Worst case of the " 6th Ranger Syndrome"?

[Tounsi_Tag]

For those unfamiliar with the name, this is a trope that originated with the Power Rangers, which usually start with 5 rangers then introduce a powerful 6th one that is deemed too strong or cool to justify them joining the team. This new addition then gets extremely nerfed or watered down after serving their purpose.

Cases like this include Nico Robin from One Piece. She was shown as an extremely badass and powerful lady, even in the arc following her joining. She then slowly started shifting into a support role that is tied to the lore of that world ( although there is an argument to be made that it narratively makes sense for her to relax after finding her new family).

Can you think of any other cases like this?

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Auron from FFX is the last character to join the party full-time, he's the coolest person on the team, and yet he doesn't do anything aside from deliver exposition about Yunalesca.

Dion from FFXVI has the same problem, but worse.

Square kinda does this a lot. Orlandeau as well.

 

[Strandr]

Does the Fierce Deity mask in Majora's Mask count?

You get to 100% mask completion to get a Mask that will kill the final boss in like 6 slashes but the form can only be used in boss arenas.

 

[The Unsent]

Vision was weird where he is built up as this formidable force in Age of Ultron (And a bit in Civil War), then he is stabbed early on, put out of action and later killed in the third Avengers.

 

[Qikz]

Waluigi - you've got Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi and Wario and all of them made it into Smash. Then you have Waluigi who is clearly too powerful to be contained in such a game.

 

[balohna]

With X-Men 97 on the brain… maybe Rogue in the comics? I specify comics because she was introduced as a villain and joined an established iteration of the team. She's got super human strength and flight permanently, and can absorb and use the powers of anyone else. But they don't have her just dominate fights, mostly saving the other members or borrowing powers at a clutch moment.

 

[Slayven]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZKtf_XRJaY
Dekamaster, he told the team if he went out with them they would never grow.. But he shows up for special associations

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsEmpI82mWs

 

[L Thammy]

I want to say Magus from Chrono Trigger. He's remembered a thousand years later for causing an apocalyptic war with the world being saved by his defeat, he's an incredibly hyped up boss fight, and then you meet him and he joins your party and he's okay.

 

[Hilarious_Bearious]

Green ranger was my favourite (RIP my boy Jason David Frank), but felt like a cheesy fan self-insert... "He's got a gold shield, and he has a cool sword that's also a flute, and he his zord is a dragon that can fuse with the megazord to make an even better megazord!"

... Because that's exactly what I did as a kid.

 

[Ouroboros]

I want to say Magus from Chrono Trigger. He's remembered a thousand years later for causing an apocalyptic war with the world being saved by his defeat, he's an incredibly hyped up boss fight, and then you meet him and he joins your party and he's okay.

Click to shrink...

Counterpoint : his casting animation was really cool.

 

[DarthKamen]

Ryo in Digimon Tamers I believe, introduced as being very powerful and then just...amounts to literally nothing.

In a more literal example, Sam in Power Rangers SPD. Not only does he amount to absolutely nothing, the show's quality in general tanks when he shows up as a Ranger.

 

[BebopCola]

Auron from FFX is the last character to join the party full-time, he's the coolest person on the team, and yet he doesn't do anything aside from deliver exposition about Yunalesca.

Dion from FFXVI has the same problem, but worse.

Square kinda does this a lot. Orlandeau as well.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Magus from Chrono Trigger suffers from this too.

I don't know which is more annoying: how Cid absolutely breaks Tactics as soon as you get him, or how they gimp Magus so he joins with none of his cool shit.

 

[Tounsi_Tag]

Ryo in Digimon Tamers I believe, introduced as being very powerful and then just...amounts to literally nothing.

In a more literal example, Sam in Power Rangers SPD. Not only does he amount to absolutely nothing, the show's quality in general tanks when he shows up as a Ranger.

Click to shrink...

Yes! Also Koichi in Digimon Frontier after he joins.

 

[DanteMenethil]

I want to say Magus from Chrono Trigger. He's remembered a thousand years later for causing an apocalyptic war with the world being saved by his defeat, he's an incredibly hyped up boss fight, and then you meet him and he joins your party and he's okay.

Click to shrink...

IIRC when he joins the party he's got the exact same HP as when you fought him

 

[L Thammy]

Ryo in Digimon Tamers I believe, introduced as being very powerful and then just...amounts to literally nothing.

Click to shrink...

Ryo's weird because he's a cameo from the Wonderswan games. He's in Adventure 02 as well.

So he does plenty, just that not a lot of it is in Tamers itself.

 

[DarthKamen]

Yeah, Magus from Chrono Trigger suffers from this too.

I don't know which is more annoying: how Cid absolutely breaks Tactics as soon as you get him, or how they gimp Magus so he joins with none of his cool shit.

Click to shrink...

I had to intentionally not use Cid my first playthrough, I have never seen a more broken permanent party member in an RPG before.

Ryo's weird because he's a cameo from the Wonderswan games. He's in Adventure 02 as well.

So he does plenty, just that not a lot of it is in Tamers itself.

Click to shrink...

My friend told me about this, it's such a strange concept to me.

I'm not really a Digimon fan, I just went through Tamers with a friend at the start of the year.

 

[L Thammy]

I had to intentionally not use Cid my first playthrough, I have never seen a more broken permanent party member in an RPG before.


My friend told me about this, it's such a strange concept to me.

I'm not really a Digimon fan, I just went through Tamers with a friend at the start of the year.

Click to shrink...

None of the Wonderswan games were officially released in English outside of Hong Kong, so basically everyone in the English speaking fandom that knew this knew it because they read it in the internet.

 

[mbpm]

AKA what happens when you bring a boss you fought over to your side in games

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

Not in the Traditional sense, but Haru might be the shining example of being the victim of Late Party-Member syndrome.

Join the Phantom Thieves super late in the game's story so she misses out on majority of the team interactions up to that point. The palace that should be focusing on her development instead has her sharing the time with Morgana going through an existential crisis and the palace even ends with her father getting executed. But to add insult to injury the next story arc immediately shifts gears since the plot is now winding down to the climax so all the fallout with Haru gets relegated to her confidant.

Like the unfortunate thing is you can delete Haru as a playable character and nothing in the game would actually change. That's not even a slight against her character just how much of an afterthought the writers treated her as.

 

[Mewzard]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZKtf_XRJaY
Dekamaster, he told the team if he went out with them they would never grow.. But he shows up for special associations

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsEmpI82mWs

Click to shrink...

You can never go wrong with Doggie Kruger, the Guarddog of Hell.

 

[Rellyrell28]

Obligatory

View: https://youtu.be/3EFEm31HN_o?si=8rHocqxSZEiagIrr

 

[Kyrios]

Not in the Traditional sense, but Haru might be the shining example of being the victim of Late Party-Member syndrome.

Join the Phantom Thieves super late in the game's story so she misses out on majority of the team interactions up to that point. The palace that should be focusing on her development instead has her sharing the time with Morgana going through an existential crisis and the palace even ends with her father getting executed. But to add insult to injury the next story arc immediately shifts gears since the plot is now winding down to the climax so all the fallout with Haru gets relegated to her confidant.

Like the unfortunate thing is you can delete Haru as a playable character and nothing in the game would actually change. That's not even a slight against her character just how much of an afterthought the writers treated her as.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm glad they fleshed her character out more in Strikers and Tactica.

 

[septentrion2]

this guy from Final Fantasy 9:

 

[Manmademan]

With X-Men 97 on the brain… maybe Rogue in the comics? I specify comics because she was introduced as a villain and joined an established iteration of the team. She's got super human strength and flight permanently, and can absorb and use the powers of anyone else. But they don't have her just dominate fights, mostly saving the other members or borrowing powers at a clutch moment.

Click to shrink...

No, rogue doesn't fit here. Her classic powers were only around the level of Ms Marvel in the 1970s. She was about as physically strong as Spider-Man. That's nowhere near powerful enough to dominate fights. Most of the X-Roster was stronger. She COULD absorb the powers of others temporarily, but this was not something used lightly since too much since she absorbed powers AND psyche of the opponent and could be overwhelmed or possibly permanently end up with two minds in her head.

Her current power set borrows from Wonderman so she's a lot stronger and used appropriately. Still not on the level of synch or the omegas though.

 

[LycanXIII]

Not in the Traditional sense, but Haru might be the shining example of being the victim of Late Party-Member syndrome.

Join the Phantom Thieves super late in the game's story so she misses out on majority of the team interactions up to that point. The palace that should be focusing on her development instead has her sharing the time with Morgana going through an existential crisis and the palace even ends with her father getting executed. But to add insult to injury the next story arc immediately shifts gears since the plot is now winding down to the climax so all the fallout with Haru gets relegated to her confidant.

Like the unfortunate thing is you can delete Haru as a playable character and nothing in the game would actually change. That's not even a slight against her character just how much of an afterthought the writers treated her as.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I didn't even touch her social link since I was already so far with the others, and wanted to finish those first

 

[Digital Dinosaur]

Gonna go back before Power Rangers itself to nothing less than Battlestar Galactica.

The whole story predicated on a single surviving warship tasked with protecting hundreds of vulnerable civilian refugee vessels.

Then, a second Battlestar, the Pegasus, is discovered to have survived. Fully stocked and armed, full of fighters and troops. Together with Galactica, Pegasus demonstrates how the fleet can now go on the offensive.

So naturally the only way out of this storyline, to preserve the series core conceit, is for the commander of the Pegasus - Cain - to be a nutbar warhawk who is more interested in sailing off into eternity guns blazing. And takes the Pegasus with him.

A plot so nice they used it twice and recreated the scenario in the remake of BSG. Where it became even more contrived in order to keep the show's premise on track, ending with a controversial, highly questionable story beat to write Pegasus out of the show. (Which was caused by real-world production limitations relating to standing sets but the problem remains.)

 

[mrmoose]

AKA what happens when you bring a boss you fought over to your side in games

Click to shrink...

I was going to say this. Like every time if you don't want the good side to be overpowered and actually be underdogs sometimes the boss-that-joins-your-party has to be nerfed or powercrept (in the case of stuff like Dragon Ball)

Also sometimes the thing that make the outsider cool kind of go away when he becomes part of the family.

 

[mrmoose]

Green ranger was my favourite (RIP my boy Jason David Frank), but felt like a cheesy fan self-insert... "He's got a gold shield, and he has a cool sword that's also a flute, and he his zord is a dragon that can fuse with the megazord to make an even better megazord!"

... Because that's exactly what I did as a kid.

Click to shrink...

And he gets the girl.

 

[Slayven]

Her current power set borrows from Wonderman so she's a lot stronger and used appropriately. Still not on the level of synch or the omegas though.

Click to shrink...

Imagine if she used solo series Wonderman's powers. THEN there would be a case for it

 

[Manmademan]

Imagine if she used solo series Wonderman's powers. THEN there would be a case for it

Click to shrink...

Yeah for some reason they never really bothered exploring *any* of the powers she should have as a result of absorbing Simon. Flight and strength are just a fraction of a fraction of what that dude does.

 

[Slayven]

Yeah for some reason they never really bothered exploring *any* of the powers she should have as a result of absorbing Simon. Flight and strength are just a fraction of a fraction of what that dude does.

Click to shrink...

Does she even do the glowy semi kirby dot thing?

 

[Aaronrules380]

I want to say Magus from Chrono Trigger. He's remembered a thousand years later for causing an apocalyptic war with the world being saved by his defeat, he's an incredibly hyped up boss fight, and then you meet him and he joins your party and he's okay.

Click to shrink...

Magus as a party member was definitely a huge disappointment for me because once he's in he's kind of just there as a consequence of how Chrono Trigger treated the interchangeable party and he's not particularly strong or interesting to use compared to your other characters

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

Yeah I'm glad they fleshed her character out more in Strikers and Tactica.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I didn't even touch her social link since I was already so far with the others, and wanted to finish those first

Click to shrink...

Yeah it felt telling that characters like Yusuke, Makoto and Makoto all got resolutions to what their experiences were in palace, but everything with Haru got relegated to her confidant. lol

And yeah, I was happy to see her get more content in Strikers.

 

[Fj0823]

Beerus and Whis from Dragon Ball.

Toriyama kept having to show how they don't give a fuck about the situation or they're forbidden from acting because they can solve any situation in seconds

 

[Orayn]

What happened to Robin is such a bummer. She's easily one of the most interesting Straw Hats and her debut was amazing but now she barely gets to do anything.

 

[Manmademan]

Does she even do the glowy semi kirby dot thing?

Click to shrink...

Nope. Never has.

 

[Slayven]

Nope. Never has.

Click to shrink...

Man that would be great, but with Green and yellow

 

[Blade24070]

Auron from FFX is the last character to join the party full-time, he's the coolest person on the team, and yet he doesn't do anything aside from deliver exposition about Yunalesca.

Dion from FFXVI has the same problem, but worse.

Square kinda does this a lot. Orlandeau as well.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure how I'm the first one to correct how wrong you are. Auron joins about 5 hours into the game (in Luca), and Rikku joins after he does (like four areas later, too).

 

[The Quentulated Mox]

trish from Jojo Golden Wind joins in the third act and gets maybe one (1) fight where her stand does something cool before she joins the "stand in the background and react to things" squad, which is admittedly the fate of most non-protagonist jojos

 

[Surakian]

Hmmm, do these fit?

Reddas from FFXII. He joins the party, is such a good, amazing party member, but he is only there for a brief amount of time until he dies.

Dezel in Tales of Zestiria maybe?

Oh, Sho Minamimoto in NTWEWY until you can use him freely again at the end of the game

Edit: in line with NTWEWY, Beat when he joins the party. "Neku" is super hyped up, he's a total badass in cutscenes, then Beat joins and it's like "well he still pretty hardcore but certainly not to his cutscene levels"

 

[Dice]

this guy from Final Fantasy 9:

Click to shrink...

They gave him that one dungeon. Which for a late, straight-laced party member joining a crew of weirdos is pretty alright.
(mostly agree though)

 

[PhoenixAKG]

Not in the Traditional sense, but Haru might be the shining example of being the victim of Late Party-Member syndrome.

Join the Phantom Thieves super late in the game's story so she misses out on majority of the team interactions up to that point. The palace that should be focusing on her development instead has her sharing the time with Morgana going through an existential crisis and the palace even ends with her father getting executed. But to add insult to injury the next story arc immediately shifts gears since the plot is now winding down to the climax so all the fallout with Haru gets relegated to her confidant.

Like the unfortunate thing is you can delete Haru as a playable character and nothing in the game would actually change. That's not even a slight against her character just how much of an afterthought the writers treated her as.

Click to shrink...

Haru is best girl and yes she deserved better