The
Power Rangers franchise has always had to
change up its main antagonists to keep things fresh. This was particularly evident in the early years when the show's seasons were still part of an obvious
Myth Arc, and several of the main characters actually stayed on from one season to the next.
- Rita Repulsa of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was a malevolent alien sorceress who used Dark Magic to aid her schemes, and she was joined by her brother Rito Revolto, her father Master Vile, and her (eventual) husband Lord Zedd. In general, she and her minions came off as a very dysfunctional—but loving—family. Personality-wise, Rita was famous for her erratic emotions and fiery temper, and she could be immature to the point that she often came off as childlike.
- The Machine Empire of Power Rangers Zeo was an aggressively imperialistic kingdom of mechanized aliens hell-bent on conquering Earth through their mastery of technology. They were anchored by the Happily Married King Mondo and Queen Machina and the Bratty Half-Pint Prince Sprocket, but their plans were regularly complicated by Mondo's disloyal firstborn son Prince Gasket and his lover Archerina; in general, they came off as a close-knit nuclear family that played at being respectable, but secretly loathed each other. Their ruthless efficiency was always their greatest asset, and they had enough of a grasp of tactics to beat Rita's magically animated Putty Patrollers with their rigidly regimented armies of Cogs.
- Divatox of Power Rangers Turbo was a cutthroat space pirate who seemed to have few motivations beyond accumulating power and wealth. In contrast to Rita, who was apparently dangerous enough that she was forcibly sealed away in a space dumpster for 10,000 years, Divatox was so unabashedly self-centered that she had little interest in bending the universe to her will, but still wanted to crush the Rangers to prove that she could. Her closest family members in the show were her dimwitted nephew Eldar, who served her as a mindless lackey, and her abusive mother Mama D, who apparently raised her to choose a life of piracy. However, there were several hints dropped throughout the show that the Rangers' mentor figure Dimitria was actually her long-lost twin sister, and that Mama D actually abducted her and raised her as a daughter; though never officially confirmed, this would make Divatox the first villain in the series with family members that weren't evil, and the first who wasn't born evil.
- Astronema of Power Rangers in Space was a cold, calculating warlord carrying out the will of the Eldritch Abomination Dark Specter. She stood out for being far more emotionally detached and occasionally manipulative than the previous villains in the series, and she had no close familial attachments other than her surrogate father figure Ecliptor. Or so it seemed. After the big reveal halfway through the season it turned out that she was actually Karone, the long-lost sister of the Rangers' leader Andros, and Andros made it his duty to prove that she could be redeemed. In a major first for the series, he actually succeeded, and Karone even went on to become a Ranger herself (the Pink Ranger, to be exact) in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.
- Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Trakeena and her forces are an interesting contrast to the rest of the villains up to that point. Despite each still being a Card-Carrying Villain, they have a sense of honor and ethics in battle. Trakeena herself makes an interesting contrast to Astronema. While Astronema ultimately made a Heel–Face Turn, Trakeena never even considers the notion and ultimately becomes eviler and eviler to the point of turning her minions into suicide bombers and killing her mentor in cold blood. (That said, she only went off the deep end after she got fused with Deviot inside the cocoon.)
- Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: While Trakeena and her forces were at least honorable warriors, Queen Bansheera and her army are a lot more treacherous, constantly backstabbing each other for more power. Queen Bansheera herself ultimately betrays all of her minions, even her own son. She's also the first Big Bad of the series to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They’re also the first villains in the series to not be aliens, but rather demons.
- Power Rangers Time Force’s Ransik maybe be the biggest departure in the entire series. Unlike the previous villains, his motivation isn’t necessarily evil. he’s a mutant who grew to hate humanity for the way he was treated, but he's not necessarily sympathetic for it due to how he would sometimes spit in the face of kindness and generally acted for his own self-interests. He also isn’t really a warlord or ancient sealed monster, but a criminal who isn’t against doing smaller crimes to make a buck. He also has one the most unique defeats in the franchise — he gives up because he almost killed his daughter. He also ends up becoming human after an attempted Heroic Sacrifice.
- Power Rangers Wild Force: Master Org is basically the opposite of Ransik. Ransik was a hated monster whose love for his daughter and desire to atone turned him into a decent man, while Master Org was a decent man who renounced his humanity to become a hated monster. Hamminess aside, he hated humanity thanks to his own petty thoughts of feeling betrayed, and showed no regret for lying to the Orgs and using them for his own purposes. While Ransik surrendered for Nadira, Master Org destroyed the Zords and the Rangers' powers and came close to conquering Earth.
- Also from Wild Force, we have Master Org vs. Mandilok: Master Org ultimately did everything out of personal vengeance, was mostly content to hang out back at the Nexus and be Orcus on His Throne; he rarely got involved personally, or had much of a plan beyond "the monster will use its inborn gimmick and hopefully take out the Rangers"; he was only a No-Nonsense Nemesis when he could be bothered to be. Next came Mandilok, very much willing to come out into the light, very much willing to fight personally, wanting power rather than vengeance, but also having a comic relief side to him like his obsession with eating.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm: Lothor can be seen as a throwback to some of the goofier villains of seasons past. He's far more tongue-in-cheek than the past few Big Bad villains, who were mostly played serious like Ransik and Master Org, constantly arguing with his subordinates and his two nieces about his plans and day-to-day life. He can almost be seen as an Affectionate Parody of a Power Rangers villain.
- Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Mesogog is literally everything Lothor wasn't, to the point where he considered Lothor an idiot. He was a No-Nonsense Nemesis who frequently used Mind Rape on his minions for failing him and was far more subdued in his demeanor. He also had a goal based more on Fantastic Racism rather than basic megalomania, due to him wanting reptiles to rule the world again.
- Power Rangers S.P.D.: Emperor Gruumm is an interesting departure from other Power Rangers villains. For one thing, he subverts the Orcus on His Throne mentality by being pretty active in the field and fights the Rangers himself on occasion. He’s also by far one of the most successful villains. Even though a lot of his monsters are captured he still usually gets what he wants, including a Ranger team on his side. The rest of the villains like Broodwing are mostly motivated by Greed and generally work for Emperor Gruumm because he throws a paycheck their way, whereas for past villains it was either loyalty, power, or fear.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force
- After the proactive villains of SPD, The Master is perhaps the most inactive villain in the entire series. This mostly has to do with him being trapped for most of the series. Most of the time he acts as a Greater-Scope Villain to his subordinates. It’s also the first series where the leaders switch out over time.
- Since the Dragon-in-Chief of each arc does Big Bad duty with the Master only getting unsealed in the final arc, let's look at the three true main villains of PRMF: Morticon is not much of a planner, being all about the smashing and wanting to get out and do personal combat. He even describes himself as the greatest warrior of all time when bragging, rather than anything a general would be expected to brag about. Full of rage and bluster and yelling every line at the top of his lungs, he was the strongest and wanted to be on the battlefield where he belonged. So he is followed by Imperious: A vain and flamboyant personality, a planner whose schemes maximize the amount of death and destruction inflicted on humankind, highly skilled in magic and clever and tricky with its use instead of just blasting away with his favorite attack, and The Starscream to The Master. Next comes Sculpin: As loyal as Imperious was treacherous, as devoted as Imperious was self-centered, yet still with more patience and care than Morticon, he has exactly one goal on his mind: Get the Master out of his can, no matter what.
- Power Rangers Operation Overdrive instead featured a Big Bad Ensemble, though each differed from the other. Flurious was the least active of the villains, preferring to strike when conditions were perfect. His brother Moltor was hot-headed and the most active of the factions. Kamdor was the most likely to face the Rangers in person, lacking foot soldiers but made up for it his ability to create monsters. The Fearcats were aimless, caring only about destruction rather than conquests, and fought the Rangers with giant robots instead of monsters.
- Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Jarrod/Dai Shi is another interesting departure for this series. He’s two entities, one of the ancient demon Dai Shi who caused the war between humans and animals before being sealed away and the mortal human Jarrod, a former bully at the Pai Zhua Academy. Because of his darkened heart, Dai Shi chose him as his vessel. He may be the most well-developed villain in the entire franchise. Instead of starting off as a one-man army like most main villains, he starts off around the same level as the Rangers and grows more powerful. He also slowly starts to grow a conscience and start the question Dai Shi until he finally breaks free of him and eventually earns his humanity back. Dai Shi meanwhile was a bit more generic in wanting to rule over animals and the world, but also powerful and able to be a Power Parasite to regain his most powerful form.
- Power Rangers RPM: Venjix is a sentient computer virus, contrasting all of the villains, who at least existed for more than 10 years. Unlike any before or after, Venjix actually succeeded in ruling the world, as he and his army wiped out more than 99% of the human race (the series taking place in an alternate timeline). Like Dai Shi, he didn't start as a one-man army, but that's only because he was a computer virus with no physical body of his own. Like Lothor and Gruumm, it turned out he was misleading the Rangers, building up to a master plan to take over Corinth City and wipe out the remains of humanity. He had no redeeming qualities and has probably the highest known body count in the franchise's history, making him the darkest villain for Power Rangers. He contrasts Jarrod by being the most inhuman of villains, coming right after one who slowly gained humanity over the course of his series.
- Power Rangers Samurai: Master Xandred is one of the more straightforward villains in the series. The leader of the Nighloks. and a heavy drinker of his “medicine.” He’s very inactive throughout the series which to be fair is at least justified seeing as he would dry up if he stayed on earth for too long. Overall he’s probably one of most generic villain of the series - he can be compared to Morticon, caring less about leading and only wanting to get out of the Netherworld and SMASH. Within the series, you have him and the more proactive Starscream who takes over the role of The Heavy for a while, Serrator, a complicated plotter, and The Starscream to contrast the guy who's pure brute force (which was also how it went in Mystic Force, making him the new Imperious.) Yet, surprisingly, Serrator is actually less cautious than Xandred in the end: his plan to bring the Netherworld to the surface runs the risk of destroying both worlds. He's willing to risk it, Xandred is not.
- Power Rangers Megaforce has by far the most villains in the series mostly because they combine two sentais together. To go down the list,
- The first half has three main villain factions, The Warstar led by Admiral Malkor, an alien conqueror that loves fighting, The Toxic Mutants who want to cover the entire Earth with pollution, and Vrak's personal robots who serve as his loyal minions. All of them are manipulated by Vrak. What’s interesting about Vrak is how he manipulates everyone throughout the series he mostly serves the other factions as a lackey as he furthers his own plans. He’s also by far the most successful villain in Megaforce for not only how close he got but being the first villain in all of Power Rangers to kill a ranger, Roboknight. Vrak is also a traecherous and evil Omnicidal Maniac who is a complete monster behind his graceful demeanor and ultimately sacrifices his right hand bot Metal Alice with no second toughts.
- Vrak is not the only mastermind of Megaforce though. He works with Malkor, the admiral of Warstar who is a Genius Bruiser, but is lazy and blindly trusts Vrak (altough he later become rightfully wary of him), leading to the latter acting has the biggest threat in spite of Malkor being the Big Bad.
- Prince Vekar on the other hand is less impressive. The Prince of The Armada is a lot more immature than his brother Vrak. Constantly yelling and complaining the second something goes wrong with his plan which is always someone else’s fault according to him. He’s by far one of the most incompetent villains of the entire series. However Vekar is not as bad as he seems and, while he openly loathes Damaras and acts horribly towards his generals most of the time, can agree with Damaras, respects Levira and dies avenging his loyal robotic general Argus (where Vrak sacrifices Alice). All in all, Prince Vekar has the honor his brother lacks.
- Damaras seems to be like Malkor at first, being the strongest general, the rival of the prince (like Malkor was to Vrak) and getting the same fate than the admiral : he is an Orcus on His Throne, lets his subordinates do the fighting despite being a Genius Bruiser and only shows up in episode 18 to moop the floor with the rangers, who return later on and kill him (in extremis) with the mecha which destroyed his teammate. However, Damaras directly sends the monsters because he does not trust Vekar (but cares for him nonetheless) and is his Dragon-in-Chief rather than the main villain above him.
- And at last we have the Princes' father, Emperor Mavro the leader of the Armada who shows up in the final three episodes. He came to Earth to avenge his sons' deaths. He is a No-Nonsense Nemesis with none of Vekar's cowardice or Vrak's subtlety, and much more of an imposing presence than either. (Which ends up making him sort of a Generic Doomsday Villain, much like Master Xandred, in the end.)
- Similarly to Megaforce, Power Rangers Dino Charge has several main villains.
- Sledge is a Bounty Hunter who is employed by Lord Arcanon to retrieve the Energems, but wanted them for himself. He employed outlaws he captured for Arcanon to bring back the Energems in exchange for their freedom. He also has a soft spot for his girlfriend Poissandra, and while harsh towards his minions, isn't above complimenting them if they do well.
- Heckyl was one of Sledge's prisoners, taking over after Sledge's assumed death. He offered the prisoners to rule the universe alongside him if they retrieve an Energem. It would later reveal his true plan was to restore his destroyed homeworld with them. His approach is more careful, coming up with more complex plans than Sledge, and his relationship with his minions is far more professional than personal.
- Lord Arcanon, wielder of the Dark Energem, was much like Master Xandred and Emperor Mavro, a powerful blunt instrument and Bad Boss, his arrival meaning things have officially gotten serious. He ends up a Generic Doomsday Villain as well, and this time he is dethroned from the Big Bad position by one of the previous villains we've grown to know and love/loathe through the series who gets to bring the endgame.
- The trend of having multiple Big Bads in a single series continues with Power Rangers Ninja Steel.
- Galvanax is a Gladiator Games champion who values strength above all else, as he seeks the Ninja Power Stars because he believes only a warrior as mighty as he deserves them. Brutal and bad-tempered, he claims to be powerful enough to defeat the Rangers on his own, but he chooses to just send Galaxy Warriors contestants to take the Ninja Power Stars for him as he fears that if the Rangers defeat him, it will be a serious blow to his reputation.
- Madame Odious, Galvanax's treacherous adviser (who takes over his Galaxy Warriors show after betraying him), is a far more cunning enemy. While she continues Galvanax's habit of sending wannabe Galaxy Warriors champions, she actually has long-term schemes in mind. These plans typically involve the manipulation of both the heroes and the Monsters of the Week as Unwitting Pawns to further her own goals. And unlike Galvanax, she does actually confront the Rangers, even using her own Zord at one point.
- Unlike Galvanax and Odious, Evox from Power Rangers Beast Morphers, was the main antagonist from start to finish. Unlike his alien predecessors who recruited warriors from across the universe, Evox was a computer virus whose robotic monsters were created. Whereas Galvanax was incompetent and lazy, Evox was intelligent and proactive. And whereas Galvanax merely sent out monsters in the hopes that one of them would succeed, Evox had a scheme planned from out from the start to achieve his goal. Also, Evox contrasts his previous predecessors in that he's the first villain to have fought two different Ranger teams, when it's revealed that he's Returning Big Bad Venjix.
- Void Knight from Power Rangers Dino Fury is the exact opposite of Evox: he is a rather sympathetic villain who faces the rangers in order to gather the power to save the life of his wife, rather than wanting power to destroy the world out of Fantastic Racism towards humans. Void Knight is also ready to spare humanity despite having reasons to hate them and isn't irredeemable, while Evox wants to kill all humans for no reasons and is pure evil. Also Void Knight fights occasionally the heroes himself (unlike most Power Rangers main villains) and works with aliens while Evox rarely fights and works with robots. Unlike Evox, Void Kight is not the only Big Bad and is Demoted to Dragon midway through. Furthermore, he is actually one of the few villains in the PR franchise to actually reform.
- Whereas the Voids were some of the most sympathetic villains in the franchise who eventually reform when they reconnect with their long-lost daughter, the villain roster of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury are enthusiastically pure evil with no sympathetic qualities. We have Lord Zedd, a petty and brutal overlord who seeks godhood, and Bajillia Naire, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who wants to drive up her Arms Dealer business by plunging the universe into a chaotic, bloody war who treats her only child as a brand extension for her company. The one villain we feel anything for is the Brainwashed and Crazy guy, and even then it's an open question as to whether he can be saved, given that the spell he's under is explicitly designed to be Power of Love-proof.
