Astronema

"That, was impressive. DESTROY THEM!!"

- Astronema "Victory is at my fingertips. You can't stop me!"

- Astronema to Andros

Astronema (real name: Karone) is the "Dark Princess of Evil", Dark Specter's chief servant, and a main antagonist/anti-heroine of Power Rangers in Space and later the Pink Ranger in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.

Kidnapping and Fall into Darkness
Astronema was originally Karone, a little girl living on the space colony of KO-35 and grew up very attached to her brother, Andros. However one day, when they were playing with a toy sphere, the sphere went away and her brother went after it, when Darkonda kidnapped her. Despite Karone's screams for help, the bounty hunter took her away and handed her over to Ecliptor and Dark Specter, who began molding her into Astronema. Ecliptor became a fatherly figure for her and trained her to become a powerful dark warrioress. As her memories of her early life faded, she was told that the Power Rangers destroyed her family. After competing with and defeating other warriors, Astronema was trained with dark magic and eventually awarded the powerful Wrath Staff. She eventually gained control of the Dark Fortress and an army of the robot soldiers, Quantrons. Astronema roamed the universe conquering or destroying anyone who would not serve her or Dark Specter. Along the way she encountered a great warrior who possessed the Armor Keys, which would call on powerful armor, but before he could bring the keys together, Astronema turned him to stone.

In Space
Astronema later attended the meeting of the United Alliance of Evil on the Cimmerian Planet where she was introduced to the other villains. She was the one that discovered the Red Space Ranger spying on the meeting and was sent after him after he escaped. After more Rangers joined him, Astronema decided to attack the Earth again and again so as to prevent the Rangers from searching for Zordon. After Zhane, the Silver Ranger, was awakened from his cryo chamber, he and Astronema started a brief relationship but it ended badly due to their constant lies to each other (though they were actually truths). Astronema later discovered the truth about herself, but she denied it at first. However she eventually sided with Andros and helped him to find Zordon, but was later captured by a cybernetically brainwashed Ecliptor, who condemned her to the same fate. But this reprogramming made her too evil and she became determined to overthrow Dark Specter. It was during this time that Astronema created the powerful Psycho Rangers, homicidal and evil counterparts to the Rangers that she designed to kill them as well as drain Dark Specter's powers. After the Grand Monarch of Evil initiated the final invasion of the universe, Astronema acted as his field commander. When Dark Specter was destroyed by Darkonda, she usurped him and became the Queen of Evil. Later when Andros infiltrated her ship, Astronema confronted him, but was struck by an energy bolt he deflected back at her. After Zordon's energy tube was shattered, unleashing an energy wave that got rid of all the villains, Astronema was revived as Karone.

Lost Galaxy
Later, after the first Pink Galaxy Ranger was killed because of Psycho Pink and her Quasar Saber fell into the hands of evil on Onyx, Karone donned the guise of Astronema to get it back. After she threatened to destroy everyone if it wasn't given to her, the auctioneer quickly handed over the Quasar Saber. However Trakeena arrived and revealed her deception, forcing her to make a run for it, but Karone would become the new Pink Galaxy Ranger shortly afterwards. She later sought out the power of the warrior she had turned to stone so as to help Leo defeat Trakeena. After facing Astronema in battle, Karone conquered her inner demons and gained the keys needed to activate the power.

Powers and Abilities
Astronema is an extremely accomplished hand-to-hand fighter and is able to use her Wrath Staff to fire energy blasts and control others. Although she has never used this in her adult life, she's shown as a child to have the power of telekinesis much like her brother, Andros. She is able to teleport by vanishing and reappearing where she desires to be. After becoming Karone, she apparently lost these powers, although in the episode Facing the Past, while fighting an apparition of Astronema, Karone was able to wrest the Wrath Staff from her and use it to fire an energy blast. This implies that she may still possess knowledge of the powers she had wielded as Astronema.

Trivia

 * Though not technically her counterpart due to different designs, Astronema had somewhat of a counterpart in the Super Sentai series, Shibolena, from Denji Sentai Megaranger.