Tommy Oliver

 

Green with Evil

 

While he was a freshman in high school, Tommy and his family moved to Angel Grove. He entered a martial arts tournament and fought Jason to a tie by 4-4, despite Jason being labeled "Angel Grove's finest [martial artist]" by the announcer, but the fight had earned him Jason's respect.

 

Tommy later scared Bulk and Skull away when they were harassing Kimberly, who had become enamored by Tommy at first sight and invited him to hang out with her and her friends. Rita Repulsa had noticed Tommy's fight with Jason and realized that there was potential in the young man. Therefore, she placed Tommy under a spell, and using the secret sixth Power Coin - the Dragon Coin - she transformed him into the evil Green Mighty Morphin' Power Ranger. Tommy then traveled to the Command Center and put Zordon out of commission and downloaded a virus into Alpha 5's programming. He then fought the Power Rangers and defeated them.

 

Being under Rita's influence, Tommy became very sullen, and was even rude to Kimberly when she questioned where he had been. With the Rangers at their weakest, Rita decided that the time to attack was now.

 

After Tommy had defeated a squad of Putties without his powers, Rita gave him the Sword of Darkness, which not only enhanced his dark powers, but also acted as a catalyst for keeping him under her evil spell. She then had Tommy transport Jason into the Dark Dimension, where he faced Goldar. Tommy eventually took the honor from the Goldar and faced Jason himself. Jason managed to narrowly escaped his grasp when the other Rangers teleported him out.

 

Tommy gains the Sword of DarknessWhile the Rangers were defending Angel Grove from Goldar, Tommy entered the Command Center, and attempted to sabotage it again. Alpha placed him in a stasis lock, but he was freed by Rita, who then made him grow. He then joined Goldar and Scorpina in fighting the Megazord, as Rita cast a spell to create an eclipse to remove the Megazord's power. The Megazord separated and the Dinozords fell under the earth. When the Rangers retreated into the Command Center, Alpha revealed that the stasis lock the Green Ranger was kept in allowed his true identity to be revealed — that of Tommy Oliver.

 

Realizing that Rita's spell was the reason for Tommy's strange behavior, Kimberly confronted him in the Youth Center, but he simply informed her that (along with knowing the other Rangers' identities) she and the other Power Rangers would soon be destroyed. Utilizing his Dragon Dagger that he received from Rita, the Green Ranger summoned his own Zord, the Dragonzord, to destroy Angel Grove. In the meantime, Alpha reestablished Zordon's link with the dimension and the Megazord was recovered. Jason and the others managed to take down the Dragonzord and, when facing the Green Ranger, Jason destroyed the Sword of Darkness and freed Tommy from Rita's spell.Tommy vs. Jason When he came to, Tommy realized all the damage he had done and felt terrible, but Jason assured him it was only because of Rita's spell. Tommy accepted the Rangers' offer to join them. With the Dragonzord on their side, the Rangers now had access to Dragonzord in Battle Mode, and eventually the powerful Ultrazord. At the Command Center, Tommy accepted Zordon's rules of being a Ranger, and even received a communicator from Billy. The team of five had turned into six, also making him the first ever 6th Ranger.

 

Redemption

 

Initially, Tommy stayed a loner. He would join the other Rangers in some Tommy wielding Jason's sword in "Gung Ho"activities, but often left to go to karate practice and other martial arts. As the battles increased, Tommy became closer to the team and formed friendships with them. He admired Zack's sense of fun, Trini's dedication, and Billy's intelligence. He also had a crush on Kimberly and the two eventually started dating.

 

Tommy's friendship with Jason took a little longer to develop. In the beginning, Tommy felt a sense of rivalry between him and Jason, as both were equally skilled at martial arts. He constantly tried to show up Jason in one manner or the other. Zordon was aware of the problem and sent the two on a mission to recover special blasters protected by the Zord called Titanus (who later becomes a powerhouse of the team) to defeat Rita's Super PuttiesGung Ho!. It was there that Tommy and Jason learned to work together. The two formed a deep bond and began teaching martial arts together as well as competing together. Tommy absorbed a lot of Jason's leadership skills which would help him down the long road ahead.

 

The Green Candle

 

Tommy learns about his fading powers.When he was captured by Rita, the material that had encased Tommy was actually some magic wax, which was linked to his Morphing powers. By turning the wax into a Green Candle, Rita was able to ensure that as the candle burned, his powers would slowly fade away, and when the candle burnt out, she would reclaim his powers for good. As the candle would burn faster if Tommy was in its vicinity, Rita commanded Goldar to kidnap Tommy and take him to the Dark Dimension where the candle would be kept.

 

Goldar kidnapped Tommy and brought him to the Dimension. However, Tommy was able to grab Goldar's sword during their fight and sent himself back to Earth. Rita responded by sending a shape-shifting Cyclops monster after the Rangers. While the other Rangers went to retrieve the candle, Tommy decided that he would fight the monster alone. Jason went into Rita's Dark Dimension to stop the candle from burning but was unable to do so due to Goldar's intervention. With Tommy using all his strength to fight the Cyclops monster, Jason and the Rangers had to return to help him, but the Green Candle quickly burned out. Before all was lost, Zordon told Tommy to give his coin to another Ranger with a strong link to the Morphing Grid to prevent Rita from getting its powers. Tommy chose to pass his Dragon Coin onto Jason. The Red Ranger could now draw upon the remnants of the Green Ranger powers to use the Dragon Shield in battle and the Dragon Dagger to summon the Dragonzord.

 

Tommy said his goodbyes to the teammates, but they assured Tommy that he'd always be a Power Ranger in spirit. Tommy assured Jason that it wasn't his fault for not retrieving the Green Candle, as he tried his best to. Even though Tommy was no longer the Green Ranger, he still managed to stay friends with the rest of the Rangers and maintained his relationship with Kimberly.

 

In actuality, the real reason that Tommy lost his powers was because in "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger," the Japanese series from which "Power Rangers" used its footage, the Green Ranger dies—thus, there was eventually no more Japanese footage of the Green Ranger for Saban to use. It is assumed that Saban did not wish to kill off the character in the interest of keeping "Power Rangers" kid-friendly, and so a storyline was created in which he would simply lose his powers instead. However, the Power Rangers and Tommy had become incredibly popular with viewers, and so Saban later created new story lines (and paid Toei to produce more footage) in order to bring Tommy back on the show.

 

Return of an Old Friend

 

During Parent's Day at the Youth Center, Rita decided to trap all the Rangers' parents in her Dark Dimension. She then put a spell on Billy to have him give her the Dragon Dagger. Rita and her minions told the Rangers that they would trade their parents for their Power Coins. Reluctantly, the Rangers agreed, but Rita and Goldar double-crossed them, and sent the Dragonzord on a violent rampage in the city. When it seemed like there was no hope left, Jason revealed his own deception: though he gave up his Tyrannosaurus coin, he secretly kept the Dragon Coin.

 

When Tommy came to the Youth Center and found the place deserted, he was immediately teleported to the Command Center and was debriefed about the situation. He agreed to help, but with his powers completely gone, Tommy had to accept an enormous power boost from Zordon, and he became the Green Ranger once again. He was teleported to where Goldar guarded the coins and proceeded to fight him and the Putties. The Dagger and Coins were protected by a strange energy, but Tommy retrieved the Dagger to stop the rampaging Dragonzord and the Coins before he was teleported away. It turned out that by reaching into the force field energy while wearing the Green Ranger powers, it gave Tommy a major energy boost. He learned that the powers were only temporary and that they would run out eventually, but Tommy still chose to be an active Ranger.

 

Returning to the team, Tommy helped the Rangers in fighting various monsters. Though Zordon cautioned him about his limited power supply, Tommy was always battle ready if called upon. He no longer kept a low profile and became more dependent on the Rangers, helping to unify the team. Tommy also began to do more activities with the Rangers, such as martial arts teaching with Jason, basketball, and football.

 

However, all his happiness would change when a new villain, Lord Zedd, emerged. Determined to succeed where Rita failed, Zedd swore that he would put an end to the Power Rangers once and for all. When Zedd succeeded in destroying the Dinozords, Zordon charged them to become Thunderzords. With Tommy not having enough energy for his own Thunderzord, Zedd decided it would be best to destroy him first.

 

The End of the Green Ranger

 

Tommy continued on as best he could, but he soon began to have bad dreams about losing his powers. Lord Zedd was behind the bad dreams. In one instance, he captured Tommy and placed him under an evil spell, and had him lure the Rangers into calling on the Sword of Power for Zedd's monster, Robogoat. Tommy, with the other Rangers, called upon the sword and then snatched it from them. Taunting the other Rangers, he left and gave the sword to Goldar. Once he gave up the sword, the spell was broken. Tommy could not believe what he had done. He tried to retrieve the sword himself, but Robogoat weakened his powers by a lot. The Rangers managed to defeat Goldar and Robogoat and regain control of the sword.

 

In his heart, Tommy knew that each day could be his last day as a Ranger. Despite the continuous draining of his powers, Tommy always chose to fight alongside the other Rangers. He would rather help his friends and lose his powers than keep them and do nothing. Although he showed tremendous courage, he always felt that the end of the Green Ranger was near. Unfortunately, he was right.

 

One day, Tommy was confronted an image of himself that warned him of Zedd's future plans. Initially he didn't know what to make of it. Zordon also told Tommy that everyone of his attempts to permanently restore Tommy's powers was a failure; no matter what, the Green Ranger powers would soon be completely depleted. Sure enough, Tommy was captured again and had to battle Goldar after Zedd's monster, Turbanshell, had drained his powers. As Goldar showed Tommy visions of him as the powerful Green Ranger, Tommy hung his head. With Goldar mocking him, Tommy knew he would never let Goldar get the best of him again and sprung a surprise attack on Goldar. Finding the object - which turned out to be his communicator - his image had told him about, Tommy was whisked back to the other Rangers. Zedd had kidnapped five teenagers and planned to use Tommy's powers to make them into Dark Rangers. As the area was guarded against the Rangers, Tommy was the only one to go and destroy the crystal that held his powers. He succeeded, and used his powers for one last morph to destroy Turbanshell. Tommy was crushed and disappointed, but he had known that this time would eventually come. To gain some perspective, he went to his uncle's cabin near the lake to spend the school break.