the point of Hayffie is that the nature of their relationship was left ambiguous, and no one argues with the ambiguity of them. In movie Haymitch looks at her during Annie’s vows when she is proclaiming her love for Finnick, they’re constantly teasing each other, and they kiss. In the books, they work so well Katniss described it as “if they were of one mind”; Effie was the only constant friend he had in life for twenty five years, she was the only person who watched out for him (and it’s always worth mention, THAT is Effie’s past Haymitch will ever remember). Haymitch protects her and defend her from Katniss’s outbursts, he risks his life to guarantee she was not going to be dragged by the purge, even though he knew that Coin was no better than Snow and she could have taken it the wrong way. They are always together, they have a great relationship, and that’s it.
Their relationship is ambiguous, and Suzanne Collins supported this ambiguity when, after killing every other alternative ship for Haymitch in sunrise on the reaping (Maysilee was his sister and Asterid was his best friend’s wife), she only made their emotional connection deeper and more meaningful than it was. Implying that Haymitch is still in love with Lenore Dove isn’t an effective way to prove Hayffie wrong, since that’s a lore we’ve been working with since day one and Suzanne Collins know that. If she wanted to actively kill the ship, she would have managed to make it obvious like she did with the others, and..and she absolutely didn’t. So that was a very good hint :)
“oh Hayffie will never be canon. NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER”…first, chill out honey, you’ll survive. Second, the point is precisely that they are not canon, but that they are not not-canon either, because they have twenty-five years of gap in the history and we don’t know what happened during this time, so we don’t know the real nature of their relationship. The ambiguity Suzanne granted us just gave us the green light to keep theorizing, because it is A FICTIONAL BOOK. those people don’t exist, dear
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