Grace Augustine

Grace Augustine is a major character in the 2009 film, Avatar, and a posthumous protagonist in the 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water. She was a xenobotanist, the head of the Avatar Program and one of the humans who allied with the Na'vi.
She is portrayed by Sigourney Weaver, who also played her daughter Kiri in the second film, Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise, Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters films, and Ripley 8 in Alien: Resurrection. 
==History==
===Background===
Grace was born in 2103-2104 and was a teenager when Pandora was being colonized. She came to Pandora at the age of twenty years old, thirty years before Jake and Norm. She was a living legend in the scientific community, including the development of Pandora cures for Earth diseases. Eventually, Grace came to sympathize with the Na'vi and wanted a peaceful relationship between both RDA and Omatikaya clan. She formed a friendship with Mo'at and proposed a school house for humans and na'vi to learn from each other. Though initially skeptical of the idea, their daughters, Neytiri and Sylwanin, who considered it in exchange to visit Hell's Gate. Grace was optimsitic about their future. Grace did so and the Omatikaya children agreed to the idea of a school. Unfortunately, all of the children began falling mysterious ill with an unknown sickness. However, both Grace and Mo'at were able to develop a cure for it. 
The Na'vi built a schoolhouse that Grace convinced Eytukan to open up. Bonding with Sylwanin, Neytiri and the other children made them call Grace "Sa'nok", meaning "mother" in native Na'vi. However, the school was closed ten years later when SecOps mercenaries shot and killed several of the students, including Sylwanin. The loss of her close friend caused Grace to realize that interfacing between Na'vi and humans was too dangerous. 
===Avatar===
Thirty years after her arrival, Grace met both Jake Sully, a stand-in for his late brother when he was killed by thieves and Norm Spellman, new drivers for the Avatar program. While she immediately was impressed by Norm, Grace was initially skeptical of Jake's skills due to his inexperience with science, feeling his brother would have done a better job. Bringing Jake up to speed required a tremendous amount of effort on her part and that of Dr. Max Patel, the technical support officer. She made her feelings about the RDA administrator, Parker Selfridge, angered by his principles and agenda, as well as his impatience about peacefully negotiating with the Na'vi. However, her worries fell on deaf ears, as Parker immediately dismissed her. Despite her misgivings of Jake, Grace was impressed with the man's complete control of his avatar for the first time. 
During the first expedition of the Avatar team, she avoided any questions regarding the school. When they were doing sampling tests, Grace and Norm were unaware that Jake slipped away. As a Thanator pursued him, both Grace and Norm escaped back to their Samson, but Jake was separated. The team attempted to search for Jake's Avatar and feared it would not survive the night.
In the next three months, Grace bonded with Jake, even sharing the massacre with her school, where many Na'vi, including Neytiri's sister, was killed and warned him to not get emotionally attached to his life as a Na'vi. As time allowed it, Grace was allowed to re-enter the home tree and reunite with her former Na'vi students, including Tsu'tey and Neytiri. She joined the ceremony that allowed Jake to become a full member of the Na'vi in his Avatar form. They also attempted to warn the Na'vi to leave the area peacefully but to no avail. The RDA gave them one last chance to convince the Omatikaya to relocate. However, after Jake revealed his true mission, both Grace and Jake were bound by the clan. After the destruction of the Hometree, Jake and Grace's link units were deactivated and they were incarcerated by the RDA. While their lifeless avatar forms were left on the floor, Grace's avatar was brought to the Tree of Souls.
Grace, Norm, and Jake were freed by Trudy Chacón and Max Patel and they headed to Trudy's Samson to escape. However, Quaritch was aware of the situation. After escaping RDA custody, Grace was fatally shot and killed by Miles Quaritch and died before her mind could be transferred into her avatar body. The neural link formed when the tendrils of the Tree of Souls interfaced with her human body enabling her complete memories to be "downloaded" into the Pandoran Neural Network.
===Avatar: The Way of Water===
Despite her death, Grace's daughter, Kiri was posthumously born from her mother's Avatar body. Her avatar was incubated at the laboratory for over a decade and Kiri often visited her mother's avatar and often watched old video footage of Grace. When joked about her biological father, Spider and Lo'ak joked that her father was probably Norm because he and Grace having eye contact in the footage. 
When Kiri fled to the Metkayinan Clan, she connected to their spirit tree in the Cove of the ANcestors. Kiri met and embraced her mother's spirit before asking who her father is and why she is different from the other children. Before Grace answered, the vision was cut short when Kiri suffered a seizure. 
==Personality==
At first Grace was semi hostile and very professional, mainly focused on her work and was annoyed at how she was set to work with Jake who was disabled. As time went on grace developed a close friendship with Sam and enjoyed spending time with him, she also developed a soft side for the Na'vi people and was willing to leave behind everything to help them.
==Powers and Abilities==
Grace Augustine was one of the brightest scientists of her generation. She was also a skilled xenobotanist and a skilled teacher who taught the Na'vi how to speak English. 
==Trivia==
*In the script, Grace was named "Grace Shipley," a reference to her character Ripley from Alien.
*Kiri wears the same necklace that Grace's human form wore similar to how Grace wears Sylwanin's necklace in the film.
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