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Arranged marriage

“They said you’re my wife,” says the boy strapped to the bed.

“I told them that, for your immunity. Confirmed it. Or whatever. They had me sign the paperwork. Make it official.”

He considers his own pale, bruised knuckles. “Smart,” he finally assesses. “Thank you.”

“They said you’re aggressive,” she says, shifting her weight, aware that they are monitoring this interaction closely. “You don’t seem aggressive to me.”

Peeta makes a noise in his throat, something between a cough and an agitated groan. “No one will tell me anything. Not even what happened to me. I mean, I know I was tortured.” He gives an acerbic laugh that makes him wince. Ribs, probably. “I think they were experimenting on me. Needles.” His eyes go out of focus for a moment, then he stirs. “I don’t like doctors,” he says. “When I woke up, I guess I lashed out.”

Then that’s why she wasn’t allowed to visit him at first. Was the reasoning that he’d be a danger to her, or that she’d break down, seeing him as he is now: skeletal, battered, with a cold, brittle edge to his voice?

“And now?” she says, taking a step closer. “That you’ve been awake?”

He shakes his head. His mouth trembles. “I still don’t know what to think. I’m not a threat. Not to you. But it’s all the same. The Capitol. Thirteen. Beds. Restraints. Even the lights are the same. You’re the same. The same as when I dream of you — and I — ”

Katniss moves on instinct, climbing into the hospital bed, straddling his waist, and fumbling to undo the restraints. He stares up at her, his mouth parting in shock. She knows people are probably panicking behind the observation glass, but she doesn’t care. Haymitch can do damage control. He owes her that.

“It’s not all the same,” she says, freeing Peeta’s wrists, trying to ignore the pinprick scars all up and down his skin. “I’m here.” She wraps herself around him as the door opens and doctors come in, her arms around his welted back and her legs pinning him beneath her.

Peeta makes a pitiful sound, like a small boy frightened of a storm. “Katniss.” It’s like he’s just realized she’s real. His arms lock around her like a vise.

“Miss Everdeen,” comes the chastisement. “You can’t — ”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do with my own husband,” she snaps. “He’s fine. He’s safe.”

And later, they will have to untangle the safety net of lies they’ve woven to protect each other, but it’s enough for now that, after some dithering and checking of vitals, someone tells her, “Okay, Mrs. Mellark” and leaves them in peace.

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I love you like all-fire

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I just finished Sunrise on the Reaping. 😭 So many thoughts but one thing bugged me at the end of the book and I couldn’t find a clear answer-

Knowing who Burdock is, does that mean Blair is Gale’s father? Did I miss a clue, or was that left up to the reader?

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all the fear and the fire of the end of the world

happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl

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Hmm actually Lucy Gray is different from Haymitch and Katniss and Peeta because her tragedy is she caused the games to continue. If the games hadn't become entertaining, they wouldn't have continued and she made it entertaining because she was an entertainer - she saved herself but she doomed dozens more because she performed too well and it allowed the Capitol to make the games a performance in the later years. Haymitch's tragedy is that he couldn't end the games, Lucy Gray's is that she continued them.

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Long shots

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I won’t get to read SOTR for a couple of weeks, but I am loving all of your cryptic live-blogging as you read and analyze. I love this fandom so. ❤️

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What the heck is happening?

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THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) dir. Francis Lawrence

DELETED SCENE edited by ovmovies (OliverVM 2 via YouTube)

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So I reread the jabber jay scene and the scene after to draw this

and holy shit I'll never get over how much of Peeta's dialogue and character got cut in the movies

Most of his role in these scenes was cut entirely or given to Johanna of all people?? (love Johanna, I just think it's kinda funny)

I wonder if part of it is because Peeta notices and cares about the details and the movies cut out most of said details lmao

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Went to see this with my daughter tonight. She was five when my Hunger Games obsession began, and now she’s the same age Katniss was when she was reaped.

The original series spoke to me because it showed we could still find hope and human connection and love, even in the darkest of times.

But this book reminded me that we are a cruel, dangerous species. That people are easily driven to the point of apathy, if not evil, for the sake of their own self-preservation.

I am struggling with my own dark side when it comes to the state of affairs today. Wars in far away countries are easy to ignore when there’s dinner to be made, bedtime stories to read, movies to see.

Am I any better than those in the Capitol? Enjoying leisure and entertainment while so many people are suffering? With my inaction, am I as culpable for the damage done as the soldiers actually sending rockets? Would I retain my own humanity if really pushed to the brink, or would I just turn into another animal?

The older I get, the more cynical I get. I hate that I’ve lost hope for our redemption, but I have come to believe human beings will destroy ourselves eventually. And there is really nothing I can do about it.

For now, I choose to share a film with my daughter, read another book, and look the other way for as long as I can. If there is a god, I suppose I’ll face their judgement someday. And in the meantime, I’ll have to face my own.

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when francis lawrence sauntered onto the stage after gary ross took his final bow, there seemed to be an initial sense of relief. gary ross had ruined some aspects of the movie adaptations (characterization of peeta, the cave scene, etc.) and father francis was here to save the day. 

and it is true. i think it is widely accepted in the fandom that the first movie is the worst of the adaptations. and francis lawrence fixed some of the problems people had with the first movie. some of them...

but the hopes that were ushered in with his arrival were quickly crushed. because he consistently reduced its female protagonist to a simplification of tropes.

the books present a version of katniss everdeen that is complex. katniss is the type of person to refuse to cry in front of her family and district after volunteering for prim (thg, 23). she is also the same person who holes herself in her room to sob after shooting an arrow at the gamemakers during her private session (thg, 103). 

katniss is the type of person who never has plans to marry and have children because of her trauma (thg, 9; cf, 8). but she is also the same person who is maternal to children in the series (thg, 199; cf, 2; cf, 7; cf, 91). and she is the same person who feels a surge of giddiness when the boy she was attracted to says sweet, absurd things like how being sent to a death arena was a piece of luck if it meant that he could finally talk to her (thg, 301). or the same girl who momentarily forgets that the boy that she loves was tortured because she is basking in the euphoric anticipation of seeing and kissing him again (mj, 152)

katniss is a character with A LOT of complexity. because she is a teenage girl. she has a lot of desires to express her emotions that are natural. but, because she is traumatized from years of hunger and a single focus on survival, these emotions are often suppressed. especially when her survival could be compromised by showing them.

but francis lawrences's adaption failed to capture this nuance and instead reduced katniss to simplistic tropes. and, the first of which is the stoic badass protagonist. in the series, katniss is not portrayed as having regular teenage girl emotions. moments from the books where katniss is crying over her private session or blushing at peeta's flirting are completely pulled from the movie as katniss becomes the badass protagonist. she is cold. she is defiant. she is powerful.

she is not a girl desperately trying to reapply the bandages to peeta's wound before she takes out the berries. instead, she shakes her head in defiance and sticks it to the capitol. leaving no interpretation that she could have been doing it to save peeta because she loved him.

because in the movies, katniss is not a teenage girl. she is only the mockingjay, a badass revolutionary.

and anytime that katniss was not her stoic, girlboss self, she was reduced to another trope: the hysterical woman.

when i looked at the books, katniss doesn't actually cry that often and she especially does not cry in front of the cameras. i was initially very surprised about this because in the movies… she was hysterical all the time. all the freaking time.

when rue dies (thg, 234). when the man in district eleven is shot (cf, 18). when she finds out that she won't be able to say goodbye to her family before the quell (cf, 53). when she considers losing both gale and peeta in the capitol (mj, 144). in the movies, she. freaks. out. on. camera. (which is completely out of character)

in the books, katniss is emotionally affected. sure. of course. but she didn't hysterically sob. never. especially in front of the camera. she knew better.

there were only two times in the books where katniss hystically sobbed on camera. once, when peeta hit the forcefield (cf, 79). and when she realized how snow was torturing him to break her (mj, 141).

and these moments in the books are so powerful. because they do not happen often. because in that moment, katniss is so overwhelmed with the thought of peeta dying or being tortured that she doesn't even consider how it looks for her to be hysterical. how it makes her look weak. weak for loving someone in a world where your love can be used against you. because all she can think about is him (cf, 79; mj, 141). because he is her freaking lover.

so, francis lawrence completely missed the mark with katniss's characterization. first because he wouldn't let her just be a teenage girl. he reduced her trauma response to stoicism. and instead took a role as plutarch and molding katniss into a revolutionary. 

and, second, his depiction lacked the nuance of her responses to trauma. she was not hysterical. her screams would not fill a stage. they were usually blocked in her throat, only privy for her to hear (mj, 120). 

so, i would like to say that i was surprised to hear his thoughts on lucy gray and katniss in the empire interview. but then again… we have three movies as proof of his failure to display nuanced teenage girls as anything other than reductionary, sexist tropes.

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That awkward moment when the new Hunger Games movie casting looks more like Katniss and Peeta than Katniss and Peeta actually did in the movies 😬

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“From District 12, Lucy Gray Baird.”

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 2023 | dir. Francis Lawrence

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This would have happened anyway

This is my piece for the “This would have happened anyway” challenge by @promptseverlark ♥️ I wanted to also make a small tribute to one of my absolute favorite fanfics “On the Threshold” by @ghtlovesthg that also happens to be a TWHHA fanfic. 🥰

I can’t wait to read all the amazing fanfics you guys have created!