Power Rangers πριν τους MMPR

I wish to deconstruct the widely-held assumption that there were any
number of Ranger teams in existence before Zordon debuted the MMPR in
1993. While I do like the idea of Ranger teams (especially off-world)
doing stuff up to several millennia ago (and maybe earlier), it occurs
to me that there's not that much concrete evidence for it (or against
it, but I'm scrutinizing the "pro" side right now).

Let's discuss the teams in season order, starting with the MMPR powers:

The Wild West Rangers were active in 1880, at least as of the end of
their eponymous 2-parter. (We can't say for sure whether they existed
before Kimberly's visit to the past, or whether some later
time-traveling incident excised it. Let's assume it's still valid in
lieu of other evidence.) In Dino Thunder, Tommy's video diary skipped
the WWR, calling the modern-day MMPR "Earth's first Power Rangers," but
it's up to you how much weight you give this omission. Tommy is
forgetful, or maybe he had a reason for omitting them. Did they not
count as Power Rangers? (Kim did call them "brand-new Power Rangers.")
Was it because they were just a one-time deal? I'm fine counting them
as pre-1993 Rangers, myself; it seems more of a stretch to omit them.

Otherwise, no previous MMPR team was mentioned, though the Dragonzord
was stated to be 10,000 years old, and Zordon and Alpha were said to
have found the Power Coins at some point (10,000 or more years ago, you
might conclude from Rita's 10,000-year imprisonment and her claim that
she imprisoned Zordon). We do know that Zordon employed "soldiers" of
some sort (and MMPR:TM mentioned "young warriors" who trapped Ivan), but
the term "Ranger" is never expressly applied to MMPR backstories.
(Ninjor was rumored to have forged "the original Power Coins to be used
by those battling [evil]" -- whether that means the Dino coins or some
other set -- but can we say for sure that Power Coins = Power Rangers?
Might the Ninja Rangers -- name aside -- serve as an example for what a
team of Power Coin-using non-Ranger warriors might look like?)

We could, however, note Zordon's line in "Green with Evil": "Finally,
the prophecy has been fulfilled: the sixth Ranger is now one of us."
I'd caution against inferring too much from this; though "finally" may
work better if the prophecy was older than a few months, it's possible a
prophecy could allude to Rangers before they ever existed, or that the
prophecy didn't overtly mention Rangers (Zordon's summary aside).
Incidentally, was the prophecy issued by Kim in 1880?

The Alien Rangers of Aquitar are commonly thought to have been active up
to several millennia ago, but all we know for sure is that Cestro said,
"Our Battle Borgs were presented to us over a millennium ago by your
great sage Ninjor." Technically, "us" may have referred to some
generations of Aquitians who predated Cestro's team, but more
pressingly, we don't know that those who received the Battle Borgs were
actually Rangers at the time. I'm forced to regard the Alien Rangers as
technically unknown, insofar as the show didn't actually rule out that
their morphing was a recent invention. (Personally, if I wrote a fic,
I'd probably still have Alien Rangers active in the past, but that's not
the intended focus of this thread.)

One could argue the Alien Rangers were active on Earth in the late 80s
due to the Orb of Doom, but we don't know what the Zeo Crystal did to
history when it restored the Earth. Bulk and Skull not recognizing
Cestro -- one of their childhood idols -- in "Graduation Blues" makes me
at least somewhat skeptical that most MMAR events stuck.

No previous Zeo team was mentioned, even though the Zeo Crystal itself
was millennia old. The Super Zeo Zords were apparently active millennia
ago, per Trey and Mondo, but I'm not willing to conclude that Zords
must necessitate the presence of Rangers (we've seen several
counterexamples).

What about the Gold Ranger, you ask? Well, yes, Trey did seem to have
knowledge of ancient history (such as the Super Zeo Gems), but unless
I'm forgetting something, we don't actually know that he was active
pre-Zeo; even if he was, we don't know that he was definitely active as a
Ranger. For all we know, the ability to morph into the Gold Ranger was
invented after the Zeo Rangers debuted on Earth. (This is
notwithstanding the fact that I may personally like the idea of an
ancient Gold Ranger.)

No previous Turbo team was mentioned (their powers seemed to come with
the newly-created Turbo Zords), though the ghost galleon did have slots
for five portal keys, whatever that may indicate. There are also the
space cars, a map to whom was "eons" old, and General Havoc seemed
familiar with the sound of Artillatron's engines (or Zord engines in
general?). To me, none of this necessitates ancient Turbo Rangers,
though. (We also don't know how old Phantom was.)

The earliest Space Rangers we saw in flashback were Andros and Zhane on
KO-35 two years before PRIS, but the interesting thing here is that PRIS
alluded twice to Rangers who seem to have existed during Andros and
Karone's youth. In "The Secret of the Locket," Ecliptor repeats a story
he's told Astronema before, that "the Power Rangers" destroyed her
parents and brother. Then, in "Astronema Thinks Twice," Andros reminds
Astronema that they both "dreamed about being Power Rangers" as
children. We don't know exactly when Karone was kidnapped, but it was
probably at least 10 years prior to PRIS, and unless the notion of Power
Rangers was just a premonition at that point (that would be a pretty
big stretch to me), there were apparently some Rangers somewhere in the universe in the late 80s.

The Galaxy Rangers are also an interesting case, insofar as they had a
crapload of related artifacts all over the place (the three lost
Galactabeasts were left lifeless in space after a "great battle"), but
we technically don't know whom all these artifacts belonged to 3,000
years ago. One could assume it was a previous team of Galaxy Rangers (I
know they reportedly planned to use the Dairanger suits as Ancient
Rangers, but I don't know how the helmet animal mismatches would've been
explained), especially given Maya's speech about their being "chosen...
to be Power Rangers!" However, just to be mischievous, I could note
that Maya could've picked up the term "Power Rangers" from Alpha's
exclamation a short while beforehand. Personally, I'm going to call
this one not completely resolved, but it's your call if you find it
overwhelmingly likely that there were prior Galaxy Rangers.

The Lightspeed Ranger technology was attributed to Ms. Fairweather, and the demons' last foes were apparently sorcerers.

The Time Force Ranger technology appeared to originate from the 30th
century, unless you posit that Sky's dad's powers were the basis for the
Time Force powers. In either case, we know of nothing ancient (Q-Rex
aside).

The Wild Force Rangers' predecessors 3,000 years ago were "ancient
warriors" whom we never saw morphed (though they did use the Crystal
Sabers and Animal Crystals). Shayla once used the term "ancient
Rangers" in reference to those who had hidden the Bear crystals, but
it's your call whether this should be interpreted as a mistake (Amit
said it was, for word-of-god fans). Given how common the term
"warriors" was throughout the rest of the series, I'm inclined to
discount that line. Your call, though.

Ninja Storm had ninja academies that were at least a generation old;
these academies had Morphers and Zords ready, but we don't know the age
of the Morphers or whether anyone had used them before the modern team.
Cam's mom's Samurai Amulet was a family heirloom, but we can't
necessarily conclude that there was a Green Samurai Ranger before Cam.
(We do have precedent for Ranger artifacts being used in powerful ways
in the past without anyone actually morphing.) I might be tempted to
write ancient Ninja Storm Rangers, et al., into a fic, but I can't
regard this one as resolved in-show.

The Dino Rangers, as far as we know, debuted when the Reefside teens
used the Morphers Tommy had Hayley prepare after he'd found the Dino
Gems (which themselves were millions of years old, per Tommy). Conner
did have a vision of a silhouetted Triassic Ranger holding the Shield of
Triumph (said to have been hidden centuries ago); this was the shield's
"telepathic message," as Tommy described it, but that could have easily
been a premonition.

SPD showed Sky's dad active as a Red Ranger in Sky's youth (circa the
2010s?), and Kat was researching Ranger powers in 2001, but that's as
far back as SPD's Ranger history goes. (Cruger used the Shadow Blade
without a Morpher on Sirius, whenever his backstory took place.)

In Mystic Force, Udonna turned the teens into Power Rangers, but their
predecessors 20 years prior were "wizards" who never appeared in Ranger
forms. We have no idea when Udonna acquired her White Mystic Ranger
form: while Leanbow, Daggeron, Calindor, and Niella all had Ancient
Mystic Mode forms, Udonna was never shown transformed in any capacity in
flashbacks. This one is unresolved for me.

The Overdrive Rangers were Hartford's creation and have no known
predecessors. It's odd that the gems of the Corona Aurora match the
Rangers' colors, but meh.

Pai Zhua was formed "centuries ago" or "over 10,000 years ago" (those
are apparently synonymous in PRJF), but R.J. added the Solar Morphers to
give the three teens some help (and the Wolf and Rhino Morphers
likewise appeared to be later additions). We don't know the Morphers'
origin beyond "voila," but the Jungle Fury Rangers still had no known
predecessors.

The RPM Rangers were designed by Dr. K and crew; no known predecessors,
except for the Overdrive Red lookalike in Alphabet Soup circa a few
years before whenever.

The intro blurb to PRS appears to show footage of the original Samurai
Rangers morphing centuries ago in Japan. We could note that no dialog
has yet called that group "Rangers" (the current teams' predecessors are
thus far called "samurai" and "warriors" instead); sometimes sentai
footage is only halfway incorporated into later canon, as if the writers
didn't notice a detail or hope we don't notice. In other words, if a
Ranger is shown in flashback but never called a Ranger, is it still a
Ranger? One might also challenge the canon status of that intro blurb.
I personally choose not to challenge the idea that the originals were
Rangers, but it's your call.

Assuming I didn't miss anything (though I find it highly likely I did),
what should we conclude from all this? That Rangers have probably
existed a few centuries, but beyond that we just don't know? Does it
mean anything special that the Samurai Rangers may be the oldest
confirmed Rangers (or are they)? Are ancient Galaxy Rangers just too
likely to overlook? Do you prefer that Rangers had something to do with
Zordon 10,000 years ago, or do you imagine they date back to Ninjor
long before that? Is the idea of ancient Rangers just too ingrained
into our collective consciousness to challenge it now? Or is it moot
because it's nigh-impossible some future season won't reveal
full-fledged ancient Rangers?