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"RPM, Get in gear!"
Morphing call, Power Rangers RPM

The 17th season of the Power Rangers franchise, RPM used footage from Engine Sentai Go-onger. In an alternate present to the main Rangerverse, the Venjix computer virus has taken over nearly all of the Earth's technological systems and built robotic forces to subjugate mankind. Humanity's last stronghold is the city of Corinth, which is protected by a force field dome, as well as its own elite team of Power Rangers that take down whatever raids make it through the shield. But Venjix technology is continually advancing, and without more forces even the Rangers may not be able to hold on for much longer...

RPM was, quite simply, a make or break season for the franchise and the breaking point for the company that owned it. Disney by this point had made it clear they were tired of Power Rangers, considered it a "black sheep" in their portfolio and was prepared to cancel it after Bruce Kalish left the show, but Bandai stepped in to give their Cash-Cow Franchise at least one more season. Still, Disney shunted the show -- including reruns of past seasons -- off their cable channels (particularly their new Disney XD rebranding) and onto ABC, where it was subject to pre-empting for sports. Adding to the conflict, the first Executive Producer Eddie Guzelian was fired midway through the season over "creative differences" with Disney. Former Rangers writer and producer Judd Lynn, who was a big part of the series' improving during the Saban days, came in to replace him.

The season made several references to series tropes and past Ranger seasons, particularly in finally defining the Meta Origin that's been present since day one. It also scaled back the excessive Calling Your Attacks and Stuff Blowing Up that had gotten out of hand in the last few seasons, as well as throwing in a healthy dose of Lampshade Hanging (particularly, hanging 'shades on the attack calling and explosions).

RPM originally was indeed the end of the franchise, with Disney officially cancelling it in March 2009. They eventually announced they would instead air a Re-Cut version of the first season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. It was only a few months after the series ended that Saban announced that they had re-acquired the franchise and had begun work on Power Rangers Samurai.

RPM would later have a team up with Samurai called Clash of the Red Rangers. Only Scott appears, and even then he doesn't demorph for the entire movie. The Super Mega Rangers visited Corinth in the second half of Super Megaforce, but it looked completely different due to using Gokaiger footage. Eventually, RPM would have a more proper team-up in the Power Rangers Ninja Steel 25th Anniversary crossover episode "Dimensions in Danger," with Gemma making an appearance for the RPM Universe. It also received something of a Creator-Driven Successor in Power Rangers Beast Morphers.

With its After the End premise in a franchise that had already been seen to have a shiny, happy future, the time setting of this season was ambiguous until these crossovers established that it took place in a parallel universe to the one most Power Rangers seasons take place in, with the later season Dino Charge taking place in yet another one.

RPM was the last season to feature music by Leigh Roberts and Wayne Jones, the last to feature Koichi Sakamoto as an executive producer, and the last to use the services of writer Jackie Marchand.

If you're interested in what the cast and crew did later, check out the indie horror movie Blood Punch, which features several RPM actors, writers, crew members, and original producer Eddie Guzelian.


Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

  • Action Girl: Summer and Gemma are the only females on the team. Summer is notable because she was shown to be a proficient martial artist before becoming a Ranger.
  • Adaptational Nonsapience: The Partner Engines that are on par with humans in intellect from Go-onger are adapted into the nonsentient Zord Attack Vehicles that Dr. K made.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: While a proud Rangers Grand Finale tradition, it's practically a Running Gag in the first half of RPM as Tenaya had gotten in three times before the halfway point. And yes, it happens in the finale too.
  • Animal Motifs:
  • Big Bad: The Venjix virus.
  • BFG: For the core three, the Road Blaster; Dillon and Ziggy have the Turbo Plasma Launcher, which combines with the Road Blaster to create the RPM Enforcer. Gem and Gemma combine their Cloud Hatchets with their Sky Shift Morphers to form the Sky Shift Blazers (which are more in the territory of Hand Cannon given their size).
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: The Rangers get into a conversation over Summer marrying someone while battling Grinders in the start of "Ranger Yellow: Part 2".
  • Chest Insignia: Team logos on the belt and the forehead of the helmets, personal numbers stylized to look like animals on the chest. Gem and Gemma sport winged team logos in place of numbers.
  • Chrome Champion: Rangers Gold and Silver
  • City of Adventure: Corinth is a justified example. Eddie Guzelian specifically made it the last city on Earth to make it more plausible why Venjix would continually attack it.
  • Combining Mecha: This season features four three-piece combiners: the original three Rangers make the High Octane Megazord, Dillon and Ziggy pilot the ValveMax Megazord, Gem and Gemma the Mach Megazord, and the Paleozords make up the Paleomax Megazord. They can then sequentially combine into bigger combinations: the High Octane and the ValveMax make the Zenith Megazord, plus the Mach is the SkyRev Megazord, plus the Paleomax is the RPM Ultrazord.
  • Comic-Book Adaptation: Had a run in the UK Power Rangers Magazine.
  • Compressed Adaptation: Was given 32 episodes to Go-Onger's 50.
  • The Dragon: Tenaya; sometimes Co-Dragons with Generals Crunch and Shifter
  • Evil Plan: Venjix's plan to conquer Corinth and subjugate all of humanity.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms:
    • As usual, but in "Doctor K", two unidentified guards threatened Dr. K with real-looking handguns (which of course we never see fired).
    • This also applied to Dillon's Zord; in Go-Onger, it shot giant-sized bullets, which were edited to appear as energy blasts here.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: RPM not only embraced a similar Cool Car theme to Power Rangers Turbo twelve years before, but Dillon's subplot was also a complete rehash of Andros' in Power Rangers in Space.
  • Great Offscreen War: Averted for once; the premiere and flashbacks showed off quite a bit of Venjix's carnage.
  • Home Base: The Garage
  • Humongous Mecha: While this is standard in any Power Rangers series, the RPM Ultrazord is a twelve-zord combination and twice as large as any grown attackbot. What do you expect when its components include a Whale-jet and a Mammoth-train with T-rex and Triceratops cars?
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Almost averted, as thanks to the budgetary issues, Scott doesn't really have any exclusive powerups, Battlizers or even vehicles (outside of his civilian car); that said, he gets a few moments of glory, and is the only Ranger to command the PaleoMax Zords (and is also the usual wielder of the Rail Saber). There's also him being a qualified fighter pilot, one of the few Rangers in the franchise with military experience.
  • Make My Monster Grow: "Begin The Download", used by Venjix most of the time (sometimes others do it for him); this downloads a growth program into the attack bot. The generals can call it in the field if need be. (Note that the Go-Onger method of the Attack Bots having modules of grow juice activate within their systems is still seen from time to time; presumably it's some sort of revitalization fuel here.)
  • Mecha Expansion Pack: The Wolf Cruiser and Tail Spinner were briefly played up as this to the High Octane Megazord, until the Croc Carrier debuted and the three could make their own Megazord formation.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Grinders. They have giant screwdrivers that are both guns and blades.
  • Memory-Restoring Melody: After Dillon realizes Tenaya 7 is his long-lost sister, he purposely invokes this by waiting for her out in the wastelands with his pocket watch, playing "The Farmer in the Dell" (the song she often whistles, which clued Dillon in to her true identity). Once she is drawn to him, Dillon plays the watch's second melody, which unconsciously unlocks her memories of her brother and of being human, before Venjix captured her and experimented on her.
  • The Mentor: Dr. K claims to be one, but...
    Ziggy: "Mentor"? Sorry, can someone please explain to her that she's younger than us?
  • Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the girl Rangers' suits.
  • Mob Debt: The Green Ranger, Ziggy, owes money to a mobster called Fresno Bob because he stole black market medicine from his Scorpion Cartel and gave it to an orphanage.
  • Never Say "Die":
    • Wherever Fresno Bob and the mob is concerned - "ghosted" is the euphemism of choice.
    • In the finale when Gem and Gemma are "lost"...which is further explained as them being "gone." Similarly, Scott's brother "didn't make it." Apparently you can only say die when the people in question don't actually die.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite Corinth's supposedly American setting, one of the women in "Ranger Blue" calling out for her daughter Penny just uses a New Zealand accent. Justified since the presence of Flynn and his father would suggest multiple nationalities had fled to the city.
  • Once More, with Clarity: The first two episodes introduce us to our main characters in and around the lone city. We get to discover how they all ended up in the situations they were in through their titular episodes.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping:
    • All the main cast are Kiwis putting on accents, and Eka Darville, Milo Cawthorne and Olivia Tennet are the most notable slippers; in "Ranger Green", when Dr. K says of Ziggy "I can vouch for the incompetent part", she goes back into her New Zealand accent for the last two words.
    • Ari Boyland as Flynn fares much better, doing a Scottish accent that he was ordered to tone down slightly by producers (out of fear that American children wouldn't understand him). Years later, he had many Scottish fans tell him they thought he was legitimately Scottish.
    • The bloopers from the episode "And . . . Action!" feature one with Olivia Tennet as Dr. K repeatedly flubbing her lines filled with Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness. After another flub, she mutters "So close!" — in her Kiwi accent.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A former Air Force pilot; a Wide-Eyed Idealist Scottish mechanic; a fallen former heiress; a bumbling ex-criminal cartel member; a half-human hybrid with no memory of either his past or his identity; and twin hyperactive man children, are the world's only hope — all led by an emotionally closed off scientist with No Social Skills and one depressing backstory.
  • Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: Notably averted. Scott's an ex-soldier, Summer was already a martial artist, Flynn has been every kind of first responder that exists (and a guerrilla soldier), Dillon's a cyborg, Gem and Gemma were the original test pilots for all the gear, and even Ziggy, the guy who wasn't chosen for the team, is a one-time mobster. These kids are actually qualified to charge into dangerous situations.
  • Recycled IN SPACE!!: Power Rangers After the End! And with COOL CARS... Again!
    • With Dillon and Tenaya-7, we also, once again, get the Long Lost Sibling plot used in Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue where the sibling of one of the Rangers was raised to be evil before making a Heel–Face Turn. It especially bears a striking resemblance to the Andros-Astronema/Karone dynamic from In Space.
    • Yet another Disney Death, followed by a Back from the Dead trope, happens to one of the heroes — in this case, it happened a certain pair of Rangers (see further below) in this season... It was, if anything, just as shocking and heartbreaking as a certain Ranger death we were first exposed to, regardless of what you may think of those two.
  • Thememobile: Despite the show's usual tendency and the season's theme, averted! The Rangers get around in Cool Cars but with the exception of the GO-ONGER they're normal vehicles, not special Ranger designs.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: Averted! This is one of the few seasons in Power Rangers where the opening theme isn't played during the show at all.
  • Transformation Trinket: The Cell Shift Morphers for the core trio, Dillon and Ziggy use the Rev Shift Morphers (modeled after a car's gar shifter), and Gem and Gemma have the Sky Shift Morphers (which double as the flight sticks for their Zords and can combine with their Cloud Hatchets to form their Sky Shift Blazers). The former two dock into the center of the Wheel Blasters while piloting the Zords.
  • Unflinching Walk: A notable instance of Rangers' usual "Unflinching Pose" variant: Scott holds his post-"sliding sword attack" pose for a good 20 seconds without turning around (or putting his helmet back on) as General Shifter short circuits, falls over and explodes massively behind him in "Control Alt Delete."
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Power Rangers, we generally get a MOTW appearing with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.
  • Word Power:
    • By the Power of Grayskull!: "RPM, Get In Gear!" As with a lot of the other Ranger tropes this season, it's lampshaded (the phrases are stated by Dr. K to be voice recognition safety functions).

This subseries contains examples of:

  • Adaptational Nonsapience: All the Zords were the living "Engines" in the Sentai, from Another Dimension full of living vehicle beings; here, they're non-sentient battle machines.
  • Adapted Out: Bomper from Engine Sentai Go-onger was replaced with Dr. K.
  • Affectionate Self-Parody: Part of why this series is so awesome!
  • After the End
    • Cosy Catastrophe: Life inside Corinth looks just like life before Venjix. Except for the random Killer Robot attacks, of course. (So we should say, it's just like any other Power Rangers series.)
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Summer and Dillon, but she does mock Dillon for his lone wolf persona. ("Does brooding just come naturally, or do you have to practice every morning?")
  • All There in the Manual: Blurbs on Bandai's website explained that RPM stands for "Racing Performance Machines"; it wasn't brought up at all in the show.
  • Alternate Continuity: Original executive producer Eddie Guzelian and the season's senior story editor for both production regimes, John Tellegen, have repeatedly stated that RPM is emphatically not set in the same universe as the preceding sixteen seasons.
  • Animal-Vehicle Hybrid: Downplayed. The Zords all resemble a cross between a vehicle and an animal, but unlike their Super Sentai counterparts, they are not sentient.
  • Animated Actors: Despite going behind the scenes in "And... Action!", everyone stays in character.
  • Apocalypse How: The series itself is set in a Class 1 apocalyptic setting.
    • Apocalypse Wow: Shown in the Ranger flashback episodes, especially "Ranger Yellow" and "Doctor K"
  • Apocalyptic Log: Seen in "If Venjix Won". Justified because apparently Dr. K made a log of the events of the series, complete with detailed analysis of the ranger tech they had used, just in case they lost and some humans came across the wreckage of Corinth, so the fight could continue with new people taking up the mantle. This doesn't happen, of course, Dr. K is just Crazy-Prepared enough to have an Apocalyptic Log on hand in case it does.
  • Arranged Marriage: Summer. Thankfully, it's subverted.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Invoked by Tenaya 7 in "Ranger Yellow, Part 2".
    Tenaya 7: So I get to get my hands on a big, sparkly diamond; destroy the city of Corinth; and ruin Ranger Yellow's wedding all at once? [Draws hand blaster.] Oh, I'm so totally there!
  • Artistic License – Military: Two items.
    • The military leader is consistently addressed as "Colonel", yet his rank insignia is one star, which is a General's insignia.
    • In "Ranger Red", the Truman brothers are in their flight suits, on the base, doing flights sim training. Yet they have no insignia on their flight suits, which is valid uniform, and while on duty.
  • Ascended Extra: In Go-Onger, the Handle Blasters were strictly used in the Engine-Oh G6/G9/G12 cockpit to perform the finisher. Here, they get a one-time use on the ground as actual weapons in "Brother's Keeper".
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: Episode 2's "Attack Formation Delta" seems to just be "everyone dodge enemy fire, split up, and blow stuff up".
    • Then there is "Attack Sequence Mustang", which is basically just the megazord holding up its shield. Even stranger is that in later episodes, they just say "raise front deflectors!"
    • "Blitz" finally made an attempt to avert this by having "Wishbone Alpha" be a little more complicated than the previous patterns. It's still simple: Flynn uses his time powers to distract the enemy long enough for the Rangers to shoot their BFG at it, but it did have some element of actual strategy to it.
    • Gem and Gemma (who aren't really known for strategy to begin with) are guilty of this in "Prisoners". We never see what their "Beta Formation" actually is, since the action cuts directly to Zenith Megazord doing the finisher next (one can assume that it was intended to provide an opening for that).
    • A rousing cry of "Activate weapons!" in episode 26 resulted in a single punch. Meanwhile, episode 28 had "Delta Formation" result in all Megazords doing a simultaneous dropkick.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Gem and Gemma. "We like to blow stuff up!"
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ziggy and Dr. K's relationship. Most notably in "If Venjix Won", in which we learn that Dr. K has Ziggy's name for her password.
  • Baby Carriage: Used as a weapon in "Ranger Red". With the baby.
  • Back from the Brink: The Power Rangers are involved in a war against an enemy that has taken over nearly all of the world already. This Big Bad seems to favor quantity over quality. Witnessed by despite having legions of Mecha-Mooks which he uses in greater numbers and seemingly with more impunity then any Power Ranger Big Bad ever...They are at the same time the MOST EASILY beaten of any Mooks any Power Ranger team has ever fought, one is even sliced in half BY A CLOSING DOOR ON A SCHOOL BUS.
  • Badass Boast: Tenaya has a couple of these speeches rehearsed in her first major appearance. Stopping to deliver them comes back to bite her.
  • Badass Bystander: The old man in episode 20. He's not only able to get several refugees to escape, but he used to be a soldier and takes down 3 Grinders with their own gun.
  • Bald of Authority: Colonel Mason Truman.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: "Belly of the Beast" has Gem doing this to stop a chainsaw.
  • Batman Gambit: Dr. K does one in the episode named "Doctor K" appropriately enough. The rangers need another Flux Overthruster to combine the High Octane and ValveMax Megazords. The problem is they don't know how to make one, and can't get another one. Dr. K brings a cloning device from the ReflexBot that attacked earlier into the laboratory predicting Tenaya would be inside and would by accident clone the Flux Overthruster just in time to save the Rangers by letting them make the Zenith Megazord. And she had her violin connected to giant fans to blow Tenaya out of the base.
  • Battle Discretion Shot: The first fight of the season (between Dillon and some Mooks) happens almost entirely off-screen, with the camera focusing on a lone flower Dillon had watered just beforehand.
    • When Gem and Gemma take out the Alphabet Soup agents threatening Dr. K, all the viewer sees is Dr. K's shock as she watches.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ziggy and Dr. K. Oh so much.
  • Berserk Button: Don't call the suits "spandex" in front of Dr. K. Not even schoolchildren are safe from her wrath. ("Tights" seems to be OK.) Also, never put a scratch on Scott's car, don't call Fresno Bob "Bobarino", and don't call Tenaya 7 either human or cute.
  • The Berserker: Gem and Gemma, with smiles on their faces the entire time.
  • Betty and Veronica: Scott as Betty and Dillon as Veronica to Summer's Archie.
  • Big Damn Heroes with Big Damn Zords: Gem and Gemma, almost all the time. Especially blatant in "Prisoners", where they disappear on a "super-secret mission" - which, to all appearances, is "save Scott and Flynn's asses at the last minute".
  • Big "NO!": Venjix does this on occasion when something goes wrong, especially when a giant building falls on him. Dr. K also does this during her spotlight episode.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Venjix's insignia (蛮) roughly translates to "barbaric" or "unreasonable".
    • Which is also the first character of the collective name of the Monsters of the Week in the source material (蛮機獣 - "Barbarian Machine Beast").
  • Blood Knight: Gem and Gemma
  • Bond One-Liner: Beginning with "Ranger Red," Ziggy does this a lot in battle.
  • Book Ends: The season begins and ends with Dillon wandering the wastes, stopping to water a flower.
    • And "The Road to Corinth" begins with Dr. K's introduction about Venjix. The end of "Danger and Destiny, Part 2" has her closing the briefcase containing the Ranger Series morphers.
  • Brave Scot: Flynn. "What are you supposed to be?" "I'm Scottish!"
  • Break Them by Talking: Tenaya 7 sets off Dr. K by reminding her about how she "royally messed up" in spite of her immense intellect.
  • Bride and Switch: Pulled by the good guys after the bride realizes that not only does she really not want to go through with her Arranged Marriage but that she needs a diversion because the enemy has attacked the wedding.
  • Brick Joke: Ziggy's shadow puppets, mentioned briefly at the beginning of the series, it doesn't pay off until episode 17 when it help distract the guards while they try to escape the Mook factory.
  • Broken Bird: Dr. K, Little Miss Snarker Mentor variety.
  • Broken Record: Subverted in 'Ancient History' - Doctor K pretends to do this while communicating via hologram. 'After what I've seen...after what I've seen...good, I thought he would never leave!'
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor Ziggy. It seems that barely an episode can go by without the Green Ranger totally embarrassing himself in some way. Best reflected by his first ever morph. Previous rangers, whether they Jumped at the Call, were thrown in the cockpit or even stole their powers, always morphed with a fair amount of dignity and grace the first time. What's Ziggy's first line upon realizing what he has become?
    Ziggy: Woah! I'm a Power Ranger! I don't wanna be a Power Ranger! I do not want to be a Power Ranger!
    • He then proceeds to get kicked all over the place.
  • Call-Back:
    • A flashback in the episode "Doctor K" has her saying word-for-word part of her introduction to "The Road to Corinth" as she prepares to leave Alphabet Soup—now under attack by Venjix.
    • In "If Venjix Won", Ziggy asks Dr. K why she, of all people, wanted to spend time with him that day. She answers, "It's my birthday, and I wanted to go outside"—echoing the requests she made to her handlers growing up in Alphabet Soup each year on her birthday. (Cue flashbacks.)
    • From "Danger and Destiny, Part 2", after Scott leaves Ziggy to protect Dr. K:
    Ziggy: Don't worry. You can count on me, Dr. K.
    Dr. K: Yeah, last time I did that, I ended up in a cave.
    Ziggy: Good times, huh?
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Dr. K and Ziggy in "In or Out".
  • Canon Foreigner: Three Paleozord-based Rangers in the toyline. Unlike in Jungle Fury, they never made it into the show.
  • Can't Catch Up: Ziggy's fighting skills barely even improve till the finale; Gem and Gemma, despite being Super Prototypes, lack the suit powers and civilian vehicles of the core five, then get sidelined for part of the finale before making up for it with a Big Damn Heroes moment.
    • Then again, while Ziggy's fighting prowess isn't up to par with the other Rangers, it is rather effective in its own Jackie Chan-bungling kind of way.
  • Captain Ersatz: Venjix = Skynet + HAL + the voice of MCP + some bits of Ultron (especially in how he keeps upgrading his bodies).
  • Cardboard Prison: A variation in "Ranger Green", where some criminals break into the prison to kidnap Ziggy.
  • Carrying a Cake: "Ranger Yellow Part 2"
  • Catchphrase Interruptus: Does Tenaya 7 ever actually get to say her very verbose title?
  • Chained Heat: Scott and Dillon in "Brother's Keeper".
  • Character Development: Perhaps one of the highlights of the season. Almost everyone, including some of the minor characters, get some development. The characters who get the most development however, are Scott, Summer, Ziggy, Dillon, and Dr. K.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Both single-episode and arc-wide versions:
    • Chekhov M.I.A.: The mysterious girl in Dillon's dreams.
    • Chekhov's Boomerang: Ziggy's shadow puppets and Tenaya's whistling "The Farmer In The Dell".
    • Chekhov's Gun: The experimental blaster in "Ranger Green" (it also returns in later episodes as a regular if not plot-important part of K's arsenal).
    • Chekhov's Gag: The cannon in the fridge, initially used for a joke in "Handshake", pops back up later that episode as a legitimate (if comedic) weapon. Same thing with the Transformation Sequence explosions in "Ranger Blue".
    • Chekhov's Gunman: Gem and Gemma
    • Infallible Babble: A guard remarks that a Venjix hardware detector has been giving him false positives all day when it goes off on Tenaya 7. It turns out they weren't.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: Besides the standard Ranger powers, each suit has a special ability built in.
  • Colonel Badass: Colonel Mason Truman.
    Cpl. Hicks: We lost contact with air support over an hour ago, sir... what should I do, sir?
    Col. Truman: Go shoot at something.
  • Colony Drop: Gem and Gemma destroy Venjix by dropping the Corinth control tower on his head. It is implied he still survives! And indeed he did...
  • The Comically Serious: Dr. K. No Social Skills + Socially Awkward Situations = Hilarity Ensues
  • Cool Cars: Notable as the first time in a while that the Rangers use vehicles that aren't Ranger-modded or even given a distinct RPM paintjob.
    • They ARE still color-coded, of course. This is still Power Rangers, after all.
  • Cool Train: The Paleozords
  • Crapsaccharine World: Bordering on Crapsack World at times.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Ziggy, obviously. He can be bumbling, but he does eventually improve by the end of the season, and comes up with a couple of plans that actually work (remember, he used to be part of a criminal group). For the villains, General Crunch — he may be the comic relief villain, but whenever he's in the field he actually proves to be fairly competent at fighting the Rangers. He's also astute enough to point out the flaws in the usual villain plans, which Venjix doesn't appreciate (blasting Crunch for his troubles); notably, when he's left in charge while Venjix is absent, he immediately makes the attack-bot grow.
  • Curse Cut Short: Many are filling in the blanks with glee after Ziggy ticks off Flynn when he rips open a bag of chips all over Flynn. While he's driving.
    Flynn: Dude! As if you wouldn't learn to open a bag of-
    (Venjix appears)
    • In the episode "Control-Alt-Delete", you can hear Dr. K almost saying "shit" — but cutting it off just in time, so it sounds like "shh".
    • In "The Road to Corinth" Flynn throws half a Grinder off the bus with something that his accent converts to either trash, scrap, or crap.
  • Cute and Psycho: Gem and Gemma are a mild case (but probably only "mild" because they limit their targets to Killer Robots).
  • Cyber Cyclops: Venjix, but only when he's in his computer cylinder.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The Venjix technology within Dillon and a bunch of other people is taking over, and there's no way to stop it.
  • Cyborg: Dillon. And Tenaya. And half of Corinth...
  • Dance Battler: Scott incorporates Capoeira and break-dancing into his fighting style as Eka Darville is trained in the art. It's averted in Olivia Tennet's case as, although she is trained in dance, Dr. K doesn't get to do many physical stunts.
  • Darker and Edgier: Go-Onger was a very silly show even by the standards of many Super Sentai, unlike RPM, which is in a post-apocalyptic setting that doesn't hold back, especially for a kids' show. Also in comparison to most if not all of the rest of Power Rangers.
  • David Versus Goliath: In "Ancient History", the Red Ranger attacks the enlarged drill bot alone, without a zord, in order to distract it long enough for Dr. K to use the Paleozord against it.
  • A Day in the Limelight; For everyone! (Except Dillon.)
  • Deadpan Snarker: Dr. K
  • Death by Origin Story: Marcus (Scott's brother) and Andrews (Summer's butler). Not to mention nearly all life on Earth when Venjix unleashes a Type 4 disaster at the start of the series.
  • Debut Queue: Interestingly done after introductions with flashback episodes.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Dr. K, hitting every single branch on the way down.
    • Tenaya 7 to a lesser extent.
  • Disney Death: Gem and Gemma in the finale.
  • The Dissenter Is Always Right: The way things usually work is for the Rangers to defend Corinth from one monster attack at a time, but newcomers Gem and Gemma are unimpressed, saying that they'd rather take the fight to the bad guys. They strike out on their own, and Scott, who couldn't get Colonel Truman to listen to his theory about the villains' real plan, goes with them. Naturally, the reckless rebels learn their lesson about going off on their own, right? Wrong. The villains had found a way to suck the air out of the city through its force field, and with the shields powered as high as they were, they couldn't be powered down in time to save everyone. The outpost Gem and Gemma wanted to attack? Guess what it was being used for? Yeah. If not for the trio doing everything you're not supposed to do on Saturday morning TV, everyone in Corinth, the last human settlement on Earth, would have been very dead.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Gem and Gemma are always upbeat, or at least always smiling, even when talking about horrific things. Case in point: when Scott asks them how they can be sure that Venjix uses human prisoners to build grinders, they simply reply that they themselves used to be such prisoners- still smiling.
    Gem: We were forced to work-
    Gemma:-unbearable hours under-
    Gem:-unspeakably brutal conditions. *cheerful smile*
  • Documentary Episode: "And... Action!" is a really bizarre version. It's ostensibly an out-of-universe behind-the-scenes feature on how the show is made, the filming of stunts, and some amusing bloopers... except everyone remains in-character (even the bad guys in full costume), casually addressing the audience despite never acknowledging the fourth wall whatsoever anywhere else. Don't try to think too hard about the process explaining how they do their special effects when Ziggy (not his actor, Milo Cawthorne) can still teleport.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Green Ranger's debut episode. The group hosts a city-wide audition, with various citizens employing odd gimmicks to land the job, with the three Rangers as judges. Said Rangers are a citizen of the United Kingdom, a black man, and a young woman, offering various comments.
  • Domed Hometown: Corinth
  • Don't Explain the Joke: In "Ranger Red": "Look, Ziggy, I told you. They're called 'one-liners' for a reason."
  • Dramatic Deadpan: Dr. K's confession that she created and released Venjix after implanting its base code to prevent Dillon from falling completely under Venjix's control in "Brother's Keeper".
    Dr. K: What just happened was that I uploaded the base code for the Venjix virus. I know it because I wrote it. I'm the one who released it. Everything that's happened, everything you've all been through, it's all my fault.
  • Dual Wielding: Mike Ginn (Gem) appears to be eating a banana in each hand in the behind the scenes episode.
    • And Scott wields both his Street Saber and Gem's Cloud Hatchet when fighting Venjix at one point.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Probably the least well-adjusted Ranger team in the entire franchise. Gem and Gemma especially, though Doctor K is probably the worst off.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Especially for Dr. K and, to a lesser extent, Scott, Dillon, and Tenaya.
  • Embarrassing Password: In "If Venjix Won", Dr. K's password is "Ziggy".
  • The End... Or Is It?: The season finale. The battle is won. Venjix is defeated. The Rangers turn in their morphers and move on with their lives. The world is starting to heal from Venjix's apocalypse. And then we see one of the Rangers' Morphers blinking with a red light, just like Venjix's all-seeing eye, as Dr. K closes the holding case... This, however, wouldn't be followed up for quite some time.
  • Enemy Civil War: As per usual for the franchise. The conflict begins when Kilobyte returns and his patronizing attitude towards Tenaya ticks off the latter. She also decides to sabotage General Shifter's new attack bot and causes it to attack Venjix, resulting in Shifter being exiled and attempting to take down the Rangers himself. Kilobyte, meanwhile, realizes that Tenaya's getting too close to the truth regarding her real origins; after her defection, Venjix has Tenaya upgraded/brainwashed. This in turn results in Kilobyte feeling like Venjix is ignoring him, so he goes ahead and activates one of the hybrid sleeper agents without Venjix's permission, which pisses off Venjix (since this let the Rangers know Venjix's real plan) and causes Kilobyte to get banished. Kilobyte escapes before that can happen and during the finale attempts to off Tenaya himself; Dillon intervenes and Kilobyte meets his end via the Road Blaster.
  • Enemy Eats Your Lunch: One of Dillon's Establishing Character Moments. While a prison inmate is intimidating Ziggy, Dillon helps himself to strawberry Jell-O that the inmate had just stated was off-limits, and when confronted makes clear that he doesn't care about any threats they make. And then he wins the ensuing fight and starts to eat in peace.
  • Escaped from the Lab: Dr. K was raised in a military think tank called Alphabet Soup, where the government used her advanced mind to build new technology. While she was there, K met and befriended the genetically engineered twins Gem and Gemma. K would escape years later, as did Gem and Gemma.
  • Establishing Character Moment: "The Road to Corinth" has several, with Colonel Truman and Corporal Hicks surveying the battle, Flynn hauling in a school bus full of survivors (establishing his heroism), and Summer riding in on a motorcycle with Scott just before the gate closes and the city's shields are activated.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave: Nearly all of Earth's population is dead, and the Earth is an apocalyptic wasteland, save for one (possibly more) city.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Averted. Fresno Bob is perfectly willing to work with machines that have every intention of destroying all of humanity. Even if Bob was guessing that Tenaya 15 was a woman with a grudge and a thing for head pieces, she showed up with Grinders as her bodyguards. That should raise flags that this woman will kill you.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: Dr. K asks the Rangers if they were when she first revealed herself.
    • Ziggy actually expected her to be a guy!
  • Exponentially Escalating Arms Race: Between successive generations of Venjix-bots and new Zords. One of which is actually a hijacked Venjix superweapon.
  • Expy: The ValveMax Megazord has a crocodile forming most of the body, with a shark (we think), and a wolf forming arms (likely a coincidence, as the latter two were an orca and a dog in Go-Onger). And the Road Attack Zord seems to resemble the Warrior Wheel; even its finishing move is almost the same.
    • Tenaya 7 is an Expy of Astronema.
    • There's also the Paleomax Megazord to the original Megazord (as the brute of the mecha fleet and the only one with a combined vehicle form, rather like the Megazord's tank mode). Heck, it's got the same horns, and the Tricera foot's on the same leg as on the original Megazord. The only glaring difference is the Mammoth chest... though the Mammoth can blow freezing "steam" just like the Mastodon Dinozord (the Mastodon head was attached to the chest of the Megazord, but only in tank mode). It has to be a deliberate shout-out on the part of the Super Sentai designers.
    • The Grinders' mannerisms are quite reminiscent of Cyclobots.
  • Eyed Screen: Done occasionally through, believe it or not, practical effects instead of just letterboxing the screen.
  • The Face: Ziggy may not be the one you want talking to outsiders, but within the team itself his social skills are his specialty, as proven by the fact that his strongest bonds are with the antisocial loners of the group (Dillon and Dr. K).
  • Fake Memories: Given to Dillon to lure the Rangers to Omega City
  • Fallen Princess: Summer as revealed in "Ranger Yellow".
  • Falling into the Cockpit: Ziggy
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Many Grinders are destroyed in very gruesome ways.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: None of the Rangers fits a specific archetype, but all of them, one primary and one secondary-colored Ranger each, are a combination of two of those archetypes.
  • Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Gem and Gemma
  • Flashback: The flashback episodes and the end-of-episode title cards may be a Shout-Out to a certain other show that plays on ABC.
  • Flying Car: Eagle Racer
  • Foreshadowing: The song that Dillon's pocket watch plays is the same song that Tenaya 7 whistles when she is hunting somebody, which foreshadows that she is his sister.
    • In "Ranger Red", Ziggy points out that Dr. K made a mistake when she reveals that she "miscalculated" the required energy to power the new Croc Carrier. She responds that she's made a mistake before . . . once. It's only four episodes later when we find out just how colossal her mistake had been.
    • In "Ranger Yellow Part 2", Tenaya 7 has a taste of the frosting of Summer's wedding cake, despite supposedly being a robot. This is a sign she is really a human, which will be revealed later in the season.
    • Dr. K is first introduced as a voice through a speaker and was very detached from everyone she worked with, not unlike Venjix. You can see the two already shared something in common besides Alphabet Soup.
    • Right before discovering she's a Venjix infiltrator, a soldier gets what he thinks is a false reading on his scanner, saying that it's been getting false readings all week. The finale reveals that Venjix has multiple sleeper agents in the city, meaning that those probably weren't false readings.
  • For Great Justice: Flynn in "Ranger Blue" when he suggests to Dr. K that she change the morph call to "Ranger Justice Unleashed!".
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: "And... Action!" starts out normally, then Ziggy breaks the fourth wall and turns it into a behind-the-scenes episode.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: A lot of stuff on Flynn's job records. Though they all say that he lived in Corinth City before the Venjix attacks.
  • Friendship Moment: Granted there tend to be lot of these in Power Rangers, but special mention goes to Ziggy saving Dillon in Blitz. This is a character who, at the start of the season, wouldn't help anyone if it involved any risk to himself. In this episode, Dillon is thrown from a building. Without a second's hesitation, Ziggy leaps off the building, morphs in midair, catches Dillon and teleports them down to the ground before they build up too much velocity.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Colonel Truman's van is named the Ground Outdoor Operational Network General-purpose Explorational Rover — that is, the GO-ONGER.
  • Gambit Roulette: Dr. K claims to be in charge of all of her plans, but some things just line up a little too nicely for chance.
    • Occasionally, Venjix sends out one attackbot that the Rangers take out pretty quick, but was actually setting things up for the next attackbot. Too bad the Rangers always foil his plans.
      • Always foil his plans? His defeat might have been a way to effectively let Earth get complacent while sneaking his way into the Morphing Grid. Need we mention the virus ploy. Insofar, it actually looks like everything went according to Venjix's plans. and ten years after, he did succeed in that goal.
  • Gendercide: Temporary variety during "The Dome Dolls".
  • Genius Bruiser: Flynn, "The Simple Mechanic."
  • Genius Ditz: Gem and Gemma, for all their childlike enthusiasm, were in Alphabet Soup for a reason.
    • Dr K even confirms to Ziggy that they know how to recharge the morphers from their base (they just can't figure out the password).
  • Genius Sweet Tooth: Dr. K in "Three's A Crowd"; Ziggy thinks of himself as a Genius By Way Of Sweet Tooth.
  • Genki Guy and Genki Girl: Gem and Gemma
  • Genre Deconstruction
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In "And... Action!", during the Blooper Reel, Scott/Eka Darville drops an uncensored Precision F-Strike after he bumps into Dr. K's door.
  • Giggling Villain: General Crunch. (After he found his voice, that is.)
  • Girl's Night Out Episode: "The Dome Dolls"
  • Giving the Sword to a Noob: Ziggy
  • God Help Us All: Colonel Truman in the premiere.
  • Goshdang It To Heck: Flynn and his "sweet mother o' molasses" and "Odin's Beard" comments. Also see Curse Cut Short above.
  • Grand Theft Prototype: Dr. K's answer to Venjix's doomsday machine? Reprogram it with whale DNA — however that works — into a Zord on Corinth's side.
  • Gratuitous French: This exchange between Ziggy and Dr. K in "Danger and Destiny, Part 1" when he frees them from their restraints:
    Ziggy: Voila!
    Dr. K: Merci beaucoup.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Alphabet Soup, the corrupt government facility who kidnapped geniuses, lied to them about an illness and worked them to death, which resulted in Dr. K making Venjix. This also technically makes them this trope for a much later series, set in a completely different universe.
  • Groin Attack: Evil!Dillon to Flynn in "Brother's Keeper". Just as hilarious in that fight: Ziggy gets rapid-fire bitchslapped.
  • Hard-Work Montage: Flynn and Gemma in "Not So Simple", complete with falling asleep.
  • Head Bob: While played straight when we see the Rangers' helmets from the outside, it's averted whenever we see inside; the camera instead shows a tight close-up of the Ranger's eyes illuminated by the light from their visor and various blinking lights within the helmet interior.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Tenaya 7 after The Reveal. Venjix reprograms her back to his side, but the Rangers eventually break his hold.
  • He Didn't Make It: Scott in the premiere, about his brother. He stays dead.
  • Helping Hands: Tenaya 7
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Gem and Gemma in the Grand Finale.
    • Andrews, Summer's butler, sacrificing his life so that she could make it to Corinth before the city's shield's activated.
  • Hero Insurance: Almost averted in "Ancient History", but Dr. K takes out a policy just in time to avoid being arrested on treason for releasing the Venjix virus. Also seen when Gem and Gemma bust down a door to stop some crooks, and have to repair it later.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dillon and Ziggy in the early episodes.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Shown in "... And Action!"
  • Hilarity Ensues: Ziggy is a lovable coward, comic relief guy who accidentally becomes the Green Ranger. He proceeds to be...A lovable, slightly less cowardly, comic relief Power Ranger who bumbles his way through fights. And usually wins.
  • Honor Before Reason: Flynn's flashback montage shows that he puts helping others and saving lives before the following things: his job security (policeman flashback), common sense and resource management (firefighter flashback), and potentially his own life and limb (aid worker flashback).
  • Hope Sprouts Eternal: Seen in the premiere. By the finale more flowers have begun to sprout.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All flashback episodes are named after the character they feature.
  • Idiot Ball: Great job disabling Ranger Black and letting the monster tap into the weather grid, Dr. K.
    • Tenaya's plan to gas the city in "The Dome Dolls"; one, for being only knockout gasses and two, for having a separate gas for each gender.
  • If It Swims, It Flies: Eagle Racer notwithstanding, a zord's flight ability is based on its vehicle half, not its animal. So the Tail Spinner zord (half-motorcycle) averts this trope, while the Whale Zord justifies it by being half-plane. Of course, the flying whale wears a lampshade.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted. Ziggy approaches Dillon under control of the virus, and says that his friendship power is so strong, Dillon wouldn't dare hit him. Turns out he would.
    • And previously in "Control Alt Delete" when Dillon defends himself from a re-brainwashed Tenaya, continually yelling that she's his sister and refusing to attack. This could be considered subverted or played straight depending on your reading of the scene - after Dillon's shield is broken and his power levels are scanned and found low, Tenaya stops attacking and walks away without explanation, but the overall loyalty to Venjix appears unchanged.
  • I Like Those Odds: Faced with a small army of Mecha-Mooks, all Dillon has to say is "Venjix should've sent more."
  • Improbable Age: Dr. K: she created the Ranger powers, and is no older than 19. She was also dealing with advanced mathematical equations by age 5.
  • Improbable Weapon User: The cast has weaponized chairs, bubble wraps, shopping carts, veggies, a rental tuxedo jacket, a wedding veil, a violin amp, an umbrella, a giant pole, a building, and a stroller with a baby in it!
    • There's also a rare case of the Rangers' suits being used as weapons — more specifically, the tire-shaped (for the core three; Ziggy and Dillion have gold gear-shaped cuffs, and Gem and Gemma have no such bands at all) arm and leg cuffs can be used to perform close-quarters "burnout" attacks. This functionality was invented for RPM, and later became Ret-Canon in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.
  • Improvised Weapon: See above, and...
    • Scott uses a baby stroller (with baby) during a fight at a playground.
    • Flynn would have something to say as using his henshin explosion to blow a hole in a wave of Mooks.
    • The concept is lampshaded in "If Venjix Won", in which Ziggy and Dr. K are attacked by Grinders. The two argue over who gets to use a broken pole as a weapon when K points out that Ziggy has actual weapons.
    • Don't forget the building, the headquarters for city security, used in the finale.
  • Instant Expert: Subverted by Ziggy, who's possibly the only Ranger in history to not automatically learn martial arts upon morphing. See also "Three's a Crowd", where the Rangers try to learn how to combine their three already giant combo-mecha into one ridiculously Humongous Mecha, with violent results.
  • Insufferable Genius: Dr. K.
  • Invincible Incompetent: Ziggy
  • Ironic Nursery Tune: Tenaya stalks her prey whistling "The Farmer In The Dell"
  • ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: At the end of "Ranger Blue" when Flynn comes home to his father, complete with a baguette.
  • It's A Pajama Party, I Swear: Pulled - perhaps inadvertently - on Dr. K in "And... Action!"
  • Karmic Death: Think about it. What, throughout the series, usually gets destroyed when the Monster of the Week grows to giant size? Buildings. Now, what do the rangers use to defeat the final Big Bad of the season?
  • Lampshade Hanging: Everything that is Power Rangers. Because "nothing says 'covert' like bright red, yellow, and blue spandex."
    • THAT IS NOT! SPANDEX!!!
    • Better than a Bare Bulb: Two episodes head into this territory:
      • "Handshake" has Venjix's generals snark at the spray nozzle robot and wonder why they never do a Zerg Rush while Corinth's shields are down, as well as asking "Are you going to supersize the Nozz-Bot now, or wait until the Rangers defeat it first?" (Crunch panics, gets blasted)
      • The episode "Ranger Blue" begins with a five-minute conversation where the Rangers ask Dr. K why the zords have eyesnote , why there's an epic explosion behind them when they morphnote  and why they scream "RPM! GET IN GEAR!"note  And later Tenaya asks Flynn what his role in the Five-Man Band is. "I'm SCOTTISH!"
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dillon. And its not going to get any better, considering that they've blown up the 'bot that was storing his lost memories. He is never seen to get his old memories back, though as he said in that episode, he's got something better: new ones.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Cmdr. Murdock from "Heroes Among Us." And of course, the "Boom Time" twins.
  • Literal-Minded: Dr. K.
    Col. Truman: I sure hope you know what you're doing.
    Dr. K: Why does everyone keep saying that? Of course I am aware of what I am doing! I just have absolutely no idea of whether or not it will work.
    • And even more painfully straight in "Ranger Green": Ziggy rhetorically asks Dr. K what could possibly go wrong in attempting teleportation, and she actually gives him a list of worst-case scenarios. She even tells him that she was just answering his (rhetorical) question!
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: A whole orphanage of them, in fact. Ziggy pisses off Corinth's entire criminal underworld for their sake.
  • LEGO Genetics: Introduced into the Whale Zord through computer download.
  • Let's Mock the Monsters: Even the Quirky Miniboss Squad can't always take the attackbots seriously (see "Handshake").
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Summer
  • Lovely Angels: Summer and Gemma in the Girl's Night Out Episode - said episode is even titled "The Dome Dolls".
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Dr. K and Venjix, although they both knew about it. It was everyone else who was surprised when it was announced.
  • Made of Plasticine: Robot example: the Grinders. In "Ranger Blue" one is disabled by throwing a bag of vegetables at him, and another is cut in half by a bus door.
  • Make a Wish: Dr. K's wish when blowing out candles on her birthday cake was she could remember her real name. We never see that happen.
  • Man in a Kilt: Flynn, for a wedding and when he was attending school. Note that kilts in these situations are Truth in Television.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Kilobyte, complete with the appropriately posh accent. His Villain Decay over the last few episodes has lessened this somewhat.
  • Manchild: Dr. K, as evidenced by the goofy Zord designs, diabetic sweet tooth, and the alphabet soup pajamas and slippers she wears from time to time.
  • Men of Sherwood: Colonel Truman's soldiers are hardened veterans of a global war who Hold the Line to evacuate citizens and themselves in the opening scene and remain impressive, albeit minor, characters afterward.
  • Meta Guy: Ziggy
  • The Men in Black: The Alphabet Soup handlers. Crosses with The Faceless.
  • Mineral MacGuffin: the Landsdown Diamond in "Ranger Yellow"
  • Mood Dissonance: Some fans say this is inherent in the show, with the premise being the End of the World as We Know It, but with all sorts of silly things like talent shows cropping up in episodes, let alone the goofy Go-Onger-sourced stuff.
  • Mood Whiplash: The "Terminator meets Mad Max" theme of the show clashes rather badly with both the Power Rangers camp-factor in general (especially in the first episode) and with Go-Onger's ridiculous looking Zords and generally silly monster designs. Then again, some find the campiness endearing, apocalyptic background or not. See Pragmatic Adaptation below.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Dillon—heck, Dan Ewing—embodies this trope.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Tenaya 7. You can actually identify her stuntwoman by her less shapely rear.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Dr. K controlling the base venting systems with her violin. It's cool, but bwuh?
  • Musical Assassin: Dr. K and her Violin of Doom.
  • My Greatest Failure: Dr. K and . . . do we even need to spell it out for you?
  • Mysterious Protector: The Gold and Silver Rangers in "Embodied" and "Ghosts"
  • Mythology Gag
    • There's a Jungle Karma Pizzeria in Corinth, the wedding episode had the local idiot faceplant into a cake, and Flynn wanted to change the morph call to "Rangers to the Rescue" or "Ranger Justice Unleashed". Also, the Red Overdrive Ranger's helmet was seen in "Ancient History".
    • And there's some rare Sentai nods as well. Most blatant, obviously, is the GO-ONGER, and when discussing it Summer asks if it was built in 1975. Flynn also describes the Falcon Copter as a flying chicken, which it actually was in Go-Onger.
    • Scott's backstory is similar to that of Kaijou Tsuyoshi, the first-ever Sentai Red. Both are the younger brothers of military leaders who were killed in the villains' attack. Furthermore, the Trumans were both members of Eagle Squad, while Tsuyoshi and his brother were both members of the EAGLE organization.
    • The PaleoMax Megazord is an Expy of the original Megazord. Part of it is a mammoth with freezing powers. It's got a very familiar head design. The left foot is even a Triceratops, another distinguishing feature because of the prominent horns. Though Go-Onger and Zyuranger aren't related at all, the Sentai creators are aware of Power Rangers, and it seems that they put in a sweet Homage by making what was to have been the last-ever Megazord look just like the first-ever Megazord.
    • And, in "Forever Red", there was a General Venjix in the Machine Empire. Fanficsplosion in 10... 9... 8...
    • Dillon's not the first Ranger to join the team as a condition of being released from prison.
    • The monsters are named more or less like they are in Go-Onger, just with "bot" instead of "banki".
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Gem, on Gemma and Flynn. Also Dillon, when Ziggy comments that Tenaya is kinda hot when she's not out to kick their asses.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: In typical Power Rangers fashion, various rangers, zords and monsters get these on occasion, but one of the most striking examples is when Tenaya 7 uses her arm as a lightning rod to absorb several bolts being blasted at her via Corinth's weather control system, and fires them back at the rangers. For that matter, the fact that the weather system can even do this is pretty surprising.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dr. K "just wanted... to go outside...", and in attempting to do so, she caused the apocalypse.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Shifter's takeover of the Paleozords led to Dr. K figuring out how to merge all the mecha into the Ultrazord.
    • Even earlier, they needed another energy-thingie, but there was only one ever built, and they can't build another one. Then, an attack bot that can make a duplicate of any object comes along, so Dr. K manages to manipulate events to get one in the base and get the enemy to accidentally make a copy of said energy-thingie. Tenaya even questions if she actually planned it all this way. *Cue violin attack*
    • Kilobyte wanted to do something useful so he activated a hybrid to attack the Colonel; not only did it fail, but it tipped the Rangers off to what Venjix was planning (much to Venjix's fury).
  • The Nicknamer: Dr. K refuses to call the Rangers by their names, though she tries to change (except for Ziggy) after Gem and Gemma turn up alive and call her out on being impersonal.
  • Non-Action Guy: Ziggy
  • Non-Indicative Name: Gem and Gemma's Cloud Hatchets are really more like daggers than actual hatchets.
  • No Social Skills: Dr. K
  • Not Himself: Dillon under the influence of Venjix.
  • Not in the Face!: Ziggy in the first episode.
  • Not Wearing Pants: Ziggy relates a story of one such incident in the premiere... then we actually see it happen to him in "Ranger Green" (at least he doesn't have a rash this time).
  • The Nudifier: Dr. K's sonic cannon, when still in the experimental stage in "Ranger Green". Of course, since this is a kids' show, it leads to Comedic Underwear Exposure instead.
  • Obfuscated Interface: Venjix's computers display data too fast for humans to process (Dillon, being a cyborg, manages just fine).
  • Oh, Crap!: Tenaya in "Ranger Yellow, Part 2" and "Doctor K." She knows the violin, she fears the violin.
    • Venjix ultimately meets his doom with a building dropped on him in the finale. He doesn't take it very well.
  • One-Letter Name: Dr. K
  • Only Sane Man: Tenaya seems to be the only one that notices the inherent absurdity of the villains' usual tactics. She spends most of "Blitz" asking if the absurd plan-o'-the-week has failed sufficiently for her to go take a nap without missing anything important.
  • Opening Narration:
    Doctor K: A computer virus has built armies of robotic soldiers and taken control of our world. But there is still one place we can be safe: the domed city of Corinth. And the only hope we have left is...
    Theme Music: Power Rangers RPM! Get in gear!
  • Origins Episode: Scott, Flynn, Summer, Ziggy, and Doctor K each get an episode where their backstories before the events of the series are revealed.
    • "Ranger Green" reveals how Ziggy tried to be a full fledged member of the Scorpion Cartel, until he secretly gave a truck full of $5 million worth of medical supplies to an orphanage that needed it, earning him the ire of the head of the organization, Fresno Bob, and every other gangster in Corinth, forcing to flee the city where he meet Dillon.
    • "Ranger Red" shows Scott living in the shadow of his older brother, Marcus, before the later was KIA protecting Corinth from Venjix drones.
    • The two part "Ranger Yellow" reveals how Summer went from a spoiled rich girl to the person she is currently when the Venjix attacks started, especially after the death of her bulter, Andrews, to the moment she rescued Scott.
    • "Ranger Blue" reveals how Flynn always wanted to be a superhero when he was kid. despite his father's disapproval of it, and tried to help people in the past, while paying the price for doing the right thing, until he hijacked a bus to save a group of the people trapped outside of Corinth when the Venjix attacks begin, impressing his father.
    • "Doctor K" reveals how ever since she was a little girl, she was forced to grow up and work in a corrupt Government think tank called Alphabet Soup, along the twins Gem and Gemma, being lied to that they were allergic to sun light. When Dr. K discovered the truth, she created Venjix to help her and the twins escape, but then Alphabet Soup wouldn't allow Dr. K to install a firewall to keep Venjix spreading throughout the world.
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Dillon's music-box locket
  • Out-of-Genre Experience: The first half of "The Road to Corinth" feels more like a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller than a typical Power Rangers episode.
  • Override Command: Dr. K tries to turn off Dillon's ranger suit in "Blitz". He somehow overpowers it.
  • Pass the Popcorn: During Ziggy's "interrogation". Ziggy himself and Gemma also pull buckets out on occasion.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Partially subverted in "If Venjix Won". The Rangers guess several ranger-related words and phrases as Dr. K's possible computer password, each one failing. It turns out she chose Ziggy's name as her password, presumably thinking no-one would guess because no-one knew that she had feelings for him.
  • Percussive Maintenance: Handwaved as Flynn intentionally building the Road Attack Zord to shut down from a good whack in the center.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: Dillon.
  • Plot Hole:
    • In the episode "Heroes Among Us", Gem gives a couple swipes and a robot blows up. Just for that he gets a "Hero of Corinth" medal. Scott has never earned a "Hero of Corinth" medal despite the fact he's saved the city many, many, many more times with the other rangers before Gem arrived in Corinth. It's possible he received it not just for having defeated the robot, but for what he and Gemma had done offscreen, as they are said to have fought Venjix' forces for years outside Corinth.
    • The fact that Dr. K worked on the PaleoMax zords before the others were invented, and she certainly couldn't have known of Gem and Gemma's zords or the future Whale zord, so how come the 3 PaleoMax zords are labelled 10, 11, and 12? Suspicious they knew they'd be introduced after 9 others came in. It's possible that she had already thought of nine Zord projects before designing the Paleozords, and the Paleozords were only the first to be actually built.
  • Poor Communication Kills: During one episode, the rangers realize the real objective of Venjix's latest maneuver. Instead of spelling out to the colonel how they're playing into Venjix's hands, Scott yells about how his father is playing right into Venjix's hands and that Attack! Attack! Attack!, suggested and shot down earlier, is the right idea. This costs them the opportunity to derail the scheme before it can begin.
  • Plug 'n' Play Technology: For all of Venjix's advanced and obfuscated tech, its servers still accept flash drives. And the Whale Zord is a megazord-ready Transforming Mecha immediately after conversion even though Dr. K seems to come up with the idea on the spot.
    • The whale Zord can be explained easily enough: since Dr. K created both the Rangers and Venjix, it's logical that the technologies would be compatible, hence why Venjix was able to hack the biofield in the finale.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: While the show likely didn't have the budget to digitally recolor Go-Onger's silly looking zords, they do attempt to distract from the silly looking appliance-based monsters by having them not talk, but instead just be snarling beasts. Only a handful of MOTWs have had any lines, the rest either growled or made electronic noises. This required quite a bit of editing, as the Go-Onger monsters were extremely talkative and would often do a short monologue (or even a song!) before they exploded; in RPM, they simply cut straight from the finisher to the fall n' kaboom. As for the zords, whenever they have to talk, they just have the rangers inside talking instead (and cut a lot of shots where the Zords would talk).
    • This has led to some extremely short zord battles; some Go-Onger battles have over half the fight being the monster dancing, delivering monologues or comically running around. Edit that out and it's not much more than "form the megazord and do the finisher."
      • While this isn't very dramatic, it does make sense given the show's setting - this is THE last holdout of human civilization on Earth. The Rangers can't risk a prolonged Megazord battle in Corinth City, with all the collateral damage that implies, so they immediately go for the one-hit-kill weapon.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: This, of course, is a Power Rangers staple, but a notable example goes to Dr. K's first encounter with Tenaya 7 in "Ranger Yellow, Part 2"—complete with a violin.
    Tenaya 7 [holding up blaster]: Dr. K, I presume? If you're as smart as they say you are, I'm expecting some pretty profound last words here.
    Dr. K [picking up violin plugged into the amp]: Then I'll speak the universal language of music.
    Tenaya 7 [looks at speaker array]: You are smart! [Dr. K then plays a loud chord, sending Tenaya 7 flying.]
  • The Precious, Precious Car: According to Scott, the GO-ONGER is this to Colonel Truman. Obviously, when the Rangers take it out on a mission Watch the Paint Job soon follows. Scott and Dillon also have moments where they're protective of their cars. Scott once beat a Grinder to death with his bare hands for scratching the paint on his car.
  • Product Placement: In addition to the usual, there were licensed Toyota toys. (It didn't come up in the show.)
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Gem and Gemma, who plotted to blow up one of Venjix's factories with human slaves still inside. And clearly have a mental age around five at the most, despite being technological geniuses.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Once again... THAT IS NOT SPANDEX!!
    • And on the other side of the dome: "I AM VENJIX!"
  • Pyrrhic Victory: Congratulations, Rangers, you have defeated Venjix!note  All it cost was 99% of life on earth, and the ecosystem will take millennia to recover, leaving life outside Corinth a living cancer-laden hell for generations. Have fun!
    • No Endor Holocaust is implied, as Dillon, Summer, and Tenaya begin Walking the Earth in the finale unprotected and they find a place where the environment is already beginning to return to normal.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scott delivers a brief one to Shifter before ripping him apart.
  • The Reveal: Dr. K programmed the Venjix Virus, and admits it to the Rangers.
    • Internal Reveal: But not to Corinth security, as we eventually find out...
    • Another Reveal in "Endgame": half the city of Corinth is made of robotic hybrids.
  • Reverse Polarity: A slight inversion; Flynn's abilities went haywire in "Ranger Blue" due to a build up of time dilation reversing the polarity of his powers. Played straight, however, in that he fixes the problem by putting his Engine Cell in upside down like a backwards battery, re-reversing the polarity.
  • Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Summer's family.
    • Summer herself is a former example, following the Venjix attack.
  • Right Behind Me: Ziggy about Dr. K in "Three's A Crowd"
  • Robbing the Mob Bank: Ziggy's backstory.
  • Robot Girl: Tenaya 7
  • Robotic Reveal: "End Game" reveals that approximately half the population of Corinth City is infected with the dormant Venjix Virus.
    • Unrobotic Reveal: Tenaya 7. She's convinced she is a robot until she bleeds. The way the cut is revealed is almost mimicking the cliche of revealing sparking wires when Robotic Reveal is used straight.
  • Robot War
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Dr. K thanks to Alphabet Soup.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Attempted with Dr. K, but it didn't really work: the voice distortion didn't really hide her gender that well, and a leaked trailer spoiled it anyway. It was also spoiled by the title sequence as the opening intro is voiced by Dr. K, and the voice distortion isn't used on it, not even in the episodes before the reveal. At least the voice distortion made her sound older, if not really a guy.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Gem and Gemma, again. * Cracks knuckles* "KA-plishiawhooharoommmmmmm!"
  • Sequel Hook: The Stinger hints that Venjix survived by infecting the morphers, a likely hook for a future teamup episode that never happened. Venjix ultimately did end up returning in Power Rangers Beast Morphers as Evox.
  • Series Fauxnale: RPM was going to be the end for the entire franchise, and it would have been a truly outstanding and very unconventional final season, with the finale wrapping PR up at sixteen years and a even 700 episodes. If PR had to end, there couldn't possibly be a more awesome and fitting way for it to go out. As for the series itself, the final arc begins with a Wham Episode even by the standards of a Wham Season like this: you know how Dillon's a hybrid with all this evil Venjix tech in him that may take over him someday? Half the city is the same way, with their reprogramming complete, and Venjix just hadn't flipped the switch yet... then he does. Oh, Crap!. All Your Base Are Belong to Us is a tradition, and happened repeatedly this year, but... it's never been done like that before.
  • Shaping Your Attacks: Finishing moves take the form of the zords.
  • Ship Tease: Dillon and Summer (which Dr. K lampshades mercilessly), Summer/Scott, Flynn/Gemma and Ziggy/Dr. K.
  • Shipper on Deck: Dr. K in "Brother's Keeper".
  • Shout-Out: Lots and lots. There is a page dedicated to this.
  • Sleep Cute: Flynn and Gemma in "Not So Simple", and Ziggy and Dr. K in "If Venjix Won".
  • Small Girl, Big Gun: Dr. K and her blaster.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: in "Prisoners"
    Gem: Looks like it's-
    Gemma: -Boom time, Dr. K!
    Dr. K: Roger that, Gem and Gemma. You are go for Boom Time.
  • The Smurfette Principle: On the one hand, Gemma is the franchise's first full-fledged female Sixth Ranger. On the other hand, she's only half of the "Gemngemma" character (but she got a little better).
  • Snub by Omission: In an attempt to be more social, Dr. K lists what she appreciates about each Ranger, each speech culminating in her using their name for the first time. She skips Ranger Green.
    "It's Ziggy! ZIG-Y! Z! I! G! G! Y! ZIGGY!!!"
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Dr. K plays an excerpt from Paganini's Caprice No.24 in A Minor. This excerpt plays out during a Megazord battle in the very next scene. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • The Speechless: Many of the Attack Bots are unable to speak — a first in the series.
  • The Spock: Dr. K
  • Spoiler Opening: Both played straight and averted in the first 4 episodes; while Dillon is shown to be Ranger Black from the first episode, Ziggy as Ranger Green and Dr. K's real appearance are hidden until after they've both appeared in the series. Done straight again when a later opening shows Gem as Ranger Gold and Gemma as Ranger Silver in the episode they join the team. Happens again when the Paleozords appear in the opening a full week before their appearance, and RPM Ultrazord three weeks before its appearance. Tenaya 15 appears in the opening of the episode her upgrade is revealed.
  • Spotting the Thread: In "Ranger Yellow, Part 2", Summer realizes that Tenaya is at her wedding posing as the caterer because "no caterer would put the cake next to a recycled motor oil bin"
  • The Starscream: Tenaya 7
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Kilobyte's attitude towards Tenaya.
  • Steampunk: The outside of Venjix's base invokes this trope. The interior, on the other hand, is decisively more futuristic. (This is due to using Go-Onger footage of the exterior, but original footage of the interior to account for both Venjix and Tenaya.)
  • Stepford Smiler: Two of them, in Gem and Gemma. Probably Type Cs, as it's unlikely that even the most upbeat individuals would talk about something like being held captive as test subjects or enslaved for hard labor in a factory of horror without even the smallest crack in their mask. Of course, since they're like that when they first meet K, it's entirely possible that there were even worse events that warped them even earlier on.
  • Stepford Snarker: Dr. K
  • Stock Footage: Dr. K's narration in "The Road to Corinth" uses footage from the Ninja Storm episode "Snip It, Snip It Good" when the Blue Bay Harbor council have their debate.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: Tenaya 7 has been shown to be able to take on all the Rangers at once with regularity, and come out relatively unscathed. Despite this, she fares only just as well against any one Ranger at a time, even if they aren't morphed. Witness her fight with pre-ranger Ziggy, in which he is able to outmuscle her long enough to strap the morpher to his wrist and activate the morph. This can perhaps be justified by Ziggy's hint that she 'enjoys this' and is deliberately not acting on her full ability in order to prolong the 'fun'.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: This came under some incredibly heavy lampshading in the episode "Ranger Blue". When given the opportunity to ask questions about the Ranger tech, Ziggy asks:
    Ziggy: Sometimes when I morph, I can't help but notice this gigantic explosion right behind me for no apparent reason.
    • This, combined with the fact that gratuitous booms were a Chekhov's Gag brought up later in the episode, has earned them the second nickname of "Ziggysplosions".
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Dr. K. She got better.
  • Super Prototype: The Paleozords. Potentially Rangers Gold and Silver, too, though they seem equal in power to the others instead of superior.
  • Super-Reflexes: Dillon has enhanced reflexes as part of the entire half-machine package. First demonstrated when he instantly catches Colonel Truman's falling mug while being interrogated.
  • Swiss-Cheese Security: For a city entirely dependent for survival on its powerful shield keeping Venjix's forces out, they sure seem to have plenty of ways to get in, a new one every week, it seems!
  • Talking Is a Free Action: Done to humorous effect in "Ranger Yellow, Part 2", where the boys discuss their thoughts on Summer's arranged marriage while kicking the crap out of several mooks at once.
  • The Syndicate: Even in one of the last cities on Earth there will still be a crime syndicate.
  • Teen Genius: Dr. K
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The RPM Ultrazord. Also, Venjix gets Corinth Command dropped on him when the zords were unavailable.
  • This Is Reality: Dr. K loves this one.
    Dr. K: Justice is an abstract ideological concept. We deal with tangible realities, not justice. You want justice? Read a comic book.
  • This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Ziggy can do shadow puppets.
  • Title Theme Tune
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Tenaya 7 inverts this. She is convinced she is a robot, until she bleeds like a human.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Ziggy forms an interesting gradual version of this. At the start of the series, he's clearly not a fighter. Every battle involves him making a mistake or doing something humorous. However, these moments were very subtly phased out. While he continued to be a comic character, by the midway point of the season, he was able to tear through Grinders just as well as any of the others.
  • Trash the Set: Both the Garage and Corinth Security HQ in the finale.
  • Trojan Prisoner: Dillon is one in "Beyond a Doubt". He just doesn't know it yet.
  • Twin Tropes: Gem and Gemma, evident from their very first appearance:
  • 20 Minutes into the Future
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: Inverted versus normal Power Rangers series: the Rangers' development as a team and the survival of Corinth form the A-plot, while the monster fights form the B-plot.
  • Understatement: Dr. K, in attempting to apologize for being so cold to her team, says that she "might have treated some of [them] with a degree of forced emotional detachment, perhaps even bordering on coldness." The Rangers' reaction? Dripping with sarcasm.
    Flynn: "Bordering on coldness," you say?
    Summer: That's ridiculous, Doctor.
    Dillon: You must be imagining it.
    • What makes it even funnier is that Dr. K doesn't get the sarcasm coming from the Rangers. She says, "No, no, I'm afraid it's true."
  • Unperson: An In-Universe example with the fate of Gem and Gemma.
  • Unrobotic Reveal: Tenaya 7.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The security guards who stop Dr. K from installing the firewall intended to keep Venjix from spreading. The destruction of civilization follows.
  • Uptight Loves Wild: Dr, K towards Ziggy, as of "If Venjix Won".
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: Dr. K, in the first few episodes
  • Wedding Smashers: in "Ranger Yellow pt. 2"
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Scott and Flynn. Cue awww moments at their backstory episodes.
  • We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Venjix had a factory where human slaves created Grinders and what became the Whale Zord. Gem and Gemma were there along with Dillon's mystery girl, and gleefully note the horrible conditions.
    • Can be argued that it is justified for the Whale Zord, since automation wouldn't be as efficient for what was supposed to be a one time project. No excuse for the Grinders.
  • Wham Episode: Granted, this is more like a Wham Season in the context of Power Rangers, but "Doctor K" and "End Game" certainly count.
  • What, Exactly, Is His Job?: General Crunch's role in the Venjix hierarchy isn't particularly defined — Shifter's the attack-bot creator (and later Kilobyte after he arrives and Shifter has gone rogue), while Tenaya 7 typically leads ground battles. He does battle on occasion and once took the lead for a plot while Venjix was absent.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: When Dr. K asks Ziggy what he offers to the team (because it sure isn't ability), he says that he has heart. Dr. K isn't impressed.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: After Scott runs off to prove himself to his dad, Gem tracks him down and asks "Isn't this exactly what you're always telling me and Gemma not to do?"
  • When She Smiles: It's implied that Ziggy feels this way toward Dr. K, as he puts immense effort into getting her to smile.
  • Where The Heck Is Corinth?: Fans have deduced from provided info that Corinth is on the site of Boston, though they had to toy with the coordinates given incorrectly in the show. (Either it's Boston, Greenland, or somewhere in the Indian Ocean.)
    • Creator Provincialism: Boston is the hometown of the season's first executive producer, Eddie Guzelian. (That said, the wireframe map seen in the show's intro seems to place it just north of Boston, around the town of Ipswich.)
      • In "Rain", Dillon turns on the radio and the woman gives the exact coordinates of Cancun, Mexico as Corinth's location.
      • There are also cities named Corinth located in Texas, Mississippi, and Maine.
      • Not to mention, another ABC show — in this case, Loving — took place in Corinth, Pennsylvania.
    • Please Select New City Name
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Flynn, see Honor Before Reason above. Ziggy as well, as he is convinced that despite the rapid evolution of Venjix technology that he and his teammates will always win because "we're the good guys."
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Everything that's happened so far is because Dr. K wanted to go outside the Alphabet Soup facility, where she had been imprisoned (under the pretense of a sun allergy) for the last decade. Since it was never intended for the Venjix Virus to spread beyond Alphabet Soup, this also crosses with Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Venjix's master plan, revealed in "End Game". Remember all those attacks on Corinth foiled by the rangers? All a decoy to distract attention from the real threat: the population of Corinth, most of which have been infected with the Venjix virus and have been slowly turning into hybrids over the course of the entire season so that Venjix can control them and conquer the city. Of course if any of the monsters actually suceeded...
    • The end of the season leaves Venjix with direct access to the morphers, only one step away from the morphing grid... Sweet Dreams, Earth.
    • This comes to fruition in Power Rangers Beast Morphers when it's revealed that Big Bad Evox is the revived Venjix.
  • You Have Failed Me: Lampshaded; Tenaya uses the line in "Handshake" to mock Venjix's impending use of the trope.
    • Used interestingly in "Three's a Crowd":
    Venjix: This body has failed me for the last time!

 
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RPM - Begin The Download!

In RPM, Venjix can download some of his virus into an Attack Bot and grow them into giants.

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