Drowning In Anathemas

"Can you find me?"

"I found you"

Where he learns so much about anatomy and the human body through trial and error, not through schooling. Where he has to physically restrain someone with one hand while the other is sawing off a leg, wide awake because they can’t waste resources on everyone. Where infection is so commonplace even in the vastness of space because medicine is just not readily accessible. Where he would amputate a solider and then less than a day later, he would have to harvest their corpse because they didn’t make it anyway. Where his disabled brothers and sisters would be left to rot until they eventually died and he would find them on his table once again.

searching for a memory

No. No no no.

I want more "could you give me a freakin' minute" snarky crashout Ryland vs. "if you leave I will start Experiencing The Horrors but I'm also going to crashout if you go too near me" complicated Simon.

I want more Ryland being boisterous, who's really good at taking charge. The guy FLAUNTS being "Doctor-Captain Ryland Grace" to Stratt. He WENT FISHING in a PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE WHILE EVERYTHING WAS ON FIRE. HE GOT HIMSELF FIRED BECAUSE HE POPPED OFF AT THE MOUTH. HE HAS AN EGO. GIVE IT TO HIM.

I want more Simon, who had his ego beat the fuck out of him, and is actively learning to try and gain that back again, because he used to be a prick on Eden, and now he's scared he'll turn back into that monster if he lets his self control go. Scared something Bad Will Happen either to him or because of him. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

WHERE IS SOFTSPOKEN POLITE SIMON WITH A TERRIBLE PAST AND ROWDY VODKA-SLAMMING-IN-SUNGLASSES USED-TO-BE-A-PRICK GRACE WITH A SOMEWHAT NORMAL BACKGROUND ??? The background-not-matching-the-personality trope is RIGHT THERE guys.

I want more Simon who thinks Ryland is a delusional liar vs. Ryland who can clearly see the signs of psychosis in Simon, and he might just be right. (I love you, Losing Streak by AO3 user rosysoleil)

I want Simon who has been trained to body pain and yet still fucking cries like a bitch (because he was, and he does). Simon is NOT stoic. HE IS NOT. Simon's got a pokerface and it's terrible.

I want more meet-ugly Punch Your Lights Out While Squealing Like A Bitch Ryland Grace vs. K.O.'d By A Whimpy White Guy Simon, who's more apologetic about the incident than Ryland is.

LOOK AT RYLAND'S ARM. LOOK. DUDE HAS A SLEEPER BUILD. It might be an accident (or totally justified self-defense) but, as stated by @anne-jordan in this post, Ryland "It's been a while since I've taken pills from strangers" Grace would be swinging back.

I want more BITCH FOR BITCH Simon and Rocky who think arguing with each other is fun, because Simon's sense of humor involves being mean (being rowdy with the boys on Eden was common) and Rocky is so with it.

I want more "sexuality crisis" Ryland Grace who thought he was straight vs. "dude labels went out of style like 230 years ago" True Neutral Future-Man Simon. SIMON'S THE CHILL ONE. SIMON DON'T GAF

I want more "forced proximity doesn't mean we have to fuck" stories!!! Turn that trope on its head!!!

I want more sexually complicated/aromantic-but-sex-positive Simon that ISN'T because of his trauma!!! Maybe he's just Like That, and that's okay!

Also, hey guys, guess what? Simon can just be a straight dude. These can just be straight dudes. Best buds. Guys. Healthy male friendships. HEALTHY MALE FRIENDSHIPS. It doesn't have to be yaoi all the time.

Give me variation. Give me underused dynamics. Challenge fandom with your writing. I dare you. I DARE YOU.

Does anyone hear me. Is this mic on??

Every fandom needs those classic vine edits :)

ASK AND I SHALL DELIVER

Sometimes I'll see people make discussion of "dumb" characters and talk about how they do have smarts in some areas, but have developed a self consciousness around their intelligence because none of their smarts is relavent to schooling and testing environments. Smarts like strategy, improvisation skills, and deductive reasoning are smart skills that aren't necessary encouraged or inspected in school, but which are traits that Colt actively possesses in the movie. Even though these are things that people often bring up in reference to "dumb characters" I haven't actually seen anyone talk about it in relation to Colt specifically (maybe I just missed that discussion). I have seen people write him thinking back to when he was in school, and getting very contrasting grades to his brother

But I ALSO just have reason to believe he would have tested fine in school, if not actively well. Him and Dan play their little memorization game with the movie lines. His "nihilism's a viable worldview" thesis may have canonically been a surface level reading of the text, but it's absolutely something a teacher would accept. Also he was put pretty on the spot about it. He'd have gotten decent grades back in school imo. And maybe he'd be the dumb twin in contrast, sure, but people really crank it up.

"You need carbs! Your brain runs on glucose! For simple cognitive functions, you need them!" <- not the sentiment nor vocabulary of an idiot. But I think because he got into a dangerous field people decided that he's reckless and typecast him as an idiot, even though there are also several instances where he's very hesitant to pull some of the actions that he does on account of the danger and only goes through with them because of the stakes

PREACHING my man Colt Seavers is SMART

There’s a problem just in general of mob mentality, status quo, systemic ideals yadda yadda whatever. If someone sees an academically smart person in a classic way (ie Grace being a scientist) they are going to dumb down the others around them to make the academic seem smarter.

Colt is smart in a million different ways. He shows them off brilliantly in the movie. He’s got great emotional intelligence, enough to fully admit to his faults and take responsibility for them. He has good emotional reasoning to things, a good understanding of others. He also takes the safety of his job very seriously. Him noting that the sand’s density was off and that it was going to cause issues with the take. He offers a solid solution very quickly, showing his experience in his field. At several points in the movie, we can see him making direct, fast calculations on how to approach his situation carefully.

We even hear his thought process out loud once!!! When he’s high as shit, talking about getting hit by a car!!! He’s talking through the safest way possible he could go about that, even getting a mouth guard out so he doesn’t shatter his teeth from the impact.

What does the fandom do?? They make Ryland part of that lmao.

People get overexcited to be a part of something. Hence why everyone jumped onto bloodymary and you see people saying “oh I haven’t watched both/either of the movies” and making inaccurate assumptions about the characters and their lives.

*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