Understanding Witch Bandora's Hatred for Children
Super Sentai or most Tokusatsu in general usually don't give us an explanation why the villains ended up wanting to take over the Earth or doing what they do except for reasons like they're racists (most Sentai villains are racists), in Radiguet's case he believes that he can make Earth the right utopia but he has really no back story why he became THAT most evil bastard in Super Sentai history, we have no backstory why Kiros is a thief, Shadam wants to become the emperor of the world but there are a few like Dr. Man's backstory in Bioman who was driven mad by his own experiments, Dr. Hinelar because he was mocked by the world for his dangerous experiments, Shiima we know that she was brainwashed and crazy, for Ahames because she wanted her planet back, for Dayu because of unrequited love... but those are not so common moments. Now I'd like to focus on Bandora and her hatred for children as one good plot in Super Sentai imo.
Witch Bandora as a villain in Zyuranger is all about her hatred for children, targeting them and well, it felt like Machineman's (not a Sentai series but a single superhero) villain Professor K and Madame M who for some reason, hate children but was never explained. I felt like the producers wanted to take the concept into Witch Bandora but this time, making it somewhat scarier. Nothing really hinted why she hated children and why she went on rampage against children until later. All Bandora was seen at first was as just your average villain who for some reason, hates children. Most of her standard half-brained, silly but dangerous schemes usually involve children. She manipulates them, she even planned to eat them as apples, she would manipulate the child of the week into doing stuff for her (ex. Dora Endos manipulates a kid into becoming a weapon of destruction, which I love better than its Zyuranger episode), etc. which she really proves she's a bitch I mean witch. Pardon the language. For one, I even thought it's very unusual for a Sentai villain to go from simply conquering the Earth to throwing one's frustrations at children as her method to conquer Earth.
Fortunately Zyuranger did give us a bit of why Bandora became evil which makes her more 3D than Rita Repulsa or two, than some awesome Super Sentai villains who don't have much of a back story like Radiguet and Shadam. The finale arc actually shows that she was a queen of her own right, she lost her son to a rampaging T-Rex but what she didn't even why it happened. The tragedy made her seal a Faustian pact with the ultimate evil in Zyuranger Dai Satan. It hinted that her hatred for children was because she lost her son, seeing others with their children (now it doesn't justify the wrong she did) and the deal she had with Dai Satan contributed to why she became the Zyurangers' archenemy and why she loves throwing convoluted but life-threatening plans against children.
Overall, I'd love to say that this backstory was pretty, pretty well-written by the late Noboru Sugimura.
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