What an Idiot!/Live-Action TV/Power Rangers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of What an Idiot! in Power Rangers include:

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers:
    • For the entire series, plus Power Rangers Zeo and a majority of Power Rangers Turbo the Rangers themselves were goody goods. Little to no negative behavior and all. But on occasion, Rita, Zedd or The Machine Empire would place a spell on the team or some members to cause problems (Such as Tommy debuting as an evil Power Ranger). Happened a good number of times.
      You'd Expect: That someone would attribute the odd behavior to a magic spell.
      Instead: The Rangers are dumbfounded by one of their own acting strange.
    • In the episode “The Wanna Be Ranger”, Zordon has to “de-ionize” for a few hours due to a to a rare alignment of planets, leaving the Command Center in Alpha-5’s hands but warning him to stay put and let the Rangers handle any emergencies. As Alpha is monitoring the city as he always does, he notices a young boy lost in Angel Grove Park.
      You’d Expect: Alpha could simply call one of the Rangers to check on the kid; in fact, his first impulse is to do just that.
      Instead: But why inconvenience them? He can handle this on his own. After all, an eight-year-old wouldn’t be afraid of a friendly Robot Buddy like him. Sure enough, the child - Brian - trusts him, but this is not the reason Zordon told Alpha to stay put. The current Monster of the Week sees this as an opportunity and tries to mug Alpha for info.
      To Make Things Worse: Alpha is no match for Primator, so he activates his Self-Destruct Mechanism, completely forgetting Brian is there, and the resulting explosion (which will occur after a one-hour countdown during which Alpha is deactivated and helpless, giving the Rangers a Race Against the Clock to deal with) will destroy the entire park. Worse, Brian doesn’t know enough to run for his life, both because he’s concerned about Alpha and because Alpha had told him it’s much better to stay in one place when you’re lost rather than wander around and try to find help. Sound advice most of the time, but not in this case.
  • Power Rangers SPD
    • "Recognition": The rangers have seized Wootox, an alien criminal who wiped out ninety planets off-screen, and additionally can swipe bodies with others. The rangers would normally digitize their caught criminals after every battle, but this time, big dog Kreuger also wants the villain, who can only speak English with a neck-worn translator, brought in for question. So...
      You'd Expect: The rangers card him, then release him in a jail cell. Given his threat level, the rangers ought to only deal with him in a prison cell.
      Instead: The rangers cart him off to jail unconfined. Sky, the Blue Ranger, is tasked with showing the villain to his cell; he falls victim to Wootox's body swapping, and when Wootox destroys the translator, he is left in no position to stop him. Wootox, in Sky's body, takes control of the Delta Base and even authorizes Sky's execution.
      Extra Note: Despite the fact the Japanese version, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, has almost exactly the same episode, only the American version has this idiocy. This is because in the Japanese version, the rangers can't turn criminals into cards. But Dekaranger does introduce another one:
      • The situation is the same as the American version, in that Jinche (Wootox Japanese counterpart) needed to be detained for questioning. Hoji, the blue ranger, takes him to his cell, gets overpowered and the bodyswitch plot starts.
        You'd expect: When escorting a potentially dangerous criminal, Hoji should take at least someone with him, just in case.
        Instead: When Hoji places the criminal into the cell, he is alone. Jinche makes use of this and succeeds in switching bodies.
  • An episode of Power Rangers Jungle Fury has the Rangers trapped in a TV game show. Unfortunately, the show is being run by the bad guys who are saying Screw the Rules, I Make Them, with half the Rangers being eliminated from the game for petty rules violations (and of course, if they lose, the villains will have free reign to eliminate mankind). The host offers the Rangers the chance to give up some of their winnings for a trip to Hawaii.
    You'd Expect: The Rangers remember that not only are cash prizes at stake, but also the fate of the human race, so they shut up and keep playing.
    Instead: Lily jumps at the chance, claiming she's always wanted to go to Hawaii. For that, she not only loses some cash from the pot, but she's thrown out of the game as well.
  • Power Rangers Time Force: Wes is forced into a Ten-Minute Retirement by his Identical Grandson, Alex, who takes over his position as Red Ranger. Prior to this, Alex watched all of the rangers battles in his Mission Control, so he knows what their weapons and zords can do. When Frax unleashes his new robot, Dragontron, the team brings out their Shadow Force Megazord and its BFG. They get a clear shot, and...
    You'd Expect: Shoot him now! Shoot him!
    Instead: Alex has the team hold their fire. This allows Frax to warn his robot, thus ruining the shot and resulting in a battle in which Frax and the robot clear out.
    For extra points: He yells at the rangers and blames them for failing the mission when they just followed his orders to the letter. This only gives the rangers an extra incentive to force him out of the team.
  • Power Rangers Samurai: In the episode "Day Off", the villain Dreadhead gets giant-sized after Jayden's use of his new Beetle disc finally allows the Rangers to land a hit with their sword, and the Rangers activate their Samurai Megazord az a result. Jayden uses the orange disc to produce a Beetle Zord, which gets through Dreadhead's attacks and starts literally pulling his leg. Dreadhead summons some Mooks to take care of the buggy nuisance.
    You'd expect: He tell them to attack immediately so that maybe their laser arrows could have a chance of doing damage to the Beetle Zord.
    Instead: He has them attack on three. And proceeds to count. This gives the Beetle Zord time to attack his mooks, combine with the Megazord, and produce enough power to destroy Dreadhead.
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