#for those unfamiliar rise is my version of an animated reboot for mmpr!

[morninkim]

Season 2 Arc: Rita & Tommy Breakdown

ANOTHER STORY BREAKDOWN. WOO.

Most of RotMMPR's second season would focus on the Rangers' struggle against a resurfaced Rita Repulsa, now in possession of Tommy. A big motif, like with the rest of the series, would be Control over others vs. Freedom of Expression, especially in regards to Tommy's past and present contrasted with Rita's, as well as how that shapes their attitudes toward Individuality.

Leaving the full under the cut, but if you wanna take a read, please do! (it is... very long.)

Pre-series Background: Rita

Zedd, and by extension Rita, represent exertion of control over others and bending their wills to suit your own needs. Through manipulation, through coercion, through possession.

Rita's backstory involves her beginning life as a construct created from Zedd's seventh shard of the Zeo Crystal. Throughout the old war era with the Original Rangers, she takes several bodies, accumulating their abilities as time goes on and with each new body, growing stronger. During this time, she goes by the name Atir, an archaic word from the Eltarian language meaning "zero" or "empty". Initially this name is given to her by Zordon as a descriptor when she first appears on a battlefield, taking bodies from both armies and discarding them when they get too damaged, she claims it for herself as an act of spite.

Her longest sustained body was Bandora, a witch from an outer world who by far provided her the most abilities of any of her bodies. Bandora was a sweet older woman, who was able to maintain her consciousness within Atir's possession thanks to her own abilities. Over time, Bandora would wear Atir down, showing the shadow kindness despite her use of her body, exploiting and cultivating a need for self expression in it. Bandora would then exploit this need, using it to exorcise Atir from her body and help Zordon and the Power Rangers trap the shadow in an Eltarian urn. However, Bandora's advanced age and weakened form led to her death immediately following the exorcism.

The urn would be jettisoned and left on what would eventually become Earth's moon, with the crippled Power Rangers' spaceship crash landing in what would be the Mojave desert.

Atir would lay dormant in the urn for 10,000 years, until it is uncovered by one of the last Apollo missions in the early 70s and comes under ownership and study of Dr. Sean Finster, a xenobiologist and linguistics enthusiast. He translates the writing on the urn as "Rita Repulsa", unaware that he has translated it backwards, with the the text reading "Atir Asluper" in old Eltarian. A rough translation to English would be "Empty Vessel", the Eltarian equivalent of Earth's "This is not a place of honor" warnings placed near nuclear waste sites.

Atir, having had no life to latch onto or communicate with for 10,000 years, immediately started to feed off of the good doctor's insecurities, projecting thoughts into his head and manipulating him into eventually releasing her again to destroy the newly emerged Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

She takes possession of Tommy at this point, who had just moved to Angel Grove a few months prior and continued to have trouble fitting in.

Pre-series Background: Tommy

Tommy grew up an orphan, adrift either on the streets or the foster system. She'd not had an easy life and to an extent had grown used to moving around, never staying in one place for too long. When she was eventually adopted by Grace Oliver two years ago, she finally felt like she could stay somewhere and never have to leave again. But that only lasted just over a year before they had to leave Reefside and move to Angel Grove, due to Grace's new job that she could never be super clear or honest about to her daughter.

The dishonesty frustrated Tommy, which made it difficult for her to feel like she could really put down roots, start to make friends and build a life. She became friendly with a few of the other kids at school, like Zack and Curtis Taylor, and Richie Mendoza, even getting a little cozy with Kimberly Hart, but she never felt like she could open up to them, not really.

On the day Rita's shadow takes her body, she'd just been stood up by Kimberly after she finally worked up the courage to ask her out on a date (Kim got called away for Ranger business which would end up resulting in Rita's release, go figure). She feels isolated, bummed out and her anxiety gets to her hard. Which gives the shadow an opening to take hold and enter her mind.

Rita then uses Tommy's body to visit Dr. Finster in secret at his home and coerce him into using his knowledge of xenobiology and study of the Putty Patrollers to create monsters to attack Angel Grove and kill the Power Rangers so she can conquer the Earth unopposed. All this in the name of her Lord, the Dark Specter, Zedd. It's then she takes the name Rita Repulsa, once again claiming a name given to her for herself.

Green with Evil and Tommy's Struggle

Rita doesn't have full control at first, she's been dormant in the urn for 10,000 years and her power isn't at the fullest yet. She soon hears word of the missing Green Power Coin from Dr. Finster, who was present at the Rangers' first meeting with Zordon and Alpha V due to passing out during the devastating Rangers vs. Shadow Rita fight.

Rita decides that the best way to regain her previous strength would be to claim the missing Power Coin and use it to regenerate herself, at the cost of her host over time. Tommy remains unaware of her body being under Rita's control for a time, slowly becoming more and more agitated and unwell, as she gets little sleep while Rita claims her body almost every night. She starts becoming aware of it as Rita slowly takes more of a hold on her, pushing her to sabotage herself and her social life so she'll let go and surrender to Rita's control.

On the flipside, Rita also remains dormant in Tommy's mind as she goes about her day.

She makes up with Kimberly, going on a few dates that are actually successful, despite the Pink Ranger's duties and Tommy's increasing restlessness.

Grace opens up just a little bit, becoming worried for her daughter and not wanting her work to interfere more than it should with being there for her, as Tommy's struggling becomes all the more clear. She starts taking more time off to spend time with Tommy, inspired by Dr. Finster's own increased days off - not aware that he's spending that time creating monsters for the shadow inside her daughter.

Rita sows discord in Tommy's head, but she's able to ignore it for the most part. That is, until Rita claims the Green Power Coin in a battle with the Rangers, and her host's identity is revealed to them.

With Rita at full strength, in bursts, thanks to the Power Coin and her new Dark Green Ranger powers, Tommy now takes a backseat, a prisoner in her own head as Rita goes about her wreaking havoc as much as she is able to, whenever she wants to.

Tommy flip flops between wanting to keep herself afloat and wanting to just give up. She's already so far gone. Rita even attacks her mother, Tommy's face uncovered by her Dark Green helmet, frightening the closest thing she's ever had to family. Grace even manages to discharge a weapon at her assailant, making it hard for Tommy to picture anything else when thinking about her mother for a while.

Dr. Finster, growing weary of the shadow's manipulation and what she's made of him, sees Tommy's disheveled form in Rita's hideout in a rare moment of the shadow's absence and, realising her connection to Grace, appeals to her directly. He tells her of how Grace always wanted to make something of herself, but never truly could until she stopped doing it for other people, for their acceptance, or because they'd told her to. Be and act unapologetically as herself, on her own terms. He urges Tommy not to give up, to keep going for her own sake, anyone telling her different be damned. Including the shadow in her mind.

Rita hears this appeal, taking control for just a moment to push back against his words, but the seed in Tommy's mind had already been planted.

Rita, meanwhile, had found herself thinking about Bandora more and more, how she'd encouraged her individuality, to make decisions on her own terms and not because it was what Zedd had ordered of her. She'd also begun thinking about how she'd been depriving her hosts of that all this time, never considering what they may have wanted to do.

She comes to doubt her place in everything, in the Empire. After all, her master was defeated thousands of years ago, and yet here she is, still carrying out what she thinks would be his will, collecting what remained of him and sending her lackeys to do the same off-planet on the off-chance she could eventually restore his form and his Empire. Still acting on his behalf instead of her own.

The good Doctor's words further stirred these thoughts, perhaps leading to her outburst in opposition. He'd planted a seed in Tommy's head, and that's exactly where Rita lived. Despite these thoughts, she'd think herself too far gone. Nowhere to go now but down. And she'll take everyone and everything she can with her.

Conclusions

Rita launches what she considers her final assault, going all out and drawing all the energy she can from the Green Power Coin to destroy everything, essentially turning herself, and by extension Tommy, into a ticking time bomb. The Dragonzord blasts the city and surrounding areas, only barely fought off by the Rangers' newly formed Megazord, a sight Rita had not seen since her final battle with the previous team.

The Rangers' new Megazord overpowers the Dragonzord, leading to a ground battle where the team wear down the Dark Green Ranger, desperately appealing to their friend, to Tommy, to fight the shadow infecting her. They urge and encourage her self image, tell her to keep going, echoing many of the sentiments Finster had seeded already.

There's a short scene within a liminal space, between Rita and Tommy.

"Your friends seem set on taking you away from me."

"Yeah... They sure do." Tommy stands from her curled up position on the ground.

"Do you truly think you can just stop being mine?" Rita levels her staff at Tommy's throat, preparing to erase her completely.

Tommy shoves the staff away, fire in her eyes. "I've never been yours," she manifests the Dragon Saber in her hands, the weapon taking on a purified, more compact form, the Dragon Dagger. "Now get the hell out of my head!"

With the weapon plunged into Rita's proverbial heart, she is exorcised from Tommy's body, breaking the spell and freeing her.

A weakened, shadowed Rita watches from the rubble as the Rangers comfort their friend and take her back to the Command Center. Rita acts in desperation, mustering what little energy she'd already gathered to take control of Dr. Finster's body and put all the pieces of her Lord back together. She uses her remaining magic to revive what she can of Zedd, hoping for forgiveness for what she perceives as going against his wishes.

The shadow she revives is not whole, but it is enough of the Dark Specter to congratulate her on bringing him back, and in time he'll return to full strength. Now the two of them can continue what they started all those millennia ago-

"The two of us?" The Specter seems puzzled.

"Yes, we'll destroy this world together. Then conquer all that remains in this universe," the shadow responds, an old man's voice obviously unsteady. Whether it's the body she now inhabits, or a sign of her own insecurity, is unclear. "Won't we?"

"My dear, dear shadow. There is no 'we', I will be the one to control all. You will simply listen and follow my command. As you always have."

"No! I deserve to rule! All I've done, I've done for you! I deserve it!"

"Oh? Do you mean to defy me, shadow?"

Rita grits her teeth, glaring into the Specter. "My name is not 'shadow'. My name is Rita Repulsa, and you will listen to me!"

"Ah, so you do," The Specter sighs, "Pity. You were one of my favourites."

Without another word, the newly resurrected Zedd re-consumes the shadow he once created, replenishing his powers with hers and absorbing all the knowledge she'd gathered. Including knowledge of these new Power Rangers and the services Dr. Finster can provide.

While Tommy is rewarded and thrives by striving for her individuality and making her own choices; Rita has never had that and therefore has no clue what to do with it when she has it, which sends her into a panic - only truly coming to terms with it when confronted with having it taken away again, far too late.

That wouldn't be the last of Rita though, she'd make a reappearance in the finale to assist the Rangers by holding Zedd back from the inside, giving them an opening to end him once and for all.

A final act. A final choice that was truly her own, for herself, and for the ultimate good of others. It's not redemption, but she never wanted that.