Its so over for you hoes when Im become

But let’s be real for a second:

Annie Cresta was SO MUCH MORE than a “poor, mad girl.”  Okay, let’s just list this straight up:

Raised in a Career District — whether or not she was a Career herself, this would have totally made an impact on how she was raised AND how she ended up in the Arena, because either she Volunteered OR, for some reason, no one Volunteered for her… and which one is really worse?

Reaped into the Hunger Games

Saw her District partner/ally decapitated

Watched all of the other Tributes drown, which had to be especially traumatic for someone from D4 with its ocean and ocean culture

Had to tread water for days

Survived.

Finds out significant other is a trafficked slave

Loses family (ostensibly, since Johanna tells Katniss that Annie/Finnick/Mags are each others’ only family by CF)

Reaped AGAIN for the Quarter Quell (as punishment for ties to Rebels)

Loses the only two people she has in the world to the Quell and knows they will probably both die

Watches Mags die on television

Is kidnapped by the Capitol

IS TORTURED FOR INFORMATION, yeah, right alongside Peeta and Johanna and Enobaria.  People forget that Annie was there, too.  And that when she was delivered to D13?  She was naked.  The others weren’t.  She’s the significant other of Finnick Odair and whoever was detaining them in the Capitol kept Annie naked.  Just think about the implications of that for a minute.

Loses every single other person she may have known to the Purge of Victors.

WHEN RESCUED, IS THE STRONGEST ONE LEFT OF THE TORTURED VICTORS.  Johanna and Peeta are deeply traumatized — obviously — after their torture.  Annie is strong and held herself together and did so because she knew that Finnick needed it.  She took care of him there.

Even after losing the last person she had (before discovering her pregnancy), STILL upheld her moral ideals and voted against a Capitol Hunger Games, even though arguably, she had lost the most.

Annie Cresta is not just a poor, mad girl back home.  She is a “mad” girl; I’m not arguing that she’s not.  I think she was likely “mad” long before her Games, as well, which makes her story that much more horrible as a part of the war story that is THG — because war doesn’t care about its civilians and its victims, and neither do the Games. 

But Annie is not this little pitiable creature who exists to make FINNICK more tragic.  She has her own story and it is more secret than Finnick’s, but that doesn’t make it smaller.  Annie is the war widow, but she’s also a prisoner of war, she’s also a child gladiator, she’s also a veteran.  People forget that Annie is a Victor.  Whether she won with or without violence, she still survived. 

Survival is an impressive, impressive battle story unto itself, and even though we don’t know much about how Annie did it… people give Johanna, whose original Games were also glossed over, so much more credit as a soldier.  People remember Johanna’s toughness because “there’s no one left that she loved,” but in the end, there wasn’t anyone for Annie, either.  And Annie had to go forward alone to have and raise a baby in a totally broken, third-world country, and in a District that used to train its children to be killers.  That is the kind of world that Annie knew going into having that baby, and we know that despite that, she still had the idealism and optimism to understand that it was wrong.

Annie is so much more badass and amazing than people give her credit for, even/especially if she was disabled before her Games.  I love the sweeping romanticism of Finnick/Annie, but there’s more to it than the brave hero and his poor, mad girl waiting for him. 

When Finnick was in the Quarter Quell, being tortured by the Capitol, Annie was the poor, mad girl back home.

When Annie was naked in a cell in the Capitol, being tortured for information she didn’t have, Finnick was the poor, mad boy back “home” in D13.

I don't know if this is still the case, but I remember being so baffled by the lack of nuance the fandom had towards Curly back when the game was really, really popular.

You had people saying he couldn't have done anything better and that he did the best he could, which is very worrying if you genuinely think that way. I am aware that Pony Express is also to blame since they provide no support for situations like this and even make them worse with their policies. I am aware that, given Jimmy's position and their environnement, it was very complicated, or even downright impossible, to simply confine him or properly confront him. That still doesn't change the fact that Curly did not handle the situation well and failed Anya. We see several moments of him patronizing her, scolding her, and even outright cursing at her while she's in the middle of panic attacks.

He fails to remember important details about her trauma, like when he asks, "Who would you..." after she reveals her pregnancy, even though he is supposed to know Jimmy raped her. Notice how he phrases the question as though Anya had fully consented to the act.

It is also implied that he breached her privacy by going through her belongings while searching for the gun. He was indeed limited in what he could do, but he did not do his best either and even acted terribly with Anya. And yes, I know he's a sleep-deprived man who is also a victim of Jimmy's mental abuse by this point in the story. While that can explain some of his carelessness, it doesn't excuse his actions. It would also be ignorant to not point the obvious misogyny and apparent male solidarity influencing his behavior.

That being said, I don't like it either when people demonize him and treat him as though he's the second coming of the Antichrist. Ironically, a lot of those same people also suggest immoral actions they think Curly should have taken, like killing Jimmy, for example. Outside of the fact that getting rid of the co-pilot is stupid, why do you treat murder as though it's something a person can easily do, or even a reasonable response? Does Anya even want that to happen? Yeah, you seem to forget about her a lot in this instance, which is ironic considering that's exactly what you criticize Curly for. In these situations, the number one priority is the victim's safety. Immediately adopting a punitive mindset toward the perpetrator can be extremely traumatizing for the victim, especially if they don't want things to happen that way. And it is made very clear that Anya is not someone who thinks like that. She would be horrified if someone were killed "for her" as a form of punishment.

He also didn't deserve to be burned alive for it either, because I genuinely can't count the number of messed up takes I've seen portraying Curly's fate as a justified punishment (again, without caring whether Anya herself would even agree with that) despite it being inflicted by fucking JIMMY. What kind of backward morality is that?