Power Rangers Dino Thunder: A Legacy Season Done Right

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello Internet I'm the Disney brain finally delivering what is probably the most requested video I'll ever make Power Rangers Dino Thunder is a very special season in several respects the first thing to mention is that it truly is a legacy season in many ways but I don't say that to downplay the unique ideas and angles it brings I say that because it features ideas created from the lore of Power Rangers as a whole what with the return of Dino based powers the return of Tommy himself just name a few where a mega force was a season built on a ham-fisted fan service Dino Thunder was a season built on understanding the past respecting the past utilizing it but not being overly defined by it as we'll discuss so with all that said let's jump right in and first discuss the two part opener day of the Dino the episode title being the first of many throwback references in this opener we're immediately treated to the return of Ranger icon Tommy Oliver back in the main cast for the first time since the Turbo Power transfer here's the first thing of many things that Dino Thunder gets right they don't just throw Tommy at us as a cheap way to learn old school fans know they give him an effective backstory which in turn gives him a real reason to be part of the current story and they add depth by digging into his relationship with other characters namely an Tom Mercer and it makes total sense that after his firm place of employment literally blows up and then sinks that he'd be forced into a more low-key profession so in a sync with some events that I can only call Breakfast Club we meet our three main characters who all get attention at the same time but as usual we'll get to the character is a little bit later so Tommy decides to cancel the tension if the trio can find some artifacts so naturally they fall into a sinkhole and discover three very important artifacts this gives us our introduction to the unmarked powers which some people seem to have a problem with even though it's not actually a problem the idea of unmoor powers aren't at all new Tripp and Katie from Time Force both had supernatural abilities they could call upon while unwarped both Maya and Cole had an innate ability to connect to nature and communicate with non-human creatures and more to the point the unmarked power is here and in all those other cases are never abused to the point where they're ever on the same level as or could ever take the place of morphing and yes that same logic applies to s and their powers as well and beyond that there is really not too much to say about the unmoor powers in general if anything it's actually confusing that they aren't used more often given how many problems they could have solved but moving on so the episode ends of Keira not wanting to take part in this freaky new world but soon getting kidnapped then part two begins with Tommy and the guys trying to find the captured Kira Tommy explains that when his old colleague Anton Mercer vanished that's what mesagog appeared setting up a fairly obvious reveal for later but it's more important because it does well to set up mesagog in relation to Tommy as the primary incident that brought him to reef side he's not just some random evil warlord or some space pirate out for domination he matters narrative Lee and the fact of the matter is Tommy is in part responsible for Meza God's creation as well as the Tyranno Jones to say nothing of bell tracks is revealed later even though this season doesn't operate with a ton of moral ambiguity on the side of Tommy which is kind of a missed chance as far as I'm concerned the villains side of things is made far more interesting knowing that the face of the franchise helped create the threats this time a similar narrative would go on to work even better when rpm handle it years later so the trio of kids are now given new more furs and are asked to tame dinosaurs which goes well and instead of your standard fear kaiju battle we get the Megazord literally drilling a hole through a spaceship I usually never have anything to say about the Zords because most of them don't really add much of the story but that's a proper introduction and so the two-part pilot ends with Tommy entrusting the powers to a brand-new team of heroes he says when you work together nobody can beat you a statement that carries a great deal of weight since the guy saying it has been through countless battles both figuratively and literally and that is one of the many reasons that the now dr. Oliver works so well as a ranger mentor in addition to a ranger himself in Dino Thunder episode 3 wave goodbye marks an important next step for Connor as a character as well as introducing us to Haley and Trent in that episode Connor recognizes the importance of being a ranger and realizes that other priorities have to take a backseat for this hero stuff to bear fruit hey Tim you Knights try to do this with Mike in samurai but it doesn't work there because they made it the first episode that premiered for some dumb reason tackling priorities makes sense as an early character hurdle but not as early as the first episode but with this being episode 3 it works a lot better because we have an initial understanding of all the main characters now so Connor resigns for a bit because of course he would he's a teenager and he probably thinks soccer and girls are the only thing that matters but then he realizes why this matters Connor doesn't start off or even end as the best character in the world but he does grow change learn as time marches forward Dino Thunder has an interesting opening structure defining its first five episodes including having one of the most engaging clip shows ever created this is important not just as a Tommy narrated history lesson but as a way for the current team to literally learn the legacy of power in time for us understanding the characters including rancic early on gave context of their development and the season because that's the point of it all Dino Thunder as I mentioned is a season built on not just embracing the past but understanding it all while making your own definitive mark on the franchise which then leads into back in black which sees Tommy return as the for Frazier on the team I've talked before about how some of the best seasons operate patiently slowly building their team's person-by-person and Dino Thunder is a good example of that we knew Tommy was going to suit up again the second episode 1 aired but they still gave space for the trio of teens to be properly introduced first additionally Trent first appears in episode 3 but it then takes several more episodes before the excellent three parter white Thunder begins and calling it a three parter is actually somewhat misleading because his arc doesn't just stop with the extraction of his evil side several seasons also get this right see again rpm but this season has a certain self-aware charm to it that makes it work better than most even going so far as to call Tommy too old for this now whether you agree with Elsa or not the fact that the show was comfortable enough of itself to make a point about bringing it up is exactly my point the initial five episodes of Dino Thunder make two things exceptionally clear one that this season was looking to balance being its own unique entry in the series with being an entry predicated on the past to some degree and that if nothing else it was damn sure going to succeed in carrying out point one data thunder is not lazy it's not pandering and it doesn't offend your intelligence by barely offering you anything in the way of plot progression or real growth its referential nature doesn't hurt it it helps it and that's exactly what a legacy season needs to get right and now let's discuss the characters and how they fit in everything Keira Ford is someone I've called one of the most uniquely realized Rangers in history and I stand by that her musical acumen and punk-rock aesthetic is unlike anything we've seen before or since but it really works for this reason it's kind of a good time capsule I don't know for sure if Rangers took inspiration from an on the rise Canadian musical star to create the character of Keira but it sure feels like they might have the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were very much a product of their time from the goofiness to the fashion sense to the priorities and actions of the characters thereof in that same vein Dino Thunder is also a product of its time by introducing three teens also with attitudes but with very different ones you could find characters like Ethan and Connor in most recent time periods so I think Keira symbolizes this early 2000s era best and she's also a great example of a non-traditional hero type who is forced to change for the better because she's called upon to do so both her and Connor go through that and it makes sense because they both have clearly defined priorities prior to becoming rangers and learning how important their job is fits right into the narrative of understanding the legacy of power a legacy that includes a vast number of individuals who had to make those same sacrifices Ethan is a fully realized ich which I say fondly of course because I can relate to that his character is more of a direct parallel to Mighty Morphin given the fact that Billy the former wielder of Triceratops power was also the brains of the group Ethan doesn't prove to be as useful as Billy was but Dino Thunder really allows him to be which is to say between gaming competitions and his at times sarcastic tones towards people he deems less bright they do a great job at nailing what this kind of character would act like he's a fairly standard ranger but as I constantly emphasize he's a better character and that's more important there not really a ton to say about him he just really works in this setting given everything he is and proves to be and everything he has to deal with because of that including bullying even for me proves to be one of the better blue Rangers out there Connor is by no means a brainy individual which Ethan loves to point out at various times and he's also not exactly the best person either but as I mentioned he does learn and grow along the way there is a subtlety in the way he becomes somewhat more mature as the season progresses and if you don't include the physical transformations of the Mercer men he might actually be the most developed character here that makes sense with him being the Red Ranger on this team but with Tommy around Connor could have easily turned into Rocky 2.0 and had a little to no impact on the story he doesn't fall into that trap but even when it's all said and done it would be a stretch to call him a top 10 red ranger but since that field is pretty stacked anyways that's not really a knock against him he's good but because of Tommy's commanding presence is not just a ranger but the Ranger Connor always struck me as having more of a green ranger characterization than a red most of the time he does have flashes of really good leadership but it's never enough to confuse him with the likes of West Collins who also starts in a less powerful position but becomes more of a co-captain and a true leader later on for as much as I like Connor and what he did and what he brought to this season I wouldn't ever say he took that kind of step forward but I also don't think that's a huge issue since the storylines and structure of Dino Thunder do a lot of the heavy lifting here before we get to the other main characters I wanted to briefly discuss the importance of Cassidy Cornell I wouldn't color an exceptional supporting character but her and Devin to a lesser degree are given just enough focus to matter her own thing is becoming a reporter and to the show's credit they actually give her the chance to do just that it's not just I side gimmick either it's her actual career aspiration and it matters to her but not as much as potentially ruining the lives of her friends a sense of integrity she develops through the course of the show if she's just annoying to you I wouldn't disagree but she also has a ton of positive traits including a fearless approach to journalism seen as early as episode 2 an invaluable trait in that particular field Cassidy Cornell is many things but she's not lazy neither in personality nor as a character created for this show something I can't really say about the most recent season of Rangers and their human side characters and what other pair do we know that originally wanted to expose the Rangers but then through their development ended up doing right by them exactly but again Cassidy and Devin are their own characters and surprisingly strong ones in that with Trent Mercer we get the Dino Thunder equivalent of the game-changing green with evil saga that stands as one of the best aspects of the original season and again we see the theme taking shape of understanding the past but also making your own present Trent struggles are interesting because they are inherently different than what Tommy struggled with back in the day Tommy was under eat a spell pure and simple but with Trent it was more of a Jekyll and Hyde psychological horror which forms a natural parallel to his father who has the same type of duality going on with him and mesagog and from this stems a sickness in Trent a desperation he doesn't want to hurt anyone but he has no control over when and how the evil White Ranger powers manifest which then gives Keira the vital responsibility of confidant someone who Trent trust and can hopefully help him of course things don't go that smoothly and it's only after Anton Mercer himself finds a reprieve from mutant dinosaur mode that he's able to save Trent before he could be killed the interesting thing about the Mercer men is how their arcs are almost complete parallels of each other but it works because Trent finishes that arc first thus allowing him to now be his father's backbone for trying to overcome meza God's control just as Trent found a way to control his ranger powers allow me to briefly deviate from the topic at hand to say that I don't think fathers and Power Rangers are given nearly enough credit when they are presented as vital side characters they almost always work to the benefit of this season from mr. Collins to colonel Truman and even Captain Mitchell to an extent fathers and more specifically the relationship they have with their ranger kids is one of the most underappreciated aspects of the great stories this franchise has been able to tell unfortunately the only maternal representative on that level is odana and that detail didn't add much if anything to mystic force to speak more on mesagog as a villain i think he represents one of the rare cases where his design matters and that's because he is very much a product of the genetic tampering Tommy and Anton work done it's similar to how Rancic's design matters because he's a product of the genetic imperfection that his time has almost completely weird out and even though mesagog looks physically powerful he's more of a psychological villain often using mental abilities and various technologies to punish his underlings and his enemies which makes sense because it was scientists that brought him to life one of which he shares a mind with most of the time I wouldn't call mesagog an ST R villain but he's certainly better than most and interestingly enough he loses for good after he loses control in the season finale he goes full monster mode instead of operating in the calculated way he did before then and that fits well because it's only after he separates from Anton a smart and fairly controlled guy as a human that his temperament starts becoming more erratic literally tossing his humanity aside for savagery he doesn't have the same weight as tricky Nagoya insane before her defeat but it does make some sense that a mutant dinosaur would only lose after essentially becoming more of a dinosaur and less of an evil genius getting back to Trent as I mentioned before his arc doesn't just end with his release from evil he still has to face his worser half and deal with constant mistrust issues from his team stemming from his past and that's to say nothing of the trouble he gets into for keeping his father's true from the team later on Trent is a well conceived character and Jeffrey Perazzo does a good job playing a kid who balances being mopey with being a hero and everything regarding his past including his biological parents dying makes sense in terms of how his character is presented now a lot of added Rangers are inherently more interesting because of the story focus they necessitate and Trent is no exception and again he's no Tommy 2.0 his story can't even be confused with the original white ranger arc because the idea of mistrust that defines his character makes him almost in complete contrast to Tommy's quick fit on his first team and all of the various character reactions to his developments are perfectly in line of who they are thus adding more depth to each character he interacts with especially Keira and finally we reach the legend himself dr. Tommy Oliver I've said before that he works better here as a ranger mentor than at any other point in his ranger career and the I say that is because and now he does have a history and a backstory that Dino Thunder utilizes to great effect to drive several plot points it's not just random kid with green tank top appears one day it's the story of a scientist who was inspired by his former life as a dragon Zord pilot to make Jurassic Park real or something and just like in JP nothing goes as planned and there's your central dilemma in a nice detail about that is the fact that even if you came in knowing nothing about Tommy's legacy it doesn't preclude you from understanding it because for one thing the legacy of power episode has you covered in terms of Ranger history and nothing about his character now is overly dependent on knowing his past he comes with a wealth of experience and a sure minded confidence in both his words and his team that comes naturally it's a seamless progression from where he left off and it's easy to believe that given his chosen path this really is the mature and grown up Tommy although the whole battling his former lives in a coma event doesn't make much sense but I'll get back to that you may have noticed that in the case of the Dino Thunder characters I didn't discuss the themes as much as I would have with other analysis videos Dino Thunder is fairly unique amongst upper-tier seasons because the narrative and the structure creates the themes more so than the characters do the characters are at least solid and at most great across the board but that has a lot more to do with how they're presented which is also similar to the original season 2 bring up an example jungle fury needed both die sheet and KC to properly function given what they were aiming for thematically without their arcs the season is very different and probably not as good conversely if you were to replace Connor with let's say Mac - his reveal nothing changes thematically and that's the case for every character except the Mercer man and Tommy himself whose inclusion is the biggest reason this legacy season works so well but I think in this case that disconnect might be a good thing because Dino Thunder gave the main trio plenty of space to be themselves while also allowing the Mercer men to connect to the also present theme of duality which naturally could expect if Tommy who's former evil ways helped him understand Trent a lot better now let's get back to the missed chance I mentioned before concerning Tommy's place in all of this it seemed like the show was very quick to absolve Tommy of much if any blame for the way things are now his work helped create mesagog and his foot soldiers but the season never did enough with that angle Tommy did make it very clear that he never wanted his work to be used this way but even still he's certainly not blameless in all of this and it would have made for a much more compelling personal journey for Tommy to have that definitive what have I done moment especially since it's his creations that are this season's petty Patrol so you'd think that would affect him more especially given his past experiences with fighting for the wrong side and now here he is trying to make scientific breakthroughs to help the world with the unintentional consequence of possibly dooming it again that's what the coma battle should have been an internal struggle of guilt Tommy's past form should be blaming him for the current threat while Tommy overcomes that by reaffirming his dedication to all things good you wouldn't even have to change the story progression to that point because maybe Tommy was just repressing his guilt until it took subconscious form in his dreams there was no reason to have Tommy's fight for his life be a fight against his old Ranger forms except that it creates cool visuals to bring them all back with unique color palettes and have all of them together in the end but it could have been more than that this season doesn't have a ton of Northey flaws but I would say this is one of them at the end of the day the face of the franchise isn't perfect nobody is not even Carter so if Dino Thunder had utilized Tommy to better convey how understanding your mistakes and working through them are positives then we've got an even better season than this already great one to bring up our p.m. one more time that season would not have been the same without that angle defining dr. K's character and I feel like it wouldn't have been too hard to better incorporate it here too touching the finale for a bit it was really good and really well executed I wouldn't call it as somatically powerful as some other better ones but it just did everything right and as I mentioned there was thought put into how Miss agog as a character would eventually get beaten given who he is and what he later becomes and I don't know if anyone else felt this way but the closing minutes of Dino Thunder always made me really sad it's that same kind of why do this show have to end already sadness that happens every time I watch the closing minutes of avatar and Cara performing the cap things off was just a perfect touch it confirms for me that I just watched a great team a great season and a great show it's one of those things I can't properly analyze because it's more Drive from personal feelings but I think that's fine after all I don't make these videos for the sake of cold analytical points I do it because I love the show I'm discussing all I know dino thunder is a great season of Power Rangers and it stands as the only great legacy season it's a series that knew how to use the past to facilitate the present not through gimmicks or forced cameos but through great storytelling a great sense of humor and an exceptional understanding of itself it even went so far as to capture the team watching an episode of ABBA Ranger the sentai they were based on the moral of that story being an obvious different can still be good and while that episode was very much filler it's one of the few filler episodes of any Ranger season that actually builds on the central theme because this Ranger team doesn't just understand where they came from they understand where Rangers as a concept came from and they learned to respect that same as they learn about the past Ranger teams if there was ever a season constructed by people who loved Power Rangers and everything it is and represents it's this one the theme song says it best with the force of Ages centuries gone by because in point of fact this franchise does occupy two centuries this team is a forest made of distinct ages and with that comes an expensive history that helps mold these Rangers into heroes it was mostly subtle references clever self-aware jokes and tempered fanservice done right and I'll take that over super mega pandering any day of the week and that was Dino Thunder a thematic analysis for my next Ranger video will be breaking down the top ten best villains of the franchise then later we'll discuss Operation Overdrive and maybe I'll throw a ninja steel video in there somewhere since it is back on the air now and as always let me know what season you want to see a video like this for but until then thanks for watching [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Disney Brain

Views: 838,893

Rating: 4.9264417 out of 5

Keywords: power rangers, dino thunder, samurai, what happened, megaforce, time force, lost galaxy, full episode, green ranger, jason david frank

Id: JhXL1xL-m74

Length: 22min 36sec (1356 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 26 2017