Ognicho

We know that "color" is a concept that Eridians will never be able to fully understand, and that human perception of it is the only way they'll likely ever have of knowing about it (sorry shrimp colors). What if, after Grace becomes the resident alien science teacher, the concept of "colors" becomes like. the Eridian equivalent of knowing your star chart or something.

Grace kicks the whole thing off by accident by telling his students what colors and patterns they have and they go absolutely nuts over this. Turns into this whole thing where they build these light sensors that can tell what general color someone's carapace is and if there are any patterns, or by knowing what material your carapace is you can have a vague idea of what color you are (like the difference between knowing your whole birth chart and knowing your zodiac sign)

And it becomes the Eridian version of a daily horoscope to look up what the lucky colors are that day or if spots or stripes will have more luck with their relationships. Rocky’s specific shade of brown is seen as supremely lucky by virtue of his mission, but with some more somber implications as well due to the loss of his crew. I imagine whatever Adrian’s carapace is (I’m a green Adrian truther personally) that their color scheme becomes one coveted by Eridians looking for their ideal mate- I mean who else gets to say that their mate saved the stars and then defied death multiple times to return to them??? That’s some Eridian fairy tale material right there.

The color of Grace’s hair or eyes becomes the color of Eridians known to be incredibly curious but foolhardy. Every Eridian in their teen angst phase is hoping against hope that they’ve got a smidge of blue somewhere on their carapace to prove that they’re Not Like Other Rocks.

Grace was put into coma by the people who cared about him. They (especially Yáo being Yáo) probably double-triple-quadruple checked everything. They watched him sleep for those first few days — I doubt they went into coma immediately after leaving Earth's orbit. They probably talked to him, assuring him that he'll be okay.

Ilyukhina's coma procedure was probably supervised by Yáo. He made sure that everything was in order, but — he is just one man and he is not a doctor. There was much more room for mistakes.

When Yáo went to sleep, he was alone. He had to rely on the technology completely.

But what if the Eridians hear it very, very differently?

Eridians kind of ARE rocks, in more than one way, aren't they? Their outer appearance resembles rocks; and (this might be fanon, I don't recall right now) their *brains* are crystalline structures. They hatch from eggs that probably look like rocks. The environment they live in presumably contains rocks.

What if Eridians view rocks in a kind of reverent, aspirational way? Like "For rocks you are, and to rocks you shall return" but with less of a dismissive/humble tone and more of a "we are fundamental building blocks of reality in every form we take" thing.

And then Rocky is explaining to Eridian linguists who are studying Grace's English what his "human name" means, in English, and the linguists are giving him scandalized side-eye and going "So you met an alien and you told him that THAT was your name? [Wow, what kind of arrogant prick would do that?]" And Rocky is like, "no no nonono, I absolutely did not tell him that was my name. I gave him my real name! Grace picked that name for me, he didn't even ask me for suggestions, I had nothing to do with it! It was like right after we first met properly -- it didn't seem like he even had to think very hard about it."

The linguists question Grace about his reasoning, of course, and Grace is a little embarrassed because he thinks this is a "haha our human is bad at naming things, he found a Tau Ceti amoeba and named it Taumoeba, silly human!"

(Also, he does not want this to end up leading to a movie night where the first movie he has to show a bunch of ALIEN LINGUISTS is Rocky. Just seems like kind of a genre-mismatch, right? And Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire is *right there*. Or he could pick some movie that showcases a bunch of different real human languages really well, or... Something that's not a sports drama film.)

So he brushes it off a little, saying something like "Well, sure, it wasn't hard for me to decide to call him Rocky. I mean, it's kind of the obvious choice, yeah?"

And the thing is. It's established knowledge now that all humans can perceive things that Eridians can't perceive. It's not even like superstitious "ooh spooky aliens" woo-woo. Respected, credentialed Eridian biologists have confirmed that humans have *actual, physical organs* that let them detect phenomena that Eridians cannot detect.

and so Grace ends up implementing an “Opposite Day” routine with his first classes of young Eridian students, where he periodically assigns a group of his kids to create and deliver to him an in-class presentation, human-style, on any topic of “Eridian common knowledge” of their choosing

Grace loves 'his' kids. Grace loves sharing knowledge. Grace loves science and discovery. Grace loves his colleagues in the Hail Mary project team. Grace loves the whole world, the whole Earth. Grace loves humanity so much he's willing sacrifice his life to science when studying astrophage. Grace loves Rocky so much he throws everything away to save him. Grace couldn't sleep well without Rocky watcing. Grace studied Rocky's language and culture and life simply because he wanted to know more, to connect. Grace found not just that, he found someone he could wholeheartedly love. Grace loves nature and space and life itself.

Eva Stratt loves Earth. Eva Stratt loves all of humanity. Eva Stratt loves her team. Eva Stratt loves her astronauts so much she does everything to make them feel loved in their last times. Eva Stratt loves the world so much she's willing to sacrifice anything to keep it alive. Eva Stratt loves the world so much she's willing to stain her conscience with ruined lives and heartbreak of everyone around her just to save the world.

The Hail Mary team love Earth. The Hail Mary team love humanity. The Hail Mary team love the world so much they are willing to overwork themselves in order to save it. The Hail Mary astronauts love the world so much they are willing to go on a suicide mission to save it. The Hail Mary team love Grace.

Rocky loves his crewmates. Rocky loves Erid. Rocky loves Adrian. Rocky loves space and Tau Ceti. Rocky loves engineering and science and discovery. Rocky loves Erid so much he keeps searching for answers despite his whole crew dying. Rocky loves Grace. Rocky loves Grace even though he doesn't understand him. Rocky loves Grace even when their cultures clash. Rocky loves Grace so much he would do anything to keep him safe and alive.

The kids Grace teaches love him. The kids love his lessons. The kids learned love for science from him. The kids learned love for the world from him. The kids wish him good luck on the mission. The kids remember Grace even when he doesn't return.

At the end of the day, humans love one another. In the face of a grave danger to everything humans come together. Humanity unites despite any disagreements. Humanity does everything to save each other. Humanity makes a good luck blanket to comfort the astronauts. Humanity leaves drawings for them. Humanity shares knowledge and support and love.

Everything that happens happens because of love. Not just romance, but platonic and familial love, care, friendship, love for life and Earth. And as much as it hurts, it's still love that's hardwired into everything. As much as love hurts everyone involved it's still love.

Don't even get me started on the movie. Every single little detail, intentional or not, was thought through and made with love. The directors fell in love with how it turned out. The engineers and costume artists and puppeteers fell in love with their creations. The VFX artists and designers and the 'rope team' and NASA consultants gave the project their all because they love the story and what they do. Ryan Gosling loved the puppet Rocky. The scenes of Ryland teaching were filmed with the kids of the team. Every single symbol and colour and pattern on the good luck quilt mean something. Every country gave their official approval to have their flags put on the mission patch. Ryan always came to directors with new bold ideas because he wanted the movie to be it's best version. Everyone on the team loved making the movie.