Life Lessons From the Power Rangers That Will Forever Be Remembered by Me
The kids’ shows are pretty crappy. Power Rangers, doubly so. The idea of learning from real adult life from the TV shows we loved as children sounds silly, but sometimes something stays with you. This is what the Power Rangers taught me, what really sticks out. Seriously.
Don’t let other people make you feel like shit
Bullying isn’t a new trick for kids’ shows. However, in my day, there was no one who better reflected the nerd stereotype than Billy, the Blue Ranger. His role on the show was to be an egghead, despite the show’s emphasis on solving problems by solving them. In the first episodes, people didn’t even understand how he spoke. He needed someone else to translate his geek speech into human words.
Being a nerd was associated with a lot of self-esteem problems, especially in the 90s, before being a “fanatic” became cool. Rangers often referred to this issue, but it was especially acute in an episode called “The Dark Warrior . “ In this episode, Billy is mocked by the disgustingly cute Bulk and Skull (again). Finally he got it. He decides to study martial arts in order to protect himself. However, at the end of the episode, he does not use his newfound skills to defeat the bullies (Trini’s invisible uncle will take care of this). Instead, he says, “I just needed to prove to myself that I can do it.” In the end, how he felt about himself was more important than what others thought of him.
When I started writing professionally, it was one of the hardest things to do. Writing for the Internet is very popular. For a long time I wanted to write, but I was afraid to show myself off. At best, my work would be read by many people, many of whom would probably hate it and ridicule it. In the worst case, it was not read at all. None of them felt that it would benefit my self-esteem. It would be much safer to just do your boring office work and keep it to yourself.
However, Billy would never have done that. Billy wanted to be part of the team, to get better, and to take risks. As a shy skinny nerd, he did a pretty good job. As the show went on, Billy became a better wrestler and communicator. Yes, and he invented all kinds of gadgets the team needed, including communicators, teleporters, and a fucking flying machine . Instead of letting other people’s opinions push him, he used his skills to make the team better. Sitting out of the fight is not an option.
This lesson took on an even darker connotation as I grew up and found out why David Yost, the actor who played Billy, eventually left the show . Off-screen, David was bullied for his sexuality by producers and other crew members. Knowing that he was being bullied off-screen as much as on screen hurt the child in me. At the same time, it made the lesson I learned from him even more compelling. Despite the insults, he lasted about 200 episodes and starred in the film . He was the only ranger to appear in every single episode of Mighty Morphine, and he was the second longest running ranger in history. When pushed, insulted and mocked, he never stopped doing his best job.
You are about to fail and you need to move on
Tragedy and children’s shows usually don’t go well together. Each episode ends with a victory for the good guys, and everything goes back to normal because otherwise you have a bunch of crying kids and angry parents. This is why it was so shocking when the Green Ranger lost his powers in Green No More . Jason, the Red Ranger, was forced to choose between saving the other four Rangers or keeping the Green Ranger’s forces. In the end, he chose the former. The Green Ranger, one of the most popular characters in the series, has disappeared (at least for the time being). It shocked children everywhere.
However, it was the next episode of ” Missing” that the knife turned. Jason was plagued with guilt. In a show where the good guys always win, the team actually lost something real, and Jason blamed himself. His guilt was so strong that it affected his ability to fight. It was only when the other Rangers were kidnapped again, faced with the same power theft threat that the Green Ranger faced in the last episode, that Jason was able to return to the game and fight.
In this way, the feeling of guilt confuses your head and undermines all self-confidence. It doesn’t matter if you’ve succeeded fifty times before (which the Rangers certainly did by this point). Fail one project, miss one deadline, lose one trade, and it will affect the way you approach everything you do ever since. But here’s the thing: If you give up when you fail , you will never succeed again.
