The important question, however, is, insofar as we make decisions we cannot escape, despite our knowledge of future consequences, why are those the decisions we made or were destined to make? Why was the state of the universe one where Adams had the kid instead of one where she did not? If she had been a woman who had never had children she would have been equally unable to change that post understanding the heptapods than she was in the other situation. So what destines her towards one set of events and not the other one?
The answer is that she makes a decision. At some point she makes the decision and it is the decision she was always going to make. She decides to get pregnant (or at least, not have an abortion) knowing the kid's going to die painfully and she would always have done that. That's the kind of person she is, the kind that takes that deal. She is the kind of person who would not give her husband any say in the matter or warn him of what's coming.
This is the crux of what I've been trying to say. I don't really understand the "she has no choice" option. Just because she's seen a thing happen, she goes into automatic zombie mode when it's time for the thing to actually happen? Or how does that work? I feel like "has no choice" is putting the cart before the horse. There is no outside force dictating her actions. The visions she sees are of the reality she exists in and
helped create. If she hates seafood, she wouldn't see a vision of herself greedily chowing a shrimp cocktail (and then think, "welp, I guess I'm gonna have to do
that the next time someone puts a shrimp cocktail in front of me...."). She sees herself having the child (and not telling Ian until way later) because that's what she would do, will do, and did.
Even in spite of her alleged withholding of facts - why isn't Ian a shit for bailing on his terminally ill child?
He sheds all accountability AND gets to be a martyr because (supposedly) Louise is the bad person here, not even human by some estimates?
Who said Ian isn't a shit? Who called him a martyr? Yeah, that's a shitty thing to do also. But the movie focuses a lot more on Louise, and doesn't seem to even acknowledge the moral gray area of her choices. Not that it needs to, mind you. It just left me with a bad taste in my mouth concerning her character.
FWIW, my feelings about the film are mostly positive.