I love Project Hail Mary, both the book and the movie, but the amount of shipping content I've been seeing for it recently really irks me.
I know a lot of people are just having fun, and that's all well and good, but there's also a reason that Grace is so aroace-coded, and it's intentional.
Spoilers for the book and the movie below, proceed at your own risk. However, this is a very important discussion to have imo, because I've seen a concerning rise in amatonormative responses to this story.
Grace demonstrates a massive amount of love, and none of it is rose. Platonic love for Rocky. Love for science and knowledge, love for humanity and for other people (his students, his friends). He is a full and complete person full of love and hope and ambition, and NONE of it has to do with romance. And I think that is very intentional.
I think that Project Hail Mary is inherently anti-amatonormativity. Like the fundamental message of the book is about all those other types of love and hope and it's beautiful. That's why it resonated with me so deeply, as a nonpartnering aroace. Like, finally, a beautiful story with practically no romance in sight, that doesn't infantilize Grace for being single, or tries to hook him up with someone in the end. It doesn't treat romance like the end all be all. He doesn't need that, and that's great for him.
His happily ever after is living on an alien planet with his alien best friend Rocky and Rocky's alien partner, Adrian, and teaching little aliens. Because Grace is a teacher. He gets his joy from teaching more than anything. It's a beautiful ending. Grace is happy and content without a single other human around, because he has his best friend and his students. Like, it makes me cry just to think about, because it's beautiful.
And then I see people shipping him, and it's like they totally missed one of the messages of the story.
You probably remember when Stratt tried to justify forcing Grace to go on this suicide mission because he had no spouse, no family, and not even a dog, right? You do realize that it's bad logic, right? Like, she did a bad thing. Yes, it saved humanity, but it was a bad thing to do. And she definitely would have sent him even if he did have a spouse or a family or a dog, because he was literally their only chance at saving humanity.
Stratt's excuse about not having a family etc is a bad thing. The story portrays this as a bad thing.
The message the book is conveying here is: "people are not worth less just because they are single".
So it fucking kills me to see people shipping Grace. There was a huge message here about how people have worth because they are people, and how Stratt did an extremely reprehensible thing to save humanity. There's a message here about platonic love and love for the Earth and humanity and hope for the future, and it's beautiful. It's truly beautiful, and I think it's why so many aroace people resonate so deeply with this book and movie.
As I've said before and I'll say again, if the only way you can interact with a fandom involves shipping, you should consider how amatonormativity may be affecting you and your biases. There is so much more to life than romance and shit. Try to get a little more creative with the way you engage with media, and also just the way you view life in general. There's so much more out there than rose relationships.
the thing about being "good with kids" is all it takes is literally just not trying to control and mould them with every interaction. it's just being a normal person and engaging with them through normal interactions like having conversations and playing games. it's just being genuine and friendly and not perceiving them as lumps of wet clay you are there to shape. "oh you're so good with kids" thanks it's because I think they are people
Astronauts are so funny man. Here's just a couple of things I've found hilarious from this past week of space stuff:
It's probably already been spread around here enough already, but in case anyone's missed it; 7 hours after launch, commander Reid Wiseman, dealing with tech issues, uttered the generational quote "I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working."
After fixing the issues that were afflicting the onboard toilet, mission specialist Christina Koch (who has quickly become my favourite of the four) laughingly said “I’m the space plumber, I’m proud to call myself the space plumber.”
On Easter Sunday, the Artemis II crew hosted a makeshift egg hunt, by hiding packets of dehydrated scrambled eggs around their Orion capsule.
The way the crew always makes sure to make it very clear they're in space when doing interviews. From stuff like Wiseman just hanging out floating sideways on screen or Koch letting her hair loose so it can freely span out flowing around her.
While in transit, the crew decided to record a parody of those bad 80s sitcom intros where everyone turns and smiles at the camera.
When the crew reached the furthest point from Earth in the mission, they jokingly clambored over each other in an effort to get to the far side of the capsule, so that they could individually claim to be the furthest person from earth.
At the same time, on the ISS which was at the time on the other side of earth, the 7 astronauts onboard had a light-hearted race to the far side of the station, making jokes about being the furthest humans from Artemis.
On the way back to earth, NASA actually managed to establish an audio call between the crews of the ISS and Artemis II (where they shared the above info), and Koch called one member of the ISS crew, Jessica Meir, her "astro-sister" as the two of them previously spacewalker together in 2019. Meir then responded I'm so happy that we are back in space together, even if we are a few miles apart" (a few here being 230,000).
While Jeremy Hansen was doing an interview, Wiseman and Koch were just in the background swatting the mission mascot (a little moon plush toy named Rise) back and forth between each other.
Who is the Kidnapped Godchild VM is saving from Ruidis? There are so many contenders. Is this a child we already know the existence of or a new kid we'll be introduced to? Is this one of VM's kids and for some reason they are unable to go on the quest (so they're playing the kid) and the rest of VM are the Godparents, OR, is this an NPC or guest player's kid?
Is the godkid still a "kid" or is it like a "I don't care if you're 34, you're still my godkid!" Type situation.
Kids we already know about: Percy and Vex's Brood, Pike and Scanlan's kids, Zahra and Kash's kid. Salda Tal'Dorei's kids and Hunin and Kyor.
People with Potential new kids for VM to Godparent: Allura and Kima, Gilmore and his Husband, Tary and his Husband maybe, idk.
Do we KNOW Pike finds The Everlight? Has anyone said she definitely has? Or is that just popular fanon? I don't remember. But yes they absolutely could mean *God*kid, these dorks love a dumb joke. (I say with love).
well the last time we see her in the C3 finale, someone's rushing into the temple in vasselheim saying "we think we found her," and then there's a fade to black as they leave.
either way i think it's a god-child that they set after, thinking it's the everlight. i think pike would eventually be the one to find the everlight, but this could also be a fun bait and switch in the meantime.
and also something the followers of asmodeus would totally trick vm into doing for them if it's not actually the everlight
Who is the Kidnapped Godchild VM is saving from Ruidis? There are so many contenders. Is this a child we already know the existence of or a new kid we'll be introduced to? Is this one of VM's kids and for some reason they are unable to go on the quest (so they're playing the kid) and the rest of VM are the Godparents, OR, is this an NPC or guest player's kid?
Is the godkid still a "kid" or is it like a "I don't care if you're 34, you're still my godkid!" Type situation.
Kids we already know about: Percy and Vex's Brood, Pike and Scanlan's kids, Zahra and Kash's kid. Salda Tal'Dorei's kids and Hunin and Kyor.
People with Potential new kids for VM to Godparent: Allura and Kima, Gilmore and his Husband, Tary and his Husband maybe, idk.
You know what? Forget the discourse. This is no longer my hill to die on.
You wanna ship canonically aspec characters because “aro/ace people can still date/have sex”? Okay, then. LET’S DO IT.
I wanna see an aromantic character with an alloromantic love interest. I wanna see that confession of undying love and the moment when the aro character says they will never feel the same way—not romantically.
I wanna see the asexual character with their allosexual partner. I wanna see that moment when the ace characters tries sex with their partner for the first time because they want to make them happy only to realize that they are 100% sex repulsed.
I wanna see the two demiromantics who don’t even know if what they feel is romantic attraction, but they adore each other and just want to make healthy snacks together and destroy each other at Mario Kart.
I wanna see the two aces who love sensual affection and are figuring out what they define as sexual or not.
I wanna see the romance + sex neutral aroace who happily and consensually does whatever makes their partner happy…but their partner still struggles with feeling undesired.
Oh, babe. You thought shipping an aspec character would be just like shipping an allo character?
found out i got accepted into my university's BFA program (!!!) and i was being really hyperactive bc i was of course excited. and after a few minutes my roomate asks a very pointed question about the status of my current project at the climbing gym. and im like. omg! climbing!! :D !!!
and so i go climbing for a few hours and then just chill for the rest of the day. and im just realizing... they just sent me to go rock climbing because i had too much energy like the gay equivalent to taking a dog to the dog park to tire them out. 🧍♂️
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