Lord Zedd

Lord Zedd is a villain from the TV series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". The character was the first American-made villain for the Power Rangers series that had no origins in the Japanese Super Sentai. He was such a frightening character when first introduced that in several episodes after his introduction, parents actually complained that he was "too evil" for the show; this resulted in Zedd being toned down immensely (an action that has been heavily criticized by fans), such as his marriage to Rita Repulsa, the series' first villain, [http://rangercast.podomatic.com/entry/2006-04-23T20_05_41-07_00 1] and soon after making the character more comedic. Both Lord Zedd and Rita have a son, Thrax, who appears in Operation Overdrive.

Character History

In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Zed is the self proclaimed all-powerful "Emperor of Evil" and "sworn enemy of all that is good and decent". He arrived on Earth, leaving his conquest of other systems, to punish Rita Repulsa, disgusted with her failure in defeating the Power Rangers. Stripping Rita of her powers, he shrunk her and imprisoned her within a "Space Dumpster," hurling her into the depth of space. He then mutated a piranha into the monstrous Pirantishead, who assumed command of the "Tyrannosaurus" and Dragonzord after freezing the other four Zords. The Rangers barely survived the attack, but managed to regain control of their Zords. Furious, Lord Zedd opened a crevasse in the ground which swallowed all the Zords except for Dragonzord, which retreated into the sea. The Rangers would eventually gain the Thunderzords and defeat Zedd in their first battle against each other.

Despite the Rangers' acquisition of the Thunder Zords, Lord Zedd attacked Earth again and again, with assaults gradually getting deadlier over time. His monsters were created from objects on Earth with the power of his Z-Staff. Rather than using his staff to enlarge monsters (as Rita had done), he would make a grenade appear in his hand, that he would throw down at Earth. The monster (or monsters) would then catch the grenade, remove its pin, and smash it to the ground. When it exploded, a vent of steam would make the monster grow.

Zedd focused multiple attacks on the Green Ranger, viewing him as the weak link in the chain due to his failing powers and the most offensive of Rita's mistakes. Eventually he used the Green Crystal to drain all of the Green Ranger powers and attempted to use them to create a team of evil Power Rangers, but Tommy managed to free the enslaved group of humans before they could be used. While Tommy had enough power left to help destroy the Turbanshell monster, Zedd had still succeeded in removing the Green Ranger. He later planned to make Tommy his successor by brainwashing him, but Zordon managed to get to Tommy first, making him the new White Ranger.

Over time, Lord Zedd discovered that the Rangers were not the "mere infants" he'd initially thought, and that just like Rita he couldn't defeat them. Zedd eventually brought up the big guns - his personal Zord Serpentera. This serpentine Zord was so massive that it could literally crush the Ranger's Zords underfoot and had the power to destroy whole planets. However, Serpentera's distinctive flaw was that it used up energy so quickly that it could only be used for short periods of time, and Zedd used most of its power destroying the Deserted Planet (in a failed attempt to kill the Rangers) before it could be used on Earth. Zedd's continual attempts to find an infinite power source failed.

Soon it came time for Zedd's Centennial Recharge to fully restore his evil energies. It was during this slumber that Rita Repulsa returned to the Palace, plotting revenge. She poured a love potion created by Finster into the Centennial Recharge machine, and when Zedd awoke, he instantly fell in love with Rita and proposed. While Zedd and Rita became far less serious and lighter figures after their marriage in The Wedding episode, they were still formidable opponents, and the Rangers were now struggling to defeat both their foes combined. Zedd and Rita used multiple attempts involving clones of the Rangers and time-travel. Also, following this, monsters were now made to grow by Rita and Zedd crossing their staffs and combining energies.

It is later revealed that his old rival is Masked Rider villain Count Dregon when the Rangers were on Edenoi.

When Rito Revolto arrived, Lord Zedd was disgusted by the skeleton's stupidity, and would bellow with rage every time Rito called him "Ed", a reference to his actor. To his annoyance, Rito refused to leave, but at least he helped destroy the Thunderzords. Rita's love potion was eventually removed thanks to Goldar, but to everyone's surprise, Zedd truly loved Rita. During the Pink Ranger fiasco when Zedd had her held hostage to force the Rangers to use the Shogun Zords in his service, Lord Zedd battled Tommy personally to keep him from saving Kimberly from an alternate dimension. This marked the only time that Zedd had battled a Ranger personally. Zedd beat the White Ranger around like a ragdoll, an impressive feat considering how strong the White Ranger was, until Tommy used Saba to shatter Zedd's Z-Staff, forcing him to retreat.

When Master Vile arrived on the moon, Lord Zedd was pushed aside as Vile took over in his search for the Zeo Crystal. Once Vile left after his army was defeated by the Aquitian Rangers, Zedd was ecstatic, and he resumed his attacks on Earth.

In

Since the movie takes place out of continuity of the universe we are used to seeing, many changes have taken place. Rita and Zedd seemed to have always been married, but no mention of them having children is ever revealed in the movie. Zedd still is powerful, and can even open the hyperlock egg that traps Ivan Ooze, but is beaten back easily (along with Rita) and captured by Ivan Ooze. He once looked up to Ivan, but later calls him a "clown" when Ivan decides to take over.

Zedd's appearance did not change much in the film. Though, if you look carefully, you can see his brain pulsing, something that was not in the television show.

In Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers

The Rangers had been turned to children due to Vile's Orb of Doom and all that stood in Zedd's way was a group of aliens from a water planet who weakened easily on land, and he managed to destroy the Ninja Power Coins early on. Zedd found a map of a series of underground tunnels underneath the Command Center, pointing out a weak point. He sent Goldar and Rito in to plant a bomb and steal the Zeo Crystal. They succeeded but before Zedd & Rita could take advantage of it, the Machine Empire arrived.

In Power Rangers Zeo

When the Machine Empire arrived and attacked, Zedd and Rita were forced to retreat, taking Serpentera to the M51 Galaxy moving in with Master Vile wasn't a cup of tea for him. They soon returned, however, in a motorhome, plotting to overthrow King Mondo and Queen Machina and destroy the Empire. The two forces clashed on several occasions, neither gaining much ground. At one point, Prince Gasket had Tommy brainwashed and was poised to destroy the Rangers, but Zedd had Finster help free them to prevent a victory for the Machines, though Zedd hated the idea of helping the rangers he felt it was better then the Machine Empire winning. They attempted to take control of the Machine Empire via a puppet ruler, Louie Kaboom, but this backfired when Rito lost Louie's control mechanism. After a series of failed attempts, Zedd finally had a confrontation with King Mondo (in which the Cogs and Tengas battled to a tie). After Mondo lost a battle to the Rangers, Zedd and Rita met up with the Royal Family on the moon. Zedd and Rita proceeded to make a faux truce with them, symbolized with a present. The present was a bomb which destroyed the Machine Empire's Royal Family. Zedd and company took this as an opportunity to go on a vacation after finally getting a triumph of sorts.

In

Rita and Zedd made a small cameo appearance. Divatox calls them in the middle of the night to ask them how to destroy the rangers and in a comical scene, Rita told her to forget about it while Zedd was sleeping, saying that if she knew how stopped she wouldn't be where she was at the time, and then told Divatox her advice was to run.

In Power Rangers Turbo

Rita and Zedd also appear briefly in the Millennium Message.

In Power Rangers in Space

Later, Zedd and Rita attended Dark Specter's conference on the Cimmerian Planet. Although they were distraught when they heard that Divatox had supposedly destroyed the Rangers, Zedd toasted to Dark Specter's takeover of the universe. He attacked Andros with his staff, but the attempt was easily deflected by the Spiral Saber. Months later, Zedd and Rita joined the attacks the other villains launched throughout the universe (Zedd wasn't interested in taking orders from Astronema until he found Dark Specter put her in charge of the plan). Rita and Zedd invaded the Vica Galaxy and quickly conquered it, defeating and capturing the Gold Ranger in the process. When Zordon's energy wave washed over them and their army, Zedd was spared, being turned into a normal human being apparently free of his former evil persona. Since the only other villains to survive the wave--Rita Repulsa, Divatox and Astronema--were apparently humanoid aliens before becoming villains, this speculates Zedd may have been a human-like figure at one point. After the events of the final battle, Rita ascends to a new plane of reality, becoming the Mystic Mother, who is now the source of all good magic. Whether something similar happened to Zedd and whether or not he and Rita are still married is unknown.

In

In the anniversary team-up episode Once a Ranger it is revealed that Zedd had a son with Rita at an unspecified time (despite the apparent fact that she became frightened when he mentioned the thought of having children to her in one episode); the son, Thrax, was sealed in a space dumpster by the Sentinel Knight. Thrax ultimately returned to seek revenge. Lord Zedd himself did not appear, but his change to the side of good was mentioned by Thrax, who also called him (along with his mother) weak for making such a decision. He vowed to restore his evil legacy and is seen using the staff that belonged to his father.citeweb|url=http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5299/dsc01058vx0.jpg|title=Japanese magazine scan on Lord Zedd's Son in team up episode|accessdate=2007-05-09]

In

Lord Zedd appeared as a boss in the 15th anniversary video game for the Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and PC, this marks the first time Zedd has been featured in a game since

The home console versions of the game describes Zedd as having found a way of manipulating the time line in an attempt to eliminate the Rangers from history. His return to his original form is revealed that when he was purified, Zedd became an archaeologist and discovered a relic known as the Time Crystal. Despite the second chance he has received from Zordon's sacrifice, Zedd mourns the loss of his great power and influence through Tyranny. Not being able to resist the temptation of looking back to whom he once was, Zedd observed his own past, but when his past self reached out to his future, he was able to corrupt the purified version of Zedd and restored his powers and original appearance. It does not make note of why he is no longer with Rita (The Mystic Mother) or even makes a reference to her.

With the Time Crystal at his disposal, Zedd plays havoc with the timeline, and it takes a combined effort of various Rangers from the past, present, and future to defeat him. Zedd attempts to escape, but accidentally drops one of the Time Crystal when fleeing to a void outside of time. The Omega Ranger admits to his fellow Rangers that it may take Zedd eons to escape.

The canocity of "Power Rangers Super Legends" is unclear.

References