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Let’s talk about it.

1) Haymitch is not unhappy.

He literally says it: he doesn’t drink to numb the pain anymore, he drinks because he’s an addict. And yeah — I wish he had stopped altogether. Some of the most heartbreaking deaths I’ve seen in real life were due to cirrhosis.

But that doesn’t mean he’s miserable. He’s surviving. He’s healing.

2) The Capitol love interest people want for him? That wouldn’t have worked.

She’s brainwashed. Period. And if she weren’t, we would see it in the text — either through Haymitch’s eyes, or Katniss’s. Both are reliable in different ways.

In Panem, when someone from the Capitol is pretending, or disagreeing silently, it shows. It leaks out.

If Haymitch were to have another love interest, it would need to be:

• someone from the Districts,

• maybe even another Victor,

• someone who understands his trauma and oppression firsthand.

That’s the only way it could ever make sense.

3) Haymitch did get his happy ending.

And again — he says it himself.

He’s happy because Peeta and Katniss are his family.

He let people back into his heart.

He’s at peace, because Lenore Dove doesn’t haunt him anymore.

He’s moved on from her death.

Now, he sees her old and happy — and that gives him peace.

Haymitch is happy.

You don’t need a romantic partner to be whole.

He made peace with his past.

He let his ghosts rest.

And most importantly?

No more children are chosen to die in the Arena on his birthday.

For the first time,

Ive seen theories that Burdock and Blair wouldve filled it while he was gone anyway but also it says in the book: "This was arson, carried out in such a way that my family could not even make it to a window to escape"

Some people also insist that there was no guarantee that Haymitch was gonna feed Lenore Dove those gumdrops. „If Haymitch had just been smarter she would still be alive“ …No? Maybe if Haymitch realised these sweets were poisoned he would have saved Lenore Dove a couple of hours. But that girl was going to die, one way or another.

These are just small things that will stay with Haymitch forever though. No. Him not filling the cistern had no impact on the outcome. Him feeding Lenore Dove the gumdrops wasn‘t what killed her. If he wasn‘t there she would have eaten them by herself.

a whole quarter of a century since lenore dove had woken in the arms of her tear stained uncle. since she and tam amber had fled the crooked covey house under the cover of darkness, now knowing it was too dangerous for her to stay. oh, how she had begged and pleaded to take her love with her. to save him from the years of nightmares, of being the capitol's plaything, of not knowing that she was something he hadn't lost. her uncle shook his head. haymitch is in too deep. even clerk carmine had pity in his eye. they had seen how victor's never truly leave the games. how surviving can be almost as deadly as dying.

but he's here now. shepherded into the busy cantina with the rest of the rebels who had escaped the games. another quarter quell. lenore dove had watched the reaping, how her haymitch stood straight and strong. like the boy she had known, less like the man she had watched him become. she's not sure if he sees her. if he would even recognise her. there are lines on her features were skin was once smooth. dark hair is peppered with streaks of grey, cut short and straight. as is the fashion in district 13. she's void of the colour and music that she so loved, but she's the same girl inside.

feet carry her forward, the crowd parting as she goes. she pays them little attention. they know her story. the refugee from 12 who the president, personally, wanted dead. they know him, too, and what he means to her. ❝ haymitch. ❞ his name falls from her lips in so soft a whisper that even she isn't sure she spoke. but some heads turn, and she's getting closer and closer until she's stood right in front of him. a smile slowly spreading across her lips. terror and ecstasy mixing in her gut. ❝ and the only word there spoken was the whispered word - ❞ words to her poem. words she hasn't spoken in twenty-five years. gaze finds his, finally, and eyes implore him to finish. say my name. know me again.

sejanus, lenore dove, and katniss were the activists. constantly resisting, fighting, rebelling. even if in some cases, they never meant to after all

Coryo: I need to graduate and become something that brings back the glory to the family name. Tigris is too fragile and Grandma'am is delusional. I have to step up.

He was in worse shape than Peeta, has arguably a better understanding of just how awful the Capitol’s horrors are, and could have easily just said “no way, whoever gets reaped gets reaped”, and instead he was truly 100% going to go back into the arena if he got the chance. He KNOWS Snow would love the opportunity to kill him painfully!!!!!!

I used to hold on to the belief that Snow purposefully kept Haymitch around to torment him for „i hate the covey so much“ reasons. And there‘s probably some of that. But this man hasn‘t been in power for close to 40 years by being a fool and so easily influenced.

So follow me on my ramble as I try to figure this out.

1) Right after the flooding:

Something slipped onto the live cameras while Haymitch flooded the arena. Something that‘d made some people maybe suspect that Haymitch was up to more than just some harmless rascal mischief. If there‘s a five minute delay in the districts I‘m sure there‘s a five minute delay in the arena. But maybe something still slipped by. So the gamemakers targeting him right then might emphasize that. Then again… they targeted Ampert right then. And he was doing the rebelliousness right along with Haymitch. Maybe Haymitch not getting targeted soon after the flooding simply had to do with the fact that Ampert already had mutts preprogrammed for him, and the gamemakers would need a little bit to program some mutts for Haymitch. Ampert was always gonna die by squirrel.

2) The „they needed time to program mutts“ theory falls apart during the next part of the games. Haymitch is alone. Trapped in a gamemaker maze trying to find the North of the arena. What better time to torture him to death gruesomely? I guess one explanation for this is that the gamemakers were all scrambling to make sure the arena didn‘t combust while making sure the cameras didn‘t catch any of it. So any deaths that happened between Ampert (the arena flooding) and the porcupine attack was natural and not gamemaker orchestrated. Because they were so preoccupied.

3) Haymitch takes out two careers. His popularity with the audience soars. People love him. Leaving Snow and the gamemakers hesitant to take him out just yet. He‘s also with Maysilee now, who has been proven to be lethal with her blowgun. She‘s most likely also popular. For the sake of the show, they let the alliance be.

4) Once only Haymitch, Maysilee, Maritte, Silka and Wellie are left, the gamemakers know. Maritte or Silka will be the victor. Haymitch and Maysilee have been talking so much shit. And Wellie? She‘s dying up that tree. For her to win either the other tributes wound each other so mortally they all die before Wellie does, or the gamemakers would need to take out all four of the other tributes themselves. And why do that? What a let down ending for the 50th Hunger Games. But then Maritte and Maysilee kill the gamemaker teens. And therefore immediately eliminate themselves from being potential victors and mark themselves for death.

5) Haymitch‘s popularity wouldn‘t save him from here on out. I‘m sure Maritte was hugely popular (girl scored a Katniss level 11 in training). They targeted her anyway. So I think what was going on here, was indeed a mixture between „We need an epic final showdown to end the 50th. It can‘t be Maysilee or Maritte, and Wellie isn‘t going to give us that anyway. So we leave Haymitch alive for that. Haymitch froze and didn’t attack the gamemakers. IF he wins… he can propably be subdued into implicite submission. The other two? Absolutely not.

Here I think Snow‘s weird fascination with Haymitch also comes into play. We’ve seen Snow do silly things filled with hubris to prove his own little theory of „everyone kills everyone when it comes down to it“ before. That’s what the whole „two can win! oops nevermind, guess you have to kill eachother afterall!“ business was all about in the originals. He wanted to prove to people that this is what humanity is. But he also wanted to prove it to himself, especially because Katniss was covey, projecting Lucy Gray onto her. I‘m not saying the „two can win“ came in to play exlusively because of Katniss. Afterall, Cato and Clove could have been the last survivors. But oh was it convenient when Peeta and Katniss were the final pair.

In Haymitch‘s case though, it may not even entirely a covey motivated thing. At least not as much as with Katniss. Afterall, Haymitch isn‘t covey. Yes the covey connection got his attention. But now? Now I think it‘s about Haymitch himself. Snow wants to manipulate this kid. That‘s what the milk pitcher was. The milk wasn‘t an outright „kill yourself“ order. It was a way to trap Haymitch. Because if he drank the milk, that would ruin his image of „I‘m doing my absolute best to save Wellie“ and if he gave it to her… well his image would be intact, but Wellie would die. Snow wanted to watch Haymitch struggle. He wanted to trap him psychologically. I do think Snow thought Haymitch would end up drinking it. He‘s seen how much of a bleeding heart Haymitch is and how attached he gets to the kids this entire games through. Haymitch would rather mess up his image than kill Wellie.

6) Once Wellie dies, the final showdown begins. The Gamemakers don‘t want to intervene here. They want to show this entire battle and if they send in mutts to target Haymitch that would be so, SO obvious. So they let it play out.

7) Haymitch is the victor. And they need their victor. Well shit. Now Snow REALLY has to do everything in his power to make sure he breaks this 16 year old‘s mind (in the direction of submission, not setting the world on fire) And you know what? Him hesitating to kill gamemakers, plus his bleeding heart? Doesn‘t make it seem all that impossible. Snow breaks Haymitch. And is so confident in his success… he ignores the man entirely. For the next 25 years.