Ascension: Lost Galaxy 19-21
May. 23rd, 2010 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameThe Lost Galactabeasts (Judd Lynn): First off, let me start by saying I love Deviot so far. He’s pretty awesome right from the start—barging into the Scorpion Stinger, telling Scorpius he’s a loyal servant, trying to get into the Cocoon, and then kidnapping Kai and Damon, forcing them to fight under body control, and using the energy they build to charge up the Centaurus and Stratoforce Megazords and the Zenith Carrierzord. Then he takes an attack from the Lights of Orion specifically to finish charging! That’s awesome. And on top of all that, he’s planning on betraying Scorpius just to get to the Cocoon. The man is a total bastard.
And when I’m all set to complain that the three Zords apparently transformed on their own from Galactabeast form (as opposed to the original five, who needed the Transdaggers to do so), Part 2 explained that Deviot had rebuilt the de-powered Rhino, Phoenix, and Shark Galactabeasts, which gave a justification. Congrats on keeping on top of your own consistency. Second, the fact that the Galaxy Megazord wouldn’t fight the Lost Galactabeasts while Defender Torozord seemed more like he was just getting his ass kicked really seemed to emphasize that the Magna Defender is not part of the set. The Torozord is not a Galactabeast, the Magna Defender’s sword is not a Quasar Saber, and even the suit has only the barest similarities to the Galaxy Rangers’ suits. It shows how much of a loner in retrospect that Magna was, and in a way creates a divide between Mike and the others. As second-in-command of Terra Venture, he’s got other responsibilities that have to come first, and he’s going to be even less likely to be able to run out on these duties for his Ranger duties than Kai and Kendrix. We see this when he’s barking orders in Command and then has to ask Kendrix where the other Rangers are—he had no idea about the plan. Add in the fact that the others had the chance to build a relationship with Leo better than they did with Mike (save for Kai and Kendrix, who had the time to work with him), and it does show a nice, subtle alienation that none of them mean to create.
I do have to nit that the loss of Deviot’s remote control should indicate that he no longer has control over the three Zords, but that’s more of an issue with the Japanese footage to begin with.
I’d have to say the real heroes of these episodes are Kai, Damon, and Kendrix. Kai and Damon spend most of the first part being forced to battle each other, and Damon fights off the control enough to angle his thrown Quasar Saber to hit the mind control machine instead of killing Kai. Apparently, the Quasar Sabers can be used as boomerangs, which we’ll see again in “Protect the Quasar Saber.” I also really have to commend them on their insistence to keep fighting, no matter how beat up and exhausted they are. Leo keeps asking them if they’re all right to fight right after the rescue, and they keep saying that they’ll be fine. And when Damon is thrown off his bike in the attempt to kamikaze the Lost Galactabeasts, Leo and Kai are ready to help him (in keeping with the theme of “Never leave a man behind”), but he tells them to go and he can handle it. Kai is the same way when his explosion injures him—he begs Leo to keep going. Here, a dueling theme is becoming apparent—while the GSA teaches the Rangers to never leave a comrade behind, we’re starting to see more and more the willingness to sacrifice, which comes to a head later on.
And now at episode 20, Commander Stanton reveals they’ve gone 14 lightyears from Earth and can’t turn back. Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale. They’re determined to focus on finding the New World, given that they’re probably running lower on fuel and supplies now, and heading back to Earth would waste all of it, but like I’ve said in the past, they do have the Megaship parked in their garage. It’s not too big a deal to ask the Power Rangers to please pick up some gas and food. After all, they presumably live on the colony too and certainly seem to be fond enough of it to want to help protect them. And again, the Stingwingers showed their ability to fly some scenes after flight would have been a big advantage to them in order to recapture Damon and Kai. I really wish they’d never added that feature to these guys; it makes them seem so ridiculously stupid.
And on a much sillier note, I was giggling at the sight of the Rangers fighting essentially a giant artichoke. All they need now is a spinach monster, and they’re on their way to a really tasty dip.
Heir to the Throne (Judd Lynn): This episode actually focuses on the villains more than on the heroes. It settles Deviot’s decision to betray Scorpius so he can gain access to the Cocoon, gives Trakeena some amazing levels in badass, introduces two new villains while taking out one, and takes the theme of revenge into its ultimate manifestation this season. And most of it takes place on everyone’s favorite Power Rangers hive of scum and villainy: Onyx, planet of bar brawls.
Trakeena really grows up here, from haughty daughter of Scorpius to deadly warrior. After being humiliated in a brawl in the Onyx Tavern (favorite ass-kicking bar of Andros and Karone), she meets Villamax and his Sancho, Kegler. Villamax (who honestly looks like Tetsuya Nomura designed him, with the zipper-like design all over his body, making the biker aspect we see look more badass) is a villain with a sense of decency, which we’ll see more of in “Journey’s End.” He immediately comes to Trakeena’s defense and sticks by her, agreeing to train her and remain her loyal servant. It’s also hinted that he’s got a bit of a crush on her, or at least some sort of attraction. She immediately catches his eye, and he practically flirts with her. However, he doesn’t go easy on her in the least. His training is brutal, and she nearly quits, but it pays off. Kegler I can’t say much about, as he’s pretty much just the more grounded one of the duo, trying to keep Villamax from getting too involved with Trakeena and implying it’s not the first time this has happened to him.
Villamax asks Trakeena what she would want to do if she had the choice, and she immediately answers that she wants to stand by her father’s side as his equal and conquer the universe. This is the Trakeena we’ve seen from the start—the one who begged her father to let her fight. And it certainly betrays her strength. She’s vain about shedding her mortal beauty and gets pissed when Villamax breaks her nails during training, but this desire is what impresses him. He manages to piss her off, and she pulls an underhanded attack on him that elicits praise from him. And that’s where she starts taking things more seriously—she knows she’s not a lost cause. You really get the sense that she’s growing up, starting with her leaving behind her princess’s staff in the desert, getting her ass kicked in the Tavern, then going through the training, returning the favor to the bar patrons, and then going back home at her father’s deathbed. When Scorpius’s tentacle becomes a new staff for her, it’s clearly the staff of a queen, and she decides to take on the Rangers and take her revenge with the kind of strength she couldn’t have done before. She breaks into tears of grief, but when her father’s body has faded away (because in the Power Rangers universe, death apparently means ascension—we’ve seen this with Magna and we’ll see it with Kendrix), she knows she’s got a job to do.
Now, I’ve got to say that Scorpius was a waste of a villain. He was not meant to be the main villain, and I’ve got to say it’s a good thing. You really don’t see much development on him, and his whole physical design is too cumbersome. He’s got to sit on a box in order to face the Rangers on Terra Venture, and they kick his ass in record time. But his reunion with Trakeena was probably one of the more touching moments of this season. You saw that he never gave up on looking for her, and he apologized for pushing her into being something she wasn’t and for sheltering her. He’s sorry that he no longer can protect her, and it’s clear he genuinely loves her. Trakeena drops to her knees and has to fight back tears, telling him that she’s sorry and that she understands he was trying to protect her, and you see that she’s not the petulant girl she’d been before. It’s a touching father/daughter moment, and it’s from the villains. It reminds me of Ecliptor and Astronema a season before. If there’s one constant theme I see from Power Rangers, whether it’s Saban I or Disney era, I have to say it’s family. And Saban’s first run was good about showing family from the villains’ point of view too (Astronema and Ecliptor, Olympius and Bansheera, for example). It’s beautifully handled in this episode, and I found myself wondering how the bad guys were trying to make me cry.
And when I’m all set to complain that the three Zords apparently transformed on their own from Galactabeast form (as opposed to the original five, who needed the Transdaggers to do so), Part 2 explained that Deviot had rebuilt the de-powered Rhino, Phoenix, and Shark Galactabeasts, which gave a justification. Congrats on keeping on top of your own consistency. Second, the fact that the Galaxy Megazord wouldn’t fight the Lost Galactabeasts while Defender Torozord seemed more like he was just getting his ass kicked really seemed to emphasize that the Magna Defender is not part of the set. The Torozord is not a Galactabeast, the Magna Defender’s sword is not a Quasar Saber, and even the suit has only the barest similarities to the Galaxy Rangers’ suits. It shows how much of a loner in retrospect that Magna was, and in a way creates a divide between Mike and the others. As second-in-command of Terra Venture, he’s got other responsibilities that have to come first, and he’s going to be even less likely to be able to run out on these duties for his Ranger duties than Kai and Kendrix. We see this when he’s barking orders in Command and then has to ask Kendrix where the other Rangers are—he had no idea about the plan. Add in the fact that the others had the chance to build a relationship with Leo better than they did with Mike (save for Kai and Kendrix, who had the time to work with him), and it does show a nice, subtle alienation that none of them mean to create.
I do have to nit that the loss of Deviot’s remote control should indicate that he no longer has control over the three Zords, but that’s more of an issue with the Japanese footage to begin with.
I’d have to say the real heroes of these episodes are Kai, Damon, and Kendrix. Kai and Damon spend most of the first part being forced to battle each other, and Damon fights off the control enough to angle his thrown Quasar Saber to hit the mind control machine instead of killing Kai. Apparently, the Quasar Sabers can be used as boomerangs, which we’ll see again in “Protect the Quasar Saber.” I also really have to commend them on their insistence to keep fighting, no matter how beat up and exhausted they are. Leo keeps asking them if they’re all right to fight right after the rescue, and they keep saying that they’ll be fine. And when Damon is thrown off his bike in the attempt to kamikaze the Lost Galactabeasts, Leo and Kai are ready to help him (in keeping with the theme of “Never leave a man behind”), but he tells them to go and he can handle it. Kai is the same way when his explosion injures him—he begs Leo to keep going. Here, a dueling theme is becoming apparent—while the GSA teaches the Rangers to never leave a comrade behind, we’re starting to see more and more the willingness to sacrifice, which comes to a head later on.
And now at episode 20, Commander Stanton reveals they’ve gone 14 lightyears from Earth and can’t turn back. Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale. They’re determined to focus on finding the New World, given that they’re probably running lower on fuel and supplies now, and heading back to Earth would waste all of it, but like I’ve said in the past, they do have the Megaship parked in their garage. It’s not too big a deal to ask the Power Rangers to please pick up some gas and food. After all, they presumably live on the colony too and certainly seem to be fond enough of it to want to help protect them. And again, the Stingwingers showed their ability to fly some scenes after flight would have been a big advantage to them in order to recapture Damon and Kai. I really wish they’d never added that feature to these guys; it makes them seem so ridiculously stupid.
And on a much sillier note, I was giggling at the sight of the Rangers fighting essentially a giant artichoke. All they need now is a spinach monster, and they’re on their way to a really tasty dip.
Heir to the Throne (Judd Lynn): This episode actually focuses on the villains more than on the heroes. It settles Deviot’s decision to betray Scorpius so he can gain access to the Cocoon, gives Trakeena some amazing levels in badass, introduces two new villains while taking out one, and takes the theme of revenge into its ultimate manifestation this season. And most of it takes place on everyone’s favorite Power Rangers hive of scum and villainy: Onyx, planet of bar brawls.
Trakeena really grows up here, from haughty daughter of Scorpius to deadly warrior. After being humiliated in a brawl in the Onyx Tavern (favorite ass-kicking bar of Andros and Karone), she meets Villamax and his Sancho, Kegler. Villamax (who honestly looks like Tetsuya Nomura designed him, with the zipper-like design all over his body, making the biker aspect we see look more badass) is a villain with a sense of decency, which we’ll see more of in “Journey’s End.” He immediately comes to Trakeena’s defense and sticks by her, agreeing to train her and remain her loyal servant. It’s also hinted that he’s got a bit of a crush on her, or at least some sort of attraction. She immediately catches his eye, and he practically flirts with her. However, he doesn’t go easy on her in the least. His training is brutal, and she nearly quits, but it pays off. Kegler I can’t say much about, as he’s pretty much just the more grounded one of the duo, trying to keep Villamax from getting too involved with Trakeena and implying it’s not the first time this has happened to him.
Villamax asks Trakeena what she would want to do if she had the choice, and she immediately answers that she wants to stand by her father’s side as his equal and conquer the universe. This is the Trakeena we’ve seen from the start—the one who begged her father to let her fight. And it certainly betrays her strength. She’s vain about shedding her mortal beauty and gets pissed when Villamax breaks her nails during training, but this desire is what impresses him. He manages to piss her off, and she pulls an underhanded attack on him that elicits praise from him. And that’s where she starts taking things more seriously—she knows she’s not a lost cause. You really get the sense that she’s growing up, starting with her leaving behind her princess’s staff in the desert, getting her ass kicked in the Tavern, then going through the training, returning the favor to the bar patrons, and then going back home at her father’s deathbed. When Scorpius’s tentacle becomes a new staff for her, it’s clearly the staff of a queen, and she decides to take on the Rangers and take her revenge with the kind of strength she couldn’t have done before. She breaks into tears of grief, but when her father’s body has faded away (because in the Power Rangers universe, death apparently means ascension—we’ve seen this with Magna and we’ll see it with Kendrix), she knows she’s got a job to do.
Now, I’ve got to say that Scorpius was a waste of a villain. He was not meant to be the main villain, and I’ve got to say it’s a good thing. You really don’t see much development on him, and his whole physical design is too cumbersome. He’s got to sit on a box in order to face the Rangers on Terra Venture, and they kick his ass in record time. But his reunion with Trakeena was probably one of the more touching moments of this season. You saw that he never gave up on looking for her, and he apologized for pushing her into being something she wasn’t and for sheltering her. He’s sorry that he no longer can protect her, and it’s clear he genuinely loves her. Trakeena drops to her knees and has to fight back tears, telling him that she’s sorry and that she understands he was trying to protect her, and you see that she’s not the petulant girl she’d been before. It’s a touching father/daughter moment, and it’s from the villains. It reminds me of Ecliptor and Astronema a season before. If there’s one constant theme I see from Power Rangers, whether it’s Saban I or Disney era, I have to say it’s family. And Saban’s first run was good about showing family from the villains’ point of view too (Astronema and Ecliptor, Olympius and Bansheera, for example). It’s beautifully handled in this episode, and I found myself wondering how the bad guys were trying to make me cry.