Sotr - Blog Posts
pls guys do simple math. if tbosas was inspired by the 40’s that means in sotr which is 40 YEARS LATER would be inspired by the 80’s
lenore dove HAS curly bangs
y’all haffie shippers are working overtime to try to make it seem cannon after sotr
LENORE DOVE IS NOT A REDHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
or how many reaping they had redo because the kids ran and they shot them? or what games the edited because of something rebellious? or change the narrative to look better for the captial? or erase tribute just because the can?
because of sotr we can’t take any information as fact because it could be edited. maybe Enobaria killing someone with her death wasn’t as viscous as we think. maybe annie didn’t actually go THAT mad during her games. maybe the morphings didnt just hide in their games and the captiol just hide it because they can.
I've got to wonder, how many attempted rebellions were there, did other tributes try and break the games, try to upthrow the capitol, were all their efforts erased
CONFIRMED HAYMITCH ABERNATHY IS AN ALLY
everyone should talk about how derange Lenore Dove is
girl is 16 and she already been arrested twice. and when she got questioned she wrote a SEVEN PAGE DOCUMENT about if would die give all of her things to her geese for her alibi.
She literally talked about breaking into the Donners home to get back pin her uncle made for Masyilee. Haymitch and Burdock had to stop her for actually doing it!!
My girl is so chaotic and i love her for it
didn’t expect to love Mayislee so much but after reading sotr i’m claiming her
for the rare and radiant maiden
whom the angels name Lenore— 🕊️
I just know the botanic garden in my town hates to see me coming because my main focus is plants tied to hunger games lore
I keep rereading this paragraph, and it keeps hurting my brain. So, who is supposed to be homophobic in this society, Suzanne?
We are definitely meant to read it as "peacekeepers will harass you, but the D12 citizens are fine with you being gay."
Why, though?
Peacekeepers come from Capitol (or D2 that aspires to be as similar to the Capitol as possible), and we know from MJ that in order to shock the Capitol citizens you need to engage in something really scandalous, like incest.
(Meanwhile, Finnick's "clients" (i.e., rapists) are never specified to be exclusively women. Even Katniss, who is somewhat prudish, is bothered by the quick turnover of his "partners", not their genders.)
Do the peacekeepers go through an insensitivity training of some sorts? Does President Snow personally come to the training centres and explain what kind of bigots they need to be? How are those peacekeepers supposed to act if they later return to the Capitol?
I'm pretty sure Collins just aimed for the "police & authoritative state are homophobic" narrative, but it makes no sense if the Capitol itself is a sex-positive environment. Like, ussr (which is usually a template for the secular YA dystopias) outlawed homosexuality, but they used the "male homosexuality is a sickness, female homosexuality doesn't exist" explanation. Is that something Capitol tells the districts?
Homophobia might have developed under the guise of "replenishing the population after the war", which would make a lot of sense in a post-war Panem, but despite the excessive talks about propaganda and posters we see nothimg about "needing more people" or "having more kids" (as kids would later potentially become tributes). Also, that would surely affect the districts more than the Capitol.
"Fired from jobs" is even weirder. I would understand if D12 was a small and traditional community that persecuted queer people, especially if queerness was something associated with the Capitol and its decadence. But no, we are apparently meant to think that the D12 folk are not homophobic at all, even though there is a pretty clear social divide between the merchants and the Seam miners. Also, who is supposed to do the said firing? Peacekeepers function like an army, so they answer to their higher-ups in the Capitol. I can believe that D12's coal mines are also under the total control of the Capitol, but who is going to fire the window-maker (especially since D12 is very small, so it's unlikely they have more window-makers)? The sellers from the black market? The "goat man"? Are the merchants not in control of the employees in their stores? What about the family-owned businesses, like the Mellarks or the Donners?
"Arrested" finishes me. So, say, you get arrested for being queer. Then what? Are you going to be executed? That was never mentioned as a motivation to shoot / whip / detain someone, even though in CF we see a lot of peacekeepers' crackdowns on D12. Are you going to stay in jail? That's gonna cost Capitol a lot of money. Does D12 even have a jail (Lenore Dove was kept on a "peacekeepers' base" in SOTR)? Are you going to continue working in the mines, but without salary, if we are continuing the ussr metaphor?
More importantly, are gay teenagers more likely to be reaped?
Make it make sense///
Yes, it's a book for kids. But if my kid is old enough to read about war, rebelion, and teenagers killing each other with melee weapons, they are totally old enough to read about gay people.
Haymitch and character assassination bc I have ~thoughts~
Specifically, the thought I kept having while reading SOTR was "Suzanne, don't take my tragic fuckboys away from me!"
Like, I don't care about the shipping, I don't give a flying fuck about Maysilee hating the pin, I honestly just wanted to read more about the character I truly enjoyed in the original trilogy. The problem seems to be that Suzanne didn't understand why people liked Haymitch.
In THG, he was a rude and condescending alcoholic who had already become completely disillusioned with pretty much everything in his life. We knew he was cynical ("you're never gonna leave this train"), incredibly smart even despite years of drinking (he was able to convince both Katniss and Peeta that they were going to save another person) and manipulative (he was capable of selling the tragic romance between his tributes to the Capitol citizens).
These features made Haymitch a useful ally to the rebels and a character the readers would root for, but they were balanced out by his meanness and the way he seemed to despise everybody else. That's why Haymitch's Games were my favourite part of CF: here we get this snarky kid who sneers at everybody and proclaims himself to be the smartest. And then he goes and proves himself to be exactly what he claimed to be: an intelligent guy that managed to win using Capitol's technologies. It also gave us an understanding of what Haymitch's idea of himself had been. Unlike Katniss and Peeta, who constantly underestimated themselves, Haymitch knew what he was good at. He was a scrappy and snarky kid from a poor district, so he had no reason to respect the Capitol citizens or his fellow tributes (in THG we learnt from Katniss that people knew virtually nothing about life in other districts) and was not afraod to show it.
And here comes SOTR, and Haymitch goes "oh, I only know how to make moonshine and maaaaybe something about mechanisms". So where did his vast knowledge come from? Did he go to a nightschool in between his drinking sessions in D12? Did Lenore Dove's braincells leave her body and attach themselves to Haymitch after her death?
Yes, people tend to be a lot smarter at 41 than they used to be at 16, but we were shown in CF that Haymitch was incredibly intelligent, why take that away from him?
Moreover, Katniss is also 16 in the first book and she is naive but far from dumb: she manages to decipher Haymitch's messages, she devises a plan to kill several Careers, she has been feeding her family for years, ffs. And we know from CF that Haymitch was from Seam (and we get no mention of his father), so he was likely forced to earn some money even before the Quarter Quell. But no, apparently the only use Haymitch has for his brain in SOTR is to learn a single fucking poem.
The only thing I find more annoying than dumbing an already established smart character down is making them **nice**. The original trlogy Haymitch was perfect as an adult figure who has had more experiences (almost exclusively bad experiences, mind you) and therefore was biter and unpleasant. The Haymitch from the Quarter Quell was a teenager on his way to become the arrogant alcoholic we know and love. He was already unhappy with his life but was trying to claw his way out of the arena. And then Haymitch did it, he got out alive, but Snow disliked the way he won and killed everybody Haymitch loved and cared about. This read as the thing that broke Haymitch and drove him to alcoholism (and the other 46 children dying not help). Yet in SOTR, we get this dumb but well-meaning kid who keeps trying to die, so somebody "more deserving" could win.
The Newcomers Alliance in general seems to be a result of Collins thinking, "Hm, the readers liked how Katniss befriended Rue and cared for her. Let me juuuust CntrlC and CntrlV, CntrlV, CntrlV...."
The book also has a sentiment of "the charming persona Katniss (and the readers) saw in CF was propaganda, created by Capitol" which I kinda despise. The audience liked Haymitch for being a mean drunk, so we wanted to read a book about that guy, not a loverboy who is painfully nice and "only pretends to be a rasca"l.
And the part that made want to throw the book across the room was the "sweetheart" retcon. Seriously, I started to growl in annoyance.
The way Haymitch treats Katniss in the books (especially at the beginning) is supposed to be condescending and unpleasant. It's like when John Constantine (the comics version, not the one from stupid American adaptation that made him stoic and straight) calls people around "love" or "pet", it was written, so the readers, especially young girls could relate and get annoyed. And SOTR tells us that it "slipped out because Katniss reminded him of another dead child". Suzanne took the most interesting relationship in the book (disenchanted older mentor - angry young student) and turned it into a weird nostalgia bait both inside and outside the story. Why, why did we need to change and retcon the stuff that clearly didn't need it?
In conclusion, now I don't want a book about Finnick because we're going to learn that he was reciting Albatross by Baudelaire every time he killed a tribute or something.
The way Haymitch constantly had to reassure us that he "only liked Maysilee as a sister" was kinda annoying. Can you tell Suzanne doesn't want them to be shipped together?
Isttfg, it's like when Nina Dobrev left The Vampire Diaries, and Bonnie and Damon had to refer to each other as "my best friend" every fucking time they shared a frame.
shut out to edgar allan poe for writing the raven which inspired lenore dove from sunrise on the reaping and lenore vandernacht from nevermore both absolute icons
Finished reading Sunrise on the Reaping in the morning and it absolutely destroyed me and had me sobbing. I’m still pretty sad after reading and my eyes are hot and puffy even though it’s been hours.
I started reading it yesterday and I ended up crying myself to sleep after I finished reading chapter 18. Then I started chapter 19 this morning and finished the book at around 12:58 or at 1:00. Started sobbing violently, snot running down my nose as I finished it… heh.
No wonder my eyes are puffy I’ve been crying for a whole day straight
When Snow calls Lucy Gray "my girl": 😖😤🤬🤮🤮
When Haymitch calls Lenore Dove "my girl": 😊🥰😍😁✨
Wyatt Callow is the kind of guy who gives his friends flowers.
"Louella is my one and only sweetheart"
When Maysilee asks Haymitch if Merrilee will still be twins when she dies >>>>
I have a twin sister and I say: Yes, we will always be twins
FINALLY finished sunrise on the reaping...
I'll be dumping a lot of thoughts on her soon
Welcome to the 2nd Quarter Quell and the 50th annual Hunger Games!!
And May the Odds be Ever in Your Favour.
Katniss and Haymitch are both pretty much solely motivated by community (protecting family, friends, people they deem vulnerable). The difference is in the ways that rebellion comes naturally to them.
Katniss’ rebellion are, for lack of a better word, “passive” acts of love. Building a burial for Rue, speaking to Rue’s and Thresh’s families, trying to save Peeta with the berries, etc.
Haymitch tends towards more “active” acts. Blowing up the water tank, driving the chariot to face off against Snow. While his rebellious acts diminished after the games, this pattern of “active/offensive” over “passive/defensive” becomes exacerbated when he shuts himself off from people.
Throughout the books, Katniss has to learn to be more “active/offensive” in becoming the mockingjay. Haymitch has to relearn the “passive/defensive” by opening himself up to Katniss and Peeta.
Despite their differences in how they naturally rebel, they are both so similar in that community and love are their motives. Katniss really is Haymitch but luckier. This book also proves how important luck is to a rebellion (even though we may not want it to be). In addition to luck, persistence is also necessary.
O sweet november,
your winds gale, akin to the melancholy you carry.
a distinct smell of cedar-wood and fir fights to mask the notes of vomit and white liquor wafting through the home of the ash black haired man who rests disheveled on the couch, bottle tightly clutched in hand.
it’s more charcoal under this light, you think as you take your coat off and notice how the dim lighting darkens his hair a shade or two. you hang your coat and make your way to the fireplace, long accustomed to the gag inducing stench of the place. you've also grown accustomed, no, fond of haymitch abernathy. ever since you lost an impromptu bet to him at the hob upon meeting which declared you personal housecleaner for a week, he decided he liked the few times his home did not look like a rat feast. and so, he started paying you for it, and you began to visit more often.
this was a personal record, though. you came by the victor's village just two days ago to continue this routine, yet the smell you so diligently scrubbed and disinfected layers of had returned. haymitch wouldn't notice the difference in odour, though. the alcohol he associates with cleanliness smells the same as the alcohol he seeks to dirty himself.
throwing two more logs into the dying fire, you turn to the noiret. if there's one thing you've learned through your visits, it is that haymitch looks more peaceful awake. maybe peaceful is not the word. relaxed. there is a certain scowl that pulls on his features when he's asleep, as if he's living an entirely different life in his dreams. haunting, torturous dreams. his breathing is deep, his snores heavy.
you mindlessly retrieve the bottle he's got a vice grip on to set on the table, but the loss of it jolts haymitch awake, bringing his other hand concealed under the pillow out, slashing the air with a kitchen knife. this has you jumping back with a scream, falling to the floor. luckily, the knife did not claim you.
"fuck!" you breathe out between pants. "what the fuck was that?!"
haymitch is also panting, his grey eyes wide. a tinge of a desperation you can't place behind them. appearing dangerous for the first time in a while. upon registering your face, the knife drops to his side, and his features slightly soften, but the feeling this has instilled in him, or rather the memories evoked, are still there. you can tell by the inhuman dilation of his pupils, his hands shaking.
"shit, are you... are you okay?" he asks, caught between reaching out for you or letting you gather yourself. letting you piece together what he is. letting you finally understand why this big estate houses only him.
"who the hell sleeps with a knife under their pillow? that was so fucking close, haymitch! and why does your house stink already, i just cleaned it two days ago!" you know you shouldn't be yelling at him like this, piling it all on, but your heart is still trying to re-enter your chest. the adrenaline has gotten to both of you. haymitch slumps back on the couch, head in his hands, not able to look at you or the knife. his body is still trembling, and it is clearly not from the cold that november has brought over. as you pick yourself up, you hear haymitch's voice, hoarse, small,
"two days... for two days." he says. his mouth is partially covered by his palms, so the words come out muffled.
"what?"
"you didn't come for two days." haymitch repeats, putting his hands down to look up at you with an expression that throws all of your anger out the window. pure woe. his curly hair looked utterly frazzled, gaze begging to look away in shame but needing to drink you up. oh, how that is the only thing he knows to do. you weren't sure if the glossy reflection threatened tears, or was simply an adverse affect of his nighttime drinking routine, and you did not want to know. both answers you could not bear. both answers highlighted the deprivation that follows haymitch like a shadow.
you didn't dare touch the knife. instead, you again try to set the bottle on the table, most of its contents now spilled. raw and distilled. something else you'll have to clean up. "i've got other jobs, you know. can't just live off of this." you finally look back at him. a little playful at first, then solemn. "that made you drink more?"
"no, just... i got used to having you around. my voice doesn't echo in the room as much when you're here." the noiret smooths his hair out. rubs his eyes. fixes his sleeves. anything to look collected. he wordlessly slides the knife back under the pillow when you go to bring a mop, and pretends to fluff it when you come back.
"i'll always be around, haymitch. you need to take care of yourself more though, okay? i still worry for you like all-fire." this stiffens every limb, joint, and muscle in haymitch's control as though a blizzard has teared down the roof. his hands clench into fists before flexing instinctively to reach for the bottle once again, the tremor in them not abandoned. has not been abandoned in a long time. you finish cleaning up the spill and turn on your heel to put the mop back, and haymitch's last-second decision is to instead grab your wrist. his latest liquor of choice.
"no. stay." he pleads. two words. so much said. the pauses, the breathing, the tone. his voice hitches at the end, and his entire body is leaning forward, engulfed by yearning, but kept at a distance as to not cross any invisible lines he has drawn between you. lines that his hand has already overstepped.
“i’ve got the rest of the house to clean, i can’t—“
“the mess will still be here tomorrow. please.”
how can a boy so familiar with poison and punishment allow history to repeat itself? allow this feeling to overtake him again, and subjecting you to it? because he is a selfish rascal. haymitch knew that. it has been so long since he reached his hands out for something other than a drink or a knife. so roughly he has wrestled to keep this submerged within, barely floating; the warmth that radiates off another human being, and not just the fireplace in his house that on most days, he could not even look at.
haymitch doesn't say another word, but his grip does not falter. he awaits. and awaits and awaits. seemingly all he does. all he is good at. all he can do. people have so hastily come in and out of his life, he no longer can fathom object permanence. if he is not touching you, you will leave. disappear. another mourning dove cooing in his night terrors.
you perch the mop's stick against the table and settle next to haymitch. "of course. always." you whisper. and you sound so sure of this declaration that his head dizzies and his chest tightens with an ache that will never part from him.
haymitch drops his head to your shoulder. maybe from exhaustion, maybe from grief. you don't know. you don't ask. he will come around. and maybe sometime in the future, he can find a way to commemorate this grief and pass it. a safer future. a future where he no longer feels the need to sleep with a knife under his pillow.
time and time again i am reminded that resistance is and will always be a team effort.
no matter how much capitalism tries to push us away and shove individualistic competitive culture down out throats, we band together and wield our strongest weapon. we love and thats our greatest strength.
ok so pls stp🙏🙏
so you’re telling me that after what happened to louella/lou lou haymitch had to watch peeta come back from the capitol as a “mutt version of himself” and question whether the shell of a human with peeta’s face was even peeta at all
and he had to do all that SOBER???
oh fuckkkkk youuuu
the way the gun is kissing my head is insane
haymitch says himself katniss is like him, but luckier.
katniss realized the berries were nightlock before peeta ate them.
thanks to sherwood-scribblings for this, would repost but i don't want people to think i'm a haysilee or hayffie shipper
i need someone to explain lesbian maysilee to me because so many people so strongly believe in it, and i can sorta see it?? pleaseeee someone inject lesbian maysilee into my blood i want to get it so bad