Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Futurama season 12, episode 8!
Leela has always had a dark backstory inFuturama, and season 12 just made things even worse 22 years after introducing the storyline. Asa mutant orphan who grew up without a family, Leela is one of the most tragic characters inFuturama’s Planet Express crew. However,Futuramaseason 12’s recent episode focuses on Leela’s backstory, with this arc making things even sadder than they were before.
Futuramaseason 12, episode 8, “Cuteness Overlord"follows Amy asshe becomes obsessed with collecting Fuzzy Funbags, a series of collectible plushies that are meant to parody real-life Beanie Babies. However, the gang soon discovers that Fuzzy Funbags are actually a dangerous alien race that are set on conquering Earth. Meanwhile, Leela and her friends are visiting her childhood orphanarium, with these two storylines crossing over in a terrifying way.
Futurama Season 12 Finally Shows Off Leela’s Childhood Orphanarium Room
It has always been known that Leela grew up in an orphanage, with her spending her childhood in the Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium after her parents sent her to the surface so that she could have a better life than she would in the sewer. This oprhanarium was first shown off in the2002Futuramaepisode “Leela’s Homeworld,“but season 12’s return to it adds an even darker twist.
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While at the orphanarium in “Cuteness Overlord,“a few of the characters visit Leela’s room. The room is incredibly dirty and worn, and while Leela points out that her room did have a window, it turns out to be a broken hole in the wall that a raccoon crawls through. Leela’s childhood room was clearly not fit for a child, with this reveal making Leela’s childhood even sadder.
Leela’s Childhood Bedroom Makes Her Futurama Backstory So Much Sadder
It Clearly Still Affects Her To This Day
While the sights ofLeela’s childhood bedroom are sad enough, her reaction to theseFuturamareveals is even sadder. In “Cuteness Overlord,” Leela speaks positively about her room at the orphanarium. She excitedly points out that the hole in the wall is a window, and that the raccoon that enters the room was her only childhood friend.
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These reactions prove that Leela deceived herself as a child into believing that these conditions were acceptable, and these beliefs have clearly carried over into adulthood. On top of that, the episode highlights how many of these children continue to live in this orphanarium, with them waiting every day to be adopted. While these dark jokes are meant to makeFuturamaviewers laugh, it acts as a reminder of how tragic Leela’s orphan upbringing was.
Futurama
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Futurama is an animated science fiction series that follows Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from late-20th-century New York City. He is accidentally cryogenically frozen for a thousand years and becomes an employee at Planet Express, a delivery service in the retro-futuristic 31st century.
