Dani Ramos/Grace Harper
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Dani Ramos / Grace Harper |
| Alternative name(s): | Drace |
| Gender category: | femslash |
| Fandom: | Terminator: Dark Fate |
| Canonical?: | |
| Prevalence: | Primary, fandom OTP |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Dani Ramos/Grace Harper is a femslash ship between Daniela "Dani" Ramos and Grace Harper from the film Terminator: Dark Fate. It is a juggernaut pairing for the fandom. Many fans consider their relationship throughout the film to be heavily queer coded.
Canon Overview
Terminator: Dark Fate is a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, retconning all other official movies from the franchise. Grace Harper is an Augmented super-soldier sent back in time to protect Dani from a Rev-9 model Terminator, who hails from an alternate future where an AI called Legion seeks to destroy humanity. Grace is subsequently cared for by Dani, as using her Augmented abilities has significant physical drawbacks and requires medications to be administered. Sarah Connor joins forces with them in order to try and prevent Dani's death. Over the course of the film, Grace reveals more details about the future that she comes from; this culminates in the revelation that despite other close parallels to Sarah's experiences, Dani will not give birth to the saviour of humanity: Dani herself is leader of the Resistance. Grace was saved from other scavenging humans by Dani as a child and raised in the Resistance, becoming a soldier and volunteering as an adult to become an Augment when Dani is critically injured in an attack. The film ends when Grace sacrifices herself and her power source to help Dani destroy the Rev-9; Dani resolves to train under Sarah to prevent Grace's death from happening again, going to visit a younger (still living) Grace who is seen playing at a park with her family.
Fandom
Numerous fannish sources, including film commentators in mainstream publications (see Further Reading), commented on the strong lesbian subtext within the film. Some fans speculated that this was an instance of queer-coding rather than queerbaiting; some felt that the film may have been censored, or noted some moments from the film were cut before it ended up in theatres which may have supported a more overtly romantic reading [1][2][3]. Other fans explicitly refuted the implied surrogate mother/daughter relationship, arguing that a single throwaway line by Grace that Dani "raised her" was not convincing or compelling given their physical and emotional intimacy throughout; overwhelmingly, fans felt that Grace and Dani's dynamic was romantically charged [4][5][6][7][8]. Some felt that the ending of the film might fall into Bury Your Gays territory[1], but due to the timeloop elements inherent to the franchise this assertion wasn't universally agreed upon [6].
As of November 2020, one year after the film was released, approximately 1/3 or 33% of all fanfiction on AO3 tagged for the Terminator (movies) also include the pairing tag for Dani/Grace (~250 out of ~800 fic).
Common Tropes in Fanworks
Like other fanworks for the Terminator franchise, popular tropes include:
- Time Travel
- Alternate Universe
- Everybody Lives, with "Grace Harper Lives" as a trope noted in the fandom
- Crossover
Other tropes popular for the Dani/Grace pairing specifically include:
- Hurt/Comfort
- Angst, often related to the time travel elements or themes of mutual protectiveness
- Pining, sometimes with mutual pining or slow burn elements
- Fluff, frequently paired with an AU or Grace Lives trope
- First time (genre)
- Love Confession
- Resolution for or refutation of an alleged surrogate mother/daughter relationship hinted at in the film
- Explorations of gender identity, often involving Grace as butch, non-binary, or experiencing some level of gender dysphoria
Notable Fanworks
Fanart
- Dani tracing Grace's scars while she sleeps by Konako
- Now come here and get some rest. I’m here for you. by natchosaretasty; Dani/Grace fanart
- Dani and Grace by foleypdx
- sobs in gay i love them so much by sunflowers-on-fire; fanart of Dani and Grace kissing with soft lighting
- Grace/Dani by coinl5; fanart of Dani with her head in Grace's lap, an iconic scene from the movie
Fanfiction
Fanmix
- let my heart be your shelter by royalarmyofoz
Gifsets and Edits
- Types of relationship by beneaththethunders; archive link
- Deleted scene: “My team’s detected a recent event signature. Mexico City.” by booasaur; archive link.
- gifset showing them embrace in the water by booasaur; archive link
- Dani and Grace being soft with each other by mini-oddity; archive link
Meta
- Dani and Grace: A Relationship Coated in Queer Subtext by mini-oddity; link
Further Reading
- Heaney, K. The new Terminator is my favourite lesbian love triangle, “the Cut”, Nov 04 2019 (Accessed Nov 24 2020)
- Cauterucci, C. Terminator: Dark Fate Is the Gayest Terminator Yet, “Slate”, Nov 01 2019. (Accessed Nov 24 2020)
- Canbemagic. queer conspiracy theories (terminator: dark fate), posted to wordpress on September 20 2020 (Accessed Nov 24 2020)
Archives & Links
- Grace Harper/Dani Ramos at Archive of our Own
- Terminator: Dark Fate thread at the L-Chat forum with over 2200 posts as of November 2020.
References
- ^ a b Sooooo, I went to see Terminator: Dark Fate by shadsie, Archived version
- ^ I was watching Dark Fate with the Director’s commentary... by mini-oddity, Archived version
- ^ So I watched the digital version of Dark Fate last night and they cut this shot by vasnormandy, Archived version
- ^ No, Harold, that's lesbian activity by mini-oddity, Archived version
- ^ Ahem, excuse me my dear followers by lister-from-another-mister, Archived version
- ^ a b Terminator Dark Fate review (spoilers) by Brendanicus, Archived version
- ^ The Terminator movie is an excellent way to spend a couple of hours by lazaefair, Archived version
- ^ listen i get that motherhood and mothers and their children is a just theme/motif of the terminator films but also. by dilpickledd, Archived version