I got absolutely tragically inspired by
this art and headcanons (check it out please) by @funkyyylizard
to give my take on Vast Ryland Grace and Flesh Simon because it's awesome
Ryland Grace as The Vast:
The Vast isn't just space (thought that's a main part of what Grace's experience would be), it's the terror (and oh does Grace get the terror) of insignificance, infinite scale, and realizing you're a tiny thing in an large universe (we see that especially in the movie).
Project Hail Mary centers almost entirely on Grace confronting exactly that:
He wakes up completely alone, separated from humanity by impossible distances (Vast also because he learns that his memories aren't what he thought, finding himself, etc).
The mission itself exists because humanity is threatened by a cosmic phenomenon beyond human control (Vast also in feeling like he can't change or fix that).
Much of the story is about accepting that the universe is bigger, stranger, and less human-centered than we imagined (can also link to Simon being the Flesh + Rocky).
Grace repeatedly survives by embracing the terror, which is very Vast-coded since the Vast often blurs the line between awe and fear.
He learns to live with it (till he meets Rocky, which, I'll talk later about). Also, a Vast avatar isn't necessarily someone who fears the Vast most—sometimes it's someone who becomes part of it. Grace becomes a definite part of it, especially before meeting Rocky. Rocky could also be tied to the Vast as well, if we're thinking of the fact he was alone for fourty(?) years, finally coming in contact with something not familiar to him.
Simon isn't just a prisoner in a submarine., depending on which lore details you're drawing from, he's already physically altered before the mission begins. His body itself has become unstable, damaged, and something to be managed rather than trusted.
From a Magnus Archives point, that's really classic Flesh territory:
The Flesh hates the idea that you're a coherent person rather than a collection of organs, tissue, and biological processes. (tons of statements given it)
It focuses on bodies changing in ways you can't control.
It emphasizes the body's needs, failures, and mutations over identity.
Simon's body is already becoming something alien to him. That's very different from Vast horror. The Vast is more, "What are you compared to the cosmos?" while the Flesh is "What are you except a body?"
Also, with the amputated one-arm Simon, in Flesh stories, losing a limb is rarely just an injury. It's a confirmation that the body can be cut apart and remain "you." The question becomes: How much of your flesh can be removed before you're no longer yourself? That's exactly the kind of anxiety the Flesh exploits.
A Simon who's missing limbs and living with mutations isn't simply afraid of dying. He's forced to acknowledge his body as an object—something damaged, altered, and incomplete. Almost every activity becomes a reminder of what flesh is capable of losing.
Plus the setting DEFINITELY reinforces this:
The blood ocean resembles a vast biological environment
The submarine functions almost like an artificial exoskeleton or prosthetic body (heh) keeping Simon alive
The creature outside behaves like a predator interacting with prey (which is true, because)
Simon is surrounded by reminders that life is material and consumable
You can even read the Iron Lung itself as a Flesh artifact. It keeps Simon alive, but in a way that reduces him to basic biological requirements. He's sealed inside a cramped chamber, dependent on machines, stripped of freedom, reduced to a body that must continue functioning despite pan and suffering (yay!).
(Little bit of bloodymary rambling here:)
I feel like Simon and Grace often end up representing opposite responses to horror.
Grace faces the universe and discovers connection/curiosity/purpose despite its scale. That's a very Vast story: confronting infinity and living with it (especially on Erid, a place he knows not much about in the early years).
Simon faces a world that constantly reminds him he is made of vulnerable tissue (especially that damn eel). That's a very Flesh story: confronting embodiment and getting over it (with less limbs but oh well).
Their ships themselves can also interact and sort of form? The Iron Lung keeps Simon alive, but shows him that he's easy to manipulate and harm, but that he still has to hang onto his human title. Meanwhile the Hail Mary keeps Grace into knowing that he's expendable, that his life in Earth only matters when it's far away (very sad, :( my poor boy)
Additionally, both of their stories could easily be switched with Grace being Flesh or Simon being Vast (but that's a whole thing that I can go into another time if people care)
Grace: "The universe is unimaginably vast, and I must learn my place within it." (being expendable, forced, having to realize Earth won't get him back)
Simon: "I am meat in a hostile environment, and the environment knows it." (the monsters, the sub, his body in itself combating him)
One is terrified by how small he is compared to existence. The other is terrified by how physical existence is.
