Friday, September 5, 2014

My thoughts on the pre-zyu suits being shown in Super Megaforce

Now this is something that has gotten some fans up in arms. Reasoning has ranged from "They're dishonoring PR by using these suits" or "They're just trying to piggy-back on Sentai's growing popularity in the US". This has aggravated me too but not for those reasons. My reason for being aggravated is that I find it to be a bit disrespectful to the audience as they have yet to explain it. The suits show up so quickly it looks like the editing department was too lazy to cut them out and just hoped no one would notice. The show doesn't want to explain why its altering its continuity by technically making these suits canon.
Writing them off as new powers accessible via Super Mega mode can only stretch so far. In addition to adding the Dairangers, they've also snuck in Yellow Mask and Pink Flash. I sort of give Dairanger a pass because they are post-Zyu and somewhat had a presence in MMPR thanks to the Thunder Zords and Kibaranger being used as the MMPR white ranger. However, there is was no reason not to edit out Yellow Mask and Pink Flash.
They've essentially blown a hole in their own continuity without giving it a proper explanation. It makes the writing department seem lazy when all they need to do is write a short line that roughly says "Your new mode lets you access powers that are from space.". Yeah Zordon did indeed say back in MMPR that there were rangers on other planets but most of their current target audience (young children) probably won't know about that or much about MMPR in general so they won't know to go looking for that piece of continuity. That is all the more reason why they should explain it in-universe for Super Megaforce. It makes me ask why they even bothered to reshoot anything except for Don's GokaiGreen footage if they're gonna let some suits slip through. Heck, Green Flash got a full 3 minute fight scene in the episode "Power of Six".
Some fans have taken it upon themselves to come up with theories to explain their inclusion and while that is a valiant effort, it just doesn't feel right for them to have to do that. It is ridiculous for Saban Brands to expect the fans to fill in the gaps themselves when the burden of explanation rests squarely on the shoulders of their company, not the fans. I'll be keeping a count of all these instances until we get a proper explanation other than the vague "They're powers never before seen on Earth" line. That doesn't just mean they're from space, it could mean they're powers that were stockpiled but never actually given to anyone or a lot of other things.
These suits only being shown for a few seconds (or minutes in Green Flash's case) doesn't make them any less real and they deserve an explanation. In short, do I find it disrespectful? Yes but not for the same reasons that some of the fandom have. Do I find it lazy and inconsistent? Oh most definitely. I wonder just what other suits they'll let slip through.

6 comments:

  1. KeepING the pre-zyuranger suits is weird and bad but they need extra stock footage to use and they are to cheap to film it themselves.
    Maybe series should be present because Saban did try to adapt it but the rest shouldn't be here without a good explanation.
    Also I think that they are suing both Goseiger and Gokaiger suits in order to fill the episode with padding.

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  2. Other News: SMF ep. 10 was decent.... thanks for wasting half the show to make it decent, writers.

    Personally, I think they're burned out, Taylor. The producers are, but the writers... well, it seems they have some poor direction.

    My head-canon: I think they are mocking both the PR fans and Sentai fans.

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    1. How some fans respond:

      Everyone can disagree all they want, but Super Megaforce is fine, the pacing is much better than Megaforce, and the way they've adapted the sentai suits are clever and quick. They don't even adapt them all, which is funny because they're doing it for the sake of creating nods to Super Sentai. Look, we all know that the show is flawed. (What season isn't flawed?) However, you've got to look at the positive side of things. Super Megaforce, as well as Megaforce have been decent seasons.

      The right way of thinking: Oh, so they're new powers that were undiscovered, yet they're old teams too. That's awesome. Wow, the acting is corny again. Haven't seen this kind of acting since Lightspeed Rescue and MMPR. Seems like they're trying to appeal more to kids though. I guess that's okay. Could be worse. Could have been a bunch of new zealanders faking american accents with no character development like in Operation Overdrive.

      You see, my issue is negativity. People online act selfish, rude, and on top of that, ungrateful and negative towards stuff they obviously like. It's just ridiculous to look at. You go to a video game, negativity. You go to a show, negativity, you go to news, negativity. Why is it that so many people have to be negative? And the worst part about this is that PEOPLE ARE REPEATING THE EXACT SAME THING THE PREVIOUS HAS SAID. It's just annoying to scroll down to see a different person say the exact same thing. Also, what's mostly annoying and I'm sorry to say this, but people REALLY don't pay attention to these shows enough to see how their logic is flawed. I mean how can you claim to have watched the same episode 3 times, and yet, you still miss the finer details of an episode as well as fail to understand why the decisions were made and everything else?

      Source: One angry youtuber who is pissed off at people downrating Super Megaforce for petty reasons.

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    2. Lol. The irony of his statement regarding Operation Overdrive is that while Overdrive was extremely flawed, it at least put forth some effort. As for his comment about the Sentai suits, its not quick and it isn't really that clever since they haven't explained where they came from. Them being "undiscovered powers" is a lazy way for him to think of it since he is just making excuses or making explanations when its not his job to do so. Assuming its a nod to Sentai is him just hand-waving stuff away. More than likely they didn't want to fork over the extra cash to re-shoot it. Dismissing people's criticisms as "petty reasoning" is something he really needs to re-think. I don't mean to sound mean to the but he doesn't want to seem to think more about the show than the show tells him to. But hey, its his opinion and I won't bash him for it so he can keep thinking of it however he wants.

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    3. If anything, I would add a Dio Brando-type character in SMF.

      Dio Brando vs. Troy. How would that go?

      SMF doesn't seem to try that much, I find it hilarious that people will defend it despite the huge, glaring flaws.

      That and well, the writers aren't really that good.

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