Last Year in one of my early articles I did a look-back on the season 1 episode "For Whom the Bell Trolls." I particularly found this episode interesting for three reasons. 1- the unresolved battle in the episode which ended with Trini waking up from a dream, 2-the tricky plot of Trini's own toy being turned against her, and 3-it was among the few episodes that allowed us to see inside the mind of Trini Kwan. Trini was a stand-out character of the original series and was a member of the ensemble cast for Eighty episodes. Thuy Trang the actress lived to be twenty-seven years old and died in a tragic car accident. Her character inspired fans in many ways. She often spoke in interviews about her family's tough times during their stay in Hong Kong. They came there aboard a cargo ship. Many of the passengers suffered from terrible diseases and were tightly packed together in small cabins. Her parents suffered hard but did their best to care for her and her two younger brothers. Through the hard experiences she endured and her Martial Arts education she learned a lot about patience, endurance, preservation, and self-respect. Her attitude and personal capabilities paid off for her and she went to college, first studying business and later acting. In honor of Thuy's passion for Kung-Fu-my next retrospective will be on Plague of The Mantis or POTM.
This episode was the final episode before Tommy's return late into the first season. The first five Rangers all got their chances to star in different episodes during this time. Trini was highlighted in this episode and was shown training with her Kung-fu instructor Master Li. Master Li was played by Richard Rabago. He taught Mantis Kung-fu and Trini felt inspired by the philosophy of fighting fairly and meeting your opponent with equal force. Rita Repulsa sought to undermine Trini by creating a Mantis monster. The mantis monster challenged Trini to a one-on-one fight in the tradition of Mantis Kung-fu. Despite the fact that her friends warned her not to trust the monster, she wanted to honor the tradition and face him by herself. The Mantis monster cheated and sent an army of Putties to surround her in the middle of their duel. Trini was caught off guard but fought hard until her friends showed up to fight by her side. Rita used her wand to make the Mantis grow. Mantis uses powerful kick moves against the Megazord but is overpowered by the Megazord and Power Sword. Trini cautions the team to watch Mantis's footwork. Together they endure the hard fight and finish off the monster. Trini showed a great mastery of Kung-fu and it's traditions. Zordon praised her for acting honorably despite the tough situation she found herself in. The other team members also said they too were quite proud and reminded her they will always have her back. This episode also included a subplot with Bulk and Skull offering classes on "Cockroach Kung-fu." The classes were fifty dollars an hour. Their obvious greed aside, the "moves" they demostrated were clearly not true Kung-fu thus they had zero applicants. However their antics did earn a laugh from the five Rangers ending the episode. This episode's true lesson is about tradition and honor. Master Li installs in Trini how important the ancient Kung-fu traditions are. Thuy Trang was a Kung-fu master as well and her self-confidence grew from training in Kung-fu. She said that her achievements in life so far helped her to believe she could do just about anything as long as she set her mind to it. While this is not one of my favorite season one episodes, I do see it as a wonderful depiction of Kung-fu's traditions and it is also easy to see why it was one of Thuy's favorite episodes. In my upcoming retrospectives I will be discussing two of my favorite multipart stories from season 2. I included this episode as well to continue last year's promise on doing yearly articles about Thuy Trang. Many of those who worked with her expressed deep-seated feelings upon her passing and said she was taken from us too soon. David Yost said He admired her family's strength and endurance from her stories and he would miss her wonderful laugh and smile. Thuy Trang was wonderful in more ways then can be counted and this episode shows the value of Kung-fu training which was one of her passions in life. It was a match made in PR heaven. You can learn even more about Thuy Trang on this fan site-https://www.thuytrangtribute.com. This tradition will continue again next year. I look forward to that as well as many other great articles.
Trini's death is too bad. It is kind of you to write this memorial.