Okay, so I run a Power Rangers forum, and one recurring issue I run into is that nobody wants to play the villain. I mean, sure, an Evil Ranger slot will be snatched up at once, but there are almost never any regular, recurring villains who are just there to be bad guys and not be redeemed at some point. Because I like filling in the gaps, sometimes this is where I'll jump in, add some villains to keep the plot going. One of my first such characters was a lady villain.

Now, just to stand out from the "I'm a noble warrior and I can be redeemed by love" tropes, I made this villain lady a clingy, jealous woman who killed any guy she even suspected of betraying her. Just an all-around terrible person. In her introduction she attacked a guy she suspected of cheating on her. I never specified whether or not he was actually cheating on her, nor if they were even in a relationship. I just figured it'd be a good way to demonstrate what kind of person she was.

The Rangers attacked, but when she laid out her excuse of "this is my boyfriend and he cheated on me, just take my word for it," they...just accepted it and left her alone. I wasn't sure what to make of this. Weirder still, one of the Rangers decided he wanted to start dating her. His player was one of those people who gets whiny if he isn't paired off, so I just kind of played it as them both being needy characters.

Another villain happened along and became interested in her for actual character-related reasons, so I had my evil chick start two-timing both guys. Surely such open hypocrisy would show everyone she was a genuinely bad person? Nope. When the boyfriends inevitably crossed paths, they all ended going out for pizza together and decided to compete for her affection. It was awkward.

That game died, and ages later people got nostalgic and we rebooted it. I decided I'd try this again, and this time make my baddie an actual, objectively evil threat. She wasn't just a mutant now, she was the leader of a band of CHUDs and she explicitly wanted to poison the Earth with pollution and devour humanity like so many cheeseburgers. She couldn't even pretend to be romantically involved with anyone, she was bad-tempered and had a sadistic streak. I hesitated on this version, actually, because it seemed a little dark for the game.

Ultimately all my worrying was for nothing, because guess what? This lady was even more popular with the good guys than her previous incarnation! Although she didn't get a love interest this time, making the good guys attack her was like pulling teeth, and two different Rangers straight-up defected for no reason. One was supposed to be this sweet, innocent girl who only wanted to heal people, and instead of, say, trying to rescue the hostages in her larder, the kid actually tried to justify the cannibalism.

This game also died eventually. If it comes back a third time I don't know what else I can add to this character to convince people that she is evil. Maybe I should make her male...