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Polly Tootal

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your unreliable narrator fucking bit me

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you requested more butch arms?

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It’s gotten so fashionable on tumblr to hate on The Beatles but who else is going to eat rotten wood and contribute to soil fertility in complex forest ecosystems?

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free museum trips are wasted on unappreciative middle schoolers. let me go

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when people are like “he’s not even attractive you could find a guy that looks like him at any gas station” i’m like….. well you see there’s beauty everywhere actually

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A painting of some edible flowers ~

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compilation

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by Pallas Athena

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republican trade school brother and liberal arts degree sister

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I need to take a moment and do a deep dive on the scene where Katniss sits with Gale after he's been whipped vs the scene where Katniss sits with Peeta as they work on the plant book.

Why these two scenes? These scenes in particular I feel like have a lot of similarities as far as Katniss' narration is concerned. They are both scenes where she is alone with either boy in an unrushed, natural environment where she is capable of really looking at them and noticing them both. and in both scenes she IS actively noticing them. it is important to note though, that the tone of these scenes are pretty different, since Gale's is right after he was whipped, and she's still reeling from her intense day. Even so, the plant book scene with Peeta takes place during a time where Katniss has more reason to be worried about her life/family than ever, so I feel like a direct comparison of these isn't too much of a stretch.

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The Gale text in question:

"I touch parts of him I have never had cause to touch before. His heavy, dark eyebrows, the curve of his cheek, the line of his nose, the hollow at the base of his neck. I trace the outline of stubble on his jaw and finally work my way to his lips. Soft and full, slightly chapped. His breath warms my chilled skin." (CF, 116)

The biggest thing to note is the detail in which she describes him. Katniss takes her time and touches Gale's face with her hand, taking in his features. and yet, most of the descriptions are very generic and could adequately be attributed to most anyone's face, including Peeta's. Even the lines where she takes a bit more notice 'his heavy, dark eyebrows', 'the outline of the stubble on his jaw' are pretty vague and don't give much detail into her REALLY noticing him. the most detailed part we get is the last line about his lips.

Let's keep all of that in mind while we contrast that to the lines any Everlark fan probably knows by heart - the eyelash scene:

"I also become a little fixated on his eyelashes, which ordinarily you don't notice much because they're so blond. But up close, in the sunlight slanting in from the window, they're a light golden color and so long I don't see how they keep from getting all tangled up when he blinks." (CF, 161)

In the time it took for her to describe Gale's entire face, she only managed to describe Peeta's eyelashes. the level of detail that she notices about Peeta goes far beyond what she sees about Gale, even in a moment where she's really taking the time to look at him. The description she gives about Gale's face really accentuates her feelings towards their relationship - practical, obvious, concise. Whereas the description for Peeta just highlights what shes been thinking about him all along - interesting, perplexing, alluring. It's clear from those paragraphs that she just doesn't see Gale in the same way that she sees Peeta.

These scenes can be analyzed all day, and I've been busy making notes on the way she describes both boys, to be compiled and analyzed once I've gone through all 3 books, but I feel like these two scenes alone give a very good look into Katniss' mind and what she really sees in each of her boys.

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Okay so Katniss is autistic, like there is a STAGGERING amount of evidence of it throughout the books. I think we all know that Suzanne Collins doesn't do things by mistake or accident, I fully believe this is what she intended for Katniss.

1. She literally went non verbal in district 13 for a solid while. (Multiple times)

2. Cannot read social situations to save her life (she would be GONE without Haymitch and Peeta's help in the first book). Just look at how Johanna and Finnick teased her during the opening ceremony of CF, no neuro-typical reacts like that.

3. Can't seem to fathom the idea of someone being interested in her

4. Sensory issues with clothes, how the capital made boots felt wrong compared to her old shoes. Literally any costume Cinna made her wear during the victors tour. ALSO HER WEDDING DRESS AND TRYING THEM ON!!

5. Takes everything so fucking literally

6. Ppl think she's scary and mysterious because sometimes she forgets to emote

7. Her intense feelings of justice (she was the face of a goddamn revolution)

8. CPTSD has major cross overs with autism, the way she breaks down in CF after seeing Marvel's body being shot with the arrow !!! Trust me when I say the way she immediately started freaking out, the shaking in her hands, how she physically hunches in on herself.

9. Her mental connections, like how when she was dehydrated and wishing for water from Haymitch, just to be like 'lol that means water is nearby!!' like girl what

10. "I decided to go ahead and like Boggs" -what neuro-typical thinks like this

11. She told me herself (real)