More often than not, I come across a question that has plagued Power Rangers fandom since the dawn of time; Tommy/Kimberly or Tommy/Katherine? There doesn’t seem to be an in-between in this scenario; you were either with one side or another.
However, I propose another possibility that is not only much more likely, but also factually correct in this regard.
See, the one commonality with both of these relationships – besides both girls’ names starting with the letter K – is that both girls happen to be Pink Rangers at the time of their run. Kimberly was the original Pinky while Kat was the replacement Pinky. And when Kimberly broke up with Tommy via production-mandated Dear John letter, the first person he tried (and failed) to rebound and hook up with was a skiing champion named Heather, who wore a pink coat.
Henceforth, the real answer to this conundrum is Tommy/Pink Ranger. Which Pink Ranger? Precisely.
Midway through Power Rangers Turbo, the old Rangers get replaced with new Rangers save for Justin the kid Blue Ranger. The veterans were given about as much of a graceful exit as you could ask for and the new kids were off to a fantastic start. That means no more Tommy.
However, let’s change that scenario a bit and let’s make TOMMY the one who sticks around while everyone else gets replaced with newbies (and yes, Justin is replaced by TJ as the Blue Ranger.) So, now Tommy, the most popular Ranger of all time according to people, suddenly has no girlfriend because Kat is long gone.
But… somewhere along the way, Tommy receives another production-mandated Dear John letter from Katherine. And so the first person Tommy tries to hook up with… Cassie, the new Pink Ranger.
Much like the relationship with Katherine, the Tommy/Cassie relationship doesn’t go as far as the Tommy/Kim relationship and even less so, since the Power Chamber is destroyed and the now former Turbo Rangers have to go after Divatox and search for Zordon. Tommy, unfortunately, can’t join them along for the ride for some production-mandated reason. And so Power Rangers In Space plays out pretty much as you expect.
And then we get to Lost Galaxy, where instead of Leo being the Red Ranger, we get TOMMY as the Red Ranger. And the first person he hooks up with is Kendrix Morgan, who eventually becomes the Pink Ranger. The relationship, again, doesn’t get very far due to conflicting personalities, but Tommy still manages to love Kendrix until she eventually dies.
Tommy is distraught… but this lasts for a short while until Karone eventually becomes the Pink Ranger and then he hooks up with her. THIS relationship sort of works based on a common ground; both were once evil and both are atoning for past sins. We don’t see if this develops beyond a date here and there because by the end of the series, they end up on Mirinoi.
At some point, Tommy makes his way back to Earth and somehow earns himself a PhD in palaeontology. He eventually hooks up with Hailey, a tech geek who never wears pink and thus is just a trusted friend rather than a shipping friend. Eventually, three kids find dino gems and become Power Rangers. None of the kids or gems are Pink Rangers. Tommy considered turning the yellow gem into a pink gem… but then by his very nature, he would be forced to hook up with Kira, holder of said yellow gem who is in high school.
And that’s why you should be shipping Tommy getting raped by the tree from The Evil Dead.
dtm666 