for the ask game you posted, could I hear your thoughts on "3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?" for Finnick? (I want to ask you all the questions in regards to Finnick lol)
you are always welcome to ask me anything and everything related to Finnick lol my inbox is always open!! but for this one I have a quote.
“Well, they didn’t arrest [Annie] because they thought she’d be a wealth of rebel information,” [Finnick] says. “They know I’d never have risked telling her anything like that. For her own protection.” (mj, 155)
where do I even start with this. obviously the fact that he’s deciding what’s best to protect her without consulting her, or even telling her what’s going on at all, is egregiously bad, but what actually stands out to me more is the way he frames it…as a risk.
like my guy. your behavior is the main risk here. you’ve already committed to risk. you have in fact, it could be argued, actually caused the risk of harm to come to her by your participation in the rebellion and just not telling her isn’t going to undo that reality? it is in fact far, far more dangerous for him to engage even the slightest amount with the rebellion than it is to tell his loving girlfriend who has decided to build a life with him what he’s actually doing with his time. I could dissect and analyze this moment peeling back thousands of layers of his psyche here but I think what it comes down to is that he has such an incredible need for control, due to having so little for so long, that when he does have control, he seizes on it. and because of his life circumstances, I’m sure he associates having control over a situation with some measure of safety - if he can control a situation, he is safer for it. Annie is safer for it.
so he can control this one thing. he can control what Annie knows. if he controls that, he can keep her safe, and we’ve talked about how he has a fundamental need to keep her safe to maintain his own emotional state. he is so tied up in that need that he’s completely lost sight of the fact that Annie is a full living and breathing person who, while yes, he may be her caretaker, is also able to make her own choices and take responsibility for her own safety. and she loves him! she wants to be in partnership with him, she wants to support him, and she also I assume would very much like to know if he’s doing something that is going to have massive consequences for both their lives! but he loses sight of that. he doesn’t see her as his partner, he sees her as a responsibility, and that most likely completely tanks their relationship.
anyway I think the fact that he loses sight of Annie as his equal (or maybe subconsciously, never fully saw her that way at all…) is objectively my least favorite part about his character but man. it sure is interesting
