#derangedrants

Like… this girl has been training for her entire life to go into a child murdering competition. She‘s a highly trained killer. This is what she does. What she‘s supposed to do.

Yet when Haymitch finds her with Wellie‘s head and screams „What did you do?“ her knee jerk response is „She tried to kill me!“

Maybe… when Haymitch dropped her that chocolate… for just a second, she too realised who the real enemy is.

But that thought was way too terrifying to actually let grow.

I used to hold on to the belief that Snow purposefully kept Haymitch around to torment him for „i hate the covey so much“ reasons. And there‘s probably some of that. But this man hasn‘t been in power for close to 40 years by being a fool and so easily influenced.

So follow me on my ramble as I try to figure this out.

1) Right after the flooding:

Something slipped onto the live cameras while Haymitch flooded the arena. Something that‘d made some people maybe suspect that Haymitch was up to more than just some harmless rascal mischief. If there‘s a five minute delay in the districts I‘m sure there‘s a five minute delay in the arena. But maybe something still slipped by. So the gamemakers targeting him right then might emphasize that. Then again… they targeted Ampert right then. And he was doing the rebelliousness right along with Haymitch. Maybe Haymitch not getting targeted soon after the flooding simply had to do with the fact that Ampert already had mutts preprogrammed for him, and the gamemakers would need a little bit to program some mutts for Haymitch. Ampert was always gonna die by squirrel.

2) The „they needed time to program mutts“ theory falls apart during the next part of the games. Haymitch is alone. Trapped in a gamemaker maze trying to find the North of the arena. What better time to torture him to death gruesomely? I guess one explanation for this is that the gamemakers were all scrambling to make sure the arena didn‘t combust while making sure the cameras didn‘t catch any of it. So any deaths that happened between Ampert (the arena flooding) and the porcupine attack was natural and not gamemaker orchestrated. Because they were so preoccupied.

3) Haymitch takes out two careers. His popularity with the audience soars. People love him. Leaving Snow and the gamemakers hesitant to take him out just yet. He‘s also with Maysilee now, who has been proven to be lethal with her blowgun. She‘s most likely also popular. For the sake of the show, they let the alliance be.

4) Once only Haymitch, Maysilee, Maritte, Silka and Wellie are left, the gamemakers know. Maritte or Silka will be the victor. Haymitch and Maysilee have been talking so much shit. And Wellie? She‘s dying up that tree. For her to win either the other tributes wound each other so mortally they all die before Wellie does, or the gamemakers would need to take out all four of the other tributes themselves. And why do that? What a let down ending for the 50th Hunger Games. But then Maritte and Maysilee kill the gamemaker teens. And therefore immediately eliminate themselves from being potential victors and mark themselves for death.

5) Haymitch‘s popularity wouldn‘t save him from here on out. I‘m sure Maritte was hugely popular (girl scored a Katniss level 11 in training). They targeted her anyway. So I think what was going on here, was indeed a mixture between „We need an epic final showdown to end the 50th. It can‘t be Maysilee or Maritte, and Wellie isn‘t going to give us that anyway. So we leave Haymitch alive for that. Haymitch froze and didn’t attack the gamemakers. IF he wins… he can propably be subdued into implicite submission. The other two? Absolutely not.

Here I think Snow‘s weird fascination with Haymitch also comes into play. We’ve seen Snow do silly things filled with hubris to prove his own little theory of „everyone kills everyone when it comes down to it“ before. That’s what the whole „two can win! oops nevermind, guess you have to kill eachother afterall!“ business was all about in the originals. He wanted to prove to people that this is what humanity is. But he also wanted to prove it to himself, especially because Katniss was covey, projecting Lucy Gray onto her. I‘m not saying the „two can win“ came in to play exlusively because of Katniss. Afterall, Cato and Clove could have been the last survivors. But oh was it convenient when Peeta and Katniss were the final pair.

In Haymitch‘s case though, it may not even entirely a covey motivated thing. At least not as much as with Katniss. Afterall, Haymitch isn‘t covey. Yes the covey connection got his attention. But now? Now I think it‘s about Haymitch himself. Snow wants to manipulate this kid. That‘s what the milk pitcher was. The milk wasn‘t an outright „kill yourself“ order. It was a way to trap Haymitch. Because if he drank the milk, that would ruin his image of „I‘m doing my absolute best to save Wellie“ and if he gave it to her… well his image would be intact, but Wellie would die. Snow wanted to watch Haymitch struggle. He wanted to trap him psychologically. I do think Snow thought Haymitch would end up drinking it. He‘s seen how much of a bleeding heart Haymitch is and how attached he gets to the kids this entire games through. Haymitch would rather mess up his image than kill Wellie.

6) Once Wellie dies, the final showdown begins. The Gamemakers don‘t want to intervene here. They want to show this entire battle and if they send in mutts to target Haymitch that would be so, SO obvious. So they let it play out.

7) Haymitch is the victor. And they need their victor. Well shit. Now Snow REALLY has to do everything in his power to make sure he breaks this 16 year old‘s mind (in the direction of submission, not setting the world on fire) And you know what? Him hesitating to kill gamemakers, plus his bleeding heart? Doesn‘t make it seem all that impossible. Snow breaks Haymitch. And is so confident in his success… he ignores the man entirely. For the next 25 years.

With Reaper creating a makeshift funeral for the tributes that he killed and covering them with the flag of Panem. It never even crosses Snow‘s mind that this boy, while yes, „playing the game“ and killing tributes, has a level of cognitive dissonance here. This is a boy that wants to survive. He wants to go home. And he knows that he can. But in order to do that he has to kill people that are not really his enemy.

By making the graveyard and covering them in the flag of Panem he is saying „These were people. They are not animals. We are not animals. I may have killed them. But only because YOU turned me into a weapon. Because YOU gave me no choice. These deaths are on YOU.“

But Snow, as intelligent as he is, doesn‘t get that message.

Running around with Louella‘s body. That‘s the funeral. Applauding Snow. That‘s covering the bodies with the flag of Panem. Snow smiles when observing Haymitch‘s behaviour.

Just like with Reaper, the only explanation Snow can think up for this situation is „He has lost his mind. Poor thing.“

My knee jerk explanation for Haymitch calling Katniss Sweetheart was that the first time he called her that, it slipped out (like he said) and was meant to be comforting (it was after Katniss had shot the apple from the pig mouth with the gamemakers and then spent hours sobbing in her room in absolute dread refusing to talk to anyone).

He uses the nickname twice more before the games (the time after the games, even Katniss interprets it as endearing, „nice job sweetheart“)

While I can intepret the following two as endearing… it’s hard. Even with the knowledge that Katniss reads aggression and condescension into everything. The second time he uses it, it’s when he‘s trying to coach her for her interview. He gets wasted and eventually ends with „I give up sweetheart. Just answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise them.“ Katniss is being difficult to work with and sullen. His use of sweetheart here feels like a pointed contrast. A way of saying „you sure are behaving as the absolute opposite of a sweetheart.“

The third time is after she shoved Peeta and got his hands cut. She‘s worried that her reaction to Peeta’s confession wasn‘t convincing, to which Haymitch says „You‘re golden, sweetheart. You‘re going to have sponsers lined up around the block.“ Now. This one feels more like it could be comforting. But it still feels like a contrast. She just almost murdered the boy that gave her a huge boost.

They both feel very nasty, at least the one where he coaches her. And it bugged me that Haymitch would use this meaningful nickname in that way, it didn‘t feel in character. I chucked it up to continuity issues, Suzanne not having planned out everything, including the nickname being endearing from the start, and left it at that.

But then something Haymitch says in Mockingjay caught my eye…

It‘s after Katniss keeps ripping out her earpiece.

Quote:

Haymitch dumps the head shackle on the bed and whips out a tiny silver chip - „I‘ll authorize them to surgically implant this transmitter into your ear so that I may speak to you twenty-four hours a day.“

… Lou Lou? Holy shit!

So yeah… I think this man is just… prone to saying things. Regardless of their personal meaning and his own horrible history attached to them. To be clear I don‘t think he‘d actually authorise the transmitter implantation, but just the fact that he‘d suggest it is insane!

I don‘t know this sort of talk and behaviour is very rebellious.

Before my reread I wondered if Silka might have actually killed Maritte for this behaviour, to prove to the capitol that she did not agree with her actions and she then cried under the tree from guilt.

But no. It was the squirrels. Silka had to watch Maritte die the same way Haymitch had to watch Ampert go. It was probably even worse for Silka. She was there for the start of it. And she‘d KNOW Maritte was targeted, the mutts ignoring Silka.

Maybe seeing that, she lost faith. Maybe, seeing that, her belief in the glory of the capitol was shaken. But she had to continue. If she didn‘t hunt Haymitch and Wellie like the good little career she was conditioned and bred to be… she could be next.

She finds their tree. But she doesn‘t try to find a way to force them out. She doesn‘t throw an axe at them. She just collapses. And cries.

And then Haymitch drops the chocolate. And she disappears in the morning. Was she considering not killing them? For just a moment? It could just be that she wanted to give them the chance to come down so she could kill them (like she ultimately did) but maybe… she needed a moment to clear her head, clear out the conflicting emotions. I think she was tired of the killing.

She finds her way back and Wellie lifts the darts and Silka‘s training kicks in.

Haymitch returns and shouts at her. And she is defensive about killing Wellie. „She was trying to kill me!“ The unspoken continuation here is „I wouldn‘t have done it if she hadn‘t threatened me.“

What I have not been hearing is his similarities with Gale (please don‘t stone me I don‘t like the guy much either) but seriously! As soon as Haymitch went running straight at Snow with Louella in his arms all I could think was „Had Gale been reaped, this would have been him.“

Haymitch is way more openly rebellious than either Katniss or Peeta on day 1. Gale would have never been able to be subtle about his rage. I hear people say constantly that Gale would have played the game perfectly and ruthlessly (probably because of his „killing people isn‘t different from killing animals“ comment (which I honestly think he only said to make it easier on Katniss, since in order to survive she‘d have to kill anyway)), but I think they‘re really selling the absolute ball of rage that this boy is short. He has been the primary caretaker for a family of 5 since age 13. He is cursed to end up in the mines where his father died, while all he wants is to be out in nature. I think his rage is very comparable to Maysilee‘s. Stuck. With no hope for a way out. So he often misdirects his rage (example: his snide comment at Madge‘s pin), just like she does with her meanness in the beginning.

Yes Gale‘s rage would have ended up much more targeted towards the careers (that chocolate scene would never have happened) but he would have 100% been hyped at the idea of blowing up the arena and would have been all in. And hey. Maybe his rage would have become more directed at the capitol after his reaping, just like Maysilee‘s did.

Even in family relations Gale and Haymitch are quite similar. Yes Gale had 3 siblings to take care of instead of 1, but their mothers are very much alike. Being present and working in a laundry business even after the tragic deaths of their husbands in the mines. And Haymitch‘s little brother is way further to him in age than Prim was to Katniss. The only year in which Haymitch could have possibly volunteered for Sid would have been in his own final reaping year. The same for Gale and Rory. And then there‘s also the fact that, had Haymitch‘s twin sisters not been born early… he would have also had 3 siblings to take care of instead of the one.

Anyway I think if Gale had been reaped, he would have ended up acting a LOT like Haymitch in the games. People forget that his sadistic streak and true loss of perspective on who the true enemy is happened after the bombing of 12. (also it‘s not like he gave the order to use those bombs on the rebels, or even had the idea to use them against the rebels, and Beetee designed the things but somehow he gets a free pass)

I think Gale would have 100% ended up a failed Mockingjay. The biggest difference between Gale and Haymitch, I think, is that after Snow comes and burns his family (and probably also Katniss) to the ground for his rebellion, he wouldn‘t collapse. He‘d just get more angry, maybe try and stage his own private assassination attempt on Snow idk.

The children our main characters feel some need to protect are constantly being described as birds.

Haymitch has is little flock of doves in district 6 and Wellie. Haymitch even at some point thinks of Loulou as one of the flock. Louella becomes equated with the dead baby mockingjay that Lenore Dove found.

Katniss has Rue, who she described as looking like a little bird trying to take flight. And Prim with her little duck tail.