Falling for My First Redeemed Villain
But the original series was where I first met Tommy Oliver, who was both the Green and White Ranger (yes, I’m ashamed of myself for remembering that). He was introduced initially as an “evil” ranger, who was going to infiltrate the team by pretending to be a good guy. He was supposed to then betray them to Rita Repulsa, but he got hooked on the idea of being a hero and became officially good.
I loved him. I cringe now at the memory, and my entire family (and now the wide world of the Internet) can make me blush simply by reminding me that I would have my mother tape the show if I thought I’d be away. I feel sad for the actor who played him, Jason David Frank, since his IMDB page makes it clear that he never really managed to escape the series.
But when I was younger, Tommy had every ounce of my pre-teen affection. The other Rangers couldn’t manage much more than cheerfulness or righteous indignation (though sometimes they were called on to make their shocked faces), but Tommy had actual demons to wrestle with. He yearned to be good, and when he was forced not to be (I think mind control was involved at one point). The guilt ate him up. In a small way, he seemed just a little bit more real than everyone else on the show.
More than anything, he wanted to change his stars. For a geek with enormous glasses who could never seem to make herself care about the same things as the popular kids, that was powerful stuff. After the Green Ranger had been revealed as a traitor and shunned from the team, the White Ranger character started helping them in secret. Tommy knew what he was supposed to be, even if the rest of the team didn’t, and he wasn’t going to rest until he made his story go the way he knew it was supposed to.
How could I resist falling for someone like that?
About Fairy Godmothers, INC.
Kate, an experienced Fairy Godmother, who’s enough of a romantic to frustrate her rigidly rule-bound boss, has just received a specialty assignment from one of the company’s board of directors. Cinderella—Rellie for short—was placed with an appropriately wicked stepfamily years before, and now needs the dress, ball, and handsome prince to complete her happily-ever-after. The fact that Rellie isn’t sure this is her dream come true—balls are fun, but princes tend to be less interesting than fluffy bunnies—isn’t something management considers a problem.
Complicating things a bit is Jon, the youngest son of the royal family, who meets Kate, and is smitten, but isn’t quite ready yet to reveal his true identity. After all, it’s his older brother Rupert who’s supposed to marry Rellie, which means pretending to be a lowly civil servant will give him the chance to spend more time with Kate. (As long as he can get the ball arranged, and stop Rupert from getting himself into trouble over his “self-actualization” business, he should have the perfect opportunity to explain everything and get started on making a little magic with the Fairy Godmother of his dreams.)
But, of course, things never ever happen as planned.
About Jenniffer Wardell
You can find her on her blog, Chasing Thoughts Like Butterflies, on Facebook, and on Twitter.