Leela's Homeworld errors

[Reply #40 on:]

i figured she was willing to be mutated because she was so desperate to know more about herself. I also think that she legitamely believed that she was an alien since that was the story she had been told all her life. And i think she didn't ask them to take off their hoods because, why bother? They had just addmitted to killing her parents so what other proof would she need? Especially while she was in the total freak out/revenge mode she was in. She obviously had no problem addmitting she was a mutant since she didn't have that much of a reaction to her parents telling her she was one. She was more interested in the fact that they were related to her then to the fact that they were mutant.

[Reply #41 on:]

I am starting to change what I see it as:  She believed she was an alien.  She was willing to become mutated to find out who these strangers were that were helping her and collecting information on her.  So she jumps in, and is not mutated.  She is very surprized at this, but is still freaking out about the weird Leela shrine these mutants had of her (she did almost crack there, she went catonic over it).  She ignores the fact that she could be a mutant.  When Fry unveils them, she is quick to accept it because she was not mutated and they look like her.

The main problem I had was that I didn't think she would be willing to be horribly mutated over something that could just end up being some weird mutants having a Leela fetish.

[Reply #42 on:]

I still wonder about this:

Leela: It's all the best stuff I ever flushed down the toilet. Those are some of my diary pages and my screen play.

Fry: And for some reason, the letter I wrote you full of my personal feelings.

First off, if it's her best stuff, why'd she flush it?

Second, all the things previously mentioned were stuff she'd written. The letter that Fry wrote is a little out of place. I can see the diary pages and screenplay, maybe even bills with her name, but Fry's note? Why would they keep it for no other reason than it was flushed by her. Is the letter considered her property? Escpecially since she flushed it, rejecting things said on the note

[Reply #43 on:]

McGrady: yeah. i was kinda confused by that too. She may have thought they were a potential threat to her. Serial Killers have a tendency to stalk first.She did say she was frightened by it and she dosn't strike me as the type of person to just sit and be scared. She may have reacted as she did as a way of facing that fear. It may have even been the use of her first name that tipped her off that they knew something about her since she never goes by that name.Or maybe it was just some gut woman intuition thing, i have no explination on that one.

[Reply #44 on:]

The best stuff of the garbage she has flushed, not the best stuff overall that she has that she flushed.

And the note: they kept it because Fry is a "normal" who loves Leela ("at least she has normal people who love her, here is the proof&quot

And that is why I love the show; the show is very deep and emtional, and people are willing to discuss it.

[Reply #45 on:]

i agree with grady on the reason they kept that note from fry

[Reply #46 on:]

 

Originally posted by McGrady:
The main problem I had was that I didn't think she would be willing to be horribly mutated over something that could just end up being some weird mutants having a Leela fetish.

Is that really so hard to believe? She was willing to have snu-snu with an alien claiming to know about her past to preserve the species. I'd think jumping in waters that could mutate her hardly mattered as long as she learned something.

[Reply #47 on:]

getting it on with that guy to preserve the species confused me greatly. If he had been an actual cyclops and they got it on and had little cyclops then the species would still end with those children because they would be unable to find spouces to create the next generation with.

[Reply #48 on:]

 

Originally posted by McGrady:
The best stuff of the garbage she has flushed, not the best stuff overall that she has that she flushed.

And the note: they kept it because Fry is a "normal" who loves Leela ("at least she has normal people who love her, here is the proof" 

And that is why I love the show; the show is very deep and emtional, and people are willing to discuss it.

Are you sure Fry is normal?  Anyway, that's what'd I'd been hinting at

[Reply #49 on:]

I think there is some difference between having a child to save a species (she believed she and Al were the only 2 left) and becoming permanently mutated into a monster (over something that very well might end up being nothing).

Allen:  No fry isn't normal, he is super special.  The nibblonians (most advanced super species) selected him because he was not normal.  Just look at his brain: it behaves more different than a tree's "thoughts" do to us.

[Reply #50 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
getting it on with that guy to preserve the species confused me greatly. If he had been an actual cyclops and they got it on and had little cyclops then the species would still end with those children because they would be unable to find spouces to create the next generation with.

That's kind of like saying: How did Adam and Eve populate Earth

You make sense, but there have to be others like them.

[Reply #51 on:]

yeah true. but she wasn't exactly rational at the moment she jumped, she might not have thought everything out and only realized she should have been mutated after she had hit the water.

[Reply #52 on:]

 

Originally posted by McGrady:
I think there is some difference between having a child to save a species (she believed she and Al were the only 2 left) and becoming permanently mutated into a monster (over something that very well might end up being nothing).

Allen:  No fry isn't normal, he is super special.  The nibblonians (most advanced super species) selected him because he was not normal.  Just look at his brain: it behaves more different than a tree's "thoughts" do to us.

Yes I knew that. The day the Earth Stood Stupid is my fave. Fry ep.

She still did "anything" to find out the truth about herself. That was my point

[Reply #53 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
getting it on with that guy to preserve the species confused me greatly. If he had been an actual cyclops and they got it on and had little cyclops then the species would still end with those children because they would be unable to find spouces to create the next generation with.

Hooray for incest!

[Reply #54 on:]

 

Originally posted by Allen:
 That's kind of like saying: How did Adam and Eve populate Earth 

Imbreeding!      

[Reply #55 on:]

Bah, it's called incest.  Sure, 50% will die, and 25% will be screwed, but a good 25% of the children might live, and after a while, the species might be better, look at dogs =)

It's horrible, but that might be the only way...

That or creating human/cyclops hybrids, and figuring out the genetic drift, that would probably work.

[Reply #56 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
 Imbreeding!       

There's the answer to your question then!

[Reply #57 on:]

and 100 years down the line all their screwed up proginy will wind up as drucken hicks all living in Georgia and Alabama.

[Reply #58 on:]

Probably

[Reply #59 on:]

Running the fox network

[Reply #60 on:]

never say or think that again! ::shudders:: I Want My Mommy!

[Reply #61 on:]

Yep That's right

[Reply #62 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
never say or think that again! ::shudders:: I Want My Mommy!

I do too. Oh wait! Mine's right here

[Reply #63 on:]

 

Originally posted by Venus:
I Want My Mommy!

Are you sure you want to announce this just after we finished discussing incest?

[Reply #64 on:]

 

Letting their daughter shoot them in cold blood in their own house = one hysterical daughter. NOT a well thought out plan on their parts.

So, she would most definitely develop that mental illness, she talked about. Forcing herself to repress the fact that she did kill her parents would later come back as a complete breakdown. Either way, killing them out of ignorance or denial would land her in the loony bin.

Leela was quite un-Leela in 4ACV02; she may be scared to death, but a cold-blooded killer she ain't... and her reasoning "they have a bracelet identical to the one my parents left with me, so they must've robbed them" was total nonsense. The radioactive lake must've altered her brain or something.

Anyway, on the "denial" theory... notice how she carefully loads the gun to maximum capacity. If she had fired it, most likely her parents would've vaporized before her eyes, still hooded, and she would never see their faces, and go on believing she was a mutant - but killing two unarmed people out of revenge and finding out you'll never ever find your family (since she would go trying to believe she's an alien, but now her parents would be dead), would surely throw her into the loony bin after all.

[Reply #65 on:]

And Fry would have told her. I don't know if they would have vaporized. People shot with lasars seem to be hurt or killed, not vaporized.

[Reply #66 on:]

has anyone actually been shot with a laser who wasn't vaporized if they were killed?  The only person I remember actually getting shot with a laser was president McNeil... and he was vaporized.

It seemed to me she was looking for excuses for them to not be her parents, and used faulty misleading logic to determine she wasn't a mutant; thus, her parents couldn't be mutants (maybe she didn't care if she was a mutant, she just didn't want her parents to turn out to be mutants)

Leela: I believe I am an alienLet's see what they know about my parents... (jump into lake) Wait, I wasn't mutated, what the hell is going on?... I know my parents would try to find me... wait, a bracelet like mine... now they say they killed my parents... that is why they couldn't find me... vaporize

[Reply #67 on:]

I would still think there would be something left to identify them with. Fry still would have told her what she had done.

[Reply #68 on:]

 

Originally posted by McGrady:
The only person I remember actually getting shot with a laser was president McNeil... and he was vaporized.

McNeil was incinerated not vaporized; evidenced by the pile of ashes he became.  Lrrr probably has an infrared heat ray rather than a vaporizer.

[Reply #69 on:]

But of course, no one who's confused and emotional and going through serious turmoil over their identity ever has a single motivation.
It makes some sense that Leela would be having two different reactions at the same time. All her life, after all, she's grown up both striving to be strong and competent in order to "prove herself" to everyone, because no one's ever accepted her, but she certainly has a lot of loneliness over the unrequited love she knows she's missing. I think that she was both reluctant to admit to being a mutant (remember! Mutants = scum! You do NOT want to be a mutant! A lone alien of unknown origins is at worst a weird-looking person and at best a very romanticized idea. A particularly human mutant is a mutant nonetheless.) but also beginning to wonder if she was.
The slime-dive, for example-- she was that desparate to find out what was going on, but only because she was beginning to sense her connection to these people. If they were just a pair of lonely mutants, they wouldn't be as interesting as her parents. And having just been reminded how alone she was by her award, there simply wouldn't be anything worth staying for if her parents _weren't_ down there. On the other hand, losing the romantic-lone-alien-kickasser-babe image in favor of a low-profile family she's spent her life trying not to need is not easy. And her parents were certainly eager to keep that illusion up. Thus, she's being told what she wants to hear even though she doesn't completely believe it. I would hate to see what would happen if she did off them... so much remorse. 
And I like the idea of the parents supporting Fry. Can't you just imagine the classic gag of sending a present with the other person's name on it, with stuff found in a sewer? 

[Reply #70 on:]

You'll also notice (I'm sure you said this *somewhere*) that she thought of her parents as powerful people. (Overlords or alien janitors who fought crime on the side.) I still think that dying by their daughter's hand was a bad idea. If they wanted to die rather than having her find out, they should have offed themselves.

One thing still confuses me about the denial theory. She accepted them with open arms. I think she would have done the same thing if she'd known earlier. Everyone needs a family, but now Fry is truly alone. Except for Farnsworth, but their relationship is boss-employee and not much else. 

[Reply #71 on:]

wooo!  someone who agrees with me!  yay.  Moonside put it in words better than I did.

Yeah, it was a bad idea to have their own daughter kill them... I doubt fry would have told leela if he showed up just when she was all happy about killing her parents killers.  However, her parents could have been on the verge of telling her; her father definately was.  But, they would rather die thus avoiding having to face her as mutants (even if she went psycho!); or, they might have such a low view of themselves that they believe if Leela found out they were mutants, she would kill them *because* they were mutants and she was so ashamed of them.

She accepted them with open arms because it was forced upon her.  If she knew these people were her parents, she would not have threatened to shoot them.  Remember, she probably refused to believe the idea that they even might be her parents; "These might be my parents?  Ha, that is the dumbest thing I have ever thought, I refuse to even think of it anymore".  She then blocks it mentally.  Part of denial is the refusal of even believing it is a possibility... even if you know subconsciously it is true.

And yes, she believed her parents were much more than they were, which could be part of her denial ("My parents can't be mutants, because they are out in space somewhere, ruling over a planet&quot .

Fry will always have Zoidberg.  You ALL have Zoidberg.

[Reply #72 on:]

She sure didn't sound like she was forced to accept it. I still say acceptance does not come so openly.

[Reply #73 on:]

The reason that she didn't see the true connection of that bracelet when she took it off her mother may have been because she never would have thought her parents would run and hide from her. And since she did accept them so redily makes me think that it dosn't matter to her at all that she's a mutant, or if it does, then not enough to make her want nothing to do with them. i'm not sure why people think that she's so anti mutant, i've never seen any indication that she was.

[Reply #74 on:]

Niether have I

[Reply #75 on:]

i know that in I Second That Emotion she said the line "Mutants don't exist, their a ridiculous suburban legend" but that wasn't racism that was straight out skepticism. I will believe in almost anything but if you told me their were mutants living in my sewers i would be skeptical too.

[Reply #76 on:]

You make a good point.

[Reply #77 on:]

I am not saying she is racist.  I did not say she hated mutants.  The society is against mutants.  I said she had an aversion to them.  She stayed away from the mutants when possible, and only associated with them when she had to.  I illustrated the fact that she didn't like abnormal humans through the date she had with the lizard tongue guy, and she would on accept guys with 7 eyes or less.

She refused to believe that her parents were mutants hiding in the sewer (yes, she could have refused to believe her parents would stay away from her, not necessarily that she couldn't stand them because they were mutants).  She refused to try to find out the actual truth by not forcing them to remove their hoods.  She was forced to accept the truth because Fry took off their hoods and showed her that they looked exactly like her.  At this point, she either had to believe that they are her parents, or continued refusing the truth (and probably any truth after this point).  She would have shot them even if Fry took off their hoods if she continued to not believe that these were her parents.  The definition of forced is: To compel through pressure or necessity.  The outside force was Fry.  If he was not there, she would have shot her parents, who she believe killed her "true parents".  She made up her mind that they were not her parents.  Fry changed her mind by showing her that they were her parents.

The main point I am trying to make is, she did not want believe the strangers were her parents.  She made excuses for them not to be her parents, no matter how weak the excuses were.  When Fry finally unvieled them, she had to realize that they were her parents, as there was too much evidence that they were.

[Reply #78 on:]

It's like finding out that the dog you found in Mexico is actually a rat.

[Reply #79 on:]

i hate dogs. but i like rats.