Power Rangers and Crime: Bulk and Skull: Part 1: Bullies

There is no doubt the impact Paul Schrier and Jason Narvy had on the impact on the franchise, having roles in episodes for over half a decade with the franchise.
However, imagine if their roles remained the same in the beginning? A little bit darker, a little less campy?
In the Day of the Dumpster pilots and the first few episodes of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, Bulk and Skull were portrayed as misogynist bullies, foils for the weakling athletically deficient Billy even though he knew a few flips or two to portray. They constantly got in fights with the Rangers, with a sort of homage to the 50s greaser 80s punk rock homage delivered in the 90s. (Guess we can't blame out of college writers who don't have kids or are in high school to actually know how being there actually was.) The homage was supposed to be inspired by Laurel and Hardy, Saved by the Bell bullies (capturing SBTB's tone even if the show was not known to have bullies outside of possibly Tori's brother). Sure, even the Rangers themselves were overconfident, flawed in culture, but Bulk and Skull were supposed to give kids the lessons that bullies are not supposed to be cool, (even if you can meet Bulk and Skull really is at Morphicon!)

Would the show not been revolutionary if they had shown that Bulk and Skull had dysfunctional parents, or some sort of social deficiency that made them into these terrible teenagers?) I guess the show did not want to get too Public Service Announcementy with their 90s Fox Kids friendly material. (lots of censors had already took away the fights from the pilots and the 80s punk gangster tone of Bulk, Skull and friends.)
It does however as mentioned before demonstrate the formation of bullying.
However, the rangers do counter bullying from Bulk and Skull with counter bullying of their own against them. They do not try to understand or empathize with them, but keep them as their enemies, defending themselves from gangs like people growing up in the urban 90s would experience.
Heck, the Power Rangers actually promote bullying through name calling against their monster enemies. It is not self defense in this case, but rather a circumstance of dealing with their own hierarchy of needs to build some sort of militaristic form of confidence. Oddly enough, does Skull's parents not where militaristicish garb inspiring Skull. This might have been possibly what inspired him to join the highest form of civil service that Rangers do not join, the police. 
Also, according to wikipedia, the silent treatment is also a form of bullying. So what do people do?
Oh well, one can only hope the future of the franchise as a Terrence Malick film.
Till then, we'll just have to enjoy this:

(Was Bulk an influence on Skull or the other way around?)

What could have been with Power Rangers Mega/Pirate Force

First off, as mentioned before, it is just terrible that Disney decided to sell Power Rangers after once again dropping the ball on what could have been an awesome teamup.
With Operation Overdrive, we could have used the Boukenger Cinderella episode,

and now Marvel's Thor! 

Now with Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, we could bring Pirates into the mix as well!

One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean all in one roof.

Heck, Disney could have teamed up Star Wars with Power Rangers Space Pirates! How awesome would that have been?

farm8's flickr

That would have been one of the ultimate showdowns in world history! One of the most awesome franchises in history! They could be sniffing and burning and urinating on all the stock and money they wanted!



But then Haim Saban bought Power Rangers!
Who cares? Disney was too busy remastering it anyway! It was all turning to sh*t!
Save us Saban! Save us!
In Samurai, they put homages to Mighty Morphin in it, so Gokaiger has to be great in the US right?
I mean you're combining the great popularity of Gokaiger with the great popularity of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, just like you were combining the great popularity of Shinkenger with the great popularity of MMPR!

Weak yet intelligent Billy could be played by weak intelligent Doc.
Weak yet intelligent Kimberly could be played by weak yet intelligent Ahim.
Strong and leadership fearing Jason could be portrayed by strong and bold Captain Marvelous.
Trini and Zack can be portrayed as his sparring partners, like Joe and Luka
Blake Foster can play a parody of himself as GokaiSilver Gai! If not, we can just get the Shortround from the George Lucas Strikes Back trailer!

Heck, they could be portrayed by the original owners of the Power Coins who met Zordon and Alpha on Earth millions of years ago!
It would be great!

Oh...

The Anatomy of a Song (Megaforce vs Mighty Morphin)

In addition to the analysis of the shows, I've decided to analyze the songs as well.
Oh Juliet! What is a rose, by any other... lyric?

Power Rangers... Megaforce!
I literally felt sick. Didn't help that I played Antichamber with its weird framerate before watching it.

Vs...

Ah!
After 1000 years, I'm free!
It's time to conquer Earth!
Alpha, recruit a team of teenagers with attitude!
Go Go Power Rangers!
Go Go Power Rangers!
Go Go Power Rangers! Mighty Morphin Power Ranger-ers!
Go Go Power Rangers!
Go Go Power Rangers!
Go Go Power Rangers, You Mighty Morphin Power Ranger-ers!
They've got-
A power and a force that you've never seen before!
They've got-
A power and a force that can even up the score!
No-
one-
can ever take them down!
The powers on their si-yi-yi-yi-(a million)-ides!

Repeat chorus.

Not to mention that Power Rangers did not only consist of a mere theme song. It was a opera and ballet of music. Not a shouting match. The silences of In Space building up what was behind the shadows of the universe. The classical music of Lost Galaxy demonstrating what kind of legend Lost Galaxy would present.