Tired College Student

snow seeing mockingjays:

Katniss gets reaped by Effie, Haymitch gets Drusilla

Katniss gets Cinna and the most iconic outfit in recent history, Haymitch got Magno

Katniss's chariot draws all eyes and sponsors, Haymitch's chariot kills his sweetheart

Katniss's rebellion scores her an 11, Haymitch's rebellion scores him a 1

Prim is loved by the capitol so Snow can't touch her, Sid's death is Haymitch's homecoming

And of course,

Katniss realizes the berries are poisoned before Peeta eats them

Thinking about Maysilee Donner who was unafraid to slap the woman who pulled her name in the reaping and who threw clever insults towards anyone who provoked her, no matter who they were. Maysilee Donner who believed human dignity is inherent but respect is earned and who refused to give respect to those who did not deserve it.

Usually prequels are a dangerous thing to write because unless they’re planned out well in advance, they risk contradicting lore in the main series. Even still, we knew barely anything about Haymitch’s games. They were the perfect stomping ground for new information, with a rough series of events but without a close temporal connection to the main books.

But though she had this freedom and safety net, while she could have just written a story that aligned with what we knew, Collins leaned into the idea of contradicting past lore head on and made it the damn thesis of the book; that yeah, actually, it did play out entirely differently from how the characters saw it, and yes that contradicts what you were told, that’s the point.

We didn’t really know what happened in the 50th games until we read it from Haymitch’s perspective, because what little information we did have was spliced up and edited. The video evidence was processed through the Capital, and twisted to serve their purposes.

katniss: i go to a place and do a thing using a skill. also everyone hates me. oh you want to know more about myself? here are four straight paragraphs just describing food instead.

haymitch: so the baker’s in love with my best friends girl and my girlfriend’s uncle is gay and secretly dating the town window-fixer and she’s actually related to lucy gray and has beef with the mayors daughter who bullied me and her social security number is—

She says she refuses to sing for the Capitol, implying it is her choice.

Which just seems improbable to me, the Capitol is not above forcing Victors to perform.

but i do think it’s interesting that every other main girl character is involved in sex work of some kind and then she’s a virgin. like those are the only two choices: youre either a slut or a prude. lexi is smart and an introvert and is the only one with a ‘normal’ life and who isn’t over sexualized so that means she must be a virgin?? also her response of “it’s better than getting herpes” perpetuates the idea that having sex makes you dirty. ALSO herpes isnt just spread through sexual activities!!! signed, a girl who has gotten cold sores (aka a form of herpes) since i was a toddler!!!!

like i do think it’s an interesting contrast to Cassie—how she is doing OF and has been over sexualized her whole life and used sex and male attention as a means to feel loved. and then there’s Lexi who is choosing to not have sex. it shows how people react differently to the same traumas/childhoods, but i don’t think that’s why Sam Levinson wrote it that way. especially because it’s not as if Lexi doesn’t want to be desired, we saw from her play that she WANTS to be wanted and seen as a sexual being.

like why does sex have to be some crazy big thing that like owns women and controls their life. why must it be something that is a indicator of who they are or a reflection/result of trauma, why can it not just be something we do or don’t do. none of the characters have a healthy, normal relationship with sex—that’s not me saying you can’t participate in like crazy sex or something, i just mean, they are all interacting with sex as if it’s something that owns them or rules their lives. the idea that by taking power over their sexuality (Jules being a sugar baby, Cassie doing OF, maddy managing OF models) they can take power over their trauma or something. even Lexi not having sex is like not necessarily a personal choice, but a result of her watching the people around her (cassie, jules, kat, Maddy) be negatively affected by sex & relationships. idk im bad at explaining things.

You’re Ryland Grace’s students.

Your teacher is the first one to explain the Petrova line to you. Next thing you know, he’s gone.

He never comes back to teach your class. His things are moved out. The new teacher isn’t as cool.

You hear the name of the astronauts on the Hail Mary. Humanity’s last chance. That’s your teacher. You know him. And suddenly you realize that last day in the classroom was the last time you’ll ever see him.

The world gets worse. Colder. People die. Everything goes crazy. Somehow you’ve still got your hope set on your middle school science teacher. The one that threw hackysacks at you and was your favorite teacher and who explained things until they made sense.

Everything but this.

You’re an adult now, in a terrifying world, and you don’t know what’s going to happen next.

And then the beetles come.

And your teacher came through. He saved the world. They release the videos, you see his face again.

And you’ve gotten used to the idea, that you’re never going to see certain people again. Teachers, friends, family.

But you thought you were never going to see Mr. Grace, who taught middle school science, ever again. And you had a chance to. But he chose to go save his friend.

And you wonder when he taught you that. You don’t think he did. But it makes sense, all the same.

now, to Stratt, who is also painfully human despite having to carry the weight of the whole world, the whole species. she has this terrible weight and responsibility to be more than just a human and give up herself for the greater good (just like Grace is asked, in being asked to go on the mission) and she does—she gives up her morals for one goal: survival. she says in the book she's almost definitely going to prison after the project is done, that they will disgrace her in doing their dirty work and giving up her humanity and sympathies for ruthless pragmatism. she's accepted that.

but despite all this, at the end of the day, she is still only human. and she acts like one, in the terrible, convoluted, loving way that we do. she makes unilateral decisions not taking others' inputs, maybe the wrong ones, maybe the right ones. she finds beliefs and clings to them, believing in the Hail Mary, in Grace, in her decisions leading them here despite anything else. she wrongs people, she wrongs Grace. but she is not necessarily wrong, and she's definitely not evil. Grace and anyone else can hate her all they want for sending him up there, but at the end of the day, her decision was much like Grace's, to be selfish and not condemn him to die, or to potentially save the world. she is a display of raw humanity just as Grace is (they're yin and yang. Grace in the humanness of personal selfishness and preservation, Stratt in the chronic human condition of fallacy and indomitable spirit).

we're all just trying to make the best decisions that we can with the knowledge and emotion we feel.