MOZZI, High On Life

SotR being in Haymitch’s POV as a lovestruck fool is keeping people from seeing how messed-up Lenore Dove’s actions really are. Lenore Dove, like Gale, was a rebel from the beginning. But where she falls as worse is that Gale had his family to consider and so never turned to pointless rebellious acts. Lenore Dove’s family took care of her instead of the other  way around, so she indulged in making grandiose rebellious gestures that amounted to nothing. But every time she insisted on doing one of her pointless gestures, the consequences to others around her kept increasing until the supposed love of her life ended up being forcefully reaped and enduring the Hunger Games and loss of everyone around him.

Even if the 50th reaping had gone a different way and Woodbine Chance had not run, Lenore Dove would have ended up dead for some rebellious act or another. She insisted on defying the capitol no matter what her actions accomplished or who might get hurt because people had already gotten hurt and she still hadn’t stopped. A woman was killed because she took the blame for Lenore Dove’s actions. Sure, the woman was terminal, but she still died in Lenore Dove’s place. Lenore Dove, from Haymitch’s description of the event, did seem to stop after that. Except we know she didn’t. She just started to be sneakier about it.

When a grieving mother was fighting to get her dead son’s body back from the peacekeepers, Lenore Dove chose to try to get the body back instead of pull the woman away and comfort her in a way that was less likely to have them both joining her son in death. Would her helping the woman by dragging her away from her son’s body have ended in the same penalty? We’ll never know. But I think it’s telling that her response was to fight the peacekeepers instead of help the woman. Because there was no way the woman was getting that body back right then, and Lenore Dove doesn’t seem like a girl dumb enough to believe otherwise. I doubt that Woodbine Chance would have wanted his mother joining him in death. The kindest thing to do in that situation is pull her aside and help her grieve. Try to give her a reason to keep living. Not get fight a losing battle to get a dead body back. That woman’s boy was already gone, and given Lenore Dove’s uncle’s connections, she could have had them help her get the body back later. But Lenore Dove either didn’t think of that or didn’t care for that option.

Lenore Dove seemed to care more about sticking it to the capitol than helping the people around her. The same thing that Haymitch regrets doing in the arena by the end: focusing on the posters instead of on the people. His love for his girl blinded him to the danger of adopting her methods. She had consumed him, and he her by the end.

Him still being hung up over her in the epilogue? The saddest thing. No, not romantic in its tragedy nonsense. Just straight up sad. Because he should have been able to move on from her. He shouldn’t have still been pining. He never healthily grieved for her or any of his lost loved ones, even in the end. There are worse fates, but not many. It isn’t romantic to still be in love with a dead person. But she consumed him whole and he never recovered. Haymitch Abernathy and Astrid Everdeen share that tragedy in common, and I pity them both. Loving someone like All-Fire sounds horrid.

In the end, not having an “All-Fire” was why Katniss luckier than Haymitch. Katniss was a warm fire in fireplace, and her love kept her from jumping out from her hearth and consuming everyone. Partially because of herself and a lot because of Peeta and others around her.

Katniss never cared about sticking it to the capitol. Her actions of defiance were consistently about what would help herself and other people. Shooting an arrow at the gamemakers? She had to get noticed. Giving Rue a proper send-off? Honoring her ally and doing what she can to comfort the family (and herself). Getting between the whip and Gale? Obviously to help Gale. Rarely did Katniss’s defiance ever come without someone somewhere needing her help or compassion. You know what act of rebellion was the most spiteful towards the capitol and the least helpful to the rebellion? Her plan to assassinate Snow. And that was a fiasco that should never have happened and helped near no one. Because fire that is left to burn wildly burns and consumes everything around it.

But Katniss’s love was not that of “All-Fire.” It was of “Stay with me.”/“Always” Katniss had Peeta for a large portion of her time as the girl on fire, and he always saw people before rebellion too. It was when he lost sight of who he was that she lost sight of who she was too.

Haymitch had Lenore Dove, someone who even after being freed from peacemaker custody felt the need to defy rules because she felt like it even if her uncles were begging her to stay safe. Someone who saw rebellion before people.

Katniss had Peeta who played whatever game he needed to keep those he loved safe. Who did whatever he could to save Katniss. Who saw people before rebellion.