Power Rangers RPM/WMG

The reason Doctor K doesn't call anyone by their names is because they cannot reciprocate.
She doesn't know her own original name, so no one can use it; they have to use the codename Alphabet Soup gave her. For this reason, she refers to everyone else by their codenames.
 * She wasn't using names because she was trying to emotionally distance herself from them.
 * Maybe she's trying to distance herself from them because she has no real name.
 * In her spotlight episode, she mutters, "I wish I could remember my name."

Doctor K has some form of Asperger's Syndrome.
This might just be part of her social abandonment at Alphabet Soup, but think about this one. She is tactful but lacks empathy towards others, flat-out thinking that she is the center of her universe. (It's justified with her having been at Alphabet Soup and her being the single person with the know-how to beat the Venjix Virus.) She is exceptionally smart at certain skill sets but has a low general knowledge, in her case, of social activities. She has a hard time dealing with emotions, whether her own or others, and may resort to other ways of venting emotion, such as playing violin or blowing holes in the ranger base. She's pretty dead on.
 * True. But as we all know, TV writers always write smart characters like Aspies. The extent to which it's intentional this time isn't clear.
 * And audiences always seem to interpret smart characters as aspies when they believe there is such a thing.

Venjix of the Venjix Virus is the same Venjix as the head of the Machine Empire Remnant, whose program somehow survived the destruction of Sepenterra.
All right, this one is a gimme, and we've been assuming it, but it's still technically a guess.

Presumably, he broadcast his AI out of the explosion at the last minute, using those antennae on the top of his head to ensure the signal would be strong enough. He then bided his time on a satellite, using it to study the planet and wait for the perfect moment of vulnerability. At that moment, he broadcast himself planetside and started taking over the computer systems, starting with active Ranger HQs (which were probably run by skeleton crews by then, since no Big Bad was obvious).
 * It's now been revealed that Dr. K made the virus as part of "project Venjix". Presumably, humans found Venjix's broken body on the moon and got their pet genius Dr. K to try to restore his AI in an attempt to reverse-engineer Machine Empire technology. It... backfired.
 * In the Dr. K episode, she is asked to write a computer program on her tenth birthday. It seems likely that she did create Venjix.
 * Considering that she created the base code of the virus, it looks like the only things keeping this alive are the One Mario Limit and the insane writers.
 * The virus K created is probably distinct from Venjix the AI, considering his wording in "Embodied." Also, Venjix's modus operandi follows a disembodied AI much more smoothly than a virus, considering how few copies of himself exist at any one time (the maximum is one).
 * Perhaps General Venjix got out by

There are hints of this being true in the episode where he first fights the rangers head-on.
 * He seems particularly angry at them, constantly mentioning that he's waited to do this "an eternity", hinting that he's been waiting to do this for much longer than the three years since his release.
 * It seems so personal between him and the rangers; he hints that he's encountered them in person before, and they did something bad enough (from his POV) that he wants revenge. Since he's never met this team in person before, this means that he must be referring to another team - the Reds, perhaps?
 * He constantly calls himself "immortal" and thinks of it as a point of pride. Why would he be so fixated on being unkillable unless he had survived being functionally dead before - such as being destroyed almost completely, but then repaired from the code up by Alphabet Soup?
 * He's an awfully good fighter for a computer virus.
 * It follows that he's not telling his minions his true origins, based on their comments about how young he is. Perhaps he doesn't want to leak his secret to the (non-ranger) "enemy" via capture of damaged machines?
 * See "Venjix will travel back in time to create the Machine Empire" for more theories.

Project Venjix was an attempt to reverse-engineer Machine Empire technology found on the moon
They thought Dr. K should start by figuring out one of the AIs (specifically, Venjix's), since he could tell them a lot more. Then they could move on to things like advanced weaponry and growth technology. This... did not work as well as planned.

Venjix is reverse-engineered from Machine Empire tech, but not the original Venjix from "Forever Red".
Please consider the following:
 * The mission to defeat the Machine Empire's remnants on the moon was back by the U.S. government. They gave the rangers access to the airbase where they housed the Megaship and they were the first to realize something was up on the moon.
 * After the rangers did the heavy lifting, the government helped itself to the wreckage. They attempt to reverse-engineer Machine Empire technology for the defense of earth. They codename this initiative "Project Venjix" after the original Venjix.
 * The scientists of Project Venjix yields a method of creating a thinking, sentient Artificial Intelligence but the machine code required is something none of the scientists can possibly understand. It is a ridiculously complex language, one that would take a lifetime of study to learn. With this idea in mind, the minds behind Project Venjix begin a new project: Alphabet Soup, in which young children with advanced intellectual aptitude are kidnapped at an early age and made to study and understand the systems of the Machine Empire in order to replicate it.
 * One of the children captured in this way, K, eventually creates an AI. This new AI, developed entirely by Dr. K, is named Venjix after the source of the technology, Project Venjix.

Venjix tricked Dr. K into making him.
Okay, first, we must assume that it's the same Venjix that was in "Forever Red." Let's say that, before his destruction, he left a "copy" of himself as an AI. Dr. K found this AI when she was ordered to make the computer program. It promised her that it would be able to let her out if she turned it into a powerful virus.

Venjix will travel back in time to create the Machine Empire.
Venjix's rank of general is only a deception to throw the Machine Empire's enemies off. He is the emperor.
 * As of the finale,
 * Jossed

RPM will end with the rangers going to some other planet to save it from the Machine Empire
Since Venjix, and by extension the Machine Empire, successfully conquered Earth, it's safe to assume that they've also conquered worlds that are less well protected. Also,.

RPM will end with the beginnings of Time Force
Imagine the end of Venjix as humanity tries to rebuild. Dr. K begins work on her next project using her super-special fourth-dimensional tech. The radiation sickness has created strange mutations in a small subsection of humanity, which is driven to the many deserts as humanity rebuilds itself. Dude. But is second-half showrunner Judd Lynn hardcore enough (and self-serving enough) to do it?
 * Time Force was the last season of Power Rangers before Disney took over. Of course Judd Lynn will dare remake it! (Give or take a few nails and butterflies...)

SPD is no longer the future
Okay, during SPD, the villains went into the past more than once, right? During one of their time travel forays, they sent a package- data, secret identities and weak points, locations, strategies, maybe some tech designs- to Venjix and the Machine Empire remnant. That was back in 2005. RPM, in the "near future", presumably nearer than 2025, is what occurred when the package finally reached Venjix, who immediately came back for revenge, easily wiping out older Rangers with the future data. We know the "near future" of RPM is nearer than SPD because the data sent back in SPD was still useful - otherwise, the still-powered Zeo Rangers with active Zords would have taken care of things. Since they didn't, there must have been special knowledge.
 * This means that "Mystic Force," "Operation Overdrive," and "Jungle Fury" all happened while the package or Venjix were still in transit; everything in those seasons was futile because, once Venjix got the package, he had as good as won.
 * The above theory only works if you disregard the Time Skip.
 * Not necessarily. It's the "near future" - a few decades at most. The worst-case scenario would have been an army of badass granparents with superpowers and giant robots- arguably harder to defeat than a group of plucky youngsters. Remember Tommy in Dino Thunder? Now imagine EVERY POWERED RANGER like that. No way Venjix could have taken them without some sort of hidden advantage.
 * The whole theory is debunked because:
 * 1) Grumm only traveled back in time during "Wormhole."
 * 2) Grumm wanted to conquer earth before SPD was able to oppose him. Why would he help anyone else?
 * 3) Venjix and the Machine Empire remnant were destroyed in 2002. The wormhole Grumm and SPD went into led to 2004. How would Venjix get and use a message that's delivered two years after his destruction?
 * Possible answers to all those are in a WMG below this one.
 * And, since the "package" is a Timeline Altering MacGuffin, it doesn't matter how Venjix gets it, only that Venjix gets it. Maybe he just hacked Grumm's computer and read it off there. Hacking into computers is something computer viruses love doing, after all...
 * More possible support -- a recent episode made a reference towards Colonel Truman not being in the 21st century, with the implication that Colonel Truman grew up in the era before computerized paperwork, in the 20th century. Thus, it's in the 2010s, most likely, given that Colonel Truman appears to be in his 40s.
 * The above reference was likely a joke, given that written paperwork is not strange or uncommon enough nowadays to warrant such a comment. But it works if you assume that the speaker didn't know enough about the actual 21st century because he lives in the 22nd century.

The Blue Senturion was an Unwitting Pawn of Venjix
If he hadn't brought back the Millennium Message, then Zordon would have still been alive when Venjix attacked and could have sacrificed himself to save the Earth.

The final battle in RPM will contain at least one reference to the original series
If this is the final season, then it just has to.
 * Possibility: Dr. K's use of music-controlled technology as seen in her episode will lead to her tapping into the controls for the Dragonzord, which is still lying dormant off the coast of Angel Grove. She will then send it on a rampage across North America, wiping out Venjix forces all the way to Corinth.
 * AND while she's committing her glorious rampage, she's playing the violin version of the original theme music.
 * And then the Dragonzord combines with whatever they're going to call
 * Another suggestion: Dr. K finaly manages to transmit a distress signal into space. A very old, battle-scared man descends from space... Billy, the last member of the MMPRs, who realizes that everyone he knew and loved is long dead, morphs one last time, assists the RPM Rangers in the final battle, and leaves.
 * Billy can't morph.
 * The man has spent thirty years doing R&D offscreen. He probably has a new morpher he made himself with the help of the Aquitaran Academy of Sciences.
 * And then he pilots  Or gives the RPM rangers upgraded versions of the original seven MMPR suits.

The robot Turbo Rangers will show up in the finale
First, it was never revealed what became of them when Zordon was captured.

Second, they are robots, and therefore they are still alive, not dead of old age or of whatever anti-biological thing Venjix has thought up.

Third, Judd Lynn took control of the show at around the time of the Turbo cast turnover so he may have more of a sentimental connection to that particular cast; and he's the executive producer of this show's final episodes.

Most important, at least two former Turbo cast members have hinted at involvement with a new Power Rangers related project.

Dillon is a Manchurian Agent.
Okay, that much is obvious, given the Venjix hardware in his body. However, that is just a Red Herring. He's a Manchurian Agent for King Aradon, who is going to use him to destroy the rangers and conquer Venjix's empire, thereby proving that he is superior to King Mondo once and for all.

All of the events in Power Rangers RPM are time-locked.
Given that Venjix was clever enough to wait until he had enough resources to destroy most of the Earth, he'd probably realize that some meddling time traveler might try to undo his work, and so he took precautions to prevent that from happening.
 * Or this is all supposed to happen, and Time Force is keeping their mitts off this one.
 * So it's both time-locked and a fixed point, like the Time War.
 * And that will mean that the RPM Power Rangers will be the last of their kind.

As of Power Rangers RPM, the Wildzords are dead
The stated role of Animus and the Wildzords, regardless of whether Animus is a god or a Morphing Master, is to protect the environment. The Machines have fucked the environment up but good. Considering that preexisting pollution levels were enough to wake them up in 2002, it's reasonable to conclude that the beginning of Venjix's Revenge woke them up again. Three years have passed since then, and the entire planet, save one city, has been razed; this indicates that they did not prevent the destruction. Since they are not protecting that one city, something has happened to them. Death in the line of fire in the early years of the war is the most logical conclusion.
 * Do we know that the entire planet was razed? Depopulated or subjugated, sure; but blasted into the Australian outback? If Corinth is on the site of our world's present-day Boston, then that's a heavily urban area; Venjix's onslaught on humanity would have to reduce it to a smoldering wasteland. But lightly-populated and unpopulated areas may have faced only surgical strikes. Venjix probably would have found it inefficient to carpet-bomb, say, Siberia. The Wildzords might still be alive but confined to some rainforest somewhere, unable or unwilling to cross the more thoroughly devastated areas to render aid.

Venjix's first strike was to infect the SPD archives
This was why there were no teams of Rangers able to stop Venjix from taking over. He infected their powers and Zords. Such an easy "take out the entire planet's defenses with one strike" was possible because...

Venjix was successful because SPD centralized the highly decentralized Ranger system
Think about it. Until SPD came to prominence, the army structure that Rangers most closely resembled was the guerrilla army, with small cells connected by a loose social grid. If one fell, then the others would still be unharmed and would swoop in to take over (as shown in "Once A Ranger" and several teamup episodes). Headquarters were strictly isolated and hidden, and recruitment was in secret and highly secure.

Then SPD centralized everything. Rather than a network of barely related cells, the Rangers were now a regulated army, complete with red tape and a centralized hackable computer network -- one target for the virus, rather than several dozen, as noted above about the SPD archives -- in a public and easily reachable building. Furthermore, by making it a public army rather than a private guerrilla force, SPD made it much easier to join under false pretenses. Now, instead of faking an entire life and being in the right place at the right time, you just needed to fake a resume and a job interview and to survive basic training if you wanted to be The Mole. Because they centralized everything, it was much easier to take them down. Because they were even more public than Lightspeed Rescue, it was easy to attack them. (The demons in Lightspeed Rescue needed to hijack a megazord to attack the ranger base. The SPD base has a street address.)

Venjix's first strike was to corrupt A-Squad
This saves Venjix the trouble of infiltration. A-Squad is already there. Gruumm could have had him plant a virus in their network as a way to defeat the rangers (and Earth) if he was to fail.
 * This dovetails nicely with the "it's the same Venjix" theory. Grumm simply found Venjix and agreed to let Venjix wipe out humanity if Grumm's attempt failed. That way, Grumm gets a bug in their system to track them and doesn't need to devote any resources to creating it, and Venjix gets an opportunity for sweet revenge on those who killed him and his empire.

RPM will end with a massive Reset Button
The Rangers travel back in time and retroactively destroy Venjix before he comes to power, perhaps all the way back to "Forever Red", dragging Conner, Shane, Jack, Nick, Mack, and Casey with them.

This is close to the earlier guess that it'll end with the RPM rangers leaving Earth; but let's face it, there's a better than average chance that the makers aren't going to allow this franchise to end with a war-ravaged earth and mankind on the brink of extinction.
 * Earth was still shown to be ravaged in the 25th and 31st centuries. Even if this happens, another future event will cause the destruction of Earth.
 * Wait, we see the ravaged 31st century in Time Force, but when do we see the 25th century?
 * The 25th century was shown on the Time Blaster ride during Time Force's run.

Eagle One Is Still Alive
This ought to be a gimmie. The question is whether he turns out to be the Sixth Ranger or some kind of brainwashed Venjix-supersoldier.
 * He could be both. Preferably in reverse order.
 * His build doesn't match Hiroto/Go-on Gold's. But they could pull a Titanium Ranger with one of the five eventual rangerless zords. Well, four of them: the Croc Carrier was confirmed to be remote-controlled.
 * Jossed

Tenaya 7 Heel Face Turn
If it has a face, then it gets a happy ending. No one with a face ever dies.
 * Trakeena, Vypra, Kendrix, Zordon and that old Indian guy who got killed by Deviot would like a word with you.
 * Kendrix got better!
 * "Ranger Yellow II" sort of nixes this theory. Summer's butler didn't get a happy ending.
 * He did, given Summer's drastic change in personality.
 * Given how she constantly defies Venjix and that she still has a self-preservation instinct, this might come true.

Tenaya is Dillon's missing sister.
Though she describes herself as entirely robotic, they make similar predictions about the transformation Dillon's undergoing. Furthermore, close observation will reveal that Dillon has never seen Tenaya's face -- she always has her visor down whenever he's around. And we now know that Dillon's sister was blind; therefore, even if Tenaya is she, she wouldn't recognize Dillon by sight. Her penchant for whistling "Farmer in the Dell" will figure into the revelation.
 * Based on upcoming episode synopses:

RPM will end with the biggest Massive Multiplayer Crossover ever
Dr. K always refers to the ranger technologies as "Series Red", "Series Black" etc.. Could it be that that's because these are the prototypes, and she's got an entire army of Ranger spandex nano-armor in production? That will be ready just in time for the final battle?

RPM will end with the use of nuclear weapons to take out Venjix
In Time Force, the planet is still ruined and babies are genetically engineered to prevent dangerous mutations. What do we know of that would still be around nine hundred years later, prevent plants from reclaiming the planet in places, and cause mutations? That's right, fallout from the use of nuclear weapons.

Venjix used nukes.
It's possible, since he's a computer virus, that his initial strike was to hack military computers and launch just enough nukes to take out the non-shielded population centers. He's reluctant to use more because the radiation would also interfere with his machines.

The RPM morphers and zords was shoehorned into protecting Corinth.
The RPM team seems like just another spinoff team of Rangers. The animal zords look more like show models for a potential "Wild Force"-esque team than something meant to be weaponized and used as the last line of defence for humanity. But when the Venjix virus attacked,the RPM team was commissioned and refitted by Dr. K to protect Corinth.

This would explain the Racing and Animal theme clash on the suits and zords. The military probably thought the original suits looked laughable; but Dr. K wasn't all that worried about aesthetics and just half-assed a design change to make a superior happy.
 * Semi Confirmed as of "Dr. K," but they certainly weren't a last ditch effort.

The RPM ranger powers are less powerful than "normal" ranger powers
In the episode "Rain," the rangers get wiped out just by fighting a bunch of regular grunts. Consider that they morphed, ran all the way to where the attack-bot was infiltrating, fought, ran all the way to where the Grinders were, fought them -- and then ran out of power.

This is because RPM is set quite some time after SPD but a long time before Time Force. What people in this time frame know of Power Rangers is limited. Dr K didn't even know the Morphing Grid's name. Since previous technological teams, such as Lightspeed and SPD, must have known what it was, some knowledge about how ranger powers work must have been lost, either to time or because of Venjix's attack. People knew just enough about Power Rangers to get or guess all the names right, such as "zords".

With limited knowledge and limited resources (there's only one city left on earth), Dr K probably did the best she could with what she had; the result is a set of rangers with very limited power.

Also note that they don't constantly keep the Engine Cells in their equipment. They have to load them every time they need to be used. Odds are, these cells are like batteries and would drain down if left in the morphers, zords, and weapons for too long.
 * Also note that the ranger suits are stored at the base; all previous teams used Hammerspace.
 * It is claimed that the explosions that happen whenever the Rangers morph are a way of discharging built up energy. This team has inefficient power management in their suits.
 * The Zords seem clunkier and less elegant than other seasons.

RPM is the first team with no extraterrestrial aid in technological development.
This is why they know so much less about ranger-related things than other teams.

The first Ranger teams were supplied and guided directly by Zordon and other aliens. Lightspeed was probably working with Black Box tech from the wrecked Turbozords (and possibly Space zords), and so they couldn't reproduce anything they created -- they could only tinker and repair. SPD was an interplanetary body with an Earth branch in New Tech City; it's possible that they didn't share any knowledge or schematics with Earth's governments. Operation Overdrive was probably built to the specifications made by the Sentinel Knight; Andrew probably had no idea what he was doing.

The Alphabet Soup think-tank Dr. K mentioned must have been a project to figure out how this stuff works. Venjix struck before they could get to the level Earth's allies and benefactors had reached.

They made Flynn Scottish so the premise wouldn't scare kids.
So, we have already established that RPM's premise can be scary as hell if you think too much about it. So, how do the writers avoid angry letters from parents complaining that their child had nightmares about the 90% of Earth's population being destroyed? By making one of the characters come from another country for no apparent reason. Kids see Flynn and think, "Oh, everyone on earth now lives in Corinth." Granted, kids are not as stupid as the writers may think, but it was worth a try.
 * But they still cut all the footage with Japanese extras in the background, so not quite everyone.

Ziggy was part of the Alphabet Soup
Ziggy was a genius and part of the Alphabet Soup, until they tried to erase his memories and scrambled his brain by accident. That explain his lack of backstory. What he told the guards in prison was derived from the scrambling.
 * So...Ziggy is Dr. Z, perhaps?
 * FROM THE FUTURE!

RPM will end with them going back in time
... and becoming Samurai.
 * So, Red would be Scott, Blue would be Flynn/Dylan, Green would be Ziggy, Yellow would be Summer, and pink would be...Gemma? Dr. K, maybe? Tenaya if she does a Heel Face Turn? Interestingly enough, though, Go-onger did have a samurai world...
 * Jossed

Venix is preventing other civilizations from aiding Earth.
He is doing this by:
 * 1) Jamming communications so that any distress signals that are sent never leave the Earth, and sending out fake communications simulating the communications that would be sent had he not destroyed the world.
 * 2) In the event that some other planet requests aid from Earth against some foe, he sends a small fraction of his army to assist them and thus no one suspects Earth has fallen under his control.
 * 3) He has built a planet-sized version of the dome around Corinth (which wasn't designed by Alphabet Soup) and placed it around the planet, so even if someone does show up they won't be able to get to Earth.

The show will pull a Titanium Ranger at some point.
Think about this one. Only five rangers, seven if you count Gold and Sliver, and 10+ Zords from the old series. And we have an evil character who shows some sign of being related to Dillion and a Mentor who has a thought-out backstory. How can there not be new rangers involved?
 * There were twelve zords (not including . Minus the personal zords already revealed, Croc Carrier, , that leaves 4 potential Titaniums:
 * for Scott's brother if he turns out to be alive. He was a pilot, and... somewhat heavyset.
 * T-Line for Tenaya if she does a Heel Face Turn. She's pretty ferocious.
 * K-Line for Dr. K if she becomes a ranger. She's very smart, just like the other two rangers that have used that animal as a zord.
 * Wait a minute. One-Letter Name on both of them?
 * This would be an Ass Pull that would ruin much of Summer's characterization, but, dammit, it would be cool to let Andrews have.
 * There's no guarantee either way. The show has had unmanned zords before. They didn't introduce a Black Time Force Ranger to pilot the Time Shadow Megazord. There was no Gold Time Force Ranger for the Transwarp Megazord. They brought in the Titanium Ranger in Lightspeed because everyone was used to the Sixth Ranger plot. Now the toymakers have released three rangers based on the upcoming trains, in the style of the Spirit Rangers from Jungle Fury. Whether they'll make it into the show or not, we'll have to see.
 * There probably won't be a ranger for the whale zord. That ranger would logically be part of a team with Ranger Gold and Ranger Silver, right? Given the setup with Gem and Gemma, it would just be strange to bring in a partner for them out of nowhere.
 * True. But if they did....
 * It appears they are. Early leaked info, shows three new original Rangers created for the Dino Zords. So it seems likely they're going for this.

Regarding the Dino-Train Rangers...
Pictures are here, and assuming these are to scale to one another, the White Ranger is awfully short...
 * The white one doesn't appear to be at the same scale. Also, is anyone else bothered that the colors of the Triceratops and Mammoth figures don't seem to match their zords?
 * Yeah, they look a little off, but the White Ranger is for sure to scale, according to the Bandai Website.
 * Unfortunately, the White Ranger seems to be male...also, does anyone notice the similarities between these costumes and the Shinkenger costumes? That's not a good sign for the "last season" ambiguity...
 * That could just be a Shout Out. Remember when the Spirit Rangers first appeared in the toy line, their suits were more similar to the regular Jungle Fury suits, but in the show, they had redesigned Beast Master suits.
 * You're probably right on that: Their costumes are different in this pic. Also, the Triceratops Ranger doesn't appear to have one, and we know that the female rangers usually get less figures than the male rangers...
 * Female rangers and Ziggy...
 * Huh. So our options left are...
 * A. The Dino-Train Rangers are toys only, cut from the budget, and/or do not have civilian forms, invalidating any potential newcomers.
 * B. The Motorbike costumes are some sort of alternate form, invalidating Dr. K (and possibly Tenaya) from the Ranger lineup due to Tommy's Law of Color-Coordination. (Marcus is still entirely plausible, provided He's Just Hiding.)
 * C. The Motorbike Costumes are only toys and/or the Dino-Train Ranger's costumes were undecided at the time they toys went on market, leaving us back where we started.
 * This new scan seems to indicate that there will not be any Dino Rangers in the show this year (also no battlizer or team up apparently): http://linearranger.com/RPMNews/news17.htm
 * Of course, maybe they're just not sure if they're going to. Remember, Judd Lynn is taking over. They're probably not sure what he's planning.

There Is Another Corinth-like hideaway for humanity
There's always another last refuge city.

The world of RPM is the same as the one in WALL* E.
After defeating Venjix, the world will become a place where the enslaved robots do all the work, and a place full of consummerism. Oh, and the Axiom is a Zord.

Auto is Venjix, who was only thought to have been destroyed.

Power Rangers RPM is a prequel to every other ranger series.
Their world is completely destroyed. After Venjix is defeated, the few remaining humans leave their world and travel...where? To that third planet in the system, Terra. Leaving their homeworld Mars a barren wasteland with only the face of a battered Megazord burried in sand left as any reminder humanity was there at all.


 * This leads into the guess above that Venjix founds the Machine Empire. He survives there attack, and leaves to bide his time and gather strength, building forces and conquering.
 * How did Flynn get to Corinth from Scotland? On Mars, they're on the same continent; when Flynn gets to Terra, he settles in the area we now know as Scotland, naming it after his lost land. Why is it Angel Grove and not Los Angeles? It's an alternate universe in which we descended from Martians.
 * RPM, Rangers Protecting Mars?
 * Dillon does not initially go to Terra/Earth. He leaves the others, fearing that he might hurt them. Over the course of the years, he becomes less of the "brooding bad boy" Tenaya described him as. He encounters Zordon on Eltar and befriends him. Much later, still alive despite the many years due to the Venjix hardware in his body, he travels to earth to aid the then-current team of rangers...as the Phantom Ranger.

Tenaya and Dillon are descended from Jen and Wes.
Tenaya 7 looks uncannily like Jen to be coinidence, and Dillon looks like Wes.
 * Given the time-loopy nature and presumed Identical Grandson nature of Power Rangers Time Force, this means that one of them is likely the ancestor of Alex.
 * Since the Identical Grandson in question was Alex himself, this is even more likely.
 * This pretty much screws with the timeline: for what we know, RPM is no further than the 31st century. Besides, it seems like RPM is following a separate timeline, so as not to erase Time Force itself (and SPD) from existence, without necessarily eliminating RPM from history.

All the main characters are dead.
They're all in purgatory, where they're living the life they wanted. Scott died with his brother fighting Venjix; in purgatory, he's able to fight off Venjix's forces and is approved of by his father. Flynn died while fighting with the tribes (the Braveheart scene); here, he becomes the hero he wanted to be, and is also approved of by his father. Summer died after being abandoned in the wasteland by her friends; here, she is able to take care of herself. The cartels killed Ziggy after he gave the medicine to the orphans; in purgatory, he can piss them off all he wants. Dillon's body was unable to handle the Venjix hardware, and it killed him; here, he was strong enough to take it. Dr. K was executed by Alphabet Soup due to her rebelliousness; here, she can fix the mess she started.
 * Except Scott still has daddy issues in purgatory. And Flynn could have been killed in any of his jobs. Summer, most of "take care of herself" would be "now she has real friends"

Flynn's work in international aid was an allegory for the series.
Think about it: An antagonistic force (The other tribes/Venjix) attacks. The people (The tribe Flynn was helping/The human race), abandoned by their allies (The other international aid workers/Triforia, Aquitar, K0-35, and Eltar), must fight back with less advanced, somewhat goofier technology (Organic tennis rackets/The apparently oil-powered zords, silly due to the Go-Onger designs.)

Dillon is the Phantom Ranger
This is similar to the "RPM takes place on Mars" WMG, but...different. Let's assume that RPM is in an alternate universe, and that it takes place in, say, 1998, a year after Power Rangers Turbo. In the RPM universe, the Phantom Ranger never came to help the Turbo Rangers. Without the Rescue Zords, the Turbo Rangers were killed. Without the rangers, the military stepped in and defeated Divatox and General Havoc. Fearing that there would be more aliens * coughDarkSpectercough*, the government had their top subject in Alphabet Soup create a defense program known as Venjix. Fast forward one year: The RPM Rangers lose against Venjix. Scott, Flynn, Summer, Ziggy, any other rangers, and possibly Dr. K are dead. Dillon is relying on Venjix hardware to survive. Wearing a ranger suit that can keep Venjix from hijacking him, he uses a time machine that Dr. K built based on Flynn's time manipulation powers to take seven zords (Rescue Zords, Artillatron, and the Delta Megaship) back to the past as the Phantom Ranger. Pretending to be an alien friend of Zordon, he gives the rangers their Rescue Zords, allowing them to turned the tides of battle. The military doesn't need to defeat Divatox and General Havoc, and therefore they do not have Dr. K make the virus. Alternatively, Venjix was destroyed by Zordon's sacrifice, and without the Delta Megaship and the now-deceased former Turbo Rangers' help, Andros would have died and not been able to get to Zordon.

The Planet where the planet reside will be Cybertron
Similar to the "RPM is the prequel to the other series". The planet is too much of a wasteland to recover; humanity has to leave regardless. Venjix is left active and makes the planet the future home planet of the Transformers.
 * In other words, Megatron came before Optimus Prime?
 * Well he did in G1...say hi Orion Pax.

Corinth City was built as a secret city to hide all involved in the Venjix Virus before it was released.
Consider this. After the Venjix Virus was released, where would the resources to build a dome city, complete with climate control, come from? By then, Venjix had taken control of most computer systems, including electronics and power. In "Doctor K", the MIB asked Doctor K to build them a special computer program: Project Venjix. Project Venjix was supposed to be released by the shady government; a city was constructed for them to take refuge in to protect them from the inevitable takeover. But Doctor K released the virus before all of their plans were put into motion, which caused K to send her message directing anyone who received it to Corinth City.
 * And that government was the totalitarian state of SPD, which was losing power and feared a civil war to re-institute Democracy.

Corinth was never called Boston
We know that Power Rangers Earth's history doesn't match up to our own- see California's English colony for the best example. We know that cities have always had different names as well- see San Angeles and Angel Grove for (possibly San Fransisco?) and Los Angeles. It is entirely possible that Massachusetts was first settled by Greeks or something, before In Spite of a Nail things ended up more or less aligning with our world events until 1992.
 * Corinth's location is given as 71 Degrees 5 Minutes 52 Seconds North Latitude 32 Degrees 20 Minutes 46 Seconds West Longitude That puts Corinth in the middle of Greenland.
 * And the map shown in the beginning of each episode when Dr. K mentions the safe haven that is Corinth is a map of Boston, complete with the ocean on one side.

The entire season is being narrated by Summer
Either that, or the person narrating it is using Summer as an Author Avatar. She comes up with all the plans, is a mother hen and an amazing fighter, shows up JUST in time to save Dillon and Ziggy's asses in "Prisoners", fights hand to hand with Tenaya in "Ranger Yellow", and is second in command all of a sudden.

Gem and Gemma have been mindlinked by Venjix Technology.
It makes sense. They complete each other's sentences and think along the same lines of thought day in and day out.

Why? Just for the heck of it. ""We never-"

"-split up-"

"-ever!""


 * It's possible Venjix did it as an experiment in how well the human mind can handle Hive Mind stuff, in hopes of linking all his human slaveworkers up to one of his drones to keep them loyal. Judging from what it seems to have done to Gem and Gemma, who don't even have a machine in the mix, he abandoned that line of research because of efficiency decreases.
 * Didn't they do this when they worked with Dr. K before Venjix was unleashed?

Venjix and its generals are all aspects of the same intelligence basically talking to itself.
It doesn't make much sense that Venjix would create a general as dim witted as Crunch, or that it would opt for a military hierarchy when it could command mindless drones all on its lonesome. But "lonesome" is key. The intelligence and awareness that is Venjix works through and animates separate beings with specific personalities of their own, including the Venjix we see that talks to people and its minions, to simulate the one aspect of human nature it finds appealing: social interaction.

The reason they're as one dimensional and cartoonish as they are is because Venjix is working off what it understands, which is basic archetypes; they haven't had much in the way of "life" experiences to give them more layers yet.

Alphabet Soup is a corrupted version of Wammy's House.
After, the American government bought it from Roger Ruvie (who, according to Death Note: How to Read, doesn't like children). Dr. K is similar to L, Mello, and Near (Well, L and Near, at least): she goes by one letter and doesn't have good social skills. Furthermore, she's basically the opposite of K from the third Death Note film. K tried to wipe out humanity and failed miserably. Dr. K didn't try to wipe out humanity, but practically succeeded at it.

Corinth uses synthetron technology to supply most of the city's food
In "Three's A Crowd," t6here are fresh fruits and vegetables displayed in a convenience store. Corinth is the last city on the planet, and you cannot possibly grow much of anything outside the dome. It is impossible by the numbers to feed a city the size of Corinth day in, day out from what can naturally be produced inside the parts of the dome that aren't otherwise built over. Because of this, food, any food, would have to be synthesized on a massive scale to feed the citizens. Fortunately for the citizens. the government has had this technology for many years.

The series takes place in the same universe as Battlestar Galactica.
The world is ruined? Check. By robots? Check. With a single red eye? Check. After disabling human defenses by infiltrating the Internet? Check. Their motivation is to Kill All Humans? Check. Comes back after being destroyed? Check. In a universe where music is important? Check, check, and check. And it's all ? Check.

So, what is the connection between Venjix and the Cylons? Venjix himself gives it away when he introduces Tenaya 7: he claims to have created her in the image of the most horrible thing he could think of. She looks like a normal human. Who do we know who thinks like that? That's right, Venjix is Cavil.

Here's how it goes down:


 * Members of Cavil's faction that  encounter Mondo.
 * (optional) Cavil inspires Mondo to overthrow his organic creators, and the Machine Empire is born.
 * King Mondo hears Cavil's "gelatinous orbs" rant, and gives him a robotic body. Since "John", "Cavil" and "Model Number One" no longer apply to the former Cylon, he is renamed "Venjix" and becomes Mondo's general.

Recently:
 * King Mondo invades Earth, but is given the boot.
 * Mondo is destroyed by Zordon's Heroic Sacrifice, but Cavil/Venjix survives.
 * General Venjix tries to recover Serpentera, but both are destroyed by the assembled Red Rangers. As a former Cylon, he does what comes natural, and tries to download. It is only partially successful, and only bits of his data survive.

"Near future":
 * finds the Venjix data, but is unable to repair it. They ask  to do so, and Venjix is rebuilt as a virus.
 * uses the Venjix Virus in a failed attempt to escape . This goes badly.

This neatly explains many of the Human Aliens running around the franchise -. Also, most of them are more advanced than Earth because they didn't have.

The Venjix virus, by the time of the series, is transmitted by nanobots
Originally he traveled the way viruses usually do; but once he had mostly taken over, he had nanobots built to transmit him to hardware not hooked into the internet. The nanobots also remain in infected hardware for repair functions.
 * It was by hijacking those nanobots that Doctor K was able to hijack Jumbowhale- she simply sent a new virus into the nanobots, prompting them to begin acting like biological cells (perhaps even modifying each other to perform as such).
 * It wasn't the machine itself she altered; she simply altered the nanobots so that they'd go biological and integrate themselves into the hardware. Also, by having the nanobots effectively destroy each other, Venjix can't take the device back. The only way to ensure that Venjix can't reinfect the nanobots and retake the doomsday device is by making the nanobots turn each other into something a computer virus can't infect easily -- life. And the only organism-machine hybrid she's familiar with is the zord.
 * It's also possible that she included instructions in the virus to make Zord hookups before rebuilding themselves into something non-mechanical.

Venjix's headquarters are located in a vortex.
After all, why wouldn't he build his base someplace where his enemies are powerless?

Venjix is Kilokhan from Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad
They are the same program. The name change happened when his original creators tried to patch him to fix the error that made him evil. Unfortunately, it made him worse.

Venjix is Lord Zedd
Eventually, Venjix creates a cyborg body for himself based on research done on hybrids, then travels to the past, taking up a new identity. Unfortunately, the organic half of his body makes him susceptible to Rita's love potion. Since he and Rita turned human, he could be the ancestor of one of the rangers. Probably the angsty one.

Dillon and Tenaya 7 are descended from Andros or Karone
Girls being kidnapped and turned into villains, and boys becoming power rangers that fight those villains, are In the Blood.

Some of the former Power Rangers still live
-and are busy protecting other cities similar to Corinth. The reason they don't bother to go to that city or indicate their existence is one of these:
 * 1) They may have not received the message about its existence
 * 2) They know the city is already protected by a group of Rangers and believe they can act best by protecting the cities they are already in.

This is why Venjix is having such difficulty taking down the city. He is, in fact, diverting resources to try to destroy the other Ranger-protected cities. All data-based information to the contray is his propaganda at work.

Venjix's adherance to Strictly Formula is because he is a viral AI
Thus, despite having sentience, he cannot escape his basic command-code and must repeat the viral insturctions he is pre-loaded with (just like we humans have to eat and sleep on a semi-regular basis).

This is why he destroys the General that tries to Lampshade this. It circumvents the resulting Logic Bomb of realizing the general was correct and being unable to act on that knowledge. (Venjix was well-programmed.)

Summer is a Venjix infiltration unit
Think about this one. She has a flimsy personality when you put her under the microscope, and she is equipped with any skills that could possibly come in handy, from pool shots to high kicks to engine repair. She always seems to be in the right place in the right time, and has a cookie-cutter backstory complete with cookie-cutter parents.

It even explains why she is constantly cooing over Dillon and his sister:  and she figures that she could turn him to Venjix's side if she ever wanted to plan a coup.
 * If she had Venjix hardware in her, Dr. K would have known by now.
 * (OP) By flimsy, she seems a bit underdevloped compared to other characters. We know that she's Dillon's squishybear, she had a Lonely Rich Kid backstory, and that's really it. She doesn't seem to have motivation or personality outside of her relationship, and when she isn't comforting Dillon, she's kinda shoved in the corner. Maybe this is a bit of wishful thinking, but this would be an awesome twist, give her something to do, and kinda give her closure on her Rebellious Princess story. And assuming Summer was hybridized in the eighty miles to Corinth, and Truman knew nothing about hybrids, it's plausible that she snuck in the dome before they had the screening process in place, and it hasn't really come up since.
 * So,as far as Chicks go, she's par for the course. I suppose that it would make a good twist, but it may feel to much like Operation Overdrive. And I guess we don't really know what technology Dr. K had back then, but I'd assume they would have regular checkups.
 * Nah, all this is nonsense, if you pay attention to the backstory you see she was ALREADY not just some Rich Bitch. She was praticing some (apparently) high level karate against the butler, was seen riding around on a dirt bike, which could suggest she knows something about the upkeep of one. The is not a SINGLE instance of Summer being the Chick ANYWHERE in any of te episodes, in fact, she is as competent as any of the males in the group, and by an large her gender could be seen as purely asthetic. There are no instances of Summer cooing over Dillon, none. Her motivation is quite clearly to live up to what she belives her butler saw in her. 'Simple' and 'flimsy' are not the same thing. Not every hero has to be an angst ridden train reck of a person.
 * (2nd&4th Poster) Just as a note, I wasn't actually saying that she was a chick. I was just saying that the things the OP posted were qualities of most Chicks, and if that was his or her reasoning, then all Chicks are Venjix moles.
 * (OP) Neither did I, and if that was implied, I apologize. In fact, the reason that I inferred that there is more to Summer than meets the eye is that she is more of a Chick who has not only taken a level in Badass, but aced the course, then took it again because she was bored. She doesn't have a single character flaw, and when she does screw up, no one calls her out on it, not even herself. And that retroactively affects her character, because superficially yes, she has her motive and her method, but it doesn't have the same effect that it would if she has to struggle with her saintlyhood, or better yet, being the Only Sane Man on Dysfunction Junction. She seems to roll with the punches a bit too much for us to know as little about her as we do, at least for my tastes. As for the WMG, we should probably leave it at improbable until further notice before it gets natter chopped.
 * (2P) I agree on that last part, for the same reasons. However, I just want to get one thing in: it actually makes more sense to me now when you explain it that way. It still tastes a little too much like PROO, though; the twist shouldn't be as simple as that, or the fandom will cry Recycled Script.
 * Soooo, the only instance I can see where she signifgantly 'screwed up' is the moment when Tanya mentions her parents and she freezes up, almost allowing Tenaya to get a potshot at her. I have yet too see any signs of 'saintlyhood' from this character. Where do you get that from? Summer still clearly carries elements of a conceited and caustic personality. Indeed, she has sounded full of herself on occasions. All she has shown in battle is simple competence, only a few hairs less of it then Scott or Flynn. Which is justified because they had hero type professions before hand. Her 'levels in badass' only came about after a Time Skip. Unless you count her fight with the Venjix Mooks. Which I don't because they have been shown to be rather easily wrecked.
 * Her levels of badass grown exponentially. It's well stablished that Dillon is the strongest of the rangers and that the Black suit is the most powerful, yet Tenaya trashes the fours male rangers morphed, But Summer is able to fight and hold her own while unmorphed. In another episode, Dillon and Ziggy leave the dome in Dillon's car and are ambushed in the middle of the wasteland by mooks. Summer appears out of nowhere, apparently she followed them on foot, was rested enough to trash the mooks by herself(Doing a "rider" kick without any sort of momentum) and then crack the map that Gem and Gemma had made, which pointed to a Venjix factory.

Alphabet Soup intended to release the Venjix Virus from the very beginning.
Some time after Power Rangers SPD the people of Earth realized that SPD was a totalitarian organization (and also that they could have defeated Grumm without SPD's aid) and decided to secede. SPD realized it wouldn't stand a chance against Earth in open warfare, but also that allowing Earth to secede might encourage other worlds to secede. Thus, they consented to Earth's secession, but had Alphabet Soup covertly work against Earth. Once Doctor K had created the Anti-Venjix firewall copies of it were made and put on the computers of SPD controlled worlds. Afterwards, Alphabet Soup had planned to somehow counter Cornith City's defenses and release the Venjix Virus. Which would have made it look like humanity had been wiped out by the Machine Empire (thereby making it look like the only reason Earth hadn't been destroyed before hand was because it was being aided by SPD, thus reducing the likelyhood of other worlds trying to secede). However, Doctor K's escape attempt caused the Venjix Virus to be released before a method to defeat Cornith's defenses could be devised.

Tenaya hadn't had enough time to prepare her gender-knockout gas attack
Her timetable was rushed due to the returning misogynistic general. She wanted to hurry and prove him wrong, and was so flustered she forgot to finish preparations (such as make female-affecting gas, and possibly refine it more so it could kill). Thus, ironically, the true hero of the story who saved Corinth is the returning general.
 * I assumed that the gas the Attack Bot dropped was the female-affecting gas, and the properties of the chemical did not allow for one that affected both genders.
 * Upon second viewing, yeah, the one it dropped was the one affecting females. Its still a distinct possibility that if she had waited, she could have made gas fatal.

The show will pull a Thunderzord on us
Dr. K will revamp their zords into new Origami Zords from Shingenger stock footage. The rangers would get their respective colors, except for Gemma: the Turtle will become the "silver" zord, in the same vein that the Lion Thunderzord was "black." Not sure what would happen to Dillon if Gem gets gold. This is probably not going to happen, though. Still, imagine the zord-calls: "Scott: Eagle Racer Lion Samuraizord Power!

Flynn: Lion Hauler Dragon Samuraizord Power!

Summer: Bear Crawler Monkey Samuraizord Power!

Ziggy: Tail Spinner Bear Samuraizord Power!

Gemma: Tiger Jet Turtle Samuraizord Power!

Gem: Golden Lobster Power!"


 * Or they could use Goseiger footage. The green(?) morpher is infected, and there's another girl on the team to be the pink ranger.
 * Actually, it was the red morpher, so that wouldn't exactly work.
 * Jossed hard. See Power Rangers Samurai.

Venjix wants the population of Corinth alive
For two reasons. One, if he brings the citizens of the Last City to the forced-labor camps, it will break the spirit of the inmates completely, ensuring that he won't have any rebelions to deal with. Second, he probably wants Doctor K alive, so he can use her as his pet labmonkey- she was smart enough to make him, and he doesn't want that do go to waste. As a result, he goes to extraordinary lengths to try and take Corinth alive, which is why Tenaya was using sleep gas, rather than poison gas. If all had gone according to plan, everyone would have woken up in factory cells with bombs implanted.

Venjix is evil due to Mommy Issues
Unlikely, but it would be funny if Venjix is a villain because he doesn't really understand why his "mommy" Doctor K hates him so much. After all, by his reasoning, he did what she created him to do -- bring destruction to the humans that made her suffer. Her rejecting him and working with the survivors to oppose him probably resulted in a Logic Bomb that drove him insane. Depending on how he feels about her he might even be a Yandere that either wants to kill her so no one else can have her, wants to kill her because she rejected him, or wants to kill everybody else on the face of the planet so that it will be just the two of them together forever. Being insane, Venjix might not even understand that he actually loves Doctor K and has convinced himself that he hates her instead.
 * With the revelation that Dr. K was the one who was actively working with Venjix, this gains a lot of credibility, especially since they named the Domed Hometown, Corinth.

Venjix isn't fully sentient
Wheter he is or is not the original, Venjix is a virus first and foremost. He was created with no purpose other than destruction and cannot concieve of doing anything other than that. That's why his tactics are the same old "throw monster at city and watch" that all the other villains have: he can't think of what to do with the world now that he has it.

Hartford founded Alphabet Soup
Cause it ain't official until we put it on WMG. Alternately...

Alphabet Soup was founded as a American counter to Torchwood
When SPD took control of the planet, Alphabet Soup shifted priorities.

Portal takes place on the Earth of Power Rangers RPM.
GLaDOS went insane when the Venjix Virus attacked, but Venjix couldn't pull her all the way down. GLaDOS is so bipolar in Portal because she's a benign AI fighting with a malevolent one.
 * Alternate: GLaDOS is Venjix, or at least, was at one point. GLaDOS has the same feelings for her "daughter" Chell that her "mother," Dr. K, had for her: a mixture of admiration, hope, and a desire to destroy a child who has gone too far. (See also WMG/Portal for more on GLaDOS's maternal feelings for Chell.)

Power Rangers RPM will end on a Cliffhanger.
Jossed.
 * Actually, maybe.

Earth is receiving no interstellar aid in combating Venjix because the Venjix Virus is a homegrown threat
Think about it. Zordon only helped against the GUAE, all extra-terrestrial. Aquitar only helped against Master Vile and family- who are from their own galaxy. Triforia only helped against the Machine Empire. Phantom Ranger only helped against Space Pirate Divatox. KO-35 only helped against Astronema, who, while technically a Karovian expatriate, they didn't know that at the time. SPD, essentially the Sirian Remnant, only helped against the Troobian Empire. Venjix, meanwhile, is wholly earth-made. Maybe the same presumed prime directive that prevented a massive technology jump after the Countdown to Destruction also prevents interference in wars that don't involve more than one planet?
 * So Eltare, Aquitar, Triforia, Mirinoi, KO-35, the Phantom, and, what the hell, Edenoi are just going to sit by and watch while Venjix commits genocide because of a law? I didn't really get the Knight Templar vibe from them.
 * Not just a law, but a Prime Directive. We've seen in Star Trek and Star Ocean how obsessive people can be about those, and why.
 * The Power Rangers helped Masked Rider fight against Count Dregon who was a home grown threat for Edenoi, just like Venjix is for Earth. Also, in what episode is it stated that the Aquitian Rangers are from the same galaxy as Master Vile?
 * They're not. I meant that Vile has his own galaxy, not the Aquitarans. As for the Count Dregon thing, the original prime directive stated that you couldn't interfere, until a certain point. Its possible that in Power Rangers, they can break that noninterference when someone else is interfering, but otherwise, they have to wait until technology reaches a certain level. Endenoi was sufficeintly advanced, so Zordon could legally render aid. Earth, by contrast, was apparently not up to snuff yet- SPD probably hurt in that regard, really, since none of it was technically human technology, and it was relied on so much that humans probably didn't put in as mcuh effort.
 * Wouldn't it make more sense to help people who are less technologically advanced?
 * On the surface, yes. However, Star Ocean the Last Hope explains quite well why it isn't a good idea to interfere in more primitive cultures. Cargo Cults in the more primitive examples, economic, political and technological dependency in examples like earth. If anyone bailed Earth out, it would basically become a colony world of whoever did the saving, as it lacks the knowledge to compete against the flow of resources that would ensue in reconstruction.
 * I don't know about you, but I'd rather have my world peaceably colonized than have robots kill all organic life on the planet.
 * So would I. But if they let it go for problems like Venjix, they open the door for more unscrupulous individuals to claim desperate measures when they aren't needed for their own gain, and take over a planet. As Sam Vimes said, no excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses. In this case, they have to let a planet like ours die quickly, to keep themselves from falling prey to bad excuses and killing a multitude of other planets slowly via economic and political domination, the creation of a dual-class society, destruction of native ecosystems, and treatment of native populations the way White Man treated and treats native Americans. It may be preferable to Venjix, but it isn't preferable to WWII, horrible as it was. Open the door for Venjix, and you unleash the potential for, essentially Space-Europe on a thousand Space-Americas. Not wanting that, they make the painful decision- the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and, as many as we are, we are few compared to the number of beings being preserved by such a policy in an inhabitable-planet-filled cosmos like Power Rangers'.
 * Alright, now I see why this may be thought of as a good idea in-universe. However, I'm sure there would be people who would be concerned that Venjix would not stop with Earth.
 * Not really. Take all FTL ships and long-distance teleportation tech out when the resident aliens pull out, and the ban on tech sharing- long since surmised based on how the standard of living never changed much- means that no specs for FTL stuff would have been on systems vulnerable to Venjix attack. Consequentially, his only means of attacking other planets is as a regular virus, and they probably have much better antivirus tech than Earth, so that isn't a worry.

The residents of Briarwood are still alive
When they heard the robots coming, they all fled into the Mystic Realm, and shut the tree behind them. Presumably, when everything has blown over, they'll come out. Since there's so many nonhumans in the Briarwood population now, and the fact that after they return they'll be a sizable chunk of the planet's population, its the genes from those Mystics from Briarwood that, in combination with the radiation, are causing all the bizarre mutations that instigated the events of Power Rangers Time Force nine centuries later- they aren't really mutations at all, but atavism.

Towards the finale Venjix will find...
...The Dragonzord in what was Angel Grove, using it as a way to fight the Rangers' Ultrazord with out suffering massive damage to himself. Unlikely, but it would be a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * Dragonzord vs Paleo Max. Discuss.

Vasquez will take a level in badass.
She will proceed to break out of  Unfortunately, she will then live up to her name.

Venjix is, indeed, still alive.
So, the last scene we see is a, with ominous music playing. The camera focuses, and we see that it was. Oh, haha, silly us, thinking it was. Only...the ominous music doesn't stop playing. Add in the fact that, IIRC, Venjix itself is unaffected by its robot body being destroyed...
 * Was it a triumph?

The next Power Rangers series will still use the RPM characters.
If the creators insist that this is in a different continunity then maybe they're wiping the slate blank with some alternate dimension Timey Wimey stuff. However they work it out, RPM has proved so popular with the fans, especially those over 12 years old;-), that they've actualized recoganized what they have on their hands and are pulling a MMPR with multiple seasons with the same characters. But then this is only WMG. And dreams.
 * It could be in the cards. Judd Lynn chose to end it on a semi-cliffhanger, even though he knew full well it's supposed to be the last season. But then considering how he saved the show from cancellation once before, it could just be him being Crazy Prepared.

Decade did this all.

 * Alphabet soup? Dai-Shocker.
 * Venjix? A VERY, VERY, bored Decadriver prototype.
 * World ending? Decade is the Destroyer of Worlds.....
 * Where is DiEnd? He's Scottish now.
 * This very, very cracky WMG? All part of his plan.
 * Onore Dikeido!!!!

Ransik was trying to prevent the RPM apocalypse
We know that when Venjix attacked, whatever he did left high radiation levels, and depending on the source, those can take quite some dime to dissipate. High radiation levels are associated with increased mutation, it is quite logical to conclude that all the genetic engineering in Time Force was to compensate for the radiation, and mutants were either when a natural birth was attempted (which would tie in with the lower class less money criminal class vibes), or when the modifications weren't enough. Thus, Ransik must have been going back in time to either prevent the formation of or destroy Alphabet Soup and thus prevent Venjix from being created, and causing the mutation problem in the first place. Because Alphabet Soup was hidden, he didn't know where to start, hence all the wanton destruction.
 * If we assume that the Venjix from RPM is the same as the one from Forever Red, things make even more sense- he went specifically to one year before Venjix came to earth, in the hopes that he could use that one year to get entrenched, and when Venjix came, destroy him utterly so that there was no bit left to make into a computer virus. In either case, it means Time Force was effectively trying to save one city in 2000 at the cost of the entire planet in 20XX. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
 * Um...NiceJobBreakingItHero? That would have applied if Time Force had, say, killed him, but they didn't. He did a Heel Face Turn. All by himself. It's likely that he would have still tried to prevent Venjix, or tell the rangers about it.
 * While you're right that it may not exactly apply, in the case of this theory, its less "Heel Face Turn", and more "convinced of the value of human life, and that the ends don't justify the means"- antihero to hero, rather than villain to hero. Its like someone today went back and tried to stop the holocaust by destroying the WWII Nazi high command during WWI and a large segement of the german populace with them. Technically would get the job done, but still means killing innocents, and is thus more Anti-Hero-ic than heroic or villainous. In the case of Ransik, they convinced him, albeit unintentionally, that stopping Venjix wasn't worth it if innocents got caught in the crossfire.
 * I see...however, wouldn't he still try to do something to prevent Venjix? Since the Time Force future still has mutants, wouldn't that mean that they didn't?
 * He did kill innocents while misguided. It may be that he's decided to face punishment for his crimes rather than keep trying; perhaps he plans on returning after he serves his time. Since his imprisonment and community service haven't ended yet according to the San Dimas Time clock- given what he did before going back in time, he's definitely gotten something longer than a nine year sentence- we haven't seen that retcon yet, but will have always have seen that around 2031 or so. Gods I hate time travel logic.

Venjix is a closed time loop.
One of the biggest headaches fans have had is rectifying how there are apparently TWO malevolent artificial life forms that lead empires of machines, that have interchangable personalities, and that both just happen to have the same made-up name. One was created in the future by Dr. K - the other is the highest-ranking general of the Machine Empire, an ancient and alien force that was eventually defeated around the turn of the 20th century. But consider the following: at the end of the series, Venjix survives, having hidden himself away in the Series Red Morpher. Which has a direct link to the Morphing Grid. Which we know exists outside of linear time, and can even be used to manipulate time and space (Flynn and Ziggy's powers, respectively). Suppose that Venjix found a way to escape the Grid (along with his armies of Grinders that Dr. K conventiently also teleported into the Grid), in the very distant past, in some remote corner of the universe, where he immediately resumed conquering everything in sight and rebuilding his Machine Empire. Now, let us presume that somehow Dr. K knew about Venjix's escape to the past, and he in turn knew that she knew. Given how obsessive she is, it's logical that she would dedicate her life to perfecting time-travel technology using the Grid, and establishing an organization to carry on her work after she dies: to police the time stream and, if discovered, eliminate Venjix. A sort of... Time Force, if you will. But Venjix, knowing his creator so well, would take precautions against being detected, such as creating a lineage of royal robots as puppet rulers of the Machine Empire, taking all the glory while he remained in the shadows, a humble general so obscure he wouldn't even appear in any historical records. Then, when said royal house is wiped out, he is forced to take over the remnants of his empire overtly, and is then soon destroyed by ten Red Rangers, including two agents of Time Force... decades later, Machine Empire technology left on the moon is salvaged by Alphabet Soup, and a young girl known only as K starts writing a new computer virus based on the coding...
 * It's possible that an empire was not the only thing that Venjix built: It's possible that he himself built Serpentera. He gave Lord Zedd the zord in exchange for power. When Zedd failed, he went to plan B, a.k.a providing an army for Mondo. After Mondo failed, he decided to take matters into his own hands. His original plan was to download himself into Serpentera. Note the conspicuous red orb on the chest. Slightly less notably, it also has red eyes, just like both Hiramechimedes!Venjix and Yogoshimacritein!Venjix. Of course, the red rangers showed up, and he didn't have time to download himself; he had to pilot it manually. Had they not arrived, he would have the largest, most powerful zord for a body, and a tactical genius AI for a mind. And that would have been very bad.
 * As for how Alphabet Soup would have gotten the salvaged Machine Empire technology? They would have stolen it from a certain government warehouse.

Power Rangers RPM is a Show Within a Show
Specifically, a television show within the main Power Rangers universe. This is why the "behind the scenes" episode was so odd, the villains are being played in-universe by actual robots, albeit robots with much better 3 laws routines than in the show.

The mother Scott and Ziggy rescued was actually the the Pink A-Squad Ranger
The actress is the same (granted, that doesn't mean much in the PR Universe), and the mother wore pink. Also, though she didn't technically fight, she seemed suspiciously competent in the battle, and was even able to resist when the Grinders tried to pull her away; almost as if she was trying to hide years and years of combat experience. My theory: She escaped prison, did a Heel Face Turn, and settled down. If RPM is indeed in a different universe, she somehow traveled there, where no one could possibly recognize her. When Venjix attacked, she used her skills to get her new family to Corinth.

The Venjix in Forever Red is a human under the control of the Venjix Virus
In the last episode it's implied that  Someone finds it and uses it, my guess? Someone working on the Time Force Rangers trying to reverse engineer the morphers, uses it on himself and is possessed by Venjix who then uses the scientists body to get him clearence to a time machine. Travels back in time and then gets the Machine Empire to help remodel the Ranger Red suit into a more menacing form.

The season actually begins in 2009
People assumed R.P.M couldn't be set in the year it was released because Dr K mentions that the Venjix virus appeared three years ago, which would clash with previous ranger seasons. Or would it? Three years back from 2009 is 2006, the year Mystic Force was released. Given the mystical based nature of the show, it would make sense that they wouldn't be hugely concerned by a computer virus, particularly at its early stages. Much like how many people didn't care much about the Y 2 K bug.

Also, in the three parter Dark Wish, Imperious uses Jenji to wish that the Mystic Force never existed. In this new reality, Briarwood is completely overtaken, even though Imperious never wished for any other ranger team to disappear. Why did none of the still functioning ranger teams come to Briarwood and help? Because they were all busy trying to beat the Venjix virus.

Flash forward to 2007 with Operation Overdrive. A much more technological team, so surely their powers would be more vulnerable to Venjix, right? Well consider the R.P.M episode Ancient History, where Tenaya finds the Red Overdrive Ranger helemt in the ruins of Alphabet Soup. Let's say that when Mr Hartford released Flurious and Moltor, he had trouble creting ranger powers, so he tried to get help. For a while, he worked along side Alphabet Soup, which gave him all the information he needed to create his team, but left when he realised how corrupt the agency was. Since Dr K had a firewall that could resist Venjix, it's likely that Hartford was able to use the same kind to protect his ranger tech from Venjix. And while Venjix may be starting to become a threat by this point, the Overdrive Rangers are preoccupied with finding the Corona Aurora and so figure it's best to leave Venjix to past ranger teams.

As for Jungle Fury, again it's a more spirit based team dealing with a more present threat, so their reaction would likely be that Venjix was not their area of expertise.

Move on to 2009 where Venjix finally infects enough computers to unleash his forces. All ranger teams with still functioning powers try to fight back but are eventually overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Perhaps more than a few morphers are infected by the virus. When it becomes obvious that the Power Rangers can't save them, the government starts working on Corinth City.

However, despite their failure, the combined rangers do at least manage to decimate a huge number of Venjix's forces. This explains why the R.P.M rangers are able to easily beat the Grinders who supposedly ended the world. They had far less numbers to deal with. the Red, Blue and Yellow R.P.M Rangers are recruited and keep the city safe until 2010 which is when the majority of the season takes place. Once Venjix is defeated, the surviors have a full fifteen years to rebuild in time for S.P.D. As for why the S.P.D Rangers claimed that the Dino Thunder Rangers all go on to be successful in their futures (e.g Kira's famous singing career), either the Dino Thunder Rangers survived because they didn't enter the fight, since their powers were non functioning at this point (except for Kira's but maybe hers were just damaged, forcing her to leave the battle) or the S.P.D Rangers were just lying to give them hope.
 * ...Thanks for the Tear Jerker with that last line...

The school that Dr. K and Ziggy start becomes Wammy's House. They then give birth to a son, named L
It makes sense, L got his smarts and sweet tooth from K, and is lanky and a bit eccentric like his father. And L is right after K in the alphabet (soup hehe). He gets his last name from K because that was her original last name.

The past rangers did fight against Venjix, but...
This is simmilar to the "Season is set in 2009" theory, but in this case this escalated in a final battle where the MMPR (who could morph), Zeo, Turbo, Lightspeed and other teams fought back to back, with Andros, Zhane, the Lost Galaxy Rangers and the Aquatarians evacuating them so that they can be healed from their wounds. Such the severity of the wounds meant that they had to wait a year before they could get back to enough strength to take Venjix on, but by that time the R.P.M rangers had won. All the rangers, aliens included, then create S.P.D from a mix of Time Force, RPM and general ranger tech after Doggie Cruger lands on earth.

Venjix's first strike was infecting Tommy.
The brain drain device that was used to brainwash Tommy in Power Rangers ZEO had the, likely unforseen, sideffect of making him vulnerable to the Venjix Virus. This is why Venjix had such an easy time razing the planet. However, Tommy died prior to the start of this series which is why he never appeared.
 * I really don't think that one ranger, Badass though he is, would be the only thing making conquest difficult for Venjix.
 * You misunderstand me, I'm not saying Venjix was so successful because he didn't have to fight Tommy, I'm saying he was successful because he had Tommy fighting for him.
 * Same thing. Being a Memetic Badass is not enough to conquer his former allies. Just remember who brought him to the side of good the first time around.
 * Tommy has been turned evil twice during the series. The first time he was turned good because the Sword of Darkness was destroyed. The second time he had lost his memories and had been tricked into thinking his friends were his enemies, he turned good because he regained his memories. Neither would help if he was infected by Venjix.
 * So not what i meant. The first time, Jason kicked his ass AND destroyed the Sword. Veterans like him, and Andros know very well to choose the many over the single.
 * Still, it probably would have gone down in a similar way to the Old Man Logan story arc in Wolverine - In the Old Man Logan story arc, all the villains teamed up to kill all of the X-Men, Avengers & other heroes of Earth, and Mysterio tricks Wolverine into slaughtering the X-Men by having him see them as the villains of the Marvel universe, because he knew the X-Men would hesitate to hurt their ally. So, the other rangers did fight, but were hesitant to hurt Tommy (This would especially apply to the MMPR, Zeo, Turbo & Dino Thunder rangers), which lead to their demise.
 * What about the rangers who had never met Tommy before in their lives? Besides, there are more than a hundred rangers. Even if they all hesitate, he won't be able to take them all on.
 * Andros or Karone would be able to finish him.

RPM and Jungle Fury exist in the same universe, but not in the same one as the other seasons.
Remember the Jungle Karma Pizza in Corinth and the fact that Jungle Fury has even less ties to the rest of the series than RPM does. If true, it's possible that some of the characters are related. Gem and Gemma could be Theo and Lily's kids (I'd mention Theo having a twin as evidence, but I guess that's not biologically accurate...). Dillon and Tenaya could be the kids of any of the four other guys, but Dillon shares similarities with three in particular: RJ (wolf ranger with shaggy brown hair), Jarrod (black ranger with shaggy brown hair), and Dominick (wanderer personality). To further support Jarrod, Camille and Tenaya are the both the Dark Action Girls of their respective seasons, and Jarrod and Camille had most likely hooked up by the end of Jungle Fury. Now, while I listed Dominick as a potential father for Dillon, I'd say that a more likely situation is that he and Fran are Ziggy's parents; Ziggy gets his goofy, laid back personality from Dominick, and his ditziness and cooking skills from his mother. Finally, Dr. K, as a child genius, could be the daughter of Maryl Snyder, which would make her and Ziggy's interactions more interesting.

Alphabet Soup was founded by Tommy.
Dr. O? Dr. K? Oddly suspicious.

SPD and Time Force fit into continuity
When Alphabet Soup found General Venjix, they gave it to K. K, bored out of her skull and lonely, used it as a template to form Venjix, who was meant only as her imaginary friend. She gave it too much firepower, however, in the unconscious hope to be saved, even by a psychopath.

When K released Venjix, Iceland wasn't too worried, because it had a nifty little science project going on--a climate-controlled city. They offered refuge to anyone who could get there. (Iceland, the specific coordinates, fit a little fijord which matches Corinth's map.) Roughly every country ended up with one city of survivors. However, everyone was traumatized in some way. So, to commemorate, they reset the calendar. After Venjix's defeat, it became 1 P.V.E (Post-Venjix Era) instead of AD\CE (Annos Domine\ Common Era). SPD didn't take place in 2001 AD\CE--it took place in 2001 P.V.E.

The other Rangers either a) died or b) didn't want to interfere with RPM (out of either trauma or the same reason that, say, Ninja Storm never contacted Dino Thunder purposefully). Like everyone else in Corinth City (seriously, you'd think the apocalypse hadn't happened!), they were trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

Venjix kept a few nukes, so the galaxy, still reeling from the power vacuum left when the UAE was defeated, stayed the hell away from Earth to avoid being blown up with one.

"Dillon and Tenaya: Either Kim\Jason or Tommy\(insert female Ranger here)
 * A subset of this is that some of the Rangers may actually be children of previous Rangers.

Scott: Zack Taylor and Angela, adopted by Colonel Truman

Dr. K: Billy\Trini"


 * And if you like Epileptic Trees, they may have been meant to form a four-man team in the first place.

Everyone from the previous seasons is still alive.
Venjix was only able to conquer the east coast of the United States, the Power Rangers and their allies as well the military have been stopped him from making any progress beyond that. In fact, most of his army is dedicated to keeping them from reclaiming what little he has conquered. The reason he wants to conquer Cornith City is because he believes he'll be able to use the technology Alphabet soup hid there to turn the tide of the war in his favor.

The reason the people in series think Cornith is the only city left is because Venjix is somehow blocking all attempts to contact Cornith from the outside.

However, its likely at least some people in Cornith know the truth. For example, Col. Truman's belief that they can simply outlast Venjix makes a lot more sense this way.
 * Just the east coast? Does that mean Alphabet Soup worked for Hank Scorpio?

If there is ever a team up with a future season...
One of two things might occur: 1) They get Dr. K, Gem and Gemma out of Alphabet Soup without having to use Venjix or 2) Dr. K's kidnapping as a child is interrupted.

RPM is the first series chronoligically
I don't recall a date ever being mentioned in RPM.

Many Wild Guesses here. 1) Zordon and Alpha were awakened by Rita awakening. 2) RPM happened in the 60s or 70s. 3) Earth was rebuilt by 1993 4) General Venjix IS the Venjix Virus, rising through the rebuilt Machine Empire.


 * So the line about Trueman not being in the 21 century doesn't ally or was 196- in the 21st century?
 * The 1960s are in the 20th Century. 2001-2100 are the 21st.

RPM will be Ret Gone by the Samurai Team Up
The RPM/Samurai teamup will involve time travel and the events of RPM will be Ret Goned by preventing Venjix from ever existing in the first place.

The entire series was a complete simulation
Alphabet Soup intended to utilize Venjix as a weapon but needed to pit him against the only thing that no villain had ever defeated, the Power Rangers. They built a complex computer simulation and placed Venjix, Dr. K, Gem and Gemma, and a group of people intended to use the Ranger gear K created into a simulation were Venjix was unleashed and let them continue on like that.

RPM is not set on Earth but on Mirinoi.
Fitting in with the vaugely Battlestar Galactica nature of Lost Galaxy some time after Terra Venture forms the new colony on Mirinoi they grow corrupt and lose control of one of their technological creations. The resulting Robot War results in the death of the colony world.

RPM rangers are based on Overdrive tech.
This explains why a.) The Overdrive Red helmet was found at Alphabet Soup and b.) Why Gem & Gemma's chest insignia look suspiciously similar to Overdrive's. Also, there is evidence to show that the RPM rangers were weaker than past series, namely:
 * They often struggled to fend off lowly mooks
 * It took them 13 zords and seven rangers to beat the Big Bad and in the end
 * Dr. K said that when they initially tested the Paleozord (presumably with Gem and Gemma, unless the Dino-train rangers were some fallen prototypes like them that K never speaks of) it couldn't be controlled because it was based on extinct animals...but both the Classic and Dino Thunder rangers had no problem with controlling pre-historic zords. I know they eventually got it to work but even then Scott had trouble with it, which still makes them seem sub-par compared to those two past ranger teams alone.

If RPM rangers were essentially Dr. K's attempt at reverse engineering Overdrive then it would make sense that they were weaker, her not actually knowing all the ins and outs of ranger tech, only what she can extrapolate from the samples.


 * Well first off that wasn't a overdrive helm but a Police helm, in fact you can see the world POLICE etched on the side. Still that might imply before THE END Hartford Technologies had become a supplier of the Silver Guardians or Operation Lightspeed, etc. Another thing to remember was DT was MAGIC, a magical Sentient Vechicle Bio-Zord is a while different thing from one created from scratch with Science.
 * I just checked and there is definitely nothing written on the helmet and it does look a lot like a red ranger overdrive helm sans mouth piece by comparison. And in reference to DT, well then that makes more sense, given that its probably easier to get things to work with magic than science.
 * You need a higher resolution scan, http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6JFWBM5V, look at the 2 shot of Shifter and Tenaya see the word POLICE in all caps across the front band?
 * That looks more like it says "PROTOTYPE". (In a font where the R's don't have the vertical line on the left side.
 * I found a higher resolution still from Rangerboard (associated discussion thread here) and it seems the general consensus is that the helm either says PROTOTYPE or PROJECT.
 * Fair enough but it's still only a recreation not the original hartford tech.
 * Well, no one's saying that it's the original tech. And I don't believe there was ever an indication that the Dino Thunder powers used magic. It was all genetics, biology, and technology, along with a metric ton of Hollywood Science.
 * They got super powers by touching space rocks, seems magical to me...but your right the true source is ambigious, still between technology, biology, Green Space Rocks, and all that Dr. K Would have a time to replicate it with pure tech.

The series follows SPD
When Venjix first started to attack, most aliens evacuated the Earth, then once it got worse, Earth was quarantined. SPD prevented other planets from helping Earth to prevent the Venjix virus from spreading to other friendly planets.

The reason of Venjix desire to conquer the world was to give it to K
Think about it. In the finale, when talked with K, even after the events of the series and K's words to him, he was pretty polite and civilised (well, as much as can be a Machine) with her. Even more, he didn't put a finger on her when it could be infinitely easier to just kill her and stop the only person who can help the rangers to stop him. Also, why was she and Ziggy in a place completely different than the other prisoners and tenaya watching them? just like he didn't wanted her in the same bag as the rest of the people of Corinth...maybe he wanted to convert K into an Hybrid and make her the empress of the world!
 * so Venjix is a "Well Done, Son" Guy?

RPM takes place in the Whoniverse
And the RPM rangers are the first Earth has ever had. Any previous PR threats like Rita and the Machine Empire were either dealt with by The Doctor and/or Torchwood or did't exist. However, the Venjix attack is a fixed point in time so The Doctor couldn't do anything about it. Perhaps Alphabet Soup was an offshoot of the original Torchwood that hasn't reformed as much as the Cardiff branch. Kidnapping genius children seems like the kind of thing they'd do. Which also explains how they developed ranger technology. They picked it off a crash site and reverse engineered it. Of course, this sort of neutralizes the theory that they already shared a universe. Although, since the in space rangers found wreckage where Gallifrey should be, it's possible that everything before RPM happens after the Last Great Time War and RPM before it.

Dillon is a Time Lord
He chameleon arched himself, but something went wrong with the programming and the false memories weren't installed. Or they were, and then Venjix took them. His memory of a sign reading Kenmore was actually his memory, but since his memories were fake to begin with K was still able to identify them as such. Perhaps he can open his watch because he has a more advanced model that requires a more specific access code. It should be noted that I've only seen half of RPM and have only read summaries of Blitz because I couldn't find it online, so this has probably been Jossed.

Power Rangers existed as a show within the RPM universe
Dr K. was abducted when she was a little girl, and was a fan of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Her love of a children's show she half remembers from before she was taken is what subconsciously made her design brightly colored super hero suits with vehicles that look like they have eyes and combine into a giant mech. This also explains where the term 'zord' came from in the RPM continuity.

The in-universe reason why the zords have goofy designs
Obviously from a production standpoint, they had to use Go-onger, but here's my in-universe theory.

Doctor K, inventor of the RPM Ranger Series, was robbed of her childhood, not allowing her to do things like a normal child wood. Pouring her imagination into her Ranger tech she used the zords as an outlet for stuff a child or a young kid could make (abstract animals with big googly anime eyes).

Dr. K had a crush on Scott
When she opens up to the team, one of her comments was that her first instinct was to destroy her as she was competition, and in another episode, when she finds Summer looking at screens of the rangers, she assumes she's pondering on Summer's attraction to both Scott and Dillon. While Summer's attraction to Dillon is very blatant, we were never show any signs of anything going on with Scott, so she was more than likely, projecting her own feelings.

RPM takes place in the Wipeout dimension
Think about it. The Rangers are evil in that universe, and Alphabet Soup was pretty much an evil government agency. Not to mention the fact that we saw the military being jerkasses at times, A-Squad Pink is now good, and Jungle Karma Pizza works with the mob.

Also, while we know Rangers existed in that dimension, the only ones we saw were secret ninjas. Therefore Dr. K's "breakthrough" in finding the grid could still make sense if seasons like Lightspeed Rescue, S.P.D. or Operation Overdrive didn't exist (as we know them) in this dimension.