Be prepared to get comments like "Your hair is so pretty. You wrote her hair so pretty. Why is she so pretty?" And "Your writing is so good. I can really tell what he's saying and oh he smells so nice. That's a cool looking bag. Your beta has awesome shoes I bet. What's her name?"

My work for the @very-sincerely-yours-zine !

What an incredible honor to be surrounded by such talented creatives in a celebration of queer life, love, and perseverance 🩵🩵🩵

When a fandom has a character who is canonically widowed, and is part of a main pairing, but the fandom treats the first love with equal respect and importance to the second.

Not "He never loved anyone this much, not even his late wife."

Before to read: This is a repost of an old reply I made to a post that said that Effie would never wish Haymitch a happy birthday and that Hayffie wouldn't work, while using passages from the book to twist their narrative. So, in response, I made an OBJECTIVE compilation of all the interactions without expressing an opinion on their relationship. I'm posting this because I'd like people to stop believing the propaganda that Effie and Haymitch hate each other in the books.

We don't know anything except what Katniss thinks and observes, all we can do is infer.

These are Haymitch and Effie's interactions throughout the saga, as Katniss knows (or lets us know):

Hunger Games:

July, 4th.: Haymitch is drunk and tries to hug Effie at reaping, she barely manages to fend off. After dinner, when Katniss, Peeta, and Effie watch the transmition of the reaping, Effie is irritated by Haymitch's behavior on television (because they're now a laughing stock and he ruined her wig, and reputation is very important to sponsors). But when the tributes start laughing at Haymitch, she stops them and explains his importance as a mentor in the games.

July, 5th.: At morning, Katniss goes to breakfast and meets Effie who's muttering obscenities, Haymitch is chuckling and Peeta looks embarrassed. (We don't know what happened there) After parade, Effie says Haymitch has not told her about the strategy but she has tried to sweet talk the sponsors and will do everything to get Haymitch to sign the sponsorships. She takes them to dinner with Haymitch, Cinna and Portia joining them. (Katniss thinks a meal presided over by just Effie and Haymitch is bound to be a disaster, but we didn't see them eating together: in reaping day, Haymitch was too drunk to eat, and this day Effie was not at breakfast or did not interact with Haymitch; Katniss had lunch with Cinna. Dinner is the first time where the team are together in a meal, and they're polite as each other)

During the three days of training, Effie and Haymitch spend their time giving advice and asking about everything they've done. Katniss mentions that they don't fight anymore and seem to be of one mind. (We didn't see them "fight")

After the evaluation Effie and Haymitch try to talk to Katniss but she doesn't allow it and prefers to stay in her room. The rest of the book they don't fight and are a team preparing Katniss and Peeta for the games.

Catching Fire:

At the beginning of the tour, when Effie gets upset that the train breakdown will ruin the schedule, Katniss gets angry and yells at her. Katniss is baffled that Haymitch doesn't support her. Then she expects Haymitch to scold her for it.

After the party at the Capitol, the attendants bring in a drunken Haymitch. Effie says "There you are!," but the tone in which she says it is not mentioned.

Haymitch mentions that Effie fixed his phone and that they talked about the wedding and that he would be the one to give Katniss away. (We don't know how or when the conversation was)

After the reaping, Effie talks about her plan to look as a team, Haymitch agrees is clearly affected by the desire to drink. Effie asks for her wine to be taken away. When they watch the replay of the reaping, Haymitch is silent while Effie laments and sighs.

After parade, Katniss and Peeta meet up with Haymitch and Effie who come out of the elevator looking pleased about something (we don't know why)

We finally see Haymitch with the bracelet that Effie talked about (we don't know if she gave it to him or sent it to someone to give it to him or if he chose it or anything)

Effie shows up a bit early to take Katniss and Peeta down, but Haymitch tells her he doesn't want her taking them down because it's important to look self-reliant. So she takes them to the elevator fussing over their hair and pushing the button for them.

After hearing what Peeta did, Effie says that thinking like that is forbidden and dangerous. Haymitch says he agrees with her on this one.

Effie sends a note to Katniss saying that she and Haymitch have decided to cancel coaching sessions.

Mockingjay

No interaction between Haymitch and Effie in this book 😃 All we know is that Effie disappeared during the war. We later learn that she was imprisoned and Plutarch and Haymitch had a hard time keeping her alive. She still wears her golden wig and has a vacant look in her eyes.

Something that has always amused me is that we never get to know Effie and Haymitch's relationship outside of the games, all we know is that they don't argue often and they treat each other politely when Katniss is around.

Hayffie may or may not work, that's your prerogative, but manipulating parts of the book to make it seem like they're always arguing doesn't seem very nice to me.

It bothers me when everyone assumes they don't like each other because Katniss makes a few comments about effie drives haymitch nuts or a meal with just the two of them is bound to be a disaster, but it's masterful show don't tell, because what we SEE is them getting along, agreeing on most things, functioning as a unit when it comes to their tributes , and having at least a few pleasant interactions outside of what Katniss sees (Effie got his phone fixed and asked him to give Katniss away.) they actually SEEM to like each other, and I think they'd both be surprised that Katniss thinks they don't, as they've given her no indication of that.

I think it's largely KATNISS who doesn't like Effie, or at least, what Effie represents (I think by Mockingjay she finds Effie hard not to like.) so she assumes everyone else--especially a former tribute-- must hate her as well.

So did a lot of the readers tbh.

Disability benefits: "I mean, sure, there are probably some sad sacks who are gaming the system, there always are, but hell, with the amount of taxes we pay, the government can afford a few freeloaders, right? I'd rather pay for a couple people who don't really need it than not have the system at all for if I need it, or my kids do, or whatever. I mean shit happens. What if some asshole drunk driver puts me in the hospital and it takes me a year to get back on my feet? Or Heaven forbid something permanent happens. I'll sure be glad that I can get disability then, won't I?"

UBI: "I dunno, the kind of guy who'll just sit on the couch playing Call of Duty all day if he doesn't have to work, I kinda don't want him on my job site anyway. That type is just taking up a place that you could fill with someone who'll actually get the job done, you know? You end up short-handed even though you technically have enough people because everyone else has to pick up his slack. And it'd mean that if your boss is a dick you can tell him to shove it and not worry your kids are gonna go hungry while you find a better place. We can sure as hell afford it."

He calls himself "Jeff the Accountant." That's the alter ego he picks for himself.

You do have to wonder how anyone ever missed the fact that Ed is a ginormous nerd who wants to dress up. How any of his old shipmates or his own first mate could fail to understand that this is a dude who wants to play pretend so badly.

LOOK AT HIM WITH HIS TEENY TINY SHIP!

they first find him in the jungle, where an armadillo has no business being

they find the entrance to the city, while being followed by him

he is present when the volcano starts to erupt (previous concept art also showed him in the background actually stopping the eruption)

miguel and tulio sucked ass at the ball game, so they used Bibo as a ball. He ricocheted himself all over the place and defied physics to get into the hoop every time

Somehow, a lot of people just flat-out don't know about blue states having red pockets, about rural areas having a different culture and social norms from suburbs and cities, and how quietly and politely destructive those norms can be under the guise of community protection. Even folks who live in these areas don't always notice, especially if they're not personally affected. Sometimes they won't notice when they are personally affected, and they'll internalize it unconsciously as a sense of threat they can't identify, so they grab onto whatever handy scapegoat presents itself rather than reckon with their own vulnerability. (Emily Saliers' line about how "we kill just a little to save a lot more" in Philosphy of Loss rings true here, as well as pretty much the entirety of Become You. Go listen to Indigo Girls, it's how I'm coping.)

(My parents? Did not notice. They noticed I was "troubled", but it never occurred to them that the trouble was not teenage rednecks but grown-ass adults with college degrees.)

We're seeing my high school trauma on a national scale now. It's cool, I'm fine, I learned this stuff 20 years ago and then spent my entire adulthood adjusting to the idea that I might not need the anger and hypervigillance, finally started to set it aside and learn to live without it and then suddenly I DO need it again, but now I'm 20 years older, my body's not as durable, and yeah I'm mad about it.

Maybe things wouldn't have gotten so bad if I'd been louder in 2015 and 2016, and 2020, and 2024, made more people uncomfortable by showing my scars, put my white-passing, masculine face on the scary mysterious "other" to make it less scary and mysterious. We can't know for sure, but I can try to do it now and hope it's not too late.

You have compassion for people from the backwards place. You know how to bring them up to speed.

Op is one of my best friends. I consider him family. And we had a surprisingly similar experience of going to highschool in a place that was so goddamn backwards that sometimes when we talk we sound like fucking time travelers. Cause who'd believe that the shit we lived HAPPENED to people in our generation? It sounds like it belongs in the 1940s. The 1890s. But he never doubted me. And furthermore HE NEVER EXPECTED ME TO AUTOMATICALLY KNOW THINGS.

There's an expectation on the left today that "Google is free" and that people should already know the "right" (most forward thinking) things to say and ways to say it about any given topic. At the very least they should understand complex concepts like gender identity and racial identity already. That we're "past that" as a society. Oh boy let me tell you we are NOT. There are still rural areas , red pockets, places where being exactly the same as your neighbors is the right thing to do, and that kind of mental conditioning runs DEEP. And even now, even in a world where you CAN learn these words and concepts on the internet, people who haven't lived in the backwards world don't appreciate the SCARS it leaves on your brain and how hard it can be to deradicalize yourself. You need to have open-minded and compassionate people around you when you're working on it.

And that's where I was when we met. I was halfway through deradicalizing myself. I'd never even HEARD of gender identity as separate from biological sex. And then the smallest angryest trans man the world had ever met crashed into my life, basically moved into my apartment, and introduced me to the gender carousel that I'd one day get on. And he was KIND when I was dumb. And I was dumb. And I said all the wrong shit. And I just didn't get it, and he was a BLESSING for his patience with me and his explaining everything to me over and over and over till I finally GOT it. (Did anybody notice the weird egg shit I was saying?? No. We were all too busy sideyeing my partner and her propensity for cosplaying the kind of bishy anime men that tended to lead to gender issues to notice the deeply agender shit I was saying. Anyway what was I talking about?)

I genuinely think, at that point in my deradicalizing journey, while I was trying and struggling to LEARN I could have been pushed the wrong way if I'd been spoken to with the coldness and cruelty that I've seen directed towards people who don't quite get it yet. Part of right wing brainwashing is convincing people that you'll never be welcome outside their circles. That you'll be ridiculed and victimized. And that's one of the hardest things to bust through.

And that's one of the reasons perspectives like yours, op, my big brother in this big queer world, are so goddamn important.....people who understand how FUCKED brains get in regressive environments and approach with compassion. And I try to bring the spirit you blessed me with to my interactions and think we all should try to do the same.

Like yes, Agatha was born in colonial Salem and was probably an old hand at building shelters by the time she killed her coven. Maybe she dug one out of a tree hollow while Nicky napped against her chest, swaddled in layers of fur and wool. Maybe she built a crude lean-to (you can't tell me she didn't run across Native Americans at some point and took notes of their housing structures). But the shelter wouldn't have been permanent. Not something she could stay in for long periods. Maybe she got lucky and found an old hunting cabin and killed the witch (or human) who resided there and had an honest to god roof over her head for a season until the thaw came and people would discover the corpses (or maybe Rio decomposed them rapid-fire so there's no evidence, who knows?)

But maybe there were lean times, dangerous times, where Agatha /didn't/ have a shelter to run to when the weather turned violent and bitter. Maybe there were more close calls their either she and Rio would like to admit. Maybe there were moments where Agatha, hell-bent on keeping her son warm and alive, put his needs above her own and almost froze only for her to wake in the care of a familiar skeletal silhouette somewhere Agatha doesn't recognize.