thedandelion-inthespring

[thedandelion-inthespring]

Katniss and her Dad

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haymitch says himself katniss is like him, but luckier.

katniss realized the berries were nightlock before peeta ate them.

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A few days after that, Katniss showed up with an old basket filled with goose eggs. “Not to eat, to hatch. I raided a few different nests, so they can breed all right.” Never mind that we had roast goose for dinner.

the implication that haymitch eats with his kids regularly is something so personal to me. i mean, i know the films ended with a scene of the three of them having dinner but that was never actually canon until now, in the year of 2025.

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But while I think Haymitch might gamble with my life in the arena, I don’t think he’d rat me out to Coin. Whatever problems we may have with each other, we prefer resolving our differences one-on-one.

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Some streets away from the square, I see a blaze flare up. None of us has to say it. That can only be the Hob going up in smoke. I think of Greasy Sae, Ripper, all my friends who make their living there.

“Haymitch, you don’t think everyone was still in — ” I can’t finish the sentence.

“Nah, they’re smarter than that. You’d be, too, if you’d been around longer,” he says.

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As much as Brutalist architecture can be cool, I wish the films went with how the Capitol was described in the books; colorful.

All the skyscrapers and streets were bright, clashing colors and while that might look obnoxious on camera, wouldn't that be the point? The yellows are "painful to the eyes," and the "greens too bright." Going with that description, the movie could have shown more of how bizarre the Capitol is compared to District 12.

Brutalist architecture is associated with a lot of Soviet Union-era Europe and what America sees as fascism, which makes sense for the movie and it does look cool. I also think the neo-classical/roman elements were a brilliant addition. I just wish they made it colorful and much more shiny because the Brutalism is too obvious.

Plus, it would add to the dichotomy between how dark the city is, and that just because it's bright and colorful doesn't mean it doesn't have a seedy underbelly.

Brutalism I associated more with D2 and while D2 and the Capitol have close connections, they still have a drastically different world, and showing a difference in architecture could have added to that.

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The best bit of this is in the tags!

what if the everdeens still had prim’s baby clothes was because they were trying for another and burdock died before they could conceive

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It’s a special type of twisted that Snow waited until Haymitch got home to kill his family and Lenore Dove. That fire could have been set whenever. Lenore Dove could have died in custody. But Snow waited until Haymitch was within reach of his loved ones to take them away.

But in a way he did give Haymitch the opportunity to keep Lenore Dove. He didn’t have to fed her the gum drops. If either one of them had been thinking and questioned where those gum drop came from… Lenore Dove didn’t have to die. (Obviously it’s not Haymitch’s fault.)

Oh god and the way Peeta was hijacked to kill Katniss… fuck. That freak was obsessed with making District 12 boys kill their Covey girls.

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Katniss scratched Haymitch's face and damaged his eye when she found out what happened to Peeta at the end of CF and somehow there are people still thinking she settled for that boy. Hmm.

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I love (but also hate) the idea that Johanna was just another "failed" Mockingjay. How much did she sacrifice/attempt in her games that made her lose everyone she loved? How close was she to being the reason the games ended? How many districts or even people in the Capitol did she expose to the truth of things only for her to be bitter, angry, and alone after all that effort?

And then along comes Katniss. She's blunt and rough around the edges just like you are. And she gets to be revered in a way you never were. She's loved for her "bad attitude" and flawed personality in ways no one else in the movement has loved you. She's the promise you never got to fulfill to not only your district, your mentors, but yourself too.

You go from being full of potential to just another soldier, helping out a more "palatable", more "inspiring" version of yourself. You were never good enough to be Katniss, so you think. So why play nice? Why not play into the aggression and the spite? It's all you have left.

Johanna Mason I see you.

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frames from a wip sotr animatic im working on

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my mind has been developing this head cannon that katniss's toast babies have the personality traits of the opposite parent. like despite katniss's daughter outwardly looking like her (except for the blue eyes), she a ball of easy-going, extroverted energy and artistic expression that she would have to be peeta's daughter. and the thought that a little boy that looks just like peeta would be observant, quiet with a few friends, and loves retreating to the woods with his mom every weekend literally makes me want to cry.

but then they both have this unreserved kindness for others that makes it clear that they are their parents' children through and through.

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okay, yes, Haymitch did choose Katniss in that first arena, whether it was because he thought she had a better chance, or because Peeta oozed martyrdom, or because of personal loyalties to Burdock, or all of the above — but as soon as it becomes possible to save both of them, let’s not forget that Haymitch is doing his damndest to save Peeta too; he is getting the money for drugs and food and expensive medicine; he was prioritizing Katniss initially, but the line “he loves Peeta too” isn’t in there for no reason; Haymitch didn’t have to save them both; he could have communicated “cut your losses; he’s too wounded and too much of a liability” to Katniss, (who, again did not need Peeta or the romance to survive at that point in the Games) but no! he wanted to save them both, and he did

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I know we all love the toast baby daughter but the toast baby son is also so precious to me because he’s proof Katniss and Peeta adored their first child so much that they wanted another. How can people think Katniss’s children were concessions to Peeta when they had a chance to stop it at one to keep him happy but they went and had another? They love their little family so much and wanted it to grow. A little boy who will always feel loved to complement a big sister who won’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders. Who have parents who will always make them feel safe and protected.

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so re: @rosegardeninwinter’s ask about how burdock is related to the covey, i’m gonna tell you my interpretation. i don’t necessarily consider this a headcanon, though i probably should, but i feel so strongly this is the way we were meant to take burdock’s connection to the covey. so sorry to anyone who disagrees but ya know. if you reblog please be nice. we don’t need people getting all rude and snippy up in here. i know a lot of people dislike katniss being covey so keep going with your headcanons but this is how i interpreted the text.

and yeah, y’all, this is me with my tinfoil hat trying to make this all work together to make sense :

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okay so, let me break this down from small to large.

the covey consisted originally of six members.

we had barb azure, lucy gray and maude ivory, blood cousins, all with the last name baird.

clerk carmine and billy taupe who are blood brothers with the last name clade.

then we have tam amber. no blood relations or last name in sight.

so there’s no reason to believe that any others are related to the covey unless it’s through these six. the whole idea i’ve seen thrown around on tiktok and twitter that maybe more people could be related to the covey is anti-canon. these six members were stated to be each other’s only living family in tbosas. there’s no other way into the covey than through one of these six.

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so anyways, from there we can move onto the deaths in and after ballad.

we know billy taupe left/got kicked out of the covey when he started cheating on lucy gray with mayfair. and we know he and mayfair both died. so that takes him completely out of the conversation here. if suzanne ever decides burdock is his relation into the covey, it’ll be a weird, left field decision. so until then, i’m gonna count billy taupe out. although there is a sweet irony if billy taupe was burdock’s grandfather, considering that would mean katniss is the descendant of lucy gray’s ex and that would make it so much more infuriating for old coryo.

after that, lucy gray either was murdered by snow or disappeared. we’ll never know which. she had a gravestone in the covey graveyard but it’s most likely they did that when she ran away with coryo and never returned. the possibility of her return and later death creates a whole series of hoops to now jump through to make it work and with suzanne, often the simplest and most obvious answer is the correct one.

then we know maude ivory died somewhere between ballad and the ending of sunrise because she has a gravestone too in the covey graveyard. we’re not given any more info on this so this is where the real interpreting must begin to take place.

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now we move onto lenore dove. here’s all we know about my girl here. her mother died in childbirth with her. she’s being raised by her uncles, clerk carmine and tam amber who are not biologically related to her, and her last name is also baird. no one knows who her father is. so to me, all signs point to her mother being maude ivory. she’s dead in the graveyard and her namesake poem is about a woman being scorned by her lover when he chooses to marry someone else (which fits well with lenore dove’s father never claiming her/maybe not even knowing she exists or is his).

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so now that we’ve explained how everyone else is related in the covey, we need to cover our final two bases here :

barb azure is not mentioned in sunrise on the reaping once. she’s the only member of the covey, aside from billy taupe who kicked the bucket, who isn’t mentioned in the book.

burdock everdeen is related “distantly” to lenore dove, but haymitch says she’s not one of his everdeen cousins and that she has to be related through burdock’s mother. now why would suzanne specify this, unless she’s strongly hinting to us about the connection?

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the only available avenue for burdock to be related to the covey would be through barb azure. as i stated before, there’s no canonical other option for someone to be related to the covey outside the six members mentioned in ballad. three of those members are dead by sunrise. that leaves three possible ones left and we know neither clerk carmine or tam amber are burdock’s father, because neither had kids and it’s through burdie’s ma that he’s covey anyways. that only leaves barb azure.

the relation would be considered distant as well, because lenore dove and him would be the children of two cousins. meaning their common ancestors would be their great-grandparents. that more than qualifies as a distant relation lololol.

another thing that links burdock to the covey biologically is his voice. singing voices are inherited, genetic traits (it’s not guaranteed you can sing if your parent can but i think y’all get what i mean). no male in the covey was said to be a talented singer but all three baird girls were. burdock has a remarkable singing voice according to katniss, peeta, otho and less so, haymitch. as does burdie’s little girl, katniss. this seems to also point to him being biologically related to the covey, which again, can only be through barb azure.

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now i’m moving onto a few counter arguments i’ve seen against barb azure being burdock’s mother and why they don’t dissuade me from this interpretation at all :

“she’s gay” being the number one reason. because she was seeing a girl in ballad. i don’t know why this is such a strong argument against her being burdie’s mama. first off, barb azure likely could have been bi! or she could be in a lavender marriage in sunrise with burdock’s everdeen pa. i mean suzanne did take the time to sit down and tell us about there being an anti-gay sentiment in panem so maybe it was meant to be a double implication. maybe snow made this a thing when he came to power specifically to target the cousin(s) of lucy gray. who knows. but one line in ballad isn’t anywhere close to enough to discredit barb azure being burdock’s mama. and personally i prefer the she’s bi, because it’s much happier, for both her and burdie.

“she’s old” being the other reason. some think she’s too old and must be burdock’s grandma, and to that i still say, no <3. because it feels too complicated. and like i said above, with suzanne the most obvious is usually the correct assumption. also we don’t know how old barb azure is, just that she’s a little older than lucy gray. however we never ever hear of there being birth control in panem and especially not in the districts. so even if she’s in her forties, it’s not that hard to believe she is burdock’s mama. especially because we don’t even know how old burdock is technically. just that he’s younger than haymitch, who’s sixteen. but not by much since he’s standing with him at the reaping in sunrise.

the one thing i’ll also throw out there is, barb azure does not have a gravestone at the covey cemetery. meaning she’s not dead yet. i understand she could be burdock’s grandma and still be alive, of course lololol. but her being his mother and being on the older side would actually track much better with katniss never mentioning having a grandma/knowing her grandma at all. like haymitch knew his mamaw and talked about her/had fond memories of her. but katniss didn’t. she never even mentions meeting her grandparents. and from haymitch’s account, burdock’s ma sounded like a sweet lady, letting the kids play and waste the family resources for fun. like katniss would have loved her if she’d ever known the woman, so it tracks katniss didn’t know her or else she’d have mentioned it to us (or if suzanne had this more fleshed out back in 2008). which also fits well with barb azure being an older mother, meaning she probably died before katniss was even born since people don’t live typically to be that old in the seam.

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now onto the other possibilities for burdock’s distant relation to the covey :

i already covered that i don’t buy that there’s a way to be even distantly related through any way other than the six members introduced in ballad.

barb azure and her lady friend from that one line in ballad adopted burdock. i don’t mind this one as a fanfic idea or if it makes people happy if they hate the katniss is covey theory because it takes away the biological connection to the family but i don’t see any reason for it to be taken too seriously. its once again too complicated and probably more hoops than suzanne intended for us to jump through.

maude ivory is burdock’s mom and lucy gray is lenore dove’s. I don’t dislike this idea at all. in fact, i really like it. i always wanted maude ivory to be burdock’s mom. and considering lenore dove is wearing remnants of lucy gray’s rainbow dress and she sings her songs (not that she knew her either way but still, the similarities) and the fact that a dove is half gray, i think it’s a really cool theory. but it also ruins the mystery of lucy gray and further complicates the story and i don’t buy into it unfortunately. but another reasoning i’ve seen for this idea is burdock knew where the graves were, indicating maybe maude ivory is his mother, as she had definitively already passed by the end of the sunrise and barb azure hadn’t. to which i just say, yeahhhh. but it’s their family graveyard. i don’t see why someone has to die for burdock to know where it is.

also just to throw in here one last detail : barb azure is named after the ballad of barbara allen, which based on my google search is a poem ultimately about a woman who rejects the love of a dying man only to die of grief herself after his passing… i don’t know, it’s not a perfect fit but why does that almost sound loosely like burdock and asterid, with him dying in the mines and her seemingly never recovering from her grief? why does it almost feel reminiscent of katniss and peeta in mockingjay? i don’t know, maybe it’s nothing, but i felt it was worth mentioning.

and now i hope that explains my interpretation well enough, because i’m so tired i can’t think of anything else to add. hopefully that all made sense but just to wrap it up here, once and for all :

maude ivory —> lenore dove (potential daughter) or burdock everdeen (potential son)

tam amber —> no biological kids

clerk carmine —> no biological kids.

billy taupe —> no biological kids.

lucy gray —> no biological kids/maybe lenore dove’s mother.

barb azure —> maybe burdock’s ma.

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Coriolanus: no I do love Lucy Gray I do but where are we supposed to live??? a cave??? 🙄😵‍💫🤢

Katniss: 🥹 one time Peeta and I lived in a cave 🥹

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The first real conversation Katniss has with Peeta is when he tells her that he wants to die as himself, that he doesn't want the games to change him into something he's not, and that he wants to keep his identity and prove he's more than just a piece in their games because that's the only thing he has left to care about.

The first time we see Lucy Gray she sings a song that basically says that nothing they could take from her was worth keeping. "Can't take my past. Can't take my history... You can't take my charm. You can't take my health."

The capitol has taken everything from them both, but at the same time, they could never take away who they are.

They are both likeable charismatic and funny, with the kindest hearts, and incredibly loyal to the people they care about.

At the same time, everything they do before the games, and during is calculated. Lucy Gray singing a love song and winning the hearts of the capitol. Peeta confesses he's in love with his district partner, therefore cementing her identity as desirable. Both of them know how to sway people with words, how to charm people, and how to manipulate crowds. Neither of them has any problem doing so to keep themselves, and the people they love safe.

Lucy Gray's song The Old Therebefore, about learning how to love and live her life to the fullest before death, a final and calculated stroke in a last-ditch effort to save herself from the arena. This evokes enough emotion in the watchers to get them to rise to their feet and plead for her life alongside Snow.

Snow, watching the 74th and preparing for the 75th Hunger Games sees Lucy Gray in Katniss. A young girl, from the 12th district. Unafraid at the reaping. Selling a false love story, manipulating a boy who loves her in order to get out and supporting the revolution with the mockingjay as her symbol.

He threatens her family to get her to sell that she and Peeta are in love, to prevent the revolution, because obviously, she's pretending. He's had experience with a girl just like her before. He has no doubt that she has the acting ability to sell this story because clearly, she manipulated the first Hunger Games in her favor, the same way Lucy Gray manipulated him.

Watching the interviews for the 75th Hunger Games he realizes-

Katniss is just an impulsive girl, in a Mockingjay dress she didn't know about, made by someone who supports the revolution.

Peeta is a boy who has the ability to move people with just his words. He made Katniss desirable, he was the one who sold the love story, and he was the one to make their romance seem real. Katniss only started the revolution because she would rather risk dying with him than live without him. A concept President Snow was completely unfamiliar with. And it is with all these realizations crashing around him Peeta drops the baby bomb. He knows the baby's not real, and so does Snow. But it evokes enough emotion in the watchers to get them to rise to their feet and plead for the lives of the tributes.

Is it Lucy Gray or Peeta?

By the time Snow realizes he's made a mistake, it's too late.

Peeta is still charming and manipulating the capitol. Katniss is in love.

He goes up against a kindhearted boy expecting to beat Sejanus again, only to find out that it's Lucy Gray he's fighting; knowing he will never be able to escape their ghosts.

-from a conversation i had with @grandtyphoonpoetry breaking down every character in the hunger games.