ohwhatsinausername

[ohwhatsinausername]

i get why a lot of people don’t like reading mockingjay as much as the rest of the trilogy, but i think it’s actually so essential to understanding the central thesis of the entire hunger games series.

the whole point of the hunger games is this: all human life is valuable, and artificial divisions between people keep them weak. and the only way out is radical love.

and this is something that is literally echoed again and again in the books. take, for example, gale. why is gale such an interesting, complex, and yet reprehensible character? yes, it’s because at the end katniss cannot separate his bomb from prim’s death. but it’s deeper than that. why does gale build the bomb in the first place? it’s because gale doesn’t see every human life as valuable. gale is willing to kill people and to deny them their humanity simply because they are his “enemy.” so, there’s the obvious example of his willingness to blow up the nut with everyone inside and his disregard for the human casualty. and the people in the nut aren’t even from the captiol, he just wants to do it because the stereotype of that district is their allegiance to the capitol, and gale hates that.

but there’s another scene, also in mockingjay, that i think goes under-discussed which is his view of katniss’ prep team. when katniss finds her prep team literally imprisoned in 13, she’s horrified and upset by the conditions they are in. but gale isn’t. and he’s confused about why katniss would care for them! her response is to say that it’s because they cried when she went to the quarter quell. and gale is like, “sure, but they’re still from the captiol.” and this argument is so important. because katniss argues that the prep team deserves to be treated as human beings, and when he presses her on why, she basically says because they treated her as a human being. but gale can’t see that–all he can see is that they’re from the capitol, and he’s confused about why katniss should care.

and this is, so crucially, what katniss learns in the hunger games. she realizes that she doesn’t want to kill the other tributes just because they are from the other districts. she hates the fact that they have turned her against people who are, in their core, just like her. frightened children who have been manipulated to kill other children against their will, all selected based on their district, a social divide that has literally been invented and imposed on them.

and another just absolutely essential thing to understand here is that peeta knows this all along. we talk at length about how peeta’s defining trait is his kindness. but what’s so important about peeta’s kindness is how it transcends any boundaries of social class or social division.

when peeta gives katniss the bread, it’s important to note that just before he does that, we hear his mother talking about “seam brats pawing through her trash.” peeta’s mother buys into the social divides in district twelve–she views herself as better than someone from the seam simply because of her standing as a merchant, and reinforces these class divides by refusing to extend the simplest humanity to a child from the seam. she literally refuses to feed a starving child on the grounds of a social divide, within a world that already has divided them into districts. but peeta doesn’t see it like this. peeta refuses to deny katniss food just because she’s from the seam. peeta gives her kindness. peeta gives her humanity.

and he does the same thing in the games! his entire first interview, the dramatic king focuses, not on the games, but on his genuine love and adoration for another tribute. how radical! to refuse to subscribe to a system which asks him to hate her? to want to kill her? and to instead confess his love for her? sure, katniss ends up being the mockingjay. katniss might have held out the berries. but peeta in that moment is the one who sets the rebellion in motion. peeta is the one who refuses to engage in the senseless hatred of someone who “should” be his enemy. instead, he reaches out in love.

and it all culminates at the end of mockingjay, when katniss votes for the capitol hunger games to gain coin’s trust. and peeta is utterly horrified by this. because he can’t understand how she could have been through everything he has been through and not understand that continuing to senselessly kill human beings (children!!) for some kind of revenge just reinforces these binary modes of thinking. but the thing is–katniss DOES see that. and when coin proposes it, that’s when she knows she has to stop her. because coin, like gale, like peeta’s mother, and like so others many around her, is still buying into these divides. is still viewing the captiol as the enemy. is still viewing a human life as expendable. 

and there’s a quote in mockingjay that i think lays this out pretty explicitly. katniss says, after she kills coin and is recovering, point blank: “they can design dream weapons that come to life in my hands, but they will never again brainwash me into the necessity of using them.” she’s realized the crux of the entire hunger games–that manipulating us to hate and kill our fellow humans, that drawing up divisions between people because of where they live and what they produce, that believing that hating someone on the basis of any of these is justification for their death, is all a farce. it’s all a distraction. it’s all pretend. she says, in the same chapter: “no one benefits in a world where these things happen.” not the districts. not the capitol. not the victors. no one.

the entire arc of the hunger games is really just about katniss catching up to what peeta has known from the start. katniss overcoming all the manipulation from those around her, all the glitz and glamour, all the artificial social and class divides to see what peeta has seen clearly from the start: love.

[ohwhatsinausername]

feelin bad for all the girls posting about midnight sun like ‘omg middle school me is screaming 😂’ ...........girl who cares what that boy thinks let 20 something you scream it’s okay

[ohwhatsinausername]

being an adult means preorder the hardback and kindle version of midnight sun with no one stopping you 😌

#the twilight saga #twilight #midnight sun #bella swan #edward cullen #jacob black

[ohwhatsinausername]

the twilight renaissance is about to reach a new peak on August 4 and honestly it’s! about! damn! time! 😪

#the twilight saga #twilight #bella cullen #edward cullen #jacob black #stephenie meyer #midnight sun

[ohwhatsinausername]

i fully understand that i wouldnt be in Disneyland even w/o the coronavirus crisis but i feel like something is being taken away from me

[ohwhatsinausername]

hello in case you were thinking edward was a young hot vampire-man i just wanted to let you know he’s older than walt disney who died in 1966

enjoy!

#yikes #that’s old #walt was literally only 63 in this photo too #walt disney #edward cullen #twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #midnight sun #the twilight saga

[ohwhatsinausername]

which muppet listens to nickelback?

Gonzo said Nickelback rights!

[ohwhatsinausername]

so after reading what stephanie meyer wrote of midnight sun and seeing that she let rob pat read it before the movie i have a better understanding of why he was so incredibly weird that whole time

#the twilight saga #twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #edward cullen #bella swan #stephanie meyers #midnight sun

[ohwhatsinausername]

so if vampires don’t have a beating heart or blood flow

like

how’s edward got a boner all the time 🤔

#twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #edward cullen #bella swan

[ohwhatsinausername]

realistically so many of the boomers who are still alive are so incredibly awful because reagan ignored the AIDS crisis and it decimated the lgbtq+ community

imagine how different the would would be if reagan had actually reacted instead of letting tens of thousands die because he was a homophobe

#lgbtq #lgbt #reagan #trump #aids #hiv #hiv/aids #princess diana #freddie mercury #1980s #boomers

[ohwhatsinausername]

tbh the only usa i want to live in is one run by billie joe armstrong

#green day #punk #rock #billie joe armstrong #billie joe green day #emo #2005 #usa #united states #fob #mcr #punk revolution #tre cool #mike dirnt #american idiot #minority #boulevard of broken dreams #holiday

[ohwhatsinausername]

alright folks,

it’s 2020

it’s time to remake the twilight movies and do it RIGHT this time.

taylor lautner’s 5’9” was NOT jacob black’s 6’7” and i have officially had enough.

also those cgi wolves and baby could really be improved.......

#the twilight saga #twilight #jacob black #bella cullen #bella swan #edward cullen #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #2005 #stephanie meyer

[ohwhatsinausername]

i can’t decide what i want to do with my life because when i was younger i thought i’d grow up to be a vampire and that’s on twilight 😔

#twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #the twilight saga #edward #bella #jacob #kristen stewart

[ohwhatsinausername]

i can always count on twilight to make me happy for 4 days while i reread the saga but the post-twilight depression is worse every time 😔

#twilight #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #edward #bella #jacob #renesmee cullen #edward cullen #bella cullen #bella swan #jacob black #vampire #2005 #2006 #2007 #2008 #werewolf

[ohwhatsinausername]

i fully understand that it’s 2020, but where’s my edward cullen?? no offense to bella, but i would’ve loved him better

#twilight #edward #edward cullen #bella #bella swan #bella cullen #new moon #eclipse #breaking dawn #jacob #jacob black

[ohwhatsinausername]

forever wishing I could’ve been an emo teenager in 2005 instead of a 6 year old 😔

#twilight #panic! at the disco #p!atd #fob #fall out boy #mcr #my chemcial romance #paramore #hayley williams #2005 #emo #edward cullen #bella swan

[ohwhatsinausername]

spotify needs to add a counter that tells you how many times you’ve listened to the one song you’ve got on loop

call me out for listening to believe from the polar express 37 times without stopping

i dare you

#believe #the polar express #santa #christmas #tom hanks #memes #spotify #2000s #2000s music #2000s movies #merry christmas #christmas tree #music