#vipsania sickle

2. barb azure's 1st stage outfit

this is so insanely up my alley. this is one of those costumes that has so many details it's screaming at you, and yet as the audience we barely get a glimpse of it on screen. i love how many layers barb azure is always dressed in, and how she's paired with these close toned colors in most of her outfits. this is another headpiece that is truly a marvel- and her little velvet capelet ugh! i especially love all of honor's costumes because i think her outfits have the most nods and references to romani traditional clothing, and that's very intentional.

i think it's interesting as well because in my opinion, this outfit seems more fancy and showy than what she wears on reaping day (blouse, long skirt, little vest). we know that the people of 12 are forced to wear their very best to the reaping, and i like to think that barb azure's very best was not what she wore that day. she's got much more elaborate outfits, but she saves that for the covey shows, because the reaping and the government don't get to partake in that corner of their lives. it's a quiet rebellion.

3. the butterfly dress

it's hard to narrow down all of effie's costumes to just one, but this one has been my favorite ever since i was a kid. i think it's unique from her other outfits because it's so singularly on theme, which speaks more to book effie and the people of the capitol in the books than a lot of her other looks. the capitol loves a hyperspecific theme, and this costume nails that.

it's hard to see in these pictures, too but her makeup details with tiny butterfly wings that match the ones coming off her dress and the ones looking like they're going to take flight in her hair and on her arms- perfection.

this is also effie's most orange look, and you could argue that there's a tie there with this reaping being a big moment for peeta. i think there's an intentional color theory thread there somewhere.

4. coral

shoutout to my they/them butches!!!

the details. EVERYTHING about this costume. oh i could do a whole post on every single tribute from the 10th games, because it's so interesting to me how all of their reaping day outfits so deeply signify the culture of their district. their home is where their honor lies. it's the only thing they have left. i also think there's a note of pride found there that isn't as apparent in the 50th or 74th/75th games. much less time has passed since the war, and the districts still have a sense of identity much more distinct than they do in the future. people remember a time when they weren't living under the capitol's heel, existing only to help operations run for the rich. the culture is stronger. and lucky for us, we get to notice these details in the costumes all the more, because the tributes never change, so we have plenty of time with them.

i want to know everything about this. who embroidered the fish and the starfish, was it her mom? grandpa? sibling? who cut her hair like this, and why? did she wear it like this as long as she can remember? her ears are pierced, when did that happen? there's just so many little things that hint at a whole lifetime lived by coral before this all happened, and that just makes everything so much sadder of course.

5. the academy uniforms

the brilliance of these costumes cannot be understated. in the tbosas episode of the art of costume podcast, trish summerville talks about how the thematic element behind the academy uniforms is basically this idea that everyone is one. a singular entity, with no one rising above the rest- thematically ironic, since the whole idea of the plinth prize and coryo's whole character journey is this struggle to be elevated above his peers. it's androgynous, so there's no gender attached to it. red and grey are two of the signature colors of the capitol. the academy logo is on all of the buttons. it's brilliant, truly. and of course, there's the symbolism of all of it being red, because they all have blood on their hands.

also much love to hmu, because the hairstyles EAT. the way all of them have a signature look is so delicious, and the inspiration that a lot of the styles take from the 1940s and early 50s is so wonderful and classic looking (palmyra's bumper bangs!!! arachne's bows!! persephone and vipsania's victory roll-esque pony tails!!!).

Throughout their stay there, the tributes end up bonding with Capitol citizens with various levels of intent. For some, like Pup and Lamina or Persephone and Mizzen or Lysistrata and Jessup, it goes pretty naturally even without the mentorship because of various situations through which they end up coming into contact. For some, like Bobbin and Panlo and Brandy and Coral, it flat out doesn’t happen. For some like Sejanus and Marcus, it’s a rocky road to a happy ending.

For others like Treech and Vipsania, it’s absolutely hilarious. Not to them, but to the other tributes + Sejanus.

See, despite the Capitol’s disbelief, some tributes actually scored higher than their own age bracket in the school curriculum and got placed in higher classes under the assumption that it was a fluke and they’ll fail out eventually. A good example would be Teslee and Circ on everything tech and Otto and Ginnee on everything mechanical. Treech scored exceptionally high on both history and literature because A) he needed to know a lot of those stories for wood-carving and B) he’s a sneaky bitch who’s broken into the peacekeeper barracks and stole their books on too many occasions to count. He learned those stories to tell the younger kids when he ran out of folklore to entertain the exceptionally story-hungry ones with. Therefore, his 15-year-old self is stuck in the mentors’ class of 18-19yo people. Sadly for him, literature ends up having a big year-long duo project where you have to read and analyze several books together for practice and, at the end of the year, put together a presentation on anything literature analysis related together.

Treech gets stuck with Vipsania.

Everyone in that class feels terrible for her because they’re all convinced he can’t even read, partially because when people make ‘jokes’ about that he doesn’t bother correcting them. He just shares an exasperated look with Sejanus and moves on, because Sejanus knows Treech can read and write due to his wood carving job (he works two jobs bless his soul) and they can bitch about these people after class when Treech doesn’t risk these fragile ego having assholes to get him executed. The thing is though- Treech is actually amazing at writing stories, and that translates to him being very good at writing papers and analyzing stories for someone who’s never done so in an education setting. Vipsania won’t give him a chance though, and keeps belittling him and condescending to him until he snaps and suggests they make their papers separately so he won’t “drag her grade down” outside of the final presentation. She agrees.

At some point, Treech is called into Dean Highbottom’s office during a biology class (he’s with students his age and even made a friend!! Who’s currently helping him catch up on all the education he missed) for a bit and comes back into class looking both pissed off and pleased with himself. The next literature class the grades are announced and the professor looks pale as he announces the highest grade in the class belonging to Vipsania Sickle and Treech Meran, with their shared average of 9.2. People congratulate Vipsania, only for the professor to announce her grade to be an 8.6, the third highest grade in the class. The person with highest individual grade in the class is Treech, who’s leaning his head against his hand and staring out the window in boredom as the students stare at him in shock.

A 9.8, the highest grade in the entire year.

When people suggest there must be a mistake, the professor shakily admits they verified it’s his handwriting and he repeated enough points from the paper that they can only accept he wrote it until there’s tangible proof to claim the opposite, which there isn’t. After that, Vipsania takes some time to simmer in her anger at being outdone by some lesser creature, only to be forced to accept he beat her fair and square in a way where she couldn’t claim credit. So instead she decides she can suck it up and work with him for the project. Except now she’s genuinely interacting with him, and that leads to her to stop despising him. When he complains PE is boring and he misses some of the physical exercise he got back in 7 (especially with his theater troupe), Vipsania ends up convincing her aunt to let him into the gymnasium. Which ends with him joining the track team (because in his words: “gymnastics is for the theater, sprinting is for always”).

And somewhere down the line they go from begrudging project partners to sort of friends maybe, even though Treech still kinda hates her guts for being a prejudiced bitch to him.

The other tributes and Sejanus just adore seeing Capitol dicks be put in their place, and Treech gets to do it in literature, history, and track. Treech is a little less amused because his talking time with his bio buddy was cut short so the Academy could have him write random sentences on paper for 20 minutes until the lit professor was finally forced to accept he wrote that paper.

Either way, a lot of the tributes get Capitol friends who really don’t like the idea of watching them die actually, so of course having the entire youth and even some respected Capitol professors protesting the games puts enough pressure on the academy board to force even the anti-district assholes to agree to put the tributes under Academy protection. No games for Gaul!! No job for Gaul either, she gets fired for unspecified “misconduct”.