#Suzanne Collins

[flwerink]

the boy with the fire starter created the sparks for the girl on fire.

Suzanne Collin’s just said fuck you to everyone who’s ever critiqued the Hunger Games as being a “teen girl saves the day” story. She said oh, Mockingjay didn’t make it clear enough? Here’s a book about how people have been rebelling for decades only to have their efforts suppressed and propagandized. Rebellion takes time and it takes failure and Katniss may have been the spark that ignited the wildfire but she did so standing atop the doused flames of everyone who came before her.

[irlplasticlamb]

when lenore dove comes to me now, she’s not angry or dying (…). she’s grown older with me, her face etched with fine lines, her hair touched with gray. like she’s been living her life beside me as the years passed, instead of lying in her grave. still so rare and radiant.

prints + merch + commission info pinned to profile :)

[slaymitchabernathy]

katniss: “so what’s your favorite memory of my da-“

haymitch: “skinny dipping.”

katniss: “…im sorry, what did you sa-“

haymitch: “skinny. dipping. go ahead & write that in your little book while you’re at it.”

[paperlit]

Thinking more about Burdock Everdeen and Suzanne Collins’ seeming inability to write anything other than lover boys.

Like I can’t get over the fact that he definitely talked to his friends about Asterid and was probably endlessly teased for falling for a girl he seemingly had no chance with. Like this boy pined hard and loud. I’m just picturing him listening very intently to Asterid talking about medicinal plants and then going out and finding some to bring back. He acts like it was no big deal and they just happened to stumble upon them when really he kept Haymitch and Blair out extra late because “Asterid said they were running low” meanwhile they’re sharing a knowing look. Like I love the idea of Burdock so being the type to find an excuse to bring up Asterid in every conversation for a time.

[reanna2906]

haha so true...I get so excited but scared when she brings out a new book.

gotta love Suzanne Collins' dedication to dropping a banger every few years, re-traumatizing a whole generation and disappearing back into the abyss without a single word

[wearylaurels]

Not sure if this has already been said but I was going through the illustrations for the Illustrated hunger games and I can’t stop thinking of the depiction the artist took for Thresh.

In the original book, Katniss describes Thresh as powerful and intimidating—a build on par with the Careers, strong and silent, a mysterious threat lurking on the edges of the arena that is able to hold out until the very last days of the 74th games. And you can see how this interpretation informed the casting choices made for him in the live action adaptations. For years, the only image we’ve had of Thresh is of this strong, unstoppable guy who had to be taken out by either the physically strongest guy in the Games, or by monsters designed by the Capitol itself.

And then, you see Thresh as he’s illustrated.

The low angle. The backlight throwing almost his entire figure into shadow. The way he holds aloft the rock he just killed Clove with—the fact that you can *see* Clove’s corpse in the background. Everything about this image is designed to paint Thresh as this hulking berserker, moments away from beating in your skull.

But then you see his face. Those eyes, welling with tears. The look of disbelief. The way his mouth is opened—what is he saying? Is he asking Katniss if she’s the one who killed Rue? The little girl who would sing when it was time to go home from the fields? Or is he stunned into silence as Katniss recounts how she buried Rue in flowers, how she sang to her in her final moments? In the books it’s mentioned that he never talked to anyone—was he preparing, like Katniss, to see everyone in that arena as a threat? How shocked must he have been that this random girl he never even spoke to, whose name he’s probably forgotten, go to such lengths to show kindness to someone who wasn’t from her district?

More than anything, he looks so *young.* His eyes are large and expressive—his face is soft, still retaining a little baby fat. Throughout the book, Katniss categorizes her fellow tributes as potential threats first and foremost—she often describes Thresh as a stoic, unflinching powerhouse, but then you see this and you’re taken aback. Because this? This isn’t the calculating, powerful predator we’ve been expecting. This is very clearly a *child.* A *boy*, who’s been ripped from his home to fight to the death in an arena for the entertainment of the ruling class. Who probably got his strength from climbing trees, hauling sacks of grain, collecting food. Who was so deeply impacted by the death of his district partner that just the suggestion from another girl’s mouth that she had killed her sent him into a rage. Who, in the books, refused to interact with or fight any of his fellow tributes until he heard Clove talking at the feast.

You start wondering—did he ever want to kill anyone? Like Peeta, did the idea of the Capitol turning him into a killer make him sick? Like Reaper, was it a refusal to play into the hands of the Capitol? Like Katniss, did the fact alone that he had killed leave its own horrible mark? Did he spend his final nights jumping awake as he relived Clove’s skull caving under the rock? When the mutts finally came for him, do you think he hesitated when he saw the tributes’ eyes staring back?

This is a *kid.* They’re all just *kids.* And that’s what fucks me up so much about this picture of Thresh—that it’s not just a depiction of him, but of all the tributes who have ever competed in the Hunger games. That no matter how they are reframed as victors and monsters and killers and spectacles, at the end of the day they were all children. Boys and girls forced to fight each other to the death, while their true enemies watched on, laughing.

[mariigoldzz]

Why are people in this fandom acting like many of the new things in sotr were always planned? The QNA at the end makes it pretty obvious many things came later esp the Louella "sweetheart." thing. You can admit it guys. I can almost guarantee you that Haymitch's characterization would be a little different in the trilogy if this is what she's always had in mind

[eclecticbearbanditbonk]

Something something when Haymitch says he could live a thousand life times and never get the sight of Lenore Dove dying out of his head.

Something something Haymitch telling Katniss she could live a thousand life times and never deserve Peeta after he tried to ensure her survival.

Suzanne. Please.

[the-moon-stole-my-heart]

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY OMG. It’s so so so so so UGH. Like the way they were scheming? And it heavily implies haymitch and katniss were not the only tributes they’ve tried to have destroy the arena. But the footage and tributes were ERASED

a thing that i particularly love about the hunger games prequels is how it shows that people have been fighting against the games since their inception

when i was younger and read the original trilogy for the first time i was so bothered how it was 74 years of games, i remember thinking how could it have gone on so long without anyone doing anything

these prequels highlight that people have been fighting from the get-go: lucy gray's defiance, reaper ripping down panem's flags to cover the fallen tributes, haymitch's games and how many others shared his ideologies - the capitol just drowns them out, they rewrite their stories so their efforts are forgotten

liberation takes time and it's built upon the actions of those in the past

[iamlostinthought]

i doubt suzanne collins would unless she’s got some shit to say, but imagine in the future we get a finnick book, a book about the youngest victor ever to win the games, a book from the perspective of a 14 year old child.

and then the years that come after. of growing a little older, seeing the leering way the capitol citizens look at him, and being told he now has to entertain them, not knowing what that means until he’s there for the first time, or maybe mags kindly informed him and wiped away his tears, along with his bodily freedom. how people now know him as a flirt, as a man who isn’t afraid to lay in bed besides married individuals. but they don’t know is that he doesn’t have a choice, so he makes a decision to use these people for secrets like they are using his body.

and then the quarter quell happens. and he’s told his life isn’t worth as much as katniss. that he must do whatever he can to keep her alive, for the good of the rebellion. and he does, but he loses mags.

and not to mention how he eventually loses his own life to save katniss and the rebellion. he doesn’t get to spend the rest of his life loving annie. his book would be devastating.

[elav-exo]

Acknowledging that those in the Seam are brown - Katniss being mixed cause of her white mother, but presenting as brown - and the Covey being indigenous/Roma coded is important in many ways, many of which, have been discussed before.

I want to focus specifically how it demonstrates how insidious Snow is for demonizing not just the Covey, but Covey women. He, a white man, is the most powerful person in the nation and chooses to perpetuate D12 as the worst district because that’s where Lucy Gray’s family was corralled into, the home of a rebellious victor’s Covey lover and of course, the girl on fire.

He’s already ugly for being misogynistic but his misogyny intersects with his racism and its impact is so devious. He truly believes that Lenore Dove doesn’t truly love Haymitch and actively paints a brown woman as self-interested and cunning. And surely Haymitch would’ve submitted after the horrific death of his mother and brother but no, he had to target Lenore Dove too. Haymitch fed his lover and it killed her, the same way Snow wished he could’ve killed Lucy Gray - directly and painfully.

[odd-avis]

There are a lot of really cool themes in The Hunger Games world we love to dive into; like fire, birds, plant life, music, technology, propaganda.

But shout out to these other things I think we should love on more:

Prevalence of Poison - how Snow discovers through Lucy and her snakes and the rat poison his preferred method of ☠️; how poison is the it girl danger in the arena of the 2nd quarter quell; how Haymitch loses Lenore (and arguably himself through basically alcohol poisoning); how Katniss and Peeta turn Snow’s favorite weapon against him with the berries

Matrilineal Impact! - yes we have tragic father deaths of literally every book perspective we get (Katniss, Snow, Haymitch), but I think the mother relationships are most telling! Katniss spends so much of her life coming to terms with her relationship with her mom; Snow takes comfort from the memory of his mother but ultimately gives up all remnants of her to more or less pursue evil; the Grandma’am; Tigris & her parentified elder sister energy; Lucy Gray wearing her mother’s dress; Haymitch trying to do the best by his young widowed mom; Burdock being covey on his mother’s side; Haymitch and Maysilee bonding over losing their grandmas; Hattie & Greasy Sae & Ripper being matriarchs of the Hob; Mags protecting her tributes like more than a mentor but like a mother; Katniss refusing to bring children into the world until there were no more Hunger Games… just… WOMEN! MOTHERS!

Escape the Arena - we see attempts of this in every timeline, but I think it’s Snow that really gets that the war and the games are one in the same, they are extensions of each other. You can never truly leave the arena.

Weapons the Suit their Wielders - Katniss is direct and practical as an arrow, but it’s more than a weapon for people in her hands, it’s a tool for a survivor. Haymitch and his axe and his knife are fairly similar, these are tools, but also require you to be in much closer proximity and risk. Ofc Maysilee thrives with poison darts, they’re the only thing more deadly than her words! Snow and the elegance and power move of poison that he consumes too, his victims not suspicious until it’s too late, striking like a snake. Lucy and Peeta and their songs and words being their strongest weapons.

Honestly it’s pure poetry how Suzanne writes this stuff.

[supersaddoubled]

this has been sitting heavy on my brain

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.

[slaymitchabernathy]

& remember kids, the next time you think, “oh, the government wouldn’t create an annual pageant where twenty four children fight to the death until one of them comes out alive as a punishment” & base the entire thing off of a drunk joke.

oh yes they would.

[lupotterdraws]

Sunrise over District 12

Haymitch Abernathy - Lenore Dove Baird - Maysilee Donner

Burdock Everdeen - Asterid March - Merrilee Donner

Wyatt Callow - Louella McCoy - Otho Mellark