Lord Zedd (Revisited Series)

Lord Zedd is a major villain from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Revisited series and recurring through Power Rangers Zeo: Revisited and Power Rangers in Space: Revisited. He was played by Ed Neil, with Robert Axelrod supplying his voice.

Originally depicted as a frighteningly more evil character than Rita, with a dark, gothic atmosphere during his scenes in the Lunar Palace and the dark tone of his theme, complaints from parents resulted in Zedd being toned down immensely, such as his marriage to Rita and reversing time around Angel Grove High School in an attempt to make the Rangers become children. After this, most of his plans seemed rather hair-brained and wackier than previously.

He and Rita both have a daughter, Delina, who appears in Operation Overdrive: Revisited, during the 2-part special, "Once A Ranger", where he is mentioned to have succumbed to good by his daughter, though she says also that she misses him very much.

Since his appearance, Zedd is often considered the greatest Power Rangers villain of all time.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Revisited
Zedd is the self proclaimed "Emperor of Evil"; the source of his power is the legendary Dark Crystal. As Countdown to Destruction seems to confirm, he appears to once have a human form. Thousands of years before the start of the series, perhaps eons before, he had betrayed Zordon and left Rita Repulsa to take over Earth while he pursued the conquest of other systems and planets. Irk, Vort and even Edenoi managed to fend him off in a three-way alliance.

In the show's second season premiere, he arrived on Earth, to punish Rita, disgusted with her failure in defeating the Power Rangers along with Zordon and Prince Alpha and her overall incompetence as a villain in general. 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 Pirantis, who assumed command of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord and Dragonzord. The Rangers barely survived the attack, but managed to regain control of their Zords. Furious, Lord Zedd attempted to destroy the five dinozords, only for the rangers to turn the tables and transform them into the more powerful Thunderzords.

Despite the Rangers' acquisition of the Thunderzords, Lord Zedd attacked again and again, each assault deadlier than the last. His monsters were created from objects on Earth with the power of his scepter, and he made them grow using spherical grenades - Zedd would throw the grenade down to the monster who would then catch it, pull out the pin and throw it to the ground to make itself grow. After his marriage to Rita they would instead grow their monsters by crossing their staffs. He once desired Kimberly to be his queen based on her good looks, courage and tenacity, and sent Goldar to capture, brainwash and train her into being so, but his plan failed when it was discovered that the magic dust that was used to entrance her didn't work and that she was really doing a Rita impression to fool Goldar and buy the Rangers enough time to rescue her. Zedd has, through his later marriage to Rita, regretted wanting to marry Kimberly then but he does not realize that his marriage to Rita was a sham.

Zedd once attempted to create a team of evil Power Rangers, but Tommy managed to free his enslaved group of humans before the plan took place. He swore to erase the Green Ranger forever, finding him the most offensive of Rita's mistakes, concentrating his attacks on him. He finally succeeded with the TurbanShell monster, wiping out Tommy's power forever. 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. Unfortunately for Zedd, these aforementioned events left Zedd without a queen or heir, making him grow angrier with the Rangers because of their constant interferences.

Over time, Lord Zedd discovered that the Rangers were no pushovers, and each of his monsters failed to defeat them. With the Thunderzords and new White Ranger at their side, the Power Rangers seemed indestructible. He soon unearthed the gigantic war machine known as Serpentera that was so large that it could crush the Ranger's Zords with ease, however its flaw was that it used up its energy so fast that it could only be used for short periods of time.

Zedd once attempted to use the Rock of Time to turn the Rangers into powerless children with their Ranger memories erased, but his plan was partially foiled by Chronos, who focused his powers on just the high school and peace conference building instead, with his companion Mnemosyne allowing the people in both places to keep their present memories. This made Zedd furious, and he created Photomare to capture the Mini Rangers and freeze them in time forever. The kids were freed by Alpha and foiled Zedd's scheme before being reverted to their normal ages.

Soon it was time for Zedd's Centennial Recharge, which he must undergo to fully restore his evil energies. While sleeping, he brainwashed Alpha 5 into becoming a servant of evil, twisting and bending his memories so the little robot would think his loved ones shut him out. 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, proposing. However, the love potion did not work as Rita hoped; she planned on manipulating him, but Zedd was strong enough to resist, just not completely. He became less serious on defeating the Rangers and more focused on his life with Rita, again not knowing that it was all a lie.

With Zedd and Rita side by side, the Rangers battles were more difficult.

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, proving himself quite capable of holding his own, a trait passed down to his daughter in later years. Though Zedd easily gained the upper hand against the White Ranger, Tommy used Saba to shatter Zedd's Z-Staff, forcing him to retreat.

When Master Vile arrived on the moon, Lord Zedd was pushed to the side as Vile took over in his search for the Zeo Crystal, a crystal belonging to Alpha 5. He expressed disdain for his father-in-law, who constantly put him down. Once Vile was killed after his army was defeated and the time reversal plan was foiled by Alpha 5, Zedd was ecstatic, and he resumed his attacks on Earth. Zedd managed to find a map of the Rangers' Command Center, pointing out a weak point. He sent Goldar, Mordant and Rito in to plant a bomb and steal the Zeo Crystal. Though unable to stop the rangers in undoing the damage Master Vile almost did, another time reversal, Zedd was able to destroy the Command Center. But before they could take advantage of it, the Machine Empire arrived.

Zeo and Beyond
When the Machine Empire arrived and attacked, Zedd and Rita were forced to retreat, taking Serpentera to the M51 Galaxy. They soon returned, however, plotting to overthrow King Mondo and destroy the Empire. The two forces clashed on several occasions, neither gaining much ground. At one point, Prince Gasket had Alpha brainwashed and about to kill the other Rangers, but Zedd had Finster help free them to prevent a Machine Empire/Alpha 5 victory. After a series of failed attempts, they almost managed to destroy the Royal House of Gadgetry with a bomb in the shape of a gift, but the bomb was hurled back to Zedd causing the motor-home they were driving in to explode.

Zedd and Rita were mysteriously absent during the Power Rangers: Aero Season, and fans have speculated that a "gap" between Power Rangers Zeo: Revisited and Aero reveals what occurred after Rita and Zedd had regained control of the moon from The Machine Empire. Events in Forever Rangers suggest that Zedd at some point launched an attack on Earth with a significantly more powerful Serpentera, only to be defeated again by the Zeo Rangers. Disillusioned and finally convinced he would never defeat them, Zedd and Rita retreated for good.

A year later, Zedd and Rita attended Dark Specter's conference on the Cimmerian Planet, Zedd toasting to Dark Specter's capture of Zordon, Alpha 5's eternal sleep (not knowing that he escaped the Power Chamber explosion) and takeover of the universe. Months later, they 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, transformed into a human being. His love for Rita seemed to remain but Rita angrily divorced him for his arrogance, much to the relief of the Gold Ranger.

Years later, Delina mentions that she seeks to rebuild her parents' legacy, saddened by the fact that they were "lost to goodness", but she misses them very much.

Personality
In his debut appearance and 40 episodes after, Zedd starts off as a very menacing and frightening character. He abuses his lackeys, silencing Goldar and others frequently and blaming them for most failures. During and after The Wedding however, thanks to Rita's Love Potion, his personality changes to a mostly-loving and caring person around Rita, and even Alpha when he is brainwashed by Zedd into wanting to have the Rangers killed for shutting him out.

When he was turned good by Zordon's Energy Wave, none of his evil personality traits remained; his love for Rita was enough for Zordon's energy to turn him into a human being. However, she still divorces him due to his egotistical attitude.

Zordon
Zordon is Zedd's nemesis. They battled each other eons ago.

Alpha 5
Through infusing of his dark energy (from the Dark Crystal) and the bending of the little robot's memories, Zedd manipulated Alpha to serve him. However, Zedd and Rita's hold over Alpha was broken when the Rangers convinced Alpha of his true memories and restored him to normal.

When Kimberly was captured, an angered Alpha charged towards Zedd and kicked him hard in the face. Noting that Alpha has become powerful since "last time", Zedd offers Alpha to rejoin him again in exchange for the Rangers using the Ninjazords for evil. Alpha refused, remembering the damage he caused while under Zedd's power, but the Rangers are forced to use the zords for evil anyway.