The messiness aspect of Grace's Hail Mary era is an interesting piece of characterization I've been pondering for a while. I mean yeah, it's a fun visual gag to have all kinds of crap floating around during zero g, but honestly, I don't think that's best practice on a space ship. Like, what if a rogue skittle had gotten stuck under the centrifuge lever at a crucial moment? I sorta feel like Grace should, would, know better.
It also sort of didn't make sense to me for Grace's personality. His classroom on Earth is very tidy and carefully arranged. Same for his home on Erid. They make a point of showing us him making his bed and smoothing out the wrinkles, showing us all the little knicknacks and trinkets he put out on his shelves and tables to memorialize his past Earth and space lives. He's thoughtful, deliberate, meticulous. When things are going well. When he's in a stable equilibrium. Which, on the Hail Mary, he is anything but.
What do I do when I'm too busy, or kinda depressed? I pull stuff off shelves or outta cabinets till I find what I'm looking for, and then just leave it all lying there because I don't have the time or energy to put it all back. I'll get to it later. Eventually. But I don't. And it piles up.
And what is going on with Grace in space? First, he's just lost to grief and despair, for so many reasons. Then, when he pulls himself together and Rocky shows up, Things Just Keep Happening, and who has time to clean?!?!
The moment when he vents all the ship's atmosphere after The Leak is discovered, the filmmakers make a point of showing us all that crap (skittles, mustard bottles, etc.) flying out of the airlock, strikes me as significant here. Sure, the stuff flying out gives us a visual cue to illustrate the venting (and is a small note of levity in a serious moment). But things that could have been useful (calories, duct tape) are lost, at a moment when Grace really can't afford to lose anything. Except that's the whole point. He is shedding everything. None of it matters. Vent the skittles. Erase the whiteboard. Sweep the ship clean. Grace's Hail Mary era is over, and his Rocky era (short though he believes it will be) is committed to, irrevocably.
No, yeah, Grace was expecting to die. He was expecting to die in the Hail Mary.
And even in the mess, do you remember what was in perfect order? What he barked at Rocky to not even touch?
I can't find a screencap, but I remember it as an altar. A little nook of colourful happiness. Something to remember his kids by.
Do we think he took the time to care for the altar before depressurising the entire crew compartment? Or did survival at all cost take precedence, now that hope lies elsewhere?
"Why did Stratt pick a school teacher" — because my guy can frankenstein Venus out of plywood, some duct tape and a dream. "I'm not qualified" — buddy, you have scientific background and the resourcefulness of someone who is used to having zero budget. I love this specific part of the plot that is "let's take the guy who can problem-solve things with zero money and give him unlimited budget and see what happens".
You know, one of my favourite things about Ryland Grace is how sociable he is. How easy it is for people to fall into his orbit. They show it time and time again. How much his students obviously love him, how he manages to hype up the dour suits whilst he's testing the astrophage, Carl playing with him in the Home Depot, the other government people eating his Skittles, Eva Stratt dragging him around everywhere and allowing herself to be just that little bit more vulnerable around him, Rocky and the Eridians embracing him as not just as a savior but family.
I know it's not explicit that Grace is aroace but so often, aroace people are portrayed as distant and independent and happily isolated. Sometimes even to the point of misanthropy. It's so nice to see a character like this who loves connecting with people. He's a rambler, he's excitable. So what if he doesn't have a family or a dog. He doesn't need them because he has everyone he meets and that's enough.
I love love LOVE a platonic relationship between Rocky and Grace where neither of them are normal about each other.
They’re best friends but by both Earth and Eridian standards everyone is like “Oh wow, they’re… close-”
Like little to no cares about privacy around each other because, well, fuck you aren’t getting much of that on a spaceship for multiple years now are you?
Wherever one goes there’s a 50% chance the other will be there too.
Whenever Grace talks to another Eridian he uses some sort of portable instrument to communicate but with Rocky they just speak in two separate languages at each other. It’s like seeing someone speak to someone in only Chinese and the other person only responds back in English.
Would be funny if Eridians aren’t very touchy but Rocky is basically clingy as fuck when it comes to Grace. Always tugging on his pants like a toddler to get his attention and stuff.
Grace just using Rocky in either his ball, enclosure or his xenonite suit as a backrest while he’s grading or doing work or something, Rocky fully absorbed in his own thing. Sitting as close together as physically possible while having zero interaction with each other. Parallel play at it’s best.
These two come in a pair. Do not separate.
All of this and more, fully platonically, people wonder if they’re the world’s first weird inter solar system couple and if they’re in some weird polycule with Adrian but no, they’re just like that.
It’s just Rocky and the human he adopted as a permanent part of his family that he will spend every possible second of the rest of his short life with because he won’t be here forever and he’s not going to waste any of his time for the world.
Also Adrian still loves Rocky and isn’t quite as close to Grace as he is but is also very fond of the weird awkward alien their mate brought home because Grace is Rocky’s family and that makes Grace Adrian’s family too.
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.
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
i cannot stop thinking about this heartbreaking bit in the reveal scene
it is starting to dawn on him that something is going to happen to him against his will and he is trying to understand what is about to happen and he is trying to negotiate but also starting to realise that he might be in serious danger and he needs to get out and he is confused and scared and betrayed by a person who he considers his friend and he cannot believe this is happening right now and
his friend is sending him to die for humanity and he doesn’t want it but the choice is about to be violently taken away from him
or as the book put it
“You are murdering me!” Tears rolled down my face. “I don’t want to die! Don’t send me off to die! Please!”
This Eridian was inspired by Socks from ajsmellslikebooks's fic Project Saving Grace — a delightful fic and I hope the author doesn't mind me drawing (literally and figuratively) inspiration from it. I've had this picture of them in my mind since Socks first was introduced in the story.
Socks is from a different region of Erid and with a carapace of a glassy, obsidian-like material. Because of her more fragile limbs, Socks wears covers when walking longer distances. Socks is a "fixer" like Rocky, hence the familiar toolbelt.
suddenly thinking about the courtroom scene, of Stratt being accused of pirating literally everything, and Grace later having everything in the various computers aboard his ship that he gave a copy to Rocky without issue, and the beetles having such a massive memory capacity and...
Stratt was a historian. She wasn't just pirating for the sake of entertainment for the astronauts, she was doing a full historical backup of the planet. Who knows how much knowledge and communications ability, how much art and culture and history, how much niche knowledge of how to make specific pieces of modern technology or modern medicines, was lost as the wars for resources isolated everyone, as the death tolls led to the deaths of specialized trade workers and scientists, as the power grids failing across the planet (or cut off, potentially) led to all the cloud servers going dark. Stratt was facing methods of combating extinction and she did her best to ensure that if/when the Hail Mary worked, it would send back not just the hope of the future in the solution to the astrophage, but the restoration of history and culture and knowledge.
Just.... she pirated everything, and put it all on the Hail Mary.
jbbartram-illu
2087
baratheonpilled
dededos
