pxwils

[pxwils]

When I was writing the Fortnight music video, I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music.  Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another. For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it. Post Malone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for everything he put into this collaboration. I’m still laughing from getting to work with the coolest guys on earth, Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles (tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets). I still can’t believe I get to work with the unfathomably brilliant Rodrigo Prieto on cinematography and my team of dream collaborators: Ethan Tobman (production design), Chancler Haynes (editor), Anthony Dimino (1st AD), Jil Hardin (producer) and Dom Thomas (executive producer). Parliament aced the VFX as always. Joseph Cassell, Lorrie Turk and Jemma Muradian made these tortured looks come to life. The entire crew made this a dream to shoot. Thank you to everyone involved and everyone who has watched it!! https://taylor.lnk.to/FortnightMV

[pxwils]

thg/tbosas + text posts

[pxwils]

So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?" I tell him, "Real."

THE HUNGER GAMES APPRECIATION WEEK Day 2: quotes/lyrics

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[pxwils]

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE — 2013, dir. Francis Lawrence CATCHING FIRE — Chapter XXIV

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“Without the threat of death, it wouldn’t have been much of a lesson,” said Dr. Gaul. “What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed. The tributes. And you, too. How quickly civilization disappears. All your fine manners, education, family background, everything you pride yourself on, stripped away in the blink of an eye, revealing everything you actually are. A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state.”  [...] “You can blame it on the circumstances, the environment, but you made the choices you made, no one else. It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it’s essential that you make an effort to answer that question. Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need."

— The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020)

Then I remember Peeta’s words on the roof. “Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to... to show the Capital they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.” And for the first time, I understand what he means.  I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can’t own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I.

— The Hunger Games (2008)

[pxwils]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) + letterboxd reviews

[pxwils]

The ending of the Hunger Games movie with Snow reluctantly crowing Katniss a winner and brushing aside her hair only to see a mockingjay pin is so fucking funny after reading tbosas and knowing exactly who and what is haunting him at this moment and Katniss explains “it’s from my District” yeah lmao he knows babe he’s been

They were the first things he could never control and they’ve absolutely haunted him to think about ever since

[pxwils]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) + text posts

[pxwils]

Katniss is like Lucy Gray this, Katniss is like Sejanus that, and yes find that's all good and true and lovely but Katniss Everdeen is also a direct parallel to Coriolanus Snow and people NEED to start talking about this because it's driving me crazy.

Think about it: they both grew up poor and deeply vulnerable, losing parents at a very young age, with a matriarchal adult (Katniss' mother and Coriolanus' Grandma'am) who fails to provide for them emotionally and physically. They intimately understand the threat of starvation, even developing with stunted growth because of it, and their narrations in the books share a fixation on food. Throughout their childhoods, both experienced constant fear and suffered a fundamental lack of control over their circumstances. Because of this, they're inherently suspicious of the people around them. They resent feeling indebted to others, especially those who have saved their lives. They're motivated almost entirely by family and deeply connected to their communities. Both are used and manipulated by the Capitol, both are forced to perform to survive and despise every inch of it, both are thrown into the Arena and made to kill. Both have a self-sacrificial, genuinely sweet sister figure acting as their conscience. Peeta and Lucy Gray - performers and love interests with a fundamental kindness and sense of hope about them - fulfill markedly similar roles in their narrative. Both contribute to the development of the future Hunger Games, Snow throughout tbosas and Katniss towards the end of Mockingjay.

It's easy to ignore these similarities because, as mirrors of each other, they are exact opposites. Katniss is from District 12, viewed and treated as less than human; Snow is the cream of the Capitol crop, given the privilege of a name with social weight, an ancestral home, and the opportunity of the Academy despite having no more money than a miner from 12. Katniss has no agency over her life, and responds by being kind whenever she's able, while Snow justifies horrendous evils in order to continue his quest for complete control. Katniss does everything she can to protect her family; Snow does everything he can to protect his family's image as an extension of his own ego. Katniss loves her District and connects with its inhabitants on a meaningful level, but Snow is indifferent at best to his peers - the apparent "superior people" - and only engages with his community for personal gain. Katniss emerges from the Arena horrified at herself and the system, but Snow takes his trauma and turns it into an excuse to perpetuate the violence with himself at the top. Katniss cares for Prim until her death and then snaps at the loss of her little sister, while Snow survives on Tigris' blood, sweat, and tears and then torments and abandons her, presumably because she calls him out on his insanity. Snow actively adds to and popularizes the Hunger Games because of his vendetta against the Districts following his childhood wartime trauma - Katniss briefly agrees to a new Hunger Games in the pursuit of vengeance, but later stops them from happening by killing Coin and choosing a life of peace and privacy. Snow is obsessed with revenge, but Katniss empathizes with the Capitolites and does what she can to keep them from suffering. He exists in a cruel system and selfishly upholds it; she exists in a cruel system and works to dismantle it for the good of her family and community, at great personal cost. And Peeta and Lucy Gray are incredibly similar, but Katniss and Peeta forge a relationship of genuine love and understanding that shines in comparison to Coriolanus' obsessive projection onto Lucy Gray.

So, yeah, Katniss is Lucy Gray haunting Coriolanus. But I bet you anything that eighty-something year old President Snow looks at her, the girl on fire, bright and young and brilliant, emerging from a childhood of starvation with a relentless hunger for success, a talented and charming performer helping her win the Games, and he sees the ghost of his own past. And that's why he's so afraid of her! Because if he sees himself in her, then he's up against his own cunning, his own talent for manipulation, his own charisma, his own genius. He's up against the version of himself that he once wished to be, with the nightmare army of his childhood at her back and her star-crossed lover at her side, spewing Sejanus' truths in his own voice. This isn't to say that Katniss ever achieved the level of power and agency that Coriolanus did during her time with the rebellion, but it is to say that Snow was taken down by what truly terrified him - his own morality, come to finish the job.

[pxwils]

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) + tweets

[pxwils]

If we won the lottery, we wouldn’t tell anyone. But there would be signs.

[pxwils]

It’s been 3 years since this princess started the journey of reclaiming her life’s work with Love Story (Taylor's Version). 💛 Since then, 105 songs have joined her outside of the vault.

Taylor, WE LOVE YOU AND THAT’S ALL WE REALLY KNOW!

[pxwils]

The lucky ones celebrate the 13th of every month! What’s your Lucky Track 13 from our playlist?

(Won’t be long until we can add “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” ❤️‍🩹)

[pxwils]

The new album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, arrives April 19. Pre-order now. All’s fair in love and poetry… 🤍

[pxwils]

i’d say yes because I’m down bad 🤍🤍🤍

If we asked if you pre-ordered your copies of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT… would you be guilty as sin? 👀

#taylor swift #the tortured poets department #ts ttpd #taylor alison swift #taylor nation #taylurking

[pxwils]

The new album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, arrives April 19. Pre-order now. All’s fair in love and poetry… 🤍