Rita Repulsa


 * For the movie version of this character, see Rita Repulsa (movie).

"Magic wand, make my monster GROW!"

- Rita

Rita Repulsa was a female humanoid sorceress bent on intergalactic domination. Having conquered many worlds during her service to Lord Zedd, Rita was defeated by Zordon of Eltar during her failed invasion of Earth. Imprisoned in a space dumpster by the sage, Rita was cast into space where she would float for ten thousand years before arcing back to the moon. Once freed, she and her minions reclaimed their headquarters and started a second campaign on Earth to defeat Zordon and take the planet for Lord Zedd.

As before, Rita was met with Zordon's Power Rangers, six teens that were determined to stop her advances on the planet. Focusing her attacks on the city of Angel Grove, Rita was determined to stop the only forces that could stand in her way. After countless defeats by Zordon's warriors, Lord Zedd ascended on Rita's palace and took over operations on the moon. Sealing the sorceress away once again in a dumpster, Rita was cast off again. While Zedd attempted to destroy the rangers in her absence, Rita was able to return and with the assistance of her loyal servant Finster, the queen created a love draft that made Zedd fall in love with her. Marrying her Lord, Rita and Zedd formed an evil alliance and attempted to destroy the Earth together.

While they made very few advances on the planet, Rita and Zedd were soon ousted by their rivals in the United Alliance of Evil; the Machine Empire. Fleeing destruction by King Mondo and his cogs, the pair went into hiding until they managed to destroy the Empire with a bomb. Reoccupying the moon, Repulsa and Zedd ended their quest against the Power Rangers, allowing other agents of the Alliance have their hand at it. While Divatox failed to get the job done, the upstart Empress Astronema aided in capturing Zordon and destroying the Power Chamber on Earth. In an all out assault, Rita and Zedd hoped to finally destroy the Rangers in battle. However, a ranger sabotaged the Alliance's plans by sacrificing Zordon, whose good energies swept across the universe and destroyed the armies of the Alliance. While their minions were reduced to sand, Rita and Zedd's humanity was preserved and they returned to their human forms.

Years after she was turned away from evil, Rita 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 rangers in eradicating dark magic.

Early life
Rita Repulsa was a female humanoid was born to the galactic warlord and warlock Master Vile, a feared conqueror of worlds. Along with her brother, Rito Revolto, Rita was raised to embrace the practices of evil and dabbled into the art of dark magic. Crafting for herself a scepter through which to channel her evil, Rita joined the armies of the infamous Lord Zedd and proceeded to aid him in galactic conquest. Gaining renown for the destruction she reeked on Regda 2, Sorcery 7, and Tarmac 3, Rita amassed a large army of monsters and putty patrollers to serve her. During her reign of terror, she led a group of minions to conquer Earth, a planet populated by humans.

Establishing a palace on the planet's moon, Rita launched attacks against the world but her invasion was halted by the powerful sage called Zordon. A mighty wizard from Eltar, Zordon and Rita's servants and warriors had many confrontations; the pair built up a lasting competition as they won and lost battles. Rita, seemingly admitting her failure, called for negotiations to be made between her camp and the warriors of Earth. Meeting with Zordon, Rita revealed the depths of her treachery and trapped Zordon in a time warp. Before Zordon was gone, the wizard revealed he was prepared with his own fail safe. Conjuring up a space dumpster, Zordon sealed away Rita and her chief aides and servants and cast them into space.

Return to Earth
Rita had been sealed in her dumpster for nearly 10,000 years before it found its way back to the moon. Not long after, a pair of curious astronauts stumbled upon the strange container and broke the seal that kept Rita's evil at bay. Released from her prison, she destroyed the dumpster and quickly set her sights on Earth. Reoccupying her palace which had lay vacant for eons, Rita sent her chief warrior, Goldar, to Earth to lay siege to the world. However, Rita was met by her opponent Zordon, who had managed to reestablish contact with Earth and gather new warriors. Beginning her second invasion of the planet, Rita's monsters were constantly defeated by Zordon's Power Rangers, mere humans who wielded the mighty Power Coins.

While Rita largely relied on monsters created by her loyal minion Finster or with the help of other mystic allies such as Madame Woe or Lokar, her master plan was to create a sixth Ranger to combat Zordon's warriors. Having long ago come into the possession of a sixth power coin, Rita selected a classmate of the rangers to become her Green Ranger, Tommy Oliver. While this Green Ranger proved effective for a time, she proved unable to control him and her control over him was countered by the rangers, who turned him to their cause. Finding herself defeated at every turn, Rita was horrified when a storm of dark energy began to erupt throughout surrounding space.

Enter Zedd
The storm, a manifestation of Lord Zedd's power, ended when the master of evil took up residence in the Palace's Chamber of Command. Disgusted with Rita's performance and her inability to conquer the Earth after several millennia, Zedd had returned to destroy Zordon once and for all. Sealing her away once more in a space dumpster, Rita was cast back out into the void only to return less then a year later to find Zedd having just as much trouble as she had. Secretly entering the palace, she was able to reach her loyal henchman Finster who restored her to normal size and crafted a love potion that would make Zedd fall in love with her. After applying Finster's youth serum, the revitalized sorceress would fall in love with Zedd herself and wed the Lord of Evil. Joining forces, the pair continued to bombard the Rangers together, meeting with failure each time.

Evil union
Following Rita's marriage to Zedd, her brother Rito Revolto arrived at the moon palace to add his sword to their fight against the Rangers; much to the chagrin of Lord Zedd. Not long after Rito's arrival on the moon, his father Master Vile came to criticize his daughter's choice in men. Attempting to upstage Zedd in conquering the Earth, Vile did manage to reverse time on the planet and render the Power Rangers as children. Despite the aide of Rito, whose contributions include bringing a flock of Tenga Warriors and Rita's spy Kat Hillard, the moon-based villains continued to fail.

Rita and Zedd finally managed to score a victory against the rangers during their third year of attempting to conquer Earth. With the aide of Goldar and Rito, Rita and Zedd led a campaign that saw the destruction of the Power Coins and Zordon's Command Center. However, their purpose for destroying the Command Center was to get their hands on the Zeo Crystal, and it was lost to the Power Rangers. Zordon managed to establish a new base soon after.

Rise of the Machine Empire
Rita and Zedd's celebration was short lived when they and their servants fled to live in refuge with Master Vile during the invasion of the Machine Empire, who appeared as a threatening force at the time, though after being defeated by the Rangers themselves, the Empire was destroyed by Rita and Zedd thanks to a bomb left in the disguise of a present.

Turbo
While Rita and Zedd were not seen in the series itself, they did appear in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, where it seems that they had regained control of the Moon. Rita made her appearance when Divatox phoned her and asked her on how to defeat the Power Rangers. She replied to Divatox with a laugh, saying that if she knew that she wouldn't have to be listening to Lord Zedd's snoring, and that she must run from them.

In Space
In their final feat, Rita and Zedd joined the league of Dark Specter, known as the United Alliance of Evil, and assisted the monarch with his masterful scheme to vanquish all forces of good. During the Countdown to Destruction where the entire UAE nearly conquered the universe, Rita and Zedd attacked a planet in the Vica Galaxy and captured Trey the Gold Zeo Ranger. However, during the final confrontation, when Zordon sacrificed his life, his life force swept across the universe in a wave of energy and turned Rita and Zedd human.

Mystic Force
Years later, in Power Rangers: Mystic Force, Rita is revealed to have regained her magic, but this time it is good magic. It seems that Rita returned to Earth at some point following Zordon's death and went back to her magical roots. At some point prior to the events of the series, Rita became the Empress of Good Magic and leader of the Mystic Ones. As the Mystic Mother, it was she who apparently gave the Mystic Force Rangers their link to the Morphing Grid. In the episode Mystic Fate Part I, she faces the Master (who she alleges gave her a headache) and seemed to be destroyed. However, in Mystic Fate Part II, it is revealed that she had survived. She gives Clare the powers of a full sorceress and helps the Mystic Rangers to defeat the Master of Darkness.

Creations

 * Lanterra
 * Brick Bully
 * Impursonator

Behind the scenes
An alien sorceress bent on galactic domination, Rita Repulsa was the first villainess the Power Rangers had to face. Most discernable by her two pointed hair cones, one may also recognize this witch by her screeching voice, Madonna-style bra cones, and nearly signature headaches. In the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Japanese actress Machiko Soga played the role of Rita via stock footage from the original Japanese Super Sentai show, Zyuranger, and also reportedly filmed a few original scenes as Rita. However, when the Zyuranger footage of Rita ran out, Carla Perez took over as Rita from Season 2 through 6. Julia Cortez, an actress from Sydney, Australia, portrayed Rita Repulsa in Power Rangers: The Movie. Barbara Goodson provided her voice in all of Rita's appearances up to 1998, including the movie. In 2006, the character returned as the Mystic Mother for the end of Mystic Force, played by Soga once more, and dubbed over in English by New Zealander Susan Brady. The footage this time was taken from Magiranger, where Soga's character was unrelated to her Zyuranger character. The writers allegedly decided to connect the two characters as a tribute to Soga, who passed away while Mystic Force was in production. Soga also dubbed in Rita's voice when Power Rangers came to be aired in Japan.

In the original Zyuranger show, the character was known as the Witch Bandora (魔女バンドーラ Majo Bandōra), while in Magiranger, the character was known as Heavenly Arch Saint Magiel (天空大聖者マジエル ,Tenkū Daiseija Majieru).

Trivia

 * In Power Rangers Super Legends she is merely referenced by Goldar and Lord Zedd.
 * When Barbara Goodson auditioned, she initially did a voice that imitated Billie Hayes's performance as Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf.
 * She has always thrown her wand to make her monster grow and later she and Lord Zedd joined their staves, but in one episode she made her Brick Monster grow by shooting a blue ray at her monster for the first time not throwing her wand or joining it with Lord Zedd.
 * We are also introduced to the son of her and Lord Zedd, Thrax, who appears in the Operation Overdrive crossover special, wanting to gain the Corona Aurora and avenge his parent's purification.
 * Thrax was most likely conceived during the events of Zeo and born during the events in Turbo, explaining the duo's long-termed hiatus,raising their newborn son(explaining Zedd's exhaustion from having a job as both and evil overlord and a father) before Dark Specter's calling of all the villains in the universe on the Cimmerian Planet after his capture of Zordon.
 * Rita also has a fierce rivalry with fellow evil villainous, Divatox, the space pirate queen.
 * It is known she likes to tickle Zedd every time he thinks the Power Rangers will lose, this is first introduced in Storybook Rangers. Rita tickles his stomach, in which at one point when she is tickling him, weird cartoon sounds are heard. She also tickles him again in Wild West Rangers part 1, but this time she tickles his flier, which was known to be his weak spot.
 * For the Power Rangers Live Show that was on tour, Rita was in her Purple outfit from her US Look.
 * Rita's main catchphrase is "I have a headache." A phrase that she uses once again in Power Rangers Mystic Force in her role as Mystic Mother. This catchphrase and similar ones would later be used by Master Xandred of Power Rangers Samurai, a result of Jayden's father sealing him away in the Netherworld.
 * In the original pilot, Rita's voice was originally designed after that of Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.

Family Tree
=See Also=
 * Witch Bandora - Her counterpart from Zyuranger.
 * Heavenly Arch Saint Magiel - Her counterpart from Magiranger.