Sotr - Blog Posts

my fav thing about sunrise on the reaping was when haymitch was like yeah caeser i'm a lone wolf 😏 i'm with the newcomers but i'm not WITH the newcomers, yknow? they call me a rascal. a rebel against the gamemasters. I scored a ONE and that is a THREAT. you do not want to mess with me 🙅

cut to him with like 20 kids following him around like ducklings, him hiding in his t-shirt, him letting a bunny guide him to safety because it reminded him of his girlfriend, and him making nightlights out of potatoes.

haymitch says himself katniss is like him, but luckier.

katniss realized the berries were nightlock before peeta ate them.

sunrise on the reaping is just this onion headline over and over again:

“sotr is mid because you already know how it ends” shut the fuck up, the point of the book is that despite knowing how it ends you would have never known what actually went down because that’s the point of propaganda, the whole book is about the power of propaganda

the way haymitch must have seen it as all his ghosts coming back to haunt him at once when katniss walked onto the train with the face of burdock and asterid, the pin of maysilee, the voice of lenore dove, and a background so devastatingly similar to his own. of course sweetheart slipped out. and of course he did everything he could to keep her alive

"I love you like all-fire"

i love how suzanne just gives us a little treat by mentioning the katniss plant every book. like here u go. ik u miss our girl. she's fine. enjoy lowercase katniss

i’m so appreciative to suzanne for reframing the rebellion from the original trilogy as a “they saw their moment and took it” type situation and showing us that they’ve been trying, over and over, with so many failed attempts, to break the arena and incite a rebellion for decades. in this current political climate never giving up hope is so essential. haymitch wasn’t the first nor the last, and they kept going even when it seemed completely futile, and that’s what counts, and what ultimately saves them all.

The doubling of tribute numbers. The miscarried Abernathy twins. The Donner sisters who Haymitch carries a fascination for as consequence. Louella being replaced by Lou Lou, a name that only mimics the first half of her name, and a girl who matches her in appearance only. The Appalachia legends of mimics. Tam Amber’s set of pins, one dropped down a well, the other discarded. The two versions of the games: the one that Haymitch remembers and the edited, falsified version of them without the real content. The two bags of gumdrops. The fraternal affection he feels for Louella and Lou Lou, the artificial twins, and Maysilee’s offer to be his sister—the second one she gives in the book. A bond with a real twin, both pairs healing the sisters he never did know. The split between what is natural and what is manufactured or forged, bonds that that grow on their own, or are forced into existance. And if the distinction makes any difference to the person it impacts.

Ampert's death RUINED me oh my fucking gosh. What the fuck Suzanne.

bro no way suzanne actually used this for inspiration 😭

that moment in catching fire when haymitch jumps in front of peacekeepers for someone he loves, leading him to get reaped again…

also is anyone else as haunted by the carnivorous squirrels as I am? i feel like that was brushed aside way too fast. not only is the idea of that ultra fucked up but one of the most loveable characters ever had to endure their wrath. i get nauseous if i think about it too hard.

Lent my copy of Sunrise on the Reaping to a friend of mine and I guess I did a good job of hyping it up cuz they finished it in one day.

did you also imagine Wyatt Callow as Berthold from aot while reading SOTR? no? just me? ok..

Oh nothing, just thinking about how Hay watched his mentors die in the games they helped get him throught 25 years ago.

Okay so i can't get the book out of my head, please can someone write fanfiction about Haymitch meeting everyone in afterlife? Begging rn, also give me some good thg/sotr ff to read 🙏🙏🙏

My friend made a new book cover for Sunrise on the Reaping. Your Welcome.

The fact that there are several undertones that we don't understand until later in life when we're older, reading The Hunger Games is astounding.

Haymitch was never forced into anything (I'm talking prostitution) because his love and family were dead. If he hadn't pushed his friends away they would be the new collateral that Snow would hold over Haymitch's head.

Haymitch was never going to have a happy ending either way and that's all the more depressing to think about. Had Lenore survived, she would've been something to hold over him. His life was bound for depression the minute he won the games. He didn't die in the games, his chance of happiness died the minute he boarded the train.

(And perhaps that theory that Burdock's death in the mines was targeted may hold some merit, although in my opinion that was a very late accident that I'm not sure it would been connected. However, the chance that it was more of an act to squash rebellion definitely sticks, and it no doubt it still probably haunts Haymitch.)

Suzanne really making us look at the victors in the eyes and realizing that they are all victims.

Please I can't.

Peeta Mellark is an integral member of the four D12 victors. He is literally the sunset on the reaping! How is this not clear? I’ve never wanted to report people for bad literary analysis more and I’m only half joking. It has forced me to commit a cardinal sin: analyze in anger!

1. Him being chosen by absolute accident is the point. Not only does he represent every single other tribute who simply gets chosen because they live in a messed up country but he represents how even with some odds being in your favor (older siblings, merchant family, being white, being popular, etc.) you are still very likely to be victimized by the oppressive structure of Panem.

2. When Haymitch says, “But she was smarter than me, or luckier” - the luck is all the people around Katniss who created the circumstances for her to lead a successful revolution (her father teaching her to hunt, the arena having woods, Rue healing her with leaves, Thresh not killing her, Haymitch consistently giving her support, her mother teaching her aspects of medicine, on and on and on) and Peeta is the number one, most important part of her luck in the first book. She has someone in the games actively putting her life before his… are you kidding? There is legitimately no better luck than that.

3. Even if we take Katniss out of it, Peeta is so impactful as a victor because most of his scenes would not be cut/doctored. What’s there to edit out? Instead, the viewers get a full view of him loving a girl so selflessly, using trickery and strategy instead of violence, keeping himself alive through art, joking on literal death’s door, and sharing so much of himself with the audience it becomes harder for them not to see him as a real human boy. How rare do you think that is for the games? Haymitch and LGB are caricatures of themselves in the games, playing roles that flatten them down. Even Katniss becomes one dimensional on screen without Peeta (and Rue, of course). It is also heavily implied that he does not kill anyone during the games (in a straightforward way) and even if you count Cato or the girl from 8 or even foxface, it’s never him hunting them or seeking out a kill - again how rare do you think that is to see on screen for Games viewers?

4. I didn’t think this needed to be said but: Katniss dies without Peeta in the first games. a) she goes for the bow and dies in the bloodbath; b) she is hunted and killed by Careers; c) she is killed by game makers because there’s no love story angle to keep them from just burning her entirely; d) she dies from tracker jacker stings or Cato because Peeta doesn’t defend her or tell her to run… I could go on…

5. But even if she does win and wins alone - the victory means as much (I would argue less than) any other rebellious victor winning, certainly less than Haymitch’s win. The biggest rebellion for their games is that two of them win! This is legit the only thing that distinguishes them from any other sympathetic, kind child who would have won the games. Like if Haymitch or Finnick or Wiress winning isn’t jarring enough for the Games to end… why do you think Katniss killing Peeta and winning solo would be? It would not.

6. And finally, I cannot stress this enough: There is no peaceful end to the rebellion or the trilogy without Peeta. “Peeta’s a whiz with fires” (HG) for a reason! Collins, over and over, shows us how fire can get out of control and destroy even those who are innocent and who you love (Gale, Beete, Peeta’s family, Haymitch’s family). If everyone really burns, there’s no one to clean the ashes. The reason not everyone burns is because of people like Peeta who can coax the flames in a way that is nurturing and consistent. I mean…. “Peeta fashioned some kind of incubator” is such an obvious detail. Those goslings don’t hatch without Peeta, life does not go on in peace and joy without Peeta.

It is no coincidence that when Maysilee says Lenore Dove got the “jump on us all” (in being a rebel), she is referring to LD using orange paint to make protest art!

We must stop pushing Peeta Mellark out of the narrative! He is literally the sunset on the reaping!

Something that I think is important about Wyatt as a character is how he highlights the stupidity of the district system. I know that the human love of sorting ourselves into categories meant that every YA series for a while had a bunch of different groups with associated traits that tweens could take uquizzes about, but The Hunger Games isn't like Divergent or Harry Potter where young adults get grouped based on their personalities. Sure, the districts all have industries they're known for and the tributes are clearly shaped by wherever they grew up, but being born into District Four doesn't actually mean that you'll like fish. Wyatt is brilliant when it comes to numbers, but in District Twelve he can only channel that into gambling. Imagine if he'd been born into District Three with a father like Beetee, what he could have done with his mathematical talents. There's mention of it with Maysilee too, how she doesn't want to run the candy store but her options are that or the mines.

I guess what I'm saying is that the district system is great for keeping people oppressed because they see their fellows as "other," which is why it is a tool of fascism and not a practical way to run a society. It doesn't matter who is in what group, it matters that they internalize their group identity to the point that they ignore the similarities between them.

oh my god please this would be so perfectly funny

Last night I had a dream that the Drusilla casting was announced and she was gonna be played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Which honest to god I think that could have been hilarious

guys be merciful i don’t rlly draw snakes, porcupines, or utensils. colored version on the left, black and white on the right. just ask if you are confused on what’s what (im not the greatest at drawing certain things)

it would be so very nice of you if you could draw the 50th hunger games tributes. (if you do thank youuuuu)

Wyatt, Maysilee, and Louella on reaping day

thinking about how katniss recognises merrilee when watching the recording of haymitch’s games due to her resemblance to madge; do you think that merrilee got to see maysilee grow up again through madge? do you think merrilee could barely look at madge because she was a reminder of the sister she lost? do you think merrilee saw maysilee in madge before seeing her as madge everytime she looked at her? do you think merrilee broke down when madge turned 17? because her twin never did? do you think merrilee saw madge die seconds before she herself died when district 12 got bombed? that merrilee saw both her twins die in front of her?

do you think haymitch and clerk carmine reconnected/interacted at finnick and annie’s wedding in mockingjay?

learning burdock is a potato substitute broke me.. in light of this i narrowed down toastbaby names to these two options:

Carrot and Beetroot

Potayto and Potahto

the way my brain automatically started playing katniss’s theme when maysilee and haymitch sat down in sotr

i love how suzanne just gives us a little treat by mentioning the katniss plant every book. like here u go. ik u miss our girl. she's fine. enjoy lowercase katniss

songbird, mockingjay and dove

Something I had to keep reminding myself of because I keep imagining her like she was in Catching Fire-

Wiress was still a kid when she mentored Haymitch- they're like 2 year apart

I feel like we're so used to the idea of the mentors being old enough to be the tributes parents

but so many of them were still babies forced to blame themselves for other babies deaths