Queen Bansheera

"Be warned if my palace is not restored at once, you all will feel my wrath!"

• Queen Bansheera

Queen Bansheera is the evil matriarch of the Demons and the main villainess of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, she is also the mother of Prince Olympius.She was in parts unknown when Diabolico and his band were freed, and later returned and gave orders in a spiritual form at the beginning of the series. Bansheera eventually returned in a mangled bodily form after an attempt by Spellbinder to bring her into the human world due to the Lightspeed Rangers' tampering. She gained a ghastly final form by absorbing Vypra's life energy.

Bansheera set out to conquer the world, and proved far more ruthless than Diabolico or Olympius. Bansheera also had no regard for her minions (even her own son) and used them for her own gain. She forced Diabolico to destroy Loki, left her own son in the Shadow World, and nearly destroyed the Rangers. Despite Diabolico telling the Red Lightspeed Ranger to strike where her heart should be, she continued to menace the Rangers. She eventually turned Diabolico and Olympius into Super Demons, but they were defeated.

She attempted to open the gateway to the Shadow World to unleash all of its fallen monsters. Taking over the Aquabase and the Omega Megazord, she was close to succeeding. However, Bansheera ended up suspended above the Demon World portal by Carter Grayson. The spirit of a vengeful Diabolico appeared, pulling her inside, where she was attacked by the undead monsters.

Character History

The Queen's Return

At the beginning of the series, Queen Bansheera was not present yet mentioned by her followers, namely Diabolico, on multiple occasions. When she finally made her return at the Skull Cavern]], she appeared in her spiritual form and not in her body. She was disappointed by the fact that her domain, her “ Magnificent Palace” as she and her minions described it, is non-existent because the human race had throughout time, build a city that would eventually be called Mariner Bay. She was even more angered to learn that the city is under the protection of the latest generation of Power Rangers and their Lightspeed Aquabase which is hidden underwater (water being the one element that demons are vulnerable to as it drains their power). This explains why her minions haven't rebuilt her palace for her return to power. Queen Bansheera quickly took matters into her own hands by resurrecting two monsters: Magmavore and Trifire, as more powerful demons than before, in order to awaken a dormant volcano that can destroy Mariner Bay. Unfortunately for her, without her bodily form, her powers had quickly diminished and she declared that she must leave her minions in order to regain what strength she had. After parting from her minions and her son Impus, her plan to use the volcano against the Rangers and Mariner Bay had failed when the Rangers used the Supertrain Megazord to defeat Magmavore and Trifire as well as keeping the volcano from fully erupting.

When Queen Bansheera had returned to the Skull Cavern once again, she expressed her anger and frustration to her once great general Diabolico, protesting his inability to defeat mortal beings like the Power Rangers, and threatened to have him replaced with Impus by granting the infant demon Diabolico's Star Power. Diabolico was far from willing to allow this to happen and was even willing to destroy the queen's son with no one present to witness his attempt to do so only to be interrupted by Jinxer. When Diabolico was destroyed by the Rangers, Queen Bansheera made good on her word to bestow the energies of the Star Power to her son Impus, which transformed him into an adult now called Olympius.

As the planets of the Solar System were on the verge of aligning, Queen Bansheera was granted the opportunity to regain her body through a ceremonial ritual performed by Spellbinder. After Spellbinder was defeated by the Rangers and the planets were no longer aligned, the ceremony was ruined and Queen Bansheera had gained a deformed and incomplete body.

Trakeena's Revenge

At one point, Queen Bansheera had attempted to regain her full body with the use of human lifeforce. She employed the powerful demon Triskull to make this possible. However, Triskull's true allegiance was with the evil galactic princess Trakeena, who had survived her battle against the Galaxy Rangers on Terra Venture, but was badly scarred from the battle, forcing her to conceal her injuries with a mask. Trakeena planned to use the human lifeforce for her own desires which was to regain herfather's powers and become a green insect again in order to get her revenge against the Galaxy Rangers and dominate the demon forces. Queen Bansheera had learned of Triskull's treachery and sent her son Olympius to deal with Triskull and Trakeena. However, Queen Bansheera was fearful that if Trakeena manages to regain her insect form, then much of her minions including her son Olympius, would be outclassed by Trakeena. Olympius had used a poisoned dagger to contaminate the life energy feed between Trakeena and the captured human hosts for the life force, and in turn, transformed her into a massive abomination which would eventually be destroyed by the combined team ofLightspeed and Galaxy Rangers.

The Queen's Reign of Terror

Queen Bansheera had become increasingly more obsessed with rebuilding her palace. Furthermore, she had placed too much faith in her son Olympius with the task of defeating the Rangers. When she learned that Diabolico (who was resurrected by Loki and Vypra), Loki, and Vypra had succeeded in banishing Olympius along with the Gatekeeper to the Demon Shadow World, the three were expecting to face her wrath, but instead, Bansheera showed no concern for Olympius, had commended them for their actions against her own son, and had once again appointed Diabolico in charge of her forces.

Queen Bansheera had regained much of her energy in the process of restoring her body. When she needed energy from someone else to complete her transformation, she summoned Vypra before her. Bansheera declared that she will take Vypra's life energy, citing the act as "punishment" for Vypra's many failures in the past. Queen Bansheera had consumed Vypra and her energy and at long last gained her bodily form and by doing so, was driven to further insanity by her obsession to destroy the Lightspeed Rangers and rebuild her Palace. Bansheera deceived Loki into believing that he was her mightiest enforcer and motivated him to fighting a hopeless battle against the Rangers. She was overheard by Diabolico as Loki and the rest of her minions being only “expendable” for the bigger picture, that being restoring her throne. When Loki engaged four of the Rangers in battle (with Carter not present at the time), Bansheera took the opportunity to teleport all of them to the outside of her Skull Cavern. She forces Diabolico to use Loki's own weapon against the Rangers in order to destroy them. Unfortunately, Loki was caught in the cross-fire as Bansheera used her telekinesis on Diabolico to fire Loki's weapon, and thus Loki was mortally wounded. Loki perished after expressing confusion and sadness from being betrayed by his Queen and bid his friend Diabolico goodbye. Enraged by the death of both Vypra and Loki, Diabolico rebelled against Queen Bansheera. Bansheera had then used Diabolico's own energies in an attempt to destroy the Rangers, however, Carter, who was not captured by Queen Bansheera during the struggle with Loki, confronted Bansheera at the Skull Cavern. From Diabolico's advice, Carter learned of Queen Bansheera's weakness: striking her where her heart should be. Queen Bansheera had released her hold on Diabolico and the Rangers, but was not finished as she briefly attacked Mariner Bay herself. The Rangers repelled Queen Bansheera with the Lightspeed Megazord, forcing Bansheera to flee back to the Skull Cavern.

Olympius, who had escaped from the Shadow World, had returned to Queen Bansheera, after defeating Diabolico and taking him prisoner. Queen Bansheera had made Diabolico a slave to her will and used him to combine forces with Olympius to attack the Rangers. Both demons were seemingly destroyed in the battle, however, Queen Bansheera had resurrected them both as powerful Super Demons. Diabolico and Olympius succeeded in destroying most of the Lightspeed Zords, before finally meeting their end by the Ranger's most powerful Megazord:The Lifeforce Megazord.

Defeat

When Queen Bansheera demanded that Jinxer send another monster to defeat the Rangers, Jinxer revealed that they had no more monsters, however, he did succeed in placing the final card containing an army of Batlings on the Lifeforce Megazord (not long after Diabolico's and Olympius' defeat) to infiltrate the Lightspeed Aquabase. The Batlings took control of most of the Lightspeed Zords and Queen Bansheera began a new ceremony to free her demon subjects from the Shadow World to roam the Earth. Having underestimated the Rangers decisively, namely Carter, Queen Bansheera was knocked over the tomb that acts as the entry to the Shadow World, holding onto Carter in the process, who was also on the verge of falling among the endless waves of Demons that waited below. Queen Bansheera met her demise when the spirit of Diabolico assisted the Rangers one last time by forcing Queen Bansheera into the Shadow World. While the Rangers sealed off the tomb to the Shadow World, Queen Bansheera was attacked and presumably destroyed by her fellow Demons of the Shadow World as an act of vengeance for her disloyalty to them, much to Diabolico's pleasure as he gleefully witnesses the fall of his former Queen.

Appearance and Forms

Queen Bansheera takes on multiple forms throughout the season of Lightspeed Rescue.

Spirit Form

When she appears for the first time, she takes the form of a spirit where only her face is shown.

Cocoon Form

Due to the ceremony being interrupted by the Lightspeed Rangers, her body gets mangled up in a cocoon-like shape with many tentacles and a large tentacle below it, but she gets more facial features, her face is similar to that of a demon with light purple skin, orange-red tiger-like eyes, red lips, long elf-like ears, flowing orange hair and a crown-like head-wear with a dark green colored jewel in the middle.

Ultimate Form

After absorbing Vypra, Queen Bansheera gains a new form that resembles an angel-like being with a more vampire-like head with sharp teeth, yellow tiger-like eyes, three red jewel-like pieces on her forehead with orange hair, large bat-like wings behind her head, huge rocky shoulder pads with black upper arms and large clawed hands, a demon-like face on her stomach area, a skirt-like appendage with the face's of Fireor, Aquafiend, Arachnor, and two unused Gogo monsters: Zombeast and Godai attached on it, black demon-like legs with armor gauntlets around them and clawed feet.

Personality

Queen Bansheera could be described as ruthless, cruel and insane. Nothing short of being obsessive, while she is shown to be quite calm and patient, Bansheera would go to any lengths of returning to power and became notorious for sacrificing her minions to achieve her agenda. The first most significant realization of Bansheera's obsession is expressing how pleased she was that Diabolico, Vypra and Loki had imprisoned her son Olympius in the Shadow World, seeing her own son as expendable just as her other minions, she is also supremely argent, thinking that no one can stop her. After she had consumed Vypra's energy to obtain her full body, Bansheera became dangerously unstable with power. The Rangers and her demon minions were not safe from her madness. She is also shown to expect her forces to remain loyal no matter what. In the final part of the two-part series finale episode "The Fate of Lightspeed", when Diabolico's spirit returned one last time, she was expecting him to help her, despite the fact she made him kill his best friend.

Much to her credit, however, Bansheera did prove to be a loving mother when Olympius was still the infant Impus. In the episode "Go Volcanic", when she returned to the Skull Cavern after a long and unexplained absence, she expressed her joy in seeing Impus again. Also, considering that Impus had for some time been longing for his mother Queen Bansheera, further proves the Queen's nurturing side, she is also shown that she can respect her allys when they do their missions right, she is also very wise, in the final part of the two-part team up special episode "Trakeena's Revenge", she is fully aware that if Trakeena regains her Fathers powers and turns into her green insect form, she will be strong enough to destroy her comrades, including her own son Olympius, despite having Diabolico's Star Power.

Powers and Abilities

" With her great powers, we'll squash the Rangers like flies!"

• DiabolicoBeing the ruler of all demons, Queen Bansheera possessed immense supernatural powers and abilities that surpassed Diabolico, Loki, Vipra, Jinxer and Olympius combined, making her the strongest and most powerful villain in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.

Spirit Form

Bansheera doesn't have much in a way of powers in her spirit form, but she has some abilities that makes her dangerous.

• Flight: Bansheera is able to fly effortlessly while in her spirit form.
• Resurrect Empowerment: In the episode "Rising From Ashes", When she returned in her spiritual state, she was able to resurrect both Magmavore and Trifire as powerful enforcers.
• The Star Power: It is unknown if she is responsible for the creation of the Star Power that Diabolico originally possessed, however, she had the ability to grant anyone it's power as in the episode "The Cobra Strikes", it was awarded to her son Impus after Diabolico's first defeat by the Rangers.

First Form

While Bansheera loses her powers she had in her spirit form due to the ceremony interruption, she still has some powers.

• Teleportation: Queen Bansheera can teleport to any location at will.
• Title Wave: In the episode "The Queen's Return", when she appears for the first time, she is shown to have an ability to cause a massive title wave as an attempt to destroy Mariner Bay.
• Lighting Bolt: In the Episode "In the Freeze Zone", Queen Bansheera can cast a powerful white-es purple colored lighting bolt.
• Energy Absorption: She can fire a purple lighting-like tractor beam to absorb other beings life energy to transform into her second form, in the episode "Wrath of the Queen]]", it was used on Vipra.

Second Form

Bansheera loses some of her abilities from her first form, but with the new body, she gains many new powers as a replacement as well, making her more powerful then before.

• Size Changing: She can change her size at will.
• Teleportation: Queen Bansheera can teleport to any location.
• Teleport Cast: Queen Bansheera can cast a spell that can teleport other beings at will.
• Telekinesis: Queen Bansheera can move an object and/or person with her force.
• De-Powered Beam: She can fire a purple energy beam that can take powers away from other people, were she fires it is unknown.
• Flame Aura: She can cause a streak of flames to go around her enemies.
• Lighting Force: She can cast a powerful green lighting on her enemies.
• Wind Gust: She can blow a strong gust of wind from her hands.
• Electrocution Touch: Queen Bansheera can electrocute any one with purple electricity on contact.
• Tractor Beam: She retains her ability to fire a purple lighting-like tractor beam like she did in her deform mangled body, but it's fired from her clawed hands and this time she can grab other beings while at the same time damaging them.
  • Lighting Beam Formation: The Tractor Beam can also be use to do physical harm to the enemy, making it a similar manner to a Lighting Beam.
• Energy Force: Queen Bansheera also can fire an invisible force from her clawed hands.
• Energy Lasers: Queen Bansheera can also fire powerful red energy lasers from her clawed hands as well, they are strong enough push the Red and Silver Rangers out of the Skull Cavern and knock the Red Ranger's helmet off of him.

Arsenal

• Demon Clawed Tentacle Fingers: Queen Bansheera posses large clawed hands, not just for combat, but she can stretch and turn her fingers into rope-like tentacles to wrap her enemies with.
  • Hypnosis: Queen Bansheera can also use her demon tentacle fingers to wrap other beings with and hypnotize them.
  • Hyper Empowerment: Arguably her most significant display of power is shown in the penultimate episode of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue "Rise of the Super Demons", she can turn her clawed finger's into rope like that she can to hypothesis other beings, but this time they have the ability to create powerful Super Demons, as shown when she created them from the bodies of her son Olympius and Diabolico, which both had easily defeated most of the Lightspeed Zords before they were defeated by the Lifeforce Megazord.

It should be noted that at one point in the episode "Wrath of the Queen", she engaged the Rangers in battle against their Lightspeed Megazord, however, she quickly withdrew from the battle after taking only a few blows from their Megazord. Given the anti-climatic scenario, it was unknown if she is truly capable of overwhelming the Zords herself.

Gallery

Bansheera's energy form.

Bansheera's first form

Bansheera's final form.

Bansheera's giant form.

Trivia

• Queen Bansheera is portrayed by Diane Salinger
• Her name is based on the Banshee of Irish Mythology.
• Queen Bansheera is one of the strongest and most powerful villains in the entire Power Rangers franchise.
• Queen Bansheera is the first villain in the Power Ranger franchise to have Telekinesis powers.
• When Bansheera regained her form, the monster faces on her "skirt" are of Fireor, Aquafiend, Arachnor, and GoGoV monsters Zombeast (unused in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue by appeared in the Shadow World in "Sorcerer of the Sands" and "Olympius Unbound") and Godai (who was unused in the series).
• It was unknown what she looked like before her body got mangled up from returning to earth.
• Queen Bansheera is the only villain in Lightspeed Rescue defeated by one of her own comrades since Diabolico delivered the final blow and sent her into the shadow realm.
• Technically she was never actually killed, she cast into the shadow world still alive where the ghosts of her fallen minions pounce on her. Though the revenants might have eventually destroyed her, or most likely Diabolico destroyed her.
• She is one of the few primary villains to not be comedic, as many (such as Rita and Lothor) provided humor for the audience. In fact, she seems to be one of the most frightening primary villains in the entire series, and one of the most darkest along with Darkonda, Deviot, Captain Mutiny, Trakeena, Onikage, Mandilok, Master Org, Vexacus, Mesogog, Omni, Sculpin, Octomus the Master, Kamdor, Flurious, Dai Shi, Venjix, Serrator, Master Xandred and Madame Odius, all willing to sacrifice their underlings, relatives and/or minions to realize their ambitions (it should be noted that Trakeena only became that ruthless because Deviot forced her to merge with him, also while other villains like Astronema and Ransik are also not comedic villains, they become good later on).
• Queen Bansheera is the second main villain to be destroyed by an other main villain. The first is Captain Mutiny.

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