Power Rangers Mystic Force

"Magical Source! Mystic Force!"

The 14th season of Power Rangers, based on Mahou Sentai Magiranger. After an earthquake hits the city of Briarwood, a stranger appears and asks for help locating someone in the nearby forest. But the local townsfolk are superstitious about the woods, and the only one brave enough to volunteer is Nick, a wanderer just passing through. A group of locals join him, not wanting to be shown up by an outsider.

The teens soon discover the secret of Briarwood Forest: it is home to a pocket dimension inhabited by mystical creatures, and the stranger who summoned them is a powerful sorceress. More than that, their bravery marks them as wizards destined to protect both them and the human realm from the forces of the Underworld that have been freed by the quake. They are given the power to become Rangers to give their magical powers an extra edge, but if they're going to win they'll need to find out what happened years ago when the monsters were sealed...

Mystic Force isn't remembered as one of the best Rangers series, but it is serviceable. The main complaint is that the story increasingly revolves around Nick, shoving the others into the background. As with Wild Force, it's also disliked for a lack of originality, being more or less just Magiranger with a new cast.

Succeeded by Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.

Now has a character sheet.

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Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

• Action Girl: Vida and Madison.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Many Power Rangers teams employ this trope but this team especially fits the Mythical Monster Motif version.
• Big Bad: Morticon, then Imperious, then Sculpin and the Ten Terrors.
  • Bigger Bad: The Master.
• Chest Insignia: Team "M" logos on the belt, personal symbols on the faces of the helmets.
  • Brought to You by The Letter "S"
• City of Adventure: Briarwood.
• The Dragon: Koragg and Necrolai are Co-Dragons.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero - Nick
  • The Lancer - Xander
  • The Smart Guy - Chip
  • The Big Guy - Vida
  • The Chick - Madison
  • Sixth Ranger - Daggeron
  • Eleventh Hour Rangers - Udonna and Leanbow
• Great Offscreen War: The last war with the Underworld twenty-ish years ago.
• Home Base: Rootcore.
• Humongous Mecha: With the unique twist that the Rangers actually become their own Zords, rather than piloting them from within.
  • Animal Mecha: The Mystic Dragon combination, Mystic Lion, Mystic Phoenix, Catastros, and Brightstar.
  • Combining Mecha
  • Transforming Mecha: The Solar Streak train.
• The Mentor: Udonna.
• Mooks: Hidiacs. They exist only to be killed off en mass in increasing showy feats of magic power. Lampshaded by a Genre Savvy one.

"Count yourself lucky, those guys (the ones that 'get some action') never come back."

• • Elite Mooks: Styxoids.
• Motif:
  • Heroes: Elemental Powers with Mythical Motifs and Fairy Tale Motifs.
    • Playing with Fire and The Phoenix: Nick.
    • Shock and Awe and Big Badass Bird of Prey (Garuda, aka Thunderbird): Chip.
    • Making a Splash and Our Mermaids Are Different: Madison.
    • Blow You Away and Our Fairies Are Different: Vida.
    • Green Thumb and A Load of Bull (Minotaur): Xander.
    • The Power of the Sun and Knight in Shining Armor: Daggeron. Also Arabian Nights Days, and The Frog Prince in his origin.
    • An Ice Person and Winter Royal Lady: Udonna.
    • Playing with Fire and Big Badass Wolf: Leanbow.
  • Villains: Monster Mash.
    • Eldritch Abomination: The Master.
    • Fish People: Sculpin, head of the Ten Terrors.
    • Frankenstein's Monster: Morticon.
    • Mummy: Imperious.
    • Night of the Living Mooks: the Hidiacs and Styxoids.
    • Vampire Monarch: Necrolai.
    • Wolf Man: Koragg the Knight Wolf. Crossing over into the heroes' Fairy Tale Motifs, he's also a Black Knight.
• Precursor Heroes: the previous generation; including Udonna, Daggeron, Leanbow, and Calindor.
• Recycled in Space: Power Rangers as WIZARDS!
• Rookie Red Ranger: Nick.
• Sealed Evil in a Can
• Super Mode: Legend Mode. The senior wizards have Ancient Mystic Mode.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Vida and Madison - interestingly reversed from Magiranger; Urara has about the same personality as Madison, but is her team's Tomboy because Houka is just that girly. And appropriately enough, Vida hates the color pink.
• Weapon of Choice
  • Magic Wand: Magi Staffs (Wand Mode).
    • Swiss Army Weapon for the boys:
    • Heroes Prefer Swords: Nick's Magi Staff in Sword Mode.
    • An Axe to Grind: Xander's Magi Staff in Axe Mode.
    • Automatic Crossbows: Chip's Magi Staff (and Mystic Lion Staff) in Crossbow Mode.
  • Simple Staffs: Legend Mode's Mystic Lion Staffs and Udonna's Snowstaff.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Daggeron's Solaris Laser Lamp (a magic lamp/gun).
  • Red Boxing Gloves: Mystic Force Fighters.
• Word Power:
  • By the Power of Greyskull: "Magical Source, Mystic Force!" (possibly just an Invocation and the real By the Power of Greyskull is "Galwit Mysto Ranger!")
  • In the Name of the Moon/Transformation Name Announcement:

"Strong as a tree! Green Mystic Ranger!"
"Ever-changing as the wind! Pink Mystic Ranger!"
"Fluid as the sea! Blue Mystic Ranger!"
"Fast as lightning! Yellow Mystic Ranger!"
"Forceful as fire! Red Mystic Ranger!"
"Flurry of snow! White Mystic Ranger!"
"Power of the sun! Solaris Knight!"
"Burning heart of fire! Wolf Warrior!"
"We call forth the magic! Power Rangers Mystic Force!"

Tropes used in Power Rangers Mystic Force include:

• Acting for Two: Barnie Duncan not only played Toby but he also once reprised his role from S.P.D. as Piggy.
• Actor Allusion: Mystic Mother, as a tribute to the late Machiko Soga. "Known as Rita in the dark days..."
• All There in the Manual: If not for the official websites, we'd have no idea what Clare and Toby's last names were.
• Alpha Bitch: Leelee, but she gets better.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Nick takes some time to believe in magic, given that he clearly sees people all around him using it all throughout the first episode. Additionally, when Vida is turned into a vampire and Chip realizes it, the rest of the team laughs it off. Sure, we have magic powers and fight a wolf man and a vampire on a regular basis, but there's no way that Vida could have been turned into a vampire! Wait...
• Ascended Fanboy: Clare, ever the bumbler, managed to tap into some powers by way of ancestry, and even slapped around The Dragon during her spotlight episode; she fades back into the background after managing the aforementioned feat.
  • What about Chip? Obsessed with fairy tales and comic books, he's the most excited to become a Ranger.
• Badass Biker: Nick.
• Badass Cape: The only Ranger team that wears 'em. (Sentai has had a couple other teams with capes, but not in about thirty years prior to Magiranger.)
• Badass Family: Parents Leanbow and Udonna, son Bowen/Nick, and niece Clare
• Barrier Maiden: Clare.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Itassis was this to Necrolai, leading to the latter's Heel Face Turn.
• Big Badass Wolf: Koragg the Knight Wolf/Leanbow the Wolf Warrior.
• Body Horror: The Master erupts from Matoombo like a demonic cephalopod chestburster.
• Broken Aesop: "Dark Wish". After being told all season to embrace their mystic abilities, the Rangers are given the Fantastic Aesop to not use magical shortcuts. This is enforced when the villains get Jenji and use their genie wish to strip the Rangers of their powers (a magical shortcut that totally works, by the way). And the Rangers' reward for learning not to use magic is stronger magic.
  • A second one is when Itassis asks why the Rangers continuously defeat the Terrors despite the latter's greater power. The answer she gets is 'We're more courageous than you'. This is despite the fact that Isassis personally bailed the Rangers out when four of them were down for the count and the other two couldn't morph and killed a Terror the Rangers couldn't scratch because of the 'Rules of Darkness'. Then there's the whole 'one Terror vs six Rangers' thing.
• But Now I Must Go: Nick, though he's coming back.
• The Cameo/Continuity Nod: The Mystic Mother, played by Machiko Soga (best known for Rita Repulsa stateside).

"The Mystic Mother. She was known as Rita in the Dark Times."

• • Jenji also shares a scene with S.P.D.'s Piggy in "Ranger Down".
• Canis Latinicus: The show is surprisingly good about using actual Latin, Greek, and Welsh words for spells (if not proper use of either grammar or Magic A Is Magic A to match), but a few stinkers got by, such as "Hilarium Shenolia".
• The Charmer: Xander fancies himself as one - though trying "Plan Xander" on the monsters usually gets his ass kicked.
• Chekhov MIA: Nick being adopted + Udonna's search for her lost husband and missing baby = Surprise!
• Chekhov's Gunman: Phineas seems to be a harmless Comic Relief character who occasionally gives advice to the Rangers at first. It isn't until later do we find out that he was the one who rescued Bowen and brought him outside the mystic realm to protect him.
• Chess Motifs: The Titan Megazord cockpit is laid out like a chessboard, which the Rangers take as a sign to "think strategically". In that vein, they occasionally used "Checkmate!" as a Bond One-Liner.
• The Chosen One: Nick.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Phineas.
• Combined Energy Attack: Used in the finale.
  • Code two in Super Mode also works this way.
• Cool Train: the Solar Streak Megazord.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Phineas can kick Mook butt.
  • Jenji also demonstrated some butt kicking moves when the Rangers were incapacitated.
• Curiosity Causes Conversion: Itassis.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The world without the Rangers in "Dark Wish".
• Despair Event Horizon: Udonna reaches the edge when she finds out Leanbow has been turned back into Koragg, realizing that either he or the Rangers will destroy the other, in addition to her son already being lost. Subverted when she finds Nick's blanket, which belonged to her lost son...
  • Nick reaches this after the Master transports them to a Bad Future and defeats them in a Curb Stomp Battle. Not to mention having just killed Daggeron and Leanbow beforehand. It's only until Madison, in what may be her only Crowning Moment of Awesome, knocks some sense into him that he recovers from his Heroic BSOD.
• Don't Go in The Woods: Invoked in the premiere.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: When trying to infiltrate the Underworld in "Light Source":

Phineas: I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but uhh, DOOM! Doom, doom, doom!

• The Drifter: Nick.
• Enemy Mine: Koraag teaming up with the rangers against the Four Barbarian Beasts.
• Erudite Stoner: Toby.
• Ethnic Magician: Daggeron.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: but Itassis does a Heel Face Turn to make an honest attempt.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With
• Fusion Dance: Nick fuses with Fireheart for his Battlized mode, and the other Rangers merge to make the Mystic Lion zord.
• Genie in a Bottle: Jenji.
• Genre Savvy: Upon becoming Power Rangers, some of the teens wondered aloud when they got all their "cool stuff" like Zords.
• Good Costume Switch: Leanbow as the Wolf Warrior, who wears a red version of his old Knight Wolf armor.
• Great Big Book of Everything: The Xenotome.
• Hellish Horse: Catastros, Koragg's steed.
• Hollywood Genetics: Udonna looks Irish, her husband Leanbow looks Spanish, and their son Bowen/Nick looks Arabic (Firass Dirani is Aussie-Lebanese), and is much darker skinned than either parent.
• Hong Kong Dub: Used for Mystic Mother, same as Rita in the old days.
• Hurricane of Puns: The Rangers need to collectively get one out of their system when Xander starts turning into a tree in "Petrified Xander".
• Hybrid Monster: Phineas the "troblin" (half-troll, half-goblin). He's an outcast with both the trolls and the goblins.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: Chip, after saying "It's Quiet... Too Quiet".
• If It Swims, It Flies: The Mystic Mermaid zord averts this by turning her fins to legs and walking.
• I Hate You, Vampire Mom: Leelee to Necrolai - not for any Blessed with Suck angst, Leelee's not even a vampire; Necrolai just sucks at parenting.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: as Bruce Kalish's second season, every title had two words (though they fudged it with "The Snow Prince").
• Inconsistent Dub: Production can't keep track of which spell does what.
• Inept Mage: Clare.
• Instant Runes: The Rangers, the old guard, the bad guys, and Legend Warrior Mode each have a pretty mystic seal (the Legend seal is only seen in the zord cockpit, though).
• Interspecies Romance: several Last Minute Hookups: Leelee and Phineas (also see Hybrid Monster above), Necrolai and Toby, and even Itassis and Daggeron was teased a little!
• Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
• The Lady's Favour: Gender inverted with Nick and Madison in the finale; it also avoids the Try Not to Die part by happening after the battle.
• Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand: Vida to Totumbo the energy terror to cement his Heel Face Turn
• Land of Faerie: If Briarwood Forest doesn't strictly qualify, then it is at least very close.
• The Legions of Hell
• Literal Genie: Jenji a few times.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Koragg (aka Leanbow) and Udonna are Nick's biological parents.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Unfortunately not; the American production sadly broke Magiranger's defined spell system and were too lazy to make their own work as intended (come on, BVS: is it really that hard to re-film fingers dialing a phone?)
• Magic Warrior: Clare inherited the powers of the Gatekeeper from her mother (even though she only used them in only in a lone two-parter).
• Magical Security Cam: Averted; Nick and Vida have to swipe security footage of them morphing in "Fire Heart", and it's not even Stock Footage.
• Make a Wish
• The Master: Used for the name of the Big Bad.
• Master of Delusion: averted; Toby starts getting annoyed at his employees running off, and they eventually own up to him.
• Mega Neko: Jenji.
• Mind Rape: The Master shows Daggeron his coming death in the finale (thankfully, it doesn't quite work out that way).
• Mythology Gag: The Pheonix Unizord resembles a non-evil Cyclopsis. Which is quite fitting, given that the Mystic Mother was Rita.
• Name's the Same: Mystic Force isn't the only series with a Xander fighting vampires and other nasties, or a videographer named Madison in the American version. For that matter, she wasn't the first Madison to turn into a mermaid...
• Nice Hat: On the megazords of all things. The Mystic Titan megazord has a pointy wizard hat and the Solar Streak megazord has a turban.
• Noble Demon: Koragg.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Xander, the standout in a cast of Fake Americans; eventually explained as him being a native Aussie.
• Not Worth Killing: Koragg pulls this a lot.
• Obviously Evil: Subverted with Leanbow. His Ancient Mystic mode looks much more demonic than his "Koragg" armor, even though he uses the former as a hero and the latter as a villain.
• Omniscient Morality License: Daggeron in "Inner Strength".
• The Other Rainforest: The location of Briarwood suggests that it is either in Northern California or Oregon.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Fireheart.
• Out of Focus: Initially, Madison (hence the "Who's Madison?" meme). Eventually, everyone who wasn't Nick.
• Overclocking Attack: The very last battle.
• Pink Means Feminine: Played with. The Pink Ranger isn't the team's Girly Girl for once and even borders on "butch". But the trope is affirmed in that Vida is not a fan of the color.
• Portal Network: The Rangers travel through the forest's trees to get around.
• Purple Is the New Black: Koragg's armor.
• Recursive Import: This series gets dubbed in Japan, but unlike in the case of Power Rangers SPD, the Magiranger actors don't get to voice their counterparts.
• Redheaded Hero: Chip and Udonna.
• Reforged Into a Minion: Koragg.
• Refusal of the Call: Nick.
• Right Back At Ya: Imperius does this to the rangers to demonstrate his superior magic.
• Right Behind Me: Xander griping about Daggeron in "Inner Strength".
• Robe and Wizard Hat: The Rangers have robes; it's the megazord that has the hat!
• Rocket Ride: The Mystic Racers. This is what happens when you apply Ranger powers to a Flying Broomstick. There were some awesome Return of the Jedi-esque racers-in-forest scenes.
• Sarcastic Confession: Chip reveals the Rangers' identities to Toby, knowing he'd never believe it.
• Secret Legacy: Nick.
• Secret Test of Character: The Tribunal of Magic sets two of them before the Rangers; one is if they're brave enough to fight without their magic and the other is a...
  • Leave Your Quest Test: Offering them their normal and safe lives back.
• She's a Man In Japan: Reversed; the female Heavenly Saint Snowgel became the Snow Prince in the U.S.
• Ship Tease: Chip and Vida, because the fans damn well don't let how much Nick hogs up the whole season slow them down.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Vida and Madison.
• Sigil Spam: "M" designs are everywhere.
• Significant Anagram: Leelee Pimvare. She even spells it out when we first hear it: "Pimvare" <-> "Vampire".
• Skunk Stripe: Vida. It's always colored, too.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Instead of one Big Bad, there's sort of a revolving door. Every time one went down for the count, It Got Worse.
• The Starscream: Imperious tries to be this, but Koragg prevents it from happening.
• Taken for Granite: Madison and random civilians in "Rock Solid", and Jenji in a later episode.
• Theme Tune Rap: Say what you will about it, but at the very least it's better than the other one.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Good luck making sense of the temporal mechanics in "Dark Wish". For some reason, neither Koragg nor the Rangers were affected by the initial wish even when Undonna was. Then when the wish was reversed, time wasn't. A battle started in the same circumstances as before. The villains remembered both timelines.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Girl: Phineas and Leelee.
• Unexplained Recovery: Matoombo is alive and well at the end, even though The Master basically tore him apart from the inside.
• Who's Watching the Store?
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Madison hates frogs. As did Urara.
• You Look Familiar: Three subverted examples here - Barnie Duncan and John Tui, previously Piggy and "Doggie" Cruger in S.P.D., are virtually unrecognizable without their heavy prosthetics in the roles of Toby and Daggeron, apart from their distinctive voices. And Kelson Henderson is completely unrecognizable under prosthetics, hideous dentures and a different voice in the role of Phineas. Mystic Mother is almost this, sharing an actress with Rita Repulsa, but it's explained they're one and the same.
  • Played straight with Antonia Prebble (Clare), who previously played two one-shot characters: Krista, "the tree girl" and Conner's prom date in Dino Thunder, and the unmorphed Nova Ranger in the S.P.D. finale.