everything counts (in large amounts)

anyway. so all this to say. i do prefer the the way the book shapes his personality regarding his cowardice because i personally love fucked up lil guys with fatal flaws. and in terms of the fucked up lil guys i typically enjoy, his fatal flaw being cowardice is pretty unique

so basically i do not really like that it seems as though people tend to kinda whumpify his character too much. like im sorry im sympathetic to a certain extent but not too much. like does it suck he was in that situation? yes absolutely and he absolutely would have a complex about it going forward post canon however you need NEED to acknowledge that it wasnt a WRONG decision of stratt to make. like grace himself IN BOTH THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE acknowledge by the end that stratt made the right call. he'll still have a chip on his shoulder about it but he knows by the end that it was the correct move. so like thr way people are really harping on it kinda really annoys me . like sorry i dont find the fatal flaw somthing to be whumpifying. im not sympathetic about it.

perhaps even, and im just thinking out loud here, perhaps its even just the nature of how people whumpify it. like the thing that does make me sympathetic for him is just the pure fear that is involved in a one way mission of this scale. its the fear that made him not want to do it. the fear is the point. and watching him in the movie literally physically run for his life was really striking. and as a scientist he knows the logical move, he admits it, but hes just too scared to accept the logical, utilitarian choice here. and frankly, if there was somebody else thrust into this position with grace being stratt's henchman in forcing the person into it, i honestly feel like he would agree with stratt too . he's only upset and holds a grudge against her because its him who has to live with it. he would feel bad about it, in a way that stratt doesnt, but like i dont think he would stop her. he'd be in a similar role to like carl i think

so really if you want to write whump around this specific aspect of grace's character, then focus on the pure animalistic fear of not wanting to die. i dont fucking give a shit about the oh no i was forced into it. oh nooo. i dont care and it just makes me roll my eyes.

SO REALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS POST: IF YOU WANT TO WRITE WHUMP. ROCKY IS RIGHT THERE???

i feel like rocky is actually CRIMINALLY undervalued in this fandom, somehow. from the prevalence of bloodymary (how is a random ship with a dude from a whole different fucking franchise more popular than the ship between like, the two main protagonists? is rocky not fuckable to you people? is a character being fuckable the only reason you people care about characters?? ryan gosling is more fuckable than a rock so you'd rather write whump about his character even if his character is far less sympathetic????) to the criminal lack of acknowledgment around ROCKY'S TRAUMA, im just like. god damn people

and maybe im venompilled! maybe im used to a fandom who focuses more on the alien than the human. but like, rocky went through so much more than grace did. why are we not focusing more on that.

rocky was alone for DECADES. DECADES. humans are a very communal and social species but eridians are even moreso. and bro was alone for DECADES. his people died brutally through RADIATION SICKNESS. thats not a fast death! thats slow and its gruesome. one by one, each of his crewmates suffered and died and he just had to watch until he was the only one left and he had no idea why he survived. that alone is fucking crazy but then add on the DECADES of isolation that followed . and add on the unique eridian cultural standards like needing somebody to watch you sleep, and he had NO ONE, its just like