"No mourners, no funerals"

multifandom

[animate-mush]

Here's what I mean by talking about all the decision points in the translation problem in Project Hail Mary (which includes all normal translation problems and then some).

There's a lot of Rocky utterances in the movie that are likd: "Grace Stupid." Non-standard sentence of English, perfectly normal sentence of, say, Arabic. Rocky's translated speech doesn't use the copula (be-verbs). The problem is, where in the process does this fact originate? There are a number of possibilities:

Eridian has no copula

Eridian has a copula but Rocky is choosing not to use it

Rocky is using a copula but it is marked in a way that the translation program can't recognize

There is a copula but Grace hasn't recognized or elicited it yet

There is a copula but due to linear placement translating it as such would make Rocky's utterances less comprehensible

Grace doesn't think the copula is linguistically necessarily and so doesn't bother

So for every linguistic feature we can derive, we have to ask (and I think mostly we can't know) - is this a fact about Eridian, is this a choice Rocky is making, is this an artifact of the technology, or is this a choice Grace is making?

What would be really interesting is if it changes over time. I haven't read the book but if it were me I would make it change over time.

[teashadephoenix]

hey speaking of things that get almost ✨ zero ✨ mention,

can we talk about grace's first moment of bravery, the moment he really threw himself out there?

When stratt packs up her lab to leave and he follows her out, she says "At the school you said there were thousands of people more qualified than you, so--"

And he replies:

"I was being modest."

He spends the rest. of the film. running from this moment. His imposter syndrome rivals the Empire State. He can't be the science officer, he can't sacrifice himself for his kids and the world and all of humanity, he can't--

But part of him knew he could, and part of him said so right at the beginning.

[gracelessmoonwalk]

I see yall talking about Grace and Rocky being able to find a few Eridian words that he can whistle in a somewhat understandable tone, and I raise you:

Rocky finds some words that absolutely mess with Grace's ears like a dog whistle. Adrian overhears them start to argue, and then they hear Rocky start saying random words really loudly and long, causing Grace to move funny. Like-

Rocky: "SPAAAAAAAATULA! SPATULA SPATULA SPATULA! LITTERING! LIIIITTTEEEERRIIIIIING!!"

Adrian: "[Rocky], what the hell are you doing?"

Grace: *undecipherable frustrated yelling while covering ears*

Rocky: "They're being an [asshole] so they get the words that hurt their stupid squishy [ears]! DOCUMENTATION!"

Adrian: "Hey, stop hurting [Grace]- they can't help being squishy!! (Also how- ??)"

(...Bonus Grace: "*human yelling* [BITCH] *more human yelling*!!"

Rocky: 80

Adrian: >:U "WHY did you teach the hero of Erid that???"

Rocky: "I didn't do tha-"

Adrian: "You're literally the only Eridian in existence who could have possibly taught them that.")

[starrose17]

[bloo-the-dragon]

if eridians infuse pieces of their mate onto their bodies, then i can't help but think about how Grace will forever have a piece of Rocky infused onto his own skin, via the burn he got where Rocky grabbed him to save his life after breaking free of his containment, and his own body was burning up.

This is not me saying Grace is Rocky's second 'mate' but to me, it definitely shows a bond had been made one so strong that Rocky was willing to die for Grace and that makes me wanna cry all over again, i love them so much

[pris-cas]

Another day another painting ft. My kitty’s paws

[xwilltruman]

“do you have any thoughts on–“ unless you were about to say ryland grace the answer is no. i have about 3 thoughts at any given time and they all concern ryland grace and/or his made up family of ryan goslings

[starrose17]

So we've all got the artist cinematic theme of Grace's yellow coat being the colour of cowardice (in these shots particularly the yellow surrounded by the "brave" white), but I've yet seen anyone point out one other thing:

Yellow is the colour of sunlight.

Grace is going to be the only one to bring that sunlight back to Earth, he is LITERALLY the light in the darkness, it's why he stands out so much in that raincoat.

He is the one who is going to bring that colour home.

[animate-mush]

A potentially interesting fic idea might br the story of the little girl in the beginning of Projecy Hail Mary who was asking about the Petrova lines. Living through the apocalypse occasionally reflecting one the one (1) adult who was willing to be even a little bit honest and answer their questions about the coming doom. And then, maybe 30 years after he was taken away by the Government before her eyes, the news starts to turn good, and there's talk of heroes and monuments -

And she's like hang on is that my Chemistry teacher??

[lavenderdiedforthetenthtime]

Stratt and Grace are in a friends(?) coworkers(?) with benefits situation except the benefits aren’t sex they’re the fleeting sense of emotional intimacy.

[starrose17]

Excessive centrifugal force

[starrose17]

[refuge-in-oblivion]

Ok so i started reading the phm novel and 2 things:

1. "Several coworkers and a few friends had invited me to watch this with them, but I didn’t want to spend the whole evening answering questions. I just wanted to watch in peace."

This guy gets it. I have never identified with a fictional character more.

2. Kind of thought of a 'meme'

[revived-crows]

Thank god for fanfiction making aroace Grace a part of their story

[demontouched]

what if they gave grace lasik eye surgery before sending him into space and the glasses are just for show? what if he doesn't notice until he remembers the world blurring around stratt's face as they pump him full of coma drugs? he wakes up, no glasses, and stares at the perfectly clear details of mary's ceiling with a frown.

then, he checks for other coma surgeries. they took his appendix, his gallbladder, his wisdom teeth, and he suspects they gave him a vasectomy. he's a little scared to check that last one. it leaves his skin crawling, betrayal choking him, and he fights the urge to claw the scars open, to check with his hands that she had really done that to him. he settles for curling into the fetal position and crying.

rocky does what he can to comfort grace, pressing his xenonite ball into grace's side and making a deep humming noise that rumbles into his ribs. it helps. it's grounding. "why leaking, question."

"it's... complicated." grace sniffles. his leaky human-ness made rocky vaguely uncomfortable and sometimes amused. now it seemed his friend just wanted answers.

"eridian perfect memory, can understand. tell me, statement." rocky nudges his ball into grace's body. it's warm even through the xenonite.

"humans... oh, this is going to sound bad." grace shifts uncomfortably. surgery was horrifying even to humans, but it was often only done when absolutely necessary. "you know humans are soft, and we have a lot of soft internal organs, right?"

"correct. leaky space blob." rocky lifts a hand and taps the xenonite. "very disgust, statement."

"right, we have some... vestigial organs that don't function anymore. sometimes things go wrong with those organs, and we have to remove them," grace explains slowly, ready to calm a panicking eridian. "and to remove them, they have to cut our body open."

rocky stills for a long moment, quiet. "cut... open, question. no. no, that hurt human! human die! die, die, die! bad, bad, bad! why human do that, question!"

"easy, rocky." grace pats the dome. "we do it because the other option is dying. surgery—that's what we call it when we get cut open—it usually a last resort."

"humans so strange, statement. leaky, squishy, cut open!" rocky shudders in disgust. "why telling me about surgery, question."

"stratt... had some of the my troublesome organs removed while i was asleep. i didn't realize it until now." grace curls his hand over the scars on his stomach.

"while sleep, question! you no know, statement!" rocky presses his carapace against the xenonite. "grace give rocky hug now, statement."

grace leans heavily into the ball, rocky's atmosphere warms it thoroughly. if it weren't so pointy, it would be comfortable. "i'm okay, rock. just... another mark against stratt."

"please do not need surgery ever again." rocky grumbles.

"i'll try my best, pal," grace pats the ball again, reassuring.

[caelusiskool]

Big fan of Dr. Ryland “yea, I’d probably let rocky do open heart surgery on me” Grace

[starrose17]