What I go crazy about is people taking Stratt's I'm-sending-you-to-die-in-space monologue at face value. That whipping boy was lying through her teeth. I lose my mind when reading (and watching) that scene every time, because Grace believes all of it. Because Stratt knows that he will.
Like I know we talk about RockyGrace soulmateism at length (as we should). God knows both the entirety of Tumblr and Author Andy Weir in his own book Novel Project Hail Mary are kooky about RockyGrace soulmateism, but for me what kind of stuck to my brain and refuses to leave is the star-crossed nature of Stratt and Grace's secret third thing.
They are the tragedy of all time. Like, yeah, they were coworkers but they were also attached at the absolute hip. To reduce her to "his boss" or to someone he never had any real connection with is incorrect, but crucially, boring.
I'd like to think Grace would eventually just kind of ruminate over everything and he'd like to believe that he never had a meaningful connection before Rocky, but that's just bullshit.
Stratt wanted Grace to be brave for the abstract concept Humanity. She keeps him, emotionally, at arm's length. But she knows him well enough to know what he'll believe, even when anyone on the Vat, anyone who had ever known him, would disagree.
Fundamentally, Stratt contradicts her words with her actions, every. single. time. She doesn't respect him, and thinks he's a coward, and likes him only a little, but the most important task of her life is spent with him firmly at her side, and all the blood on her hands (including her own, lol) and her life's purpose culminates in the salvation of humanity, the only thing she (lets herself) care about-- at the hands of Ryland Grace. Oh I'm sure.
It's easy to justify your actions in the way of the odd noble abstract concept, but it's less easy to give up your life. You just need someone to be brave for. For Grace, that was Rocky. It could only ever have been Rocky.
But, you know what, sue me if I like to imagine that there's a world out there where Grace and Stratt meet independent of the imminent doom of the earth, and they take over the world solely with the power of their Secret Third Thing. Or, well, Stratt takes over the world. Grace holds her coffee and offers her sage advice that she only occasionally ignores.
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