Let’s not forget that the native guy was the red ranger
this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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And the white boy and girl were blue and pink respectively.
God it was so fucking obnoxious to play Power Rangers in kindergarten. “You’re a giiiiirrrrlll, so you have to be the pink ranger.”
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At least they had diversity...?
True, and honestly I didn’t notice as a kid
Jason was Native? Pretty sure Tommy was Native in the canon (confirmed when they are seeking the Zeo Crystals), but I don't recall Jason ever being identified as Native. Although Tommy did then become the Red Zeo Ranger, so that's not great. Is that what you were referring to?
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Yeah. I can believe that Trini was an accident. They wanted two girl rangers. Blue, Red, and Black are "boy colors" whereas Yellow is neutral.
And Zack's character was pretty normal for the era (black guy who incorporates "hip hop" into everything he does) but there is zero chance it was not intentional to cast the Black guy as Zack the Black ranger.
And yeah. Even as kids on the playground we all knew that was racist as shit. I'll always remember my homeroom teacher trying not to laugh her ass off while she was telling us we can't talk about how they should have cast a Native American as the Red Ranger.
What's funny is right before they changed costumes with ZEO, they gave Tommy a Native American ancestor and then he became the red ZEO ranger.
Tommy is white... White ranger. Tommy discovers he is like 1/32 Native American... suddenly becomes Red ranger.
Honestly, that is pretty par for the course. Go get that ethnic minority scholarship you slightly-less-than-totally-white guy.
The real question is what they should have done with the blue ranger. All I can think of is David Carradine.
I found Rich Evans' Lemmy account
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Pink ranger must have been an accident, too.
No? Pink is a "girl" color. And even in the original sentai source material, Pink was a girl (hence the skirt). Yellow was a dude which is why you can really tell what scenes were filmed with the US stunt team/actors and what were from the original (hint: Is the bulge in the crotch or the chest?).
The costumes came before the US casting, and it already had a skirt.
So either they turned extremely progressive for a children show on the 90s or they cast a Scottish
Not just the costumes, much of the footage used was just re-editted footage straight from Japan's Super Sentai series (specifically their 16th iteration). The only footage that was American made, for the most part, was stuff in the command center and where you can see the actors' faces. The monster fights, the zords, the stuff with Rita on the moon, etc. was all Super Sentai footage.
And the reason that the yellow ranger didn't have a skirt like the pink ranger did despite being played by a woman is becuase they weren't played by a woman in Japan. The yellow ranger was a guy in the original Super Sentai series and was only made a girl in the US.
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Honestly couldn't care less about it, at least they were casted in the 90's.
What's he got to say about Billie's actor being bullied off the show for being gay?
https://ew.com/article/2010/08/26/original-power-ranger-harassed-gay/
I think it was probably an even bigger mistake to have the Black Ranger fight with break dancing Kung-Fu moves, but what do I know.
But wasn't all that fighting taken from the original Japanese show?
Most of the in-costume stuff is, and the Black Ranger doesn't break dance in that. But there's usually an out of costume fight with Putties before that.
This is the case. They are mimicking the original Japanese choreography and movement style.
Hip Hop Keto
Leave it in the 90's, weirdos.
It happened and ended, lessons were learned no harm was done.
On the other side, the Yellow Ranger had a visible bulge so let's call that progressive.
That was due in large part to the fully suited scenes being cut from the orginal show. The characters we know in the English version are really a separate cast.
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This went way over my head and I was thinking: the writer's taken their mask off as a racist??
Didn't make the colour connection
The 90's were fucking awesome.
Nothing burger
Honestly, I think it’s more commendable that the rangers were so diverse at the time than it’s outrageous that the Black and Asian characters wore those colors. They could have easily casted all white kids back then. The characters were treated with respect by the producers and were well liked by fans. This is only an issue to people 30 years later.
In Captain Planet, it always bothered me that the South American dude got a ridiculous power like "heart" while everyone else got something useful.
The powers should have been:
European: The power to take stuff from others without them noticing.
North America: The power to buy stuff and vacuously talk themselves into bad ideas, and project their voice over long distances.
Asia: small stature to squeeze into tight spaces, and has the power to reproduce and instantly make many copies of themselves.
Africa: Summon large animals and inflict malaria on enemies.
S America: Bring all the others together with a universal love of drugs, and drives around on a bulldozer.
Don't diss Ma-Ti he fought leopards barehanded before he had any powers and averted thermonuclear war without any help from the others. While we're on the subject I think Earth and Fire should swap owners.
I remember that we found it funny as kids. I have no idea how this is somehow problematic.
It’s not, so what you laughed? You were exposed to a positive multiracial cast
Humour is a good way to create that exposure for people uncomfortable with it and get past producers that wouldn’t allow it otherwise
the optics might not have been the best but walter and thuy were amazing as power rangers
Should have cast a russian as the red ranger. I mean if you're ALREADY being racist....
You could cast a person with depression as the blue ranger. Oh....I see you have that covered. And a female sex symbol as the pink ranger. Oh, thats covered too.
If you're going to go full racist, red wouldn't be Russian. They'd be native American.
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Hmm...
tldr Saban didnt want unionized actors and went out of their way to cast functionally nobodies for the lowest price. Its why after this dispute, it was much less common for cast members to be retained for the next season. Outside of Jason David Frank and Johnny Yong Bosch, it was much more rare for any ex cast member to return in a series several series later.
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I have a vague memory that the original show from Japan had a man in the yellow costume and when it was adapted for American audiences they wanted yellow to be a woman. This lead to a effectively trans character because of an occasionally noticeable bulge.
Power Rangers is a patchwork work edited with footage from a few different shows. Robots from one, costume fights from others. It was not really a reboot, they just took the footage of this yellow-costumed guy fighting and use it directly.
“asshole move made with full awareness” is probably a better term than “mistake”
How did I not notice this before now?
The funniest thing about this was that Zack and Trini’s replacements were Asian and Black, respectively. So they just swapped it while keeping the diversity.
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