The Tommy Fanbase

Within the Power Rangers fandom, there's a sub group of fans who's love for Power Rangers all revolves around one character. The Power Ranger Legend, Tommy Oliver. Some fans say that Tommy is the pinnacle of Power Rangers. Other fans say that Tommy is the only good thing about Power Rangers, while the rest of the franchise sucks. Of course, such fans entitled to such opinions would bring conflicts amongst the other fans.



So what's so great about Tommy? What has he got that no other ranger has got? Well, let's take a look. When Power Rangers first started, it wasn't anything spectacular. The writing quality was below par, the characters were stereotypical, and the footage splicing was bad. Power Rangers did not become popular until the "Green with Evil" arc. A five episode long arc that starred Tommy. This arc made Power Rangers huge and Tommy instantly became a favorite amongst fans. During the time (and even now), five part long arcs were extremely rare for a kid's show. To date, there has never been a five part long arc in Power Rangers ever again.

Tommy first made his appearance with a bang. He had a cool personality, and was the lucky guy to end up in a romantic relationship with the lovely Kimberly. Tommy's fighting skills were also on par with Jason. He even demonstrates his skills against putties on his own in a way that wasn't done with the other rangers before. Tommy also did many things that shocked a lot of fans. He infiltrates the Megazord and knocks the rangers out and takes all five of them on with no problem! He also breaks into the Command Center, wrecks it, and severs the link to Zordon. Things get even worse for the rangers when Tommy helps destroy the zords and leaving the rangers powerless. For the first time, the rangers were almost defeated. Tommy also introduced the new Dragonzord which looked really cool, and was summoned by a really catchy tune with the Dragon Dagger. When the arc came to an end, Tommy is freed from Rita's spell, and joins the team as the sixth ranger, which caused lots of fans to cry in joy. It was even better to watch this new sixth ranger do a roll call with the team, morph with them, and to have his Dragonzord combine with the others for brand new powers and combinations (lots of fans would so buy the toys for this). As Zordon said "We're watching history in the making." And quite the history it would be.

So with Power Rangers really popular, mostly thanks to Tommy, a lot of fans were now huge fans of him. Tommy also started a rivalry with Jason for who was the best. The fans did the same. :P  It was a brilliant idea when the Green Candle Arc came and wrote Tommy out. It showed that fans truly liked him and that Tommy really was the most popular character on the show. And it surprised many when Tommy later came back. Basically, all the plots focused around Tommy. And it saddened fans even more when Tommy lost his Green Ranger powers for good.

Regardless of Tommy's evolving character, Sentai fans often viewed Tommy as a watered down version of Burai. To an extent, this is true, as all of Tommy's story arcs (up to this point) were based on Burai's arcs. But we all know that Tommy goes beyond the Green Ranger and picks up some other things to do. So it's mainly his Green Ranger form that gets criticized by Sentai fans.



One of the most famous two-parter arcs in Power Rangers was "White Light." It was a huge mystery as to who the White Ranger was going to be. And it shocked many when Tommy was revealed as he pulled his new helmet off. The White Ranger powers were made from "good energy," meaning that Tommy was officially part of the team to stay.

Now, this is where the Tommy fans really started to appear. So many fans were so overjoyed with Tommy, that they just wanted to keep watching the show just for him. Especially since he was now the team leader, the show focused on him more, and Jason was gone (which stopped the rivalry). Other fans didn't like how Tommy became the star of the show, rather than the whole team getting equal attention. Others felt Tommy got a little too cocky and annoying for his own good. Some Sentai fans felt the same way. Especially when Tommy fans criticized Kou for being younger than Tommy. This infuriated many Sentai fans, who shot back by saying that Kou at least had an emotional and believable story. This could also be the case with Tommy fans having experience with Justin (since Tommy fans obviously have watched Turbo).



For the fans who were annoyed with Tommy as the White Ranger, they were were glad when Tommy was toned down by the time Zeo had started. Tommy finally got his very own Red Ranger suit, showing off his status as the team leader even more now. Around this time, Power Rangers' popularity was starting to decline, and fans were finding less reasons to stick to watching the show. Since Tommy already laid a huge impact on Power Rangers, it wasn't surprising that fans would continue to watch Power Rangers for him as one of the reasons to keep watching. The other characters in Zeo didn't really have as big of a legend as Tommy did.

Some fans felt that Tommy wasn't a very good leader, and did better as a sixth ranger. Many believed that Jason was much better at being a leader. This happened even more when Jason returned in Zeo.

And of course, writing Tommy out in Turbo, along with the other four rangers was a huge deal. Especially when the "Passing the Torch" was very poorly written. Many fans just dropped Power Rangers there.



After Tommy's departure from Turbo, Power Rangers continued on, with very well made seasons, thanks to Judd Lynn. In Power Rangers Wild Force, Tommy helped gather together ten Red Rangers to help fight against remnants of the Machine Empire. Such an act to lead the leaders of all the Power Rangers seasons up to that point, truly earned Tommy the title of "Best Power Ranger ever." Of course, not all the Red Rangers agreed. :P

To pay homage to the very first season, Dino Thunder made use of it's dinosaur motif, and also attempted to bring back a veteran ranger. Originally going to be Jason, instead, Tommy came back, which further boosted his reputation as a ranger. In this new era of Power Rangers, many fans kept rooting for older rangers to return to the show and to build up their reputations and legends as rangers. Tommy started this. And shortly after, Adam would follow (which also made him quite legendary).

Not only did Tommy return to Dino Thunder as a mentor, but also became the new Black Dino Ranger, making this his fourth color as a ranger. Tommy by now had an entire arsenal of different powers all throughout the franchise! Tommy also had recorded an entire history of the Power Rangers (including Ninja Storm) to keep track of where things were going. Everything about him was truly a legend. And it amazed fans when he fought his former selves in "Fighting Spirit."

Though other fans weren't pleased about Tommy's return, thinking he had overstayed his welcome in the show. Plus, other fans didn't think Tommy was as great in Dino Thunder, especially when he got stuck in his suit for most of the season. Some fans were also annoyed when many fans thought Dino Thunder was amazing, just because Tommy was in it. Especially when fans chose to watch the season just for Tommy. It also annoyed Abaranger fans, since lots of Tommy fans criticized Abaranger as an inferior show due to not having Tommy in the show.


To date, Tommy has served as a ranger in more episodes than others, as well as more forms and more colors and more seasons. Today, many fans root for Tommy to return to more seasons, in order to further add on to his reputation as a ranger and making his legend even bigger. Tommy truly has a huge fanbase. A fanbase that not too many would argue with. MMPR fans, Zordon Era fans, and fans of all seasons support Tommy. Most of the non-Tommy fans exist within the Saban/Judd Lynn era of seasons. Some of these fans believe that despite Tommy's legendary status, he has yet to appear in a "good season." There are lots of fans now who watch Power Rangers just to see the rangers come back and boost up their legends and reputations. Overall, the Tommy fanbase seems quite stable (even though it goes overboard at times).

Poll Results: 5/26/10

Shinkenger prevails 12/17 over Goseiger for your choices on Saban's brand new season. You never know, though.

"Power Rangers forever!!" ends with 8/21 of the votes. 2/21 believed it should've ended with RPM. 11/21 believe they're happy only because Saban is back. Hmm... Wouldn't be surprised if lots of Sentai fans were on this blog.

3/14 claimed Disney to be offensive to Asians. The other 11 said they're not. Meh, paranoid Sentai fans who hate on Disney probably voted Disney was racist. To be honest, lots of Sean Akizuki's followers believe the same way. =/

14/20 people say MMPR is overrated. I would agree that's enough votes for the series. After all, the one season is one of the reasons later Power Rangers were underrated.

6/22 voters say they grew up with both Sentai and PR. 1 said they grew up with Sentai only. The last 15/22 grew up with Power Rangers only. My conclusion is probably because of the majority of Americans on my blog won't even know what Sentai is to begin with while growing up.

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Once again, followers, my deepest apologies for not being online often. My final exams are in 2 weeks and I must prepare for them as much as possible.

Thanks for your support, however. :)

~*DancingAlienDude*~

Shinkenger fans vs 00's Era Sentai fans

I will probably not be active for a very long time. Until Summer Vacation starts here in the US (for my foreign fans), expect less and less blogs from me. Don't worry, as long as the blog remains than Power Rangers and Super Sentai will never go against one-another (in our grounds). :-)

The hype for Shinkenger had been far more annoying than the Jetman hype had reigned during the 90's. Why is that? Shinkenger had been so "great" a Sentai and surpassed fans' expectations after they had seen the supposed failure of Go-Onger. Go-Onger had not been a bad Sentai, actually. However, Power Rangers RPM fanboys and Shinkenger fanboys both had their share of underrating the series.

I will admit the fact the cast of Shinkenger was amazingly memorable. The characters were amazing, and most were dynamic throughout the series. The only problem which caused this to suffer somewhat is the entire story was circled around Takeru Shiba, ShinkenRed. Furthermore, he is perhaps the one of the only Sentai heroes wielding an armor very similar to the Power Rangers battelizer. Fanboys will love it, but average Sentai fans will disagree on the use of Hyper ShinkenRed.

The mecha wasn't the best either. The origami idea, from the point of view from many Sentai fans, had been corny for them. Many fans of Super Sentai claimed some of the mecha wasn't necessary, and the overall layout of the robots could do with improvement. Not that the overpowering of the mecha is bad, but many want to know "Why would they need this?"

Also, Shinkenger fans had overrated the show due to the Kamen Rider Decade crossover. It wasn't bad at all, but there've been much better crossovers in Sentai history. The most memorable being "Gaoranger v. Super Sentai" and "Boukenger v. Super Sentai" were all amazing crossovers from TV Japan.

A typical Sentai fan who enjoys the 00's Sentai shows will probably choose either Timeranger or Gekiranger as the best. Due to their more original ideas and lack of the corniness. They would also take more time in watching every series before making the conclusion. Shinkenger would be one of the best, but yet the fans of the one show fail to realize several other Sentai series' hold much similar features.

Shinkenger, however, had been a very appealing show to many Sentai fans who've been close to abandoning their interest. Which is not a bad thing, and Shinkenger could perhaps be the reason why Goseiger is getting enough attention. The only down side was other Sentai series' were shunned due to Shinkenger's popularity.

MMPR fans vs Zordon Era fans

A couple of major groups in the Power Rangers fandom are the MMPR Fans and the Zordon Era Fans. And like any long-running franchise, we've got sub-groups of the fandom that are constantly at each other's necks. What has this got to do with PR fans vs Sentai fans? Well, peace can't be made amongst the two fandoms, unless peace is made within the two fandoms first. And at the moment, both the Power Rangers and Sentai fanbases are quite broken.

Now, it's obvious that Zordon Era fans love MMPR. Cause after all, it IS part of the Zordon Era. But the problem here is that MMPR fans don't accept Zeo, Turbo, or In Space. Zordon Era Fans complain to the MMPR Fans that MMPR doesn't have any proper ending and that In Space gives the ending of the story that MMPR started. Thus, the entirety of the Zordon Era should be respected. But of course, MMPR fans don't really care about that, for they liked MMPR for other reasons.

MMPR Fans for starters, don't like any PR season that doesn't have the Zyuranger look. These fans have become so accustomed to the suits, that they just don't care for the several new sets of suits that succeed it. Everything that made MMPR nostalgic for the fans are almost completely gone by the time Zeo began. And of course, even more so when Turbo started. MMPR Fans can't even stand to look at In Space, due to how "it doesn't even resemble Power Rangers" (of course, this is when PR took it's huge turn with Judd Lynn). Amongst Zeo, Turbo, and In Space, MMPR Fans apparently dislike In Space the most, due to how it looks the least like MMPR. Of course, many of these fans didn't even bother to watch In Space due to many of them leaving after Turbo. This also angers Zordon Era Fans. Amongst the fans of the Zordon Era, the chances of one liking In Space the most is very high. So this causes some conflict between the two groups.

Though a lot of MMPR fans never really watched beyond Turbo. A lot of MMPR fans just stopped when Kimberly got replaced by Kat. And even more stopped when Zeo started, due to the major changes (including a new theme song). The Zordon Era fans, quite a good portion of them continued to watch PR even after In Space. Most likely as far as Wild Force. Other Zordon Era fans just stopped with In Space, wishing to keep Power Rangers good in their minds, as "Countdown to Destruction" seemed perfectly complete for them. It's possible that the MMPR Fans could just be a fan group, that's separate from the rest of the Toku fandoms, and prefer to stick to their nostalgia (which of course, is okay).

Honestly, I don't think there really needs to be much conflict amongst these two groups. But the Zordon Era Fans don't really like how the MMPR fans refuse to watch the end of the story that they started. I can understand how they would feel. I personally would go crazy if I didn't have a completed beginning, middle, and end for a story. But, the MMPR fans are really just in their own group. I doubt they even care much about the fans of the Post-MMPR seasons. Though plenty MMPR fans still attack the other fans, which is a minor problem.