Thinking of how the wider fandom perception of Eva Stratt mirrors the fate she knew she would receive in canon: overlooked, if not condemned, scorned, or worse.
No self-pity at all when she called herself the world's whipping boy; simply another correct assessment from a woman who has never made a wrong call in her tenure as leader (#fact).
On the upside that means Stratt's supporters in canon must also be dedicated (and insane). Which would explain her jailbreak, container ship, and continued (if covert) hand in saving the world. I think as years pass and governments start to breakdown she becomes a genuine figure of counterculture, although opinions of the wider public remain divided. Meaning: clandestine support from a few donors; a blind eye turned to a sighting of her ship. However, on the small scale, this also means... fandom. A cult of personality.
There are probably teenagers making edits of Stratt in-universe out of Petrova Taskforce PR and trial footage. They're probably powerscaling her with other world leaders. Do you think Stratt eventually gets to know what "aurafarming" means. Do you think there are kpop-style relationship analysis style videos on her and Grace ESPECIALLY post-Beetles return. Do you think there are people parasocial over the fact that Dr. Captain Ryland Grace gave her a figure of himself from another planet. There'd be Wikipedia editors documenting the long-term implications of every crime she has been charged with (the criticism, legacy and public image, and the personal life subsections of her page get a lot of edits and foot traffic); heated debates over her utilitarianism in university lecture halls all over the world. There'd be children who would grow up to idolize her, and conspiracy theorists who'll earn a living by dissecting every detail of her leadership.
Post-astrophage crisis (for the sake of my mental well-being), I choose to believe that Stratt receives some measure of recognition. Nothing commensurate with her actual impact (:((), but at the very least acknowledgement that without her billions more would be lost. Pardons as well. Not from every country, but enough so she no longer has to live as a fugitive. I hope at the end of her life she gets to live on solid land and see the return of spring. I hope a couple of people shake her hand in the street over the years.
Only when her death comes to pass do the honors roll in. Posthumous recognition. Museum exhibits, an NGO named after her; soon, a research center, a street here and there; farther into the future, some sort of spacecraft; perhaps a space station to orbit the planet she so loved, or an envoy to Erid. It's easy to honor a woman who can no longer challenge authority or disrupt the status quo. She's dead, so she's no longer any trouble at all. It's easier to reconcile choices with results in hindsight.
I think Stratt will be in history books for the rest of time. Whether praised or decried, she'll be there. The lynchpin of the longest shot in the universe.
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