blackcherrywitch

[blackcherrywitch]

I keep seeing folks mention "suzanne collins's next book" dude sotr JUST came out, it's fun to theorize but to expect it less than a week after a release feels expectant and just...like against all her messages? I love this series too but expecting another story so soon feels like people centering the entertainment instead of the message and isnt that like. The antithesis of what she's trying to say...? Again if she announces something else I'll be thrilled but to *expect* another book is giving Capitol energy

[blackcherrywitch]

just saw someone comment on how the trackers are reused.

What are the chances that either Haymitch or Maysilee's ended up in Katniss or Peeta's forearm?

[blackcherrywitch]

sotr spoilers //

I am shocked that in all the discussion I've seen, I haven't seen any mention of Plutarch's role in SOTR. I am so perplexed with his position in the Capitol. Forgive me if I missed the reasons why but- why is he given 12? Through Drusilla, Magno, and even Effie in the later books we're given the impression that an assignment to district 12 is an afterthought or a punishment. An opportunity to prove yourself worthy of working with tributes that actually have a chance later on in your career. District 12 was the runt of the litter, table scraps, etc. Do we remember how Snow reacted when he was given 12 in TBOSAS???? Even the hair and makeup team were Academy students, implying that 12 was the practice run before they got to the big leagues(if other tributes had students as well ignore this but my point still stands)

So WHY is Plutarch there???? When we see him escort Haymitch to his meeting with Snow in the Heavensbee mansion we're shown unending grandeur- overflowing liquor cabinets stocked with rare indulgences, long hallways with towering portraits of each family member, a library for gods sake. The Heavensbee family is clearly very well off, and if my memory serves me right they faired well in the Dark Days. What did Plutarch do to be given 12? Did he request this because he knew they'd be the most likely to support an uprising? How did he get involved with the rebellion in the first place? What did he mean when he made that quip about wanting freedom to Haymitch? If he was working with 12, how did him and Beetee confer to plot the flooding of the arena? If he did do something that put him in an unfavorable position, how did he work his way up the ranks to earn the title of HEAD GAMEMAKER in Catching Fire? Snow is not exactly one to forget (*cough* lucy gray *cough*), so if Plutarch did do something to deserve 12 as a "punishment", there's no way in hell Snow would allow him to have a position as delicate as head gamemaker in a year where there was already serious levels of unrest in the districts. Out of everyone in the Capitol, he seems the most dead set on an uprising. WHY??? Is it because his family is high ranking enough to understand the corruption in the Capitol? Is there a personal vendetta? Where is the rest of his family? I'm guessing he's somewhere in his 20s in sotr, so where is the rest of the Heavensbee clan? His however-many-greats grandad Trajan was considered the FATHER OF PANEM. You're telling me the direct descendant of DADDY PANEM is given 12 to broadcast? Was Snow threatened by his connections to Panem's founder? Even still, Snow is a mastermind of political theatre, surely he would recognize this as unsavory???

And it's not like he doesn't wield power! How many people would be able to pull of the phone call between Lenore and Haymitch prior to the games? If anyone else tried that and Snow found out about it he'd have jabberjays rip out their vocal chords, but with Plutarch it's just what, no biggie? Or does Snow know and allow it to happen to make his murder of Lenore hurt worse?

Yes, anyone with an empathetic bone in their body sees the games as barbaric. But the book is about propaganda and political programming, I do not believe that there is no good reason for a high ranking Capitol aristocrat to be so invested in the rebel cause. Sure, he could just disagree with the Capitol's ways. But why. What was the catalyst. There had to have been a reason, a moment that made him question, a SOMETHING. The comment about freedom keeps ticking at me, because in order to crave freedom you have to be or feel caged, so what is making him feel that way? Who?

Anyways I'm feeling Very Normal after finishing sotr

[blackcherrywitch]

sotr spoilers!! -

I created a whole damn blog just to talk about this but I haven't seen anyone mention what Effie said to Haymitch right before the victor's interview.

"But they really are for a greater good. The Hunger Games."

And it's here that I feel like Collins perfectly captures what it's like to know and to trust someone who sympathizes with social structures designed to destroy you. What it feels like to have family members who will love you and cherish your existence who simultaneously support things that threaten the people they love. What it feels like to know someone has a soul bearing unending kindness, but that they're too blinded by propaganda to understand that their politics and their morals just don't mix.

At this point she has shown Haymitch a level of dignity and kindness few others in the Capitol have afforded him- She's dressed him in clothing from her own kin, ensuring that he looks his best for his first opportunity to speak in front of potential sponsors. She's shielded him from Magno and Drusilla's cruelties. She's shown him that she seems him as an equal. But she's so brainwashed by the Capitol's messaging, that they are protecting her, that NO GAMES, NO PEACE. She believes that they have her and the districts' best interest in mind.

I was born and raised in the deep south, so a lot of the imagery from district 12 already hit a little too close to home- the depictions of poverty, grief, and addiction are all stories I recognize from my own communities. God, the mention of bean and hamhock soup as a funeral food, and the whole culture of funerals in 12 as a whole made my eyes sting with tears of familiarity. But it was Effie's words in this moment that took the air out of my lungs. How many Effie's have I known? People who would take a bullet for me in a heartbeat but would vote away my rights in the ballot boxes? People who look at vile, despicable headlines and smile because they just don't fucking understand that they're a victim too, that the things that they've been conditioned to hold as good, honest beliefs are the very ideas leading the lambs to the slaughter?

I adore Effie as a character and I do not blame her in the slightest for thinking the way that she does. She's Capitol born and bred, narratively it would make no sense for her not to (and frankly, her arc in Mockingjay is so crucial, so I'm glad it starts out this way). I just felt so seen by Haymitch's disappointment. Out of all the horrors of this book this one line has stuck with me more than most.