They Turned That Man Into A Submarine

Really happy with how the prints came out

i cant stop laughing at this BTS of this failed iteration of the Elli biting the sub scene. She fucking exploded

eden might be a cult but every faction in iron lung is still on a fucking space station. Everyone there is smart because you don’t get sent??? To space??????? Otherwise?? Fucking hell

The interpretations of Ava however?? EHHH

They’re not great. From what I’ve seen, things tend to go down one of two routes:

She’s a Lying Evil Schemer who views every convict she’s been assigned as disposable. Nothing she says can be trusted, she was never going to pull Simon out, and every dynamic she could have with him is inherently abusive.

Which. ????

I truly don’t understand where the “Ava never stops lying” thing came from (or I do, but I think it’s stupid). She lies once, about Simon being the first person on the mission, and never again. The moment he contradicts her (“what’s the point of lying to me, huh?”) she stops and doesn’t bring it up later.

She doesn’t lie about when Simon is going to be pulled up. The idea she ‘strings him along’ is contradicted by the fact she actively tempers his expectations in a way that LITERALLY risks his compliance with the mission early on (“and and then I’m free.” “And then you come back up”).

She speaks too impulsively to lie consistently throughout the film. She’s abrasive and often wrong, but not dishonest. Even when telling Simon he’s the first to go down, it feels like a scripted lie and not something she came up with herself.

I’ve already made a post about the miscommunication of “freedom” between Eden and the C.O.I. so I won’t get into it but,,, yeah. she’s not evil, she just didn’t know he was going to be kidnapped by a fish

This said, the second read on her character is less strange but I still don’t like it:

Ava at some point lost touch with herself and started viewing everyone as disposable/inhuman. By the end of the film she’s significantly changed and is willing to die to save Simon.

This, I think, is a reactionary analysis of her character. I’m not MAD about it, but it’s sort of overcompensating?

I see it a lot in post-canon, They Don’t Die fics. It’s usually paired with a lot of guilt-ridden musings on Ava’s part, to show she’s totally changed and feels bad about all the people she got killed and it’s just??? Idk I don’t hate it, but it’s boring.

Maybe I’m just picky. Who knows.

Primarily, my beef is that I don’t think Ava changes that much throughout the film.

She already grieves the loss of human life required for her mission. She’s not necessarily made her peace with it, but she’s certainly determined that it’s worth it. Her going down to save Simon isn’t a change in attitude, it’s a reinforcement of her established character.

She makes these huge, repeated demands of her crew and Simon, but never for anything she believe is inherently necessary. She also, most importantly, never asks anything of anyone she wouldn’t be willing to do herself.

She’s not very emotionally aware or helpful, but she cares—deeply—and struggles to express this through anything other than frustrated outbursts at the idea she Wouldn’t care.

Idkkkk

This is mostly some bullet points I wrote out for my own writing reference more than anything.

In this time between Iron Lung leaving cinemas and the dvd release, it’s easy to lose sight of what characterization is actively present in the film. So that’s what this is trying to avoid! 🎉 yippie

If you want my credentials, I wrote drowning in air which is (currently) the most popular thing in Ava’s character tag AND the most popular non-crossover fic for Iron Lung in general. I like this film a lot, and I spend a great deal of effort keeping the characters and world consistent to what Mark has set out for us. If you disagree with the characterization in my story, you will probably disagree with my observations here. (which is fine—BUT you better be able to back it up if you’re vocal because I can cite my sources extensively)

Anyway, onto the character:

For obvious reasons, most of Ava’s characterization is shown through dialogue. This works in the film, but while writing any fic where she’s physically present we must also contend with her Mannerisms. Primarily, the thing I like to rely on here is hesitation. She hesitates a LOT, not in her actions, but when trying to articulate herself (nicely) to others there’s always a notable pause. See: “I, uh—I don’t know. This isn’t exactly standard procedure. Just, ram it.”

Notably this hesitation to rephrase herself is only present when she thinks it’s both useful, and she’s being given a similar courtesy in return. She doesn't seem to grace personal insults with a response at all, and often talks past or actively removes herself from circular conversation. Physically turning away when she doesn't like what someone is saying is also a mannerism I find useful to include.

When we see her angry it's almost exclusively in reference to the people around her not fulfilling their roles, or not acting in accordance to the stakes of the situation. When Simon is calm and compliant with the mission she even jokes! ("our goal is to avoid something more calamitous, that's what keeps us all alive :)" <- to the guy who just hit everyone with the radiation beam is Really Funny actually. there's legitimate levity in her voice it's great #smallwins)

When writing from another character's perspective (usually Simon), I often lean on "blunt" and "abrasive" as adverbs, then sprinkle in her softer traits through less obvious physical action (staying nearby when someone is hurt, taking responsibly when things goes wrong etc), and usually this will go mostly uncommented on by both Ava and the person noticing it. Essentially, she is capable of kindness but not usually of being nice on a personal level.

"Bland" is also a word I like to use a LOT. She says a lot of things blandly that really shouldn't be said that way at all. ("So look out for sparks or flames or anything like that." <- with the inflection of someone on page 27 of 58 of a boring instruction manual is NOTT the tone you should be using for the guy who's never done this before and is clearly very very scared. anyway)

At no point does Ava ever ask for anything she wouldn't be willing to do herself. This is both one of her most admirable traits, and the cause of most of her conflicts. She gets angry when people aren't willing to commit the same sacrifice to The Mission as she is; but from an outside perspective it looks like she's just making unreasonable demands and then getting shout-y when she receives pushback. Which,,, she is. BUT it's important to remember the context.

She’s painfully honest when she’s angry, and more often than not it’s a result of deep-set stress about the situation. The “calculated risks” rant are her most talked about lines, but she yells at Simon because it seems to cut through his panic. Her shouting about needing to know if there’s internal damage to the submarine otherwise he could die is probably the best example of this. She shouts because that’s what he responds to, but the words being said removed from the context of tone are often?? idk, they either benefit Simon or they benefit the mission. She never seems to care about much else enough to raise her voice.

The ship she’s the Captain of isn’t a spaceship, it’s probably a really big tugboat. The ship is on the ocean’s surface throughout the film, mostly proven by how quickly the Iron Lung is dropped from it’s hangar into the ocean.

This is also why the COI is so hesitant to send anyone down to retrieve the SM-13. The submarine had been attached to the tugboat by a chain, so when Ellie (the fish) basically kidnapped Simon, the ship was almost dragged under the surface as well. A submarine is one thing but the tugboat is blatantly not something the Consolidation is capable of replacing. By going to retrieve the Simon/black box (from their perspective), Ava does actively endanger the entire crew by potentially further alerting the ocean’s life to the presence of the ship.

Based on the “Captain has had a consolidated stick up her ass since the quiet rapture” line from David, it’s implied they’ve known each other a Really long time. Lots of fun implications to explore there, and combined with Simon seeing the sun go as a teenager, it puts together a general timeline on how long it’s been since that event happened).

On the note of personal connections, she also seems to have been close with the SM-8 crew before they died. Ellie initially mistakes Simon for Ava and says that she “always has a plan”, and that “it doesn’t have to be like before/they can work together this time.”—implying that their last contact had been and argument the researcher has since forgiven her for.