#I love Katniss as a mom

[littlemarianah]

One thing that makes me extremely emotional is how Peeta is the maker. He makes food with water and flour, he makes art with paint.

And Katniss mentions how she can't create, how she needs Cinna to pretend that she's designing clothes. She is fire, and fire destroys, or transforms.

She has the bow, and its use is to kill. Killing is what keeps her alive throughout her life, she kills to eat, she kills to survive, she kills to end the war.

After the war, she has children and she says how difficult it is to carry them. Getting pregnant, producing life, being the maker herself.

I just think it's beautiful that with love and healing she is finally able to create, to make. She continues to be the fire, but it uses its transformative potential , the same as transforming dough into bread, and not its destructive potential.

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[itsajollyjester]

WAITWAITWAIT I JUST REALIZED

Are we finally gonna know the names of Katniss and Peeta's parents????

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I'm unable to explain my thoughts well-enough but I do think one of the reasons Odysseus is my favorite hero from the whole Ancient Greece is because I'm brazilian. Hear me out: Odysseus wins by being the cleverest, not always the most inteligent (that would likely be Palimedes, who Odysseus murders at cold blood) and definitivaly not the strongest.

He doesn't take the bow to war but that is his favorite weapon, the weapon that is stated as a coward's one, the one Paris is mocked for using. And that adds to: he refused honor, he tried to dodge his word and avoid the war. He wants the recognizement and glory (as Diomedes absolutly knows) and after they go he does everything to win (looks to all the war crimes including Iphigenia and Pilocteles) but he never wanted to be there at all.

His second act of cleverness is his failure at pretending to be mad (bonus points for the fact Penelope helped, they are two peas in a pot or however the expression goes) and his dishonorable act is what made me fall in love with him. Because dying for glory, for my country, was never really in my culture, if Brazil decided to invade Paraguay again right now even the people who deny the first war crimes would just go "heck no". When President Lula criticized Venezuela even the people that agreed with him were all like "sure but please don't go to war over it we really don't wanna". The army does dictatorships and paint roads and I fully preffer the roads.

On the other hand being clever and resorcefull those are our heros. Loyal not to a country but to their people, and very much not the most moral people. É o jeitinho brasileiro. And while it does help to maintain a culture of corruption (tho absolutly not as much as people make it seem, the corruption is waaay more because of the power imbalance, income inequality, imperialism, the belief the 1% always have that they are better and the dehumanization of the working class). Is the belief that while yes it is absolutly wrong to let's say throw an infant from a wall because otherwise he'll grow up to destroy your family, better Hector's son dies than yours.

Is selfish but it's also in a lot of ways the recognizement that glory is meaningless. Surviving and helping other people survive, achiving happiness is way more important. Our kids are not pretending to be older to go to war and if they try they better prepare to deal with their mother's rage. We are suppose to never get into a fight. But if we do anyway we better win and come back or else.

[carnationhes]

in another lifetime katniss was rly good at minecraft

[sanjarka]

as someone with a father with bipolar disorder, who at certain times in my life, especially when i was quite young, like at 10 or 14, wasn't able to be there for me because he wasn't there for himself, i need you all to be kinder to katniss's mom. the woman wasn't cruel. she needed help. katniss is forever going to be traumatized by that experience but there is a path to forgiveness. she grows up at the end and so does her mom.

[mariska]

well! bye everyone i'm off to re-read my fav book trilogy of all time that i havent read since their original releases when i was a teenager and also finally get to read the prequel that i never got around to reading for the first time so. i'll see u guys on the other side and by other side i mean i'll see u guys when i re-emerge into society drenched in blood and tears rambling about all the new mental evidence i will have collected for my years-long headcanon that Katniss is autistic and sobbing about how many more details of the whole story i understand on a more profound and deep level than my teenage self was capable of processing properly

[lost-in-beacon-hills]

So real. And a very good take.

As someone with mommy issues I loved Katniss's push and pull with her mother. It always seemed as if she wanted her mother back but felt too old to get it.

In the end she begged for her presence for the sake of Prim and not herself. She tells her she can't check out again. For Prim.

I think another layer to it is that she genuinely needed her mother through the loss and she never got it. She had to step up as the parent. It changes the dynamic to the point even she herself didn't know where she stood.

Katniss is infamously bad with identifying and processing her emotions. She's always fighting for her survival with no time to feel. Her needs have never been met. It's easiest to blame the parent that's still alive when you can barely take the time to understand you've lost the other one.

I keep thinking about Katniss's relationship with her mom and how it's this perfect representation of how you keep the oppressed from seeing their real oppressor.

Katniss's dad dies in a mine explosion, leaving behind Mom, Katniss, and Prim. Katniss is still too young to qualify for the charity food, so the mom needs to work to make up for the loss of the dad's income. Unfortunately, the mom goes catatonic with grief and they all almost starve to death. Katniss despises her mom and admires Gale's mother, as Gale's mother worked herself to the bone doing laundry to keep her kids alive...

Except, Gale's mother couldn't keep her kids alive on her income, that's why Gale traps animals. Katniss is mad at her mother for not doing the impossible, for not being able to replace the main breadwinner's income in exactly 1 month. And even while she blames her mother, she observes that people starve to death in District 12 all the time. It's normal.

Which means this was never a failure of her mother's, it was always a failure of the system itself. No government should be routinely allowing it's citizens to starve, especially after something like a mine explosion. They gave Katniss a medal instead of the means to live. But Katniss can't take down a government or fix a broken system so she does the same thing we all do: she redirects her anger towards something accessible, her mom.

It's why people blame "welfare queens" when the welfare cheque is far too small. We hate people who abuse the system (or at least we perceive that they abuse it) instead of recognizing that the system itself is unjust. And the Capital encourages this by turning district against district in The Hunger Games, don't hate the people who put your children in the arena, hate the kid from 2 that actually used the knife.

Katniss can't help it, it's not her fault that she feels that way. It's what we do. Governments and multinational companies are faceless and untouchable, so we hate the people beside us. And so corruption and oppression lives, until we lift our eyes and find the real evil.

[demonio-fleurs]

also, very random, but i rewatched the first hunger games movie last night and

oof. what a good film. there were definitely some decisions that they made that i think were mistakes but it was still such a good adaptation.

[little-lynx]

ICE CREAM

Hello! So I’m finally in my working condition (lol) and I slowly go through all the things I need to draw. Today I will post some of the requests I’ve received on my Buy Me a Coffee account (which is not existing anymore unfortunately). That was looooong ago! But I’m happy I’m finally doing it haha ;)

So the first one was requested by my lovely @alwayseverlark :

katniss eating an icecream (and if possible with a toast baby having one also and/or Peeta)

I wanted to draw middle aged Katniss for a while and this request was perfect for that. I think dancing girl is 10 years old here and Katniss is around 45 I suppose? 🤔 I think they just bought an ice cream after school and spent some good mom-and-daughter time together while Peeta and boy with the blonde curls were enjoying themselves in the bakery ♥️

[charlunday]

I know we all like to think about Haymitch being like a grandpa to the toast babies, but I raise you: Hazelle being like a grandma to them! Because tbh she's the more responsible one and experienced with kids between her and Haymitch, and she loves Katniss like a daughter.

But also imagine this from Gale's perspective. First white boy steals your girl, then he steals your MOM!!!!!!!

[katnissmellarkkk]

also I wanna add Peeta said in Catching Fire “my dad” so apparently it’s just Kat Kat who’s stuck in 1893.

One thing I can't get over is that canonically, Katniss calls her mom "Mother" like some sort of repressed upper class Victorian child.

[heyheycaitalin]

Peeta's mom probably died thinking Peeta's story about eloping with Katniss and getting her pregnant was real. Who would've told her otherwise? They couldn't call home. She doesn't know Gale. She doesnt talk to Katniss' family. She probably died thinking her son married that "Seam brat" and her grandchild was gonna be raised by other Seam trash. Her son married the daughter of the girl her husband loved and never really got over. I think that's beautiful. Die mad, Mrs. Mellark you evil witch.

[realmermaid333]

I love how the hunger games is about maintaining empathy and fighting for justice no matter what. But also how it is about perseverance.

All the surviving characters persevered. They found a way to be okay despite all of the horrors they'd been through. Despite them all losing everything they feared they'd lose. And they were still okay.

Katniss lost her sister even though she was terrified to lose her and did everything in her power to save her, including sacrificing herself. That's why this story started after all. And despite it, Katniss kept on going. She found hope and joy in Peeta, in the songs her dad taught her when she was a little girl, in the woods and the comfort they'd always bring her, she found hope in herself.

Peeta lost the version of himself that he so desperately clung to in beginning. And despite it, he still kept fighting and getting help until he could get better and pick up the pieces. He painted his memories, the good and the bad, and found joy in the little things. In the sunsets, in the smell of the breads he baked on his own terms without his cruel mother looming over him. He found joy in Katniss and the life they built together.

Haymitch lost his mom, brother, and girlfriend after surviving his brutal game and losing his district partner. And after years of rotting away and drowning himself with alcohol, he pulled himself together and showed up once Katniss and Peeta gave him hope. And despite it all he found comfort and joy in his geese and in Katniss and Peeta in the end. He still spent his days drinking, but this time he wasn't alone and he had to get out of bed each morning to tend to his feathered babies.

Annie lost Finnick even though she wanted nothing more than for him to be safe. Even though they'd just gotten married after finally being reunited. And she persevered anyway. She didn't let the darkness after his passing consume her like it did after she won her games. She became a mother and survived due to and for the love she had for her son. Like Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch- she survived.

And I think that is tragic, yes, but also incredibly beautiful. There's always another way. Despite it all.

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

The way Katniss is just stumbling through the Hunger Games like "I can keep Peeta alive through sheer willpower combined with how much everyone loves him cause he's the most wholesome and perfect person in the whole universe" and Peeta is out here making these elaborate plans; i.e., "she came here with me", "if it weren't for the baby", the locket with pictures of her mom and Prim, and GALE??? Wanting to make alliances.

Like, one of you is Haymitch's carbon copy and it shows.

[moodypetrichorlove]

I'm rewatching Catching Fire, and I just got done with the beach scene. So, when Peeta gives Katniss his gold medallion (that Effie had gifted him), we see that it has a locket with 3 frames with each frame carrying one picture to remind Katniss of her family (i.e., her mom, Prim, and Gale), of what she's fighting to go back to.

And it never fails to amaze me that Peeta uses the token Effie got him as a gift for Katniss. Like he uses it to put up pictures of the people he believes she loves the most. He uses it to benefit Katniss. It's as much a reminder for Peeta of what or whom he thinks are the most important people in Katniss' life and why he needs to get her out of that arena as a victor – other than the fact that he's always been in love with her – as it is for Katniss. The level of selflessness that Peeta exudes is just brilliantly moving. He's honestly the best kind of person to have in your corner.

Also, when Effie gives Haymitch and Peeta the tokens, while giving Peeta his, she makes it a point to say, "the medallion we talked about". So, you mean to tell me Peeta and Effie discussed it beforehand? And you mean to tell me that Peeta probably asked for that locket, of all things? Because he had it in his mind what he'd use it for? I mean, the thoughtfulness he put into this, God. There's a 99% chance that using it for Katniss wasn't just something he thought of after Effie gave him the medallion. He most probably (read: definitely) asked for it because he wanted Katniss to be able to remember why she needed to survive. And he added Gale's picture, too... I mean this boy is just so very pure and selfless and wholesome. When he loves, he loves unconditionally, and without looking for his own benefits.

God, I love Peeta Mellark.