Power Rangers In Space is one of the series most popular seasons by its fans, for its conclusiveness of the Zordon era, to the way it tied up most loose ends from previous seasons, how it challenged the Rangers in a way that no other villains had before, and how it featured a season long story arc featuring the antagonist of the season, the best villain in all of Power Rangers, Astronema, and how it involved the series Red Ranger, the ever awesome and mysterious Andros. I have a lot of appreciation for the character of Astronema, she was the first truly multi layered villain in Power Rangers. She wasn’t just some OTT villain with no backstory or depth beyond their surface level personality, she didn’t cry about her loses or blame her minions for her failures(though she does beat Elgar around on occasion, like he deserves), and over the course of the season, the amounts of victories she had over the rangers is high in comparison to other villains. But what is it about her that makes her so damn interesting over every other Power Rangers villain? We’ve had plenty of Great Villains after her, like Trakeena, Ransik, Mesogog, Dai-Shi and Venjix(main villain wise), what makes Astronema so damn special? Most of those villains have more of an intimidation and threat factor, not to mention the kind of conflict they bring to the rangers, but aside from Dai-Shi, Trakeena and Ransik to an extent, none of those villains evolve beyond their initial characters, which are great mind you, but its rare to find a main villain who actually grows and develops as a character. So anyway, before I ramble on, lets talk about good ol Astronema
Born on KO-35 with her older brother Andros, Karone was stolen as a young girl by Darkonda, a coniving Bounty Hunter(another great villain for this season) without Andros seeing her until its too late(he’s like 5 when she gets abducted). Astronema was then left at Ecliptors door step to raise her. Ecliptor, alongside Astronema, really pushed the boundaries of how side villains are portrayed on this show, as Ecliptor not only began the trend of Noble Demon characters that would continue with Villamax, Diaboloco, Zurgane, Zeltrax, Koragg, and Kilobyte, but arguably has never been surpassed in the evil generals category of Power Rangers. Ecliptor, like any father, raised her as if she were his flesh and blood, and became easily the most loyal villain in the history of Power Rangers, and the bond between them is mutual. Even though she eventually outranks Ecliptor as Dark Specters #2 in the ranking, she never disrespects him or abuses him like other main villains would their minions. She views him like a father and likewise he does whatever he can to keep her safe. Ecliptor, unlike many of the generals that came after him, wasn’t as “honorable” as they were, as he had no problem with plans that included deceit, or even doing some himself, his honor came from how he treasured Astronema. Once Darkonda comes back to try and have a place in Astronema’s army, with their bad history, Ecliptor does whatever he can to convince Astronema that Darkonda is an untrustworthy swine. Darkonda, crafty bastard that he is, always sets up the scenarios to make sure that he comes out the good guy and at one point Astronema makes him Ecliptors equal. Furious, Ecliptor orders a Apothecary on Villain Planet Onyx to give Darkonda a poisonous strength potion, which does the job of making him super strong, but poisons him, which almost destroys the rangers, and would have been killing two birds with one stone had the rangers not gotten the Mega Voyager. Turns out Darkonda was given 9 lives by Dark Specter to be his spy.
Anyway, back to Astronema. When the United Alliance of Evil gets infiltrated by Andros and he flees, Astronema is chosen as the one to hunt him down(she’s the one who realized he was a spy). Astronema then manages to shoot down the Astro Megaship with her Veloci Fighters and Quantrons. This forces Andros to accept the help of the other rangers(Andros had lost his previous team to the war against the UAoE) and the Space Ranger Team is formed, much to Astronema’s irritation. In the opening few episodes she acts like a giddy school girl, probably overjoyed that she gets to destroy the Power Rangers(Dark Specter had told her her whole life that the Power Rangers killed her family) while later on we see a lot more of the cold, badass Princess of Evil. That’s the key thing of why Dark Specter trusts Astronema so much- she was raised from a young age to be evil, and as we all know, people that are raised to be a certain way often have a very hard time changing their mindsets, as such, she luckily grew up with very little ambition other than kill the rangers, which made her extremely loyal to Dark Specter, and her talents made her a true right hand to the Space Lava Demon thing. She can be cold, ruthless, and is a total badass with her staff. Ecliptor is no pushover either, as he can often outfight the rangers by himself, especially one on one, and a reckless encounter between him and Andros(when Andros was reluctant to let the rangers in on his search for Astronema, hence why he went back to KO35 alone in the episode) gets Carlos, the Black Ranger, severely injured, and Andros realizes that being secretive and doing everything on his own like he thinks he has to do hurts everyone around him. This seasons arc is just as much about him as it is Astronema.
We learn in the aforementioned strength potion episode about Darkonda abducting Karone. Ecliptor didn’t know this information before, and later confronts Darkonda in a duel, and knocks off another of the snakes lives(He had lost another life in a previous encounter) and in the following episode, Ecliptor saves Andros from Darkonda’s trap and the pair kill Darkonda once again. This is around the time that Andros and Astronema realize that they share the same pendant, which sends Astronema into an emotional tailspin, which leads to Dark Specter ordering that she must kill her brother, which Astronema is totes on board with.
I should mention that in the middle of this whole storyline, the Silver Ranger, Andros’ old teammate Zhane, actually goes on a date with Astronema after he saves her from her own wild monster. And it’s as adorable coming from Astronema as possible. She has no clue how to process being in love, and she does things like fake being human to see how nice Zhane is, to inviting him on a date(by shooting an arrow, nearly taking his head off, quite a sign to not be late). When Zhane inevitably has to be late for the date to save the rangers from Ecliptors monster, Astronema gets pissed when he shows up and blasts lightning at him for standing her up, saying she never wants to see him again. But they still both have pictures of each other. Also the episode featured a dream sequence where Astronema and Zhane were kissing each other on the lips. So anyway, back to main plot, Astronema realizes that Andros has been trying to reach out to her and decides to take a chance in trying to get to know him. The other rangers, rightfully so, don’t trust her one bit, and they have her detained on the ship, and then her and Andros talk about the whole situation, and how happy Andros is to see his sister.
When Astronema comes up with a plan to retake Zordon, she has the rangers in fake chains as Dark Specter allows her on the planet. It was a huge trap as Darkonda captures the rangers and Andros gets swarmed by footsoldiers. When Astronema has the chance to kill her brother, she turns on Darkonda and kills him with her staff. She then leads the rangers away, as she meets up with Ecliptor. While he clearly looks disappointed, he still tells her to go as he fights off the foot soldiers before being captured. This horrifies Astronema. Ecliptor may have been built to be evil, but his love for his daughter was far stronger than his attachment to Dark Specter, and he gets punished for it.
With Astronema winning the trust of the rangers, Dark Specter steps up his game. He has Darkonda in command of Astronemas forces, with Ecliptor being given cybernetic implants to assure his loyalty to Dark Specter. When Dark Specter sends an Asteroid heading towards Earth, he says that he will destroy it if Astronema returns back to her side. As the rangers use their megazords to try and hold the asteroid back, Karone goes into the Dark Fortress to try and reroute the Asteroid(sneaking on board) only for Ecliptor to greet her. Karone is horrified at the sight of Ecliptor being controlled by cybernetic implants. Ecliptor then reluctantly captured Karone and she gets the implants. After the rangers finally stop the Asteroid, Andros and Zhane go onto the Dark Fortress A New Hope style, stealing Quantron uniforms and sneaking to get Karone back, Zhane bringing up that he tried dating Karone without knowing she was Andros’ sister, which leads to some good banter.
When Andros finally gets to Astronema’s room, he’s horrified to see that she has been borg- er I mean taken over by Cybernetic enhancements, as she no longer has any feeling or attachment to anyone else but Ecliptor. In Dark Specters attempt to ensure that Astronema never turns again, he wiped out her human traits, hoping that keeping her purely cold and ruthless will ensure her loyalty, but he couldn’t be anymore wrong. With Astronema lacking the human attachment to the UAoE, she only sees Dark Specter as an obstacle for her to overcome, and her plan to get rid of him involves her own team of Evil Rangers, the Psychos. They deserve their own blogpost so I won’t go into too much here, only that they were designed to purely want to destroy the rangers, and their power comes straight from Dark Specter, who knows he’s being drained but doesn’t know who’s doing it, and he has no reason to assume its Astronema, she’s proven to be so loyal in the past. Her plan with the Psychos isn’t the swift death of the rangers, but to slowly drain Dark Specter to nothing before they destroy the rangers. This is where we learn that not even Ecliptor was programmed with absolute loyalty, since he goes through with not telling Specter about Astronema’s plan, keeping that same fatherly loyalty to Astronema that he had before the implants. The Pscyho’s get destroyed, and Astronema gets off the hook for her scheme, though its visible that Dark Specter isn’t really all there anymore.
In the Season Finale, Countdown to Destruction, Astronema launches a full scale invasion of Earth with a large combined force, defeating the rangers and severely damaging Zhanes Mega Winger. Astronema then lands on Earth and demands the rangers be brought to her in one day, or else Angel Grove and everyone in it will die. This leads to an interesting dynamic where the civilians talk about leading a resistance as some lose hope that the rangers will come, with Bulk of all people giving a speech about how the Rangers have always been there for them, and that they’d never abandon them. While Astronema revels in her victory, Zordon questions her actions, saying that Karone is still there as her implants start malfunctioning.
Darkonda launches a surprise double cross on Dark Specter using his last life and a weapon designed to destroy Earth. He kills Dark Specter with it(still hurt by the Psychos drain on him mind you) but not before Dark Specter takes the snake out with him. Astronema gets proclaimed the leader of the Dark Forces by Ecliptor, much to Divatox and Rita’s irritation. As the next day comes, the other rangers prepare to reveal their identities, only for Bulk, Skull and Phenomenous to start a crusade where everyone in the city says that they are a ranger, only for the real rangers to reveal themselves and morph, much to Bulk and Skulls surprise(would have been way more oomph if it was the originals though) and the rangers fight the army, Bulk and Skull leading the civilians into battle alongside the rangers, their finest moment(these two really deserve their own post their such awesome comic relief characters). Astronema and Ecliptor return to the ship for the time being.
Andros, in a last ditch attempt, goes to the Dark Fortress, but not before a heartfelt moment with his girlfriend, Yellow Ranger Ashley, and he goes in to talk sense into Astronema. He meets Zordon, who tells Andros to shatter his tube, which will kill Zordon, but also wipe out all the evil in the universe. Andros hesitates as Astronema attacks him. As he tries to talk to her, she just knocks him around with her staff, until he uses his Spiral Saber to block the blast back at her, killing her(damn that blast must have been powerful, what was his sword made of?), much to Andros’ horror. When Ecliptor breaks in, he’s equally as horrified as Andros, who tells him it was an accident, as both men are in grieving, Ecliptor, with no real shred of humanity left, tries killing Andros, with Andros fighting him off as he finally realizes that he has to kill Zordon to save the universe. Ecliptor tries to shield Astronema from the blast, but he gets turned to dust.
When we later see that Zedd Rita and Divatox got to become good again, it really rings hollow Ecliptor death. Ecliptor throughout the season, despite his steadfast loyalty to “evil”, has shown that he is truly capable of the same kind of love and compassion as the “good guys” and does whatever he can to make Astronema happy, even if it goes against his principles. He shows the kind of love for a daughter that I’ve only ever seen Time Force come even close to replicating from this franchise, and they did it just as well if not better there, but I think there is just a bit more nuance with Ecliptor and Astronema. Look at his last moments, he sees the girl he raised with his own two hands dead, the girl who hes so attached to, it overrides his cybernetic implants and causes him genuine grief and sadness. It’s almost like, if Astronema hadn’t died, maybe, just maybe, he could have been saved by the Z Wave. Anyways, everyone celebrates except for Andros, who carries Astronema’s corpse, as Andros cries, Astronema transforms back into Karone and the pair with Zhane go to rebuild KO35, only for them to return to the megaship with the other rangers, with another great Andros/Ashley moment, and as Zhane cockily puts his boots up and lays back, they prepare for more space journeys, ending on one of the most triumphant notes of the series.
This isn’t the end of Karones story. In the next season, Lost Galaxy, after the Pink Ranger Kendrix died from destroying Psycho Pinks sword of darkness, the Pink Quasar Saber goes to Onyx, where a bid is being held among the villains and thugs for the Quasar Saber. Astronema shows up unexpectedly and takes the Saber. “Tell you what, I get the saber, and the rest of you, keep your lives.” Great line. Trakeena however discovers the ruse and reveals her to be Karone, as she fights off the hooligans in the bar and escapes, where she meets up with the Lost Galaxy rangers and she has a confrontation with Trakeena, another badass female villain in Power Rangers, damn two seasons in a row of this. Anyway, just as Trakeena pushes Karone off a cliff, Kendrix’s ghost saves her and gives her the Galaxy Morpher, turning into the pink Galaxy Ranger.
Karone’s story in Lost Galaxy reaches its climax in the following episode, where Red Ranger Leo gets smacked around by a monster and has his morpher damaged, and Karone remembers a special power belonging to a warrior she had turned to stone as Astronema, but is reluctant to go as she still harbors a huge amount of guilt for her time as Astronema(remember that until Borg Astronema, she did everything of her own volition, no tricks, no mind control, she acted as the big bad, evil general Astronema). Leo’s injuries however convince her of the journey, and she goes to the cave where the warrior lay, only for the Warrior to curse her by creating a clone of Astronema for her to fight. Despite Karones fighting prowess she’s no match for Astronema(Karone really should have kept her staff) and it’s only when she’s willing to sacrifice herself for Leo that the warrior allows the two to get his special weapon, the battlizer. She honestly doesn’t do much else in Lost Galaxy after this, which is a shame, she was the freaking main villain of the previous season and one of the series most well developed and organic characters, to just be an afterthought after only 2 episodes? Yeah Lost Galaxy is a huge season of missed potential, and is easily the most overrated season of the Saban Era(MMPR is close up there). She then made a cameo in Legendary Battle for Super Megaforce, and they did almost nothing with her again. I feel really bad for Melody Perkins, the actress for Astronema, yeah she gets to be a Pink ranger for about 10 episodes but she gets nothing to do after her 2 intro episodes, then her cameo just comes down to “Hey, remember Astronema? She’s Karone, haha reference.”
So yeah, Astronema kicks major ass as a villain, she was the show’s first truly multi-layered antagonist with a personality, facets of that personality, a backstory, and an interesting dynamic with the rest of the characters. Her storyline with Andros was so good that another great season of the Franchise, RPM, would copy the story beat for beat(and its one of the only flaws of that season) for Dillon and Tenaya 7. But I digress. Astronema works because she isn’t the only great villain of In Space. I compare this to Mesogog, whose easily a top 3 villain of the franchise, his menace, his voice and his story are almost unmatched, but unfortunately, the other villains he plays off of, well, aren’t interesting except Zeltrax sometimes. Ransik is a great villain, as is Frax, but Gluto is useless and Nadira doesn’t get any depth until 2 episodes before the finale begins, and even then it shows more of Ransik’s depths than her, and even then her redemption arc comes right the hell out of nowhere but that’s another discussion. In Spaces only weak antagonist is Elgar, who always gets what he deserves anyway, so he’s not as annoying as he was in Turbo. Darkonda is the kind of slimey, smarmy asshole that the season needed, unlike most of the stereotypical Starscream’s of power rangers, Darkonda is just gleefully evil and loves doing what he does, and the way he toys with Ecliptor and the rangers really highlights how twisted he really is. I’ve already spoken enough on Ecliptor. While it’s not my favorite season, or in my top 3, In Space will have a special place in the hearts of PR fans everywhere for its themes about the nature of whether evil is made or born, how there’s always more than meets the eye with other people, and how even the most despicable people can change for the better. Hope you all enjoyed this, I’m definitely going to try and do another Power Rangers review(or a Digimon Review) in the near future, be sure to comment your thoughts on Astronema and Power Rangers in Space as a whole.
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