🦇

It's like. Project Hail Mary is a big, popular movie. It has fucking Ryan Gosling in it. And there's not a hint of a romance plotline anywhere! It's all entirely focused on platonic relationships. The friendship between Grace and Rocky is the focus of the movie, and it's so important to the story. They both found someone to be brave for, someone they were willing to die for. Without their friendship and collaboration, neither of them would have been able to save their home planets. Their bond is so close and special and above all their best friends, and it's beautiful.

There's also Grace's relationship with Stratt. Stratt is the main female supporting character. In any other story -- any other story -- I can almost guarantee she would've been the love interest. But she isn't and it's fucking wonderful. Just. Just think about it for a moment. Project Hail Mary is this big blockbuster movie -- and it looked at Eva Stratt and said, we're not going to make her the love interest, because she wasn't in the book and she doesn't need to be. Their dynamic is just as fucked up and wonderful and traumatic when they're friends. That's such an amazing thing to see in such a mainstream movie.

And, of course, it means so much to me that Grace is aroace and that the film (and the book) continuously point this out. He leaves the party when he sees people getting together. He's only had one girlfriend. Half the time he's wearing the colors of the aroace flag. (In the book, he's incredibly confused when people think he and Stratt are sleeping together).

Stratt uses his lack of romantic relationships as a justification for sending him to die, which is heartbreaking, and it felt so real. Because society is constantly telling aroace people that we're worth less because we won't date or get married or have sex, because we don't fit into societal norms. What Stratt said to Grace -- that's something the world is constantly telling us.

And then the movie flips that on its head. It says that it doesn't matter that Grace never had any of that, because he loved living and he loved his students and he was so full of love for everything around him. And he met his best friend in space and their friendship was what made them able to save their homes and each other.

I lied I'm gonna explode

Robin:

Steve:

Robin: I can't believe we survived that

Steve: Yeah...How was seeing a hideous freak creature for the first time?

Eddie: ...?

Eddie 'the freak' Munson: *is a freak*

Eddie: *isn't even trying to be a freak creature so-*

Robin: Honestly, it-

Eddie: Is fucking uncalled for, man, and rude as hell to say.

Steve and Robin: *remembering that they fought a freak creature made of people who probably died*

Robin: You're right.

Like he immediately is like "I need to figure out how much gravity I'm experiencing right now because it's really annoying me. Also I would like to know how big of a centrifuge I would have to be in in order to experience this level of gravity, and before you ask, yes, I showed my work. Let me explain, in way more detail than anyone could possibly want or need, my calculations." He literally admits he doesn't need to be doing all this math, he just really, really wants to.

- Was eventually trialed by governments of the world as a scapegoat and sent to prison

- She somehow BROKE out of said prison and currently commandeers a rogue paramilitary faction of Project Hail Mary loyalists who believe in her over world governments, who presumably are still hunting her down

- She currently is on the run and staying mobile on an ice breaker ship like some kind of james bond villain base (but you know, good) while STILL working on project hail mary the whole time

- Her rogue loyalist faction controlled enough resources they could go to space and collect the beetles Grace had sent. Alternatively, it was the world government that collected the beetles, and Stratt had a whole ass heist movie to steal them, which is why she had the little xenonite figure at the end of the movie. Either ways she was running circles around them.

I’m not sure what the right word is. He does have confidence in his skills, the moment he gets into the zone with his work of any kind (teaching, sciencing), once he gets out of his own way he has no hesitation. But away from that, he does seem to think very little of himself, or rather, doesn’t see that he could have genuine worth to others. He is out of sync with humanity in general, even though he does have the tools to connect with people fairly easily, mostly with humor/teaching. When they tell him he’s the new science officer for the Hail Mary, he calls himself a failure, simply the type of person who is unable to succeed despite his obvious and huge achievements.

I don’t think he’s a coward at all. I think he feels alone and afraid most of the time, for whatever reasons (the book/movie do not tell us — past tragedy? Traumatic experiences? Autism? Simply his temperament? His career flameout is most likely a symptom of this, not the cause) and he is constantly doing it afraid, constantly having to be brave every single day. He has his comfort zones (teaching, sciencing) and his coping mechanisms (humor, burying himself in work) but he’s always afraid. That’s why when he fails (career flameout, astrophage are made of water, etc) he breaks and lashes out in frustration, releasing all that tension in a rush. He pushes himself so hard and he fails anyway and he crashes out/melts down.

And when he has amnesia, he’s still afraid. He isn’t suddenly a fearless person without his memories. He’s terrified, waking up in space alone. But he is also the kind of person who refuses to just give up, especially with something so important, because he cares so much. It’s love of science and people that drives him for everything, even when he feels certain he doesn’t belong with either. It’s love that drives him to save Rocky.