S I V O N R A P M I

Curious pebble (3/?)

Part 1 / Part 2

Ryland Grace has made it all the way to his bike with Eva Stratt at his heels, so her trusted security team has correctly assessed it's time to move in the cars, and Carl is approaching off-screen.

Grace comes out of the little "I don't know why that makes me such a nut!" rant, and there Carl is, stepping up into frame exactly next to Stratt. Tall, broad, unimpressed, unmistakably a force to be reckoned with, unmistakably a trusted professional.

But also a nameless goon at this point. An extension of the threat Stratt seems to represent to Grace. A depersonalized tool.

Grace clocks the cars, his presence, the unfolding situation, instantly and incredulously. And he does something clever, something he always does, which is to call attention to the absurdity of the unspoken threat by trying to force the situation into a normal mold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Turning Eva's nameless goon into a person with agency. Trying to force a relationship that hinders coercion.

Ideally, this would force them all to acknowledge how abnormal they are acting and retreat a little to keep up the appearance of normality. Or admit to what they are doing by refusing. Either way, the ball shifts out of Ryland's court into theirs.

Neither happens, though.

Carl sees exactly what he's trying to do with that and interrupts him mid-question. "Carl." And then keeps staring at him the same way as before. One word, and we already know so much about him.

He is not a nameless goon. He is an individual named Carl.

And he fully supports what is happening there. Because nothing is normal and it's stupid to pretend that what is happening isn't happening.

So yes, while he bonds with Grace over silliness and is the astrophage-coparent and instigator of Carl's Hypothesis... he is also entirely introduced to us as the man who will wish Grace the best of success on the mission while he's being sedated on the ground. Because Carl has a personal opinion about what is at stake.

"Sun's really dying, isn't it?"

Very much inspired by Isis' designs from the Filament Station discord server

Bringing out the baby graphic designer in me :3

It's like. Project Hail Mary is a big, popular movie. It has fucking Ryan Gosling in it. And there's not a hint of a romance plotline anywhere! It's all entirely focused on platonic relationships. The friendship between Grace and Rocky is the focus of the movie, and it's so important to the story. They both found someone to be brave for, someone they were willing to die for. Without their friendship and collaboration, neither of them would have been able to save their home planets. Their bond is so close and special and above all their best friends, and it's beautiful.

There's also Grace's relationship with Stratt. Stratt is the main female supporting character. In any other story -- any other story -- I can almost guarantee she would've been the love interest. But she isn't and it's fucking wonderful. Just. Just think about it for a moment. Project Hail Mary is this big blockbuster movie -- and it looked at Eva Stratt and said, we're not going to make her the love interest, because she wasn't in the book and she doesn't need to be. Their dynamic is just as fucked up and wonderful and traumatic when they're friends. That's such an amazing thing to see in such a mainstream movie.

And, of course, it means so much to me that Grace is aroace and that the film (and the book) continuously point this out. He leaves the party when he sees people getting together. He's only had one girlfriend. Half the time he's wearing the colors of the aroace flag. (In the book, he's incredibly confused when people think he and Stratt are sleeping together).

Stratt uses his lack of romantic relationships as a justification for sending him to die, which is heartbreaking, and it felt so real. Because society is constantly telling aroace people that we're worth less because we won't date or get married or have sex, because we don't fit into societal norms. What Stratt said to Grace -- that's something the world is constantly telling us.

And then the movie flips that on its head. It says that it doesn't matter that Grace never had any of that, because he loved living and he loved his students and he was so full of love for everything around him. And he met his best friend in space and their friendship was what made them able to save their homes and each other.

Until Grace slips out a sentence along the lines of "could you give me a little grace here" and Rocky immediately points out he used a word wrong so Grace has to explain that yeah, grace means elegance but it can also mean mercy sometimes too.