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In Catching Fire, Peeta and Katniss both make Haymitch promise that he will prioritize saving the other in the Quarter Quell. Both are angry with him afterward for breaking that promise and prioritizing the rebel plot. But the promise Haymitch chose to keep in the quell was the one he made to Lenore Dove, to not let the sun rise on another reaping.

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365 days of captain swan: day 46 ❥

bonus:

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I just realized that mags said she wanted to die protecting her district partner then died in cf protecting her district partner.

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snow was the person pushing the initial rule change to allow two victors (*fight me*). well aware that he would change it at the end.

but it was him. the more i get to know snow, it seems to be clearer that he was the one to suggest the change. all he wants is to prove his thesis. that anyone -- children, the righteous, lovers -- will turn on others when it comes down to it. when their lives are on the line. especially covey women. and now he has the perfect opportunity. a boy with blonde curls, professing his love. all for a girl who is a whisper of a songbird from long ago. one who blushes at him. who holds his hands. who kisses his cheek. and now snow has his chance. a chance to finally prove things right. to prove his entire existence. to see the face of another boy's face as a covey woman betrays them. snow is more than happy to agree to a suggestion. he's already getting his popcorn out.

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i read this really insightful post by @thesmileykate and it made me realize how sunrise on the reaping adds a whole new layer to snow’s “convince me.” katniss easily “convinced” the majority of panem and all of the capitol of her love for peeta in the 74th games. but not snow, because he thinks all covey women are deceiving to their lovers. he thought there was no possible way katniss truly loved peeta. he wanted to believe all of her choices were for her own self-preservation. but when he saw katniss’s reaction to peeta’s heart stopping in the quarter quell his belief about covey women was proven incorrect. and once peeta was captured he knew he couldn’t take away katniss’s love for peeta, but he could take away peeta’s love for katniss.

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Now think about this in relation to how the current American government refers to immigrants.

Started rereading the Hunger Games series and I feel like it’s so overlooked how in 74th and 75th Hunger Games, we don’t know every Tribute’s names, with Katniss only referring to them by their District numbers but in TBOSAS, we knew every single Tribute by name. We associated them with the clothes they wore on the Reaping Day and Suzanne even goes so far as to describe how they looked, however briefly. We see these Tributes and we’re familiarized with them by the little tidbits provided to the mentors and to Snow and Lucy Gray. But we never get this in the original trilogy.

In two generations, President Snow alienated the Districts from each other so much that Katniss didn’t even care to know all the names of the Tributes sent into the Arena with her, with the exception being those who posed great risk against her safety and those she felt great compassion for (e.g. Cato, Thresh, Rue, Mags, Betee, Wiress etc.). Katniss even went so far as to call the D6 Tributes in the 75th Hunger Games morphlings, for their affinity to imbibe in the drugs that help them forget their own traumas (an incredibly hurtful description, in my own opinion, to be known by the qualities you hate the most about yourself). We never know the real name of the 74th D5 girl, with Katniss only referring to her as Foxface and we don’t even know Marvel’s name until we get to the second book and he was Katniss’ first personal kill. Katniss even kills the D4 girl in the books with the same tracker jacker venom that killed Glimmer and yet still, we don’t know her name. We are so removed from the identity of the other Tributes that we don’t even know what some of them looked like beyond brief descriptions of mangled bodies and dead Tributes in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia.

And, the thing is, Suzanne established the importance of names in the series. Even in real life, we recognize the importance of being named. It is a fundamental aspect of being human. If you’re ever in a perilous situation where a person might be placing your life in danger, we’re told to remind the person that you’re human. “Keep saying your name, how old you are, where you came from. Remind them you are a human being just like them.” Before any propaganda can work against a group of people, refusing to recognize a person’s name is the first step to dehumanization. And just like the people of the Districts, we don’t care enough about the other Tributes to even want to know their names. Their propaganda worked on us, the readers.

In two generations, President Snow completely wiped out any sense of familiarity and camaraderie the Districts may have shared with the other. In two generations, Snow sowed the seeds of distrust and division into the Districts so deeply that even we, the readers, were affected by the effects of Capitol propaganda. In two generations, the Districts ceased to genuinely care about the others beyond the vague sense of injustice they feel for their shared plight. It’s why Career Districts don’t seem to care about killing the other Tributes. How can you care, to show your compassion and humanity, when you can barely see them as people? Yes, they may have been in the Arena with you. Yes, they may have been starved and beaten and forced into labor like you were. Yes, they might be children just like you. Yes, they might be subjected to the same deplorable system that turned you into virtual slaves. But they are not your friends. They are not your allies. They are strange, with different customs and traditions that you have. You do not share the same values. They do not care about you. At the first chance they get, they will kill you with your bare hands and they will do it with alacrity if it meant their survival. There can only be one Victor and it can’t be them. It has to be you.

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“No, [...] we need someone exactly like you.”

"Just luckier?"

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burdock with baby katniss at the hob:

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Comments on tiktoks that had me balling all over again:

(Above: Talking about Mags, Beetee, and Wiress who aligned with Katniss)

(Below: I think it's been said before I need people to be reminded of it:)

Just. Diabolical 😭

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One thing I think is so interesting about sotr is that it all but proves in my mind that the rebellion never would’ve or could’ve been triggered by just one person, no matter how rebellious or lucky they were. If it could’ve been, then maybe haymitch or beetee or any of the other victors who I’m sure tried and failed in their own ways over the years would’ve done it.

Bc it wasn’t just katniss’s rebellious streak that triggered the rebellion, it was never katniss alone who did it: it was her and peeta together and their unrelenting love for each other that changed the game entirely.

They showed people that love can overcome the Capitol. Because the games were trying to prove that people were animals who’d easily become vicious killers under the right circumstances. They were set up to foster division and animosity amongst the districts. But we’ve seen for ourselves in every games we’ve encountered that that’s not true, that the tributes (despite the horrible circumstances) naturally begin to care about each other, to take care of each other, to mourn each other, to fight for and with each other and not just against each other. And because the Capitol seems to have always edited out any and all proof of love and support between tributes (they obviously did it for haymitch and the newcomers), I think katniss and peeta were special because they were the first ones to show people that kind of love and humanity within the arena in a way that was so undeniable and also so impossible to edit into anything else.

The gamemakers got so hooked on getting everyone invested in this love story that they forgot that cardinal rule. They were thinking how great a romance could be for their show and how it didn’t matter anyway because they’d get them to turn on each other in the end. But these two didn’t, and they stayed loyal to each other in a way that was so huge and impossible to predict or hide or edit around that suddenly it was impossible for anyone to ignore.

They showed everyone that the love and friendship and teamwork between people is where real power lies. And then the next year they (along with their fellow victors turned tributes) kept up with that message of showing the power of unity and teamwork even in the face of all their deaths.

So yeah I’ll say it again, this is the the piece haymitch and plutarch are missing when they’re talking about their lucky future person who can succeed in launching the rebellion- it was never going to be just one person by themselves. Katniss and Peeta succeeded because they did it *together*, which was the *only* way it was ever going to work

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do you think the reason haymitch thinks katniss is luckier than him was because, unlike him, she actually managed to save her person from dying from poison oh suzanne collins you and your brilliant mind

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SOTR SPOILERS

Also back on my birds symbolism shenanigans

-Katniss-Mockingjay

-Lucy Gray-songbird

-Lenore Dove- goose/dove (I know. She said she is like a goose, she mates for life. But doves are a symbol for love, and it's in her name)

-Haymich- raven, of course. "Nevermore"

-Peeta - lark

-Primrose- duck

-Sid - rooster

-Maysilee - canary.

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The fact that Haymitch didn't believe there would ever be a world without a Reaping and then he lives to see a world without a Reaping

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I kept seeing people on Tiktok saying "Suzanne ended Hayffie" "I'm proud I never shipped them" and even trying to flip the narrative and bring the age difference discourse and the "she met him when he was a minor!!" cards to try and make the ship become "problematic" and tie it to the recent "ship police/purity" witch hunt (ironic, after reading a whole book about the dangers of propaganda) so other people turn to hate it now.

And I'm so surprised because to me, an avid Hayffie shipper since day 1 (more than a decade in this ship, I won't get off now or never), Hayffie has never been so validated as with this book. Suzanne has given us SO MUCH CONTENT.

The makeup case scene? Her putting flowers on Haymitch's shirt? Both are very intimate scenes to me. Her being the last one she saw before entering the arena (her eyes being the last thing he focused on before going into that hell) AND first friendly one to see after he got out? Her making sure he knew that even after how the Capitol portrayed him, she believed he was a good person? Her making sure to check on him during the whole time he was in those capitol parties (and we know what depravities the capitol people made victors do. She maybe was checking noone did anything to him)? I even saw a comment on a Hayffie edit saying that in how grey Haymitch's life turned after his games, Effie was there every birthday of his after that, wearing rainbow colored clothes and trying to bring a positive attitude...

YOU CAN'T TELL ME SUZANNE DIDN'T PURPOSELY GIVE US ALL THIS CONTENT OF THEM

I'll admit I was a bit sad after seeing no mention of her in the epilogue and seeing so many people saying the "goose mate for life" thing completely invalidated them. And then I stumbled upon a comment here on Tumblr that made me go investigate and...

It turns out the "Goose mate for life" means once goose choose a partner, they'll be with that parner until one of them dies, then have a long mourning period, but then CAN and sometimes DO find a new partner after all of that.

I CAN'T THINK SUZANNE DIDN'T KNOW THIS. AND I'M THRIVING AT THE IMPLICATIONS

All I hope, and want to believe, is that this book, just as how Haymitch tells his story to Peeta and Katniss, is finally his way to reconcile with everything and with Lenore, to finally let go of the feelings of regret and guilt. And realise he can have someone by his side to help him cross this world before he finally gets reunited with her again in the other. I believe Effie is that person to him and I'll always still do.

P.S. Knowing most of Effie's development and their relationship sparkled from the movies and not the original books I can't help but pray the director of the SOTR movie has something prepared for us... Maybe if the put the epilogue in the movie, we'll see Effie with Haymitch there 👀

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I never expected Sunrise on the Reaping to start with Haymitch wearing COURTESY OF THE CAPITOL booty shorts, but here we are

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Captain Swan Hiatus Meme

Week 1: Captain Swan + No Color [p.1/p.2]

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GIF REQUEST MEME requested by emma-is-hooked: OUAT/Captain Swan + nicknames for Emma