Power Rangers deconstruction?

I just got it in my head the idea for a Power Rangers deconstruction. But how to make it interesting? Mash-up Puella Magi and Evangelion?

What does anyone else think?

edited 21st Feb '12 8:54:02 AM by Zenoseiya

We might need some more details before we can comment.

Just think about what specific tropes Power Rangers have, and then deconstruct them. What Fridge Logic is there that we accept because it's cool? Stuff like that.

If you haven't already, check out Power Rangers: RPM. It was the second-most recent spin-off and did a fairly good job of deconstructing most aspects of the series. Those explosions every time a ranger morphed? Plot relevant.

Let me see.

• Having zord battles occurring outside of Abandoned Warehouse Districts, and showing the social results, of course.
• Surely the army reserve won't be leaving everything to an extremely secretive private organisation. There will presumably be war going on.
• What of the experinces of conscious beings created artificially as weapons?
• Why are the good aliens so secretive? Some sort of Prime Directive? What do the rangers think of that secrecy? Will they really all go along with it? What will the public make of that secrecy?

edited 25th Feb '12 5:27:33 PM by kuyanJ

What measure is a non human? I had a plotbunny for a deconstruction of Power Rangers in which the "monsters" were actually the physical manifestation of human's souls.

Or maybe some good, old, Greyand Gray Morality.

How about the amount of effort needed to keep the Rangers' super-identities hidden? For example, if this is a universe where they have to wear the same civilian colors as their Ranger uniforms, won't people start to notice? (Or barring that, have the average observer notice that Jack Mc Redranger has a bad habit of disappearing at the most opportune moments.)

Giving even minor characters average intelligence — or some Genre Savvy — could add to the tension as much as the Monster of the Week. If they can put two and two together, they can probably intuit who's a ranger and who isn't.

Or you could just show how rough it can be keeping a secret identity from your friends and family; distrust, broken promises, etc.

Wanted to do something like this earlier. Start out with everyone being on call 24/7, since they're the chosen ones who have to pilot the mechs. Add some problems up top with one of the guys explicitly being on the team to maintain a Five-Token Band, and having to be the "face" of the alien war to the public, just make them so busy they snap.

At least make a joke about why the rangers wait until the monster gets big before they use the zords.

Maybe the reasons for recruiting 'teenagers with attitude' are less than savoury?

Perhaps the aliens won't let them just Zord the monster when it shows up. Why? Who knows. Pissess off the rangers as much as it would us in that situation, since the monster gets to hurt people before they can just obliterate it.

Further, secrets- especially ones this big- can destroy trust. Anyone leading a double life finds themselves estranged, if only on the inside, from others.

Perhaps they recruit "teenagers with attitude" precisely because the Fridge Logic won't occur to them. They're teenagers with attitude- meaning they're hormonal adolescents who want to do something big and grand. They are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Perhaps the wounds from their battles inevitably shortens their life? Or human bodies weren't meant to handle such power, and they are slowly dying from it. Things a teenager, especially one with "attitude" (by which they mean a teenager who's tough, self-confident, and assured), wouldn't think about. An insecure person might worry. A secure person? Wouldn't.

"Monsters & Other Childish Things" contains such a thing. They are a group of troubled, egocentric, shallow teenagers (with all the petty jealousies and stupidity usually involved) given magical weapons and all the other Power Rangers regalia by a demon masquerading as a wise, good sorcerer. He tells them to fight monsters For Justice, but the truth is that most of the monsters are more or less innocent, and the Rangers do it mostly because they enjoy feeling powerful and being violent.

It works out about as well as you might expect. Basically, it's to Power Rangers what Madoka was to Magical Girls.

edited 29th Mar '12 11:48:09 AM by InsomniacWeasel

What if the Green Ranger has the flu, and can't form the Megazord?

I was actually contemplating one myself.

My approach was gonna deconstruct the nature of their powers and the nature of the monsters.

The "Rangers" morphers actually have risks with using them. They will slowly be corrupted by the power they use to fight monsters, eventually becoming one.

At least one of the Antagonists is a previous ranger who fully turned.

Having inexperienced teenagers fight dangerous monsters means a staggering casualty rate for Rangers and civilians. This leads to the authorities getting involved.

And anyone who uses teenagers to fight monsters is someone who uses child soldiers.

Does if count as a deconstruction if you're just stealing a standard plot point from a sister franchise?

Though honestly if you want to deconstruct the genre... just keep everything the same and actually address how traumatic an experience such a thing would be.

Honestly, the Morpher thing was more about my belief that "Powers should always have a personal cost".

Or human bodies weren't meant to handle such power, and they are slowly dying from it.

They actually did that in Zeo. When the Gold Zeo Ranger Powers were temporarily transferred to Jason they worked at first but soon began going on the fritz because Jason couldn't handle them and he eventually had to give them back to Trey of Triforia who could handle it better.

There's also Abaranger giving us Abarekiller with his unstable Dino Morpher, long story there, but the gist of it is that his morpher was a problematic prototype and would kill him and explode in a nuclear explosion if not for the portion of The Big Bad inside of him. Once that was removed, on top of his other wounds, Killer had to fly away from Earth on his zord so he could explode safely.

Probably other versions but that's off the top of my head.