (while Brainwashed and Crazy) he seemed to have anger issues towards Tommy.
- Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: During the unmorphed fight with the Cogs in "Forever Red", Wes snatches spears from two Cogs and uses them to fight.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Once his fellow generals are defeated, Venjix yells that he still has Serpentera and tries to make his escape from the Moon and destroy the Earth. Unfortunately for him, Cole uses his Wild Force Rider to destroy Serpentera and kill Venjix.
- The Voiceless: While Gerrok and Venjix have lines of dialogue, Tezzla and Automon have no speaking lines.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Despite the Red Rangers' best efforts in stopping the Machine Empire generals, Serpentera has been unearthed.
- Your Size May Vary: Somewhere between Zeo and Wild Force, Serpentera went from "make the Rangers' Megazords look dinky" size to normal Megazord size.
