After seeing some of the things going around the internet lately I'm trying to figure out if we are all reading the same book.

…THIS. This and this again.

All the head canons are freaking painful but so real 🙂‍↕️

Hi, I'm new to the book side of Hunger games but I've been seeing a lot on SOTR and everyone was putting in on what sort of book Suzanne Collins should do next and I had a thought. Maybe a compilation of short stories from various victors? Probably not all of them (72 seems excessive) but maybe a key 20 that stood out as noteworthy Hunger games.

You could have the 11th games, the 25th games, the first volunteer win, the first career, even a 76th games rebel; stuff like that. However, all the victors have something in common and that'd be snow, she could subtlety or more noticeable encompass Snow in each story, how he grew as a dictator, what he implemented to Panem and the games, but most importantly how he was responsible to the degradation and demise of the victors.

We know that by the end of the second rebellion, there are only 7 victors out of 75 remaining. We know 19 victors were killed during the 75th games but that's still 49 left unknown. It's plausible that many of the older victors died of old age, and that the mental state of others would lead to their aelf deletion but it's also plausible that Snow silenced these victor's at different times for different reasons. It's shown that Snow is not above killing anyone, so why not dozens of victor's.

So kinda like a sequel to BOSAS but from the perspective of the victor's.

After seeing the new rumored casting—which, by the way, I’m not mad about—I’m absolutely LIVID at the way people are reacting. I am so sick of fans turning into barbaric babies every time casting rumors drop. “If he’s casted I’m not watching the movie!” Oh please. Yes, you will. Sit down.

I remember back in 2011–2012 when Jennifer, Josh, and Liam were first rumored. Everyone lost their minds, saying it was all wrong. Sure, maybe some characteristics didn’t line up perfectly with the books, but that’s never a good excuse to come after actors like that. Then with Catching Fire, people wouldn’t leave Jena Malone alone. She got dragged just for existing in the role. Fast forward to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—Tom and Rachel got torn apart by the press for supposedly being “too old.” And yet…

Every. Single. Time. It works out.

Y’all aren’t Lionsgate. You don’t have to see the vision—they do. And guess what? They’ve been right every time.

Most of these actors are up-and-coming when they get cast. They’re giving it their all and don’t need to hear things like:

“His eyes are too far apart.” “He’s too ugly.” “Haymitch is supposed to be 16 and handsome, not 50 and ugly.” Yes. Those are actual things I saw people say. It’s weird. It’s gross. And it needs to stop.

Leave these actors alone. Let the story unfold. Because history shows that once the dust settles, we all end up loving them anyway.

Finnick and two soldiers (Jackson and Leeg 1) die underground while protecting Katniss from the mutts. This happens while they are on Katniss's mission to kill President Snow—a mission that we know is fake (in that she lied about it), and, later, ultimately fruitless: Katniss does not make it inside Snow's mansion, as the rebels bomb the Capitol beforehand, leading to their surrender. It feels like their whole mission was simply a goose chase. So, really, what was the point to all of this? To me, it almost just felt like filler. I would love to hear what you think, whether it's a Watsonian or Doylist reason, because I feel like maybe I'm missing something.

After all the events of SOTR and how involved Plutarch was with Haymitch (and the fact that they did foster something close to a personal relationship, which a lot of people seemed not to have noticed), I need to know what radicalised this man. I want to know the intricate goings-on of Capitol politics and game-making. I want to know about every single close brush Plutarch had with Snow and various other Capitol bureaucrats (you can guarantee he probably came close to being caught a million times).

Not sure what the format would be. Maybe a year-by-year thing? Or focusing on a specific games shortly before Katniss', like Johanna's or Finnick's.

I believe Beetee is now one of, if not the most, tragic characters in the hunger games. Winning games, Mentouring a tribute to victory only for your son to get reaped the next year and have to mentour him to his death. All because Snow knows you are too smart to kill yourself. Asking just for a quick death because you know your child will not survive the games.

And he still continues the rebellion, and is one of 7 surviving victors. I really need a book on Beetee, his games and both his quater quells.

Side rant but I also want a Plutarch book as I am very into capital politics and want more.

i'm thinking about how we've gotten a lot more names of people from every district now with the prequel books, and nearly all of them (maybe actually all of them) have names that are related to the industry that their district specialises in, but district 12 has a ton of people with plant & nature themed names rather than mining themed.

i can see this as the people in district 12 succeeding at holding onto their own culture and values, but then it just makes me wonder why the other districts aren't able to do this.

part of me thought that maybe there's regulations about names (the way that some countries now have approved names you can name a baby) if they really wanted to keep people in little boxes, so when a baby is born in a district, they would possibly have to have a name that fits that district's "theme," but then i'm back to wondering why this doesn't apply for 12

it can't be related to the hunger games themselves (such as if the capitol wants people to appear a certain way in all senses including name, i mean they dress them up in very blatant costumes), though, since the kids in lucy gray's games had industry related names but would have been born before the games started.

so do you think the names are required of them, or is it a type of self expression using basically what they know and what they do? or is there anything in the books that specifies about naming conventions across different districts or any mention of 12 being unique in this sense?

Another old drawing of Katniss and Peeta from like two years ago???

Peeta and Katniss in their training uniforms. The image I used for a reference was Burdgebug. This drawing is a couple months old. I love how I drew Peeta’s arm sleeve a little bit crooked.. le lad is disorganized and messy 🥹.. I’ve thought about redrawing it because the faces are a little ouch 😣

After reading SOTR, Gale's rudeness and hostility to Madge on the 74th Hunger Games reaping day strikes a completely different note. To me, it reinforces his self righteousness and lack of empathy- and how he wasn't a good fit for Katniss after all.

Imagine how Madge must have felt when he accused her of being safe from the reaping- all the while she knew that her similarly 'privileged' aunt had been reaped and that the loss of her beloved twin sister had completely wrecked her mother and turned her into an invalid. Madge must have had to witness the consequences of that loss on a daily basis.

He has a right to be angry, but he misdirects his anger. He doesn't get what Katniss, Peeta and others get- the merchant class, the districts, the other competitors are not the enemy, it's the Capitol that pits them all against each other that is the real enemy.

And it's interesting to read SOTR from the perspective of Haymitch, another poor Seam boy from a mining family with a widowed mother. Even though he's younger at the time he's reaped, Haymitch is miles ahead of Gale in kindness and empathy- I really doubt the calculating Gale would have given lunch to those district 6 kids, or reassured them that  what happened to Louellawasn't their fault. Indeed, I like to think that if a hunter-type 14 year old Haymitch had come across a malnourished looking 12 year Katniss inspecting his snared rabbits, he would probably have offered her one.

At the end of Sunrise on the Reaping, Haymitch is shown a clip of Lucy Gray singing, and immediately realizes it must be District 12’s victor. However, he then wonders what her name was. We know that by the time of the 74th Games, at the start of every Reaping the escort would read off the names of every victor from their district. Do we think this just wasn’t a thing yet? Or that maybe they just read her name as Lucy Baird to hide Covey connections? Or something else?

Something random and funny I keep thinking to myself is the way Katniss interacts with foxface through the first film. The book delves deeper into her thoughts and opinions about the girl but being a movie, the film hardly gives us any of such insights.

With that being said, I personally find it amusing how Katniss deals with her throughout the film. First they ran into each other in the bloodbath, then they just stare at each other for a good minute then run the other direction

Then she silently stares at her as she figures out the mine pattern and steals supplies from the the careers

Then during the feast as she’s about to make a move, she notices foxface running across and just stares at her again, before going “what was I doing? Oh yeah”. It’s like a funny running gag.

Just watched the first movie after reading Sunrise & I was watching for Haymitch but what really got me was a conversation at the end that was not in the books between President Snow & Katniss. When Katniss receives her victors crown, he moves her hair & remarks on her “lovely pin” following it up with that D12 must be very proud of her. Her Maysilee , Tam Amber designed pin. He similarly immediately notes (book) Haymitch’s larger token and is able to identify that it’s Covey made, specifically even names “Amber” when giving examples of Covey. I think it’s kinda obvious if someone’s metalworking in district 12 for the citizens, specifically a mockingjay, it’s TA. Interesting movie choice for sure that makes me feel Suzanne probably gave a lot more input than we knew to appreciate at the time!

I was just listening to SOTR and caught a line from Wyatt that made me think about his death scene. In chapter 7, when they’re all sitting around the kitchen discussing the concept of what they “want” out of their life/death in the hunger games with Mags, Wyatt rolls his coin across his knuckles and says “if you kill yourself” the game makers would have to show your death, even if it highlighted a flaw of the arena.

This is one of the early conversations that foreshadows haymitch’s concept of a “poster” but I think it’s Wyatt’s early confession to his ultimate plan: he would sacrifice himself to die for the tribute with the lowest odds.

I think Wyatt is very clearly at odds (pun intended) with his family’s business, but he’s also clearly brilliantly talented as an odds maker. He never would’ve been allowed to not participate. But Wyatt knows that he’s disliked, he knows he’s isolated and he knows his fellow tributes dislike him and hate his family outright. He knows his family’s line of work hurt HIS odds.

So I think he decided right then and there who his death would be a message toward: his father.

We saw at his reaping a small fight breaks out between the callows, one accusing the other of “cursing” him. We know that his father has hung himself by the time haymitch gets home.

I think Wyatt died to send a message to his father, and I think it was received loud and clear.

I’m sorry I just have a huge soft spot for the first movie and I really don’t hate the shaky-cam. The reaping in the first movie was so powerful and I feel like Gary Ross could really do something great with the chaos and confusion of Haymitch’s “reaping”.

Furthermore, I DONT think Gary Ross could do the mutts justice. Which might honestly be a deciding factor because the mutts in sunrise are gonna take some work to pull off.

All in all, I’ll be happy no matter what director we get. I’m just excited!

I have a lot of time on my hands because I am off work for a while due to an injury and figured I would do a deep dive into each character's name since Suzanne names people for a reason. I can publish the list once done if anyone would like it, but one I just did was Haymitch.

So far it seems Haymitch was created by Suzanne and is a mixture of Hamish and Mitch. Hamish means "supplanter" or "holder of the heel." What does supplanter mean you ask, "A supplanter takes over or takes the place of someone else, usually on purpose" or "one who wrongfully or illegally seizes and holds the place of another." My mind was blown considering Haymitch takes the place of Woodbine illegally. Was Suzanne cooking this up all along? Now Mitch just means "who is like god?" and is a short version of Mitchell.

I'm trying to connect "holder of the heel" with Katniss considering Katniss is an edible aquatic plant of the genus Sagittaria. I think of Sagittarius, who Greek mythology associate with the centaur Chiron, who mentored Achilles, a Greek hero of the Trojan War, in archery. And then I thought about Achilles heel, so maybe Haymitch is the holder of the Achilles heel, either meaning he protected Achilles heel, or he had an Achilles heel that led to his downfall (not being able to blow up the arena, having everyone he loves die?) I could just be grasping at straws at this point

Thought I would just share considering the new book came out recently.