Bender Bending Rodríguez

## Bender Bending Rodriguez

**B. B. Rodriguez**, designated **Bending Unit 22**, is a robot and the co-protagonist of the animated series *Futurama*. He was created by series creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen and is voiced by John DiMiaggio who also plays Jake The Dog from *Adventure Time* and Wakka from *Final Fantasy X* and *Final Fantasy X-2*. In the series, Bender plays the role of a comic anti-hero, and is described by Leela as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler". He was built in Mexico and other characters refer to his "swarth Latin charm". He is, per his own testimony, prejudiced against non-robots, often expressing an urge to "kill all humans" except his best friend, Fry; however, he has also committed acts of kindness for humans and others, suggesting he is not truly as intelligent as he claims.

Despite being the alcoholic, egomaniacal and at times villainous robot he is not without the few positive qualities which saves him form being an all out antagonist whereas simply he borders on neutral and anti-hero. A good example of his heroism was when he saved the world from being disintegrated by a lava being called Flame-o by marooning himself in the Artic despite initially wanting to be revered as a hero. He's also shown to be a compulsive bende, thief and liar. He used to suffer from sleep-bending to the point where he actually broke the Professor's spine while half-asleep. Bender tends to "whoremonger" a lot as said by Leela. On one occasion he actually had intercourse with a vending machine which resulted in him having a son he named Ben however he had to give him up by replacing the memory centre in his brain so he could be become on actual Bending Unit. His fate remains unknown to this day.

## Personality

At the start of series, Bender seemed to be nothing more than a mindless machine bound to his programming however he did show his patent-brand rudeness and womanizing ways. He also couldn't bend ceiling bars to escape from the police with Fry despite actually being a Bending Unit. He was given his own personality when his antenna was struck by a light bulb, surging electricity throughout his body. After this he became the Bender we all know throughout the series; self-absorbed, selfish, insensitive and egotistical or in better terms as said by Leela and "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler". Also despite being the Chef of Planet Express, Bender has little knowledge of human anatomy and biology, thinking they are just as durable as robots and they can survive the same pain a robot can. Because of this Bender's cooking tends to be actually lethal to whoever eats it. He can also be truly hateful towards humanity (or as he describes them "meat-bags") presumably because robots are treated as nothing more than automatic, disposable pawns for humanity to use, once he even led the Devil's army to actually "kill all humans" however before he could do so they were taken to Heaven with Evo. He never takes any responsibility for his heinous actions or crimes as to not bruise his massive ego. He actually blamed his friends for the death of Fry when it was actually he who was assigned the order and pulled the trigger. He simply defends this by saying "it's a testament of how great I am".

However Bender does show genuine compassion and actual attachment to some humans. Fry is actually his best friend, and it's revealed whenever he said "kill all humans" he would silently mutter "except one" which was Fry. He was also clearly hurt when he was asked to move out of the two's apartment as his antenna was disrupting their TV and actually shed a tear when he discovered that Fry was planning to propose to Leela claiming "my little meat-bag's growing up". A brainwashed Bender was also clearly emotionally shook when he had killed his best friend in the past, so much that it ripped him from the control of the Scammers. He also became very emotionally attached to a group of orphans he adopted for an original personal gain even though he did treat them with neglect.

Bender tends to be ass-oriented, one of his catchphrases being "bite my shiny metal ass". He also deemed it his "most important body part" after he was bot-jacked and later embraced his metal posterior or "Assie" as he likes to call it when he returned to its original owner.

Bender is a kleptomaniac and addict to many vices. He has burgled, pickpocketsd and shamelessly vandalized without any consent of his crimes however, as blank as they may be, Bender does have some moral lines. He was obviously distraught over the fact he was cursed to be a "Were-Car" and was murdering innocent people. His thefts range from a wallet, to body parts and the actual head of Al Gore because of their ongoing rival. Bender is a robot of vices, as well he deems it important to be "cool" and this is the reason of his constant smoking. His drinking cannot really be considered a vice as without alcohol he would shut down. He also enjoys gambling, whoring an prostitutes, floozies and on one episode became addicted to electricity.

Despite his intense narcissism, Bender is highly suicidal, to the point where it became an annual field. In his first appearance he met with Fry on his way to a "Suicide Booth". He also tends to attempt suicide whenever he's depressed, inadequate or simply out of spite. It's revealed he had a relationships with a booth who actually killed him out of murder when the relationship failed.

One of his traits is his money-grubbing nature and incredible stinginess, to the point where he actually tied a string around a 50 cents coin whenever he put it in a slot he would simply fling it back to him. He normally invents massively complicated schemes which causes massive problems for his friends however he shows no remorse over his crimes. He engages in enterprises with Leela and normally acts as her manager. Examples include when she became a star baseball player and began acting as her agent as well took all profit when it was discovered that Leela's hit cartoon was based off a living species of alien. Bender has also stolen blood and on one occasion a kidney from Fry.

Despite being the selfish, autonomous egomaniac he is, Bender displays remarkable selflessness and strength of character at times. He actually does show concern about human life despite one of his catchphrases be "death to humanity". He has covered a bomb with his his body as to protect his teammates when he joined the Army, was actually very concerned over him keep transforming into a Were-Car and the belief he actually might kill his best friend, cut off his own antenna so he could keep living with Fry in their deluxe apartment, saved Flexo, his rival from death and caused himself incredible physical stress so he could make his robot girlfriend happy and helped his son, Ben when he was depressed that he couldn't be a Bendng Unit by replacing his memory centre despite the fact he enjoyed spending time with his illegitimate son, he also showed concern when he accidently broke Leela's hearing with a horn attacked to his face.

He is also a high believer of Robot Rights and was disgusted when Fry saved a human life instead of robot and later said that human life was more important than robot. However his idea of Robot Equal Rights was him killing all humans and was very disgusted when he discovered the League of Robots had not killed a human for decades. Ironically Bender can give equally cruel treatment to his own kind as humans do. He shot off Calculon's arm during a duel for control over the League of Robots, has been extremely abusive towards a crippled Orphan Robot Boy (on one episode he stole back his leg after he was bo-jacked despite him finally earning the necessary component to walk, he later stole the board Orphan Robot Boy used for transportation) and once decapitated Boxy (however this was an accident).