compulsiveoddsmaker

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

frames from a wip sotr animatic im working on

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

In defense of Lenore Dove

I think Lenore Dove's writing is very similar to Gale.

In the sense that her relationship to the narrative voice is always told to us not shown. Katniss tells us all the fun times she had with Gale in the forest and we only get a very small snippet at the start of the hunger games exploring their relationship, and absolutely nothing indicates Katniss has romantic feeling for Gale or vice versa.

Meanwhile we get a lot of Peeta. It is abundantly clear he like her, and it's entertaining and sweet seeing Katniss slowly explore her feelings for him.

With Gale we only explore Katniss and him together after she has come back from the games. Obviously changing everything.

Lenore Dove is Gale with a twist. We only get like two scenes where we're shown her relationship with Haymitch, however unlike Gale his romantic feelings for her are interwoven into the narrative, kind of like katniss knowledge in the forest, it is just something we are intrinsically aware is part of Haymitch. Most notably with her namesake ballad, circling around in his head. Lenore Dove is connected with Haymitch but it is switched from her love to her haunting him.

I think this representation of Haymitchs grief is very good as the poem helps illustrate how the undying love he had for lenore is now reflected in his head through horrifying grief.

However this strategy used by Collins results in Haymitchs care for Lenore Dove not fully being illustrated until the very end. Which is why I can see some ppl not fully buying haymitchs love for her or thinking it wasn't portrayed well. However the story is supposed to be a camp tragedy and I do believe that although with the help of Edgar Allen Po Suzzane achieved this.

I need to do more research in the dead wife trope, but I dont think Lenore Dove falls into this, I think the way the tragedy of her death effects haymitch and whole heartedly stays with him, isn't supposed to be romantic. They were supposed to have a much deeper, well-rounded love, but it was cut off too soon. Haymitch is frozen in time canonically like Miss Everdeen. This doesn't represent Lenore, rather how this wasn't supposed to be the end of their story. It's not good that both the love intrest and the lover are trapped in time holding on to a long gone love, neither of them moving on. That's imo a good repsentation of trauma and it poisons.

The dead wife is usually a motivator, but It's an alive Lenore Dove that motivates Haymitch, it's her death that gets rid of his "fire" so to speak. To grow Haymitch has to face his grief and look to memories of his loved ones whilst they were alive.

And then there are ppl who just don't like Lenore Dove cause she gets in the way of Hayeffie. Which is a shit ship anyway 😬 (imo obvi before yall get mad)

There are many things wrong with sotr that I think outway this large critic I've seen alot of ppl have, what can I say I like camp tragedy which again I genuienly believe Suzanne was going for.

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

SNOW’S BEAUTIES

Heeeey! So how have you been doing lately, guys? 💜

—————

It comes in the form of a brilliant blue butterfly. <…> It navigates the willow tree branches and lights on a nearby bough. I can't seem to tear my eyes from the pattern of tiny golden lightning bolts decorating its wings. Then another lands over my head. <…> As if in slow motion, a stinger descends, a tiny spark jumps off my flesh as it makes contact, and a jolt of pain blinds me. <…> One of Snow's beauties. // Sunrise on the Reaping, ch. 17

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

im suddenly 12 again and having feelings towards them

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

RIP Wyatt Callow, you would have loved hearing math teachers say that you're a pleasure to have in class

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

“Bet I know a thing or two about your dove.” “Like what?” “Like she’s delightful to look at, swishes around in bright colors, and sings like a mockingjay. You love her. And oh, how she seems to love you. Except sometimes you wonder, because her plans don’t include you at all.” Something something, Coriolanus calling Lucy Gray "my girl" versus Haymitch calling Lenore Dove "my girl."

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

how do you not think about sunrise on the reaping asking for a friend

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

Looking for friends to discuss the hunger games series

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

Haymitch Abernathy

The Mentor

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

traumaaaaa

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

I just can’t wrap my head around how thoroughly haymitch’s acts of rebellion were erased. this is a victor who literally set off two bombs in the arena. imagine having to follow a script about your own trauma, while trying to keep track of what’s “real or not real” about the most horrific period of your life.

haymitch’s story is a reminder that the rebellion was decades in the making, built off of generations of grief and trauma. how many other acts of resistance were covered up by the capitol? how many other victors defied them in the arena?

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

As i am rereading tbosas i had a thought that Maysilee and Wyatt were doomed in every narrative. Had they lived during the First Quarter Quell timeline, when district citizens chose their own tributes, they would have been reaped as well.

So we're supposed to choose our own tributes, huh? How about that meanest girl in town, Maysilee Donner, who moves around the town looking down at us, flaunting her jewellery and money? Well, you're in for a surprise Miss Donner, all the money cant buy you power over us. Who's the superior one now, Miss Donner? Good luck in the games.

And how about we teach that old Jethro Callow a thing or two about betting on seam kids? Lets see how willing he is to bet when it's his own son that is in the game. The son is likely involved in the betting as well, so no innocent life is being sacrificed in the process.

Meanwhile as soon as they were given a chance, both Maysilee and Wyatt reverted the expectations. The "meanest girl in town" taking care of all the underdogs in the games, being an older sister and showing great care for them when nobody else would, and the "heartless" booker boy sacrificing his chances for a person he barely knew. A true don't judge a book by its cover.

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

Theory I absolutely despise: that Lucy Gray was pregnant with Snow's child. Nowhere in the text does it ever even allude to that. Said child also ends up being a grandparent of either Lenore Dove or Katniss.

Why can't we just accept that Lucy Gray is like the lost little girl in her name ballad? No one truly knows what happened to her and trying to make her the grandmother of significant characters just seems like it undermines the ambiguity of her ending.

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

Some tributes and their tokens

rest in peace kids of the quarter quell you would have loved summer camp :(

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

This.

Katniss just gave us info she thought useful at the moment because she was trying to survive, while Haymitch actually had the privilege to focus on other stuff, not just survival.

The tributes all felt painfully young. One of the first times we meet the Careers even the biggest and burliest of them are reduced to children as they struggling in the showers like the rest of them and their beards are shaved off. Even Wyatt, who is introduced as an 18yo already working in the mines, is given this very humanizing and youthful treatment with the way he tends to ramble on about betting stats, even at awkward times.

Maybe this is because we’re seeing a POV of someone who did have a childhood. Who was still in childhood, not forced to grow up and support a family and raise a sibling because nobody else would do it. Someone who saw other teenagers and thought of them as the scared kid he was instead of adults—because that’s what Katniss felt like at 16.

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

People are foaming at the mouths yelling how sotr is a cash grab as if majority of YA isn't cash grab right now. As if everyone isn't writing the same mediocre books over and over again. If Suzanne Collins writing one book once every few years is such a travesty, what do we call the authors who are releasing new books almost every year or unnecessary spinoffs? Why don't we bash other YA authors for that? What are the Fourth Wing's sequels, the inheritance games and its spinoffs, King of Scars duology, the Heavenly Tyrant, Chloe Gong's, SJM's, Holly Black's books? But how dare Suzanne Collins name-drop her characters from another book, it's unheard of 😱. Get a grip. 🙏 Everybody does it, and not just in YA.

Suzanne Collins writes when she sees the need to say something. She isn't even advertising her books as much as others are. At least her works still carry meaningful and relevant messages, especially considering recent events in the world.

Suzanne Collins is one of the few good YA authors left that are still popular. I'm grateful she's still writing.

Edit: I have made peace with the fact that none of the prequels will be as good as the original trilogy. I'm glad she tells us other characters' stories. Are there better YA books out there than sotr? Sure. But it's still better than the majority, and while I recognize the criticisms people who make fun of mediocre YA books (like me) might have because we hold Suzanne Collins to a higher standard, hearing it from people who eat up mediocre ya books but turn into literally critics about sotr is just pure hypocrisy.

[compulsiveoddsmaker]

although katniss is our protagonist and main character i think there's actually a much more fitting throughline when it comes to the presence of covey girls and their acts of rebellion.

lucy gray

lenore dove

primrose

i don't often see prim mentioned when it comes to covey lineage (most likely because her character is so aligned with their merchant mother in the original trilogy) but all three of these girls actively haunt the narrative.

lucy gray is the ghost whose songs of resistance endure in district 12 long after her name is forgotten. lenore dove paints her posters across the district and its haymitch's promise to her that forces him to keep going, keep fighting back until someone 'just like him but luckier' comes along to do what he couldn't. primrose is reason that katniss volunteers, she inspires a love so great that it defies the odds and brings her sister home.

they all have an immense strength but also an inherent gentleness - their love of animals whether this is lucy gray's snakes or lenore dove's geese or prim's refusal to hunt animals (not to mention lady and buttercup) - they are all drawn to creatures that are not widely seen as valuable or lovable.

they share a deep sense of optimism, each believe in the power of hope to transform one's circumstances. they each believe that a better world is not only possible but they are willing to take action to make it so. lucy gray uses her songs and performances, lenore dove engages in acts of sabotage and vandalises property. prim learns how to heal and chooses to enter a warzone in order to help people - in a world governed by violence, prim is first and foremost a healer.

and ultimately they are all taken from those who love them - they are girls frozen in time, forever filled with colour and light. three generations of covey girls, each doomed by their connection to the games.