Dragon of the Deep Space

they/them // genderqueer // aro-ace spec my interests change faster than I write icon art by Alex Maleev

[ashvexaa]

My only contribution to this ship before I disappear for another month

[sparrow-in-boots]

Simon patting the SM-13

Iron Lung (2026)

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I actually think I like the film Betrayal Scene better.

Like don't get me wrong, the book one is good (the idea of Grace having to spend multiple days locked up stewing about how he's gonna die before they even knock him out is deliciously angsty, as is Stratt's last attempt to beg him to understand why she has to do this) but fuck.

He like literally starts climbing the walls.

Like he came in there relatively composed. He had a rationalisation for what he was going to do, he probably rehearsed his little speech. He's putting the walls up because he knows he's not doing The Right Thing, but he doesn't want to let on that he knows that. He's probably pretending to himself as much as Stratt. He's doing it For The Kids.

And then the switch to just pure, animal terror when the doctor comes in. Like there's a degree of comedy to it. Grace is always slightly goofy, slightly immature (probably why his students like him so much) and now he's climbing and running like a kid playing tag. Except its not a game and it's not working.

Eva's tone when she tells him to “sit down, we'll do it different”. Like I know I'm murdering you, I know that you're not capable of seeing this any other way, but please at least see sense and spare yourself the trauma of having to be literally dragged kicking and screaming. Please.

The resignation when she says “he's running.” Like, she doesn't have to say who's running, or why. She knew this was a possibility. She knew this was a likely possibility but why couldn't he just fucking be the guy she needs him to be? Doesn't he know how hard this is??

The realisation that, if Carl is by the fence, then it's probably because they were concerned that Grace might actually outrun the guards and would need to be ambushed. The possibility that Carl specifically is there because, in that scenario, Grace would be more easy to catch if he trusted his pursuer.

Like I think one reason I'm attached to Ryland Grace is that I honestly couldn't tell you that I wouldn't behave like that in that scenario. Like sure, we all like to say we'd bravely sacrifice ourselves for humanity, but like it's not like I'm currently chaining myself to rainforest trees or throwing soup at paintings in museums or kidnapping oil execs or whatever it is I'm supposed to do. I don't even really attend protests.

There are significantly more things that I could be doing right now to make the world a better place that I don't do because they would involve upending my life and putting myself at more personal risk than I am comfortable with. I have no room to judge Ryland Grace.

I mean, just look at how scared he is.

[f-a-b-l-e]

Do you ever think about how canonically there was a camera rolling in the cockpit during the entire Taumoeba Fishing scene, and the footage might've made it onto the Beatles. The people on Earth might've seen it, seen how close it was. "The sky is just slightly on fire." The alarms starting to blare. Rocky screaming in horror as Grace almost dies retrieving the collector. The moment the fuel starts migrating. Grace losing consciousness. Rocky risking everything just to save him. I am going to SCREAM can you imagine watching that and it being real???? Watching with baited breath, knowing it was all okay in the end but not knowing yet how scary it was for them, how dangerous, how it even happened. How much it hurt. I'm gonna be sick.

[bethanydelleman]

One of the things that they didn't get into in the movie Project Hail Mary but was so emotionally poignant for me in the book is that it really was a last and only hope, and they partially destroyed Earth just to send the spaceship off.

The breeding of the astrophage to make fuel for the spaceship took so much energy that Eva Stratt paved over half of the Sahara desert, causing the weather to change in Africa and Europe. She blew up Antarctica to speed up global warming so they wouldn't die of cold before the probes could return. Stratt is playing supervillain with the Earth in the hopes that at least half of humanity would survive. After sending the three astronauts to certain death, her job is to keep humanity together for long enough to save the sun.

I think it adds a lot to her decision to send Grace away. Yes, it was cruel, but she knows what is coming for her and perhaps many of the people on the Hail Mary project. She is going to hold Earth and humanity together for decades, as people blame her for destruction and as nations in all likelihood go to war over scarce resources. Then, even if they succeed, she will probably be vilified or even executed for what she did.

Stratt is standing in the wreckage of Earth, knowing she'll live and die in infamy. She sent Grace off knowing that if he succeeded, he'd be remembered forever as a hero. She tore the Earth apart so he could save it.

Edit to add a quote:

"I'm curious," I* say to Stratt. "Once we launch Hail Mary. What will you do then?"

"Me?" she said. "Doesn't matter. Once the Hail Mary launches, my authority ends. I'll probably be put on trial by a bunch of pissed-off governments for abuse of power. Might spend the rest of my life in jail."...

"Are you at all concerned about that?"

She shrugged, "We all have to make sacrifices. If I have to be the world's whipping boy to secure our salvation, then that's my sacrifice to make."

"You have a strange logic to you," I said.

"Not really. When the alternative is death to your entire species, things are very easy. No moral dilemmas, no weighing what's best for whom. Just a single-minded focus on getting this project working."

*the novel is First Person POV of Ryland Grace

(and yes she says she won't be in charge anymore after the launch but I feel like they'll leave her in charge because no one else wants to so she'll actually be done after saving the sun. The movie supports this. And the fact that Earth saves the sun in the novel tells me our girl held everything together because I don't feel like anyone else could)

[younggayanddoingokay]

Listen, movie Stratt and Grace were on a whole new level with whatever the fuck “weird secret third thing” they had going on between them, but let’s not pretend book!Stratt was normal about Grace. There was ZERO reason for him to be in the courtroom for the copyright suit. It had NOTHING to do with any “secret tertiary specialist” stuff. He arguably COULD have been much more useful in the lab. He sat there and said nothing and looked pretty for that entire scene. She dragged his ass on a plane just to sit there and he didn’t say a word in court. If that doesn’t say “this is my emotional support science loser” I don’t know what does.

[ahhhdownwego]

Congratulations! You made the right choice

[bronzeplates]

a doodle while i work on the next pages

[clownjuicebox]

them tbh

[medeaschorus]

do you guys think that when Stratt was going through the vlogs she got to the “so I met an alien” part and was like ‘shit he went crazy’ only to see Rocky roll on screen like 3 videos later

[introvertathome]

Okay, stay with me here

Rocky never shows up on the videos until like halfway through. Earth can't see or even hear him until about halfway through Grace's collection of vlogs

They all think he lost his fucking mind but somehow succeeded on the mission

[drizzly-bear]

even more phm + textposts with stratt (and grace)

[saewokhrisz]

senki se menekül

[blue-sunshine-mauve-morning]

One detail from the book that didn't make it into the movie that I think is neat is that Eva Stratt did not just stumble across Ryland Grace. He was not the 'potentially disposable' option. She went to the top microbiologists in some of the best research labs in the world and was told multiple times "you know what? I think Dr. Grace might be your guy." When discussing the Petrova Problem. And this several years after his ejection from academia.

[habken]

besties

[avi-mation]

Earth’s Scapegoat and her Sacrificial Lamb

[kyri45]

Meet humanity last hope! :D (we're so fucked)(prev)

[mewy101]

I could never find the right way to tell you, have you noticed I've been gone?