Power Rangers: Evil Beauties

In my Sophomore year of High School over half of my lifetime ago there started a show called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was Cheesy and seemed to be nothing more than a live action version of a beloved cartoon from when I was younger, namely Voltron. I have to admit that as a kid I quite enjoyed the Power Rangers…it was one of my few guilty pleasures and once I got a job I was known to tape this along with the rest of the ABC saturday morning cartoons. At the time, I was probably one of millions of young men who had a major crush on the Pink Ranger Kimberly; however, eventually I ended up too busy to watch the show and I lost track of the Power Rangers for many many years. Just recently I made a vow and I decided since all the various incarnations of the Power Rangers were on Netflix that I was going to sit down and watch them all! Currently, I am just starting Wild Force so I still have a ways to go before I catch up. Now that I have watched several incarnations of the Power Rangers, I have noticed that there is more beauty than just the Pink Ranger; in fact, some of that beauty comes with great evilness. So this blog will be dedicated to the evil beauties of the Power Rangers universe.

The first evil beauty I should mention came around about halfway through the first season of the Mighty Morphin line of Power Rangers. She is the first female warrior in the series on the side of evil and she is also the first monster to have a human form when small and then shift to a monstrous form when ‘bad guy’ Rita makes her larger. She seems to have some sort of relationship with Guldar which if what I have read is correct in the original japanese series she is actually his wife (I think she settled personally). After watching the scary Rita Repulsa for a half season, Scorpina proved that even in the realm of the Power Rangers evil could at times be beautiful, but to always be careful of what lies beneath that beauty.

After battling through Rita and Lord Zed and then the Machine Empire and even changing out most of the Rangers, the show made one of the first of many WTF leaps of logic. The first leap was that when the Blue Ranger got hurt in a way he couldn’t continue battling, this group of “Heroes” picked a 10 year old who found out their identities to become the new Blue Ranger. Even more “WTF were they thinking” than that however was that when they found out that their new enemy Divatox was a pirate and was on an island the Zords that replaced the old ones became Cars. Then again this is the power Rangers so logic isn’t really needed. Anyway Divatox was a Pirate Queen who had come to earth to awaken and marry a demon and thus rule everything with her new powers. Of course in the movie, the Rangers stop her which prompts her to want revenge and sets us up for the series Power Rangers Turbo.. She was played by two separate people though looks wise I hadn’t noticed the switch. Divatox was one of the bosses and commanded a troop of mutants, aliens and monsters from her fish shaped submarine. Divatox knew and was a rival of Rita Repulsa.

Next up we see the beauty known as Karone…oh sorry Astronema. Astronema is basically a female version of the same trope that brought us the Green Ranger, namely the brainwashed bad guy who then eventually becomes a good guy. However, unlike Tommy, Astronema was kidnapped at a very young age and then raised by some very bad guys, such as the Grand Monarch of Evil! One of the interesting things about Astronema is she had a tendency to change her hair color and style on a whim. She was also commonly referenced in the same breath as the Borg from the show Star Trek as at one point she ended up with cybernetic implants to turn her from good to evil once more. Astronema is also the one who was responsible for making the deadly Psycho Rangers who may have been the closest of anyone to actually defeating the real Power Rangers.

The next lovely lady in the cast of evil doers is the half insect half human Trakeena. This lovely alien has a very humanoid form but like Scorpina she also has a not so pretty insect form. Trakeena is the daughter of Scorpius a galactic tyrant. She was the boss of many monsters though one of them a lieutenant named Treacheron would eventually betray her (though honestly what could you expect with a name like that). Scorpius wants Trakeena to go through a cocoon to enhance her powers and to turn her fully into an insect. With that, Trakeena ran away (not that I could blame her) and found someone that would teach her to fight and be more powerful on her own. However, her father got mortally wounded in a battle with the rangers and Trakeena returned home to take over his evil armies though at the time she still refused to use the Cocoon of Transformation. Eventually however, she would go through the Cocoon as she was pulled in with another monster and ended up combining with them.

We then have Vypra, the lovely demoness that went toe to toe against the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers. Vypra was useful in the show by raising the little demon that later bloomed into a powerful (but not very successful) leader known as Olympious. Vypra was eventually absorbed by Queen Bansheera, who Vypra had worked hard to resurrect. Vypra would end up returning in Power Rangers Time Force for a PR:LSR and PR:TF team up episode. Vypra somehow dug herself out of a grave and was able to conjure up some undead minions to help her and then joined Ransik in a bid to reawaken another demon. However, against two teams of Rangers this demon and Vypra didn’t fare very well at all.

Nadira comes up next the mutant child of Ransik. To tell the truth though, other than growing metal nails and bright cotton candy pink hair, I really wouldn’t call her a mutant. Her father is pretty damned ugly, so I am assuming that Nadira is either Adopted or takes after her mother in looks! I think Nadira was quite good looking; however, she did not make a very good boss mutant as she was seen to be a VERY spoiled brat of a young lady. Her voice was a high pitched screech that drove me crazy. In fact, her only redeeming characteristics were that she was pretty and in the end she saved a baby and convinced her father to give himself up and face justice. So in the end, I guess she wasn’t all bad but then again even villains can have their weak spots and their brief moments of goodness.

Now I have just started Wild Force, so I don’t know much about this next Character yet except that she is named Toxica and to me she reminds me of a pretty cousin of Rita…or maybe the much prettier younger sister? So far Wild Force has been a Power Rangers version of Captain Planet and the Org they fight are pollution monsters. Toxica has a very human form and is an upper level Org as can be seen by the single horn on her head whereas the lower level Orgs have two or more horns. I look forward to watching this show more, mainly for Toxica and the White Tiger Ranger.

So what do you think? Were there any bad beauties you liked that did not make it to the list? What are your thoughts about this run down from Power Rangers? Sound off in the comments below and let us know- we would love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Photos Courtesy of:

Vypra: tumblr.com

Trakeena: rovang.org

Toxica: rangerarchive.com

Astronema: mophinlegacy.com

Scorpina: scratchpad.wikia.com

Divatox: thebastardlounge.com

Nadira:wikia.com