The Fandom Menace restored my love of Power Rangers

As a kid growing up Power Rangers was one of the shows that was a big part of my childhood in the 1990s.

I had grown up watching Mighty Morphing, Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, Wildforce and the very last Power Rangers season I saw before seemingly losing interest which was Power Rangers Ninja Storm in 2003 when I was 13 years old.

Though I watched Power Rangers all throughout my childhood and early teens…..I never watched entire seasons of the show unlike most other kids in the 1990s did because I didn’t understand how to tell time or understand a TV schedule of when the show was on.

So I saw a few random episodes here and there from each different season of Power Rangers from time to time in my childhood and early teens that never gave me the full story of the Power Rangers season. I never got the full context of each season of Power Rangers until recently.

I stopped watching Power Rangers in 2003 during Ninja Storm because I almost accidentally revealed that I watched Power Rangers in the 7th grade to my fellow peers when a teacher asked us students to name colours.

I ended up naming two colours which were Navy and Crimson who were both the colours for two of the Power Rangers in Power Rangers Ninja Storm also. Then my bully in my 7th grade home room class named Faysol looked right at me after I named the two colours and asked me mockingly “Hey do you watch Power Rangers Ninja Storm?”

I never responded to him and knew if I said I did that jackass piece of shit Faysol would’ve made fun of me for the rest of the year for liking Power Rangers and being 13 years old.

Like my life wasn’t miserable enough in the 7th grade with Faysol mocking me every chance he got for being socially awkward or weird and Faysol interestingly enough was not only my 7th grade bully but he also part of the anti bullying club yet bullied me constantly……hypocritical and two faced like all modern day SJWs.

This guy might be my reason for hating SJWs for their hypocritical nature.

I was so afraid of being made fun of for liking Power Rangers I ended up having to not watch Power Rangers anymore in the early 2000s to avoid subconsciously accidentally revealing to anymore of my school peers that I watched Power Rangers and get made fun of for it.

Having undiagnosed Aspergers Syndrome in the 1990s and early 2000s wasn’t bad enough but to be made fun for watching a show for 5 year olds in 7th grade would be Hell.

At the same time I was at the age where I began seeing Power Rangers as being a bit childish compared to DC and Marvel, so that was my other reason to give it up and starting delving into Marvel and DC more.

And from the rest of 2003 to the early part of 2020 I wasn’t really a Power Rangers fan nor cared for the franchise.

Now to get to the part where The Fandom Menace reignited my interested in Power Rangers as a franchise.

It was 2015 a year before the world changed because of the American Election; the recent Star Wars movie made by Disney came out; Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars Episode 7 which was one of big things in entertainment that was the start of all of pop culture getting woke and making movies along with TV unwatchable.

I had seen Force Awakens and noticed things in the movie that I would find out later were identity politics and wokeness. I at the time still watched John Campea for his movie reviews on what good movies or shows to watch but John loved the wokeness in Force Awakens which I hated and I just couldn’t see what he saw in that movie that made him like it so much while I hated it?

So I searched and searched for someone on Youtube who maybe thought like I did about Force Awakens and I ended up finding Jeremy Grigg’s channel; Geeks and Gamers and Jeremy ended up giving a review about the movie that addressed alot of what I saw in Star Wars Force Awakens which was how the male characters were wimpy along with stupid while the female characters were competent along with overpowered.

After seeing Jeremy’s honesty about what he saw in The Force Awakens which was like what I saw…I began watching Jeremy more and more for his takes on Star Wars under Disney and the state of Pop culture.

I would eventually come across other Fandom Menace members like Ivan Ortega, Mindless Entertainment, World Class Bullshitters, Overlord DVD, and so many others that all thought like I did about Disney Star Wars and seeing what was going on in movies, TV, videogames and comics.

Soon John Campea became a distant memory to me as Jeremy Griggs quickly took over that role that John Campea once played in my life. I ended up subbing to Jeremy’s channel on Youtube because I could relate to him more and how he along with others helped me realize that I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t sexist, I wasn’t racist, I wasn’t homophobic and I wasn’t any ist or phobe for not liking the new Disney Star Wars or woke pop culture.

I would get to know of the Fandom Menace just by watching the various Youtubers that were waving the flag.

I would encounter a Youtube Fandom Menacer named Proper Jeremy (now Justin Proper) who was the very very first Jeremy account inspired by the great Jeremy Griggs who showed me I wasn’t alone in concerns of wokeness infecting pop culture.

Proper Jeremy like Jeremy Griggs who inspired him…ended up himself inspiring alot of other Jeremy accounts to be made like Spartan Jeremy, Force Ghost Jeremy, Stone Cold Jeremy, Indiana Jeremy, Jeremy’s Swiggs, Mirror Jeremy, and the list goes on with the amount of variations of different Jeremy accounts that all represented different aspects of the great Jeremy Griggs who inspired them and me.

I would end up watching alot of Proper Jeremy’s content then be in the chat for one of his monthly Council of Jeremys meetings that he had with a few other Jeremys talking about stuff in pop culture.

I would hear Proper Jeremy and the other Jeremy speaking and talking about how each of them was a different aspect of Jeremy Griggs the guy who inspired them all along with the rest of The Fandom Menace.

I would then get a thought and ask the question in chat to Proper Jeremy along with the other Jeremys and ask “What would happen if all the different Jeremys combined together into a……Megazord Jeremy??!!!!”

Proper Jeremy and the other Jeremys would end up seeing my question in chat I asked as interesting and that if all the Jeremys were combined together and formed a Megazord Jeremy…it would be unstoppable according to Proper Jeremy’s own words.

After I asked this question and saw the enthusiasm in the Jeremys just talking about the thought of a Megazord Jeremy…..I decided to create the newest Jeremy account at the time for Youtube and call myself from then on as…..MEGAZORD JEREMY…..THE MOST POWERFUL JEREMY OF ALL THE JEREMYS WITH THE COMBINED POWERS OF ALL THE JEREMYS!!!!!!! GGGGGRRRRRR!!!!!!!”

For me as a kid watching Power Rangers, whenever something combined together in any of the Power Rangers seasons which were the Zords; the robots that each Power Ranger piloted….when merged together they formed a Megazord.

And I looked at each of the different Jeremy accounts as the Zords of the Fandom Menace and when they merged together…….Megazord Jeremy seemed right and I had to take that title of that particular Jeremy for myself as no one else had the idea in The Fandom Menace to become the embodiment of the combined power of all the Jeremys but me.

A bit arrogant and egocentric of me which I can agree for calling myself Megazord Jeremy but the thought of all the different Jeremys merging as one to form a Megazord Jeremy seemed cool to me.

And naming myself Megazord Jeremy in honour of Jeremy Griggs, Proper Jeremy and the different Jeremys was one of early stages of me slowly rediscovering my love for Power Rangers.

From there a long time would pass and I would find myself quitting my crappy retail job back in August 2019 at least 5 months before the Beerbug situation happening all around the world.

Long story short, working in retail for 3 years and having Aspergers Syndrome along with possible ADHD made things just very very hard in the end for me but is a story for another time.

I would have alot of time after quitting my horrible retail job and I would spend it just watching various videos on Youtube from various Fandom Menace members.

In that time I would hear about this exclusive show on Youtube called Cobra Kai that people like Proper Jeremy, Merry Mayhem and other Fandom Menace members talk on and on about…..

……I had no idea what the show was about but everyone in the Fandom Menace seemed to love it. I at the time thought to myself that Cobra Kai would be something I would never watch in my life and I might think was lame…..

…….a long time would pass and…..I get this Youtube Video from Proper Jeremy telling me that Cobra Kai season 1 was now free for a limited time to watch on Youtube without paying.

I was bored, unemployed and needed something to pass the time and I decided to watch Cobra Kai…..

…..and….

…….I ENDED UP LOVING IT!!!!!! I ENDED UP LOVING EVERYTHING ABOUT SEASON 1 OF COBRA KAI!!!!!!

I began watching Cobra Kai on Youtube and I couldn’t stop watching it. Cobra Kai was everything people in The Fandom Menace said it was….it was fun, there was no wokeness except for when the show made fun of the concept of wokeness.

Watching Cobra Kai made me feel like I was watching a show from the 1990s and brought back feelings of something I hadn’t felt from watching a TV show in a very very long time in this woke age…..

……a feeling I didn’t feel since…..

…..since I was a kid watching Power Rangers in the 1990s? As strange as it sounds….Cobra Kai reminded me of Power Rangers even though the shows are totally different from each other in so many ways but something reminded me of Power Rangers in Cobra Kai?

After getting through Cobra Kai Season 1 I ended up seeing Cobra Kai Season 2 when it eventually become free on Youtube also and I was hooked on Cobra Kai.

It would then be a long time till season 3 of Cobra Kai would be released and I would end up watching all the Karate Kid movies for the first time in my life because they were prequels to Cobra Kai and satisfied that need for that show for me in my life.

After I finally realized why the Karate Kid movies were classics and awesome….I had that hunger again for something like Cobra Kai or Karate Kid but there were very few things like it to satisfy that Cobra Kai itch.

Then it would be some time after when I would be on Amazon and see some action figures on discount and I ended up seeing that….

…….Power Rangers Lightning Collection action figures were on discount. I guess after watching Cobra Kai and Karate Kid they did something to my mind where it helped reconnect me with Power Rangers a bit.

I saw this action figure of Tommy the White Ranger and even though Tommy wasn’t my favourite Power Ranger that spot belongs to Jason the Red Ranger….

…..I got nostalgic and I thought White Ranger Tommy looks kinda cool. I then ended up ordering the Lightning Collection White Ranger Tommy action figure along with the Magnum Defender.

After I got the figures from Amazon I ended liking the way they looked and I thought I bought the toys why not…..watch Power Rangers  I have nothing to do and I feel like getting retro.

I deeply needed escapism in my life after Star Wars along with Marvel both got woke then I watched Power Rangers on Netflix starting with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers…..

……and I ended up for the first time at the age of 30 years old seeing the whole 3 seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from beginning to the end……and I loved it.

I then went on to watch Power Rangers Zeo…loved it, then Power Rangers Turbo….didn’t like it as much but I watched it anyways to properly lead up to Power Rangers in Space…I loved it…..I then watched Power Rangers Lost Galaxy….I loved it…….then I pretty watched every interesting Power Rangers seasons up to even  the Disney Era Power Rangers seasons which is ironic as I was watching Power Rangers to get away from what Disney did to Star Wars and Marvel but I ended up watching and even liking the Disney Era Power Rangers which wasn’t wrecked as badly as Disney Star Wars or Marvel but was still enough of a failure and caused Power Rangers to be sold back to Hiam Saban the creator of Power Rangers for not even a fraction Disney paid him for it.

After watching pretty much most of the good seasons of Power Rangers….I began collecting alot of their toys both Hasbro and what was left of Bandai and 2020 went from the year of Covid for everyone else in the world to the year of Power Rangers for me.

And my current love for the Power Rangers franchise wouldn’t be happening now if it weren’t for The Fandom Menace sheltering me from Woke Star Wars and helping me reconnect with my childhood.

Power Rangers at the moment is the one pop culture franchise to not be hit by wokeness yet and is currently helping to be my escapism from woke Pop culture.

So maybe me not seeing all of the Power Rangers seasons as a kid helped me have escapism as an adult in the age of woke entertainment.

So thank Jeremy and the Fandom Menace for helping me reconnect with Power Rangers. If you see my topic thread Jeremy or Justin Proper feel free to reply to it.