Thoughts on 7ACV26 - Meanwhile + Futurama Live events - SPOILERS!

[Reply #120 on:]

If the Professor modded the time button to take them back to the instant before he conceived of it, wouldn't they just be stuck in a loop? Everything could happen all over again, the only way to prevent it is if the Professor is the only one that remembers anything that happened, right?

Perhaps that's what Fry meant by "want to go 'round again?" Either that, or he means "do you want to live your life with me until we're old again".

[Reply #121 on:]

Can some post when it goes up on iTunes
It's not there yet

[Reply #122 on:]

_edit - Well, that wasn't relevant, I compeletely forgot what actually happened.

Perhaps that's what Fry meant by "want to go 'round again?" Either that, or he means "do you want to live your life with me until we're old again".

I think it's the latter, but that is nice, unintentional analogy.

[Reply #123 on:]

Meanwhile was a perfect episode. 10/10.

[Reply #124 on:]

Unfortunately, I was not very taken with this episode.

Leela's hand getting amputated by the giant clam, and the method she devised to survive the oxygen-less moon, were harbingers of bad or mediocre plot developments to come. Such as Fry doing something so drastic as to attempt (and succeed at) suicide because Leela was merely 30 minutes late--from his perspective--to their meeting.

But those were just minor annoyances. What really bogged down the finale for me was the cheap cop-out ending. So they get to live their lives over again--no lasting consequences that cannot be undone. It's as if the episode hardly mattered in the first place, like a Dallas finale (it was all just a dream!). I was very moved by the montage of their growing old and traveling the world together--especially by the lovely scene of Fry focusing on the fine details of a snowflake and Leela blowing it away. They were so in love with each other, and they didn't need anyone else for companionship, as Leela so sweetly and poignantly pointed out.

However, I feel like the ending--the reset or reversal or whatever you call it--just negated the impact of that life together. I would rather that they refused the professor's offer to go with him back in time, so as not to lose the lovely memories that they had created. I don't know really--I just feel cheated by the ending. I realize that the show cleverly set up a situation where it can logically continue, without disrupting any storyline, if it's renewed. That if it ended the way I preferred, then there would be no coming back for Futurama (at least not in a way that would make sense and not infuriate fans). But I'd rather have a sense of closure than this ending that undid the story, making it rather pointless for me.

Being the last person in the universe with only one other person for company until you die is probably the worst problem they've ever faced. And yet, they were happy; Leela moreso than Fry.

Imagine going clubbing and meeting no-one, getting your own drink cause no-one can serve you, no new art or entertainment being made, no-one to laugh with except one person, all the animals are as good as dead, no news, no politics, no night, no day, the sky always looks the same, there's no change in weather, day in, day out there's nothing to do (except travel around).

Yes, I agree. Very well said. I think I might go mad alone by trying to sleep while the sun is still out. How do Russian and Alaskan people do it?

Sorry, everyone, please don't hurl Fry guts at me.

[Reply #125 on:]

No hurling Fry guts at you from me.  You get a free pass to say whatever you want for the next 8 months.

[Reply #126 on:]

Photo of me and my daughter watching the Futurama final

[Reply #127 on:]

Did anybody realize that the ending music bit was the same ending music bit from "The Late Phillip J. Fry"? It actually sounds revamped to sound better. And it does!

[Reply #128 on:]

It made me cry everytime I watched the montage of Fry and Leela's life together.

[Reply #129 on:]

Photo of me and my daughter watching the Futurama final

Hehe..it kinda looks a bit as if your daughter tries to give you an eye-roll, saying "Cmon, Mom....Really?"

[Reply #130 on:]

When Fry first died Leela used the time button to bring back Fry, but when she used it, shouldn't the time button have stayed with her? The time button was in the time bubble with Leela and Leela didn't go back 10 seconds so why did the time button?

[Reply #131 on:]

When Fry first died Leela used the time button to bring back Fry, but when she used it, shouldn't the time button have stayed with her? The time button was in the time bubble with Leela and Leela didn't go back 10 seconds so why did the time button?

I questioned that here too.

[Reply #132 on:]

I am not sure why everyone was expecting this episode to be the ultimate, no-going-back, conclusive ending to the show. At the time it was written, voice-acted and animated, it was still not known whether Futurama would be renewed (this was most of a year before it was known it would not be picked up again). They HAD to leave the possibility open for more episodes after this one.

[Reply #133 on:]

Where can I watch the live thing from last night?

[Reply #134 on:]

As serene and peaceful as it is, i'm sure it's.....HEY! I just realized, this never cleared up "The other!"

Agh, you're right!

Most interesting curiosity from the original run that was never answered.

If anyone gets a chance to ask a question of the writers, make it this one!

I loved the finale, really funny and touching, can't ask for more than that.

I did definitely notice the Stargate SG-1 finale similarities while watching, but that's okay, I loved that episode too.

I can't believe I just watched the last ever ep, Futurama has been such a huge part of my life for the entire last 12 years, the first internet fandom I was part of, first thing that encouraged me to take up fanart and later animation at university and has generally influenced my life a whole lot. It was really strange to watch the last ep, I think it is definitely the last one this time, too.

I'm much more content this time around than after the original run.

[Reply #135 on:]

The live thing from last night will be up tomorrow

[Reply #136 on:]

Ew tomorrow? Eh, it'll be fun to watch anyway. On cc's site?

[Reply #137 on:]

I don't think I've ever been more torn over an episode. It was good, I know that much, but how good.
Humour wise, it was probably in the bottom half of this season. I chuckled a few times, but since the last four episodes have each made me laugh out loud repeatedly, I was hoping for a bit more. Ultra Guy squeezing the rocks into diamonds was great, and I there was some kind of splutter laugh when I first saw the Fry mush.
Plot and pacing wise, it was great, up until the end. It seemed slightly cop-out-y and rushed, not helped by me noticing that when the Professor appeared, I checked the running time and there was less than 30 seconds left of the episode. I don't mind there being a reset button at all, I love it when I'm emotionally invested enough to be mad at the writers for such a swerve, after all, isn't that one of the main reasons why Time Keeps on Slippin' is so beloved? But this one just didn't seem to have as big of an impact.

I'll hold off on a rating for a while. Right now it's at about an 8/10, but that could easily change.

[Reply #138 on:]

Hey.....how was it night when Fry and Leela went to the Eiffel tower? Hmmmm.......


Oh wait. It was a whole other part of the world. Therefore, the time was night there when the universe froze.

Nailed it!

[Reply #139 on:]

Loved this episode.  I'm glad that for potential series finale is a personal episode dealing with Fry and Leela and not some outer space adventure.  I love how it left it up the air, since you got to see Fry and leela live a very happy long life together that they don't mind restarting everything.

[Reply #140 on:]

Well, I just watched it and the first thing I have to say is holy hell, that flew. I was stunned when the closing credits appeared, because it didn't seem possible for the episode to be done already. Maybe this is a side-effect of having so much of the episode made public before it aired, or maybe the pacing was off, but the whole thing felt surprisingly brief.

Some thoughts :

- "Avenge Us" cracked me up. It reminded me of my other favorite meta-type captions "It Just Won't Stay Dead!" and "Not The Episode With The Dead Dog", and the font choice made me laugh. Very "The Chamber Has Been Opened".  

- I loved Fry telling Bender Leela's convoluted near-death experience was "a dose of reality". It nicely lampshaded the absurdity. Also the moon face guy attributing his balloon-making skills to five years of art school. Pfft. Sucker.

- "This is so unexpected, after 13 years!"

- I also enjoyed the hypocrisy of the Professor telling Fry you couldn't use the device to replay a perfect moment over and over - before proceeding to do just that with Zoidberg.

- Fry and Leela in frozen NNY was wonderfully animated and really eerie. Standout moments had to be Fry saying "Anything we want is ours for the taking!" - and then taking a hotdog a homeless guy was throwing away - and his voice echoing as he stood on top of the taxi shouting out "Helloooo?"

- I laughed out loud when Old!Leela went to protect Fry with a high-kick and fell over her walking stick. Bahaha.

- "I tried fixing it a few times but I got frustrated and ended up hitting it."  

Some more critical thoughts :

- I have to agree with Coldangel about wishing there had been more of an ensemble emphasis in the final episode. I know you could view the whole of season seven as a protracted goodbye to the crew - with certain episode serving as the swan song for certain characters, as Stench and Stenchability did last week with Zoidberg - but I would have liked to see more of the whole team in their last ever episode. Even Bender was largely sidelined. Maybe I'm just being picky, but I liked the sense of unity in the closing scenes of ITWGY (with the crew all chanting "Go!Go!Go!" as they fly into the wormhole) and even Overclockwise, where they were all sitting around the conference table as Fry and Leela read their ultimate fates.

- I also would have liked to see Fry and Leela express a little more regret at the loss of their friends and family. Eg; Leela looks sadly at her parents as she and Fry exchange vows, or we that Fry has brought Frozen!Bender along on one of their escapades.

Being the last person in the universe with only one other person for company until you die is probably the worst problem they've ever faced. And yet, they were happy; Leela moreso than Fry.

Imagine going clubbing and meeting no-one, getting your own drink cause no-one can serve you, no new art or entertainment being made, no-one to laugh with except one person, all the animals are as good as dead, no news, no politics, no night, no day, the sky always looks the same, there's no change in weather, day in, day out there's nothing to do (except travel around).

Agreed. While I can definitely see the points made by Gorky and tnuk - that Fry and Leela's relationship is denied the chance to grow and change in a normal fashion - I don't think their extended frozen honeymoon is proof of more shallow feelings for each other, or resulted in a less meaningful love. I actually think it's a testament to the strength of their relationship (as friends as well as lovers) that they could quite literally spend decades with no other company. I mean, think about it. After the initial rush of first love wears off, most couples start to feel the need for space, before the other person's annoying little habits drive them insane. Fry and Leela don't.

What this scenario really does is demonstrate how marriage was not so much this big next step for Fry and Leela as a formalization of what they already have.  

Mainly though I think I need more time to process this episode. At the moment I'm thinking it was good, but lacked something. Overclockwise gets a lot of bashing here, but right now it's above Meanwhile in series finale terms, for me. I feel like Gorky and Sparky about Meanwhile, although for slightly different reasons. I wanted to love this episode, and while I certainly liked it, there's a little dissonance there. It's like it's an 8/10 when I was hoping for a 10/10. Maybe I'm just the victim of my own high expectations, but I'm thinking the PE crew going out of business one last time or Fry and Leela getting married in real time might have had more emotional resonance with me. Even something like this : Fry and Leela begin their extended honeymoon. They're having a great time. Fry tries to fix the time button a few times, feeling they should try and set the universe to rights, but every time he tries to get Leela to help, she tells him they can do it tomorrow. Leela admits that she feels she wasted too much time saying no to him in the past, and now all she wants is a little more time with him all to herself. "I spent so much time worrying about the future," she says. "All I want is to spend a little longer enjoying right now." Fry agrees each time. Every time the glimmers show up, Leela moves them on to some new place. Everything is going fine until Fry's usual clumsiness in making a romantic gesture backfires and he gets himself hurt. He dies, telling Leela he loves her and he wouldn't change a thing - "except maybe this part". A grief-stricken Leela, takes the time device from his pocket. She is weeping over his body when the glimmers show up again, swirling round her head. She lashes out, furious, and her hand is grasped by the professor, who uses it to pull himself onto her plane. After he explains what happened, Leela realizes she could undo all this and get Fry back. She promises things will be different. "I won't waste another moment," she vows, to which the professor responds "Bah! You won't even remember this happened!" Nevertheless, she gives the professor the button and he fixes it, sending himself back to the moment he had the idea for the time button - which is the night before their trip to Luna Park. We see him in his pajamas at Planet Express. He screws up the blueprint and begins to sketch a new doomsday device instead. Leela wakes up in the night to find Fry asleep next to her. She can't remember what happened but something feels strange. She looks out the window at the moon, then down at Fry, then smiles tenderly. Fade out to black.

[Reply #141 on:]

The final was good I liked the ending

[Reply #142 on:]

It really doesn't get better than that.

7B has been the best Futurama has been since Season 1. Just incredible. I hope to god it gets renewed, they're back in the flow of things and they've been putting out some incredible episodes over the past few months.

For all of you saying about how it takes them back at the end, Farnsworth was the one holding the gadget and would have the memory of what he's witnessed in the reality where Fry and Leela are old... All he has to do is destroy the gadget when he goes back and not build another.

Futurama can just pick up exactly where it left off from the last episode.

[Reply #143 on:]

To prepare myself for the newest finale, I watched a marathon of all of the previous finales. They were all excellent -- it proved to be solidly entertaining entertainment. I have some observations concerning the finales:

"Idle Hands" -- This once felt the least like a finale to me, in retrospect. The moment with Fry and Leela at the end was both sweet and touching but that was the only time it felt like something more. Despite this, however, I found this to be the funniest of the bunch, and probably the most re-watchable due to the fact that it isn't emotionally draining and yet gives you lots of good feelings.

"Into The Wild Green Yonder" -- This once felt the most epic, in a grand scheme of the universe sense of things. It pretty obviously wanted to do a grand adventure story along the lines of "The Why of Fry", where Fry is the fated hero -- and it succeeded. The ending was also pretty suspenseful the first time through when you didn't know who the Dark One was and I remember the ending stunning me the first time. "Wait, I thought you only took the DNA of endangered species?"  "...Farewell." It also worked pretty well from a thematic perspective, with an over-arching yin/yang and creation vs. destruction sort of thing.

"Overclockwise" -- I'm fond of this one, too. One of the highlights of this episode to me was how things felt like they were spiraling out of control. Leela had decided she wanted to do something else with her life and Bender was becoming a supreme being, The Professor was in danger of going to jail, and so on. Basically, Fry is danger of losing everyone that brought joy and positivity to his life. I feel this was the best of the finales for Bender -- he got to meet his full potential as a robotic being and yet he gave it up for his friends. I also think this was the worst for Leela, as she is barely present and her actions at the beginning come off quite cold. In retrospect I kind of wish this could have been one of the four dvd movies instead of Bender's Game. A lot of things felt like they could have been expanded on a great deal, like the Omni-Bender, or the play Zoidberg and Nibbler put on, and it would give them the chance to make Leela's actions less abrupt and random.

"Meanwhile" -- This episode felt the most epic in an emotional sense and probably a psychological sense. This episode was for anyone who ever said to themselves, "I wish this moment could last forever." But Fry accidentally gets trapped in an existential hell when he's forced to relive the moments before his death over and over again, just as Leela is forced to watch her lover die over and over again. Seriously, that's dark and horrific! But in the end the two end up in this strange situation and make it their own personal Garden of Eden. Fry and Leela did get a happy ending, and having lived through that, they're ready to go on more adventures together.

"Meanwhile" felt the most 'final' of the four finales to me, even with the reset button. "Over-clockwise" threatened to destroy the status quo, but Meanwhile did destroy the status quo -- as well as the lives of every unfortunate sap who was frozen in time forever. I was thinking to myself, how are Fry and Leela going to get out of this one? And they didn't. They spent a lifetime in that world. Even if it was reset the emotional journey was great for me, and I suspect Fry and Leela, too.

I'm leaning towards picking Meanwhile as my favorite finale, but I've only seen it once, so it might be newness. I'll have to re-watch it a few times to see where it settles for me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, in three of the finales Fry tries to take his own life. (When he tries to explode the star in Green Yonder, The barrel over the falls in Overclockwise, and of course the jumping in meanwhile.) Somebody get this boy into therapy!

[Reply #144 on:]

I almost think the ending is too open-ended, to be honest. The Professor's plan was explained quite poorly, and if we ever get more episodes or another movie, then there's a loose ends that need to be tied up.

Obviously, Fry and Leela's relationship is the biggest recurring theme on the show, but I really wish the other main characters had a proper send-off; particularly Bender. This is why I'm slightly disappointed with the ending. Sure, everything goes swimmingly for Fry and his now-wife, but everyone else (except Hubert) is completely and utterly frozen.

It might have been better if whilst Fry and Leela were alone in the universe, a simultaneous paralell universe was created in which only Fry and Leela are frozen. Bender and the crew would need to find a solution, and bam. He's suddenly much more relevant to the plot.

Like Overclockwise, this could've easily been a two-parter.

[Reply #145 on:]

I don't know what is so open-ended about Fry and Leela destroying the fabric of time, leaving it frozen and broken like that to go back and relive old times, and repeat their lives the exact same way for eternity without even knowing.   It ended similar to Futurama The Game.


Also, the music during Fry and Leela's honeymoon was a song called Tristesse. I knew I heard it somewhere before, like during a movie or something.

[Reply #146 on:]

Well, it was a good episode, but I liked it better when it was called Unending (SG1 final). Incidentally, last time this was the plot of a final episode ever, there were two follow up films.

[Reply #147 on:]

The "Avenge Us" opening gag was awesome.  A pretty good series finale it was.  I enjoyed the Fry and Leela moments.  They're always so much better when Fry isn't acting like a sap.  Though a lot of season 7 was mediocre by old Futurama standards, I'm sad that it is over again.  I hope the show can be resurrected again.

8

[Reply #148 on:]

Review: Meanwhile, I like that title very much. It's relevant and short.

"Man... we sure used to try harder back then."
Episode started with a delivery to Moon for a long time and beginning was nicely slow, but the main plot started soon enough. Whole plot was tightly packed and was built up nicely with two major themes (typical for Futurama), new, seemingly pointless time travel device and Fry/Leela. It was tied together well, fairly quickly changing plot that was very interesting and it all ended up with serious consequences. After Fry was saved, immediately even bigger problem was introduced. Then it was some exploration and long montage. Ending came quickly and... the end.

"He's... he's dead? - It does look that way."
Sci-fi in episode was, not surprisingly, intriguing and cleverly written to be interesting and epic. The orthogonal time as a "dimension", where things get trapped, when things don't "make sense to chronotons". As it would intersect the timeline at some point, it made possible the return and more twists. 10-seconds-back -button had minor unclarities, but the end is somewhat a problem and universe freezing wasn't explained, but not a problem as a part of the main plot.

In the end Professor puts a turbo mode for the button. Well, I guess he's a genius who always knows everything, but that came out of nowhere. (Not too bad, however, for the purpose of concluding.) Although they say they won't remember anything, they should, they clearly were in target area of device. It seems pretty clear that they would remember everything and they would prevent it from happening, so ending was open for continuing and had the finality to me with Fry and Leela's memories of alternate timeline spent together.

"I guess it's good we didn't have children."
I'm not going in-depth with this. I agree with those who said it was one-sided relationship description for Fry and Leela, but I think it did what it needed to do: show beatiful montage of them together... forever. I can only say this from my behalf: I liked Fry's comment about not having children (as a "official", canon; shown in episodes), well, at least as a joke.

Finale did excellent job with everything, I think this was almost perfect, all that could be hoped with standards of new episodes. Again, as many times, run time wasn't enough or there was too much stuff anyway. Pacing and episode overall didn't work as well as MotPE and I'm giving this 9/10.

[Reply #149 on:]

That was funny, original and tear-jerking. I'm still a bit stunned from just seeing the finale... What a good show.

[Reply #150 on:]

Also, the music during Fry and Leela's honeymoon was a song called Tristesse. I knew I heard it somewhere before, like during a movie or something.

Thanks, Snake. It really is a beautiful piece.

[Reply #151 on:]

It might have been better if whilst Fry and Leela were alone in the universe, a simultaneous paralell universe was created in which only Fry and Leela are frozen. Bender and the crew would need to find a solution, and bam. He's suddenly much more relevant to the plot.

That's a great plot idea, UrL!

[Reply #152 on:]

You should totally write an illustrated fanfic about that theme

Yes!

- I have to agree with Coldangel

Or else.

Bender needed more time in the episode. They could sideline all the others, but the Fry/Leela/Bender triumvirate is central, like Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Bender has become rather iconic and did deserve a bit more of his own send-off.

[Reply #153 on:]

Bender needed more time in the episode. They could sideline all the others, but the Fry/Leela/Bender triumvirate is central, like Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Bender has become rather iconic and did deserve a bit more of his own send-off.

^This.
"Overclockwise" ending handled this rather well. Though it was about Fry and Leela (with the jokes based on their silent reading and reactions to the text), their fate was written down by Bender. Also -when the two looked really shocked- they didn't turn the pages themselves. It was Bender who interfered and made that happy ending. A Fry/Leela theme that would not have been possible without Bender.

[Reply #154 on:]

Yes, I absolutely agree with the lack of Bender. It doesn't hurt it as an episode (because I think we can all agree that the Bender-heavy plots aren't always the greatest), but it does hurt it as a finale in my opinion.

That's a great plot idea, UrL!

Thanks!  Sadly, I have serious doubt that this'd fit into the time frame without making it feel even more rushed than it already is. They should've booted either TTT or SMFP out of production to make room for a two-parter. The frozen universe theme deserved it's own episode I reckon.

[Reply #155 on:]

Once time stalls, it has a very Twilight Zone quality to it. It's legitimately one of the better sci-fi stories they've done.

Kind of a cross between the Twilight Zone episodes "A Kind of a Stopwatch" and "Time Enough At Last" ... Finally, Fry and Leela get away from everyone else (a callback to "Fry and Leela's Big Fling").

It might have been better if whilst Fry and Leela were alone in the universe, a simultaneous paralell universe was created in which only Fry and Leela are frozen. Bender and the crew would need to find a solution, and bam. He's suddenly much more relevant to the plot.

Hmmm, interesting. Read Philip K. Dick's Ubik to see that idea play out (in a different situation, of course).

[Reply #156 on:]

It might have been better if whilst Fry and Leela were alone in the universe, a simultaneous paralell universe was created in which only Fry and Leela are frozen. Bender and the crew would need to find a solution, and bam. He's suddenly much more relevant to the plot.

Indeed, excellent idea Also, the ending would not have been so "Deus ex Machina", as we all knew someone was working on "restarting" the universe.
A task succesfully completed is usually seen as a more satisfying, deserved ending.

[Reply #157 on:]

It might have been better if whilst Fry and Leela were alone in the universe, a simultaneous paralell universe was created in which only Fry and Leela are frozen. Bender and the crew would need to find a solution, and bam. He's suddenly much more relevant to the plot.

I understand what you're aiming for here, and it does sound pretty neat, but splitting the action over two universes - doesn't that mean everyone exists twice? They will all have a frozen and a non-frozen version of themselves. And would these two universes combine again in the end? From a storytelling perspective, it all sounds kind of messy.

My take on Meanwhile is that time didn't actually stop for everyone except Fry and Leela - their time stopped. They could move and interact, but they were only in a single instant of time, despite spending decades in it. The universe actually carried on, but we never saw that happen, as we perceived it from Fry & Leela's POV. They were the ones trapped, not everyone else. Thoughts?

[Reply #158 on:]

My take on Meanwhile is that time didn't actually stop for everyone except Fry and Leela - their time stopped. They could move and interact, but they were only in a single instant of time, despite spending decades in it. The universe actually carried on, but we never saw that happen, as we perceived it from Fry & Leela's POV. They were the ones trapped, not everyone else. Thoughts?

I dont really get what do you mean, you mean Fry and Leela never gets old? If they can interact, how do they know if their time stops?

[Reply #159 on:]

My take on Meanwhile is that time didn't actually stop for everyone except Fry and Leela - their time stopped. They could move and interact, but they were only in a single instant of time, despite spending decades in it. The universe actually carried on, but we never saw that happen, as we perceived it from Fry & Leela's POV. They were the ones trapped, not everyone else. Thoughts?

^This. Contemplated something similar.
I just like the idea of hypocryte humans, who -based on their personal POV-  believe the whole universe acts around them. Instead of considering being the two tiniest dust grains, about which the universe couldn't give less fucks.

That's why I was quite fond of the "circular time" theory in TLPJF.
Human beings percieve time in a linear way. Now, there was some evidence that it was in fact circular, with Fry/Prof/Bender arriving at the beginning.
But -instead of believing the human notion of time might be wrong- the Professor rather believed in a newly created Universe. A new universe would rather be made to fit some human's perception of time, instead of admitting that the own temporal ideas might be wrong..that hypocracy was just hilarious

You should totally write an illustrated fanfic about that theme

Yes!

http://www.peelified.com/Futurama-Forum-6/Topic-15800-0-Blame_it_on_the_Brain_by.html

Okay, that was quick. Good man
(And you even did manage to send the fanfic to the past...most excellent )

I dont really get what do you mean, you mean Fry and Leela never gets old? If they can interact, how do they know if their time stops?

Well..their "personal time" did not stop, they could still interact.
What El-Man most certainly meant:
- The universe carried on as usual.
- Fry and Leela's "personal time" also carried on as usual (they grew older, after all)
- Yet, the "Universe time" and "Fry/Leela personal time" were no longer synchronised.
- From their point of view, the universe was frozen.
- From the universes point of view, Fry and Leela just exist in the moment the button broke. In that moment, these two lived their complete lives.