Topic Meme: Day 8

[pockysquirrel]

 thesecondbatgirl requested a post about color theory. 

So...apparently this is a somewhat controversial topic in the fandom? Who knew? Anyway, obligatory disclaimer, these are just my personal theories and ramblings on the topic; they inform my headcanon but I in no way expect people to buy into them as canon, nor do I believe the show creators use any kind of color theory when they're creating new characters, NOR do I believe them to be any more or less valid than Ellen Brand's or Hagar's or anyone else who posts about the topic.

We good? We good. Okay.

Some basic ideas:
- Ranger colors come from the Grid itself and are vitally important to the functioning of Ranger powers. They result from the Grid breaking down raw Power into more manageable strands of energy suitable for use in powering Ranger tech. 
- Yes there is a relationship between an individual Ranger's disposition and his/her color.
- It is not a causal relationship. Your personality does not determine your color and your color does not determine your personality.
- Your behavior MAY change a bit after becoming a Ranger or after a color change; this is not due to your color "making" you that way, but due to a combination of the influence of the Morphing Grid on you, the realities of living with the fate of the world hanging over your head, and the development of your relationships with your team.
- Colors are actually not assigned or attached to different personality types at all. Colors actually have much more of a relationship to an individual Ranger's role within his/her team.
- As a result, Rangers are often (but not always) selected for specific colors based on their ability to handle that particular role, or may 'gravitate' toward a certain color because that frequency in the Grid resonates with them. 
- One unusual side effect of using the Morphing Grid is a compulsion to wear something of one's color at all time. It's not known why this happens, but it is an almost universal occurrence. Speculation is that it has something to do with the Grid 'bonding' an individual Ranger to the energy thread accessed by his or her powers.

The cardinal colors:  
- Ranger teams, regardless of the rest of their color composition, always include a Red, a Blue, and a Yellow. This is because those three colors are the strongest and most easily accessed wavelengths in the Grid.
- Kyoryuger, despite being an ABSURDLY large team, has exactly no Yellow. This pisses me off for several reasons, not the least of which being that it nerfs my whole theory. I am choosing to ignore this until Kyoryuger gets adapted, and will deal with it then. 
- The roles associated with these three colors are also intended to create the balanced core of a Ranger team. To put it in the simplest (and catchiest) terms, Red acts, Blue thinks, and Yellow emotes.
- This does not mean that common stereotypes associated with these colors - Red is always the leader, Blues are brainy, etc. - are at all true. There are multiple ways in which someone can fulfill the role associated with their color; some adhere pretty close to the stereotype and some don't at all.
- When I say that Red acts, what I mean is that a Red Ranger is generally the first person to do something when confronted with a problem. This is why Red is often the leader, though this is not always true. There are Reds who assume the traditional commander role, and there are Reds who have really terrible impulse control and act without thinking. When Red is not a leader, s/he often does a bang-up job as second-in-command - someone solid and decisive the leading Ranger can rely on for support. And there are Reds - usually the inexperienced ones - whose sole purpose on the team is to serve as a unifying force, a single point around which everyone can rally. These ones tend to have an uncanny knack for inspirational speeches.
- I did a really long meta essay awhile ago about Blue Rangers being the mental/intellectual center of their teams and all the ways in which Rangers can inhabit that role, so I'll keep this brief. Blues are not always tech-smart or stereotypically brainy. There are just as many Blues whose aptitude is in strategy, or in common sense (a grounded, rule-abiding Blue is a great counterpoint to an impulsive Red), or in social/emotional intelligence. The uniting factor is that Blues are the most likely of the cardinal colors to use their heads when faced with a problem, rather than acting on emotion or instinct.
- And when I say that Yellow emotes, I don't necessarily mean that a Yellow is always the touchy-feely caregiver of a Ranger team. The things they're more likely to have in common are a high EQ and/or a surplus of common sense. They are very clued in to how their teammates are doing, and will point out concerns or stop people (usually Reds...) from doing something dumb. Some Yellows are very openly emotional. Others are the level-headed but compassionate "team mom" type. Some are lighthearted and hopeful, offering a joke or a word of encouragement in a tense situation. And others are physically strong, tough as nails, and hellbent on protecting their teammates both on and off the battlefield. I think it goes without saying that Yellow Rangers are my favorite.

Other colors and related errata:
- I'm not nearly as confident in how things work for the 'secondary' colors on a team, and will need to do much more noodling before I come up with a coherent theory on their roles.
- I am reasonably certain that there is some kind of a link between Green and Black powers, for reasons that could just be as simple as the two colors being adjacent frequencies in the Morphing Grid. Whatever the actual reason, it's easier on a Ranger to switch from Black to Green or vice versa than it is to switch between any other two colors.
- And switching between colors is both physically and emotionally taxing. Physically because your body is accustomed to accessing the Grid in a certain way - different colors FEEL different - and is suddenly accessing it in a completely different way, which can be disorienting. Emotionally because color changes almost always accompany other structural changes within a team and resulting role changes that can be difficult to adapt to.
- This is one reason (but not the only reason) why Zeo fucked everyone up.
- Tommy either has some immunity to the side effects of color switches or has just forced himself to get used to it. 

Extra Rangers:
- First off, I refuse to call them sixths because they often aren't. DinoThunder's fourth and fifth are sixths. So are Jungle Fury's. RPM's sixth and seventh are both sixths. I won't even get into the fucked-up-ness of Ninja Storm's team composition. It's so much easier to call them Extras. That's just my personal semantic peeve.
- Extra Rangers are sort of swimming in their own pool. Regardless of what color the suit itself is, they are not at all beholden to the associated role of that color. MMPR Green is an extra, not a Green. DinoThunder Black is an extra, not a Black. Quantum Ranger is an Extra, not a Red. And so on, and so forth. As a group, Extras have more in common with one another than they do with non-Extra Rangers who share their color.  
- Extra Rangers usually end up slightly set apart from the rest of their team, and are also generally more powerful in individual combat. This is because when Extra Ranger powers were originally developed, they were intended for solo missions as much or more than to be part of/augmentations to a team. The strength of non-Extra individual Rangers increases in direct proportion to their functioning as a team. This is not true for Extras.   

 Tomorrow's post will be on why Rocky is awesome and Rocky-related headcanon as requested by rivulet027 . And for Day 10, punkpinkpower asked that I post about a favorite story or song from childhood and what it means to me now.