And itâs so interesting. Regardless of either version of Strattâs religion, I canât help but wonder what people think she should have done rather than numerous counts of treason.
Now of course, we as readers/viewers have benefit of knowing how the story ends. She doesnât and Iâm sure if most of us lived in the PHM universe, we wouldnât like her very much.
1. Theyâre on a time crunch. The sun is dying. Which means crops are going to fail and people are going to starve. Thereâs no time to find another person in Graceâs field and train them for the mission.
Every other trained and capable person died in the lab explosion. Grace (at least in the book) got some training and in both cases, he sat in on important meetings. He was the only remaining option - everything else would waste precious time and resources.
2. Bombing Antarctica. Again, if there was time, Iâm sure she could have found a less damaging solution. Whether or governments and the citizens would cooperate - well, we all saw how âwellâ the world handled the pandemic. I donât think the Sun dying would encourage everyone to work together. And she knew this.
She needed an efficient solution.
Again, I donât know her train of thought but I canât help but imagine she was like âMelting ice caps were an issue when we were trying to prevent global warming. If we melt a ton of ice that can warm up the planet enough to give us a chance. What is the quickest way to melt a ton of ice that wonât require time, testing or resources?â
There are nuclear weapons in our world. While I donât know where Stratt got hers - I have to imagine she used an already exist nuclear weapon.
3. Paving over the Sahara. I donât know enough about this aspect since it wasnât in a movie - but again, I imagine it was somewhat of a practical move. People do live in the Sahara but itâs very sparsely populated - so even though paving it over would affect peopleâŚitâs the least amount of people in the most amount of land they had.
If Eva Stratt was Jewish and held Jewish values - how much would change?
Yes, Judaism values life above all else and Stratt was killing Grace (and the others). Thatâs a sin. But was she supposed to let humanity as a whole die out? Because the only options were to a) do nothing and let humanity die out or b) sacrifice somebody and hope it worked.
How is doing nothing not committing murder by inaction? And as we established - she wasnât really left with any other option but to send Grace.
Maybe Jewish! Stratt talked to a rabbi. Doesnât mean she had to listen. Or maybe the rabbi felt this was completely out of his wheelhouse (which fair.)
Or maybe, Stratt was raised Jew-ish. Didnât really have access or was given the tools to explore her background and didnât choose to do so until later in life. And she went to a rabbi for guidance then. But she had been affected by cultural Christianity and was making her decisions based on that.
Thereâs a lot of scenarios Iâm interested in examining with this.
I know a lot of Jumblr is super concerned with depictions of Jews in popular media - and a lot of it sucks and a lot of goyim fall back on antisemitic tropes in their work or headcanons. Thatâs valid.
Really, I just think Eva Stratt is a fascinating character and maybe Jewish! Stratt less of a headcanon and more of a What If? Style scenario that I enjoy theorizing about.
You could never convince though, that the character is evil. Is she an antagonist? Yep. Should Grace forgive her? I probably wouldnât so I get that he wouldnât either. But I understand why she made the choices she did and Iâd love to explore how her upbringing might have affected that
