That Was Uncalled For

Katniss, Haymitch, and the Seam inhabitants are all described as olive-skinned, brown-eyed (edit: and gray-eyed), and dark-haired.

Peeta, Maysilee, Katniss’ mother and the Merchants are largely described as blond haired, blue eyed, light-skinned.

The Hunger Games adaptations have a huge weakness to their casting because they allowed their white audience to overlook this very important fact, that the Mockingjay is a brown girl, that her mother was disowned for having a mixed-race and mixed-class marriage, that Katniss and Haymitch were long shots not just because they’re Seam but because they are brown… because the only brown characters in the movies (i.e. Rue, Thresh, 11 in general) were there to be tragic, not to be saviors.

Katniss Everdeen is brown, and I won’t forgive or forget the movies for erasing that part of her character.

I've never been more devastated that I'm going to miss an event in my life. What a fucking icon.

She expected maybe 5-10 people to show up. There were about 100.

I gave out scotch eggs to commemorate the occasion.

She gave a beautiful speech, was blindfolded, then kicked REAL good. Crumpled. Gave us a thumbs up.

Applause. Then the flute. Then a moment's silence.

a) PTSD can and does manifest as anger.

b) No, Dustin did not know Eddie for "just a week" Dustin had known Eddie since he started high school, which means they had known each other for just about a year, 8 months most likely.

c) Ages 13-15 are EXTREMELY important developmental years. That adolescent development got totally fucked by witnessing Eddie die in his arms.

AND D) His grieving process has been completely interrupted by everyone hating Eddie. He can't properly move on because he's stuck trying to move on from a person that no one is showing sympathy for, in turn, no one is showing sympathy to Dustin which means he's not being allowed to grieve properly. He is stuck in square one.

EDIT: No, I actually need to quote this out for myself.

“One of the things that happens a lot in philisophy that is, I think, a point of failure, potentially, in it, is that philosophy contains a lot of formal logic studies, and there’s a degree to want to sort of explicate, logically, everything, and go like, ‘What are the reasons and rationalities behind all of this?” But I think ignoring the primal origins of morality- You don’t need- If you watch someone kick a small animal, you don’t need an explanation for why that’s bad. It’s a first- It’s a primary thing, right? And you get into weird positions when you’re like, ‘I believe that humans should have good- be flourish and be happy, and have safety and joy!’ And someone can literally just go ‘Why? To what end? To what end should they have joy?’ And you’re like ‘Not to what end. I’m saying this is the end for me. The end for me is joy and safety and peace.’ And I get to say that because I’m a weird brain monster living in the universe and I can create meaning with my mind. You’re doing the same thing right now, but I just choose joy. Are you choosing something else? Because if you are, then we’re in conflict!” -Brennan Lee Mulligan, “Fireside Chat for WWW ep40 ‘Aid and Comfort’”

Zagreus was built to be a berserker: he goes in and he stays in and he hits you until you're dead. He had enough health and speed to generally keep himself alive while you lay down the hurt. He's a perfect fit for my dumb-as-rocks approaches to problem-solving. At high-level play you just never stop attacking.

Melinoë, by contrast, has to be more careful. She starts out with less health, her movesets have more projectiles, her dash takes longer to recharge, and she often has to stay still for a second so she can charge up her best moves. All of this, combined with the way one of her *basic moves* is putting down an aoe that slows enemies, is clearly intended to promote a more cautious and cunning playstyle. She has to think a few steps ahead. She's casting spells and laying traps. She's clever and evasive and tactical.

Zagreus was a warrior. Melinoë is a witch.

It's smart game design. This is characterization through mechanics. The two player avatars favor entirely different mindsets, and that tells you about how they think, and how they prefer to act. And which you prefer also tells you about your proclivities as a player.