#Living Ballad

[gravematron]

◤.☥ 𝕯𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 ☥.◥

.☥ 𝕲𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖑 ☥.

➻❥ #Deirdre - General tag for all IC content: art, writing, games, etc

➻❥ #Gallery - Artwork

➻❥ #Living Ballad - Writing

➻❥ #Seance - Asks

➻❥ #Tag Games - Tag Games

➻❥ #Ask Games - Ask Games

➻❥ #OOC - OOC

.☥ 𝕿𝖍𝖊𝖒𝖊𝖘 ☥.

➻❥ #Antiquity & Eulogies - Aesthetic

➻❥ #Changeling Countenance - Likeness

➻❥ #Gravecradle - Necromancy

➻❥ #Poetheart - Musings

➻❥ #Memory Mine - Past

➻❥ #Melancholy Melodies - Music

.☥ 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖓𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 ☥.

➻❥ #Morbid Matron - Mama

➻❥ #Roadside Sister - Verona ( @mamas-monsters )

➻❥ #Weird Ward - Monsters of The Manor

➻❥ #RP Threads will be added at a later date, following this format: 

Symbolic Title (yoururl/charactername) - @Your Tag

[malinaa]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins CHAPTER 26 / CHAPTER 27 / EPILOGUE

[kitconnor]

it's the things we love most that destroy us.

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES (2023)

[kitherondale]

We could have had a drink. A dance or two. Like we had all the time in the world.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 2023 | dir. Francis Lawrence

[disease]

undefined

that time Sinéad O’Connor transcended on stage.

[fictionadventurer]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes reviews I've seen fixate on the story's discussion of whether humans are inherently good or inherently evil as if one side or the other is the correct answer. Meanwhile the story itself is showing that individual choice in every action--choosing to act out of either love or self-interest--is what truly matters in shaping society. A free and stable society requires that people be taught to make selfless choices rather than act out of fear. Instead of oppressing people into fearful order, citizens need to have the freedom to choose the good, and be educated with the values that teach them what good is.

[danyllura]

Thinking about the potential of Tigris, who was forced to sell her body to feed the Snow family, being dismissed from the games around the time Finnick would’ve won his. Katniss vaguely remembers Tigris, suggesting she’s not a recent designer but clearly not old enough to be beyond her time. And Katniss would have been around six when Finnick won his games. We aren’t given any indication of when the capitol began forcing the victors into prostitution or who was the first subjected to it, but we do know Finnick is the youngest victor of all time. Tigris obviously doesn’t tell Katniss and the rebels why exactly she was dismissed from the games. At that time all we know is that she was slighted by Snow and appears touched by the group leaving her food in thanks for her hospitality. Being older than Coriolanus she remembers experiencing war and hardships more than he does, and was left desperate enough to sell her body. She consistently showed sympathy to Lucy Gray and the other tributes. And sure she was an active participant in the games later on, but we truly don’t know her character that well. She may have gotten caught up in the prestige and wealth surrounding her position. Or was a Cinna type and saw it as her doing her part to give these kids their best shot. But I think from what we do know of her, Tigris protesting forcing a traumatized 14 year old into prostitution is very in line with her character. Of course, Finnick dies before we meet her, but I would have been curious to see if she would have behaved any differently in his presence. Because maybe Finnick specifically wasn’t why she was shunned or possibly even won after the she was dismissed. But there’s no way Tigris didn’t know/figure out about what Snow was making the tributes do. And there’s no way she didn’t see beautiful little Finnick and the adults lusting for him and didn’t exactly know what her cousin would make him do.

[coryosmin]

imagine sejanus running his fingers along your spine while he reads his book. you’re curled up to him, listening to the smooth rumble of his voice as he reads the delicate words off the pages. and eventually, the soothing sound lures you to sleep as you rest your head on his shoulder. sejanus stops when he realizes you’ve fallen asleep, taking a moment to just look at you and study your face before pressing a soft kiss onto your forehead. and the two of you would stay like that for a while until you wake up briefly to sejanus carrying you to the bedroom and tucking you in gently before crawling into bed himself, holding you closely to him.

[mswyrr]

I really like Rachel Zegler's headcanon: Lucy Gray was long gone (why would she stick around?) and everything we see at the end is a hallucination. In the book he asks the doctor on base why the snake bite made him so ill, if it wasn't poisonous, and the doctor says extreme stress can do that:

The quote is on page 508. "Couldn't think straight" is massively understating it, given how disconnected from reality his pov prose becomes in the forest. I think it fits as one of several supportable readings in both film and book texts. And it has the benefit of meaning that Lucy Gray lives! ❤️

It's certainly not a required reading, though. There's multiple ways to interpret it that are all plausible; it's meant to be a mystery. But the idea that she ran and didn't stop seems very in character to me. She trusts her read on people and she gets the hell out when things go weird and he'd just clearly (a) lied to her, violating trust which is the most important thing to her, and (b) he was acting super weird/creepy.

It also makes sense to me that--after two incredibly stressful & traumatic months--Coriolanus had a full on breakdown in that forest, complete with visual/auditory hallucinations. On my first read-through of the book, I was frustrated with the ableism of people calling him "crazy"/ "sociopath" and therefore "born evil" (that is NOT how neurodivergence works!), so I pushed back on that and wrote pointing out all the ways his brain wiring seems pretty normal and he works as an example of an "ordinary" person acculturated in this dystopia - but as i've re-read and thought over it... it's kind of difficult to see the forest as anything but a breakdown to me.

Literally anyone--including otherwise neurotypical people--can have breakdowns if they experience enough trauma and stress in a short period of time, so one can still interpret him as having pretty standard brain wiring in that case. Or not! My real objection, at base, is to the idea that different wiring = inevitably evil.

[Big thank you to @kpchrs for pointing this panel interview out a couple days ago! I had no idea that Rachel liked this interpretation of the scene and it makes me really happy because that interp. also inspired my fic]

[witchhazelevesque]

Yo, how wild would it have been if when Katniss was reaped for the Quarter Quell, there was a shout of “I volunteer as tribute!” from the edge of the square.

The crowd parts to reveal a 81 year old Lucy Gray Baird hobbling forward toward the stage.

The camera zooms in on her haggard face and Snow, watching the proceedings in the Capitol, has a heart attack and just fucking dies.

[starrrbakerrr]

I’ve noticed that Tumblr is the only platform that widely acknowledges the fact that Katniss, Gale, and Haymitch were severely whitewashed in the films. On Twitter I’ve seen people get downright offended at the mention of Katniss being Indigenous, mixed, or simply non-white. I’ve seen people say that people with olive skin can be white and yes that’s true, but Jennifer Lawrence does not have olive skin which still makes her casting inaccurate.

I think this is because Twitter and TikTok focuses on videos, images, and short blurbs of writing - which caters to the movies. It’s the only visual representation of the books outside of fanart. Tumblr allows users to write long think pieces and the books are the primary reference instead of the movies. I’ve only seen the books mentioned outside of Tumblr when talking about Peeta’s characterization and missing lines in the movies. BookTok has also opened discussion of Katniss being non-white but otherwise non-white Katniss is generally not well received outside of Tumblr. Even fanart of Katniss with darker skin isn’t regularly distributed outside of Tumblr.

It’s disheartening but unsurprising. I mean, back when the first movie was released people were outraged that Rue was Black even though it was explicitly referenced multiple times. I just remember being in middle school and obsessed with the books and so excited when the movies were announced, and I was really disappointed with the casting of Katniss because I always imagined her as non-white like myself. Katniss is also supposed to be short and small in stature so that was difficult for me to grasp but I’m glad Jennifer didn’t pressure herself to lose weight for the role (she mentioned this in an interview). I think Jennifer and Woody did great in their roles, and Liam did good with what he was given, but I don’t see them as Katniss, Haymitch and Gale when reading the books or fanfiction. I remember Suzanne saying in an interview that the Katniss she imagines doesn’t exist, but Jennifer is close enough. I’m really curious to know how she imagines Katniss beyond the general descriptors of olive skin, dark hair, and grey eyes.

I’m also genuinely glad that Rachel Zegler is playing Lucy Gray Baird. She has tanner skin, which is great. However, the unfortunate reality is that she’s still “white enough” to be palatable to a white audience.

[schadie]

Media’s like, "Hey, let’s get a hot, non-blonde guy, turn him into a blond guy, and make him HOTTER."

Like... Mom, they’re the same...

[floralcyanide]

˚₊✩‧₊◜kinktober 2024! ―

✧ it's that time of year again! I'm starting early this year because the last two years I didn't finish the challenge. life got in the way and all that jazz. here is the list of kinktober prompts I will be doing along with their respective muses. this is subject to change.

✧ please remember to read/ participate in kinktober, you must be over 18. so minors, do not interact.

✧ as I complete each work, a check mark will be added next to the prompt.

(prompts are below the cut.)

day one. cockwarming with: John “Bucky” Egan (Masters of the Air)

day two. nipple play with: Benny Cross (The Bikeriders)

day three. blood play with: Roman Bridger (Scream 3)

day four. orgasm control with: Coriolanus Snow (The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)

day five. praise kink with: Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins)

day six. degradation with: Coriolanus Snow

day seven. bondage with: Jackson Rippner (Red Eye)

day eight. edging with: Gale “Buck” Cleven (Masters of the Air)

day nine. breeding kink with: Javier "Javi" Rivera (Twisters)

day ten. mutual masturbation with: Stu Macher (Scream)

day eleven. throat fucking with: Thomas Webb (The Only Living Boy in New York) ✓

day twelve. threesome with: Gale “Buck” Cleven & John “Bucky” Egan

day thirteen. knife kink or gun kink with: knife kink with Ethan Landry (Scream 2023)

day fourteen. sex toys with: Callum Turner

day fifteen. hate sex with: Callum Turner

day sixteen. thigh riding with: Austin Butler

day seventeen. sex tape with: Bruce Wayne

day eighteen. squirting with: Billy Antrim (Billy the Kid)

day nineteen. public play with: Joe Rantz (The Boys in the Boat)

day twenty. voyeurism with: Bruce Wayne

day twenty-one. corruption kink with: Roman Bridger

day twenty-two. daddy kink with: Cillian Murphy

day twenty-three. spanking with: Joe Rantz

day twenty-four. shower sex with: Javier "Javi" Rivera

day twenty-five. roleplay with: Neil Lewis (Watching the Detectives)

day twenty-six. face sitting with: Stu Macher

day twenty-seven. dom/sub with: John “Bucky” Egan

day twenty-eight. drunk sex or high sex with: drunk sex with Tom Blyth

day twenty-nine. phone sex with: Billy Loomis (Scream)

day thirty. anal sex with: Jonathan Crane (Batman Begins)

day thirty-one. mommy kink with: Ethan Landry

[jencattv]

Don’t tell Karna but here’s another sneak peek of The Ballad 🎢🔮 sorry my best friend snuck some footage lol so it’s not the best quality but I can’t believe I get to sing this again only 3 more times 🥺💔 this is gonna be a hard one to say goodbye to.

More clips and RTC content on the clock app ⏰

[flying-ham]

I know we’ve all discussed Lucy Gray as a foil for katniss, peeta, snow, ect BUT I think she’s all of them??? Lucy Gray is the blueprint for modern hunger games, and so she has elements of all the victors who came after her

Her theatricality and beauty captured the capitol from the moment she was reaped with nothing but a snake, a song, and a rainbow dress, the same way katniss captured them volunteering for prim. But even more so, she could use her songs the same way peeta used words. She knew how to use her talent in her favor, and ultimately won the hunger games because of it.

She may not have been a career, but she was still offered up as a (forced) sacrifice to protect the other girls of the district. She showed the capitol that the children in the districts were almost human, setting the stage for the luxurious quarters and food tributes came to expect. She’s the whole REASON mags’ 11th games had a victory tour! Parading her around like a spectacle to be dehumanized, instead of a traumatized teenage girl forced to fight for her life and forgotten back in the districts.

Hell, her and tigris’ implied prostitution is likely the origin of snow selling desirable tributes like finnick and cashmere

tldr: Lucy gray is a bad bitch who can’t be compared to just one character from the original series, because she’s an amalgamation of many different victors who came after her, and was largely the inspiration for all future hunger games

[laniidae-passerine]

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover