THE CEO OF SCIENCE FICTION i talk about things and i reblog things my real account is @averagespaceman k project - solar opposites - doctor who - phm - tma - jjba - fullmetal alchemist - xmen - mcr - rick and morty - rush - queer stuff - etc
People got so fixated on those few statement givers calling Gerry a goth they forgot the only canonical thing about his music taste is that he listens to metal. What about mag 4 what about his mastodon tshirt
let me preface this by saying that i love this fandom, fandoms in general, and fandom culture, despite all of the problems inherent to them. i’m aware that mob mentality is a thing and there’s definitely a lot of that, especially confined within a tumblr tag, which can very easily turn into an echo chamber, so a lot of people will end up saying similar things. however, everything i say here is a gross generalization. when i say “y’all” or “you guys” i do not mean everyone. again, i’m cool with most things i see here and scroll through this tag at least five times a day atp.
that being said…
here’s some issues i have with the bloodymary fandom.
my credentials: i’ve seen phm five times and read the book twice. i’ve seen iron lung twice and consumed a shit ton of lore videos about the game. i wrote a fic about them specifically because i saw a bunch of mischaracterization and wanted to fight against it (and also write fluff about them cause why not).
anyways:
1. people love to mischaracterize. i know that’s just a fandom thing in general but it’s more prevalent here than usual in my opinion and it bothers me. more specifics:
- simon is not only aggressive and angry. sure he was not having a good time while he was actively dying, but afterwards, when he realizes he’s not dying? yeah it’d take him a bit to warm up to ryland but he wouldn’t want to kill him yknow. this is the same guy who was guilty about giving cancer to the people who were literally sending him to his death, and later had a tentative camaraderie with the lady that decided to send him there in the first place! cmon y’all
- ryland is not only soft and kind. yeah he’s a teacher so he’s gonna be very careful towards simon at first but he’s also a sassy bitch who will fight for what he wants and one of the smartest people in his field. not only that but he’s a bit selfish, incredibly resourceful, and a major risk taker. he’s going to want to solve the mystery of simon asap, just like he does with rocky at first, even if he hides it behind being supportive.
- i’ve also noticed people doing the reverse, where simon is super sad and traumatized 100% of the time and grace does nothing but protect him. like guys, they’re both grown men with agency of their own.
- yeah simon was in a cult but he makes it clear that he didn’t choose it and doesn’t believe what they do, and yea he’d probably have a bit of a “this guy saved me so i have to repay him” thing, but not to the crazy extent some people make it. also i’ve seen some people have him thinking he deserves to die after all he’s done? what?? he knows filament station wasn’t meant to happen the way it did and even if he did blame himself for it he still wants to live no matter what! even after he realized he wasn’t getting out he still decided to die fighting and save the black box!! why the hell would he suddenly decide to give up after he realizes he’s not dying anymore??
- yeah grace is supportive but he’s got plenty of trauma to work through and has been through a hell of his own, and despite how much he cares about simon he still has his own purpose of saving earth and erid, and later teaching his kids and helping the other eridians with science. he wouldn’t dedicate his entire life to simon like i’ve seen some people have him do, or completely forget about rocky and the eridians. he fully decided to give up his life for them!! he loves rocky enough to stop being a coward and do something for someone at his own detriment for once in his life! he doesn’t only care about the other human around!!
- a lot of it seems weirdly white savior-esque too. like cmon, the poc is aggressive and violent until the caring white guy breaks down his walls and saves him?? and the poc suddenly sees him as his literal guardian angel??? dawg what are we doing (i’m white so i can’t speak too much on this issue but it’s so glaringly obvious that i can’t just not say anything at all)
- speaking of which. SIMON IS A POC!! i see so many people drawing him pale as fuck and while yes he hasn’t had access to the sun so he’d be washed out, he would not be the same skin shade as ryland, who not only hasn’t seen the sun in a long time but is also white as hell.
- also, rocky. i’m not gonna get into book canon here because i know not everyone has read it, but there are still plenty of ways people get him wrong, especially from ryland’s perspective toward him. he is not “just a little guy”!! he’s his own autonomous being with agency! stop making him super cutesy and not doing anything with him other than making him an annoyance or a cockblocker (chillax gang the most he’d do is be like “can i watch for science?” and if he was told to leave he would). also he cares so much about his planet and his mate, he wouldn’t just be obsessed with ryland like so many people make him out to be, though he does care about him immensely.
- also stop having ryland say “whoa it’s been so long since i’ve talked to a person!” HE SEES ROCKY AS A PERSON!! that man sees that alien as his best friend, so why the fuck would he ignore his autonomy and shove him to the wayside for the sake of this random guy they picked up?? if you say something like that and don’t immediately specify “while yes rocky is a person, human connection and touch is really important and ryland has missed that specifically”, i’m gonna assume you see rocky as ryland’s pet or something which is an immediate no from me no thank you that’s fucking disgusting to me give him back his independence please
2. moving on from characterization. i’m not usually one to be a stickler about canon but here’s what i’ve seen people get wrong a lot (these are all just pet peeves btw, i don’t actually care that much. i won’t get into book/game exclusive stuff either):
- simon explicitly states that he did not choose to be involved with eden’s cult. stop making it seem like he believes in their shit when he specifically says he doesn’t! yeah he’s definitely got religious trauma but not to the extent y’all are making it out to be.
- adrian’s occupation. it’s not said in the book what they do, but the movie explicitly states they control what happens in ryland’s dome (at least the water temperature), therefore they’re likely an ecologist or something similar.
- timelines! there are specific distances between earth and tau ceti, tau ceti and 40 eridani, etc. stop saying it’d only take a year for them to get from one to another. even with constant acceleration and time dilation, it’d take three to four years to get from tau ceti to 40 eridani, which would equate to about twelve years on earth or erid.
- IT! IS NOT CALLED!! THE DON’T GO CRAZY ROOM!!! where the fuck did y’all even get that. in the movie the computer specifically calls it the “mental health node”. stop saying that “don’t go crazy room” is its official name because it’s not.
3. last but not least, my biggest issue with this fandom:
STOP TRYING TO BOTHER MARK AND RYAN ABOUT THIS SHIT.
have we not learned from any of the other fandoms who did stuff like this?? involving creators in fandom spaces when they don’t want to be involved is bad. we know this.
also, why are we surprised that mark learned about this fandom?? his job is literally internet. he’s dealt with this shit before. obviously he’s gonna know!!!
i keep seeing people say “mark approves of bloodymary! it’s canon!! simon is the little spoon because mark said so!!!” dude. he was joking. i don’t know enough about mark’s personality to confirm this, but i interpreted the whole “i’ll get to curl up in ryan gosling’s arms and finally be safe” thing as a joke about how people characterize simon as this traumatized wet cat guy who just needs love to be happy. i’m all for traumatized wet cat guys (i’m a tma fan, ofc i am) but that’s not all he is!!
okay yeah i’m done ranting now. i’ll probably make a separate headcanon post because i can’t stop thinking about these guys ever but i’ll stop yapping for the moment
btw go read my fic i linked earlier!! i know it sucks but at least the blorbos are happye in it :D
in the movie, ryland’s decision to save rocky is revealed to us by him telling stratt that she was right about him on the video he put in the beetles, then launching them.
however, in the book, it goes something like this (slightly edited for brevity):
…the other option: launch the beetles—all four of them. Each with their own Taumoeba mini-farm and a USB stick full of data and findings.
So that’s what i’m left with. Option 1: Go home a hero and save all of humanity. Option 2: Go to Erid, save an alien species, and starve to death shortly after.
I sob into my hands. All I see when I close my eyes is Rocky’s dumb carapace and his little arms always fidgeting with something.
It’s been six weeks since I made my decision. It wasn’t easy, but i’m sticking with it.
“Sorry, Rocky,” I say.
I spot a tiny speck of Petrova light. I zoom in and search that area. A total of four little dots, barely visible, are on the monitor.
“I know you’d love a beetle to take apart, but I couldn’t spare one.”
The beetles, with much smaller spin drives, won’t be visible for much longer. Especially with them zooming off toward Earth and me headed the opposite direction toward the Blip-A.
peak, peak, peak, and peak!! absolute peak!!!
idk i just like how it’s more rocky-centric than stratt-centric. at this point he cares more about saving rocky than he does about what stratt did to him. also i like the little subvert in there, makes the heart drop a bit lol
sometimes, when i ask a weird question, i’ll add the words “question mark” to the end of the sentence because why not. my high school english teacher did it, so i picked it up.
since seeing project hail mary four times, i’ve subconsciously shortened it to “question”, so now i sound like rocky. i did not notice until my friend (who i dragged to see it with me on watch #3) pointed it out just now.
they put ryland in so many layers in the flashbacks to hide ryan gosling’s muscles. he did NOT have those on earth. the only way dr ryland “eats ramen noodles from a thermos” grace could EVER be that buff is with electric muscle stimulation during a coma, which is exactly what happened. normally that mf is scrawny send post
so people are shipping simon from iron lung with officer kd6-3.7 from blade runner 2049 now…
…this is a fantastic idea and i am obsessed!! br49 is my favorite movie and now that my bloodymary fic is finished i will be writing something for these two.
however…
why tf is the ship name not bloodrunner??
no offense to the person who came up with replicantlung, but like. i’m not a fan. i’ve also seen ironblade suggested, which is cool but i feel like it has a fantasy vibe to it which does not fit either of them.
bloodrunner sounds so sick, guys. why are we not using it. there’s no way i’m the first person to come up with it.
whenever i do post about them i’m gonna call them that, but i’ll tag replicantlung so my posts still get seen by people who use that name. however just know i am petitioning to use bloodrunner as the main ship name :)
i love this pair so much i love crackships i love sci-fi i’m going insane please help
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
guess who just finished a fic for the first time in over seven years?? THIS GUY‼️
red string is finally finished! yes, i wrote 20k words in the span of a week. i am a monster when i’m hyperfixated.
if you’re in the mood for simon ironlung to be placed in a much less horrifying situation (a spaceship) with a wet cat guy who has a crush on him (ryland grace) and an annoying rock alien (rocky), give it a read! it’s fluffy, it’s a lil angsty, and it’s corny in the way only an aroace autistic author can provide :)
i’ll probably be drawing art for it as well. you heard it here first. >:)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
this is what happens when you let the sci-fi guy be gay and have access to google docs and ao3.
anyways check out my bloodymary fic! i wanted to put a different spin on the “what if grace and rocky found simon in space” thing people have been doing and also characterize simon differently because i feel like it.
i have three chapters written so far and i’ll be posting them as i write more so i always have backlog :)
gummygunk
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