I can give background on the basic idea of power rangers and more specific detail about a couple of the seasons.

Bronwyn, you're basically correct. -grins- At the beginning of every season there is the Evil Bad Guy Alien Person Thing who wants to take over the world. Good Guy Mentor Person selects a group of teenagers, sometimes based on their abilities and sometimes by accident and turns them into power rangers. Sometimes the new rangers have issues morphing their first time (forgetting words, somehow not magically knowing the gesture they need, etc.) but it always goes away after the first time. After that they never forget again. Once the team has formed, one of the first things they do is acquire zords, which are robots that they can ride and in which they fight. The shape of the zord depends on the theme of the team. (So, the Dino Thunder rangers have dinosaur zords, and the SPD team has police vehicles and so on). The zords are either given to them or freed from the forces of the Evil Bad Guy Alien Person. These zords can combine to form megazords, which the rangers use to fight aliens whom they've already defeated but which have been resurrected and blown up to GOdzilla-like proportions by the Evil Bad Guy Alien Person or his/her minions.

Basically, the theme of the shows are always the power of teamwork and perseverance. Traditionally the teams don't get along too well at first, but then bond as they realize that they can't survive without each other. It's all very sticky sweet and filled with in your face morals. As the show increases they all get power boosts until, by the end, they've become ridiculously strong. Of course, so has the enemy, so they still lose as often as they did before.

About getting their butts kicked: the best way to tell that they'll defeat the monster this episode is if they lose spectacularly to it early on. Sure sign that they will prevail. On the other hand, if they seem to be doing well, chances are it will be whisked away and saved for another episode, where it'll be stronger or some such thing.

Red is always a guy and always the leader, yes. Pink and yellow tend to be girls, and in Ninja Storm the sky blue ranger (just called blue in the show) is a girl.

Can't think of anything else, especially not having read the fic. What season of power rangers is it for, anyway?

Sorry for the essay. I like to be thorough and I get carried away at times.

--anamia