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"You are not immune to propaganda"

This is the main thought I have when people are talking about Effie.

Effie is a clear example of that and people are kinda missing the point.

Suzanne take time to establish that not all Capitol citizens are pure evil, even if they're not rebels. We see it in Katniss' stylists, the girl in the lemon coat, countless kids that died in that bombing, people who died at the hands of both Peacekeepers and rebels alike.

We see it in Effie.

Over the course of the series, Katniss learns that capitol citizens are humans, ones that were put under years upon years of propaganda, with no knowledge on how to behave differently.

The whole message of the series is "remember who the real enemy is". It's the higher powers oppressing people, not common people living privileged life. That is why Katniss shoots Coin, that is why Games, of any kind, had to stop.

Some people focus too much on Effie being typical capitolite, and miss the crucial element of what she is representing. She is a picture of a person who lived their whole life under propaganda and could only break away from it when faced with real facts that contradicted it. Katniss and Peeta being reaped again, shattered Effie's view on Games, making her see through the propaganda.

It doesn't make Effie evil to change only after that.

Sotr also established that Trinkets are an ostracized family, one that is least likely to rebel since they'd be the first ones to go. They need to keep being in the system to survive, they need to comply or they die.

The difference between propaganda in Captiol and Districts is simple.

Districts are confronted with harsh reality daily, Capitol isn't.

That's why propaganda in the Capitol is more effective and why it's harder to break away from it. We cannot judge those characters as if they have access to all the information we have, since it's simply not true.

and while we're on the subject, THE hanging tree song guy's love who he told to run so they'd both be free was a girl named lil with a brother named spruce who was involved with D12's underground rebellion. and what is a spruce? a tree. not just any tree, no, a fuckin evergreen tree. so while im beating my head against this wall im going to assume lil is short for lily. lily and spruce everdeen

Imaging thinking actual human writers are Not Real because they use... professional writing in their works.

Imagine thinking millions of people who have been using em dash way before AI becomes a thing are all robots.

Katniss: You taught me how to scream into a pillow and lie to the government.

imagine how excited you’d be for your (little) girl, your sweetheart of new, who’s about to get her love back. who’s about to experience that same joy you felt for those five minutes you had lenore dove in your arms, before the gumdrops and the poison and everything else came crashing down. only katniss’ joy isn’t going to be for five minutes.

imagine watching as your golden boy runs towards your sweetheart and you’re watching as her arms are outstretched, reaching for him like it appears he’s reaching for her.

now imagine how it must have felt for haymitch to realize the boy’s hands are locking around your girl’s neck and he’s not peeta anymore and this hijacked boy, this lou lou peeta is now strangling katniss. and you’re frozen in place.

just like you were frozen in place decades ago, when the peacekeepers were manhandling lenore dove. you have no choice but to hesitate because you’ve hesitated all your life, and that’s what you do, and once again it almost cost you everything.

once again, hesitating almost cost you your entire family.