Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is probably one of the most beloved children’s TV series of the 90s, with its wonderfully cheesy effects, relatable stories, and surprisingly bad-ass action. It’s hard to talk about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers without thinking of the show’s diabolical primary antagonists; the alien witch Rita Repulsa and the Emperor of Evil, Lord Zedd. Rita and her army of misfits took on the Rangers solo for the first season, but Zedd took the reigns after he appeared in season two. Rita and Zedd eventually joined forces, got married, and plotted evil deeds against the Power Rangers and the citizens of Earth together. However, whether they were attempting to defeat the Rangers together or on their own, one thing is clear. They are absolutely the pettiest villains ever. I don’t just mean in Power Rangers, but in all of fiction.

Their plans almost always involved sending their monster creations down to Earth to attack the town of Angel Grove. I get that this was because that’s where the Power Rangers, the one thing standing between them and their primary goal of ruling the Earth, lived. They wanted to get them out of the way. However, the Rangers always defeated these monsters. It would have made more sense to send those monsters elsewhere on Earth, having them create havoc where the Rangers weren’t. Instead, they continue with the attack on the Rangers, as if their main goal was to just go after them instead of conquering Earth. That would go against Rita’s infamous proclamation in the show’s opening, “Ah, after ten thousand years I’m free! It’s time to conquer Earth!”

Rita and Zedd typically sent one monster after the Power Rangers at a time. Each time they appointed more than one monster to attack, like in “Zedd’s Monster Mash,” the Rangers struggled. Sending an entire army of those monsters, and not just the easily-defeated Putty Patrollers, would obviously be the way to both beating the Power Rangers and taking over Earth. Using one monster at a time to fight the Rangers just seems like it’s done to annoy them or distract from issues they’re facing in the other aspects of their lives.

Pettiest of all is that Lord Zedd and Rita use one of their primary abilities, turning anything into a monster, to use the Rangers’ personal possessions to slightly mess with them. In the episode “For Whom the Bell Trolls,” Trini has a beloved doll named Mr. Ticklesneezer that was given to her by her grandmother. Rita casts a spell on the doll to bring it to life and attack Trini and her friends. There was even an episode where the evil-doers transformed Kimberly’s lipstick and purse into monsters. These acts were clearly done just because they wanted to mess with them personally.

That’s not all they did to mess with the Power Rangers on a personal level. Rita has sent the Pudgy Pig monster to eat all the food at the Rangers’ school’s food festival. After the Rangers cleaned up all the litter at the local park, the Polluticorn was called in to pollute the park once again. Once Rocky, the second red Ranger, discovered the excitement of a Pachinko machine, Zedd cast a spell on him to make him obsessed with the game so he’d always want to have fun and never take things seriously. It’s as if they would rather pester the Rangers rather than actually defeat them.

More and more throughout the series, it seems as though Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd forgot about their primary objective of ruling the world and focused more on messing with the Power Rangers in the pettiest ways possible. Otherwise, they would have ignored what was going on in the Rangers’ personal lives, built an enormous army of monsters, and took over Earth early on.