one thing from project hail mary the book that i really wish theyd made clear in the movie is that when grace makes the decision to save rocky instead of go back to earth, he is prepared to die. like i understand why the movie had to cut a lot from the book for pacing and it wasnt exactly necessary to include the whole sub-subplot where rocky and grace figure out that there is nothing on erid that is safe for humans to consume, but it would have been worth a passing mention at some point, because grace goes back for rocky knowing that even if rocky takes him to erid, he will still die there, because there is nothing he can eat. the only reason he survives is by eating taumoeba, which is a solution rocky comes up with only after grace saves him and admits to him that he came to his rescue fully prepared to die.
the movie really breezes past rocky's rescue and the time skip, and it never explains why choosing to save rocky is so monumental in the first place: it answers the central question grace is grappling with for the whole movie. "who would i die for?" he doesn't just go back for rocky because it's the right thing to do. he sacrifices himself to save rocky. he is ready to die if it means rocky will live.
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Shoutout to Project Hail Mary for being the only media where the unconscious protagonist is dragged off screen by an alien spider monster and the audience's reaction is heartbreak on behalf of the alien spider monster.
So, unlike Eridians, we discovered fire very early on and so our civilization kinda grew up with combustion right? We've had thousands of years to normalize it and get comfortable with the idea of using it casually for warmth or cooking etc.
In contrast, Eridians had to discover fire in a lab since their atmosphere doesnt have O2 like ours. So they dont have, like, an entire culture normalizing fire.
> Be me. Rocky the Eridian cosmonaut
> Tell Grace about Eridian space elevator design made out of Xenonite. Grace very impressed, says humans only dream about making space elevator.
> Odd? Ask Human friend Grace how humans got into space. Expecting some high tech solution since science humans clearly know more physics.
> Grace explains Humans strapped other Humans on top of Fire-Explodatron-9000 machines made out of weak human metal, basically Eridian cardboard, then shot them into orbit. Grace say the fire it makes is quite pretty to look at
Thoughts on the various interpretations of Grace’s character in canon and fanon?
big disclaimer: fanfic/etc is just playing with dolls and you can't play with dolls wrong. If someone mischaracterizes my favorite guy, they're allowed to do so. It is what it is. also this got really long so it goes under a readmore so not to blow up your dashboard.
Anyways! My real answer: it's interesting to think about. I think the Capital B Biggest thing that's driving the varied interpretations in fanon I've seen is the usual fandom achilles' heel: People Do Not Want their favorite guy to be the bad guy even a little. People are TERRIFIED of their favorite guy being morally or emotionally Bad, for any reason. It reflects badly on the reader, somehow, so fanon gets kind of slapped on as a bandaid over interesting characterization to absolve the reader of guilt for liking them.
It's not a good way to consume art or stories, but it's a really common thing to encounter.
Anyways. My thesis: Grace was a cowardly loser who sucked while also simultaneously being a lovable and beloved guy who was wronged, but not enough people focus on the first part and his flaws get erased in fanon a lot. like, very frequently.
Grace and Stratt, characters that are in both works tied to each other, do a lot of terrible, fucked up things. Stratt decimates the ecosphere of Earth irreparably in her efforts to save humanity. She sacrifices three people to a one way suicide trip in exchange for the billions of people on earth who will remain.
Grace tells Stratt that these destructive ideas are sound and worth doing. Yes, if he didn't she would have some other scientist to do it. But she didn't have another one. She had Dr. Ryland Grace.
Grace is complicit. Grace has his hands painted just like Stratt. But only one of them ever really seems to get the ire of fans, and it's not Grace. And sure, as his boss Stratt is the one who holds the most blame. She is executing the plans. It's not grace hitting the button to destroy all life in the biggest desert on earth.
He's just the one telling her it will work.
He tags along, in denial of his position and importance, explaining to Stratt what centrifuges are and what molecules do in astrophage breeding and that yeah, putting three people in a dangerous coma and then shooting them into space to die for the rest of the world is really sad, and I wish it was different, but man, it really is the only way. Poor lil ole me, not important Dr Grace, forced to do boring paperwork all alone in a private office as the direct subordinate for the boss of the Save All Humanity Fuck Everything Else program, as important as tissue paper and unnoticed by all, surely. I'm just a little guy on a boat who likes saying stuff like 'golly' and eating microwave spaghetti who is also the lead astrophage researcher on earth and doing astronaut training at NASA for some reason. I don't like thinking about it, so I Simply Don't.
He likes to pretend. He likes not thinking about it.
The whole reason he's there at all is because he's disposable, initially. he internalizes this. He should think about it more. He Won't.
There's all kinds of stuff we can say about pre-canon Grace. Movie Grace says he was fired for writing his intentionally inflammatory paper, but the inciting issue is actually that he had a freakout on a peer while at work event, essentially. Book Grace says he wrote his paper as a way to piss everyone off and intentionally get himself blacklisted from publishing and his funding cut and removed from his position at university research out of frustration or burnout with his place in life.
Is it intentional self sabotage? Was he ganged up on by others in his field who disliked his theory? Was it a fit of emotion he should have controlled more that got out of hand? Fanon likes to lean towards this being outside forces working against him.
Me personally, I like to believe it was just him burning the bridges out of frustration even if he later regretted it. He says so in the books. And he's still upset about it, despite what he tells himself. He believes he is right and that everyone else is wrong. It's the same conviction that he uses to tell himself that he is unimportant.
So there he goes skipping along, doing paperwork, telling himself he's not that important despite the mountains of evidence literally all around him.
Then the other scientists die.
And then he's staring down the headlights of the petrova taskforce's absolute authority again and confronting how much he actually matters and he cannot deal with it.
In the book, he deflects, denies his ability, uses his schoolchildren as a shield (!!!) to stay on earth even if it means dooming EVERYTHING ALIVE- for thirty more years, maybe, starving to death on an apocalyptic iceball. Because the kids, you see. They need him to be strong. and then when called out on what a fucking selfish thing this is and how pathetic his justification is, he freaks the fuck out, screams at Stratt, and threatens to sabotage the mission if he's forced to go (!!!!!!).
In the movie, he tells her that he is a coward, a failure, and that all he is good for is as a teacher, despite everything he has accomplished so far. He insists he cannot do it, and then gets ready to leave. Like he has the authority to make that decision. Which he kind of did have up to this point...... so he knows he had that power all along. (and then he runs away.)
Maybe, if he had more time, he would have eventually come around and accepted his role. But they don't have time. So we will never know.
Fanon likes to........... not think about this side of him. the side that IS cowardly, and offputting, and willingly in denial. Because he IS aware of it. He is the narrator and he can tell that he's bullshitting himself when he says the kids need him to stick around on earth. He knows he is being unbelievably selfish but he still tries to choose the selfish and safer option for himself. He is scared and against a wall and at the mercy of the forces he helped direct for years and it SUCKS. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't deal with it well. And that makes him fun! It makes him so delightfully fun to chew on. He made a selfish choice when asked something impossible and then had to go anyway.
Grace is a silly little guy (grown ass man) who likes to do math and read about astronomy and who does not like to think about his life. Grace is afraid to connect with anyone on any level beyond the surface and deeply, painfully alone.
Because he is fundamentally a coward. He's afraid of feeling bad. Afraid of loss. Afraid of rejection, and also. Afraid of dying in space. (valid.)
This isn't to minimize his life or his fears: he DOES love teaching. He just uses it as a crutch. He's funny, and beloved! He just chooses to keep people at an arms distance, and then when he wants to connect he's rusty and shitty at it. But he has at least one friend. (shoutout Melissa!) He schedules appointments for them to meet up and talk once a week, like a very normal person does. And his fear and rejection of the mission to commit suicide for earth is very understandable.
But he does have to be forced against his will to save the world. The loss of autonomy on his part is beyond fucked. It's also, unarguably, completely justified. The whole thing is just so miserable, it rules.
... and he gets better! Even if he had to forget who he was to actually change.
When he actually fully connects with another living being, he gains the bravery he lacked. He become brave enough to sacrifice himself. He chooses to kill himself to save Rocky! And then he is allowed to live anyways! Because his friend won't let him die, either!!!
But he didn't choose this. If he could, he would have never been up there in the first place. at one point, Grace would have traded every life on his planet for himself. and that's.... holy shit.
I see a trend in fanon works where Grace is kind of washed of all of this complexity, and taken at face value for how he sells himself. They see him as someone pitiable, beset upon by the forces of the story, and like. well. yeah, he is that. but also. he sucked majorly in some ways, and continues to kinda suck sometimes. He has enormous throbbing antisocial loser tendencies. you should let him suck more. His character traits cannot just be doing math, not swearing, and crying. He can be so much more. hold my hand. walk with me. don't be afraid to make him shitty. we will make a beautiful world together.
I think the core difference between the book and movie versions of ryland grace is that, while both are desperately afraid of taking action, book!grace's fear stems from the fact that he doesn't want to be hurt, whereas as for movie!grace it's that he genuinely thinks he's incapable of doing anything meaningful.
compare how they react to remembering they were forced onto the ship:
in the book, he stands around in numb ashamed shock at his cowardice for a minute before deciding, against rocky's better judgement, that they should voluntarily subject the hail mary to a six g force again to get the lab equipment up and running instead of just waiting eleven days to get back to the blip-A, and it hurts him a lot and he ends up passing out from it. he locates the problem in his memory as being that he was too caught up in concern for his own wellbeing, so he tries to counterbalance it by opting to do something bizarrely personally risky so they can get back to work more quickly. his refrain in his memories is "I don't want to die."
in the film, he remembers it all and then he's back to his old self when saying his farewells to rocky. his emotional vulnerability is gone, his walls are back up, he tries to leave without saying a real goodbye before rocky continues the conversation, and he rejects being called "brave." all his weeks of learning to do the scary thing so he can care for someone and be cared about are just gone. he locates the problem in his memory as being that he as a person is simply not brave; he lacks the gene for it and isn't capable of real accomplishment; he'd thought he could grow and change and he was wrong. his refrain in his memories is "I can't do it."
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Ryland Grace best and worst traits? Same for Rocky if you wanna tell us
Being written by a cishet white man.
Ah! Jokes! But seriously, that is actually part of it lol
Grace's worst: he never shuts up. Asocial tendencies. Devalues himself while also aggrandizing himself and yes it's very contradictory and annoying. He's just like that. He's avoidant. Of responsibility and risk, personal and professional. But he wants to be rewarded for being special, and he wants to be liked, so this leads to him being flaky. He wants to be in control, but fears the responsibility, so he prefers others to take the lead while resenting and envying them. He has a deep seated drive to be correct, and always has to get the last word- relationships and his academic career suffer here. If he believes he is right, you are not convincing him otherwise. He is very focused on his own life and rarely reaches out to others. He's entitled and often inconsiderate of other's emotions, and tends to prioritize only himself. He likes to use humor to diffuse situations and deflect problems, even at really inappropriate times. Related: he cannot read a room for shit, so that makes him oblivious. Willingly so, in my opinion, which would also make him a liar, but this is up for debate (he is a biased narrator of his own life lol). He has cowardly tendencies, basically. Holds a grudge over perceived and real slights for decades. He lashes out when angry and yells a lot. In the movie, he breaks things. Also he eats diner food for breakfast every goddamn day. What the fuck. How do you afford that as a teacher! Buy some groceries! Learn to use a frying pan!!!!!!!! good GOD man
Grace's best: Huge softie! He's very sensitive and he's not afraid to appear vulnerable or weak or show emotions like sadness! He is very curious and willing to learn new things. His intellect is pretty vast- he's smart, well rounded in a lot of subjects, and he's funny. Goofy. Silly. He makes people laugh. He has a very disarming personality and comes off as charming to many. People like him (when he actually spends time with them). When he actually lets himself connect with others, he deeply cares for them and overcomes his most antisocial tendencies (for the most part). He's usually kind and often accommodating (when he likes the person). Has a knack for unconventional problem solving, as well as arts and crafts. He's impulsive and quick acting when he's given a problem he believes he can solve. He really is a good teacher, and he loves teaching kids. He would make a really good uncle.
Rocky's worst: BOSSY. Controlling. Impatient, demanding, often brusque to the point of rudeness. Short temper. Mean humor. High maintenance social needs. Clingy. Oftentimes dismissive of human issues and comfort. This is worse in the book and played for laughs a lot, but Rocky has a really hard time dealing with the reality that Grace is Human, the fallibility of Grace's mind, and the concerns Grace has about his quality of life. (I feel terrible for saying this bc it's not his fault but) he is unimaginably lonely and deeply traumatized and not dealing with it, like. at all. Or at least not in healthy ways. This seeps into every part of him. He's a workaholic and he keeps busy so he's not distracted by his perfect memory of his various traumas. He's impulsive. And secretive. He does not give out personal information without cause and even with cause he stays clandestine about it. You are never getting a straight answer out of him if you've pissed him off recently, either. And I like to believe that Movie Rocky lies for fun. just because. To fuck with Grace.
Rocky's best: ULTIMATE ride or die. if he likes you he is going to crack your sternum open and crawl inside and live there. (this is also a negative.) He cares so much, all the time. He's pensive. Very curious and quick witted. Can invent a solution to almost anything if given enough time. A true problem solver. Book Rocky is very calm and collected (or at least very good at projecting the appearance of being so). Movie Rocky is more emotional and exuberant. Excitable. Easily brought to happiness. He has a real zest for life despite having lived such a nightmarish couple decades recently. He is generous and kind, a lover at heart. He invents things just to make the people in his life happy. A total sweetheart.
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I see your “Rocky swears like a sailor but only in pitches humans can’t hear/refuses to teach Grace what those words mean” and raise you “Rocky swears like a sailor and now has to explain to Grace that ‘bad bad bad’ isn’t actually a sequence you play on your Eridian speech piano in polite company.”
Grace is both horrified and amused to realise that a more accurate translation for what Rocky’s been saying is “shit shit shit”.
Imagine you meet an alien that's entirely blood and fat. Like all the white blood cells and red blood cells and lipids kept in your body are just out there. That's their entire body, a blob of blood jelly. Even their brain is completely fluid. They constantly forget things and don't seem to notice the connection
They see electricity, the same electricity of your brain. If something is not charged they can't see anything at all, and a room of non-conductive objects would be a complete sensory deprecation chamber. They can see a little bit, but they are nearly blind and only use it to notice sudden changes. If you flash a light at them they scream. Instead they just bring a device that generates a charge everywhere they go. They claim their whole planet is charged, but you have doubts
This apparently allows them to see secrets of the universe. They knew about the big bang through out their entire history, because they can apparently just see the beginning of the universe. They find it beautiful, but not all that interesting. You are jealous
Despite being in space, they have not yet discovered steel or had the industrial revolution. It's basically still alchemists and philosophers, but the alchemy and philosophy works and got them to space. You are no longer jealous
They rely on the temperature being way below 40 degrees Fahrenheit so all the fat stays solid and frozen, and die if it's warm. They consider you burning
They get all their energy from air, like eating, to the point they cannot hold their breath at all. They get other things from food, but refuse to prepare it aside from digestion. They just plop it in basically untouched
They age in dog years, dying a few months after turning 9, and only reach adulthood at age 4. That's an absurd amount of time to spend as a child. The one you met is apparently 5 and considers himself a mature adult. The tantrums say otherwise. Yes, he also has arcane knowledge naturally. You are more surprised they live this long considering everything else about them
They have 4 genders and assigned you one, maybe randomly. Kind of rude, apparently very complex, but they have no idea how to explain it. You aren't asking
You are an Eridian and have just met a human. You must now convince your mate to let you keep them.
Okay but imagine being the team of Eridian scientists tasked with keeping Erid's Only Human alive for as long as possible while the whole planet's environment is literally trying to kill him. And then Rocky shows up and is like:
“Grace says he would like half of dome to be water.”
“Oh, is necessary for humans to have large amounts of water question?”
Small Eridian equivalent of a sigh. “No. Not needed for life. In fact Grace will die if he falls in water and does not get out.”
“Tell him we give him water in containers that won't kill him. Lots lots lots of water on Erid for Grace to drink.”
“No. Grace say he want water on ground. Also want it with excess sodium chloride compound so it will be unhealthy for drink.”
To celebrate Erid getting their sun back on track, Grace asks for some alcohol. There's a small amount left from the Hail Mary and Rocky offers to take it to the science Eridians to see if they can synthesise more.
“Grace want this liquid for celebration.”
“Of course.” They scan it. “You have wrong liquid. This contain compounds which are poisonous for humans.”
“Yes yes yes. Grace say humans like feeling of being slightly poisoned.”
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so grace is probably alarming to most eridians at first because he's a lanky wet alien with too few limbs, yes--but what if he ends up being terrifying in a sort of divine way instead of a repulsive one?
like. a creature that perceives the intangible? a creature that walks with thin permeable membranes bared to the air, whose blood contains elixir that can destroy pathogens without heat? a creature that is impossibly fragile yet resilient? a creature that breathes potently flammable gas to survive? a creature that is loud all over and speaks in a strange and frightening monotone, who thought it would die for you? who gave up its home in the heavens for you without meeting you first, whose first words to your people were probably something along the lines of We saved your star. It's gonna be okay. Don't be afraid.
grace is such an interesting bundle of contradictions! he breathes an incredibly flammable gas because he lives at such a cold temperature the gas can't ignite except he burns it very slowly inside the delicate gauzy cage of his body. his meat is basically a delicate water-and-protein foam because he lives in a very tiny fraction of normal atmospheric pressure. his planet has almost no air, no atmosphere. they're so gauzy, so frail, living underneath a whisker-fine sky, that to get to space in a couple seconds by exploding towards it. they can't build a space elevator because all their materials are just various attempts to do anything whatsoever with shitty frozen metals and various hydrocarbon meshes. their spaceship is a tiny refrigerator, the most expensive thing they ever built, and controled by a impossibly complex calculation engine they knitted out of silicates. it contains all human knowledge, if it doesn't catch on fire.
they knew that space was there because they can perceive it directly. it's literally right overhead all the time for their entire evolution. they know the faces of thousands, millions of stars, as soon as they tip their faces up. eridani is a name from two thousand years ago. all their stars have been named and known and watched and sung about for longer than any individual human civilization. they have always known the eridian star was there.
