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my sweet sibling in christopher… did we read the same books?

NOT WHEN SHE IS CRIMINALLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISCHARACTERIZED BY THE FANS 😭😭😭 SHE IS NOT A BASIC FAVOURITE BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE DONT ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND HER CHARACTER UNLESS THEY READ THE BOOKS

Oh, most gladly! Both are fierce, independent women who go against societal convention to fight the good fight, both are valiant, kind, and stubborn, and both have stories that end, for some readers, in an underwhelming, "traditionally feminine" way.

I think it is easy to get caught up in how these two women are warriors, and not examine why they feel they must fight, or whether or not they want to fight forever.

Éowyn's desire to go to war is motivated primarily by her perception that her value lies in glory and death. She feels stymied by the expectations of her culture, and she's ready to go prove herself by the sword, not giving much thought to how very un-glorious war truly is (something Tolkien would have known all too well). Éowyn's fighting spirit, though beautiful, is not grounded: it is desperate. So is Katniss's. Katniss is in a near constant state of desperation, her fighting spirit channeled into survival, into protecting those she loves, and into inspiring resistance. Katniss is aware, having been in the Games, of how un-glorious war is, but she's stuck on the wheel already. By the end of Mockingjay, we see Katniss in a very similar position to Éowyn: disguising herself and heading into the belly of the beast for what is likely a suicide mission.

And this is why the "traditionally feminine" endings for the characters are actually important. It allows them to be grounded. Éowyn realizes that fighting for the sake of fighting will burn her up; Katniss already is burnt up.

This is where Faramir's perspective on war and revolt shines through: "I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness," he says, "nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." Can you imagine Peeta saying the same? I most definitely can. And neither man is less a warrior for this outlook. It is only that they recognize that after the dust has settled and the battle is won, there must be something worth living for afterwards.

LOL. Well, everyone would be miserable. Listen, I am less allergic to exploring this terrible relationship dynamic in writing than a lot of people (on the way to something better, of course), but like let’s talk about WHY. A really compelling part of Everlark to me is that they both have some really warped core beliefs about their own worth and value to other people in relationships, and they ultimately heal this by choosing each other. 

But where do these core beliefs come from? We talk a lot about their mothers, but Katniss’ fear of Asterid’s depression doesn’t really explain a lot of things about her senses of guilt and obligation and relationships being tit-for-tat and suspicion. You know what does? The older kid she desperately glommed onto for survival at 12 years old and looked up to because she was a literal baby and he seemed so much more mature and wise, who thinks all that shit himself and feels entitled to her simply because he’s put in the time. She’s always so anxious about his reactions because deep down she knows his reactions are not nice. He is the one who taught her that relationships are transactional.

I think often about this moment in the first arena when Katniss needs to ditch Peeta to hunt successfully. She works hard to phrase it in a way that won’t bruise his ego and she’s surprised when he’s not angry with her. WHO do we think taught her that a boys pride needs to be protected or else he’ll get upset? This is after she took off her shoes along with him so he wouldn’t think he’s the only problem when definitely he is. She never coddles him like this again, once she knows him better. She did this because she always had to do it with Gale.

Disclaimer: These are mostly my personal interpretations but I did do research. I tried to include everything. Also ⚠️ for mentions of racism.

Appalachian: canon

• Has canonical confirmation as Katniss says District 12 is part of Appalachia which only has West Virginia completely within the region. West Virginia is also one of the smallest and most forested states, with meadows closer to Pennsylvania, fitting 12’s landscape with the woods, the meadow, and being the smallest District.

• The most notable Coal War, Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), happened in West Virginia due to coal companies owning everything from stores, homes, schools, even currency as miners were paid with scrip over USDs, so miners could only afford company owned places than ones in town, trapping generations of families in Appalachian Coal Camps (1850s-1950s). Some were kicked out of their homes for demanding better pay and conditions, leaving some to rely on hunting animals to survive. During the Coal Wars miners unionized, arming themselves with weapons they used in WW1. In response, anti unionists sent biplanes to drop bombs, also leftover from WW1.

Cons:

• Haymitch being an alcoholic plays into the drunk/alcoholic Appalachian stereotype. While there are in-canon reasons for this, SOTR!Haymitch says he doesn’t care much for alcohol which is to add to his tragedy, but can read as him not being able to help but fall into alcoholism even if he didn’t like it.

• Town/Camps explain the Merchant/Seam class divide, but not Katniss’s physical description as most Appalachians were white and Katniss is only fully white Appalachian on her mom’s side.

Native/Indigenous American: fanon guess?

• Idea comes mostly from Katniss being a hunter living off the land and how her hair braid is significant to her character design. There are also similarities to the Seam and poor reservations due to government neglect.

• Katniss’s description fits some features common amongst Native Americans.

Cons:

• Native Americans are not a monolith and should not be treated as an umbrella term as it denies diversity. If she is Native by being a hunter/archer, she would come from a tribe of hunters/archers, but her hunting is more out of desperation than cultural ties. And her braid seems to be so her design stands out than culture too. (Also possibly a reference to Mother/Maiden/Crone as Katniss’s arc could potentially reflect the Triple Goddess.)

• Katniss is likely a reference to Artemis as she uses a bow to hunt, wears a braid, is uninterested in romance more than most, and has a tall hunting partner, Gale, who could reference Orion.

• Native Americans also get stereotyped as alcoholics so Haymitch is/would be a racist/classist stereotype doubled.

Melungeon: implied

• Triracial minority typically within Appalachia, giving (subtle) canonical conformation, and being European immigrants, Native American, and mostly African American, some of whom worked in Coal Camps after escaping enslavement/slavery abolition including from Confederate Virginia to Union West Virginia.

• Can fit Katniss’s description, and some are known to pass as white, like Prim.

Cons:

Stereotyped as untrustworthy, primitive/savage, isolated/rogue, and prone to fighting to justify ostracizing them, and as targets for arrest/blame for violence during Coal Wars, some of whom were said to be making, hiding, or disrupting weapons, which has potential negative implications for Seam characters portrayed as angry or fighters by extension.

Affrilachian: inferred?

African American Appalachians. Worked in mines more than Melungeons, especially in West Virginia, but often forgotten. Not all Melungeons live in Appalachia, but all Affrilachians do. Have their own folk music, cultural practices, and folk stories. Resembles description. Same stereotypes. Not much to add since they could still exist within the Melungeon interpretation it’s just that I found out Melungeon used to be a slur, though has since been reclaimed, and possibly mixed (white/indigenous) Affrilachian is better, but I’m no expert on Appalachian culture and most don’t know this as they’ve been erased for so long.

Romani: coded (descendant)

• Has authorial confirmation as SC stated she sees the Covey, specifically Lucy Gray, as “a bit” Romani which formed around/within the Seam. Katniss is a direct descendant of Covey living in the Seam.

• Common appearance fits most of Katniss’s description, but still only as a descendant.

Cons:

SC used the G slur instead of Romani. While this was likely out of ignorance than malice, it holds negative implications for Romani people, especially women, and by extension her Covey/Seam characters as it’s used for appropriation, exoticization, tokenization, and fetishization sadly enough. It can also unfortunately read as careless, and using Romani as an aesthetic out of convenience.

Iraqi: influenced

• Has authorial confirmation as SC stated THG was inspired by the Iraq War (2003–2011.)

• Common appearance fits Katniss’s description.

Cons:

• THG being inspired by Iraq makes Gale’s downfall from building a bomb in a ‘Slavic District’ (13 is RRMC or “underground pentagon” in Pennsylvania made during the Cold War, turned Bolshevik which was a fear of the US at the time that America would fall due to internal Communist spies and invasion) that is known for bombs due to having too much “fire” and hatred, fall into stereotypes for Arabs and Slavs. (Yes not all Bolsheviks or Communists were/are Slavs but in America, especially then, Communism was associated with Bolsheviks who were associated with Slavs similarly to how not all Arabs follow Islam but Islamophobia is used to describe prejudices against Arabs.)

• THG being inspired by the Iraq War (where America invaded Iraq, capturing dictator Saddam Hussein who was executed, but war persisted for years as America stalled soldier withdrawal to continue occupying Iraq, claiming to “search for WMD” that didn’t exist as Iraq destroyed them around the Gulf War in the 90s which post-9/11 xenophobia justified) Americanizes Arab history, and potentially leans into American Exceptionalism/Saviorism.

Raceless/Post Race:

My least favorite take honestly speaking. THG has racial segregation between Districts (D11), and within them (Seam), and ethnic relocation (Covey). Any “futuristic” race mixing is from this canonical racism based on 1800s—2000s racism. Also, race mixing does not mean race ceases to exist as race evolves, not disappears. (Like how we today view the Canaanites. They did not “disappear” from the Earth or dissolve as a people by mixing with other peoples. And if a race does seem to disappear it’s more likely a red flag for genocide, mind you.)

Also Post race leads to whitewashing such as the movies due to its race blind casting. This is less about inclusivity and more about erasure. Abolishing race as a class should not lead to erasing it as an ancestral and cultural identity. Post race wants to imagine a raceless society, but anyone who does automatically does so under their own cultural lens, resulting in appropriation and erasure.

What is her “true” race?

The Seam! The Seam is its own canonical racial minority. However, the Seam is a mix of different cultures/experiences taken from POC, Iraq (03 War), Romani (Covey being nomadic), and Melungeons (Miners in Coal Camps), seemingly to blend them together which sadly leads to generalization and possibly orientalistic themes.

What do I think Katniss’s race is?

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING. In all honesty, I think Katniss's race was meant to be vague to be more relatable for (white) 2000s readers. Her racial ambiguity is for the audience, the plot/lore references, than for herself. Her racial identity is only as relevant to her as the plot allows it to be. It seems to me that for THG, race mixing is done for the sake of ambiguity (aesthetics) which is used as a tool for combining and generalizing groups of people to tell an American Civil War story where in the end a mixed girl kills a commie dictator over a fascist one like a true American 🦅.

Katniss says she has that “Seam look,” being from the Seam is part of her characterization than her identity, while implying whiteness is not just the canonical majority, but the narrative default. Here, being a person of color is defined by how otherized one is from the white class. Character’s races do get to be explicitly identified as long as they are white, and only coded if not. So it’s kinda less of a raceless society and more of a society that has white people and raceless people of color strangely enough.

This is why in THG (and other fantasy books of its time), features like coily hair and monolid eyes are not named, but white only features like blonde hair with blue eyes are. It’s fine to describe characters with this combo but feels unbalanced with the way characters of color are depicted. But make no mistake, Race does exist in THG, but only two: White and racially ambiguous. (The two genders of THG.) You can be white, light non white, or dark non white. Race in THG exists but it is defined by its proximity to whiteness.

What to make of this?

You can still have these hcs, but it's important to be aware of the prejudices they may hold or stem from. Be aware of the type of racism THG has; albeit white favoritism, orientalism, and American Exceptionalism, and try not to parrot them in the fandom.

Support fan creators of color!

Ignore people who say the Seam/Covey are white people with a tan because they read with their eyes closed and/or brains turned off.

Learn magic to cast spells to stop white millionaire authors from being weird when writing brown people.

“Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes.”