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Author Topic: Thoughts on 7ACV26 - Meanwhile + Futurama Live events - SPOILERS!  (Read 42862 times)
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PEE Poll: How did this long-awaited Finale turn out to be?
1/10 The Worst Turd Sandwich ever.   -2 (2%)
2/10 Burn it! To Radioactive Vapor!   -0 (0%)
3/10 That was a Final Episode? Bah!   -1 (1%)
4/10 Wait, how could they......   -1 (1%)
5/10 Mix these mixed nuts!   -0 (0%)
6/10 Only a decent Finale Show. Sigh   -0 (0%)
7/10 Not bad. I've seen better though.   -1 (1%)
8/10 This guy's alright to be a finale.   -13 (13.3%)
9/10 This was great.   -21 (21.4%)
10/10 The Bestest Finale in the Universe.   -59 (60.2%)
Total Members Voted: 98

Fnord
Starship Captain
****
« Reply #200 on: 09-10-2013 08:35 »

I noticed what could possibly be a callback to a previous finale when rewatching this one - When Fry and Leela go to the Niagra Falls, there is a Barrel falling down it. I know it's more than likely just a meaningless sight gag, but it could be referencing Fry's previous attempted suicide in Overclockwise. Like I said, I doubt it, but what do you guys think?

Well, that certainly be the case. However, it can also be an allusion to all the idiots thrill seekers who've ridden down Niagara Falls in barrels, rubber balls, on jet skis, on nothing really....

Yep. Nothing says "Niagara Falls" like someone idiot going over it in a barrel. Otherwise, it could have been one of any of the other thousands of falls around the world.
MuchAdo

Professor
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« Reply #201 on: 09-10-2013 14:49 »

Most likely it's a bit of both.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #202 on: 09-11-2013 02:57 »

I'd say it's a reference to the previous finale, given that the finales usually contain a fair number of callbacks/nods to the audience.

On that note: When you think about it, Fry gets "frozen in time" (albeit to different definitions) in both the first and last episode of this show. :)
cartoonlover27

Professor
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« Reply #203 on: 09-11-2013 03:00 »

^ Nice thought Beamer. I think the Niagra Falls thing wasnt necessarily significant, but definently a callback to Overclockwise.
Monster_Robot_Maniac

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #204 on: 09-11-2013 03:46 »

On that note: When you think about it, Fry gets "frozen in time" (albeit to different definitions) in both the first and last episode of this show. :)
Leela was also frozen in both SP3K and Meanwhile. Another connection to SP3K is the fact that Fry nearly gets killed in both episodes, although in this episode he actually did die a few times. Unplanned Foreshadowing, anyone? I wonder if the writers realized that they were making these connections to SP3K while writing Meanwhile? Knowing Futurama, I'm sure they did. It's awesome to pick up on these similarities, and it definitely makes this episode an even stronger Finale.
Fnord
Starship Captain
****
« Reply #205 on: 09-11-2013 08:23 »

On that note: When you think about it, Fry gets "frozen in time" (albeit to different definitions) in both the first and last episode of this show. :)
Leela was also frozen in both SP3K and Meanwhile. Another connection to SP3K is the fact that Fry nearly gets killed in both episodes, although in this episode he actually did die a few times. Unplanned Foreshadowing, anyone? I wonder if the writers realized that they were making these connections to SP3K while writing Meanwhile? Knowing Futurama, I'm sure they did. It's awesome to pick up on these similarities, and it definitely makes this episode an even stronger Finale.

And another connection to SP3K is that Bender is in both episodes. And the Professor!

Will the "coincidences" never cease?

Gorky

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #206 on: 09-11-2013 17:07 »


AllEggsIn1Basket

Professor
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« Reply #207 on: 09-11-2013 21:20 »


Yep. Nothing says "Niagara Falls" like someone idiot going over it in a barrel.
I'm pretty sure that was just some oak cask.

I liked the idea of time standing still so that Fry and Leela could do everything they wanted to do together. With time standing still, they could do it all without worrying that any existing food or drink would spoil! Nice! I thought it was a touching conclusion to the series.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #208 on: 09-13-2013 04:08 »

Yep, because our collective lives hinged on absolutely nothing other than a sparsely-airing 20 minute long animated series. :)
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #209 on: 09-13-2013 04:09 »

At least now you nerds will get a life.

I wouldn't count on it. Most people will probably continue to obsess over every detail of Futurama, just to spite you.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
**
« Reply #210 on: 09-13-2013 04:25 »
« Last Edit on: 09-13-2013 04:27 by totalnerduk »

They'll turn out to being absolute failures for all eternity.

I get it, you don't want them to turn out like you. What a surprisingly noble shitrag you are.
TheMadCapper

Fluffy
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #211 on: 09-13-2013 04:32 »

Don't go quoting him. I deleted his posts, so quoting him is basically the only way his bullplop could be perpetuated.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
**
« Reply #212 on: 09-13-2013 04:33 »

Great. Now people are going to think I'm replying to the voices in my head.
TheMadCapper

Fluffy
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #213 on: 09-13-2013 04:40 »

The voices probably have more intelligent things to share than the idiot whose posts I've been removing.

The real joke is that all I have to do is pull up the list of their most recent posts and go down the line clicking "delete". He/she/it spends minutes typing, I spend seconds deleting.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #214 on: 09-13-2013 04:41 »

I think I'm gonna get a life and start trolling online forums.
Monster_Robot_Maniac

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #215 on: 09-13-2013 05:43 »

I'll use my life loving the delicious scent of freshly cleaned Glass.
UnrealLegend

Space Pope
****
« Reply #216 on: 09-13-2013 05:48 »

I won't have a life. There's still a metric butt-ton left to do on my cast picture.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #217 on: 09-13-2013 05:51 »

Where I'm from, I only press imperial buttons, boy! :mad:
Monster_Robot_Maniac

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #218 on: 09-13-2013 22:47 »
« Last Edit on: 09-14-2013 00:19 »

Entertainment Weekly gave it an A-, which is a pretty fair grade for this episode. It's cool that it was the 'Watch of the Week'! This episode definitely made that week perfect for me. Glad to see pretty much everyone agrees this episode was great!

Seems like they're being A little too rough on the new seasons, but whatever. Everyone's got their own opinions.
I took this picture from my phone, by the way, so sorry about the quality around the letters.
bnevs18

Crustacean
*
« Reply #219 on: 09-14-2013 08:51 »

Now that ive had time to digest it...Meanwhile just seems to be a thoroughly unpleasant episode for everyone.  Leela gets her hand chopped off, Fry is driven to suicide (not his usual thing as someone on here said...its Bender who had the suicide thing going), and everyone has to watch Fry die gruesomely multiple times.  To further it, everything gets frozen except for the professor who has to spend who knows how many years in limbo trying to figure out a solution to his problem.  And finally, Fry and Leela (while getting each other) basically lose everyone else in their life.  And while they portray it as some great thing, in reality it would be a very lonely thing.  I much prefer Overclockwise to this one, in it Fry and Leela find out their fate, which turns out to be realistic (good and bad things happen) but good in the end.

And to say the second half of shows dont live up to the bar of the first set isnt saying that they stink, just that the first set of shows largely were such great episodes that its a travesty that Fox cancelled them in the first place.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #220 on: 09-14-2013 09:14 »

I like how dark this episode is. Futurama's always had some very dark elements about it - hell, the pilot alone had suicide booths and career chips, let alone some of the places the show went later in its life.

Overclockwise was good on paper, but it still had that horrendous Fry/Leela plot with all that unbearably forced dialogue. Their last scene was beautifully done, and the Bender/Farnsworth plot was fantastic, but it was still an incredibly flawed outing overall. I'm very glad we didn't end on that episode.
cyber_turnip

Urban Legend
***
« Reply #221 on: 09-14-2013 16:43 »

It's not a case of everyone being frozen; it's a case of Fry and Leela basically operating in time differently.

To Bender, Hermes, Amy and everyone else, life would have continued as normal, it's just that Fry and Leela would have appeared to vanish. I suppose a few things would move out of the blue depending on if Fry and Leela moved it, too.

Time is relative, remember. Fry and Leela continued to exist for a lifetime within that paused moment of time, but everyone else just lived right on past it, like normal.
DannyJC13

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #222 on: 09-14-2013 16:48 »

Time is relative, remember. Fry and Leela continued to exist for a lifetime within that paused moment of time, but everyone else just lived right on past it, like normal.

I like to think they were just stuck like that. Not concious or alive, just stuck in time.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #223 on: 09-15-2013 00:06 »

That's pretty inconsistent with what we know about time in the Futuramaverse, Danny. They're much more likely to be stuck inside a single unit of planck time (think the smallest possible tick of the most accurate possible clock) whilst the rest of the universe continues to exist normally after that "tick".
The Sophisticated Shut In

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #224 on: 09-15-2013 01:20 »

That's pretty inconsistent with what we know about time in the Futuramaverse, Danny. They're much more likely to be stuck inside a single unit of planck time (think the smallest possible tick of the most accurate possible clock) whilst the rest of the universe continues to exist normally after that "tick".

It's not a case of everyone being frozen; it's a case of Fry and Leela basically operating in time differently.

To Bender, Hermes, Amy and everyone else, life would have continued as normal, it's just that Fry and Leela would have appeared to vanish. I suppose a few things would move out of the blue depending on if Fry and Leela moved it, too.

Time is relative, remember. Fry and Leela continued to exist for a lifetime within that paused moment of time, but everyone else just lived right on past it, like normal.

This is an interesting take on it, but it's not something you can state as canon. It's a theory. If anything, Danny's assumption

I like to think they were just stuck like that. Not concious or alive, just stuck in time.

is most consistent with what we were shown.

The episode presents the problem as everyone else being frozen in time, with Fry and Leela being the only two left unfrozen. Leela says "I think you broke the universe" and the only character who ever manages to return to them is the Professor - who was the only one of the crew not to be frozen. (He was outside the time shelter and the time button's sphere of influence when Leela pressed it. He was then "rotated into an orthogonal time which runs at a right angle to this time" and spent decades tunneling through it to find them again and free them from "stasis".)

We're never shown or told that time continues as normal for the rest of the crew. In fact, the role given to the Professor suggests it doesn't. If the crew were alright and Fry and Leela were merely trapped in stasis, Keeler wouldn't need to make a plot point out of the Professor being "killed" / separated from them. As it stands, it looks very much as though Farnsworth disappears because the story needs one unfrozen person to find a way to Fry and Leela at the episode's end, and "fix" the broken universe.
Quantum Neutrino Field

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #225 on: 09-15-2013 01:39 »

If the crew were alright and Fry and Leela were merely trapped in stasis, Keeler wouldn't need to make a plot point out of the Professor being "killed" / separated from them. As it stands, it looks very much as though Farnsworth disappears because the story needs one unfrozen person to find a way to Fry and Leela at the episode's end, and "fix" the broken universe.

If the rest continued normally, there wouldn't be a conceivable way for them to get Fry and Leela back and Professor would still be needed. Also, Professor's disappearing could be just to add drama and complexity to storyline and to show the consequence of that situation.
bnevs18

Crustacean
*
« Reply #226 on: 09-15-2013 01:50 »

Quote
and the only character who ever manages to return to them is the Professor - who was the only one of the crew not to be frozen. (He was outside the time shelter and the time button's sphere of influence when Leela pressed it. He was then "rotated into an orthogonal time which runs at a right angle to this time" and spent decades tunneling through it to find them again and free them from "stasis".)

Sounds like hell to me...still, everyone in the time shelter saw Fry die an unknown number of times...and while its darker elements are good, I think it went too far with several minutes of fry splattering on the pavement.
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
**
« Reply #227 on: 09-15-2013 01:52 »

I'm not trying to say that it's canon, but the way that time works in the Futuramaverse would certainly seem to imply that it will go on and on outside that moment. Remember, time is cyclical.

The episode presents the problem as everyone else being frozen in time, with Fry and Leela being the only two left unfrozen.

Fry and Leela are clearly shown as being the only two people affected by the time button's "bubble" of operation when Fry breaks it.

Leela says "I think you broke the universe" and the only character who ever manages to return to them is the Professor - who was the only one of the crew not to be frozen.

The universe is broken from her perspective, but it's all relative. From the perspective of the outside universe, she and Fry have disappeared. From their perspective, everything is "stuck" in a single moment. The Professor wasn't present at that moment, having been shunted into another mode of time. This allows him to visit every moment, looking for the device. But for everybody else, time is presumably flowing as normal. Were the Professor in that normal time flow, it is logical to assume that he would have been able to deduce what had happened, and attempt to do something about it. However, being trapped away from the action means that there is no quick fix, and the Professor can't simply rescue Fry and Leela from their shared, private, eternity together.

We're never shown or told that time continues as normal for the rest of the crew. In fact, the role given to the Professor suggests it doesn't.

I would think that the role given to the Professor suggests that were he outside the eternal moment, he'd probably have it put right in a subjective jiffy. Keeping him locked in another plane of time for decades was a convenient way to stop him from doing that, and give Fry and Leela decades together (as well as providing "OH NOES, HE DIED"-type dramatic tension).

If the crew were alright and Fry and Leela were merely trapped in stasis, Keeler wouldn't need to make a plot point out of the Professor being "killed" / separated from them. As it stands, it looks very much as though Farnsworth disappears because the story needs one unfrozen person to find a way to Fry and Leela at the episode's end, and "fix" the broken universe.

The story needed the one person who could have fixed the problem to be kept out of the way, I think, until the story itself had been told. Were Farnsworth not conveniently rotated into right-angled time, I'm sure that the focus would have to have been divided between Fry and Leela's shared eternal moment and their eventual yanking back out of it before it happened. All that Farnsworth would have needed to do would be to go back to that moment, and scoop up the button before Fry landed on it.

If he can build one backwards time machine, he can build another.

In addition, Farnsworth never "fixed" the broken universe. All he did was either put himself, Fry, and Leela into an eternal loop, or change the establishing events leading to what was shown in the episode.

The cyclical nature of time in the Futuramaverse also seems to imply that this was very much a subjective event for Fry and Leela, since we know that the universe goes through (and therefore must already have gone through multiple complete iterations). It "getting stuck" is at odds with established canon, making it unlikely (at least in my view. Look, I'm specifically pointing out that this is simply my considered opinion. I hope you're happy) that time is supposed to be "broken". Nowhere does the Professor (and he'd be the one who'd know, in-universe) say that "time is broken" or that they've stopped the clock on the entire universe.

I think that the reason he sends them all back, rather than simply "switch on" the flow of time again is likely to be that Fry and Leela have aged rather substantially.

We also know that the Nibblonian species can see the future of the universe in some way. I find it highly questionable that they would not have been aware of it if this were to be the end of time, and thus the universe.

Of course, it's all conjecture until confirmed/denied by the writers. But we do know one more thing: time in the real world is very much a relative phenomenon, and time in the futuramaverse is pretty elastic. That is to say, it's often subject to a good deal of interference, and is usually self-repairing. The doom field, Travers' unbirth, Fry's ancestry... loose ends are normally absorbed by the continuum. All of the above leads me to conclude that it simply makes more sense for Fry and Leela to be trapped in a single moment whilst time outside of that moves "normally" for everybody else.

Obviously, your mileage may vary on this.
El-Man

Urban Legend
***
« Reply #228 on: 09-15-2013 01:54 »

If the rest continued normally, there wouldn't be a conceivable way for them to get Fry and Leela back and Professor would still be needed.

Right. The rest of the universe would have continued - if the Professor hadn't reset time with the Time Button inside that frozen unit of planck time. From Fry & Leela's POV, it was decades after they got there. Their time would have remained in that state forever, and they would have both eventually died inside it. Kind of depressing, huh?

Would the ending have been made better if they could have remembered everything that happened, and/or the Prof specified when he conceived of the Time Button? Or would it take out too much of the mystery?
DannyJC13

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #229 on: 09-15-2013 13:33 »

I'm not trying to say that it's canon, but the way that time works in the Futuramaverse would certainly seem to imply that it will go on and on outside that moment. Remember, time is cyclical.

I think Fry and Leela breaking the universe is just a hiccup, and that hiccup is erased by the Professor at the end. That's why we never see it happen in TLPJF.
Monster_Robot_Maniac

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #230 on: 09-15-2013 18:55 »
« Last Edit on: 09-15-2013 18:56 »

I'm not trying to say that it's canon, but the way that time works in the Futuramaverse would certainly seem to imply that it will go on and on outside that moment. Remember, time is cyclical.

I think Fry and Leela breaking the universe is just a hiccup, and that hiccup is erased by the Professor at the end. That's why we never see it happen in TLPJF.
If your theory that the events of this episode are erased is true, then I believe that it would render this episode Non-canonical, ongoing story wise, as none of the events that happened in it are remembered by any of the characters. Interesting, huh?
transgender nerd under canada

DOOP Ubersecretary
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« Reply #231 on: 09-15-2013 19:57 »

I'm not trying to say that it's canon, but the way that time works in the Futuramaverse would certainly seem to imply that it will go on and on outside that moment. Remember, time is cyclical.

I think Fry and Leela breaking the universe is just a hiccup, and that hiccup is erased by the Professor at the end. That's why we never see it happen in TLPJF.

That's not something that can be known. The Professor puts himself, Fry, and Leela into a loop that they know nothing about, with the possibility from the audience's POV that he might take the button back with him and thus alter events so that they aren't endlessly stuck looping over and over.

We have nothing to draw on other than conjecture for that. Whilst continuity suggests that the universe moves on as usual, whilst Fry, Leela, and Farnsworth are trapped in the eternal moment/right-angled-time, respectively.
bnevs18

Crustacean
*
« Reply #232 on: 09-16-2013 03:51 »

Quote
If your theory that the events of this episode are erased is true, then I believe that it would render this episode Non-canonical, ongoing story wise, as none of the events that happened in it are remembered by any of the characters. Interesting, huh?
EXACTLY!!!  Which is why Meanwhile SUCKED as a finale.  Nothing really happened!  TLPJF is similar to this (although carried out MUCH better) and would have sucked as a finale too, but as a regular episode, TLPJF is in my top ten.
Binder

Starship Captain
****
« Reply #233 on: 09-18-2013 15:39 »

Something I didn't pick up on until now:

In "Space Pilot 3000", Fry hates his life and becomes frozen while the rest of the universe moves on 1000 years.

In "Meanwhile", Fry loves his life with Leela as the entire universe is in a frozen state (seemingly forever).

Pretty cool reversal. Fry misses the rest of his life in the 20th century in a Frozen state, and enjoys a large portion of the rest of his life as the entire universe is in a frozen state.
Jezzem

Urban Legend
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« Reply #234 on: 09-18-2013 16:04 »

That's a fucking awesome observation, Binder!
CookiesOnTheFloor
Bending Unit
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« Reply #235 on: 09-19-2013 06:46 »

I haven't watched the finale yet, but I'm getting all melancholy just reading this thread. I hate it when good things end. Too many good things have ended for me of late...

And speaking of good things ending, I just got back from vacation and will have to return to my crappy job tomorrow. I doubt that watching the series finale to one of my favorite shows is going to lift my spirits any. I gotta give it some time. When I DO watch it, I shall return post-haste and write my thoughts here. Happy trails to you, until we meet again...

*Cosmic Ray*

Poppler
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« Reply #236 on: 09-19-2013 16:15 »

I know how you feel. I've lost a lot myself recently and wasn't ready to lose my favourite show as well. However, if it helps, despite the inevitable pang in the chest at the sight of the credits, Meanwhile really didn't feel like a loss.

Monster_Robot_Maniac

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #237 on: 09-19-2013 23:26 »

I know how you feel. I've lost a lot myself recently and wasn't ready to lose my favourite show as well. However, if it helps, despite the inevitable pang in the chest at the sight of the credits, Meanwhile really didn't feel like a loss.
Welcome to PEEL, Cosmic Ray! :)

Yeah, This episode made me feel pretty melancholy for almost a week. It's very saddening to know that your favorite TV series may be over, but at the same time, at least it never turned into a low-quality program, and there's a pretty good chance of it coming back sometime in the future.
My Manwich

Liquid Emperor
**
« Reply #238 on: 10-20-2013 07:39 »

So if Fry remembers the conversations that had with Leela while falling over and over again while constantly reliving the same 10 seconds wouldn't that mean the Fry will remember living a full life with Leela?

He is missing the Delta brainwave after all.
Beamer

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #239 on: 10-20-2013 07:57 »

Hmm, interesting thought. I guess, if they ever continue the show and didn't completely want to negate the events of this episode, that'd certainly be a good way to go. :)
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