The Caine Muzzler

Nuh uh— I may be a dirty rotten sinner but the Blood of Jesus makes me clean. No work of mortal sinful hands can take away my salvation, I stand in In Grace Alone, bitch!

Because they both volunteered to board the Project Hail Mary to search for a solution to astrophage, they were both willing to die in order to give the rest of humanity a fighting chance of making it.

And they both died before ever even seeing Tau Ceti.

And it feels so unfair, because they went all that way for nothing, they died without even getting to try and save the people they were going for.

So they died for nothing.

Except they DIDN’T.

Because their deaths saved Grace, and in turn, saved Rocky and Erid. Without the surplus coma slurry, Grace wouldn’t have been able to go back and take Rocky home, and Erid would have had a much harder time with astrophage.

This isn’t particularly coherent, but I can’t stop thinking about these two people who were willing to die for their world, died before getting the chance to fight for their species survival, and yet their deaths meant the sole survivor of their crew could save both their home, and another.

Dubois wished to die painlessly by going into the EVA suit and filling it with nitrogen. He'd pass out and die without even feeling it. "(...) Nitrogen asphyxiation. All my research shows it is among the least painful ways to die" chapter 21

The surplus of nitrogen tanks is what let's grace fix everything after the taomeba 85 leak

Grace literally mentions how it was all possible because of him "Again, I owe my life to DuBois’s preferred method of suicide." -chapter 27

I find that so fascinating. How a man's death was another's salvation

I think your opinion and OP’s opinion are part of a greater understanding of Project Hail Mary’s main theme.

Project Hail Mary, while being a pretty hopeful story, has a big theme of death and sacrifice. There’s so many things only working out in the end because of those sacrifices. It’s a really tightly made story, where changing one aspect would make it not go right but also it doesn’t feel contrived because what happens makes sense for the characters.

Ryland Grace is only chosen to work on astrophage because he sacrificed his academic career to stand up for what he believed in.

Eva Stratt is sacrificed socially, being the person put in charge to do what needs to be done to save Earth and then the governments all but crucify her to get the heat off their backs for the bad things that need to be done. She knows she’ll be scapegoated in the end, but she does what needs to be done anyways. She’s like that quote from the show Invincible: “We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys that save the world. We can’t be both.”

The other astronauts willingly sacrifice their lives, their careers, their *families* to save *billions*.

Obviously Grace again is sacrificed, this time it’s his life on earth and life in general and it wasn’t willing.

As nocommentcat and afincf-tirwer said above, the other astronauts on the mission dying saved Grace’s skin multiple times over. The extra rations, the nitrogen canisters, but I’d also argue that not having another person on board when Rocky comes in also saves Grace. He doesn’t have anyone to argue that they shouldn’t trust an alien, which would’ve wasted valuable time— Grace was already running on a razor thin margin as it was. Millions were dying on Earth while he searched for a solution to the Patrova Line, every second he didn’t have a solution was condemning a person to death. Grace could put his full trust in Rocky, something that could potentially sabotage his mission, because he’s the only one who needs to make decisions on the Hail Mary (until Rocky comes and lives on it).

Rocky sacrifices himself to save Grace— first by giving Grace enough astrophage to get home, meaning Rocky gets home slower and potentially too late to save Erid, then by stepping out of his protective xenonite ball and turning off the centrifugal force after the fishing incident at Adrian(planet). Rocky willingly goes into an atmosphere that burns him for his friend. In the book, Grace returns the favor: bringing Rocky back to his atmosphere and getting burned in the process. Book Grace was only knocked out by the centrifugal force if I recall correctly.

Grace’s good ending isn’t going home to Earth. It isn’t seeing his students, his *kids*, grow up. He doesn’t get to see if what he did worked, if his solution came too late, if there’s an Earth even left to save. He doesn’t get that because he choses this time to sacrifice his life on Earth to save Rocky— and though Rocky is his primary concern, he’s also sacrificing himself to save all of Erid as well. Grace sacrifices his chance at human connection ever again for his best friend.

In the end it all works out. Grace’s life on Erid ends up better than his life on Earth. He gets a pretty sweet enclosure specifically made for his needs, gets to see his best friend every day, gets *delicious* me-burgers (I’m a little sad that wasn’t adapted to the film version), and he gets to teach alien children about science.

Because they both volunteered to board the Project Hail Mary to search for a solution to astrophage, they were both willing to die in order to give the rest of humanity a fighting chance of making it.

And they both died before ever even seeing Tau Ceti.

And it feels so unfair, because they went all that way for nothing, they died without even getting to try and save the people they were going for.

So they died for nothing.

Except they DIDN’T.

Because their deaths saved Grace, and in turn, saved Rocky and Erid. Without the surplus coma slurry, Grace wouldn’t have been able to go back and take Rocky home, and Erid would have had a much harder time with astrophage.

This isn’t particularly coherent, but I can’t stop thinking about these two people who were willing to die for their world, died before getting the chance to fight for their species survival, and yet their deaths meant the sole survivor of their crew could save both their home, and another.

Dubois wished to die painlessly by going into the EVA suit and filling it with nitrogen. He'd pass out and die without even feeling it. "(...) Nitrogen asphyxiation. All my research shows it is among the least painful ways to die" chapter 21

The surplus of nitrogen tanks is what let's grace fix everything after the taomeba 85 leak

Grace literally mentions how it was all possible because of him "Again, I owe my life to DuBois’s preferred method of suicide." -chapter 27

I find that so fascinating. How a man's death was another's salvation

I think your opinion and OP’s opinion are part of a greater understanding of Project Hail Mary’s main theme.

Project Hail Mary, while being a pretty hopeful story, has a big theme of death and sacrifice. There’s so many things only working out in the end because of those sacrifices. It’s a really tightly made story, where changing one aspect would make it not go right but also it doesn’t feel contrived because what happens makes sense for the characters.

Ryland Grace is only chosen to work on astrophage because he sacrificed his academic career to stand up for what he believed in.

Eva Stratt is sacrificed socially, being the person put in charge to do what needs to be done to save Earth and then the governments all but crucify her to get the heat off their backs for the bad things that need to be done. She knows she’ll be scapegoated in the end, but she does what needs to be done anyways. She’s like that quote from the show Invincible: “We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys that save the world. We can’t be both.”

The other astronauts willingly sacrifice their lives, their careers, their *families* to save *billions*.

Obviously Grace again is sacrificed, this time it’s his life on earth and life in general and it wasn’t willing.

As nocommentcat and afincf-tirwer said above, the other astronauts on the mission dying saved Grace’s skin multiple times over. The extra rations, the nitrogen canisters, but I’d also argue that not having another person on board when Rocky comes in also saves Grace. He doesn’t have anyone to argue that they shouldn’t trust an alien, which would’ve wasted valuable time— Grace was already running on a razor thin margin as it was. Millions were dying on Earth while he searched for a solution to the Patrova Line, every second he didn’t have a solution was condemning a person to death. Grace could put his full trust in Rocky, something that could potentially sabotage his mission, because he’s the only one who needs to make decisions on the Hail Mary (until Rocky comes and lives on it).

Rocky sacrifices himself to save Grace— first by giving Grace enough astrophage to get home, meaning Rocky gets home slower and potentially too late to save Erid, then by stepping out of his protective xenonite ball and turning off the centrifugal force after the fishing incident at Adrian(planet). Rocky willingly goes into an atmosphere that burns him for his friend. In the book, Grace returns the favor: bringing Rocky back to his atmosphere and getting burned in the process. Book Grace was only knocked out by the centrifugal force if I recall correctly.

Grace’s good ending isn’t going home to Earth. It isn’t seeing his students, his *kids*, grow up. He doesn’t get to see if what he did worked, if his solution came too late, if there’s an Earth even left to save. He doesn’t get that because he choses this time to sacrifice his life on Earth to save Rocky— and though Rocky is his primary concern, he’s also sacrificing himself to save all of Erid as well. Grace sacrifices his chance at human connection ever again for his best friend.

In the end it all works out. Grace’s life on Erid ends up better than his life on Earth. He gets a pretty sweet enclosure specifically made for his needs, gets to see his best friend every day, gets *delicious* me-burgers (I’m a little sad that wasn’t adapted to the film version), and he gets to teach alien children about science.

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