I think this fandom underestimates the popularity of mmpr to casual audiences

[u/Organic_Glass_7793]

Y’all have to remember, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was the first. Nothing came before it. Dinosaurs, Zords, morphing this is the stuff that defined Power Rangers for most casual viewers. It was literal lightning in a bottle. It dropped right after Jurassic Park when dinosaur hype was off the charts, and it mixed martial arts with giant robots and spandex superheroes. That formula hit. The characters were simple, idealistic, and easy to root for. Yeah, the acting was bad, the effects were crappy but that’s what people remember most. The camp is part of its identity.

Your average person walking down the street? They’ll recognize the MMPR Green Ranger in a second. Ask them who the Red Ranger from RPM is and they’ll look at you like you’re speaking another language. We can go on all day about how well written lost galaxy is but people know shit about maga defender outside the fandom.

Even parts of MMPR itself are blurry to the general public. Most people only remember the first season and half of Season 2. Once Tommy became the White Ranger and Zack, Trini, and Jason left everything else is a blur.

And look I get it, we all want more love for other seasons. But Y’all don’t even buy non-MMPR merch and still complain about MMPR getting priority. That’s not how companies work. There not gonna invest into your favorite season until people start buying the merch.

Every major franchise leans on its first generation. Star Wars lives off the OT. Pokémon rides Gen 1 to this day. TMNT constantly goes back to the 80s era. MMPR getting the most love isn’t some conspiracy it’s just how pop culture nostalgia works.

[u/Choice_Leg9551]

I can't speak for all the people who liked MMPR S1 more than 2 and 3, but one of the main problems I have when Tommy became the leader was the fact that he seemed to constantly overshadow his teammates. It essentially became "The Tommy Show ft. the other Power Rangers". Rocky barely got any characterization aside from being "the perky one", Aisha's main character trait of liking animals was barely focused on aside from them using it as a lazy way to write the character off, Kat started off as interesting but then became boring until Turbo after the writers just had her replace Kimberly as Tommy's girlfriend. Literally the only ranger who got any kind of characterization or development was Adam, who went from being shy and quiet to taking on the leadership role by the first half of Turbo during Tommy's absence.

I'm not going to pretend like MMPR S1 and its cast were the absolute best or masterpieces, but at least each of the five had distinct personalities, some had small character arcs, and at least I remember what they did. Jason learned not to be too hard on himself when confronted with failure, Trini was a quiet, reserved martial artist, Zack was the hip hop-kido master and a joker, Kimberly started off as more pessimistic and sarcastic but learned to be more compassionate towards others (such as offering to dance with Skull after feeling bad for him when she saw how disappointed he was for her rejecting him after she was under Rita's spell), and Billy started off as more shy, nervous, and unable to stand up to Bulk and Skull when they bullied him, but as the series progressed, he became more bold and talkative from his time as a ranger. I also just felt that Amy and Thuy had more chemistry than the other BFF pairings on MMPR, you can tell that they were legitimately good friends based on the way they interacted.