lilylife2010

[lilylife2010]

MCKENNA GRACE AS MAYSILEE DONNER!!!! I'M SO READY!

mckenna is such a great actress, i have no doubt she’ll be a great maysilee 🙌🏻

[lilylife2010]

No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created

[lilylife2010]

Maysilee asking for utensils to maintain a semblance of dignity and not allowing the capitol to view her as an animal. Katniss purposefully dropping her utensils and using her hands to eat when Effie refers to the starving tributes from the year prior as savages for doing so.

[lilylife2010]

I personally think some fans underestimate the extent of Snow's agenda and put it down to him having a personal score to settle with one girl. But what Suzanne Collins did with Lucy Gray, and then Haymitch, and finally Katniss, is show us someone that Snow uses to channel all of his hate and prejudices of the district people into one person. It started with Lucy Gray because he believed he loved her (which "hint, hint" he never did) but only after convincing himself she wasn't really district and had been meant for the Capitol.

When Lucy Gray showed a clear disdain for the Capitol people and a desire to live away from all he held dear, he began to feel betrayed and as if she never loved him, because his love is rooted in materialism, capitalism, and social status. Whereas her's is rooted in trust, faith in humanity and goodwill. None of which Snow has by the way. So then why would he believe that Lenore Dove, or Katniss Everdeen are incapable of love?

Simply put it's because he believes that district people are incapable of love as he believes they are little more than animals. And what his own time in the arena, and his time in District 12 did was convince him that he was no different from the district people. Therefore, love was a lie, an act , an illusion that nearly convinced him to go live out in the wild, off the land, like an animal. In his eyes, being with Lucy Gray, he felt he was reverting back to a less evolved human, because "evolved" humans should want power, riches, fame and status.

I also believe this is possibly what led to a falling out between Snow and Tigris. If Tigris identified or at least wanted to appear like a tiger he may have felt she was becoming the animal he believes we all are, which would be embarrassing if he truly believed the Capitol people were more evolved than the districts.

Suzanne Collins didn't write SOTR to show us that Snow is holding a grudge against one girl. She wrote it to show us the dangers of classism and to show how far someone falls when they let go of what makes them human in favor of power.

snow's characterization is so interesting because like. he's the president of a fascist government. in theory he has better things to do. but he's obsessed with poisoning teenagers and their loved ones. and this would make absolutely no sense if it weren't for tbosas, when we learn that (1) he has a past to get hung up on and (2) he's absolutely the kind of guy who laser focuses on ruining one person's life even when it doesn't matter all that much

[lilylife2010]

Haymitch and his ducklings

[lilylife2010]

Sunrise on the Reaping Analysis (Spoiler Alert)

Thanks to Suzanne Collins we finally have the backstory to our favorite Hunger Games mentor in the newly released prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, not to mention additional trauma to add to our psyches. The brash, tortured and alcohol-dependent former survivor of The 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy, faces insurmountable odds when he is “reaped” into the 2nd quarter quell. As per usual I warn there are spoilers ahead and if you have yet to read the novel I advise you to leave this post and don’t come back until you have. With that...let’s get started.

Haymitch Abernathy has long been one of my favorite characters from The Hunger Games series, partially due to the enigma of his personal tragedy. Previously, we only had a summarized version of his televised Games to go off of when, in preparation for their own, Katniss and Peeta watched the clips to gain knowledge on how a quarter quell proceeds. We also got a tidbit of information out of Haymitch when he mentions the Capital executing his family and girlfriend. Other than that all we know about Haymitch and his personal traumas, is he drinks a lot (like a lot), he sleeps with a knife, and he appears to have no one he loves or cares for until Peeta and Katniss come along.

In true Suzanne Collins fashion, we soon discovered Haymitch’s story was far more twisted and tragic than we first thought. Not only was Haymitch selected by a chance of poor luck in a botched reaping, but the televised Games, in which Katniss and Peeta observed Haymitch survive the 2nd quarter quell, was more or less a steaming, hot pot of bullshit. 

Sunrise on the Reaping also gives us some information on the Covey clan and what their status is at this point in the timeline as well as some background info on Katniss’ parents. We learn that Maude Ivory has passed away and that the Covey’s made a gravesite for their members deep in the woods. It’s unclear how Maude Ivory died and it is still unclear if Lucy Gray is actually confirmed dead (did the Covey find her body or did they just assume she passed over time?), though I like to think her fate is still a mystery in lieu of the poem. Personally, I like the idea of Lucy Gray being a ghostly presence haunting Snow and the Capital for their crimes and not knowing her fate gives her that mysterious, ethereal power.

Katniss’ parents are finally named, Burdock and Astrid, as well as confirmed to be Covey (at least Burdock is), although we still do not know through whom. My guess is still Maude Ivory, but I am not as positive as I once was. Regardless, it was great seeing a bit of Katniss’ history and where she comes from. Despite Burdock only ever being mentioned in the original series (and never by name), his absence in Katniss’ life, and the impact his death had on her and her family, allows him to feel very much like a character who once lived and breathed, so it was nice to see him living and breathing.

Lenore Dove is also introduced as a new member of the Covey clan, and Haymitch’s lost love, alongside his hardworking mother who reminds me of Hazel Hawthorne (Gale’s mother) and his younger brother Sid. Their tragic demise is what ultimately drives Haymitch deep into the bottom of a liquor bottle. This loss, coupled with the trauma of the Hunger Games and the subsequent isolation from the citizens of District 12, lead us to the Haymitch we know and love. And don’t forget, his pain multiplied each year as he mentored tribute after tribute for the next 23 years, only to have to return to his district each time in the company of children’s coffins.

Another character, while not necessarily new but expounded upon, is that of Maysilee Donner. She just may be the breakout star of the novel. This fan favorite showed us a different style of rebellion than we have seen before. With her lovely outfits, her many jewels, and her refusal to eat with her hands, Maysilee refuses to allow herself to act like the beast or animal the Capital treats her as. Throughout her stay in the Capital and her dwindling days in the arena she held onto her humanity with both hands and told anyone who tried to take it from her to kindly, f**k off. This is not to say that she wasn’t lethal or that she went into the Games utterly prepared to die. But rather she simply said that if she must die, she would do it with dignity. She had a kind of resilience and authenticity to her that could be biting at times yet a gentleness and selflessness in the way she handled the tokens of her fellow tributes that plainly showed how important holding onto your identity was to her. Like Peeta, she wasn’t going to play the game on anyone’s terms but her own, and she wanted to hold on to who she was.

Of the characters introduced and re-introduced in this novel, Plutarch Heavensbee continues to be the most mysterious character in my opinion. I would actually be highly interested in seeing another prequel novel centered around Plutarch. There is so much we don’t know about him. How and why did he become disillusioned with the Capital? How did he come to know of District 13’s survival? When did he become a Gamemaker? In what ways since Haymitch’s games (and perhaps before) has he attempted to aid the rebellion? How prominent are the anti-Capital citizens within the Capital walls? Seriously, there is so much we could learn from a novel centered around Plutarch that could amplify the theme of building up to the revolution in the original series. If Katniss was the fire that was catching, Haymitch the flint striker that helped ignite it, and Lucy Gray the song that inspired the flame, then Plutarch was the one who aired it across live television until the entire nation caught fire.

One thing the prequel novels have done best is show the audience how flammable the nation was long before Katniss’ birth. The districts have sparked before and even those in the Capital have attempted to fan the flames, but either the spark doesn’t quite catch or the fanning was too much for too little. Rebellions build over time, and oftentimes they need a combination of strategy and sheer luck. 

Therefore, it makes sense that when Katniss comes along not only does she have an unprecedented amount of good luck, but those who’ve been in the shadows trying to build the rebellion have perfected their strategies over time. Fate or not, Katniss could never have succeeded if not for the seeds that were planted from the inception of the Games. These stories eerily parallel the events of WWI and WWII. With a large part of the events leading to the beginning of the second world war having been planted at the end of the first. And the murder of innocent tributes in the Games parallels the genocide of innocent people due to a corrupt dictator with lofty and evil ideas about race and class and a civilization that grows silent or even buys into the propaganda.

This is why The Hunger Games series is not only so relevant to our society today but also blatantly terrifying as it is a reflection of our history. People often comment on how our society isn’t too far from being a civilization capable of creating such an atrocious event, but our history already proves we are more than capable of it. The Holocaust, slavery, the Roman gladiator sports. Our world has a terrible inclination to allow tyrants to rise while turning a blind eye to the oppression of the backbones they build their civilization on.

On the flip side, these books also show that our world can be saved by the greatest attributes humanity possesses. Compassion, love, courage, mercy, sacrifice. When people are subjected to horrifying injustices it is easy to want to cower or hide. It’s simpler to hate or choose vengeance or seek survival for yourself and the ones you love. Especially when you lose time and time again. Haymitch’s story is an example of this.

Initially, he is very much like Katniss and even Peeta. He shares Katniss’ spark, her protectiveness of the weak, and an independence striving to break free from the bondage of the Capital. He is not easily controlled and he wants to hold the Capital accountable for the deaths of his fellow tributes. In addition to these attributes, Haymitch is also shrewd and calculating like Peeta, with an ability to empathize with those who are different from him, and a talent for manipulating words or actions with ease to suit a specific purpose. It’s a beautiful way of showing that by saving Katniss and Peeta in a way Haymitch was saving himself, because he didn’t just lose his girlfriend and family, he lost who he was only to find it again in these two tributes. Haymitch’s story arc in this novel serves as a cautionary tale for Katniss, but his arc in the The Hunger Games trilogy is his redemption.

If you read this far you are absolute aces! Feel free to comment or share your thoughts. I love hearing others POV on these stories, especially as my circle of friends are lame and aren't into this series. 😑 Hope you enjoyed, thank you!

[lilylife2010]

It's time for a group hug everyone for an amazing Arrow episode! LAUREL LANCE WAS SO AWESOME!

and for Katie Cassidy, a standing ovation for her great performance…

[lilylife2010]

[lilylife2010]

SPOILER | Laurel Lance being Badass in 2.22 Streets of Fire.

"Nice Shot!" 

[lilylife2010]

LAUREL LANCE IN ARROW'S "CITY OF BLOOD"

One thing straight about the “City of Blood”:

LAUREL WAS A MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR IN THE EPISODE!

Without her, Oliver would have given up easily. But because Laurel was there to help him “SEE THE LIGHT”, he decided to stand up again and face the fight.

This is also an episode where Laurel is starting to open the doors in becoming the BLACK CANARY!

[lilylife2010]

Don’t give up

[lilylife2010]

I’m losing track of what’s happening on my dash…Has anyone posted this interview yet? Nevermind, I’ll post it anyway…

[lilylife2010]

New Members!

Welcome our new members on the Laurel Stan Club!

beautifulandfragilehumanskin

hughdancydance

olgameser

comealongroes

arrowfan1

theapplefour

tommymerlynsblueeyes

blackcanary-cry

fianceetargetmutt

jantojones

We have already almost 30 members on the stan club in one day and I’m super thrilled! Thanks to everyone, I seriously have no idea how to thank everyone who joined the idea. Now, let’s all full our tag with lovely stuff for this character who deserves all the best! <3

[lilylife2010]

VIDEO: Divergent - Behind The Scenes (Hamburger)

[lilylife2010]

All of us.

[lilylife2010]

[lilylife2010]

THE LAUREL LANCE STAN CLUB

A place where we all can talk about this wonderful character played by the amazing Katie Cassidy. This is an open group, which means everyone can join it! I want a place where we can fangirl over the best lawyer in fiction together, as well as share opinions, graphics, gifs, fanfics, fanarts and whatever we have in mind! Also a great way to find other Laurel fans around tumblr!

You love Laurel? Join us! Welcome to the club! Just send us a message, follow this blog and you’ll be added on the member list.

Also, don’t forget to track the tag #laurel stan club so you can see all what’s happening on the Laurel Stan Club world. If you want to help, reblog this post to spread the world! Just remember, this is a free-hate zone for any character of actor of Arrow.

Let’s go go go! (◡‿◡✿)