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thinking once again about how there is not a single victor from district 12 that didn't defy the capitol in order to win. i can't wait to see more of haymitch's story

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BABE WAKE UP NEW HUNGER GAMES BOOK JUST ANNOUNCED

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BABE WAKE UP NEW HUNGER GAMES BOOK JUST ANNOUNCED

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peeta why r u walking around the arena w gale around your neck ... Cuck.......

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snow instructing lucy gray to head underground in search of safety in the 10th games & later on katniss & her unit heading into the tunnels below the capitol to get through undetected like... yeah babe your own advice was used against you!

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The ending of the Hunger Games movie with Snow reluctantly crowing Katniss a winner and brushing aside her hair only to see a mockingjay pin is so fucking funny after reading tbosas and knowing exactly who and what is haunting him at this moment and Katniss explains “it’s from my District” yeah lmao he knows babe he’s been

They were the first things he could never control and they’ve absolutely haunted him to think about ever since

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i think finnick deserved to live way more than gale did. argue with the wall.

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truly haunted by “i think you look just like your father, coriolanus” because he knew exactly what she meant by that too

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i feel like these posts get a sprinkle more deranged every time i upload

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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.

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 ✊🏻😔

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You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you.

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Oh no

And can you tell me was it worth it?

Baby, I don't want to know

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Coriolanus Snow in TBOSAS a summary:

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something else really small that i love about tbosas is that it puts into perspective why the capitol, especially as it is so young, really couldn't stomach the idea of a tribute fully going off the rails in order to win.

if you remember, in the first book, katniss describes titus, a tribute who was purposely killed by an avalanche (?) in his arena due to committing cannibalism. one would think that because of the purpose of the games, the capitol's citizens would love seeing a tribute engaging in something like this, so carnal and wild, as it reinforces their beliefs that the people in the districts are lower than them, subhuman even; animal.

but they don't.

in tbosas, we recieve the context that during the dark ages, some capitol citizens were forced to devour human flesh in order to survive. it was that or starve. being so soon after the games were established, i have no doubt that many of the people who were compelled to do so were still alive. if not that, perhaps their relatives or even children. the deep trauma of that experience hit far too close to home; the capitol citizens were seeing themselves reflected in titus, and they couldn't bear it.

i think about this literally 24/7, all the time, it's my roman empire sometimes and it's one of my favorite little details we're given in the prequel

Another thing I really liked about TBOSBAS is it shows how short history can be. Like in the original trilogy, we know that the games have been happening for 74 years, but by going back to the 10th games, and getting flashbacks from the war, we see that it really has only been a few generations. And (some of) those people are still around in THG. Mags won the 11th games, literally months after TBOSBAS. obviously Snow is still around, and Tigris, but there’s countless others too that turn the whole “this is how things are and always have been” ideology on its head. The inception of the games is actual living memory for people when Katniss volunteered at the reaping.

It’s the difference between looking at black and white photographs of Ruby Bridges attending school in a history book and seeing an interview of her now at 69 years old.

History does not exist separate from the present, and we’re not as far from it as we think.

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i think something that elevates the hunger games franchise is not just the quality of writing but the integrity of it. tbosas isn’t just a cash-grab by suzanne collins in the age of sequels and reboots (though i won’t pretend that didn’t play a part), it’s a character study of the main antagonist with a different structure than the main trilogy. and importantly, it doesn’t just re-hash the same old themes and beats the main trilogy had, it expands on not just the world of the hunger games but the themes as well, it actually has something new to say about the trilogy’s themes about class, capitalism, power, and control, in a way that couldn’t be explored with the main story because the protagonist of that story simply did not have access to the world that’s being explored in tbosas.

i understand the people who call for books/movies to be made about haymitch, finnick, johanna, different years of the games — we love those characters and want to see more of them! i’d kill for a novella on finnick’s days mentoring tributes, or katniss’s parents falling in love. but at the end of the day we probably wouldn’t be very satisfied with those stories being fleshed out if they had absolutely nothing new to say about the world, they’d be enjoyable, but not as interesting and engaging as tbosas has been.

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My hunger games obsession has one arm poking out of its shallow grave 🧌