Freela

Freela is the het ship between Turanga Leela and Philip J. Fry from the Futurama fandom.

Canon
Leela is one of the first people that Fry meets in the year 2999. She is working as a Fate Assignment Officer, and tells Fry that he is destined to become a delivery boy. He rejects this, and tries to run away from Leela. She gives chase, and ends up tripping into the cryogenic chamber Fry had just emerged from. The chamber locks and sets to re-open in 1000 years, but Fry changes the lock to open in five minutes instead. When she unfreezes, Leela continues to chase after Fry. She eventually finds him in the ruins of Old New York. He tells her to leave him alone as she'll never understand him; everyone he ever loved is gone. Leela, however, explains that she relates to him. She says that she was abandoned by her alien parents on this planet. (It is later discovered that her parents are mutants, living in the sewers under New New York). Leela decides to remove her own career implant chip, inspired by Fry's desire to do something different with his life. They, along with Bender, head to Planet Express and join Professor Farnsworth's delivery crew.

Over the course of the first few seasons of the show, Fry and Leela grow closer to one another. It's clear relatively early that Fry has feelings for Leela. He often calls her beautiful and tries to convince her to go out with him. Leela often declines these invitations, although she doesn't seem to hold any ill will against Fry. They kiss multiple times before actually getting together as a couple, their first being as a distraction for Zapp Brannigan.

In "Bender's Big Score", Leela meets an older man named Lars. She quickly falls in love with him, much to Fry's displeasure. They arrange to be married, but Lars calls off the wedding when he realizes that he will only ever bring Leela pain. Fry tries to get Leela and Lars back together for Leela's own happiness, but Lars declares that it is impossible. Later in the film, he sacrifices himself to save Leela, Fry, and the rest of the Planet Express crew. It is then finally revealed that Lars was actually a time-duplicate of Fry. Thus, Leela had really been in love with, and about to marry, Fry himself. Fry says that Lars was a good man, and Leela offers the real Fry a kiss on the cheek.

In the Comedy Central series finale, "Meanwhile", Fry decides he wants to propose to Leela. However, when he thinks she hasn't arrived on time due to his watch running fast, he jumps off the top of a building. However, Leela soon arrives and Fry attempts to use his "time button" to reverse time to before he fell. When that doesn't work, Leela uses the "time button" to save Fry's life. However, too many uses for the machine has caused all of time around Leela and Fry to stop moving. The pair go off together, getting married and travelling the world into the old age. Finally, the Professor finds them again when they are elderly. He's repaired the "time button" and can bring them back to the time they left, as their young selves, without any memories of the years they'd spent together frozen in time. Fry holds his hand out to Leela and asks, "Want to go around again?" and Leela responds, "I do." They share a kiss, before time is reset.

In the Hulu reboot of the show, Fry and Leela are seen together as consistent and stable couple. They move in together in Fry and Bender's apartment, and while they have some slight arguments about decorating they assure each other that this is a fight all couples have. In "I Know What You Did Next Xmas", Fry spends Xmas with Leela and her family. Leela's grandmother tells Leela that she should marry Fry. In "Rage Against the Vaccine", Leela is quarantined due to contacting Explosid-23. Fry visits her, bringing her favourite food and trying to put up with her irritability. Eventually he decides that he doesn't care about contracting the virus, and breaks quarantine to be with her. The two are seen fighting, and then passionately kissing.

Fanon
Freela had a "will they-won't they" relationship that was very typical of late 90s/early 2000s television. Fans were constantly waiting to find out if they would work through their Belligerent Sexual Tension and get together. This was certainly helped by each subsequent cancellation of Futurama ending with Fry and Leela together, in some capacity. They are an incredibly popular ship in the fandom, and are considered by some to be one of the best couples in television animation.

Freela is the second most popular Futurama ship on AO3, second only to Frender.

Fandom

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