Rod Flanders

For others named Rod, see Rod (Disambiguation).

Rodney "Rod" Flanders is Ned's eldest son.

Rod often prays, first thing in the morning and last thing before going to bed. He prays for God to watch over him and his little brother, Todd. He prays for the success of his father's business. He also prays for all of the naughty little boys and girls (like Bart), who are too bad to pray for themselves. Aside from praying, Rod enjoys playing wholesomely with Todd and eating lots of "Nachos, Flanders-Style" (cucumbers with cottage cheese). His one regret is that he can't pray at school.

Rod's favorite songs are "Bringing In The Sheaves" (followed closely by "Noah And The Arky-Arky") and "I've Got The Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down In My Heart."

Rod has diabetes and has described being quiet during trips as one of his favorite hobbies (including clapping during songs).

Background
Rod, like his parents, is very religious. He enjoys attending church, Bible stories, watching religious cartoons, and playing religious-themed board games. These games include Good Samaritan - though they do not use dice because Ned says that dice are wicked. Instead they just move one space at a time - he believes "It's less fun that way".

Maude and Ned prohibit them consuming foods containing sugar, as they fear it will make them behave badly, in which it does or send them into diabetic shock. He is also extremely entomophobic (particularly with moths and ladybugs), a behavior probably learned from their father, who considers an insect flying near someone a "bug attack". They enjoy stories about robots named Rod and Todd, though these also frighten them.

Rod prays often, first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. He prays for God to watch over him and his little brother, Todd. He prays for the success of his father's business. He also prays for all of the naughty little boys and girls, like his neighbor Bart Simpson, who are too bad to pray for themselves. Aside from praying, Rod enjoys playing wholesomely with his brother and eating lots of "Nachos, Flanders-Style" (cucumbers with cottage cheese). His one regret is that he cannot pray at school. His favourite song is "Bringing in the Sheaves", followed closely by "Noah and the Arky-arky" and "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart". Rod has diabetes and has described being quiet during trips as one of his favourite hobbies, including clapping during songs.

Rod obtains new climbing skills and rescues Bart from a gorilla atop a church. Rod thinks of Marge as the most fun they've ever had ever since Maude died.

Age discrepancy
There is also some controversy as to which of the two is the elder. In "Dead Putting Society" the commentator at the golf tournament states that Todd is 10. In Homer Bad Man, one of the corrections that the TV-magazine show Rock Bottom makes is to their claim that "the older Flanders boy is Todd, not Rod". (although this could have been included purely to stir up fans). Later, in Bart Sells His Soul, the Flanders family eat out for Rod's "big ten-oh", suggesting the two are of similar age (however, the present time in at least one other Simpsons episode has been set two years before that of others, as shown by All's Fair in Oven War). However, in "My Sister, My Sitter" Lisa, when babysitting Rod and Todd, tells a story about a robot named Todd who "had a brother named Rod, who was two space years older than him". Todd responds by saying, "I don't like this story!"

As Rod is shown to be quite a bit taller than Todd, the claim that Todd is the older brother is disputed. Todd was born after Lisa (who is eight), Rod was born before Lisa, Todd appearing a younger age than Bart (who is 10) in the episode "Lisa's First Word" (when Bart was entering "the terrible twos"). This suggests that Rod Flanders is slightly older than the Simpson children.

Despite these discrepancies, the Simpsons official website states that “Todd is the youngest and most impressionable member of the happy Flanders clan”. This seems to trump any inconsistency concerning age seen in the episodes. On the other hand, the character profile for Rod Flanders in The Simpsons: A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family describes him as the "youngest of the Springfield Flanders.", but they have made some mistakes in that book. Another possible reason for the variation is that, in the DVD commentaries for show, the writers have stated that they are never sure which Flanders sibling is Rod and which one is Todd and are often forced to check character models to be sure. According to the commentary, early show writers used two different mnemonics to identify the taller brother; first that Todd started with T and was Taller, or that Rod was long like a rod and hence taller.

Future
At age 32, Rod, with his brother, Todd, is a crossdressing lounge singer. They live with their father, who uses his pension to pay for their estrogen treatments. At age 40, he and Todd still live with Ned and take care of him because his eyes fell out.