#Victor/Johanna

[johnwickistheworstmovie]

the way victors always tried to protect each other because they are the only ones who know what they went through. the way haymitch fought to make sure they didn’t alter katniss’s body. how haymitch fought against finnick sharing his stories to protect him from the memories. how katniss was ready to mercy kill beetee when she thought they were taken by the capitol. how katniss made it a stipulation for the victors taken captive be given pardon no matter what. even enobaria. how peeta comforted the victor from 6 as she was dying. they all protected each other whatever way they could. because they were the only ones there for each other really

[thefloatingwriter]

the victors as complex characters will always be more interesting than making them amazing people.

like these are people who did absolutely everything in their power to survive something as traumatic as the games. most of them probably sleep with weapons in their hands. the thought on the forefront of most of their minds is survival. everything else—anyone else—can wait.

they sacrificed everything to crawl out of a killing game. their mental stability. their innocence. their childhood.

and after all of that, they realized that the games never really end. that they would sacrifice ever having a good night sleep without being plagued by nightmares. they would sacrifice their brains to help the capitol. they would sacrifice their bodies, something that should have always been their own, now snatched away from them. all for surviving a killing match that twenty-three children didn’t.

no victor is immune to this either. do you think cashmere doesn’t regret being so excited to go into the games after her brother after staying the night in a strange man’s bed that she doesn’t know? do you think gloss doesn’t regret not warning his sister about the horrors that await her after she wins? do you think brutus doesn’t sometimes wake up in a cold sweat after having yet another nightmare about being on the receiving end of his weapon, just as all of his victims were before everything faded to black? do you think enobaria doesn’t run her tongue over her sharpened teeth and wonder if it was worth it?

do you think beetee doesn’t flinch every time he sees lightning? do you think wiress doesn’t think of how if she hadn’t learned acrobatics that the 48th hunger games would have gone very differently? do you think finnick doesn’t see nets in the same way ever again, after he saw the girl from nine begging for her life tangled in a net he set up before he stabbed her with a trident? do you think annie doesn’t think about if she hadn’t spent all of that time on the beach growing up, playing in the water, that she wouldn’t have survived the dam breaking in her arena? do you think mags doesn’t think about how she left her district partner to die in the first ever traditional career pack? how if maybe, if she had been there to take the blow for him, there would be a different victor of the 11th hunger games?

do you think that blight doesn’t wonder what would have happened if the boy from two had looked up a little bit sooner, looked a little bit closer at the treetops above him, before the knife previously in blight’s hand found it’s way to the boy’s back? do you think that every time johanna picks up an axe, she doesn’t think about what if felt like to stab someone with it, what blood felt like when it splattered you? do you think she doesn’t wake up in a sweat, thinking the moisture on her skin is blood, that she’s back in the third quarter quell? do you think she doesn’t ever walk into her house in the victor’s village and think she sees a glimpse, a shadow, of her lost loved ones?

do you think that woof doesn’t use real knives anymore because every time he sees one, he remembers how it felt to stab blindly at the boy from seven? that even when he was seventy-five and the male tribute from eight for the third quarter quell, he couldn’t even look at the utensil and had to get cecelia to take it away from him? do you think cecelia can’t look at seashells anymore, that she could barely stand district four on her victory tour, because the girl from four was her last kill? that her necklace, a pretty one her sister made for her with a seashell strung through the string, was what cecelia used to choke the life out of her?

do you think that chaff doesn’t ever feel the phantom feeling of his hand? doesn’t ever touch the stump where it used to be and feel the phantom pain of it being sawed off like it was yesterday, even thirty years later? do you think that seeder doesn’t ever feel the hot sun of her arena on her body, doesn’t ever think she’s back, waiting for her death to come?

do you think that haymitch doesn’t start shaking every time a blowgun is provided at the cornucopia? do you think that he didn’t see the gold pin on katniss’ arena wear and have to sit down, remembering a very different girl with blonde hair and a quick witted humor with the same pin? do you think that peeta doesn’t hear foxface’s voice during her interview, over and over and over, until it’s so distorted he can’t even remember what she had actually said? that he doesn’t ever think of the girl from eight, a girl he might not have even known the name of?

do you think that, years down the line, katniss doesn’t realize the fate that waited for glimmer if she had won? do you think that she doesn’t wonder what would have happened if cato was a little quicker to get to the cornucopia to save clove? do you think she doesn’t wonder what the girl from four was like, what her name was, what her parents were like, what she was like? do you think that she doesn’t think about what would have happened if marvel was just a little bit quicker with his spear than her with her arrows, what would have happened if she was just a little bit slower to get to rue?

the what-ifs plague them. their games will never leave them. they will never escape their experiences. their lives will never be their own, if they ever were, ever again.

[elainiisms]

personally, idc how hot young snow was or how "sad" his backstory was, none of that can EVER make me sympathise with a man who killed hundreds of children for amusement and sold the children he didn't kill into s*x trafficking.

[lost-in-beacon-hills]

I feel like prostitution in the hunger games isn't talked about enough. I don't think it carries the full weight that it should. Prostitution in media is more often then not just a woman doing it for money. She's willingly doing it and has a motive and actively gets something out of it.

We are starting to recognize sex work as work. People dont treat prostitution as taboo anymore. We know it happens. But that's not what's happening to the victors. This isn't sex work. It's closer to sex slavery. Even calling it prostitution makes it lose some of the horror.

They have no say in what they do. They don't have bodily autonomy. The only character we really see speak out against it is Finnick. We know it's happened to the others but we don't really get too many details about it. I can say I understand it all I want but it hasn't sunk it just how awful it is. They are bought and sold and used by the capitol.

[kald-dal-art]

There was a plan to break us out of the arena the moment the Quell was announced. The victor tributes from 3,4,6,7,8 and 11 had varying degrees of knowledge about it

Decided to try to draw how I imagined the Victor Alliance to look like and as a bonus how i imagined them to look like when they won their first game

(also headcanons on what year they won/how they look like on some of them is not set in stone for me yet so don't yell at me in the notes k)

Anyways have too many headcanons about these people help

[hummingbirdorchid]

As awful as the games were do you think the victors were at least happy to be together? Especially Haymitch and the others who didn't have many other victors in their district and only were around people who understood what they had gone through while having to relive it all?

[thehungergamesmemes]

Annie: Welcome back to another episode of keeping up with the victors

Annie: When we left off, Cashmere had stolen Enobaria's dress, Chaff had stolen Haymitch's drink, Johanna had stolen Finnick's trident, and Cecelia somehow ended up with a live baby

Annie: On this episode, we will wait for our responsible mentors to return whilst I hide

Annie: If anybody needs me, I'll be hiding in a closet

[mollywog]

I have this headcanon that Haymitch is the unofficial ‘center point’ of the remaining Victors post-war.

We know he lives in District 12 close to Katniss and Peeta and I picture him as a mother hen (or goose 😜) when it comes to them, though he would never admit it. He tries to be hands off, but he’s vigilant. I see him playing himself off of them: When Katniss and Peeta are at odds with each other, Haymitch will make a common ‘enemy’ in himself to put them back of common ground. When Haymitch lets them feed him, it’s as much for them as it is for him - it gives them purpose to care for each other and watch the others do well because of their assistance.

Outside of District 12, Johanna is the easiest to keep in touch with. They’ll go from talking multiple times a week to spans of months without a word. He’s Johanna’s sounding board after particularly poignant calls with her therapist: she’ll call Peeta if she’s looking for comfort, but Haymitch is good at listening to her rants and at the end lightening the mood with crass jokes until she’s howling.

Haymitch has a particular soft spot for Annie, though they rarely speak directly. Peeta and Johanna are in regular contact with her and he is able to keep tabs on her that way without ‘bothering’ her.

Beetee gets absorbed in his work and would go largely forgotten (and not particularly minding it) if not for Haymitch checking in a handful of times a year - he usually disguises his reason for his calls with a technology questions, or talk of politics, but both enjoy the conversations and their frequency.

He and Enobaria were never close, but they share friends and memories from their years mentoring. Every now and then when he’s in a certain mood he’ll call - and when she’s in the mood to answer they’ll swap their favorite lighthearted Victor anecdotes: that time Woof tripped into the buffet and food went flying or the time Cashmere wore the wrong color and disappeared into the green screen during an interview with Caesar. It’s something like their ‘memory book’ moment - honoring thier fellow Victors.

[districtfourmermaid]

All the Victor relationships are so fascinating to me. But I think it's super cute that even from a distance, when they're covered in blood, Finnick recognizes Johanna by how she shoves Wiress.

[itsajollyjester]

The "Victors"

I little while ago I drew what some of the Victors might have looked like when they won their games and made myself very sad in the process

I feel like we get so used to their adult versions we see in the series that we forget they were all children too.

!!!!MAJOR Trigger Warning!!!!

Blood and Gore ahead (I know it might not be a lot for some people, but it is for me, and that goes double since they're only kids)

Haymitch Abernathy- Victor of the 50th Hunger Games

Enobaria- Victor of the 62nd Hunger Games

Finnick Odair- Victor of the 65th Hunger Games

Annie Cresta- Victor of the 70th Hunger Games

Johanna Mason- Victor of the 71st Hunger Games

[sixseasonsofodestawithatardis]

🔥?

Okay, so I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but to me, many of the characters within the narrative of THG are disabled/ have experienced disability in some way! Sorry for how long this post this about to be!

I'll explain further just so others can understand my thought process:

Katniss- Goes deaf in the first book, and whilst that is cured in the 2nd, throughout the rest of the trilogy has PTSD/ trauma, which is a disability/ becomes disabling.

EDIT: Katniss is indigenous (Gale and Haymitch are also part of the seam!) How disability and race intersect is important, too!

Peeta- Loses his leg and has to use a prosthetic, a visible disability, on top of the hijacking and how that affects his mental health.

Johanna- Also has PTSD and severe Hydrophobia due to being electrocuted by the Capitol- to the point where she can't go out into the rain and is used against her when applying to D 13's army. (Not sure if that's 100% correct, but Johanna stans, feel free to correct me!)

Beetee- Again, most likely has PTSD, but also in book 3, due to the lightning ( I think), he is in a wheelchair.

Enobaria- Again, PTSD; I also want to include how her teeth were fashioned into fangs ( Idr if it happened in the book!) But I'm unsure how that would affect her emotionally, physically, medically, etc., so I can't get deeper into that. I've put it down anyway.

Mags- Had a stroke, and her speech isn't as clear as it used to be. Also, she uses a cane, which was taken away from her during the 75th games, presumably because it can be used as a weapon, and she had to rely on Finnick to be mobile during that time in the arena, on top of PTSD or some form of trauma.

Haymitch- Has PTSD (i.e. the bad nightmares), and whilst nothing is said in the book, the alcoholism he has to use to cope with everything has probably messed his liver up. On top of that, the withdrawal symptoms whilst sobering up in D13 were probably disabling, too.

Annie- Has PTSD or Psychosis. She has hallucinations, putting her hands to her ears when triggered by things that remind her of the 70th games or being tortured.

Finnick- PTSD and had multiple breakdowns in D13. On top of the trauma that comes with sexual exploitation, which many other Victors would also have (maybe not the same presentation of symptoms/ coping mechanisms!) if/when Snow forced them into prostitution.

Also, obviously, Chaff, Seeder, Wiress, Cashmere, Cecilia, and basically every Victor is dealing with the trauma and various mental and physical problems after the games, which again are disabilities or disabling!

Non- Victors

Mrs Everdeen- Has depression that renders her mute and unresponsive after Mr Everdeen's death.

Gale- Not stated explicitly, but having to work in the same mines that killed your father, having to then be the one to have to hunt so they survive on top of being in poverty, and then having to save as many people from your district when Snow tries to bomb it would lead to some sort of impact on your mental, physical and emotional health. Also, the whipping he received in Catching Fire would leave a massive injury and be a nightmare for anyone.

Madge's mom- Has constant migraines, which I assume increased after Maysilee's death.

Pollux—He has his tongue cut out and communicates through gestures; this also applies to the rest of the Avox's.

District 10 Boy- in the 74th games, this tribute is described as having a crippled foot.

Those are all the characters from the book who are disabled or become disabled by the system. And I think the fandom forgets that a lot—which isn't helped by the movies erasing things like Johanna's Hydrophobia or Peeta's prosthetic leg. This is annoying to me as many characters, such as Annie, will get ableism thrown their way, yet that person's favourite character will actually be considered disabled- also because I am a disabled woman and having to put up with ableism is a nightmare anyway.

I know we talk about trauma such as PTSD and Psychosis a lot in this fandom, as we should! It's imperative to the message of THG's and the characters of these books! But I've never seen someone explicitly say these characters are disabled; they count as disability representation. And I think if we did that, then

a) We could talk about things like psychosis, PTSD and other traumas these characters experience with greater insight and find empathy and strength within characters we couldn't before and maybe the ableism thrown at the characters would lessen a bit as well.

b) Calling it disability/ disabling on top of the diagnosis would enable us to examine other bits of Panem and see another way it affects people. It would also provide a greater depth of analysis in terms of how we talk about poverty, the games, and other things within the narrative.

Such as how if you were a wheelchair user in the districts, especially D8-12, you wouldn't have access to a mobility aid, so you are either forced to find or create an unsuitable mobility aid such as a cane or are effectively left without aid. On top of this, if they did have a wheelchair (I highly doubt it!) It would be taken away because it could be used as a weapon ( like Glimmer's ring or Mags's cane- also, wheelchairs make good battering rams), so you would be left immobile. We could also discuss how D1-D4 are wealthier and how that affects things like disability and healthcare compared to D7, 8, 9, 10,11,12. Also how D1, D2, D3 and 5 or 6 have the materials or would be the Districts most able to make mobility aids if the Capitol even let them.

This is also a double-edged sword because I know if this conversation around disability within THG starts, there will be many that are going to have some terrible takes. It's going to make my blood pressure rise, and it'll be a nightmare to combat and, as a disabled woman, worse to read. And if this discussion does take off, then I'm gonna need this fandom to understand the three models of disability at a bare minimum! Not that you can't comment without that knowledge at all it just will save a lot of bad takes!

DISCLAIMER- I am just one disabled woman. There are plenty of disabled ppl within this fandom with a different opinion from mine, and I AM NOT AN EXPERT on disability!

TLDR: Many of the characters are disabled and yet face ableism within fandom when they shouldn't. We should start explicitly analysing the series through a disability lens on top of the ones we already explore, but I am terrified by the terrible takes and analysis that would occur.

Thank you for sending in an ask; I'm always happy to answer more! Also, I'm so sorry it's so long. It's probably not what you were expecting for an unpopular take ask. I had a huge thought process for this one, and I really wanted to go in-depth and try to make sure others understood!

Also, I love your odesta fanfiic's and can't wait to read more 🙂!

[anniecrestalover]

ok but victors have like nomination events (like emmy’s and stuff) every year. it’s basically like the met gala and those nominations things (i don’t know much name examples) mixed together with categories like “best arena” or “most loved by the capitol” and that’s also where the older victors mainly get to know the recent victor

[imasradiantasthesun]

Victors — part 3

Haymitch Abernathy, Finnick Odair, Annie Cresta, and Johanna Mason

[kitkats-and-kittens]

Still on my Hunger games grind, so can we talk about the relationships I legit never see discussed?

I’m talking about the other victors and their relationships with each other. Like from the way they interact and what we hear about them in catching fire they are all clearly friendly, or as a bare minimum, tolerable with each other.

And although they seem to stick with making friends primarily within their own circle we have evidence that they do establish personal connections with each other’s outside of their district.

People like Haymitch and Chaff or Finnick and Johanna. Honestly it makes sense since the victors all have shared trauma and can understand what they’re all going through, but I need to know how and when this begins?!?!?

Like in Catching Fire Katniss clearly doesn’t like them, at least at the beginning, and of course it makes sense since she doesn’t know them and never gets the chance too because of the quarter quell, but knowing what they’ve all gone through I honestly felt so upset when her and Peeta were making fun of them.

Still, I wonder what their relationships with the victors would have been like had the quarter quell had been different. I don’t think Katniss and Peeta would have trauma bonded with them in quite the same way as other victors had, but I’m so sad they never got to see the other victors behind the persona the Captiol crafted for them.

Also speaking of newer tributes relationships with other victors, what I really want to see is Finnicks relationship with them. I mean he was the youngest presumably for a good few years since the way I’ve always seen it is 18/17 year olds win the most often for obvious reasons and every couple of years you might get a 16 year old with 15 year olds being extremely rare.

But like if they’re used to 16, 17 and 18 year olds who age into adults only a few years after their games then what was it like having a full on child running around the Capital with them for like 3 years?!?

Like okay maybe I’m reaching, but I feel like in mockingjay Finnick had a really close relationship with Beetee and Haymitch. I don’t want to say it was parental, but since they were both quite a bit older than Finnick when he won his games I think it would’ve been them, as well as Mags who kinda showed Finnick how to be a Victor and maybe even helped protect him since the Captiol was being so, well…Captiol.

Honestly the idea of the older victors all helping to mentor the younger ones on how to be victors is so sad but in like a bittersweet kind of way.

And Beetee making Finnick the trident to distract him from Annie while Haymitch tried to convince him not to do the propo has my whole heart.

If you couldn’t tell by this post the victors and their respective endings make me so sad.

[voiddaisy]

i have this little idea in my head that whenever the victors talk to each other, and one asks how the other is doing, and the answer is really ‘not good at all,’ they instead say, “oh, you know. life of a victor.” and EVERYBODY just understands that means they are crashing and burning but there is nothing that can be done about it, so they just reply and agree, “life of a victor.” and for some reason, that solidarity of just understanding what each other is going through means so much to me.

[kald-dal-art]

Drawings of technically cannon Victors from Hunger Games, but they don’t get any lines of dialogue, and we know basically nothing about them…..but I love them regardless