Also Ruth and Esther are niece's of the DonbDonbot. Ruth is the daughter of the dobbots younger sister and an affair with a low ranked member of the Jewish robit mafia and Esther is the daughter of Fanny's deceased younger sister. I'm really exploring the Mafia princess trope in Ruth as a conflicted woman who is torn between her deep love for her family and her disgust for the way they make a living as well as her Hebrew and Catholic heritages. My story has the three friends each being born in the vicinity of a volcano. Ruth is Scicilian, Esther was born in Naples and Micky was born in Edinburgh.
Micky I wrote as being like a younger, male version of Leela in that he's a humanoid alien of unknown species and he likes wearing tank tops being born to a Scottish dad and an Italian American mother. One thing I want to do is shake the characters out of their comfort zone and while Fry is essentially the little brother figure of PE, I created Micky as a fun little brother for him to play with. Someone he can teach to shave and teach to have fun. Fry strikes me as the type of guy who really wants to have children one day so I really like the idea of Fry being a fun big brother figure to the younger character. When I think about it the reason I quickly came to adore Fry as a child was because he reminded me strongly of my New York male cousin's and I always wished I had a big brother like him. I was raised almost entirely by women and I had very bad luck with my male role models. So I am channelling that into my work by having Bender and Fry being big brother figures with Bender being the bad one and Fry being the good one and what kind of adventures and hijinx the three might get up to from starting a boyband together to coming up with capers to steal gemstones or becoming superheroes together.
Another character I'm expanding is Amy, and her relationship with Kif. Micky hangs out a lot but the way they talk about him seems more like two parents disagreeing over the best way to raise their teenage daughter with Amy being the fun parent and Kif the responsible one.
Speaking of Kif and Amy I really adore their relationship and it bothered me they never had a song the way Homer and Marge do. So I've picked this to be their song.
https://youtu.be/6y6RlLFCKS4Another big influence is Thunderbirds and Stingray and Captain Scarlet, so I'm having the Rhinemaidens pilot their own versions of the Angels, as escort vessels for the PE ship. Ruth pilots Wellgunde, Micky has Flosshilde and Esther has Woglinde and since I imagine Fry watched those shows as a child what better role for him then to gradually become a sci fi hero? Call it Fry Captain Scarlet and the World of Tomorrow. Or something. The Rhinemaidens all love the Supremes and idolise a different classic member: Esther loves Diana Ross, Ruth admires Mary Wilson and Micky worships Florence Ballard. They also have a different no 1 song they sing lead on, Micky loves You Can't Hurry Love, Ruth sings Stop in the Name of Love and Esther's favourite is Love is Here and Now You're Gone.
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