Well, we are winding down on the Super Megaforce train and here is where the episodes get good but disappointments also flood in. Emperor Mavro finally makes his debut this episode and vows revenge for his son! That’s right, son. He doesn’t even mention Vrak. Rude.
In this episode, we get a lot of action and finally some moments to remember from Jake! Troy again shines as he did during the Vrak is Back saga while the others stand in the background attempting to get screen time. Let’s begin our ride downhill as Super Megaforce begins to set up its end.
Emperor Mavro’s Entrance: I have always loved this entrance and it didn’t disappoint in Power Rangers. His slow walk onto the ship with his imperial guards in slower motion captures the eye! Mavro’s monster design has always been a favorite of mine as well. I loooove the purple Armada ships that the Armada has brought with him! The Emperor places Damaras under arrest and strangely punishes him for allowing Vekar to die. Again, no mention of Vrak or his death.
I was very wary of the voice acting for this character because his Japanese counterpart and pushed foreboding when he spoke. Mike Drew who voices Emperor Mavro does an excellent job of creating a menacing voice while sounding different from other Villains. His bad ass entrance however will find his exit in a few episodes rather lacking.
Redker: This companion of the Emperor is randomly introduced during these episodes along with Yellzor. Neither of them do very much but banter back and forth during these episodes. Yellzor is not even seen from again after this episode but Redker gets to fight the Rangers in a future episode. I would’ve preferred a more menacing introduction this far into the season. This goes to show how certain things should be done. The Messenger in Megaforce came in late to the game but was still menacing and stood as a real threat to the Megaforce Rangers.
Damaras, Greatest Warrior: I was actually rather happy with the handling of Damaras’ character throughout Super Megaforce. His character seemed true to his Sentai counterpart while not being a complete copy. We are led to believe by Orion that Damaras is the Greatest Warrior in the Universe, yet we get no back story with Orion and Damaras! Would it not have been an interesting idea to have set this up earlier in the series? Perhaps Damaras could’ve had some larger hand in destroying Andrasia!? Of course this sort of writing hasn’t been included in Super Megaforce period.
I was a little baffled at his defeat being merely from the Super Mega Cannon! Again, the Gokaiger version was much more effective and powerful. (An All Green Ranger Change and Attack!)This makes his first defeat make him look like a Monster of the Week and not the Greatest Warrior in the Universe!
Troy and Orion’s cute moment: I had to bring this up because it was probably my favorite moment from this entire episode. The Girls hop on Noah and Jake’s backs and head off, Orion looks at Troy and offers him a ride on his back. I love the way Troy looks at him like he’s insane and the two laugh it off. Adorable!
Troy & Jake VS Damaras: The unmorphed fights can be said to be one of Super Megaforce and even Megaforce’s strongest points. When they put on these scenes they stand out among all the re-used Sentai footage. The scene where Troy and Jake fight Damaras together was great to scene especially when Troy gets thrown around so much! They really jacked Troy up in these last few episodes.
Troy Kidnapped: Finally some more original scenes aboard the Armada. Again, so many things could’ve happened. We know that the production team has all of the Monster suits because they are shown here with Troy. So much lost potential. But what I can say is that I did enjoy seeing Troy blindfolded amongst the Armada generals! I do however, find it strange that during these scenes Troy never actually sees the Emperor….hmm.
We Have Your Red Ranger: Another of my favorite moments was when Troy was chained to a large pole and paraded in front of the Earth’s people. I loved that Damaras was able to broadcast to the Earth to make his demands, that was very Countdown to Destruction (although not with the same power).
I honestly wish that Troy had been in his Super Megaforce suit, another leak of Megaforce/Goseiger stuff into Super Megaforce. However, I can say that it was effective to the story that he had lost his Legendary Morpher and Key only to have it returned by Jake!
The Rescue: Troy had some of the best moments and lines during his time chained up and speaking to Damaras. Very heroic! Jake heroically shows up and with a little sleight of hand, Tensou was able to free Troy! I loooved the sequences used in this scene where Jake morphs from Black Megaforce and then to Green Super Megaforce! Plus he fights as Mystic Green Ranger as well! These scenes were flawless in execution. Although, still salty about the idea that there’s no All Green Change and Attack!
We did get a perfect scene between Troy and Jake when he hands him his Legendary Morpher!
Ultimate Legendary Zord Blitz: The Megazord battle with Damaras was pretty epic and it is rather hard for these kinds of scenes to be screwed up!
Damaras put up a great fight and it did take several Megazord combos to defeat him!
The Rangers chose the Ultimate Legendary Zord Blitz which included all of their Aux Zords in one attack! The name is a little long, but eh what are you gonna do?
The Rebel Rockers Concert: I hope that this is not news to everyone because if your memory doesn’t remember the last two years then that’s not good. To the left is an image taken from Power Rangers Super Samurai “He Ain’t Heavy Metal, He’s My Brother” and the image to the right was taken from “Emperor Mavro”
Clever editing doesn’t fool me. No, Antonio and Mia are not making cameos during this season. This scene was completely recycled from Super Samurai with the Super Megaforce Rangers attending the concert this time.
LAZY LAZY LAZY.
I would’ve preferred either this scene did not exist or they used other actors to play the band. This scene makes no sense, BAH!
Jake’s Moments: I wish we had more of these throughout this season. Many viewers of Super Megaforce can agree that Gia and Jake have gotten the least amount of attention during both seasons. During this episode we semi got a Jake focus even thought it had largely Troy overtones.
Jake felt like a goof in the beginning, Protective of Troy, Took on Damaras, Cared for the Rangers alone AND had a single Ranger Change!
While this episode took a way a lot of the magic from it’s Gokaiger counterpart, at least we got some decent scenes with Jake which I absolutely loved this episode.
Final Thoughts
“Emperor Mavro” much like Super Megaforce as a whole has a lot of interesting moments to watch but still fails in some respects. For what we’ve gotten during this episode it was not a bad episode at all. In fact it was rather entertaining and as I said I loved the Troy and Jake focus because I feel like Jake needs some attention finally!
Jake and Troy had shown the most during this episode while the others took a backseat. Now, I just wish we could get Gia an episode like this!
Two more episode to go and Super Megaforce is over!
Scores:
Story: 8/10
Action: 9/10
Monsters: 10/10
All Together: 9/10
