Rita Repulsa. An underrated villainess

Skeleton Warrior · 11-01-2006, 03:08 PM

Having gone through all the episodes of Season 1 lately, it occurred to me how an awsome villainess Rita actually was.

When most fans speak of her, they mostly mention her times with Zedd, but never her solo career.
It's true, she could be quite annoying with all her complaining, but looking at what she actually did through season 1, she was not as useless as other villains. In fact, she did a lot of stuff that was way more creative than what we have seen later.

Let us look at some of her plans. Unlike other villains, Rita actually tried to kill the rangers in "normal" ways. An example is in the episode, where Kimberly is going flying with her uncle Steve. Rita's plan here, is to make Steve fall asleep during the flight, so that the plane will crash.
No magic or anything required.

Villains these days would never think about doing something like that. I really don't get why. It's actually a pretty creative way of dealing with the rangers, because they will never expect it.

Also, Rita actually tried to hurt the Ranger's familly and friends, because she knew it was a huge weakpoint.

The Green Ranger saga REALLY showed what Rita could do. Not even Zedd was able to cause so much damage in so little time.

Trash the Command Center
Get rid of Zordon
Give Alpha a virus so he couldn't reveal the Green Ranger's identity
Ambush the Rangers when they least expect it
Kidnap the strongest Ranger
Destroy the zords

To ambush the Rangers while they're in the zord cockpit. While it seems like the most obvious thing to do, only Rita has ever come up with a plan like this. It just shows that she was more realistic than others.

And what do you do when your evil Ranger turns on you? You try and take his powers back!
Even though, she didn't get the powers back, she DID give Tommy a handicap, making his powers weak.

Looking at her monsters, Rita's monsters were not just some growling retards. They were actually intelligent and could come up with their own plans, and they each had special powers that they relied on, instead of just strenght.

It's a shame that we will never get a villain like Rita again, becuase she was pure badass compared to the villains today.

What are your opinions on Rita?

darkshadowranger · 11-01-2006, 03:12 PM

i feel no other ranger team has been challanged as muxh as the origional mmpr team because of rita, she was dumbed down though which i hated aftrer she came back, but she was the mostr evil of all villians

Chloe B. · 11-01-2006, 03:18 PM

Have to agree. But there is another villainess who's underrated... Elsa.

House of Cards, Passion of Conner, she had skills, a temper & a way to get some things done. After all, she did get pretty close a few times... In Your Dreams comes to mind.

Maybe that's why I hold her in second place to Rita of the villainesses... But yeah, Rita is certainly queen. Come on, anyone who could turn Lord Zedd into a love-sick puppy dog deserves respect as far as I'm concerned.

JDF'd · 11-01-2006, 03:25 PM

If anything I'd say that Rita is OVERrated. I've seen a lot of support around the board for her and it usually comes down to, "she was the first," which is the same reason why a lot of people love overrated rangers like Jason.

Rita didn't do all too much on her own. She had minimal success with the Green Ranger but ultimately lost that power only to make Zordon's forces stronger. She used the green candle but Tommy only came back stronger than ever once she was gone.

She had more personal success (getting Zedd to fall in love with her thus making her second-in-command) than she did against any actual ranger team.

So no, Rita is definitely not underrated in my book; just the opposite actually.

Dark Shadow · 11-01-2006, 03:40 PM

Rita, to me, wasn't that great. She lacked motive, making her little more than a stereotypical cartoon style villainess. She escapes captivity and decides to "destroy the nearest planet". Why? Pure evil with no further explanation than that. Its dull, its clichÃ©, and frankly its an insult to what the character could've been. Her attacks on the Earth quickly became repetitive because she had no motive to back up her actions. There was nothing to drive her.

Bandora, Rita's Sentai counterpart, was a true masterpiece. Kai's death left her in a psychotic state. That loss drove her so far over the edge, she was bent on destruction. Allied herself with Dai Satan in order to gain the power to avenge her dead son. That makes sense to me. As far as motives go, that was beautiful. When Rita was created, all of that was dropped though, leaving nothing but the shell of a good villainess.

I admit I liked Rita when I was younger, but I was simply too young to realize all of the key character elements that were missing from her. She needed the depth that Saban took out.

To be fair, Rita was Saban's first shot at a villainess in PR where as Toei had been doing Sentai far some time. They had more practice. They knew what they were doing by that point. But any writer worthy of calling themselves such should at least know to give a motive. I don't care how new the show is. That's just a basic part of the craft.

Rita had the potential to be cool, but they blew it.

Edit: I should say that in spite of all the negatives I mentioned, Rita did make better plans than those villains who followed her. The character lacked depth, but her attacks did not. The plot involving the Green Ranger, tricking Zedd into marrying her, trapping the Ranger's parents in exchange for the power coins; she came up with some good stuff. I very much like the amount of thought Rita must've put into those things. They seemed to work more in stages, which I enjoy.

I came off overly negative above. They should've done more with her as a character, but in no way was she all bad. I'm simply sad to say that the bad outweighed the good.

Voyager · 11-01-2006, 03:50 PM

I liked Rita, and Id say the ratings she gets is fair. All the positive points are certainly arguable, as are the negative points. She has fans, and 'enemies' or rather people who dont like her, and thats what the character deserves, she was a fairly good villian in my eyes, but nothing special, so a balance of like and dislike between fans works for her in my eyes.
However, I actually much prefered Rita in Season 3, I liked her slightly dumbed down as I felt like at least she had some personality then, in season 1 I just thought she was far to bland.

PlayingMonk · 11-01-2006, 05:29 PM

I think Rita was a great start. Obviously if every villian was like Rita (no motive) the show would get boring with lack of charactar development, but still, she was decent for a first try.

PrimoPiccolo · 11-01-2006, 06:47 PM

I don't think Rita's underrated, I just think Zedd's overrated. Because he came in and kicked Rita to the curb, apparently that makes him awesome. But some of his plans were a lot less thought out than Rita's ever were.

As far as villainy goes, Rita was pretty good. Then again, most evil forces were pretty good.

Sentai Master · 11-01-2006, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrimoPiccolo

As far as villainy goes, Rita was pretty good. Then again, most evil forces were pretty good.

You realize the irony of that statement, right?

DarkWizardMaster · 11-01-2006, 07:00 PM

Rita's voice made my ears bleed.

Dragonwolf Ranger · 11-01-2006, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarkWizardMaster

Rita's voice made my ears bleed.

Her voice is what made her memorable as well. That's why when they hired Carla Perez, they didn't just have her do the talking.

Dami-chan · 11-01-2006, 07:04 PM

I'm just gonna say this. And ultimately have no impact on the subject at hand, but it must be said.

Machiko Soga. Fuckin hawt, with all due respect to the dearly departed.

Ok. carry on.

PlayingMonk · 11-01-2006, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dami-chan

Machiko Soga. Fuckin hawt,

Dude, she had to be at least 50...

Dami-chan · 11-01-2006, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PlayingMonk

Dude, she had to be at least 50...

Hey, if they're still rockin. awsome.

I mean, under normal circumstances?.. of course not. But hey, theres a few out there still looking good. Demi Moore for example, or on the male side Johnny Depp - obviously they're aging very well.

I think Machiko was still pretty cute.

JDF'd · 11-01-2006, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PlayingMonk

Dude, she had to be at least 50...

Dude, it's dAmi we're talking about. He won't date a girl unless she's either way too young or way too old for him. He's odd like that and that's why we love him.