So this is the new Rita...

     Today I had the pleasure of seeing what the new Rita Repulsa looks like. When I first heard that the design was revealed I was excited. I do believe that Elizabeth Banks is a good actress who can pull of the character of Rita, so I jumped at the chance to see her in costume. I think I got overexcited though, as the suit only serves to deeply annoy me.
     When I first saw this design, I was in an extreme state of disbelief. I tried to tell myself that this was for some other character or that this was fake hype for a fake picture....we all know that is not the case, though. I had to accept that this was the new look, but I simply could nor cannot. I care a lot about the design, probably more than I should, because I grew up with these characters I want to see their core values brought back to some degree for the modern audience to see. This costume, to me, represents everything that this character is not.
    
     The first and obvious problem is that she is portrayed as "edgy" and "sexy". There are a LOT of sexualized female villains in both power rangers and super sentai. Rita Repulsa is a standout villain because she got by with her attitude and powers alone. Rita was over the top and funny to watch despite the fact that she was a lingering and dangerous threat, like her headdress and the thought of it falling off. If you have any doubt that her character was designed to be over the top and dangerous, look at her breastplate. those things will poke your eye out from twenty yards away. I would also like to challenge everybody to find somebody legitimately sexually aroused by those things. I guarantee you, anybody that is, is not well in the head.
     Secondly, and probably my biggest problem with the whole thing, is that it looks like so many characters that are not Rita. I should make it clear now I do not hate the design, but I hate that it is on Rita Repulsa. I am going to put four pictures below and you tell me which one looks the most like the picture above.

      I am willing to bet that a good majority of you looked at the bottom two pictures. The woman in the green is Dulcea, a one-off heroin from the Power Rangers movie from the 90's whose personality was, she had tits and she knew how to work that stick. The woman on the bottom right is Scorpina, a villain in the power rangers series who battled alongside Rita Repulsa, due to their preexisting friendship. The woman in the top left it Divatox, the primary villain from Power Rangers: Turbo. Her personality is in her name. Divatox was a Diva. Finally if it wasn't obvious the top right character, who looks nothing like the picture above it is the actual Rita Repulsa.
    My final problem with the look is that it looks too...."earthy". The armor forms the shapes of spikes and things resembling leaves, and it has snakes and scales imprinted on the arms. The armor itself is a vibrant green and there are brown spots all over her that I can only see as dirt or mud. These are things that point to a very "natural" villain. They point to somebody who fights using the forces of nature for dark and nefarious things, which Rita Repulsa very rarely does.
    Rita Repulsa is a witch who uses spells and enchantments to enhance herself and form the basis of her schemes. Most of her minions are born from magic and are themselves magical beings. From a monster made of eyeballs, to a spartan pig that eats everything and even the sphinx, Rita is clearly somebody who uses magic and the occult over nature. I don't see Rita fighting to save the trees anytime soon is all I'm saying
    At the end of the day, I wish this was the design for somebody else. It really isn't bad. The design does make her look menacing and otherwordly, two very important things for most power rangers villains. I see what the designers were going for in an effort to give Power Ranger villains an edgy redesign. I support the idea, but not at the cost of forgetting some of the core aspects of our iconic villains.