[Talisman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickback

Just wanted to post my $0.02 on this whole debacle that sprung up today with Jason David Frank.

For starters - there's no hating on Jason David Frank. Have you ever clicked our "Characters" tab on our front page? Two of the options are "Mighty Morphin Green Ranger" and "Mighty Morphin White Ranger". If you click them, you'll see the news stories we've tagged with Jason David Frank. Whether or not individual members of this site or of this site's staff like him or not, he's the face of the Power Rangers franchise - there's no doubting that.

The #NoMoreTommy Twitter campaign is not a "hate group" or a "hate tag". The entire purpose of #NoMoreTommy is to give the other Power Rangers a fighting chance in Morphin Madness. There's something like 119 Power Rangers in existence, and Jason David Frank's character "Tommy Oliver" makes up, at most, 5 of them (Green, White, Zeo Red, Turbo Red, Dino Thunder Black). That leaves 114 other Power Rangers over 20 years of history.

For someone who has not participated in Morphin Madness at all, for him to jump in at Round 3 and start pimping himself for votes for three of his characters this last week, there was a legion of one-time voters that quickly cast their vote for Jason David Frank. That's fine.

But since then? Various communities in this fandom joined together to vote for the other deserving Power Rangers. It's not that anyone hates Jason David Frank or the character "Tommy", but there is more to Power Rangers than Jason David Frank.

To get out of work today after no sleep because I was super excited to be creating a special for Talkin Toku with a bunch of great people in this fandom, to see that Jason David Frank claimed that the voting had to be rigged because he was losing, to say that we're all "haters" because we're not voting for him ... what a slap in the face to my childhood. Here's one of my childhood heroes saying I'm a hater because I'm voting for some of my other favorite Power Rangers who I feel are more deserving.

Basically, "you didn't vote for me? You must be a hater". To see uchihabro77 post his thoughts on JDF's Facebook, and for JDF to respond with a simple "to each his own" and not even bother to comment on any of his points, really showed me Jason David Frank's true character. I now see him as nothing more than someone who never managed to succeed in the movie business, lives off his karate schools and hucking $20 custom merchandise of a show he did 20 years ago while charging ridiculous prices to listen to him talk for an hour while autographing questionable quality photographs, and a guy who is terrified that if he doesn't manage to remain "The Best Power Ranger in the World" (his words, not mine) he will lose out on all those appearance fees that Wizard World pays him.

If Jason David Frank is 100% about the fans, why is he skipping the OFFICIAL Power Rangers convention to do Wizard World Chicago? Did they offer him a more lucrative appearance fee? Is he upset that he wouldn't be the main attraction at Power Morphicon? Is that why he backed out of Megacon in Florida, because Austin St. John returned to the fandom and took the spotlight?

I was a fan of Jason David Frank. After today, he's just another actor from my childhood trying to cash in on my love for nostalgia. I'm moving on.

That... that about sums it up. I took down the White Ranger figure I've had on my shelf's rotation since the 15th anniversary or whenever because his attitude towards this whole thing has just been... horrendous. It's a mar on his legacy as a Ranger and my view on him as a person.

And I know a guy to whom JDF IS Power Rangers. I hope he never has to see this side of his hero.