Weightlessness is something that a medium like comics get a better chance to explore. When gravity changes to being practically nonexistent, think of it like a post-disaster setting. Because while things do get bad eventually, there are good things to come out of it all. Without gravity there’s gotta be something else to keep everyone together. Memory seems to be a good fit but there’s the added concerns of toxic nostalgia and trauma. When dealing with something so absurd like the settings of Skyward and A Radical Shift Of Gravity, the best thing to do is roll with the punches. It could certainly help in less absurd situations in the real world.
Weightlessness As A Setting Premise
Within the pages of both Skyward and A Radical Shift Of Gravity comes a change in gravity. For reasons no one understands, gravity lowers exponentially. In the former series it’s to the point that people can potentially fall up into the sky at any time. As for the latter, the shifts occur at different points instead of all at once. When such a fundamental force that people take for granted changes, so does society. Skyward for example features a tether-based courier system while Radical Shift has leisurely hoverpacks. What makes the most changes are these changes in gravity affect people psychologically.
The High
The young and entrepreneurial are always hoping to get into the trends; growing up in situations like these are a part of their lives. As the world changes, why not embrace it as a part of their lives? Skyward protagonist Willa Fowler for one never had a life where gravity was normal. So when her dad is trying to find a way to bring it back, the generational disconnect feels apparent. The sense of regression to a past time can feel strikingly similar to a few campaigns I won’t go into detail. That said, there is a reason for this way of thinking.
The Low
In both series, fathers suffer losses of their wives that leave them with traumas. The worst part was that they trusted people who are supposed to know what they’re doing. With these traumas in mind, trying to get back to the basics is like trying to get back the memory. Unfortunately, that nostalgia is an addiction that can lead to confirmation bias. In both series there are survivalists trying to remain attached to a past, formed in the process of nostalgia. But nostalgia can be very toxic as these groups can be very militant if not dogmatic. The very presence of something against their beliefs despite not being a threat echoes the self-destructive side of trauma. Because these people are always mentally defensive, it can lead to an unhealthy need for control.
The Weightlessness Of Connection
It’s easy to meet people between what they have in common, it’s tolerating differences and shortcomings that are hard. The feeling of relevance or importance are a sliding scale of connection. The weightlessness of it all is just so hard to keep it together. Many people looking for easy answers to absurd situations are going to be disappointed.
Within Skyward, Willa’s battle with her former boss Barrow is between giving someone a future and trying to maintain it as opposed to living in it. If gravity ever came back, Barrow fears becoming a nobody. But being a somebody means believing the world is dependent on you. So what if things change, people learn to make lives out of what they’ve got. Culture and identity change with new experiences, something Willa takes in strides. It’s what allows her to become a better person. With each generation come new challenges, some familiar some more unique.
Within Radical Shift protagonist Noah and his daughter are always going back and forth about where to go. Like any parent, as Noah ages the things he keeps close are his worries. The need to keep everything in one place when nobody in power seems trustworthy remains ever powerful. But what happens when holding onto everything melds with the worries? If anything it sounds like a bunch of delusions and possibly fake memories are attached to what people love.
The World Lives On
Neither series really touches upon this but the above aspects reflect some hard truths about environmentalism. When things are man-made or natural, the only things that aren’t concrete are who’s living in the moment. Nature operates on its own rules that can seem extremely abstract. Not just the environmental stuff but how it affects human nature. Gravity itself is something that isn’t well understood; sure, the basics are fine when it comes to mass. But when it comes down to the fundamental natures, no one knows what it can do.
There’s an overall lack of symmetry and (at first glance) linearity that Radical Shift touches with its storytelling. What happens when gravity lessens when it comes to a person’s psyche? Admittedly it’s a bit abstract but seeing events as they relate to moods are just seeing memories clearly. There’s a lot that go into decisions and feelings, it’s how they relate and conglomerate that keeps them together. Because let’s face it, time isn’t what causes memory, it’s a record.
Nature Of Weightlessness
Within both worlds they change accordingly as rain water, oxygen, and a bunch of other stuff aren’t what they used to be. This forces people to reexamine what they’ve got in life. Again some of the rules are more absurdly magical than scientific; so what if things don’t make sense, people learn to live in the world. Willa’s parents even make the foundations to a community that lives in the sky.
Things like worrying about an apocalyptic future mean very little to the people living on surfaces. It’s not an ignorance thing, this knowledge is just so mundane that worries are minimal. Sometimes it’s better to learn to live with bad things and adjust to it, kind of like pandemics when you think about it.
Embrace Change In Moderation
When parts of life change and interrupt your status quo, it all depends on how the perspective runs your life. Skyward shows how living in fear and being fearless towards inevitable change are far from ideal. Without enough living in the moment and caution, people can become obsessed with their way of life. All this really does is cause worries for others which leads to imprinting and projecting. The hard truths to reveal are that the world can change indifferently of what people value. While the young will inherit the world, the real struggle comes from how the old interact with it.
When the old shoulder the burden of trauma for the young, like in Radical Shift, trying to bond over those traumas is like living in a memory. But that causes people to miss out on the present when people have found ways to make lives for themselves. Why live in memories, even the events that lead to a decision, when you can make new ones?
Ultimately, that’s something that leads into politics which does happen in real life. Much like in Skyward and Radical Shift, the world could have a little more weightlessness.