people are talking about how grace didn't have anyone to be brave for until he met rocky, which is both beautiful and valid. however, we are ignoring the fact that in the beginning, the narrative continuously pushes the message that grace is unimportant, expendable. no one in the scientific world respects him. he might die inspecting th astrophage. he will die if he stays on earth. he will die if he gets on the ship. and he isn't given a choice. (no hate to stratt. she is doing what she has to do. her actions are put into perspective even more from the snippets i have read from the book.) he is alone. but in comes this five-legged rock, and without any prompting at all it tells grace that it will give him the fuel he needs to return to earth, even if that means that it will return home six years later, even if it has someone waiting for it at home. it breaks out of the barrier that is protecting it to save grace's life. this alien being cares about his life more than anyone on earth did. and grace cares in return.
side note because i got really confused while writing this, are we using 'it', 'they' or 'he' for rocky???
