Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Characters

Our Heroes

Tommy Oliver / G -> W | (Actor: Jason David Frank)

 * Acting for Two: Done twice!
 * Badass Long Hair: From "Return of an Old Friend" onward, until Power Rangers Turbo's "Passing the Torch".
 * Badass Native
 * Bling of War
 * Brainwashed and Crazy
 * Catch Phrase ("Aww man...")
 * Co Dragons: As the evil Green Ranger. Goldar hates him, but Scorpina doesn't seem to care.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: As the evil Green Ranger. After that, they had him doing his own thing for a while, but coming whenever the other Rangers summoned him (this had to be done to keep him in time with Burai). Then came "The Green Candle", where he was curbstomped himself.
 * He then does this to Goldar in Season Two unmorphed after Lord Zedd drained the last of his powers. After this, Goldar was never the same again.
 * Darker and Edgier: Easily the darkest story of the original Rangers.
 * Discard and Draw: Happened to everyone, but associated with him more than anyone.
 * Empathic Weapon: Saba the talking sword.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait
 * Evil Is Hammy: As the evil Green Ranger he was hammier than Rita.
 * Evil Laugh: Had one when he was the evil Green Ranger.
 * Fleeting Passionate Hobbies (Football anyone?)
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Incest Is Relative: Implied twice. Once in the Stable Time Loop, and once in the episode "Wild West Rangers", wherein it's implied he and Kimberly are both descended from Kimberly's ancestor and the White Stranger. And this is a kids' show?
 * Kiai: Lord Zedd even taunts him about it.
 * Knife Nut: His Dragon Dagger, which doubles as a flute.
 * Leitmotif: "Go Green Ranger Go"/"White Ranger Tiger Power", used often as Theme Music Power Up.
 * Large Ham: That is all!
 * The Paragon Always Rebels: Rita and Zedd not only lost the Green Ranger, but his supposedly 100% loyal clone!
 * Punny Name: His last name is Oliver because he wears green. This became an artifact though, once he switched to white (and later red and black).
 * Except it still fits, because actual olives have a black outer layer and a red inner portion.
 * Rapunzel Hair (started out almost shoulder length - got much longer)
 * Sixth Ranger (Trope Namer)
 * The Hero: Got promoted to this trope when Jason left with Zack and Trini for the Peace Conference.
 * Stable Time Loop: Fan theory is that Tommy's clone Tom is also his ancestor. Which just adds one more bit of Memetic Badass: Tommy willed himself into existence.
 * Super Soldiers: What the other Rangers suspect the White Ranger is at first.
 * Tall Dark and Handsome
 * Tangled Family Tree: Tom, David, Sam, the White Stranger...
 * Verbal Tic (His distinctive "sikKEYAHHH!" when fighting.)
 * What Could Have Been: Jonathan Tzachor a producer on the show and big fan of Sentai wanted Tommy to die just like his sentai counterpart, but he was overruled presumably for BS&P reasons. Seeing how Tommy's popularity was a huge contributing factor to Power Rangers becoming popular enough to exceed its original order of 40 episodes, this was probably a good thing.
 * In earlier scripts, Tommy was going to be a biker named Rocky.

Z | (Actor: Walter Emanuel Jones)

 * An Axe to Grind: His Power Axe.
 * The Gunslinger: He could wield the axe in close combat, or he could flip it around and use it as a laser gun. The blade served as the trigger and the handle became the barrel.
 * Black Best Friend
 * Dance Battler
 * Determinator
 * Dogged Nice Guy: With Angela.
 * The Lancer
 * Names the Same
 * Number Two
 * Put On a Bus: Left Angel Grove with Jason and Trini to attend the International Peace Conference in Switzerland in "The Power Transfer".
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes: Spiders and snakes as well, in another episode.

K | (Actor: Amy Jo Johnson)

 * Amy Jo Johnson: The role that made her famous.
 * The Archer: Subverted - she uses the Power Bow, but doesn't have the character traits.
 * Bob Haircut
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Averted in a Crowning Moment of Funny. Goldar kidnaps Kim and gives her a mind control spell which will turn her into a copy of Rita for Zedd to marry. The spell doesn't actually work... but Kim does a pitch-perfect Rita impersonation (including "I'm having a headache!") to hold Goldar, Squatt and Baboo off long enough to be rescued by Billy and Trini.
 * The Chick: Not only that but she was the template for all Power Ranger chicks thereafter (minus the valspeak).
 * Fainting
 * Huge Guy Tiny Girl: First with Jason, then with Tommy.
 * Ill Girl: Without her power token, she becomes weaker.
 * Rule Thirty Four: Granted, many of the Rangers could qualify for various reasons (Trini for She's a Man In Japan, the male Rangers for being Estrogen Brigade Bait or Chick Magnets, all the brainwashing), but Kimberly had a whole newsgroup dedicated to her. And like Austin St. John, Amy Jo Johnson was rumored to have starred in porn.
 * And then there's Agony In Pink...
 * Sesquipedalian Smith
 * Spoiled Sweet
 * Stepford Smiler: In Season 3, during her power leech.
 * Valley Girl: Early on. Barely used any valspeak by season 3, as the whole concept was a more than a bit dated by 1995, the height of the grunge era.

B | (Actor: David Yost)
"David Yost: the glasses came off actually when we went to shoot the movie in Australia and that's because I told [laughs], I told the (movie) producer, this is without the creators or producers of the TV show knowing, I told the producers of the movie that I would rather not wear my glasses and they were like, okay [laughs] like they didn't really think anything about it."
 * All There in the Manual: Billy's last name was actually never said during the series, but was provided via related merchandise and confirmed by Word of God.
 * Blade On a Stick: The Power Lance is essentially a two-sided trident.
 * Chick Magnet: A new one in every episode.
 * Double Weapon: His Power Lance.
 * Dual Wielding: Billy could use the Power Lance as a Double Weapon, or he could separate it into two shorter tridents and wield one in each hand.
 * Genius Bruiser: Starts off as a Straight A nerd but then becomes a power ranger.
 * The Glasses Come Off: Starts slowly during the helmetless scenes beginning in "The Mutiny". He officially lost them after the movie (during season 2) and when he returned to the show, they explained he replaced them for contact lenses. He would wear them two more times in Power Rangers ZEO.

- No Pink Spandex: Interview with David Yost Part 1


 * He also stated in the same interview that because the glasses weren't real, they began to affect his vision (they had no prescription, but the chemical they used to prevent glare affected them enough to bother him.)
 * Hollywood Nerd: They tried to dress him to conceal that he's muscled like a plow horse. Didn't work.
 * They didn't even bother hiding his huge muscles in The Movie; then again, the movie never portrays him as the Smart Guy or a nerd.
 * Megane
 * Minored in Asskicking
 * Non Action Guy: At first.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
 * The Smart Guy
 * Teen Genius

T | (Actress: Thuy Trang)

 * Actor Existence Failure: The fact that she wasn't originally played by Thuy Trang, and has a lookalike in the 2010 revision makes this less jarring.
 * The Big Guy )Cute Bruiser)
 * Gender Flip/She's a Man In Japan: The first among the Yellow Rangers in the franchise. Her counterpart's name is even Boi.
 * The Heart
 * Knife Nut: Her Power Daggers.
 * Moe
 * Put On a Bus: Left Angel Grove with Jason and Zack to attend the International Peace Conference in Switzerland in "The Power Transfer".
 * The Quiet One
 * Translator Buddy: She usually explained Billy's Techno Babble to the team.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years
 * Wise Beyond Their Years

J | (Actor: Austin St. John)

 * Big Brother Mentor: To Billy, to a certain extent. He starts teaching Billy more martial arts so he can defend himself better without morphing.
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Captain Obvious: "Zordon said these Power Morphers would give us powers."
 * Chekhov's Gun: The green Power Coin in "Return of an Old Friend".
 * Determinator: "Isn't the smallest chance of victory enough of a reason for us to keep on fighting? The world needs us, Rangers!"
 * Dual Wielding: With the Green Ranger's Dragon Dagger.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait
 * The Hero
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: His Power Sword
 * Hot Blooded
 * Jerk Jock: Completely subverted. Jason is a jock, but he's got a big heart to match his big muscles.
 * Large Ham
 * Mid Season Upgrade: After Tommy leaves following the events of The Green Candle, Jason has access to the Dragon Shield and the Dragon Dagger.
 * Nice Guy
 * NO INDOOR VOICE: After morphing.
 * Put On a Bus: Left Angel Grove with Zack and Trini to attend the International Peace Conference in Switzerland in "The Power Transfer".
 * Eventually The Bus Came Back in Zeo. Only Jason was in it, though.
 * Standardized Leader
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Not only does he get to use the Dragon Shield (the so-called "first Battlizer") until Tommy gets back, but he also gets the first self-transformable Zord.
 * Super Mode: As mentioned above, he at one point gained the power to use the Green Ranger's powers in the form of the gold Dragon Shield and the Dragon Dagger.
 * The Stoic: Before morphing.
 * Tall Dark and Handsome
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex: His Zord.

A | (Actor: Johnny Yong Bosch)

 * The Big Guy
 * Bishonen: And now he voices them too!
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait
 * Johnny Yong Bosch: His debut role in TV.
 * Memetic Badass: Naturally.
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Aisha.
 * The Quiet One
 * Retroactive Recognition: After Power Rangers he became a big name in anime dubs.
 * Secret Keeper: With Rocky and Aisha from "The Ninja Encounter" to "The Power Transfer".
 * Three Amigos

A | (Actress: Karan Ashley)

 * Cute Bruiser
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * The Chick
 * Genki Girl
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Adam and Rocky.
 * Secret Keeper: With Rocky and Adam from "The Ninja Encounter" to "The Power Transfer".
 * She's a Man In Japan: She is Trini's successor, plus the fact the her mechas are used by male Yellow rangers in Japan.
 * Note by the time Aisha became the Yellow Ranger, they were no longer using Zyuranger footage and all the scenes with the Rangers were American footage, thus preventing this.
 * Actually, they still reused Stock Footage, most especially the Thunderzord summoning sequence, but it was indeed to a much lesser degree than Trini.
 * Three Amigos

R | (Actor: Steve Cardenas)

 * Big Eater
 * Chekhov's Gunman
 * The Everyman
 * The Lancer
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Aisha.
 * Rookie Red Ranger: In title only... Rocky was never the leader.
 * Secret Keeper: With Adam and Aisha from "The Ninja Encounter" to "The Power Transfer".
 * Three Amigos

K | (Actress: Catherine Sutherland)
"Catherine: Chip?
 * The Danza: By proxy.
 * Fish Out of Water: Both the character and the actor. It made the blooper reel.

Johnny and Steve: French Fry."


 * Heel Face Turn: In "A Different Shade of Pink".
 * Meaningful Name: During her Brainwashed and Crazy phase, she could magically turn into a white cat.
 * The Mole: Her initial appearances by way of Mind Manipulation.
 * Sixth Ranger

Their Friends

Zordon | (Voice actor: David Fielding -> Bob Manahan)

 * Catch Phrase: "May the Power protect you."
 * Big Good
 * Eccentric Mentor
 * Mission Control
 * Oracular Head
 * The Other Darrin: Was voiced by David Fielding until "Calamity Kimberly", when Bob Manahan took over from "A Star is Born" onward.
 * The switchoff is notably different: Fielding used a terrible, cheap imitation of a British Accent, possibly to make Zordon sound more sophisticated.
 * Sealed Good in A Can (sealed at the same time as Rita, who named Sealed Evil in A Can)

Alpha 5
""No, Rangers, I cannot accept that. Zordon would not accept that.""
 * Catch Phrase: "Ai yi yi yi yi!"
 * Expy: Even though there was no robotic sidekick in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, there were similar characters in previous Sentai seasons. Namely Peebo, Mag, Colon, and Arthur G6. Of course, there was a sidekick in Zyuranger, but not robotic.
 * Hidden Depths: During the "Green With Evil" multi-parter, Alpha - as Zordon says - "displayed exemplary leadership capabilities." He even trapped Evil!Tommy, and it took Rita's magic to free him.
 * Mission Control
 * Richard Steven Horvitz: His voice actor. Notably, his first major voice-over role ever.
 * Robot Buddy
 * What the Hell Hero: After most of the Rangers decide to give up following their defeat in "Green With Evil, Part 4":

Ninjor | (Voice actor: Kim Strauss)

 * Badass in Distress
 * Eccentric Mentor
 * Everythings Better With Samurai: his Super Mode
 * Heroic Neutral
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold
 * Large Ham: Literally--he can grow to fight alongside Megazords and has a larger personality.
 * Long Bus Trip: Stopped appearing after "The Sound of Dischordia" due to the use of the Orb of Doom in "Rangers in Reverse." Later in "A Zeo Beginning, Part 2," it was stated he was "back in the temple." He hasn't been seen since.
 * Ninja

Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier & Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch | (Actors: Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy)
"Lt. Stone: I find it very odd that you two are the only ones in Angel Grove outside of the Power Rangers to face off with a different monster every week!
 * Aw Look They Really Do Love Each Other
 * Badass Normal: Bulk held the record for most reps at the Juice Bar with 1,000. He was only beaten by Jason after several attempts.
 * Characterization Marches On: Bulk and Skull were originally the school bullies of Angel Grove High, but as the show went on this aspect of the duo was downplayed and eventually they became more like class clowns.
 * Determinator
 * Directed By Cast Member: Paul Schrier directed numerous episodes.
 * Fat and Skinny
 * Heterosexual Life Partners
 * Ho Yay (not as much as some of the Rangers had with each other, but it was there)
 * I Just Want to Be Badass
 * Iron Butt Monkey
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Both of them. As the series went on, they slowly became less and less jerk and more and more heart of gold, which would lead to them delivering a Crowning Moment of Awesome in Power Rangers in Space.
 * Leitmotif: Listen to it here.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: On at least one occasion, Bulk and Skull defeat a monster themselves, after the Rangers themselves are defeated. Nobody believes them afterwards when they brag about it, however.
 * Relationship Upgrade: A debatable one for Skull's crush on Kimberly. Never brought into canon, but writer Amit Bhaumik said in a 2005 interview that he had wanted to have Kim be married to Skull in the episode Forever Red and name Kim as the mother of Skull's son Spike. While unofficial, the idea is popular with some fans and the actors on the show have referred to the relationship when discussing the show with fans.
 * Secret Chaser
 * Smarter Than You Look: In Season 2, they try to discover the Rangers' identities... and most of the times, they are really close, but the Rangers screw up their work.
 * Skull, of all people, is a classically trained pianist. He's absurdly good at it. Becomes a central point of Character Development between him and Bulk as the big doof initially derides Skull for it, but by the end of the episode Bulk changes his mind and shows that he can be supportive of him like a real friend should.
 * Those Two Guys
 * Weirdness Magnet: No matter the Evil Plan, no matter where in Angel Grove the attack is taking place, odds are Bulk and Skull will happen to be nearby when things go down. Their interactions with monsters occurred so often that Lord Zedd knew them by name. This trope was eventually Lampshaded in Season 3:

Skull: Lt. Stone, it's true. Every time we turn around, well (sputters), there they are."

Lt. Jerome Stone | (Actor: Gregg Bullock)

 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Surrounded By Idiots: A natural consequence of having Those Two Guys for subordinates.

The Aquitan Rangers

 * Five Man Band
 * The Heroine: D. (She is the first female leader of any Rangers team, as well as the first female White Ranger in the series)
 * The Lancer: A.
 * The Smart Guy: C.
 * The Big Guy: T.
 * Living Prop: Corcus (Not kidding here, absolute lack of characterization and personality even in complementary material makes the task of placing him in any position of the Five Man Band downright impossible).
 * The Quiet One: Tideus and Corcus.
 * Rubber Forehead Aliens Speaking English

Their Enemies

Rita Repulsa | (Actress: Machiko Soga -> Barbara Goodson)
" : (at the Cimmarian planet meeting) Honestly, you need to get out of that dumpster more often."
 * Alliterative Name
 * Bad Boss: When the Rangers defeat the latest monster, she's prone to taking her frustration out on her underlings - even if they had absolutely nothing to do with what went wrong.
 * Big Bad: Of the first season.
 * Daddys Little Villain: Rita seems eager to impress her equally-villainous father, Master Vile.
 * Evil Is Hammy: One of THE Hammiest Characters in the ENTIRE Franchise.
 * Evil Is Sexy: From the second season onwards after applying special makeup to make herself look a helluva lot more younger and beautiful.
 * Evil Plan: The big one is "Conquering the nearest planet" I.E. Earth. The episodes have smaller ones focused on the Monster of the Week
 * Large Ham
 * Machiko Soga: Actually came back after finishing Zyuranger to do a few scenes speaking English as Rita so the dubbing would fit better (though it still wasn't perfect). Later, she even redubbed herself to voice Rita for the Japanese dub of the series.
 * Make My Monster Grow (Trope Namer)
 * Meal Ticket: She only married Lord Zedd just to overthrow him, but later developed feelings for him.
 * Never Live It Down: In-Universe -- Living in that dumpster for 10,000 years. (see below)
 * Never Live It Down: In-Universe -- Living in that dumpster for 10,000 years. (see below)


 * Sealed Evil in A Can (Trope Namer)
 * Suffering For Your Art: Voice actor Barbara Goodson was getting jerked around by Saban during pre-production. She was given the part, and told to voice Rita like the Wicked Witch. She did, and was fired. They decided to try to make Rita sound angrier, and rather than let Goodson try, they forced her to reaudition. According to her, she did, and said, "You want angry? [Rita's screech comes out of nowhere] I'LL SHOW YOU ANGRY!" Not knowing she would have to do the part for seven years. She mentioned going through a lot of water and cough drops, and we thank her for suffering through.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Linkara argued that this actually happened to her and Zedd post-marriage.
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Zedd. Started out as a power ploy, but grew into something more...

Goldar | (Voice actor: Kerrigan Mahan)

 * Bling of War
 * The Dog Bites Back: Throughout Season 1, Goldar was Rita's most loyal sycophant despite her constant verbal and physical abuse of him. Lord Zedd's taking over in Season 2 changed that. Now, given Zedd's Man Behind the Man status, Goldar expressing loyalty to him made sense. However, Goldar also proceeded to mock Rita to her face, claimed that he had always criticized her for her failures and took great pleasure in her dumpster exile. When she came back and married Zedd, he was still noticeably terse towards her.
 * The Dragon
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: During Season Three.
 * Arguably more so in Season 2. At least Season 3 gave him the benefit of some victories (such as beating down Ninjor, which helped lead to his capture). Season 2 saw him routinely defeated in battle, even once by an unmorphed, powerless Tommy.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: With Rito.

Squatt & Baboo | (Voice actors: Michael Sorich and Colin Phillips)
""Great. A human Squat and Baboo.""
 * Demoted to Extra: In the third season, when Rito and Goldar took their place as the bumbing duo.
 * Note that they essentially served as Rito and Goldar's de-facto minions, which was arguably an improvement. In the second season, all they seemed to do was cower in fear of Lord Zedd or get yelled at by him.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Bulk and Skull, to the limited extent that one pair is evil and the other is good. Lampshaded by Rita the first time she saw Bulk and Skull:


 * Minions With An F In Evil
 * Those Two Bad Guys

Finster | (Voice actor: Robert Axelrod)

 * Affably Evil
 * Evil Genius
 * Mad Artist

Scorpina | (Actress: Ami Kawai)

 * Bling of War
 * Brother Chuck: After "Goldar's Vice-Versa".
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Evil Is Sexy
 * Scary Scorpions
 * Wendee Lee: Her voice.
 * What Could Have Been: "Goldar's Vice-Versa" wasn't going to be her last appearance, as there were plans for her to return later in Season 2. However, chiefly, the failure to secure the American actress for more than one episode led to abandoning those plans.

Lord Zedd | (Voice actor: Robert Axelrod)
""I don't understand it. The more I divide them, the more they come together.""
 * Badass: Kicked Tommy's ass with no effort.
 * Bad Boss --> Benevolent Boss
 * Big Bad: Of the second season, much of the third season and Power Rangers ZEO.
 * Body Horror: He has no skin, his brain is exposed and who knows what's behind that face plate. It's been implied that the Zeo Crystal's forcefield did this to him when he tried to claim it.
 * But Not Too Evil
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Some of his schemes involved trying to pit the Rangers against each other or trying to break their spirit by endangering others. His efforts only had the exact opposite effect, which always stunned him.


 * Evilly Affable
 * Executive Meddling: Not of their own choice but parents found Zedd to be too scary at the start (who could blame them, in the introduction in addition to his appearance. The guy had a snake wrapped around his arm.) Thus had to tone him down later to make him more of a laughable villain. It's wasn't too much to dampen his character as he was still a force to be reckon with however.
 * Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: YMMV on that.
 * Jaded Washout: From "The Wedding" onwards, although he actually scored more victories like this.
 * Large Ham
 * The Man Behind The Woman: At the start of Season 2, it was revealed that Rita answered to Lord Zedd and was charged with conquering Earth for him. Her failure led to him taking a more direct role.
 * Orcus On His Throne: This trope goes for any Ranger Big Bad, really, but it becomes really evident when (as noted above) Zedd effortlessly clobbers Tommy.
 * The Other Darrin: Was voiced by Robert Axelrod in the series,.
 * Space Jew: Rewatch his wedding in "Married".
 * The Bad Guy Wins: Zedd accomplished a lot of things when he married Rita, like capture Ninjor, nearly kill Kimberly, allow Rita's brother Rito Revolto to destroy the Thunderzords,, just to name a few.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Linkara argued that this actually happened to him and Rita post-marriage.
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Rita.

Rito Revolto | (Voice actor: Bob Papenbrook)

 * Affably Evil: He's dim, but friendly with the other villains. He even gave Goldar a Christmas present at one point.
 * Alliterative Name: Like his sister Rita in that regard.
 * Ascended Extra: His Kakuranger counterpart was no slouch, but Rito had a far larger role that spanned two whole seasons.
 * Bob Papenbrook: His voice.
 * Body Paint: The left hand side of his body is camo-painted.
 * The Brute
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Was last seen at the very end of Zeo and never returned. Real Life Writes the Plot, as his suit fell into disrepair. It reportedly had to be patched up more than once during Zeo.
 * Cool Helmet: He wears a camo-painted Army helmet.
 * Cool Sword: He wields a sword with a skeleton motif to it.
 * Dem Bones
 * Dumb Muscle
 * Fire Breathing Weapon: Also in his arsenal is a flamethrower. Looks cool, but didn't help him against the Ninja Megazord.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: With Goldar.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Often. Rito feels the best way to shut off a bomb is to hit it with a hammer, and that's just the top of the list.

Master Vile | (Voice actor: Tom Wyner)

 * Big Bad: At the end of the third season.
 * Demoted to Extra: He only appeared in seven episodes (with two cameos in later seasons). His Kakuranger counterpart had a more sizable role.
 * Eviler Than Thou: During his tenure, he often tried to demonstrate he was this to Zedd.
 * Genre Savvy
 * Screw This I'm Outta Here: At the end of "Alien Rangers of Aquitar", after the Aquitan Rangers defeat his latest monster, Vile decides to head back to his own galaxy, much to Zedd's delight.
 * The Bad Guy Wins: Apparently the case in his own galaxy, as states before running off that he's going back home, where the bad guys can WIN.

Ivan Ooze | (Actor: Paul Freeman)

 * Big Bad: Of the movie.
 * Blob Monster: Ivan Ooze and his servants.
 * Evil Laugh
 * Evilly Affable
 * Large Ham
 * Original Generation: He exists only in the movie, which is considered non-canon.

Lokar

 * Cosmic Horror
 * Eldritch Abomination
 * Evil Laugh