Nibbler (Futurama)
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| Futurama character | |
| Lord Nibbler | |
.jpg/250px-Nibbler_(futurama).jpg) |
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| Age | 7-14 (14,006 in human years) |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Nibblonian |
| Planet of Origin | Eternium |
| Job | Nibblonian Ambassador to Earth; Leela's pet. |
| Relatives | Snowy |
| First Appearance | Official: "Love's Labours Lost in Space" Real: "Space Pilot 3000" (Extra eyeball seen in trash can & shadow also seen) |
| First Line | Sound: ("Love's Labours Lost in Space"): (Sniffs and Chirps) Speech: ("The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"): "Thank you. I bear many receipts for reimbursement." |
| Voiced by | Frank Welker |
Lord Nibbler is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Frank Welker, who provides not only the speaking lines but also the various noises he makes when not speaking English.
During most of the series Nibbler masquerades as an innocent, cute and unintelligent pet. In very rare circumstances he may break his undercover identity and suddenly be discovered to be super intelligent, equipped with unique technology and strange natural abilities, which he uses as part of his secret mission to guard the existence of the entire universe and stop the creation of various time travel paradoxes, though in most instances everyone else's memories of the incidents and his true nature are erased.
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[edit] Name
This character's true name is not revealed, because "in the time it would take to pronounce one letter of his true name, a trillion cosmoses would flare into existence and sink into eternal night". This is a parody of the long-lived Ents of Middle-Earth. Leela took him for a pet when she found him on the soon-to-be-destroyed planet Vergon 6 in the episode "Love's Labours Lost in Space" and named him "Nibbler", just before observing his ability to rapidly consume animals far larger than himself. When with other Nibblonians, he is referred to as "Lord Nibbler", though again, this name is only used for the sake of nearby humans.
[edit] Abilities
Nibbler is highly intelligent and capable of communication, but uses telepathic manipulation to simulate human speech because his natural speech is incomprehensible jabber. For most of the series he masquerades as a rather unintelligent animal in order to avoid suspicion while he goes about his mission of protecting the Earth in general and Fry in particular from the evil Brainspawn. He only reveals his mission to anyone else when expecting to wipe their memory of it afterwards, something only done twice so far. He wipes people's memories by emitting a bright flash of light from his third eye. Its immediate after effects are strange as, according to Fry, it makes "everything just taste purple for a second". This flashing effect may be a reference to the memory erasing Neuralizer device used in the 1997 movie Men in Black[original research?], or to the condition of synaesthesia. His eye is also able to fire a heat ray in Futurama: Bender's Big Score. He is also able to burp chlorine gas, after ingesting large amount of chlorinated pool water, as seen in "Crimes of the Hot".
[edit] Dark matter
Nibbler's waste consists of dark matter, which can be used as starship fuel. An extremely dense material, according to Professor Farnsworth "each pound of which weighs over ten thousand pounds". Bender and the 1X Robot are the only ones able to move the droppings. In "The Why Of Fry", when taking Nibbler for a walk, Fry is confronted with picking up Nibbler's dropping. Professing that it "weighs as much as a thousand suns", Fry is unable to pick it up and is promptly fined for "failure to scoop".
[edit] Eating ability
Nibbler, much like the rest of his species, is capable of devouring life forms much larger than he is, as shown when he ate every animal onboard the Planet Express ship. He is probably able to hold so much food because of his ability to condense it and excrete it as dark matter. He is, according to Leela, "an adorable, unstoppable killing machine". It is revealed, however, that of normal human foods he has a special taste for ham. Bender's Big Score suggests that his stomach may link to an alternate dimension of some sort. When Bender's actions cause a tear in the fabric of causality, he quickly yells "Everyone out of the universe! Quick!" and devours himself, disappearing in a flash of orange light. Exactly where he goes after this is currently unknown (either to another universe or dimension), and how he is able to return, if at all, remains to be seen.
[edit] Species/Race
Nibbler's race, from the planet Eternium (located at the "Exact Center of the Universe", "Inconceivable dimensions not shown"), is referred to as the Nibblonians, after Leela's name for him. Just as with "Nibbler" itself, the name is only used as a convenience for outsiders. However, the Brainspawn, despite knowing their true nature, also refers to them as such in "The Why of Fry". ("The Nibblonians, good? Ha!")
Nibbler's voracious appetite is shared by other members of the species, who commemorate great events with feasts, such as "The Feast of a Thousand Hams" or "The Feast of a Thousand Beasts". Nibbler, and presumably the rest of the race, have a pair of bat wings under their arms.
According to the Nibblonians, their race is ancient and powerful, because when the universe was formed with the Big Bang, their race was already 17 years old, making them the oldest known species ever to have existed. Individual Nibblonians "live long", according to Nibbler, himself at least 1000 years old, though a human veterinarian once incorrectly speculated that the number of rings within a tooth extracted from Nibbler might indicate his age as five ("I Second That Emotion").
Some Nibblonians also display cat-like behaviour, purring when their heads are scratched or playing with simple toys. This is distressing to Nibblonians, as it discourages outsiders (as well as each other) from taking them seriously. "Sometimes I fear we are cute," bemoaned Nibbler during "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid". (To which Fiona replies, "Aww, niggle-snoosh," thus simultaneously dismissing and confirming the claim.)
[edit] Purpose
Nibbler's existence and intentions were planned well in advance by the series' creators. Nibbler only reveals his intelligence and true origins in two episodes, "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why of Fry", as well as the movie Bender's Big Score. These are the only stories that show that he is actually intelligent. However, a clue to his purpose is seen in the first episode of the series, where his shadow can briefly be seen as Fry's chair tips back, indicating he was always intended to have a secret purpose. Another clue is seen in the second episode of the fifth season, when the scene of Fry's freezing is reshown. In that episode, Nibbler's third eyeball can be clearly seen, poking out of the garbage bin.
Nibbler was initially shown to have pushed Fry into the cryogenic freezer that resulted in him showing up in the year 3000. However, in "The Why of Fry", it was Fry himself, with encouragement from Nibbler, who did the actual deed. Nibbler then spent the next thousand years on Vergon 6 until being picked up by Leela.
Currently, according to his comment in "The Why of Fry", Nibbler's new purpose is to aid Fry in his pursuit of Leela, known to the Nibblonians as "The Other", as payment for Fry giving up his life in the 20th century. Being that Fry is the "Chosen One" and deemed the most important person in the entire universe, it is very likely that Leela is just behind him in importance. However, Nibbler still maintains other responsibilities that threaten the fate of all existance.
[edit] Continuity
Although Nibbler is not officially introduced as a character until "Love's Labours Lost in Space", the creators of the show had cleverly planned his inclusion in the series since the beginning, as evidence of his existence can be seen in "Space Pilot 3000", the series' first episode. Just as Fry falls backwards into the freezer, a seemingly pointless shot of under the desk is shown. Upon further inspection, however, a mysterious shadow shaped exactly like Nibbler can be seen. This supports the assertion made in "The Why of Fry" that Nibbler pushed Fry into the freezer. In "Anthology of Interest I", during which Fry sees what would happen if he was never frozen, Nibbler's shadow is absent from the shot under the desk. Additionally, in "Jurassic Bark", in a flashback to Fry sitting in the chair right before getting frozen, Nibbler's third eye is seen popping out of the trash can. It is also shown that Nibbler made the prank call that resulted in Fry delivering a pizza to the nonexistent I.C. Wiener at the cryogenics lab. Also, not only is Nibbler's shadow shown, what appears to be Fry's shadow is shown alongside it. In the audio commentary for the first episode the show's creators exclaim "Secret!" when his shadow becomes visible.
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