[quartermastr]

You know, I didn't think people actually hated Stratt. I sort of assumed everyone understood her position and why she made the choice. Her decision didn't stem from malice, it stemmed from love. She loved earth more than anyone else. She deeply cared about Grace, and Ilyukhina, and Yao, as well as everyone else she worked with. That's why she had bought the little hats, shirts, and copious amounts of alcohol for the party, the fact that there was ever a party to begin with should mean something

I don't know, I'm rambling, I love Stratt, and I love Grace and Rocky. But someone had to make the choice, the difficult, necessary decision that could save the world. One man or eight billion people.

[goth-queen]

[oshacompliantmagicalgirl]

While i do agree it's funny when Stratt is like "clap for my special man or i will blow up this building" but also im like... she is an amazing project leader. She is bringing strong, scientific personalities from across the WORLD and getting them to all work together? And not fight about insignificant things?? That's fucking impressive!! She's not telling them to clap for her special man, she's showing them the proper way to react in this group setting to keep the meeting moving peacefully forward! She's making it clear they are expected to treat him as an equal!

[its-timego]

Rewatching and realized that during Sign of the Times, we all hear her singing the lyrics and contextualize it with the knowledge that Grace is sent to space. Just stop your crying, have the time of your life; we can meet again somewhere, somewhere far away from here. But while I'm sure Eva knows in the back of her mind that Grace could be sent to space, it's a far off enough possibility that she wouldn't be thinking about it. If we really want to hear it as *her* in that moment, I think she was thinking more about her being sent to prison for the rest of her life after launch and Grace going on without her. Remember everything will be alright. We can meet again somewhere. Somewhere far away from here.

[littlestpersimmon]

Recent portraits of cats I painted for people :]

[verenakauer]

I find it so strange that Stratt's "yeah, after the launch I'll end up in prison until the end of my life, no big deal" wasn't included in the movie. Like, Grace does ask her what her plans are for the next twenty years. Why isn't the answer there. It's great that she has a prison tattoo when she gets the beatles, it's great that we have the director's confirmation that she was in prison and escaped (?), but. a) it's very much Not Obvious if you just watch the movie and don't know what prison tattoos look like. b) I feel like this is such a significant part of her character? her being absolutely ready to sacrifice it all and knowing from the start what the price of saving the world will be? it hits so hard in the book, along with the "oh, I will [go to hell]. you three are going to Tau Ceti, the rest of us are going to hell". Why wasn't it there. Give me the woman who is readily and willingly tying herself to those trolley tracks and refuses to see that as a big sacrifice or be pitied about it. I love her so much.

[crplpunkklavier]

we bought a shirt at a thrift store that says "best mom in louisiana" for some reason (as a reminder we are in midwest germany) and now my spouse keeps walking around the house wearing it and saying shit like "WHO STANDS BEFORE THE GREATEST MOM OF LOUISIANA?"

[brysbeddixt]

Absolutely love that in any other story and any other fandom, there would be a slew of posts talking about how Eva Stratt is a “very complicated character with a lot of hidden depth;” but instead it’s actually like, no she isn’t complicated at all actually. She sends Grace to die to save humanity. Maybe she feels bad about it, maybe not. But she makes that choice knowing it’s the RIGHT choice, because it IS. It’s a SIMPLE choice. One man or billions of lives? There is absolutely nothing complicated about it.

And her depth isn’t hidden. It’s right there in the open. She’s pragmatic and uncompromising and ruthless, because she CARES. She cares about humanity. She NUKES ANTARCTICA because she’s not willing to compromise millions if not billions of lives just to maintain the planet’s ecosystem. Again, a very simple choice: billions of lives, or a planet that won’t support life in 30 years anyway if she can’t figure out how to stop that from happening. The RIGHT choice. An easy choice, for someone like Stratt who knows she will be held solely responsible for her crimes, but there will be people alive to do it.

[consumed-by-hyperfixation]

It's mentioned multiple times in the book that "Stratt makes sure to stand at the front" for every major step taken for Project Hail Mary. It's easy to interpret that as an authority thing. But no!! She's the scapegoat. Shes on her own suicide mission!! Shes making sure that when humanity looks back for a culprit in its darkness moments, it's her that they see. Not the scientists. HER.

[irate-iguana]

One aspect of PHM that I’d like to see us address more is the fact that the Grace-Stratt betrayal is mutual, at least from Stratt’s POV. It’s clear that she’s furious at Grace in the book:

See it from her perspective: Stratt was conscripted into Project Hail Mary just as much as Grace or any of the other scientists who work for her. She has complied without complaint, even though it means putting thousands of deaths on her conscience, even though she knows she’ll be villainized by history, even though she suspects she’ll be imprisoned for life if not executed after launch. She sacrifices herself because it is what must be done to have the best chance of saving humanity. And when she asks Grace to make a similar sacrifice, he refuses. He refuses even though, unlike her, he won’t have to sacrifice his conscience and, unlike her, he’ll be remembered as a hero.

Now obviously, Grace deserved to choose his own fate and what Stratt did was wrong. She knows that. But she also sees Grace as astoundingly selfish for choosing himself over the entirety of humanity (even if some of that choice was motivated by a lack of self confidence) and, on a personal level, for refusing to see things from her perspective and sacrifice himself to spare her one more death on her conscience. Grace is betrayed when the closest thing he has to a friend murders him. Stratt is betrayed when the closest thing she has to a friend forces her into the role of murderer.

We as a fandom often wonder if Grace ever forgives Stratt. But perhaps we should also be asking if she ever forgives him.

[gothic-avocado]

thought a little to hard about Stratt's tattoo that shows she went to prison and now I feel physically ill.

What do you mean she had to sit there and be literally branded?? What do you mean there is a permanent mark on her body condemning her as a criminal??? What do you mean she's implied to have gotten out due to her "connections" and not the fact that she saved the world?? What do you mean she gave everything to save a world that never even tried to save her???

[electric-skillet]

I know it would have probably messed things up storywise and moviewise but MAN do I wish they had included the Coma Gene in the phm movie bc it literally reframes everything. Stratt did not choose to sacrifice Grace bc he was their best option, she sacrificed him bc she knew he was the ONLY option. The ONLY way to guarantee they kept that tiny chance of success was to send her special little scientist up there with them.

And Grace! btw! ALSO knew that!!!! He knew deep down that there was no other chance of this mission succeeding, that there was no one else who could conceivably fill the role, and he chose not to go anyway. Imo this makes his refusal to go INSANELY more selfish and cowardly (I love him but it must be said).

AND ANOTHER THING ☝ Stratt knowing that Grace had the gene and not telling him. For ages. She knew, and she didn't tell him, and surely she was keeping that info in her back pocket for a reason. Bc I'm sure she could figure out that if she told him he was qualified to go, he would have run as soon as he realized what was happening. She knew that about him. And she kept that vital information from him so he didn't even have a chance to make a choice until it was too late. Even that early, she knew he would run.

MAN. Trolley operator and the man she's tying to the tracks of all time.

[edgebug]

"grace. grace! grace give attention. rocky perform human ritual of escape closet now. statement."

"come again?"

"i learn more from thinking machine. human gender preference. attraction to same gender, means word 'gay.' all eridian same gender." rocky stands straight up. "rocky come out to grace now. all rocky plural gay, statement."

"...wow, that's... rock, i'm not sure it makes much sense to apply human ideas of sexual orientation to a monogendered species."

a long and judgmental pause. then:

"grace HOMOPHOBIC, question????"

[maxxie-or-smth]

you've met me at a very "yeah i'm trying to work on that" time in my life

[burning-ink1]

Stratt saying it wasn't really hard for her to send the astronauts on a suicide mission while visibly struggling and having her voice break while forcing Grace on the ship STILL haunts me tbh

[evastrattmyangel]

The so-called Betrayal Scene makes me sick to my stomach every single time. Because damn right it is a fcking betrayal!!! Grace betrays everything they’ve been working for together for years! And what kills me is that Grace gets to say “I can’t do it.” He gets to panic, break down, run away from the responsibility. Stratt never gets that option. She is just as devastated and terrified as he is, you can literally see it all over her face.

GOD, she does not want to do this. She does not want to force him into that ship. But unlike Grace, she doesn’t have the luxury of collapsing, because somebody still has to act. Somebody still has to make the impossible decision and live with it. And Sandra Hüller plays this so brilliantly because she never makes Stratt’s suffering loud. She keeps it all so restrained and controlled, but you can still see every tiny crack in her composure. She has to hold herself together while her entire world is falling apart.

And the thing is, for YEARS Grace was probably the closest thing she had to a friend. Someone she trusted, relied on, someone who actually understood the unbearable weight she had to carry every single day while the entire planet waited for extinction or salvation. And instead of meeting her halfway and carrying that burden together with her, Grace leaves her alone with it. Grace gets to unload all of his fear, anger, and panic onto her, and she STILL has to be the one who is held responsible. THAT is what makes me lose my mind every time I watch this scene. Because yes, from Grace’s perspective, Stratt betrays him. But from Stratt’s perspective? Grace betrays her, the mission, years of work, and honestly humanity itself. And on top of all that, she is of course also heartbroken for her friend. She has to sacrifice someone she deeply cares about, become the villain in his story, and still keep going. As Sandra Hüller’s character says in Sibyl, “Sometimes having a breakdown is a luxury.” And damn well it is for Eva Stratt.

[girlrandomstuff]

"they softened stratt too much in the movie"

Oh my, I need to talk about this thing that is bothering me alot that is going around about Stratt's character. It has been said that they softened the character and took away a lot of her ruthless persona to make her more likeable in the movie. And my goodness, there is so many ramifications so I'll try to put it in order.

I totally disagree Stratt is too unserious in comparition to the book. Because she was way too less unserious in the book already, not saying she was anything close to Grace, but I think many people didnt understood a lot of things going around her. I dont have an english copy of the book so I'll try find the right quotes and translate.

"Congrats" said Stratt "first human to kill an alien. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Prey"

"Because I dont have time for this bullshit."

"They probably won't use Minesweeper for Windows 3.1, but they will have it"

"Wait a minute, Am I a Guinea Pig? I'm a Guinea Pig" "No, it's not like that" I stare at her. She stared at me. At stared at her. "Okay, it's exactly like that"

The freaking postit in Grace face when he was sleeping.

"You and which army?" "Because I have the USA Army, and it's an impressive military"

And I know I am leaving a few other things out. The actual reason we get the idea of Stratt being more ruthless on the book is because a lot of scenes where both more extended or had to be left out due to the time, the book have this explicit scenes like when they recruit Lokken, she is ruthless just like she was with Ryland, "you come on your terms or I'll get you dragged to". We have this scene where she doesnt seem to care about Dubois and Shapiro's death in Grace's eyes. And even so, that is in the movie too, it is not the same but Stratt not seeming to care about their college is in the escene where they ask Grace to go, she says "doesnt matter, we have to launch".

People says that the karaoke scene was not necesary, but I totally disagree. Yeah, maybe this scene was actually made to soften her a bit, but it was perfectly done, that scene wasnt Stratt singing her farwell to a man she had to condem, bc at that point the only one doomed was her, Yao and Ilyukhina had still probablilities to survive, Dubois and Shapiro were alive and Grace was going back to his normal life once the Hail Mary launch. That scene showed her as the leader she is, giving her people the courage they need to keep going on, (yes, there is romantic subtext to it, yes, it can also be platonic, yes, I ADORE the first, and enjoy a lot the second) but that scene wasnt just for the male protagonist to have a romantic interest or past, it was more about her character than it was about him. During the trial scene in the book, she is the only person giving the face and accepting the blame, she could have any other scientist, even Grace to show up with a lawyer, but she protected her team, and never allowed any blame to fall on any one but herself.

She tell jokes, she deals with childish moods of her team, she streaches her neck closer to Grace to ask basic questions, she is sassy.

Which leads me to the betrayal scene. And I totally disagree that "Stratt was just cold in the book", because Ryland himself literally told us she looked affected. She cared, she never wanted to do that to him, but she HAD to do it.

This is literally her in both book and movie. Nothing changed.

Yes, she is ruthless, but she is also pretty unserious in a lot of ways. She is also not inhuman, she is probably the person with the highest sense of humanity in the book and movie. And Sandra Huller understood that, and that's why we see this character so well portrayed by her.

I'll defend this character and her portrayal for the eternity