Colleen is the only one of Fry's girlfriends I like

[on:]

Besides Amy.

Discuss.

[Reply #1 on:]

I don't know who she is.  I guess she's from one of those movies that I haven't seen.

I like Umbriel.

[Reply #2 on:]

I did but sexual compatibility is a big fin (lol)

I did like Umbriel but I genuinely liked Coleen.  I was assuming she would be another joyless scold like Michelle and Leela often is (I'm sorry but pretty wmuch every screencap I have seen of the two of them as a couple has Leela usually shouting or snarling at Fry who never argues back, just sits there looking extremely sad while she shouts at him.   Fry seems like he has a learning disability that affets time management, such as dyspraxia or dyslexia or ADHD, but deliberately ordering the two most expensive dinners on the menu, eating them both herself and leaving him with the bill.,.. is pretty typical Leela behaviour.

Coleen... I dunno since her personality was not explored very much, but she seemed like a genuinely caring and fun person to be around, which is something no one can say about Michelle and we used to be able to say about Leela.   Coleen never felt like someone who pretended to be something she wasn't, and was unapologetic about her desire to have multiple boyfriends.  

Just pretty much every epsiode where Fry succeeds, it's almsot always Leela or Bender's selfishness that ruin it for him.    

I just really want to see some episodes where for once the dynamic has changed, and it's Fry having multiple ladies to choose from and Leela has to work on herself for once.   The thing is Amy and Fry have made huge strides in personal growth, yet in contrast Leela has pretty much stagnated as a character.  What makes Leela think she's so damn perfect that everything that goes wrong in her relationship is his fault, not hers?   Honestly, rewatching the series as a much older, more experienced adult felt too upsetting for me at times, and it didn't feel like a fun comedy series anymore but a portrait of how poorly understood, noticed or even cared about mental health in young men is.    If Fry was a woman and Leela was a man it would be seen as the toxic, co-dependent rellationship it is, but apparently a deeply unhealthy relationship of one partner doing allt he taking and one doing all the giving is apparently something to strive for.

The thing is Leela arguably treats Fry even worse since they got together, as she is constantly dumping him out of the blue, refuses to communicate her feelings, shows no interest in his.... like honestly I think one of the reasons why I think Amy and Fry was a better pairing is that out of the PE team, Amy takes the most interest in Fry's hobbies, likes, dislikes and ambitions (even though the bar is set so slow), while every word out of Leela's mouth is ME ME ME ME MY CRAP CHILDHOOD ME ME ME ME I HAD A CRAP CHILDHOOD SO ITS TIME TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE AROUND ME IN A THREE MILE RADIUS AS MISERABLE AS POSSIBLE

sorry, I just am annoyed that I loved Leela as a child, but as an adult she reminds me too much of some of my most abusive female relatives, so having the same dynamics go on in a romantic relationship.... as you might imagine it makes me extremely uncomfortable.  

I would say one of the main reasons why the Fry Leela pairing is quite probably one of my most disliked official ships of all time... I don't know.   Seeing Leela make goo goo eyes at just about every male who does so much as glance at her and gush about how much she loves musicians.... she consistinetly shows no appreciation for Fry's musical genius and in fact sabotaged the opera he wrote for her because of her typically Leela behaviour: impulsive, reckless and little regard for others. 

I really wish the writers hadn't made me dislike her, because this character was one of my biggest childhood heroines, and seeing a relationship more like an abusive, narcisttic older sister and a vulnerable little brother with some form of learning disability then a romantic adult relationship, it just makes me wonder what these people's idea of a bad relationship is if they present an especially unhealthy one as a romantic ideal between a hero and a heroine. 

[Reply #3 on:]

I guess the reason why I find myself feeling sadder for Fry then Amy is becacuse the Amies I know in real life have things to make up for what they lost or never had.  Amy has a loving relationship with a man who adores her and grants her the emotional stability and mutual affection she lacked from her parents, and her parents, while evil and abusive, are at least still alive so Amy has that kind of emotional security and of course the finances and connections to make a lot of her dreams come true.

Fry has.... a best friend and a girlfriend who treat him like garbage.    I think the less successful epsiodes of Futurama are the ones that cross the line between dark comedy into straight up unfunny Meg-level meanness, and for me the ones that try to convince us that Fry needs to work harder and improve himself for a woman that doesn't seem to do much except withhold affection, dismiss his ambitions, constantly verbally abuse and belittle and even physically hit him if she feels like it and is generally emotionally exhuasting and condescending and rude to everyone around her, and for all her talk about loving animals seems to enjoy torturing them. 

It's a shame because I feel like Fry and Leela's relationship was executed so poorly for me when it could have been one of the greatest love stories in animation, but instead the show spends so much time telling us that Fry and Leela are soulmates who belong together but they never say why.   For me, my theory is that Leela is a surrogate mother figure to Fry, and he isn't really sexually attracted to her, he's trying to earn what he was never able to do in his childhood, and that was to earn the unconditotional love and nurturing of his emotionaly abusive, neglectful mother.

[Reply #4 on:]

I would argue one of the biggest flaws of some Futurama eps is that they suffer from the inconsistency joke problem: sometimes they never seem to be sure whether they are being edgy for a cheap laugh or they are trying to be heartfelt and serious, and while a combination of funny and genuinely heartwarming can be done well, but I think the CC team was of course far worse with this:  I have no idea why Leela suddenly started making jokes about stamping sea turtles into a pulp and clubbing baby seals and then another epsiode we are supposed to believe she's two steps away from becoming a vegan so deep is her compassion for animals.    Girl please.,

If I would say one thing about Leela's writing is that the show never really calls her out on her many hypocrisies and contradictions and the narrative often wants us to believe she is in the right even when anyone can half a brain see she is very much not

Maybe I should stop watching Futurama for a while, it is angrying up my blood sometimes.