Sometimes I Think About The Hunger Games And I Wonder What Happened What Exactly Were The Districts Rebelling

Sometimes I think about the Hunger games and I wonder what happened what exactly were the districts rebelling about? And what did they do that was so horrible that not only were they punished by seeing their children fight in a battle Royale to the death but their descendants, born long after anyone who was alive to remember the rebellion were as well.

hot take: katniss is a revolutionary female hero because she's not really a hero. she fights for people, not for a greater good, and she's willing to do awful things for her family, including killing innocents. she believes in a revolution because she wants freedom, not because "it's the right thing to do." she's not a quirky female hero who always knows what to say. she's awkward and self-depricating and blunt and not likeable, which is implicitly stated in the books and movies. she's not comfortable in feminine clothes, she hunts, she's scared and social uncomfortable in a way that makes others uncomfortable. she's volitile in a way that's very different than the normal quirky female lead, she's not some manic bipolar idea, she's a real person with genuine issues. she's harsh and sharp and cruel and mean and she's not perfect. she's not even very likeable. she doesn't speak much to others and when she does, it's mostly angry or cutting. but she's astounding and breathtakingly tragic while being real and raw and absolutely human.

Divergent is a bad book, but its accidental brilliance is that it completely mauled the YA dystopian genre by stripping it down to its barest bones for maximum marketability, utterly destroying the chances of YA dystopian literature’s long-term survival 

REREADING THE HUNGER GAMES - some thoughts™

okay so i reread the hunger games for the first time in like… 8 years or something and boyyyyyy it was a ride:

* this book came out in like 2008, but goddamn it’s still relevant as fuck * i absolutely adore the fact that it wasn’t a traditional “rise against the government” story, where the girl was The One and she did All The Things - Katniss was thrown into all this shit somehow under the radar, with adults still running the rebellion, but choosing her as a symbol and honestly she’s like “i have no idea what the fuck to do, but i’ll listen to Haymitch and Cinna - adults who know more stuff than I do, and hopefully not get killed” * i also liked the fact that her and Peeta’s traditional roles were reversed: she was the hunter, he was the baker (who was doing the FROSTING on cakes int he bakery, like, i stan) and this was Suzanne Collins saying fuck you to expectations about what roles men and women are supposed to fulfil * this book is disguised as another YA bullshit, but my dudes, holy fuck no - even if you take out the whole “we’ll send your kids to murder each other in an arena for our entertainment” - it deals with a shit ton of issues: PTSD, abandonment, alcoholism, children way too young being forced to take the roles of providers in their respective families, how entertainment affects the way we see the world, how media manipulates perception - like, this shit is Deep™

* it annoys me that at one point, this book/series was reduced to Team Gale vs Team Peeta, when… it was honestly about SO much more. And tbh, the progression of the love triangle was natural - when you share a life and death situation with someone, it’s completely natural to have at least some conflicting feelings towards that person, so Katniss’ indecision over Peeta and Gale is completely fucking normal for an adult, let alone a teenager just discovering themselves and exploring their heart

* the writing is Really Good, even compared to newer books that I’ve personally read and adored - it’s intense, fast paced, I flew through this in a couple of days and even knowing the story, it was still gripping and adrenaline-fuelled

* Peeta is completely underrated as a strategist - like, that kid is Smart™ as fuck

* Katniss and Rue’s relationship was such a punch in the gut, because it really solidifies the idea that these are kids, paying the price for something they had no hand in, paying the price for a past they had no choice in and no control over, and I’m unashamed to say that I, a woman in her 30s, still cried ugly tears when Katniss sang her song for Rue 

* honestly, my dudes, just… pick up this book and read it, because it’s so, so much more than what the movies reduced it to (I love the movies, but… yeah) - this shit is a dystopian masterpiece and Suzanne Collins is a queen, we stan

““The first time that Katniss has to go into the cylinder and she goes up into the arena and looks around and sees it for the first time,” says Lawrence. “Knowing that when that trumpet blows she could die. The thing that’s great about her is she’s not a murderer. She’s a hunter, but she’s not a killer. I told Gary, ‘I totally understand if you don’t hire me, but please remember that after Katniss shoots a bow and kills someone her face cannot be badass. It has to be broken.’ She has to be heartbroken because she just took another person’s life. It’s so tempting, especially with a cool, big budget franchise movie, but we have to remember that she’s a 16-year-old girl who’s being forced to do this. These kids are only killing each other because if they don’t, they’ll die. It’s needless, pointless, unjustified violence. So there’s nothing cool about her. It’s not like she looks around the arena and goes ‘Yeah, I got this, I’m going to do this.’ I think she looks around terrified and thinks, ‘Well there are all the million different ways that I can die.””

— Jennifer Lawrence on The Hunger Games (via maytheodds)

Honestly? The only valid love triangle in a YA novel is the one in the Hunger Games, solely for its deeper metaphorical meaning. Like in the movies, it got blown out of proportion as a "ooo who will Katniss kiss, identical hunk #1 or identical hunk #2," but in the books the meaning is written so much better. It's way clearer how they represent her future, like Gale can hunt and wants war and to fight, and Peeta can bake and he's strong and soft. To Katniss, it's so much clearer in the books how in choosing one, she's either choosing to scrap along and fight, or to heal and grow from the trauma she faced in her youth.

And look like this is a short summary, I'm just pissy about how much the symbolism was reduced in the movie until it was "ooo love triangle romance marriage kissing ooooooo"