Amisha Jaya

1. He was kinda friends with her dad

2. His birthday is on reaping day

3. He remembers her dad bringing her everywhere as a toddler

4. Louella

5. Mags was his mentor

6. Snow threatened him personally before the games

7. He and her dad used to swim in the lake together

8. Her dad punched peetas dad out of the way of a bullet at the reaping

9. Burdock and lenore dove were cousins

10. He played with play dough that her grandmother made

11. Her dad was a paulbearer at the Mega Funeral

12. Her dad literally pulled him away from the burning remains of his childhood home and took him to the victors village for the first time, and slept in the living room in case he came out

13. Him and her dad actually go waaaaay back and seem to have been childhood besties

14. Her mom knocked him out with sleep syrup afterwards

15. He was a bootlegger

16. They kept him in a birdcage and made people hand feed him through the bars at the afterparty

17. He's known effie for 25 years

18. He's seen footage of the other district 12 Victor

So like. Every Hayffie fan knows the moment in Mockingjay pt. 2 where Finnick and Annie are married, when we see Haymitch and Effie sitting together. Haymitch sort of glances in her direction, then nods to himself as if affirming something. And like— maybe he’s thinking about Effie, their relationship, what it might be like if they had a proper wedding— who knows? All we really do know is that by the end of the movies, they’re comfortable enough to share a kiss and he tells her “Don’t be a stranger.”

But like. What if he DID propose? What if he DID propose to her at some point after the trials were over, when they were both able to decide where to go and what to do with their lives, and she said NO?!?

We do see her crying at their goodbye, and I think for the longest time I assumed it was more of a mutual decision between them that a relationship would never work, but like— what if Effie is crying because SHE CHOSE TO LET HIM GO?!?

Yes, Effie wouldn’t settle down for a place so far from her Capitol comfort in any normal conditions. She was a force of the wind driven by the hustle of the city life, and the monotony of living in a country house, after so many tempestuous years being delighted by the chaos of her routine in the city, would eventually become unbearably boring to her if she had not been perpetually traumatized by the exact same hectic city that had once thrilled her.

The Capitol stopped being a safe space for her the moment Snow locked her underground. The comfort, the clothes, the familiarity…these were all gone when her sense of security was weaponized against her. Her identify was used to determine her punishment— she wasn’t ever going to look back at the things that once represented her, with anything but terror. Therefore, I believe it’s safe to assume that, once she was properly recovered physically, emotionally and, more importantly, financially, and could finally make her own decisions, she would want to stay as far from anything that may trigger her memories as possible. A place where she wouldn’t remember the Capitol so vividly; a place where the citizens of her torment wouldn’t be seen, a quiet place where she could forget, or at least try to survive, the aftermath of the emotional turmoil and grief she was forced to endure during the war.