Finnick and Luka: Similar Characters, Different Perception
(TW: SA mentioned in passing)
I've been re-reading the Hunger Games in preparation for the Sunrise on the Reaping movie, and it got me thinking....
Finnick and Luka have some similarities I havent really seen anyone talk about.
Luka is what I would assume Finnick would have been had the rebellion never approached him. Both are young men who were groomed from childhood for the purpose of winning a death game. They also both faced extensive abuse by those in a postion of power over them, physical, emotional or otherwise. (Finnick's abuse was also explicitly sexual in nature. While with Luka, there is some evidence to suggest he went through a similar thing, it is never outright stated.) They are also looked at by others in a very similar manner. Katniss's first impressions of Finnick were the arrogant, vain, playboy who was well liked by the Capitol. (Even if we do later see that this is not really the case).
However, while Finnick is very much beloved by his fandom; Luka is much more disliked or even outright despised. And I wondered why this was? I think it boils down to a couple things:
The first factor is we never saw Finnick's games. The only time we ever saw Finnick in the arena is during Catching Fire. During the time we do see him, he is working for the rebels. So we really do not know how he acted during his games outside of the fact that he was from a Career district. Based on what we have seen from the other Careers, the attitude is to do whatever it takes to survive. There is also an aspect of honor tied to participating in the Games. So we can deduce that Finnick acted under a very similar philosophy as Luka did during ALNST. But since we never actually saw this, it is easier as an audience to just assume he would act "better" that those other careers.
On the topic of how they act, we also need to consider the format of the death games in it of themselves. The Hunger Games are a battle royale in an arena, in which the goal is to use a conbination of strategy and physicality to be the last one standing. Alien Stage is a bracket style tournament in which the competing singers sing a duet, and the winner is determined by audience popularity. While entertainment value is a major aspect of the Hunger Games, it is not the only one. It is possible to win the Hunger Games without rellying on how the audience percieves you in comparison to your competition. In Alien Stage, you really only have your entertainment value to go off of, which is subjective. There is also the imideacy aspect of it. Your odds are worse in the Hunger Games do purely to the fact that there are more people plus the environement.
However, confrontation does not automatically mean death for either party for the majority of the Games. In Alien Stage, the second you get on that stage either you or your opponent is dead. There is no question about it. Even if your odds of winning are better, the urgency of it makes feel like they arent. All the students of ANAKT Garden are the equivalent of Careers, Luka included. If it was a Career versus Career fight to the death, even if the odd of winning are 90%, are they really going to risk the other 10%? Of course not, hence why the Careers' are rather infamous for their ruthlessness. Now apply this same logic back to Luka, and we have essentially the same reasoning.
Another thing to consider is time spent with the characters, and their framing in the story. Finnick gets about a books worth of time between Catching Fire and Mockingjay, plus the movies. Luka gets maybe 25-30 minutes between the animated music videos, the sub songs, and the comics. This is just a natural side effect of the difference in mediums. We get time with Finnick to get to know him, about his life, about his love for Annie, to see him tease Katniss, and save Peeta. We get to see Finnick as Katniss sees him, an ally and friend she learns to care for. Contrast this with the time we get with Luka. We get Ruler of My Heart, some snippets of backstory in All-In, Blink Gone, Weige is the big one, and a little snippet at the begining and end of Karma. In nearly all of these, he is framed as the antagonist. Placed directly against our protagonist and deuragonist, Mizi and Till. Ruler of My Heart and Karma both include him absolutely getting his shit rocked by Mizi in particular. There is not as much time to see Luka outside this lense as Finnick got. Weige is the only time in the main story that we see Luka's thoughts outside of the competion, and even that is book ended with Hyuna taking a bullet for him. Which further adds to the audience and character resentment towards Luka.
I'l make a part 2 later, I'm tired of typing.
