Personality Conflicts

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Personality Conflicts is a series of Darker and Edgier and Lighter and Softer Power Rangers fanfics by Ellen Brand. Expect lots of angst. Lots of it. And lots of crossovers. Pretty long and engrossing, so consider dedicating several weekends to it.

The stories in the series are:

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Personality Conflicts franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.
  • Aborted Arc: For Want of a Nail was intended as an alternate universe to Personality Conflicts where Rito and Goldar never dropped the Zeo Crystal in the finale of MMPR. When the PC series went on protracted hiatus the "elseworlds" project got discarded.
  • After the End: Shadows of the Future. The real Shadowborg beat the other Venjix to conquering the world by eleven years!
  • A God Am I: Nyghtmayr was there. Shadowborg gets there in the original timeline.
  • All There in the Manual: Explaining the Morphin Grid, the differences between psychic energy and magic, and the shout outs, as well as her views on characterization of superhero teams.
    • A LOT of the backstory used in the series, including the unseen events between Good as Gold and the self-titled debut fanfic, originates in Ellen's earlier fanfics with Jen Bigley. These stories themselves are Broad Strokes versions of how Ellen later came to envision PC's backstory.
    • Turbo Heroes is the PC continuity adaptation of Super Sentai. Ellen has written extensive notes on the shows it adapts and the storylines of the series online.
  • And Now for Something Completely Different: Firebird Run. Tommy's litle brother gets a focus story, saves an alien princess, and all outstanding plotlines limp to the side.
  • Arcadia: The Sea of Grass.
  • Arc Welding: This series is rife with it. With standalone episodes in the original series as well as standalone fics within itself.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Chris.
  • Artistic License: Biology: Gasket tells his mother after killing King Mondo and usurping control of the Machine Empire for himself that his father-in-law King Aradon is always looking for new robot concubines.
  • Author Appeal: Ellen has a weird thing for twin/clone love triangles.
    • Ellen has a great enthusiasm for kid-heroes, which crops up more and more throughout PC's expanded universe. Aside from the (canon) Beetleborgs and (sort-of canon) PC Turbo Rangers, the Yu-Gi-Oh!, Danny Phantom, and Detective Conan casts all play enormous roles in their respective corners of the universe.
    • Ellen loves to place strong women in situations where they can prove their own strength against a somewhat misogynistic regime. See No Woman's Land below.
    • Benign non-crossovers using analogous versions of alternate universe characters leads to Duke L'orange's counterpart The Black Falcon among dozens of other lawyer-friendly cameos. Ellen seems to enjoy non-crossover Mythology Gags at least as much as she does crossovers.
      • Clark Lane and Lois Kent seem to hover between a Namesake Gag and Ellen's usual Lawyer-Friendly Cameo tendency. They mostly just exist to make Parker O'Neil's own reporter-gag name less ridiculous by extension.
  • Bad Future: Rocky gets transported to one where the Shadow Empire invaded Earth, all but six of the rangers are dead, those six and Drew are all Shell Shocked Veterans, and Tasha's one of The Heartless.
  • Badass Family: To some extent the Scotts, to a greater extent the Olivers, and most of all the Parks.
  • Becoming the Mask: Larry Zedden was merely a means for Zedd to sow his wild oats in a human identity, much as Master Vile had done across several galaxies while his daughter and sole viable heir was trapped in a dumpster. Unfortunately, this particular identity and his proximity to Earth made that persona take root.
    • Rita genuinely fell in love with Lord Zedd after years in a sham marriage and still mourns the "death" of her husband when he resumed his identity as Larry.
    • Somewhat true for Zedd himself, being as the original identity of Prince Zedd the Zarakin royal is who both Zedd and Larry think of themselves "as," despite the former being the result of a magic spell and the latter the result of Earth's leylines messing with his brain.
  • The Beard: Jason's parents pretended to be in love so that Jason's grandparents wouldn't know that Jason's real father was Korean. Surprisingly, it worked.
  • Body Horror: Billy in the Bad Future. This is somewhat less horrible by the fact that you're expecting Brain In a Jar, or worse. Instead, he's simply all-black, has glowing green eyes, can see Shadows for what they are, and is so cold, it burns.
  • Boldly Coming: Rocky gets all sorts of interesting offers on Danata.
  • Broad Strokes: The televised events of the first four years and the general contents of the first six years of Power Rangers happened. Any larger mythology or backstory is relegated to the dustbin as Ellen constructs a new backstory for her own universe to incorporate multiple other franchises into a stable timeline.
    • Ashley and TJ have different full names than their series counterparts, and Katherine's name is spelled Hilliard instead of Hillard.
      • "Eltare" as well.
    • VR Troopers is moved in continuity from 1994-1995 when it aired to 1997-1998 when the fic's contemporary era is located.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Everyone refers to the villains as villains.
    • The United Alliance of Evil appears to function as a sort of hybrid military alliance and Weird Trade Union in practice. They even seem to have their own evil Obstructive Code of Conduct on recruiting planetary villains.
  • Canon Discontinuity: We're past the point Extreme Ghostbusters should be happening internal to the Real Ghostbusters timeline with no signs of the original team retiring. Slightly averted in that Zack is very explicitly being groomed for the next generation team.
  • Canon Immigrant: Too many to name, in many directions.
    • PC does a surprisingly good job backing into continuity with the series. The United Alliance of Evil is not mentioned by name until Dark Specter shows up. The Intergalactice Police Force was used in Personality Conflicts prior to the Power Rangers Turbo writers picking the same name for the Blue Senturion's agency.
    • Fred Kelman and Justin Stewart on the same team also comes to mind.
    • A LOT of other fanfic writers use Lita and her Spear Counterpart Cade as stock psychologists for their stories.
  • Cerebus Rollercoaster: The series maintains a rather consistent dark tone up through The More Things Change, at which point it becomes a more fun-loving series of adventures. It snaps back to dramatic with the arrival of Dark Specter.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: It probably would have been a good idea to dig up all those shards left behind after the Mirror of Night exploded.
    • The Tire Shield is actually good for something!
    • Remember the Sword of Power? The show didn't.
  • The Chick: Averted and Lampshaded. Ellen dislikes passive female characters and will go out of her way to use stronger women instead. The only canon female hero to retain any trace of timidity is Katherine, who has never had a focal of her own. The version of David in Personality Conflicts comes much closer to being The Chick than any of the girls.
    • Andros has an almost female function as well, though he seems to hover around a Defrosting Ice Queen more than The Chick.
    • Subverted with Jen Bigley's Mary Sue Christina, who has no real personality to speak of and almost no lines over the entire run of the series. Though supposedly a genius in her own right, her job is pretty much "Billy's girlfriend."
  • Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Nobody stays single indefinitely in an Ellen Brand story, and this is no exception. Even Interspecies Romance will not stand in its way.
  • Contractual Genre Blindness: Lampshaded by Ryan when he finds out Ziktor is Grimlord.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Rito and Goldar, full stop. Rito may be incompetent, but given a straightforward plan that involves hitting things he can execute it with few problems.
  • Crystal Dragon Jesus: Dealing with Tommy's mother's beliefs in the prequel.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: Eltare.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Shadowborg does this a lot.
  • Death by Origin Story: Everyone on KO-35. And four Astro Guardians. Surprisingly averted by Tommy and David's biological mother Alex, who is still alive somewhere.
  • Did Not Do the Research: Though to be fair, multiple personality disorder is controversial at best, and we're dealing with magic here. Also, shaman is an Evenki word.
  • Doomed Hometown: KO-35.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Green Ranger presents himself to Tommy as this in a dream. Also, Nyghtmayr and the Shadows.
  • Evil Chancellor: Darkonda, in this version.
  • Evil Is Sexy: The female Dark Reflections are explicitly treated as such. Jamie's double Theresa and Ashley's double Jade are Black Widow types prior to Terry's Heel Face Turn. Somewhat used in conjunction with All Women Are Lustful, as guys also tend to be ogled more in this series than girls by the heroes.
    • Divatox and Astronema solicit plenty of male attention upon their debuts as well, which evens things out. Then again, there really haven't ever been attractive male PR villains.
  • Evil Virtues: Gasket and Archerina are truly in love. Similarly, Gasket feels the Alliance of Evil has drifted away from its espoused beliefs and become Dark Specter's gang of petty thugs. This leads to their Honor Among Thieves alliance with Rita.
  • Exiled From Continuity: The Galaxy Rangers are shown to be young children just so Ellen would not be tempted to continue adding More Dakka in Ranger totals. So far nothing from anything later than Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is as much as alluded to.
  • Expanded Universe: Many of Ellen's Danny Phantom stories (starting with Danny Shadow) are set in the PC universe circa 2004. Other than Lita publishing a book on metahuman psychology, Ellen makes a point to reveal very little about what happened to the characters.
  • Face Heel Turn: Drew
  • Fandom Nod: Notorious for this. See Mary Sue for the odd instances of overlap.
  • Fanon: Ellen's versions of a lot of things became fanfic shorthand across PR fandom over the last fifteen years. Rocky's and Tommy's siblings, Adam's family life, and Lita Kino as team psychologist among them. Any stories which use the PC-original Rangers will, inevitably, duplicate Jason and Jamie's meeting underneath a tree verbatim for no apparent reason.
    • After the Trial Arc there was a cottage industry of mass Saban Ameritoku crossovers, about half of which simply used Shadowborg as the villain as well.
    • There were no less than six "PC Ranger Sliders" series by other writers at one time or another. None crossed over with each other (sadly).
  • Fantastic Racism: Most aliens don't like humans. Eltareans also don't like Zarakin.
  • A Father to His Men: Zordon.
  • The Federation: The Council of Worlds. Also doubling as a somewhat Obstructive Bureaucrat, they have managed to prevent the local group of galaxies from erupting in full out civil war by maintaining a state of quasi-détente with the Alliance of Evil. The entire convoluted Ranger team vs. villain army setup is bureaucratically mandated to bypass the Intergalactic Police Force ever directly engaging in military conflict with the Alliance and setting off a war.
  • Fully-Absorbed Finale: Overlaps with Grand Finale. The trial arc serves as a conclusion to the storylines of VR Troopers, Masked Rider and Beetleborgs, as well as freeing up the characters to become part of the supporting cast.
  • Generation Xerox: The Beetleborgs are rather explicitly held up as younger analogues to the VR Troopers (unsurprising given their show origins). As Drew and Jo are siblings, Kaitlin and Ryan's quasi-relationship is moved to Jo and Josh.
  • Genre Savvy: Rocky errs on the side of it. Chris even moreso. Dark Specter has an evil version.
    • Fred is very aware that he is a terrible leader who makes horrible plans, but they succeed because he knows how the universe works.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Lita slips into this when she's stressed, even saying kuso at one point.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: So does Rocky.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Jamie, obviously. Also, Tommy and David.
  • Happily Married: Most of the parents of the teens, but especially Daniel and Sarah Oliver and Trevor and Eileen Park.
    • Not to mention Kimberly and Skull.
    • Gasket and Archerina have the marriage Rita wishes she'd had with Zedd.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Billy thinks of Tommy as this. Ryan almost becomes this.
    • Drew seems to teeter on the cusp of it, which Shadowborg takes full advantage of.
  • The Heartless: Happens a lot with the Shadow Empire, Nyghtmayr, Shadowborg, etc. The Shadow Empire was a failed attempt by a sorcerer to conjure forth Nyghtmayr and his Minor Demons from the Morpheus dimension without the Mirror of Night. The new form of Shadowborg was an attempt by Les Fortunes to recreate the original with powers he'd seen Nyghtmayr use, so they all do share a common origin.
  • Heel Face Turn: Zedd, of all people! (Granted, it happens in canon, but still...) Also, Tommy and Jamie's evil clones.
  • Heroic RROD: Remember how Jason could die if he used the Gold Ranger powers for too long?
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted in the case of Tommy and Jamie's clones, played straight in the case of Katie/Kaitlin 2.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Well, there's Nyghtmayr, obviously. But there's also Andros witnessing his entire team killed and the destruction of KO-35.
  • Ho Yay: Jason and Tommy exchange ILYs at one point.
  • Hour of Power: Chris's powers, like Zhane's in canon. This also means he doesn't have to wear solid colors like the other rangers, and as such can wear a Robotech shirt.
  • Identical Cousin: Lita Kino is Makoto Kino's cousin. The age difference aside, she's described as pretty much identical looking.
    • And yet Ashley gets the Senshi-derived secondary powers.
    • Tyler and Terry are given glamours specifically to avoid having this problem when living adjacent to Tommy and Jamie.
  • I Know Mortal Kombat: Chris's time on flight simulators.
  • Immortality Immorality: Zedd has used the powers of evil to extend his lifespan.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: With MMPR:TM continuity. The sole instance in Personality Conflicts where an alternate universe element is treated as being from an alternate universe.
    • Not that it's any surprise to learn the real PC universe has a Dulcea who served in the Order of the Meledan as well.
  • Insistent Terminology: Worlds Enough and Time has an Insistent Terminology regarding the titles of the Power Rangers, but Ellen's use of Zyuranger inspired (animal)-Ranger names instead of (color)-Ranger names in the actual story fluctuates so much it's impossible to tell if Billy is just being punked because he's from another universe.
    • The actual show be damned, in this universe they're the Astro Rangers.
  • In the Blood: Rita! Stop making evil clones of Tommy!
  • Innocent Fanservice Boy: Andros doesn't understand why humans wear clothes specifically for swimming.
  • Kudzu Plot: And to think it was supposed to be a one-shot.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Constantly.
  • Light Is Not Good / Dark Is Not Evil: Lilian's power is the quasi-sentient "shadow" cast by the purity of the unified Zeo Crystal. It was channeled into a relatively noble host to ensure a power equal to nine other Zeo Rangers (including TREY) never ended up in evil hands. Since this is a universe with canonical Badass Decay, she's not especially worse than any of the other Zeo Rangers.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: And loads. And loads.
  • Lolicon: Josh and Jo.
  • Louis Cypher: Lawrence Zedden.
  • Love Redeems: Not so much "redeems" in this case as "makes you stop being the Butt Monkey," but Kim and Skull meet the criteria. Any illusion Bulk and Skull were just the comic relief is washed away once Skull gets his dream girl and is elevated to Sixth Ranger status.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Jamie Zedden's last name sounds weird. Guess why. Also, Master Vile is Tommy and David's father.
    • At least Winston Zeddemore isn't related to Jamie's family yet...
  • Magic A Is Magic A: The way the Grid actually works in the stories is half-defined hokum, but it's relatively consistent with itself and with Ellen's production materials.
    • Ellen treats the act of creation and rebirth within Beetleborgs with more care than the original show ever did. Les can recreate Shadowborg because he was originally built in the real world and not internal to Beetleborgs comics. Art, however, cannot recreate the deceased Astral Borgs since he co-created them with his brother and only the two together could "remake" the ideas needed to resurrect them.
      • Flabber can't summon new things as often as Vexor or Nukus because most of his energy is being put into maintaining the gear that's already been summoned.
  • Magical Native American: Sorta. Tommy's magical, but not due to that half of his heritage. David, who invokes this trope in canon, has no magical power to speak of.
    • David's adopted father Sam Trueheart is (as in series continuity) an enormous example of generic shaman abilities.
  • Mary Sue: Jamie Zedden. Ellen confesses as much. To a lesser extent, Lita Kino manages to help Zedd do a Heel Face Turn.
    • Rocky's ex-girlfriend Jennifer is the counterpart to Ellen's former collaborator Jen Bigley. Somewhat averted in that Jen was also an actual character from the series.
    • The series is riddled with in-universe counterparts to Power Rangers fandom members in cameo roles. Chris Sterling began as Ellen Brand offering Chris Funaro a cameo appearance in PC but in breaking the trial arc he turned into the unseen middle Sterling child passingly mentioned by Dana in Robotech.
  • The Masquerade: Reinforced by the perception filter generated by both the leylines and their Ranger powers. To acknowledge how insane their world is would collapse human society. In one of Ellen's Sentinel fanfics Blair blatantly tells the people around him that there is no reason for someone to "fake" the superhuman activities in Southern California for publicity any more than for the world-famous, film-inspiring Ghostbusters to fake their paranormal work. No one pays him any attention.
  • Mayfly-December Romance: Oh, so many.
    • Ryan and Katie Starr are an especially awkward case, as while the VR double of Kaitlin has all of the original's memories, Katie's total life experience as her own person can be measured in hours.
  • Mega Crossover: Started out with a simple Sailor Moon reference. Then it added Ghostbusters, VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, Masked Rider...
  • Mind Rape: Nyghtmayr has a habit of this. Shadowborg as well.
  • The Mole / Feed the Mole: A weirdly benevolent version. Daystar is assigned to Earth by the Council of Worlds and IGPF to report back on the activities of Zordon and the Terran Power Rangers and ensure they never violate the interdict in place. She's already conspiring with them by the time she gets back to the planet.
  • Morality Pet: Astronema seems to be the only thing keeping Ecliptor from sinking into the abyss of madness that consumed Dark Specter and Darkonda.
  • More Dakka: 6 active Morphin Warriors ( 8 counting Peter and Tyler, 7 if you accept Billy's powers have been boosted since becoming a Ninjetti), 10 Zeo Rangers, 5 Turbo Rangers, 6 Astro Rangers, and one Phantom Ranger protect the Earth. Factor in the other two superhero teams on the planet and a Masked Rider and PC's Earth could rival most major comics universes for raw fighting capacity.
    • Factor in Teddy and Parker's enchanted swords, Lita's augmented strength from the (inert) Dragon Coin, Chelsea's assassin training, Daystar's IGPF expertise, a Blue Senturion unit from the future, and the unlicensed nuclear acellerators strapped to the backs of the Ghostbusters and the supporting cast makes them even more formidable.
  • Motive Decay: Explicitly stated by Dark Specter to be canon in this timeline. As the center of their local multiverse, Earth is bombarded with natural magic and renders villains either incompetent or forces them to Heel Face Turn out of guilt.
    • In his scant appearances Count Dregon appears to have simply given up any effort to hold Edenoi or acquire the Masked Rider powers for himself. He is just tired and wants Dex dead.
  • Mythology Gag: Lita likes Super Sentai.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The Shadow Empire.
  • No Woman's Land: For all of their advancement, Danata and Triforia are a bit behind in women's lib.
  • Noble Demon: Ecliptor. Also, Chelsea is a good version of this, deliberately reading evil sources on galactic history so that she can understand both sides.
  • Obstructive Code of Conduct: The premise of the trial.
  • Oedipus Complex: Tommy kills Vile.
  • One Steve Limit: Averted more and more as the cast balloons.
  • Otaku: Chris, so much.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Endemic when you're using Beetleborgs and the House Monsters. Fangula can go outside without being burnt to a crisp, but he is fair-skinned and prone to sunburn.
  • Pardon My Klingon: Andros has a potty mouth.
  • Power Incontinence: Tommy could actually die from having too much mana.
  • Precision F-Strike: Tommy's double gets one against his creator/god Nyghtmayr.
  • Psychic Link: Josh and Shadowborg's connection snaps back into place the moment the latter is recreated. Chris and Zhane have one due to sharing a single set of powers simultaneously.
    • Interestingly, Twin Telepathy is mostly avoided with the Dark Reflections and Katie Starr. Knowing how someone thinks because you have their memories and knowing what they think because you're in their head are still treated as two separate things.
  • Psycho Rangers: Happens occasionally.
    • The Neji Rangers are explicitly named for the original Psycho Rangers from Megaranger.
  • Rule 34: Dagmar Buse's authorized-but-noncaninical Personality Conflicts X spinoff.
  • Sailor Earth: Many.
  • Secret Keeper: At first Lita, but expands to include all the Rangers' parents.
    • Not that it came as a huge surprise to some of them.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Andros. Jo after her brother's Face Heel Turn at the hands of Shadowborg. Dex's personality in PC seems more in line with this than his Masked Rider characterization was.
    • Zhane's coping mechanism to his planet's death inverts this, as with his show persona.
  • Shout-Out: Too many to list. Luckily, Ellen does on her website.
  • Sixth Ranger: Despite being filled with teams of fanfic-original characters, only Skull and Aisha are really treated like it with their respective groups. The former as Tommy is permanently lumped into the Zeo Rangers and can't fulfill his original duties with the Morphin Warriors. The latter as the Sixth Ranger of the GHOSTBUSTERS.
    • Inverted on the Ghostbusters side as well; Peter Venkman has Ranger powers of his own he never wants to use and only busts out in dire emergency in the classic sixth member tradition.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: As soon as he's arrested, Trey figures out there is one in his line of succession.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Serena's boyfriend is named DARIAN. Katherine's surname is spelled HILLIARD in this continuity.
  • The Starscream: Rita, even more so than in canon.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Well, Tommy has a long-lost twin brother in canon. Now we learn his clone is his adoptive family's ancestor. And Master Vile is his father, making Rita and Rito his half-siblings.
  • The Un-Reveal: Ernie always knew they were the Power Rangers.
    • So did most of their parents.
  • The Unseen: A rare non-character version. There is an entire year of continuity separating the finale of Power Rangers Zeo and the first Personality Conflicts story. During this time period the newly re-ascendant Rita and Zedd resume their attacks on Earth while the two factions of the Machine Empire continue theirs. While characters allude to some plots and a handful of characters from this period, it is never explored in any detail. See All There in the Manual above.
  • Uriah Gambit: Shadowborg pulls one on Ziktor.
  • We Are as Mayflies: Zedd's 20,000 years old, Dex and Trey a few thousand years old, Zordon and Rita are at least 10,000 years old. Master Vile has to be over 10,000 years old.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Adam. Naturally, his father doesn't like the rangers at first.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Nyghtmayr, Fyar, Hatryd, etc.
  • Yandere: Ashley's last boyfriend. Played deadly serious.
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