Rita Repulsa
Rita Repulsa is a character from the television series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the principal nemesis of the superhero protagonists in the show's first season. She is portrayed in the first season by Machiko Soga and by Carla Perez in the remaining seasons, while voiced by Barbara Goodson in the series. Soga reprised her role as Rita, now the Mystic Mother, while Susan Brady provided her voice in the TV series Power Rangers Mystic Force. In the films, she is portrayed by Julia Cortez in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, and by Elizabeth Banks in the 2017 reboot film. Rita Repulsa is based on the Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger villain Witch Bandora.
Character attributes
Origins
Rita Repulsa is an evil space witch bent on ruling the universe. Various sources describe her as an alien or an intergalactic being. Being a powerful sorceress, Rita has conquered many worlds and amassed a large collection of monsters and Putty Patrollers to do her bidding. During her reign of terror, she led a group of minions to conquer Earth.Imprisoned in a space dumpster by a sage named Zordon, Rita was cast into space where she would float for ten thousand years before arcing back to the Moon in 1993. Once freed by two astronauts, she and her minions reclaimed their headquarters and started a second campaign on Earth to defeat Zordon and take the planet for Lord Zedd. She is the first major villain of the Power Rangers franchise.
Appearance and personality
Most discernible by her two pointed hair cones, one may also recognize her by her screeching voice, Madonna-like cone bra, and obnoxious attitude: her appearance in the early screen adaptations is described as follows: "a visibly Asian witch/goddess who wears a horned headdress and pointy conical devices over her breasts". She is sarcastic and power hungry, her character would usually become humorous whenever the Power Rangers defeated her; this would usually end with the catchphrase "I've got such a headache!" As Rita then married Lord Zedd later on in the series, her humorous personality was increased.Rita is sometimes seen arguing with her younger brother, Rito, whose skeletal appearance was comically revealed on her account. He knew she was picky in gifts being given to her. Rita wanted a nice little planet to take over and Rito offended her by giving her a fire-breathing dragon instead. She used the dragon to attack him and burn their parents house to prove her point.
Years after several defeats across the Universe, Rita was turned away from evil thanks to Zordon's Good energy wave. Rita then adopted a new title, Mystic Mother, and began to practice good magic. While confronted by evil, Mystic Mother proved stronger and was able to aid the Power Rangers Mystic Force in eradicating dark magic.
Powers
Being a powerful witch, Rita possessed many magical abilities. By far the most common demonstration of her power was her use of her "wand" to make her monsters and minions grow to enormous sizes. Rita has also used magical rituals to control humans to do her bidding and even turn them evil, at least temporarily. She can also trap people in other dimensions and shoot energy blasts, like most villains from the "Zordon era", teleport at will, though only at relatively short range. Rita was also able to create her own Power Ranger, but she accomplished this by simply giving a Power Coin to an individual she had brainwashed to be evil, rather than facilitate a connection to the Morphing Grid herself.In the 2006 series Power Rangers Mystic Force she is the ruler of all good magic and can use that magic to defend herself if and when she needs to. She is also capable of facilitating a connection to the Universal Morphing Grid to create a full team of Power Rangers if necessary, hence the Mystic Force. As the Mystic Mother, Rita takes a behind-the-scenes role, ensuring the flow of good magic throughout the world rather than using it herself, unless she has no other choice.
Portrayals
The character of Rita Repulsa was portrayed by multiple actresses. Since the character was created from footage of the Witch Bandora from the original Japanese series Zyuranger, she was portrayed by Machiko Soga and dubbed in English by Barbara Goodson. Goodson continued to voice the role until Power Rangers in Space in 1998. Carla Perez took over the visual portrayal from Soga when the character was reintroduced midway through Mighty Morphin second season in 1994, portraying her from 1994 until Power Rangers in Space in 1998, and Julia Cortez portrayed the character in the 1995 film Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. In 2006, the character was reintroduced as Mystic Mother in Power Rangers Mystic Force, again portrayed by Soga, this time with Susan Brady providing her voice. Elizabeth Banks portrayed a reimagined Rita in the 2017 reboot film. Goodson returned to voice Rita in 2021 for her playable appearance in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid.Synopsis
''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers''
In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Rita was born to Master Vile and Lady Fienna and had a younger brother named Rito Revolto. At one point, her parents got her a fire breathing dragon when she wanted a "cute little planet" instead. Rita then used the dragon to burn down their house. At some point, Rita began working for Lord Zedd in his attempts at conquering the universe. She served as his regent while he was elsewhere. However, Zordon and his army opposed her. Rita managed to steal and corrupt the Dragon Coin. However, Zordon eventually managed to seal Rita and her minions in a space dumpster, though Rita manages to trap Zordon in a time warp.Season 1
At the beginning of season 1, Rita Repulsa had been imprisoned for over ten thousand years in the space dumpster. She, along with the other season 1 villains, were unknowingly released by a pair of Earth astronauts. She exited the dumpster along with her minions Goldar, Baboo & Squatt, and Finster. Rita claimed she would conquer the first planet she saw after being freed, which unsurprisingly happened to be Earth. Over the course of the show, Rita Repulsa battled the Power Rangers using everything from phobia spells, super Putty Patrollers, binding magic spells, and on occasion, she would even allow the likes of Goldar, Squatt, and Baboo to be "in charge" of destroying the Power Rangers. All of their plans failed, and Rita would normally take her frustrations out on her henchmen by bashing them on the head with her magic wand or yelling in their faces. One of Rita's most memorable traits was that following each loss, she would either swear vengeance or complain that she had a headache.Season 2
In season 2, Rita's reign of terror came to an end when Lord Zedd returned to assume control. Then it is revealed Rita was not the true empress, but actually the regent of Zedd's empire while he was off in other places. Zedd was furious that Rita had failed to defeat "children" and conquer the Earth, even when Rita warned him about Zordon. Despite Rita's begging and pleading, Lord Zedd vaporized Rita's magic wand and shrank her down to the size of a toy before again exiling her into space in a space dumpster. Locked within a space dumpster, Rita came within inches of freedom when her dumpster came to Earth, and Bulk and Skull succeeded in opening the dumpster. But the Power Rangers were successful in sending Rita back into space. Eventually, her dumpster crashed into the Moon, and she escaped. Down but not out, after regaining her freedom, Rita sought assistance from Finster, her still loyal henchman, to concoct a love potion that would generate libidic feelings for use on Lord Zedd. She also used a beauty cream made by Finster over her face to become younger. The love potion worked and the two were then married. Once married to Lord Zedd, Rita eventually gave up her magic practices and worked alongside Lord Zedd as a partner in crime. With Zedd by Rita's side, they are more powerful together and attempted to defeat the Rangers. Though they each failed, the Rangers did not claim victory so easily as the result of how efficacious their enemies have become.Season 3
In season 3, Shortly after the wedding, Rita's brother, Rito Revolto, arrived to join his sister and brother-in-law on their quest to destroy the Power Rangers. Following this, crossing their staffs, Rita and Zedd were able to make monsters grow by the power of lightning. Nevertheless, they continued to fail, even with help from Rita's spy, Katherine Hillard, who, after breaking free from Rita's control, joined the forces of the Power Rangers as the second Pink Ranger when Kimberly Hart departed for Florida. Additionally, Goldar found out about the love potion that Rita used on Lord Zedd and had a concoction created to reverse the effects. The anti-love potion brought Zedd back to normal. However, he had apparently developed a real love for Rita of his own accord.Later still, her father, Master Vile, made his entrance and enraged over Rita's marriage to Lord Zedd, yells at her. He later aids the villains greatly by leaving the Rangers as powerless children. However, the Alien Rangers arrive to assist Zordon and foiling his plans. Rita is embarrassed to see Master Vile throwing a tantrum like child and tells him to stop doing that. Master Vile decides to leave much to her embarrassment and Zedd's pleasure.