My asoiaf canon speculation playground. House Stark. Sansa. Jonsa. Stark Sisters. Arianne. Elia. Young Griff. Theon. Targaryen critical. Game of Thrones critical.
I keep thinking about the fact that Eridians seem so much stronger and sturdier than humans, so what humans-are-space-orcs thing could Grace even do that would freak Rocky out... and then I remembered humans are persistence predators.
So picture some years in the future when the xenonite suits are so safe that Grace's class can now take field trips into his biodome. Rocky's there because this is a big moment for everyone involved and also he just loves listening to Grace in his element. One of the more mischievous kids tries to sneak off from the group and there are plenty of chaperones but Grace is the first to notice.
His posture changes, goes focused but loose in a way Rocky's never seen before as he peels of from the crowd. Rocky just stands there, stunned, as he watches his sweet, gangly, goofy, clumsy blob of a friend turn into a hunter. Grace circles around the pebble, slightly crouched, head turned and honed in, arms loose to the sides, and maybe the little one notices and does that nervously excited giggle-squeal thing kids do when they're being chased and tries to get away, but Grace expertly corrals them. He doesn't even have to run for it, he just pens the kid in, lunges-
And takes the little pebble by the claw to lead them safely back to their peers. And just like that he's Grace again, smiling and joking and tripping over his improvised shoelaces. Rocky hasn't been scared of Grace since first contact. Have you seen the guy? ... but for a second there his instincts were telling him to run.
I'm obsessed with this little moment where Stratt is like reaching out to say Hi to Grace but instead of patting his shoulder or something she pats his tiny little chair. and filmed from behind a barrier
everyone gets onto eva stratt for the "think about it long time" vs. "you have three hours" thing but
operating on book canon a little bit: if grace couldn't do it-- if he said no*-- the alternative was to scramble and fly in the next most qualified volunteer, who had 0 training, 0 knowledge of astrophage, and was not an astronaut. three hours could have been three hours of training for that replacement. three hours could have been three hours of preparation for grace, if he said yes
eva stratt gave grace three hours. not to decide, necessarily, because the decision was going to be made the way it was no matter what. but three hours to come to terms with it, to grieve, to mentally prepare himself. three hours that could have been spent giving humanity a better chance to survive
she borrowed three hours that she didn't have to give grace space to process. to get himself together and come to her, teary-eyed but resolved, and say yes.
and he still said no to her. she gave him everything and he said no. he forced her to force him. she gave him three hours she didn't have. i feel so sick about eva stratt
I literally don't even understand tne logic behind eva stratt haters. at all. unless you are so unhealthily attached to fictional character ryland grace that you can never see her in a positive light it's just pure misogyny.
she had approx five years to figure out a plan to save the entire earth, collect the best minds on the planet, get astrophage bred, the phm built, the sahara paved. dubois and shapiro died nine days before launch. if eva hesitated even just a little, and they missed the launch window, earth would have died. was murdering grace wrong? yes. the alternative was eva being responsible for the death of 8.3 BILLION people. and that's only if you're a speciesist and don't count the trillions of different animals plants fungi all over earth. eva stratt they could never make me hate you
Of all of Eva's team, the one she trusts the most would undeniably be Carl.
He's who walks up to stand beside her when recruiting Grace. A seamless team. "I need you to come with us."
He's in the observation room with her and all the other important officials, watching Grace make first contact. He's privy to that pivotal moment. She must think he's entitled to partaking of it. Because this is his mission too.
She trusts him to oversee Grace's experiments with three (and a dead) invaluable astrophage cells. How he does it is up to his own judgment. With an expense account and plenty of leeway for how to use it, no questions asked. He's entirely confident in the authority he wields in her name. "Which government?" "All of them."
He's in the room at Baikonur when they present Grace with his role as replacement science officer. He knows. Of all people she thought would be appropriate to have there, the flight team, the lead scientists who have worked with Grace all this time... he's there. Shaking his head in disappointment. Expressing what Eva doubtlessly feels beneath her ever so calmly presented arguments.
He's doubtlessly the one she calls from her office to let him know they predicted correctly and the final stretch of corralling their wayward savior will be up to him. He'll do it right. He'll do it.
Just... unspoken, implicit trust and faith in his ability to do his part in their greater purpose. She believes in Grace but can't fully trust him. Carl? Zero doubt.
I want to be a fly on the wall during the job interview. Must have felt like two kindred spirits meeting. Sun's dying? Not if we can help it.
what i like about rocky hailmary is that he is incredibly generous and deeply empathetic but he's also rude and difficult on purpose because he thinks it's funny. he'll do anything you need but he'll also just do whatever he wants. he just says things. he wears his hydrostatics on his exoskeleton at all times. winner of the most autistic alien award
i DO believe that a good writer can make mischaracterization work. oh there's a character who doesn't normally cry? figure it out!! dissect the character. make the situation cryable for them. make that character cry ugly tears even if it goes against their very nature. YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK!!!
Thinking about book!Stratt and her impassioned attempt to make Grace understand when he says no, and thinking of Sandra Hüller's amazing acting during the chase scene and how she shows her sense of disappointment and betrayal in these beautiful, minute expressions. Thinking of the ways in which Grace betrayed her in so many ways despite the ways in which Grace had time and space to comprehend his unique skills and integrality to the running of the whole project. Thinking of the ways in which Grace's cowardice includes the refusal to face facts and think through not just what came next, but what came After the launch-- thinking through how badly Grace betrayed Eva Stratt, and not the reverse;
Eva Stratt, who took on an impossible burden, willing to go into it all on her own because no one else was willing to shoulder the skies
Eva Stratt, who sought out every possible scientist and engineer and resource able to think big about potential alien life and everything else they would need to combat the threat
Eva Stratt, who makes sure well in advance that she has permission and resources for world-saving work
Eva Stratt, whose selection of a fringe microbiologist with a genius for explaining dense terminology to lay people yields quicker, more productive decisions and avenues for research than any hidebound academic
Eva Stratt, whose microbiologist-teacher-translator understands how to administer too many projects and too many demands on his time and still carves out time to do more because that's what teachers do
Eva Stratt, whose right-hand man has answered, advised, and absolved her as they made horrible decisions that were the most likely to succeed toward the largest and best end of them all
Eva Stratt, who shared almost all of her plans and projects with her fringe microbiologist, teacher, second in command, project partner, her friend
Eva Stratt, who could trust her friend to make sound, difficult, scientifically valid, potential-maximizing decisions on the world's behalf because he loved it as much as she does
Eva Stratt (movie), who cannot be seen to falter or yield if any of this is going to work, takes a long moment of softness to try to offer some kind of assurance, camaraderie that they are all in their separate tasks still all in it together
Eva Stratt, who finds out at the last minute, on the precipice of deadly delay or potentially world-saving success, that her friend is a naive fool and a coward who never understood her or the mission and what was at stake after all
Eva Stratt, who'd hoped she wasn't alone in the willingness to do anything to save as much as they could
Eva Stratt, who found herself alone in making the world's hardest decisions, whose once-co-lead refused to help her make the awful, desperate, necessary decision together
Eva Stratt, whose friend betrayed her by never thinking all of it through. Betrayed by her right-hand, trusted project co-lead, translator of science bullshit, radical innovator and methodical scientist, who refused to follow the facts all the way to the proof he should have seen long before. Betrayed by her once-friend, now just Crew Member Number Three.
Eva Stratt, who loves the world enough to give up someone who has made her life and her work bearable, even as her once-friend proves his love is not the awful, all encompassing love that both she and the world need
Eva Stratt, who shoots her once-friend and still brilliant and innovative scientist into space anyway, because she has no other choice and now neither does he
Eva Stratt, who stands alone after the launch, and who'd hoped (in the quiet of her carefully cordoned off heart) that Grace would be by her side-- shouldering the heavens, pushing that boulder, stealing fire over and over until the sun brightened again or they'd wrung out every last gasp
Eva Stratt, who was right in thinking she'd stand alone at the end
I need a thousand fics from the in-canon Eva Stratt Was Right fanclub posthaste.
