The Shipper Thread Version III-Ship Harder!

[Reply #40 on:]

Re: TKOS

Very bittersweet though, don't you think. It felt like the overall message was one of total hopelessness... which is nice in itself, especially if you're like me and you delight in the misery of others, but as a romantic episode... well I think it does a good job of leaving the viewer with a very dark and jaded impression of romance as a pointless waste of energy. Quite realistic for a cartoon.

[Reply #41 on:]

Bah! You sound like an existentialist. I guess I just like the idea of moving the stars themselves to write someone a love message.

[Reply #42 on:]

How quickly "Love and Rocket" is forgotten.... :P

Well, that would be my choice, anyway.  Fry stepping in front of the bee could arguably be a mere impulse to put himself between Leela and danger; it was incredibly sweet and shippy of him to do so, but you can't say it was guarunteed that he was going to get stung and save Leela from being impaled/get impaled himself.

Willingly giving up his oxygen is a whole different ball park, IMO, because he knew he was going to give up something vital, performing an act that certainly put him in danger, yet he did it anyway.

It made sense in my twisted brain, anyway.

[Reply #43 on:]

Noble acts of self-sacrifice aren't necessarily romantic. Heroic, yes. Chivilrous, yes. But you'd like to think a bloke would do something like that for any lady... otherwise what purpose do we serve? None. Not in the modern world; there is very little place left for men except to take an occasional bullet for the women so they can run the world for us.

[Reply #44 on:]

But altruism is sexy.

[Reply #45 on:]

Then I should have girls hanging off me. WHERE ARE THEY??

[Reply #46 on:]

Shippiest episode to show my friends: Toss up between Love & Rocket and The Sting.

Maybe Love & Rocket because it has to be interpreted as shippy no matter which way it's looked at. So it would be good for people who hadn't watched Futurama before.

The Sting is sorta a bit more implied romantic because it could be interpreted as just really good friends. There aren't many very specific shippy moments, it's more shippy as a whole. And also, being Leela's subconscious thoughts, it's... I dunno how to explain but it's like a differant kind of shippy where nothing really happens. The episide is like shippy from Fry's perspective (saving Leela from the Bee) and then Leela's (the whole dream in the coma thing) and then sorta Fry's again (staying at Leela's bedside). But nothing with them together.

Love and Rocket has the scene at the end where the shippyness was coming from both of them at the same time until Zoidberg interrupts it. And also the part when Leela reads the 'U leave me breathless' heart and Fry smiles at her, that's also like an equal shippy part from both of them at the same time.

But they are both really shippy, so I dunno.

[Reply #47 on:]

The Sting. However the Devil's Hands made me want to know more about Futurama (it never happened with Simpsons), Google around for it, find Shiny's What may have Happened Next (more about that later, on another channel) and join PEEL. Voíla !

[Reply #48 on:]

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
Re: TKOS

Very bittersweet though, don't you think. It felt like the overall message was one of total hopelessness... which is nice in itself, especially if you're like me and you delight in the misery of others, but as a romantic episode... well I think it does a good job of leaving the viewer with a very dark and jaded impression of romance as a pointless waste of energy. ...

I agree. It was hopeless and unfair. It depressed me. And bloody Bender had to whistle that sad tune...But ... what if Leela came back and saw Fry's message ? . What then ? would she have married Fry again or something? I mean, yeah there would've been some closure for Fry, but would there have been a major difference ?

Ugh...

[Reply #49 on:]

I saw Time Keeps on Slipping after having seen episodes like The Sting, and I didn't know they were out of sequence at the time, so I didn't think Leela's reaction to a messeage of stars would be too....excited.
But when I watched it in sequence, I guess I could see how it might have hightened a more apparent interest in Fry. But she did say she felt they were just good friends, so at the same time, I can see how it might not have made any difference...

[Reply #50 on:]

Pfft. I moved the stars for a girl once.
She said it was "very nice" and then walked away.


EDIT:
Mind you, I formed a picture of a giant space gorilla about 17 light years across... probably not the most romantic choice, but I was blind drunk.

[Reply #51 on:]

'The Sting' for me, eh.
The whole thing was funny, and the shippiness kinda coursed all the way through. It was as if that was the entire them of the episode. And the bee part I always rewind over and over again...although IBDI has a very valid point, too, that I understand completely.
It was a hard decision between that and TDHAIP. I'd hate to lose that great opera scene.

[Reply #52 on:]

I normally hate it when they sing; with the exception of Jesus Christ Superstar (I'm not religious, it's just breathtaking) all other musicals piss me off. But the songs in The Sting and Devil's hands are the only ones that seem to fit nicely into context and don't make me cringe.

[Reply #53 on:]

I like all Futurama songs mainly like I forget what the episode's called but the one when Bender goes to robot hell and they sing that really catchy song about all the levels of robot hell. That was fun.

[Reply #54 on:]

I love all the musical epsides.  I think reality would be a lot better if we could just burst into song (with orchestrated backup) to express our feelings.

IMHO, "Time Keeps on Slippin'" is not NEARLY as hopeless as it could be.  The ending, while heartbreaking, at least implies that winning Leela's heart is still possible, if very difficult. 

(For utter suicide-inducing tragedy, it's "Jurrassic Bark" all the way...the only episode of any television show EVER to reduce me to a sobbing, helpless basket case, unable to recover or go to sleep until I scribbled out a story to "fix" it. And that was just from reading the transcript online!!!  If I'd actually HEARD "I Will Wait for You" instead of just reading the title, I'd probably have just dropped dead of terminal existential angst right there... )

[Reply #55 on:]

Dude... it's just a dog...

[Reply #56 on:]

It's just an utterly helpless creature who loves with a pure loyalty unadulterated by human complexities...a member of a species we domesticated to be our companions, "creating" a new species in fact, capable of bonding with humans (in lieu of other dogs) in a bond so deep that even extreme abuse may not end the loyalty...an animal with a deep and abiding awareness of the presence of its loved ones, and therefore a deep and abiding awareness of the ABSENCE of its loved ones that it cannot mitigate nor rationalize away...an animal with no sense of time, so that it can never conclude that its loved one is never coming back and seek happiness elsewhere...a creature doomed to suffer for its loyalty until it drops dead in mid-longing.

Yes, a dog.  But not "just." 

[Reply #57 on:]

Shiny I understand where you're coming from. The episode upset me too. Its not "just" a dog, it's about vulnerability and longing, love and loyalty and feelings of being abandoned to death. It stirs up a huge amount of feelings that pretty much everyone can identify with, regardless of who or what the character is. The dog dying while waiting for its master to return is a pretty powerful image. Great episode though, it deals with so many emotions.

[Reply #58 on:]

Had it been a cat i would not have been able to handle it. I had Anica in my lap while i watched that episode.

[Reply #59 on:]

I hate dogs. And they hate me.

[Reply #60 on:]

coldangel, you SO need a puppy... 

What makes that episode especially painful is the lengths the writers went to to show that Fry really loved Seymour...he cared so much about getting "his puppy" back (a very telling way to phrase it) that he was even more interested in setting up a dog bed than in watching Leela and Amy engaging in scantily-dressed combat. I guess they did that so we wouldn't think Fry took his dog's love lightly...but it just made the knife twist even more.

Stezzy, thank you and welcome to PEEL!  Good assessment.  Venus, thank you and great to see you in the thread...hug Anica for me!

[Reply #61 on:]

   

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
I hate dogs. And they hate me.

ColdAngel, I'm not a dog person either but also not a cat person - I'm a wildlife person and as you know here in Aust dogs & cats get feral and kill wildlife... of crs it's not their fault but that of irresponsible owners dumping them after XMas or when they move (!!)

I know this may be a petty detail, but why was the fossil on display at Panucci's that of a dog standing ? I thought Seymour laid down before he was gone ? (sorry to bring up that sad part again)

And actually, what if that was not Seymour's fossil ? (BAM)

Pardon my doubt, maybe I go watch the episode again...

BTW Shiny, I read your Thousand Summers - comments later

[Reply #62 on:]

Me too.
I loved that episode to bits, though. Although  was seriously water-working by the end of it. My aunt always used to sing that song at family reunions. And then she died a year ago, on Remembrance day.

So the dog dying, tied in with my emotions over auntie (who wasn't really my aunt, in fact, but my grandpa's best friend. Her name was Jacquilline; I was named after her!) was almost too much to bear.

I seriously had to eat some chocolates to make myself feel better.  And then my mom had to go and call me by my name for dinner...too much, too much.
But other than that, the episode was class "a" eggs, baby!

[Reply #63 on:]

 

Originally posted by Fry_B:
I know this may be a petty detail, but why was the fossil on display at Panucci's that of a dog standing ? I thought Seymour laid down before he was gone ? (sorry to bring back that sad part again)

I actually think the Nibblonians may have played a role in that.  Not only was he standing, but the dog was found at Panucci's 1000 years later AND was the only item there preserved in dolomite (sp?) of all things (which as Farnsworth pointed out, is pretty hardy stuff), when really he should have been picked up by animal control or the sanitation department and chucked wherever dead animals end up getting chucked....

Sorry.  Anyway, it's just a baseless theory, but I've always figured that Seymour's fossilation was meant to be a backhanded appology for freezing Fry in the first place ("Heh, sorry we ripped you from your friends, family, and old life as a whole for our own purposes.  But hey, we feel kind of bad about that, so... um... we'll give you your dog back!" ).  Clearly they couldn't hand it off directly to him, so they preserved him well enough to last a millenium and hid him in a place they figured Fry might eventually come back to visit, where he would "stumble upon" the fossil.

Other than that, I have no idea how he would have ended up encased in dolomite.   

[Reply #64 on:]

i believe dark wizards did it

[Reply #65 on:]

Rigor-mortis put the canine in 'standing' position, and Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock. Dolomite accounts for about 10% of all sedimentary rock, including much that's produced near the surface of the Earth, so there is no logical reason why the petrification of the dog would not have encompassed large amounts of that mineral. It's just luck of the draw and physical location.

[Reply #66 on:]

You just have to go poking holes in my poorly crafted theory, don't you.   

[Reply #67 on:]

Well, I am a Professor apparently.

[Reply #68 on:]

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
Rigor-mortis put the canine in 'standing' position, and Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock. Dolomite accounts for about 10% of all sedimentary rock, including much that's produced near the surface of the Earth, so there is no logical reason why the petrification of the dog would not have encompassed large amounts of that mineral. It's just luck of the draw and physical location.

Aparently it was quick fossilization or something - whatever that means - but Seymour was definitely not in standing position in the last seconds of the episode. Lying on the side is a different position. But - what was I arguing here about again ??

Oh, my main point was that that may have not been Seyomour's fossil in the first place and the implications of that fact.

Well I guess - let's leave poor Seyomur rest in peace

[Reply #69 on:]

hey I dunno if you guys addressed this question already but why did Leela agree so easily to date Fry when they were teenagers in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles"?
Was it cuz she just merely wanted to have the teen experience?
Or has her teen self allowed her choices in guys to not be limited by the standards set by society?

[Reply #70 on:]

Dead dog. Limbs gradually extend as tendons are pulled taut in rigor mortis.
Plus, we didn't see what position he was buried in.

Apple Tea - Could have been hormones overriding her damndable common sense.

[Reply #71 on:]

Wasn't the episode 'Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles', not 'Leela's Homeworld'?

Um yeah good question. Maybe something to do with the innocence and simplicity of teenage dating. (Compared to adult dating)

[Reply #72 on:]

O yea, my bad I should change it.

[Reply #73 on:]

She wanted to lose her virginity again.

[Reply #74 on:]

It was also in one of the comics, the teenage Leela wanting to date Fry...

[Reply #75 on:]

The comics aren't canon.
I think it's just youthful zeal overriding the adult mind. Hormones, etc. She's doing what she wants to do instead of what she feels she *should* do.

[Reply #76 on:]

Which means she WANTS to date Fry, but she feels she shouldn't. Nice explanation, coldangel. Everything sounds pretty plausable. It may also be because they were dating in the sewers, and no one there could ever possibly be mean to her about dating Fry. Even if they knew him as a loser, they're in no position to talk, in their ugly physical state. No offense.

[Reply #77 on:]

*gasp*

I'm in an ugly physical state! I have a big gash on my forehead - did you see the picture?

I think she was just high on puberty.

[Reply #78 on:]

*Maybe not ugly, but the scar shows up really well on your skin. I supose there may be some takers, though.

Eh, puberty too. I spent practically all of the fist term of 8th grade following this one guy around.

[Reply #79 on:]

It's not a scar yet, it's still an open wound. And it HURTS!! Arrgh... oh well. I'm gonna have to wear a bandanna for a while.

Puberty. I never really noticed it. Just happened gradually and I took it in stride. Only vexing thing was the pimples. But that would explain Leela's teen thing with Fry.