Iām not going to tag any of the original PHM posts Iāve seen across various platforms with this take bc (1) they seem to be mainly informed by a movie-only perspective, and (2) I donāt respect Andy Weir enough as an author to insist that reading his work is vital to understanding this story. But Iāve seen various posts going around to the effect that āRyland Grace loved his life and loved Earth so much, and this is why being forced onto the mission was such a Great Tragedy (TM)ā when thatāsā¦not really???? True???? At ALL??? Of Ryland Grace????
The ENTIRE POINT of Graceās arc is that he is a Coward, with a capital C. He is a coward not only in his refusal of the Hail Mary mission, but in the way he lives his life before the Petrova Line was ever discovered. Grace has no close friends or coworkers, no pets or hobbies, no partners (short or long term), no family that we know of. His two main drives in life are (1) being a Cool Teacher to his students, and (2) nursing a grudge over getting kicked out of academia for proposing wild theories about life forms not based on water. As Stratt ACCURATELY points out, both of these things have large self-serving components. Grace genuinely loves his students and is good at teaching, but itās at least partially because his classroom allows him to demand respect and attention without returning emotional vulnerability in the same way a peer relationship would. His academic theories were also largely motivated by a desire to be The Specialest Boy - and while Grace DOES prove himself very smart and capable, his pet theory wasnāt supported by his work with astrophage. Grace doesnāt jump at the chance to work with Stratt when she first approaches him, and he isnāt out there Living LIfe to the Fullest every day. He ADMITS to himself and to Stratt that he IS a coward, both for the way heās lived up to PHM and for refusing to go on the mission when the timeline made it clear that there wasnāt enough time to bring another candidate up to speed and have the same odds of success. He straight up tells Stratt that heāll sabotage Project Hail Mary if she tries to force him, DESPITE HIM KNOWING that Earth is headed for a literal apocalyptic Ice Age, and that everyone on the planet - including his beloved students!- has a pretty good chance of DYING if the mission doesnāt succeed! Stratt has to give him a coma cocktail that induces mild amnesia, and bet on him being at least good Enough (TM) not to kill the whole planet because he hated her for doing this to him.
(Also no hate for Eva Stratt, I love her and I will SUPPORT THIS WOMANāS WRONGS until my dying day, she committed so many crimes and I cheered the whole way)
Despite Ryan Goslingās very pretty Sad Boi eyes and sweaters, Ryland Grace is NOT a manic pixie dream scientist in love with Earth and its life and cultures. He just ISNāT. And if he WERE, then. Well. He certainly didnāt love Earth enough to fully embrace it while he was here, OR to volunteer to save it when he had the chance. This IS one of those situations where the distinction between āI love lifeā and āI donāt want to dieā is a meaningful one. Does this make Grace a Cancelled Villain of All Time? No - it makes him a coward, but that doesnāt mean he inherently deserved to die. Does it ethically or morally justify forcing him onto a suicide mission while he fought and pleaded not to go? No! It makes Grace ORDINARY. Just some average fucking guy, not evil but not valiant, either. Itās like trying to claim Laika was the top search and rescue dog in the city when she got put into the pod. You donāt NEED to give Ryland Grace all these Tender Tragic Qualities of āloving Earth/Lifeā to have empathy for this poor dude who got launched into space.
In fact, Graceās arc DEPENDS on him STARTING from that place of āI donāt really have a reason to be hereā to āI have EVERY reason to turn my back on survival and do this act!ā Grace wakes up on the Hail Mary, and has no context for why heās on the ship but assumes that he was a Heroic Volunteer, like Yao and Ilyukhina. He sees their personal effects and Reasons Why They Volunteered, and keeps searching for his own Reason Why until he remembers that he didnāt HAVE a āreason why.ā He was never a heroic volunteer. He comes to terms with the fact that heās going to die, and IS. IN FACT. AS STRATT PREDICTED. A GOOD ENOUGH man to want to save the earth anyway rather than die alone without even trying to figure out the Petrova Problem out of spite. And he can do some pretty neat science along the way, which has always been one of his life motivations! At least he can do that before he dies, in the absence of anything else!
But the thing that Grace ACTUALLY loves enough to die for is ROCKY. The one in a million friend! Who saved his life and opened up his entire view of the universe! Graceās core trait was NEVER āloving the Earth,ā or āloving life.ā The WHOLE FUCKING EARTH wasnāt enough to get Grace willingly onboard the Hail Mary! What made him turn the ship around was his GOTDAM SINGING ROCK FRIEND. The whole point is the change! Humanityās capacity for massive apathetic cowardice and also astonishing bravery and hopefulness in connection. Andy Weir has his head in his ass about politics in his work, but you see?!?! You see, right!?!?!?!
And hey. If you really want protagonists who loved the Earth and life? Yao. Ilyukhina. Dubois. The original crew of Project Hail Mary. THEY loved the Earth. THEIR sacrifice was tragic in the specific narrow way that the āGrace loved lifeā posts want Graceās to be. Dubois, who started a relationship with Annie even though he knew one or both of them was sure to die because why waste any time? Why not enjoy what they had in this moment? Ilyukhina, who had the absolute darkest sense of humor and packed a giant bag of vodka, who asked to go out via the most pleasurable cocktail of drugs imaginable bc why not enjoy herself after living such a straight edged life? Yao, who volunteered to go last after both Dubois and Ilyukhina were gone, just so he could make sure they didnāt suffer, who carried a picture of his family and never lost courage. THEY were the ones full of love for Earth and life, while the whole point of Grace is that he never really was, and he found it in space when heād already left Earth behind.
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