Why Sky Tate is the best Blue Ranger

Ok, with a title like that, you know I have some big balls. Sky Tate from SPD is probably the most underrated complex character that PR has ever made, and its sad how most people I know of dismiss him. To me, he was the best thing about SPD(aside from Bridge) and was the only character who truly went through an arc over the course of the season, which is kind of a shame. SPD might just be my most divisive season alongside Dino Charge for several reasons. SPD probably has parts and parcel the best cast that isn’t RPM or Time Force, the way they can carry episodes and mesh well together really helps me overlook the shows pitfalls, of which there are unfortunately several- the overall plotline of the show drags more than it should with its episodic nature, the villains themselves are boring and lack depth(there was potential for Mara but was wasted), the rangers themselves, again, aside from Sky, have no development(there is an argument for Jack and Syd but overall they aren’t that different other than Jack not wanting to steal anymore to help  the poor and Syd likes the robot dog more). Bridge, despite his great humor and quirky nature remains pretty much the same the whole way out, which I can’t complain too much about since his initial character is really good, and Z, well, Z got nothing after Sam, so she just joins the list of cool idea but undercooked yellow rangers that’s a pretty long and sad list really- (Summer, Lily, Kira, Katie, Aisha, Emily, Gia, and Trini), where she honestly ranks low because, while her actress does her best with the material, there just isn’t much to Z and her relationship to Jack goes on the backburner for Sky and Jacks rivalry.

The side characters were great though- Kat was a good technical support for the team, Boom was fun(Kelson Henderson is usually good in his roles) and Doggie is probably among my favorite mentors. Unfortunately, SPD has the worst Sixth Ranger of all time, Omega Ranger, the future version of Sam, a child with special powers like the other SPD rangers and formed a bond with Z due to their similar background(who the show BRUTALLY underused, especially since nothing was ever done with Omega Ranger since he was relegated to a big ball of light, and we never see kid Sam around the HQ, and the only appearance we have of adult Sam is when we see him going back to his time with Nova Ranger. You had this great idea of a Sixth Ranger, and he pretty much only exists to show Dekaranger footage that they couldn’t just cut out). The shows effects were top notch, save for the really obnoxious Kalish Explosions. The Battlizer, aside from the initial form, which is just a codpiece and a sword, is pretty cool, but it gets neglected entirely once the team gets Swat Powers in the very next episode (way to blow a great design guys). In general, the season nose dives after Shadow, picks back up for Reflections, then stumbles its way to the finale, which is pretty decent. I could probably do a whole blog post of all of SPD’s shortcomings, but only because its probably the season I like most in spite of having a lot of flaws that I normally would hate a season for. Again, it comes down to the cast, and the strongest member of that cast was easily Sky Tate. Sorry if it sounded like I was rambling, lets get on with the topic.

Schuyler “Sky” Tate is the Blue SPD ranger. When he was younger, his father was the SPD red ranger, and he wanted more than anything to be just like his dad, his hero. His father died on duty when he was younger, which inspired Sky to push harder than anyone to be the Red Ranger. When we first meet him in SPD he was the leader of the B Squad, the second string of cadets just below the A-Squad, and he doesn’t have the highest opinion of his teammates. He follows code to a fault, he wastes no time in elevating himself over his teammates, and he is quick to bicker with his two teammates Syd and Bridge. As we’ll learn, Bridge is weird but brilliant and Syd can be a bit of a spoiled airhead. However, when their Commander, Cruger, wants to send them out on a mission to capture thieves in the shopping district, he takes Sky back for a minute to talk. “Cadet, if I was to assign Bridge as Red Ranger, would you follow him into battle?” “Sir, no offense to Bridge, but....” “What if I was to promote Syd as Red Ranger?” “Sir, she’s a girl.” So yeah, aside from being a sexist dick, Sky shows elitism and believes that simply having the dream of being Red Ranger and making it known to everyone will just get him what he wants most. Since this series specifies that Red is the leader arbitrarily, we can see why Sky wasn’t gonna be chosen off the bat. When given their morphers and a chance of fighting the thieves again, Jack and Z, they do much better with their special abilities, Sky being force fields. When one of Grumms Blueheads attacks the B Squad, Jack and Z decide to help them, Z hesitant. When Sky morphs into the Blue Ranger, he gets confused as why he isn’t the Red Ranger, he assumed from his talk with Cruger that he was guaranteed the spot. After fighting the enemies off, Jack and Z get put in prison instead of a containment card. Cruger offers both a chance at becoming a part of something bigger rather than staying in Prison, which Z agrees to while Jack doesn’t. When Z is given a spot on B Squad, Sky objects. When Cruger tells him that she was a worthy opponent, he shuts up. Heck, when shes out with them on patrol, she brings up a street contact that could help them with the alien device, even showing off her knowledge of the ranger handbook. When the rangers fail to beat the Bluehead(and Jack shows off more of his heroic side by saving Boom over leaving the Delta Base when he was given the opportunity) he agrees to become Red to save Z. The fact that Jack is Red angers Sky to no end, here’s the criminal that initially refused to even join SPD, and now he gets designated as leader eats up the guy whose been working his whole life to get there. But thats what holds Sky back- his entitlement issues and his ego- he always has to be right and as such pushes his teammates away. This is clearly seen in Episode 4, Walls, where after he gets fed up with Jack being a glory hog, his ego gets bruised to the point where he gets put on guard duty for some special diamonds that Grumm is after. After Sid calls him out on his douchey behavior, Sky decides to try and one up Jack by saving the team and leaving the diamonds unguarded, which gets Grumm a huge amount of resources for his master plan. Sky gets chewed out by Cruger for his very selfish behavior and Sky finally starts playing lightball with the others.

Sky’s arc of opening up to others and being less prideful is given an interesting turn in Episode 9, Idol, where one of Sky’s old buddies from the Academy gets found in an Alien spacecraft that crashes on Earth. We learn that Sky used to be fun loving but ever since Dru left the academy Sky became more cold and probably decided not to make friends so that he wouldn’t feel that kind of abandonment. I mean hell, Sky and Dru had bracelets from Dru’s home planet as symbols of their friendship. Sky wholeheartedly trusts Dru while Jack has command of SPD(due to Cruger going to higher command) and Jack doesn’t trust Dru at all, and tries to enact protocol to make sure he’s legit, which Sky intentionally disobeys to try and protect his friend, whom he’s convinced is innocent, but his trust gets shattered when Dru attacks Cruger upon his return. Sky confronts him, and Dru reveals that Broodwing gave him a very good deal for assassinating Cruger, and he tells Sky that money and power are what are really important, and as he beats down Sky, he breaks their friendship bracelet. With Cruger in the infirmary, Sky takes it upon himself to hunt down Dru since he such a naive fool. He cared about Dru that much that he went against regulation to save him just to be played for a fool. Sky ends up taking him in as he gets punished for his actions by having to clean the entrance with a toothbrush, Jack wanting to help but Sky laughing, saying he’s using Jack’s toothbrush. It’s a good bookend, with Sky having to learn to trust Jack’s judgment beyond face value, and its good to show that the usually stoic and loner Sky once had a deep bond with somebody who went bad. It teaches Sky that nothing is as it seems on two fronts- Jack and Dru. It may not seem like nothing more than an above average fillerish episode, but its secretly a brilliant Sky episode.

Sky kind of remains the same for a while until we get to Reflections, the best episodes of SPD and the peak of Sky’s arc as a character. It’s also the introduction of the Battlizer, but that parts not nearly as important(to me anyway, until it pertains to Sky). So Kat develops a new Battlizer but Sky is pissed when he hears only Red can wear it(trust me Sky, you don’t want to be seen in Cyber mode, it looks like garbage) and he then explains his past to Jack when Jack tries to talk to him, and while Sky is pissed, Jack begins to understand Sky’s way of thinking more, and why he acts the way he does. The first part of the 2 parter is pretty weak, only an excuse to show off the flashy battlizer, though it’s the ending that really brings it in. Sky is sent to interview a criminal named Mirloc who can escape through any reflective surface. While at first Sky is able to maintain his cool as a cop, once Mirloc learns of who he is, he uses the fact that he murdered Sky’s father, the former Red Ranger, to get Sky to cry, which gives him a reflective surface to escape from. This destroys Sky, as he once again let his feelings jeopardize the mission, and he considers quitting the team, which Jack immediately objects to.

When Mirloc shows up again, he has the other four rangers trapped, but Jack, understanding that Sky needs closure, gives him the SPD Red Ranger morpher to bring him in with the Battlizer. This is more than enough to contain Mirloc. It’s here that Sky learns that, as Jack points out, heroes come in all colors. Sky’s arc really plateaus here, as he’s seen being the less prideful and arrogant but still stoic and serious member of the team, the clear second in command that respects Jack, enough to where, in a future episode, in order to try and destroy a meteor, Jack orders Sky to leave as Jack goes in to blow it up, almost seeming to destroy himself. Jack comes in at the last second to help all three other megazords finish off the powerful monster. Other than that, Sky remains the same until the ending scene of SPD, where Cruger announces that since Jack is leaving SPD(to go give clothes to the homeless with his girlfriend Allie), that he will need a new Red Ranger to lead. “Sky, if I was to promote Syd as Red Ranger, would you follow her into battle?” “Sir, I would follow anyone into battle that you thought capable of leading.” “Congratulations Cadet, you’ve been promoted to Red Ranger.” Leans in to whisper to Sky “Your father would be proud.” The season ends with the rangers visiting Jack at his work as they chat a bit, until a crime is committed as the rangers head into action, credits roll.

As I’ve stated before, no character in SPD grows like Sky does, not even close, and it’s a shame since if every character in SPD had the same level of depth that Sky does, SPD would easily be the best season, with the highest production values of the Disney era, probably the best actors aside from RPM from the Disney Era, and huge well of neat ideas that unfortunately the show wasted. Reflections Part 2 was amazing because it was a fantastic almost purely American episode amidst an entire sea of Sentai Ripoff episodes that occurred with Shadow onwards. While not horrendous or unwatchable, there was a clear shift towards the show relying more and more on stock footage and sentai plots since Grumm kind of falls into the background between Dismissed and Rival, and they have Broodwing for almost no reason start turning on Grumm(it makes no sense, has a contrived reason like Grumm stopped paying him or something, which is stupid of Grumm, and he just leads the plots for those 16 episodes and the first half of the finale). According to Kalish, he said that he was paid to translate, not tell original stories, which contradicts the work he did in the first 10 episodes of the season, and his switching to a more translation based adaptation caused the seasons plot to lag in the middle, the worst Sixth Ranger in the franchise and some of the weakest team ups notwithstanding.

I really like SPD for the really good things it did, but it got really lazy and started wasting many of its excellent ideas, and the characterization suffered as only Sky and Jack had any sort of meat to them as characters, everyone else hugely suffered, even Bridge who pretty much remained the same throughout the show, a huge shame since I liked all the actors for this season. Greg Aronowitz(the guy who created the costumes for SPD, like Cruger and his Wife Isinia, who was made during his downtime as the season progressed) definitely deserved a better showrunner than Kalish. In conclusion, as the first 10 episodes and Reflections, and even Endings showed, when it wanted to be different from Dekaranger SPD could be amazing, but when it did copy Dekaranger, the season suffered. You can do a good job directly adapting Sentai Seasons/Arcs- Psycho Ranger arc and Time Force come to mind, but PR usually works better when it does its own thing, like Dino Thunder, RPM, Ninja Storm, and In Space. Its why aside from Dino Charge(S1) I think Neo Saban is the worst era. I’m sorry if this is coming off like I hate SPD, I like it a lot, I just wanted it to be more than what it was, and what it very easily could have been. So yeah, Sky rocks, and so does Billy and TJ in terms of blue, imo.

Power Rangers In Space- Why Astronema is the best villain Power Rangers

Power Rangers In Space is one of the series most popular seasons by its fans, for its conclusiveness of the Zordon era, to the way it tied up most loose ends from previous seasons, how it challenged the Rangers in a way that no other villains had before, and how it featured a season long story arc featuring the antagonist of the season, the best villain in all of Power Rangers, Astronema, and how it involved the series Red Ranger, the ever awesome and mysterious Andros. I have a lot of appreciation for the character of Astronema, she was the first truly multi layered villain in Power Rangers. She wasn’t just some OTT villain with no backstory or depth beyond their surface level personality, she didn’t cry about her loses or blame her minions for her failures(though she does beat Elgar around on occasion, like he deserves), and over the course of the season, the amounts of victories she had over the rangers is high in comparison to other villains. But what is it about her that makes her so damn interesting over every other Power Rangers villain? We’ve had plenty of Great Villains after her, like Trakeena, Ransik, Mesogog, Dai-Shi and Venjix(main villain wise), what makes Astronema so damn special? Most of those villains have more of an intimidation and threat factor, not to mention the kind of conflict they bring to the rangers, but aside from Dai-Shi, Trakeena and Ransik to an extent, none of those villains evolve beyond their initial characters, which are great mind you, but its rare to find a main villain who actually grows and develops as a character. So anyway, before I ramble on, lets talk about good ol Astronema

Born on KO-35 with her older brother Andros, Karone was stolen as a young girl by Darkonda, a coniving Bounty Hunter(another great villain for this season) without Andros seeing her until its too late(he’s like 5 when she gets abducted). Astronema was then left at Ecliptors door step to raise her. Ecliptor, alongside Astronema, really pushed the boundaries of how side villains are portrayed on this show, as Ecliptor not only began the trend of Noble Demon characters that would continue with Villamax, Diaboloco, Zurgane, Zeltrax, Koragg, and Kilobyte, but arguably has never been surpassed in the evil generals category of Power Rangers. Ecliptor, like any father, raised her as if she were his flesh and blood, and became easily the most loyal villain in the history of Power Rangers, and the bond between them is mutual. Even though she eventually outranks Ecliptor as Dark Specters #2 in the ranking, she never disrespects him or abuses him like other main villains would their minions. She views him like a father and likewise he does whatever he can to keep her safe. Ecliptor, unlike many of the generals that came after him, wasn’t as “honorable” as they were, as he had no problem with plans that included deceit, or even doing some himself, his honor came from how he treasured Astronema. Once Darkonda comes back to try and have a place in Astronema’s army, with their bad history, Ecliptor does whatever he can to convince Astronema that Darkonda is an untrustworthy swine. Darkonda, crafty bastard that he is, always sets up the scenarios to make sure that he comes out the good guy and at one point Astronema makes him Ecliptors equal. Furious, Ecliptor orders a Apothecary on Villain Planet Onyx to give Darkonda a poisonous strength potion, which does the job of making him super strong, but poisons him, which almost destroys the rangers, and would have been killing two birds with one stone had the rangers not gotten the Mega Voyager. Turns out Darkonda was given 9 lives by Dark Specter to be his spy.

Anyway, back to Astronema. When the United Alliance of Evil gets infiltrated by Andros and he flees, Astronema is chosen as the one to hunt him down(she’s the one who realized he was a spy). Astronema then manages to shoot down the Astro Megaship with her Veloci Fighters and Quantrons. This forces Andros to accept the help of the other rangers(Andros had lost his previous team to the war against the UAoE) and the Space Ranger Team is formed, much to Astronema’s irritation. In the opening few episodes she acts like a giddy school girl, probably overjoyed that she gets to destroy the Power Rangers(Dark Specter had told her her whole life that the Power Rangers killed her family) while later on we see a lot more of the cold, badass Princess of Evil. That’s the key thing of why Dark Specter trusts Astronema so much- she was raised from a young age to be evil, and as we all know, people that are raised to be a certain way often have a very hard time changing their mindsets, as such, she luckily grew up with very little ambition other than kill the rangers, which made her extremely loyal to Dark Specter, and her talents made her a true right hand to the Space Lava Demon thing. She can be cold, ruthless, and is a total badass with her staff. Ecliptor is no pushover either, as he can often outfight the rangers by himself, especially one on one, and a reckless encounter between him and Andros(when Andros was reluctant to let the rangers in on his search for Astronema, hence why he went back to KO35 alone in the episode) gets Carlos, the Black Ranger, severely injured, and Andros realizes that being secretive and doing everything on his own like he thinks he has to do hurts everyone around him. This seasons arc is just as much about him as it is Astronema.

We learn in the aforementioned strength potion episode about Darkonda abducting Karone. Ecliptor didn’t know this information before, and later confronts Darkonda in a duel, and knocks off another of the snakes lives(He had lost another life in a previous encounter) and in the following episode, Ecliptor saves Andros from Darkonda’s trap and the pair kill Darkonda once again. This is around the time that Andros and Astronema realize that they share the same pendant, which sends Astronema into an emotional tailspin, which leads to Dark Specter ordering that she must kill her brother, which Astronema is totes on board with.

I should mention that in the middle of this whole storyline, the Silver Ranger, Andros’ old teammate Zhane, actually goes on a date with Astronema after he saves her from her own wild monster. And it’s as adorable coming from Astronema as possible. She has no clue how to process being in love, and she does things like fake being human to see how nice Zhane is, to inviting him on a date(by shooting an arrow, nearly taking his head off, quite a sign to not be late). When Zhane inevitably has to be late for the date to save the rangers from Ecliptors monster, Astronema gets pissed when he shows up and blasts lightning at him for standing her up, saying she never wants to see him again. But they still both have pictures of each other. Also the episode featured a dream sequence where Astronema and Zhane were kissing each other on the lips. So anyway, back to main plot, Astronema realizes that Andros has been trying to reach out to her and decides to take a chance in trying to get to know him. The other rangers, rightfully so, don’t trust her one bit, and they have her detained on the ship, and then her and Andros talk about the whole situation, and how happy Andros is to see his sister.

When Astronema comes up with a plan to retake Zordon, she has the rangers in fake chains as Dark Specter allows her on the planet. It was a huge trap as Darkonda captures the rangers and Andros gets swarmed by footsoldiers. When Astronema has the chance to kill her brother, she turns on Darkonda and kills him with her staff. She then leads the rangers away, as she meets up with Ecliptor. While he clearly looks disappointed, he still tells her to go as he fights off the foot soldiers before being captured. This horrifies Astronema. Ecliptor may have been built to be evil, but his love for his daughter was far stronger than his attachment to Dark Specter, and he gets punished for it.

With Astronema winning the trust of the rangers, Dark Specter steps up his game. He has Darkonda in command of Astronemas forces, with Ecliptor being given cybernetic implants to assure his loyalty to Dark Specter. When Dark Specter sends an Asteroid heading towards Earth, he says that he will destroy it if Astronema returns back to her side. As the rangers use their megazords to try and hold the asteroid back, Karone goes into the Dark Fortress to try and reroute the Asteroid(sneaking on board) only for Ecliptor to greet her. Karone is horrified at the sight of Ecliptor being controlled by cybernetic implants. Ecliptor then reluctantly captured Karone and she gets the implants. After the rangers finally stop the Asteroid, Andros and Zhane go onto the Dark Fortress A New Hope style, stealing Quantron uniforms and sneaking to get Karone back, Zhane bringing up that he tried dating Karone without knowing she was Andros’ sister, which leads to some good banter.

When Andros finally gets to Astronema’s room, he’s horrified to see that she has been borg- er I mean taken over by Cybernetic enhancements, as she no longer has any feeling or attachment to anyone else but Ecliptor. In Dark Specters attempt to ensure that Astronema never turns again, he wiped out her human traits, hoping that keeping her purely cold and ruthless will ensure her loyalty, but he couldn’t be anymore wrong. With Astronema lacking the human attachment to the UAoE, she only sees Dark Specter as an obstacle for her to overcome, and her plan to get rid of him involves her own team of Evil Rangers, the Psychos. They deserve their own blogpost so I won’t go into too much here, only that they were designed to purely want to destroy the rangers, and their power comes straight from Dark Specter, who knows he’s being drained but doesn’t know who’s doing it, and he has no reason to assume its Astronema, she’s proven to be so loyal in the past. Her plan with the Psychos isn’t the swift death of the rangers, but to slowly drain Dark Specter to nothing before they destroy the rangers. This is where we learn that not even Ecliptor was programmed with absolute loyalty, since he goes through with not telling Specter about Astronema’s plan, keeping that same fatherly loyalty to Astronema that he had before the implants. The Pscyho’s get destroyed, and Astronema gets off the hook for her scheme, though its visible that Dark Specter isn’t really all there anymore.

In the Season Finale, Countdown to Destruction, Astronema launches a full scale invasion of Earth with a large combined force, defeating the rangers and severely damaging Zhanes Mega Winger. Astronema then lands on Earth and demands the rangers be brought to her in one day, or else Angel Grove and everyone in it will die. This leads to an interesting dynamic where the civilians talk about leading a resistance as some lose hope that the rangers will come, with Bulk of all people giving a speech about how the Rangers have always been there for them, and that they’d never abandon them. While Astronema revels in her victory, Zordon questions her actions, saying that Karone is still there as her implants start malfunctioning.

Darkonda launches a surprise double cross on Dark Specter using his last life and a weapon designed to destroy Earth. He kills Dark Specter with it(still hurt by the Psychos drain on him mind you) but not before Dark Specter takes the snake out with him. Astronema gets proclaimed the leader of the Dark Forces by Ecliptor, much to Divatox and Rita’s irritation. As the next day comes, the other rangers prepare to reveal their identities, only for Bulk, Skull and Phenomenous to start a crusade where everyone in the city says that they are a ranger, only for the real rangers to reveal themselves and morph, much to Bulk and Skulls surprise(would have been way more oomph if it was the originals though) and the rangers fight the army, Bulk and Skull leading the civilians into battle alongside the rangers, their finest moment(these two really deserve their own post their such awesome comic relief characters). Astronema and Ecliptor return to the ship for the time being.

Andros, in a last ditch attempt, goes to the Dark Fortress, but not before a heartfelt moment with his girlfriend, Yellow Ranger Ashley, and he goes in to talk sense into Astronema. He meets Zordon, who tells Andros to shatter his tube, which will kill Zordon, but also wipe out all the evil in the universe. Andros hesitates as Astronema attacks him. As he tries to talk to her, she just knocks him around with her staff, until he uses his Spiral Saber to block the blast back at her, killing her(damn that blast must have been powerful, what was his sword made of?), much to Andros’ horror. When Ecliptor breaks in, he’s equally as horrified as Andros, who tells him it was an accident, as both men are in grieving, Ecliptor, with no real shred of humanity left, tries killing Andros, with Andros fighting him off as he finally realizes that he has to kill Zordon to save the universe. Ecliptor tries to shield Astronema from the blast, but he gets turned to dust.

When we later see that Zedd Rita and Divatox got to become good again, it really rings hollow Ecliptor death. Ecliptor throughout the season, despite his steadfast loyalty to “evil”, has shown that he is truly capable of the same kind of love and compassion as the “good guys” and does whatever he can to make Astronema happy, even if it goes against his principles. He shows the kind of love for a daughter that I’ve only ever seen Time Force come even close to replicating from this franchise, and they did it just as well if not better there, but I think there is just a bit more nuance with Ecliptor and Astronema. Look at his last moments, he sees the girl he raised with his own two hands dead, the girl who hes so attached to, it overrides his cybernetic implants and causes him genuine grief and sadness. It’s almost like, if Astronema hadn’t died, maybe, just maybe, he could have been saved by the Z Wave. Anyways, everyone celebrates except for Andros, who carries Astronema’s corpse, as Andros cries, Astronema transforms back into Karone and the pair with Zhane go to rebuild KO35, only for them to return to the megaship with the other rangers, with another great Andros/Ashley moment, and as Zhane cockily puts his boots up and lays back, they prepare for more space journeys, ending on one of the most triumphant notes of the series.

This isn’t the end of Karones story. In the next season, Lost Galaxy, after the Pink Ranger Kendrix died from destroying Psycho Pinks sword of darkness, the Pink Quasar Saber goes to Onyx, where a bid is being held among the villains and thugs for the Quasar Saber. Astronema shows up unexpectedly and takes the Saber. “Tell you what, I get the saber, and the rest of you, keep your lives.” Great line. Trakeena however discovers the ruse and reveals her to be Karone, as she fights off the hooligans in the bar and escapes, where she meets up with the Lost Galaxy rangers and she has a confrontation with Trakeena, another badass female villain in Power Rangers, damn two seasons in a row of this. Anyway, just as Trakeena pushes Karone off a cliff, Kendrix’s ghost saves her and gives her the Galaxy Morpher, turning into the pink Galaxy Ranger.

Karone’s story in Lost Galaxy reaches its climax in the following episode, where Red Ranger Leo gets smacked around by a monster and has his morpher damaged, and Karone remembers a special power belonging to a warrior she had turned to stone as Astronema, but is reluctant to go as she still harbors a huge amount of guilt for her time as Astronema(remember that until Borg Astronema, she did everything of her own volition, no tricks, no mind control, she acted as the big bad, evil general Astronema). Leo’s injuries however convince her of the journey, and she goes to the cave where the warrior lay, only for the Warrior to curse her by creating a clone of Astronema for her to fight. Despite Karones fighting prowess she’s no match for Astronema(Karone really should have kept her staff) and it’s only when she’s willing to sacrifice herself for Leo that the warrior allows the two to get his special weapon, the battlizer. She honestly doesn’t do much else in Lost Galaxy after this, which is a shame, she was the freaking main villain of the previous season and one of the series most well developed and organic characters, to just be an afterthought after only 2 episodes? Yeah Lost Galaxy is a huge season of missed potential, and is easily the most overrated season of the Saban Era(MMPR is close up there). She then made a cameo in Legendary Battle for Super Megaforce, and they did almost nothing with her again. I feel really bad for Melody Perkins, the actress for Astronema, yeah she gets to be a Pink ranger for about 10 episodes but she gets nothing to do after her 2 intro episodes, then her cameo just comes down to “Hey, remember Astronema? She’s Karone, haha reference.”

So yeah, Astronema kicks major ass as a villain, she was the show’s first truly multi-layered antagonist with a personality, facets of that personality, a backstory, and an interesting dynamic with the rest of the characters. Her storyline with Andros was so good that another great season of the Franchise, RPM, would copy the story beat for beat(and its one of the only flaws of that season) for Dillon and Tenaya 7. But I digress. Astronema works because she isn’t the only great villain of In Space. I compare this to Mesogog, whose easily a top 3 villain of the franchise, his menace, his voice and his story are almost unmatched, but unfortunately, the other villains he plays off of, well, aren’t interesting except Zeltrax sometimes. Ransik is a great villain, as is Frax, but Gluto is useless and Nadira doesn’t get any depth until 2 episodes before the finale begins, and even then it shows more of Ransik’s depths than her, and even then her redemption arc comes right the hell out of nowhere but that’s another discussion. In Spaces only weak antagonist is Elgar, who always gets what he deserves anyway, so he’s not as annoying as he was in Turbo. Darkonda is the kind of slimey, smarmy asshole that the season needed, unlike most of the stereotypical Starscream’s of power rangers, Darkonda is just gleefully evil and loves doing what he does, and the way he toys with Ecliptor and the rangers really highlights how twisted he really is. I’ve already spoken enough on Ecliptor. While it’s not my favorite season, or in my top 3, In Space will have a special place in the hearts of PR fans everywhere for its themes about the nature of whether evil is made or born, how there’s always more than meets the eye with other people, and how even the most despicable people can change for the better. Hope you all enjoyed this, I’m definitely going to try and do another Power Rangers review(or a Digimon Review) in the near future, be sure to comment your thoughts on Astronema and Power Rangers in Space as a whole.

Spectacular Spiderman- A lesson in how to make Eddie Brock compelling

With the release of Sony’s Venom movie coming out in October, fan reaction has been understandably mixed, much like the response to the films title character. Yup, we all know him, one way or another, it’s Venom. For the one or two of you not in the know, Venom is a partnership between an alien symbiote, called the Venom Symbiote later, and a whiny bottom feeder named Eddie Brock. This symbiote was formerly attached to Peter Parker, and since the Symbiote fed on negative emotions, it pushed Peter’s more selfish and aggressive behavior to the forefront, acting like an asshole to everyone around him and pushing everyone away, so that the Symbiote and Peter can be one forever. Peter, however, realizes just how fargone the Symbiote has made him and works to remove it, going to a church bell to use sound to force the symbiote off(its weakness is sound). The Symbiote later finds a suitable host in Eddie Brock, a muscle bound, whiney douchenozzle that blames Peter Parker and Spiderman for ruining his life(even though it was never their fault) and together they bond to destroy not only Spiderman, but everything he holds dear, using his knowledge of Spiderman that the symbiote picked up during their bond. Since their poison to Peter Parker and Spiderman, they christen themselves as Venom.

Venom is probably the most popular Spiderman villain, Green Goblin and Doc Oc are pretty high up there too, but Venom has that 90’s edginess that appeals to his fanboys, and speaking honestly, I never really cared much for Venom as a character at all. Sure, the Black Spiderman arc and the symbiote as a concept are great, its just that I can’t really stand the character of Eddie Brock. He never takes responsibility for anything in his life and has no other goals other than revenge. He’s really bland, and while his other counterpart, Carnage, is just a Psychopathic Symbiote, at least he’s entertaining in a Joker kind of way with how he messes with his enemy, Venom is just, well, petty. Much moreso than the other spiderman villains. It doesnt help that my first introduction to the character was Spiderman III(which is probably the weakest aspect of the film) but I later went back to read the comics and watched the 90s Spiderman Show(grossly overrated btw, hasnt aged well at all) and I kind of understand why Raimi didn’t want to use Venom- He really doesn’t have much going for him outside of the “edgy coolness” or the black spiderman suit, both of which are highly marketable. So yeah, Venom was just yet another 90s character that the writers tried so hard to make a cool villain/antihero(cause who didn’t have an antihero phase in the 90s), without ever fleshing out Brocks character beyond the petty, whiney, muscular punk that he was(He’s pretty much the Sasuke of Comics).

That is, until my existence was graced by Marvels Best Cartoon, bar none, Spectacular Spiderman. I plan on doing a whole series review of this show in the future, its easily my favorite Superhero cartoon outside Batman TAS, and that show gets plenty of love online so don’t expect as much from me on that. It’s easily the best adaptation of the comics, being faithful to the spirit of the characters from the comics while also making modernizations or improvements where they were desperately needed. The characters, especially Spiderman and his villains, as well as the side characters, were written very well, the voice cast was superb(to the point where most of the voice actors are the voices I imagine when I read a Spiderman comic, Josh Keaton really is to Spiderman what Kevin Conroy is to Batman). Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be a review of Spectacular Spiderman(though it is on its way), this is talking about how Spectacular Spiderman made me care about Venom whereas previously I had varied between disliking him or being indifferent to him.

The biggest key to why Venom works in Spectacular Spiderman is because we get a good 10 episodes with Eddie Brock before he becomes the evil Symbiote, and by god is this Eddie Brock a fucking godsend. Some elements of Eddies backstory from the comics are kept, like him being an orphan and being generally down on his luck. Most of it however is changed, for the better too. Him and Pete, instead of being strangers before the Symbiote story starts, actually begin as childhood friends, whose parents worked and died together. While they both took to science, Eddie Brock was also an athlete, and looked out for the often bullied Peter and later Gwen Stacy. When Eddie goes to college, he becomes a full time assistant at the Connors Lab(where Peter and Gwen get an internship) and the two have a nice reunion. Thanks to the voice acting between Ben Diskin and Keaton, we really get a good feeling of camaraderie between the two, and you can believe that Eddie considers Pete to be like a bro. As the episodes go on, we see Eddie as someone whose brave and possibly heroic, though it’s actually something a bit more sinister at play. According to show creator and animation genius Greg Weisman, Eddie’s heroism at the start isn’t as idealistic as Peters is- Peter’s families death gave him a love of living life to the fullest, while Eddies Parents death(due to not having the support system that Peter had) made him obsessed with death, not a suicidal way, more in a life is frail so its ok to be reckless kind of way. It adds a dark yet not so edgy dimension to his character. Peters need for a job(for actually paying the house bills, not for personal gain at all) ends up compromising his internship with the Connors(after taking pictures of the Lizard incident) and he gets fired. Eddie has some trust issues with Pete after that, finding it hard to believe that Peter would just take advantage of the situation for money. The next time they talk, Eddie tells him not to go emo and that they’re still bros. When Peter wont ask Gwen out to homecoming, Eddie offers to take her out as a friend. He gets pissed when he sees Pete dancing with MJ only to bail on her.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Pete took pictures of the Symbiote in the Connors lab(forgot to call the police) and Eddie yells at him again for just sitting around making money off taking photos of the robbery. This pushes Brock over the edge, as he starts trying to find ways to hurt Pete, especially after the loss of the Symbiote(which bonded to Peter, thus never returned after the episode was over) and the Connors having to fire Eddie due to their funding being cut. He attempts to take MJ for a ride, only to reveal his intentions, with MJ telling Brock to fuck off and saying Pete is twice the guy he’ll ever be. While Peter is going through his emo phase of the black suit arc, Aunt May gets a heart attack from being caught in the middle of a battle between Spidey and the Sinister Six(a fantastic episode) and being stuck in the hospital. Eddie goes to visit Aunt May while berating Pete, saying that at least he cares enough about Aunt May to visit her, which gets Peter to hate Eddie. When Peter returns to the hospital(after pushing his friends away, all of whom were just trying to sympathize with him), he gets confronted by Brock for costing him his job, at which point Peter pins him to the wall and then throws him off. (Pete knows he’s messed up once he considers Tombstones offer of millions just for not fighting normal crime for a week). When Pete returns the symbiote(after the best telling of the Black Suit Spiderman Story ever), Eddie rejoices, saying that he get his job back, only for Spiderman to try and kill it, which gets Eddie hating both Peter Parker and Spiderman, which the symbiote uses to try and bond with him, creating Venom. There’s a lot more to the arc but I’m mainly focusing on the Eddie Brock parts of the arc.

The pair then attack Peter in his own home, where he gets curb stomped after he learns that Eddie and the Symbiote fused, by Eddies choice. Instead of killing him, Venom decides to try and hurt the people he loves the most first. He goes after Aunt May, to which Peter fiercely defends, able to fight off the vastly superior Venom, and so Venom goes off to get the second best person, which Peter assumes is MJ. Using his knowledge of who Peter truly loves, he kidnaps Gwen Stacy and puts her on a parade float(it’s Thanksgiving in NYC) and Pete is mortified. Gwen was Eddies friend, since Pete and her were in Seventh Grade, why would he attack someone they personally know, was his hatred that deep? They proceed to have an epic fight scene across floats and the buildings, Venom able to get under Peters skin. Even when Peter thinks he’s saved Gwen by causing a slow descent for the Balloon, Venom just slices the web holding her, Peter just barely able to get her to her classmates as Venom pulls him back onto the roof of a building. It’s in this moment that Peter surrenders to the Symbiote, and when Brock makes the foolish mistake of referring to Venom as himself instead of us, and the Symbiote abandons him for Peter, which causes Brock to get really sad. Peter buries the Symbiote and we get the conclusion to Venom, for now.

In Season 2, starting with Episode 5, we see Eddie messing with Peter’s head to make him think Venom has come back, only to trick Peter into revealing where he buried the Symbiote. For the next two episodes, 6 and 7, we see Venom doing what he does best- destroying Spiderman by turning others against him, first by turning Captain Jupiter against Spiderman, and then revealing his identity to the Bugle, which Peter only gets away with thanks to Flash refusing to believe Peter is Spiderman, and going out of his way to prove it. In their last encounter in the series, Peter and Flash together are able to force the Symbiote off of Brock, Brock going nuts. It’s clear that Eddie is only really hating Parker at this point to breed the negative emotions that attract the symbiote, the feeling of power and being loved is so intoxicating that he’ll continue hating just to have a chance with the Symbiote again. He gets taken to Ravencroft, and we never see the Symbiote or Eddie ever again, given the shows cancellation after Season 2. It’s a shame too- Eddies character had more opportunity for redemption, especially given his history and former friendship with most of the cast, Peter especially. But, such things only exist in the world of dreams.

The storyline overall was really amazing and well written, giving Eddie Brock a much more sympathetic backstory that, instead of just making you outright hate him for being such a bottom feeding scum, actually makes you horrified that one of the series most likeable yet flawed characters would turn to hate so fast, but again, he had extremely valid reasons(compared to the comics at least) for Loathing Peter and Spiderman. You don’t just hate someone that much unless you were close to them and felt betrayed. Having Eddie and Peter as lifelong friends was a genius move by the writers, as they were not only able to communicate without constantly reminding us, but also showing both sides of the conflict without much bias- in quite a few ways, Peter was definitely in the wrong for this series. He’s certainly not perfect, but thats what makes him Spiderman- he’s not the best, he’s doesn’t always have the answer, and sometimes he has to compromise what makes him happy for the sake of others, and other times he’s short sighted and can’t understand why leaking his bosses fights to the paper would piss them off. He’s a teenager. Eddie’s got flaws too, but his lifetime of being abandoned and feeling betrayed by the one person who was always there for him(and whom Eddie was always there for, protecting Peter from bullies), it would probably break much weaker people sooner, and once again I applaud Greg Weisman, Ben Diskin, Josh Keaton, and the other writers for doing such an effective job of turning Venom from one of Spiderman’s most overrated foes into easily the best villain for this series, finally turning Eddie Brock into the tragic, effective fallen hero I think they always intended him to be(in the comics) but always got lost on making Eddie Brock petty to hate both Parker and Spiderman(again, they had no history before the symbiote story began).

I have a lot more to discuss on this awesome series Spectacular Spiderman. There wasn’t a single character that this series got wrong, it showed tremendous respect for Spiderman, his supporting characters, and his rogues gallery, it showed just how big a fan of the material Greg Weisman and his crew were, they weren’t just making a big toy commercial like the 94 Spiderman show. Also, while many of you will probably complain about the art style, the actual animation for the show is superb, especially when it comes to action, and this show still probably has the best on screen fights of anything Spiderman related, from how attacks impact the characters, to being allowed to throw punches(rolls eyes) and finally to just how fluid the fights are in action. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a superhero cartoon be this smooth and amazing with these kinds of fight scenes. I couldn’t expect anything less from the guy who made Gargoyles and Young Justice. The true Firefly of animation, a show so amazing that it got cut short for reasons outside the shows control.

So that was my first essay for this blog. If there’s any more interesting topics you’d like discussed, be sure to leave them down below. For my next post, it will either be something Digimon or Power Ranger related(Fox Kids 4 Lyfe). Or Pokemon. You can help me make that decision. Dork Side of the Moon doesn’t have a set schedule, but I will try to work on that, I don’t really try to force myself to write something, it usually comes naturally. Do expect the next post sometime soon. Also, if you haven’t watched Spectacular Spiderman yet(you invalid), you should definitely buy the series on Blu Ray, it ranges from around 20-30 dollars online, it’s well worth the price, especially for how beautiful the show looks on an HD TV as well as the great behind the scenes bonus features. If your a fan of Spiderman yet somehow haven’t seen this, your commiting a mortal sin and need to correct this mistake. Hope you guys enjoy, have a great 4th of July, and don’t forget to be Spectacular.

Hello one and all

Welcome to my new blog, on this specific blog, we'll be discussing various forms of nerd related news and reviews, analysis, and overall having a good time discussing all of the various nerd facets that interest the hell out of me, and hopefully, all of you. I also have a good idea of just where to start. Tune in later on to see my first real blog post and be sure to leave a comment on what you think. And if you want, you can refer to me as Flame. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my first discussion- Spectacular Spiderman(How to make Eddie Brock a compelling character). Remember, stay gold.