Unexpected Gai, or Gokaiger ep 17 (and 18 preview) discussion

[estirose]

I’ve been thinking about a certain character who appears in episode 17, and I thought I’d put together some thoughts on them.

Gai annoyed me at first. He was annoying, reminding me of those kinds of fans that get up in their heroes’ faces. In fact, throughout the episode, he’s presented as the enthusiastic, obsessive fan who would be a hero if he could. In this case, he is, though we don’t really know that until over halfway through the episode, where he transforms.

But, after discussing things with some friends, it’s apparent that he’s there for a reason. Yes, he is loud and annoying. But in this case, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s meant to grow up and settle in as part of a team, and provide a good example to little Japanese boys of the value of cooperation and compromise and working in groups. He’s a square peg that really doesn’t want to fit in the round hole of his team; they’re pirates, they’re proud of it, and most of them are not interested in saving the world. Gai wants to reshape them into an ideal sentai team, and while they’re slowly working their way towards that (if somewhat unwillingly, and only to get more power), he’s trying to turn them into almost a parody, or at least a light-hearted team. That being said, he makes a terrible teammate himself; he seems more interested in imposing his beliefs on the others and showing off than cooperating and proving to the team that he can make a good teammate and impressing Marvelous, who of course has the final say on who lives and works on his ship and on his team. While I’m sure that it’s inevitable that Marvelous and crew will eventually accept Gai, Gai too will have to realize that it’s work being a Ranger and on a team and not trying to force them to change. He can try, but he shouldn’t expect them to magically change, any of them. He should expect to fight hard and safe the world instead of idealizing Rangers, and I don’t think he’s realized that quite yet.

I can’t say that I wouldn’t have preferred a Gokai Silver that was a bit more serious, one that was still a Sentai fan but realized the importance of teamwork and working hard. But such a character wouldn’t have the potential that Gai does, in that Gai has a lot of growing up to do. Gai has the right idea, but the world’s worst implementation, and I think that his realization that he’s wrong, will bring a greater reward than anything else.

And besides, I think that Joe’s deadly serious enough without adding another deadly serious character to the group. Perfect characters can be boring; imperfect characters are much more fun, and the more individual peoples’ struggles are, the better.

That being said, I shall lay a plotbunny to quick rest with a glimpse of what a more serious Gai might have been like:

Gai slid down, staring at his Gokai Cellular. He’d always wished to be a Ranger, always wished to be part of a team. His wish had been granted, and he was now a Ranger, but he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

The powers that had granted him his changer had made him part of a team of pirates. Now, that wouldn’t have been too bad if they’d just taken on the name and they were good guys, but most of them didn’t seem to care at all. They weren’t out there to rescue Earth or the universe, they were on the planet for treasure! How was he supposed to be part of a team that cared nothing but for their own greed?

He could just not transform, but that would have been a betrayal of his own dreams and of the beings that had granted him his power. Plus, there was nothing saying he had to have teammates. The three who had given him his powers, well, at least two of them had been loners. He could be a loner too, no matter how much it pained him. No matter how much he wanted to be on a team.

In the end, pretty much every extra Ranger was assimilated onto a team. It could be his fate, too, given that the others were pirates and pirates did their share of kidnappings. Captain Marvelous could well decide that Gai needed to join up with the rest of his team, and Gai could find himself unwillingly with teammates after all. But Gai would stay independent as long as he could, keep fighting for the planet and the universe, and if he was taken, he was taken. It was probably inevitable, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t postpone it.

Smiling grimly, he put the Cellular back into his pocket and went to kick some alien butt.

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.