The Evil Conspiracy Against Pedro Thread

[Reply #720 on:]

If I could tell the world just one thing, it would be
that we're all Ok...
And not to worry, 'cause worry is wasteful,
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair.
I will gather myself around my faith;
For light does the darkness most fear...

My hands, are small, I know,
but they're not yours, they are my own,
but they're not yours, they are my own, and,
I am never broken...

Yeah. My current lament. Fitting, eh? Most of this ought to be going in the review thread, I know, but you guys here have more of a tendency to run with and analyze things, so here I am.

Anyway... BBS. Bender's Big Score. Controversy, indeed. Blatant violations of our deepest faiths have occurred. Let's tackle this one step at a time, shall we? This is the first time I've ever seriously commented on a new release, so wish me luck in obtaining completeness, coherency, and comprehensibility.

Continuity is currently a big gripe among fans now, it seems, so I'll start with my thoughts on that. To begin with, case in point for shippers: TDHAIP. Now, to tell the truth, I'm not really surprised about the unceremonious blowoff. After all, the delightful part of this particular episode was it's ambiguity: Either the series was over, and whatever you wanted to happen could did happen; or two, the series ain't over and it could be resumed right where it left off. It was decided to resume. (Albeit not entirely where they left off...) And come to think of it, is there any way this episode could have been meaningfully acknowledged? Any way that doesn't end up with Leela portrayed as Ralph Snart most vehemently believes? It is entirely possible to do so, of course (I'll explain later on here), but Futurama does have a few standards to hold up to, primarily, it's unfortunate classification as a 'comedy' and not 'drama'.

Other episodes in which apparent continuity violations are evidently worth of dissatisfaction are WoF and JB. Both are neglectable, as far as I'm concerned. When I saw JB for the first time, it never occurred to me that Seymour had actually died then. In fact, it seemed glaringly obvious to me that he hadn't died yet, because he fossilized differently. BBS is explainable by selective editing, I say. (Ignoring the events of January 1st, I am.) As for WoF, the main concern seems to revolve around Nibbler in the cryogenics lab. No biggie. All the scenes in the tube room occurred thirty minutes after Fry was frozen, and this is verified by the on-screen text.

LoTF (and CW to some extent) is where the majority of my disconcertment lies, and because of this, numerous threads of conjecture and speculation have just spewed forth from my encephalon. To start with, the majority of this episode has been overwritten by the newly inaugurated into canon BBS. I say this because it is evidenced by Bender's trip nineteen seconds into the past that past events can in fact be changed using the time code. Also evidenced on numerous occasions is that paradox-resulting effects needn't be preceded by a cause. This throws Seymour's death and the destruction of New York in dubious acknowledgeablity, however, neither is of much personal encumbrance to me. What is of personal encumbrance to me is that the writers took no time at all to explain how past events could simply be erased, especially when the convoluted nature of time travel is brought into consideration. The thought in turn leads me to wonder about the nature of flashbacks. What are flashbacks? Flashbacks pre-BBS will show Fry vanishing from his family's life, and the effects of that. Post-BBS flashbacks will show Fry living with his family for ten years, before setting off on a boat to the North Pole, and returning two years later. Therefore, the timeline must have changed. But how does a timeline change? If we were to graph this (which I may do at some point), we would have to add a fifth dimension to account for it.

In fact, I'll do this. With adjectives, not pixels. A thought experiment examining the nature of flashbacks and the time code...

Suppose I decided to record a film about the life of Xanthor, Planet Express's chief eunuch and philosopher. I jump into my paradox-neutral time-travel ship, the TARDIZ, and wheeze on back to 3003, where Xanthor is smoking his pipe and watching 'Raiders of the Lost Arcade' on the What-If Machine. Now, as Farnsworth turns to ask Xanthor whether he would like to axe the machine a question, I gesture to him across the laboratory so that no one will see me. He raises one eyebrow, slightly annoyed at losing his one chance to say a line the entire series, and as the camera cuts away, stands up and walks over to meet me, the rest of the crew oblivious.

I begin interviewing Xanthor about the major events in his life. However, he offers to show me instead. Sure thing, I reply, and set off towards the TARDIZ. Xanthor, however, has an advanced distrust in new-fangled contraptions, and tells me that he'll meet me there. I'm a tad confused, but I agree. As I close the door to my ship, I hear him muttering a certain string on binary under his breath.

I appear during the year 2950, in the Planet Express attic room. A few seconds afterwards, a huge green sphere pops into existence beside me. Out pops Xanthor. This was the day I was hired at Planet Express, he says. We walk out onto the balcony and look downward. Sure enough, a younger Xanthor is walking across the sidewalk. As he passes the front doors of the building, we hear the Professor cry out, "Hey you! Old guy! You're hired!" Xanthor gives a little smirk as his past self enters the building. We chat for a little while, before Xanthor tells me he's suddenly had an idea, and to meet him in the year 3015. I enter the TARDIZ once again as he sets of down the road towards Applied Cryogenics.

I head forward to 3015. There, we use the Professor's newly-invented 'What-Was' Machine to gather all the material I need for my film without using time travel. After congratulating Xanthor one last time on this ingenious plan, we shake hands and say our farewells. As I enter my ship, he begins reciting his time code. However, at the exact moment the time sphere appears, one of Fry and Leela's numerous children runs into the room, catching Xanthor off-guard. His limp beginning to act up again, he stumbles backward into the TARDIZ, inadvertently pulling the time sphere with him. There is a flash of light, and once again, we find ourselves in the year 2950.

But this time we appear on the Planet Express balcony. The TARDIZ begins to slant over the edge, and as if in slow motion, tips over the railing and crashes sickeningly onto the sidewalk below. At that moment, the younger Xanthor on the street rounds the corner, sees it blocking the way, and decides to head in the opposite direction. I suddenly realize that as a result of this occurrence, Xanthor never got hired! As I begin to cogitate this paradox, Farnsworth runs out into the road, shooting wildly into the air, trying to laser whoever it was who dropped this blue intrusion upon his doorstep. Incidently, he catches our time-paradox duplicates, which instantly vaporize. Xanthor and I run into the attic room to wait out the Professor's memory. Then, suddenly it made sense to me!

Every time a paradox is created using the time code, the whole of the universe's timeline is moved forward a notch in the fifth dimension, just as the universe itself moves forward a notch in the forth dimension every time a second passes. Our time paradox duplicates came to their demise much in the same way as we would if regular four-dimensional time were to suddenly speed up abnormally. My machine, on the other hand, which is the physical embodiment of the literary flashback, moves with the timeline. Therefore, I am no longer able to see Xanthor getting hired again simply by using it, by traveling through four-dimensional time. In other words: The flashbacks that occur post-incident will not collimate with flashbacks pre-incident.

Anyway, Farnsworth eventually forgets what he's shooting at and goes indoors again. We sneak down to the street, climb into the TARDIZ and whisk off to the year 3007 to read the time code off Fry's butt, then back to 3002 to give it to Xanthor in the first place, and then a quick stop off in 1997 to watch the premiere of Titanic. I then drop him back where I first picked him up, and speed on down to 2007 to continue writing this post, in which I explain how my point with this example was to demonstrate how I can justify the rewriting of history which occurs during BBS. However, I am very disappointed that a time travel exoneration system so complex was embedded within a script who's nerdiest joke was 'I don't know whether you're waves or particles but you go down smooth'. (Although thumbs-up on the geekiest joke, 'It's so cold, I think my processor is running at peak efficiency'.)

Now, why exactly was history rewritten? Why now? Why did the writers purposely go to this extent? I have a theory, and it applies to the 'Ship as well. A reboot. An attempted reboot, I should say. A change in the flow of time, why, the upcoming movies and episodes now have a whole new platform upon which to base their plots without fear of rehashing the original series! (Which is every renewed and sequel series' ultimate worry, isn't it?) I don't yet see how they plan to go about doing this, but with three movies left to work with, maybe...

Yeah, it's hope. Deal with it.

Speaking of hope, something I used to have a lot of concerning: The 'Ship. Well, what do you know, Kryten was right. The 'Ship has hit the fan. This fan, here. Me. I don't know if it's possible to have an allergic reaction to an emotional sequence, but if it is, I have. Personally, I believe the whole Fry/Leela dynamic was brought in way too soon. It's been two years since TDHAIP, why not leave us guessing? But then there would've been no Lars subplot and the movie would've been entirely different and I wouldn't be writing this sentence, let alone proofreading it. But, regardless, it occurred, and two years following the opera. I'm thinking that maybe the 'Ship was rebooted as well. Remember, any declarations of love during 'Orphan of the Stars' were undoubtedly subject to artistic interpretation on the part of Leela. (E.g., 'To win Leela's heart/With the holophoner's art'.) So Fry has his fifteen minutes of fame, loses it, and goes back to work Monday morning. Leela, of course, realizes how much effort he put into the overelaborated musical, and not realizing the romantic element of his motivation, falls into a deeper friendship with him.

A friendship so deep that he remains perfectly content to simply stand by her side. Until, of course, competition arises. Lars Phil-more. I mean, Lars Fillmore. Corny guy, at first. Then again, he could afford to be corny, couldn't he, since he knew his lines were going to work. But anyhow, now on to something I found highly substantial: Fry's Declaration of Love. Fry explicitly tells Amy (a fanfic parody if I ever saw one) that he loves Leela. Wow. I mean, wow. Fry has never been that forthright concerning the matter. Never. Even in TDHAIP, he said that playing the Holophoner made Leela 'like' him. Sounds like someone's made some cognitive progress... ('To win Leela's heart/With the holophoner's art'...)

As for Lars, I knew who he was the instant I saw him balancing that champagne glass. It became obvious to me right there that Leela was obviously missing something. And I could never really put my finger on what made her think Lars was more mature than Fry, besides the fact that she sees Fry differently. It's like... She has a mental block that prevents her from seeing him as anything but a friend. An annoying friend when he tries anything more. But when he appears physically unrecognizable in the form of an eligible bachelor, well, her mind runs ahead of her, doesn't it? And at the end, when she realizes who/what/how Lars is, it still doesn't occur to her. 'Lars is the only man I'll ever love', she said. What does she say after that? Of course! Hardly anything! So one of three things have either happened or will happen: One, she sees Lars as a different person than Fry, and things will go back to the way they were, Red Dwarf style; or two, her response will be held off until TBWBB. The third possibility is the frightening one (by which I mean Ralph Snart will have to be right in order to canonly vindicate it): Leela was underwritten. Underwritten by the writers. What the heck is she thinking at the funeral? Where are her emotions following this traumatic revelation? What is she hiding?

Maybe I should take up Leela/Bender shipping. They had a nice thing going during the roll call scene...

Ok, moving on, now it seems that my monologue is flowing towards the minor technicality of writing. Let's examine, shall I...

Nibbler talks! Oh boy! Since saving the universe from being torn apart seems to be a high priority on his list, this plot device seems acceptable to me. If the entire series is in fact being rebooted, making Nibbler free to talk permanently sounds like a fascinating idea, so long as an explanation is eventually given for him no longer needing to remain undercover. But there's one little flaw that was made during the executing of this scheme... Leela's reaction! Her poop-producing, frolicking, 'Dumbest Pet in Show' of seven years suddenly turns out to be the commander of a fleet of Kitten-class battle cruisers and all she says is a 'Nibbler? You can talk?' He knows more about space-time physics than the Professor and all that's said is... Well, nothing, really. That's all that follows, nothing. He can shoot lasers out of his third eye. Nothing? Eh. Eh eh eh.

Next, music. Lack of orchestra, I'm told. Sadly, it showed. The musical numbers, although perfectly placed in relation to the story, lack the traditional instrumental diversity I've come to expect. Mind you, they were hilarious, especially Santa's tap dancing and the whole Toy Shop Goes to War bit. Also, the Scott Walker accompaniment during Lars' journey to the future was close to being tantamount to LH's 'Baby Love Child' scene. Close, mind you. LH was more happy. Here I've still yet to figure out how I'm supposed to be feeling, although I have slight suspicions that Charles de Gaulle was inserted into the plot just for that gag.

Finally, to wrap up, a miscellany of miscellaneousness. The plot flowed at the speed of an episode, except it went on longer. I wonder if some people think it got old. The secondary characters were placed well, although there were a few groaners placed now and then. Great Leela/Bender shipping comraderie in the beginning. Touching to see Santa as an ally. Oh, and the most realistic space battle I've seen ever since The Pirkinning. Al Gore had good placement (something I'd never thought I'd say.) Oh, the multifaceted nature of the time code! So far I've found three (four to be technical) symmetries in it, a binary count from one to six, Lars' name and a physical description of Leela ('one eye face').

Ooo, second thoughts! Post scripts! Speaking of the time code... How can simply saying it enable the sphere? A good bit of thought later, I've gotten an idea. All science fiction assumes that the universe actually takes up space, literally. Some stories like The Matrix describe how life is really a simulation. But still, in the end, the universe itself is real. But what if, in Futurama, the universe is in fact a massive computer program? Living creatures are the variables... The Nibblonians are the spyware blocker... The Galactic Entity is the CPU... And the time code is a makeshift hack. That's right, a hack! It takes the universe's machine code and twists it to do something that was not originally intended. Now, it's a very good hack, enabling paradox-correcting time travel, but it's still a hack, and if one little line of hexadecimal doesn't line up right during one particular occasion of it's use, the program crashes. I'm sure there are programmers here on PEEL who know what I'm talking about. And sure, this idea raises the question of 'What is this program running on', but in the end, isn't that identical to the current question of 'Where is the universe located'?

It's also interesting to note that if we allow for the Big Brain in WoF to have developed a Fry-specific version of the same type of time travel, it would explain why Nibbler's shadow only appears in the cryogenics lab during the first few seasons.

And now that I've brought this up again, I think I deserve a chance to speak of another few gripes I have. (Please don't hit me!)

One: Why time travel in the first film? Since that's the zenith of science fiction concepts, why not wait until the very end to bring it up? The reboot theory again? Because they have even more complex concepts ahead? Or have they fallen into the RTD syndrome, where they're gonna keep getting grander and grander until they hit the the inevitable stopping block and sink down into a flaming heap? I doubt this because the movies were written as one block and not separately, but we still can't tell, can we...

*sigh*

These last notes should really go in the Goof Thread, but then again, half of this post already doesn't belong here, so why not:

Why did Nibbler sneak away when the scammers started scrunging Fry? Did he know that the code existed?
Why was the Nimbus in orbit around Earth, yet in the next scene still approaching it?
Why were the pupils of the frozen auto-destructing Bender not red and square spirals in his final scene?
Why were Bender's pupils not red and square spirals when he was commenting on Fry's temporal escape in the shower room?
Why does Amy briefly have three arms on the Nude Beach Planet?
Why does Leela put her hand on Fry's butt when she's hiding behind him to stay away from the Nibblonian fleet?

Intellectual nourishment, hmm?


Poverty, stole your golden shoes...
It didn't steal your laughter.
And heartache came to visit me,
but I knew it wasn't ever after...
We will fight,
not out of spite;
For someone must stand up for what's right;
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice,
there ours shall go singing...

Experimenting with a new vaguely BBS-related siggy...

[Reply #721 on:]

Good grief, man... it's a cartoon...   

[Reply #722 on:]

Actually I thought it was very well argued. Does that make me a sad, strange little man?

[Reply #723 on:]

Probably.
I didn't read it, because it's like half a kilometre long.

[Reply #724 on:]

That's, what, about 2 fifths of a mile or something? use real measurements!

No wonder nobody's saying about about my fic if that's considered really long...

To be serious for a moment, it is a cartoon, but it's also life for a lot of people. It's the new Star Trek!

[Reply #725 on:]

Yanks are the only folk in the world who use Imperial measurements these days.

No, it's just that your fic is anti-shippy.

Firefly is the new Star Trek.

[Reply #726 on:]

It's not anti-shippy! It's ship-neutral at worst... right?

I dread to think what Firefly: The Next Generation would look like.

[Reply #727 on:]

 

Originally posted by Archonix:
I dread to think what Firefly: The Next Generation would look like.

Cowboy Bebop.

[Reply #728 on:]

That made my day.

[Reply #729 on:]

Holy Christ, Xanfor.  You're the biggest sci-fi geek on this board.

That's it, I'm loading the Vette and driving to Georgia.  I'm taking you to a strip club and paying the best looking stripper to pay you some 'very special attention'.  I'll even pay extra and get one with the most massive ta-ta's in the house.

After that, let's see if you have time or desire to hang out on PEEL.

[Reply #730 on:]

What a...dissertation.

Just a few preliminary comments:

- Futurama's 'unfortunate' "classification as a comedy and not drama"?   

- I've already said that I agree about TDHAIP. The writers were under no obligation to appease those who automatically assumed that 'something' must've happened after the opera, nor were they under any to pick the movie up at the exact point where the series left off. (To explain everything that happened during those two years, that is).

- Also agree about Nibbler. The lack of overall reaction was in my opinion a case of lazy writing. It remains to be seen what role if any the Nibblonians will have in the next 3 films, but it wasn't handled as well in this one as it probably could have been.

- The thing with Amy's third arm was already brought up in the goof thread, and the bit where Fry is talking to her about Leela and showing her that macaroni picture struck me as a little off--it reminded me of one of my favorite lines out of Tongue Luck's satirical fic, when she writes that Amy and Hermes tend to get turned into "wise, benevolent romantics".

- So if past events can in fact be changed, and if LoTF and CW were altered, then how does that reconcile with what some other people have been saying, that history wasn't actually changed by the events of the movie?

[Reply #731 on:]

Dear god in heaven! That was the longest post I've ever read and it made sense. Very well done. More evidence for my Xanfor isn't of this earth file (Evil laughter).

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
Yanks are the only folk in the world who use Imperial measurements these days.

I know, it sucks. The imperial system makes no sense at all. My brain works in metric but the rest of the county doesn't seem to get the fact that it's vastly easier.

[Reply #732 on:]

 

Originally posted by Frisco17:
 I know, it sucks. The imperial system makes no sense at all. My brain works in metric but the rest of the county doesn't seem to get the fact that it's vastly easier.

What's really stupid is that your MONEY is metric! One hundred cents to the dollar! Hello?! This ain't exactly rocket science... except when it is.

[Reply #733 on:]

If by imperial you mean like miles, then count England in too, unless my days of travelling in the backseat have left me woefully misguided.

[Reply #734 on:]

I think England uses both, oddly. You think I don't know more about your country than you do?! 

How you been, jle?

[Reply #735 on:]

I've been good, I've found an American girl this time. I reckon this one will work, I'm actually meeting her. How have you all been without me?

[Reply #736 on:]

It's all gone to hell.

[Reply #737 on:]

Going to hell on a one way train,
Don't know when it's coming back again...*thinks*

Anyway, I take it that's because of BBS?

[Reply #738 on:]

I don't know. I'm yet to see it. Region 4.

Ralph hates Leela, and that coldangel guy's been having some of his patented depression-related mood swings.

[Reply #739 on:]

Looks like I got back just in time. Give me details and I'll give you a cookie.

[Reply #740 on:]

Good to see you back jle.  Send me an email - I had to change computers two weeks ago and lost a lot of contacts.

BTW, can I have a cookie too?  Chocolate chip, please.

[Reply #741 on:]

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
 What's really stupid is that your MONEY is metric! One hundred cents to the dollar! Hello?! This ain't exactly rocket science... except when it is.

That's not metric, that's decimal!

[Reply #742 on:]

It's the same thing! That's why the reluctance to embrace metric is idiotic! Everyone knows and understands the decimal system, and already uses it in their daily lives. Why not simplify?

Also, 'Metric' is the name of a really great Canadian indie rock band who I love.

[Reply #743 on:]

I gets me thirty rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it!

Well I could argue with you about it but I suppose it wouldn't be shippy enough or something, so I'd lose.

[Reply #744 on:]

Hehe Xanfors dissertation seems to have trigered a debate about measurement systems!

That'll teach 'im not to be a smart ass!   

It's weird though that we Brits have adopted a bizzare mishmash of metric and imperial units. i cannot imagine we will adopt metric for road distance and speed measurements, even though we happily use metric for measuring bits of wood and stuff like that.

I think we were the only country in recent times to use a non decimal currency system (up until 1971).

[Reply #745 on:]

Stop sulking and think of a title for the new thread.

I wager 30 Quatloos on   'Attack of the 50 Metre Ship'

[Reply #746 on:]

'Isn't it time we had a tax on shipping?'

[Reply #747 on:]

Perfidious french measurements!

How about The Titanic on Springs? It would be a fairly accurate description of the sort of reaction most people are having right now...

[Reply #748 on:]

Ha... The Shipping News

...probably only amusing to those who have read the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by E. Annie Proulx.

[Reply #749 on:]

 

Originally posted by km73:
... the bit where Fry is talking to [Amy] about Leela and showing her that macaroni picture struck me as a little off--it reminded me of one of my favorite lines out of Tongue Luck's satirical fic, when she writes that Amy and Hermes tend to get turned into "wise, benevolent romantics".

That scene with the macaroni heart appears to be a late addition based on the animatics. To me that scene conveys Fry's sadness regarding Leela/Lars and it shows his immature side (with macaroni art being more of a child's pursuit).  Without that scene, BBS shows Fry being more frustrated with Lars's intrusion than saddened at his loss of a future with Leela but he is still portrayed as being somewhat childish.
 
I wonder if it was added to show more sadness or childishness. Assuming Just Nibblin's thesis is correct (that BBS is a "hard reset" of Fry/Leela) could they be doing a hard reset of Fry's character too? He was about as confident as a fellow can get at the end of TDHAIPT (fairly mature too it seemed).  He seems to be back in mid-series form now. 

In any case, this whole stepping back to square one situation takes some of the lustre off the franchise for me. The subtle progression and growth which I thought I was witnessing before BBS was a big part of the attaction for me. It helped set Futurama apart from the more formulaic efforts out there. 

Finished in under 0.1 km.

[Reply #750 on:]

I don't see how the 'ship was reset in BBS, they didn't touch on the past as much as they could have, but I didn't notice any real differences from what we had most of the time in the 4th season.

As for Fry, I think that he had matured by the end of the "feature-length feature". He learned the lesson that it took Lars-Fry years to learn.

[Reply #751 on:]

Can someone post the Cliff's Notes for that? I actually fell asleep at a normal hour after reading it 

Anyway, having re-read it this morning, I have  a few points to make:

If there really was an underlying computer that runs the universe, the binary code is equivalent to TNG-Enterprise Holodeck's "Arch" command. Still, one would think that such a command would be longer, so it wouldn't be used by accident. Also, I would have liked to see it used in some way other than just saying it out aloud, voices don't carry through space anyway. I would have liked Farnsworth to do more "sciencing" to get the message across to the god nebula.

Fry did declare his love in the series, once in Parasites Lost and once in The Sting. You can argue that it was the worm-modified Fry that did the talking in PL, but I believe it was really him "getting through" in The Sting

About Nibbler sneaking away, either Fry had the tattoo on his butt all along, or the Nibblonians knew about the upcoming loop in time that causes Fry to have the tattoo. In any event, Nibbler only ran away when the Nudars mention the presence of a level 87 code, which could mean a lot of other things besides the time code.

I've wondered why Nibbler didn't eat the Nudars (yeah, that sounds like Lrr's assessment of Friends  )

[Reply #752 on:]

Names for the new thread?

Hmmm....I have no idea except for:

The Metric vs Imperial Debate (also Ship thread)

[Reply #753 on:]

 

Originally posted by bend_her:
Fry did declare his love in the series, once in Parasites Lost and once in The Sting. You can argue that it was the worm-modified Fry that did the talking in PL, but I believe it was really him "getting through" in The Sting

Well, he also 'declared' it with the love note in the sky, as such. But I think Xanfor means that this was the first time he verbalized it to someone else, thus why he said it seemed like a fanfic parody. That's why it bothered me - it seemed very out-of-character.

 

I've wondered why Nibbler didn't eat the Nudars

I often used to wonder why Nibbler didn't eat Zoidberg; or more likely the other way around.

[Reply #754 on:]

Ah, yes. The big revelation to the crew. Technically, in The Sting, Leela did say she's only happy in her dreams with Fry at the conference table, but I guess that's scraping the bottom.

 

I often used to wonder why Nibbler didn't eat Zoidberg

Because he smelled bad?  Whoop whoop whoop!

[Reply #755 on:]

Ok names, names....

"Voyages of the Starship Enterperv"

Other than that none of the names I can think of have an chance at all.

[Reply #756 on:]

Ship Trek: The next Generation

[Reply #757 on:]

Or better yet-

Ship Trek: Deep Thread Nine.

[Reply #758 on:]

 

Originally posted by HipNoJoe:
 
I wonder if it was added to show more sadness or childishness. Assuming Just Nibblin's thesis is correct (that BBS is a "hard reset" of Fry/Leela) could they be doing a hard reset of Fry's character too? He was about as confident as a fellow can get at the end of TDHAIPT (fairly mature too it seemed).  He seems to be back in mid-series form now. 
Finished in under 0.1 km.

It seems even more now that I dont want to see BBS.
I don't know how many of you remember when I first came onto this site back in June I started with a thread about Fry being a weak character, numerous intelligent and well constructed responses, as well as a lot of stupid ones, convinced me that there was more to Fry than I had assumed. For one thing at that point I hadnt seen all of seasons 3 and 4 and what I had seen then had been on TV and not at my time of choosing so the opportunity to watch in depth was often lost ( I have a 4 year old kid running about the house ).
Through watching season 4 in depth, having purchased it and latterly season 3, I bought them in that order because I really really wanted to own the sting first. Anyhow It became apparent that Fry really had developed as a character and even made me re-consider my perception of Fry in some of the earlier episodes, for example SP3000 and The series has landed, in the latter case were Fry endeavours to convince Leela of his genuine passion for early space travel, and in the end she gets it.

The notion that this evolution of Fry's character had been undone in some way, fills me with black bile!

I propose therefore something radical:

A separitist group for those who deny or decry the heresy inherent in BBS. We will carry on from where we were prior to this folly being unleashed on the world, and construct the true destiny of Fry and Leela in our fan fics and art work.
Myself and Coldangel are in the uniquer position, untainted as it were by the ungodly influence of BBS to lead this revolution of righteous truth!

Disclaimer: I was fairly drunk when I wrote this, it may not be a realistic reflection of my sanity, or the ultimate truth of things, It is however one of these many mad drunken ideas that I feel deservedly should be shared with the outside world at large!

[Reply #759 on:]

Fry doesn't really regress, at least not in my opinion. People tend to blow things like that out of proportion. In fact by the end of the movie Fry does the most mature thing I've ever seen from him. People who say he regressed forget that he is going to do some stupid stuff, that's what his charcter is based on.