Leela (Futurama)
Encyclopedia : L : LE : LEE : Leela (Futurama)
Turanga Leela (referred to as simply Leela) is the primary female character in the animated television series Futurama. She is a fit, attractive cyclops who captains the Planet Express ship. She is the love interest of the series' main character, Fry. She is voiced by Katey Sagal.
Leela grew up in the Cookieville Minimum Security orphanarium, knowing nothing of her parents, origins or species. She joined human society as an apparent alien from another planet, longing to discover her heritage, though aside from her one eye she could pass as a normal human. Due to having a single eye, she lacks stereoscopic vision and therefore has problems with depth perception. In spite of this she seems to have no difficulty in flying the Planet Express ship (other than colliding with billboards on a weekly basis).
Her name is a simple pun on Olivier Messiaen's most famous orchestral work, the Turangalîla Symphony, famous for its use of the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic musical instrument much used in the themes and incidental music of science-fiction movie and TV shows. "Leela" is considered her given name and "Turanga" her surname, as evidenced when she addresses a letter to her parents 'Turanga Morris and Munda'.
The writers of Futurama often add minor details as coincidental references, and Leela is no exception. When she worked for the cryogenics lab, she was Officer 1BDI ("one beady eye"). Also, she lives in Apartment 1I ("one eye").
It should also be noted that the name Leela is a pun, seeing as she has purple hair and the both the Spanish and German word for purple is 'lila'. It might also have something to do with the Hindu usage of the word lila. The spelling may also be attributed to the Doctor Who character of the same name.
Biography
Leela was born into the society of subterranean mutants who live in the sewers beneath New New York. Since her mutation was relatively minor, her parents deposited her on the steps of the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium in order to spare her the degrading life of a mutant. Leela's mother (calling on her education in Exolinguistics) attached a note to Leela's blankets in an alien-like script, which convinced the head of the orphanarium that Leela was not from Earth. Her parents closely monitored her youth, periodically intervening to protect her from falling down stairs, leaving birthday presents for her, etc. Leela's parents were first shown in the background in the episode "I Second That Emotion"
As a child, Leela often had to endure childish bullying from other orphans, mainly because of her being a cyclops, as well as for her dental braces. In the episode "Parasites Lost", Leela describes one of her happiest memories as "Double Soup Tuesday" at the Orphanarium.
As a teenager, feeling the torment of being a cyclops, Leela trained in Arcturan Kung-Fu, succeeding despite the chauvinism of her teacher, Master Phnog. She developed a lasting crush on a fellow orphanarium inmate, Adlai Atkins. They would later meet as adults, after he had become a successful cosmetic surgeon.
As an adult, Leela could be seen as a very attractive, vixen-like woman, except that she has only one eye, the apparent reason for her lack of relationship experience. Leela's first mentioned job was a Career-Chip Officer, through which she meets Fry. After Fry convinces her to break from the bounds of her job, Leela becomes a Space Captain at Planet Express.
Leela found Nibbler on the planet Vergon 6, in the episode "Love's Labours Lost in Space". Leela decided to keeps him as a pet. In the episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", Nibbler saves her from the Brains and takes her to his home planet, Eternium. However, due to later events, Leela does not remember this.
During the fifth episode of the , "Leela's Homeworld", it was revealed that Leela's parents, Turanga Munda and Turanga Morris, were actually sewer-dwelling mutants. According to the doctor who delivered her, Leela is "the least mutated mutant ever born". This makes sense considering that, compared to the other mutants that have been seen in the series, Leela looks almost normal.
Leela is portrayed as the most competent and responsible character in Futurama. She captains the Planet Express spaceship, and usually saves the members of her crew when they find themselves in trouble. As a black belt in Arcturian Kung-Fu, she is valuable in a fight. She has only been defeated on two occasions, at the hands of her ex-master and against the Amazonian women. She has rescued Fry and Bender countless times.
She also always wears a computerized armband on her wrist; its function is unclear, perhaps even to Leela (she's repeatedly described it as "this thing I wear on my wrist"), although she once referred to it as her "wrist lojacamator". She once said that she can play Tetris on it. In the episode "Spanish Fry", Leela uses the armband's emergency face laser to reattach Fry's nose after it was harvested as an alien aphrodisiac.
Love life
Sean
Leela periodically referenced this never-seen ex-boyfriend, describing him as uneducated, unambitious, pasty, and hunched but finding his musical ability (at saxophone) attractive. Sean used to play while sitting naked on Leela's couch - a state of affairs that ended when she found someone else's couch fibers on his butt (The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings).
Doug
Doug is only seen in "Love's Labours Lost in Space" in the very beginning having dinner with Leela in a fancy restaurant. It is unknown whether or not he and Leela had been going out for some time or if they had just one dinner date. Leela likes him at first because he does not care that she is a cyclops. However, after he slurps up an after-dinner mint with his very long lizard-like tongue, Leela immediately dislikes him. This is perhaps a clue that the dinner date was their first encounter together.Zapp Brannigan
When Leela finds herself on an Earth starship, she meets Zapp Brannigan, and in a foolish faux pas, sleeps with him. After finding out that Brannigan seems to have developed an unhealthy fixation with her, she quickly discovers her disdain for him, as well as discovering his very surreal, Hugh Hefner style persona.
Throughout the series, Zapp tries to entice Leela into dates and choice encounters by asking her in a very "erotic" way. Leela, however, only once agrees to go on half a double-date with him as a favour to her co-worker Amy Wong. The date did not end well, and she left ("Amazon Women in the Mood").
Alcazar
Leela had a brief relationship with (and indeed almost married) a shapeshifter posing as another cyclops, Alcazar, who claimed to be the last other member of her 'alien species'. (Their relationship and Alcazar were parodies of the TV series Married...with Children, in which Katey Sagal starred as Peg Bundy) ("A Bicyclops Built For Two").
Adlai Atkins
When recollecting on her crush on him from childhood, Leela meets and dates Adlai, who is portrayed to be a normal man. As a cosmetic surgeon, he offers and performs an operation to give her a normal appearance with a second eye. Leela willingly dates Adlai simply to appear 'normal' and also because he would be the only respectable decent man that she has had the chance to date.
After wanting to adopt a 3-eared orphan from Bender, she discovers that Adlai is too interested in making everything "normal," seemingly unable to accept things the way they truly are, so Leela forces him to undo the surgery and make her a cyclops again ("The Cyber House Rules").
Chaz
Leela dates the Mayor's Aide after he woos her by demonstrating the power he wields. However, after a chance encounter with children from her old orphanarium, Leela realizes that Chaz is far too interested in the power of his position. She decides to prematurely finish the date after he denies the orphans the use of an ice rink by shoving his badge in his mouth ("The Why Of Fry").
Kif
Though they never had a relationship, Leela impregnated Kif Kroker when Kif was deeply in love with Amy. This occurred due to Kif's species exchanging DNA through a simple touch when Kif was in his "receptive phase". Many of Kif's offspring only have one eye.
Fry
Though she and Fry had several intimate moments throughout the series, and he was constantly trying to convince her to date him, they never ultimately hooked up, though they came close several times and have kissed. The final few episodes produced showed a big progression in their relationship, from Leela kissing Fry after she had a bad date, to accepting Fry's offer to a date, to finally being won over by his Holo-phonor abilities in the final episode. In addition:
- The What-If Machine invented by Professor Hubert Farnsworth reveals they would have slept together if Leela were more impulsive ("Anthology of Interest I").
- In the episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'" they are briefly married. Further, after rejecting Fry's amateurish advances, she confesses to Dr. Zoidberg, "Fry is very sweet. But he's so immature. I love his boyish charm, but I hate his childishness".
- When they traveled to a parallel universe ("The Farnsworth Parabox"), it was revealed that Fry and Leela there were married.
- In the episode "Parasites Lost", Fry, benefiting from increased intellect thanks to a super-intelligent worm infestation, is able to properly tell Leela that he loves her, and she appears to reciprocate. Unfortunately Fry, concerned that she loves him more for what the worms did than for his true self, subsequently rids himself of the parasites/symbiotes, and goes back to being inept with Leela, who promptly gives him the cold shoulder.
- During the cruise on the Titanic in "A Flight To Remember", Fry poses as Leela's fiance, in order to save her from Zapp Brannigan's advances. However, he also is posing as Amy Wong's boyfriend, a fact which actually causes Leela to become jealous.
Their relationship will no doubt be explored further when the series returns in 2008.
Trivia
Hair
As visible from the baby picture above (under "Biography"), Leela has a naturally purple hair color. It is unknown if this is the result of her being a mutant or not, though her mother (Turanga Munda) does have purple hair as well. In any case, her hair color is rarely mentioned, though she has a tendency to play with her hair when nervous or confused.Destiny
In "The Why of Fry," when Fry told Nibbler that Leela 'is the only thing worth saving in the Future' in the year 2000, Nibbler vaguely mentions that she must be "The Other", without further explanation. It is possible that the same Nibblonian prophecy that mentions Fry also makes mention of Leela; this may specifically have to do with Fry and Leela eventually getting together, as Fry himself seems to believe. Another theory is that her part in the prophecy is fulfilled during the events of The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.