Badass Women Week: Summer

When it comes to women, Power Rangers can a bit, well, formulaic. If there are two female rangers, one (typically pink) will be the girly-girl while the other is the tomboy. If there's only one, she pulls double duty as both types, and the female villains are usually shallow/lovestruck idiots. Speaking as an actual girl, this bothers me. It's really irksome that there are so many female characters, yet so few tough ones. However, there are a few times when Power Rangers writers have written women that aren't just tough, they're badass, and in honor of the 100th National Women's Day, I'm going to spend a week talking about the toughest of them all.

Summer Landsdown is the most recent badass. She was the RPM yellow ranger. She also, for over a year, survived being the only girl on the team, which is its own badass skill. Before the series, Summer was a spoiled rich girl who only cared about money and was vicious to everyone she knew. It was only after her long suffering butler sacrificed himself to save her that she became the warrior she is now.

Summer may, at first glance, be an odd choice for this list. She was a bitchy princess for 16 years, she spent a lot of time in the background in fights, and is best remembered as 'The chick who had a thing for Dillion.' However, while of these things are true, they don't necessarily detract from her badassery. During her time as a princess, she trained in martial arts and became an incredible motorcycle rider, both of which helped her save Scott before she even became a ranger. Her place in the background was, in my opinion, due to the sentai footage, as The Dome Dolls showed her to be a capable and clearheaded leader, and the fact that she crushed on Dillion doesn't make her weak, it makes her not dead, as even cold-hearted Dr. K admitted to finding him attractive. In fact, messing with Dillion was shown to be a garunteed way to bring out her badass side.

Summer Landsdown was a loyal ranger, a tough fighter, and a talented leader. She was a truly tough ranger, and earned her place on my Badass Ranger Women list.