#and Haymitch is in a Rebel Plot

[littler3d]

Literally half way through the book and I’ve kinda lost the plot? The Not!Louella plotline is throwing me off ngl and so is the random rebel plotline

[crescenthistory]

sunrise on the reaping spoilers !!!

sorry, i see people talking about how maysilee donner in all her "one of us has to be the worst victor in history. tear up their scripts, tear down their celebrations, set fire to the victor's village. refuse to play their game." glory was not a rebel?? did we read the same book?

haymitch himself agreed that maysilee was twice the rebel he ever was, standing up to the capitol with an upturned chin and sharp words from day one without ever wavering. why else do you think they took her voice to kill her?

[olya-roo]

SOTR is a perfect example on how having too much fanservice and grasping for any strings of connection to the previous enteries can ruin a book

[bladedliquor]

— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐑.

[s3ra9him]

In Catching Fire, Peeta and Katniss both make Haymitch promise that he will prioritize saving the other in the Quarter Quell. Both are angry with him afterward for breaking that promise and prioritizing the rebel plot. But the promise Haymitch chose to keep in the quell was the one he made to Lenore Dove, to not let the sun rise on another reaping.

[fullofmultitudesfullofshit]

NEED TO SAY THIS BC MY BRAIN EXPLODING AFTER FINISHING SOTR,,,,,,,

Beetee says the arena can be DROWNED.

ANNIE CRESTA WON HER GAMES BC AN UNEXPECTED “EARTH QUAKE FLOODED THE ARENA” AND KILLED THE REMAINING TRIBUTES BESIDES ANNIE.

MAGS AND FINNICK WERE HER MENTORS.

MAGS, WHO WAS INSTRUMENTAL TO DISTRICT 4 VICTORS LIKE FINNICK !!! AND HAYMITCH IN THE QUARTER QUELL !!!! WHO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE PLOT TO BREAK THE ARENA!!! WHO ABSOLUTELY HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE REBEL MOVEMENT SINCE HER GAMES !!!!

FINNICK, WHO HAS BEEN GROOMED AND TRAFFICKED HIS WHOLE YOUNG LIFE. WHO KNOWS SECRETS OF CAPITOL ELITE AND GAME MAKERS AND PRESIDENT SNOW HIMSELF.

YOU FUCKING GUYS.

FINNICK AND MAGS SAID WE’RE GETTING OUR GIRL OUT OF THERE AND THEY BROUGHT HER FUCKING HOME.

AHHHHHH RHEJFNWNRR

[mylittlenookcorner]

Plutarch is such an interesting character. We know he was part of the plan at the end of Catching Fire. But plotting this Revolution for decades all under Snow’s nose without losing his credibility in the Capitol? Even after the plot failed in Haymitch’s games, Snow never suspected him to be in league with the rebels. Somehow this man still got the president to confidently trust him enough to get appointed Head Gamemaker without arousing suspicion.

Snow didn’t realise he got played until it was too late. Plutarch played both sides so well and was the slippery menace behind it all. And after all the pain, trauma, and loss everyone experienced from the Revolution, the only one who came out unscathed was Mr. Head Gamemaker himself. He’s such a conniving mastermind. Such an interesting character.

[rejewish]

I think the thing about SOTR that really hit me the hardest is realizing how much the angry, selfish, indifferent Haymitch of the trilogy is all Capitol design, and not who he really is deep down. He’s a kind and caring person, with a big heart and all he wants is to spend time with his friends and family and his girl. But the rebel plot of breaking the arena forces him to keep his distance from the rest of the Newcomers in order to not raise too much suspicion from the Capitol, and then after he wins they spin it to show him as a brutish loner who only teamed up with Maysilee at the end for necessity. They kill his family and Lenore Dove and make it clear to him anyone he ever gets close to again will have the same fate. He sees the brutal death Ampert faces as Beetee’s punishment, and even if Lenore Dove lived, would probably be haunted by that forever and refuse to have children out of fear they’d meet the same fate. And so he becomes the asshole we meet in THG, out of fear of hurting more people. And after decades of creating those walls, he’s still very stoic with Katniss and Peeta even through the epilogue, because he’s still afraid that being too close to them will hurt them. Peeta says Katniss and Haymitch are the same, and nothing shows that more than realizing they’re both aggressive out of trauma and fear, and deep down have so much more love in their hearts they just have learned to suppress.

[lunar-years]

SOTR SPOILERS!!!//

I've already seen some complaints about how the plot was bad and the rebellion attempt didn't make sense/was far-fetched, but honestly that was one of the things I liked best about it!

Yes, the rebellion plot was an EXTREME long shot. The end goal really wasn't clear, the plan itself was shoddy at best with about a million things that could go wrong. It's honestly amazing that Haymitch and Ampert managed to carry out any part of it "successfully." And even then, they're really just the pawns of the rebel adults around them (like Katniss and Peeta in that way, except that unlike Katniss and Peeta, Haymitch's problem is being told too much, rather than being kept in the dark.)

I think it's pretty evident that this was a last minute, thrown together rebellion attempt hastily contrived of by immensely desperate people (and almost certainly prompted by Beetee's son unexpectedly being reaped.) Beetee needed his son's death to mean something. His wife was pregnant. He was probably already foreseeing losing them, too. He needed to at least try this. He was desperate enough to try it even if it was ill-thought and highly likely to fail. Wiress (Beetee's most recent mentee) and Mags (who's basically mother teresa like oh my god maggggs <3) would of course be wiling to jump in with him. Plutarch is desperate to get something, anything, stirring in way of rebellion. And finally they pull in Ampert and Haymitch to carry the thing out, the two tributes who have already been marked as direct, personal targets of the Capitol and have seemingly no chance whatsoever of coming out of the arena alive. it's easy to see why they alone were chosen, no other kids involved. After all, Haymitch has been told from President Snow directly that he is going to be killed. He's as good as dead already. He has nothing to lose.

Trouble is, no one expects Haymitch to actually emerge as Victor, lest of all Haymitch himself, but also everyone around him. The others are all adults who know and accept what could happen to them if the plot goes south. They take on the risks willingly. They are banking entirely on Ampert and Haymitch being dead anyway. And isn't it better to go out fighting back against the true enemy? The only thing Snow can do is take it out on them in the arena, which he will be doing regardless. Unfortunately, they're forgetting just how much Snow likes to play with his food before eating it. It's pretty clear with the poisoned milk picnic basket that Snow was indeed intending to kill Haymitch right up until the very end. He was merely waiting for the right time, after the right amount of humiliation, after forcing Haymitch to watch all his closest allies die horrible, targeted deaths. Only this time Snow waits too late. And then he has no choice but to pull Haymitch out alive so that the Capitol can have their victor.

I think the fact that it all fails so colossally is the biggest point of the book. As Plutarch comments at the end, when it does happen, the timing needs to the right. There needs to be an army to rally behind the rebels. Haymitch was given none of that. He was moved around on a chess board by desperate players. The rebels had hardly anyone on the inside. They didn't have the country behind them, no soldiers. They didn't yet understand their enemy well enough. He is set up to fail on all sides, the rebel side included. And they pay for it greatly.

On the other hand Katniss, when she comes, is very significantly not some grand "chosen one." She's pretty inarguably far, far less rebellious than Haymitch is at the start (in part because they have very different motivations in their games). Breaking into the arena to attempt to shut it down, working to destroy the generator, killing gamemakers in the arena, all that is about 10x more explicitly rebellious than the berry trick. The difference is not that Katniss is smarter or stronger. Imperatively, the only difference of any great significance is that Katniss manages to ensure her acts get seen. The berry trick cannot be covered up or cut out. It's the grand finale. And that's what makes it far more of a threat than all of Haymitch's crazy, reckless schemes to tear down the arena.

(interestingly, I think Haymitch would have been way more successful if he'd had the opportunity to carry out his backup plan of bombing the cornucopia during the final confrontation of the Games. The part of the plan that he came up with entirely on his own. it has to be something the Capitol's propaganda can't wash away, something that would have been impossible for them to cut out.)

Which is ultimately to say, the book is effective because it acknowledges just how complicated rebellion is. It takes far more than a few extremely rebellious, reckless people to make it happen. It takes a whole community banding together and rising up for change. On a series level, I think it also fleshes out some of Haymitch's decisions in the original trilogy, because it's easy to see why Haymitch would be so hell bent on keeping Katniss and Peeta entirely in the dark for so long. After all, look at what happened to him when he was in on all of it too soon.

[crescenthistory]

sunrise on the reaping spoilers !!!

i think sotr gave me the answer to something i always got hung up on as a kid – annie cresta's games. it never made sense to me why the capitol would purposefully flood the entire arena, effectively ending the games. especially considering they were canonically displeased with annie as a victor, not wanting the lunatic to come out on top.

the water tank plot in sotr pieced it together for me. i'm now certain one of two things happened. either, there was another plot, trying to do what haymitch couldn't in the quarter quell; destroying the water tank to the extent where it didn't just break the arena but flooded it. unlike the capitol, the rebels would want to end the game quick, put an end to the theatrics. the capitol put a spin on it and tried to make it seem like it was on purpose, but in reality this was another close call where annie was the unlucky victim. or, this was the capitol punishing the tributes and rebels. maybe someone in the arena tried to go for a plot, maybe some rebel children were reaped (betee's second child would have turned 20 if snow didn't kill them before, but maybe he or wiress' had more, maybe mags had grandchildren, etc.). and this was the capitol's way of quashing those forms of rebellion, to say "oh, you want to break the arena? that will be at the expense of your children". i like the first one better, but the second is equally plausible with how they are.

the flood was never a part of the games. it was further evidence of how the rebellion reared its head in every game, in various ways and extents, until they finally succeeded with katniss as their mockingjay.

[petruchio]

it’s just like… what do we know from the original trilogy about haymitch’s games? we have two impactful lines that really capture the whole thing: “he outsmarted the others” in book 1 and “[the forcefield trick was] almost as bad as us and the berries!” in book 2.

and you’re telling me… that they were WRONG?

that the point was not that haymitch used the arena against the capitol by way of cleverness and wit, not that he won off his intelligence and stubbornness and twisted the capitol’s tool into a weapon, not that his rebellion had been subtly woven into the fabric of all his experiences with the games from the beginning? but now you’re saying that their eventual understanding of haymitch as a rebel and a person and a huge part of their trust for him as a mentor is built off of LIES? that in fact he was randomly tapped for a rebel plot before the games even began and was just following orders (from BEETEE?) and the whole snarky thing was just an act? that when katniss says “he didn’t have to reach far for that” she’s not making a knowing joke about her mentor who she loves but is in fact actually grossly misreading this man who has become, by that point, family to her?

NO! but then WHO IS HAYMITCH? if he’s the boy we meet in sotr, then he deserves a panem oscar for best actor for whatever he was doing in all of thg. but i rate katniss higher than that. i don’t think she misreads him. i think she knows EXACTLY what game he’s playing in the tape, because it’s the same one she was playing too. because they were always playing it together. that was the point.

so i don’t like it. :(

[starkeymeow]

❛ we make each other alive . .

does it matter if it hurts? ❜

I’M COMING, WAIT FOR ME.

PLOT you enter the hunger games a proud weapon of your district, only to find your sharpest blade is the boy beside you, and you’re not sure which one of you the capitol wants to break first.

CONTENT chapter twenty-three, best read in dark mode, rafe cameron x reader au, me not wanting to write the actual dialogue for haymitch bringing rafe n y/n in on the rebel plan LMAOOO, properly meeting katniss, lowks i havent checked the taglist yet either n im in bed uploading this so LMAO ill update the tags next time i swear

main masterlist | series ml | tag list | previous next

it all starts again like it never ended.

rafe doesn’t say anything as you’re pulled apart from the crowd and escorted toward the suv again. his jaw is locked, expression unreadable. you used to be good at reading him, memorizing his moods like maps. but now? now you can’t tell if he’s furious or numb.

you follow the peacekeepers without struggling. it’s not like it would change anything.

they put you both into separate cars on the ride to the capitol train station like you’re strangers again. maybe that’s the point.

you don’t get to say goodbye this time. there was no room for family visits, no mother reaching for your face, no mentor telling you to smile for the cameras, but you’re pretty sure enobaria has nothing to say to you right about now

when the car gets there, you’re shuffled off quickly, straight to the platform. you board with rafe just a few paces behind you, and for a second, neither of you speaks. not until the doors slide shut.

it’s only when the hum of the engine starts beneath your feet and district two starts to slip away behind the tunnel that you allow yourself to breathe. you’re on your way back.

the compartment they give you looks exactly like you remember last year with its plush carpet, velvet-lined seats, a low table between the couches where tea is already waiting, untouched. capitol luxury hasn’t even felt luxurious in a while. just fake.

you drop onto the nearest couch, pulling your knees up to your chest. rafe drops into the one across from you.

“so,” he says after a long stretch of silence. “round two.”

you rub your forehead in frustration, “please do not joke about this right now.”

he lifts his head, surprised. not hurt, just surprised.

your head drops and you try to focus on your breathing, just collecting your thoughts but you feel him watching you.

“i wasn’t joking,” he says. his voice is softer this time. “i was just . . . trying to make it lighter.”

you don’t respond, so he shifts again, probably rubbing the back of his neck like he always does when he’s nervous. you don’t look at him, but you can picture it.

“what, you don’t think we’ll make it a tradition?” he says, “win every seven years now? get matching crowns?”

your heart clenches. it’s not funny. none of it is. you stay quiet, eyes fixed on your boots.

“why would you volunteer?”

you look up at him. and when you do, he’s already sitting forward, elbows on his knees now, the easy-going look gone from his face. this isn’t some casual conversation anymore. he knows it. he always did.

“why would you do that?” you ask again. your throat tightens. “you didn’t have to . . . why did you volunteer?”

rafe’s expression hardens, not in anger, but something else. he holds your gaze for a long time, then shrugs once, his voice quiet, “why didn’t enobaria?”

the question hits like a slap.

your brows knit together, confusion flashing across your face. he just watches you.

“you think i don’t know?” he asks. “you think i didn’t notice that she didn’t move when your name was called?”

you blink, stunned.

“she would’ve volunteered for you,” he says, nodding like he’s laying out a fact on the table. “we both know that. but she didn’t.”

he waits. you open your mouth but nothing comes out. your chest rises and falls quicker now.

“so either she suddenly stopped caring about you, or you told her not to.”

you can’t look at him. he can read you like a book though. his gaze burns through your skin, you can’t ignore it, even if you tried.

“yeah,” he mutters, knowing what your silence means. he leans back again. “figured.”

the silence after that is thick. it’s almost unbearable. the train speeds on and neither of you moves.

you feel guilty, maybe something more. you don’t know how you would’ve even convinced rafe that the best option is you. he would’ve just given you the exact same look he’s giving you now.

“you’re so fucking stupid,” he says suddenly.

your head jerks up. “me?” you’re taken aback at his choice of words but you know he’s only upset because you’re sending yourself to die. “you’re the one who volunteered.”

“because i wasn’t gonna let you go in alone,” he snaps back, “what did you expect?”

you stare at him, chest heaving. “you think i wanted you to?”

“no,” he says. “but i know you. and i know what you’re like when you’re alone n’ under pressure.”

your furrow your eyebrows, unmoving. “don’t say that like i’m weak.”

“you’re not,” he says firmly. “but you shut down. you get quiet. you pull everything inside and ignore it all until it fucking kills you, y/n. it’s unhealthy.”

his words knock the air from your lungs. because he’s right. and he’s always known it.

you shake your head, scooting up closer to the edge of the couch. “if you’re there just to protect me, then you’ll die. and i swear to god, if something happens to you . . .”

something flickers in his eyes like he’s thought about it. like he knows.

“i did it because i love you,” he says, and you sit back and cross your arms at him, frustrated. “and i’m not gonna sit in that district, safe and useless, while you get thrown back into that place alone. and i don’t think you should’ve went to aria about this to decide who gets to go in without telling me.”

your throat tightens. you feel terrible. of course you do.

his voice is calmer when he speaks, but it’s just to shrug it off like it’s no big deal, or like there’s nothing you guys can do about it now. “it’s you and me again, alright?” he says, eyes trained on you to make sure you understand. “i’m not leavin’ you.”

tears brim your eyes but you press them away quickly, shaking your head and looking away from him again.

“we don’t win this time,” you say. “you know that, right?”

he looks at you for a long moment. then nods.

that’s enough to wrap up this conversation for you. you can’t stand talking to him about this anymore. you reach for the remote that’s practically embedded into the arm of the couch and click a button.

the screen on the wall flickers to life. victor highlights of this mornings reaping begin playing on a loop. there’s no ceremony or lead-in. there’s just faces.

the moment finnick appears on the screen as he raises his hand after his spot is confirmed in the games. there’s a plan behind his eyes. he knows more than everyone in that town square combined.

“you think we’ll end up with district one and four?” you ask, clicking through the different districts for a brief recap of who’s going up.

he doesn’t look away from the screen. “probably. they always like the career pack. gets better ratings.”

“and if we don’t?”

rafe finally looks at you again. “then we’re outnumbered, y/n. and no one cheers for the ones who go rogue.”

“do you think the others will hate us for whatever alliances we make?”

he knows you’re talking about finnick so far. he’s still district four so that pick is safe, but you know most of these victors from what you’re seeing. there will be some that you’ll want to ally with.

you wonder if they’ll hate you if you side with people you’re actually friends with. because what if it’s not just strategy this time? what if this time, it’s personal?

rafe shrugs. “i don’t think it matters what they think. we all end up dead or famous after this still.”

the door to your train car hisses open, and cassaline steps in. she looks the same: polished, poised, but almost bored. there’s something harder in her posture, like even she doesn’t want to be here.

she clasps her hands tighter, then relaxes them, forcing a smile, “we will be arriving shortly. district two’s proximity to the capitol has its perks, i suppose.” she tries a little laugh too. “some of the other trains are still en route. districts ten and eleven are apparently delayed, and one—well, they’ve only just departed.”

you glance at rafe briefly, but he’s still staring at the table, eyes unfocused.

cassaline steps further in, gesturing as she speaks, “once we arrive, you’ll be meeting with your prep teams and stylists ahead of tonight’s tribute parade. i’m told valis and rumina have rather . . . extensive plans for you both this year.”

you shift slightly, rubbing the back of your neck as you stare down at your lap. “have you heard anything else from valis or rumina?” you ask quietly.

you don’t specify what you mean, at least not directly, but cassaline picks up on it fast. like what do they think about this? about you being reaped, about rafe.

cassaline falters, just for a second. her lashes flutter, mouth parting slightly before she presses her lips together again. her hands drop from their clasp, fingers brushing against the fabric of her skirt.

“they said,” she begins, eyes flicking between you and rafe, “that they’re just glad to be working with you again. even if it’s . . . your final year.”

rafe lowers his gaze to the floor, brows pinched. his heel taps once, then stops. you turn your head, eyes finding the wall instead of her. they care, but that only makes you feel worse.

cassaline lets out a breath. “for what it’s worth,” she swallows. her voice gets a little quieter. “i didn’t want to do this again either. not with you two.”

you finally look back at her. her hands are clasped again, but tighter this time. her shoulders aren’t quite as straight.

cassaline has a thought to herself before she starts to leave, “i’ll leave you to prepare.”

but before she goes, she pauses by the door.

she lingers there like she forgot something, except you know she didn’t. her gaze drops to the floor for a beat, then lifts to somewhere just past your shoulders. she hesitates. her mouth opens, then closes again. something’s off.

then she says, quietly, “but first, you have a surprise visit.”

you keep your eye on her as rafe sits up straighter. cassaline doesn’t even get a chance to glance back before the footsteps sound behind her.

haymitch abernathy steps into the car.

he looks the same as ever, like tired in a way that sleep doesn’t fix. his eyes land on you first, and you’re already rising to your feet.

“hey,” you whisper, and it barely comes out. you cross the room and hug him. it’s instinct and muscle memory. it’s every shared drink, every late-night joke, every moment he said something sharp just to keep you from getting soft over the years.

your arms wrap around him tight like you’re grateful you’re able to see him before you even get to the tribute center, before you have to commit to all that is the hunger games. but the thought barely has time to settle before another hits harder.

you briefly remember catching katniss and peeta on screen when you were flicking through the reels. that’s why he’s here and they’re not. those two are probably still processing everything.

for a moment, you feel terribly. haymitch just mentored them to victory, but not freedom. and now they have to go in again.

you pull back, just enough to look at him. he doesn’t smile. he just nods like it’s already done. he knows what you’re thinking. but it’s already been decided.

“haymitch,” rafe murmurs.

you step aside so he can come forward. they hug, quick and firm, nothing showy. and then haymitch looks at both of you like he’s about to break bad news.

“we need to talk.”

you frown. “you shouldn’t be here though,” you say, not unkindly, but confused. it’s also just rules that districts stay within their separate train cars, plus katniss and peeta probably need him right now. “you should be with—”

“i know,” he cuts in. his voice is low, serious. “i know. but this couldn’t wait.”

you look at rafe. he’s watching haymitch with the same skeptical concern. if katniss and peeta are already in the train, haymitch wouldn’t leave them unless he had a damn good reason. and it must be important.

haymitch takes a breath.

“there’s a plan,” he says, keeping his voice low like he’s afraid of who’ll hear. and there’s a good reason for it. “a rebel plan. and i might need your help.”

a rebel plan?

the words hang there for a second.

fear strikes you immediately. it’s the only instinct you’ve had when it comes to the capitol.

you glance at rafe. he’s already looking at you. his eyes don’t say much, but they say enough. you don’t speak. neither does he.

you both just look back at haymitch.

tonight is the parade, like always.

the room smells like curling iron smoke and a mix of too many nature-scented perfumes, as if you’ve ever seen anyone in the capitol step out to smell some roses. you look into the mirror in front of you as your hands glide up the sides of your waist slowly, smoothing the fabric as you stare at your own face.

the dress is gorgeous, deep crimson like fresh blood, iron black clinging in armor-slick folds from collarbone to ankle. there’s a ripple to it when you breathe, like it’s alive. gold catches the light in flashes. the high collar curves upward like something ceremonial. and down your sides, rose-petal cutouts expose skin beneath the mesh.

the plunge of the back reveals the spine of you. the capitol’s thorns glint in the mirror. and the train fans out behind you in jagged shapes, uneven and regal. it’s a battlefield’s remnants stitched into silk.

you don’t hear the footsteps, but you feel the presence before he speaks, “you look nervous.”

it still startles you. your head snaps toward the doorway. rafe’s leaning against the frame, arms crossed, mouth tugged into a half-smile.

your expression barely shifts. you let out a breath of amusement before you turn back to the mirror.

“maybe i am,” you murmur. “just a bit.”

he steps in slowly, “doesn’t feel like seven years ago, huh?”

you don’t answer. you just adjust one of the sharp petals at your hip. your reflection stares back like a stranger with your face.

“i mean,” he continues, trying lightly, “you’re still hot. but valis really wanted to scare ‘em and seduce ‘em at the same time, hm?”

he pauses behind you. you see him in the mirror now, standing just inches away, dressed in his own version of doom and decadence. it’s tailored perfectly for him, of course. they’ve made him into a weapon too.

his eyes flick to yours in the glass. “hey,” he says softly. “you’re not her anymore.”

you stare at the reflection. “i know,” you whisper.

he watches you for a moment, then leans down to press a gentle kiss to the side of your head. you close your eyes into it even though it’s brief, then you swallow hard. your jaw flexes. then you nod once and finally, finally turn to face him fully.

“let’s get this over with.”

you take rafes hand and step into the staging corridor behind the chariots. it’s like a whole other world outside the room you were just in. it’s crowded, and honestly you don’t know where you’re supposed to be. no one’s even offering directions. valis and rumina are nowhere in sight, same with cassaline.

rafe stops walking and you do too. across the space, past a few stylists adjusting someone’s wingspan, you see finnick. he’s standing off to the side, hands behind his back, the way he always is when he doesn’t want to be approached. his eyes meet yours across the crowd. he lifts his hand once, barely a wave.

you offer a half-smile in return. rafe nods at him. finnick nods back, then it’s done. you’ll probably find him later if you can.

but then, out of the corner of your eye, there’s movement. a girl slips into the space from the side. she’s dressed in black that practically glows at the seams. katniss everdeen.

your stomach tightens, but it’s not the idea of her with a bow or anything. it’s still that she reminds you of you.

this is the girl whose life you have to protect when you’re in there.

you watch her walk aimlessly, but before she leaves, you call her name, “katniss.”

she stops. slowly, like her body doesn’t quite want to. she turns her head just enough to see you over her shoulder. her face is unreadable.

you take a few steps forward but keep distance between you. “you looked like you didn’t know where to go.”

her gaze slides to rafe beside you, then back to you. “i don’t.”

your lips twitch, but it’s not quite a smile. “i know the feeling.”

katniss nods, barely. she faces the two of you properly. “i thought you’d know. you’ve done this before.”

“so have you,” you remind her. there’s a pause. her hands flex once at her sides. “y/n,” you offer after a second. “district two.”

“i know who you are.”

you tip your head slightly and nod. rafe is watching the two of you like he’s not sure whether to speak. you don’t blame him. you wouldn’t be surprised if he left you to talk to her alone.

katniss shifts again. “i’m just trying to find my chariot.”

you watch as she peers over her shoulder to look around. “so they didn’t tell you?” you ask.

she doesn’t even look back at you. “they don’t tell me a lot of things.”

your eyes flick down the train of her cape again, as black as coal. you’re sure her stylist will probably make it explode later. they’re leaning hard into the branding, it seems.

katniss catches you looking. “it wasn’t my idea.”

you meet her eyes and smile. “none of it ever is,” you say.

there’s another silence, and it’s comfortable, but somehow strange at the same time. rafe steps forward beside you to try to ease the tension building.

“i think you and lover boy are back there, right across from district one,” rafe says as he points in a direction, katniss’s gaze following where he’s motioning to.

there’s a u-formation that the chariots are in, district one at the mouth of the entrance where the doors will roll open eventually, district twelve all the way across on the opposite end. if you look close enough you might even see peeta somewhere over there, confirming the placement.

katniss doesn’t move yet. she just looks at you two, eyes steady. “you’re different than i thought you’d be.”

you raise an eyebrow. “how did you think we’d be?”

“meaner.”

is this from what you’re actually known as or just because you’re from district two?

you let out a short breath through your nose. “give us time,” you joke, or half-joke. that’s when she just barely smiles. you assume she’s just trying to be polite or she doesn’t have a knack for conversations.

she blinks like she’s remembering something and glances behind her, probably wanting to excuse herself to find peeta. you let her go, but you speak up before she’s gone.

“good luck tonight, girl on fire.”

she turns her head, just a little. it’s enough to meet your eyes. “you too.”

and then she disappears into the curve of the chariots.

“that went well,” rafe says. you glance at him, raising your brows like you’re not sure if he’s serious or just being himself again. “c’mon, bug. we can ask where we gotta go.”

@nicholaschavezslut69 @iissza @snowtargaryen @yootvi @sukunasmuse @spideysimpossiblegirl @skyslowalking @adribarbie @obsessionsarenotfortheweak @0-tatiana-0 @beebeerockknot @rafestar @drewstarkeyzwhore @drewsephrry @annaconscience @writtenbyhollywood @yourtypicalteenagegirl @daisydark @v4mpscrms @issahruiz @ilovefictionallmenn @derpjungkook @vanessa-rafesgirl @sunny1616 @alphabetically-deranged @nrmlgirl @supercxnt @xoxosblogsblog @rafegetinmybed @siyahmoonlight @livie4lifestarkeyblyth @d-daxx @tsumudoll @ogcrashout @jjasmiineee @loverliner @ailimedae @belle101200 @hiimbrina @nomup @ayy1234567 @girxwrp @k4yr14 @amterasuu @theteenagementality @maggscr @hey-you22w @delilah22pbp @hayleynott @silkenthusiasts ++

[danyllura]

There’s so much added context to Haymitch and Katniss’ relationship from Sunrise on the Reaping. Haymitch a hardened and resourceful Seam kid thrown into the games leaving behind his widowed mother and younger sibling. Haymitch who was marked early on as a possible tool for a rebel plot having the hands of many leading him along as a sacrificial lamb for the greater good. Haymitch who failed, and had to lose everyone close to him. Haymitch leading Katniss to the same slaughter as she is everything he could have been but with the luck that makes her nothing like he was.

[districtone]

oh i reaaaaallly don't like the rebellion plot. i don't like that beetee and plutarch want haymitch to 'break the arena.'

(1) it worsens their characters and makes them look stupid by being so open about it. this is life or death WHY are you trusting the teenage boy who is known to have a mouth on him when he gets angry. (2) it makes haymitch a Chosen One. what makes him so special? why did he get picked by the rebels? ampert seems to be the real mastermind here and maysilee has also shown a willingness to fight against the capitol (drusilla). not a fan of this development ❌️

[districttrifurcate]

An Analysis of Beetee, Wiress, and Ampert in SotR

There’s something I have to get off my chest, and that’s the handling of Beetee, Wiress, and Ampert on Sunrise on the Reaping. This critical analysis is rather long, and you can feel free to skip it if you don’t care for critical commentary on a book you’ve really enjoyed. If you are interested, read on.

[Critical analysis, and spoilers, of Sunrise on the Reaping under the cut.]

Wiress

To save some space in this post, I’ll start by linking an essay I posted on AO3, titled An Analysis on the Missed Opportunity of Wiress's Moral Complexity in Sunrise on the Reaping. In this essay I analyze, and lament, the flattening of moral nuance in the portrayal of Wiress and her Games in SotR.

Beetee

Beetee’s storyline felt like one of the biggest loose threads in the whole narrative of Sunrise on the Reaping. I don’t think the retcon bothers most readers, because it’s a background element and it moves the plot along. But for me, it’s one of the most glaring, and one that I wish Collins had taken better care to craft.

We understand that the narrative needed to bring the District 3 rebels and Haymitch together. Providing Beetee with a traumatic backstory that rivals Haymitch’s is a bonus. But there are so many subtler ways this could have been thoughtfully accomplished. 

The notion of a victor’s son being reaped has precedent, as Katniss mentions:

Victors’ children have been in the ring before. It always causes a lot of excitement and generates talk about how the odds are not in that family’s favor. But it happens too frequently to just be about odds.

So, it turns out Beetee is one of those unlucky victors, a fact that most certainly should have been mentioned in Catching Fire or Mockingjay and pointedly was not. Why?

Because it hadn’t been invented yet.

Getting Beetee and Haymitch together

We don’t know much about Beetee’s backstory, and from a narrative perspective it makes just as much sense to reap his son as anyone else’s, given that of all the mentors he’s the one most likely to possess knowledge of the structure of the arena and how it operates. But it also does something else: it gives him, a mentor from another district, the chance to cross paths with Haymitch and hash out the arena plan when he would have had no realistic pathway for doing so otherwise. We’ve got Wiress stationed as Haymitch’s mentor on one end for such things as knocking out the power for Rebel Talk, but there must be a reason for Beetee, one of the masters behind the plan, to gain access to a District 12 tribute, and what better way than putting him on the training room floor as punishment?

We have to accept that the demands of the narrative entail that Beetee needed a plausible avenue to speak with Haymitch, and a plausible motivation to destroy the arena, since Haymitch could not have accomplished this task on his own. What I can’t swallow is how it was rolled out to us. 

“And no doubt you’re wondering why I’m here, Haymitch.” Beetee removes his glasses and polishes them on his shirt. “It’s because I’m being punished for coming up with a plan to sabotage the Capitol’s communication system. I’m too valuable to kill, but my son is disposable.”

We remember from Mockingjay that he “redesigned the underground network that transmits all the programming” years after this takes place, making this a throwback of sorts, but it raises too many questions. After he had demonstrated the intention and capability of sabotaging such an important piece of infrastructure, why would the Capitol allow him to continue working on such projects afterwards? Why would they allow such unmitigated access to their tech, designs, and infrastructure after what he had done?

We’re supposed to understand that he’s the Only Genius in Panem (he’s not; the Capitol has loads of brilliant scientists working on tech, communications, development, etc.) and that he has megawatt plot armor (the book refers to this over and over as he’s “too valuable to kill”). Most importantly, he’s alive by Catching Fire, so we know they don’t kill him. But the fact that he continued to do his work for the Capitol and was able to successfully rebel years later suggests that he has no history of treason. The trust they have in this man is astounding, especially because, as the book beats us over the head with, we know “how Snow works.” If his redesign of the underground network was an act for the rebels that we’re learning had failed in this past attempt, it’s even more inconceivable that the Capitol would have allowed him continued access and trust given that he had already committed treason. And not once, but twice by SotR’s end.

“I’m too valuable to kill, but my son is disposable.”

This feels like a blunt instrument hammering the obvious to the reader in a not very satisfying way. Yes, your son is disposable. So why take the risk of putting him in danger? It strains plausibility that Beetee ever would have. 

In other words, it’s another example of how SotR is stitched together with the original trilogy in ways that make sense on the surface but not under the hood. Of course the brains behind the 75th arena breakout would have attempted something like this before, and had good cause to try. And I think we can accept that without much issue. What I cannot buy is how someone who knew the risks of what he was attempting, and knew the stakes in no uncertain terms, would be willing to do what he did with a son who’s just reached reaping age. How convenient. (Are we to assume his communications breach had been going on for a while and that they waited until Ampert was 12 to dole out the punishment?)

Besides giving Beetee parallel trauma to later-Haymitch and emphasizing Snow’s cruelty, which did not need further emphasis, the purpose of this was to place Beetee in Haymitch’s path. In other words, it’s contrived, and it does not respect the deep intelligence of the man that has been saddled with being the Tech Expert Archetype ™ in the story. 

"At the time, I was just thinking of the science of it all."

I know it’s not fair to hold the books to something stated in the movies, but all the same, the sentiment remains. This line now makes no sense, because the science of this particular project would have had a different gravity to it considering it earned his son a reaping. And if he’d been involved in treason that had rendered such painful consequences all this time, the archetype of the scientist getting caught up in their work before realizing what they’ve brought into being is a little less believable, because he definitely should have understood the stakes at this point.

Crouching Rebel Hidden Family

I think the whole scene in the training room would have made more sense if Beetee had been subtle about what he was getting punished for, and without telling (expositing, info-dumping-real-quick) everything we need to know about WHY he was there. Haymitch doesn’t need to know. Hell, Beetee probably doesn’t know the Capitol’s intentions, entirely. And we don’t really need a callback to his redesign of the underground network/communication system hacking. It could have been anything else, and it would have made perfect sense. The point is that Beetee was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing, and Ampert was a warning. Not a full takedown, just a warning.

Perhaps it could have gone something like:

“Hello, Haymitch.” 

“Hello,” I say. 

“Impressive thing you did out there.” He adjusts his glasses. “The parade. What happened in Twelve. It was very brave, what you did.”

“Thanks,” I say. How did he witness any of what happened in 12? It wasn’t aired to the rest of Panem. And for that matter, why is a victor, a mentor, here operating a training booth?

He must see this question in my eyes, because he says, “I’m here to demonstrate how to turn a potato into a battery.” He lowers his voice and glances past my shoulder. “But as for why I’m really here, I suspect it has something to do with the Capitol detecting me digging around in places I shouldn’t have been. I can’t be certain, but I can reasonably guess that’s why my [son/nephew] was reaped. As punishment. As a warning.” 

“Oh,” I say. I’m not really sure what he wants me to say.

He looks over to Ampert, and I follow his gaze. “My presence during his training is an essential component, I should think. And, if there were any doubts as to whether I’m being targeted for my breach, this is my answer.”

This establishes that Plutarch has a link to Beetee and is feeding him information behind the scenes. We don’t see it, because Plutarch and Beetee appear to work independently with Haymitch, but both are most certainly in contact with each other. That at least answers the question of why Beetee requested Haymitch’s presence at his booth, why Haymitch stood out to him as an acceptable agent for hacking the arena. And I like the idea that we don’t really know what Beetee was up to. Was he working for the rebellion? Was he just digging around because he was curious? Something else? It makes his character more nuanced if his motivations aren’t explicitly spelled out for the audience.

Having Ampert as a nephew instead of a son solves two problems: One, it retains the impact of the emotional trauma (suppose they were very close, suppose Ampert spent a lot of time growing up with his victor uncle, like a son) while removing Beetee from having made the overwhelming and nonsensical gamble of raising a family when we know Snow is vindictive as hell AND that Beetee is one of the biggest threats against the Capitol this side of the Dark Days. It was pretty much a given that this would happen to him. Snow has dispatched family for way lesser reasons. And two, it absolves Collins of the need to contrive a “reason” for him to stay alive for the wife and unborn baby that Snow will almost certainly also terminate. If it’s a nephew, the message is still clear and the emotional impact is still heavy, but Beetee is not in control of what his siblings choose to do or what becomes of their children. He is only in control of his own fate, and he knows he’s chosen the side of the rebellion, for better or worse. But will Snow stop at targeting his siblings’ children to make a point? Of course not. Emotional impact retained. 

Katniss says something early on that stuck with me:

I know I’ll never marry, never risk bringing a child into the world. Because if there’s one thing being a victor doesn’t guarantee, it’s your children’s safety. My kids’ names would go right into the reaping balls with everyone else’s. And I swear I’ll never let that happen.

You’re telling me that Beetee, a man who’s committed actual treason and is highly connected to the Capitol for his work, is not only going to risk having a family knowing what his work entails, but is also going to deliver this as an explanation for such imprudent actions on his part?

“I took a risk. I didn’t suspect that I’d been found out until the reaping. The timing was calculated. If I had known, I could have killed myself, and Ampert would be safe at home. That is how Snow works.”

You don’t say, seeing as how the whole book hammers this point home continuously. We saw Snow do this and worse in other books, too. Why use Beetee to communicate something so patently obvious? It does a disservice to him and to the audience. The fact that he then goes on to father another child with an offscreen wife when we know what becomes of the living family members of anyone Snow wants to punish, to say nothing of the victor’s purge in Mockingjay, suggests…well. That they got the Ma and Sid treatment back home. So what was the point of their inclusion in the story? Wouldn’t their deaths only fuel Beetee’s desire to off himself even more? Personally, I think Beetee’s renewed commitment to the rebellion after SotR, coupled with the need to be there for Wiress, would have been more than enough explanation for why he continues living.

Allies

Then there’s this. In Catching Fire, Katniss reports:

I shrug. “But I don’t want Brutus. I want Mags and District Three.” “Of course you do.” Haymitch sighs and orders a bottle of wine. “I’ll tell everybody you’re still making up your mind.”

Haymitch’s reaction now makes little sense here, considering how vital all three were to him in his Games, and considering how profoundly he had shaped them in turn. We’re meant to understand, given the prior scene with Peeta explaining the Nuts and Volts dynamic, that Haymitch sees these three as weak, elderly, infirm, or irrelevant. We’re certainly led to interpret them that way at first. That now seems cruel and heartless given how important the three were to Haymitch, and him to them.

If we want to be charitable, there are a couple of ways to read this that tie his reaction to SotR. Perhaps Haymitch was sighing in response to this being yet another parallel between him and Katniss. Perhaps Haymitch had intended to distance himself from the three over the years, feeling guilty for his role in their fate, and fears rekindling his connection with them again. But the oversight here still stands out. Especially considering that Haymitch should have known how vital Beetee and Wiress would have to be in the plot to break out of the 75th arena. He was already going to work with them on this and knew that Katniss would have to ally with them regardless of who else she picked. 

In other words, of all the things that hadn’t been invented until this prequel, Beetee’s backstory is one of the most glaring examples for me. If things had been presented a little more subtly, I think it could have worked. I would love to know how Collins explains to herself (and would explain to the readers) why Ampert and family never came up in Catching Fire or Mockingjay, despite how incredibly important Ampert turned out to be for the early rebellion attempts. His unifying presence was a direct contrast to the notion of district versus district and laid vital bricks in the rebellion. Which brings me to:

Ampert

We all loved Ampert. He’s like SotR’s Rue. He fulfills the same emotional niche: a precious twelve-year-old who reminds our hero of their little sibling back home and inspires a protective instinct. He’s a character we are genuinely rooting for. Which makes his treatment in SotR a bitter one for me.

District 3 characters have a habit of Serving Their Purpose To The Plot and then getting discarded. Wiress alerts the cast to the structure of the 75th arena and then gets killed off. Ampert serves Haymitch the explosive materials and then gets killed off. The District 3 kid in Katniss’s arena boobytraps and guards the supplies for the Careers and then gets killed off. We only get to keep Beetee because his skills are vital to executing the countermoves against the Capitol. I’m shocked that he was allowed to survive to the end and that he wasn’t given some “heroic” death like Finnick. In every iteration, District 3 characters are absolutely essential to the heroes, but not essential enough to survive.

So what did Ampert do for us?

One: he provided an emotional impetus for Beetee to want to take out the arena.

Two: he provided an access point for Beetee to reach Haymitch to get him on board with the plan.

Three: he had the knowledge and capability to help construct the explosive that Haymitch would utilize in said plan.

What other vital thing did Ampert do? He was the key driving force behind the creation of the Newcomers alliance. And what did the narrative do with that?

Uhh, not much. At the last minute, Haymitch decides to bail on it, and we spend most of his Games away from the alliance members we just spent the training segment bonding with. 

The alliance itself is transgressive, since a key point of the Hunger Games is to pit district against district so they will not choose to ally against the Capitol. The Capitol downplayed the Newcomers in the recap of the 50th Games, and forever after Haymitch’s story is one of him going his own way and prioritizing his own survival. So Panem has lost the message of alliance, and the proper narrative of district versus district remains intact. But what did we, the readers, get?

What we should have gotten was a real alliance. What we got instead was Haymitch lone-wolfing it, as Katniss did, albeit for slightly different reasons. When Lou Lou, Ampert, and Maysilee show up (individually), Haymitch remains with them only until they get separated and killed off, but that’s not really the Newcomers alliance, that’s just Haymitch being a decent person to his district partners and that one kid he bonded with in training. Where’s the Newcomers alliance? Off screen.

So what was Ampert’s legacy in this book, then? 

Ampert served as an emotional catalyst for Beetee to get involved and help Haymitch destroy the arena. And we’re supposed to really care about his death, but his death is so predictable I could have read the scene with my eyes closed. Haymitch emerges, Ampert is gone. What could have happened? Cutesy cartoon mutts dragging him away and finishing him off Happy Tree Friends style? You guessed it!

TL;DR

My argument is this. I understand that Beetee's whole family backstory served the needs of the plot for this specific prequel, and I understand that it had not been invented yet at the time of the original series, and that is why it did not come up. But this oversight is too glaring of a retcon for me to overlook or handwave it away. It's too significant of a thread for it to not have been present in the original series. And that, to me, is a significant shame and really detracted from my enjoyment of this book.

On a more personal note, I get it. District 3 isn’t supposed to matter. District 12 is supposed to matter. District 3 has only been present to serve the needs of the heroes, the plot, whatever. And most people wouldn’t bat an eye at that, because it does what it needs to do. We need The Tech Characters, we need The Smart Characters, we need The Ones Who Figure Things Out. But we don’t need to keep them. We just need them to do their job and go. 

But it sucks, that’s all.

[carothehotmess]

The way the lyrics of “Can’t Catch Me Now” can also be applied to Lenore Dove and Haymitch and Sunrise on the Reaping in general is breaking me a little.

There’s blood on the side of the mountain

The tributes, especially the Newcomers, who were killed on the volcano by the eruption and the Careers. Or his blood pouring out of him on the cliff.

There’s writing all over the wall

Haymitch finding the orange graffiti on the wall of the alley that says, “No Capitol, No Hanging Tree! No Capitol, No Reaping!” And realizing that the secret Maysilee figured out was that Lenore Dove’s fingertips were orange from painting those rebellious words.

Shadows of us are still dancing

In every room and every hall

Haymitch saying that Lenore Dove never really left him, that she’d been there growing old with him the whole time. Everywhere he goes in 12 reminds him of her, and every room and every hall is still filled with her presence.

There’s snow falling over the city

This one seems kind of obvious, with “snow” referring to President Snow and his influence blanketing the Capitol and the entire country, but I think it can also double as a reference to the “ash” that covered the arena after the eruption.

You thought that it would wash away

The rain washing away the “ash” in the arena. Haymitch’s hope that bursting the water tank would “wash away” the game itself, but realizing after that it wasn’t anywhere near enough to stop the games. The rebels’ hope of “washing away” Snow and his power with their attempts at sabotage, and later with their full on rebellion.

Also, this is more of a personal theory but if what I believe happened, happened, then this could also relate to the rebels’ repeat attempt to flood the arena, by breaking the dam during Annie’s games.

There’s blood on the side of the mountain

Its turning a new shade of red

As already mentioned, the blood on the mountain could relate to the tributes killed on the volcano. But the “new shade of red” could also refer to the red gumdrops that killed Lenore Dove.

Yeah sometimes the fire you founded

Like the fire started by the flint striker aka Haymitch.

Don’t burn the way you’d expect

Instead of immediately catching, that “fire” took 25 years to catch flame, and while Haymitch helped stop the sun from rising on the reaping, it wasn’t accomplished with his plot to sabotage the water tank, or with his death in the arena. That fire eventually burned, not because of one overt rebellious demonstration, but because of 25 years of incremental acts of rebellion from within, and a girl who became a symbol for people to rally around. A girl who made her poster without even intending to, and who made it in such a way that the Capitol couldn’t spin it the way they did with all the others.

Yeah you thought that this was the end

Haymitch thought bursting the water tank would be the end of the games. Haymitch thought his injury and his attempt to blow up the generator were the end. Haymitch thought being one of the tributes would be the end of his life. Haymitch thought losing his family would be the end of the suffering Snow brought on him. Haymitch thought losing Lenore Dove would be the end of it all for him, but then she condemned him to life. Haymitch thought ending the games would be the end for him, but then he survived to live in the world that came after.

I know that the song was written before SotR but the way it can be interpreted and applied to both prequel books is just really fascinating to me.