Turanga Leela

Turanga Leela
Character Information
Gender
Status	Alive
Age	37
Species	Mutant
Planet	Earth
Profession	Currently: Captain and pilot of the Planet Express delivery ship Formerly: Cryogenic Counselor at Applied Cryogenics, pitcher for the New New York Mets
Relatives	Father: Morris Mother: Munda Children: Unnamed amphibiosans Grandmother: Leela's grandmother Great-grandmother: Leela's great-grandmother Husband: Philip J. Fry
Background Information
First appearance	"Space Pilot 3000"
Voiced by	Katey Sagal

“

What's the secret of time travel doing on Fry's ass?

”

“	It was bound to be somewhere.	”
–Leela and Fry, Bender's Big Score

Turanga Leela (born December 3, 2975), better known as Leela, is one of the main characters in Futurama. She is the tomboyishly beautiful captain of the Planet Express ship. With a "no rain or sleet" attitude and a "kick-your-ass" grace, big-booted eyeball this delivery captain is the sole source of professionalism (with the exception of Hermes Conrad) to counterpoint the rest of the crew. For better or worse, the ship runs on her high octane passions, be it because of her longing for family, her love of violence, her commitment to a job well done, or her аffection 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 despite Zapp Brannigan and save Nibbler, and sudden emotional outbursts about an ex-boyfriend from her past named Sean. Although she often does not show it, she is in love with Fry, and vice verse. Leela was the first woman 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, because of space, depth perception is less useful because things are farther away, Leela is captain of the Planet Express ship.

Childhood

Having grown up in the Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium, Leela long lived the lonely life of an orphan and a freak, thinking herself as the only member of an unknown alien race on all of the planet Earth. It is not until her late 20s that she discovers she is in fact the daughter of Turanga Morris and Munda, shamed sewer mutants from Earth's own degraded depths. It would appear that she was born as a surprisingly UN-mutated mutant, her only known mutations being purple hair, the "elbow talons" she apparently shaves, and of course her distinct cyclops eye. One might also speculate that her strength is beyond human capacity, judging by the ease with which she can manipulate Bender's five hundred and twenty-five pound bulk, but perhaps this is simply the power offered by her knowledge and mastery of Arthurian Kong-Fu. 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 - Turanga Leela on dying

After growing up, Leela begins work at Applied Cryogenics as a Fate Assignment Officer, code number "1BDI" (one beady eye). When Leela meets Fry, she becomes a job deserter in favor of piloting for Planet Express. Leela lives alone in a small unfurnished apartment, "1I" (one eye) in New New York City. She was named Orphan of the Year in 3000 and, for a short while, Miss Universe. Due to an accident, she and Kif Kroker have several children together, though Amy, as Kif's Smizmar, is considered the mother.

Leela stripping

Personality

Despite her beauty, Leela is known for her extreme sensitivity and no-nonsense personality. She is a headstrong woman who focuses on work first and fun later. She is known for liking animals that are endangered, which led her to meeting Nibbler for the first time. She is also desperate to find love and does not like boys who make too many advances on her. She even rejects perverts such as Zapp Brannigan but sleeps with him anyway. She frequently learns from her mistakes and tries to right many wrongs. She is also shown to be a hardcore pacifist as she was the only citizen on Earth who would definitely never vote for Nixon's Head to be president. Leela is frequently a jerk to her crew members, and thinks she has the right to boss them around (even when they are not at work, as seen in Bender's Game). She is very impulsive, and although she rejected Fry in the original series, she had interest in him.

Relationships

Relationships with Random Men (and others)

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

―Amazon Women in the Mood

Leela has 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.

She went on at least one date with Doug.

Leela dated the Dean of Mars University after Fratbots won a boating race, however, he didn't call her after one date.

Leela started dating Adlai Atkins, an orphan she grew up with after she reconnected with him as an adult. They

Adlai

became engaged after he performed phaser eye surgery on her, but broke up after Leela realized he didn't like her the way she was.

Leela dated Chaz, the mayor's aide, but broke up with him after she realized he thought he was too important for most everyone.

While stranded on Omega 3, Leela has a quick fling with William Shatner.

Leela almost married Alkazar after he tricked her into thinking they were the last of their race.

Leela gets engaged to Yivo, along with the rest of the universe.

Leela made out with Amy Wong during the battle at Wipe Castle.

Relationship with Zapp Brannigan

Leela met Zapp Brannigan en route to Vergon 6. She took pity on him and had sex with him, something she regrets constantly. Zapp believes he still has a chance with Leela and hits on her every time they meet. Bender frequently reminds Leela about her one night stand with Zapp, to her disgust. Zapp makes an attempt to convince Leela that they will be the new Adam and Eve in the episode, In-A-Gaddafi-Da-Leela. Leela even got very upset when Zapp started dating her mom and got very close to marrying her.

Relationship with Bender

Leela first met Bender when she was chasing after 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 others 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. 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

Leela's relationships with the rest of the Planet Express crew differs from time to time. Though she mostly spends time with Fry and Bender, she sometimes hangs around Zoidberg, Hermes, and the Professor. However, apart from Bender and Fry, she hangs out most with Amy Wong. She first met Amy after joining Planet Express, and didn't think much of her. She was shocked when Amy saved her and Fry's life by flying to their rescue in the Planet Express ship. Leela and Amy's friendship is hot and cold at times, and often Leela feels jealous of her.

Relationship with Fry

"You know, Fry? I don't care if you're not the most important person in the universe. It really makes me happy to see you right now."

―Leela

"Then I am the most important person in the universe."

―Fry

Fry and Leela's wedding

While Fry seemed to have fallen in love with Leela, she at first only considered him a "kid from the stupid ages". They kiss for the first time on the Titanic. Fry often tells Leela she is beautiful and reminds her that she is perfect just the way she is. When they are turned into teenagers by age-reducing tar, they go on at least one date. When Leela is stung by the space bee, Fry first tries to save her, then sits by her hospital bed while she is in a coma. In her dreams, it is apparent that she cares for Fry as well. While they did get married during time skips, she quickly divorced him, thinking he had tricked her into marriage. In an alternate universe, Leela learns that she could be happily married to Fry if only she flipped the coin differently. During the time Fry had worms, the improvements they made to him allowed him to effortlessly woo Leela, but he lost his chances when he wanted her to love him and not what the worms made him. The Robot Devil swapped hands with Fry so that Fry could become better at playing the holophoner. Fry performs an opera to effectively win Leela's affection again, only to be interrupted by the Robot Devil's scheme to reclaim his hands. Fry plays the finale of the opera privately at Leela's request.

Leela met Lars Fillmore in Bender's Big Score and quickly fell in love with him. They planned to be married, but Lars called off the wedding mysteriously on the day of the ceremony, ending their relationship. He reveals near the end of the film that he always loved Leela, and sacrifices himself to save Leela and Fry. Leela then discovers that Lars was really the older, maturer time duplicate of Fry, and it was Fry she had been in love with.

When Fry met Colleen, Fry and Leela lost interest in each other again. However, later after Fry dumped Colleen, Leela and Fry regained their interest again in Into the Wild Green Yonder.

In "The Prisoner of Benda" Leela trades Amy for the Professor's body when she comes to beleive that Fry only loves her for her beauty. In order to beat Leela at her own game Fry switches bodies with Zoidberg in an attempt to repulse Leela. This leads them to one-up each other while doing various disgusting acts while on a date, which leads them to have sex in their equally disgusting bodies.

• This is the first time in the series Fry and Leela have sexual intercourse.

In "Overclockwise", Leela and Fry begin to wonder about the big question: what will their future be if the two decide to get together after all? Leela left Planet Express to become a real estate agent. She returns towards the end of the episode, saying she always thought of Planet Express and memories of Fry. Bender then reveals that he printed out the answers to life's greatest questions, including what becomes of Leela and Fry. Once they read it, and share facial expressions as well as slapping each other's face at least once, they smile and look at one another as the episode ends. While the contents remain unknown to the viewer, it seems clear that Fry and Leela's future together would be a wonderful one.

In "Zapp Dingbat", after convincing Leela that Munda and Zapp getting married is okay, Fry says that maybe "Zapp's not the only one who's marriage material." Leela responds "you're getting there," and gives him a kiss.

In "Fun on a Bun", at Oktoberfest, she breaks up with him when he gets drunk and embarasses her. When she thinks that she ate Fry (thinking that he fell into a sausage grinder), she goes to get all her memories of Fry erased. During Fry and herself's time without each other they think that they are missing something. Later on, Fry and Leela fight one another, neither remembering the other. When they both see each other's hair, they feel a strong sense of deja vu and, on instinct, passionately kiss. They regain their memories and get back together as they enjoy having Oktoberfest, with Leela embarassing Fry by doing the Chicken Dance.

In "Free Will Hunting", Leela is seen in bed with Fry trying to get his mind off of Bender. When Bender returns, Fry asks Bender to come back later but Fry and Leela have no choice but to help with Bender's free will hunt.

Nibbler identifies Leela as "the Other", referencing some yet unexplored aspect of Fry's prophesied destiny.

In the episode "Meanwhile", Fry proposes to Leela and they marry again. Since Fry accidently destroys the Professor's Time Button, space-time completely stops, leaving the universe in stasis. The newlyweds use this to their advantage, in the form of "a very long honeymoon."

Death & Comeback

Leela survives the Planet Express Ship crashing because of Fry shielding her with his body. After accidentally building Fry-bot with too much wiring she was severely electrocuted to death but was brought back by the stem cells.

Trivia

• Leela's officer code (1BDI) is reference to her only having one eye.
• Leela's name might be a reference to Oliver Messiaen's Turangalila symphony.
• Leela's name might be a reference to Leelandredloomsagwinaechegesima, or Leela a Dr Who companion who like Leela in futurama is a no holds bar warrior and leader.
• 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 last 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. It is also possible that Leela's name is a parody of Princess Leia Organa from Star Wars as she was once dressed up like her in the comic-con costume contest.
• The wrist device that Leela is seen consistently wearing has been shown to have at least seven uses: a communicator, reattach Fry's nose (a small laser), play tetris and Pong, detect whether or not the Omicronian young (later known as Popplers) are edible, a tracking device receiver she uses in the Central Bureaucracy, a tissue dispenser, targeted advertizing, and has a (possibly deadly) laser.
• In "Rebirth" it is revealed that Leela wears size 12 shoes.
• According to Zapp Brannigan in "Into the Wild Green Yonder", Leela's measurements are 36-24-36.
• 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 auditioned to be Rockets, however they kicked two Rockettes to death and did not get the job.
• In "Fun on a Bun", we learn that Leela is flexible as she is able to brush her hair with her foot. Fry also has this ability, as shown in the same episode, which she remarks as "double dipping."
• It is implied that Leela has multiple personality disorder as she became arrogant after being corrupted by Hollywood, and became obsessed with killing a space whale after it ate a monument she was delivering.
• The name of Leela's hair color is actually called leela (a dark shade of purple).
• In "Less than Hero" it's revealed that "Turanga" is Leela's surname.
• In her debut, it is shown that Leela 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. ("Fry Am The Egg Man".).
• Her birthday is December 3rd because in the episode ("The Late Philip J. Fry"), they move up in years not days and the date says 12/03.

Gallery

Leela with two eyes.

Fry and leela kiss in fun on a bun

Leela in bed with Fry

Leela in her undies