Leela's ocular oddity

[Reply #40 on:]

But it is an oval shape. It's not round.

[Reply #41 on:]

Yeah, i know. I had never given any thought to it being ovular until this thread. Mainly because I dont want to imagine Leela looking to the side and having her eye bulge out of the socket.

Besides, its still round if its ovular.

And im going to continue thinking of her eye as round because Im narrow minded and dont want to explore the fact that there could possibly be some flaw in her design. 

[Reply #42 on:]

Bulge? It wouldn't need to bulge. From an out ward apperance it would just look like it was rolled to the side as a normal eye. Im just saying that the outward look is that it is larger then it actualy is and the sides fold behind the side of the socket when it's turned.
That or wizard magic.

[Reply #43 on:]

I dont get that at all man. So im gonna say Wizard magic. Im acctually drawing a picture here to try and figure this out. lol.

[Reply #44 on:]

You haven't considered that the ovality might be small and/or that the(in lack of better word) padding on the edge between the eye and the eyesocket might be quite thick so it doesn't really show?

[Reply #45 on:]

Well, im just considering depth. But these are simpson's style art, so theyre eyes look weird. I dont see how a giant ovular eye is possible unless were talking about it being saucer shaped(I couldnt think of anything better.)

I mean, I think im definatley missing what your saying. Im trying to picture it...

[Reply #46 on:]

Head from above:



You see? There's a small gap there in the front which would allow for room to turn, the muscles fit in the back. As do the optical nerve. But it's tight.

[Reply #47 on:]

ooooh, I see now. Thanks alot man. That picture helps. 

[Reply #48 on:]

I got this definition from medicinenet.com.  I thought it would be useful. 

*Cyclopia: A congenital abnormality (birth defect) in which there is only one eye. That eye is centrally placed in the area normally occupied by the root of the nose. There is a missing nose or a nose in the form of a proboscis (a tubular appendage) located above the eye.

Cyclopia and milder forms of the same developmental disorder result from holoprosencephaly which is a failure of the embryonic forebrain to subdivide properly. (The embryonic forebrain is normally responsible for inducing the development of the orbits.) Chromosome abnormalities (such as trisomy 13) and gene mutations can disrupt this process. So also can certain toxins, some of them found in wild plants.

The term "cyclopia" comes from the Cyclops, the one-eyed giants of Greek mythology, a mythical race of lawless giant shepherds who lived in Sicily. They had a single large round eye in the center of the forehead. The word "cyclops" itself comes from the Greek "kyklos" (circle) + "ops" (eye). Cyclopia is also called synophthalmia.*

Leela is not like person with cyclopia but more like a mythical cyclops. 

[Reply #49 on:]

Not quite the mythical cyclops, either.

The legend of the cyclops is based on Greek discovery of Elephant skulls. They had never seen the animal and thought that the large hold in the upper middle of the face belonged to an eye. As we know, that hole is the opening of the trunk, and the eyes are on the side of the head. The Greeks thought that this "one eyed" skull belonged to a giant human-- the mythical Cyclops was a giant

[Reply #50 on:]

what about the total surface area?

[Reply #51 on:]

What ABOUT the total surface area? Remember, not even half of the human eye is seen from the outside of the skull.

[Reply #52 on:]

There's another idea.  Perhaps, being a mutant, Leela's eye operates on a different principle with regards to movement.

In Humans, the direction of sight is controled by rotating the entire eye in the socket.  This is why we have spherical eyes.

In Leela's case, perhaps the eye doesn't move at all, but the white of the eye is actually a muscle with a hole in it for the pupil.  So, if this muscle tightens on one side and loosens on the other, the front of the eye will move, and the pupil will move as well.  So Leela's eyeball may well look like a partially deflated football.

Also, if we're thinking about this cartoon character as though she was an actual being, we should bear in mind the actual size of her pupil.  If Leela's eye is spherical, than her retina will be quite a distance back from the pupil, at least 10 centimeters.  A Human's retina is much closer.  Would this mean that leela would have a different sized pupil?  I'm no opthamologist, so i can't rightly answer, but I'm sure one of you guys would know the answer to this.

[Reply #53 on:]

Her eye is the same size as a normal eye look:
 http://www.freewebs.com/thefleapit/zposter%20futurama.jpg

[Reply #54 on:]

Q: Why does that poster look so very wrong?

A: because the artist thought Leela's eye was the same size as a normal eye.

IT'S NOT.

[Reply #55 on:]

Did this really need to be bumped?

[Reply #56 on:]

Leela's eye takes about the same amount of space on her face than the two eyes of most other humanoids do. That makes it a lot bigger than average, more than twice the diameter of a standard eye and therefore MUCH more roomy. Let us assume for a moment an average skull is about 20 cm wide, that would make her eye about 10-15 cm in diameter. And of course it is round, not oval, because we only ever get to see a bit of it that is not covered by eyelid or eyesocket. As this singular eye takes up a lot more space than two smaller eyes, I guess there must be some major modifications to her skull as well - it must be bigger to allow for the extra eye space and still be able to contain a standard-size brain. My guess is that her skull is higher than usual, allowing her to have the typical human features like a nose and a forehead and still being able to fit in a normal-sized brain. The muscle thing is probably right, but they would not have to be all that strong as the liquid inside the eye is not solid and therefore does not have to be moved when the eye turns. However, Leela's head is probably somewhat heavier than usual - no wonder as it is probably bigger. As that eye is a mutation, it is probably not perfectly adapted to fit the requirements, thus Leela has some slight visual defects. But I imagine this eye must have some positive effects as well, like better night vision. Her area of retina must be huge, as must be the pupil opening, making the eye a lot more light-sensitive.

[Reply #57 on:]

Her skull seems to be the same size as anyone else as far as i can tell. Maybe it's possible that her brain is actually smaller than normal but she just uses more of it.

[Reply #58 on:]

Didn't Sarge at one point (waaaay back in 2001) comment on the height of Leela's head? That it was considerably larger than it appears at first sight.

Edit: Yes, yes he did. 

[Reply #59 on:]

This would be a possible explanation as she has such a lot of hair to hide it under - perhaps this is a consciuos decision by her to obscure that feature and make herself more inconspicuous? People tend to get nervous when they notice that someone doesn't only have one huge eye instead of something familiar, but also a huge head hinting superior intelligence. Many people are prepared to accept peculiar outfits, but they tend to draw the line where they suspect funny-looking people are smarter than they are.

[Reply #60 on:]

Leela's eye shape to me is circular.  I agree with that fact that it's probably much bigger than the average eyes of the characters.  i.e. Leela's eye is probably bigger than Fry's.