Elio's name sounds like the word for "helium" in Spanish as well as other languages. Helium is an element that's relatively rare on Earth, but abundant in outer space. It is also named after a celestial body, the sun. Helium is also an element that is known for filling up air balloons; fitting for someone with their head constantly in the clouds!
In many languages, the sun is called or contains the root "sol". Elio's last name is Solis. It's like he was meant to go into space.
The space bathroom joke is funny because it's so unexpected for such a beautiful set to be something as mundane as a toilet, but on another level, when you really think about it you notice that there are no visible stall doors. It's as if Elio has no privacy and any member of the Communiverse could, if they were so inclined, observe him relieving himself from all angles. Being so open and exposed mirrors how he has to open up about his fears to Glordon before he starts becoming more selfless. It also inverts the earlier joke about Elio stopping to use a port-a-potty by being public instead of private, thereby serving as an understated form of Deliberate Values Dissonance where the Communiverse's harmonious and communal nature results in the absence of Earthly privacy norms. Which aligns with the art book stating the team wanted it to feel like Elio was on display in his apartment (despite said apartment never appearing in the final cut). Additionally, being set up like that may have something to do with none of the Ambassadors wearing clothes and Elio seeming to be the only one with external genitalia (which are obviously never shown; but can reasonably be assumed to exist). The bathroom is also the first place Elio and Glordon are shown to explore during the Good-Times Montage, as an area where they can both go swimming together and furthering their connection. It's also likely an area where Glordon would quickly succumb to hypothermia were it not for his Communidisc, that he only has because Elio had one when he met him.
When it is revealed that Hylurgians, even the adults, are practically defenseless worms without their armor, suddenly their insistence on wearing it all the time makes sense.
This is also why they seem to pride themselves on being a Proud Warrior Race. Of course! Being relatively small and defenseless outside of their armor, they probably have to put on a brave front to prevent others from bullying them. They seem to have gotten overzealous at preemptively striking against potential threats, however, as shown when they declared war on the Communiverse.
Additionally, the reason Grigon didn't need much convincing that Elio had "kidnapped" Glordon instead of realizing that his son went with him willingly ties into this. Elio and Glordon are relatively close in size, and although the latter is is visibly heavier, Elio's longer limbs and more flexible body plan could plausibly give him enough of an advantage in speed and agility to make up for the possibility of being slightly physically weaker.
Meta-Fridge Brillance: Pixar likely knew the Liar Revealed trope wasn't the most popular, so instead of the usual focus on The Lie, they made it more interesting by breaking it up with smaller lies (specifically, Other Elio and Other Glordon) leading up to the final Internal Reveal.
Olga's Conspiracy Theorist attitude towards her full confidence that Other Elio is not her nephew seems out of character at first, until you remember that she personally witnessed the base's computers going haywire and displaying an image of the Communiverse. While she knows very little about the specifics, this gives her a legitimate reason to believe an Alien Abduction is possible. Thus, she can draw that connection when "Elio" abandons his obsession in only a single day, despite having recently been preparing to be picked up by the Communiverse.
It's pretty neat parallel that Glordon is the Prince of a Proud Warrior Race while Elio lives on a military base. Both have very likely gotten used to hearing weapons being fired on a regular basis, so the comparative calm of the Communiverse is an even stronger contrast than it would be otherwise.
Grigon figuring out the clone deceit so quickly can be attributed to him actually knowing his son enough to tell the difference, but you must also consider that he's a warlord. In this job, learning to read people and paying attention to detail can make a difference between life and death. Who's to say he's not familiarized with clones being used as spies or saboteurs?
The Communiverse (or at least what's shown of it onscreen) consists almost entirely of wide, open spaces with the only times we see anything that even resembles an enclosed room with 4 walls being the meeting room where Grigon is introduced, the cloning room and the loading bay. This is a beautiful visual representation of how much freer and less restricted Elio feels there.
Deleted scenes and Word of God indicate that in earlier drafts of the script, Elio had to go through a series of three tests set up by the ambassadors to become a member of the Communiverse while in the final cut he only has to go through one, specifically getting Grigon to call off his invasion. These two ideas aren't inherently contradictory as someone actively threatening the Communiverse is likely considered a serious enough situation to loosen some of the rules. Helix did say they'd make Elio a member on the spot if he could defeat Grigon, after all. It's entirely possible that if the Communiverse was at peace during the events of the film, Elio would've had to go through a longer series of tests.
The entire Communiverse seems intentionally designed to accommodate the widest possible variety of body types.
The main form of transportation we see is some form of bubble-esque hover pods that are both light enough to be steered just by leaning in the direction you want to travel and sturdy enough to maintain their shape when the rock-like Tegmen stands on them.
The Communidiscs, Ooooo, and the Diplo Ship are all shown to respond to voice commands.
The doors in the Grand Assembly Hall/Court where Questa formally rejects Grigon are comically oversized even compared to her, indicating an effort to minimize discrimination based on size.
The bathroom consists of a large number of artificial waterfalls flowing into a large pool of water at the bottom of the room where some sort of glowing dark purple energy creates a swirling vortex in what otherwise looks like an ocean blue sea. Using waterfalls as toilets fits here because 1. Artificial waterfalls are or at least can be made essentially omnidirectional in a way that water in a bowl isn't or can't, 2. The water flows out from the point of aim indefinitely. Meaning anything that stays there long enough will be carried away. and 3. Waterfalls can't be clogged.
Similarly, the toilet is powerful enough to flush Helix, Oooo, Elio, Tegmen, Questa, and 3 bubble pod vehicles out of the sky from above the water? Of course it is! Given Bizarre Alien Biology, the Communiverse can't make any assumptions about what they need to flush, beyond maybe a baseline of assuming the waste isn't sapient unless proven otherwise, so they need to be able to flush anything. Likely using the same space-warping tech used for Faster-Than-Light Travel.
Also, if they already have space-warping tech in common use (implied by how causally they open portals), the only reason it would need to use water at all is specifically to accommodate aquatic or amphibious aliens who live underwater. Which is even more brilliant because Questa, officially designated as one of the highest-ranking members of the Communiverse on Pixar's website, is almost certainly amphibious.
Ooooo can adapt to do anything that requires hands or appendages a member of the Communiverse doesn't have for them.
None of the Diplo Ship's controls specifically require the use of fingers, just some sort of appendage that can be used to push buttons or wrap around a steering wheel.
Why was the Hylurgian army able to successfully conquer the Communiverse? Because Grigon attacked and defeated Questa, who is the most likely candidate to take up the role of commander-in-chief should a situation arise where the generally peaceful Communiverse must fight, before she could rally troops or come up with a strategy. Even if the Communiverse doesn't specifically have their own army, it's easy to imagine ways their technology could be weaponized. But that still requires someone or something to provide the proper motivation for it. Some of the other ambassadors made have realized this on their own but given how pacifistic and conflict-averse most of them are, it would've only been a few isolated individuals or very small groups without a leader to unify them.
And this is without mentioning that Grigon is a battle-hardened, experienced warlord. Even if the Communiverse had the chance to fight back, it's very likely he still would have won anyway; it would've just taken him a bit longer.
I think the Communiverse has enough of a Home Field Advantage that it at least isn't impossible they could've won if they were more prepared for it.
In particular:
Although it's only shown briefly a few times in the film itself and is never directly mentioned in dialogue, several interviews and Pixar's website establish that the Communiverse consists of four discs containing four separate biomes. Most immediately relevant here is the frozen tundra biome. Given Hylurgians require extreme heat to survive, this would be the ideal place to hit them with any Armor-Piercing Attack the ambassadors have. Which given how big some of the aliens are, may not even require weapons. Additionally, since the Hylurgian ships weapons seem to be powered by lava, the ice could be used to cool the lava and therefore weaken their defenses.
The bathroom waterfalls could allow guerrilla soldiers to obscure visibility by hiding at key points in-between them. Alternatively, they could hide underwater in the large pool at the bottom and then use their Communidisc's Gravity Master powers to ambush the enemy soldiers by swimming up the waterfalls.
Several areas of the Communiverse appear inaccessible without some form of flight. While the Hylurgian soldiers Powered Armor has rocket boots, these are not as reliable as either the bubble pod vehicles or the Communidisc's gravity manipulation.
Yeah, those certainly might give the Hylurgians some trouble, but the people of the Communiverse clearly are not warriors. What did they do when the Hylurgians attacked? Panic and run. Even with those advantages and Questa at the lead, without a proper training I don't think they'd be able to win against the more prepared, battle-hardened Hylurgians.
I actually don't think it matters how "battle-hardened" the Hylurgians are for the simple that the ambassadors don't need to be "warriors" to explot Hit-and-Run Tactics. Plus the Communiverse is more technologically advanced than any world Grigon has previously conquered since it was his entire motivation for wanting to join them.
I guess you're right on that part. Perhaps Grigon was aware of all that stuff; it's heavily implied that this wasn't the first time he's tried to join the Communiverse. From all the previous attempts, he must've figured out Questa might be the one who'd take charge during such a situation, and if she hadn't fallen into his hands when she intervened to save Elio, he might have gone after her before she could rally the rest of the Communiverse to fight back.
When Elio is thrown back to Earth, the first things he sees after coming to on the beach are a row of port-a-potties and a few satellite dishes. This likely shocked him out of the last remaining bit of plausible deniability he had that Questa's rejection was just a bad dream as the Communiverse logically would neither have nor need either of those things.
The Communiverse is shown to be surrounded by purple clouds when it first appears. Helix states its mission involves "searching the universe". Per Word of God, crops are grown on the outer shell. In the end the entire station teleports to Earth. Taking all this into account, it's likely the entire Communiverse structure is equipped with an Alcubierre Drive allowing it to carry a large pocket of air with it anywhere it goes, even when outside of a planetary atmosphere. Which would also explain why the large openings that serve as entrances to the Communiverse appear to still be within its atmosphere.
It actually makes sense that Grigon would want Glordon to become a warlord. After all, he is the Blood Emperor of Hylurg, which means that his son will one day take his place.
And this is without mentioning that, after conquering so many worlds, Grigon likely has lots of enemies out there. Glordon would be very vulnerable without a carapace if said enemies decide to go after him to get to his father.
Glordon mentions that his favorite color is purple. What's color are his carapace's visor and lights? Purple. This shows that Grigon is actually an attentive father, even if he might not spend too much time with his son.
Bryce is the first person Elio is ever shown to find a shared interest with, so it's rather touching that he's the first person he contacts during the climax.
There is a great parallel to Olga's story that connects with Elio's story. She had a dream of becoming an astronaut, and she's given the opportunity twice as we see in the first act, but she rejects it so she can take care of her nephew. At the end of the story, Elio achieves his dream of becoming ambassador of the Communiverse to live among the other aliens. However, he rejects it because he chooses to be with his aunt, realizing how lonely she would be if she comes back to Earth on her own. They both reject each other's dreams so they can be together, because they're family. *Sniff* (I'm not crying, you're crying).
In the original promo, Lord Grigon gleefully exclaims that he must wipe Elio's memory. But if that were true, why did he need to summon all those weapons? Is "memory wipe" a Deadly Euphemism?
Turns out that the Communiverse, for all of their unity, effectively replace the members they recruit with clones of them if they happen to be a world leader to prevent global panic. Elio's entire journey implies that their respective home planets were not notified to keep up the deception. Corrupt elites who want to jump ship can easily apply for Communiverse membership and have their clones do all the dirty work back home unless Questa pokes around their head. It is also possible for the deception to be discovered if the clone acts too differently, resulting in the aforementioned chaos happening with no apparent alert system for the original.
However, it's implied that all of the members of the Communiverse let some members of their planet know about their whereabouts (as they'd have to keep contact with their planets somehow). Most likely (since they're all implied to be their planets' leaders) they told high-ranking or trusted members of their home governments what was going on and keep regular contact.
If Elio hadn't returned to Earth, he would have been stuck in space forever with no way back home. Not to mention that sooner or later his clone would have disintegrated, and Olga would have had to spend the rest of her life in a state of depression, blaming herself for her nephew's abduction. And Bryce, along with Caleb, would regret having made fun of him and would have missed him.
Considering The Communiverse's ability to easily open intergalactic wormholes, he most likely would be able to return to Earth as soon as he decided to.
I think the clone would've disintegrated only if Olga wouldn't need him anymore or if he was shot, like how Grigon shot at the Glordon clone. If neither were the case, the clone would've most likely been unable to grow up like Elio, and Olga would've realized that.
She'd likely seen him playing around in the bathroom at least once during his stay there. She most likely knew he could swim.
Elio grabs his phone right before the bullies catch him. He's holding it for a decent chunk of the time they've grabbed him. However, when time freezes around him, he's no longer holding his phone. Granted, he may have put it back in his pocket offscreen. But even then, there's a high chance it fell out after he was pushed through the portal to Earth when he had to swim against a current strong enough to wash away his cape and sash.
Earth was actually fortunate that the Voyager was found by the Communiverse. What if it'd been picked up by not-so-friendly aliens, such as the Hylurgians? It might be like The War of the Worlds!
If Elio and Olga weren't able to rescue Glordon when he crashed on Earth, Grigon may very well have decided to invade Earth to avenge the death of his son.
If Elio had never been abducted, Questa still would've rejected Grigon, he still would've attempted to take over the Communiverse (although it's possible his conquest could at least be delayed by teleporting the entire space station somewhere else like in the ending) and Glordon would've remained alone.
It is never exactly stated that Grigon is fully redeemed and renounces his worldview.
In the deleted scene "Home Visit" Elio mentions that he mistook the Communiverse's restroom for a temple. (The final cut doesn't specify what he thought it was when he called it the most beautiful place he'd ever seen, but it's not too unlikely for "temple" to still be the answer.) Given that its design, even if it wasn't identical to the one shown in the final cut at the time this scene was produced, is very likely specifically adapted for a multi-species setting, there's a decent chance that Elio wasn't the first person to make that mistake.
Glordon displays the ability to generate silk from both his mouth and his butt. Similarly, when he and Elio are running through the lava tunnels, there's a moment where Glordon's tail is "lip-synced" to his dialogue while his mouth is offscreen. Adding to the fact that their mouths are the only visibly uncovered holes in their bodies when donning their carapaces, this opens the possibility that Hylurgians can excrete through their mouths.
Glordon mentions he's been a "liability, a disappointment, an enigma, a problem, and a headache." Has Glordon overheard his father call him that, or has Grigon outright called him that to his face? No wonder the poor kid has doubts about his father loving him at all.
While Grigon's reaction to Glordon's laughter might seem funny on the surface, there's the implication that he's never heard his own son laughing. Either he rarely spends enough time with his son and thus has never seen him happy, or Glordon is always sad.
The negotiation scene implies the former, as a soldier informs Grigon that Glordon wants to see him, and an annoyed Grigon has the soldier go tell him he's busy.
It's also implied (via Glordon's reminiscing about her and Grigon admitting he's not as good at swaddling as her) that Glordon spends far more time with his mother than his father. If anything, it explains why he's such a nice kid despite having Grigon for a father.
With Elio-ese being a language Elio shared with his parents, imagine how much Olga's refusal to learn it stung.
Questa offers Elio a spot as an ambassador after Grigon is defeated despite knowing he's not the leader of Earth by that point. This means that the Communiverse either never had an official rule against children and/or non-politicians being ambassadors or was willing to ignore such a rule in this specific case.
It makes no sense for Elio's clone to have only one eye just because Elio happened to be wearing an eyepatch at the time he was cloned.
