History YMMV / TheColdEquations

* CommonKnowledge: Some critics go so far as to say that there's no reason for the lack of failsafes, such as only barely having enough fuel to reach the destination. While some of the design flaws (the excessively large interior) and negligence(the stowaway casually walks on board) are difficult to justify, the story ''does'' give a reason for the lack of fuel: it's a frontier ship and resources are scarce. The fragile margins of error are explained at length in the story's opening.
* ValuesDissonance: The story was written as a response to the [[InvincibleHero Invincible]] {{Science Hero}}es common in literature at the time, who would AssPull an answer out of SCIENCE! to save everyone. This archetype has long since died (other than things like ''Literature/TheMartian'' where the science is fairly well researched & explained and ''even then'' plenty of things go wrong), so most discussion surrounding the story focuses on the ridiculous contrivances necessary to create the situation in the first place, such as the incredibly short-sighted design of the spaceship, the fact that we are ''told'' every piece of it is absolutely essential and indispensable but it contains many features which are not, and the extremely inadequate security protecting it. Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems. Whereas the story was first published [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace years before the first orbital launch]], so the author and editor could be forgiven for not thinking of that at the time.

* AccidentalAesop: Don't build a ship -- or anything important -- ''that close'' to the wire if you want it to end well. Also always, ''always'' do a basic pre-voyage check, ''especially'' for something important.

* AccidentalAesop: Don't build a ship -- or anything important -- ''that close'' to the wire if you want it to end well. Also always, ''always'' check for stowaways.
* AlternateAesopInterpretation: Besides the moral about margin for error mentioned above, some readers see a warning against blaming the cruelty of the universe for problems actually caused by the unwillingness of human beings to improve things.

* CommonKnowledge: "The ship doesn't have any failsafes for no reason!" Except the story ''does'' give a reason: it's a frontier ship and resources are scarce. The fragile margins of error are explained at length in the story's opening.

* OnceOriginalNowCommon: The story was written as a response to the [[InvincibleHero Invincible]] {{Science Hero}}es common in literature at the time, who would AssPull an answer out of SCIENCE! to save everyone. This archetype has long since died (other than things like ''Literature/TheMartian'' where the science is fairly well researched & explained and ''even then'' plenty of things go wrong), so most discussion surrounding the story focuses on the ridiculous contrivances necessary to create the situation in the first place, such as the incredibly short-sighted design of the spaceship, the fact that we are ''told'' every piece of it is absolutely essential and indispensable but it contains many features which are not, and the extremely inadequate security protecting it.
* ValuesDissonance: Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems. Whereas the story was first published [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace years before the first orbital launch]], so the author and editor could be forgiven for not thinking of that at the time.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The story was written as a response to the [[InvincibleHero Invincible]] {{Science Hero}}es common in literature at the time, who would AssPull an answer out of SCIENCE! to save everyone. This archetype has long since died (other than things like ''Literature/TheMartian'' where the science is fairly well researched & explained and ''even then'' plenty of things go wrong), so most discussion surrounding the story focuses on the ridiculous contrivances necessary to create the situation in the first place, such as the incredibly short-sighted design of the spaceship, the fact that we are ''told'' every piece of it is absolutely essential and indispensable but it contains many features which are not, and the extremely inadequate security protecting it.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The story was written as a response to the [[InvincibleHero Invincible]] {{Science Hero}}es common in literature at the time, who would AssPull an answer out of SCIENCE! to save everyone. This archetype has long since died (other than things like ''Literature/TheMartian'' where the science is fairly well researched & explained and ''even then'' plenty of things go wrong), so most discussion surrounding the story focuses on the ridiculous contrivances necessary to create the situation in the first place, such as the incredibly short-sighted design of the spaceship, the fact that we are ''told'' every piece of it is absolutely essential and indispensable but it contains many features which are not, and the extremely lame security protecting it.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Although understandable for the time when the story was written and for its satiric intentions, one of the more offensive parts of the story today is the unabashed ''misandry'' (as well as misogyny) of the whole thing: repeatedly, the story tells us that if stowaway had been an equally innocent and clueless boy instead of a girl, ''no one would have cared about killing him immediately or made any effort to find a way around it'' because in the morality of the story's world, who cares if a boy dies? For many high school and college men reading this in the 1980s and later, the story's AlternateAesopInterpretation is that sexism such as appears in the story is not only bad because it dehumanizes women and denies female talents, it is also bad because it dehumanizes men and trivializes male deaths and male lives.

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous that it sounds like a death trap. Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but then create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that in tryin to avert the sort of Ass Pull common to ScienceHero stories of the time, he wound up enforcing an equal and opposite Ass Pull.

* ValuesDissonance: Related to SeinfeldIsUnfunny, above. Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems. Whereas the story was first published [[UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace years before the first orbital launch]], so the author and editor could be forgiven for not thinking of that at the time.

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous (as noted on the main and Headscratchers pages) that it sounds like a death trap. Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but then create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that in tryin to avert the sort of Ass Pull common to ScienceHero stories of the time, he wound up enforcing an equal and opposite Ass Pull. And as shown by the Headscratchers page, also a case of [[IdiotPlot Idiot Plot]].
* IdiotPlot: Originally intended as a subversion of '50s tropes about scientists (see below), that point is now lost on most readers and instead one wonders why the ship was designed to work with ''only'' the exact amount of fuel needed, and how [[SwissCheeseSecurity Marilynn was able to sneak onboard]].

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous (as noted on the main and Headscratchers pages) that it sounds like a death trap. Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but then create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that this is a case of an Ass Pull being enforced. And as show by the Headscratchers page, also a case of [[IdiotPlot Idiot Plot]].

* ValuesDissonance: Related to SeinfeldIsUnfunny, above. Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems.

* ValuesDissonance: related to SeinfeldIsUnfunny, above. Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems.

* ValuesDissonance: related to SeinfieldIsUnfunny, above. Nowadays most people remark of just how poorly engineered the ship would be that there was such a slim margin for error on the ship, when real spaceships are overengineered with multiple redundant systems.

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous (as noted on the main and Headscratchers pages) that it sounds like a death trap. Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but them create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that this is a case of an Ass Pull being enforced. And as show by the Headscratchers page, also a case of [[IdiotPlot Idiot Plot]].

** And they didn't necessarily exclude all possibilities. To give one example, you can survive without your limbs, and presumably operate a spacecraft without your legs...

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous (as noted on the main and Headscratchers pages) that it sounds like a death trap. Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but them create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that this is a case of an [[AssPull Ass Pull]] being enforced. (And as show by the Headscratchers page, also arguably a case of [[IdiotPlot Idiot Plot]].

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The story was written as a response to the [[InvincibleHero Invincible]] {{Science Hero}}es common in literature at the time, who would AssPull an answer out of SCIENCE! to save everyone. This archetype has long since died (other than things like ''Literature/TheMartian'' where the science is fairly well researched & explained), so most discussion surrounding the story focuses on the ridiculous contrivances necessary to create the situation in the first place, such as the incredibly short-sighted design of the spaceship, the fact that we are ''told'' every piece of it is absolutely essential and indispensable but it contains many features which are not, and the extremely lame security protecting it.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: [[TheNeedsOfTheMany There are times when you must make sacrifices for the greater good]], [[ShootTheDog including letting a girl whose only crime was trespassing die]].

* AssPull: The lengths this story takes to doom the girl get so outrageous (as noted on the main and Headscratchers pages) that it sounds like a death trap.
** Given how Campbell refused to publish the work until Godwin created an ending where the girl can't be saved, even after he made several revisions where he removed something that could be done but them create ''another way'' to explain how he could save her, one could say that this is a case of an [[AssPull Ass Pull]] being enforced. (And as show by the Headscratchers page, also arguably a case of [[IdiotPlot Idiot Plot]].