Power Rangers: Origins’ New Info Part 1: The Characters

July has been interesting. I expect my reader count to oddly rise when I take my hiatus. I’ve also lost time to help my dad and try to turn BW into something more than monopolizing my time, like a way to generate income. As of this writing all the ad revenue goes to my site host. I’ve also tried to reinvigorate the site (and hit a wall) and finally get my technology and software up to snuff for all that video stuff I want to do (hit another wall), and somehow still make comics and other projects happen (more like a pile of those soft wall things you see at kids’ gyms). I have made some steps to the schedule I want to keep, but not enough.

On the other hand, my count rose higher than I expected partly thanks to Instapundit picking up one of my articles, and now somebody actually sent me an update on an article from September of 2024 that I didn’t even know knew of my site. So everybody say “gracias” to Ranger_esp because his site’s in Spanish and I needed Google Translate to read it.

Apparently he (she? it’s the internet and these days even those two aren’t the only option for some people) collected some updated news on Reddit, a site I don’t go to because it’s kind of a mess. If you have a translation program you like or speak the language you can check the site I’m working from, the article title translating to “All the secrets of Power Rangers Origins revealed!”. It’s new information about the ZAG Entertainment co-produced take on the original team (and we do have confirmation of that in this article) that was dropped in favor of the live-action movie. I have no interest in the recent live action movie and based on what I saw I wasn’t sure I would have been interested in this one, either.

Thus the question is whether or not this new information changes that? Thanks to translation I can go over it and see the rest of what was intended. Ranger Esp has brought us character bios, more production art, and summaries for the various acts of Power Rangers: Origins. The movie was developed with ZAG and Saban Brands (before selling the franchise to Hasbro) as well as Onyx Films. In the first article you’ll find a trailer and a few images from eBay listings. This is new information and we can see if it changes my mind or if I still wouldn’t have liked this.

First off we have the character bios. This is a reboot and the live-action film we got changed so much about these characters. Did ZAG and Onyx stay closer to the original show? Let’s start with Red Ranger Jason Scott’s bio, and they do include the last names the characters eventually got as the series went on:

The unmasked art is drawn, the Ranger outfits I think they took from the trailer.

Jason is a strong and brave young man who always puts others before himself. He’s selfless and a good friend you can always rely on.

He will become the leader when he has to make the decision to save the life of one of his friends.

The Red Ranger is agile and powerful. His combat technique resembles karate, with an energetic and fluid style.

All pretty accurate. Not much else to say, but then they don’t say much about Jason, either. Some bios offer a bit more into the character, but Jason is just…Jason. It does help him serve as the rock of the team as their leader until Austin St. John left and Tommy took over as the leader of the Power Rangers until partway through Power Rangers Turbo. Also, no Tommy since he wasn’t part of the team at first. Meanwhile, every bio also goes over their special attacks, which involves holograms (fiction doesn’t seem to know what holograms are), a weapon, a unique vehicle (bug your parent for one, kids), and their usual Zord. No notes on the Zords until we get to Trini. Jason’s hologram attack is a super-powered punch, which sounds like one of the later Rangers’ civilian powers (I’m trying to remember which one), his usual sword (now called a “justice saber” instead of “power sword”–to avoid being sued by Castle Grayskull, I guess), and “Tyranno-Drift” car.

Apparently they still morph into people with buffer bods. I wonder if they’re hiring?

The next bio is Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger. Now I don’t know how or why Ranger Esp chose the order they did. It might have been how it was presented in the notes or by the Reddit poster, but since Zach is usually second in command, I’m kind of surprised he’s not the second one listed. Still, Billy’s my favorite so I’m not complaining!

Billy is patient and wise. He’s very reserved, not by choice, but because others consider him a geek. 

Because of the image others have of him, Billy has some insecurities: he believes he is not as good as others.

Billy is always inventing incredible machines. He’s the one who perfects the Zord Weapons and Zordhovers, with the help of Alpha 5 and Zordon.

The Blue Ranger doesn’t do much fighting. He uses a bunch of  fun  gadgets, with varying degrees of effectiveness.

Maybe it’s the layout but it looks larger on their site. This is where we start building on the characters. It sounds like Jason has a flat arc, which as noted in the past isn’t a bad thing for your anchor character. Jason on the show still had his struggles to overcome to save himself or his friends. On the other hand, while he was reserved at times when it came to girls, the rare occasion we see the show’s real ladies man in action (then you remember David Yost was gay and made fun of by some staff for it) would be the only time that fits. He ends up marrying a hot space chick. In fact, outside of Bulk and Skull, who looked down on everybody as part of their very long character growth as they represented the issues Rangers couldn’t solve with weapons and a giant robot, nobody really treated him like a “geek”. The big words were hard to understand, but that was it.

His new power was holographic armor, but he uses it to control his enemies. I’m not necessarily against the Rangers getting unique individual powers. The civilian powers could be useful for later teams and the Beetleborgs even when they didn’t come from the sentai. It just seems an odd one for Billy. Plus they give him “Zord Gadgets” instead of his cool two-sided Power Lance, and then make the gadgets malfunction. Since they’re keeping Billy’s inability to fight (at least out of costume–blame the same thing that allowed him to know how to run his Zord like “second nature”) you’d think they at least make the inventor’s gadgets work right, like they also did in the show. Dude made an old Volkswagen Beetle fly while being barely old enough to drive.

The other image was a shot of him powering up from ant level. This is more dignified.

Next is Zack Taylor, Black Ranger (deal with it—Walter Jones does) and second in command in the show. Here we start seeing some serious changes to the characters.

Zack is intelligent and brave. He’s the son of a wealthy and influential senator. He wants to be like his father: a charismatic man who people listen to and who inspires those around him.

Zack will have to learn that respect is not imposed, it is earned.

The Black Ranger is agile and powerful, just like the Red Ranger. His combat technique also resembles karate, but with a more brutal style.

Zack was the fun one on the team and invented his own fighting style rather than just using karate, mixing kedo with hip-hop dancing…which only sounds silly until you’ve seen capoeira in use. He was intelligent and took good care of the team in Jason’s absence. We never learned anything about his parents but he never showed any interest in politics; just martial arts, dancing, and Angela. Dude should have gotten dating tips from Billy. 🙂 This is like the opposite of Zack outside of being a hero. I’m actually disappointed in this one.

For powers he has the “Mammoth Smash”, which forms holographic horns and causes shockwaves Incredible Hulk style. I guess that goes with his more brutal nature in this version, but since I don’t like that, I’d rather he had something closer to the original Zack. At least he gets to have his axe, and his car is a flying tank.

Not sure how you made Trini cuter, but I’m too old to care now.

Now we come to Trini Kwan. I liked Trini. In the show she was the one who translated Billyese until they did away with that bit. Plus I thought she was cuter than Kimberly. That’s right, I said it and I’m not taking it back. Amy Jo Johnson is pretty but Thuy Trang was damn sexy!

Trini is small and agile, and she’s not afraid of anything…except heights. She’s very individualistic: she believes you shouldn’t trust others, because they can let you down when you need them most.

Trini is a perfectionist and organized. Her life is perfectly planned, and she gets very upset when something goes off track.

The Yellow Ranger is an expert in Chinese martial arts, such as Kung Fu. She’s very fast and fights with great style.

They literally got one two things right: Kung Fu, specifically Praying Mantis Kung Fu according to the Ranger Wiki (a real style, I looked it up), and a fear of heights but brave otherwise. She wasn’t that small, though they did seem to use the Marinette character model from Miraculous Ladybug as her templet if you recall from the first article. I’m not even sure Trang was the shortest actress among the “teens”. She was also close to her family and her friends, hardly “individualistic”. I should know, because that describes me more than her. What, you think there isn’t a reason I’m working from my dad’s attic and barely get out of the house?

Trini’s Zord isn’t called a Sabertooth Tiger, it’s called the Smilodon. I guess it’s more accurate according to Google AI. Just not sure I would have gotten used to it. I also wouldn’t have gotten use to the Power Daggers being replaced by nunchaku or her dino power being a pair of glove-like hologram claws.  Also, everyone else gets a car or tank, and she gets a motorcycle. That’s not even in keeping with this version of Trini, though the real one liked to join her friends on dirtbikes. And lest we forget, this is the one whose poster was making fun of the helmets.

Say it with me, Linkara fans: “Too much pink energy is dangerous”.

With no Tommy (maybe in the sequel?), we come to the last Ranger, Kimberly Hart the Pink Ranger. What changes do we get now?

Kim is tall and slender. She’s a total fashion victim , materialistic, rich, and extremely beautiful.

She says she loves everyone, but her relationships are superficial. When she gets home, Kim is alone.

Kim will discover that not everything can be bought, and that true friendship must be earned. The Power Rangers will be a revelation for her.

The Pink Ranger is extremely agile. She’s a high-level dancer and gymnast who moves with grace and elegance.

Nice sounding character arc, but it isn’t Kimberly. She talked like a valley girl at times but was proven to be rather smart. She wasn’t rich (does this version of Kim know this version of Zach?), never had superficial friendships, and her only real issue was her parents’ divorce. She had no problems making friends. Too many of these personality changes are the opposite of their originals or an exaggeration of one part of their personality. I can understand a few differences to make Origins feel different enough from Mighty Morphin, and it isn’t to the extremes of the live-action movie that I’ve heard about, but I don’t think they actually watched the show. Saban wasn’t paying attention to what either group was doing. At least they got the gymnast part right.

Kim also gets to keep her Power Bow, now a “Mega Bow”, and a plane to match her Zord. Her hologram “Zord Attack” is forming wings to fly and use a “power kick”. I want it to look like a Kamen Rider/Masked Rider “Rider Kick”, but that’s probably now what they would have went with.

When I started this, a two-parter wasn’t what I had planned. However, this is going a bit long. So that’s my thoughts on the characters. There’s also a summary of the story, and I’ll go over that tomorrow, unless something goes wrong. I assume we’ll also learn something about this version of Zordon, Alpha 5, and the baddies. Until they, let the power protect you or something.