Warning: Spoilers for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1!The original Yellow Ranger Trini Kwan proves that the franchise’s heroes don’t need to be one of the Power Rangers anymore to still have a positive impact on the world. Despite the Rangers getting their powers as teenagers with attitude, it’s rare to see a Ranger maintain longevity after one or two seasons. Save for some exceptions, most Rangers end up retiring early.
Trini Kwan proves to be an exception to the rule in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1 by Amy Jo Johnson, Matt Hotson, Nico Leon, Francesco Segala, Gloria Martinelli, and Ed Dukeshire. Much like her real-life actress, Thuy Trang, Trini has passed away in this alternate reality of the team’s legacy. In this universe, all the original members stayed together until Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa were defeated.
However, Trini’s time as a hero didn’t end when her Power Ranger career ended. Dedicating her life to positive political ambitions justifies being honored through the Trini Kwan Memorial Park and Youth Center.
Trini Kwan Maintains Longevity as a Hero Without Being a Power Ranger
The idea of being a hero throughout the franchise is tied closely to being a Power Ranger. Whenever a member’s time as a Ranger is over, they typically just resort to maintaining normal lives. This even applies to Tommy Oliver, often considered the greatest Power Ranger of the ’90s. After transferring his Red Ranger powers to TJ in Turbo, Tommy settles on owning a tropical resort with Bulk and Skull (as seen in Wild Force) alongside being a teacher and researcher until the conflict of Dino Thunder.
Most former Rangers start leading normal lives post-Rangerhood, unless brought back into action for a return team-up or, in the case of Billy Cranston’s leadership role in Cosmic Fury and the aforementioned Tommy, something springs them back into action full-time temporarily. However, Trini shows how someone can still use the heroic tools they learned as a Ranger to help the world in a way that doesn’t depend on suits, Zords, or floating blue heads. It highlights how the real power of a hero can come from the natural urge of the human spirit to help people, not from superpowers.
Trini Earns Worldwide Praise Without Exposing Her Power Rangers Past
As with any job, even those that require saving lives, the job of a Power Ranger can be a thankless job, at least for a Ranger’s civilian life. The Power Rangers themselves are beloved by citizens, but most Rangers go their whole lives without society ever knowing they led lives as heroes under the helmets, thus never receiving the same level of respect. It’s no different than Bulk and Skull being avid Power Ranger fanatics, only to bully their civilian personas without knowing they were the same.
Trini, though, has the luxury of being globally recognized as a hero while still maintaining the anonymity that a Power Ranger should ideally have. The world may never know that Trini Kwan was the Yellow Ranger, but they do know her as Angel Grove’s longest-running mayor and the planet’s the United Nation’s beloved High Commissioner of Human Rights. It’s rare to see a Power Ranger’s post-Ranger life and even rarer to see them maintaining heroics post-Rangerhood, but Trini Kwan shows exactly how it’s done, and it would be great to see other Rangers depicted in the same manner.
