#THG: Everlark

[hiddenvioletsgrow]

re-reading the end arena scene in the first hunger games book and i really don't think the movie did it justice. katniss and peeta are literally covered in blood (fresh and dried), and dirt. their hair is matted, peeta can't even stand on his own. they’re both almost skeletons. when they realize the capitols going to make them kill each other peeta throws away his knife but katniss has so much ptsd she almost shoots him without even thinking when she sees him raise a knife, and then panics realizing what shes doing even though peeta is almost begging her to let him die. he's so close to death that he knows even uncovering his wound (which he does) will be letting katniss win. when katniss comes up with the plan to eat the berries the berries are FULLY in their mouths, and they can taste them before the gamekeeper call it off. and peeta gives her a 'very gentle' kiss (in katniss's own words) before they eat the berries. peeta passes out the second they're on the helicopter and katniss is so feral they sedate her from behind after she’s done screaming for peeta

everything about this scene is absolutely tragic and horribly painful.

[nunyabznsbabes]

Katniss is like Lucy Gray this, Katniss is like Sejanus that, and yes fine that's all good and true and lovely but Katniss Everdeen is also a direct parallel to Coriolanus Snow and people NEED to start talking about this because it's driving me crazy.

Think about it: they both grew up poor and deeply vulnerable, losing parents at a very young age, with a matriarchal adult (Katniss' mother and Coriolanus' Grandma'am) who fails to provide for them emotionally and physically. They intimately understand the threat of starvation, even developing with stunted growth because of it, and their narrations in the books share a fixation on food. Throughout their childhoods, both experienced constant fear and suffered a fundamental lack of control over their circumstances. Because of this, they're inherently suspicious of the people around them. They resent feeling indebted to others, especially those who have saved their lives. They're motivated almost entirely by family and deeply connected to their communities. Both are used and manipulated by the Capitol, both are forced to perform to survive and despise every inch of it, both are thrown into the Arena and made to kill. Both have a self-sacrificial, genuinely sweet sister figure acting as their conscience. Peeta and Lucy Gray - performers and love interests with a fundamental kindness and sense of hope about them - fulfill markedly similar roles in their narrative. Both contribute to the development of the future Hunger Games, Snow throughout tbosas and Katniss towards the end of Mockingjay.

It's easy to ignore these similarities because, as mirrors of each other, they are exact opposites. Katniss is from District 12, viewed and treated as less than human; Snow is the cream of the Capitol crop, given the privilege of a name with social weight, an ancestral home, and the opportunity of the Academy despite having no more money than a miner from 12. Katniss has no agency over her life, and responds by being kind whenever she's able, while Snow justifies horrendous evils in order to continue his quest for complete control. Katniss does everything she can to protect her family; Snow does everything he can to protect his family's image as an extension of his own ego. Katniss loves her District and connects with its inhabitants on a meaningful level, but Snow is indifferent at best to his peers - the apparent "superior people" - and only engages with his community for personal gain. Katniss emerges from the Arena horrified at herself and the system, but Snow takes his trauma and turns it into an excuse to perpetuate the violence with himself at the top. Katniss cares for Prim until her death and then snaps at the loss of her little sister, while Snow survives on Tigris' blood, sweat, and tears and then torments and abandons her, presumably because she calls him out on his insanity. Snow actively adds to and popularizes the Hunger Games because of his vendetta against the Districts following his childhood wartime trauma - Katniss briefly agrees to a new Hunger Games in the pursuit of vengeance, but later stops them from happening by killing Coin and choosing a life of peace and privacy. Snow is obsessed with revenge, but Katniss empathizes with the Capitolites and does what she can to keep them from suffering. He exists in a cruel system and selfishly upholds it; she exists in a cruel system and works to dismantle it for the good of her family and community, at great personal cost. And Peeta and Lucy Gray are incredibly similar, but Katniss and Peeta forge a relationship of genuine love and understanding that shines in comparison to Coriolanus' obsessive projection onto Lucy Gray.

So, yeah, Katniss is Lucy Gray haunting Coriolanus. But I bet you anything that eighty-something year old President Snow looks at her, the girl on fire, bright and young and brilliant, emerging from a childhood of starvation with a relentless hunger for success, a talented and charming performer helping her win the Games, and he sees the ghost of his own past. And that's why he's so afraid of her! Because if he sees himself in her, then he's up against his own cunning, his own talent for manipulation, his own charisma, his own genius. He's up against the version of himself that he once wished to be, with the nightmare army of his childhood at her back and her star-crossed lover at her side, spewing Sejanus' truths in his own voice. This isn't to say that Katniss ever achieved the level of power and agency that Coriolanus did during her time with the rebellion, but it is to say that Snow was taken down by what truly terrified him - his own morality, come to finish the job.

[thequietesthing]

Suzanne Collins was really pissed when she saw all those edits of Snow as ‘daddy’ and whatever other bullshit after the TBOSAS movie, sat down at her laptop again and started typing “let’s see if you get the message now when HE KILLS 47 CHILDREN”

[ringtoned]

suzanne collins is such a genius... the cultural phenomenon of her series leading to the hanging tree house remixes, mockingjay being milked for two (bad) movies, the capitol-inspired makeup palettes, the halloween costumes, the explosion of the market for dystopia, the butchering of her characters and removal of disabilities, disfiguration, and racial tension + representation to sell more tickets, the extra gale scenes to fuel discourse, and the audience showing up to cinemas to watch what was pretty honestly marketed to them (the jacob vs edwardification of the symbolic love story and also to watch children fight to the death) it's just so ridiculously ironic i would say you can't write this shit, but she did write about it... in The Hunger Games published 2008

[sherwood-scribblings]

Thought this was a necessary measure because we all know that surge of clueless thirsty tiktok fans is gonna happen.

[woah this post blew up how,,,,, psa that i have indepth analysis + theories on my feed if you crave more sotr content]

[deanlenzart]

do i smell like roses to you? id in alt.

[kald-dal-art]

Got inspired by a tweet to draw something that, so enjoy some Everlark from yours truly

[allovesthings]

Katniss, during almost the entirety of the trilogy: I don't want kids but I want Peeta to have children so much. He is so dad-shaped it hurts, Imagining his kids running in the meadow in 12 brings me so much joy..

Peeta: has never, not once,expressed any desire to have kids before the epilogue

[katnissmellarkkk]

my favorite interpretation is peeta is a very likable and kind dude in the mind of almost everyone who gets to know him. but he’s not the epitome of hope or goodness or all things wonderful to anyone else besides katniss. and she’s completely oblivious to this fact.

like she spends half of catching fire wondering which of his good qualities was motivating the other tributes to sacrifice themselves for him. even knowing she was the face and inspiration for all the uprisings, the fact that everyone — rightfully — thought she would literally die if she lost her fiancé doesn’t cross her mind at all. the fact that they may be keeping peeta alive for her is like nowhere in her head. her whole thought process at one point in the arena is literally “everyone must see how good peeta truly is, the way he’s so charming and charismatic and powerful with crowds-”

like girl, shut up. you’re completely head over heels in love with him. to everyone else, he’s just some guy.

[shinynewmemories]

The Hunger Games has the FUNNIEST arranged marriage of all time btw. Katniss realizes she'll have to marry Peeta and she's obviously upset so Haymitch tries to comfort her by saying "you could do a lot worse" and Katniss is like "well DUH of course I could do worse than Peeta he's the best & handsomest person on the face of the planet but that's not the POINT I want to be able to choose for MYSELF". Then she goes and chooses Peeta anyway lol. Comedy gold I tell you

[foxdoodles]

“you believe me like a god / i’ll destroy you like i am”

— i’m your man, Mitski

[peetapiepita]

Something a lot of people don't realise is that Katniss likes Peeta as a person.

That plays a far bigger part in her wanting to spend her life with him than his undying love for her. It's not like how Gale imagined it or some readers interpret it to be, that Katniss loves Peeta because of how much he loves her and is devoted to her.

For a long time, Peeta's undying love for her only made her feel guilty because she thought she couldn't give him what he wanted, which we know is completely false, but she got it in her head.

She assumed Peeta wanted children and never bothered to ask. She assumed Peeta wanted her undying love as well and thought she didn't harbor that feeling for him. Both were wrong, but the point is that Peeta "simping" for her did nothing for him to win her over.

She wants to be with Peeta because they always get along from the moment they're put together. They enjoy each other's company and have intellectual and deep conversations. They didn't even realize how soul-searching it was when they talked about wanting to die as their true selves on the roof before the first game. But they've been like that from day one.

Katniss had been spending a lot more time with Gale by that point, but they had never talked about something that deep. That's part of the reason their relationship starts falling apart the moment they need to align their morals. They never talked about it, period.

Katniss and Peeta are compatible in morals, ideals, and even humor. They can laugh together in a deadly game. They can tease each other in any circumstances. That's what makes their relationship enjoyable. That's why they'd still end up together even if the games never happened. I stand by that.

[smallpapers]

"Then for the next eleven years, I tried to work up the nerve to talk to you."

“Without success.”

“Without success. So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck.”

[deanlenzart]

only if it werent for the baby! id in alt.

[sweetlucygray]

katniss' thoughts: this boy is manipulating me. he is pretending to be kind so i will find difficulty in killing him later. but i see through his lies and deceptions. as to show that i am aware of his mind games and manipulations and will not tolerate it, i will further aggravate his bruise. but i will do so in a manner which hides my intentions from the views of others so that this battle only remains visible to us. this is a masterful move on my part as it shows that i am aware of the poisoned honey that has filled his words all throughout our journey and am willing and ready to respond in kind

peeta's thoughts: omg katniss gave me a kiss on the cheek.

[theswampghost]

sometimes i’m normal about the hunger games and then i remember that in district 12 there’s a wedding ceremony where the couple toasts a piece of bread together in order to signify the beginning of their shared new life and then the main character and her love interest are the girl on fire and the boy with the bread and their first fucking interaction is when he burns a loaf of bread to give to her