Zeo vs Lightspeed

[JNTA123450]

I can't believe the day almost ended without doing this but yeah it's the 15th day of a month which means it's time for me to do my thing. Which is to start a thread where I pin two seasons against each other that I find almost equal in caliber, and that the fandom finds equal as well. Back in August we had the "awesome" seasons of Disney Era, Dino Thunder and RPM, and before that we had the "meh" seasons of Disney Era, Mystic Force and Jungle Fury. Now we have the "average" seasons of the Saban era, Zeo and Lightspeed Rescue.

While these seasons are in the middle for me, alongside DT and RPM, I hold both of them close to my heart. It felt like we were home again. I get emotional when I watch the rangers from these seasons together because it's just so beautiful. With Zeo, it was just so wonderful because they had finally recaptured the magic that made the original cast so amazing. After two straight seasons of suit fillers with bland and vague personalities we finally had a team, where all the rangers felt equal, each with a defined personality. All of them came such a long way, even that damn Tommy. Same with Lightspeed, they had special skills to bring to the table and were different in every way but complimented each other well, exactly like the original MMPR. However, the Zeo rangers were still bland and undefined in terms of personality especially compared to the original five. And the Lightspeed rangers are one of the blander teams, an exaggerated but still true common criticism of the rangers. Basically, they're both more mature but less entertaining versions of the Mighty Morphin team. So they're equal in the character department.

Now that I'm done with the most important aspect IMO (Characters) let's get to the second. In terms of plot, Lightspeed wins hands down. Like many have had said Zeo was basically just an extended, vastly improved but still extended Mighty Morphin season three. Yeah, there were high points like Jason's awesome comeback and the filler episodes where individual characters shine are absolutely spectacular but Lightspeed was an original story from beginning to end. A few rehashes here and there like obviously an evil Sixth Ranger but overall, Lightspeed's story felt "bigger" to me and slightly more epic. Let's put it this way, Zeo feels more like watching Teen Titans or Spider-man, Lightspeed is like watching Justice League or Avengers. I prefer the latter. Plus, Zeo did feel more like the same old, same old, teenagers vs aliens. Lightspeed had an extremely original concept, the military vs demons. So in the plot department, Lightspeed was back to basics like Zeo but still different and unique enough to be interesting unlike Zeo.

In terms of everything else now. Zeo wins in terms of theme song, it's just an epic tune. I love the guitar riffs and now would be a good time to mention that "Stronger Than Before" is the best tagline ever, of all the seasons. The theme songs from LG-WF are all very generic in my opinion and Lightspeed was the most generic of them all, absolutely nothing special about the theme song. In terms of aesthetics. Well, first of all I LOVE the helmets for both seasons. I don't care what anybody says the helmets are awesome! Zeo wins in terms of overall costumes because they were simple without being boring and I agree with general consensus of the Lightspeed suits, talk about lacking creativity. Plus, Zeo Gold's suit is far superior to the Titanium Ranger's. I'm sorry y'all but it is absolutely hideous. Now, when it comes to zords, see Lightspeed was the first season to have a crystal clear motif. Every season that came before was relatively vague, Zeo was most vague of them all and it showed in their zords. They're the most random, weird looking zords ever. I like the Battle helmets but other than that, I don't like them. I think the Lightspeed zords are awesome, one of the few vehicle based zords I really liked.

So, I'm ultimately casting my vote to Lightspeed. The tie breaker was plot, setting and atmosphere and to a lesser extent the theme/motif. I love both seasons as well as the rangers themselves but Lightspeed has that little something extra. Like for the first and one of the only times in Power Rangers, I didn't feel like I was watching a sitcom with superheroes in it but a full fledged Superhero Show.