#Omg Mags

[kitkats-and-kittens]

This post was inspired by lucky lefties district deep dive, so please go watch. I left a similar post in a comment under her video but I wanted to expand on it since I spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the career districts.

I’ve seen people online with the opinion that 4 is different from the other Career districts somehow. That they either aren’t prone to sending up volunteers or that their tributes aren’t as cut throat.

I personally hate this theory however I can see why people have come to such a conclusion.

In the books the two district 4 tributes are never named and both die very early on despite having supposedly trained their whole lives to survive this sort of thing. Also I doubt the movie helps as in the films the male district 4 tribute is extremely young and is killed by Cato during the bloodbath.

The girl dies later to the tracker jackers along with Glimmer and I think the impression people form because of that is something must be different about 4. Why else would their tributes be so young and die so early?

In the books Katniss does however, mention that it is strange that the district 4 male died so early on and we know he’s 18 unlike in the films, and it’s not hard to imagine that the girl from 4 was simply unprepared when the nest fell on her like Glimmer.

However, I also think the district 4 Victors we end up meeting only serve to confuse people further. We don’t meet many of the district 4 victors but the ones we do see aren’t exactly what you would expect from a career district. Mags who is extremely old, fragile and kind by the time we come to meet her in catching fire and Annie who is described frequently to have suffered a complete mental collapse during her own games.

They’re not exactly the paragon of strength, intimidation and glory that we associate with Careers like Gloss or Enobaria.

Finnick is definitely the most stereotypical career out of all of them, at least in appearances and stature, but throughout the books we learn that he is incredibly kind and gentle despite what we’re lead to believe spending most of the first few days in the games caring for Mags and ensuring Katniss’ safety by playing up her pregnancy for the Capitol.

It’s hard for us as the audience to really reconcile the fact that 4 is like 1 and 2 because we actually get to know the tributes from their and we learn that they aren’t as one dimensional as we’re lead to believe with the others.

So yes I do believe all 3 were careers. I think Mags probably formed a pack similar to the one we see Coral forming in Tbosas she was probably an earlier example of a career. Meanwhile Annie I believe suffered a similar breakdown to Cato after Clove died.

I don’t like how people assume that just because she was well trained and prepared that she somehow wasn’t still susceptible to trauma. If she was a career then we can assume she grew up close with her partner and like how Cato and Clove had a close relationship. Watching him die so brutally would’ve had an affect on any teenager career or not.

Finnick is definitely the hardest to see being a career ironically enough and that’s simply by virtue of the fact that he was 14 years old when he was reaped.

If the whole point of career tributes is to ensure your district wins and is granted the food and wealth that the Capitol gifts to the victors as a reward then why let a 14 year old child volunteer?

The only reasons I can think of is

1. Either he was some sort of prodigy (though I still find this confusing as wouldn’t waiting for him to turn 18 and sending him up with assurance that he might win not be better than sending a half trained 14 year old and hoping he’ll be the first?)

2. He got unlucky. Maybe the reaping system is employed some years or they don’t always manage to get volunteers, though I find this unlikely it is definitely a possibility.

3. Or (and this is more of a personal theory btw) like 1, 4 tries to play the social game with the Capitol and figured sending an attractive, prodigy 14 year old would stir up interest (and provide Finnick with a good storyline for interviews) while also ensuring lots of sponsorships based on his looks.

I personally believe the third theory though there’s not much evidence so I would take it with several grains of salt.

However even with all that sorted I believe that district 4 does train their tributes in a slightly different way then 1 and 2 however I think this comes more from a place of culture and propaganda than anything else.

Since district 4 runs the fishing industry they obviously have access to the ocean. They’re one of the only districts to do so barring maybe 5 and even then 4 has access on a much larger scale. This is bad for the Capitol.

Of course it’s said that Panem is the only surviving nation from after the world changed but they could easily be lying and either way, having a whole district with the potential to utilise the only bit of the world the Capitol doesn’t and cannot have complete control over if they ever decide to rebel means that district 4 is a threat.

I think that the Capitol places a lot of emphasis on inter personal relationships in the district, I also believe that like 11 they are probably heavily monitored, especially on the ocean and that whippings, beatings and executions are probably commonplace as the Capitol wants to discourage any attempts at escape.

I think district 4 has a very close knit community, and that the Captiol does everything it can to tie them to their homeland, establishing roots and connections that mean many people in district 4 don’t want to leave their home.

However I think this is also a double entendre because the close sense of community between district 4 citizens means that they get especially frustrated when their children die in the games and while I’m not saying that the other districts don’t care about their kids as much, something we see, at least in district 12, is a very defeatist attitude towards the games. The kids reaped there have given up before they’ve even made it into the arena and I imagine it’s similar with a lot of the other poorer districts, just accepting their grim reality and not bothering to try and fight. It’s implied in catching fire that 4 outright rebels and on Katniss’ victory tour she describes them as one of the districts angry at the Capitol. I believe this is because the strong emphasis on community bonds and connections means that the citizens in district 4 don’t take the abuse lying down so much as other districts like 12.

This is why I also believe the district 4 focuses primarily on survival when training volunteers. And I don’t mean survival techniques like how to start a fire or stop an infection because I don’t think the Capitol would allow those types of skills to be taught, but I think district 4 basically teaches their tributes to do anything they can to make it home.

We see it with Coral in Tbosas movie where she breaks down sobbing about how all her kills couldn’t have been for nothing. I think this feeling of doing what you have to to make it home ends up being a driving factor behind their teachings.

They’re taught to put morals aside and that even if they’re in an alliance the only one safe to trust is their own partner. Maybe they’re also taught to use whatever they can to endear them to the Capitol, whether that be their looks or their skills in the arena.

So while they’re equally as indoctrinated as 1 and 2 I believe that a lot of their training is focused on doing whatever they need to in order to live.

[sarcasticscribbles]

What if Sasha James became the Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London?

Sasha the Archivist (rewritten) Season 1 on Ao3!

[cow0nmars]

HAPPY PRIDE TO EVERYONE WHO CELEBRATES!!! Welcome back for this years pride magazine for 2024. Hopefully you enjoy what i have for you this year and we all come to celebrate love in all forms ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

We are starting off this year with celebrating the diverse spectrum of love from all ends with GWENPOOL!!! Ace and Aro representation shines bright today (and everyday after)✨

[bitter-goodbyes]

“Your will is still your own. Mostly.”

[novakiart]

hey! first of all, recently discovered your account and. almost binged it in one sitting. amazing quality stuff, i'm in awe! also, while i'm RAPIDLY making my way through the old content, any new recommendations on fanfiction/comics/anything at all? atp i trust you more than i trust myself. no pressure, feel free to ignore this message! tnx, byee

thank you so so much!!! also ohh wow it's like you're putting your life in my hands... a potentially catastrophic misjudgement

since you've consumed my tumblr I'm assuming you've already seen my fic recs tag, which is filled with kind strangers on the internet recommending all the good stuff, including some recs of my own! if you missed it, I also have some comic recs here

as for some recent stuff I've liked, they've all been pretty lighthearted:

another one bites by seateainthemountains is chaotic and goofy in a very comic book-y kind of way

ryanoid on the brain by firefly_ika is another goofy one but also short and sweet. peter versus bug spray

it had to be you by fancastical in which wade recognises peter every time - except when it counts. I'm just a wimp for identity fics, sorry

cross the highways of fantasy is another one by fancastical and is a special shout out because I adore the concept of peter and weasel having history (and peter and wade using that to be insufferable)

five times peter says I hate you, and one time he (finally) doesn't by bestie has a brief scene with wade wreaking havoc with photographer-on-the-job peter and that's a woefully underrepresented trope I adore

I hope you find something you like here!

[ferahntics]

Magician buddies 🧙‍♂️✨✨

[meownotgood]

I would like to share with you a lil Aki doodle I made at work today 🤲

I did smoke/clouds around him bc idk what else to add lmao

AAAAAAKIIIIII he's so handsome 🥹💞 love the extra earrings you gave him.... I'll kiss his face

[themightymusicman]

I don’t know if this is like obvious but. I only just realized that as the “listeners” of the statements we mock the powers and capabilities of the eye. We see everything each character does over the span of like 10 years and we know things that some of the characters don’t. Again I don’t know if that’s an obvious think like “duh iris that’s the point” but I just wanted to share because frankly. It’s genius

[mothpawbs]

Qibli?? If you can?

the SCRUNKLY

[shadow-the-crow]

Just got a really weird tinnitus at the exact moment i started a tma episode...

not spooky at all lol

[persephoneprice]

Hi I was thinking about your mags and mizzen as siblings headcanon and I was wondering if Mags and Persephone knew each other? Like pippa knows who mags is because she’s a public figure but does mags know Persephone? Does she know that Persephone was Mizzen’s mentor? And lastly do you have thoughts on what their relationship (if it exists) would be like in the future?

Apologies if you’ve answered this before <3

omg i’m so happy that you asked this!!! i love thinking about the mags/mizzen/persephone lore (that i completely made up).

i’ve touched on how i think their relationship is just a little bit in my post about finnick & persephone meeting for the first time-

persephone shifts uncomfortably, she typically avoids mags at all costs. mags has never been hostile towards her, but there’s always a hint of accusation in her eyes when she looks at persephone. persephone knows she deserves it.

and realistically, i think that would be the extent of their relationship for the majority of the years. but i would love the chance to expand on that a little bit and talk about the first time they met!

→ persephone doesn’t watch the 11th hunger games. in fact, she’s an anxious mess the entire time she knows they’re going on. she doesn’t tell anyone else because everyone else seems to have moved on and aren’t affected by it.

→ because she was avoiding everything hunger games related- she doesn’t find out that mags is mizzen’s older sister until after the 11th hunger games. interestingly, it’s coriolanus snow that tells her at a dinner their ‘friend group’ is having.

→ she wants to talk to mags but it’s too late by the point. she doesn’t have the chance to speak to mags until her victory tour brings her back to the capitol.

→ persephone seeks out mags at the victor party. she’s a mess when she does it because she’s had a few glasses of posca by this point to work up her nerve.

→ and mags sees the drunk, crying capitol girl in front of her babbling on about her precious little brother and she’s furious. she’s fucking furious.

→ but mags is also smart and she knows better than to tell off this stupid capitol girl- because it would only lead to her own punishment. so mags just gives persephone a tight nod and walks away.

i think persephone will always feel guilty when she’s around mags but i think eventually, once mags starts mentoring herself, she forgives persephone.

but mags herself never has the chance to tell persephone that. i like to think once persephone begins relaying information to finnick that he tells her that mags doesn’t hold mizzen’s death against.

maybe that’s when persephone finally begins to forgive herself.

[hhow-queer]

wow mag200 looks a bit different here…

[sarcasticscribbles]

I am so in love with the way you draw Gerry, I look at your art of him and die <3

FINE I'll draw Gerry again

[jongwoosbraceletofteeth]

Just finished MAG 97 and I have decided to consider everyone on tiktok lip syncing to Orsinov's monologue as a stranger ritual.

[bitter-goodbyes]

THE STATIC AND JON BREATHING AT THE END OMGGGG IM FERAL

[novakiart]

your art is so gorgeous!! love how you draw them both, it’s my absolute favorite way of thinking of them now <3

i may have taken some slight inspiration 🫶