Lord Zedd is one of the most widely recognised villains of the Power Rangers franchise. Serving as the primary antagonist of the second and third seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, he temporarily replaced Rita Repulsa and then later married her when she made her return. Zedd is one of the most deadly opponents the original Power Rangers have ever faced and, unlike Rita, is not above getting his hands dirty and has occasionally battled the Rangers himself rather than relying on his minions.
History[]
Lord Zedd is a ferocious alien overlord and Rita Repulsa's own master. For millennia, he had terrorized and conquered whole planets before eventually setting his sights on Earth, sending his subordinate Rita to subjugate humanity on his orders. After Rita's long string of defeats to Zordon and the Power Rangers, Zedd decided to take command of the operation himself, seizing control of Rita's Moon Palace and banishing the space-witch, sealing her in a space dumpster and throwing it out into the darkest reaches of the universe.
Although Zedd's first assaults against the Power Rangers were largely successful (he managed to seize control of the Tyrannosaurus and Dragon Zords then later destroy all the Dinozords), after the Rangers gained their new Thunderzords, Zedd would then fall into the same pattern of constant defeat as Rita. Though his schemes were largely better planned out and his monsters were more powerful, he still came no closer to dominating Earth than Rita had before.
Zedd and Rita after getting married
Some time after her banishment, Rita would return to take revenge against Lord Zedd who, by then, had entered his centennial regeneration period. With the aid of the alchemist Finster, Rita crafted a love potion and poured it into Zedd's sarcophagus. When he awoke, Lord Zedd immediately fell in love with Rita and proposed to her. The two married and began plotting together to destroy the Power Rangers.
While Lord Zedd had essentially been brainwashed by Rita, his feelings for her developed into genuine love and affection. Goldar would find a way to extract the love potion from Zedd's body, but the evil overlord still loved Rita and the couple continued to scheme and plot together.
When Rita's father Master Vile came to Earth in search of the Zeo Crystal, Zedd and Rita were supplanted and cast out. They would not return until the time of the Space Rangers, when Dark Specter rallied the entire United Alliance of Evil in a bid to conquer the universe, which ultimately failed when Zordon sacrificed his own life to destroy the Alliance armies. Both Zedd and Rita survived, though they were purified of their evil essence and turned human. Zedd and Rita's love for each other was the only remnant of their former selves to remain after they were turned good.
Appearance[]
Lord Zedd appears to be a grotesque, skinless humanoid. His body consists of glistening red muscle tissue partially covered by bone formations that appear to be metallic, with a set of tubes running from his chest and across his arms. Zedd appears to wear a mask resembling a demonic-looking face (though it could actually BE his face) with a grinning mouth grille and a cycloptic visor. His brain is exposed and a crown circles his head with a prong ending with a metallic letter Z. Zedd also always carries a magical staff of shiny chrome material with a large Z making up the top.
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 rather than taking responsibility for those failures himself. During and after "The Wedding" however, thanks to Rita's love potion, his personality changes to a mostly-loving and caring person around Rita, but he still abuses her and others when he doesn't get his way; for example, during their first marital argument, he silenced Rita and demanded her respect from him when she blamed him for their recent failure, then refused to comply to her listening to him from then on. Zedd harboured a lot of disrespect for Master Vile, especially when he got pushed to the side and also expressed disdain for him having stopped them from destroying Angel Grove.
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 back into a human being.
Powers and abilities[]
Lord Zedd wields a tremendous level of magical power and may be immortal. He has displayed the ability to cast bolts of magical lightning, create Z-Putties out of thin air, transform objects and animals into monsters with his staff and craft various potions and magical items. He uses potion flasks to make his monsters grow to giant proportions. He also has telescopic vision so he can observe his enemies' activities on Earth as though he were there himself.