With how (poorly) Sunrise on the Reaping was written, Maysilee should've won. Period. She actually demonstrated skill, had a reason for the Capitol to root for her, and had real depth. Haymitch was a Gary Sue of luck and self-loathing with nothing that realistically should've helped him. He got lucky every second of the way, had plot armor out the wazoo, never truly got targeted despite constantly making enemies everywhere, and/or simply let that 'main character aura' dictate that those around him should be buffoons of idiocy to keep him alive.

Beetee Lattier? A Victor famous for quiet calculation for decades who never outright states his intentions bc that would be suicide? Now has to be a complete moron (and, tbh, mediocre human being) so that this idiotic version of Haymitch can understand the plot of this book in such simple shapes it's nauseating.

Plutarch Heavensbee? A secret-Rebel for we can only assume years, if not decades, who wouldn't dare out himself as anything but Capitol scum to even the Mockingjay in the original trilogy, could code-talk the socks off a duck (what's the actual analogy), and never had to spell out his motivations nor would he ever want to? Now has to openly commit treason with tens of witnesses in every other scene, speak in the most outlandishly dumbed downed ways, and spell it out in seven languages for this dumb af Haymitch to regurgitate his unnatural dialog in his own head constantly.

President Coriolanus Snow? Once a revered tyrant who never minced words but could pretend, act, and manipulate with the best of them is now a bumbling idiot literally vomiting in front of children (so much for 'never let them see you bleed) that he's weirdly got beef with, fumbling through a Games procedure that clearly was and continues to be second nature, bc he apparently never got over a situationship (that lasted a few months) from his teens? What even tf was that??

And don't even get me started on the Newcomers plot. You're telling me that out of like 30 children, all in the same death match to (repeat after me) the death, not one of them betrayed another let alone thought to try to make themselves look good in the Interviews?? They all just only talk about this new pack w/ Caesar as if killing the Careers means they can leave?? And the Careers themselves are just insultingly simple? And, plot twist, none of it works out but also everything works out??

Each time I re-read this book, I get more and more angry about it. I used to be 'well, it's weak but it's still a good THG prequel' but now I find it more and more insulting. And, more than that, I find it aggravating how so many will defend it. Just bc it's by your fave author doesn't make it good. And as a fic writer myself, I've read fics better than this written by teens. I'll stick to those and refuse to believe this is canon.

His next child (son or daughter, I haven't decided) was Reaped during the 65th Games, at fourteen rather than twelve, bc Snow just loved the idea of letting him think his kid was safe for two years before ruining his life again. Said kid had to go into the arena with none other than Finnick Odair, another 14y/o with similarly great prospects.

Finnick won that year. Beetee, at first, wanted to hate him. After all, Finnick is the direct reason his kid didn't survive (compared to Haymitch who tried his best to save Ampert) but it doesn't take long for the guilt to win him over. He watches Finnick navigate the trafficking, the secrets, the Mentoring, and everything in between and, just a year after Finnick officially 'goes on the market' enlists him to get secrets/leverage from his Capitolite patrons.

Beetee can never look at Finnick without seeing ghosts of his dead child but, at the same time, has a deeply protective side to him bc of how much Finnick reminds him of [kid's name].

Cashmere is the direct reason that the other Victors start to question Beetee's morality bc, like, how tf you lose 3 kids in 12 years doing the same bullshit, on top of always being so quick to sacrifice everyone else's tributes for your hair-brained schemes? (And this is SOTR-non-canon version of events, too).

(bc Sunrise made him honestly seem like a POS) is veryyyyy strong.