#djfl

Nuances were lost of course AND. They made Plutarch a much more likeable/trustable person - erasing his Capitol idenity essentially. They cut out a lot of minor characters understandably. They unified the meanings of these spatterings of characters a lot. I really loved the symbolic development that Effie goes through in the films but in the books Katniss' prep team gets most of that - and it's a LOT less neat. There is no 'I am slowly coming to realise' a wiping away of a single tear nor a kiss with Haymitch. There's imprisonment and almost dying by Capitol hands, losing all the security of a Capitol life, almost dying by Rebel hands - all their peers killed. In the films, they made the ending a lot more idyllic - airbrushed the scars quite a lot (mentally - but I suppose also physically). Made Haymitch much more put together. Made Katniss much more put together. I don't remember much constant PTSD horrors and nightmares in the films - despite it being a constant in the books.

I suppose in a way many of the film's scenes and characters were maximised for emotional effect. But that made them very neat, no leftover threads dangling like the MYRIAD of them in the books. In this way the books convey very little triumph and catharsis, a lot more bleakness, grief, confusion, incompleteness, less of a narrative. (even just the way Paylor is never foregrounded overtly like in the films as the probably correct choice as a leader - the way it is LESS clear what kind of leader Coin is beyond a stoic pupper master) In the books it's a ragged life that's left in which important things are much less clear. The way I imagine it would be.

They had Katniss and Peeta bathed in golden light picnicking with their children! However, the way she Katniss survives it really hit home - that she makes a list of all the acts of goodness she's ever seen.

The ending of mockingjay unexpectedly made me cry. Because the song she sang to Rue was on the last page.

Perhaps having read the wiki and then watched the movies and only then having read 2 and 3 really did make it all less impactful than reading 1 for those reasons. But reading Mockingjay felt like........war.

Now that I think about it. I really do feel like the films nailed the propo aspect of the books better. They became everything that I angrily muttered to myself endlessly while reading the first book. But they lost a lot of detail when it comes to.......how much it just completely destroys you and everyone. Which they might have intentionally left out.