Power Rangers Wild Force

Wait, no Pink Ranger? Wasn't that a rule, or something?

"Wild Access!"

10th anniversary season of Power Rangers, based on Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger. Pollution is destroying the earth, and thus destroying the seals on the Orgs. Naturally, they're coming back to take revenge and destroy humanity. Luckily, the pollution also disturbed the rest of Princess Shayla, and she has brought the Animarium to rest above the Colorado town of Turtle Cove. She has zords and morphers; she just needs to find the owners of their corresponding animal crystals...

Meanwhile, Cole Evans is an orphan who found his way to South America. He's not sure how, but when he came of age, the natives who took him in explained this to him and sent him on a journey back to the U.S. to learn more about himself... and giving him the Lion crystal he was found with. He meets the other four Rangers in short order, and becomes their new leader, the Red Ranger. Along the way, he learns the story of how he ended up as an orphan, and his fight becomes very personal.

The first season produced after the Disney buyout, Wild Force was a transitional season; the first half was aired on Fox Kids, while the second half aired on ABC Kids. Some dislike it for its lack of originality, being largely a clone of Gaoranger (some episodes are near shot for shot remakes); the teamup episodes are pretty much the only cool bits that weren't Gaoranger footage. This apparently stems from director and Ascended Fanboy Johnathan Tzachor being a bit of a Prima Donna Director and hiring Japanese directors who worked on the original Super Sentai shows... few of which spoke a word of English. What draws fans to it is mostly the technical aspects—beneath the surface is a dark story of murder and war, and also, it has lots more giant robots than usual. The other thing Wild Force is notable for is not one, but two excellent team-up specials.

The first one, "Reinforcements From the Future", is the traditional "Bring back last year's cast, just for kicks" episode. It's widely considered as one of the best team-up episodes in the franchise, as it doesn't just bring everyone back for a rock 'em, sock 'em battle with complete strangers—there was a serious effort towards closure of dangling plot threads of Time Force and to get as much cross-series character interaction in as possible. This included expanding on Ransik's backstory, reuniting Wes and Jen after their heartbreaking split and flirtatious behavior between the Wild Force Lancer and the Time Force Sixth Ranger. Also notable is that it was made with completely original footage, there is no Gaoranger vs. Timeranger to copy from.

The second was a 10th anniversary special where Cole was recruited for a special mission with Red Rangers in every prior incarnation (Missing one Red Ranger, Rocky, who shared the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers costume with Jason. They put in the red-colored Sixth Ranger from Time Force, Eric, to make up for it). "Forever Red" is a popular episode and a shining example of non-sexual Fan Service. External issues ended up shortening the team-up from a two-parter into a very swift standalone. In addition, the very nature of bringing in past characters and Ranger powers brought in many continuity issues as some powers were destroyed and villain neutralized (Bringing these issues up are a Flame Bait topic on many forums).

Succeeded by Power Rangers Ninja Storm.

Has a characters sheet.

Tropes used in Power Rangers Wild Force include:

"Blazing Lion!"
"Noble Tiger!"
"Iron Bison!"
"Surging Shark!"
"Soaring Eagle!"
"Howling Wolf!"
"Guardians of the Earth, united... we ROAR! Power Rangers Wild Force!"

This subseries contains examples of:
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: They assume Max got hurt because he was scared, while Max claims it was because an Org was there.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Mask of Zen-Aku.
  • Beast Run
  • Bash Brothers: Some of the zords work in pairs, specifically the Black Bear and Polar Bear and the Rhino and Armadillo.
  • Becoming the Mask: Originally, the Master Org the rangers had been fighting turned out to be a human who was once friends with Cole's parents. However, after being abandoned by the Orgs when they realized he wasn't their real master, his transformation continued and he actually became an Org. By the end, he's talking about three thousand years ago as if it's yesterday, despite everyone knowing who he is now.
    • It's implied that the reason he became an actual Org was because the original Master Org was influencing him to the point where the two of them became one and the same.
    • Also, Merrick becoming Zen-Aku.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the two-part finale, as per routine.
  • But Now I Must Go: Shayla at the finale.
  • Catch Phrase: "NEVER GIVE UP!"
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Shayla, who has a tendency to let her mind wander into Merrick's eyes, even when her Rangers are in mortal danger. She can also be very childlike at times.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: Serpentera, Lord Zedd's flagship as well as the oldest and most powerful Zord in Power Rangers continuity, is finally dug up and activated, taking off to start a new reign of terror across the galaxy...and Cole manages to take it down in five seconds with his bike.
    • Nevermind the Conspicuous CGI (which happened due to the writing, time and casting issues which abounded during the production of the episode).
  • Combined Energy Attack: The final defeat of Master Org came from every animal spirit they had found and others they had yet to find combining their power in an energy beam beat down.
  • Continuity Snarl: The only thing that people don't like about "Forever Red" is the continuity problems that result from it, mostly of the account of the Machine Empire's defeat not lining up with the events of Zeo or Space at all. "Where did the powers come from", though, is more of fans not doing the research. Nothing was ever shown happening to the Zeo Crystal and a big question in Turbo was "where'd all the Zeo stuff go?" Also, the fall of Eltar wiped out the Turbo powers, and when the evil armies were defeated in Space, this would also be a non-issue. The MMPR powers still working's a good question, but all other teams' powers were clearly shown to still exist.
    • Word of God has since answered all these. Zeo was still around, no problem there. Tommy helped Jason defeat a AU Dark Ranger (inspired by the comic) to get his coin back. Turbo came from Lightning Cruiser's glove box like Storm Blaster did for Justin; in fact, that WAS LC that TJ drove up in.
  • Crossover: The highly lauded "Reinforcements From the Future", capped off with a picnic and some Ranger bonding.
  • Cycle of Revenge: Cole refuses to finish off Dr. Adler and ultimately forgives him to break this, realizing that Adler's desire for revenge was what turned him into what he ultimately became.
  • Darker and Edgier: While the acting makes most episodes much cornier than the PR baseline by far, uh, see Disney Death. "The Master's Last Stand" and the episodes hinting toward it can chill. Also, there's a Monster of the Week casually executing some construction workers, and while the Zords get better, Animus was in human child form during his onscreen death.
  • Disney Death: Ironically subverted—the show was the last Power Rangers on Fox and the first on Disney. When it was on Fox, Cole's parents are shown to be rather nightmarishly invaded by vines—something that Fox only let the producers do because they were assured that it the parents would be shown as being still alive as Brainwashed Jindrax and Toxica. When it wound up on Disney, that particular plot point got forgotten or ignored... resulting in a literal Disney Death. Many fans agree that this was for the best, as the deaths add a lot to the show and Cole's character that would have been lost without it.
    • Played straight with the Wild Zords (Which makes it an awesome reversal of PR's usual Never Say "Die" methods. Zords? They get better. Humans? Die horribly and permanently).
  • Damsel in Distress: Shayla gets kidnapped three times throughout the series. In a very literal use of Rule of Three - not to mention a real Left Fielder - the fourth time an Org tries to kidnap her, she suddenly becomes a Badass Damsel.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Danny.
    • Can he really be the Dogged Nice Guy when he's too shy to be all that dogged?
  • Dramatic Necklace Removal: Shayla wears a necklace given to her by Merrick which she uses to communicate with the Rangers. Master Org snatches it from around her neck near the end of the series.
  • Dub Name Change: Both played straight and Averted. Notably, Animaria is pretty much similar to Gaoranger's Animalia, and many of the Orgs retain their original names (in fact, the term "Org" is directly taken from Gaoranger). Also, the Wild Zords are sometimes called by their Sentai names, the Power Animals.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Princess Shayla.
  • Evil Albino: Master Org.
  • Executive Meddling: Apparently, Forever Red was going to be a two-part episode that would have ended with the rangers summoning their respective megazords and taking down Serpentera together. Disney however did not like the idea of spending money to create the CG zord footage as they didn't have toys to promote and told them to cut it into one episode as the team-up was just expensive in general.
  • Expy: Zen-Aku/Merrick is pretty much a copy of Tommy from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Actually a good guy under an evil spell, long hair, summons his zords via playing a tune on his flute/dagger, has a multi-episode arc devoted to his arrival and redemption in the middle of a bunch of stand-alone episodes, and is often late to the fight.
    • Probably unintentional but Master Org is almost a carbon copy of Typhus, Host Of The Destroyer Plague except the deaths caused by him are alot less gruesome and horrible.
  • Fake Shemp: Aurico in "Forever Red", never demorphing and voiced by a new actor. (You'd think with the headgear and ability to use the original Aurico's stock morph scene, not demorphing wouldn't have been necessary). Leo Corbett infamously came close to this too, but production convinced a reluctant Danny Slavin to act on a couple of re-shoots at the very last minute.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: Believe it or not, this was the first Power Rangers season to show blood.
    • As a plot point, nonetheless. The blood dripping from Zen-Aku's hand indicates he isn't a normal Org, as Orgs don't have hearts and therefore can't bleed.
  • Fan Service: Merrick bathing in a lake.
  • Fastball Special: Danny would regularly throw Max during their morphed fight scenes.
  • Floating Continent: The Animarium.
  • Foreshadowing: In "Reinforcements From the Future" part one, Cole makes the comment to Wes that he didn't know there were other Power Rangers in addition to the Wild Force team, and Wes explains that are several other teams of Rangers, all fighting for the same goal. Noteworthy, because the scene has no other purpose than making a Continuity Nod to the numerous teams before the Time Force Rangers, with "Forever Red" coming nine episodes later in the season.
  • Forgot the Call: Cole in "Secrets and Lies".
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In one episode Toxica is ignoring Jindrax, who then asks her "Do you have a headache or something?"
  • Green Aesop: Subtle for most of the episodes, with it being a borderline Fantastic Aesop that "If people keep polluting, the Orgs will keep attacking." However, the Animus Arc was Anvilicious. How so? Well, Animus takes away the Rangers' powers and Zords because of the fact that "humans shouldn't save the Earth if they keep polluting it."
    • It's just a bit hypocritical because Animus is going on about the evils of man polluting the Earth, bemoaning it's pains and blah, blah, blah and then basically says he's taking the zords away to another planet...so he's ditching the Earth because he can't be arsed to do something about it's issues?
    • It makes even less sense when you consider that he's been watching the Rangers fight to protect the Earth the entire time.
  • God in Human Form: Animus.
  • Good Costume Switch: A minor one involving Merrick's Predazord. While he's Zen-Aku, the visor of its helmet is down so it appears to have a snarling wolf's face and it has an Org-like horn atop the helmet. When he is saved, in his first use of the Predazord as the Lunar Wolf Ranger, the horn retracts and the wolf head opens up, allowing a more blank, human/robot face to emerge, symbolizing his change from animal to human.
  • Happily Ever After: Of course, the Rangers Earn Their Happy Ending... although you could consider it a Bittersweet Ending if you consider that Shayla and Merrick do not get together.
  • Heel Face Turn: Toxica and Jindrax did this near the end of the season when they helped the Rangers rescue Princess Shayla. Of course, their turn probably began when they abandoned Master Org when he betrayed them. Of course, seeing as how they betrayed him first when they learned he was originally an impostor but somehow became the real thing, it's probably understandable why they didn't return to his services.

Jindrax: Heh heh! You know Toxica, it felt strangely good to... help somebody for a change.
Toxica: Yeah? Well don't get used to it, Jindrax!
Jindrax: Heh! Don't worry; short memory span - I'll totally forget about it!

  • Heroic Sacrifice: Ransik post-Heel Face Turn during the Wild Force/Time Force crossover. He sacrifices himself to destroy the mutant half of the Mutorgs. Amazingly, he survives and is purged of his mutant half, making him completely human. It was that day that Ransik finally found his true redemption.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Max and Danny, who also get some Ho Yay in.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Gennai and Zudomon lend their voice to two of the monsters of the week. Zen-Aku is voiced by two people: first Arthur, then WarGreymon.
  • Humanity on Trial
  • In Medias Res: All Power Rangers seasons have some level of hero/villain backstory before the season begins, but this season opens with Cole joining the team after the other four Rangers have been fighting the Orcs for a time and we find out about their "calling" later in the season.
  • Innocent Flower Girl: Possibly Kendall, but Danny definitely fits as an Innocent Flower Boy.
  • Interim Villain: Mandilok.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Danny to Kendall.
  • It's Personal: Master Org killed Cole's parents. Although he eventually manages to forgive (and even pity) him, for a while there is nothing but raw hatred between the two of them.
  • I Work Alone: Merrick lives and breathes this trope. Makes sense, given that he's The Atoner.
  • Last Villain Stand: Inverted to the extreme. After completing his transformation into an Org, Master Org successfully managed to strip the rangers of their powers, destroy all the Wild Zords (including Animus, the King of the Wild Zords), and nearly conquered the entire planet all on his own. (It would be a long time before anyone else would top that).
  • Like an Old Married Couple: Jindrax and Toxica, Justified as they spent that past 3000 years hiding out together. Danny and Max can be this sometimes, as well.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: Kite.
  • MacGuffin Girl: Boys, actually. The Bear Brothers and Animus start out in human forms.
  • Make My Monster Grow: Toxica to every org the rangers destroy.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The "Forever Red" special was one of these, as every Red Ranger in the franchise so far teamed up to take down a group of villains. IT WAS AWESOME.
  • Max Trope: Obviously, Max.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Taylor Earhardt, Air Force pilot and Soaring Eagle Ranger, as a nod to Amelia Earhart. Considering the fact that she also (from the perspective of the rest of the world) mysteriously vanishes during a flight and is presumed dead, her name is practically prophetic.
    • Zen-Aku is literally "good-evil".
  • Meganekko: Danny was a male version.
  • Mighty Roar: Part of the motif this season; the vanilla Megazord Finishing Move is even made up of the Wild zords roaring Frickin' Laser Beams.
  • Milestone Celebration: "Forever Red".
  • Minion Shipping: Jindrax and Toxica.
  • Misblamed: 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, which is interesting considering the mindset many have that Power Rangers is pure Adaptation Decay of Super Sentai.
  • Musical Assassin: Zen-Aku summons his evil zords with his flute-blade weapon.
  • Mythology Gag: Taylor served at USAF Base Norquist, named for minor character General Norquist from Power Rangers in Space.
    • Alyssa is given the Caplan Award - named for Angel Grove High's principal from MMPR - PRT.
    • The Rangers first confront the Mut-Orgs at Cranston Plaza - a nod to Billy Cranston, the original Blue Power Ranger.
    • Some people posted on a forum that it was initially supposed to be Herndon Plaza (another PR fanboy ref, this time to Sir Stack, who currently has a visual guide from Sentai-to-PR, a blog related to PR scripts, and some others amongst his projects), but legal found that there really is a Herndon Plaza, and they had to change it.
  • Nature Hero: Cole.
  • Noble Demon: When Alyssa was injured, Zen-Aku nursed her back to health instead of attacking her.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Zen-Aku could be considered a werewolf. The only real difference is that Merrick is in that form not just during a full moon, but during all the moon's phases and only reverts to his human self during a new moon.
  • Oracular Urchin: Kite.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Despite killing Cole's parents pre-series and nearly taking over the world in the end, your average episode has Master Org appearing only briefly, and doing very little. As monsters are just wandering Org spirits finding host objects and being pointed in the direction of the Rangers by Toxica and Jindrax as opposed to the muscle behind some evil plot of the week, there are perhaps eight episodes Master Org isn't superfluous to, and it's painfully clear.
    • Hell, Toxica and Jindrax themselves realize that Master Org really isn't doing much of anything which is one of the reasons (among others) why the end up deposing him in favor of Mandilok.
  • Parental Abandonment: Cole.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Prior to joining the staff of the show (and writing the episode "Forever Red"), Amit Bhaumik managed a popular PR fansite, the Power Rangers Online Archives.
  • Quickly-Demoted Leader: Taylor.
  • Raised by Natives: Cole.
  • Ramming Always Works: Shayla saves Merrick and Kite in the finale by hitting Master Org with the Animarium. She doesn't even drop it on him, she skims skyline and smacks him with the edge of the island.
  • Redemption in the Rain: In the finale, the rangers themselves.
  • Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: Nearly all the Red Rangers get in on this at the end of "Forever Red".
    • Some had more impressive apex achievements than others, of course. Hey, did T.J. ever tell you about the time he got baked into a pizza?
    • That scene was actually filmed with two sets of dialogue, likely for time...but one could argue that it was because of Andros bragging about how he (and I quote) "killed Zordon"!
  • The Remnant: of the Machine Empire in "Forever Red".
  • The Reveal: In Forever Red, we find out that T.J.'s full name is "Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson".
  • Rule of Cool: "Forever Red".
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Instead of being destroyed or turned human like other Power Ranger villains (although Toxica was technically destroyed for a brief amount of time until she was revived thanks to Jindrax), the Evil Duo actually gave up fighting and left to travel the world. This is another rare moment in Power Ranger history.
  • Secret Test of Character: Animus tries to justify that this is the reason for why he took away the powers from the rangers instead of his little tirade stating that Humans Are the Real Monsters and wanted to see how decticated the rangers are to protecting the earth... despite the fact that he witnessed some of their battles and probably knew this to begin with, not to mention that he doesn't take back his tirade about humanity. One wonders if Animus never intended to give the Wild Zords back, and something (The Wild Zords, maybe?) changed his mind.
  • Series Fauxnale: Disney was planning to cancel the series after this season before being talked into moving production to New Zealand. The two-part season finale is even called, "The End of the Power Rangers".
  • Setting Update: In Gaoranger, the Gao Warriors were a clan of Samurai. In Wild Force, the Legendary Warriors (and Animaria as a whole) are given a more European flavor. While the Orgs are inspired by Oni, this is never alluded to.
  • Shirtless Scene: Cole.
  • Shout-Out: In "Forever Red", Jason and Tommy's hand gestures when morphing are much closer to their sentai counterparts (Zyuranger and Ohranger, respectively).
  • Skunk Stripe: Merick has two white locks on his otherwise dark hair.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: Cole.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Cole.
  • Space Does Not Work That Way: In "Forever Red", there are horses and Rangers unmorphed (Except for Aurico) on the moon, which somehow has air and gravity.
  • Team Mom: Alyssa, who goes so far as to read bedtime stories to her teammates.
  • This Is a Drill: The Predazord's Lunar Phantom finisher involves the Alligator Zord's tail being used as this.
  • Those Two Bad Guys: Jindrax and Toxica.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Jason in "Forever Red" was a lot more arrogant and generally 'angry' than he ever was previously and original dialogue indicates he was supposed to be even more cocky: "Back aside kid, I'll show you how the original Red Ranger gets it done." The reason is that apparently Austin St. John wanted to add some "bite" to the character as compensation for returning to the franchise, and this can be seen as early as Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie where (while Brainwashed and Crazy) he seemed to have anger issues towards Tommy.
  • Tribal Face Paint: Worn by the tribe that Cole is an adoptive member of at the beginning of the series.
  • Turtle Island: Invoked by the Animarium.
  • Walking the Earth: Merrick and, somehow, Zen-Aku in the finale; also, Danny and Max.
  • Was Once a Man: Master Org. And depending on your views on canonicity, Jindrax and Toxica could be as well. Also, Zen-Aku. At first.
  • Wave Motion Gun: Zen-Aku's Predazord uses the Predator Wave finisher, which manifests as this.
  • What Could Have Been: Reportedly, Steve Cardenas didn't respond to the producers in time for Rocky to appear in "Forever Red"; the original script had him appearing as Tommy's butler. The producers said they also attempted to get Catherine Sutherland to appear as Kat and further cementing Tommy/Kat as an Official Couple (they were suppose to be married), but Sutherland was unable to appear. Instead she voiced one of the villains. It was also originally gonna be mentioned that Kimberly married Skull.
    • Additionally, the episode was meant to be a two-parter, concluding with a massive teamup of everybody's megazords to fight Serpenterra, but they ran into budget issues.
    • There were also plans to reveal Jindrax and Toxica as Cole's brainwashed parents.
  • Whip Sword: The megazord's Sword And Shield Mode.
  • Your Size May Vary: Somewhere between Zeo and Wild Force, Serpentera went from "make the Rangers' Megazords look dinky" size to normal Megazord size.
    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.