tho(ugh)ts

All of these topics have been touched on by others more familiar with the humans-in-space musings, but I just wanted to expand on them because I think they're cool. Also, if anyone has done exactly this, let me know because I have not yet seen that post and would love to read it!!!

Adaptability:

Humans are extremely capable of consciously adapting to new environments, whether social or physical. We're social creatures and incredible vocal/body language mimics, so we can do pretty well in a variety of situations. But I'm specifically fascinated by subconcious, physical adaptation by the human body and mind.

On Earth, oxygen levels are noticeably different at different elevations. Humans live in environments so high into our atmosphere that even trees don't grow there. This doesn't cause genetic differences in different human populations, though (at least in regards to oxygen processing). Humans can literally just... move to a different elevation and adjust to a different oxygen level within in a matter of years. There are no negative side affects of this transition. Just a brief lapse or boost of physical capabilities.

There's also temperature acclimation. When people travel to vastly different climates than their home, they notice the difference. A lot. Where I live, a 45 degree (Fahrenheit) day in spring is tshirt weather. You can always pick out the tourists really easily because they're the ones wearing large jackets. There's also seasonal acclimation and long-term acclimation that happen in tandem, especially in areas with strong seasons, but that's a different post.

Don't even get me started on food (see the Diet section). Seafood, as much as I love it, turns my stomach. I can't handle a ton of spice because it wasn't really part of my diet growing up. Different cultures with different cuisines often have defining staples of their food that can upset the stomach of someone who doesn't eat it that often. But as long as the food is edible and the person eating it doesn't have a genuine allergy to it... it's food. And humans (and their gut biome bacteria) can adjust to almost any cuisine in the span of a single human lifetime, if not a decade or two.

Size:

Humans are omnivorous apex predators. Only other apex predators hunt us as a food source. I wonder how humans would compare to other space-faring apex predator species. One could easily make the argument that the caloric requirements for the brain to take a species to space would result in a similar evolutionary path to humans, but I think the chances of that being an unbroken rule are slim. I wonder if we'd be remarkably smaller to the other intelligent predator species we'd encounter in space. Humans survived an evolutionary gamble to devote about 30% of all caloric intake to having thoughts. Energy that could have been used for size, muscle, claws, teeth, etc, went instead to thinking about things. And it worked. We have none of the physical capabilities of your average apex predator. We can just run for really long periods of time and make/use tools. Which, as it turns out, is a killer combo. But would we be smaller, weaker, squishier than the other space-faring aliens like us? If a space community is segregated by food chain levels (kinda hard to sit next to someone in the cafeteria as they eat your neighbor, y'know?), would humans have to jump to reach the light switches and the counter? Would a group of humans have to split one standard food portion?

Diet:

This one is two-pronged; human diets, and human digestion. Humans can eat A Lot of Things. Root vegetables and miscellaneous vegetation, berries/fruits, meat, dairy, eggs, grain/seeds, living creatures (bacteria in yogurt and whatnot). You name it, we can probably eat it. Aliens that evolved to handle much narrower diets would be baffled by the range of food humans could eat.

I HATE DRAWING HANDS SO MUCH!!!!

Anyway. Mr Medical Malpractice himself in standard crew suit/armor. Except it's a weird hybrid between Ecliptica's fit and his scientist's robe. Idk man.

I like to think he used to go on the hunts/supply runs with the rest of the crew to pick up more material for his research. Ecliptica eventually got worried the old man was gonna break a hip and confined him to the ship.

Go check out the incredible comic by @somerandomdudelmao that inspired this piece!

Everyone's already said this, but Will looks up to a female player!!! And nobody dismisses that admiration!!! Nobody says it's silly for a young boy to look up to a woman athlete!!!

Jett is the. greatest. player. Ever. The greatest player to ever play roarball. Not the greatest female player, not great because she's female, but the greatest player ever and also female. The two are not related. I don't think I've ever seen that in a movie.

Co-ed, full contact, violently dangerous sport?? The lady players are treated like every other player and hit just as hard? Mocked just as hard? Cheered just as hard? As someone who despises the softball/baseball gender split and had to use flags instead of tackles for my high school's powderpuff game, this movie might've healed something inside me.

Jett and Olivia are the most focused on the game and their careers. That's not to say the guys on the Thorns weren't focused on those things (we're excluding Will in this sample group), but our two lovely ladies were the ones whose character arcs honed in on their insecurities around the game. Jett's concerned about her career and the optics of her age and accumulating injuries only add to her stress and pride, making her a bad teammate. Olivia is hyper-aware of how people view her gameplay, especially their mockery, and it distracts her and makes her second guess herself. In comparison, Archie wants to inspire and support his daughters but hasn't found a team able to utilize his strengths. He's also exhausted from being (what's implied to be) a single dad. Lenny has been treated so poorly by his former teams that he has almost given up on the sport entirely, starting a rapping career on the side. And Modo... well, he's Modo. I think it would be hard for most coaches to use all that... Modo-ness. Besides, his character arc seems to revolve less around the game and more around his investment in the team (literally).

Building off of #4, the "greatest" players of the Thorns were the two chicks and the smallest player. The team's strength ultimately comes from their cohesivity and teamwork; none of them would have gotten far without that. But the players with the most canonical potential were Olivia, Will, and Jett. Will's disadvantage in the game was obvious, and it's not something he overcomes throughout the movie but rather has to work around. It's an immutable fact of his biology. But I loved the subtle subversions of the audiences expectations around Jett and Olivia. Especially right now, there's been a huge push to "remind women of their place" in many social circles, and I loved that Jett and Olivia flipped that idea on its head. Both character designs are based on very dangerous, very lethal species. But to take it even further, it is blatantly stated in the movie that both ladies have the most recognized in-universe potential. Lenny's tall, Archie's strong, Modo scares the other players away from the ball. But Olivia is a #1 draft pick (I don't know sports and even I know that's good) and Jett is a cemented roarball legend. It was refreshing to see the ladies as fully-fleshed athlete characters who weren't sidekicks to the male leaders of the team. Very reminiscent of Tigress from Kung-Fu Panda.

Jett and Olivia's personal styles were never brought into question, mocked, or seen as character flaws. Under another director, Olivia's girliness could have easily been blamed as the reason behind her slip in skill and focus. Under another director, Jett's tomboy-ish appearance (when she's not dressed up) could have been included in her character arc; she'd get more girly as she progressed as a character and opened up. But instead, these characters were given depth and relatable insecurities and frustrations, and their clothing was left out of the equation.

Mane, arguably one of the most outwardly masculine characters of the film, spends the entirety of his first major scene in a fishnet crop top and I need more of that energy going forward.

Dennis is the one who brought the team together and helped them play to their strengths. If the protagonist of a sports movie is a player, rather than a coach, it's the protagonist who delivers the pep-talk and opens their teammates eyes to their strengths and how they can better play together. Sometimes that can make sense, but I'm glad they didn't go this route in GOAT because it wouldn't have worked with the plot. Will was new to the team, he didn't know any of these players personally. He might've followed the team closely, but he couldn't see what was going on behind the scenes. He was the catalyst for Jett's character arc, part of which involved handing over full leadership to Dennis, who in turn was the perfect character to bring the team together. He knew key details of Archie's home life and how he interacted with his kids. He was intimately familiar with Olivia's obsession with others' opinions of her. As a big leagues coach, he was probably following Lenny's career for almost all 10 years. He knew Modo well enough to telepathically communicate the lizard's personalized advice. Anyone probably could have called out Jett's inability to share the spotlight or the ball, but only Dennis would be brave enough and acquainted enough with Jett to know he would survive hosing her down repeatedly when she didn't follow his advice. I loved that the movie team gave him such an appropriate time to shine.

I'll admit that I don't quite understand the concept of angels as quantum computer type machines, but I definitely lack some of the lore behind that specific interpretation. But you know what machines are angels? The everyday ones.

It's the old rancher's truck that looks like it should have died twenty years ago but still tows more than its frame should be able to handle. It's the beat-up, ugly minivan that never breaks down during soccer season and always has an extra granola bar or sock sticking out from under the seat when they're needed most.

A guy I went to high school with rolled his truck into the adjacent field on a country road a little outside of our small town. As far as I'm aware, the truck was totaled beyond repair. He walked away with nothing but a scratch above his eyebrow.