Happy season 2 finale day Lumon employees!

Immediately post-run

When the character trope is "children groomed by militaristic/bloodthirsty authority figure to be perfect child soldiers and living weapons to fulfill their selfish need for power/revenge" >>>>>>>>

Also the Careers from The Hunger Games (kids brainwashed to be living weapons to fulfill a hollow need for glory)

Long shots

Some very quick doodles of their designs! I might change a few things tho

one of the most striking parts of sotr is the contrast between the capitol’s animalistic language vs haymitch’s association of nature with his loved ones.

on one hand, you have the dehumanizing language of the capitol towards the tributes—“piglets”, “claws”, “fur”, “paws.” on the other, sid is haymitch’s “rooster”, the district six kids are his “doves”, the gray rabbit is a reminder of his girl. even when wellie dies, haymitch goes from describing her gory death in human terms to that of a “headless baby chick.”

it’s just so fascinating to think of the natural world as a form of resistance, from the bird imagery to the districts’ plant names. the capitol does everything in its power to weaponize the natural world in the arena, to make the districts feel like animals, to create the illusion that they can control nature itself. but they all share the same planet, capitol or district. it’s a reminder of the shared humanity that the capitol tries to erase. so for the districts, to embrace nature is an act of rebellion in itself.

i haven’t seen people really talk about it, so idk if i’m the only one who was affected by it so deeply…but when haymitch and wellie are in the tree together, huddled around their little potato light, and silka comes to the base of their tree (not to hunt or kill, but just to be near someone again)—

i actually don’t think i’ve cried so hard at a book in a long time. maybe in another couple days i’ll be able to put my finger on exactly why it was so impactful, but for now, i just find the image heartbreaking for what it is: three kids terrified of the world, terrified of each other, and terrified of being alone, most of all.

SPOILERS FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING + POTENTIALLY DISTURBING CONTENT

this is soooo rushed but i like her a lot. sketch

Silka had a secret girlfriend at home that she wanted to return to and I accept nothing else.

Ok but consider: Her and Maritte had an arena situationship

I've literally seen mfs say that they hate Gale more than Snow because he's "whiny and annoying!" Yes, the literal teenager from a horrific and impoverished society is worse for being "whiny and annoying" (which most 16-year-olds are) than the wealthy grown adult with ultimate power is for inflicting that horror and poverty. 🙄

And of course, people cry: "He murdered Prim!" No the fuck he didn't! That was never his intention with those, and you all fucking know that. And what about the others who made those bombs? Beetee? I don't see any hate for them. 🤨

But for Gale, they froth at the damn mouth. "EVIL MONSTER, OMG I HATE HIM!!! #GALEHATE! ✌😘"

Thank God I've never had THG brainrot so I've been able to mostly ignore this Hellfandom over the years. 😒

For being readers, Gale Hawthorne haters sure have piss-poor comprehension skills. 🤔 🤷🏽‍♀️

I’ve seen a lot of people villanizing Gale for this line, some even going as far as to say they started hating him because of it. However, I think most people need to remember A) the context of this line and B) A conversation between Gale and Katniss in Mockingjay.

Katniss, Gale’s best friend, is going into a life and death arena that kills 23 innocent teenagers each year. Gale absolutely hates this, for hopefully obvious reasons, and is by no means encouraging the games. What he was doing with this line was giving Katniss advice to come out of the games alive. Gale knows she’s an excellent hunter, a very important skill for the games. By making her believe she’s hunting, she is in a better mindset to survive the games. He hopes his best friend can somehow beat the unlucky odds, and stays strong giving her advice. He’s not going to say “Oh this is gonna be awful! You’re going to have to kill people but you have to in order to survive. But best of luck no pressure!” No. He was just trying to give his best friend advice to win. If my best friend or someone very important to me was going into the games, I would’ve said the exact same thing that Gale did. Is it a good situation? Not in the slightest! But, if someone that important to me was reaped, I wouldn’t be talking about ethics, but rather, how they could make it out alive.

And, in this conversation in Mockingjay, we see that Gale didn’t believe in what he said.

“So, it’d be easy for you? Using that on people?” I ask.

“I didn’t say that.” Gale drops the bow to his side. “But if I’d had a weapon that could’ve stopped what I saw happen in Twelve…if I’d had a weapon that could have kept you out of the arena…I’d have used it.”

“Me too,” I admit.

So no, he doesn’t want to have to kill people. It wouldn’t be easy for him. But, if he had to stop the games, or to stop the bombing in district 12, he would. And Katniss, who knows what it’s like to kill people, agrees with him. She responds with ‘Me too’!

Can we please talk about the fact that Gale ALWAYS had Katniss’s back?? It’s always one of the biggest reasons why I will always love their relationship . It didn’t matter if they were mad at each other/disagreed, if Katniss needed someone for support/help/advice, etc, he was there for her as soon as he could be. And also, they always listened to each other, they just didn’t always necessarily agree. And that’s actually shows a really strong friendship, as they didn’t just tell the other what they want to hear!

Everyone: Gale is bitchless and entitled to Katniss and possessive of Katniss and is full of seething jealous bitter hate for Peeta and is actually President Snow in disguise and he strangled Prim to death with his bare hands in front of Katniss and then bombed her body and ate it- Gale in actual canon: loves Katniss quietly for years, helps her family without expectation, only actually says “I love you” when he’s overjoyed at the thought of her running off with him, works with Peeta without issue to help him and Katniss prepare for the Quell, tells Katniss he’ll never be to her what Peeta is, backs off of Katniss when is she not into kissing him, gives her his food, volunteers first to rescue Peeta for Katniss, cannot bring himself to kill Katniss????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????  

No one ever mentions how Gale saw it as a competition. Gale was competing with Peeta. Peeta was learning to live with Gale. Cause he can’t live with Katniss without Gale. And to Gale. Up until the the quarter quell he had the upper hand. Everything they had was fake. Katniss didn’t want it. Peeta won’t better her life like he would. He knows her better. On a different level then Peeta. The things they bond with Peeta can’t. Their dads dying, Seam life, making ends meet, the struggle of raising children from a young age, not having choices. That’s something that Peeta doesn’t get. But what he don’t get is Katniss isn’t catnip no more. She has different problems. Different struggles he don’t get. That Peeta does. The nightmares, the horrors, the death of rue. Peeta wasn’t there but he gets it. The struggle to keep yourself moving. A whole other type of survival. And Peeta didn’t think about that stuff. He didn’t compare that stuff when Gale got whipped. When Gale got whipped he stood up cause that was Katniss’s best friend. Shit it could’ve been her lover. But he still did it. Because he never second guess when he was with her. When it came to her. He never put himself first. And that almost led to their destruction.

Gale never saw Peeta as a “competition,” he saw Peeta as an interloper, which Peeta truthfully rather was. But if Gale truly saw Peeta as a “competition,”he would have never helped Peeta of his own volition, whether that was working with Peeta to train for the Quarter Quell, volunteering on a near suicide-mission to rescue Peeta, admitting to Katniss that he knew and understood that Peeta had something with her that he didn’t, and managing to work with Peeta in the Capitol.

It’s the other way around. From the start Peeta felt threatened by Gale and saw Gale as competition, see how Peeta thought that Gale was Katniss’ boyfriend in the first Games and how he fixated on Gale kissingg Katniss. While it was Gale that was learning to live with Peeta, throughout the series we see him begrudgingly accept Peeta was a part of Katniss, and then finally lose Katniss to Peeta.