#Sunrise on the reaping spoilers

[waterandsilver]

"isn't it unrealistic that every time some rebellion shit goes on in District 12 it's someone related to or connected to Lucy Gray" no because Snow committed the cardinal sin of dating someone from a big family in a small town

[katnissmellarkkk]

when ballad came out, i remember a lot of people being upset that coryo swam in katniss’ lake.

i hope we all can now take comfort in the fact that haymitch and burdock also swam in it together. butt ass naked.

[mysteriouseggsbenedict]

Thinking about Maysilee Donner. A girl who refused to let the Capitol dehumanize her. A girl who wanted to die with dignity, without begging for her life, because that mattered to her. Who set up a place setting with napkins and forks in the middle of the arena because she is a human being. Who loved jewelry and fashion and believed that her appearance sends a message about who she is, and who wanted that message to be respectable, dignified, worth something.

Thinking about Maysilee Donner who was unafraid to slap the woman who pulled her name in the reaping and who threw clever insults towards anyone who provoked her, no matter who they were. Maysilee Donner who believed human dignity is inherent but respect is earned and who refused to give respect to those who did not deserve it.

Maysilee Donner whose father threw money at the reaping stage as if that could save her, and the money floated to the ground just like the confetti, meaningless paper that signified nothing when placed against the power of the Capitol. Whose privilege could not save her. Who recognized that reality and faced it with more fortitude than any person should ever have to display. Maysilee Donner.

[beautyofattolia]

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.

[snowfallingfirecatching]

Comments on tiktoks that had me balling all over again:

(Above: Talking about Mags, Beetee, and Wiress who aligned with Katniss)

(Below: I think it's been said before I need people to be reminded of it:)

Just. Diabolical 😭

[kaybaeisgay]

the longer i sit with it, the more i think that the saddest (not without some tough fucking competition, obviously) realization about sotr to me is that almost all the tributes really, truly, did not treat the games like they had a chance.

in the original trilogy—and even in The Ballad—the tributes felt like they were genuinely scheming and training and vying to win. with every other games, it seemed like the kids held onto this hope that they would be The One to make it, the one to become victor, even if they didn’t always say it aloud. despite the odds, they clawed as close as they could to victory, even if it meant playing into the capitol’s game and sacrificing their honor or morality.

but in this one? they come into the training rooms expecting to die. even the careers, though they swagger about and act like hot shit, feel younger than the careers have ever felt to me before. they collectively seem more resigned and bitter than in past/future tributes. their motives were all so unified against the capitol in a way that was reminiscent of the 75th games—where half the tributes were already a part of an organized rebellion to begin with.

while the theme of ‘i want to choose how i die, i don’t want the capitol to use me’ is prevalent in every book, this quell felt especially grim and determined. i kept expecting suzanne collins to undermine the camaraderie she gave the Newcomers. i kept expecting someone to decide ‘fuck it, i’m going for it on my own and i’ll backstab whoever i need to to do it.’ i kept expecting betrayal and desperation and a true competition.

but no—like wyatt, knowing his odds and choosing to protect the weaker—like ampert, knowing he’s charming and smart enough to make a decent bid for victor, yet rebelling anyways—like maysilee, knowing she’s near powerless, but spitting in the capitol’s face anytime she can—like all the newcomers, knowing they hardly have a shot, but absolutely refusing to betray one another—

they remained steadfast in their hope to die dignified and honorable, to die fighting against the true enemy, and that makes it so much more heartbreaking.

[suzieloveships]

"I loved your father like a brother and in another, kinder, world you and I would have been a family" is up there among the saddest relationship trope

[alliswell21]

I thought this exact same thing… after I finished the book. But a variation of it while it was happening.

how do y’all think haymitch felt when katniss came back to him all “i want wiress, beetee, and mags as allies” in catching fire? hand-picking his two and a half men(tors)!!

“of course you do” as his response now means so much more bc he’s not just exasperated he’s like “you really are me with a braid”

[blackthornluce]

THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) directed by Gary Ross.

I just saw the girl at the Hob when she was just a baby. Burdock was so proud of her, he toted her around everywhere. After he died in that mine explosion, she started coming alone, trading the odd squirrel or rabit. Tough and smart, her hair in two braids then, reminding me for all the world of Louella McCoy, my sweetheart of old.

— Sunrise on the Reaping, 2025, written by Suzanne Collins.

[mellkellyismyhero]

beetee latier came up with one singular plan ever to defeat the hunger games and canonically tried to make it work TWICE despite the fact that it literally blew up in his face the first time.

this officially makes him the world’s most accurate fictional scientist because he HAS a favorite hypothesis that he IS going to make sure works even if it fucking kills him

[softestaries]

my fav thing about sunrise on the reaping was when haymitch was like yeah caeser i'm a lone wolf 😏 i'm with the newcomers but i'm not WITH the newcomers, yknow? they call me a rascal. a rebel against the gamemasters. I scored a ONE and that is a THREAT. you do not want to mess with me 🙅

cut to him with like 20 kids following him around like ducklings, him hiding in his t-shirt, him letting a bunny guide him to safety because it reminded him of his girlfriend, and him making nightlights out of potatoes.

[catwouthats]

Basically just Drusilla and Magno

[evermarch]

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???

[vol-au-vending-machine]

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.

[yelenadelova]

Suzanne Collins writing books like “thought I was done with this shit but clearly yall have learned nothing”

[beautifulpaxiel]

OP, I find it so interesting that you say Peeta was Haymitch, because all the time I was reading SotR I kept being viscerally reminded how Katniss and Haymitch were so alike. But in retrospect, your point is so right. Peeta almost immediately saw the Games for what they were and adapted his mindset to fit his circumstances, and that's what Haymitch did too.

You brought up something I hadn't even thought of before, but now it makes so much sense - thanks for mentioning it!

SotR is a realisation. A realisation that the rebellion didn’t start with Katniss. That all the people we see supporting her or helping her have all been wanting to fight but they’ve been failing. That there weren’t merely “rumours” of a revolution but there were many active plans playing out and failing.

It’s a reminder that the perfect Hunger Games we saw in the first hg book was an illusion because we had Katniss as our narrator. We didn’t have Haymitch, hell, we didn’t even have someone like Peeta because these people played the games. Katniss didn’t.

Katniss was introduced to us as a mad, simple, naive girl who literally only survived because of others. She didn’t know how much her taking Prim’s place mattered because she didn’t realise what it meant to everyone who came before her. To everyone who had heard rumours of how the last District 12 victor actually fought his games. No, Katniss had just kept her head down, hunting and providing for her family.

See, she grew up way before the Games got to her. She’d already lived through her dad’s death and watched it destroy her once lively mom. Haymitch didn’t have to go through that. Lucy Gray didn’t have to go through that. They were both angry, yes, but at the Capitol. Katniss? She was first and foremost angry at her mom. At her dad. She knew who was to blame but she had too much to do and deal with to think about that. She was already jaded in a way that the Games couldn’t touch.

Peeta? He was Haymitch. He knew what he was getting into and realised he was just on a chess board with no control. So, he adapted. He played the knight, the rook, the king, the pawn. Katniss? She just… did. Changing directions, not playing the piece she was assigned because she didn’t realise that’s what was going on. Remember her surprise at the crown twisting into two after the Games?? She was so oblivious. Until Catching Fire where everything caught up to her. Where everything so many other people had been waiting and working for caught up to her.

SotR is a history book. Rewritten and edited and published as a piece of fact. SotR is a mirror and it’s a reflection of what actually happens vs what ends up being shown. SotR is the playbook of those in control of any and every kind of media that we come in touch with. SotR is a wake up call and I truly don’t know how many will see it as such.