I Wish It Were Satire

"My chest tightens as I think about how, on the Victory Tour, Peeta and I will have to present ourselves as lovers again. I gulp my tea even though it's too hot and push back from the table." —Catching Fire, chapter 1

As I was reading the series for the third time, I got fixated on this excerpt of Katniss' feelings when she was speaking with Hazelle. It was clear that she was nervous and I don't think she was only nervous about hurting Gale with her and Peeta's fake romance. I think she was also nervous about facing Peeta and having to interact with him beyond a polite greeting. She dreaded the return of her confusing feelings, dreaded facing him after their massive disagreement, and she hated herself for missing him. She didn't like holding both Gale's and Peeta's affections, she would rather not worry about romance at all (her conscious mind is overwhelmingly loud). She felt trapped and in that moment, felt a wave of anxiety course through her. Maybe she was worried about having to face the possibility of knowing–as opposed to being wilfully ignorant–Peeta moved on? I don't know, it's probably my anxiety speaking.

I decided to explore having both Haymitch and Primrose time travel to sometime before the reaping for the 74th Hunger Games following their deaths.

I'm not sure if I should continue with it, but here's an excerpt:

"It had hurt. Dying, that is. Especially when she had been blown to bits whilst helping another child. That child was surely gone by now. She had watched helpless as her sister approached, and in her last moments, she had uttered her name. Was it a cry for comfort or was it in warning for the inevitable danger? She didn't know but she knew she had been terrified, sick, lonely, and worse of all, tired. Now she felt nothing, or what she thought of as nothing. An aching sense of emptiness could be considered an effect of nothingness, couldn't it? She decided that it was, just as she allowed herself to float and drift off.

In the 74th Hunger Games, it's been speculated that Peeta wanted Katniss to live not because he loved her so much, but because more people would be devasted if she died. He thought her life was worth more than his.

Katniss decided to keep "faking" her love for Peeta during the Victory Tour despite it hurting him because she didn't want a rebellion. She was thinking of how it would affect all of Panem and didn't want to upset the "peace".

Katniss' justification for wanting Peeta to live through the Third Quarter Quell was that she was already slated for death and that Peeta might still be able to have a happy life. So instead of piling the resources onto her so that she survives the arena and dies from an "accident" arranged by the Capitol, Peeta survives and lives a happy life.

In MockingJay, Gale justified burying the Nut by considering the entirety of District 2 an enemy. He thought it would lead to the greatest advantage for the rebellion, more like a "rip the bandaid off fast" kind of thing. Let's not talk about his bombs targeting first responders.

I got mad at The Hunger Games books-to-movies conversion because they sacrificed so many important elements for the sake of a Twilight-esque romance. I'm still mad to this day.

I recently watched Legally Blonde the musical and happened to like it more than the movie because the romance between Elle and Emmett was better developed.

Silent anger, silent fear, silent desperation, silent suffering, silence, silence, and silence. Silence has power.

The bulk of the second rebellion in THG was done with words, especially from Katniss and Finnick. But Katniss' inability to speak for another propos after realizing Peeta was being tortured was what finally prompted District 13 to rescue Peeta. Had she kept giving her words and cooperating for propos, District 13 wouldn't have prioritized the rescue of Peeta, and wouldn't have lost any sleep over his death.

What about the other twelve districts? If they had consistently rebelled and failed with disastrous consequences, would they have been willing to ally with D13 and try again? I doubt it. It would have been like adding one Mentos at a time to your bottle of coke. But the generations of people, hopelessly accepting their fate, suppressing their anger in fear of retribution... they became a ticking time bomb. And in the silence, there was no mistaking the sound of an explosion.

Many HG fans have set Peeta Mellark as the standard for choosing a romantic partner. It's not hard to understand why—he is loyal, compassionate, intelligent, patient, kind, and... well, I don't think Katniss will like it if I keep talking about her man. 😅

BUT what am I supposed to do when I actually find a Peeta Mellark? What am I supposed to do about someone who can challenge my views and perspectives? Someone who gives me enough hope to strive for more? Someone just as kind as Peeta? Someone who's leagues ahead me?