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[tw // suicide mention]

it's so funny to me how ppl talk abt the arena scene regarding sejanus as if they never heard abt how usually suicidal people try it

"he was impulsive!!!" that's usually how suicide works

"he didn't think of his family!!!" usually suicidal people don't think much abt it when trying it I fear

"it was so dumb, what did he want to achieve with it???" unaliving I suppose

"he didn't think of coriolanus!!!" why would he even think of him when he was trying to kill himself? and when atp he thought no one cared abt him?

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ppl being so quick to justify coriolanus' behavior with his trauma background but ignoring and not even mentioning the one decade long xenophobia/racism sejanus went through daily along his family piss me off

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it is a big deal that suzanne placed district twelve in appalachia.

that she placed her story's heroes in the rolling hills of america's heartland.

not only because she develops characters that are smart, witty, charming, living in the same area that is constantly bombarded with claims of backwardness.

but also because of appalachia's rich history of labor unions. u.s. labor history begins in the mines of appalachia.

the mines in company towns. where the big businesses control everything. from your wages. to the price of your goods. to the services you can receive.

and the only thing pushing up against these business are the strong unions. supported by strong, witty, smart heroes. people like gale hawthorne. like katniss everdeen. like peeta mellark.

and it is no coincidence that the main way that all the districts begin to rebel in catching fire is by striking. by coming together and refusing to work. because when the districts refuse to work for the hand that beats them, the capitol loses its power. a power that has " nothing to support them but opinion" (david hume, sotr epigraph)

and then the system simply crumbles.

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just saw the newest hunger games movie and thinking of the four (4) teens that took down snow

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well before we talk about it, little clarification bc I will imply similarities and parallels between sejarcus and everlark, clearly this is about a specific reading of the characters, so if it's not your thing, you are free to ignore it.

now if WE CAN TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH SEJARCUS AND EVERLARK ARE ALIKE? I know I'm not the first person to propose it but it drives me crazy to think about it, because Katniss as we know KEPT CLOSE TO HER HEART A GESTURE OF KINDNESS THAT SAVED HER. That gesture was Peeta giving her that bread, he saved her life, he showed her that kindness still existed in the world, and no matter how much time passed, she never forgot it.

In fact it is one of the facts that makes her so frustrated at the beginning that Peeta is stuck in the games with her. Now when Marcus helped Sejanus with his crushed finger, maybe he didn't save his life at that moment, but I'm pretty sure he did later, when Sejanus moved to the Capitol where all he knew was hostility and rejection, I don't think it's risky to say, he stayed alive thanks to that memory of someone being kind to him, of someone proving to him that despite everything kindness still existed in the world.

Then he also ends up in his own way, stuck, in the games with Marcus, and oh he feels frustrated about it, but things don't stop there, that's the crazy thing. Let's remember how Katniss distrusted Peeta, how she believed he was a traitor even though they came from the same place, their social class influenced this aspect because Peeta's family were merchants, richer than the Everdeens, and although it's true we don't know which social class Marcus belongs to exactly, I don't think it's risky to say, he probably belonged to a lower social class than the Plinth, that mega rich family in Two, and oh as we see he doesn't trust Sejanus, how with his silence he calls him a traitor.

Things become more impressive when you remember that Katniss thought she had lost Peeta, she decided she couldn't go on, there was no life for her anymore. Sure she kept going because she still had Prim, but look at it from that perspective, Sejanus actually lost MARCUS! and decided the only thing he could do was DIE. He only goes on because he thinks he has someone to stay for, and still he misses Marcus. Just like Katniss misses Peeta.

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can’t believe suzanne collins called north america “a land full of Capitols” in tbosas and set the reaping on the fourth of july and people still don’t get that the hunger games is a critique of american capitalism. how much more direct is she gonna be in sunrise on the reaping.

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it’s honestly so insane how sejanus and marcus are the first ever tribute and mentor to come from the same district and when we flash forward to katniss’s time, it’s all the districts know when it comes to the games

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this is super niche but as someone who is a fan of snowjanus and sejarcus, I am absolutely fascinated how these ships are perfect for those god/believer aus but in totally opposite ways. Coriolanus isn't God, he's not all powerful but he feels like one. He recognizes himself as a jealous God, who needs the devotion and faith of others to live. He needs them to believe in him to continue, but he is not a God and he knows it deep down because he himself has found himself many times on the verge of falling to his knees to worship Sejanus, whom he finds annoyingly sacred. Sejanus is good, he is pure, he is holy, and he makes him feel like a mortal instead of the God he is, Coriolanus cannot forgive him because besides from this assumed position of divinity Sejanus is beneath him, it is unworthy of him to feel this way, so he hates Sejanus and like a cruel God he wants to punish him. To teach him a lesson, Sejanus needs to be forced into “humility” by his iron fist. While Sejanus may be devoted to Coriolanus, he is the worst kind of believer to have as he was forced by pain and grief to believe in this decadent God, he is not loyal for real, it is likely that if his life were fixed, if happiness were to find him he would bow to others. He is also a sacrifice, he will give himself to Coriolanus not out of love, not because he wishes to unite, but to save others.

Sejanus so selfless and yearning for self-destruction and forgiveness that he would let himself be killed on the altar just to pay for his sins. Something Coriolanus will never forgive him for, he will consume him but he will never be able to overcome it, just as he would never be able to bear it if Sejanus left him otherwise, if he did (Leave his temple), he would be sure to kill Sejanus to catch his remains, Coriolanus never would let his soul rest.

Sejanus and Marcus ARE ANOTHER STORY! If we go with Marcus and the Jesus parallels, there is his kindness, but essentially he is not God, he is the son of God, and he recognizes his father as the ultimate authority, aware of his position as a condemned man for the atonement of others, who demands allegiance to the true God and is somehow in charge of deciding who will enter the kingdom of heaven, he proclaims the way in which they can be saved.

And Sejanus is his most devoted follower, it is almost blasphemous because he worships Marcus as if he were God, there is no one else but Marcus, and he recognizes himself as unworthy of his holiness. Sejanus will make atonement, he will beg for forgiveness, for when his father's failures keep him from God, when his own surrender repels him from the savior, his existence is meaningless.

He knows he is a sinner, he longs to be pure not because he is pure, but because it will allow him to be close to Marcus, may his God recognize him, his heresy, by bowing to him and not to the true power on earth, Sejanus doesn't really care, because he is willing to suffer, to cry a river, if he gets forgiveness. Seeing the face of God has irremediably transformed him, has marked him, and makes him humble himself for the possibility of admiring him again.

But Marcus was never God, you know? He was mortal. Flesh and blood, bleeding, he was sacrificed so that sinners like Sejanus could be saved, this is his greatest gesture of love but Sejanus e was never a faithful believer in the true God, he fell before an idol, and without Marcus he despises the miracle of life, he longs for death, to meet again the one to whom he dedicated his existence, that is the only heaven and paradise he can dream of. Sejanus is a suicide, who will condemn his soul under the false illusion of meet Marcus again.

And when he is forced to continue living, Sejanus tries to rescue the sacred body of his God, when he loses it, he loses his way. Sheep without a shepherd who tries to find other gods to fill the void (Coriolanus) and yet his heart remains tied to the image of the one who left him behind (Marcus). Death come to him as an old friend.

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Thinking about Sunrise on the Reaping as we get closer to its debut and here are some details that we know about Snow up to the 50th Hunger Games:

He will be 58 during this story, depending on birthday.

He could have been president for some time, though it’s not clear exactly how long. He has Haymitch’s family and girlfriend murdered as a result of the 50th games, so we know he was president at this time.

Grandma’am has definitely passed.

There is no telling how him and Tigris are getting along at this point.

There is a chance that we could meet his wife/ partner and his child(ren.) They are not mentioned in the trilogy and there could be a reason for their severe omission yet his granddaughter is present. Likely she is just there to show that he has a young person he loves in his life but still chooses to murder children. (Personal theory: Like his political enemies I would not be surprised if one or two his family members fell due to poisons too.)

His granddaughter hasn’t been born yet. At the time of Mockingjay she would have been between the ages of 12-18 (which would have been 25 years after this story.)

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I had asked which post my beloved mutuals wanted and this was the chosen one (althought I mix the topics a bit), so let's get to it.

How much Coriolanus hates women. The exotic women issue. First part: Ma Plinth

What Coriolanus appreciates most about Ma Plinth is her cooking. And I may be reading too much into this but considering the last scene in which she appears, Snow's grandmother mistakes Ma for a servant, and in the glorious past his family owned a cook, this detail

left a bad taste in my mouth. Remember the particular reasons why Coriolanus caused the murder of Sejanus, only worsened the feeling.

Because if you took a minute to reflect about it, his compliments to Mrs. Plinth's cooking are not as harmless as they would seem. So let's took a minute to think about it. Some of the defects that we have established Coriolanus possesses are his misogyny and sexism but he got more. To decipher what's disturbing of him complimenting Ma we need to focus on another evil on his list: racism.

This flaw in particular exalts these other already damaging flaws he got, that is Coriolanus' racism made his hate for womans worse.

Sad fact. We can't really blame Coriolanus for got these flaws, he acquired them honestly at home (home implies upbringing, family nucleus: The Snow as the environment and society in which he exists: The Capitol). I will try to be brief because the Snow family is not really the central point of this discussion but it is necessary to understand them, to know why Coriolanus would act in the way he do with with Ma.

We know that the grandmother of Coriolanus and his cousin Tigris was negligent, and somewhat abusive. Sure, she cared about feeding them to a certain extent, but she also messed up their heads in many ways as the adult responsible for their upbringing that she theoretically was. The grandmother is misogynistic, and sexist in turn, never mind that she herself is a woman and suffers from these prejudices (and yes she will suffer from them, explainning this later), she makes sure that her grandchildren understand and replicate these flaws.

Grandma Snow decides early on that 8-year-old Tigris is the one who should do the cooking (a degrading task that only the servants used to do) before she herself tries to do it. She asks her youngest grandson to take care of all the economic problems they face, and goes further, Coriolanus should actually be the president and fix the country broken by the war that the beasts of the districts started.

Coriolanus must be an adult at the same time that he must not lift a finger, the person who must decide themselves to Coriolanus, to herself as an older lady and must kill themselves in taking care of them, is Tigris, the only young woman left in the Snow house. So Coriolanus learns very early what we have already said: behavioral expectations about gender, from his home he has learned that women must serve him, follow his orders, and take care of him, without the needed to him for appreciate the sacrifice and labor.

And a contradiction arises.

Coriolanus needs maternal love, his grandmother cannot give it, and Tigris cannot give it either, not in the way that would be ideal. Excessive passivity, gentleness and totally disinterested indulgent dedication are dangerous traits that threaten survival, Coriolanus is repulsed by them.

Coriolanus' ideal woman, then, is someone who walks in the middle of a perfect balance between utterly dedication and a certain determination. It is an impossible ideal, but it will explain some of the contradictions that arise, because Coriolanus does not respect his grandmother because she is a woman, he is extremely violent with her in his thoughts and shows attitudes that disrepect her, still he respect his grandmother more than he respect his own cousin.

Because Tigris has done the unspeakable, she has lost his dignity, and yet there is one thing that Tigris have that Ma Plinth, and later Lucy Gray Baird, will never have: the status of the Capitol. Both are district, both possess a fatal flaw, not matter they can be perfection.

This how we start finally the talk about Ma Plinth, or better say, Coriolanus' weat dream and nightmare.

The mention of Snow's grandmother was not a coincidence, she, besides embodying violent misogyny, is also the one who promotes a violent and unproven racism. If we consider that the districts (along with Covey) are racial ethnic groups different from the Capitol, this is confirmed at least during the time of TBOSAS with District 2, which explicitly has for example its own traditions of death, different from those existing in the Capitol as the idea of a racial profile that the Plinth family seems to have that distinguishes them from the citizens of the Capitol and easily identifies them as alien to this group. Covey in particular is the ethnic group that most distinguishes itself from Capitol and the districts by having not only its own traditions, history and closed practices, but a record of genocidal persecution against them.

Coming back, in text Coriolanus' grandmother insinuates that Lucy Gray cannot be innocent, declares her lethal, and dangerous, a menace waiting to attack. Later, she violates Ma Plinth by purposely confusing and mispronouncing her last name, this along with the infamous, your father (Crassus Snow, the son she raised) say that the people of the districts drank blood, is that we can identify her as the cause of Coriolanus having another set of behavioral expectations about another set of certain people who are not necessarily women: the people of the districts. However, these expectations are different, yet similar to those that Coriolanus has for women born in the Capitol.

He expects the people of the districts to be violent, dangerous, vulgar and threatening. An idea that not only his grandmother made sure he internalized, but that the Capitol itself as an institution worked hard to make him conceive as an irrefutable truth.

We know this because although Coriolanus seems to have a much more virulent racism compared to his peers, most of them, like other adults he lives with, are also racist towards the districts. Livia Cardew and Arachne Crane, whom we identify as victims of Coriolanus' misogyny, are at the same time two extremely racist characters within the TBOSAS universe, who in the text attack and dehumanize the people who come from the district, that is to say they attack people that belong to an ethnic racial group different from their own.

Don't despair, it may seem that I'm not going anywhere but I needed us to clarify the racism of Coriolanus - Capitol in order to analyze Ma Plinth, since she is in many aspects the ideal woman. While there are certain parts of her personality that we can identify as coinciding with what Coriolanus considers improper in a woman (such as the expression of her emotions, the excessive gentleness or perceived passivity that are traits that Coriolanus relates to his own dead mother, the femininity and weakness that make him have a great rejection towards them), in reality Ma fulfills the dream behavior that women should have from his perspective, since she not only fulfills a traditional role of being a delicate wife, but she is above all a devoted mother to her son.

Women should feed her ego, serve Coriolanus and never protest. Ma Plinth does this. The lack of maternal love that Coriolanus resents, he expects some form of care and nurturing from the women, something that Ma Plinth also fulfills. So why does he call her pathetic and find her annoying?

One could argue that perhaps those unattractive traits in Ma that I mention above might play a role on why Coriolanus rejects her, but the truth is that Coriolanus proves time and again that he is willing to forgive a woman's so-called shortcomings as long as she meets most of his expectations (this will be vital later for when I talk of Lucy Gray), for example his teacher Saytiria is implied to be an alcoholic, which he does not approve of but can forgive. As long as she is his charming, caring teacher.

This is a grace that Coriolanus in contrast will never granted to Ma Plinth, because she is a district. That is to say, she belongs to a different ethnic group than Coriolanus, not only that, she belongs to a racial ethnic group that Coriolanus considers inferior to his own.

That is the key.

So let us think again what it means that Coriolanus is able only to appreciate Ma Plinth's cooking. Cooking is a labor that in his world (Capitol) is performed by servitude, Ma Plinth in his eyes not only fulfills the expectations of obedience that women as individuals owe him from his perspective, nor is she simply the ideal mother he lost, she is the servant of his dreams. Finally someone from the district who doesn't disrupt the order (like Reaper who pushed him. He may be a man but as a black man of the district he owed servitude to Coriolanus. Let alone Sejanus I have already talked about that topic and how Coriolanus was prejudiced about Sejanus by say he was impulsive, irrational, and owed him obedience). Someone from the district doing what she should do, a manual labor that in the Capitol inferior people and not a respectable lady like her grandmother would do. And maybe Tigris' degradation in his eyes comes from how much his cousin gave up her dignity as a Capitol woman to get closer to the labor of district people (forced sex work, cooking) but it's okay she failed in the kitchen.

Tigris despite having lost her purity could always remain a Snow, unlike Ma Plinth, whose perfection in Coriolanus wet fantasy of femininity is annoying because she remains inhuman, incapable of being on his level and thus her affability will always be unpleasant and inappropriate because of it.

For Ma is inferior, Coriolanus to his regret wishes to please her and gain Ma Plinth's favor, precisely because he lacks a mother of his own, not only that he has the conscience that to keep up appearances he must be nice to her but I think there is a part of Coriolanus that as I said recognizes Ma fits the ideal woman-mother and hence his perception of how much Ma adores him is a bit exaggerated.

On the one hand Ma seems genuinely surprised that her son (who has been excluded and discriminated for over ten years for belonging to a different ethnic group than his classmates at the Academy) has gained a friend and seems to go out of her way to secure that friendship, it is also very likely that she herself has suffered hostile treatment which makes Coriolanus' minimal decency remarkable but I find that actually considering her personality Ma Plinth is quite kind in a normal sense.

It is Coriolanus who perceives her kindness under the light of some extra devotion on her part as the reasons already mentioned (lack of maternal love, being the gentleman with a suitable woman) influence his view at the same time that he cannot appreciate her because she is of a different class. An inferior and primitive class.

That's what makes Coriolanus' blood boil, because Ma Plinth is everything a woman should be but is district. There lies the incredible frustration, Coriolanus lost his respectable, Capitol-born mother, only to discover that Sejanus, who has ursupposed everything someone like Coriolanus should have (i.e. someone of the superior racial ethnicity) including the perfect mother-woman. Hope the second part focused in Lucy Gray soon. Pd: There are certain subjects I don't go deep down in this post bc Im planning talk of them later (Snow Family for example) or bc I already talk about them: 1. Coriolanus Mommy Issues 2. More about Coriolanus hate for womans 3. Over Coriolanus and Sejanus you can check this or this one 4. A bit in Toxic Masculinity and Snow

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Imagine saying that Sejanus is a privileged person disconnected from reality, when he is well aware of the fact that he was saved from the shittiest life in the districts and even feels guilty about it. He never expected a sandwich to be accepted or that Marcus would talk to him because he understands that he is a privileged child in comparison of his district mates and that the tributes have every right to distrust or dislike him.

He knows well that his father gave him a “dignified” life in exchange for selling out his own people and exploit their suffering. Sejanus Plinth is not the delulu guy without class concious, that is literally Coriolanus Snow.

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Katniss visiting the remains of 12

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Has anyone mentioned how crazy it is that Strabo Plinth trained his son how shoot with such masterfully that Sejanus was called Bullet Eyes? He was so good at being lethal that the peacekeepers in d12 refused he become a medic?

It's crazy when you consider that 65 years later d2 is a career district, whose tributes are known for their weapons handling as lethality in games. The thing is obviously d2 changed over time but I don't think it was modified, the Capitol simply used their nature, their already existing perspective and values to it own advantage.

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I almost never draw lips, but I wanted to practice a bit, so here are some tbosas characters (featuring my design of clemensia that I'll do a face study as soon as possible

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hi grace🥳 !!! where do you think the capitol would be in a modern au? i believe i remember it being in salt lake city in one of your fanfics, as well as your top post making a joke about that, but i also think i remember you making a post about hating it when people were serious about the capitol being in utah. could be imagining all that though

Hey Vivi! Thank you so so much for the ask!

I think the Capitol is in Salt Lake City (SLC), Utah or somewhere around there. Based on the geography and city planning of the Capitol, I think that it fits SLC very well. Also, the vibes for a modern AU there were perfect because of the off-putting hyper religious puritan cult vibes SLC gives off.

I don't LOVE when people think the Capitol is in Denver, Colorado, but of course people can think whatever they like as I am TRULY not an expert. The reason I don't think it's in Denver is because Denver is unprotected on its east side. There are no mountains to the east, and the Capitol in THG is described as being "nestled within" the Rocky Mountains. Denver sits RIGHT UP AGAINST the Rocky Mountains, but it is not "nestled within" them. Also, I like Denver as a city and do not want it associated with the Capitol lol.

In the actual HG universe, I think that it in somewhere within the Central Rocky Mountains (spanning across Utah and Western Colorado) but I think SLC is a likely candidate because it is one of the only BIG cities that are actually IN the mountains.

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i am only on chapter 19 of tbosas but lysistrata vickers has my full attention and i cannot stop thinking about her and jessup. their dynamic was so interesting, and when she corrected lepidus and told him that jessup was a human being and not a dog, i was so shocked.

like yes, that is the bare minimum of decency and it pales in comparison to what sejanus tried to do, and yet i feel like given her upbringing and also despite it, that correction was a small, clear act of rebellion that came naturally to her. jessup is/was a human being, and his death meant something to her beyond losing the plinth prize. and her mercy killing of him, along with her support of lucy grey have endeared her to me. i also appreciate that she isn’t totally desensitized to the horrors of the games like some of her fellow mentors. i want to see more of her, i can’t get her out of my head !!