The concept that love independently evolved on two different planets
The concept that compassion is universal in intelligent life because society cannot exist without it
The concept that aliens that live at least eight times longer than humans can love and be with eachother longer than any human will ever live and still feel like it’s not enough
The concept that even most utilitarian person in the world can hesitate when a dear friend is involved
The concept that a person can love life so much that they would be willing to commit atrocities just so others have the chance to live theirs
The concept that both humans and eridians left messages about the Petrova line and their stars on their ships in case the mission failed and someone else came along
The concept that even with the best intentions everyone can be influenced by bias and make bad decisions while under pressure
The concept that Yao and ilyukhina could have survived if Grace was not ambushed and was allowed to finish his work
In the book Stratt wanted to make all the astronauts straight men because she was convinced that if there was sexual tension it would lead to violence. Which is a moot point anyway considering that straight men are not that straight when they are isolated from women. A lot of people thinks this is Andy Weir being weird but if that was the case Stratt wouldn’t have been called out by Grace and it would have just been left unchallenged, I personally believe that it’s Weir saying that Stratt isn’t as infallible as everyone believes and that she is just as human as the rest of us.
Also in the book Grace discovers that the feeding tubes were defective and was planning on telling someone and getting them fixed right before the explosion and then he was ambushed and he never had the chance to fix it. Which means that the reason why Ilyukhina and Yao died was probably due to starvation
