Turanga Leela

Turanga Leela (born July 29, 2975)^[2][3] is the captain of the Planet Express Ship and deuteragonist of Futurama, the granddaughter of Munda's Mother and the great-granddaughter of Munda's Grandmother, the daughter of Turanga Morris and Turanga Munda and the mother of Kif Kroker's Offspring (Amy Wong's adoptive children).

With a "no rain or sleet" attitude and a "kick-your-ass" grace, this delivery captain is a refreshing source of professionalism to counterpoint the rest of the crew. For better or worse, the ship runs on her high octane passions, because of her longing for family, her love of violence, her commitment to a job well done, or her affection for animals. She has been known to scrap the missions on a whim on the promise of learning more of her past, jeopardize the crew's lives to spite Zapp Brannigan, and save Nibbler. Leela was the first female Blernsball player and the worst player ever because of her poor depth perception (this is due to the fact that she has one eye). However, in space, depth perception is less useful because things are further away and so Leela is the captain of the Planet Express ship. Later on, she finally met her long lost parents, who turned out to be sewer mutants.

Appearance[]

Leela is a tall, fair-skinned female alien with long, messy dark purple hair (inherited from Turanga Munda) which is tied into a ponytail by a black hair tie with bangs. She also has pink plump lips, and an ugly large cyclops-like eye that takes up most of her head.

Her usually attire consists of a fitted white tank top, form-fitting black leggings, and knee-length dark gray army boots with black soles and straps. Leela also wears a Wrist LoJack-a-mater on her right wrist, and can occasionally be seen wearing a bright green jacket. When she marries Philip J. Fry in "Meanwhile", she ties her hair into a bun whilst wearing her wedding dress.

While hiding from Yivo, Leela remarks to Amy that she won't have to trim her "elbow talons" any more, implying that she has been trimming them throughout the series to appear more human. Her eye and elbow talons appear to be her only visible mutant traits.

Personality[]

Leela is known for her extreme sensitivity and no-nonsense personality. She is a headstrong woman who focuses on work first and fun later, although at times her emotions can occasionally get the better of her or become near obsessive which can cause her to abandon her work and friends for a short period of time. She is known for loving animals that are endangered and will often take their side when their way of life is threatened. However, this can also be a weak point as she will occasionally love a cute and seemingly harmless creature only for it to cause great harm or danger to herself or others, such as the infant queen bee in The Sting.

Leela has a tendency to become extremely proud/obsessive in wanting to do a good job and be seen as a capable captain. When in one of these moods, she tends to become rather demanding and harsh to those around her. Other times, Leela can be very nosy about the situation of others and claim her opinions as the correct course of action/belief that others should follow. This can also backfire at times, like in Assie Come Home when she sabotaged a crate of guns she thought would be used for gang violence only to learn they were meant to be a gift in a peace treaty between two rival gangs and made the situation worse when each side thought the sabotage was done intentionally by the other side.

In terms of romance, Leela was earlier depicted to switch back and forth to being ok with being single or being extremely picky in what she wanted in a potential love interest and dumping them over the smallest flaw. While she had been aware of Fry's romantic interest in her, she had stated that she couldn't picture a relationship with him because he was still so immature yet showed jealousy when he would show interest in someone else.

History[]

Childhood[]

Having grown up in the Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium, Leela long-lived the lonely life of an orphan, thinking herself as the only member of an unknown alien race. It is not until her 20s that she discovers she is, in fact, the daughter of Turanga Morris and Turanga Munda, shamed sewer mutants from Earth's own degraded depths.^[4] It would appear that she was born as the surprisingly least mutated Mutant, her only known mutations being purple hair, the elbow talons she usually shaves, a concessional appearance of a singing boil she named Susan and her distinct cyclops eye, she also occasionally lays an egg as stated in "Leela and the Genestalk" when she visits her parents. Leela was taught Kung-Fu by Master Fnog, who had crashed down on her dreams by telling her that she did not have "the will of the warrior" but the will of "a schoolmarm" or "housewife."

Adulthood[]

"Look, I don't know about your previous captains, but I intend to do as little dying as possible."

―The Series Has Landed

After growing up, Leela begins work at Applied Cryogenics as a Fate Assignment Officer, code number "1BDI" (one beady eye). When Leela meets Philip J. Fry, she becomes a job deserter in favor of piloting for Planet Express.^[5] Leela lived alone in a small unfurnished apartment, "1I" (one eye) in New New York City.^[6] In 3023, she moves with Fry at his and Bender's Robot Arms apartment.^[7]She was named Orphan of the Year in 3000^[8] and for a short while, Miss Universe.^[9] Due to an accident, she and Kif Kroker have several children together, though Amy Wong, as Kif's "Fonfon Ru", is considered the mother.^[10]

Relationships[]

Relationships with Misc. Characters[]

"Men who call too much are the worst... I bet."

―Amazon Women in the Mood

• Sean: Leela had an ex-boyfriend named Sean: uneducated, unambitious, pasty, and hunched, with an incredible, beautiful creative soul and musical talent. Their breakup may not have been entirely mutual, judging by the fact that Leela stresses how mutual it was every chance she can and that she believed he was cheating on her. Apparently, he told his wife that she was crazy, and he dumped her.
• Doug: She went on at least one date with Doug.^[11]
• Vernon: Leela dated the Dean of Mars University after Fratbots won a boating race, however, he didn't call her after one date.^[12]
• Adlai Atkins:

  

  Leela started dating Adlai Atkins, an orphan she grew up with in the orphanage and later reconnected with him as an adult. Leela reveals that she had previously had a crush on Adlai when they were at the orphanage even though Adlai joined the others in mocking her only having one eye. They became engaged after he performed phaser eye surgery on her, but they broke up after Leela realized he didn't like anything, or anyone abnormal/was obsessed with normalcy.
• Chaz: Leela dated Chaz, the mayor's aide, but she broke up with him after she realized he thought he was too important for most everyone.^[13]
• William Shatner: While stranded on Omega 3, Leela nearly has a quick fling with William Shatner.^[14]
• Alcazar: Leela almost married Alcazar after he tricked her into thinking they were the last of their race and began treating her like a servant. However, Fry and Bender exposed him as womanizing sleaze who attempted to marry other women, resulting in her beating him up and ridiculing him.^[15]
• Yivo: Leela gets engaged to Yivo, along with the rest of the universe although she expressed extreme doubt about a genuine, pure love without sleaze. ^[16]
• Robot Devil: In the episode, The Devil's Hands Are Idle PlayThings, the Robot Devil made a deal with Leela to give her robot ears in exchange for her left hand, so she would be able listen to Fry's Opera dedicated to her when she became temporarily deaf, this deal however was a trick for Leela so Fry would give the Robot Devil back his hands, with the Robot devil openly revealing that he would take Leela's hand in marriage if Fry did not give the Robot Devil back his hands. Fry would give back his hands so Leela would not be married off. This plan by the Robot Devil of course displayed he was willing to marry Leela against her will (likely to upset and ruin Fry's life) with Leela being the true love of Fry whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
• She falls in love with, and gets engaged to the Prince of Space, who she inadvertently kills in a jousting duel. However, the affair was revealed to have been the result of a scientific spell.^[17]

Relationship with Philip J. Fry[]

Main article: Fry and Leela's Relationship

Relationship with Zapp Brannigan[]

Leela met Zapp enroute to Vergon 6. She took pity on him and had sex with him, something she regrets constantly.^[18] Zapp believes he still has a chance with Leela and hits on her every time they meet. Zapp frequently reminds Leela about her one-night stand with him, to her disgust.

He was even attracted to her while she was disguised as a man, but this worried him on his sexuality. However, Leela beat him up and revealed her identity, as Zapp was pleased to see her, and he rejoiced at making sense of his attraction. Zapp was even willing to risk his life to save her during a fire in "Three Hundred Big Boys", showing he also cares for her well-being.

Zapp makes an attempt to convince Leela that they will be the new Adam and Eve in the episode, In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela. He was almost successful, as Leela was driven to make out with him until learning of his ploy and got very upset, to the point of beating him up. However, the V-GINY forced the pair to have sex or it will destroy Earth. In a strange turn of character, Leela was all for it while Zapp was reluctant but pushed into it.

Later, she got upset when Zapp started dating her mom and believed it was all ploy. To that end, she threw herself at Zapp to seduced him but he resisted and voiced how his affections for her mother were real and got very close to marrying her but it didn't occur because her parents reconciled.^[19]

Relationship with Bender Bending Rodríguez[]

Leela first met Bender when she was chasing after Philip J. Fry before later working together at Planet Express. Although they are seen as friends, they rarely seem to agree with one another or even enjoy each other's company, due to Leela's un-impulsive nature and Bender being the subsequent opposite. After Bender flushed Nibbler down the toilet, the Professor installed an empathy chip in Bender, allowing him to feel Leela's emotions. The act initially seemed to bond the two, but it was later revealed that the empathy chip had to be running at triple capacity to get Bender even close to Leela's true feelings.

He was later surprised when she told him that she did like him as a friend. When Bender asked Leela what she likes most about him, she commented that she liked his "in-your-face attitude."

Relationships with other members of Planet Express[]

• Amy Wong: Leela gets along with Amy very well although she is often annoyed by Amy's ability to date nearly any man she wants and that Amy points out how un-feminine Leela really is; such as her larger shoe size and more muscular build than most women. Despite that, the two are united against the sexist behavior of their male colleagues and are supportive of one another, as seen when Amy helped Leela with Lars Fillmore (Fry's time duplicate) and volunteered to be her maid of honor.

• John A. Zoidberg: Like the rest of the crew (with the exception of Fry), she is often annoyed by Zoidberg's antics and has called him disgusting. However, she seems to view him as a friend.

• Hermes Conrad: Leela is very good friends with Hermes as they have similar personalities and ideals. It is revealed she secretly steals his lunch, once doing so but ended up eating Fry's kidney by mistake.

• Hubert J. Farnsworth: Leela is on good terms with the professor but tends to be annoyed about many of his crazy and outlandish choices. She will often help try to prevent some of the choices he makes but is usually outnumbered or overruled. Despite his often chaotic behavior, Leela is still concerned about his well-being.

Episodes where Leela Uses Her Martial Arts[]

(Note: The list goes in chronological order.)

• "Space Pilot 3000"
• "Fear of a Bot Planet"
• "My Three Suns"
• "Hell Is Other Robots"
• "Fry and the Slurm Factory"
• "Xmas Story"
• "Raging Bender"
• "A Bicyclops Built for Two"
• "Bender Gets Made"
• "Anthology of Interest I"
• "War is the H-Word"
• "Amazon Women in the Mood"
• "I Dated a Robot"
• "Roswell that Ends Well"
• "Leela's Homeworld"
• "Godfellas"
• "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch"
• "Less than Hero"
• "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"
• "The Farnsworth Parabox"
• "Three Hundred Big Boys"
• "Bender's Big Score"
• "The Beast with a Billion Backs"
• "Bender's Game"
• "Rebirth"
• "The Late Philip J. Fry"
• "All the Presidents' Heads"
• "Möbius Dick"
• "Fun on a Bun"
• "Fry and Leela's Big Fling"
• "Murder on the Planet Express"
• "Meanwhile"
• "I Know What You Did Next Xmas"
• "The Temp"
• "One Is Silicon and the Other Gold"
• "Otherwise"

Trivia[]

• Leela's officer code (1BDI) is a reference to her only having "one beady eye."
• In the last quarter of S2E2 Leela said, "I don't want to die at the age of 25."
• In a commentary track for Futurama, creator Matt Groening states that Leela's name is derived from the Fourth Doctor's companion Leela on the British science fiction television show Doctor Who.
  • Her first name might also have been inspired by the German, Hungarian, Swedish, and Spanish word lila ("purple, violet"), in a possible allusion to her hair color.
  • Her name also plays on Turangalîla, the Sanskrit title of the landmark Turangalîla-Symphonie by French composer Olivier Messiaen (which series creator Matt Groening listed as his 10th favourite thing^[20]) which translates to time and love in Hindi.
  • It might also be that 'Turanga' is the local spelling of a place near Christchurch, New Zealand, after local Maori tribesmen legend, which sounds just foreign and spicy exotic to be fit for 'alienese', and hence her whole family was perhaps given that name for the show because of it.
• The wrist device that Leela is seen consistently wearing has been shown to have at least seven uses: a communicator,^[21] reattach Philip J. Fry's nose (a small laser),^[22] play Tetris ^[23] and Pong, detect whether or not the Omicronian young (later known as Popplers) are edible,^[24] a tracking device receiver she uses in the Central Bureaucracy,^[25] a tissue dispenser, targeted advertising, as well as has a (possibly deadly) laser.
• In "Rebirth", it's revealed that Leela wears size 12 shoes.^[26]
• In "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Leela is similarly dressed as Peggy Bundy from Married... With Children. Katey Sagal, the voice actress of Leela, portrayed Peggy Bundy in the series.
• According to Zapp Brannigan in Into the Wild Green Yonder, Leela's measurements are 36-24-36. This is the same as Bart's locker combination in The Simpsons. So Leela's body measurements match perfectly to having an hourglass figure due to a 36-inch bust and hip size, as well as a 24-inch waist.
• Leela also has a singing boil on her buttocks named Susan, a parody of Susan Boyle, which she lances all the time.
• In "The Butterjunk Effect", it is said that Leela and Amy Wong auditioned to be Rockettes; however, they kicked two Rockettes to death and did not get the job.
• The name of Leela's hair color is actually called leela (a dark shade of purple).
• In Leela's debut, it is shown that she can be easily annoyed by people who are put off by her one eye.
• Leela has 205 bones (a normal human has 206) in her body. This may be due to the fact she is a mutant.^[27]
• Leela's birthday is July 29th, because in the episode "The Late Philip J. Fry", Farnsworth's time machine says 7/29 before Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender land on the date 12/3, 10,000 years into the future.^[3]
• When Leela tries to kill something, she says: "It will be just like stomping a puppy."
• Leela becomes Yancy Fry, Sr. and Mrs. Fry's daughter-in-law after her and Philip's wedding. However, both times she married him, the marriage was undone; first by her lacking memory of why she did due to time skipping, and second when the Professor reset time.
• Leela is one of only three characters to have appeared in every single episode of the series (the other two being Fry and Bender Bending Rodríguez).
• Leela's non-physical appearance is the 2020 Comedy Central “viewer discretion is advised” screen which/that was/is in the 2020 Comedy Central airings of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".
• Leela was originally going to be voiced by Nicole Sullivan and Tress MacNeille.

Family Tree[]

Mr. Gleisner┬Mrs. Gleisner Enos Fry┬Mildred Fry
            │                      │
     Mrs. Fry───────────────────┬────────────────────Yancy Fry, Sr.
  Fry's cousin                                     │ 
                            ┌─────────┴──────────────┐                      David Farnsworth
                            │                        │                             │
Turanga Leela─Philip J. Fry Yancy Fry, Jr.┬Unnamed wife         │
                                          │      (Many generations)     
                                    Philip J. Fry II┬Njörd(?) │             │
          (Many generations)     │
                                                                     │             │
                                                            Grandma Farnsworth (possibly)
                                                                     │             │             
                                                                     +──────┬──────+ 
                                                             Ned Farnsworth┬Velma Farnsworth                                                                    │ 
                                                                     ┌─────────┴────────┐
                                                                     │                  │ 
(?)Ogden Wernstrom────┬────Carol Miller────┬─────Hubert J. Farnsworth Floyd Farnsworth
                          │                        │                │               
                      ┌───┴───┐                Igner Cubert J. Farnsworth
                      │       │         
                 Walt Larry

Gallery[]

Leela in her undies

Leela with two eyes.

Fry and Leela kiss in "Fun on a Bun"

Leela as a child

Leela in bed with Fry

References[]