#this narrative really adores dooming these sisters and it's so tragic to watch

[shidoukanae]

Thinking of Lyla,,,, the real Lyla,,,,,

This gal has only ever shown up for 5 seconds in the current day plot (presuming that one baby version of her that showed up once is, indeed, her) but her impact is stupidly massive for a character who doesn't exist anymore.

It really hits home how important Lyla was to the plot with or without the protagonist's occupation of her body. And it makes me sad that the real Lyla likely won't come back to reap the benefits of the protagonist's actions to reunite with Helene and Daniel in much happier times. Because, man, the original Lyla had a sucky life but honestly she still had people in her corner she was just never allowed to know about it before she decided to give up on everything and change places with "Lyla" :')

[buffyspeak]

i know it’s been said, but what’s so tragic about prim is that she really was always completely doomed by the narrative. because whether katniss survived the games or not, her taking prim’s place still only protected her for one year. she was twelve. everyone’s eligible for the games until the age of eighteen. prim’s name was drawn, but she wasn’t a victor, which i assume means she would be fair game to make a tribute down the line. imagine a world where katniss died during the 74th games and prim had to take out tesserae to help feed herself and her mother. her chances of being reaped again become increasingly likely then. not to mention, while i’m a full advocate that prim’s name being drawn during the first games was not planned by anyone and just a really unfortunate and unlikely but fully possible stroke of bad luck - i do believe it’s implied numerous times that there have been instances of the reapings being rigged. the third quarter quell is bascially proof of that. and it’s not hard to imagine that after the publicity of katniss volunteering for her, the capital would consider it really good storytelling for prim to be reaped. as johanna said, the capital citizens adored prim, so maybe they would have waited a few years until prim was older and seemed to have somewhat more of a chance, but i still fully believe they would do it. the capital has favorites, but they also get bored. their adoration is not unconditional or permanent. hell, in a world where katniss lived but the revolution didn’t happen, they’d probably wait for katniss to age out of the games before reaping prim. they might even wait a few years after that - until prim was sixteen, the same age katniss was during her games. because of the symbolism of it all. there would be a whole special montage on the Caesar Flickerman Show. then vs now. katniss volunteering for her sister and prim screaming out for her. katniss on her victory tour, prim’s interviews during the 74th games. prim’s name getting drawn, capital fans oohing and ahing as they watch the little girl they remember “ “ “ all grown up “ “ “ and being prepared for the slaughter. katniss being too old to save her this time and crying out for her in a tragic parallel to the 74th reaping. a sister she could save until she couldn’t. the capital let her save her sister once, but the whole point of the games is to exert power over the districts. you want rebellion? you want the way things were before? we’ll show you what violence and war look like, wrapped up in a neat little package. we can take your children to do it. we’re going to take your children to do it. you can’t stop us. and what better way to show that message and exert that control than to once again reap the poor little girl the whole of panem thought katniss saved?

the story was never going to end any other way. revolution or not.