Thoughts on 7ACV02 - A Farewell to Arms - SPOILERS!

[Reply #160 on:]

I'm not saying it had to be a mob,  I'm just saying Amy got off pretty easy considering how characters have become hate figures on the show for considerably less.

Futurama often follows the "You do not hit girls" rule, so the female characters in general often get away with less punishment for major misdeeds.

But I still think in that scene, there was no time for a mob to form:
- When the Martian chieftain told about the correct doomed planet, everyone thought they just had to get back to the spaceship and fly back to Earth. The trip to Mars and the (supposed) trip back in the ship was a waste of time, but as such, considered only a minor nuisance.
- When the unavailabilty of the ship was mentioned and Mars was hit by the Solar flare, everyone run for his/her life. No time to bother about Amy.
- When they landed back on Earth, everyone was happy to be alive that moment.

[Reply #161 on:]

I'll start this off with a blanket statement: I didn't like this one as much as the first one.


Although I did enjoy the twists and did not see them coming (I didn't follow any of the Countdown stuff as to not spoiler myself), the plot felt way too jolting. It felt like there was too slow of a burn into the main plot, and once they got there they just felt like doing twists whenever possible (suddenly electronics don't work, suddenly it's a spaceship, suddenly Fry gets a ticket, suddenly Leela gets a ticket, suddenly it's Fry's ticket, suddenly Mars is doomed).

My second biggest beef is the astrophysical inaccuracy of the climatic scene and how it will affect future episodes. If Earth and Mars came that close to one another, they would collide and destroy one another. Mars would have had to been going much, much faster than it was for it to not collide with Earth given that distance, meaning that Fry would've never been able to save Leela (along with all of the other Mars people being doomed). And now that Mars is out of its orbit, what will this mean for future episodes? Will writers make sure to mention that Mars has either fallen into the Sun or has been ejected from the Solar System (or possibly a very odd orbit)? Or will Mars suddenly appear again at its proper distance in its next appearance? Considering that Earth being pushed out of orbit in Crimes of the Hot has been referenced again in future episodes, it will be very interesting to see what happens. If they just gloss over what happened to Mars, then this episode will be even worse of one.

Finally, the biggest issue that I have with the episode is there's way too much ship. It's cute in previous episodes when Fry repeats a line a couple times throughout the episode and it becomes resounding with its final usage, but it felt like Fry said, "Take my hand" every other line in this episode. It's like the comic rule of threes: his overuse of this line changed it from cute to cheesy. And are they dating or not? In this episode, it seems from their interactions with one another that they are dating. However, much like the Mars odd science, I have a feeling that this relationship development will be thrown out the window at the soonest convenience. This isn't as much of a problem with this episode as more an observation of its impact on future episode. Whereas the Mars odd science might make this one a worse episode, I would contend that glossing over the Fry/Leela in future episodes will make them worse. It reminds me of an episode from last season (of which I can't recall off the top of my head) that many shippers were enraged about because it retconned Fry/Leela just for a contrived plot. I full-heartedly expect this to happen in an upcoming episode. I would rather they have them have a fight to set up a Fry meets a girl / Leela meets a guy storyline, but in my heart of hearts I just know that they'll gloss over their pre-existing relationship and jump right into Fry meeting a girl / Leela meeting a guy.

That all being said, there were some good things. The humor was pretty good throughout the episode (I especially enjoyed Leo's lines). As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the plot turns despite their over-abundance. And the last scene had a few good gags despite its impossibility (such as Zapp jumping from planet-to-planet). Finally, I really enjoyed that the episode's title wasn't blatantly obvious. I was definitely wondering throughout why it was called "A Farewell to Arms".


So, with that all said, I would call this episode "average". The humor was good, but I had too many problems for the humor to have redeemed it. Perhaps the humor will raise my opinion of it on future viewings. Perhaps. It gets a 5 from me.

[Reply #162 on:]

Hey, I'm not exactly new here because I had an account a long time ago. I'll probably be here until the season ends as it seems a much better place for discussion than Reddit or /co/.

This episode is a solid 7, I liked it a lot more than the previous episode especially because this the scale was so grandiose.

It's not higher because of the lame Tron-Legacy reference, the cringe-worthy "Mayan" joke and the lack of good Zapp lines.

[Reply #163 on:]

CC is replaying the new episodes right now and one of my favorite quotes from AFTA is:

Bender: When I use up all the toilet paper I don't put a new roll on!

[Reply #164 on:]

Heh, I'm watching it right now too.  Since when did the turret on the PE ship get an upgrade?  It shoots blue beams now instead of red.

[Reply #165 on:]

It's a Force sensitive turret:
When Fry is in a good mood, it shoots blue beams.
When he is angry -and I was not to enthusiastic about God claiming his lucky pants- the beams turn red.

The same way Luke's first lightsaber inherited by Anakin was blue, while Darth Vader himself held a red lightsaber

[Reply #166 on:]

Hey, I'm not exactly new here because I had an account a long time ago. I'll probably be here until the season ends as it seems a much better place for discussion than Reddit or /co/.

This episode is a solid 7, I liked it a lot more than the previous episode especially because this the scale was so grandiose.

It's not higher because of the lame Tron-Legacy reference, the cringe-worthy "Mayan" joke and the lack of good Zapp lines.

Get to work on Half-Life 3, Gaben. 

I kid, I kid.

[Reply #167 on:]

"It was worth waiting 5 hours to hear you finish that sentence." 

So why didn't Fry just use that extra ticket he got, when he stuck his hand in the box a second time?

Great episode.  Typical Futurama formula.

[Reply #168 on:]

the episode dont work for me for some reason....

its like its a good idea but the absurdeness of it made it hard to focus.


severed limbs its at this point quite played in futurama (and more and more often)..

plus points its the 2012/3012 plot ...i think they missed an oportunity to make some 2012 doomsday joke , i was hoping they do make any "Oh like that year 2012 where all videogames or cartoons became exting or Elvis aliens invaded" or something like that..
but well.. it was at least fun....
Also seem that they finally moved on and began centering in Fry/Leela relationship as a couple rather than the anoying and boring on/off-on/off-on/off stuff that became cliche quite fast...  it was quite predictible.. the fry getting Leela in danger by wanting to help her was funny at first tought it became old quite fast

And about the physics involved ... ok this is Futurama ..it is going to be absurd but .... lets simply say that 2 planets coming .... well.. lets just say that if something the mass of Mars passed ... way way far out than the moon.. the gravitational forces would tear apart both planets waay before anyone could worry about scraping or a collision.. also EMP shielding is allready well known and used today... wonder if they forgot it in 3012...

the planets was way too absurd (as it was the riped off limbs.. geez they dont make arms like this anymore)

[Reply #169 on:]

Anyone watched Melancholia?  I know the completely nonsensical planetary collision reminded me of that film, but at least in the former's case, they did have a disclaimer saying they were focusing on story, and weren't actually trying to invoke real world astrophysics.   Magic realism, I suppose?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/EarthAndMelancholiaDanceOfDeath.svg/640px-EarthAndMelancholiaDanceOfDeath.svg.png

In case Tnuk wants to turn this into astrophysics swiss cheese, or something.     I suppose in this case, it's really just a metaphor on how depression can vanish for ages, then pounce on you and engulf out of nowhere, but I am guessing quite a few people would find the orbit hard to swallow, even with the ITS A METAPHOR thing.

[Reply #170 on:]

I ultimately gave it a 7. I liked the ending and most of the romantic stuff worked well. I'm not too thrilled if it's suddenly a new running gag that everything Fry does in order to help Leela ends up hurting her. It wasn't like that at all before (Love's Labours Lost in Space, for example). The professor was great as always. The delivery of the "how could we transport such a delicate..." made me actually laugh aloud. Predictable, but still extremely funny.
The plot had some shoutouts to some side characters that don't get a lot of attention. Nr. 8 guy, the hobos from the Bender chef episode, Amy's parents, the Martians. I am one of the few who enjoyed the Mars episode and it was built well into the story.

So what's the problem then? To me, it's the utter lack of good jokes. It's not that there aren't attempts, but they just don't work for me. Some of them were so lame and had such a generic feel that they worsened my opinion of that episode. Bender's "Very near!!!" line felt like it was copied from Scooby Doo.

The other problem I have is that stupid cartoonish violence that the writers appear to be so fond of lately. Not as awful as The Tip of the Zoidberg, but it just annoys me and appearently I'm not the only one.

Edit: Two more thoughts. I really hope that they somehow find a way to keep Mars in the solar system. One that's at the least remotely believable.
And is it just me or was Zapp really dull in this episode?

[Reply #171 on:]

I actually didn't mind the arm ripping so much.  It was cartoonish, but mixed with the romantic image of them floating in space, for me, it stopped it being too syrupy as well too violently over the top.  It was a twisted bit of romantic black comedy, and I absolutely loved it.

My biggest gripes are the lack of jokes like you said, and the ending.  Calling it an ending is a bit too generous, as the whole cataclysmic event just... stopped.  Even a crappy deus ex machina would have been better.

[Reply #172 on:]

This episode was pretty good up until the arm-ripping moment that just ruined the entire thing for me. It also, like The Bots and the Bees, felt like far more jokes were falling flat than normal, but it had a solid, big storyline with a nice degree of emotion to it. I was really enjoying it until they had to ruin it with that cheap ending that felt like they were frantically scraping the bottom of some turd-stained barrel for a joke, not having the conviction to end on a sincere bit of emotion with Fry simply saving Leela or something.

I did like the final image of their arms floating in space, but everything about that arms thing was just awful from the lack of logic behind it, the way that neither Fry nor Leela seemed to really care that it had happened and just how damn cartoony it all was.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Viva Mars Vegas if Mars has been destroyed. Also, how this affects Amy's parents and their fortune in general.

5/10 by Futurama's standards,
8/10 by overall TV standards.

[Reply #173 on:]

It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Viva Mars Vegas if Mars has been destroyed. Also, how this affects Amy's parents and their fortune in general.

Since Josh Weinstein wrote both "A Farewell to Arms" and "Viva Mars Vegas", I am fairly confidant that the Mars situation will be addressed in a self-consistent manner in VMV.

[Reply #174 on:]

I would like to see what happened to the Wongs, and how they are coping with the planet of which they own half getting smacked out of its orbit.

[Reply #175 on:]

I would have insured the whole thing really pricey
But -as the Buggalo theft already threatened their financial existence- they probably did not take this precaution

[Reply #176 on:]

Well if Leo is ruined, Inez will be divorcing him on the spot.  Unless Mars Vegas has a ton of tourists or something.  Do the Wongs actually own Mars Vegas, or do they just own a few shares in it?

[Reply #177 on:]

It's only known that Leo Wong destroyed and rebuilt it.
Though this heavily implies he OWNS Mars Vegas, it's never mentioned directly.
As the Wongs do own the Western hemisphere, it can be assumed Mars Vegas lies completely there.

[Reply #178 on:]

The show didn't even explain if the Wongs survived.  I'm sure they did, but considering we found out every major character was all right (even minor recurring ones like Monique) it was a bit jarring.    Did they show if Linda managed to jump down as well, because she was running with the main group then suddenly... not there.

[Reply #179 on:]

* Inquisitor Hein envisions the following scene:

Linda keeps running, and stops when out of breath, panting "Thank god...I didn't think I would survive this". Then she looks up, to see Maude Flanders, who says "I got BAD news for you"

As this scene did not happen, I just assume she made it

[Reply #180 on:]

Linda: But Maude, I'm not like you!  I'm funny! 

[Reply #181 on:]

It will certainly be disappointing if what happened last week on/to Mars is not even mentioned during this week's episode.  In fact, if Mars is "back to normal" or if the situation is not even addressed and treated as if it didn't happen I foresee thousands upon thousands of Futurama fans taking to this website to express their outrage quickly followed by the storming of Josh's house.

[Reply #182 on:]

Anyone watched Melancholia?

I didnt watched but my brother and his gf love that movie... once my brother came to me comenting that if was possible that earth attracted another planet wich was same or bigger ...

My response was that if anything near the size of earth passed ..even at many times the distance to the moon ... both planets would rip apart from the gravitic forces...

And then he complained to me that the director had consulted with experts and so and so... NO... a planet same or bigger size than earth passing near will not perform a slingshot maneover and fall on us... we all (and the planet) would die way before any collision would happen for sure.. but not in that particular way

I know the movie is not about a planet doing physically impossible things but personal relationships and reaction to that end... but they could had picked lots of other "total end of the world" scenearios... a big ass asteroid... a mega solar flare. you name it

It will certainly be disappointing if what happened last week on/to Mars is not even mentioned during this week's episode.

Well...i rechecked and at the end of the ep Mars is showed in orbit near the moon quite intact.. (wich again by that distance would play havoc on earth) so my guess its that the professor or some other brilliant mind will use a device to move it back to its orbit and there... nothing happens.

Actually the episode shows earth rotating its usual direction when in the cats episode it was suposed to had its rotation direction inverted... now its back to usual with no explanation.. so yes.. next time we see Mars my bet its it will be in its usual place

[Reply #183 on:]

Couldn't they use the 'bad-ass gravity pump' from Time Keeps on Slippin' to put Mars back into its original orbit?

[Reply #184 on:]

I just think God resets the general order of the Universe every week or so. Best theory I can see...
 

[Reply #185 on:]

I just think God resets the general order of the Universe every week or so. Best theory I can see...
 

Makes sense.. also if "god did it" worked out for Galactica.. why cant here

[Reply #186 on:]

The science in this episode made so little sense, but it was very much worth it.

[Reply #187 on:]

"A Farewell to Arms"


Fry trying to save Leela from Mars


I wasn't a huge fan of this one although I still found it quite entertaining. The plot was great although I do feel as though they didn't use it to its full potential. I also felt like many jokes did not hit and the emotional aspects were not advanced enough to allow any real emotion to breakthrough as the episode progressed.

While I say this I still think it was pretty funny and slightly sweet (in a disturbing kind of way) but it cannot hold a candle to "Time Keeps on Slippin'", "Leela's Homeworld" or even the previous episode on the night. As I mentioned above, this was defiantly not that funny but there were a fair amount of great one-liners though...


* "The World? That's where I live!"
* "It's our moral duty to save as many people as we possibly can ... They've had their chance, let's go"
* "Mind if I appear?!"
* "I can fly it Sir, I just need to know where ... and how"
* "As long as Leela lives, I'll be alive ... in her heart ... but really I'll be dead!"


This is defiantly not one of the shows high points but I did find it enjoyable. Characterization was fairly adequate but my only complaints would be about the amount of hit and miss gags and the overall wackiness of the third act. Other than that, it was pretty much OK...


13/20 (B-)   

[Reply #188 on:]

Anyone watched Melancholia?  I know the completely nonsensical planetary collision reminded me of that film, but at least in the former's case, they did have a disclaimer saying they were focusing on story, and weren't actually trying to invoke real world astrophysics.   Magic realism, I suppose?

I loved Melancholia. It was arty and pretentious and yet, I could get behind it because it had a planet crashing into Earth and killing everybody ever.

But it was a really beautiful exploration of depression and probably my favourite film of 2011, if not Submarine.

And yes, it was where my mind went right away during this episode.

[Reply #189 on:]

Pretty standard Futurama fare. The whole "twist" was sorta cheap feeling to me, but I can't gripe too much since it's a 30-minute comedy cartoon.

7/10

[Reply #190 on:]

*Tisk*   
What sort of an attitude is that? Of course you can gripe, this is the internet Goddamnit!   

[Reply #191 on:]

Scruffy is holding Wash Bucket..... 

[Reply #192 on:]

Oh my. Those are the kind of hidden gags that I like!

[Reply #193 on:]

Haha! Wash bucket <3

[Reply #194 on:]

It might have been funnier if Scruffy was carrying Nixon, and Agnew was carrying Washbucket.

[Reply #195 on:]

Nah. Scruffy and Washbucket have a history that makes it funnier this way. Sort of the same but not as funny for Agnew and Nixon. The wrong people carrying each other would be random, but random doesn't necessarily mean funny.

[Reply #196 on:]

Voice (off screen): RED LIGHT! Aha, Zoidberg, you moved! Back to the beginning!

Show spoiler

In case you don't get it, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_green_light#Variations

[Reply #197 on:]

And there I was thinking this wasn't the framegrab captioning thread.

[Reply #198 on:]

Just realised, where the fuck is Cubert in this ep? He isn't seen on Earth, isn't seen on Mars, none of the crew mention him, the bloody Professor doesn't mention him. No one cares about Cubert.

[Reply #199 on:]

And there I was thinking this wasn't the framegrab captioning thread.

D'oh!

Uh ... I mean ... sorry for uttering one of the FORBIDDEN PHRASES ... Please don't disintegrate me! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!