#quote from mockingjay

[puffy-peachy]

making me mad

People who dumb down peeta as just the "lover boy who's only thing is katniss" YES he does love her and has spent his life yearning for her. But he also is more then THAT, like it feels somtimes watching the capital talk when I see some of these posts about peeta??? I also hate the term "new peeta" after he was highjacked???? TF you mean NEW?? he's still the same, just the most the memories of katniss have been flipped to paint her as terrible, he still has every other memory and interest?! He was just more protective of himself and was "sassier" and talked back and was no longer lover boy who put himself last, but that whole "ass hole peeta" arc lasted maybe a couple of months, intill he started to break away from it?! Like... I just hate the concept that he's new

I think the quote from johanna is really good (page 267 in mockingjay)

"Haymitch says he's getting better," she says

"Maybe. But he's changed," I say.

"So have you. So have I. And Finnick and Haymitch and Beete. Dont get me started on Annie Cresta. The arena messed us all up pretty good, don't you think? Or do you still feel like the girl who volunteered for your sister?" She asks me.

"No," I answer.

"That's the one thing I think my head doctor might be right about. There's no going back. So might as well get on with things."

So why must we call him new??? Everyone changes? And to hold that to him just under plays his trauma?!

Peeta truly is such a good character that the Fandom will dumb down, he I would say has done way more anit capital shit ON purpose then katniss ever has done, he's so vocal about it as well???

Don't talk down on my man Peeta Mellark!!!

[cherrybombb8]

Peeta: I'd like to wake up with you every day for the rest of our lives.

Katniss: I wake up at 5am every day to go hunting.

Peeta: I'd like to see you at some point every day for the rest of our lives.

[weirdly-enough]

~

~

~

i always see people make the parallel between katniss and her mother when katniss gives up at the end of catching fire but no one ever mentions this parallel between how they start healing

[kadextra]

q!Bad: “Ideally if I took the blame for killing those workers, that could actually benefit in the long run. ideally I want Cellbit to leave the workers alone, and get the blame for it. I need Cellbit at tip top mental capacity, and right now he’s just not there. He’s an old friend as well so I need to help him.”

“He was sorta my responsibility, all those years ago… I feel like helping him out is my duty at this point.”

“He’s crazy and hiding, just like in the hunger games. he was always really good at that, it’s nice to see that he hasn’t lost his touch.”

“I never wanted him to be in that situation. But I wanted him to have the skills he needed to survive. I was only there to watch over him and others which is… it’s kinda disappointing to see what has happened... *sigh* Cellbit, Cellbit…. what to do?” :(

some quotes from yesterday’s q!bad stream. ough he is so prepared to self sacrifice for q!cellbit, they’re so…

def watch the full monologue starting at 2:43:47 in the vod if you haven’t. some big insight on the character’s plans, feelings, some of the closest we’ve seen into his mind thus far (despite him continuing to hide a lot of stuff)

[formereldestdaughter]

ok wait i need to hear more of your thoughts on peeta owning a bakery....

This is one of those rare times where I’m pretty sure this anon isn’t someone I know personally bc I’ve subjected anyone who will listen to my rant about the Peeta Bakery Headcanon. Anyway, you’re gonna regret asking this anon bc there are fucking Layers here.

I know this is probably a controversial take based on the number of fics where I’ve seen it, but I simply do not think that Peeta would open a commercial bakery after Mockingjay!! Like on a metatextual level, I don’t think it really fits with the point of the ending of the series. It actually sort of fascinates me that it’s just such a common headcanon because the ending of Mockingjay is exceedingly vague. I think that vagueness invites us, as readers, to imagine a better world post-revolution. A world where Katniss would feel confident that her children would be safe from injustice, where she’d feel confident that her children would never know want the way she did as a child. A just world. A kinder world. Can a capitalist society ever be just? Is a capitalist society where a disabled teenager has no other means to subsist himself (or feels like there’s no other way he can be a contributing member of his community) really the post-revolution world we dream of? Is that really the best we can imagine?

(This got so insanely long I’m adding a read more lmao)

I get that showing a better world is not always the point of post-mockingjay headcanons/fics. Like there are plenty of really great post-mockingjay fics I’ve seen where, yeah, part of the fic is that society like ISN’T all that different or all that much better. I’ve seen that really well done! Hell, I’ve written them myself! It’s easy to imagine how a lot of aspects of society would not get an overhaul, a lot of the same structural inequalities would continue to exist. One headcanon that really stuck with me (I can’t remember which fic it was from) was that Peeta sells basically mail order baked goods to people on the Capitol, sending them iced cakes and pastries by train, because there are still people who were “fans” of theirs during the Games. And idk this doesn’t actually have much to do with my point lol but I liked it because it’s kind of fucked up and like! Yeah! It makes sense! If he needed money that would be a good way to make it! War often makes people rich, often for horrible reasons, and often it’s people who already have capital in the first place.

Anyway, more about the hypothetical bakery because alright. I bring up the fact that “yeah society not being all that different post-revolution and still being an unjust capitalist hellscape” could be a reason why Peeta re-opens a bakery because that’s actually never the types of fics where I see the bakery headcanon. Fics where Peeta opens a bakery are usually trying to make the exact opposite point. Like. Things are getting better, now he can open a bakery! Look at how much better the world is now, plus he’s got a bakery! Peeta is healing, that’s why he can open a bakery now! And I am so, so sorry to inform everyone who’s never had the grave misfortune of owning a family business, but there is truly nothing further from the truth lmao. Like just putting aside the immense amount of emotional baggage that Peeta has about his family, running a small business is an insane amount of work in any context and being a baker especially is physically grueling and involves early hours (and long hours) that aren’t really the best fit with the multiple ways that Peeta is disabled now. (I could go into this more because I have a lot of thoughts. But I will spare you.). I also think it’s seen throughout the books that Peeta is someone who needs time to pursue creative outlets to process his feelings and someone who values leisure and values quality time with his loved ones. And having grown up in his family’s bakery, I think he’d understand the reality that running a bakery wouldn’t leave much space of those pursuits and wouldn’t leave much space for him to have the things that keep him healthy and stable. I think he’d know that the way he is now— after two Games and the war and unspeakable torture at the hands of a dictator—isn’t compatible with the lifestyle necessary for running a commercial bakery.

And tbh with that in mind, I don’t think he’d push himself to re-open a business (one that would be a constant reminder of his dead family and his complicated relationships with them that got no closure) that would require him to sacrifice his physical and emotional well-being. Like I think he might look into the possibility, I think he might even start trying to open a bakery out of a sense of obligation/duty, maybe harboring some idea that this is who he was supposed to be, who he would've been without the Games, or that it’s this last piece of his family that can live on, or that it’s this last connection to his family so he can’t let it die too. But ultimately, I think any attempt to open a bakery wouldn’t get very far. Maybe he'd start wading into the logistical nightmare that is small business ownership and realize it's not for him (because it's probably also true that as much as him and his brothers were involved in the business, there's almost certainly parts they weren't involved with and didn't see, i.e., filing taxes). Or maybe looking into opening a bakery— how triggering it is, the stress of it— causes a downward spiral. Maybe he hates how much he's worrying everyone by unraveling. Maybe having a breakdown from the stress of just trying to open a bakery makes him realize, yeah, maybe in another life he would have ran his family’s bakery but the way he is now just doesn’t work with running a bakery, not without great sacrifices he's not willing to make. I just can’t see a bakery coming to fruition.

I know a lot of fics include Peeta deciding to reopen a bakery as a big step in his healing or include him rebuilding a bakery as part of his healing process but honestly, I think the opposite would be more true: I think Peeta either trying/failing to open a bakery or ultimately deciding not to open a bakery would be hugely healing for him. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way he is now as a person, his new limitations but also his strengths. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way his life his now and accepting that he likes his life the way it is, that he’s satisfied with his life without needing to own a bakery. I think it would be an important part of him coming to terms with the loss of his family. I think he knows he can never have things back as they were and I don’t think he would try to recreate them, especially because his family’s legacy isn’t a business. I think he’s emotionally intelligent enough and self reflective enough to realize that what mattered to him about the bakery— taking care of others by feeding them, being integrated into his community and being actively involved in it, brightening people’s days with delightful things whether that’s beautiful cakes or hearty food or delicious treats— and the things he learned from his family through the bakery, are things that he can carry on in other meaningful ways.

(Do you regret sending this ask yet, anon? Because if not, you will soon. I’m not done yet. There’s more.)

I wasn’t really sure where to put this next part in what is rapidly becoming an essay because it sort of combines the points about like “what do we imagine a post-mockingjay society to look like” with the practical difficulties of starting this bakery but here’s another thing: do people really think that the Mellarks owned the land the bakery was on?? Like, sure, the merchants are the petit bourgeois of Twelve but I still don’t imagine they really own anything. In a society where houses are assigned to people upon marriage, where property ownership and capital are so closely interconnected with citizenship (as shown by the Plinths who, by having immense capital, are able to leave their District and become citizens of the Capitol) do people really think the Mellarks would be allowed to own the land their bakery is on?? I always imagined it sort of like a tenant farming situation: the Capitol gives them the raw materials for the bakery and in return the bakery give them some absurdly high portion of their profits, or the Capitol sells them a year’s supply of raw materials at a premium on credit and at the end of the year the Mellarks have to use the money they made with those materials to pay it back, except it’s never enough to turn a profit so they always have to buy next year’s materials on credit and the cycle continues.

We (understandably) get a really skewed view of the merchant class through Katniss’s perspective so I can see why people come to the conclusion that his family owned the property and, as the last surviving member, he would’ve inherited it. I’ve seen the inheritance thing in fics a lot or a hand wavey “well Twelve was decimated to no one owns anything anymore so it can be his” or even like an almost sort of reparations type situation where he’s entitled to the land as a surviving refugee of Twelve. But I don’t know. I guess I don’t think it fits with everything else we know about Panem that the Mellarks would’ve owned that land and I think the question of whether the government would’ve let him take ownership of the land post-revolution brings up a lot of issues about the structure of society post-Mockingjay that I find more interesting to explore in other ways, especially when, from an emotional perspective, 1) I find the idea of Peeta not opening a bakery more compelling and 2) I don’t think it really fits his character arc by the end of Mockingjay to reopen a bakery, as I went on about at length above lol.

On the flip side: literally who cares!! Do whatever you want!! Headcanon whatever you want!! I get why people go for the bakery!! It’s fun, it’s wholesome, it’s a built in bakery AU that isn’t even an AU. It doesn’t matter if it’s practical or realistic!! It doesn’t need to be practical or realistic!! It’s fanfic of a dystopian YA series!! My unfortunate affliction is that I grew up in a family that owned a restaurant and that I have multiple degrees in the social sciences so I can’t see the bakery without being like “What about the overheard? What about the start up costs? Who’s spending long nights balancing the books? Is Peeta covering shifts when an employee calls in sick? Is Peeta the sole person working there until the bakery is open long enough (often a year or more) to start turning a profit? How does that sleep schedule work with his nightmares? How does that work with Katniss’s nightmares? What happens when he has an episode and suddenly needs to take the day off before he has any employees? Does the bakery just remain closed for the day? Can the profit margins withstand regular unexpected closures? Can the supplies withstand regular unexpected closures?” And if the answer is “Elliott none of those things matter he’s not doing the bakery because he needs the money but because he wants to”, then my question is why does he want to? Does he not get the same sort of satisfaction out of feeding his loved ones? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would rather give away baked goods than sell them?? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would prefer to make cakes for people’s special occasions upon and then when they insist on paying him for it, he only lets them “pay for the ingredients” which actually cost significantly more than he says they did??

So yeah my point is that it’s a matter of personal taste! It doesn’t fit the way I see the series but that doesn’t mean it’s like wrong, I’m not an authority on Peeta lmao.

It’s also a matter of personal taste in the sense that I find the themes that most resonate with me at the end of Mockingjay (and the end of Peeta’s arc specifically) more interesting to explore in other ways. Grief, living with loss, relearning yourself, finding hope, figuring out your place in a dramatically different world when you don’t even know who you are anymore, healing, building a new life after such complete and total destruction of your old life— those are all things I find compelling about the end of Mockingjay but for me the bakery isn’t the most compelling way to explore them.

Not to say I find the concept of the bakery totally uninteresting. I have this fic about Johanna that I’ll probably never finish where the point sort of is that, yeah, her life really isn’t all that much better after the war. It’s been years at this point and she’s still miserable and she doesn’t know how to be a person but by the end she’s trying to figure it out. And towards the end, Peeta tells her that he’s spent years sort of passively, half-heartedly trying to figure out how to inherit the land his family’s bakery was on, only to find out it was never theirs in the first place. They’d been renting it the whole time and he’d never even known as a kid. So he sort of passively, half-heartedly went on another wild goose chase to find the owner and now, finally, after years of writing to various government agencies and being sent in circles and things being barely functional, he’s managed to track down the owner. Now it’s owned by the daughter of the man who owned it when he was a kid because the original owner (who was likely up to some sketchy war crime shit) died during the war and she inherited it (the irony…). He got in contact with her and asked how much it would take for her to sell it and she told him she’s not interested in selling but in light of the situation, in light of the fact that he’d have to build a new building in order to operate a bakery, that she’d cut him a deal— she’d only require 50% of the bakery’s profits as rent instead of the 80% his family used to pay. And of course Johanna is outraged, that’s not right, the owner shouldn’t be allowed to do that, they should do something about it, they should fight back. And Peeta is like. Not interested. He was actually sort of relieved that opening wasn’t very feasible. Getting the answer was a lightbulb moment where he saw that over the years of trying to look into this, he’s built a life that he likes— one where he’s stable, where his loved ones are stable, where he’s cared for and can care for others— and he doesn’t really want to change it drastically by opening a bakery anyway. He just needed an answer, one way or another, before he could get some closure and move on. (And the point of the conversation is Johanna is having her own lightbulb moment that it’s okay to move on, it’s okay to change, it’s not a betrayal of the people and things she’s lost but that’s not my point here!!).

But anyway. That’s obviously not about running the bakery— it’s about the choice to not run one.

Anyway!! Anyway… are you satisfied anon? Is this what you wanted?

Lastly, here is my most important qualm with the bakery headcanon: must Peeta be gainfully employed? Is it not enough for him to be Katniss’s boytoy? Can’t he just paint and garden and bake and hang out with his girlfriend all day? Is that really too much to ask?

[luciddaydreamsxo]

"What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that”

So after, when he whispers, “You love me. Real or not real?" I tell him, "Real.”

- Katniss, Mockingjay

[cromulentreader]

"As if in the end, it will be the question of whether a baker or a hunter will extend my longevity the most. (...) At the moment, the choice would be simple. I can survive just fine without either of them.” "What I need [to survive] is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again." Mockingjay

[wordsbyparker]

Finnick Odair's comment in "Mockingjay" haunts me a bit, especially as I'm picking up the pieces in my day job life and my creative life.

"It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."

Dang it, Suzanne Collins. Stop being so profound. 🙂

[fromevertonow]

Suzanne Collins is one of the few contemporary writers who realizes the importance of names in her stories and the significance they bear. They add so many layers to the story, additional meanings that otherwise would not have existed.

The original trilogy:

Katniss: named after a plant of which you can eat the roots. Her father taught her where to find it and told her that “as long as you can find yourself, you’ll survive” (quote may be a little bit off, but it’s from one of the early chapters in THG). Additionally, the leaves are in the shape of an arrowhead, referencing her skills with the bow which her father also taught her how to use.

Peeta: literally bread lmao. But bread is one of the basic nutritions humans need, a little bit goes a long way to keep you alive. Peeta’s presence in Katniss’s life also kept her alive, literally and figuratively—the burned bread he threw her in the flashback and their complicated relationship.

Primrose: a plant with medicinal purposes, even more significant in light of her work as a medic in Mockingjay.

Gale: literally means “strong wind” and considering that in every encounter with Katniss he’s caused some reaction, he pulls her into directions she maybe initially doesn’t want to go in. Additionally, his name also represents his determination and steadfastness in his beliefs.

TBOSAS

Lucy Gray: named after William Wordsworth’s poem “Lucy Gray” which is about the titular character of the poem who got lost during a blizzard. She literally got lost in snow. Rachel Zegler sang this poem in two parts on the original soundtrack of the movie. When Snow asked who the girl in the song is, Lucy answers that she’s a mystery, just like her.

Snow: aside from the obvious snow references, I think his name is most significant in relation to Lucy and the poem. The only one who knows what caused her disappearance is Snow. He is the reason that Lucy is gone. But her traces in the snow are still visible. He will always remember her because the memory of Lucy has manifested itself in every part of his life.

Coriolanus: named after the Roman general (and also the titular character of Shakespeare’s play), Coriolanus wanted to attack Rome and become its ruler. He was scorned and celebrated by the people, only to be later exiled from the city by them. In TBOSAS, Coriolanus is the star pupil at the Capitol’s academy but sent into exile to the districts after he won the Games with Lucy through cheating.

Volumnia: Coriolanus mother who played a part in his ascent to power. In TBOSAS, she almost serves like a mentor to Coriolanus, teaching him how to think in terms of power.

(Edit) Sejanus: a roman soldier who was betrayed by the roman emperor Tiberius, just like the future president betrayed him.

(Edit) Plinth: got this info from here, but it was too good not to include here. A plinth is a base for a statue or vase to stand on. After Sejanus’s death, all of the Plinth fortune was given to Snow for being such a good to friend him. It was this money that skyrocketed the Snow family from poverty to filthy rich. The Plinth money was the foundation upon which Snow built his power.

There are so many other names that have historical (mostly Roman and Greek) connotations—Plutarch, Seneca, Cinna—but also regular names like Trinket and Beetee bear meanings that represent the character beautifully.

Names are important. For any lover of literature or (aspiring) writers, please look closely at them. They can shape your story into something unique.

Feel free to correct me if I’ve said something wrong. I know there are many names missing, but I can only add so many examples ✊🏻😔

[friedwizardwhispers]

The thing that kinda makes me a bit mad about some people in the fandom erasing Peeta from the victors and the rebellion is that Suzanne Collins gave him first, before anyone else, the line that, I would argue, is the thesis of the entire series. You know that one:

“I don’t know how to say it exactly. Only…I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?” he asks. I shake my head. How could he die as anyone but himself? “I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not.”

[...]

“No, when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll kill just like everybody else. I can’t go down without a fight. Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games,” says Peeta.

Like... This is Haymitch's whole reasoning in Sunrise, that's the point of Lucy Gray's song: Nothing you can take, that's why Katniss decides Rue should be buried in flowers, that's why she and Peeta do the berries stunt , that's why the victors hold hands in catching fire and that why Katniss directly quote him in district 2 in Mockingjay.

[thesweetnessofspring]

I've been thinking about this quote from co-screenwriter of the two Mockingjay movies said about a conversation regarding this scene he had with Suzanne:

And yet again, Collins provided a key insight that helped Craig unlock what keeps drawing Katniss back to Peeta. "I remember a conversation with Suzanne, [about how] towards the end, when they're ready to make their final push towards [Snow's] mansion, Peeta's the one who has to really convince her that all of this is worth it, and he has to be the one who really speaks to her," Craig recalled. "Because over the course of all four of the movies, he's really the only one who's been through everything she's been through, and he's really the only one who understands the completely unique position she's in."

This conversation with Peeta pushing Katniss to assassinate Snow was important enough that Suzanne discussed it with one of the screenwriters. In all honesty, the mission at that point did seem a bit of a waste for how dangerous it was to risk losing Katniss. The Capitol was losing and clearly they would execute Snow anyway. But I think that, given the fact Katniss is symbolically deciding her worldview through her love interests, and Peeta is representative of a diplomatic approach to politics, it was important that Peeta be the one to support Katniss assassinating Snow, essentially saying that there is an importance in ensuring Snow dies. Those words "reach" Katniss when all of her other allies do not. And after, when Katniss learns what Coin plotted and what violence she is willing to perpetuate, I think some part of her remembers Peeta's words. "They followed you because they really believed you could kill Snow." Katniss decides going through with her mission is the way to "repay" those who died on the mission.

Katniss did not kill Coriolanus Snow, but she did what Peeta encouraged her to do: she killed the one who would become the next Snow, killing what her friends and sister died for themselves. "For Prim." For the sister who fought and believed in a better world, too.

[derangedchameleon]

So. I have some thoughts on Haymitch’s sweetheart nicknaming.

My knee jerk explanation for Haymitch calling Katniss Sweetheart was that the first time he called her that, it slipped out (like he said) and was meant to be comforting (it was after Katniss had shot the apple from the pig mouth with the gamemakers and then spent hours sobbing in her room in absolute dread refusing to talk to anyone).

He uses the nickname twice more before the games (the time after the games, even Katniss interprets it as endearing, „nice job sweetheart“)

While I can intepret the following two as endearing… it’s hard. Even with the knowledge that Katniss reads aggression and condescension into everything. The second time he uses it, it’s when he‘s trying to coach her for her interview. He gets wasted and eventually ends with „I give up sweetheart. Just answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise them.“ Katniss is being difficult to work with and sullen. His use of sweetheart here feels like a pointed contrast. A way of saying „you sure are behaving as the absolute opposite of a sweetheart.“

The third time is after she shoved Peeta and got his hands cut. She‘s worried that her reaction to Peeta’s confession wasn‘t convincing, to which Haymitch says „You‘re golden, sweetheart. You‘re going to have sponsers lined up around the block.“ Now. This one feels more like it could be comforting. But it still feels like a contrast. She just almost murdered the boy that gave her a huge boost.

They both feel very nasty, at least the one where he coaches her. And it bugged me that Haymitch would use this meaningful nickname in that way, it didn‘t feel in character. I chucked it up to continuity issues, Suzanne not having planned out everything, including the nickname being endearing from the start, and left it at that.

But then something Haymitch says in Mockingjay caught my eye…

It‘s after Katniss keeps ripping out her earpiece.

Quote:

Haymitch dumps the head shackle on the bed and whips out a tiny silver chip - „I‘ll authorize them to surgically implant this transmitter into your ear so that I may speak to you twenty-four hours a day.“

… Lou Lou? Holy shit!

So yeah… I think this man is just… prone to saying things. Regardless of their personal meaning and his own horrible history attached to them. To be clear I don‘t think he‘d actually authorise the transmitter implantation, but just the fact that he‘d suggest it is insane!

Anyway. Older Haymitch is absolutely wild, and I love him for it.

[girlrandomstuff]

What if I say that Haymitch's "I'm content where she's content, like geese, we mated for life" gives me the same vibes that Lucy Gray's "you're mine, I'm yours, it's written in the stars" and Katniss' "Gale is mine, I am his, everything else is unthinkable".

"You just hate romanticism" no, actually, in fantasy I really like this "fated mates" "soulmates" "destined to be" couples "only loving a person for life" stuff, BUT, this ones feels a bit not only cringy but also feels off, wrong and then we, the audience, the readers know for a fact, these statements are/become FALSE.

So, in this little assay I try to explain what's wrong, or at least- what my problem is with this quotes.

“Gale is mine, I am his. Everything else is unthinkable”

Like I have say it before, there's a whole video on this topic from content creator Rachel A Ramras, in her video she explains how Katniss' statement comes from a place of guilt because she feels like doing all this is betraying Gale and their relationship and what they had lived together is what she should stick with, because he was her first love, or at least the first person outside her family to built a deep conection with, a person who she met during one of the most vulnerable moments in her life. And maybe I'll get a bit personal and reflecting but talking as someone who's going through her first relationship and have been struggling with it for the last couple months, I don't want to feel like I have to stay in a relationship that is not making me feel confortable enough just because he was my many firsts, or worst, because I feel like I won't find anything better for me. I think that's a really unhealthy point of this relationship, of this mindset. Then in Mockingjay, we got an entire paragraph of Katniss telling us why she choose Peeta over Gale and I think that's beautiful, because she describes exactly what does she needs.

“You're mine, I'm yours. It's written in the stars"

I think no one needs an explanation about what's wrong with this relationship, but yeah, kind of the same thing with this one, it's also a declaration rooted in trauma. Sadly many people got Coriolanus "politeness" as human decensy, but it was just a manipulation thing to get the best of every situation for him. Besides just imagine staying with a violent and possesive partner just because you think you are meant to be, of course we then see Lucy Gray take her choice to leave Corio when she sees the first signs of his madness and cruelty.

“I'm content where she's content. Like the geese, we did mate for life"

My problem with this statement is kind of the same that with Katniss' statement, or at least with the romantization of it, the stick to first love issue, and I'm saying this as someone who loves and romantize first loves and young lovers a lot, I think it's beautiful being certain of your feelings or comitments to another person, BUT I'm also realistic or try to be, and I know first loves rarely get a "happily ever after" because of course you are young, there's a lot to get to know, what you want, and there's not scenario in which Haymitch gets reaped and his and Lenore Dove relationship would work after their teen year, even if Snow hadn't killed get their relationship would start to worn out and fracture for many many reasons (I have say it in others post so I won't get deep into it). Also we now for a fact that GEESE DO NOT MATE FOR LIFE.

So, what this three quotes have in common?

1) the meaning or implication that without the other you just can't be or have a life, 2) that they all come from a place of guilt and trauma, and 3) the same characters making this statements contradicts it.

Katniss choses Peeta over Gale.

Lucy Gray leaves Coriolanus.

Haymitch's "the walls of a person's heart are not impregnable, not if they have ever known love" + geese don't mate for life.

[livingfandomly]

Time to talk about it… Peeta erasure. Why is it so easy to fall for that trap?

The most obvious answer is that he isn’t the main character, Katniss is. But then, why do we laud Lucy Gray, also not the protagonist of her book, as the OG Mockingjay? What does Peeta lack?

Well, Peeta is a bread aka a carb. We avoid carbs. It’s just the way of life. (Hahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha I’m so sorry guys it just came out as I was typing 😭)

Anyway. Yes. Peeta.

Well, his manner of playing the games is very similar to how Haymitch played his, but executed stunningly better. His “rebellions” can literally be passed off as a smitten boy wanting to keep his crush safe and guess what, here’s the biiiiiig reveal, we fall for the same trap that the Capitol does.

As readers, we see him through Katniss which means the first sight we see him with is suspicion. Why does he want to talk to Haymitch alone? How is he so good at faking it and winning everyone over? What is he planning, what’s his end game? So on and so forth. The second emotion we feel towards Peeta is confusion and anger. The same questions repeat themselves with no answer unveiled, leading to an unsettling doubt planting seed - is he telling the truth? By the time the third emotion comes around we, along with Katniss, now care about him. This is still just the first book.

Now, this exact narrative is how the story plays out to the Capitol and we, with them, fall for the sweetened trap of a love story. That’s the entire argument about the series anyway, no? That we care about the couple more than the point? Well, unfortunately, that theme continues to play out as we see Peeta as someone caught up in an unsuspecting web when he’s actually the one who spun it.

It’s an unfortunate fact that Katniss would not have made it out of her games if Peeta hadn’t been the other tribute from her district. Having Peeta immediately removed the first part of her competition - your home tribute. Then, he goes above and beyond to make her look pretty, to talk her up, sacrificing every second he could use to keep himself alive on her. The plot plays out with him in the centre, protecting her both from her fellow tributes and from the watching world. Even when the berries scene comes up Katniss only wants them to come out alive and realises the repercussions later. Peeta? His quote is, “Hold them out. I want everyone to see.” Defiant. Direct. Dangerous. But no, to the audience - both in and outside the book - it just meant “let them all see clearly so that they can stop us in time”. Alas, us readers are as naive as our protagonist.

We see the picture of Peeta as painted by Katniss, someone who loved her so much that he’d do anything to keep her alive. We even pity him by the end of the first book because that’s what Katniss does, once again not realising that he orchestrated so much of why they’re now in trouble. His perspective is washed away, much like Haymitch’s games are retold, and we don’t take him as a serious contender… maybe ever?

—————————————Tis Part I. Lemme know if you’d like a Part II and III though I’m likely to not have any self-control on the matter anyway.

[stone-age-brownie]

'Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without.' -Gale, Mockingjay.

This is such an interesting quote, as I initially interpreted it as an emotional survival, that Gale meant Katniss would pick whoever she thought she couldn't LIVE without, whoever had marked her life in such a way that being without him was unthinkable.

And the hunger games proves time and time again, that that person is Peeta. Katniss takes care of him and nurses him back to health in the first Games, even if they're faking their relationship she is still drawn to him: 'Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me. I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.' -Katniss, the hunger games.

She even says so in Catching fire: ' "No one really needs me,” he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.'

But then we see what Gale truly meant, with Katniss' thoughts: 'A chill runs through me. Am I really that cold and calculating? Gale didn’t say, “Katniss will pick whoever it will break her heart to give up,” or even “whoever she can’t live without.” Those would have implied I was motivated by a kind of passion. But my best friend predicts I will choose the person who I think I “can’t survive without.” There’s not the least indication that love, or desire, or even compatibility will sway me. I’ll just conduct an unfeeling assessment of what my potential mates can offer me. As if in the end, it will be the question of whether a baker or a hunter will extend my longevity the most.' -Katniss, Mockingjay.

Gale doesn't talk about love, he talks about survival because that's what his relationship with Katniss is based on. They first met out hunting to provide for their families, they paired up and taught each other different skills, again pointing to survival. Before Katniss' Games she even states that she would be upset if Gale found a girl because 'good hunting partners are hard to come by' not because of any feelings.

And afterwards, when they do have that little bit of romance, it's still based on survival. Katniss first kisses Gale (not their first kiss which was initiated by him) when's he's gravely hurt after having been whipped, so his life and survival is in danger, and its again in this scene where she thinks that him being with anyone else is unthinkable and that he is hers and she is his, she thinks of choosing him as choosing him and the rebellion- pointing to survival.

And in the end, when it's all over, when Katniss herself has survived but her old life hasn't- District 12 is gone, Prim dies at the hands of the rebellion, she lets Gale go. To Gale it may mean that she doesn't have that dire need of survival anymore and therefore doesn't need him, but we can interpret it as Katniss not choosing who she can't survive without, but choosing who she wants to LIVE with.

(Thank you for coming to my TED talk. This was not supposed to be this long).

(if anyone knows the original art's creator let me know!)

[claudiarya]

I just finished Sunrise on the Reaping and I can’t stop thinking about it.

To me the cruelty of this fucking world we’re living in can be represented by these two quotes, both by Plutarch.

From Mockingjay and of course from Sunrise on the Reaping.

We will ever learn? Are we ever going to be able to put a stop to all the propaganda and the massacres we see everyday?