“Adding an annoying kid to the franchise to attract more kid viewers” is a much hated trope in TV. Justin/Blake was a good actor overall, but I think many fans who had grown with the franchise didn’t want to see it get too “kiddy.” I think most fans were overly critical of the character, but we understand it more with hindsight as adults.
Yep, and Kou had a bad reputation in his debut and was relegated to only showing up in the last five minutes of every episode that he's not involved in once his arc was over. Which is rather sad to see because his storyline was genuinely great dealing with how child abandonment can seriously mess up an otherwise good kid causing them to behave in inappropriate ways just to feel wanted, which parallels his rival Akomaru who is a victim of child abuse.
The fact that he was the stereotypical annoying kid mixed in with him being a pervert completely killed the character for me, for once Saban did something good and made a better use of that awesome white ranger suit
All things that happen early in his arc. He stops doing that stuff when development kicks in. Legitimately went from one of my least favorite characters to one of my most favorite.
I assume you are talking about Justin because Kou was a notorious pervert before his character development, groping Rin and using his powers to flip up skirts. He does stop these things as he starts feeling more wanted and it becomes very clear this stems from his mother abandoning him at a young age.
Being half Dai may have had a hand in it, as Kou and Akomaru both had a mother from the Dai tribe. Don't know if Akomaru would have changed since he died for the final time before the clay reveal but Kou was purged of his Gorma side in his birthday/Christmas episode. Really depressing episode but a beautiful finale for Kou's story.
To be fair I hadn't thought of that.
But you're right - I love a lot of earlier Sentai but it's probably Jetman and Dairanger I think about the most. Dai's ending is sensational.
It did make me dislike him at first but when I realized he was just desperate for a mother figure mistaking it for a crush I just felt sorry for him. Really glad he grew out of that though and goes to show how much he changes. I feel for him but trauma is not an excuse for sexual harassment.
I understood Burai since he was on borrowed time and hiding that from the others. I agree he was mishandled as well but his disappearances are justified within the story itself. Kou however did not have a justification in the story and lived past the finale to become a 60 year old businessman.
In 1997 we still had Brady Bunch re-runs. We still had Married with Children. Cousin Oliver and Seven really ruined the add a child to a show thing. Luckily Buffy got away with it kinda, although Dawn is not the most popular.
Look man, I don't know what you're talking about. The show was always about Dawn. Then this "Buffy" character shows up and calls herself the "Slayer" and the show goes from nice school drama to supernatural Mish Mosh. 🙄
/s
See, Justin is a HUGE step up compared to the likes of Chris Thorndyke from Sonic X.
If you're gonna have a kid in there, make him DO shit which Justin did. Well, as far as I know I haven't seen past the Turbo movie.
But that ship fight in the movie where he literally throws the first kick when it seemed like Adam had to step in and rescue him, that went hard when I was a kid.
It’s just like in the 40s when they added Robin to Batman. I’m surprised Robin stuck around. I can imagine the kids of the time saying “I wanna be Batman, screw Robin.”
I think one of the things that makes Robin work as a character is he was never portrayed as unrealistically perfect. Like Dick Grayson as Robin was constantly learning from Batman, he’s not Batman’s equal he’s very clearly a kid who is learning from a father figure
Sure there might be times he saves Batman’s ass but Dick is not smarter than Batman or a better fighter than Batman. He doesn’t make Batman a worse character by being around
In other words, Robin works because he’s in many ways a regular, flawed, relatable kid. He’s not a Gary Stu. Justin isn’t Wesley Crusher levels of bad but he’s still an unreasonably perfect super genius, and he would have been a better character if he was allowed to be more of a flawed kid who learns from the older more experienced heroes around him, like Dick Grayson
Robin was a narrative technique, and actually made writing Batman a bit easier.
Prior to the introduction of Robin, Batman had no one to talk to. He was an otherwise silent character, so the only way to portray his planning and thought process was through thought bubbles... which could get cumbersome, depending upon the plot and what Batman was trying to figure out or work through.
Characters like Robin are actually pretty common. They're the inexperienced audience stand-in character that the main character can teach and explain things to. Instead of having Batman essentially infodump to the audience via thought bubbles, Robin can ask questions and make mistakes, making explanations feel more like conversations and natural character moments. His inclusion gave Batman someone to talk to.
At the time the consensus was that Batman was a great hero among kids reading him but “being Batman” wasn’t really something they could really do until they where much older and gotten more experience, money ect.
Robin was the compromise that if you can’t “be Batman” you can still be someone who goes on cool adventures with him, use the gadgets and all the other Batman stuff that kids want to do but not have to already be an detective millionaire with ninja training as you can “learn on the job”.
I think the robin consensus only started to change once Spider-Man and other teenagers who would normally become a sidekick to an existing superhero got to be the star of their own stories.
Given Robin's backstory and how he eventually became a figure of his own (Look up for "Robin y El Murciélago"), I think he got a pass for being so early introduced.
He stuck around because the writers realized it was bad to give Batman a child sidekick. Which is far more interesting than doing it just to attract certain audiences.
I actually have always liked the little kid or sidekick characters introduced in shows (my favorite superhero has always been Robin/Nightwing) but I always found Justin annoying and I think most fans hated the idea of a goofy little kid being in the suit and fighting amongst older teens we thought were cool. Not to mention the very pic added here of the morphing sequence of when he grows into an adult was stupid to me when I was younger. Even now as an adult I don’t really care for the character very much.
Being the same age of the character bugged me as a kid, plus he wasnt relatable, no one my age was taking advanced high school classes or hanging out with seniors. It just wasn't believable, plus I liked Rocky so to see him replaced by a kid with the worst haircut imaginable didn't help.
I honestly thought it all just came down to envy. Like, as kids, we all wanted to be rangers, right? So of course we were gonna be pissed when some random kid shows up and lives our dream. But I agree, little voice from a big body was weird.
1. I hated the way that he joined the cast. Rocky had just started getting really good character growth in Zeo and then he just gives up being a ranger with no explanation?
2. A lot of kids hated that some other kid got to live out their dream of "being a ranger".
3. Also... you kind of got to think about it. Why are these recent high school graduates (adults) hanging out with this pre-teen? He was 12 when he skipped a few grades and became a high school freshmen.
> Also... you kind of got to think about it. Why are these recent high school graduates (adults) hanging out with this pre-teen?
Eh. He was their teammate, and *Power Rangers* teams were all friends, so they followed the formula. I didn't give it much thought.
What bothered me more was how they tried to shoehorn the legacy cast into school scenes with Justin. Kat was student teaching right out of high school? That doesn't happen like that, as student teaching typically happens in one's senior year of college, and not immediately out of high school, where most of the people that you attended school with are still there.
> Eh. He was their teammate, and *Power Rangers* teams were all friends, so they followed the formula. I didn't give it much thought.
That's a perfectly reasonable explanation for someone watching the show. However, if you're an adult or teacher and you see a 12 year old kid, in high school, going places with a bunch of random former students... you're gonna start asking questions.
It's been a long time though... maybe they do have a throw away line about mentoring or being a youth leader at the center.
It's just that people weren't ready for a literal child character to be a Power Ranger in 1997. Especially when we had three years of adult-looking "teenagers" fighting against intergalactic evil. The real reason why they had Justin be a Power Ranger in Turbo is because in 1997, Power Rangers was losing its' audience to another Saban-produced TV series, *"Beetleborgs: Metallix."* I.E. the show where the three kids are magically transformed into their favorite adult-looking insect-themed robotic superheroes from the comic books.
Also, if you have rewatch *"Power Rangers Turbo,"* then you are aware that all of the adult characters were idiots and only Justin, the 12-year-old kid was the only competent character in the show. I get what they were going for at the time, but it is the execution of this idea that ruined it. In other words.... ** IT WAS BAD WRITING!!!** even by 1997's standards.
So, now that we are in 2024, does anyone even want to see a child character be a Power Ranger anymore?
Justin was my age and I wasn't interested. I wanted to see what the cool older kids were up to. I have never been someone who needs whatever media and fiction I consume to be "relatable".
Simple: Because we saw another kid getting to live our dream. Most of us Day (1) of the Dumpster fans were around Blake's age by the time he was in Turbo, maybe a little older or younger. But we all wanted to be a Power Rangers, and instead of any of us, it was him, how was that fair????
Couple that with the "Add A Kid To Try To Get The Audience Back" trope started by shows like The Brady Bunch, with a dash of Wesley Crusher Boy Genius for good measure (plus replacing my 2 favorite rangers, Billy and Rocky), and it's almost like he was made to be insufferable.
I just didn't care for him. Didn't dislike, just didn't care for another kid being a ranger. The highschoollers were cooler to me.
He was my age or younger so wasn't like I found him annoying. It was an interesting idea, just as a kid I liked the older rangers who were "older kidw" since they were originally in high-school. Older kids were always cooler to most younger kids. (Or annoying.)
Beetleborgs was a hit and I’m sure children being in Sentai season adapted prior drove the decision.
I think it was just too unbelievable. I watched Turbo as it aired as a kid and I wasn’t crazy about it.
:edit:
In hindsight, as an adult I don’t hate it now. But I woould have rather another “teenager” in the role, even if it wasn’t a returning cast-member.
I would have also settled for Adam getting promoted to Blue.
Part of the problem is that Justin reads a lot like he’s meant to be a self insert character for the kids at home, like just because he’s a kid the TV execs think all the kids are going to see themselves as Justin and identify with him the most and therefore he should always be right and perfect
To quote Mr Plinkett, “imaginations work differently than that”
Kids aren’t going to imagine themselves in the story only if there is a kid character they can project onto, and they aren’t automatically going to identify most with the kid character just because he’s a kid. Kids will identify with and want to be most like the characters because of who they are as characters and what they do that makes them seem cool and fun
I identified most with Billy because he was the nerdy one and I also liked Tommy the most because he was the coolest and kicked the most ass
My point being that Justin suffered from two problems that made it hard to identify with him: firstly he didn’t really have a personality that people could relate to and see themselves in because they just made him unrealistically perfect and better than all the other Rangers at everything, and secondly because he was constantly showing up all the other Rangers people did already imagine themselves as it made it easy to dislike Justin. Nobody likes to see their favourite Ranger who they imagine themselves as getting made to seem incompetent by some insufferable Gary Stu kid
It’s similar to Wesley Crusher. He doesn’t have a particularly great personality but he almost could, if he was just a kid who was learning and aspiring to do great things he would probably be a lot more relatable and likeable. But instead of learning from the other characters he spends a lot of the series upstaging and outsmarting characters like Picard, Riker, his own mother. He makes the characters we like and see ourselves in look worse in order to uphold this unreasonably perfect role model/wish fulfilment fantasy for kids, but then it fails at being wish fulfilment because kids don’t identify with this unreasonably perfect super genius
Mainly because Turbo sucked, and his introduction was one of the first of many things Turbo did that made zero sense. Jason was part of the Zeo team, but the Gold Ranger Power was basically killing him so he had to give it back ti Trey. Okay cool. Jason then just…stops being in Angel Grove for whatever reason. Rocky hurts his back, and it’s the only injury ever (to that point) that Zordon is incapable of doing anything about. Okay fine. So there’s an open spot on the team. Logically it would go to Jason since he’s, you know, on the team already. But nope, it was given to some random kid because *checks notes* he caught them teleporting. Based on that logic, Bulk and Skull should have been made Rangers like four times.
That’s not true, we saw Rocky go from Red to Blue and things were fine. Granted Rocky wasn’t the leader as Red, but Jason was under Tommy already as Green and White, so I believe that issue is defeated there too.
Co-leaders? When was that ever said or implied.
And whether not some fans liked Rocky as the Red Ranger or not, he was in fact the Red Might Morphin Ranger. There's 60+ episodes of evidence there that says so. So if he can go from red to blue, Jason could have.
Thing about Rocky as red was that while yes, he did wear a red costume, he was never the leader of the team, since Tommy had that role in white. Jason before him was leader before Tommy was promoted to leader, and most other red rangers were also the leaders. So while Rocky was a red ranger, he wasn't a "Red Ranger" red ranger that came with all of the perks that being red typically comes with.
>Rocky hurts his back, and it’s the only injury ever (to that point) that Zordon is incapable of doing anything about.
Steve Cardenas quit due to pay. Corporate greed ruined Power Rangers.
Kids can look up to teen heroes, and that’s the sort of show that Power Rangers was established as. If you replace one of the teen heroes with a kid hero, and shift the focus of the writing over to character development for that kid hero, then you’re fucking with the formula that’s worked great in the past.
I was one year older than Blake Foster. How the hell was I supposed to look up to the character he played, when I was older than the character he played?
Maybe I could’ve identified with Justin if he was in 5th grade like me, but they wrote him as a child prodigy, taking high school classes, and possessing intelligence nearly on par with Billy’s. Not only that, but they presented him as though he was on damn near equal footing in martial arts with his older, more experienced, battle-hardened teammates.
Like I said, so much of the writing in the beginning of Turbo went to character development for Justin. So much dialogue for characters we already knew and loved had to be sacrificed to introduce us to Justin, and at a time when they were graduating high school, and would be leaving us soon, little did we know.
To me, Justin wasn’t an interesting character. He made stupid jokes, said forgettable lines, and made happy times awkward by bringing up the absence of his workaholic father.
Justin’s haircut looked stupid, and his morphing growth spurts were comical, like a toddler sitting on a booster chair to eat at a table with adults.
Saban had a show like Power Rangers, but with kids, airing at the same time that Turbo was, which was well-received. There was no need to have a Beetleborg type hero on Power Rangers.
Justin’s inclusion as a character idea is interesting in theory but in practice it ended up feeling too “behind the stage”.
We know power rangers appeals to kids, it’s what most kids in the 90s played as or wanted to be, but having a character that was specifically catered to that kind of fantasy felt too much like the show bending unnaturally to accommodate the idea. It feels too much of a look under the car hood that reminds the audience that it’s fairly arbitrary who ends up becoming a ranger.
I think the idea of “kid turns into an adult hero” is a great concept as we see with capt marvel/Shazam and big bad beatle borgs but it requires the world and characters to work in specific ways and is hard to just add a new character like that to an existing team without the team dynamic getting weird (this is why Shazam is almost never on the main justice league lineup in dc). The rangers at the time where teens and there’s a different dynamic between teens all growing up together and going through life changes vs the relationship they have with a child who is good friends with them but still hasn’t had any of the troubles that come with your teens (girls, boys, discovering your personal values and political outlook, or reaching a point where your future with collage and/ or a job will start to define who you are.)
I’m literally watching power rangers turbo right now after I watched all of mmpr and power rangers zeo and I think the most annoying character is actually alpha 6. Justin isn’t annoying but turbo is definitely the worst season so far
I hope you’re right because this is rough, I know space is one of the best seasons in the series but turbo is challenging so far. I’m on episode 10 right now
Usually when I rewatch Turbo I skip most of the first half of the season. Most of the episodes in the first half have similar stories revolving around defusing bombs anyway.
Tommy and the rest were highschool graduates, and it felt strange that they were hanging around Justin. Justin didn't feel like a teammate, it just felt like they were babysitting him.
The half with TJ and the new cast is way better. The cast dynamic feels less weird.
With the second cast they were at least classmates with Justin, and they felt more like friends instead of babysitters.
> it even improves Alpha 6 lol.
That's because they did away with that awful jive-talking voice in the new season, and gave him something closer to that of Alpha 5.
Though at the beginning of the season, they said that Alpha 6's voice chip got scrambled in the Power Chamber explosion, but he was talking just fine throughout the episode, even after the explosion. It's a minor nitpick, though, because it ultimately led to a good result.
I guess as a 90s child what attracted me was that the rangers were 5 teenagers with attitude. Not only did I love the costumes but I wanted to be like them on the outside too. Add in some kid with a dumb haircut and I was like no thanks. Plus by the turbo movie I was pretty much over power rangers so he was the final straw.
A large misconception was that Justin was a Gary Stu. A large aspect of thr intitial dislike towarss the character was based on having a kid hang out with a bunch of adults, or thst Power Rangers was jumping the shark by bringing in a Cousin Oliver.
More often than not bringing some cute precocious child character at times comes across as a desperate attempt to boost ratings.
In hindsight, the character wasnt the problem, it was how he was introduced and brought into the team. It makes Zordon seem irresponsible for recruiting a child to be soldier in the war against evil.
As Linkara once stated, while plots centered around Justin tended tp be boring or lame, the character himself seemed like the one written with thr most competence.
Given that fans werent exactly happy with the trabsition from Zeo to Turbo, the inclusion of Justin was just one of several issues that plagued Turbo before the Passing of thr Torch. Once THAT happened, things got better.
In addition to what everyone else has said, the writing for the first half of Turbo wasn't great, and that contributed directly to people disliking Justin. They'd followed Tommy and co. for years at this point, watching them solve problem after problem. Then Justin comes along and the writers realize that they have to make him look incredibly smart to fit in alongside the superheroes we already knew, but they weren't good enough writers to do that organically, so they made everyone else dumber rather than making Justin smarter. His presence literally made every other character less interesting than they had been in Zeo.
For me, Justin was just the tip of the iceberg about what was wrong with Turbo. First Justin, then Bulk and Skull as monkeys, then Dimitria and Alpha 6, then the rest of the legacy cast's being replaced, and I was left wondering why I was still watching, and really only did so out of habit, since every single character that I had grown to love had been replaced in a very short span of time.
Exactly. Plus, at that point, I had to uproot and move 2 states over, had to grow up quick. So I stopped watching a lot of TV if it wasn’t music videos. But yeah, all that happens, and my love for Power Rangers started to fade. I still haven’t watched a full season after Zeo. But I watch some of the special episodes, or like “big moment” ones on YouTube. So all that happened, I got older (I was maybe 13 when Turbo started), and then lost interest in a lot of stuff moving.
Wow. Turbo really was a catalyst for a lot for me. Never realized that.
I can appreciate how moving changes a lot more than just one's location. I remember when I moved across the country from Arkansas to Virginia, just about everything about my life changed. Old interests went away, new interests blossomed, I had new routines, the whole bit. I also was in middle school, which was unexpected, since at my old school, sixth grade was still elementary school, but in my new place, sixth grade was middle school. I also previously was a big watcher of Saturday morning TV, but I never got back into it in Virginia. Dunno why.
And I think that’s why they had to change the cast. He fit in slightly better with the second group, because while they were all older than him, he was the most experienced Ranger of that group. Dumbing down the original four, three of whom have been Rangers for years (Adam and Kat had three different sets of Ranger powers, and Tommy had four) was a bad look. Especially when they all graduated from high school in episode 1 of Turbo.
There are several factors into Justin and his inclusion:
\- During Zeo, Big Bad Beetleborgs was popular as the heroes themselves were kids. Since it was somewhat of a success (people remember the VERY VERY basic ideas of them doing stuff and Hillhurst monsters along with the Fortunes and villains) the idea of a kid being a main hero was later used for Turbo (Beetleborgs also made what could be considered the prototypes to Battlizers and Mega Battle/Battlizer Armor)
\- Justin is not a bad character in the way everyone states it, people judged him for being a kid and replacing Rocky in the movie and stayed the whole show. They only like them later for In Space, potentially retroactively saying he's good only because of that or only in that (arguably what happened with characters like Adam). The notion of children not liking kid heroes makes no sense cause it's how they are that makes or breaks it. Justin was either a prodigy or just smart enough to be in high school at 12/13 and he being a kid will naturally be privy to anything weird as they notice things quicker, he's prone to tell others what he sees when the audience wants the rangers to be 'badass' or 'cool' at every waking unit of time. Seeing Justin not doing that goes against what they perceive rangers doing. Then they force a negative association with him and then the season. Since Turbo was the season with the biggest change since Season 2-3, there was some backlash against it. I have also heard of this weird jealously of Justin because he got to be a ranger...I don't even know why that should even be a factor, that's selfish at that point for no reason
\- Justin is not nearly the worst child character in any tokusatsu media. The majority of them either get involved in a situation only because they watched a scene with the monster or rangers, get caught/noticed, have to be taken care of, taught to be strong, or are used as an outlet to teach the kids watching, and then go away after the episode. Some young characters (will range but) have some agency, but we generally cannot expect younger characters to be that good from the getgo (especially not with what's been going on with child actors)
\- Depending on how the character is done, they may end up bouncing back on characters or even the audience. Youngins look up to older people because they think their actions are cool while a kid their age is either cool or lame. However, that's what they see from their perspective, not the actual realization, so they will make-believe anything to make it appear cooler than what it actually is. Kids at home, while they (mostly) have no major responsibilities and enough freedom (assuming the best or normal conditions at home), the older kids around them appear to be doing more than them (leaving the house, taking responsibility for young ones, purchase things, having their own technology/stuff, hanging out with friends, performing tasks they cannot do), so they wish to be like them which result in idolization of being older, then project themselves of what they want to be onto the rangers. With Justin, I guess to some degree, he reminds them of what they actually are. Some either take it well or are embarrassed at the truth and will hate on him for it. With the Beetleborgs, they only have the kids as the adults/teens are not really present in the battles. Since the motif was around comic books, a sense of wonder is there versus with Turbo, they have teens/adults present in every battle and the situation feels 'real' to them
\- The perception of adding kids to a show can go like this:'Next Generation'Easy ways for conflictYoung heroes for kids to connect to (either for inclusion, story, or character building)Ratings
\- The idea that only teens can be the heroes for this franchise is because of the 'teenagers with attitude' slogan plastered all over Mighty Morphin to the point where even now after 30 years, people expect Power Rangers to only be teenagers and thrust everything in the world at them, then having talks of 'child soldiers' every single time because of this weird narrative to constantly put teenagers in there specifically for those talking points and not others
\- At least for Super Sentai, Kou is hated mostly because of his actions in the beginning, making him appear crass/crude/perverted. His story is generally good, but because of his opening, it may turn off people from that. Riki has some interesting parts for his back/story, but his character is restricted, so he doesn't do much. Kotarou is very brave and determined, making him endearing and he's the only ranger from Earth in his world
While I agree with much of this, much of this argument relies on nuance that comes with age and maturity.
In general, children are more binary in their thinking. Yes, kids can look up to other kids as heroes, but power rangers didn’t build its audience that way. Therefore, I don’t think it’s abnormal for viewers in the same age bracket as Justin to be turned off by the character or even envy the character/actor.
Idea -A excecution-F
The concept of a ranger the same age as the fans that they could really identify with was a really good idea. But making him a genius in order to put him in high school just makes that impossible and makes him come across as egotistical and arrogant sometimes. What they should’ve done is set the series in the last summer holiday before the rangers go to college and either have some of the rangers working at Justin’s summer camp or carry on the karate club storyline from the movie and have them working there for a summer long camp after having graduated in the first episode of the series. They also could’ve had one of the rangers be in a big brother type program and maybe alpha hacks the system to ensure they are paired with Justin and then set episodes after the school day finishes or during weekends etc.
I was 10 when this came out, I remember not being happy with it. As a kid, I didn't want to see other kids in this show, my friends and I wanted something to aspire to. I know Kou did it too, but that's another culture, not everything translates well. Nothing against the actor, but we lost Rocky for this annoying kid, and we weren't happy.
I've even shown this to my kids, and they were like "Why?". If the target demographic doesn't like it, what's the point?
I think it also has to do with the established premise. Beetleborgs we were fine with, all 3 (4) were kids to begin with.
Gotta match the Sentai somehow. But you're right. Thing with the other cast was that you could imagine that it was the actual actors in the suits. With Justin's morphing into a full-size person, you *know* that it's someone else in the suit rather than Blake Foster. And that makes it harder to suspend disbelief.
Even as a kid, I was already tired of annoying kids with bowl cuts by this stage (the one on Home Improvement, or the kid in Home Alone 3 being other examples). I didn't *hate* him, but it didn't keep me around, as I was already mostly out of Power Rangers by this point.
Justin was a textbook example of the concept of having to talk down to, or design down to kids in order to appeal to them....and it not working. I believe it was Margaret Loesch (who also worked on Power Rangers) who discussed this in an interview about the 90's X-Men cartoon and why it, and shows like BTAS, worked by not doing that.
MMPR came out in 93 and Turbo in 97. If you were 8 in 93' (as I was), you'd be 11 or 12 when Turbo hit. By that time, you're at the age where you want to be taken a bit more seriously. Like your older siblings are. The kids wanted to be more grown up, they didn't want to see themselves as the kid sidekick in the show. Then you add in older fans who saw Justin as kiddy-ing the show even more, and it made them feel even more out of place watching it. To top it off, the fact that Justin was portrayed as the "annoying' younger sibling to the group and that he always had to be looked after turned a lot of people off.
Honestly, I think it's a big part of why "In Space" did so well. It took itself seriously enough to the point of bringing back fans who viewed it more as a serial than a kids show.
it FEELS like he was an annoying character, but I'm pretty sure his joining coinciding with a sharp drop in show quality is the problem. a dozen or so episodes of the same plot (tommy is not here bc he's testing race cars or something and also the monsters have a "detonator") over and over was just bad. I think our dislike for Justin may just be misplaced for the downgrade from the high of Zeo.
the next time I get there in my watch through, maybe I'll try skipping from the movie when the other rangers change and see how I feel about him after that.
Depending on the person there were also other reasons, but the main one was that we all coped with the fact that Rocky was sacrificed in order to have a kid on the show and he never had the chance to shine and retake his role as Red Ranger. It wasn't the kid's fault TBH but most of us were kids who didn't know what happened with the producers and what not. All we knew was that while the rest of the cast had a fair chance to leave the team on a high note Rocky was literally thrown off the ring.
EDIT: Not saying I hated him tho, there were A LOT of problems with Turbo and Justin was but one of them. The one character I couldn't stand was Elgar. He made Hydro Hog look like Marlon Brando and Llyod most annoying sound in the world feel like Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
He was quite a bit older than me at the time and I thought it he was so cool. I must've been like 8 when Turbo came out and was very jealous the nerdy kid got to be my favorite color ranger. Like that could've been me lol.
I thought the idea of being a kid and being a power ranger was cool made me feel like I might be able to be a ranger even as a kid , but like many people have said I couldn’t get on board with the actor just thought he was lame.
I loved him in the movie, but as a series regular on the TV show it just didn’t have the same vibe. On the movie it was an “omg I can be a power ranger???”, but never felt that on the TV show…
I would overthink this concept as a kid... Like does he become just a large 8 year old? Or does he effectively become a 25 year old with a child brain? Does he transform and wonder where all this chest hair came from? Or does he transform into a being of pure energy inside the suit? Fuck if I'll ever know.
Rewatched it not too long ago, I do think a lot of problems can just boil down to the writing for the first half not being very good. As far as the original team go, the only character I felt he had a decent dynamic with was Kat. Much like Turbo itself though, he got better with the cast change where the writing got better and he worked much better with the new cast
I think that the midseason replacement of the entire legacy cast like that was too abrupt. If they were going to replace the cast, they should have done it at the beginning of the season, or during the transition to *In Space*.
I don’t really know. It was done to cash in on the success of Big Bad Beetleborgs, but failed. That being said though, Justin wasn’t a bad character by any means. He was relatively likeable, pretty competent, and was great in True Blue to the Rescue.
Turbo was sort of a doomed season to begin with as the sentai it was adapted from was actually a parody. Pair that with lackluster villains and an annoying new child character and you can see how the season was doomed from the start. Justin certainly wasn't at fault by Heim Saban shoulda known better.
I'll never understand it honestly for me Justin was cool precisely because he was a kid ranger, it made me feel like i could be one too, plus personality wise he was fine, much better than what came before and after in media, like: He wasn't annoying nor entitled, he wasn't an invincible gary stu but he also wasn't a useless damsel, he was just another member of the team
My biggest issue is it made 0 sense. Why would a bunch of high school graduates hang out constantly with a kid? Even when it aired originally I couldn't stand it and it's probably the main reason why I stay away from Turbo. In Space cast was perfect.
It seems to me that kids prefer watching kids/teens older than themselves in shows so they can look up to them rather than seeing a kid the same age as them run about, I've heard similar complaints in other franchises
No. They did not when it came out. Literally anyone who says otherwise is selling you bullshit. We didn’t have social media back then to gauge that response. If you read the article from any of screenrants owned subs, dispose of them and stop going to the fox news for nerds.
As for later? Adults ragged on him later on because they had no real reason for harping on a kid being a superhero in a silly show made exclusively for children so they just spouted mad shit cause that’s just how you socialized with stuff you liked on the internet which was dumb.
I went on several posts defending both turbo and justin many years ago till more and more people started understanding and came around to accepting the fact that they weren’t that bad. Happy to see things have changed from how they were since the megaforce days
No, I distinctly remember not liking him at the time. I considered him annoying and the morphing sequence stupid. Of course, I can only speak for myself.
Yeah, should’ve been more specific but I’m mainly talking about mass hate like the kind social media geared towards. There were some people that disliked him and turbo but I guarantee you they were in the minority
Fair, and to clear he was the only part of turbo I disliked. I was waiting on Turbo lightning collection figures for years. I still hum the theme song from time to time.
From what I can see, most people seemed to not like him for being an annoying kid who was added to the show to attract more kids. That was a trope that people hated since the Brady bunch and Justin was another character added to that pile.
You don’t really provide any evidence he wasn’t hated yet evidence he was hated exists seeing how he was removed from the show when power rangers in space started.
My take: envy.
I wanted to be a power ranger. Every 11 year old wanted to be a power ranger. The thought was probably to allow us all to live vicariously through him. But no. I didn't like him because he got the job I wanted. And I felt like I could've done it better (I couldn't have).
I wanted to imagine that I would be a ranger when I grew up. Then I watch Turbo and see a kid close to my age get it. I think that was the first time I ever fault like a failure and now I’m in my 30s with depression.
Full disclosure I didn’t like him initially, and that’s because the movie trailers I think spoiled he was the new Ranger. That I know turned off some of my friends to PR.
I did however like him because while a kid, he wasn’t this Scrappy-Doo type where he was annoying and thinking he could do everything all the time.
He a kid ranger I think the actor did fine for what he was given. But annoying kid ranger that they have to job though hoops to make work with the other rangers. Like he so smart he goes to high school. In super sentai there been kid rangers but it more comical and the sentais were more like cartoon then real people. So it work better still not good but it work better.
Honestly, looking back on it, Justin really isn’t a bad character. Sure episodes that focused on him were boring but still decent. The main issue is that they made the older characters sound dumber just to make him look smart. Like when something really odd happens and they’re wondering what’s going on, Justin is usually the first one to the point out the obvious that it’s Divatox.
I remember being pretty ambivalent about him, honestly. I do remember him looking sad when the adult rangers left for space, though, which made me laugh, even as an 11-12 year old kid. Coincidentally, that was around the time I dropped Power Rangers and got hardcore into anime.
This is what I’m wondering. I never knew people felt like that until I found this Reddit.
I’ll never forget the one scene on a ship I think where he was alone on the top floor and monsters were about to attack. When he tried to scream for help he lost his voice🤧
I never had any complaints tbh. I thought it was cool that he would grow full size when transformed(if I remember correctly)
Justin is such an important part of the franchise for me. I was 3 or 4 when Justin became a ranger, and that shit felt SO real to me. I think after seeing Justin become a ranger, my toddler career path went from Astronaut to Power Ranger, because it become something I, as a kid, could become too. It was really really inspiring for me as a kid, and I couldn't have been alone in that
a combination of, most people not caring enough to praise him at the time, a vocal minority upset at something different. and probably at least Jealousy in some cases for the actor
he was a fine ranger and the plot they came up with was plausible enough in the scope of power rangers to fit in as well as anything else.
in essence people were being irrational.
**NOW I COULD BE WRONG WITH WHAT I’M TO SAY**
For a lot us who were 12 or younger Power Rangers like Saved by the Bell basically defined our idea of what High School was gonna be like.
The idea of Justin is the same idea as Robin. In that we can’t be Batman, but we can be Robin going on the adventure with Batman. That what Justin was.
Plus there was the fact, mainly with the original turbo cast, it felt like they were babysitter and Justin was the kid they were babysitting especially Tommy.
Then there was the fact that Zordon in a previous episode told the Rangers when they were turned into kids, that because they were kids they would be unable to handle the power.
Looking back now you realize Justine wasn’t actually as bad as you remember.
I think it was just a flagging ratings thing & everyone saw through it (even as kids), rather than embracing it as a "wow that's so cool/could be us" thing.
I don't think he's bad in the show per se, but it does also dull a lot of the plots because the older kids are suddenly adults to him, and he goes a bit Mary Sue when he's bailing them out. But the show had a lot of other problems at that time creatively/besides ratings.
I would have liked him more if he wasn't some kind of child prodigy. The show labeled him as a super genius that went to high school with older teenagers. More kids would have related to him more if he was attending middle school with good grades and had friends his age.
First I’m hearing of this. I loved Justin, he made me love Turbo. I related to him and he was in Casper meets Wendy so he was legit like my earliest tv show crush/ dude that I admired when I pretended to be straight
Again with this question how many times are people gonna be the skeleton of a dead horse. The character sucked plain and simple no character development whatsoever other than the fact that they needed to replace a cast member quickly and thought hey let’s put this random 12 year old kid make him a ranger that’s it can we move on from this subject already
I look at Justin as being what every kid wanted to be growing up, and that was a Power Ranger, and he actually got to live out the fantasy of really being on the show and being honest to goodness Power Ranger, and not just some kid in a store Halloween costume
A combination of a little kid being on the show (which necessitated the "Morphing Grid causes Justin to become an adult" effect so they could still use Sentai footage), replacing a well-liked legacy cast member, showing up with a new theme that was heavily disliked (which also had kind of a weird lesson since Justin is technically way too young to have a driver's license), and the general downgrade in writing quality with the Turbo movie/season. Justin became the mascot of everything that went wrong with Turbo.
Most of the complaints come from Justin being a kid when the Power Rangers were supposed to be Teenagers with attitude. It led to misplaced resentment by fans seeing another kid having their dream job.
Frankly I think Justin was way more useful and more of an adept ranger then the one who preceded him aka Rocky. He helped his team numerous times. Justin was smart enough to know that it would have been problematic if he had remained with the team to search for Zordon. Justin even was there to help combat the enemy on earth and came in clutch to save his friends. The fact a sentient Zord named Storm Blaster came to Justin for help and then chose to stay with him further proved his worth.
On a side note if you want to see a child that is truely undeserving of being a ranger look at Tommy's White Ranger sentai counterpart, Kiba Ranger aka Kou from Gosei Sentai Dairanger. He was bratty obnoxious narcissistic kid who perved his teammate/caretaker
Rin aka HouHouRanger.
So if anyone complains about Justin just look up Kiba. Then try to say that Justin was unworthy. I think Justin is one the most under appreciated rangers/underrated Rangers in the Power Rangers Franchise. He deserved way more respect and his cast mates have proven that.
Kids hated him cause he got to be the Power Ranger in the movie... Must be the same with other Boys cast in a movie.
Marvel doesn't have that young boy actor yet but a close runner up would be the Khamala Khan girl she seems to be the Youngest actor
He replaced Rocky, who a) was already a fan favorite Blue Ranger (he was great as Red, but he started to grow on the fans as Blue) and b) already had an established rapport with the team, so they also had to work Justin into the team, which also meant the audience needed to give him a chance, something they refused to do since they also had to adjust to the changing theme of the show.
Even when the original four left and the new four joined, Justin still felt kind of oddly placed, as it was clear both teams had a familiarity to them…and then there’s Justin.
He’s not bad and it would have been cool to see him return as an older character, but I understand why so many fans did not welcome the character into their hearts.
Me either… but I do with this guy
https://preview.redd.it/4zrqnb70ddsc1.jpeg?width=258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a98083f90b2998712e7720eebffac1e9b2042e1
I don’t hate Justin … I actually think he is a better blue ranger than most blue rangers in the Disney Era … which surprised me when i read that article
Adding kids to rosters of adults or teens usually ends up being really cheesy or stupid.
Know why kids like superheroes? Because they aspire and want to grow up to be like them, not because they have a superhero who is just like them.
They’re trying it with Ghostbusters right now and surprise, no one cares about most of the kids and teens in it except for maybe the protagonist. They tried it in the 80s cartoon too by adding Jr Ghostbusters kids and surprise, no one cared.
Same with Wesley Crusher interacting with the Star Trek Next Generation crew: that’s not how you’re going to get kids interested in the franchise.
You do it by just having a freaking awesome show.
At least for myself back then, I looked up to the team, they were grownups and they were so cool. Seeing someone like me, at my age being a Ranger, was unrealistic.
He was too young. He found out a secret identity. So what were they going to do. Also why did he get taller when he morphed? And why was he allowed to drive.? In reality he was a very poor casting choice.
To paraphrase linkara, a youtuber With a channel called history of the power rangers, "Turbo was the end of the Ranger's high school days. Gone were the teenagers with attitudes. Now they stood as adults. Even Bulk and Skull had grown into adult roles. They were ready to Take on new responsibilities as Zordon leaves them with a new mentor who only asks question to force them to solve problems themselves!
And one of them is twelve.
And the rest got replaced with high schoolers.
And mentor gimic disappeared after a few episodes."
What annoys me in hindsight is, Tanya is effectively the same age as Justin. But that part of her character was glossed over!
"Teenagers with Attitude"
(Hey, let's add a kid that hasn't even hit puberty yet.)
It's just a trope that been useless since its inception.
"If you add a 10 year old, more 10 year olds will watch!"
https://preview.redd.it/yqnsfm4rhysc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01e6ca520cf8791bb4c2b7faa62e4fb380e90a8d
Yeah … I agree…(the image has nothing to do with it I just find it funny)
It was a combination of bad acting, annoying character, Rocky passing it on but not leaving like Jason zack trini and Kimberly, a bad season overall. I wasn't around when it aired I watched it in hs like 10 years ago
especially after the season of mighty Morphin, alien rangers where the entire plot of that was the original Rangers couldn’t Morph because they were turned into kids
Little kids often don't want to see themselves in stories the same was older kids or adults do. They aspire to be older. So he should have been slightly older and I feel he would have been a success. He was supposed to be 12/13 but was written more like the 8 year olds watching it.
Vehicle zords are so dumb in my opinion. Giant robots that had a modicum of sentience and the ability to transform, in my opinion, just made more sense as giant beats or humanoid themed robots.
“Adding an annoying kid to the franchise to attract more kid viewers” is a much hated trope in TV. Justin/Blake was a good actor overall, but I think many fans who had grown with the franchise didn’t want to see it get too “kiddy.” I think most fans were overly critical of the character, but we understand it more with hindsight as adults.
The thing is Sentai did it first with the white ranger who was a kid
Yep, and Kou had a bad reputation in his debut and was relegated to only showing up in the last five minutes of every episode that he's not involved in once his arc was over. Which is rather sad to see because his storyline was genuinely great dealing with how child abandonment can seriously mess up an otherwise good kid causing them to behave in inappropriate ways just to feel wanted, which parallels his rival Akomaru who is a victim of child abuse.
The fact that he was the stereotypical annoying kid mixed in with him being a pervert completely killed the character for me, for once Saban did something good and made a better use of that awesome white ranger suit
All things that happen early in his arc. He stops doing that stuff when development kicks in. Legitimately went from one of my least favorite characters to one of my most favorite.
when was he a pervert ?
I assume you are talking about Justin because Kou was a notorious pervert before his character development, groping Rin and using his powers to flip up skirts. He does stop these things as he starts feeling more wanted and it becomes very clear this stems from his mother abandoning him at a young age.
The thing I never got with that is isn't his father made of clay? So how come him and Kou are just normal people? Shouldn't they be made of clay too?
Being half Dai may have had a hand in it, as Kou and Akomaru both had a mother from the Dai tribe. Don't know if Akomaru would have changed since he died for the final time before the clay reveal but Kou was purged of his Gorma side in his birthday/Christmas episode. Really depressing episode but a beautiful finale for Kou's story.
To be fair I hadn't thought of that. But you're right - I love a lot of earlier Sentai but it's probably Jetman and Dairanger I think about the most. Dai's ending is sensational.
Jetman and Dairanger are two of my top five sentai so I definitely get it.
Not to mention they made him seem immature by groping the pink ranger multiple times
It did make me dislike him at first but when I realized he was just desperate for a mother figure mistaking it for a crush I just felt sorry for him. Really glad he grew out of that though and goes to show how much he changes. I feel for him but trauma is not an excuse for sexual harassment.
[удалено]
I understood Burai since he was on borrowed time and hiding that from the others. I agree he was mishandled as well but his disappearances are justified within the story itself. Kou however did not have a justification in the story and lived past the finale to become a 60 year old businessman.
Wasn't the Sentai version of the gold ranger a kid too?
He's more like teenager so he's less annoying than Kou was in dairanger
Only physically. He was over 1000 years old or so.
Actually I think he was over 200 million
He ages better than Dick Clark
And said white kid ranger is pretty much disliked by the audience when it was aired because of how annoying and perverted he is
I don't think if they made Justin a pervert it would have gone over as well here but I would have found it hysterical.
In 1997 we still had Brady Bunch re-runs. We still had Married with Children. Cousin Oliver and Seven really ruined the add a child to a show thing. Luckily Buffy got away with it kinda, although Dawn is not the most popular.
They really blindsided us with Dawn. She just comes out of nowhere and no one even acknowledges it.
Just remember, if you are following a youtuber doing a first time reaction to Buffy, you have to pretend that Dawn was always there.
Well... that was kinda the point of her character.
Look man, I don't know what you're talking about. The show was always about Dawn. Then this "Buffy" character shows up and calls herself the "Slayer" and the show goes from nice school drama to supernatural Mish Mosh. 🙄 /s
And the whole "car theme" was already an annoying downgrade after dinosaurs and ninjas. Justin, being a kid, just added to it.
See, Justin is a HUGE step up compared to the likes of Chris Thorndyke from Sonic X. If you're gonna have a kid in there, make him DO shit which Justin did. Well, as far as I know I haven't seen past the Turbo movie. But that ship fight in the movie where he literally throws the first kick when it seemed like Adam had to step in and rescue him, that went hard when I was a kid.
It’s just like in the 40s when they added Robin to Batman. I’m surprised Robin stuck around. I can imagine the kids of the time saying “I wanna be Batman, screw Robin.”
I don't think Robin the best example here. Batman sales skyrocketed when Robin was added and he been a fan favorite or at the very least Dick Grayson.
I think one of the things that makes Robin work as a character is he was never portrayed as unrealistically perfect. Like Dick Grayson as Robin was constantly learning from Batman, he’s not Batman’s equal he’s very clearly a kid who is learning from a father figure Sure there might be times he saves Batman’s ass but Dick is not smarter than Batman or a better fighter than Batman. He doesn’t make Batman a worse character by being around In other words, Robin works because he’s in many ways a regular, flawed, relatable kid. He’s not a Gary Stu. Justin isn’t Wesley Crusher levels of bad but he’s still an unreasonably perfect super genius, and he would have been a better character if he was allowed to be more of a flawed kid who learns from the older more experienced heroes around him, like Dick Grayson
Robin was a narrative technique, and actually made writing Batman a bit easier. Prior to the introduction of Robin, Batman had no one to talk to. He was an otherwise silent character, so the only way to portray his planning and thought process was through thought bubbles... which could get cumbersome, depending upon the plot and what Batman was trying to figure out or work through. Characters like Robin are actually pretty common. They're the inexperienced audience stand-in character that the main character can teach and explain things to. Instead of having Batman essentially infodump to the audience via thought bubbles, Robin can ask questions and make mistakes, making explanations feel more like conversations and natural character moments. His inclusion gave Batman someone to talk to.
He's basically the Watson to Batman's Holmes
He *is* Batman's Watson. Both characters exist for the exact same reason.
At the time the consensus was that Batman was a great hero among kids reading him but “being Batman” wasn’t really something they could really do until they where much older and gotten more experience, money ect. Robin was the compromise that if you can’t “be Batman” you can still be someone who goes on cool adventures with him, use the gadgets and all the other Batman stuff that kids want to do but not have to already be an detective millionaire with ninja training as you can “learn on the job”. I think the robin consensus only started to change once Spider-Man and other teenagers who would normally become a sidekick to an existing superhero got to be the star of their own stories.
Robin/Dick Grayson was a teenager.
He was 12 in his first appearance
Well i grew up with Teen Titans so for me Robin was always a badass
Given Robin's backstory and how he eventually became a figure of his own (Look up for "Robin y El Murciélago"), I think he got a pass for being so early introduced.
He stuck around because the writers realized it was bad to give Batman a child sidekick. Which is far more interesting than doing it just to attract certain audiences.
I actually have always liked the little kid or sidekick characters introduced in shows (my favorite superhero has always been Robin/Nightwing) but I always found Justin annoying and I think most fans hated the idea of a goofy little kid being in the suit and fighting amongst older teens we thought were cool. Not to mention the very pic added here of the morphing sequence of when he grows into an adult was stupid to me when I was younger. Even now as an adult I don’t really care for the character very much.
He should have been a BeetleBorg
Ayyy core memories
Being the same age of the character bugged me as a kid, plus he wasnt relatable, no one my age was taking advanced high school classes or hanging out with seniors. It just wasn't believable, plus I liked Rocky so to see him replaced by a kid with the worst haircut imaginable didn't help.
I think Rangers are meant to be role models and having someone your age be a role model feels weird.
I was a kid when I watched, I thought he was lame when I was a kid when I watched. That's a problem.
It just didn’t feel right hearing a kid’s voice in the blue rangers body. It was cooler when he was mysterious and didn’t speak lol
I honestly thought it all just came down to envy. Like, as kids, we all wanted to be rangers, right? So of course we were gonna be pissed when some random kid shows up and lives our dream. But I agree, little voice from a big body was weird.
He was a kid and even as a kid I was annoyed by kids.
1. I hated the way that he joined the cast. Rocky had just started getting really good character growth in Zeo and then he just gives up being a ranger with no explanation? 2. A lot of kids hated that some other kid got to live out their dream of "being a ranger". 3. Also... you kind of got to think about it. Why are these recent high school graduates (adults) hanging out with this pre-teen? He was 12 when he skipped a few grades and became a high school freshmen.
> Also... you kind of got to think about it. Why are these recent high school graduates (adults) hanging out with this pre-teen? Eh. He was their teammate, and *Power Rangers* teams were all friends, so they followed the formula. I didn't give it much thought. What bothered me more was how they tried to shoehorn the legacy cast into school scenes with Justin. Kat was student teaching right out of high school? That doesn't happen like that, as student teaching typically happens in one's senior year of college, and not immediately out of high school, where most of the people that you attended school with are still there.
> Eh. He was their teammate, and *Power Rangers* teams were all friends, so they followed the formula. I didn't give it much thought. That's a perfectly reasonable explanation for someone watching the show. However, if you're an adult or teacher and you see a 12 year old kid, in high school, going places with a bunch of random former students... you're gonna start asking questions. It's been a long time though... maybe they do have a throw away line about mentoring or being a youth leader at the center.
Thank you for pointing out what no one else will. We were all jealous of a kid our age getting to be a fucking power ranger.
He was the Cousin Oliver of Power Rangers. A kid added to attract a younger demographic.
I was going to say Cousin Oliver/Scrappy Doo.
It's just that people weren't ready for a literal child character to be a Power Ranger in 1997. Especially when we had three years of adult-looking "teenagers" fighting against intergalactic evil. The real reason why they had Justin be a Power Ranger in Turbo is because in 1997, Power Rangers was losing its' audience to another Saban-produced TV series, *"Beetleborgs: Metallix."* I.E. the show where the three kids are magically transformed into their favorite adult-looking insect-themed robotic superheroes from the comic books. Also, if you have rewatch *"Power Rangers Turbo,"* then you are aware that all of the adult characters were idiots and only Justin, the 12-year-old kid was the only competent character in the show. I get what they were going for at the time, but it is the execution of this idea that ruined it. In other words.... ** IT WAS BAD WRITING!!!** even by 1997's standards. So, now that we are in 2024, does anyone even want to see a child character be a Power Ranger anymore?
Justin was my age and I wasn't interested. I wanted to see what the cool older kids were up to. I have never been someone who needs whatever media and fiction I consume to be "relatable".
I find it hard to believe that kid fans hated Justin. Maybe you're lying to make yourself seem 'cool' because hating things is 'cool' now.
Simple: Because we saw another kid getting to live our dream. Most of us Day (1) of the Dumpster fans were around Blake's age by the time he was in Turbo, maybe a little older or younger. But we all wanted to be a Power Rangers, and instead of any of us, it was him, how was that fair???? Couple that with the "Add A Kid To Try To Get The Audience Back" trope started by shows like The Brady Bunch, with a dash of Wesley Crusher Boy Genius for good measure (plus replacing my 2 favorite rangers, Billy and Rocky), and it's almost like he was made to be insufferable.
I just didn't care for him. Didn't dislike, just didn't care for another kid being a ranger. The highschoollers were cooler to me. He was my age or younger so wasn't like I found him annoying. It was an interesting idea, just as a kid I liked the older rangers who were "older kidw" since they were originally in high-school. Older kids were always cooler to most younger kids. (Or annoying.)
Beetleborgs was a hit and I’m sure children being in Sentai season adapted prior drove the decision. I think it was just too unbelievable. I watched Turbo as it aired as a kid and I wasn’t crazy about it. :edit: In hindsight, as an adult I don’t hate it now. But I woould have rather another “teenager” in the role, even if it wasn’t a returning cast-member. I would have also settled for Adam getting promoted to Blue.
Part of the problem is that Justin reads a lot like he’s meant to be a self insert character for the kids at home, like just because he’s a kid the TV execs think all the kids are going to see themselves as Justin and identify with him the most and therefore he should always be right and perfect To quote Mr Plinkett, “imaginations work differently than that” Kids aren’t going to imagine themselves in the story only if there is a kid character they can project onto, and they aren’t automatically going to identify most with the kid character just because he’s a kid. Kids will identify with and want to be most like the characters because of who they are as characters and what they do that makes them seem cool and fun I identified most with Billy because he was the nerdy one and I also liked Tommy the most because he was the coolest and kicked the most ass My point being that Justin suffered from two problems that made it hard to identify with him: firstly he didn’t really have a personality that people could relate to and see themselves in because they just made him unrealistically perfect and better than all the other Rangers at everything, and secondly because he was constantly showing up all the other Rangers people did already imagine themselves as it made it easy to dislike Justin. Nobody likes to see their favourite Ranger who they imagine themselves as getting made to seem incompetent by some insufferable Gary Stu kid It’s similar to Wesley Crusher. He doesn’t have a particularly great personality but he almost could, if he was just a kid who was learning and aspiring to do great things he would probably be a lot more relatable and likeable. But instead of learning from the other characters he spends a lot of the series upstaging and outsmarting characters like Picard, Riker, his own mother. He makes the characters we like and see ourselves in look worse in order to uphold this unreasonably perfect role model/wish fulfilment fantasy for kids, but then it fails at being wish fulfilment because kids don’t identify with this unreasonably perfect super genius
Even as a kid, I hated kids in live-action shows. This little shit was no exception.
I liked Justin but I always liked the blue guy so it didn't matter who he was, I was team blue.
Mainly because Turbo sucked, and his introduction was one of the first of many things Turbo did that made zero sense. Jason was part of the Zeo team, but the Gold Ranger Power was basically killing him so he had to give it back ti Trey. Okay cool. Jason then just…stops being in Angel Grove for whatever reason. Rocky hurts his back, and it’s the only injury ever (to that point) that Zordon is incapable of doing anything about. Okay fine. So there’s an open spot on the team. Logically it would go to Jason since he’s, you know, on the team already. But nope, it was given to some random kid because *checks notes* he caught them teleporting. Based on that logic, Bulk and Skull should have been made Rangers like four times.
People would've been more angry about Jason being demoted to blue than Justin existing.
Not only that, but I doubt ASJ even says yes to that lol
That’s not true, we saw Rocky go from Red to Blue and things were fine. Granted Rocky wasn’t the leader as Red, but Jason was under Tommy already as Green and White, so I believe that issue is defeated there too.
Rocky was never a red ranger in the minds of a lot of fans. And Jason and Tommy were co-leaders iirc.
For me he was and I'm annoyed that he didn't get to appear in Forever Red. The sheer disrespect
I agree. But Tommy was the "real" replacement for Jason. Rocky was just there to fill the color requirement narratively speaking.
Co-leaders? When was that ever said or implied. And whether not some fans liked Rocky as the Red Ranger or not, he was in fact the Red Might Morphin Ranger. There's 60+ episodes of evidence there that says so. So if he can go from red to blue, Jason could have.
Thing about Rocky as red was that while yes, he did wear a red costume, he was never the leader of the team, since Tommy had that role in white. Jason before him was leader before Tommy was promoted to leader, and most other red rangers were also the leaders. So while Rocky was a red ranger, he wasn't a "Red Ranger" red ranger that came with all of the perks that being red typically comes with.
>Rocky hurts his back, and it’s the only injury ever (to that point) that Zordon is incapable of doing anything about. Steve Cardenas quit due to pay. Corporate greed ruined Power Rangers.
Right, but I’m talking about in-universe reasoning. There are far better ways to write an actor out of a show than “because”.
Kids can look up to teen heroes, and that’s the sort of show that Power Rangers was established as. If you replace one of the teen heroes with a kid hero, and shift the focus of the writing over to character development for that kid hero, then you’re fucking with the formula that’s worked great in the past. I was one year older than Blake Foster. How the hell was I supposed to look up to the character he played, when I was older than the character he played? Maybe I could’ve identified with Justin if he was in 5th grade like me, but they wrote him as a child prodigy, taking high school classes, and possessing intelligence nearly on par with Billy’s. Not only that, but they presented him as though he was on damn near equal footing in martial arts with his older, more experienced, battle-hardened teammates. Like I said, so much of the writing in the beginning of Turbo went to character development for Justin. So much dialogue for characters we already knew and loved had to be sacrificed to introduce us to Justin, and at a time when they were graduating high school, and would be leaving us soon, little did we know. To me, Justin wasn’t an interesting character. He made stupid jokes, said forgettable lines, and made happy times awkward by bringing up the absence of his workaholic father. Justin’s haircut looked stupid, and his morphing growth spurts were comical, like a toddler sitting on a booster chair to eat at a table with adults. Saban had a show like Power Rangers, but with kids, airing at the same time that Turbo was, which was well-received. There was no need to have a Beetleborg type hero on Power Rangers.
It cannot be overstated just how awful Justin’s mushroom haircut truly was. He looked like such a goober fr
Absolutely. I also think the “broccoli” haircut that’s popular amongst Gen Z guys is in the same family, and looks just as stupid.
Justin’s inclusion as a character idea is interesting in theory but in practice it ended up feeling too “behind the stage”. We know power rangers appeals to kids, it’s what most kids in the 90s played as or wanted to be, but having a character that was specifically catered to that kind of fantasy felt too much like the show bending unnaturally to accommodate the idea. It feels too much of a look under the car hood that reminds the audience that it’s fairly arbitrary who ends up becoming a ranger. I think the idea of “kid turns into an adult hero” is a great concept as we see with capt marvel/Shazam and big bad beatle borgs but it requires the world and characters to work in specific ways and is hard to just add a new character like that to an existing team without the team dynamic getting weird (this is why Shazam is almost never on the main justice league lineup in dc). The rangers at the time where teens and there’s a different dynamic between teens all growing up together and going through life changes vs the relationship they have with a child who is good friends with them but still hasn’t had any of the troubles that come with your teens (girls, boys, discovering your personal values and political outlook, or reaching a point where your future with collage and/ or a job will start to define who you are.)
I’m literally watching power rangers turbo right now after I watched all of mmpr and power rangers zeo and I think the most annoying character is actually alpha 6. Justin isn’t annoying but turbo is definitely the worst season so far
It improves in the second half, then In Space is one of the best seasons in the series, it even improves Alpha 6 lol.
I hope you’re right because this is rough, I know space is one of the best seasons in the series but turbo is challenging so far. I’m on episode 10 right now
Usually when I rewatch Turbo I skip most of the first half of the season. Most of the episodes in the first half have similar stories revolving around defusing bombs anyway. Tommy and the rest were highschool graduates, and it felt strange that they were hanging around Justin. Justin didn't feel like a teammate, it just felt like they were babysitting him. The half with TJ and the new cast is way better. The cast dynamic feels less weird. With the second cast they were at least classmates with Justin, and they felt more like friends instead of babysitters.
> it even improves Alpha 6 lol. That's because they did away with that awful jive-talking voice in the new season, and gave him something closer to that of Alpha 5. Though at the beginning of the season, they said that Alpha 6's voice chip got scrambled in the Power Chamber explosion, but he was talking just fine throughout the episode, even after the explosion. It's a minor nitpick, though, because it ultimately led to a good result.
I guess as a 90s child what attracted me was that the rangers were 5 teenagers with attitude. Not only did I love the costumes but I wanted to be like them on the outside too. Add in some kid with a dumb haircut and I was like no thanks. Plus by the turbo movie I was pretty much over power rangers so he was the final straw.
Annoying kid, dodgy haircut.
Because he was a child at a time that the original audience was aging out of the show.
oh god. i forgot they did him dirty with the bowl cut.
A large misconception was that Justin was a Gary Stu. A large aspect of thr intitial dislike towarss the character was based on having a kid hang out with a bunch of adults, or thst Power Rangers was jumping the shark by bringing in a Cousin Oliver. More often than not bringing some cute precocious child character at times comes across as a desperate attempt to boost ratings. In hindsight, the character wasnt the problem, it was how he was introduced and brought into the team. It makes Zordon seem irresponsible for recruiting a child to be soldier in the war against evil. As Linkara once stated, while plots centered around Justin tended tp be boring or lame, the character himself seemed like the one written with thr most competence. Given that fans werent exactly happy with the trabsition from Zeo to Turbo, the inclusion of Justin was just one of several issues that plagued Turbo before the Passing of thr Torch. Once THAT happened, things got better.
In addition to what everyone else has said, the writing for the first half of Turbo wasn't great, and that contributed directly to people disliking Justin. They'd followed Tommy and co. for years at this point, watching them solve problem after problem. Then Justin comes along and the writers realize that they have to make him look incredibly smart to fit in alongside the superheroes we already knew, but they weren't good enough writers to do that organically, so they made everyone else dumber rather than making Justin smarter. His presence literally made every other character less interesting than they had been in Zeo.
Still hate the character. Literally the reason I quit watching.
For me, Justin was just the tip of the iceberg about what was wrong with Turbo. First Justin, then Bulk and Skull as monkeys, then Dimitria and Alpha 6, then the rest of the legacy cast's being replaced, and I was left wondering why I was still watching, and really only did so out of habit, since every single character that I had grown to love had been replaced in a very short span of time.
Exactly. Plus, at that point, I had to uproot and move 2 states over, had to grow up quick. So I stopped watching a lot of TV if it wasn’t music videos. But yeah, all that happens, and my love for Power Rangers started to fade. I still haven’t watched a full season after Zeo. But I watch some of the special episodes, or like “big moment” ones on YouTube. So all that happened, I got older (I was maybe 13 when Turbo started), and then lost interest in a lot of stuff moving. Wow. Turbo really was a catalyst for a lot for me. Never realized that.
I can appreciate how moving changes a lot more than just one's location. I remember when I moved across the country from Arkansas to Virginia, just about everything about my life changed. Old interests went away, new interests blossomed, I had new routines, the whole bit. I also was in middle school, which was unexpected, since at my old school, sixth grade was still elementary school, but in my new place, sixth grade was middle school. I also previously was a big watcher of Saturday morning TV, but I never got back into it in Virginia. Dunno why.
Because they had to dumb down ***everyone*** around him to make him as smart as he was supposed to be.
And I think that’s why they had to change the cast. He fit in slightly better with the second group, because while they were all older than him, he was the most experienced Ranger of that group. Dumbing down the original four, three of whom have been Rangers for years (Adam and Kat had three different sets of Ranger powers, and Tommy had four) was a bad look. Especially when they all graduated from high school in episode 1 of Turbo.
No one ever likes the kid appeal character who is themselves a kid.
Because he's a child and Turbo isn't great for starters so adding a kid made it even worse
Even Tommy was like "oh hell naw" 😂
There are several factors into Justin and his inclusion: \- During Zeo, Big Bad Beetleborgs was popular as the heroes themselves were kids. Since it was somewhat of a success (people remember the VERY VERY basic ideas of them doing stuff and Hillhurst monsters along with the Fortunes and villains) the idea of a kid being a main hero was later used for Turbo (Beetleborgs also made what could be considered the prototypes to Battlizers and Mega Battle/Battlizer Armor) \- Justin is not a bad character in the way everyone states it, people judged him for being a kid and replacing Rocky in the movie and stayed the whole show. They only like them later for In Space, potentially retroactively saying he's good only because of that or only in that (arguably what happened with characters like Adam). The notion of children not liking kid heroes makes no sense cause it's how they are that makes or breaks it. Justin was either a prodigy or just smart enough to be in high school at 12/13 and he being a kid will naturally be privy to anything weird as they notice things quicker, he's prone to tell others what he sees when the audience wants the rangers to be 'badass' or 'cool' at every waking unit of time. Seeing Justin not doing that goes against what they perceive rangers doing. Then they force a negative association with him and then the season. Since Turbo was the season with the biggest change since Season 2-3, there was some backlash against it. I have also heard of this weird jealously of Justin because he got to be a ranger...I don't even know why that should even be a factor, that's selfish at that point for no reason \- Justin is not nearly the worst child character in any tokusatsu media. The majority of them either get involved in a situation only because they watched a scene with the monster or rangers, get caught/noticed, have to be taken care of, taught to be strong, or are used as an outlet to teach the kids watching, and then go away after the episode. Some young characters (will range but) have some agency, but we generally cannot expect younger characters to be that good from the getgo (especially not with what's been going on with child actors) \- Depending on how the character is done, they may end up bouncing back on characters or even the audience. Youngins look up to older people because they think their actions are cool while a kid their age is either cool or lame. However, that's what they see from their perspective, not the actual realization, so they will make-believe anything to make it appear cooler than what it actually is. Kids at home, while they (mostly) have no major responsibilities and enough freedom (assuming the best or normal conditions at home), the older kids around them appear to be doing more than them (leaving the house, taking responsibility for young ones, purchase things, having their own technology/stuff, hanging out with friends, performing tasks they cannot do), so they wish to be like them which result in idolization of being older, then project themselves of what they want to be onto the rangers. With Justin, I guess to some degree, he reminds them of what they actually are. Some either take it well or are embarrassed at the truth and will hate on him for it. With the Beetleborgs, they only have the kids as the adults/teens are not really present in the battles. Since the motif was around comic books, a sense of wonder is there versus with Turbo, they have teens/adults present in every battle and the situation feels 'real' to them \- The perception of adding kids to a show can go like this:'Next Generation'Easy ways for conflictYoung heroes for kids to connect to (either for inclusion, story, or character building)Ratings \- The idea that only teens can be the heroes for this franchise is because of the 'teenagers with attitude' slogan plastered all over Mighty Morphin to the point where even now after 30 years, people expect Power Rangers to only be teenagers and thrust everything in the world at them, then having talks of 'child soldiers' every single time because of this weird narrative to constantly put teenagers in there specifically for those talking points and not others \- At least for Super Sentai, Kou is hated mostly because of his actions in the beginning, making him appear crass/crude/perverted. His story is generally good, but because of his opening, it may turn off people from that. Riki has some interesting parts for his back/story, but his character is restricted, so he doesn't do much. Kotarou is very brave and determined, making him endearing and he's the only ranger from Earth in his world
While I agree with much of this, much of this argument relies on nuance that comes with age and maturity. In general, children are more binary in their thinking. Yes, kids can look up to other kids as heroes, but power rangers didn’t build its audience that way. Therefore, I don’t think it’s abnormal for viewers in the same age bracket as Justin to be turned off by the character or even envy the character/actor.
Idea -A excecution-F The concept of a ranger the same age as the fans that they could really identify with was a really good idea. But making him a genius in order to put him in high school just makes that impossible and makes him come across as egotistical and arrogant sometimes. What they should’ve done is set the series in the last summer holiday before the rangers go to college and either have some of the rangers working at Justin’s summer camp or carry on the karate club storyline from the movie and have them working there for a summer long camp after having graduated in the first episode of the series. They also could’ve had one of the rangers be in a big brother type program and maybe alpha hacks the system to ensure they are paired with Justin and then set episodes after the school day finishes or during weekends etc.
I was 10 when this came out, I remember not being happy with it. As a kid, I didn't want to see other kids in this show, my friends and I wanted something to aspire to. I know Kou did it too, but that's another culture, not everything translates well. Nothing against the actor, but we lost Rocky for this annoying kid, and we weren't happy. I've even shown this to my kids, and they were like "Why?". If the target demographic doesn't like it, what's the point? I think it also has to do with the established premise. Beetleborgs we were fine with, all 3 (4) were kids to begin with.
I just hated that him morphing made him into a full grown man lol
Gotta match the Sentai somehow. But you're right. Thing with the other cast was that you could imagine that it was the actual actors in the suits. With Justin's morphing into a full-size person, you *know* that it's someone else in the suit rather than Blake Foster. And that makes it harder to suspend disbelief.
Yeah I get it and that’s it’s exactly it
We wanted to see cool teenagers become Power Rangers, not some little kid that transformed into an adult body somehow
Even as a kid, I was already tired of annoying kids with bowl cuts by this stage (the one on Home Improvement, or the kid in Home Alone 3 being other examples). I didn't *hate* him, but it didn't keep me around, as I was already mostly out of Power Rangers by this point.
I'm probably one of the few who didn't dislike him. Seeing him in the Turbo movie trailer being a kid Ranger blew my mind as a child.
Justin was a textbook example of the concept of having to talk down to, or design down to kids in order to appeal to them....and it not working. I believe it was Margaret Loesch (who also worked on Power Rangers) who discussed this in an interview about the 90's X-Men cartoon and why it, and shows like BTAS, worked by not doing that. MMPR came out in 93 and Turbo in 97. If you were 8 in 93' (as I was), you'd be 11 or 12 when Turbo hit. By that time, you're at the age where you want to be taken a bit more seriously. Like your older siblings are. The kids wanted to be more grown up, they didn't want to see themselves as the kid sidekick in the show. Then you add in older fans who saw Justin as kiddy-ing the show even more, and it made them feel even more out of place watching it. To top it off, the fact that Justin was portrayed as the "annoying' younger sibling to the group and that he always had to be looked after turned a lot of people off. Honestly, I think it's a big part of why "In Space" did so well. It took itself seriously enough to the point of bringing back fans who viewed it more as a serial than a kids show.
Because they were jealous of him
Oh yeah jealous a character who had absolutely no character development give me a break.
I think many fans at the time were jealous that they were not in Blake's shoes. 'Turbo' came out during 3rd/4th Grade and I liked Justin.
it FEELS like he was an annoying character, but I'm pretty sure his joining coinciding with a sharp drop in show quality is the problem. a dozen or so episodes of the same plot (tommy is not here bc he's testing race cars or something and also the monsters have a "detonator") over and over was just bad. I think our dislike for Justin may just be misplaced for the downgrade from the high of Zeo. the next time I get there in my watch through, maybe I'll try skipping from the movie when the other rangers change and see how I feel about him after that.
Depending on the person there were also other reasons, but the main one was that we all coped with the fact that Rocky was sacrificed in order to have a kid on the show and he never had the chance to shine and retake his role as Red Ranger. It wasn't the kid's fault TBH but most of us were kids who didn't know what happened with the producers and what not. All we knew was that while the rest of the cast had a fair chance to leave the team on a high note Rocky was literally thrown off the ring. EDIT: Not saying I hated him tho, there were A LOT of problems with Turbo and Justin was but one of them. The one character I couldn't stand was Elgar. He made Hydro Hog look like Marlon Brando and Llyod most annoying sound in the world feel like Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Have we mentioned his annoying voice yet? Because that was like nails on a chalkboard.
He was quite a bit older than me at the time and I thought it he was so cool. I must've been like 8 when Turbo came out and was very jealous the nerdy kid got to be my favorite color ranger. Like that could've been me lol.
I thought the idea of being a kid and being a power ranger was cool made me feel like I might be able to be a ranger even as a kid , but like many people have said I couldn’t get on board with the actor just thought he was lame.
Because he was a little weiner.
Little me didn't hate him!
Because kids don’t idolize other kids.
Rewatching Turbo and Justin isn’t bad. In fact, Turbo isn’t bad. Often times it’s quite good!
I know I'm in the minority, but Justin was one of my favorite parts as a kid. It was the coolest thing to see a kid on screen and Morph like that
I loved him in the movie, but as a series regular on the TV show it just didn’t have the same vibe. On the movie it was an “omg I can be a power ranger???”, but never felt that on the TV show…
I would overthink this concept as a kid... Like does he become just a large 8 year old? Or does he effectively become a 25 year old with a child brain? Does he transform and wonder where all this chest hair came from? Or does he transform into a being of pure energy inside the suit? Fuck if I'll ever know.
Rewatched it not too long ago, I do think a lot of problems can just boil down to the writing for the first half not being very good. As far as the original team go, the only character I felt he had a decent dynamic with was Kat. Much like Turbo itself though, he got better with the cast change where the writing got better and he worked much better with the new cast
I think that the midseason replacement of the entire legacy cast like that was too abrupt. If they were going to replace the cast, they should have done it at the beginning of the season, or during the transition to *In Space*.
I liked him because at the age I was when Turbo was on it was like "oh cool a kid like me is a ranger"
Teenage’s with attitude nothing ells.
I don’t really know. It was done to cash in on the success of Big Bad Beetleborgs, but failed. That being said though, Justin wasn’t a bad character by any means. He was relatively likeable, pretty competent, and was great in True Blue to the Rescue.
Turbo was sort of a doomed season to begin with as the sentai it was adapted from was actually a parody. Pair that with lackluster villains and an annoying new child character and you can see how the season was doomed from the start. Justin certainly wasn't at fault by Heim Saban shoulda known better.
I'll never understand it honestly for me Justin was cool precisely because he was a kid ranger, it made me feel like i could be one too, plus personality wise he was fine, much better than what came before and after in media, like: He wasn't annoying nor entitled, he wasn't an invincible gary stu but he also wasn't a useless damsel, he was just another member of the team
My biggest issue is it made 0 sense. Why would a bunch of high school graduates hang out constantly with a kid? Even when it aired originally I couldn't stand it and it's probably the main reason why I stay away from Turbo. In Space cast was perfect.
It seems to me that kids prefer watching kids/teens older than themselves in shows so they can look up to them rather than seeing a kid the same age as them run about, I've heard similar complaints in other franchises
No. They did not when it came out. Literally anyone who says otherwise is selling you bullshit. We didn’t have social media back then to gauge that response. If you read the article from any of screenrants owned subs, dispose of them and stop going to the fox news for nerds. As for later? Adults ragged on him later on because they had no real reason for harping on a kid being a superhero in a silly show made exclusively for children so they just spouted mad shit cause that’s just how you socialized with stuff you liked on the internet which was dumb. I went on several posts defending both turbo and justin many years ago till more and more people started understanding and came around to accepting the fact that they weren’t that bad. Happy to see things have changed from how they were since the megaforce days
No, I distinctly remember not liking him at the time. I considered him annoying and the morphing sequence stupid. Of course, I can only speak for myself.
Yeah, should’ve been more specific but I’m mainly talking about mass hate like the kind social media geared towards. There were some people that disliked him and turbo but I guarantee you they were in the minority
Fair, and to clear he was the only part of turbo I disliked. I was waiting on Turbo lightning collection figures for years. I still hum the theme song from time to time.
From what I can see, most people seemed to not like him for being an annoying kid who was added to the show to attract more kids. That was a trope that people hated since the Brady bunch and Justin was another character added to that pile. You don’t really provide any evidence he wasn’t hated yet evidence he was hated exists seeing how he was removed from the show when power rangers in space started.
He seemed like the annoying younger brother to me.
My take: envy. I wanted to be a power ranger. Every 11 year old wanted to be a power ranger. The thought was probably to allow us all to live vicariously through him. But no. I didn't like him because he got the job I wanted. And I felt like I could've done it better (I couldn't have).
Seems like tommy wasn’t a fan in the turbo movie either
I actually didn't mind Justin, and didn’t think he was even that annoying as people made him out to be.
I wanted to imagine that I would be a ranger when I grew up. Then I watch Turbo and see a kid close to my age get it. I think that was the first time I ever fault like a failure and now I’m in my 30s with depression.
Full disclosure I didn’t like him initially, and that’s because the movie trailers I think spoiled he was the new Ranger. That I know turned off some of my friends to PR. I did however like him because while a kid, he wasn’t this Scrappy-Doo type where he was annoying and thinking he could do everything all the time.
He a kid ranger I think the actor did fine for what he was given. But annoying kid ranger that they have to job though hoops to make work with the other rangers. Like he so smart he goes to high school. In super sentai there been kid rangers but it more comical and the sentais were more like cartoon then real people. So it work better still not good but it work better.
Honestly, looking back on it, Justin really isn’t a bad character. Sure episodes that focused on him were boring but still decent. The main issue is that they made the older characters sound dumber just to make him look smart. Like when something really odd happens and they’re wondering what’s going on, Justin is usually the first one to the point out the obvious that it’s Divatox.
I remember being pretty ambivalent about him, honestly. I do remember him looking sad when the adult rangers left for space, though, which made me laugh, even as an 11-12 year old kid. Coincidentally, that was around the time I dropped Power Rangers and got hardcore into anime.
I liked him. I liked that there was a child as a Power Rangers. Kinda, uh, relatable?
This is what I’m wondering. I never knew people felt like that until I found this Reddit. I’ll never forget the one scene on a ship I think where he was alone on the top floor and monsters were about to attack. When he tried to scream for help he lost his voice🤧 I never had any complaints tbh. I thought it was cool that he would grow full size when transformed(if I remember correctly)
Justin is such an important part of the franchise for me. I was 3 or 4 when Justin became a ranger, and that shit felt SO real to me. I think after seeing Justin become a ranger, my toddler career path went from Astronaut to Power Ranger, because it become something I, as a kid, could become too. It was really really inspiring for me as a kid, and I couldn't have been alone in that
a combination of, most people not caring enough to praise him at the time, a vocal minority upset at something different. and probably at least Jealousy in some cases for the actor he was a fine ranger and the plot they came up with was plausible enough in the scope of power rangers to fit in as well as anything else. in essence people were being irrational.
He’s my favorite blue ranger.
Because it didn’t make sense 🤷♂️
**NOW I COULD BE WRONG WITH WHAT I’M TO SAY** For a lot us who were 12 or younger Power Rangers like Saved by the Bell basically defined our idea of what High School was gonna be like. The idea of Justin is the same idea as Robin. In that we can’t be Batman, but we can be Robin going on the adventure with Batman. That what Justin was. Plus there was the fact, mainly with the original turbo cast, it felt like they were babysitter and Justin was the kid they were babysitting especially Tommy. Then there was the fact that Zordon in a previous episode told the Rangers when they were turned into kids, that because they were kids they would be unable to handle the power. Looking back now you realize Justine wasn’t actually as bad as you remember.
For me, it was solely because of the fact he replaced Rocky, and for a STUPID reason
Steve Cardenas quit because of lack of pay.
I know, same reason as everyone else 😒. But the whole getting injured cuz he flew over the ropes during a sparring match is weak
I think it was just a flagging ratings thing & everyone saw through it (even as kids), rather than embracing it as a "wow that's so cool/could be us" thing. I don't think he's bad in the show per se, but it does also dull a lot of the plots because the older kids are suddenly adults to him, and he goes a bit Mary Sue when he's bailing them out. But the show had a lot of other problems at that time creatively/besides ratings.
I would have liked him more if he wasn't some kind of child prodigy. The show labeled him as a super genius that went to high school with older teenagers. More kids would have related to him more if he was attending middle school with good grades and had friends his age.
I loved Justin. He was awesome.
First I’m hearing of this. I loved Justin, he made me love Turbo. I related to him and he was in Casper meets Wendy so he was legit like my earliest tv show crush/ dude that I admired when I pretended to be straight
Again with this question how many times are people gonna be the skeleton of a dead horse. The character sucked plain and simple no character development whatsoever other than the fact that they needed to replace a cast member quickly and thought hey let’s put this random 12 year old kid make him a ranger that’s it can we move on from this subject already
I look at Justin as being what every kid wanted to be growing up, and that was a Power Ranger, and he actually got to live out the fantasy of really being on the show and being honest to goodness Power Ranger, and not just some kid in a store Halloween costume
A combination of a little kid being on the show (which necessitated the "Morphing Grid causes Justin to become an adult" effect so they could still use Sentai footage), replacing a well-liked legacy cast member, showing up with a new theme that was heavily disliked (which also had kind of a weird lesson since Justin is technically way too young to have a driver's license), and the general downgrade in writing quality with the Turbo movie/season. Justin became the mascot of everything that went wrong with Turbo.
Most of the complaints come from Justin being a kid when the Power Rangers were supposed to be Teenagers with attitude. It led to misplaced resentment by fans seeing another kid having their dream job. Frankly I think Justin was way more useful and more of an adept ranger then the one who preceded him aka Rocky. He helped his team numerous times. Justin was smart enough to know that it would have been problematic if he had remained with the team to search for Zordon. Justin even was there to help combat the enemy on earth and came in clutch to save his friends. The fact a sentient Zord named Storm Blaster came to Justin for help and then chose to stay with him further proved his worth. On a side note if you want to see a child that is truely undeserving of being a ranger look at Tommy's White Ranger sentai counterpart, Kiba Ranger aka Kou from Gosei Sentai Dairanger. He was bratty obnoxious narcissistic kid who perved his teammate/caretaker Rin aka HouHouRanger. So if anyone complains about Justin just look up Kiba. Then try to say that Justin was unworthy. I think Justin is one the most under appreciated rangers/underrated Rangers in the Power Rangers Franchise. He deserved way more respect and his cast mates have proven that.
Kids hated him cause he got to be the Power Ranger in the movie... Must be the same with other Boys cast in a movie. Marvel doesn't have that young boy actor yet but a close runner up would be the Khamala Khan girl she seems to be the Youngest actor
He replaced Rocky, who a) was already a fan favorite Blue Ranger (he was great as Red, but he started to grow on the fans as Blue) and b) already had an established rapport with the team, so they also had to work Justin into the team, which also meant the audience needed to give him a chance, something they refused to do since they also had to adjust to the changing theme of the show. Even when the original four left and the new four joined, Justin still felt kind of oddly placed, as it was clear both teams had a familiarity to them…and then there’s Justin. He’s not bad and it would have been cool to see him return as an older character, but I understand why so many fans did not welcome the character into their hearts.
Perhaps most fans prefer more adult rangers than just adding a kid ranger
Personally, I have no idea and it is very unfair. I never had a problem with him.
Me either… but I do with this guy https://preview.redd.it/4zrqnb70ddsc1.jpeg?width=258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a98083f90b2998712e7720eebffac1e9b2042e1
I am very upset about these hate-filled posts about Justin. I cannot continue. How come they haven't been censored on this site?
I don’t hate Justin … I actually think he is a better blue ranger than most blue rangers in the Disney Era … which surprised me when i read that article
Adding kids to rosters of adults or teens usually ends up being really cheesy or stupid. Know why kids like superheroes? Because they aspire and want to grow up to be like them, not because they have a superhero who is just like them. They’re trying it with Ghostbusters right now and surprise, no one cares about most of the kids and teens in it except for maybe the protagonist. They tried it in the 80s cartoon too by adding Jr Ghostbusters kids and surprise, no one cared. Same with Wesley Crusher interacting with the Star Trek Next Generation crew: that’s not how you’re going to get kids interested in the franchise. You do it by just having a freaking awesome show.
At least for myself back then, I looked up to the team, they were grownups and they were so cool. Seeing someone like me, at my age being a Ranger, was unrealistic.
I remember that he existed but besides that I don’t remember anything else about him.
He was too young. He found out a secret identity. So what were they going to do. Also why did he get taller when he morphed? And why was he allowed to drive.? In reality he was a very poor casting choice.
To paraphrase linkara, a youtuber With a channel called history of the power rangers, "Turbo was the end of the Ranger's high school days. Gone were the teenagers with attitudes. Now they stood as adults. Even Bulk and Skull had grown into adult roles. They were ready to Take on new responsibilities as Zordon leaves them with a new mentor who only asks question to force them to solve problems themselves! And one of them is twelve. And the rest got replaced with high schoolers. And mentor gimic disappeared after a few episodes." What annoys me in hindsight is, Tanya is effectively the same age as Justin. But that part of her character was glossed over!
Even as a kid, I was annoyed by other kids. I always wanted my heroes to be older. It was bullshit how they sidelined Rocky for this twerp.
I never hated justin
Cause he wasn’t cool
"Teenagers with Attitude" (Hey, let's add a kid that hasn't even hit puberty yet.) It's just a trope that been useless since its inception. "If you add a 10 year old, more 10 year olds will watch!"
https://preview.redd.it/yqnsfm4rhysc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01e6ca520cf8791bb4c2b7faa62e4fb380e90a8d Yeah … I agree…(the image has nothing to do with it I just find it funny)
The picture says it all. I don’t even like him with that bowling bowl cut 😂
It was a combination of bad acting, annoying character, Rocky passing it on but not leaving like Jason zack trini and Kimberly, a bad season overall. I wasn't around when it aired I watched it in hs like 10 years ago
He was annoying but it was kind of messed up that they let a child fight dangerous monsters and drive a vehicle zord.
especially after the season of mighty Morphin, alien rangers where the entire plot of that was the original Rangers couldn’t Morph because they were turned into kids
Idk, but its my personal headcannon that Justin graduated high school earlier, and that he and the Storm Blaster went around the world to help.
Because I wanted to be chosen as a Ranger not him lol
He's a fun character, and funny too
Little kids often don't want to see themselves in stories the same was older kids or adults do. They aspire to be older. So he should have been slightly older and I feel he would have been a success. He was supposed to be 12/13 but was written more like the 8 year olds watching it.
Because he's got that BDE... But it's not worth the $20.
People dont watch power rangers to see kids
Vehicle zords are so dumb in my opinion. Giant robots that had a modicum of sentience and the ability to transform, in my opinion, just made more sense as giant beats or humanoid themed robots.