Alexander Theran (he/him/his/they)

Afab means assigned female at birth so this includes/can include cis women, trans men, transmasc people, nonbinary people, and intersex people.

If you’re making a fic where the reader is a woman, uses she/her, wears feminine clothing, etc. tag it as fem reader instead.

I’ve been smacked in the face as a trans man by reading fics tagged afab thinking it will be gender neutral, but the reader is actually a woman and I’m disappointed because I was ready for a fic I thought would apply to me.

eva stratt wears black or other dark shades the entire film, visually contrasting basically every other character (excluding those in a uniform). i can't help framing it alongside the use of the dies irae motif in the soundtrack - death is a fundamental part of her work and it weighs on her at all times. it's her armor and strength, the wall separating her from everyone else, the reaper, the wolf, the mourning dress, the end her astronauts will find in space and the grave dirt of those on earth.

it's particularly fascinating that, talking to grace three days before the launch, stratt is shrouded in black moreso than ever before. she knows the weight of the mission and that there will be no going back. she is acutely aware that what comes after isn't 30 years of peace and hope, but unavoidable tragedy and hard choices no matter what. but it's also the narrative clearly telling us what's about to happen - death is clutching more tightly than they realise and it will force her hand that day.

contrast this with grace's colours- oranges, yellows (with their own layer of symbolism), blues, and cream/white. he is warm and vibrant and alive and always wearing his heart on his sleeve. but white in particular is notable as a contrast to stratt's black hues. it's hope and bravery, it's his memory loss, a layer of grace's own detachment from the world despite containing every color, the lamb to the slaughter, the astronauts' ultimate sacrifice. i might have missed it elsewhere, but i think the only times grace wears the white flight suit is after getting drugged on earth and when sacrificing himself to go back and save rocky - notable for the latter being his choice.

stratt also wears a coat when she needs to be official and show leadership (recruiting grace, the warship conference, the meeting room ultimatum) and sheds it in moments of greater vulnerability. the last time grace sees her, she's coatless - but it's also the only scene the audience gets with her wearing a light grey. death is still there and on some level she's still the wolf, but she has made herself vulnerable to try and connect with grace, to try to make him understand. she is so very aware of what she's doing, that they are both sacrifices to the cause, and for better or worse she has just as little choice as he does in that moment. there are endless possibilites and yet only one path saves the flock, and she has to take it.

Stratt would've had to source 4+ years of T in the like. three days between the explosion and the launch

"ma'am, testosterone is a controlled substance -"

Hail Mary, full of Grace. The Lord is with thee.

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Uh oh, I've got bad news for you, Grace

*SPOILERS!!!*

Grace waking up from the coma was the first shot they filmed for the movie! They wanted Ryan to feel eased into the character, and what better way to do that than have him play a character who can't remember who he is?

The little "GOOD LUCK!" note in sharpie that's written on Grace's sleeping bag was canonically written by the other astronauts on the I.S.S. before the Hail Mary crew got put into the ship. In real life, Phil and Chris wrote one word each. They said it was like "a blessing on the movie."

Ryan's most nerve-wracking day on set was when he had to shoot with the classroom full of children. Most of the kids were made up of the children of the film's crew members.

The scene where Grace looks through Yao and Ilukhina's photos is footage of him looking at and reacting to actual pictures of the actors with their loved ones.

When Grace calls Stratt to tell her that he and Carl figured out how to breed astrophage, Ryan is genuinely calling Sandra on her day off set, and her audio is her genuine reaction to the unexpected line: "Carl and I made a baby!"

"We like showcasing Ryland Grace's social anxiety while having a lot of people staring at him. LOL!"

Their intention for the space funeral scene was to have Grace convey that he was trying to ease his own sadness by making the dead people with him feel better about being dead :(

The markings on Rocky's body convey his mission patch, his rank in the crew, his wedding band, and his family crest.

Grace and Stratt's conversation on the boat is Grace asking her if they're allowed to be close friends, and the response from Stratt is no, they can't. This gets driven home in the karaoke scene. She understands the value of connection, a part of her wants it, but "Her love for people has to be suspended for her to do her job."

Rocky has different forward-facing faces for different thought processes! They named his "satellite dish" face, his "scrunched up thinking face", and his "monobrow face".

Direct quote: "I love how on the spectrum Rocky is." ROCKY AUTISTIC CODED CONFIRMED!

After Rocky recovers from his injuries: "As Rocky returns to the movie, the lights turn on. The warmth returns. It's like the day breaking."

Confirmed that when Grace and Rocky reunite, Rocky says to Grace, "You came back for me, question?"

They throw this out there for two seconds and do NOT expand on it, but according to Andy Weir, Stratt is imprisoned for life but somehow ESCAPES???

The Eridians built Grace an artificial tree in his enclosure because Rocky knew he liked trees

(Handsome men with long white/blonde hair🧝🏻‍♂️😏)

Part 1