#thgfanspotlights

* A reenactment of a split second during my search:

What’s something about the series that’s stayed with you or become more meaningful to you over time?

I relate very strongly to Katniss, and I didn't figure out why for a long time. But then I realised it was because, like Katniss, I lost my father suddenly when I was quite young (the week of my 16th birthday) and I had to grow up almost literally overnight. I had a much younger brother (just two years old at the time of our father's death) and I had two older brothers as well, but they left home soon after. My mother coped with her grief very well on the surface, and unlike Mrs Everdeen, she didn't crash out completely or neglect us, but she became a shadow of herself for many years after we lost Dad. She said herself she didn't really feel like 'herself' again for at least ten years after. In the interi,m I'd taken on a lot of responsibility for household stuff. I finished secondary school (high school equivalent) got a full time government job at the age of 17 (that I am still employed in, nearly 40 years later) and the rest is history. So you can see why I relate so strongly to Katniss. She is what ties me emotionally to the series.

What's something you want the fandom to know about you?

I have recently turned 56 years old but I am young at heart! I live with my (now 29 year old) daughter and two cats, Magic and Evie. I read a lot of fanfic. :)

When did you begin creating? What inspired you to begin?

This is a hard question! I am not the typical "creative" type. I never wanted to be a "writer". I was encouraged by my friend Alison (author/tumblr name KnottedEnergy) to give it a try, but what lit the spark, per se, was an ask on tumblr about Everlark and a divorce and a lightbulb went off in my head.. That's when I started my fic "Degrees of Separation" (which I'm embarrassed to say is still not complete). Another inspiration for that story was a song by The Script of the same title. It's also loosely based on a friend's real life experience of post natal psychosis. But, I confess, writing my own works is not my favourite part of the creative process. I truly love being a beta/sound board for other writers, much more than I enjoy writing myself. That part of the process where you're bouncing around ideas, working out plots, seeing where a plot bunny takes you - that's what I find the most fun. I love it, and I find it the most rewarding. I also have a little secret - I love to write my own endings to unfinished, abandoned fics just for my own reading pleasure. I have done this for a few - never published, of course, as they are not my stories to finish, but I do find it helps when an unfinished fic is scratching at your brain and won't get out of your head. Write your own ending!

What is your favorite thing to depict in your work?

Angst. I am an angst monster, unfortunately. But it's not deliberate! I just love to twist the knife.

What’s your personal favorite of your works?

My unpublished ones! :)

If you could recommend just one, which would it be?

I suppose it would be Degrees of Separation, as that is my best known fic.

What are the main characteristics of your favorite canon characters you always try to maintain in your stories?

Peeta's steadfast kindness and integrity, and Katniss' quiet loyalty and strength.

Tell us about an OC of yours. What inspired them and what purpose do they serve in your works?

I don't really have any OCs - yet. But I do have another unfinished work (The Long Way Round) that will introduce the character of Professor Fiach Odair, who is Finnick's Uncle. No spoilers.

Tell us about your favorite relationship (of any kind) in the series. Why is it your favorite? 

I love the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, obviously, but I also love the relationships between Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch, Katniss & Johanna, and between Katniss & Finnick. I truly love the idea of the Victors bonding in a dysfunctional, messed up and imperfect family of their own. I do wish we'd gotten more of the Peeta and Delly friendship in canon, too.

What is a question you wish we asked and what would your answer be?

Will you finish your fics? And the answer is YES! I never break a promise. It just might take me a while.

Anyone you would like to shout out in the fandom?

Kald-dal-art: Hello Hello

Districtfourmermaid: Hi! 

We can start with you, since I already did the form-type thgfanspotlight thing. Do you want to introduce yourself? I know you have a few separate blogs for art and writing and such.  

K: Yes I sure can introduce myself. I am behind the account @kald-dal-art (or @kald-dal-write for just writing) and can just call me Kal. Got into the Hunger Games fandom around 2023 after rereading the series for the first time in like a decade and kind of just been stuck here ever since haha. So yes mostly spend my time drawing and writing fics for the fandom honestly. What about you? You can make a very simple introduction of yourself

D: Cool! Yeah, I’m Maural. I’ve been in the fandom since I first read the series in 2010 when I was 14, but I was not as active on tumblr for a few years and came back to doing more last year. I mostly draw, but I got more into fanfic writing this year, which is part of what’s kept me around the tumblr fandom. 

K: Yes cool indeed, what would you say is the sort of fic you write the most of? In terms of characters, themes and that sort of stuff?

D: Back in the day, like high school-ish, I wrote a bit of District 4 character stuff, but since I’ve gotten back into it, things have centered more on Katniss or I guess Annie and Johanna, a bit. I’ve been writing a lot for a District 2 OC. What do you write about and what’s your AO3?

K: Yes my AO3 account is “littlefroid” I have two currently running fics. One of them is about the oh so infamous 25th Games, because we just know so little about it from Canon, so I thought it would be very fun to explore that concept in more details. With a fic where you follow the POV of 5 tributes from district 2, 5, 7, 8 and 10, so it is a bit up in the air who is going to win the game. Especially because we just don’t know anything around the Victor in canon. The other fic I have worked a lot on is a fic about the two District 6 Victors from Catching Fire, because they caught my attention a lot when I reread the series and I wanted to know their story, and when I looked for fics there wasn’t a lot. And even fics where they were tagged, it was like “they show up like twice in a 100k+ fic” which was a bit annoying. So in the end I kind of though “Hey I can write it for myself then” and the rest is kind of history. 

D: Really making what you want to see! That’s awesome. Few questions on that. Do you think people should have more consideration for how many side-characters they tag in fics? Like a certain presence they should have in order to deserve tagging? And what really drew you to District 6? I love how much attention you bring to those neglected Districts like 5, 6, and 9 or 10. 

K: Yes I would say I prefer when a fic is undertagged over being overtagged. For me I think for a character tag to be warranted, they have to have like an important role in the overall story. Would kind of use like movie/tv show credit logic, especially more so tv show. Like if this was a show would the “actor” get a credit in the intro segment, if yes, than I think it is warranted to tag said character, if not, think it is better to just leave it. Like think for certain character you kind of expect to show up, like if the fic is about the Victors, it makes sense to have some of them just pop up once in a while just to add like “ambience”/”life” into the world of the fic. 

For District 6, I just really like how little we know, and like everything we do know it is very bleak. Like the first mention of the District is that one of their tributes went crazy and ate people in the games, so setting an immediate tone to that specific place. And like the most prominent characters we meet from there are the two Victors who are so haunted/traumatized by their games they are just husks of who they used to and only referred by the drug they are addicted to. So guess I just enjoy the morbid vibes of it…also just like trains a lot ngl. What about you what is your favorite District we don’t know too much about?

D: Drawn to the dark and mysterious! I dig it. Of the less-neglected Districts, I am a D4 person, but I like that there’s such ambiguity in it. Its exact location, the nature of its Career status or program, and the cultural possibilities. Of the more-neglected ones, I think 10 is neat just for the cowboy aesthetic and leatherworking, which I think is cool. 

About your 25th Games fic, do you find it challenging to keep track of so many OCs? What’s your strategy for character-making and worldbuilding?

K: Ah yes for keeping track, I honestly don’t find it too hard, I feel like I have a strong idea on how these characters are like and what their personality/drive is from one another. Also what really helps with the “gimmick” of the 25th Games is that everyone is there for one reason or another so it helps a lot with development when you know WHY they are there and what made people vote for them into the games. I think it would be harder if it was just a “normal” game because like at the age tributes are in the game, they don’t have much “backstory” you can play around with in a way, or at least a lot of it will repeat itself if that makes sense. 

D: Yeah, that makes sense! In the story I’m writing now, there was overlap with the Trilogy’s timeline, and I found it helped to have a structure to follow in events. With your art, I also want to say your style is very unique. The faces have such character and personality. What are your artistic inspirations or what factors went into your style?

K: Like WAY back in the days it was like mostly scrolling through Deviant art that inspired me a lot and also all those “how to draw Manga” books that are out there. Think also like a lot of animation movies in general has inspired me over the stuff, especially stuff like Spider-verse and Arcane. Also a very important thing that helped me a lot is to draw from real life, thinking about how to stylize and simplify this real thing into my art style. Also seen some of your art and really enjoy your Tarot series, what has been some of your inspirations?

D: Thanks! Love those how-to-draw books. I had a couple anatomy ones years ago, but I didn’t keep them with me. My big inspirations are Art Nouveau and Neotraditional tattoo styles. Someone asked about that recently, and I got into it, but I like lineart the most. I just started getting into digital art more, and translating that over has been fun to attempt, haha. You do a mix of both traditional and digital, I noticed, and your digital work looks very similar to traditional. Which did you develop most first and how did you find that translation?

K: Yeah for a very long time I essentially only did traditional art, I got a tablet around 2017 because I was obsessed with all the digital art I saw online, and honestly never got the full hang on it. Like it wasn’t until pandemic time honestly I started to get properly into digital art. One of the things that helped a lot with the transition between the two mediums was that I scanned the sketches I did traditionally and then colored them on my computer later, using multiple layers to not lose the original sketch. Then after a while I got more confident in my line works digitally and then went more into that later. So it is always the tips I give when people ask how to get into digital art.

D: Cool cool. I think the pencil sketch to start is good. I just tried that for another attempt. Here’s one from the suggested questions: What has your experience been like in this fandom? What do you hope to see more/less of in this fandom?

K: My experiences has been very good honestly, I love the people I interact with in the fandom a lot, there is a lot of creative people in here and love to hear their takes around especially worldbuilding for the world of Panem. Guess one of my least favorite things with the THG fandom is how pretentious some people are on there at times. Putting the series on such a high pedestal and act like it is so above getting any sort of normal fandom activity around it. Kind of treating them as like political theories book and like people who love to claim the whole “Collins says she only write when she has something to say” and as far as I can see, she has never said that in her life. So that isn’t all that fun? Do you also have some gripes with the fandom as well?

D: (Snaps) Yes, loving something can include critiquing it, and more people could get comfortable with that. I think that quote came from one of the movie producers saying that about Suzanne in a media spot about Sunrise, which, I’m not sure what exactly was said in that that hadn’t been said already, but that’s its own thing. My fandom experience has mostly been good. My main issue, I guess, is some intolerance for unpopular opinions, but I love the dash I’ve curated, tumblr-wise. 

K: Yes Tumblr is very good when it comes to making a feed where you only see things you want to see from the fandom, so do sometimes get a bit of whiplash when I leave that very curated bubble at time haha

D: So, popping around a little, I’m guessing the female D6 Victor/Tribute is one of your favorite characters, as well as the male one. Who’re some of your other favorites and who do you relate to most?

K: For like the actual main characters, I do love Katniss a lot, she is such a wonderfully realized main character who is a lot of fun to follow in the story. With her very biased narration and mistrust of everything. For other minor characters I like a lot, do enjoy the tributes from the 10th Games a lot when I was into Ballad. Think it made these games a lot of fun to follow because I was invested in the small snippets we saw of them, even if I knew they weren’t going to win the games. Not sure what character I find the most relatable honestly, what about you? 

D: I think that’s changed a lot, or I just move between most-relatables over time or with my mood. In some ways, I do see myself in Katniss and have always connected to her as far as heritage, family (my little brother who’s 4 years younger than me is great), and sometimes personality. I’m more outgoing than her, but she’s very real. And then sometimes it’s been Gale or Johanna or Haymitch, but Annie is probably the other most consistent one. She’s really a bit of a blank slate, since canon was so sparse with her, but the Annie in my head gets me. 

K: Yes do wish we knew more about Annie, seeing as how much of Fanon (and Canon honestly) just kind of treat her as “Finnick’s sad mentally ill GF” but I think she has the potential to be really interesting. I personally find it very boring when people downplay the possibility she could have ever been a career tribute and it’s no way that she even was one. Think that makes her a very static character if that isn’t a part of her story? What is your take on Annie as a tribute in her game? Do you see her as a full on career? Unluckily reaped? Or like somewhere in the middle?

D: I see her as a full Career. I think what makes her story so significant is that sudden switch and disillusionment. I see her as someone who trained and thought volunteering was the right thing to do but learned a harsh lesson about who the Capitol really is and how horrific the Games are. 

K: Yes, like I see a lot of people wanting a book about her games, to get the answers like “How did she turn out this way, like what really happened for her to break this bad” and honestly what we get in the book is like enough for me? Like seeing someone getting decapitated in front of you, and then having to swim for your life is honestly really traumatic in of itself

D: Exactly! Same with how people want a Finnick book. I don’t think we need more detail, and the open canvas is almost more impactful than knowing exactly what happened and how. 

K: Yes, I definitely agree. I don’t see the need for a Finnick book, just think there are too many elements going against the concept in turning out to be a good book, especially in the restraints of it most likely having to fall into the YA genre at the end of the day like the other books in the series. Also do think when a series has to explain EVERYTHING in the world it kind of leads to very convoluted plots and more open to plot holes if I am being honest. 

D: Less is more for that area of things, for sure. So, do you have a certain work or OC you want to talk about in more detail? What/who do you think is your top work/OC?

K: Do definitely see that the 25th Game fic is my most popular work and do love to see how much people love it and it’s characters as I have spent a lot of time on it. I would say I do love all my children on their own, so it’s hard to pick a favorite. One thing I do enjoy in this fic is having antagonists who aren’t Career tributes. I think sometimes the series turns a bit black and white with like automatically assuming everyone from the outlier/non career Districts has to be good people who would never enter the games with wanting to win and is willing to kill people for that. If we do get more books we would enjoy seeing that as a concept and less “full evil” careers.

D: Yes! I’ve had my brain on humanizing Careers more, but I love that idea of casting non-Careers as antagonists, showing how people will do what they must to survive, right? Because I think Careers as antagonists almost puts their viciousness on a pedestal, but seeing that in other District’s Tributes creates more space for horror elements, in a way, highlighting the gravity and tragedy. 

K: Yeah like my definite least fave plot element of Sunrise was the whole mega big Anti Career alliance, it felt so unrealistic to me that not a single person would prioritize their own survival or even think of the possibility that they have to betray the others to not die in the end. Think it takes so much away from the morality of the series that was there previously. 

D: For sure! All that. Because it’s like part of the point is that the real enemy is the Capitol for orchestrating the Games in the first place. It’s a terrible situation to be in, but Tributes who kill to live aren’t to blame; they just want to survive. It raises a question of when violence is justified or necessary and where you draw the line on self-defense, almost. Standing up for oneself and getting your hands dirty, but the tragedy is that the people who are to blame make themselves untouchable, and the people who suffer are equally innocent. 

K: Yes yes yes, it’s one of my favorite aspects of this series honestly. But yeah think it is very fun to explore the world and how previous games must have looked like in the past? Do you have any ideas what a previous game in the past looked like, with either the Victor/Arena/gimmick/etc etc

D: I haven’t considered much specifics on non-canon years like that. In the fic I’m writing now, I incorporated some mutts based on prehistoric animals. They were around during the Capitol Invasion, as Pod traps and in a lab, but the idea was that they were created for an upcoming prehistoric-inspired arena. 

K: Ah very nice, did read Jurassic Park recently, so been into that sort of stuff lately as well. 

D: Yeah, I saw your art about it! Really good! I read the books several years ago and thought the shift from book to movie was pretty good. Anything else HG you want to include in this interview?

K: Yes I would say this has been a lot of fun honestly. Guess we can end on one last question maybe?

D: Bet! Since you first read the books many years ago and then got more into the fandom recently on your reread, what is something that has changed about your feelings or interpretation of the books in that time?

K: Like back in the day I mainly read the books because that was what everyone was reading at the time, kind of think I read the books when I was too young if I am being honest. I remember I didn’t even finish Mockingjay because I thought it was really boring. OBVIOUSLY changed my mind on that now and it’s my third fave now. But yeah I think I appreciate them more now when I was older because I actually bothered to engage with it fully this time around. 

D: Sweet. Some of it does look different when you’re an adult, right? All these kids are babies to me now, lol. 

Rapid Fire: 

Sweet or savory? Savory

Favorite snack? Like potato chips honestly

Favorite drink? Cold water and red bull honestly

Favorite color? Purple and red

Color you never wear? I rarely wear white, gets too easily dirty for me

Morning person or night owl? I am kind of both, depend on the week/month if I am real

Silly thing that makes you smile? Enjoy when people make very misc headcanons around my character. “This character would like this food item” sure what the hell

D: Wow! That is very sweet that people say things like that. Especially if it’s true! 

Great meeting you, and this was a fun chat! :)