#but I related a lot with Billy Cranston

[ladyautie]

do you know some good sources to look at when it comes to recognizing autism In oneself? :)

The source that helped me the most was probably the playlist “Ask an autistic” by Amythest Schaber, on youtube. They describe lots of autistic stuff in a very educative and clear way and it really helped me to analyze my own behavior and establish that I was autistic. Plus, they have a very soothing voice, which makes the videos even more nice to watch. Here’s the link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAoYMFsyj_k1ApNj_QUkNgKC1R5F9bVHs

Otherwise, I guess you can browse through the #actuallyautistic tag, see what you can relate to. I can also recommend you a few movies / tv shows with autistic characters that, from my POV, are good representation. It’s thanks to a movie that I actually started to think that I was autistic. So...

- Abed Nadir from the tv show “Community” (written by an autistic director).

- Wendy from the movie “Please Stand By”

- Adam Raki from the movie “Adam” (not exactly the best representation, but it was the one who made me think first that I might be autistic).

- Billy Cranston from the movie “Power Rangers” (2017)

If anyone has another blog or else to recommend, feel free to do so! 

If you have any other question, don’t hesitate. Take care!

#actuallyautistic #actually autistic #autism #autistic traits #autistic character #autism diagnosis #Anonymous

[witchofthemidlands]

WHY POWER RANGERS 2017 DESERVED A SEQUEL. In This Essay I Will...

A lot of people are gonna disagree with me on this, but in my opinion, Power Rangers 2017 is a goddam masterpiece. It’s probs my second favourite film of all time. It’s beautiful, it’s funny, I felt that soundtrack in my soul and it has an amazing cast. I adore it, alright? Have done since I brought the dvd, because I couldn’t see it in cinemas at the time, because of those stupid ass exams... Anyway, I’m in a shitty headspace, I kinda want to yeet myself out of a window, I’ve had a drink, so, like the piece of actual garage I am, I am going to yeet myself into the trash can of Power Rangers 2017 & explain, why I believe that this film deserved a sequel.

First off THE CHARACTERS. Honestly, one the best things about this entire film is just these five wonderful characters. I could’ve watched these characters do random shit for a whole twenty four hours & not get bored istg, they’re great & they all deserved the world.

Jason Scott: Red Ranger, leader of the squad. Jason is probably my favourite out of the squad if I had to pick one & that’s not just because he’s played by the absolute legend, Dacre Montgomery. Jason won me over from the minute he said ‘tHat’S nOt aN uDDeR dUDe!’ (how tf did the cow get out of the gym to be in the field when Jason’s driving away though) Jason was completely different from everything I was expecting him to be. I thought he was just gonna be another one of those dumbass jock characters, who would slowly start to get on my nerves, but nope. Unlike what I was expecting, this character showed a great range of emotions. He was loyal, brave, hugged his best mate twice and cared so much about his family & friends. I mean the guy went so goddam HARD for Billy Cranston after only knowing him for five minutes. I stan that level of immense friendship.

Kimberly Hart: Pink Ranger. I adored her, honestly, I loved everything about her. She was played by the gorgeous Naomi Scott & was a really interesting character, because she was a character that had done a really shitty thing, but was trying to do better. What I liked about all these characters, was that they were all flawed in some way & were not perfect like all these kinds of films try to portray their characters, which was honestly, why Power Rangers was such a breath of fresh air, because it actually showed decent characters, that were not perfect and were working to try and become the best versions of themselves, but knew that they had a long way to go before they could do that. Kimberly was a part of a cyber bullying incident & it was great to see that they never tried to excuse the shit she did, but got her to accept that she did do it and that she couldn’t change what she did. When I first watched this film, I immediately expected Kim to be a major bitch, but she wasn’t. Seriously, these characters were so well written istg. Also, I know the kiss scene was deleted & I both agree & disagree about them deleting it (I shipped Jason & Kim, guys. Then again, I pretty much shipped them all at random times. Jason & Kim, Jason & Billy, Kim & Trini, all the Rangers in one big beautiful poly relationship etc) Yet, what I did like about it was how forward Kim was, most these teen based films, it’s always the guy who makes the first move, gives the first kiss etc, but ma girl, Kim WENT for it. I mean, she full on went for it & topped Jason. I have never stanned harder. You go, Kim! Again, I adored her. Enough said.

Billy Cranston: Blue Ranger, honestly the purest of them all. I loved this guy from the second he appeared (screw that asshole who broke his pencils in his first scene I’d have done more than just slapped that bitch istg), he cared so much about his mates, he gave everything into becoming a Ranger, like the guy was so pumped about becoming a superhero. Too pure for this world, I swear & was such a cheerful character, I mean, the poor dude literally died & he was still probs the happiest of them all. His friendship with Jason was literally one of the best friendships I’ve seen in a film between two dudes, they loved each other & were pretty much joined at the hip throughout the film, honestly legends. Again, these writers really wrote some bloody good characters, because they wrote Billy to be an autistic character & it’s rare to see representation of autistic characters, especially ones that are main characters, which is another reason why the character of Billy Cranston was greatly appreciated, because they handled it well. I will always love that scene where Billy is trying to explain his autism to Jason & he’s just like ‘you don’t have to explain it to me.’ Because Jason accepted him for who he is right away. This friendship was beautiful & the fact that we were robbed of seeing more of it in a sequel is a crime against nature.

Zack Taylor: Black Ranger, was honestly my dude. This guy was so much fun, but honestly, the stand out thing about his character was how much he loved his mother! I appreciate how realistically written these characters are, I really do. It was great to finally see a teenage character who was shown to be a care provider for a relative. It broke my soul when Zack said that his greatest fear was coming home & finding his mother dead, as someone who helps care for a relative, that is a very real fear & I appreciated how they wrote Zack’s explanation about his mother. Another thing I liked about him, was that even though he was a tease & flirted with Trini throughout most of the film, he totally cooled it down when she admitted that she was questioning her sexuality. Honestly, a character to stan here.

Trini: Yellow Ranger, an absolute mood. Oof, what a character. I honestly didn’t know that Becky G could act, but she honestly blew me away in Power Rangers. Trini was definitely one of the best characters in the film, she came across as tough as nails, but she slowly started to find a family in the Ranger Squad. Her & Kim were awesome (I pretty much ship all these characters in various ships, but I gotta admit, I got some hella gay vibes during that doughnut scene). She evidently had helicopter parents, but got on well with her siblings, even if one did say that he thought the Yellow Ranger was a dude, honestly iconic. There was an interesting part where she was talking questioning her sexuality & her parents want to use labels, again, these writers really gave it their all with these characters, because that is incredibly realistic & I really felt for her.

Seriously, this is an incredibly talented cast (Dacre Montgomery deserves whatever awards they can throw at him for Stranger Things) & is one of the more diverse casts I’ve seen in a film & the fact that they want to reboot it again without this cast is just wrong. Yeah, the story was a bit patchy in places, it wasn’t a groundbreaking film, but to me it was a masterpiece, because it made me feel things, it made me laugh, it gave me something I could escape to when I needed it. It had fantastically written characters that you could actually relate to and it was just a whole lot of fun. There’s so much shite out there these days that gets sequels green lit that isn’t nearly as half as good as Power Rangers 2017 was. They also didn’t give us a complete ending, what with the post credit scene, where it seemed like they were introducing their proposed version of Tommy Oliver. I wanted to see who they’d want as Tommy, how they’d write the character & how they’d change the character. I heard somewhere (don’t quote me on this I saw it on tumblr) that Tommy could’ve been a woman in this version, that would’ve been epic. They had so much potential there & they just gave up & decided to reboot because of what? Was it because the film did that badly, did the cast not want to do a second film? I totally respect them for that if they didn’t, but it totally sucks ass that they’re rebooting it again, because they had the perfect set up there, they had a banging soundtrack, the best cast known to man & god & PLEASE can someone create an actual Alpha Five? I need a motivational robot like that in my life.

Power Rangers 2017 deserved sequels.

However, if it must be rebooted, my fan cast for the reboot would be.

Dacre Montgomery - Jason Scott

Naomi Scott - Kimberly Hart

RJ Cyler - Billy Cranston

Becky G - Trini

Ludi Lin - Zack Taylor

Bill Hader - Alpha Five

Whoever they want for the rest of the cast.

POWER RANGERS 2017 DESERVED BETTER FOLKS.

✌️

#power rangers 2017

[autie-j]

30 Days of Autism Acceptance 2019: Day 17

April 17th: Talk about your favorite canonical autistic character

My favorite autistic character is, without a doubt, Billy Cranston, from Power Rangers 2017. I saw Power Rangers in the theater on opening day mainly because I had heard that one of the rangers was autistic. And I fell absolutely in love with the movie after I saw it.

I remember while watching it just getting increasingly excited and happy because I could relate to Billy. He was autistic like me. They portray Billy being autistic really positively. For instance, Billy happy stims in the movie by clapping his hands it's shown completely in a positive light. The actor, RJ Cyler, actually talked to a lot of actual autistic people when he was working on the movie to make sure that he portrayed it right.

One thing I really like is that when it's shown that getting their powers heals Jason's injury, it doesn't "cure" Billy's autism, which is a route a lesser movie might have gone down. And Billy is never portrayed as a burden in the movie. He is just as valuable and capable of a team member as any of the other rangers.

Power Rangers is just a movie that makes me so incredibly happy. When I got back from seeing it in the theater the first time I was literally bouncing from happiness for hours afterwards. It was just so amazing to see an autistic superhero in a movie.

#30daysofautismacceptance #actuallyautistic #actually autistic #power rangers 2017 #power rangers #autism acceptence month #day 17 #gif

[charmed-autistic]

Autistic Piper Halliwell

 While I prefer a Charmed revival or spin-off, if a reboot were to be greenlit, I would like for Piper to be confirmed Autistic. While unintentional, a lot of her personality traits could be looked at as autistic traits.  Piper always has to fidget and never keeps her hands still, whether holding something or rubbing her hands. She has severe anxiety and worries how others perceive her. Her main wish throughout the series is to be “normal,” which many of us autistics can relate to, at some point. When stressed, Piper retreats to the kitchen and cooks or simply mixes ingredients, which along with the fidgeting could be seen as a type of stimming. She is also obsessed with cleaning, also, when stressed, she cleans more. A lot of Autistics, such as myself, suffer from OCD, and a clean, perfect environment is one of the few things in her life that she could control.  She is also concerned with any type of change. For example, When Paige reorganized the kitchen, brought in her furniture, and indexed the book of shadows, Piper couldn’t adjust to the change and had to “fix” it for no other reason than it wasn’t right, as she viewed them.  While hyper-empathetic and connecting with people’s emotions, she also is the most logical and faces facts easier, even if it goes against what her emotions or sisters tell her, such as the Christy situation or when Phoebe betrayed them for Cole. On the other hand Piper has trouble processing her own emotional state and needs confirmation from others, such as when she couldn’t process her heartbreak over Prue dying until Paige validated her feelings and gave her permission to grieve.  While at P3, Piper is often shown as distracted or staring off when the others are enjoying themselves, especially during the musical performances, when could be seen as her trying to compensate for the overstimulation.  All that being said, Piper Halliwell would make a great Autistic character, much like Billy Cranston from Power Rangers (2017) or Theo Carver from Days of our Lives (1965).

#Charmed #charmed reboot #charmed spin-off #piper halliwell #charmed piper #piper charmed #autism spectrum disorder #autism spectrum #actually autistic #actuallyautistic #autism #autistic #asd #headcanon #charmed headcanon #halliwell sisters #autistic characters #autistic headcanon #autism positivity #autistic positivity

[awkward-imp]

I relate a lot to Jason Scott because I too, disappoint my parents, and would die for Billy Cranston

#power rangers 2017 #jason lee scott #billy cranston #cranscott #Tori's original ideas

[kimberlyannharts]

MMPR Fancast

Okay, since for whatever reason, I think Tumblr might have screwed up and sent you just the pictures of the actors, so here I go with the descriptions:

—

Jason Lee Scott (Ryan Potter): A natural born leader with a strong sense of justice. Some may think he’s a typical jock, but really, he would much rather train at the dojo or hang out with his best friends. Though he tends to blame himself when things go wrong, he always looks forward to lead his team in the fight against evil.

Zack Taylor (Jacob Latimore): A fun-loving guy who strives to be the life of the party. A smooth-talking charmer and a prankster, he tries to always lift people’s moods up as best as he can while trying to crack a smile on their faces. Don’t be fooled though; under all that laid-back and goofy hides a very cunning and perceptive guy who is always looking out for his friends. 

Trini Kwan (Lana Condor): A borderline hippie, she loves to fight for a cause, especially if it has to deal with nature. Introspective and wise beyond her years, she has a gentle soul who would rather use diplomacy to resolve problems. But if push comes to shove, she’ll pull out some of her martial arts and kick your butt.

Billy Cranston (Cameron Boyce): An ever-curious nerdy fellow with a love of anything tech-related. He loves trying to figure out how things work. He’s always felt isolated from his peers because of the way he acts and behaves, but he feels better knowing that his friends accept him for who he is. Sometimes, he can get wrapped up in his own world but if his friends are in trouble, he can put down his laptop and hop into action.

Kimberly Ann Hart/Kimberly Ana Hernandez (Becky G): Some see her as a stuck-up brat, others a ditzy valley girl. But she couldn’t care less about what they say. She’s a confident girl who has eyes are set on her goals and she’s gonna accomplish them no matter what. While she is sharp-witted and sassy, Kimberly is also a caring girl who wants to spend time fighting the forces of evil with her friends and hitting up the mall right afterwards.

Tamara “Tammy” Oliver (Fivel Stewart): An aloof, smart-mouthed rebel with a chip on her shoulder. She’s always felt distant from her peers and feels as though she lives in the shadow of her twin brother Tommy, which made her a perfect target for Rita. After breaking free from the witch’s control, the girl desperately wishes to atone for her mistakes and be accepted by the other Rangers – especially by a certain girl in pink.

—

So again, I’m not sure if you got the photos, but I did race-bend most of the Rangers. Jason’s now half-Japanese (since Saban has still yet to cast an Asian Red…), Billy is half-black and Jewish (Cameron Boyce looks very white-passing) and Kimberly is now a Latina (since Angel Grove is in SoCal, I figured it would be appropriate to add a Latinx to the team). 

I also split Tommy into a pair of twins, with “Tammy” taking over as the Green Ranger and “Tommy” as the White Ranger. That way, the cast is much more gender-balanced and each twin can have their own personal development in my re-imagining. Part 2 maybe coming soon?

Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

——-

This is really cool!!!  You put a lot of thought into this, gosh!  I did get the photos, and I like all of your choices!  Your choice for Jason is especially nice, imo :D   

I have to say though, it’s a little odd to see Becky G as Kim and not Trini ;p

#added arsenal #hey-thatsprettygood #submission

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Hey, so I’ve seen a little discussion on twitter about this but basically none of it here, so I wanted to mention it because it’s bothering me. Atypical is a Netflix comedy series that will be released on August 11, and this is the IMDB summary.

Sam, an 18-year-old on the autism spectrum, decides it’s time to find a girlfriend, a journey that sets Sam’s mom on her own life-changing path as her son seeks more independence.

So just from that summary there are a few things that make me nervous. First of all, many autistic people and communities (including me) prefer the phrase “autistic person” to “person on the spectrum” or “person with autism,” but a lot of people make this error and some autistics do prefer the latter phrases so it’s not a cardinal sin. Secondly, this show is about a white boy because…of course it is. I can use one hand to count the canon autistic/Asperger’s characters I know of who are not white dudes. Autistic white boys/men are disproportionately the ones who get diagnosis, treatment, and media representation, despite there being growing evidence that a fairly high percentage of girls go undiagnosed as children (hi that’s me) because they do not present the typical “signs” of being autistic that the medical community is used to seeing. Thirdly, both this summary and the trailer specifically single out Sam’s mom as having her own narrative arc. This is a thing that MANY stories about autistic people do - they feel they need to either filter the autistic person through a neurotypical lens, or at least include a secondary story about an NT person that ties into the autistic person’s story. This even happens in movies that I quite like, such as Mary & Max, and it happens with movies that are more problematic, like Adam (2009). I do understand that comedies typically have multiple plotlines, but choosing to highlight the mom’s journey in relation to how she feels about her son’s maturing is, uh, suspicious. It brings to mind the Autism Parent, who makes their child’s autism all about them and what a good/put-upon/selfless parent they are. Maybe it won’t be like that at all, but I see some red flags is all.

There’s a trailer out, which I’ve seen once and spent the whole way cringing through. This article does a pretty good job of breaking down why my shoulders were up around my ears the whole time, but for a quick rundown of the issues I see:

Again, white cishet protagonist, disproportionately represented in stories about autistic people

Many jokes about how ~awkward~ Sam is and how he doesn’t “pick up on signals”

“Sometimes I wish I was normal” which some of us DO feel, but it’s again a narrative disproportionately represented in the media

“Your son has the same desire to be loved that we all do” wow love that acearo erasure that’s cool

He says he really wants to see boobs, that’s uh some great objectifying of women there thanks

Not relevant to the rest of this post but I didn’t laugh at any of the jokes

So, yeah. On top of that, people have pointed out that casting an NT actor for the autistic lead is *quite* iffy. Someone brought it up on twitter and the show’s official account replied with this.

Auditions for Sam included autistic actors, but Keir was cast as best for the role. The cast does include autistic people

I don’t want to erase any autistic actors that worked on the show, but it’s deeply suspicious that the account brushed it aside with no specificity. If there are autistic actors, then that’s awesome. I’m glad they have work. But I question their choice to cast an NT actor as the autistic lead, and I wonder if maybe “best for the role” means, to them, that Keir Gilchrist was able to play to autistic stereotypes better than actual autistic people. Which is definitely a problem.

It’s very hard to find articles about the production of the show, but I did find one from USA Today that says creator Robia Rashid “consulted with a California State University professor who worked at UCLA’s Center for Autism Research and Treatment.” Which…that’s cool, but I wonder if Rashid or any of the producers know that there are actual organizations with autistic adults involved who they could have consulted. The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is one such organization. This seems to be yet another case of an NT person consulting NT “experts” in order to tell an autistic person’s story. I also once saw a claim that Rashid was inspired by an autistic family member, but I can’t find anything to verify that. If true, I’m sure her intentions are noble, but Atypical is being presented as yet another story about a cishet white autistic boy who wants to “be normal.” Rashid seems to genuinely want to create an accurate and sensitive portrayal, which makes it all the more frustrating that she didn’t think (or bother) to talk to actual autistic adults, WHO EXIST. Hell, at this point I’m so tired of all this bullshit I’ll do consultation for free. (I’m kidding but only sort of)

There are already a handful of reviews out, most of which are fairly positive and all of which use the “boy with autism” language or (even worse) something like “suffering from autism.” One in particular includes this jaw-droppingly offensive line: “There’s some talk that an autistic actor should’ve played this role, but that complaint is shortsighted: An actor of Gilchrist’s caliber can do a tremendous job of humanizing a condition like autism, and he proves that here.” Wow thanks for outright stating that autistic people need “humanizing” because we can’t possibly do it ourselves, reviewer!!!! You were definitely the right person for this assignment! Anyway, nothing about any of these reviews indicates to me that the series is not the inspiration porn for NT people that I thought it might be.

If you’re wondering about media portrayals that I actually like, here are my recommendations. (Disclaimer: these are my opinions alone and some autistic people may find these characters problematic or offensive.)

Temple Grandin is a TV film based on the life of the real woman, and is the best portrayal of an autistic woman I’ve seen to date.

I know some autistics find Abed Nadir on Community problematic, which is valid, but I personally adore him.

Parker on Leverage sadly never had her Asperger’s canonized onscreen, but it was confirmed in blog posts from creator Dean Devlin. She has multiple excellent story arcs and an adorable romance over the show’s five seasons.

The 2017 Power Rangers has Billy Cranston, who is by far the best character in the reboot. I should warn that he is violently killed about ¾ of the way through the film, but is then brought back to life about five minutes later. I’m sure this could be traumatic if someone (especially a child) wasn’t warned.

On the Edge of Gone by Corrine Duyvis is an excellent novel about an autistic girl at the end of the world.

I can’t tell anyone what to do, and I don’t want to speak for any other autistic people. But I, personally, find pretty much everything I’ve seen about Atypical to be hurtful, frustrating, and an erasure of authentic autistic perspectives and experiences. I’d like to ask my NT friends to consider skipping this show, and maybe seek out stories told by or involving actual autistic people. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. You may be familiar with the phrase “death by a thousand cuts,” which some minorities have used as a vivid illustration to explain why microaggressions are so harmful - they happen again and again and they add up and it’s overwhelming. Atypical feels like another tiny cut to me. And it’s exhausting.

#atypical #autism #sometimes I have opinions

[countessklair]

you can’t name a dog after someone who’s dead

Pairing: Pre-Billy Cranston/Jason Scott, Pre-Kimberly Hart/Trini Warning: Mature language Description: In which the Rangers have a heart to heart and get a dog.

Also: This is long as HELL. But you can also find it on my AO3 account if you don’t want to read it here. I handled some sensitive themes in this, and if you have thoughts please come talk to me about them!

“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late, I-” I raised an eyebrow at my friends. “Uh, what’s up with this?”

Billy, Kim, and Zack were sitting in a semicircle near the Wall, where Zordon and Alpha 5 were arguing so intently about something that they didn’t even see me come in.

Billy glanced over at me and waved in greeting, his eyes lighting up a bit and a bright grin crossing his face.

I waved back, a stupid dopey smile stretching across my mouth, shuffling my feet around the weird fluttery feeling in my gut.

Kim held a finger up to her lips and motioned me over, her eyes never leaving the back and forth between Zordon and Alpha 5.

I sat down between Kim and Billy, and as the argument grew slightly louder, Kim leaned over, murmuring underneath their voices, “They can’t agree on whether or not Zordon had a pet Velociraptor back in the day.”

“That’s what they’re arguing about?” I scoffed softly.

Kim nodded and chuckled under her breath.

Zordon insisted, “The creature came when called, and responded to their name-”

Alpha 5 put their hands on their hips. “It did not come when called, it came when it was time for dinner, and the name was stupid, anyway.”

“How dare you, Zuzu was a fine name for them!” Zordon’s face loomed out over the much smaller robot, the whole Wall glowing a soft red.

As Alpha 5 reared back to retort, Kim whispered, thoroughly amused, “Do you think they’ll argue long enough that they forget about training for the day?”

Zack, out of the corner of his mouth, whispered back, “That’s the plan.”

I stifled my grin, turning back to Zordon and Alpha 5 but my gaze getting caught, as it so often did, on Billy.

He was sitting a little nearer to Zordon, his face tilted up and smiling sweetly at Zordon and Alpha 5’s antics.

As I was watching he looked over at me, my heart leaping in my chest as I reflexively smiled back at him.

I opened my mouth, an awkward smile curving over my face. “So-”

“JASON!”

And everything else in the whole world went into soft gray and faded away.

I was up and running toward the scream, heart pounding and armor forming on my flesh before I consciously knew what I was doing, and I knew that the others were not far behind me.

Every thought bouncing around in my head vanished, every sensation or sense of approach was long gone, and I was focusing on nothing but getting to that scream fast, faster, faster, faster, because that was Trini’s voice that screamed.

That was Trini.

It had definitely been Trini and Trini was always ok, but she didn’t sound ok now, and that alone was terrifying.

It was Trini it was Trini it was Trini it was Trini it was Trini it was Trini it was Trini Trini Trini Trini

I sprinted as fast as my body was able towards the direction of the scream and pushed harder still because it wasn’t enough, my heart pounding and blood rushing wildly, all the way to the back entrance of the cave systems, the only one that wasn’t a water entrance, and I found Trini standing there, too still to be normal and holding a large bloody dog close to her small body.

I couldn’t see any injuries on her, thank god thank god thank god thank god, but the set of her shoulders and the strange way she held her head still scared me.

I caught myself a few steps away from Trini, reminding myself that she might need space and she definitely needed me calm.

She looked up and met my gaze and I felt my insides twist and freeze.

I knew that look in her eyes, too similar to the way she’d looked on the pier after Rita held up her scepter and shot it at-

Billy, he’s dead he’s dead he’s dead

I shoved the memory down and turned to the others, who had also morphed and were standing behind me, Kim in particular tilting back and forth like she couldn’t decide what she should do.

I lifted a hand at them, whispered, “I’ve got it.”

In turn, they nodded and took a step back.

The panic did not fade from my head, a constant stream of Trini’s hurt she’s hurt she’s hurt and he’s dead he’s dead he’s dead combining in my head for a sickening combination.

I didn’t have time for it because Trini needed me, so I let the armor fade away, and I shoved the thoughts in my head as far back as I could.

I turned back around to face Trini, and I greeted her softly, “Hey Trini.”

Trini’s grip of the unconscious animal tightened, and she replied, awkwardly blank, “He’s hurt.”

Her voice had none of its usual lilt, none of the spark of mischief, had none of Trini in it.

I kept my voice calm and low as I nodded. “Ok, alright, that’s no problem. Alpha 5 can take him to the med room and fix him up, can’t you, Alpha 5?”

The small robot peeked around my leg, voice matching mine in tone and volume. “Of course.”

Trini looked between the two of us, dulled confusion on her face as her eyebrows drew in together and her mouth tightened, and she did not move, she looked between us and the dog in her arms and stayed where she was.

Wrong, you’re doing it wrong, you’re always wrong!

I shoved my thoughts away and focused back on Trini and the practically palpable silence. As gently as I was able, I asked, “Do you want me to take him?”

Trini jerked backward and hugged the dog closer, a streak of terror crossing her face, her shoulders rising and falling a bit faster and a distressed sound came from her, as Kim made a matching sound behind me.

“Okay, that’s alright,” I soothed, my hands lifted in a calming manner. “That’s okay, you can carry him if you want.”

Trini relaxed a little, though that wild fear settled deep into the way she held herself, her eyes darting quickly between the five of us like she couldn’t decide what she wanted to do and filling quickly with unshed tears.

After a moment, she pleaded, confused and her voice cracking, “Jason?”

And that’s when I knew how shaken Trini was, because she was my second in command, she was invulnerable, she had never shown anything even related to vulnerability like this before, she was the most stable of us all, she was the fiercest and the toughest, and Trini was never like this. She never looked small like that.

I forced myself to speak around the lump in my throat and the clouding of my eyes, “Can I come closer?” I waited for her answer, stepping forward when she nodded. “Do you want us all to walk with you and Alpha 5 to the med room?”

She nodded immediately, a soft release of breath coming from her, and I approached her carefully, watching her intently for the first sign of discomfort. She let me wrap my arm around her back, my hand settling lightly on her shoulder and I swore it was cold with fear even through her hoodie. As my hand touched down on her, Trini let loose a stuttering breath and pushed backward into the touch.

Now that I was closer to her and the dog, I could see it was a big grey animal of uncertain breed, and it was whining very very softly, shaking against Trini’s chest.

I looked up at the others, who had abandoned their armor, and at my nod, they immediately, slowly, moved to the side to let us pass.

I could almost hear Billy murmuring to himself the way he did when tensions were high like this, and I could hear Kim trying to cry as silently as possible, and I knew, I knew that Zack was thrown completely off kilter. Because as much as Zack liked to pretend to be somewhat aloof and unflappable, his heart was too kind and too goddamn broken to be immune to any of us hurting, much less Trini, who he relied on for strength, and vice versa.

I wondered if it was normal for a Red Ranger to feel as if they wanted to take on the whole goddamn world and fight everyone and everything in it just on the simple possibility that one of the other Rangers would be spared pain.

Because they had all been through so much, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that, despite whatever Zordon and Alpha 5 said, I wasn’t the leader any of them needed. I already knew after what happened with Rita and Billy, he’s dead he’s dead he’s dead, that I was far from the leader they deserved.

The dog in Trini’s arms shifted and yelped loudly, and Trini jumped a little.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” I soothed. “He’s gonna be just fine.”

She didn’t respond.

Keeping as soft a tone as I could manage I prompted, “Okay, Trini, let’s go.”

I could feel her trembling underneath my hand the entire walk to the med room, I could feel the intensity in the air creeping into a panic for the other Rangers even as they kept their distance and their silence.

This was the worst part about being a Ranger, and if I was honest also the best part I wouldn’t trade in a million years. We all loved each other so much, and so when something happened that fucked one of us up, it fucked up everyone else too, because we relied on each other for strength. We relied on each other for everything.

Kim loved us all but she loved Trini in a way none of the rest of us did even if she had refused to do anything about it yet. Kim, who had been a cheerleader her whole life learning about teamwork, had never understood it until becoming a Ranger, where it was like she could take one look at each of us and understand perfectly what was going on. There was no hiding or keeping secrets from Kim.

Trini was quietly, viciously fond of each and every one of us, and she always chose to express that through touch and actions, and the thought had often crossed my mind that Trini, who never ever spoke about her home life after the first bonfire, might be touch starved. And even though she didn’t say a whole lot, she had fewer problems expressing herself when it came to Kim.

Zack was often the rock of the entire group in situations like this because he knew the most about how to care for people, because even though he least deserved it, Zack had been through so fucking much. Zack threw himself full force into whatever he was doing, and Zack loved us all so much we knew he would gladly do whatever it took, whatever it took, to make it better.

And Billy couldn’t stand it when any of us were hurting, he was our heart and soul, and he loved so much his heart had to have been a thousand times larger than his brilliant brain, which also meant he felt any hurt in himself or us extremely deeply. Billy struggled often with feeling like he was doing enough, with us and for us, and we had all told him that he himself alone was enough.

Because that’s the way it worked. We loved each other we needed each other, we relied on each other. And that’s why it was the worst part, because whenever one of us was fucked up, we all were, but it was also one of the best things because it meant that we were all there, and we were all together, and we were so fucking loved by one another.

I glanced behind me to where Zack was holding one of Kim’s hands, his eyes too wide, while Kim cried silently, Billy solemn and his movements too stilted.

I turned back towards Trini, whose face still shone with tear tracks and flecks of blood and dirt.

I just really fucking hated it when any one of them was upset, and I hated it even more when there wasn’t an obvious physical, volatile solution to the problem. Because in the end, that’s all I felt I was good for, putting myself between my team and what threatened them. I hadn’t meant it lightly when I said I’d die for any one of the Rangers, and I didn’t think they had meant it lightly either.

But there was no amount of pain, suffering, tragedy or torture I would not take for any of them.

Unfortunately for them, that wasn’t all a leader had to do. I had proved myself clumsy in my position with Rita, but the months following had been disastrous, in my opinion.

Learning how to be a leader was a hard fucking job, especially when you didn’t know jack shit about anything the people you were leading had been through. All of our backgrounds were so fundamentally different, and despite the fact that we loved each other enough to die for one another, it was a learning process to live around one another. And because of the vast differences in backgrounds, there’d come a few times when we’d go out in public and suddenly it would become crystal clear how differently the world viewed us all, and how because I was white, that meant to the world that I was somehow better than them.

When that was so far from the case. It had been awful to have my eyes opened like that to the world and it’s ways of treating the people I loved more than anything else in the world, to keep a fear in my heart every time I heard a police siren when I was with Billy and think of all the boys his age who were gonna forever be his age. Zordon had told me that the world was cruel, but my job was to protect my team, so I tried to learn how to wield my privilege to help them, which opened up infinite windows into the way the most important people in my life were in danger every single goddamn day, even sometimes from my own parents, from other adults I had looked up to. Which was all hard to accept, to unlearn habits and ideas beat into me from birth, but harder still for them to have to teach me.

I knew after Rita that I’d never be able to do anything to be as good as they deserved, and I stood by that, but there was no way in heaven, earth or hell that I wouldn’t do everything I could for them. And the physical stuff was easy, slapping bullies and correcting, sometimes forcibly, other people’s behavior. But learning how to be emotionally available and take silent cues for what they need from me in times of distress that weren’t solved by me diving headfirst into a fistfight? That was the hardest thing I’d ever done. Learning how to lead the Rangers meant learning how to feel, how to respect boundaries and ideas, how to accept weakness in them and in me. It was unheard of to me.

Nothing about the way I was raised, with the running commentary from my father about weakness and the comparison of weakness to emotion from my peers, was well suited to this way of thinking. I’d realized I’d grown up apathetic and angry because of it. Difficult to discipline, to control, as my dad put it. Typical toxic masculinity, as Zack and Trini put it.

I didn’t really know what to say or do but I would always do whatever I could, be whatever they needed me to be, cause they did the same for me. And I’d be fucking damned if I hurt them with that toxic bullshit the way I had been.

So I kept my touch on Trini light but present, close, but not too close. I let her keep control of the distance and our pace. As we went into the med room, Alpha 5 turned to Trini, obviously hesitant on how she wanted to proceed.

I leaned a little into Trini’s space, murmuring, “Alpha 5 is gonna take him now, Trini.”

She shook violently, just once.

I rubbed my thumb in a soothing circle on her shoulder. “It’s okay. Alpha 5 can take care of him.” I used my other hand to touch her elbow, gently. “It’s okay, Trini. You can put him down on the table.”

Slowly, very slowly, Trini bent down, laying the dog down as gently as possible. I bit my tongue over a cry of shock at the blood that stained her shirt, shaking my head minutely at Alpha 5, who nodded once and went to attend to the dog.

I shoved down the screaming of blood blood blood blood blood blood blood blood.

I watched Trini’s hands start shaking as Alpha 5 pulled out the equipment.

Gingerly, I turned Trini around and walked her out of the med room, one hand on her shoulder, the other on her elbow.

Once we were outside the room, I went to let go of her, but as my grip loosened, she spun around to face me, eyes blowing wide with panic and uncertainty, her breath coming faster.

“Jason?”

Her hands hovered between us, her eyes going glassy with fresh tears.

And then it was the easiest thing in the world to say softly, “I’m here, Trini,” and pull her into a hug, wrapping one hand around her back while the other came up to cup the back of her neck and tuck her face under my chin.

Her vice-grip on her emotions broke, and her body sagged against me, she curled both arms tightly around me and started to openly sob into my skin.

With a deft movement, I swept up her legs and sat down against the wall of the ship, settling her across my lap. Trini had never cried in front of us before, but she seemed to need this, and I knew she wouldn’t hesitate in telling me what wasn’t okay. And I would not let myself drive her away or make her uncomfortable for being vulnerable in front of us.

So I sat with her, wrapped both arms around her back as she cried, the others sitting down around us, Kim sitting close against my right side, her head on my shoulder so her lips pressed into Trini’s hair, Zack sitting cross-legged and facing me on my left, picking up Trini’s feet and putting them in his lap, playing absentmindedly with her laces and not looking at anyone. Billy sat down near my feet, playing with the fidgeter Trini got him last week for our ‘Ranger-Versary’.

And I rubbed circles into Trini’s hip and pressed kisses into her hair and let my own tears fall.

We sat there together for an hour or so, Trini’s sobs fading slowly into sniffs and sighs, and though one of her arms still held on to the front of my jacket, her fingers playing with the string of my hood, her other hand had found its way into Kim’s. Kim was leaning heavily against me too, humming something faintly. Zack had been tying and untying Trini’s shoelaces in new and more complicated knots, occasionally leaning over to watch Billy as he fiddled with something that was probably highly complicated and brilliant and wonderful.

It was Billy, everything he touched turned to gold.

Trini sniffled a little, her voice quiet as a church mouse when she said, “I’m sorry.”

I squeezed her, gently. “Nothing to be sorry for.”

She relaxed a little. “I meant about getting snot on you.”

I sighed dramatically. “Perils of being in charge.”

“Like fucking hell are you in charge of me, Red.” Trini’s voice was a little stronger now, some of that fire peeking back in.

Zack, tangling his fingers in the laces of Trini’s combat boots, asked softly, “You gonna tell us what happened?”

Trini froze up for a second, found rigid against me, and I opened my mouth to move the conversation along when Trini nodded.

“Yeah. I am. It’s just…a little weird, I guess.”

She sighed deeply, her shoulder blades digging into my chest a bit. “I was on my way here when I went to go drop off some food for this mutt that lives around here.”

Billy cocked his head. “Is the dog here that mutt or a different one?”

“Nah, it’s the same one. I’ve been feeding him for a while now. I would have taken him home, but my mom-” Trini’s whole body tensed up before she cleared her throat and pushed on. “I was pretty near the cave entrance when all of a sudden a cougar jumped out at me.”

Kim’s hand clenched down hard on my elbow, her nails biting deep into my skin, but I bit my tongue as Zack exclaimed, voice high with confused, delayed fear, “A fucking cougar? You fought off a cougar?”

Trini shook her head. “Not alone, the fucking dog helped. The cougar got like, one swipe in before I got my armor on, and all of a sudden here comes this loud baying sound from my right and the dog just jumps up and starts in on the cougar.”

Trini’s fingers tightened on my hoodie.

She swallowed hard, her voice thick as she said, “I mean, I jumped in pretty quick and the cougar ran away, but he seemed to have hit the dog pretty hard, and I um…” She sniffed again, curling tighter into me. “I didn’t even think about it, I just picked him up and ran here.”

Kim leaned forward and tucked her face into Trini’s hair. “We’re glad you’re ok, Trin.”

“Yeah,” Billy added, ceasing to play with his fidgeter. “I was really scared when you came in and screamed. I hate you being upset, I hate it I hate it.”

“Same here.” I murmured.

“Ditto to that,” Zack said to Trini’s boots.

Kim sighed, “Me too.”

Trini replied softly, “Yeah.”

Trini began playing with the zipper on my jacket, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyebrows drawing in together.

“Trini?” I asked. “Is there something else?”

She ducked her head down. “I just…I just keep thinking…is this, is this all for real?” She looked up at me, her eyes red and swollen from crying. “Is this,” She motioned to the five of us, “For real?”

Her voice was heavy with sadness. “I haven’t had anyone I considered a friend in a long time, and it’s been even longer since I’ve really trusted anybody. And ever since Rita, I’ve just been thinking about how much I love you all and trust you all and how much it would kill me if this went away.”

Trini’s shoulders started shaking. “I don’t want it to go away, I couldn’t take it, I just couldn’t.”

I pulled her in close to me, her hand latching back onto my jacket with new vigor, and I promised, “I am never going to go away, Trini, none of us are, you’re stuck with us.”

“Yeah, permanently.” Kim sniffed, pushing closer into Trini and I.

Billy put down his contraption. “Trini, you guys are my best friends, and I love you as much as I love my mom and-”

Billy jerked back, eyes widening. “Oh.”

I ignored the low swirl of fear at his reaction to whatever he was thinking. “Billy?”

His eyes met mine. “Jason, I love you guys as much as I love my mom.”

After a moment, Kim asked, “Is that bad?”

“Oh.” Billy considered it. “No.” A smile bloomed on his face, the brightness of it easing the dark tension in the room. “I just love you guys a whole lot. So I’m never leaving either. I mean,” Billy leaned forward, eyes bright, “You guys brought me back from the dead-”

I couldn’t help the full body flinch I made when he said that.

He’s dead he’s dead he’s dead, Billy’s dead and it’s your fault your fault your fault.

“Jason?”

I flinched again, a hot flush of embarrassment flooding my chest and face. “I’m fine.”

Trini reached to grab one of my hands and interlaced our fingers. “No, you’re not.” She turned back to Billy. “And that’s the point, Billy. You, you, you died, and it was my fault.”

I squeezed her hip gently. “It was my fault, Trini, I forced him to go and-”

“No, you don’t understand.” Trini pushed away from me, sitting up. “She said it was my fault, she said it at the docks, I was the one who led you to your death, Billy!”

She shivered and rubbed her hands on her arms, looking down at the floor as she continued, “She came into my room, she said things…”

Trini looked at me, eyes wide and scared. “She said awful things, and a part of me wants to believe they’re not true, but the rest of me knows that they are and I’m so fucking scared all the time because what happens when you prove her right and leave?!”

Trini was shaking violently, fresh tears spilling out over her cheeks. “I don’t wanna be alone again, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t.”

My heart in my throat, I asked, “Trini, look at me?”

She didn’t look at me, still shaking.

I begged, “Trini, please, look at me?”

As she did, she sniffled loudly and wiped at her nose with her sleeve before wrapping both of her arms tight around her body.

“Trini,” I started, “What did she tell you?”

Trini sniffed again, wiping tears away. “She um, she said that you weren’t really my friends and that you never would be. That I was an outsider, that I would always be an outsider.” Trini’s voice wavered. “She said I was like her.”

“Trini.” I locked eyes with her and promised as gravely as I could manage, “You are nothing like Rita. You’re sweet and feisty and tough as nails and you never listen to me in the training room or out of it and I love that you don’t because you’re my second and you’re so strong and capable of doing absolutely everything, but more than that, Trini,” I leaned in close to her and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You’re a good person. You’ve got a good heart and you stick to what you believe.”

I shove a hand through my hair. “Trini, without you there’d be no Rangers.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s not-”

“Yes, Trini, it is true.” I took a deep breath, “You’re part of this team, you’re part of us, you’re part of every one of us, and you’re part of me. We love you, Trini, and we would do anything for you, anything at all. You’re not just a friend or a fellow Ranger, you’re family, you’re our Trini.”

I swallowed hard. “I, I can’t explain it any better than that. But Rita’s wrong, she was so wrong, and I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to keep her away from you, but Trini you are not an outsider and I never want you to feel that way.”

Billy, Zack, and Kim all murmured their agreement.

Trini’s behavior following Rita suddenly made more sense, the way she sometimes pulled away without warning or refused to join in with us when we all hung out after training. The way she’d sometimes just shut down completely.

“Ok.” Trini sniffed, wiping away more tears. “Ok.” Then she shivered violently and returned to her previous position.

I tucked her in close to myself. “We love you, Trini.”

Kim leaned into Trini and whispered, “I’m so sorry Trini.”

We were all silent for a while, nothing to be heard but the hum of the ship and the tinkering Billy was doing on his contraption.

Zack shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “Actually, um.” He shifted again, tangling his fingers in the laces of Trini’s boots. “That’s kinda something I’ve been feeling too.”

He looked up at us, his body hunched in on himself. “Not quite like that, but um, I just sort of feel out of place?”

Zack tightened Trini’s shoelaces back up. “I know that in the beginning, I was a cocky dick, and to be fair I kind of am a cocky dick, but I…” Zack took a deep breath and locked eyes with me. “The Zord incident. You know, the day Billy morphed for the first time.”

I nodded, remembering all too well the burning anger I’d felt.

Drilling his fingers on the toes of Trini’s boots, Zack continued, “I did it because it’s what I do. I’m so scared all the time when I’m at home because I love my mom, I love her so much, but she gets worse and worse every day and I can’t fix it, and so sometimes I feel like I need something, anything, to take my mind off of it. Even before I was a Ranger I’d do all kinds of dumb shit around town, trying to feel alive.”

Zack wiped at his mouth and cleared his throat. “And what’s worse is, when I first became a Ranger, I kept expecting it to be a dream. I mean, I’d been living mostly by myself for so long and not to get too mushy about it but I desperately wanted someone, anyone, that I could talk to and have my back and vice versa, and then, like a goddamn miracle, there you were.”

Zack was crying too, now, his voice trembling, “And it was too good to be true, because look at you guys.” He motioned to us all. “You’re incredible, you’re strong and beautiful and so goddamn capable and I,” Zack closed his eyes. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

Kim, Billy, Trini and I insisted at the same time.

Kim huffed wetly, “Oh come here right now.” And reached over to grab Zack’s hands and tug him across my legs so his head and his chest were in her lap.

Zack shuddered with relief and turned so he was curled sort of around Trini, his knees under hers and his face pressed into Kim’s thigh. I ignored the instant deadening of my leg from both his butt and Trini’s, and Billy scooted over to Zack’s vacated spot, his eyes wide and uncertain.

“Jason, is it ok if I sit here?” Billy’s contraption lay forgotten off to the side as he hovered near me.

I nodded quickly. “Yeah, that’s perfect, actually.”

“Ok cool.” Billy sat down and then froze. “Wait why?”

I didn’t let myself lean into him, knowing full well if he wanted contact he would initiate it. “One of those times where we need to ‘share a space’ as Zordon says.”

Zordon had been all too enthusiastic about bonding opportunities for us, and I knew that he was probably listening in now, or talking with Alpha 5 behind the closed doors of the med room.

Billy only nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Ok, cool.”

Kim, running her fingers through Zack’s hair, insisted, “Zack, it’s just the same for you as it is with Trini, without you, there’d be no Rangers.” 

I managed through the tightness of my throat, “Zack, we love you and if anything happened to you…”

Zack curled in tighter to Kim, and one of my hands found his and squeezed.

“You know why I tried to pilot the Zord?” Zack asked. “I wanted to feel like I was really a part of this. I know I have a coin and a Zord and the armor but sometimes I feel like a fifth wheel or something. Just completely unnecessary.”

I squeezed Zack’s hand tighter. “You’re not unnecessary, Zack, you’re a required part of this team. You’re what keeps us laughing and from being morose assholes all the time, and you keep me in my place.”

I leaned my head back against the wall. “I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think I could be a Ranger, much less the leader or whatever, unless you were here. I love you, man, we all do, so fucking goddamn much, and I’m not sure how to make this better.”

Silence hung in the air for a few moments, until Zack sniffed, “Honestly, this is pretty nice.”

Kim laughed softly, still dragging her fingers through his hair. “So the takeaway here today is that we all love each other a lot, like a lot, and we’re Rangers because we’re doing it together.”

I turned my head to smile at her. “Works for me.”

“Me too,” Trini mumbled into my shirt.

“Me three.” Zack sighed.

I looked over at Billy, who was frowning at his hands. “Billy, what’s wrong?”

“Jason, I think we should do this more often,” Billy said. “I mean, we love each other but we’re not that great at communication a lot of the times and I feel like this was good for us. You know?”

Billy’s eyes were soft, and I swore I’d never seen kindness like what was in his eyes anywhere before. I smiled at him and remembered how everything he touched he made flawless. I shoved away the voice in my head saying, you love him you love him you love him you love him.

“Yeah, Billy. I agree.”

Zack shifted and his hip bone pierced into my leg.

I yowled, “Ouch! Ugh, let’s do this again but literally almost anywhere but on the cold hard floor of the ship. Zack, your hips are really sharp.”

“My bad, dude, sorry.”

The doors to the med room slid open, and all five of us tensed.

Alpha 5 walked through, empty handed, and I felt my stomach turn to lead.

Billy gulped. “Alpha 5, what-”

A loud bark came from inside the med room and Trini bolted up into a standing position. “He’s ok!”

“Uh, actually, she’s ok. The dog is a female.” Alpha 5 corrected.

The dog in question trotted through the door, her whole body wagging and looking as good as new and Trini dropped down to pet her.

My mouth dropped open.

Zack whispered, “Woah, that’s so cool.”

Kim laughed in surprise.

Billy asked, “Um, how come the dog gets fully healed but we don’t? Have you always been able to do that?”

“Oh yes!” Alpha 5 chirped. “But Zordon insists that you feel your injuries from training so that you remember your mistakes and do not repeat them.”

Sighing loudly, Zack drawled, “I would object to that, but I’m exhausted.”

Zordon’s voice came out of the ceiling. “You would not be able to object, as it clearly works.”

“Whatever.”

The rest of us stood up and one by one introduced ourselves to the dog. She was rather pretty, her coat an even grey all around, even if it was rather shaggy, and she wriggled with joy at all the attention. If such a thing was possible, it seemed to me that she had a sweet face.

“So we’re keeping her, right?” I asked, scratching the dog behind her ears.

Billy gasped. “Jason, can we? I love dogs!”

I laughed. “I mean yeah it’s alright with me, I think we can figure out a way to keep her.”

Billy clapped quickly three times, and I smiled at him.

Zack cocked his head at the dog. “Well, we’re gonna need to name her.”

Trini scoffed. “I’ve been calling her dog, that works fine.”

Kim put a hand to her chest, actually looking distressed. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

Trini only raised an eyebrow.

“Trini,” I laughed, “We’ve got to actually name her.”

“I’ve got it!” Zack held up his hands, grinning. “Shiloh.”

Everyone, even Zordon made a noise of disagreement.

Kim considered the dog for a moment before offering, “Peaches?”

Another chorus of no’s and Zack asked, “Why would you name a dog Peaches?”

Kim hit him gently on his shoulder.

Alpha 5 hummed. “Well, we could always name her after one of the other Rangers-”

A louder chorus of no’s interrupted the robot.

I screwed up my face. “You can’t name a dog after someone who’s dead.”

Billy perked up. “Guys, what about Zuzu?”

Alpha 5 threw their hands up in the air. “Oh for the love of God.”

Zordon announced primly, “I think it’s a fine name.”

Grinning widely at Kim and I, Zack agreed, “Yeah, dude, why not?”

Trini rolled her eyes. “It’s not horrible.”

Kim and I looked at each other and she shrugged. “Zuzu’s actually kind of cute.”

Billy looked at me. “Jason, what do you think?”

“I love it,” I answered immediately, not one ounce of hesitation in my voice.

It was a cute enough name, but Billy being the one to suggest it had definitely sealed the deal.

Billy clapped quickly three times and singsonged, “This is awesome, we have a dog named Zuzu!”

Alpha 5 knocked their head against a wall. “Zuzu is the name of someone who’s dead!”

“Oh, so now you admit that Zuzu was a pet.”

Trini looked up. “Wait a minute, what?”

I waved my hand at her as Zordon and Alpha 5 continued bickering. “Oh, it’s nothing. Just let them argue about it long enough and we don’t have to train today.”

Trini shrugged and smiled. “Easy enough.”

We all sat down on the floor in a circle and let the newly christened Zuzu make her way around to each of us, one at a time.

Billy, who was sitting next to me, looked over at me and stared for a moment.

Just as I was about to ask him what was wrong, his face cleared and he smiled, holding out a hand.

“Jason, can you hold my hand like you did with Trini and Zack?”

My heart leapt in my chest and I was well aware of the blush on my face. “Yeah, Billy, sure.”

I took his hand in my and ignored the shock of awareness that it roused in me, simply lacing our fingers together and rubbing circles on the back of his hand with my thumb.

Billy smiled at me, eye bright. “Awesome, thank you, Jason.”

“Anytime, Billy.”

#ColorPowerSquad #Power Rangers #Saban's Power Rangers #Power Rangers 2017 #Cranscott #Trimberly #Zack Taylor #Jason Scott #Billy Cranston #Kimberly Hart #Trini #Trini Kwan #Trini Gomez

[strangerdarkerbetter]

Do you have a favorite fictional autistic character? Mine is Billy Cranston, aka the Blue Ranger, from the 2017 movie Power Rangers. His character was done so well and I could relate so much to him. The Power Rangers movie left me feeling so incredibly happy afterwards because of the amazing autistic character.

That’s awesome! I’m haven’t gotten the chance to see the movie yet, though I really want to. 

My favorite autistic characters are Temperance Brennan from Bones and Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. I know that both shows have their problems and aren’t perfect representation, but I relate a lot to both characters and I think that, overall, the shows do well at portraying more realistic autistic characters. 

#sabrinaanswersthings #aspie-jake

[possiblyimbiassed]

Maggie, Mary and Moriarty – like ghosts from ze past…

There are indeed lots of recurring themes in BBC Sherlock, like for example suicide or codes and ciphers or ghosts.

But one of the recurring themes is more specific, in the sense that it’s about a person who has lived in the real world – and a powerful one to boot: Margaret Thatcher. This former British prime minister is mentioned repeatedly in the show, but in different ways. So – why this obsession with Thatcher? Is it some sort of clue? Let’s have a closer look; I’ll try to account for all the occurrences here in chronological order and analyze their possible meaning (a warning: this might be a bit lengthy, so please bear with me):

1. The first time Thatcher is mentioned is in John Watson’s blog, at about the time of ASiB. The entry is called “The Six Thatchers” (which most certainly is a reference to ACD Canon’s case The Six Napoleons):

Sally Barnicot contacted Sherlock about the murder of her art-student friend Pietro Venucci, who was found stabbed in the pottery room. His boyfriend Beppo Rovito told the police he had discovered the body. Sally accused Beppo of murder, but there was no evidence.

Sherlock discovered a series of burglaries at other houses related to the university and the victim. John went there in disguise and found that Pietro had made six pottery figures of Maggie Thatcher with devil horns, which had been sold to all the burglary victims. Apparently the figures were meant as satire of Thatcher. Nothing else was taken during the break-ins.

Sherlock and John visited the houses of the two remaining figures. John watched Beppo breaking in, heard glass shattering and saw him finding the figure on the mantlepiece.

They followed him outside, watched him smash the figure and caught him picking up a penknife from inside the figure, which had his initials on it.

Beppo confessed that he and Pietro had an argument and, in a struggle, Beppo had stabbed him. He'd seen the figures going into the oven and pushed the knife into the clay. He'd then smashed a window to make it look like there'd been a break-in.

Observations: a) We never get to know the actual motive for Beppo stabbing his boyfriend.

b) In this blog entry there’s a picture of Sherlock wearing the ‘funny hat’ (deerstalker), which has often been interpreted as his ‘public image’ in spite of him not liking it at all; a Persona he is forced into by others.

c) John believed Sally had been in love with the victim, which could be a sign of a triangle drama of some sort.

2. In The Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock tries to figure out the password to Major Barrymore’s online info about the secret CIA project H.O.U.N.D. Since the Major is strict, conservative and has five biographies of Margaret Thatcher in his book shelf, Sherlock deduces the password: “Maggie”. He finds out that this project has produced a drug as a secret chemical weapon. The online text mentions things like ‘Paranoia,’ ‘Severe frontal lobe damage,’ and ‘Multiple homicide,’ in association with this drug. Sherlock explains it: “ …a new deliriant drug which rendered its users incredibly suggestible. They wanted to use it as an anti-personnel weapon to totally disorientate the enemy using fear and stimulus…”

Observations: a) One of the five project leaders, whose family names form the acronym HOUND, is named Mary Uslowski. Mary Watson was also part of a group with an acronym made from the group members’ names; AGRA.

b) In this scene Thatcher’s name is associated with a poison that brings hallucinations, paranoia and fear to its victims.

3. In the episode The Six Thatchers in Series 4, there are six plaster busts of Margaret Thatcher owned by five different people. There are also a series of burglaries where someone systematically smashes the busts, but doesn’t take anything. The importance of the Thatcher busts is emphasized not only in the episode title, but within the story as well:

Sherlock seems obsessed with finding out how Margaret Thatcher might be connected to James Moriarty:

But he doesn’t have a spelled-out theory; it rather seems based on intuition...

...and the surroundings go spooky and bluish...

However, in spite of Sherlock being called back from his fatal mission in Eastern Europe specifically to deal with Moriarty’s supposed return, he fails miserably to track Moriarty down. In fact, there is basically nothing more revealed in this episode about Jim Moriarty or his possible connection to Thatcher. Mycroft believes that Moriarty is after a certain Black Pearl of the Borgias, but Sherlock doesn’t find the pearl either. (And in the following episode Jim seems totally forgotten).

Instead, the evidence hidden inside the last of the Thatcher busts leads directly to Mary Watson, and her background as member of the contract killer group A.G.R.A.

At first, ‘Mary’ isn’t directly participating when Sherlock investigates the case that leads him to the first Thatcher bust; she is merely seen curiously waiting in the background.

However, when two more Thatcher busts are smashed and they do get in focus, ‘Mary’ - for some odd reason - suddenly gets involved in Sherlock’s search:

It’s a bit strange; ‘Mary’ has never been a part of Sherlock’s cases until now, so it’s unclear why her presence is suddenly so important - especially since her ‘help’ doesn’t lead to any improvement of the case whatsoever:

And still she gets to participate as some kind of expert. It almost seems like Sherlock deliberately lets ‘Mary’ come between him and John, even when they’re working together.

At the end of the episode ‘Mary’ dies from a gunshot (in an extremely unrealistic and overly dramatic way) and her death seems to damage John’s and Sherlock’s friendship when John blames Sherlock for the incident. The interesting thing is, that from now on we get Mary’s ghost as a transmitter of Moriarty’s eternal “miss me?” message:

Associated with one of the Thatcher burglaries is the mysterious death of a young man, Charlie Welsborough, who wanted to surprise his father on his 50:th birthday by pretending to be a car seat and then suddenly drop the disguise. But the guy dies of some sort of seizure and never gets to surprise his father. His body is discovered a week later when the parked car accidentally gets hit by another car and explodes.

Observations: a) This whole Six Thatchers case seems extremely similar to the earlier case on John’s blog; there are the same number of Thatcher images (although this time with no devil’s horns, thus worshipped rather than mocked), they are all smashed and there is important evidence hidden inside one of them at the pottery, with someone’s initials on it (but this time information rather than a weapon).

b) This time Sherlock actually seems happy about the busts being destroyed. Charlie Welsborough’s father has images of Thatcher as a shrine placed on a prominent place in the living room, while the photos of his dead son only appear on a side table.  Sherlock pretends to not recognize the importance of Thatcher, and he almost expresses sympathy with the burglar:

And Sherlock is not alone; even his mostly very formal and polite civil servant of a brother is critical:

As the smashing continue, Sherlock is not exactly worried…

:) Actually, I believe he’s encouraging people to vote against Thatcherism:

And Sherlock even gets to smash the last Thatcher bust himself:

c) The young Charlie Welsborough seems queer- or trans-coded in the subtext, since

i) Sherlock mis-genders Charlie by referring to him as the Welsboroughs’ daughter:

ii) There’s an 18th or 19th century painting in his parents’ house with a little girl with a drum – hardly a common toy for girls in those times:

iii) There’s a Blue Power Ranger figure attached to the front of Charlie’s car, associating to the TV series with the same name, which is shown melting when the car explodes:

David Yost, the actor who played the Blue Power Ranger ‘Billy Cranston’, has stated he had “walked off the show --- due to repeated and ongoing homophobic slurs by the creators, producers, directors, and writers of the series” (X).

Even Charlie is associated with ghosts in this episode; John mentions that he’s going to call this case “The Ghost Driver” on his blog.

So maybe Charlie’s death is also significant; he died while trying to make himself invisible to his father-the-Thatcher-lover by resembling a car seat, possibly due to fear that his father would disapprove of his sexual orientation or trans-gender identity.

d) Whenever Thatcher is in focus in this episode, weird things happen; the surroundings become spooky and bluish…

…and/or watery…

… or Sherlock gets the imprint of Maggie projected on his face:

5: Right before one of the bust smashings, parting from the scene in Mycroft’s office where Sherlock wants to know how Moriarty is connected to Thatcher, there’s a glass being shattered:

The same thing happened earlier, in John’s blog case The Six Thatchers, when Beppo was discovered at a crime scene. And later in the show, inside Sherlock’s mind palace in TAB, John and Sherlock also heard the sound of glass shattering. At the time they thought it was a window shattering while someone was breaking in, but it turned out that the object broken was a mirror used to produce the illusion of a ghost:

To summarise: We have these three ghosts casting their shadows over the show from TAB to TFP, and maybe even earlier: Maggie Thatcher, James Moriarty and Mary Watson. But in TAB Sherlock insists to John: “You may, however, rest assured there are no ghosts in this world… save those we make for ourselves”.

So my guess is that these are ghosts that Sherlock has created in his mind palace. The blog case and also Major Barrymore’s fondness of Thatcher in THoB might be ‘real’, but Series 4 seems to be Sherlock’s rehashing of past events in new ways inside his mind palace (EMP theory). In THoB Barrymore’s secret info accessible with the password “Maggie” is about a drug that instils fear in the victims, confuses them and makes them hallucinate. Maybe this drug is also involved with all the weird things Sherlock experiences in Series 4.

The shattering of glass in the two Six Thatchers cases, as well as in the ghost case in TAB, seem to alert the audience to pay attention, and to realize the fact that this ghost imagery is all fake; there’s no reason for us to believe in these ghosts or obey their messages, since they all belong to the past and do not actually exist except in people’s heads. 

But I do think each one of the ghosts represents something in this story on a metaphorical level, for Sherlock, for John and for society as a whole, which I’ve been trying to show here:  (X, X, X, X) . In ‘Mary’s case I think it’s heteronormativity and in Moriarty’s it’s homophobia. They’re the villains of the story; they’re the issues that are keeping Sherlock and John from openly becoming who they really are. 

But what about ‘Maggie’ – why this massive emphasis on a PM from the eighties and people smashing images of her? Well, I suspect it’s because she’s been infamous for her homophobic conduct as a Prime minister in that period. Some of the best-known examples:

Quote from Margaret Thatcher’s speech to Conservative Party Conference October 9, 1987 (X):  ”Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. - - - All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life - yes cheated.”

In 1988 Thatcher’s government legislated Britain’s first new anti-gay law in 100 years; Section 28, which stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" (X)

Thatcher tried to block public health warnings about Aids in the eighties. Allegedly she feared teenagers would be “harmed" by an Aids awareness campaign about how the disease spread. (X) (X)  

My conclusion: Maggie, Mary and Moriarty are connected in this show, they take turns to represent what’s literally killing Sherlock, John and their relationship: homophobia and heteronormativity. And in the case of Thatcher it’s connected to the official power – a prevailing viewpoint that totally dominated society in the Victorian times when ACD’s Canon was written, and that still has a lot of influence. The six Thatchers are all smashed in the show, but Mary and Moriarty still linger as ghosts until the end of TFP. Let’s hope there actually will be a fifth series some time, where we can finally get rid of these ghosts once and for all.

#Thatcher and Sherlock #the six thatchers #johnlock #TJLC #MARY IS A VILLAIN #mary is evil #Moriarty

[sapphia]

i’ll still hold abed nadir as the best-written autistic character in anything ever but i’m so excited!! over how good billy was in power rangers. he was so much more than just an autism stereotype, and he was so!! freaking!! sympathetic!! like, its awful in shows when you have that Neurodivergent Character (TM) and they’re weird and maybe you’re supposed to feel sorry for them but you’re not really encouraged to like them, let alone love them or relate to them. and then you have billy who’s a literal ball of sunshine and he’s Different and it’s Weird but that’s not treated as a bad thing. 

right from the outset, his differences are treated as a part of him, and that’s okay. he doesn’t need to change to fit in. he lines his pencils up exactly on his desk and thats strange to a lot of people and unrelatable, but when the bully comes over and snaps it and the hero character immediately comes to his defence because So What if billy is being unusual when he’s lining his pencils up, that’s his thing and he’s allowed to do it. And yeah he doesn’t like being touched, but that’s cool, and when he’s exact with numbers, it’s humorous, but we’re not laughing at him for being Weird, we’re laughing at him because that’s him, unapologetically him. in fact, there were a lot of moments where billy provided the comic relief, often related to his autism (”you’re not black”) but most of the time, we’re not laughing at him for being autistic. 

if i had one complaint it’d be that billy played the role of the “innocent”; the character that binds the team together, is likeable and funny, the more palatable minor character or sidekick to the strong, often dark, Masculine Hero (like Piggy from Lord of the Flies, or Rue, in the Hunger Games, Sam in the Hobbit, the list goes on and on). i’d hate for it to become a trope for autistic characters to be the innocent, light-hearted one in an ensemble cast, always the sidekick, always taking on the role of the “innocent”. but given there are fuck all autistic characters out there as it is, i think we’re safe for now. 

so yeah, billy cranston is now my second favourite Confirmed autistic character. <3

#billy cranston #power rangers #power rangers 2017 #autism #actually autistic

[ladyautie]

30 days of autism acceptance 2020

By @autie-jake

April 7: Talk about autism in the media. Do you think that autism is typically portayed well? Badly? Is there anything you’d like to see more of when it comes to autistic representation? Who are your favorite autistic characters? Do you have any headcanons?

Oh boy, that’s quite a large question! 

I’ll answer first from the perspective of an autistic french woman : no, definitely, autism is not portrayed well in my country. I can’t think of a single movie or tv show that portrayed autism well in France. 

The most recent movie I can think of is solely about the medical/educational team and how brave they are to take care of autistic people and the most recent tv show with a main autistic character only had one episode so far and featured stilted acting, functioning labels, a scene where autistic characters are supposed to feel guilty because they’re complaining about their life while a NT mother is like “well, I wish my son could get in trouble at work because at least, that means he’ll be able to work” and so on.

From a larger perspective, I think we had some great canon autistic characters in movies and tv shows in recent years. Billy Cranston from “Power Rangers” is one of my favorite, especially because he gets to be a superhero and funny and charming without being mocked or pushed to be more “normal”. I also really liked the main character from “Please Stand by”, an autistic woman who writes fanfiction for Star Trek and is willing to do anything to prove to others that she’s perfectly able to strive in this world.

One of my favorite autistic characters, and one I relate the most to, is probably Abed Nadir from “Community”. My main special interest is pop culture and I’ve been raised a lot by TV and movies, so I can only relate. I think he’s really realistic and I would really like to see more autistic characters like him.

As for my headcanons, the one that is currently obsessing me is Eddie Kaspbrak from the It movies, especially in chapter 2 when we get to see him as an adult. He’s slightly gullible, isn’t the best with social stuff, get carried away by his emotions and he seems to have a special interest in his line of work and health issues (stemming from his traumatic childhood). 

Although I’m clearly in denial regarding his fate in the movie and I’d rather keep on writing my fanfictions and rps with him than to think about what fate Stephen King and the director of the movies had in store for him...

#actuallyautistic #actually autistic #autistic headcanon #autistic characters #autism acceptance month #30 days of autism acceptance

[0bianidalas]

i bought a condo in zack taylor’s ass

my shitty power rangers review:

its a long coming statement but: damn, i love power rangers. i know you guys probably didnt know that bc you dont keep track of my shit-posting but even before the movie was announced i checked the in-tumblr pr fandom (mostly cause for SOME reason i re-candled my love for the seasons i watched --everything before mystic force-- on like 2013). so, when they finally confirmed there was an actual pr movie coming out i was, well, Very Supportive (tm) 

then as the months progressed i started realizing how diverse the cast was but that didnt Shock me bc power rangers DOES that, but when i went to contrast this ACTUAL MOVIE with other MOVIES of the same genre i was.........in Awe. the power rangers film gained a whole new meaning for me; it wasn’t about the little kid inside me getting to see her heroes again, but it was also for the young, a little more educated in social topics, adult that i am right now. 

so, yeah, power rangers HIGHLY succeeded in my expectations -- everything i hoped it to be, it was. but ANYWAYS my pointers: 

my Children: starting with the Crazy momma’s boy (tm) -- Zack, oh god. So, a couple of minutes into the movie i was already like WHEEEERE IS MY BOY ZACK??? & when he was about to show up i went ‘is that za--THAT IS MY BOY RIGHT THERE!’ ppl had to shut me up, for real. I KNEW HE WAS GONNA BE MY FAVE SINCE THE DAY I READ HIS OFFICIAL BIO & UPON FINDING OUT THAT THE THING THAT MADE HIM VULNERABLE WAS HIS MOM? LIKE !! KILL ME ALREADY??? -- also ludi could Get It (tm) iykwim --- just damn, also hes bi as hell??? Wow, also would 100% die for Billy, like, Big Mood #same

MY SWEET CINNAMON ROLL MY ONE SUNSHINE PLEASE DONT TAKE MY SUNSHINE AWAY WILLIAM CRANSTON. So, as someone who has close relatives in the spectrum i was hoping they’d do a good job. RJ Cyler nailed it with billy like damn. In the OG series i liked billy just enough but this Billy???? i would ????? murder & die for him???? so m u ch????? RJ played awesome that mix between geniune confussion & humor, making billy a well-rounded character that people could love -- also the fact that they made billy the center character of the group like ur faves would literally never -- also that whole thing of Billy & his dad ??? murdered me ???? i lost my dad four years ago & im not in the spectrum but i ?? relate ??? so much ??? (like, that convo with himself acting like it was his dad?? bithc i dont want to Talk about it but i do that too bye) 

trini mija -- i wish i couldve seen more of her, for some reason i feel like she even had less screen time than zack & she got that bit with rita but im like??? i need ??? More ??? of trini. it was a good portrayal of an outsider character but also it was a nice, different thing from what ive seen in previous pr shows like ??? im having a hard time remembering the last “closed-up, ‘dont wanna be friends’, then later on grows out of it” ranger like im sure there have been but rn all i can remember is the group of five people 100% down for friendship & it was nice to have a character (tho, they all were) with layers that didnt jump immidiately into being with a group of people just for ~~~reasons~~ 

my kiddos jason & kim -- im putting them in the same group bc i feel, essentially, equally the same about both (tho, kimberly comes first obvs but like, i still have issues, born in my childhood, with pink rangers & the fact that as the younger cousin i was always forced to be the pink one so now i dislike all pink rangers ever). how i feel about them? well, *insert image of kris jenner saying ‘youre doing amazing honey’* like they’re the most flawed characters of the five & i feel them ??? so much??? bc theyre both trying ???? & im really fighting the urge to ship them bc tommy oliver’s gonna get his/her ass here soon enough & Shit Will Get Real (also bc kim is into trini dont fight me on this) but like ??? jason & kimberly???  they’re actual ??? Parents (tm) -- also “you did an awful thing that doesn’t make you an awful person’ i wanna Die 

lastly i loved Alpha 5 as i predicted i would even tho people gave him endless shit for how he looked. That damn ass cute robot where would i be without him? ay-yi-yi 

rita was also Breathtaking like. THIS is a true worthy villian like she Does live up to her OG version. All really creppy & scary -- plus im really excited about her background in this bc shes now the first green ranger lady  & like also, its gonna mean A Lot once tommy shows up bc damn, Zordon’s not gonna trust his ass at all

now the Wall Dad: So Bryan Cranston did a srsly good job, specially in that first bit when he was the actual red ranger, amazing. I’m still kinda :/ about the fact that he, too, was flawed & not completely perfect as the OG version -- like all his harsh talk & giving them shit when they couldnt morph just bc he wanted to come back & shit like that......yeah i was :/ but Hey, still great tho (i mean, he did gave up coming back to save billy so ofc i love dad!wall zordon) 

it might be the hype or the fact that im hella biased just bc i want this franchise to do well but i really cant remember what stuff i didnt like about this movie ?? like ???? they did nearly everything???? i wanted ???? 

go watch power rangers 2017, dir. Dean Israelite 

#goooooooooooooo #power rangers spoilers

[kbunny10]

My Spoiler Filled Thoughts on the New Power Rangers Film

I have so many feelings about this movie, but I’m going to mention so many spoilers so all of that is under the cut.

So I saw Power Rangers 2 days ago and I just need somewhere to let all my thoughts out. Let me preface this by saying that Power Rangers is one of the first shows I remember watching as a child. For a long long time we didn't have cable at my house (my parents didn't want me watching mind poisoning cartoons like Ed Edd 'n Eddy) so the only place I could really watch Power Rangers was at my grandparents house. That's fine, I was literally there everyday until I was 5 anyways. In Kindergarten I had to go into a morning care program where there were a small collection of video games and board games to play with. One of the board games was a Power Rangers game. The game had you choose which Ranger you would play as and it had their names on it. My name is Kim, the Pink Ranger was Kim, pink is my favorite color. This was the only time I could get exactly what I wanted in school because kids would be like "well does it have your name on it?" As a matter of fact it does fucker. I was even the Pink Ranger for halloween that year. There are other things I remember about my time with power rangers (like how when I marathoned In Space with my mom and my cousin I threw a tantrum when Karone didn't become the purple ranger and I ended up stomping in dog vomit) but none of those things really relate to the Rangers portrayed in the film, so let's move on. I think the first thing I was extremely pleased about can be summed up in a line from Alpha 5 "Different colors, different kids, different colored kids." This movie is everything I've been hoping for in remakes, it's oozing in diversity and it didn't stick to how things were set up in the original show. We have a white kid, a half Indian girl (Naomi Scott did a wonderful job as my favorite Kim), a Latina, a Chinese-Canadian, and an African American. But to top it all off the Asian character and the Black character weren't the yellow ranger and black ranger respectively. They were more than just their skin colors. Billy is never called "too white" for how he acts, on top of it not only does he exhibit autistic like symptoms but he even says he's on the spectrum. A black autistic superhero, I'm so glad. Zack is bilingual, and we only ever see him speaking in Mandarin with his mother, no English in their scenes, I love it. I haven't been this thrilled about another language since I saw Assassins Creed in theaters. (Which as bad as the film was, props to having everything entirely in Spanish in the flashbacks. I loved that.) I did have some complaints. I went into the movie thinking that Trini was going to be a lesbian. What I got was Zack asking her "boyfriend troubles?" and her sarcastically saying "yea boyfriend troubles." His eyes grow wide and he says "girlfriend troubles?" She's silent. I can see they were trying to show that she's struggling with her sexuality, Trini realized that she's not straight but she's not sure if she's gay either. I cried myself to sleep for years back when the teachings I got at Catholic school and Church had me thinking that I was horrible and sick if it turned out I was a lesbian, but as much as I liked guys they never interested me as much as a woman's cleavage or the scent of perfume in a girl's hair. Of course now I realize I'm pansexual and I'm much more happy and secure. But what bothers me is that right after all of that Trini goes onto talk about her family issues and says "they like labels." Hold up "labels"?! LABELS?! No, you did not. Come on guys you already said Billy was on the spectrum, why are you backtracking to the stereotypical "labels" shit that they do with bisexual people on tv instead of just saying they're bi?! Ugh. Part of me thinks that maybe, just maybe they thought saying "labels" was the same thing as saying "I'm on the spectrum" instead of having Billy straight up say "I'm autistic." Maybe they thought it could be inferred and people would be happy? But they really fucked up there. I wish they had shown us more of Trini's mom too, the way she talked to Trini, asking rapid fire questions and slamming her hands down on the table while screaming "say something" just made me think about how maybe her mom is abusive to her. She does give Trini a cup to pee in when Trini makes a comment about how she thinks she's a super hero and that's kind of funny, but coupled with what she had done moments before...I think at the very least she and her mom have an emotionally abusive relationship, but the fact that questions weren't asked about the holes in the wall Rita left behind while beating the shit out of Trini...makes me think its progressed past that. One thing I noticed in the film is that we know that Trini and Zack go to school with Kim, Billy, and Jason; yet we never actually see them in school with the other 3. A lot of scenes are in detention and Trini and Zack aren't there until the very end of the film, but I feel like Trini and Zack never get as much development as the other 3. I mean we know their names are Kimberly Hart, Billy, Cranston, and Jason Scott, but we never once hear Zack Taylor or Trini Kawn. They're just Zack and Trini. I'm guessing Taylor and Kwan aren't even their last names now with the the ethnicity change. I've read a couple interviews from the people who worked on the film and I know a lot of the deleted scenes involve Zack's back story. Even looking at the trailers I know they deleted the scene of Zack jumping over a house, Trini at her deface locker with the things "loser" "ugly" and "die" written on there, and a scene of Zack morphed and running around at night. So I hope the dvd is either an extended cut or includes these scenes. I'd like to make some comments specifically on Kim, I mean she's my love so I kind of have to. I thought that Kim's switch from gymnastics to cheer leading was arbitrary, but it still made sense so I won't complain. When she passes her former friends in the final fight and they get hit with rubble she says "serves you right" and then Billy's bully hops in the car to shield himself. This implies that Kim's friends are on the same level as the bully. But all they did was cut Kim out because she sent her friend's nude to her boyfriend and made fun of her. That's...extremely reasonable? Kim was actually really shitty there so they didn't exactly deserve anything. However, if we go back to how they cut out Trini's locker scene, a part of me wonders if they're the ones that are picking on Trini. Trini seems to have an unexplained amount of hostility towards Kim that I don't think can just be explained by Kim not knowing Trini well after a year of her attending the school. It would make sense, even though they cut Kim out for a good reason, they seem to have mean girl tendencies and I almost think they are the ones making Trini's school life hell. Also though, I'm not a popular person and never have been. Super popular girls in a bathroom stall together and then falling out giggling in a flirty way? A popular girl sending a nude to a friend in confidence? That doesn't make sense to me. Is Kim's friend bi? Did she send Kim the nude hitting on her? Was she making out with their other friend in the bathroom? These are all thoughts that come to mind that I feel weren't explained. I mean I've seen girls come out of stalls together giggling like that, but that was in a Barnes and Noble bathroom where I hid for the entire time they were having sex. I couldn't leave because it was embarrassing but it wasn't fun to sit there and listen either. Another thing that they cut from the film, which I'm actually glad they did, was the Jason and Kim romance. It's still partially there, you can see it, but without the kiss and any sort of declaration of feelings it can also be read as just close flirty friends. I hated the idea of a romance happening between them in the movie. I was so against it, so when they cut the kiss out of the film I was actually really glad. Now if they have Kim be with Tommy in the second film, hopefully there won't be a love triangle there. I don't really ship Kim with Jason or Tommy, I'd be fine if they cut the romance entirely, but she's bound to be with one of them at some point. We know that Tommy is coming because of the lovely mid credits scene, a zoom in on a green jacket while the teacher in charge of detention calls for "Tommy Oliver" who is not present. I hope, hope they do something with Tommy's ethnicity too. I would love if he was Native American or something like that. In all honesty I was hoping that maybe we'd get a female green ranger, I mean in the scene at the very beginning we see Rita in the full green ranger armor so we do technically get a green ranger, and she's in the corrupted version of the armor for most of the film. But I was hoping that maybe they would make Tommy a girl so the main green ranger would also be female? But Rita as female green ranger in the past is good enough for me..for now. Overall I loved the film for what it was, I am bitter there wasn't more character development for Trini and Zack, but I'm glad with how it turned out. I think one of my favorite scenes was early on in the film, after they first got their power coins and they were running away from the mine. I liked how all 5 of them ended up in the car together to try to escape. The whole scene just came off as so pure and I loved the way everyone moved around during it. Yknow right up until they were hit by the train and almost died. I guess if I had one last question to ask about the film it would be: what the fuck did Trini do to get put in detention at the end of the film? Jason is there because he broke into the rival high school to put a stolen bull in there, Kim is there because she sent her boyfriend a nude of one of her friends and then punched his teeth out, Billy is there because he blew up his lunchbox, and we can infer that Zack is there because he skipped so much school taking care of his mother/finding a way to cope with the idea that she might eventually die that he probably has to be there every weekend in order to graduate. But what did Trini do? She goes to school, does her homework, and flies relatively under the radar from what she told us, so why would she end up there?

#power rangers #power rangers 2017 #power rangers movie #kimberly hart #jason scott #billy cranston #trini kwan #zack taylor

[ostermahaus]

It’s Morphin’ Time!  Eventually... Power Rangers Review

Saban’s Power Rangers opens darkly.  You see a blasted torn up landscape of prehistoric Earth with the Red Ranger dragging himself across it, obviously injured.  He crawls to the Yellow Ranger, also lying prone who morphs into an alien and hands her coin to him, telling him to hide it before dying in his arms.  Yikes.  He morphs into Zordon (Bryan Cranston) and puts his coin with the others he’s carrying, instructing Alpha via communicator to fire a meteorite at his current location.  He turns to find himself face to face with a female Green Ranger named Rita (Elizabeth Banks) who he accuses of being a traitor and killing his team.  She boasts that she’s won when Zordon informs her it’s too late and a meteor comes crashing down on them sending her to the bottom of the sea.  Also wiping out the dinosaurs, I presume.  I guess nuking from orbit was the only way to be sure. Smash cut to a bunch of jocks leading a bull into a locker room as a prank and we meet Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) who informs us that he calmed the cow down by milking it.  Womp womp.  Your protagonist can’t tell an udder from a dong, not a great start.  The cops show up and after the most nausea inducing go-pro car chase I’ve ever encountered (Seriously, I saw Gravity on the UltraScreen in 3D and this almost made me vomit) he gets in a horrific wreck and we have a title screen. Go go Power Rangers?  If you never watched the show this may seem exciting.  If you did, well here’s why it might not be what you were expecting.

 Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers hit children in 1993 with a blast of popularity that overpowered the Ninja Turtles and kept kids riveted until Pokemon came along at the end of the decade!  A Japanese import, it was cheesy, silly, campy and formulaic and pre-teens ate it up!  As well as some teens.  I was just hitting the age where I felt like I was outgrowing Saturday morning/after school shows (Thank God that phase didn’t last) so I was never a die hard fan, but I knew enough people that were that I kept abreast of the original shows run.  I watched a fair number of episodes with my friends more due to our love of riffing it a la Mystery Science Theater 3000 than anything else…  Although I will admit that Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson)  kept me on board a bit as well.  The premise was simple.  Five teenagers from Angel Grove are given magic coins that allow them to morph into Power Rangers.  Spandex clad ninjas with full coverage helmets who can summon robot dinosaurs called Zords and merge them Voltron style into a giant Mega Zord to win the day.  They answer to Zordon, a giant holographic head, and fight the monsters that Rita Repulsa repeatedly sends down from the moon.  Ninjas, dinosaurs and giant robots.  It was famous for the obvious cut between the American actors doing their day to day thing and the original Japanese footage being used once they were in costume.  Ever wonder why Kimberly was the only Ranger wearing a skirt?  Because the Yellow Ranger in that Japanese footage is a dude.  (The more you know!)  That’s all you needed and it’s still on the air in some iteration to this day!  Why mess with a good thing?  If it’s not broke, right?

 Unfortunately Hollywood is following a current and overused trend of trying to make things dark and gritty when they reboot them right now.  That’s not to say it can’t work, but it really feels like a forced excutive decision by the movie companies some times.  This new Power Rangers update has a lot of things that work really well for it as they try to make a serious and less campy approach to one of the most popular cheese fests ever.  They also make some big missteps.  I know that Zordon famously asked for “teenagers with attitude” in the original and wound up with the nicest kids in town, but this version makes an over correction by having three of them meet in detention and one of them just not go to school at all.  Turns out Jason has to wear an ankle bracelet now and report to detention for the rest of the year and lost all sorts of football scholarships.  As soon as he walks in he sees Billy (RJ Cyler) being bullied for OCD behavior arranging things on his desk.  Jason puts a stop to it and Billy immediately declares him his new best friend for sticking up for him!  I really liked Billy in this movie, but they make a very clear point early on to have him state that he’s on the autism spectrum and they play it pretty well until he becomes a Ranger.  Then it just seems to disappear and he’s merely giddy all the time.  He’s adorkable, sure, and probably the most likeable character but it would have been nice to see them stick to his spectrum tendencies.  Jason is fairly dismissive until he offers to use his skills to hack Jason’s ankle bracelet in order for them to hang out.  How all true friendships begin!

 Next we meet Kimberly Heart (Naomi Scott) who was set up by her cheerleader ‘friends’ for an incriminating picture that’s been circulating around school and they show up to inform her that she no longer gets to be a plastic.  It makes her so angry that she gives herself a kicky new haircut in the bathroom that Jason is immediately smitten by when she returns from the restroom!  After Billy hacks the ankle device, he and Jason go into a restricted area of the gold mine outside Angel Grove because apparently Billy likes to blast there.  Even though it’s an active mine with security.  Shrug  While Billy is setting his charges, Jason goes off to hike around and spies Kimberly cliff diving while We get Zack (Ludi Lin) and Trini (Becky G.) dropped in as just random kids who are also hanging out in an active work zone after dark.  Her to practice her Karate Kid poses and him to watch her through binoculars.  Like you do.  Anyway, Billy’s blast draws them all and they discover 5 glowing coins embedded in the rock.  After cutting them out, they each grab one and then alarms go off, summoning security and another slightly less vomit inducing chase that AGAIN ends in a horrific crash, this time with a train.  The next morning they all wake up at home with no injuries and no knowledge of how they survived the wreck, plus sick abs and super strength!  Wanna know how they managed that without being seen?  Or what Billy’s mom’s reaction is to the destruction of HER van?  (You see the wreck later on being pulled off the tracks)  You’re out of luck!  Anyway, they get together and decide to go back to try to find answers about the coins and discover a buried spaceship manned by Alpha 5 (Bill Hader) and Zordon’s memory in the ship’s computer.  He informs them that they’re the Power Rangers and they need to learn to defend the universe once they can learn to morph!  Eventually…

 I don’t know if it came with the casting of Bryan Cranston but the biggest drawback of this film is that at 2 hours almost every minute of the Rangers suited up has been shown in the trailers because it only happens in the films final action scene, similar to my beef with Godzilla not having enough Godzilla.  There are training montages aplenty and I really did appreciate the effort it made to give the core cast some substance behind there characters that wasn’t there before, but it’s pace could best be described as deliberate.  The film seems to work the best when it’s trying to have some fun and not brooding so much, which is all too often.  The scene of all the nerd kids idolizing Billy after he knocks out a bully without trying and then being in awe when he gets pulled from the table by Kimberly?  Great!  Fun little scene, use more moments like that as opposed to repeated instances of people mispronouncing Trini as DeeDee.  ???  I assume it’s a joke but I just don’t get it and boy do they keep pushing it.  I wish they had done more with Zack as he had a lot of potential in his backstory.  He doesn’t attend school any more because you find out he’s caring for his terminally ill mother but aside from that reveal he just gets all the “I’m gonna shout quips!” style lines.  Don’t try taking a drink every time he calls Trini “Crazy Girl”, it won’t end well.  Jason is fine in his role as the leader, but as is the curse of the leader role (Cyclops, Leonardo), is pretty bland.  Kimberly and Trini are both solid female role models although I wish they would have come right out with Trini’s sexuality/crush on Kimberly rather than just heavily alluding to it.  Although I was disappointed by him dropping the autism traits halfway through, I thought Billy in the second half was the most relatable character.  He’s just so giddy every time they bring up the fact they get to be Rangers!

 I was not a fan of the design choices for Alpha and the Zords.  Alpha was thankfully less obnoxious than the original, but his super long arms on the tiny body just looked weird and creepy.  Props to Hader for making me not hate him!  The Zords…  I couldn’t tell what I was looking at.  I’ll be honest, aside from the T-Rex and the Pterodactyl they could have been anything.  I had to go online after the movie because I couldn’t remember if the Triceratops was Blue or Black because I couldn’t tell them apart.  Turns out it’s Blue.  For as many montages as we were dealt and given the movies run time, I’d have preferred to see them learning their suits and Zords right off the bat as opposed to trying and failing to Morph a half dozen times and then finally getting it right just in time for the final battle where they go in operating things they’ve never used before.  I know I’m overthinking it, but I hate when people just innately know how to use things like that.

 Lastly we come to the villains.  I’ve got really mixed feelings on this part.  I appreciate they wanted to take it more seriously, and I like what they did with Rita but DAMN.  They may have made her a bit too intense for the audience that’s generally associated with Power Rangers!  Banks is great and and she is wonderfully creepy and terrifying but there is a scene where she’s killed some police officers and you see that she’s ripped the teeth out of one and has dismembered/is CANNIBALIZING the other.  This is while she’s still in her slightly mummified state after a fishing boat pulls up her body and it’s horror movie levels of creepy as she gets her power back to create Goldar.  Because he’s made of gold, see?  I don’t quite get her power set because at first she’s brutally murdering people for their gold, then eating it (WTF?) then just pointing at it and drawing it to her in liquid form.  At least she gets to say “Make my monster grow.”

 Overall, it’s not bad.  It’s not as action packed as you’d expect, but what references do show up are all well placed and fun.  You get some cameos and throwback lines.  Ay-yi-yi and what not.  My favorite reference was when two boys were arguing who got to be the Red Ranger while they’re playing and Trini tells them, “Why not Yellow?”  “That’s a girl!”  “How do you know?”  lol  Love the message and the nod to the original Yellow I mentioned earlier, but unfortunately undercut by the obvious sculpted boob armor on Pink and Yellow…  Best moment, bar none, was when they played the original theme.  Unfortunately it’s just one refrain then back to generic orchestration, but the theater I was in was electrified when it came on!  I’m not made of stone, that riff is freaking amazing.  You could tell everyone was a bit bummed when it didn’t continue throughout the fight.  As usual anymore, stay through the credits.  There’s a mid credit scene that I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to call before it happens but it’s there.  LOL at the guys behind me talking loudly throughout the film complaining about the very thing the scene was about and leaving before it happened.  That’s what you get for being terrible movie attendants!  If you were a fan of the show as a kid, I think you’ll have a great time!  If you’re bringing your kids because of how much YOU loved it…  Just be aware it gets really dark and creepy in places and might move a bit slow if they have to wait over 90 minutes to see any Morphin’ Time.

[heroicstudios]

THE POWER RANGERS MOVIE SUCKED!!!!

Because if I said it was awesome, how many of you would’ve actually clicked on the link? Yes, you’ve been trolled, and this is a NO-SPOILER REVIEW. Meaning, NO SPOILERS WHATSOEVER!!

Power Rangers, the multicolored, teenagers with attitude, giant mechanical dinosaur controlling, superheroes. True diehard fans such as myself have been waiting for this movie since 2013. Yes, it’s been a LOOOOOONG four year wait but tonight, it was worth it! Ever since it was announced that Lionsgate would head up the production of the film, I literally followed the production EVERYWHERE!! From the actors, to the villains, plot, and zords. Hell, I was even speculating what Zordon would actually look like, we all were.

Before I dive into this review, let me take a minute to go over a brief history of Power Rangers. The franchise has been around for over 20 years. I remember watching them when I got home from school and of course Saturday mornings. Power Rangers tells the story of a diverse group of teenagers, and I mean diverse, coming together to fight the forces of the evil Rita Repulsa. They are granted powers by the interdimensional being named Zordon and transformed into the superhero fighting force known as the power rangers.

The concept all started in the mind of an Egyptian immigrant named Haim Saban, who saw the Japanese counterpart of the Power Rangers, Super Sentai, in Japan and for five years worked to get the material over here in the states. When he finally did, the show took off and has becomes a big hit even to this day. From Mighty Morphin’, to Zeo, From Turbo, to In Space and beyond, the Power Rangers have become a fan favorite from those of us who grew up with the show to the generation of today.

When I first heard they were making a Power Rangers reboot my head literally exploded. I mean, those of us who remember the 1995 Power Rangers movie would think to ourselves “DAMN! IT’S ABOUT TIME!” Throughout the production, most fans were a bit worried when the cast was release, when the design of Rita Repulsa was revealed, and of course, what Goldar would look like. Yes, I was one of them, I’ll admit. However, Hollywood is known for butchering 90s cult classics. Am I right?? But I mean, like our President, I decided to give it a chance. When the first trailer dropped I must admit I WAS NOT impressed. I wanted to see more because really, when it comes down to Power Rangers, I think I’m the leading expert (anybody want to take me up on that challenge you are welcomed to do so.) When finally the second trailer dropped, all of that changed.

For all of us who grew up with show who was expecting it to be a take on the 90s incarnation, we were wrong. DEAD WRONG! In fact, the entire overall premise could relate to both longtime fans and new ones. Whether you were there when Tommy was the evil green ranger, or just starting out with this year’s new team, Ninja Steel. There’s something in this movie for everyone.

This movie expressed a lot of the teamwork aspect but not just as rangers, but as friends. Something I believe the original show didn’t do enough of. They’re strangers in the beginning of the movie and throughout the course of the film they’re bonding. Not just because they have to save the world, but because it’s a crucial concept for them to morph. Five teenagers who virtually have nothing in common learn a deep valuable lesson about friendship and overcoming odds and eventually coming together both in and out of the suits.

 Even Elizabeth Banks (Rita Repulsa) put on a grand performance as the diabolical villain of the film. “I’ve killed rangers before…” wait, did she just say killed? Most of us knew this movie would definitely be a darker one compared to the original. Instead of the 90s iteration of the original team who loved to help out in the community, teach karate classes, and be role models for us kids at the time, the reboot introduced the team as the direct opposite. Delinquents, each struggling with their own problems and trying to figure out a way to let it go (shut up Elsa!). What better way than to become a superhero, right?

Jason Scott (Dacre Montgomery) AKA the Red Ranger, Kimberly Hart (Naomi Scott) AKA the Pink Ranger, Zack Taylor (Ludi Lin) AKA the Black Ranger, Trini Kwan (Becky G) AKA The Yellow Ranger and Billy Cranston (RJ Cyler) AKA the Blue Ranger, all came together and made all of us get bit by the nostalgia bug. I mean, I’m still geeking out over EVERYTHING that went down. The actors and actresses all put on an awesome display of just raw Power Rangers-ness.

Let’s not forget the former Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston who played the illustrious leader of it all, Zordon. Even though he wasn’t a giant head in a tube, Zordon is still Zordon in my book. Alpha 5, played by Bill Hader even paid a nice tribute to the original Alpha 5 and his AYIE AYIE AYIE catchphrase. (Is that how you spell AYIE?) Not to mention there are tons of Easter Eggs in this film that pay homage to not just original Power Rangers but the entire franchise itself. If you’re a diehard fan you will catch ALL of the Easter eggs in this film.

Here’s a game, when you see the movie, if you can tell me the reference that’s made when Jason’s father says Mariner Bay and Reef Side, I’ll send you something from Heroic Studios as a prize. Just leave a comment.

Now, I’m not going to give away the entire Easter egg hunt nor any spoilers for the movie. That’s for you to see on your own but I believe a second serving of this awesome movie is in order without a doubt.

Not to mention that the humor was something you will never forget. None of the comedy was corny, none of the fight scenes and action was cheesy, at least not to me. To long time Power Ranger fans, it was definitely a tribute.

 We here at Heroic Studios give Power Rangers a 5 STAR review without question. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! If you don’t like it after that….then I don’t know.

Oh yeah, will the legendary ranger of all time make his debut in future power rangers films? Perhaps. But maybe you should wait for the credits to roll to find out!

#Power Rangers #Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #powerrangersmovie #power ranger movie #power ranger 2017 #rita repulsa #goldar #dacre montgomery #beckyg #naomi scott #rj cyler #ludi lin #zack taylor #jason david frank #jason lee scott #kimberly hart #amy jo johnson #thuy trang #zach taylor #austin st. john #walter jones #billy cranston #bryan cranston #breaking bad #movies #blog #blogger #movie review #movie recommendation #90s