#peeta mallark meta

[lajeunefilleenfeu]

I feel like the THG fandom often forgets that these characters are literally children, especially when it comes to Gale and Peeta (like, yes they are metaphors but they are also characters).

With Gale, people are way too hard on him given that he's navigating his very first serious romantic feelings (that are unfortunately for his best friend since he was 13). And of course, how his anti-Capitol sentiments and general fight (in fight-flight-freeze) disposition developed from having to take on the role of parent to his siblings (and help out his pregnant mother) when he was 13 without ever getting a chance to process his grief for his father's death because his fight to help his family (and Katniss') survive is literally neverending (all while knowing that he too would one day have to work in the same mines that took his father's life).

In the reverse, I feel like the fandom treats Peeta like he's just this perfect angel without considering the fact that he's literally, concurrently, a child abuse victim. That's a lot of why Peeta is so "well behaved" and selfless, and why he reacts so strongly to his attachment to Katniss. And his charm is very likely a tool he's cultivated to help him navigate his dangerous family life.

I've just been reading THG fanfiction for like, 3 months straight at least (this is how I've spent an embarrassing amount of my spare time, legitimately), and this is an observation.

[lost-in-beacon-hills]

Spoilers ahead for Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Prostitution is a heavy theme in the hunger games. It's a form of control that gets easily glossed over and lost in the original trilogy because so much was happening to Katniss.

In the BOSBAS it recurringly mentions Snows aversion to people selling their bodies in exchange for food/money. He's firmly against it. He doesn't allow himself to linger on the idea that Tigress did such things for him. Or Lucy Gray for Maude Ivory.

He views the loss of bodily autonomy as something so low that no human should ever do it even for the sake of someone they love.

And yet, that's the way he chooses to use the victors. After all, district people aren't people. And to him Lucy Gray wasn't entirely district because she was someone he could see as human.

He didn't care about the Victors because they were merely animals to him. And he was fine with selling their bodies.

[peetapiepita]

Katniss Everdeen and her complex links to cats

Never thought I’d write an entire essay on Katniss and cats, but here we are.

I got this idea from the fact that the male lead of my other favorite series His Dark Materials, Will Parry, has a cat Daemon. (It basically means his soul takes on the form of a cat and I think it might be the same case with Katniss.) He was compared to and linked to cats throughout the story. The same goes for Katniss and she has such a cat-like personality when you think about it.

I also got inspired by a stray cat who suddenly scratched me lightly when I was playing with it. It was getting along with me so well, but scratched me with absolutely no warning and got back to being friendly and purring in an instant. That reminded me of Katniss.

We all know how Katniss hates cats and cat-like creatures, specifically Buttercup and the lynx who was following her around the woods. They both had complex relationships with her as well. Buttercup had a reason to distrust her, yet they were the only ones who could really feel the loss of Prim the same way, so Katniss found comfort in Buttercup at the end of Mockingjay. The lynx was trusting Katniss for no reason and she was conflicted about it because she’s protective in nature and she hated she had to hurt it, but she did it for survival anyway.

This is true of Katniss’ relationship with herself in a way. She tries not to argue for herself ever and lists all her imperfections constantly.

Of course, her relationships with cat-like creatures is not the only thing linking her to cats. She has a very cat-like personality, especially when she interacts with Peeta.

People familiar with cats would tell you that with most cats, even when they act like they don’t give a shit about you and even avoid you, they actually take notice of the humans around them and when you’re kind to them, they’re drawn to you by default. They may try to act indifferent, but it shows.

It’s exactly how Katniss is in her relationship with Peeta. She tries so hard to convince herself that she isn’t drawn to him and doesn’t need him. But when she’s at her most vulnerable, she trusts him and wants him around.

For instance, when she hurts her ankle in Catching Fire, she trusts Peeta to understand what happened and leans on him for support. He in turn delivers a brilliant performance for the peacekeeper and understands that Katniss was hurt while the others are oblivious, even her family. When she’s under the influence of sleep syrup and at her most vulnerable, she’s finally willing to admit she wants Peeta to stay and hold her, even when moments earlier, she was like, I choose the rebellion and Gale. And when they’re on the train to the Quarter Quell, she finally lets herself get loose and initiates an intimate hug. She doesn’t want to let go and is annoyed when they’re interrupted. She’s practically purring when touched by Peeta because she feels safe with him. That’s so cat-like.

These are so cat behaviour to me. It also makes sense that I see a lot writers giving Katniss lines like “I’m not good with words, I work better with actions.” Yes, she’s like that and that’s very cat-like. And with cat-like people, when they get attached to someone, they don’t let go. This is also part of why Will reminded me of Katniss. He literally goes through a bunch of worlds in search of Lyra after losing her. Katniss is like that with Peeta. When she loses him, she’s inconsolable. She’d do anything to get him back.

Last but not the least, Katniss’ name is also very similar to “cat”. I’ve seen quite a few people’s head canons with other character nicknaming her “Kat”. Once you make the connection, you can’t unsee it.

[lost-in-beacon-hills]

I want to add on that this makes the 3rd quell so much worse.

This is a community of people that have lived through tragedies and still find the heart to forgive each other because there is no one else to turn to. These people have become like a family determined to support each other. They have known each other for years.

When all their support systems failed they turned to their fellow victors. And Snow saw that they weren't isolated enough.

Katniss was the driving force but he willingly threw the rest of them to the wolves. Untimely that was his undoing. If he had left her alone there wouldn't have been an uprising.

He turned the few people that were supporting each other against one another in an attempt to kill a sixteen year old girl. He miscalculated so bad on that one. They had no districts to win for. Nothing worth coming back to. He had them so isolated that all they had was each other.

So they chose to not come back. They would die if they had to and not turn on the last bit of family they would ever know. By supporting Katniss they could at least hope they died instigating a rebellion.

Someone has probably already pointed this out but mentoring is hell. When Snow and all the other kids get assigned to being a mentor for the games they all end up falling for their tribute in a way. Or at least most of them do. They develop soft spots for them. Snow falls for Lucy Gray. Lysistrata fell for Jessup. Even Juno shows remorse over Bobbins death. Nearly all these capitol born children find out when mentoring that the kids they watch die are actually people.

At nearly every turn in the ballad of songbirds and snakes you see all capitol born citizens get personally involved with them. And when they inevitably lose them they all become different. It changes who they were. Each of them gets a little more convinced that their kid isn't district. Snow even pushes the idea that Lucy Gray is practically capitol. Within the mentoring they all view their tribute as the exception. The one that doesn't belong to a district. Their tribute is always better or smarter or kinder than the rest. A few of them even get saved by their tribute. The tribute didn't have to do it but they did. So to them they can't possibly be from a district.

Making the victors mentor the children from their own district is fucked in a lot of ways. Every year they are forced to get close to another kid, knowing their families back home are depending on them to do their best to bring them back. They try their damnedest to save them but the odds aren't always in their favor. It takes away the opportunity for their capitol citizens to humanize them while making them isolated on all sides. They don't want the capitol citizens getting too close because if they do then they'll realize these are people. They allow the winners to go home while being the richest in the district. In twelve, we see that everyone is starving while Haymitch is fine. This helps isolate the victors even more.

Who would want to look at their winner when people are dying and they are doing perfectly fine? Who would want to look at the person that didn't bring your child home? They may know the capitol is to blame but the mentor always shares that responsibility in their mind.

It's part of the punishment for the victors too. It's not enough to force them into prostitution and sex slavery. You need more than bodily control over them to keep them broken and beaten down.

The capitol does such a good job at isolating and punishing victors. You're forced to mentor a child every year that you may or may not know. Half of them are already dying or too weak to fight back and yet you are their only chance of survival. You have to be willing to forgive your fellow mentors for the actions of their tributes because they are the only ones who will ever truly know the hell of losing everything. They are the ones that understand the hate from all sides. The victors are hated by the president, their own districts (outside of the career districts but they have their own fucked problems) and by the kids they have to shepard to death.

Snow's games is designed to make them view the other districts as the enemy and for the most part it works. They want the victors to hate each other but by having control over everything else all they are left with is each other. Even if they wanted to hate each other there would be no point. They have no one else. Their games change them. No one back home is able to pick up their pieces.

In bosbas he reflects that all the capitol mentors now are bonded. It's a club with an unbreakable connection. I think he saw how dangerous it was to let their citizens be too close and just how painful it was to do that job. Imagine being one of the few like Haymitch that had 20+ years of failure to haunt them with a district full of children blaming them for the losses.