Rita Repulsa


 * For the alternate versions of this character, see Rita Repulsa (1995 movie), Rita Repulsa (2017 movie), and Rita Repulsa (2016 comic).

"Magic wand, make my monster GROW!"

- Rita

Rita Repulsa was a female humanoid sorceress bent on intergalactic domination. Having conquered many worlds in the service of 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, a group of five teenagers determined to stop her advances on the planet. Focusing her attacks on the city of Angel Grove, Rita was determined to destroy the only forces that could stand in her way. She succeeded in using her own sixth power coin to create an evil Green Ranger, who dealt Zordon and the Power Rangers serious damage before they were able to break her spell and bring Tommy back to the side of good.

After countless defeats by Zordon's warriors, Lord Zedd descended on Rita's palace and took over operations on the moon. Declaring her a failure, Zedd sealed Rita away in a dumpster and cast her off into space once again. While Zedd attempted to destroy the rangers in her absence, Rita returned to the moon and conspired with her loyal servant Finster to create a love potion. The scheme worked; Zedd fell in love with Rita and the two were married, forming an evil alliance in an attempt to destroy the Power Rangers and conquer Earth. During the events of her return and subsequent sham wedding to her boss Lord Zedd, she gained a temporary ally in Alpha 5 when she and Finster corrupted him to serve the Empress, but her victory was brief as the Rangers broke free from their prison and removed the CD from Alpha's back panel, restoring him to normal with little memory of being Rita's servant.

It seemed they had finally succeeded when Rita's father, Master Vile, reversed the flow of time and turned the Power Rangers into powerless children. As they searched for the mythical Zeo Crystal to restore time, Rita and Zedd devised a plan to finally best Zordon and the Rangers in one swift stroke: their henchmen, Goldar and Rito Revolto, would simultaneously steal the Zeo Crystal and detonate an implosion device to destroy the Command Center. Goldar and Rito invaded the Command Center, planted the device and made off with the crystal, only to inexplicably lose possession of it almost immediately thereafter. Their device detonated, and the Command Center was blown to bits, seemingly taking Zordon with it. Rita and Zedd celebrated on the moon, but their celebration was brief.

The couple was immediately ousted by their rivals in the United Alliance of Evil; the Machine Empire. Fleeing destruction by King Mondo's forces, the pair went into hiding until they managed to topple the Machine Empire with a bomb disguised as a gift. Reoccupying the moon, Rita and Zedd ended their quest against the Power Rangers, allowing other agents of the Alliance to try their luck. Divatox managed to destroy the Turbo Rangers' Megazords and Power Chamber, while the upstart Empress Astronema succeeded in capturing Zordon. As part of an all-out interplanetary 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 most of their minions were reduced to sand, Rita and Zedd survived and became human.

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 born to the galactic warlord and warlock Master Vile, a feared conqueror of worlds, and an unknown mother. 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 wrought upon 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, teenaged 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 stroke came in creating a sixth Ranger to combat Zordon's warriors. Having long ago come into the possession of a power coin, Rita selected one of the Rangers' own classmates, Tommy Oliver, to become her Green Ranger. While this proved effective for a time, Rita's plan was ultimately foiled when the Rangers broke her spell and brought Tommy back to the side of good. 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 than 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, but this was all a sham to get him off his guard so Rita could overthrow him and resume her old position as the future conqueror of Earth - basically to teach Zedd a lesson on not messing with her. During this time, she gained Alpha 5 as a new servant (she seemed to go as far as to praise him for "delivering the message of evil" to the Rangers), but the Rangers broke the spell before he could finally kill them. After applying Finster's youth serum, the revitalized sorceress would wed the Lord of Evil, though over time she would abandon her plan of eliminating Zedd soon after and come to truly love him. Joining forces, the pair continued to bombard the Rangers together, though continuing to fall short.

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. Not long after Rito's arrival on the moon, Rita and Rito's father, Master Vile, came to criticize his daughter's choice in men. Attempting to upstage Zedd in conquering the Earth, Vile reversed time on the planet and turned the Power Rangers back into children. While they attempted to set things right, Rita and Zedd plotted their boldest move yet: they would destroy the Command Center and steal the powerful Zeo Crystal for themselves. The plan, like all the others, was a failure. Goldar and Rito's implosion device did go off, but the Rangers, Zordon and Alpha 5 escaped to a fortified Power Chamber underneath the wreckage. The Zeo Crystal, meanwhile, turned up in the rubble, as Goldar and Rito somehow lost it during their getaway.

Rise of the Machine Empire
Despite the setbacks, Rita and Zedd celebrated their most significant victory yet over Zordon's forces. Their good feelings, however, did not last. The Machine Empire, longtime rivals of both Rita and Zedd, staged a coup and forced Rita and Zedd to flee the moon. The couple eventually returned and exacted revenge. With the help of a bomb disguised as a gift, the ruling family of the Machine Empire was temporarily destroyed, and Rita and Zedd once again ruled the moon for themselves.

The couple opted not to resume their struggle with the Power Rangers, and advised Divatox to do the same. When the space pirate called Rita for advice on defeating the Rangers, Rita could only laugh and warn Divatox to run away.

Good News and Bad News
Rita and Zedd joined their comrades/rivals in the United Alliance of Evil under Dark Specter to mount a final assault on the forces of good throughout the galaxy. At a conference on the Cimera planet, Rita met her old friend Divatox, who was acting more arrogant than usual. Rita learned from Divatox that she had defeated the Turbo Rangers, the successors to the Rangers who had been giving Rita and Zedd trouble for years. Shocked, Rita turned to Zedd to confirm if this was true; to her horror, he calmly explained that it was "kind of the talk of the universe now."

Final Defeat
Rita and Zedd attacked a planet in the Vica Galaxy and captured Trey, the Gold Ranger. Before victory could be achieved, Zordon notched his final, lasting victory over Rita and Zedd when he sacrificed his life in order to let his good energy wash over the universe and purify it of evil. Seeing the wave of good energy approaching, Rita screamed for Zedd not to let it get her. When the wave finally washed over them, it destroyed their army but left her and Zedd alive as humans. Now purified, Rita expressed happiness that she and Zedd had been purified together, and at his request, engaged in a dance while Trey looked on.

Legacy of Power
Rita Repulsa was featured in a chronicle of Power Ranger history compiled by Tommy Oliver shortly after he formed the Dino Rangers, which was found by the nascent Ranger team in the Dino Lab.

Mystic Force
Eight years after her purification, Rita was revealed to have regained her magical powers and was using them for good. She became the Empress of Good Magic and leader of the Mystic Ones. As the Mystic Mother, she gave the Mystic Force Rangers their link to the Morphing Grid and helped them in their quest to defeat evil mystic forces.

She was only seen in the two-part finale, Mystic Fate; after Octomus's control over Nick was broken, he went to the Mystic Dimension to put an end to all good magic by destroying her. The Snow Prince arrived to warn her to flee, but she refused, and attempted to fight off Octomus herself. Octomus proved to be too strong, however, when he consumed her strongest spell, and then attempted to destroy her. She cast a spell on the Snow Prince to send him to inform the Rangers of what happened, and then was seemingly destroyed. Daggeron and Leanbow came to the Mystic Dimension to find her palace destroyed, and Octomus waiting for them. He destroyed them both with no effort, and then returned to earth to destroy the Rangers.

However, it is later revealed that she survived his assault by turning into energy before his spell struck her, and then reforming. She later granted Clare the power of a true sorceress, and encouraged the Rangers immediately prior to their final battle with Octomus. Her last appearance is after Octomus's destruction, seemingly breaking the fourth wall as she says that the darkness is destroyed by light, "and should it ever return, your magic must stop it."

Operation Overdrive
Years later, Thrax mentions that he seeks to rebuild his parents' legacy, disgusted by the fact that they were "lost to goodness".

Powers and Abilities
Rita Repulsa was shown to be skilled in the fields of magic. Most notable among her magic arsenal is her power to enlarge monsters and other beings with her staff, by throwing it towards the Earth with extreme accuracy. She, like many other villains from her series, can fire energy blasts and teleport at will.

Another magical ability notable to her is her ability to communicate and summon dark spiritual beings, as she summoned Lokar on two occasions and also the Ghost of Darkness. Rita is also adept at casting curses on her enemies, as she was able to immobilize the Dragonzord with dark magic, and trapped three of the Power Rangers inside a storybook. Also notable is Rita's ability to brainwash other people, turning them into their loyal and evil servants, as she did this to Tommy, Katherine, and Alpha 5 with little complications.

However, despite Rita's powerful displays of magic, she appears to be one of the weaker spellcasters in the universe of Power Rangers, since she was easily dominated by Lord Zedd. Her magic also seems to be limited, as she has to rely on Finster and his Monster-Matic to create monsters and putties, whereas other spellcasters, like Zedd and Master Vile, are seen creating their own monsters.

Her magical abilities and displays thereof became far more powerful when she became the Mystic Mother, even citing that good magic is stronger than dark magic used by evildoers. Aside from creating a connection to the morphing grid for an entire team of rangers, she also has the ability to bolster and awaken magical potential in others; doing so for Claire and the Mystic Rangers. While unable to best Octomus in a head-on confrontation, she did have enough power to effortlessly turn into energy and completely evade him.

Behind the scenes
In the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the late 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. Carla Perez took over 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 through 1998, including both movies. Interesting to note is that when Barbara Goodson auditioned, she initially did a voice that imitated Billie Hayes's performance as Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf. But when told that she wasn't angry enough, she shouted at the directors, sounding exactly like what would later be Rita's voice, and got the part easily. She also was going to wear the costume when Rita returned in The Wedding, but when they decided to keep Rita as "Asian-looking", Carla Perez was cast as on-set Rita.

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