What's Bender's backstory?

[on:]

Hi, I'm new, and I have been wondering about this for some time: why is Bender the only main character on Futurama without a major backstory, or "mythology", on par with Fry or Leela's ?  Was there never one to begin with, or did the writers plan to reveal one later in the show's run?

[Reply #1 on:]

What kind of a backstory could you give him, he is only four years old.

[Reply #2 on:]

He did go to bending school and was part of the Robot House Frat. 

[Reply #3 on:]

Yes, he did have a story.

He was build four years before Bendless Love in a MOM-Corp factory in Tijuana Mexico. Graduated there in standard bending, probably bent around Europe for some time, in between did he do further studies in bending (major) and Robo-American-Studies (minor), also was he part of ΕΡΡ (epsilon-rho-rho).
Then he got the job at Stop'n'drop where he made the girders for suicide booths until he decided to commit suicide.
Now that's where he met Fry.

[Reply #4 on:]

GFF, Episilon-Rho-Rho is ERR, not EPP.

[Reply #5 on:]

This seems a bit weird Shauker, but that should be written in greek letters not our latins.

This isn't a "P" as we know it but the greek rho as a capital-letter.
The truetype-font Peel uses displays it so bad, normally it has more serifs.

[Reply #6 on:]

GFF is halfway right, a capital Rho is similar to a Latin capital P, so EPP would be the correct way of writing it. But the Futurama writers probably felt that would make the Err joke too obscure.

Edit:beaten by the man himself 

[Reply #7 on:]

Don't forget that he's a convicted felon, as seen in AHITP so he must've spent some time behind bars. I assume that that would've occurred before he met Fry and the rest, considering how very surprised everyone got in AHITP...

[Reply #8 on:]

Question: He was in a robot frat at university, but in his birth we see him learning everything about bending through a computer.

...

OK, that wasn't a question. I'm just confused.

[Reply #9 on:]

I believe that he was put into a bending school, where he must've learned the basic bending. Then he attended a bending college where he majored (sp?) in bending.

I hope that answers your, um, confusion.

[Reply #10 on:]

plus, in The Series Has Landed, while watching the "Whalers on the Moon" thing, Bender is embarrassed by a robot in the show who he "went to high school with"...which is impossible because we watch his entire high school career...all 5 seconds of it.

[Reply #11 on:]

Perhaps the computer-school was just grade school or junior high. Mayhap he went to some public robot high school with the Whaler. They have those in the future, right? The things you should be questioning are the transitions. How'd he get from Tijuana (Birth) to Mars (College) to New New York (Suicide booth bender/Planet Express)? To add to that, how'd he do it all in four years?

[Reply #12 on:]

He did not go to Mars for College he was just in the same fraternity.  If it was a popular one there could be many chapters.  I don't know to explain the Whaler robot he went to high school with.  Also didn't Bender say he went to school with that stereo robot at the Beast Boys Concert in Hell is the Other Robot?   

[Reply #13 on:]

I think Bender just said that that Stereo Robot was just an old pal. Could've gone to school together, but they may have met at Bender's old suicide booth bending job as well. They could've been co-workers. I'm sure robots who abuse electricity could be suicidal (and aptly work there at the suicide booth factory).

If he didn't go to college (at least at Mars U.) then how did he settle on Bending as his major and Robo-Amercan Studies as a minor? What other school could he have gone to? I'm pretty sure Bender attended Mars U.

[Reply #14 on:]

I'm sure that he didn't go to Mars U. Because of some quotes from the Mars U episode

the first one :
 

Dialog by Bender, Leela and Fry:
B: Hey, look. There is a chapter of my old robot fraternity. epsilon-rho-rho
L: You went to college?
B: Of corse! I'm a Bender I went to Bending-college. I majored in bending.
F: What was your minor?
B: Robo-American-studies

That tells us that he went to college. The "a" also says that there have to be more chapters of epsilon-rho-rho than that on Mars, it also tells us that this isn't the chapter in which Bender was in.

the second one:
 

Dialog by Bender, Gearshift, Oily and Fatbot :
B: Uh-oh! Nerds!
G: Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Gearshift, chapter's president. This is Oily and this here is Fatbot.
B: You are all losers. My name is Bender!
G&O&F: Ahhhh..
O: Bender, from Bending State? Bender? Wow! You're a legend around here!

Bender is from Bending State, not Mars U.

The Fender (from the Beastie Boys concert) seems to be a mate from High School.
 

Dialog by Bender and Fender:
F: Hey Bender!
B: Hey Fender! Man I haven't seen you since high school! You're still working at Jack in the Box?
F: Not anymore Baby! I'm with the Band!

Well Bender knows him since then. But I think that doesn't mean that Fender went also on Bending State.

[Reply #15 on:]

Okay, so Bender definetely went to a public robot high school with Fender and the Whaler robot. Fender COULD'VE gone to Bending State. It's not just a bending college. You can learn many things like Robo-American studies too. The name is misleading.

Did he meet Roberto in high school? How did they come to be friends? No matter. Now where is Bending U? That's the question that has gone unanswered. Could it be in New New York?

[Reply #16 on:]

This is a good question. Bending State could be everywhere in the US or Mexico. We don't get to know more details about it than from that episode. I don't think he left north america for it.
And for Roberto, they seem to be pals for a long time know, because they haven't seen each other for long. But I doubt that Roberto went to college, he doesn't seem to be that good educated, unless they are teaching how to use knives.   
Maybe they know each other from the job at Stop'n'Drop.
(Roberto could have been one of the weapon experts  )

[Reply #17 on:]

Well all I know is that Bender was made in Tijuana,Mexico.And his father got killed by a can opener (as mentioned in "I Second That Emotion" ).He went to Bending State College and was in a club called robot house.He went to highschool with his friend Fender.After he was finished with Bending State college he went and got a job as a bending robot.He was bending girders for making suicide booths.He tried to kill himself by using the suicide booths (as mentioned in Space Pilot 3000).Then he met Fry,Leela and the professor.Now he works at Planet Express helping out with the delivery.He likes smoking,drinking and robot porn.

[Reply #18 on:]

which still doesnt answer the question about going to high school with all these other robots. The graduation ceremony we see in Bendless Love was a high school graduation- he wore a cap and tassel, got a diploma, and probably bended around Europe for a few months...Europen trips generally happen after high school graduation for Americans.

[Reply #19 on:]

Bender was built on an assembly line, so logically other robots were being build in front of and behind him. His entire high school education took all of five seconds (the upload in "Bendless Love" ). His "classmates" (such as Fender and the whalerbot) were the robots closest were the robots build on the same day, because they all "graduated" the same day.

[Reply #20 on:]

roberto could be classified in the convicted felon catagory of Bender's life or some gambling buddy.

[Reply #21 on:]

you see bender being "born" and "graduating" and learn how he was in a frat in and what college he went to through various episodes.

[Reply #22 on:]

In the commentary for "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" someone asked about all of Bender's growth stages and whether they conflicted with what we saw of his assembly-line creation in Bendless Love, and David X. Cohen suggested that us continuity nerds could explain this by saying he went through all those stages inside the machine we saw his adult self come out of.