peetamellarkenjoyer1

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

now that we have sotr, i wanted to update this post about how katniss’ power comes not from her similarities to lucy gray, but in their differences. i’m still working out my feelings about katniss being canonically covey descended, because i don’t love the implications for the 74th reaping to begin with. but i am at least glad that the covey connection has no bearing on what makes katniss the symbol of the revolution.

lucy gray’s livelihood was music. she believed that her voice was the skill which kept her and her family alive. from the minute she started singing at the reaping, before they even met, snow recognized it as the only currency she possessed, and thus, the only power she wielded. it was her ticket to victory, and they both knew it. to her knowledge, it was her last line of defense in the arena against the snakes. in the end, singing to the jabberjays may have been what saved her from snow.

in sotr, we learn that burdock’s covey connection comes not from the everdeens, but from his mother’s side. unlike her singing voice, katniss’ skill with a bow is an everdeen characteristic, through and through. and archery, not music, is what katniss identifies as the source of her strength, as the skill which keeps her alive. and it’s true; she never would have been a real threat without that bow. she simply wouldn’t have survived long enough. not after burdock died, not in the arena(s), and not in the war. she also would never have been able to shoot coin and end the cycle of the dehumanizing “opinion” of governance.

yes, a lot of katniss’ “power” over snow comes from her connection to the covey (her name, singing their songs, girl from district 12 “pretending” to be in love with a blond boy, etc.). and there is no doubt that the covey connection is imperative to katniss’ cultural identity and her relationship to her father. but not one of the qualities which make katniss the mockingjay for the people, which is her real threat in bringing about the capitol’s downfall, has anything to do with lucy gray or the covey at large.

beyond the bow which keeps her alive, katniss’ power comes from a variety of non-covey sources. cinna’s costumes, while echoing lucy gray in unforgettability, make her not appealing, but striking, as the “girl on fire.” tying the district 12 tributes together comes from haymitch, the rebellion, and most importantly, her luck of being reaped alongside peeta, someone willing to give his life to save hers. her compassion for prim, peeta, rue, thresh, and even cato is rooted in her mother, who snuck into the seam to treat people for free and left her privileged life behind to marry a coal miner. even katniss’ ability to heal both herself and peeta, which keeps them alive long enough to hold out the berries, comes from asterid.

the covey and their legacy touches katniss more than most in district 12, but that isn’t part of her appeal to the masses. there is music class in district 12, and peeta, asterid, and maysilee recognize and feel emotionally connected to many of their songs. the galvanizing effect of their music could have come from any mouth singing banned songs with provocative words. that’s clear because it works when no one, not even katniss, knows of her heritage. when katniss sings, her beautiful voice is not what moves people—it’s the timing, the moments when she sings: to rue, and to pollux and the mockingjays. ultimately, katniss is not a performer, which is, as haymitch points out, explicitly what people respond to about her.

katniss’ similarity to lucy gray is undoubtedly a rose thorn in snow’s side, and most certainly leads to his recklessness in exacting his vengeance against her. in fact, it’s snow’s attempted exploitation of that connection by trying to force katniss to be a performer that is his predominant failure. but the effect on snow, personally, isn’t what ignites the rebellion. it certainly isn’t what makes the revolution successful. that is a concerted, unified effort of decades, which results in katniss and peeta holding hands at the opening ceremonies in burning costumes. in no one being able to blow katniss and peeta in the air when they hold out those berries. in giving katniss the wire to fire into the force field.

as snow himself notes before her victory tour, no one would believe her death was an accident after she held out the berries. she is already a martyr before she really starts to perform. because, unlike for lucy gray, reaper, haymitch, finnick, and the other potential symbols, the people of the districts are already primed and ready to fight. katniss, in a burning costume, is the human manifestation of marching orders. she is a signal to something that already exists.

the kindling is laid. the logs are stacked. the gas is poured. the striker is not around her neck, but in maysilee’s pin on her shirt. all katniss would need to do to start the fire is find a striking rock on a berry bush in her arena. a striking rock which she could only recognize because of her father. whose true power she only understands because of peeta. power she only chooses to use because of her sense of justice, displayed through her solidarity.

solidarity, not an inherited musical talent, not twirling in a colorful dress at the interviews, not a “performance” as a lovestruck girl, is what lights the spark of revolution. it’s a quality katniss shares not with lucy gray, but with haymitch. of course, the difference between them is that haymitch did not have the benefit of a locked and loaded rebel movement in place to ensure the world would be watching. but snow’s lingering obsession with lucy gray is also not what makes katniss a success where haymitch failed. from haymitch, the rebellion learned that its symbol is needed not to build the fire, but to light the spark.

in a line of failed attempts ranging from beetee to haymitch to finnick, katniss is successful because, this time, the groundwork is laid to launch the districts into a planned, full-scale rebellion. in displaying her love for prim, for rue, and for peeta, her solidarity was the striker hitting the rock at just the right moment. katniss, the springtime daughter of asterid march, the prodigal archer of the everdeen line, the girl who fights not for herself, but for everyone else, is the mockingjay not because she bleeds covey blood, but because in selecting the moment she starts to burn, she is “luckier, [and] with better timing.” and that is a fire that even snow, the #1 peacekeeper, would never have been able to quell.

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

A missing scene from The Hunger Games inspired by Sunrise on the Reaping.

Haymitch wakes on the floor the morning after the training scores. This isn’t unusual, as the pristine linens on his bed have gone untouched all week. He scrubs a tired hand over his face and heads to the kitchen to fix himself a drink.

The boy is already at the dining table swirling a spoon through his tea.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Haymitch muses.

“Nah, I’m always up before the sun,” the boy replies.

Haymitch feels a chill creep up his spine. Why is this damn place crawling with so many ghosts?

“Nervous?” asks Haymitch.

The boy doesn’t respond. His eyes dart down the hallway then settle back on his tea. He’s checking for the girl.

Haymitch knew this was bound to happen. An alliance can only take you so far when there can only be one winner.

That girl’s eleven was as good a death sentence as his name being pulled from the reaping bowl.

“You know an eight’s not so bad,” Haymitch reasons. “I scored a one back in the day and I’m still here.”

The boy snorts. “Really? I’d heard that before, but I figured it was a myth. What’d you do to get that?”

“We’ll save that story for another time,” he replies darkly.

The boy is looking down the hall again. “She should win,” he decides. “Katniss. Her sister needs her. Her mother too. Half the town depends on her, maybe even more. If anyone should come home, it should be her.”

A question rings at the back of his mind. “What do you want?”

Peeta stares at him. Blinks. “What I just said, for Katniss to win.”

“Yeah, I get that part, but this isn’t a competition you can bow out of. You’re still going into that Arena before all of Panem, and the odds are better for her the longer you stay alive. You want to die, but how do you want to do it?”

“I don’t get it.”

“What do you want your death to mean?”

The boy doesn’t answer.

“You got anyone back home?” Haymitch asks.

He shrugs. “My mother, my father, two brothers.”

Haymitch wracks his memory of the Mellarks. Otho’s boys were all on the older side. Peeta must be the youngest of them. Not that it matters. The baker keeps the Peacekeepers fed, no one would burn it down to teach some kid a lesson.

“A sweetheart?”

Peeta looks down the hall, his cheeks flushed. “Like a Katniss?”

Oh right, the nickname. “Like a girl,” he clarifies.

“No,” the boy shakes his head. His gaze lingers down the hall.

“I’m going to tell you something, then,” Haymitch says. “My mentor asked me the same question when I was a tribute: what do you want? And you know what I said?” He doesn’t wait for the kid’s answer. “I wanted my death to be enough.”

“Enough for what?”

“To be the last one.”

Peeta frowns as he considers it. “Okay, yeah, I think I get it. I don’t want my death to just be for entertainment. It’s not like I want to be mourned or anything. Or for it to be noble. I want the people watching to see me as a person, just like them. Not some nameless slaughter.”

Haymitch likes this kid. He’s the type to fashion a fork in the arena so no one could call him an animal in the end.

He doesn’t belong to them, he can hear Maysilee’s voice in his head. Don’t just hand him over. Make them fight for him.

He may not be able to turn Peeta Mellark into a Victor, but he can help him be remembered.

Effie comes to join them at the table. She looks ridiculous in some sort of silk bonnet and matching tutu.

“I should change,” Peeta says, feigning to stand. “I suddenly feel underdressed.”

My word, Maysilee would love this boy.

“No, stay,” Haymitch says.

“At least you’re taking this seriously,” Effie huffs. “Katniss is going to sleep through the Games entirely at this rate.”

“It’s good,” Haymitch says. “Gives us time to update our strategy.”

Effie goes pale. “Update? You know how I hate to improvise.”

“Yes, but you thrive at it.” Effie is pleased by the praise, so he continues. “Katniss does too. Better to keep her out of this.”

She doesn’t need to be burdened by Peeta’s sacrifice. She needs to focus on winning.

Too late, Katniss enters the room and goes straight for the food. She hasn’t even sat down before she starts digging into it. She’s aware of the tension. “So what’s going on?” she asks. “You’re coaching us on interviews today, right?”

“That’s right,” Haymitch says. No one at the table speaks.

She scoops another pile of rice into her mouth and says around the bite, “You don’t have to wait until I’m done. I can eat and listen at the same time.”

“Well there’s been a change in plans. About our current approach.”

“What’s that?”

“Peeta has asked to be coached separately.”

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

Haymitch saw Louella in Katniss and I have money on the table he saw Lou Lou in hijacked Peeta

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

Finding out that Lenore Dove used orange to show her protest and rebellion against the Capitol only for that to be Peeta's favorite color. I am feeling some kind of way about that let me tell you.

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

"I love you like all-fire"

love and fire being intrinsically tied together in a series that canonically has a wedding in which two people light a fire and feed each other toasted bread??? (and two children that symbolically marry their futures by having one burn bread to feed the other???) that shit makes me ILL how do i even SLEEP with that running through my mind????

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

the bisexual background is crazy

“Severance” actors Britt Lower, Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman photographed in Los Angeles Thursday (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) (via)

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

ok im Logging Out until roughly tomorrow at noon so i don't get any Severance spoilers Love and Light. see yall soon :P

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

yes!

the fact that the covey, who lucy gray staunchly defines as “not from 12” and as independent in the war, becomes unabashedly rebellious after her games is absolutely, devastatingly beautiful. she truly does haunt the narrative of those she left behind, just like her namesake

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

haymitch sending katniss the bread from 11 in the aftermath of rue’s death hits so much harder with the knowledge that mags sent him the coffee and strawberry ice cream after maysilee died

he was inviting her to cry to him the same way that mags had for him, the same way katniss does in mockingjay

he turned out to be so much more emotionally cognizant with katniss than we gave him credit for

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

he's actually god's strongest soldier i think

so you’re telling me that after what happened to louella/lou lou haymitch had to watch peeta come back from the capitol as a “mutt version of himself” and question whether the shell of a human with peeta’s face was even peeta at all

and he had to do all that SOBER???

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

You're telling me there's a Seam kid named Blair? As in the Battle of Blair Mountain??? Mz Collins I fucking love you.

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

They bombed near my friend's house, 50 martyrs.

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

I have the book, and because I’m this way, I had to check the epilogue first … “Peeta says” is a phrase Haymitch and Katniss both use as a shorthand for something being true, and I’m going to be thinking about that for a long time

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

@n1-adora-fan

very good post for babygirl

Obsessed with the DC tourist asking for clubs with a “no ugly people allowed” policy that plays house

Is this person NYC or LA? Place your bets

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

for me i think it's because he had a dad that loved him so much but also knew he wasn't going to survive the games

I'm struggling to put my finger on why, but Ampert's death has impacted me significantly more than any other death in the Hunger Games franchise

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

YES YES YES YES YES i didnt know how to say it and this puts it so well.

Effie is actually not fanservice because she is important to the theme of propaganda in SOTR

Effie is 100% brainwashed AND YET she still hasn't lost her humanity. She believes propaganda completely AND YET she doesn't use it as an excuse to abuse people. Throughout the book, the tributes are constantly dehumanised. But Effie doesn't treat Haymitch that way. She helps the team. She's there for him in the launch room- which Drusilla and so many Capitol citizens would never do.

So there really is no excuse for abusing people, not even "I was lied to" or "i thought i was in the right" or "I was fed propaganda"

You still choose how you interact with people around you and how you treat them.

Thanks for coming 2 my TED talk.

[peetamellarkenjoyer1]

Hi. Do you think Peeta finds it easy or challenging to read Katniss?

hi!! that’s a great question. i think that peeta pre-hijacking would probably find katniss quite difficult to read purely because of her inconsistency with herself. he tries to find patterns in places that just…don’t exist. i think he views her in a certain light and doesn’t anticipate deviation from that perspective.

for example, he doesn’t anticipate her reaction to the interview reveal in thg, and he’s shocked by her anger (which makes sense because they hardly know each other). but he doesn’t seem to fully comprehend the source of her anger even a year later because, in catching fire, after the baby reveal, he asks if there’s anything he needs to apologize for. before that, he’s shocked she’s mad at being perceived as “pure.” and later, he tries to use her family and gale as a means to get her to let him die in her place. these are moments that katniss herself can’t fully explain her feelings in her own head (at least, strategically, in the way she’d been so bent on thinking in other circumstances), so no wonder he’s confused!

however, i think he develops a strong instinct about her throughout their time together in the first two books that comes out more clearly post-hijacking. that’s not to say that it doesn’t exist pre-hijacking—the fact that he tries to have that “piece of their games” conversation on the rooftop, the nights on the train, and his uncertainty that the beach kiss is “for the cameras” (an uncertainty which even pushes through the hijacking state) demonstrates his instinct for her true emotions and thoughts. but i think it takes him until post-hijacking to truly *get* her and how she thinks.

the remarks he makes while recovering from the hijacking (telling her she’s not big or pretty, flirting with annie in front of her, implying they did more on the train than they did, etc.) are all sharp and devastating comments that hit katniss severely BECAUSE of the nature of their relationship. and i think he makes them to test her limits and get her to react. as gale says, the way he hates her is “so familiar.”

by the time they’re in the capitol, he’s able to get through to her in a way no one else can when she admits her plan was based on a lie. i personally subscribe to the belief that he is responsible for saving her from the worst of the burns in prim’s bombing because he anticipated her actions (though that’s not officially canon, it’s just subtly suggested). then, of course, there’s the fact that he knew she was going for her nightlock capsule after shooting snow and put his hand out to block her.

post-hijacking peeta can read katniss like a BOOK. that’s not to say she can’t surprise him—i truly don’t think he knew how she’d react to the primroses outside her house. but i think that, once the admission at the end of thg that she had been acting stripped him of his rose-colored glasses, and the shiny, animus-filled fog from the hijacking cleared, he was probably able to see her more plainly than he ever had.

by the time they reach “so after,” there’s no doubt that he knows every inch of who she is. and he loves every single part. when he asks her if she loves him, real or not real, i personally believe that he’s not asking because he doesn’t know that she chose him, that she wants him, and that she loves him. he asks less because he wants validation (although that is certainly part of it), but because he wants to know that she is healed enough to admit to herself, and to him that she loves him before they dive into forever.