Thoughts on The Final Season, Leela, and other things.....

[on:]

To start off it was very insulting to see CC advertise Futurama The Final Season and say things like, "It will be another 1000 years before you see" and "Futurama is history".  It was cool to see a Planet Of The Apes, Fry go into the past in a dream, Bender becoming Leadbelly, a fireman, and losing his beloved ass!  

I didn't get to see the final season because my TV broke.  Once I got my new one I started watching some episodes.   The one thing I really hated was that this year there were some episodes where Leela was singled out.  (At least both her and Fry got captured by an ocotopus in 40% Leadbelly and her, Farnsworth, and Zoidberg got caught in that Mushroom Dog in The Thief of Baghead.  That was different, because she got in trouble with others)

Leela was singled out in some episodes.  Think about it.  In 2D Blacktop, when she got that minivan, she was getting ordered around by Hermes.  LATGS was when she suffered the most.  The writers giving her a 'rare condition' that turned her into a squid was just an excuse to put her in the most vulnerable situation possible.  Then she ends up in a castle and gets choked, tied up, caged, and tortured.  She was stuck there for 3 months?  And that's supposed to be comedy?  It wouldn't even be funny if it happened to a male character.   The writers seem to have some sick twisted pleasure in singling out Leela sometimes.   (though it doesn't happen often)  This has happened in the comics, too.  While Leela was subjected to horrible thing that undignified her, Fry and Bender were well and free and had a fun adventure They put Leela in a horrible situation by herself just so Fry can 'prove his love' to Leela.   All because Leela is a girl who has something unusual about her so the writers can have her tortured because of it.

It's like the writers want us to believe that just because Leela is a 10th degree black belt, it's always going to be a handicap to be a girl.  And just because Fry is dumb, it's always going to be a superiority to be a boy.  Fry and Bender have a fun adventure while Leela is locked away somewhere plot never should've happened.   And girls will always be prime targets for villains.   Writers call it comedy when something like this happens to Leela.   It's not.  It's sadism.  Guess some writers have issues with tough female characters.  Maybe some writers got done in by a woman somehow.  Maybe that episode was inspired because one of the writers got dumped by a girlfriend he thought he was going to marry.  Or maybe one has a posessive, controlling wife, or going through a bitter divorce and the wife took everything.  We don't know what kind of lives TV writers lead.   Maybe one of them got hurt by a woman so bad emotionally and wanted to get back at women somehow so he wrote an episode about Leela being a damsel in distress.  (LOrd knows they can't take it out on a real woman)

Leela deserved better than being turned into a squid.   Why not have had an episode where Bender and Hermes go on another adventure together?   Or one where Leela, Fry and Bender have to save PE from going bankrupt  and they use the 'magic beans' to go to a cloud castle and get gold from a giant.  Leela and Bender could fight the giant and Fry can get the gold.  That would've been a better idea for a 'Jack And The Beanstalk' spoof.   It was an insult what happened to her.    Maybe some of the writers were pissed that they didn't invent Futurama so they can make it be the way they want it.   It was reminisant of those sexist fairy tales where a Princess gets turned into a frog or those stupid Mario cartoons where Luigi or Princess got turned into some creature or object.  

Maybe it's good that there's no new episodes.  Or who knows what could've been.  I'm fine with it continuing on through the comics.  After all Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Sonic all have had TV Shows/cartoons and movies and they're comics are still going strong.  

Why don't the writers just come out and do what they really want to do to Leela?  Make her be some shirking violet or some long suffering mad scientist assisant.   Also she was tortured in Meanwhile when she got stuck in that toy machine and got her hand severed.     It didn't happen all the time, just every now and then.    Guess the writers thought Leela needed to suffer some indignities before Futurama's last hurrah.   I know it is what it is, and I know what happened happened,......but it could've been better.  The writers should've done something more positive with Leela.  
 
I was not trying to impose my beliefs on you people nor was I trying to get you all to agree with me or see things the way I do.  Just expressing my opinions is all.  Take it or leave it.  Have a nice day.

And those were my thoughts on the final season.  

[Reply #1 on:]

KurtPikachu, why do you care about what happens to Leela so much? She's just a fictional character.

I mean there's only like 2 or 3 episodes where she's viewed as the inferior type. But hey, that's only 3 out of what, 140 episodes? 

[Reply #2 on:]

This really could have gone in any one of half a dozen existing threads, Kurt.

[Reply #3 on:]

When has the Princess ever been turned into a frog in fairy tales?

[Reply #4 on:]

I didn't get to see the final season because my TV broke.  Once I got my new one I started watching some episodes.   The one thing I really hated was that this year there were some episodes where Leela was singled out.  (At least both her and Fry got captured by an ocotopus in 40% Leadbelly and her, Farnsworth, and Zoidberg got caught in that Mushroom Dog in The Thief of Baghead.  That was different, because she got in trouble with others)

Well let's see, she was eaten by Blorgulax in MOTPE.
I just have to say something: Leela-based episodes are usually shit (ALOHO, YLL).
She is partially-likeable at times.
I actually believe she deserved to turn into the definition of Japanese porn, she acts hypocritical sometimes. All I'm thinking is when I was reading that is that every single episode should have been about Leela.
I mean look at Fry, he's being mutilated every several episodes..
If you like her, okay.
I have no problem in opinions.

When has the Princess ever been turned into a frog in fairy tales?

Disney's Princess and the Frog.
If you count that.  

[Reply #5 on:]

I don't think it's fair to insinuate that the writers are terrible misogynists because sometimes bad things happen to Leela. You might have a case if it weren't for the fact that the majority of bad things in the show tend to happen to Fry: a male character.

It would be far more sexist to have all the bad things happen to the male characters and treat the female characters like precious little flowers that can't handle any sort of adversity.

[Reply #6 on:]

Leela isn't like sweet little girl Amy that cant fight over a boy, or like Fry and Bender that always scares when they got boned.

[Reply #7 on:]

I actually believe she deserved to turn into the definition of Japanese porn, she acts hypocritical sometimes.  

Yep, the significant final twist was basically Leela objecting to genetic engineering, unless is beneficary for her.
A twist that could have hardly been served by an unmutated Leela.

[Reply #8 on:]

Saying Leela is singled out is ridiculous.

In this same season, Fry had to experience a horrific death countless times whilst stuck in a loop.

Fry was frozen in carbonite.

Fry was stranded on an Omicronian planet where he lived in constant fear of death and his friend drank his blood daily.

Bender, Amy and Gunther spent a week inside a giant space worm, before being shat out the other end.

Calculon was killed off for a second time.

And Zoidberg is the obvious whipping boy when it comes to this show.

[Reply #9 on:]

It's not sadism, It's storytelling. If there was no conflict, what the hell would they do on the show? So what if the conflict happens to involve Leela? That doesn't mean the writers are full-fledged woman haters, like you pretty much claim they are.

It's not tlike she's freaking defenseless - She can handle a Ray Gun, Pilot a Ship, and knows freaking kung-fu style fighting. If she was in serious trouble, she'd be able to save herself.

You make it sound like she's the most depressed, sucidal character ever, but she really is not. She clearly enjoys life, and loves all of the people surrounding her daily.

What do you want them to do with Leela? Just have her sit in the corner and say "I Love Fry!" every ten seconds? I'd much rather see her get into conflicts than just see her go shopping and throwing around gossip, they way you want it to be.

Your post is really trollish, by the way. It seems like you're trying to start some sort of fight on here to me, what with your one-sided opinions and all.

 Leela's a fake character. She's not real, and she never will be. I get being a devoted fan, but you do not need to be getting so worked up about a fictional character's life.

[Reply #10 on:]

It would be far more sexist to have all the bad things happen to the male characters and treat the female characters like precious little flowers that can't handle any sort of adversity.

I remember Matt Groening saying on one commentary, I believe Xmas Story, that he was pleased the two main female characters of Futurama weren't immune to slapstick humour, since he felt the two main female Simpsons characters were/are.

[Reply #11 on:]

Kurt, you seem to feel so strongly that Leela's been mistreated by the writers, but after seriously considering your opinion, I genuinely can't see at all where you've gotten that impression.

You said that Leela was treated sadistically in LATGS. Well, if you're going to make that claim, you'd also have to acknowledge that Kif, Fry, and Zapp were treated cruelly in AWITM, right? Or that Bender was tortured in Bendin' in the Wind?
Furthermore, in Meanwhile, when Leela's hand was severed, how do you see that as being any worse than Fry jumping off a building and repeatedly "dying"? Also, Fry had his whole arm cut off in WMIBACIL, so I don't think a case can be made that Leela having her hand severed is a sign of the writers' misogyny.

As Jezzem pointed out, it would be sexist if the female characters were treated as delicate little creatures that can't withstand any injuries. I've always appreciated that Leela is just as susceptible to slapstick humor as Fry, and I'm definitely not a misogynist. I hate when females are treated as frail little things that can't handle any injuries.

I'm sure you didn't intend it this way, Kurt, but to me your post smacks of misandry, too. I just don't understand how to you it's acceptable for all of the male characters to be seriously harmed, but Leela can't even be wounded without it being terribly offensive.

I like Leela very much and have recently written a rant-y post about how sometimes I think she's judged too harshly by fans, so please don't think I just want Leela to be hurt, Kurt.