trampled-and-melting - Tumblr blog

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the tragedy of katniss everdeen is that every adult in the series who is meant to protect her betrays that responsibility in some way.

your mother loves you, but not enough to help you.

cinna loves you, but not enough to protect you.

haymitch loves you, but not enough to save you.

and maybe it's for the best, right? maybe that's the price we have to pay to save people. so, so many people. if any of those three had stepped in to help her at any point, then maybe things wouldn't have happened the way they did. maybe the world would've been worse for it.

but still, there's the traumatized teenager surrounded by adults, who are not bad people. they are variously kind, and caring, and loving, and they believe in good things and they want those things to come to fruition.

and they all love her, but not enough to save her.

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hey hey wait. i find it really strange that the movie villainizes clemensia the way it does?

like. the whole point of that scene is that dr. gaul is crazy and unreasonable and unpredictable, that she's dangerous, and that no one is safe from that danger. clemensia didn't do anything wrong. she was grieving her classmate, she didn't make snow do all the work, it just slipped her mind in the wake of all that was happening. that's all. in fact, he's kind of the weirdo for remembering to do it in the first place. clemensia tells a little white lie to protect her grades, with snow's assistance and consent, and dr. gaul's response to that is neither reasonable nor proportional. it's pure sadism.

why does the movie want us to hate her? it's little details, too, not just having her weasel her way into the assignment in the first place, and then try to take full credit instead of roughly half, but also stuff like dr. gaul telling her the snakes are going to bite her before she sticks her hand in the tank, instead of after, like in the book. it makes her look like an idiot.

like. it's meant to be random, horrific violence. it's meant to establish that dr. gaul will hurt anyone, for any reason, for no reason at all. she'll attack innocent people just to find out what would happen. no one is truly safe from her.

so why is the movie kinda siding with dr. gaul? why is it just like, well, did you ever consider that maybe clemensia is a bitch kind of? you ever consider that maybe she deserved it a little? maybe she had it coming? you ever think of that?

well, no. i can't say i did.

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idk if anyone on here is following it, but i just updated my main wip :)

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This is the last time the word "Coryo" appears in the book

Coryo died with Sejanus

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i like the idea that the Capitol Accent™ hadn't been cemented as a thing yet in tbosbas. katniss describes it as sounding "affected" and i kinda like the idea of it emerging as a mark of status over like a couple of decades after the war. the "upper-class accent" being intentionally invented rather than developing organically isn't unprecedented and it seems like the sort of thing they'd do. also i think snow would find it really fucking stupid if it became a thing after he was already an adult and that's really funny to me. raise your speaking tone two octaves exaggerate your sibilances to the point of absurdity and turn up the end of every sentence like it's a question OR continue to talk like a pleb. your choice mr. snow.

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The internet is such a beautiful haunted echoey warehouse

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there's something i find particularly disturbing about district 1 career tributes.

white. blonde. blue-eyed. conventionally attractive. all of them. we have a relatively large sample size with district 1, four named and described characters in the trilogy and a fifth in bonus material and none of them, not one, breaks that mold. none of the other districts are that homogeneous. sure, there are "looks" associated with each district, you can generally tell where someone is from by looking at them, but none of them are quite so consistent.

someone is hand-selecting these kids. "attractiveness" has got to be part of the selection process in district 1. do they choose kids who look like that to train? or do they just give them more encouragement to volunteer?

and they're all loyalists, too. or seem to be. glimmer and marvel seemed eager to volunteer and were ruthless killers in the games, cashmere and gloss couldn't be trusted with the rebel plot, and augustus braun was popular, in part, for being an outspoken patriot.

and i just can't stop thinking about district 1's industry. they have made themselves one of the wealthiest and most secure districts by producing luxury goods for the capitol.

and sometimes i just think. i don't know. maybe they do.

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remember when in the very first chapter of thg katniss said that she's "not the forgiving type", and we as readers were expecting a salty, bitter protagonist. but then she turned out to be one of the most compassionate, kind and merciful characters in the book??

yeah, unreliable narration at its best.

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i hope this isn't overstepping (i just saw this ask on my dash) but i've got a list of capitol names you might find helpful :)

Give me captiol names (slaps forehead)

Because my captiol names are dragon fruit and orange 😃

Hi, Spark!

I'm not really familiar with the expression dragon fruit and orange? unless, you just mean that you like hearing about Capitol names (their meanings)? Or do you want Capitol name suggestions? Or do you need a reminder of what Capitol names there are?

Sorry! I'm a bit tired today, so it might be really obvious what you're asking, but if you could clarify for me, haha!

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will always be super annoyed with the implication that art delving into an evil person’s conscience or internal conflict is bad because it is being overly sympathetic towards them. that is not exoneration. the whole point is that regardless of their humanity (that, yes, evil people ultimately have in real life) they continue to make the choices that render them irredeemable. it doesn’t turn into less of a condemnation. depicting complexity ≠ manipulating the audience into feeling compassion or forgiveness. i keep seeing the accusation of the latter being thrown at media that is very clearly only doing the former

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ok, fuck it, i'm posting this here. it's one of the many, many snippets i wrote for Love in a Foxhole, just nailing down character voices and dynamics. there probably won't be a use for this one in the fic, especially since the timelines have shifted since i wrote it, but i really like it for some reason, so i'm posting it as a standalone. takes place the year after johanna's hunger games.

(cw for veiled references to the victor trafficking)

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“I can’t tell if this is a request or an order.”

Johanna is reading over the invitation for a third time, slumped on the couch in the hotel room the Capitol has provided her. It's to be hers every year she doesn't mentor. The leather upholstery squeaks under her as she shifts—apparently she doesn’t have the social clout to redecorate yet. 

“It’s usually not that simple.” Finnick pauses. “Requests aren’t that simple, anyway. I wouldn’t risk it, if I were you.” He’s sitting on her floor, back against the couch, close to her legs. There's an identical piece of paper in his hand. 

“That loses meaning after a point, you know.”

“I know.” 

Pause. “I won't be expected to…you know. Will I?”

“What, entertain?”

She shrugs. 

“No, I think you're safe. It's only a week away. If you had obligations, you would know about them by now. There are no surprises, ever, especially not with this kind of event. Sheer vindictiveness isn't worth the risk of throwing you into a situation like that unawares.” 

“Small mercies, I guess.” Belatedly, something about where he placed the emphasis in that assurance flags. “What about you?” 

“I'm definitely not at liberty to decline.” 

She feels herself staring at the piece of paper in his hand. It’s so benign, so small and harmless and unassuming, like a tumor. “It's gross that they sent you an invitation.”

“Is that the gross part?”

“At least tell me you're not going to RSVP.” 

“I'm going to RSVP,” says Finnick. “I have a reputation to uphold.” 

“I will puke into your lap right now.” 

He laughs. She still hasn't figured out how he does that so easily. “Look, just—if I were you, I would go. It’s always safer to say ‘yes’ than ‘no.’ But I can’t tell you what to do. If being ordered to go would make it easier, just take the invitation to your stylist and ask her opinion. You’ll be in the makeup chair in ten seconds flat whether you want to be or not.”

“That’s fucked.”

He shrugs. “We all cope in our own ways.”

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nobody:

me: what if every character was roughly 20% more fucked up than popular fanon suspects them to be?

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my take on pre-games annie cresta

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so. i made something.

what i imagine it feels like for a career victor to, ever so slowly, realize that they've been played.

(if you're wondering why the rest of my spotify profile is empty, it's because i have a crippling addiction to creating brand new accounts for every hyperfixation. i have a couple of other hg playlists in the works, but this is the only one i'm ready to share.)

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ok, i am sticking this under a cut because it is LONG but if you want my new very convoluted headcanons for how career tributes happened and my First Career Trubute™️ oc who i am in love with, here they are:

see, after the 10th hunger games, i have a spike in victors from outlying districts. people who maybe aren't fighters, but are interesting, talented, likeable, clever. there's a gap of several years completely without victors from (not yet) career districts. and then i had to ask myself the question, when do they start dominating the field again? at what point does the playing field become less level? what changes?

ok, so this came about while i was writing up the names and districts for all my victors, and i started accidentally constructing a tiny bit of a narrative.

which is, of course, related to the question, how is the perception and treatment of victors changing? and i came to what i thought would be a logical turning point.

the first quarter quell.

quells are special, and not just for the Fresh Hell introduced to the games. they have a higher budget, a more interesting arena, special facilities. i would imagine that by the first quell, most of these things are already being introduced. so what would be a nice, extra special something to spice up the 25th anniversary of the hunger games?

well, here's an idea: each of the surviving victors of previous years will be brought back to the capitol to mentor a tribute in this year's games.

this is, as you might imagine, terrible for all involved except the capitol themselves. in the capitol, it's so successful, they end up making it a fixture in the games.

all of the victors go home freshly re-traumatized, shell-shocked, and furious.

they're not just angry, though. the capitol has given them something that might be useful. the capitol has given them a sense of responsibility for young tributes. the capitol has brought to their attention that they may have valuable insight about how this whole thing works.

though there have been several outlying victors by this point, districts one, two, and four still each have a solid handful of living victors, while most of the outliers only have about one or two apiece.

so maybe a few of them go home, and they look at all the vulnerable kids in their communities, and they think, we can help them. we know how this works. we can prepare them.

it starts out covertly, in abandoned buildings and basements. teaching them how to throw a punch, how to hold a knife, how to give an interview, how to regulate their breathing, so as not to panic. simple things. just trying to give them their best shot of surviving, if it comes to it. only if.

but they've already started giving prizes to victors. money, houses, celebrity status. becoming a victor looks more attractive by the day.

maybe all it takes is one kid. one kid to think, i have the best odds out of anyone from any other district. if i win, my family will be set for life. high risk, high reward.

and maybe that kid comes home.

and suddenly everyone wants to volunteer. high risk, high reward. and from there, it can only spiral.

my version of that kid is mercy chandler, district 1, victor of the 30th hunger games. the first ever trained volunteer. not a proper career tribute, of course. she's not trying to bring glory to the district. she's just a poor kid who likes the idea of not being poor anymore. and the really terrible thing is that it works.

she volunteers, she wins, she comes home rich beyond her wildest dreams, she moves her family into the big fancy house and she goes back to the capitol the following year to mentor someone else.

she's a capitol favorite for years afterwards.

most of her mentees are other volunteers. most of them never go home. each year, they get a little more eager to die.

something something The Road To Hell, am i right?

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Trope of the day is... realizing they've basically been in a relationship for a while now.

Perfect for that married couple in the friendgroup that isn't actually a couple yet. They often find out about it because more and more people act confused when they say they're not actually a couple. Even people they've known for years think they've been dating all along.

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and just when you think you’re at your absolute lowest a blonde motherfucker comes along and makes everything so much worse