#wovey

I've been thinking about this topic ever since watching the movie and wanting to post my thoughts about this somewhere. I want to talk about disability as it exists in the book/world more generally, eventually, but I think the movie did some interesting things with casting that I want to discuss specifically.

First: Casting actors with visible disabilities, particularly for the roles of characters not explicitly designated as disabled in the book. In the film, Wovey (the girl tribute from District 8) has Down syndrome, Bobbin (the boy tribute from District 8) has no forearm/hand on one arm, and Tanner (the boy tribute from District 10) has one eye that remains closed. I could be wrong about this, because sometimes I miss descriptive details when I'm devouring a book as fast as I did TBoSaS, but I don't recall any of these disabilities being explicitly mentioned in the book. I think these casting decisions were great because:

A) Disabled actors deserve to be cast in a selection of roles just as expansive as nondisabled actors do, including roles for which the narrative is not centered entirely around their disability, and

B) Disability is a fact of life, including in the setting of Panem--perhaps ESPECIALLY in the districts, where people are expected to very literally sacrifice their bodies doing dangerous work in service to the Capitol. Workplace injuries are surely common, especially in districts where people operate heavy machinery and/or use sharp tools, and children are often already working by the time they are eligible for the Reaping. Additionally, the pre-10th Games Capitol certainly wouldn't treat disabled children any differently re:the Hunger Games, and the post-10th Games Capitol might even see a disabled tribute as an opportunity to create an 'inspiration' narrative or a way to make the betting interesting.

But I have to talk about Dr. Gaul and her heterochromia. Historically, the way that media has often coded a character as a villain or antagonist is by giving them a disability or visible difference. I did a case study on this in college using Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (sigh, even the franchises you love sometimes hurt you) so I feel like I'm activated like a Disability Studies sleeper agent every time this happens in something I'm reading/watching/etc. Viola Davis does not naturally have heterochromia, so this was an intentional choice for the movie specifically (again, I don't think Dr. Gaul explicitly had heterochromia in the book). One day, I want to live in a world where any type of character can have a facial difference because it's part of the natural variation of human appearance, but We Live In A Society, and that society has a history of villainizing people with visible differences and disabilities in a very real, non-fictional context. So, yeah, this disappoints me, because it feels like they made her eyes different colors as a way to make her physically 'off-putting' to 'match' her creepy personality. Movie, you were doing so good!

I feel like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie is a perfect example of the fact that the work of doing better by marginalized communities is an ongoing process, and mistakes can be made at the same time as progress. What matters is that we keep pushing for better, and that we involve those communities in every step of the process.

Dr. Gaul says that humans are naturally violent, and to prove her wrong, here are moments in the Hunger Games that show that they aren't.

-Lucy Gray comforting Jessup when he wasn't feeling well

-Lucy Gray crying and mourning when Dill died (Wovey in the book)

-Lucy Gray making sure Jessup ate despite her having the advantage if he didn't eat

-The first thing Lucy Gray doing in the arena was look for Jessup and run away with him so they could both have a chance at surviving, despite all the murder and chaos happening around them

-Lucy Gray comforting Jessup as he was dying

-Lucy Gray in general

-Jessup protecting Lucy Gray from the bats (rabid raccoons in the book)

-Reaper giving Lamina cloth and Lamina giving him food. Then Coral, Mizzen, and Tanner came and she warned him (in the book)

-Reaper collecting the bodies of the fallen tributes and covering them with the flag to give them proper respects

-Reaper warning Wovey when she was walking to the snakes

-Lamina killing Marcus. Ik it was still murder, but it was a mercy kill. She even comforted him before and stared at his body and curled up into the fetal position after

-Lamima has a lot of empathy in general and I love her so much and she's litterally just walking proof of Dr. Gaul's theory being wrong. Her name is litterally animal spelled backwards, which is what Dr. Gaul belived the tributes were. Violent animals

-Bobbin letting Wovey sleep on his shoulder

-In the walk to the cart, Bobbin was holding Wovey's hand

-Lucy Gray letting Wovey hold her hand before the games

-Treech protecting Lamina when Brandy was killed from the bullet

-Reaper going out of his way to protect Dill. I could make an entire post on this alone. But like, in every scene with them together, he's always looking out for Dill. Even when he jumped at his Mentor, he was looking at Dill before to see how she was doing. Dill's death is what made him want to honor the other tributes deaths. I can only imagine how that made their friends and families feel at home, to see the person they loved getting the respect they could in such violent games

-During the bombing, Marcus ran back to go get Lucy Gray despite thst fact that his chances of dying there were very high

-Ik he wasn't part of the games, but Sejanus going to spread bread around Marcus's dead body (I love Sejanus sm and I better not see y'all thirst over Snow anymore)

-In the book, there was no bloodbath scene. Most tributes ran straight for the tunnels, while Coral, Tanner, and Reaper went to get weapons, but even Coral, who was known for being violent, ran. Only Reaper stayed

-Reaper apologizing for having to kill the tributes the night before, and promising to honor them

-In the book, Teslee was running from the snakes and Lucy Gray came out of the tunnels singing so the snakes would be distracted so Teslee would have time to escape

-Screaming and crying and throwing up because Reaper killed Teslee but brought her body over to the other bodies because it's really all he could give her

-In the book, Lucy Gray and Reaper were the last ones left, and they procrastinated on killing each other. Lucy Gray killed him by getting him to drink poisoned water, not by any violence. She even closed his eyes when she realized he had died.

This was just the 10th Hunger Games. Damn. Imma go on to the other ones now

-Instead of of breaking their alliance by killing each other, Maysilee just left Haymitch saying that she didn't want it to come down to the two of them

-Haymitch staying with Maysilee as she died

-When Annie's district partner died, she gained serious PTSD, which should be proof enough that naturally, HUMANS DONT LIKE VIOLENCE

-Katniss volunteering to protect Prim

-Thresh smiling at Rue when she managed to steal the knife from Cato (this is so sweet to me, I love the District 11 kids sm)

-Foxface not killing anyone (that Katniss knows of) and running away, proving thst people are just trying to survive and not be violent

-Foxface and Katniss bumping into each other but then running away. Especially Katniss, because she definitely had the advantage

-Peeta joining the careers to protect Katniss

-Peeta telling Katniss to run when the careers were hunting her

-This wasn't shown to the audience, but Katniss said that if her and Rue were the last 2 left, she'd let Rue win

-Katniss letting Rue cuddle under the sleeping bag so that she could stay warm

-Katniss mourning the death of Rue by leaving flowers over her body and then giving respects to District 11. She even cried and threw her spear when Rue died

-Clove and Cato's entire friendship (also, Clove smiling at Cato while they were on the plane)

-Thresh killing Clove purely because of what he thought she did to Rue, implying that he wanted to protect Rue. (I like to believe that he didn't make an alliance with Rue the dame reason Katniss didn't make an alliance with Peeta in the beginning; he didn't want it to come down to the two of them). Despite that, he was still heartbroken when she died

-Thresh sparing Katniss's life because she was friends with and protected Rue

-Clove calling for Cato when Thresh was threatening her, and Cato coming to help (in the book)

-Cato crying and begging Clove to get up when she was dying

-Katniss mercy killing Cato despite everything (in the movie)

-Katniss and Peeta not wanting to kill each other and deciding to eat the berries together instead

75th Hunger Games

Yes, ik the rebellion. But I'm still counting it.

-Peeta volunteering to avoid having Haymitch go to the games

-Mags volunteering for Annie

-The female morphling (who I headcanoned as her name being Chassis) sacrificing herself to save Peeta

-Peeta staying to comfort Chassis and talking about how pretty the sky was

-Chassis and Autus (male morphling) teaching Katniss how to camouflage, despite her not knowing about the rebellion, and for all they know, she could try and kill them. But they still wanted to save everyone, so they kept Katniss alive

-MAGS. Mags is the best

-Finnick staying with and protecting Mags despite her chances of surviving being very low

-Katniss keeping Finnick alive, despite not knowing about the rebellion

Link to list of Hunger Games Inspired Names (all districts + Capitol)

(133)

Angora Ashleen Argyle Avery Athena Audrey 

Bonnie Burton Bobbin Button Baste Brocade Burlap Burgundy Blue Batiste Breton

Cecelia Calico Cloth Crochet Cashmere Casein Chevron Corduroy Cotton Canvas Chiffon Caracalla Coco Calvin Conrad Chantilly Cinch 

Dressal Dress Denim Denin Donatella Dorcas

Ester Emery Evelyn Evangelista 

Flax Flossie Fleece Fabric Fabelle

Gingham Gray Gisele Gabrielle Grace Georgette 

Hem Harper Heidi

Ivory Indigo

Jute Jean Jaquette Joanne Jersey

Kelsi Knit Kelly Kinta  

Lacey Lisle Lee Luis Lea Linen Lace Leather Lydia

Musslin Marshesca Marc Mei  

Nylon Needle Ned Naomi

Orla

Paylor Penny Paige Polly Patch Polyester Paisley

Rollag Rayon Red Rose Rufus Ralph

Sash Silk Sterling Steppe Stitch Satin Seam Scarlett Stella Spade Silka

Twill Twyla Thread Taylor Tecida Tanner Tweed Thimble Tom Till Tilly

Velvet Violet Vogue

Woof Weave Weft Wool Wooly Wovey Weaver

Xanthe

Yarnn Yves