Listening to Andy Weir talk about eridians is so funny because fans are always talking about Rocky and Adrian as these âsoftâ adorable aliens but Weir wonât ever let us forget that their species are apex predators on their planet. Not like humans who became apex predators by inventing weapons, but natural top of the foodchain like lions or polar bears. So far I havenât found an interview where Weir explains who ate eridians in the ancient past that caused them to watch over each other while they slept; another predator species or rivaling eridians.
Grace is joking around with a selectively violent creature that can rip his soft squishy body apart in an instant!
But itâs also a lot of fun to hear Weir talk about all the stuff he wants to include in a possible sequel, like the fact that eridians can have several conversations at once even with the same eridian. He imagine Rocky and Adrian bickering in one conversation while having a nice conversation at the same time that slowly turns into a fight and all of a sudden theyâre yelling at each other in two conversations about different things.
He also says they have terrible spacial memory because they can see everything around them all the time thanks to their echo location so to them itâs crazy that humans can only see in one direction but still remember whatâs behind them and even what the last room they were in looks like. Apparently eridians mostly just remember that the room exists and that it has the computer in it but if you asked them where the computer is placed in the room theyâll struggle to give a precise answer.
And Rocky got scared when Grace hugged him because eridians donât have a concept of expressing affection with physical touch. To them itâs only neutral or violent because thanks to their hard shell they canât really feel much. They only use it to move each other around or to break through their preyâs shell to get to the soft insides. So in their inter-species friendship only Grace would feel any desire to touch Rocky. It makes it very cute that Rocky joins in on Graceâs hugging ritual. Itâs purely for Graceâs sake.
