I have gotten so invested in DITBOW it’s not even funny I consider this essentially canon.
I feel like the nitrogen decontamination system will breed nitrogen resistant taumeoba which will both ravage the astrofuel that Eden uses as a vital trade resource but also cause the nitrogen system to constantly be going off, leaking, and quietly killing everyone off in Eden.
I think the stars would’ve gone away anyway, because logistically it would be hard to give every star a taumeoba thing to combat the dimming so with or without the mars thing the stars all disappearing still happens.
What I’m still confused about is why Simon is so surprised to see a sun. Cause like. The death of everyone on Mars should have nothing to do with the whole Petrova line situation. Unless the rapid astrofuel production makes a line of taumeoba resistant astrophage? But there’s no selective pressure for that on Mars?
Other theory is that Simon “grew up in a cult” butcher was just told there was no sun and never lived in a place with the windows to see it because he was in a space station. Plus he said that glass is a luxury. But this feels like a crackpot theory cause like, that does mean that almost anything Simon says that we didn’t literally see in the movie could be wrong.
but then what the fuck is the blood ocean. Where did that even come from. Why is it producing hive mind toxin juice. Is it the remains of all the people in Eden mixed with some weird astrophage taumeoba conglomerate? Some weird undiscovered alien that eats taumeoba? I dunno man
Sorry for the long ask I wanted to present my conspiracy theories I hope you like them bye
AAAAA HII HELLO omg i love getting theory asks, and love your ideas!! Gonna try to keep spoilers to a minimum while also commenting on your thoughts:
The methane detection/nitrogen flush system described in chap 13 does indeed have a HUGE part in everything.
What's super interesting is that, for the methane detection system to actually work, Taumoeba has to eat Astrophage. Because methane is given off when Taumoeba EAT Astrophage, not just when they come into contact with it.
Astrophage is being exposed to Taumoeba again and again and it is still being predated, even if the Taumoeba are being quickly detected and killed off after they've infested.
There's an answer to each of your other questions—some more supernatural and some more scientific; but everything comes back to the hubris/carelessness of man.
In this interpretation, the Quiet Rapture and its blood moons are man's fault.
Or, more precisely, man's punishment. :>
Thank you for reading and sharing your theories!!! I love hearing y'all thoughts <333
Snippet from the eleventh chapter of my IL/PHM crossover fic, Death in the Business of Whaling:
(edited for contextual clarity)
"What's 'coffee'?" he asks Rocky, who does a rough attempt at a shrug.
"Food for human morning routine," Rocky explains. "Grace drink often. For enjoyment. Simon not eat human food, question?"
"What? Yes, of course I eat...human food."
"Simon not know of typical human food. Is strange."
Simon's eyes narrow as he stares at the Eridian. "Food keeps you alive," he snaps. "You don't eat it for 'enjoyment'."
"Normal humans do. Grace says."
Normal humans.
"Do we have a fucking problem?"
"Yes."
Simon waits.
"Hurt Grace."
Oh, he's holding a grudge. That's what this is.
"I apologized. It's over and done with."
"Still do it."
Simon raises his eyebrows. "What else do you want from me? Huh? I can't un-throttle your friend."
Rocky taps a few times on the interior of his glass ball, then says in a slow, deliberate kind of way, "Grace is Rocky friend. Grace bravest human Rocky know. Grace good." Rocky pauses, body very still. "Rocky try to be good to Simon. If Simon hurt Grace, Rocky will not be good."
A laugh simmers in Simon's chest at the thought of being tackled by a flurry of xenonite and stone, but the sincerity and warning in Rocky's voice cools it quiet.
"Got it."
There's a stretch of uncomfortable silence, then Rocky takes a clawed hand, balls it into a fist, and sets the "knuckles" of his fist to rest against the glass. He waits, as if wanting Simon to do something in response.
"What?"
"Deal," Rocky says.
"Okay." Simon points at Rocky's gesture. "The hell is that?"
"Is human agreement sign. Simon mirror sign." Rocky taps his fist on the glass twice for emphasis. "Deal."
Simon rolls his eyes, but raises his own fist to the glass. "Deal."
Death in the Business of Whaling Recap: Chapters 1-13
Chapter 1 - What Kills the Cat:
- BAD TIMELINE (BT): After the Hail Mary's launch, Eva Stratt meets with engineer Steve Hatch to discuss a secondary space program meant to distract world powers until the beetles' return. Hatch poses a program focused on building Astrophage production plants on Mars.
- CURRENT TIMELINE (CT): After fishing on Adrian, Rocky and Grace face the task of breeding Taumoeba to be resistant to nitrogen. Grace briefly wonders if humans over-breeding Astrophage will ever make the lifeform adapt some kind of defense against Taumoeba.
Chapter 2 - An Agreement:
- BT: Simon encounters the Light, which asks Simon if he would truly give up everything just to survive. Simon agrees, and is transported to CT.
- CT: Simon wakes up on the Hail Mary, and stumbles around the ship at 'night', believing the vessel to be of C.O.I. origin. He finds a distracted Grace and elects to avoid him before he is seen.
Chapter 3 - Unidentified User:
- Grace does some math and determines that—as long as new Astrophage generations are kept relatively isolated from Taumoeba—Astrophage has very little chance of evolving a defense within any fathomable length of time.
- Simon hides in the Enrichment Bay, falling into fitful sleep in the room's control pit.
Chapter 4 - Contaminant:
- Mary detects a foreign contaminant that leads Grace and Rocky to the Enrichment Bay.
- Grace enters and finds Simon passed out in the bay's control pit. He pats Simon down and touches a broken rib, which sends Simon raging awake. Grace is half-strangled but manages to incapacitate a weakened Simon.
Chapter 5 - Astrofuel Initiative:
- BT: A year after the discussion in chapter 1, Stratt and Hatch are finishing up the launch of Anchor I, the first Martian space station and the debut vessel for the longstanding "Astrofuel Initiative"—the world's current collaborative space program.
- CT: Simon—delirious and semi-conscious—remembers his post-arrest interrogation, and remembers agreeing to the C.O.I's Conviction Realization program. In a fit of pain and rage, Simon attacks what he believes is Captain Ava, but turns out to be Grace.
- Grace and Rocky manage to get a fully passed-out Simon to the ship's infirmary.
Chapter 6 - New Human:
- A few days pass, and Simon is healing up incredibly well. Simon wakes up confused but accusing Grace of being a C.O.I. agent.
- Rocky barges through the door and greets Simon, who, to both Rocky and Grace's surprise, is familiar with Eridians as a concept.
- Grace determines from this revelation that Simon must be from the future.
Chapter 7 - Spacewalk:
- Simon refuses to trust Grace on his word alone that the stars outside the Hail Mary's viewports are real, and that Simon is likely from a different time.
- So, Grace takes Simon for a spacewalk, and Simon sees the stars in person.
Chapter 8 - Everett's Interpretation:
- Grace, Rocky and Simon have a whiteboard meeting to work out details about their respective timelines.
- Grace explains that, since Simon is from the future and speaking with him without causing any space-time disruptions, Everett's Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics must be true. Basically, by traveling to CT, Simon has caused this timeline to branch off from Simon's original timeline (BT).
- Simon is careful NOT to go into much detail about Eden, or explain that he was a prisoner to the C.O.I.
Chapter 9 - Phase III:
- BT: The beetles have returned to Earth, but the Astrophage Initiative is still going strong.
- Stratt meets with Earth's leaders to discuss what she thinks is going to be the Initiative's shutdown and reallocation of funds towards Project Hail Mary's completion, only to be told that, no, Project Hail Mary's closeout will languish at half-funding, with the remaining funds put towards Martian colonization and Astrophage breeding efforts.
- Stratt speaks with Hatch about their options. If the world's leaders can't be swayed, the Initiative needs to pull off Martian colonization for much cheaper than estimated. That way, the needed funds can be put towards PHM's completion.
- Hatch suggests the Martian Geodomes be printed directly onto the planet out of xenonite, which would cut building costs down to a thread. The only problem is...the primary use of these habitats would be to breed Astrophage. If Astrophage is bred in xenonite domes, the storage tanks would be very vulerable to Taumoeba infestation.
Chapter 10 - Laundry:
- CT: Rocky and Grace tidy up the ship and discuss Simon while he sleeps. Rocky tells Grace he thinks Simon may be hiding something.
- Grace washes Simon's clothes in the lab sink, rinsing blood-tinged water down the drain and hanging the clothes up to dry.
Chapter 11 - Deal:
- Simon wakes up ahead of Grace and finds his clothes drying. He's confused as to why Grace would do such a thing for him.
- After finding his Eden pendant, Simon has a flashback of moving to the Station, then sees a vision of the explosion that killed DuBois and Shapiro. He's not sure what he's seeing, but whatever it is, he knows it doesn't feel like a memory.
- Rocky shows Simon the little plants in the lab.
Chapter 12 - Qualifications:
- Grace and Simon take some time to ask more about each others' past.
- Grace learns that Simon used to be a 'tiller's apprentice', and that Simon's mother was a scientist. Simon confesses that he and his mom moved off Mars due to interplanetary tensions.
- After noting that his coffee tastes odd, Grace zones out into a strange vision where he is a child and speaking to a woman he doesn't recognize. Simon literally snaps him out of it, and Grace only vaguely remembers the hallucination.
Chapter 13 - Healing:
- BT: Hatch determines a solution to the Geodome infestation risk: Taumoeba releases methane when it eats Astrophage. Therefore, if methane is detected in the fuel lines, one can determine when the fuel is infested, and aerate the fuel with concentrated nitrogen as a response.
- The U.N. accepts Hatch's proposal and builds the Martian Geodomes out of xenonite, redispersing the remaining funds toward Project Hail Mary's completion.
- Project Hail Mary wraps up well, and Stratt lives to see Earth recover.
