#compared to thresh just apparently being someone brutal and to be feared

[vampirehizzies]

sounds weird coming from the ultimate clove girl but that moment at the feast scene must have sucked for thresh. the illustrated version took a more sympathetic outlook on what the act of killing someone must have been like for him, and maybe he understandably didn't feel that much sympathy for clove, a girl who was bragging about the death of a middle schooler even if she wasn't the one that did it, but clove is a human being and very small, and thresh doesn't seem to be much of a killer - obvious by the fact that he left clove alone until provoked.

he acted in rage and as vengeance but honestly can you imagine the psychological blow of hearing someone talk so callously about the little girl that he couldn't protect, killing that person to get justice, and then having to see a small girl's dead body/a dent in her skull and know that he is the one that did that even if at the time it made sense.

katniss saw thresh as this very stoic and strong person but i like how the illustrated version of thg disproved that bias by showing thresh's state of grieving a little girl (rue) and having experienced what it is to murder someone. thresh had no reason to feel sympathy/grief for clove but i don't think he walked away from killing her completely unaffected and indifferent to what he did, in fact the act of killing her proves the opposite and that he does feel intense emotion about the tragedy and unfairness of the situation.

it also makes katniss's mockingjay speech ("that's why I killed cato and he killed thresh and thresh killed clove...") even more of a gut punch because even though thresh killed the person he thought was rue's killer that presumably didn't feel like much of an act of justice to him either.