YMMV / Power Rangers Wild Force

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Kite/Animus may have been annoying, but his death scene is legitimately sad, especially since it's his human form that we see die.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Animus can get hit with a heavy dose of this during his arc. Is he just upset that the humans who were supposed to defend the planet are destroying it instead or is he just an environmental terrorist who has the tendencies of a fascist? When Animus revealed that taking away the Rangers' powers was just a test to see how dedicated they are to protecting the Earth, did he really intend for there to be a test, or did he just say that to avoid getting called out by the Rangers?
  • While it is indisputable that Viktor Adler becoming Master Org and his actions in the first half was his own free will, how much free will did he have AFTER he became an actual Org after his first death? While it seems like the real Master Org returning through Adler's corpse, the heroes continue to give him (failed) chances of redemption in spite of this and some of his dialogue and reactions to said attempts to give him mercy indicate that Adler was still there but had fully embraced being evil.
  • How evil is the real Master Org in comparison to Adler? While Adler is the more petty and hate driven, it is when the two became one when he manipulates Toxica's death and destroys all the Zords (though they all came back) and Jindrax's "The Reason You Suck" Speech was directed towards the Master Org in general without at all mentioning Adler and his past.
• Anti-Climax Boss: In "Forever Red" Serpentera, a beast that had previously demonstrated the power to destroy planets is taken out from a single blast of Cole's Wild Force Rider. Originally a more elaborate battle was planned but Executive Meddling and budgetary issues got in the way.
• Anvilicious: The Animus Arc. The series, despite the whole "Orgs were awakened from pollution" part, played the environmental message a bit subtle until this arc. This arc, in particular the last two episodes, lacks subtlety with Animus declaring humans should be left to die because they don't treat the Earth with respect.
• Ass Pull: Animus claiming that he only took away the Rangers' Wild Zords as a test to see how determined they were to defend the Earth comes off as a half-assed excuse for his actions, given how he came off as irksomely prickish and apathetic when he stripped the Rangers of the Wild Zords on the basis that the Rangers didn't deserve the Wild Zords' assistance when they haven't prevented enough people from polluting the world and ignored the Rangers' protests that they needed the Wild Zords to stop the Orgs.
• Awesome Music:
  • The opening theme.
  • A lot of the instrumental music is really damn good, especially the pieces used in the Zord battles.
  • Zen Aku’s flute, he plays different tunes each time but their all amazing especially when he uses them to announce his presence. Melancholy, chilling and mysterious suiting the Wolf Org to a tee.
  • The Gorilla Zord’s theme a saxophone remix of the usual Zord battle music.
  • The Red Savage Warrior theme, a rock remix of Cole’s theme, which itself is pretty damn good.
• Base-Breaking Character: Cole. Controversy with his actor not withstanding, some think he's a decent character with a compelling tragic backstory, others think he's boring and uninteresting.
• Broken Base: Some fans praise this series for being a direct adaptation of Gaoranger (and thus being more faithful to the original Japanese series), while others criticize it for the same reason.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • After all the horrible things he had done to humanity, nature, his own Orgs and Cole as well as nearly destroying Earth with his final scheme, it's not hard to feel very personally satisfied with Viktor Adler/Master Org's ultimate defeat, starting with him having a glorious Villainous Breakdown as the Wild Zords return and wipe out his army, then screaming in pain as his body is disintegrated by every Zord attacking at once (even allowing us to see Adler looking and screaming in horror as he's overwhelmed) all before he is destroyed forever by the Jungle Sword vaporizing the Org Heart.
  • After seeing Mandilok mistreat Toxica and Jindrax, especially when he uses a dying Toxica as a human shield, when Master Org makes his return, you can’t help but enjoy it when he blasts Mandilok and kills him.
• Complete Monster: Dr. Viktor Adler was once a kind ecologist. After his crush married his colleague, he became jealous and paranoid. Eating the remains of Master Org, he used his new powers to murder the couple and attempted to murder their baby son. Hating nature because it reminded him of their "betrayal", he revived Master Org's plot to destroy all non-Org life. Reacting to defeats badly, it was common to see him destroying Org statues in fits of rage, murdering dormant Orgs in temper tantrums. When Retinax didn't recognize him, Adler killed him, and when Toxica and Jindrax discover his secret he brainwashes them. His worst act is slowly killing Cole's friends while fighting Cole just because he was the son of the couple he was jealous of, claiming he'd enjoy their suffering even more than [his] parents. Reviving the three General Orgs as slaves bound to his will, he ate the Org Heart to make himself invincible, seeking to cover the world in black clouds that spawn mooks to destroy humanity. A petty, jealous and cruel man who has long stripped himself of any good, Adler is one of the franchise's most evil humans, and one of its darkest characters.
• Creepy Awesome: Master Org is an intimidating, scary villain whose easily in the running for most vile villain in the franchise and is all the more memorable thanks to it.
• Crossover Ship: Taylor/Eric, when the Time Force Rangers are in town.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: This show has strong environmental themes, as do a lot of other Power Rangers seasons past and present. However, as Power Rangers is also a marketing vehicle for toys, quite a bit of screen time is devoted to how awesome their motorcycles are and make riding motorcycles like that look fun and cool. A motorcycle even defeats Serpenterra. The message to reduce the carbon footprint is somewhat undermined by showing how great it is to drive around in fast vehicles like this. It's not helped that the motorcycles, save for the Silver Ranger's, do NOT come from Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, so the Power Rangers producers can't play the "we were stuck with what was in the Japanese footage" card.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Zen Aku is often counted among the best villains in the entire franchise by fans, to the point of appearing in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars as a playable character.
  • Onikage is a supporting villain who's only in two episodes but has picked up a pretty decent following. He's really charismatic and competent and was well received for his Chessmaster Sidekick moments.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Danny Delgado has the same last name as the SPD Yellow Ranger, Z. Since SPD takes place 20 Minutes into the Future and Z's parents were canonically scientists involved in creating Ranger powers, people think Z might be Danny's daughter.
  • Venjix shares the same name as the virus that destroyed 99.9% of the world, thus launching trees discussing whether or not the two are the same.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Zen-Aku. Fans adore him, so much that he was brought back for another episode and again at the end of the series as a being separate from Merrick who joins him in his quest for redemption. He’s so popular he was included in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars.
  • Onikage is a badass ninja-themed Org with illusion powers and is both highly intelligent and a formidable foe. He also has a smooth voice and his charisma adds to the appeal.
• Fanfic Fuel: What kind of adventures did Taylor and her gradually growing group of companions have (outside of the flashback episodes) in the year before Cole joined the team?
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Zen-Aku and Merrick have some moments. Notably is that Zen-Aku acts akin to a jilted ex-lover during his return in "Unfinished Business", wishing to reunite with Merrick because without his former host he felt lonely; the finale even goes as far as having the two walk the world together to atone for their crimes in life.
  • Cole and Master Org in a rather creepy fashion, as the Master shows an obsession with the Red Ranger.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This is one of the most beloved seasons in Latin America, no doubt helped by the excellent Mexican dub.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This won't be the last time we would see an environmentally conscious mecha, though with the environmental terrorist interpretation taken into consideration.
  • For "Forever Red", Disney and Bandai nixed the original ending of all the Red Rangers' Zords destroying Serpentera because they didn't want to show "old toys". Not only did Toei have no problem with doing exactly that with Forever Red's closest counterpart (Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai), they did a second time for Gokaiger's 199 Heroes movie.
    • To be fair, the only Red Rangers with any Zords left were Aurico, Tommy, Leo, Wes and Eric (excluding Cole who was the active Red Ranger at the time who used his Wild Force Rider). Even then, only Tommy, Andros, and Wes could have Zords that can combat against Serpentera, mainly Zeo Zord V and Time Flyer 1. The others are not capable of flight and the fact that Jason's, Andros' and Carter's Zords were destroyed.
  • Speaking of Forever Red, Tommy wears a black leather jacket over his red shirt. And what ended up happening two-years later? He ends up becoming the Black Ranger.
  • More Forever Red - after all the arguing over whether Rocky should've been in it or not, he showed up for the 25th anniversary special, wearing the Mighty Morphin' suit.
  • The team's Red Ranger grew up as an orphaned boy living in the wild, his parents just so happened to be killed by a friend possessed by the Big Bad, before he eventually meets his already-formed team who are in the middle of battling the show's villains. Apparently, Super Sentai thought that Power Rangers came up with a clever idea and decided to steal it for themselves.
  • Cole replaces Taylor, the Yellow Ranger, as the leader since his zord is a lion, the King of Beasts. The following season had a Yellow Ranger with a lion zord (who was not the leader).
  • In Wild Force, Cole is the red ranger who's nemesis is a former human turned into a monster (even moreso than the other Orgs). His actor would then appear in Power Rangers Samurai playing a villain who is the nemesis of the red ranger who was once human before becoming a (Half) Nighlok. Unlike Viktor Adler / Master Org, Deker has some humanity left in him and is far more sympathetic than the Master Org ever was.
  • In the Forever Red special, one of the last lines of the episode has Eric say that "(his) Q-Rex will eat (Tommy's) Dragonzord for lunch". Almost two decades later, Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger features a mecha which is basically the Dragonzord and Q-Rex fused into one, almost as if the Q-Rex really did eat the Dragonzord.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: As mentioned above, the show was largely criticized for being too similar to Gaoranger. Especially with the few changes they actually do are considered some of the best parts of the show like Master Org, his relationship with Cole and his parents, and the 2 crossover episodes.
• Jerkass Woobie: Toxica and Jindrax in the two part episodeThe Master's Herald, despite their loyalty, they both get cruelly treated by their kind, causing them to lose faith in Orgs in general.
  • Toxica in the first part. She is blamed for their most recent failure to defeat the Rangers by Mandilok, then she is tricked by Onikage to cut off her horn so she can capture Princess Shayla for Mandilok, as he told her it will grow back, resulting in her almost dying. The fact she dies when Mandilok uses her as shield from the Jungle Blaster really rubs salt in the wound. It is made sadder the next episode, when it revealed to be part a plan by a vengeful Master Org.
  • Jindrax in part 2. He is saddened by the death of his only friend. Then when it is revealed that Toxica's death was part of Master Org's revenge plan for their betrayal, he is almost gets killed by Onikage, who was helping Master Org. Seeing him breakdown after renouncing his loyalty to his former master, and his own kind, really makes you feel sorry for him.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some fans only watch the season for the anniversary episode "Forever Red" since despite the Troubled Production, it is still considered one of the best episodes of the series of all time.
  • Plenty of people don't like the heroes (save maybe Merrick) or the premise, but are still drawn in by the villains: Creepy Awesome Complete Monster Master Org, Jindrax and Toxica (for their hilarious Butt-Monkey moments and cute Minion Shipping), and Noble Demon Zen-Aku.
  • The heroes Animal-Themed Fighting Style is another thing that some fans enjoy.
• Love to Hate: Master Org, the one who was Viktor Adler at least, is a very dark and frightening villain who makes even the literally heartless Orgs under his command look like saints and is way beyond goodness redemption. Plus, few would actually feel sympathy for his motives, which end up being petty rather than tragic and were his own choice. However, he is still liked as a character precisely because of this. He not only has some complexity to him but it is a perfect foil to Cole Evans and what he could become if he lacked care for anyone but himself and let revenge corrupt him. His actor, Ilia Volok, played the role splendidly and he was most certainly near successful, including having the highest Zord kill count in the franchise, though they all come back later.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Zen-Aku is a wolf Duke Org who comes to possess the future Lunar Wolf Ranger, Merrick Baliton. Zen-Aku is one of the noblest villains in the entire franchise, avoids collateral damage on his quest for revenge against the Rangers and has a moral code forbidding attacking an opponent who can't fight back. Zen-Aku is a master at battle tactics and constantly traps or outwits the Wild Force Rangers, leading him to steal their Zords as a reward. Later helping free another Org sealed by the Yellow Ranger, Zen-Aku upgrades him and then helps fend off the other Rangers to allow him his final rematch with the Yellow Ranger. Later luring Merrick into a trap and countering even their ultimate attack, Zen-Aku reveals to Merrick he plans to fuse once more with him to cure his loneliness and feel whole again. Ultimately, Zen-Aku ends up surviving the series and making peace with Merrick, who he journeys with on a quest for redemption.
  • "The Masters Herald" two-parter: Onikage introduces himself as a ninja loyal to Mandilok and conjures schemes to kidnap Princess Shyla. When Toxica fumbles his first plan, Onikage promises he can redeem her if he cuts off her horn to render her immune to the Sacred Water of Animaria, lying that Duke Orgs' horns grow back. This leads to Toxica's death and Shayla's capture. On the verge of defeating the Power Rangers, Onikage reveals his true allegiance as Master Org's right hand man, rendering Mandilok defenseless and resulting in their death. Onikage is defeated in the end mostly by luck but succeeds in almost all his goals, setting the stage for the rest of the season despite only appearing in two episodes.
• Mis-blamed: People have noted that a lot of Wild Force's problems are actually coming from a direct translation of Gaoranger, such as the blunt Green Aesop. In actuality, while Gaoranger did have a Green Aesop, it was not nearly as present as it was in Wild Force. Considering that the Green Aesop being Anvilicious has been a problem as far back as Mighty Morphin, it's likely a combination of the existing Green Aesop with the one that's present in Power Rangers being added on top.
• Moe: Alyssa, for being The Heart of the team on many occasions and a Cute Bookworm to boot.

• Moral Event Horizon: See the page for examples.
• Narm: Dawson Casting really does not do this series any favors, with characters making a big deal about Max being The Baby of the Bunch when he looks more or less the same age as the rest of them (or at least not young enough to justify the comments about him). Especially prominent when they dismiss his monster sighting as childish imagination and in his origin episode where Alyssa asks him 'where his parents are' when they first meet.
• Nightmare Fuel: How Cole's parents died. The newly formed Master Org unleashed vines that Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
• Realism-Induced Horror: One of the reasons fans see Master Org as one of the most despicable Power Rangers villains: His jealousy and murder of Cole's parents because he felt he was denied Cole's mother hand in marriage is a surprisingly realistic yet monstrous motivation for Power Rangers villain
• Replacement Scrappy: During the six episodes between "Unfinished Business" and "Forever Red", Mandilok takes over as the Big Bad. Compared to Master Org, Mandilok is basically a Flat Character whose only goal is to just eat. Though, he's still much better received than his incredibly disliked Gaoranger counterpart.
• Seasonal Rot: While the series has been more well-received in recent time the Animus/Kite arc is still quite hated (the 6 episodes from "Homecoming" to "The Soul of Humanity") are seen as the worst part of the series for temporarily replacing the well-liked villain Master Org with the bland Mandilok (who's only interesting trait was his treachery towards the former) and the titular Animus/Kite who is supposed to be seen as sympathetic but comes off as a massive jerkass to the rangers by taking away their Zords and the ranger powers. The arc is sadly important for the introduction of Animus so it can't really be skipped. Fortunately the episode afterward are a vast improvement starting with the fan-favorite "Forever Red".
• Signature Scene: The crossover episode "Forever Red" is the most popular and famous episode of the show, with special mention going to the group morphing sequence.
• Special Effects Failure: Not surprisingly, largely dropping the original post-production team and the season's overall Troubled Production made this far more frequent than usual.
  • Any time Master Org uses his vines, the CGI is very noticeably low quality, even for Power Rangers standards.
  • "Forever Red"'s climax ended up being this thanks to Disney's interference with the special. Resulting in a very ugly, greenish-purple Serpentera fighting a even uglier looking Cole.
  • Much of the Zord footage is CGI when not combined as the Megazord, and it looks pretty dated and cartoonish when inserted with the live action footage. Though unlike the above examples, this was also an issue with Gaoranger. What amplifies this is that the footage from Gaoranger is often more low-rez and lacking textures than the footage used for the American shots. Their compositing into these scenes are also quite rough.
  • The stock morphing sequence this season was almost entirely unchanged from Gaoranger, they simply pasted the American actors' heads (and in Taylor's case, her torso) over the original Gaoranger footage, so when you look at it intently, you can spot some inconsistencies, mostly in the lighting (especially Max — Kai in Gaoranger had a very shaggy haircut which moved behind his head during the sequence — Max's haircut was much different, so he inexplicably has hair dangling behind his head; Alyssa, meanwhile, bore a strong enough resemblance to Sae that after her visor seals shut, they didn't bother to keep superimposing Jessica Rey's face over the footage, resulting in her skin suddenly lightening in tone and her nose changing shape).
• Stock Footage Failure:
  • When Max faces off with Bowling Org, the scoreboard behind them clearly says "Gao Blue" and "Bowling Orgu."
  • When the Bus Org turns from his bus form to Org form in Predazord Awakens, you can quickly glimpse the original bus used as his disguise instead of the Greyhound-type bus used for the American footage.
  • When Merrick (as Zen-Aku) is infected with the villains' bug, it's not Toxica holding his left arm, but rather her Gaoranger counterpart TsueTsue. It's especially apparent since Sin Wong has a noticeably rounder face than Rei Saito.
  • In Sealing the Nexus part 1 when Toxica and Jindrax are warning the Wild Force Rangers of the Master Org's plan Toxica all of a sudden has a brand-new staff with herself that vanishes afterwards and is never commented on. This is a leftover from the fact that, in Gaoranger Toxica's counterpart, Tsuetsue, was actually gloating to the Gaorangers about the Highness Dukes' return and her new staff was given to her by her superiors, which never happened here.
  • When the Animarium is used to ram Master Org's giant form in the finale, the closeup shows Gao's Rock — the much smaller, stone turtle-shaped base used by the Gaorangers in the sentai (here they simply made the Rangers' base a section of the Animarium).
• Take That, Scrappy!: The Wild Force Rangers' speech about humanity and Merrick declining Animus' offer to join him in "The Soul of Humanity", given that in the previous episode, Animus told the Rangers that they can't save humanity from the pollution and had generally been a completely unlikable haughty jerk the whole time.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • After the first episode, we don't get to learn more about Cole's life in the tribe he was raised at, nor about how he got the ability to talk with animals.
  • As evident by General Venjix, some of the villains did survive the events of Countdown to Destruction. It would have been cooler if, instead of using some previously unseen villains, we got to see the Rangers fight against Gasket and Archerina, thus wrapping up the loose ends with those villains... the problem being that their suits had been practically disintegrated from years of usage and getting worn down, which is why they were put on a Long Bus Trip during Zeo.
  • The Jungle Blaster barely got used, and the component weapons even less — primarily since it was an American creation and therefore reshooting footage to include it was expensive. Aside from selling toys, the only real advantage it had was allowing the producers censor TsueTsue being literally backstabbed (thanks to Mandilok using her as a Human Shield against the Jungle Sword) to Toxica getting blasted in the back by the Jungle Blaster (which isn't really much better). There's also no explanation as to where they got the weapons from (allegedly, some cut lines would've revealed Tommy as the source of the weapons).
• Tough Act to Follow: It's two team ups "Reinforcements from the Future" and "Forever Red" are both so well regarded that later team ups and anniversary specials are compared to them, with the mentioned two being favored over.
• Values Resonance: Master Org's backstory being intensely jealous over how Dr. Evans had gone after the girl he had feelings for yet never acted on, not to mention stealing all the credit he felt he was owed over his contributions to finding evidence of Animaria, eventually turning to murder over it hits home a lot more, in the age of "incels" and the Dogged Nice Guy trope being re-examined.
• Vindicated by History: Much like Turbo previously, this season has become steadily more popular as the years go on (helped by Linkara saying how he thought it was a good season), especially since we now have four whole other seasons that fans like to bash on.^{Said seasons being:}Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers Samurai, Power Rangers Megaforce and Power Rangers Ninja Steel.
• The Woobie: Cole. He came to Turtle Cove from the Amazon to find his parents, only to find out not only have they been dead for years, but they were murdered by a psychopath who was once their friend, and he is even fighting him after becoming a Power Ranger.

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