Sometimes I'm a philosopher

The Eridians fully planned for the crew to return alive. Rocky has a mate of 186+ years back home and is the only hope the planet has left. They already had the sample and Rocky theoretically could have manipulated the spacecraft enough to get back without Grace at a much lower risk. Yet Rocky chooses to risk it all to drag Grace to the medicine bot. At least the suicide mission crew had heroin to go out painlessly when they’re done; Rocky made every step with searing pain throughout the entire body.

Grace is a bit aloof, he even said himself that he likes having walls up. But making a connection is rude.

I put myself in a ball so I can come to you and I’m moving in. Damn bitch you live like this. Build my room. I can echolocate through the walls and hear every under the breath whisper. We are going to figure out Astrophage and then go home. No fuel for go home? You are going home, statement. I’ll just go home more slowly.

Of course he chose Rocky over Earth, because home is where he’s not alone.

Humanity “every single holiday is about eating or abstaining from food”

“The vast majority of socialising occurs around the prep and consumption of food”

“Organized society evolved around agriculture”

“Different cultures have different rules when it comes to eating food. Violating these rules could mean anything from being stared at to getting publicly executed”

“Politics are often discussed around food. Food diplomacy is based entirely on how good the food is”

“It’s rude to eat these with those utensils. It’s rude to use utensils altogether for this meal. It’s rude to eat these with your hands”

“There are chemical compounds that are extremely poisonous that humans consume for fun. Some of them physically burn you”

“Televised eating competitions”

It would’ve been crazy once Rocky returned and was all “yeah we saved the world and evaded death and oh boy do I have some news for you”

Ryland spent the four years stuck on that tin can writing shit out for Adrian because what the hell else was he gonna do? Food is basically the pillar of human society he’d have a field day. Adrian is gonna be writing his damn thesis for years

Like, Erid is pitch dark because its atmosphere is too dense to allow light through to the surface, or any other type of radiation for that matter (thus why they didn't know to shield against ionizing radiation on the Blip-A). Nothing on the planet even evolved to have eyes as far as we know.

I'm just imagining it going like

Rocky, brandishing his texture "camera": I invented this to hear the wavelengths of electromagnetic energy Friend Grace can hear with the sensory orbs in his upper carapace

Eridian scientists: ...the WHAT Savior Grace can hear with WHAT

Rocky: also we need to invent something that emits electromagnetic energy of certain wavelengths or he won't be able to navigate his biodome. His "hearing" isn't the same as our hearing, he has several extra senses.

Eridians do not have senses of sight, taste, or smell, and their sense of touch is limited through their carapace (though presumably they feel touch beneath it and in their internal systems considering they can feel pain). Humans do not sense magnetic fields to navigate.

Scientists: what do you MEAN they have several extra senses

This is a follow-up to "I am losing my mind over the lighting of the Hail Mary," which I wrote pretty much to set context and argue It Really Is That Deep. Going into this, I am assuming you also believe the way lighting is used in PHM is intentional.

(Note: My screencaps come from a specific leak of PHM that is shockingly HQ but does have desaturation issues. I've done a HSV Saturation run on several images but not all of them. My screencap folder is like +300 items now and there's only so many hours in the day. If I could buy this on blu-ray TODAY I would.)

Sooooo... what's up with Grace and rainbows, question?

In Grace's very first flashback/recovered memory, one of the first things we see is a ring of light, rainbow. When he finally remembers being betrayed and put onto the Hail Mary against his will, this memory is triggered by the refracting light in Rocky's ship connecting to the rainbow overhead on the day he tried to run.

Refracted light is practically Grace's thumbprint smudged onto every corner of the story, the narrative voice in prismatic form. It truly reaches drinking game levels of ubiquity.

When Stratt first meets Grace, he just happens to be draped in a cloak of rainbow light. More subtly, but still obviously once you're looking for it, when he arrives on the aircraft carrier, he brings along a small halo of colored light.

At its most subtle, it comes from glass. Every time the camera implicitly slides into Rocky's POV, settling over his shoulder to observe Grace through xenonite glass, there are coronas to be found, touching Grace at all times. In the Clock Bros scene, when Grace leans in to observe Rocky's eridian clock, a smudge of refraction just happens to pop up. I cannot emphasize enough how no frame of this movie is safe from the rainbow.

Dr. Ryland Grace adjusts a light and it looks like a dance club in the Castro, it's absurd.

So, down to basics: why? What makes cameras do That Thing?

Well, it's not unique to cameras. It's a matter of glass and white-toned light. Modern camera lenses are either treated with a diffusion layer or have specific filters meant to diffuse light-- to break it up more clearly. When you use a lens without that coating, almost any light source can make this happen.

The rainbow, the prismatic light, it comes from a lack of filter, from the removal of deliberate or accidental barriers. You need light. You need glass. Clarity.

Okay but why, narratively?