Untitled

[adrenaline-revolver]

“Eridians dislike earth because they abandoned Grace.” *Incorrect Buzzer Sound* ya missed the point of the story buddy! It’s not about someone being ‘bad’ it’s about the incredible power of love and that love being worth dying for!

Gimmie Eridians who are absolutely heartbroken to hear that humans where so desperate and so scared that they where willing to part with not just one Grace, there were three of them! Gimmie Eridians touched to find that the humans planned a way for their sacrifices to be as comfortable as possible. Gimmie Eridians who send earth a message saying “We know it must have hurt to send your heroes to die, but one made it and he’s safe here. We lost 22 good Eridians on the journey we would have lost 23 if not for your Grace.”

Give me humans sitting on Earth slowly coming to the conclusion that when we look up not only are we not alone, someone out there is alive because of one of us. That no matter what we think of ourselves a whole species thinks highly of us because we helped save the galaxy. Give me humans who figure out how to send a probe to Erid filled to the brim with messages for Grace and footage of a monument being raised that reads his name, his crews names, and then “in memory of the 22 Eridians who lost their lives on the journey to save the stars.”

[kit-screams-into-the-void]

gay astrophage

[couchtaro]

Diversity win! Astrophage is already asexual!

[round-brick]

[sour-echinacea]

how am i so obsessive and so avoidant at the same time

[round-brick]

there are very few things the PHM community does or says that bothers me, but there is one that really does, in fact, bother me. Does it do so because it conflicts with my views about the book (and by extension movie)? Yes.

Ok but I shall now get on with it:

### People (especially here) treat Erid as some sort of incredibly socially-progressive utopia without any human “flaws” and that they “wouldnt do that to grace” ###

I’ve seen people claim that Grace felt more at home on Erid than he did on earth because Eridians are simply more accepting, more peaceful, more open-minded than humans. I really disagree. One of my personal takeaways from PHM is basically that “people are alike all over” (except unironically). Except for the ways they would be different, they aren’t (that sounds really stupid but it makes sense).

What this means really is that Eridians have the same capacity for love, for creativity, for bravery, that humans do. They can be friends because on a fundamental level they are the same. This means however, that Eridians have the same capacity for cruelty that humans do, the same capacity for fear. They never resorted to the desperate measures humanity did because they never had to. They had more time than humanity did. They didn’t have to take Rocky kicking and screaming, but if they had to they might’ve. To me at least, I honestly feel comforted by the message of PHM- that those so “different” are really no different from us, even our flaws. That and that we can overcome whatever differences we do have and work together. The Hail Mary project was that for earth, the Eridian Thrum was that for them, and we see Grace and Rocky doing the same.

[mysweetoddbird]

sorry but once you notice how often ppl use a southern accent as shorthand for being unintelligent you can never unsee it. classism is baked so deeply and why are you acting like anyone who talks the way my grandfather talks is stupid.

[m-a-k-k-u]

a bullet would really hit the spot right now

[lesslaivyy]

izutsumi

[round-brick]

izutsumi

[my-dailydreams]

[themurdochmemesteries]

first officer

[your-average-antho-cat]

I've learned something about SSTO design and flight in KSP. What I learned is I'm shit at it

[round-brick]

My take on this meme

[rrcenic]

grace meets adrian

[smokeydabear420422]

[viralfrog]

[viralfrog]

[kerink]

i like when eridians describe grace in other-worldly, incorporeal, eldritch ways. that he's beautiful and terrifying at the same time. a horror you can't look away from because you don't want to miss a thing.

you can never get a clear listen to him. his primary sense node is covered in "hair" and the part that isn't is hidden by two crystals that refract sound waves in a pleasing but disorienting way. he covers his body in billowy cloth at all times. not snug and sensible and unobstructive like eridian coverings, but loose and layered, draped and flowing.

the most clear part of him are his internal organs. because yes, the alien's carapace isn't sound-proof. his single heart beats insistingly in his core, his lungs exchanging gas constantly, his long digestive tract always bubbling and contracting. his thorax is packed impossibly tight and it's all moving and singing.

and it shouldn't be possible, with how fragile he is, for that internal pressure to maintain. how does the thin membrane of his external organ (another horror that sends eridians reeling) keep it all contained? his "skin" is so easily pierced, cut, bruised, burnt, how does he not split open under his own mass?

when savior rocky first arrived home and described the environmental needs of his alien, the scientists thought he'd made a mistake in his frantic panic to get everything out. it isn't possible this being lives at such low atmospheric pressure, at half the gravity, and in a gas that's nearly double the weight of ammonia. in a gas so dangerous, so caustic. and if it does then how is it obligately terrestrial like rocky claims? shouldn't it fly or float instead? (and then to see it in the water, learning that it can float or sink at will.)

and this alien has come bearing gifts that will not only save your species but launch it into impossible heights of technological and intellectual advancement. he has discovered the solution to astrophage and bred it to thrive on threeworld and translated his instructions into eridian. he has given your people the complete sum of his people's knowledge, advanced in ways the eridians can't believe and behind in ways that seem ludicrous. and he has given his life for your people to have these things.

he knows how your solar system was formed. he knows how the universe started.

his name means beautiful and generous and relieving.

the eridians experiencing cosmic bliss.

be not afraid.

[trickstertime]

I'm re-listening to Project Hail Mary, and I cannot get that tumblr post out of my head where its talking about the whole thing from Rocky's point of view. You know the one, it's like 'you go into space with your most advanced tech, spend 50 years alone, and then one day a dog in a trashcan shows up. It can't do 2+2 but it knows how the universe started'

Like, this mindset makes everything that happens in the story absolutely hilarious, in particular the whole first interactions bit.

From Rocky's point of view he sent a simple model of the local star systems to indicate where he was from hoping these new creatures would indicate where they were from. He put it in a protective cylinder and sent it over to the ship. Something enormous climbs out of a hole in the side of their ship... Wait, did one of the creature go OUTSIDE its ship in a a god damn plastic bag just to catch it??? I better aim it at where it came out of so it doesn't do that again. Then when the cylinder gets back, the creatures have indicated where they're from by attaching a lollypop stick with chewinggum to the model... which has mostly fallen off in the heat. Also they put distilled fire in the cylinder???

The creature then climbs outside its ship, again, chiseles a lump off its ship with a hammer and throws it at you so it can send you a sample so you can join to it and... its made of thin sheets of soft lead???

Then on finally talking to this large creature you realise it's incredibly delicate like a jellyfish, so god damn stupid, has essentially no memory, and cant do basic maths. And you're supposed to be saving your entire civilisation with this squishy idiot. But then a while later it turns around and explains relativistic time dilation and background radiation like its something you should have figured out already.

Ive heard multiple people describing Rocky seeing Grace like the equivalent of a dog, but he's really more like a three and a half year old blind jellyfish. Its living in a frozen semi-vacuum of highly explosive gas, can't remember anything, needs to nap constantly or it becomes noticeably more stupid, and it's here to save the world.

Its just such a delightful addition to hold in the back of your mind when reading the book.