#And that’s not the point

[moowithmidnight]

Cashmere and Glimmer

I know it’s a popular theory that Cashmere was Glimmer’s mentor in the 74th Games and purposefully trained her poorly to cause her death, saving her from being sex trafficked like Cashmere.

However, that rings very false for me, because the Careers weren’t like the other tributes, and weren’t going to be very susceptible to bad advice. They weren’t only trained by their current Games mentors, not necessarily. Glimmer was training for the Hunger Games likely long before she’d ever met Cashmere. And even if Cashmere had started training her earlier, she likely wouldn’t be the only person. Cashmere’s speciality is knives, I don’t think they’re going to pick her to teach Glimmer every type of weapon, not when District 1 has other Victors with other specialities.

But I honestly think that adds a layer of tragedy.

Because let’s say that Cashmere had tried to sabotage her. Glimmer is way more likely to assume Cashmere was some sort of idiot than doubt her own training. Glimmer was extremely confident in herself; even if she’d looked up to Cashmere, she was likely going to ignore any bad advice Cashmere could’ve tried to secretly feed her.

Another thing to remember is how important appealing to the Capitol is, especially for District 1, as they’re one of the more respected Districts. While the Capitol sees all Districts as below them regardless, we’re shown that they’re still a lot more likely to root for and support the Career tributes. Whatever angle Glimmer presented herself to the Capitol from was going to matter.

While it’s not in the movies, Glimmer’s outfit for her interview with Caesar is described as essentially transparent. She came right out the gate with blatant sex appeal as her angle, something that Cashmere could’ve had some control over, but not all. (I’d argue not even most- people tend to downplay how important fashion is in the books.)

Counterintuitively, this is amplified because Glimmer is a Career; again, she’s gotten much more advice from outside sources. Besides, Glimmer never would’ve acted meek or scared, she’s from District 1. And Cashmere could’ve told her to dial down her flirtatiousness, but the people of the Capitol were willing to sleep with a 14 year old Victor. I don’t think that would’ve made much of a difference, and certainly wouldn’t have had the impact that a different costume choice would’ve had.

All of that to say that whoever the District 1 stylist/prep team were had infinitely more power than Cashmere ever did on how the Capitol was going to see Glimmer. While they might not have saved her from Cashmere’s fate completely, they definitely could’ve taken measures to change how the Capitol sees her. And sure, Cashmere might have tried to give her input and convince the stylists to do XYZ differently, but she’d never would have gotten the final say.

Cashmere could never have done anything to save Glimmer from her own fate, not a single thing. Even if Cashmere hadn’t gone to Sponsors, people would have sponsored District 1 anyway. Glimmer was taught to survive at all costs anyway, she likely knew how to live without relying on Sponsors.

Being a mentor is already a terrible punishment. And this is something that the Snow knows because of his experience watching Sejanus break during the 10th Games. It serves as a reminder from Snow that while the mentors may be respected as Victors, they don’t have any real power, and they never will.

The very second Glimmer volunteered for the Games it was game over, even if she’d survived.

And Cashmere knows it.

I think that is so much more a tragedy than anything else.

[charlesoberonn]

It's gonna be such a funny mess when Donald Trump dies of a stroke on April 1st, 2024.

Naturally everybody will think it's fake because of the date only to lose their minds (both positively and negatively based on their opinion of trump) when realizing it's real

There will be massive celebrations in the streets and on social media and lots of predictable "don't speak ill of the dead" discourse about those celebrations

Weird evangelicals will pull some weird number trick talking about how Jesus was conceived on April 1st and that makes Trump a sort of messiah and people will make fun of that

The Republicans (after they're done with the faux-sadness and faux-outrage) will stomp over each other to be his successor but none of them will succeed. They'll tear each other apart and have no single nominee for the November elections.

There will be discourse about if Biden and the living former presidents should go to his funeral (they won't, he was a traitor insurrectionist)

The Ukraine-Russia War immediately goes in favor of Ukraine as morale in the Kremlin is reduced. China similarly backs off from its threats on Taiwan.

Ten thousand new memes are made, some sticking around for years to come.

Not a month later a bunch of unofficial biographies of Trump hit the bookshelves, many with new details about just how awful he was.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Knowledge Revenge.

[butchdonne]

what studying literature feels like

[redstonedust]

yknow AI art has ruined an entire genre of painting to me, i saw one of those smooth anime-realism pieces and immidiately thought ''ugh, AI art'' until i noticed it was posted by an established deviantart user 6 years ago. like ive never been a huge fan of that genre but it looks like a pretty difficult style to master and i feel bad for the artists who specialized in anime-realism only to have their entire market jacked by people typing keywords into midjourney.

[thinkingabout-girls]

[falseficus]

everybody’s always on writing prompts like “what if there was a world where everyone had a timer ticking down to their death… but you met someone whose timer said infinity!” or “what if everyone had their cause of death tattooed across their forehead… but you met someone whose forehead said THE CREATURE!” Enough -

enough. stop with the shock value. there is no need to insert THE CREATURE; the benign concept of such a world is horrifying enough. not even in urgency, but just in banal, everyday interaction. imagine you meet someone and their timer says two years. not tomorrow, not urgently soon, but two years. enough to do quite a lot. they could fall in love in that time - could they get engaged? have a baby? you might otherwise get to know them, befriend them, but perhaps you opt not to, make a conscious choice not to invest in your own grief. what balancing act would every individual person have to participate in - I have ten years, is that long enough to be a good mother to children? is that long enough to secure a caretaker for my own mother? my wife will die a few months before me. my newborn’s timer reads nineteen years.

and cause of death. you interview for a job and emblazoned across the healthy, smiling face of the HR lady is MALNUTRITION. your country is prospering, safe, but every person you meet on the street from the babies to the old women read BOMB. BOMB. what kind of havoc would fate wreak on the world? what about the loss of privacy? how would that shape our notions of hope? idk man I think a lot of those ancient poems were right, and the fates are monsters. I’m interested by the framing of these ideas as trite horror tales when the premises themselves are so much more disturbing if simply taken to their logical ends

[assiraphales]

I don’t think we’re rick rolling each other enough anymore. 1. it CANNOT die out 2. this under saturated market is perfect for unsuspecting victims who’ve been lulled into a false sense of security. be the person you hate. bring back the dastardly link

[beaft]

a small child came into the café today and asked to buy a chocolate truffle. he tapped a credit card on the reader and it did not go through, mainly because it was not a credit card but in fact a junior cinema pass. i gently explained he couldn't use that to buy things in shops and he looked so gutted that i was like "...but just this once you can have it for free, don't tell my boss though" he said thank you and walked out with his truffle and as he went i heard him chuckling to himself and saying "yes..... yes!!!!!" like the sickos comic

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[starbuck]

i say i like tragedies and everyone’s all like ‘why do you like sad stories? are you depressed?’ and never ‘how was the catharsis? was the catharsis fun?’

[mumblingsage]

My medieval and ancient ancestors watching me trying to charge my laptop and connect to WiFi: Ah, yes, she must feed her magic mirror on the telluric current and summon the spirits of knowledge from the aether.

My ancestors watching me proceed to doomscroll on Twitter: Alas! She is beguiled by the cruel babblings of the demons within the mirror; soon she will descend into melancholy from the things she has witnessed.

[zerojanitor]

twitter: currently owned by techbro pissman

tumblr: actively removing functionality and bloating the interface with things nobody uses

discord: being retooled by ex-Meta management who don't understand the appeal of the platform

youtube: neutered by advertisers and algorithms and also tiktokification

reddit: half of the site is down due to protests about the outrageous monetization of third-party API support

facebook: my mom is on there

[muffinlance]

My baby daughter got her adorable puffin-print dress absolutely CAKED in mud crawling around the yard and my first thought was "oh no her beautiful dress"

And my second thought was "oh huh it really WOULD be easy to unconsciously steer her away from playing in the dirt. Unlike my son, whose outfits are usually some kind of solid dark easily washed pants plus a shirt that doesn't trail in the dirt like a dress does."

Anyway something something gender roles start getting shoved on kids from literal birth, but with a little time to think about things, YOU TOO can let your children of any gender absolutely destroy their clothes in the dirt pit they're digging in your garden

[rivalkieran]

HEARTBREAKING: character actually mildly interesting to think about but I Dont like their fans

[cemeterything]

anyone who thinks dostoevsky's writing is dry and humourless is missing out on passages like this