catastrophic29

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remember when percy used to just casually bribe people? and then target their insecurity to manipulate them to get what he wanted? because i do. every day.

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I feel like people don't talk enough about that one deeply disturbing part of cotg where percy is being thrown around by elisson's river currents, screaming in a full on panic attack, with his head being smashed on rocks every once in a while and how his thought process was "omg it's like childhood again 🥲"

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so. percy's arc in boo (learning to step back, allowing leo to sacrifice himself despite his loyalty/fatal flaw) sucks. for many reasons.

for one, percy yielding is such an integral part of pjo. all of pjo. but even if u somehow missed it in the first four books, tlo explicitly spells it out. "sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding" hestia says to percy. "i yield when necessary. can you do this?" and then this is the climax of the story. "you are not the hero...it will affect what you do." percy has spent the last five books being told that he's the super powerful chosen one able to save or destroy the world, and he still chooses to yield to someone that has done nothing but betray him. "the line from the great prophecy echoed in my head...my whole world tipped upside down, and i gave the knife to luke." hoo acting like this is a lesson percy needs to learn is an affront to reading comprehension. percy lives bc he yields. and then he does it (yielding) again when he surrenders godhood, and power, to choose other demigods instead. this is not subtle writing.

for two, percy has rejected power, and his title, for the entirety of his story. percy doesn't even fully recognize how powerful he is until the volcano in botl. and he had to be told directly that it wasn't a fluke. then in son, percy immediately rejects the power and status offered to him. repeatedly. reyna offers him praetorship, he turns it down. frank is abt to let percy climb the wall first in the war games, percy says it was frank's claim. percy doesn't even want to go on the son quest but relents bc frank asked him. in moa, percy never demands that he lead. instead, he includes frank where he probably wasn't necessary, supports hazel, encourages annabeth, follows leo and piper's lead, and strategizes w jason. he isn't acting as a leader, but rather as part of a team. percy didn't need to "step back," the writing for the other characters needed to step up.

for three, percy had to be kidnapped and manipulated to be on this entire quest. he's not there bc he has a hero complex. acting like he has to learn to step back when he was quite literally shoved into place is wild.

for four, an integral part of percy's character is freedom, autonomy, and he extends this to the ppl he's loyal to. this is pretty explicitly established in tlt: "you're enough like me to understand," sally says. "if my life is going to mean anything, i have to live it myself." percy respects ppl's decisions. this is one of the first lessons he learns when he becomes a hero and an integral part of pjo: percy has to let sally save herself. percy has to let tyson go to the boiler. percy has to let bianca defeat talos. percy has to let nico walk away. percy has to let annabeth fight. if he loves them, he's going to let their lives mean something. even in hoo, percy still lets annabeth go on her quest alone, despite hating it, despite disagreeing w it, bc it's not his place to tell her what she can and can't do. this is her life. she has to live it. so this plotline doesn't even work it we ignore all of pjo and focus solely on hoo.

this theme of autonomy is especially important bc pjo is abt disability. one of the first things ppl try to take away from u when ur disabled is ur autonomy. the fact that percy vehemently defends it not just for himself but for others is essential to the narrative. percy advocates for other demigods, other disabled kids, and tyson, and he does so while maintaining their autonomy. it's why he's the leader, it's why he's the protagonist, it's why there is a callback to it in every pjo book. trying to act like he wouldn't respect someone's autonomy is a bastardization of this entire theme. which is actually fitting for hoo considering it bastardizes the rest of pjo anyway.

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aw percy did you get attached to bessie? bessie who shouldn't be alive and who's only purpose to the gods is to die? bessie the sacrifical lamb? yeah I bet you did

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💥!!SOTR SPOILERS!!💥

Thinking abt how Haymitch loved his doves so much, he loved and cared for everyone and that's what causes him his deepest pain. He even cared for the careers, like he dropped that chocolate not in an act to prevent an attack but to ease the pain that career was having.

His heart is so big and he has so much compassion that it eats at him. Every dead tribute, every distraught family member, friend or significant other would absolutely gnaur at his subconscious. He's such a caring person and it's why he's so miserable.

Also the way his heart would've leaped out his chest at figuring out his past best friend's little girl, the one that resembles both his dead sweetheart and the man that he cared for so much is now at the same fate he once was must have torn him apart. AND THEN TO SEE PEETAH OHOHOH HE WOULD'VE WANTED TO THROW HIMSELF OFF THAT TRAIN I BET.also the fact that I know he so holds himself accountable for every death since his games because he couldn't successfully stop them like there's no way that man lets himself not think that.

Anyway I love Haymitch and I love that his compassion is the cause of his misery.

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Katniss: Plants have feelings too?! What is this? Now I can't have food!

Peeta: You can eat a rock.

Finnick: Air.

Beetee: The fabric of time and space.

Haymitch: Chugging a bottle of bleach can solve all your problems.

Katniss: You guys are not helpful.

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Maysilee: Don't worry, I've got a few knives up my sleeve.

Lenore Dove: I think you mean cards.

Haymitch: She did not.

Maysilee, pulling out knives: I did not.

If they all lived in victors village

Haymitch: OKAY, YOU KNOW WHAT?! TIME OUT! GET ON TOP OF THE FRIDGE! GET UP THERE!

Wyatt: *Climbing* THIS HOUSE IS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE!!!

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something about the way that haymitch always, always, always had one functional parent before his games. there was always someone there to care for him, to make sure he was okay, to hold him and make him feel better. no matter how hard things got for him in twelve, he always had his ma to take care of him.

and then he was reaped and he had to say goodbye to his ma and from that moment on, he never had a parent looking after him again.

something about the way katniss actually contrasts this. for all their similarities, katniss is the opposite of haymitch here. she became the head of the household at eleven, after burdock died and asterid’s mental health deteriorated. she was responsible for taking care of her family, of keeping them alive, never allowing her mother to care for her again because the trust was broken and katniss could never forgive the hurt those months left on her heart.

and then she went into the games and somehow ended up with a new parent of sorts, who messed up as he may be, always always always looked after her the best he could. a parent she now looked to for advice, for guidance, for direction and for protection. a parent who stood up for her to the gamemakers when they wanted to alter her unconscious body, who stood up to a violent peacekeeper for the first time in twenty-five years because she was hurt, who held her when the boy she loved was being tortured and knocked sense into her when she was being a brat to him weeks later. a parent who volunteered to take her back to the place he swore he could never face again without a bottle because it held the ghosts of every other person he’d ever loved.

it’s just a sad little contrast. haymitch went into the games with a loving, attentive parent and came out with no one to ever care for him like that again. katniss went into the games with a mentally unstable parent who could run from reality at any given second and came out with a prickly but protective one who’d die for her in a second.

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I’m gonna be real with you guys, I pictured Drusilla as Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove, but in the outfit of colonel mustard

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A few issues into Young Justice 1998 and Red Tornado

You're not wrong just dude lol.

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Suzanne really said with sotr that-

by the way Haymitch has a really great memory!! like a really great memory!! like he remembers 49 other tributes names with ease! isn’t that a wonderful aspect to add to this deeply traumatised character who has watched two children (alongside 22 others) die every single year for 23 years in the same circumstances that he was put in at 16 years old?! he remembers everything! like, everything!

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‼️ small sunrise of the reaping spoilers ‼️

Oh Suzanne. What do you mean this sweet teenage boy is the same person as the old hag man Haymitch from the og series. This small boy? With his pretty little locks? This boy who wants to give his expensive birthday gift to his girlfriends' uncle just to impress him? Who pretends not to look when his mom prepares a fancy dinner for him, just so she can feel good about suprising her baby boy? Who intentionally puts his responsibilites aside for a moment just so he can spend some time with his perfect beautiful girl? Who's so good and gentle with children? Who wants to protect Louelle during the Games even though he's small and scared, just because shes even smaller and even more scared? This boy? You sure Suzanne? Are you sure???

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SOTR is all over my dash and so far NO ONE has mentioned that guy who’s ADDICTED TO REPTILES. Like when we meet him he’s just been licking toads to get high, then he dumps out a load of snakes and lizards and shit and gives a python to a hissing twelve-year-old horror clone. Side character of all time. Haribo or Mortco or Flongo or whatever the fuck his name was. Oh yeah and he’s Drusilla’s ex-husband and they get back together at the end. Like. There are live snake earrings.

Just to show us how much of a huge fucking upgrade Effie is.

But also! just sometimes you get a batshit crazy idea as a writer and if you’re Suzanne Collins you can stick that into a gotdamn bestseller that people all over the world are absolutely rabid for.

Good job Morpho you made Effie a hero

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Haymitch trying to act like a rugged rascal troublemaker and all the children just flocking to him.

Haymitch, you’re a whole cutie pie sweetness loverboy and everyone can see it.

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"haymitch as a mentor only caring when his best friend's daughter is in the games and not giving a fuck about his other tributes is so mean!!" or maybe he tried to help but the capitol kept painting him as a selfish dick who doesn't lift a finger in helping your kids survive

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thinking about how, after reading catching fire, I assumed haymitch was a surly, smart aleck teenager that was smarter than the other 47 tributes. only to be shown in sunrise, that he never was that!! I fell victim to the capitol’s propaganda by assuming that how his games portrayed him was accurate. in reality he was kind and the ultimate team player who supported and believed in his allies. but a supportive and kind teenage boy in the games is more dangerous than a loner, rascal kid. the newcomers show that there can be solidarity between the districts. haymitch’s affection for all his adopted children shows that the districts aren’t bestial. their innate nature isn’t “violent” (@ dr. gaul).

just kindness is more dangerous than violence to a fascist regime.

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Haymitch: Wiress, Beetee, I love y'all and all, but can I ask what in the hell are you doing?

Beetee, trying to stabilize a tower of folding chairs that Wiress is sitting atop: Oh nothing much.

Wiress: I love you too :)