acknowledging that mrs. everdeen fell into a catatonic depression after her husband died that complete incapacitated her can coexist with complete condemnation of her leaving her children to fend for themselves. i’m really freaking sickof the “she could have done something/ she could have tried harder” argument because that’s not how it works. at least not entirely. you are completely responsible for her actions, mental illness or not, but it is still an illness. the woman was sick. would you say the same thing of katniss when peeta is captured by the capitol? when she straight up tries to kill herself by self starvation? when she’s living in that house and doing nothing for months? no, you don’t. 

katniss and her mother are mirrors of each other. when they both  lose the one they love they  completely fall apart. but mrs. everdeen’s  choice of taking her medications and forcing herself to keep going (even though it takes a while) is completely ignored while katniss’ choice to keep going is celebrated. 

an illness is an illness and both katniss and her mother have undergone severe trauma. it isn’t suddenly easier just because mrs. everdeen is an adult. trauma, ptsd, depression doesn’t discriminate. i completely understand katniss’ anger, and i have a post hereabout attachment theory in regards to her and her mother. it’s not fair that she had to provide for her family. but they live in a world where nothing is fair, where their lives are not fair, where they cannot get help for both sickness and starvation. 

the point is that both of them are incapacitated, both of them suffer, and yet both of them make the choice to live. katniss doesn’t see that from her mother because she herself hasn’t experienced it yet. mental illness isn’t just feeling bad, it completely takes over your mind, your body, your life. you see nothing else. and for both of them to pull themselves out of that darkness, that’s full of so much bravery and hope. one of their choices isn’t better than the other. have y’all considered that mrs. everdeen’s taking of medication is her doing something? is her “trying harder?” just like katniss’ choice to live, as much as she doesn’t want to. that is her “doing something” and her “trying harder”. 

both of them suffer. both of them become sick. both of them survive. that’s the whole point. 

i’m thinking about the hunger games, and i see that everything that happens, it’s really isn’t an either or. as a reader, you can completely hold the belief that revolution (violent, bloody, intense) is necessary and the consequences that come with it are a fact of said revolution while also understanding the importance of advocating and fighting for peace and love. the only way that we can get such an epilogue for katniss and peeta is because of the revolution happening, because of these terrible things giving them even more conviction to love and hold onto each other. they will not lose the other person. peace and violence, they don’t just cancel out the other. it’s multifaceted. 

if i were to have tea with anyone in the hunger games, it honestly would be snow. i think he’s a slightly stronger villain than coin because you aren’t quite certain what he actually believes. does he have convictions? sometimes i get the vibe that snow doesn’t even care about the games in the slightest. to him, they seem to be just something that happens. he’s not a zealot, and that’s such an interesting thing. what does he care about? really, truly care about? he could have had katniss immediately killed, but he didn’t. i think he doesn’t care about things so much as certain things intrigue him. katniss is one of those things. 

katniss everdeen is a literal minor who has been living in starvation her entire life and only her defense mechanism, her only feeling of actually autonomy is to close off and hide her emotions because she’s never had control of anything else. that’s not being a cold bitch. that’s literally a trauma response.

katniss and “where peeta’s children can be safe” is so wonderful because she stayed with him through the games, through the quell, through his hijacking and the psychological suffering that followed, stayed with him for twenty years into the epilogue. she loves and loved him that much for not only his children being safe became a reality, but also her children being safe. she lets herself have this wish. she lets herself accept what she wants. she finally feels safe enough in the world to carry children inside of her, to birth them, to watch them grow. her greatest desire is fulfilled and is expanded. finally, a world where their children can be safe. always.

what needs to be understood is that the toastbabies aren’t a bandaid. they aren’t bandaid babies that put a healing swab or gauze over their parents’ wounds and trauma. they are a continuation of the hope that their parents already have.

real or not real has some pretty strong implications from a mental illness standpoint. there is not doubt that katniss and peeta suffered and will have to manage mental illness for the rest of their lives (depression, anxiety, even complex-ptsd).

when you are in that space, when it feels like the world has dropped dead, you know nothing else. for them to have the other person look beyond that. to try and focus to open their mouth and ask.

it makes their love that much stronger and their illnesses easier to cope with and develop coping mechanisms. they will never be “normal” people. they will always have to take care of themselves and each other, but to face that, it’s probably their greatest victory.

also it says a lot that katniss had not one, but two children. she’s healed, or is healing, from anxious-ambivalent attachment between her and her mother, and now creates children of her own in which that cycle will never happen. she finally feels safe enough with herself to face the biggest fear she had. and she proved it, giving life two times over.

part of the reason why i resonate so deeply to katniss figuring out her relationship with her mother is that she’s still a kid.

our parents are our firsts. first understanding of the world. first look of people. our first reference point. katniss mirrors her mother in a lot of ways, and she runs from that mirroring throughout the course of the story, often anchoring herself to her father because 1. love and 2. the mind makes a perfect image out of anything.

she wants stability, she deservesit, and she didn’t get that as a child with her mother. it personally just baffles me at times how the possibilities of their narrative (mainly from what i’ve seen in fandom at least) just stops at mrs. everdeen (frankly) screwing up in her choices and actions as a mother and “that’s it no more chances!”

katniss needs peeta. she needsfamily. to make her own. but not at the expense of letting the only one she, biologically speaking, has just fade into nothing. i don’t think that’s in her character at all. not for the long haul. 

added thought: the way that we are never given mrs. everdeen’s first name. she’s either motherormrs. everdeen. often times that’s used as a way of stripping characters of their identity and agency. (daphne du maurier does this in her book rebecca, we never know the narrator’s first name nor does anyone address her by it).

in katniss’ mind (given she is the narrator) the box she has put her mother into is that of, frankly, being a bit of a burden. she flat out says she doesn’t care that her mother didn’t have medicine before when she got sick. granted this is a part of her anger and hurt, but it’s still interesting. it’s a way of distancing herself, a form of conditional proximity. 

thinking about the effects of psychological torture in katniss and peeta’s dynamic because they were each other’s only true allies in not only one, but two of the games. they were constantlythere for each other through such horrible circumstances, and the fact that katniss was more than likely the image peeta held onto in the early stages of torture and how katniss is then twisted and turned into something of danger and fear-

it reminds me in 1984 how room 101 is “the thing you fear the most”. well, that might just be it for peeta: katniss being taken from him. and she is. the girl that he loves and trusts more than anything is turned into a mutt, turned into something not even human, someone that is no longer his. she no longer belongs to him, because she is not who she says she is. she’s a shadow. an illusion. not real. 

dandeliononfire:

Curious for your THG meta: What actions by Katniss actually affected the course of Panem history?

One of the things I admire about The Hunger Games trilogy is that, unlike most YA novels in this genre, the ‘fate or mankind’ as it were, doesn’t actually orbit the protagonist’s ability to step in as savior. Eventually, the rebellion would have happened. (The 75th games and Victors strongly suspecting they’d be reaped was a good motivator, plus the rebellion was already brewing and 13 was preparing.) Eventually, the rebellion would have won. (Or at least arguably so.) And, following, Snow eventually would have died. Katniss played an important role as instigator, and motivator, no doubt. But, without her it still arguably “would have happened anyway.” The fate of Panem did not truly rest on her being the savior.

So… what moments did her actions actually, truly, affect the course of things? Not in the short term or in minor ways that ultimately could have not happened and yet still not prevented the rebellion and its outcome?

Curious for your thoughts.

I almost never comment on these things, but this question really caught my eye, so I hope you don’t mind! I started reading The Hunger Games when I was about 12, and Katniss was the first protagonist that I really ever resonated with. What initially made me like her so much, and what I think initially gets the people of Panem to pay attention to her, I think, is her volunteering for Prim. We know that, in 12, “the word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse,” and that they haven’t had a volunteer in decades. So, that begs the question to everyone watching, why volunteer? Sure, it’s her sister, but people’s sisters get reaped all the time. It is not known to the public of Panem at the time, but as we know all along, Katniss is the main breadwinner in her family. Why would a girl who is better fed than most of her district and genuinely skilled (even if her skills are illegal) volunteer for a death match she has no chance to win? 

It’s a sweet gesture, sure, but it’s also certain death. 

Unless it isn’t. Unless she actually, really, truly has a chance to come out on top. Katniss volunteering (though I believe she would’ve volunteered for Prim even if Katniss had no discernible skills) is in itself an act of rebellion. And that act dares to suggest that maybe she thinks she can win. Her odds are unbelievably slim, sure, but I think Katniss volunteering sparked something in the people. She’s a small, slight girl from the poorest district, but for some reason, there’s some part of her that believes she can take a stand, that she can make a difference, even if she only knows this subconsciously.

She’s an anomaly from the very start. Unpredictable. And unpredictability is probably the greatest asset Katniss has against the capitol, from a strategic point. Her ability to love and her determined spirit endear her to us, not to mention make her my favorite protagonist of all time, but her unpredictability is what undeniably makes her so hard to control. You can’t know what Katniss is gonna do because not even Katniss knows what Katniss is gonna do. She’s so impulsive and has no regard for the future, really, which must be infuriating to those is power, both on the side of the rebellion and the side of the capitol. She’s a nightmare for any sort of authority figure, but she’s golden in the eyes of the people. 

Which brings me to the first time that I really believe she has an impact on the course and timeline of the rebellion. The berries. When she pulls out those berries, it puts everything into motion. She’s been great so far, the people love her, but if Katniss dies during the games, or kills Peeta and lets herself become a changed sort of figure, the revolution doesn’t happen as quickly, and maybe she is not the figurehead. She’s not done enough at this point to be a martyr, really, and she loses a lot of appeal if she puts an arrow through Peeta. 

volunteering was rebellious, and unexpected, but this? This is unprecedented. this is an idea that assumedly, the people have never considered before. Katniss wasn’t even chosen for this, did not want to fight, and still insists on making her own rules and doing things her way. She refuses to go home without Peeta. Whether you believe at this point that she loves him or not, her refusal to do what she has been demanded is nothing short of inspiring. She has just shown the people that you do not have to play by someone else’s rules, that just because someone else is pulling the strings does not mean you have to be puppeted about. 

We know the rebellion had been in motion for years before, probably since the dark days and the birth of Panem in its current incarnation, but that they’ve been waiting. Katniss has not been around long enough to be discredited or properly silenced like the victor who came before. The capitol did not expect her, and as such, they cannot control her. they do not have a contingency plan for the girl that, somehow, continues to live. 

I don’t think she can gain the initial interest and respect if she doesn’t volunteer for Prim (thus she isn’t able to gain the momentum from the chariot ride or Peeta’s confession, because no one really cares who she is w/o volunteering), just like I don’t think she becomes the figurehead of the rebellion if she leaves the arena any other way than she did. She is just another tribute if she doesn’t pull out those berries, doesn’t blatantly and obviously act in a way that says “I refuse. I will not be controlled.”

Without Katniss Everdeen volunteering as tribute for her sister in the 74th Hunger Games, without saving the boy who came there with her, without raising the berries to the sky in the most evident show of “screw the capitol” in games history, the 75th Hunger Games end with a single victor, and maybe not even one that’s been previously crowned. I think the capitol couldn’t have resisted doing a “victors” games eventually, but without Katniss, there really is no reason to rush it. Maybe they wait a few years, or even to the next quell. If things were really getting dicey, or if they wanted to do the games while finnick was still in his prime, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that the capitol might have done a special victors games at any point of their choosing. It’s sort of like RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. No one is gonna tell RuPaul that he can’t have another contest with everyone’s favorites whenever he chooses. that’s why we’re gearing up for AS5 right now, when really, maybe we should’ve waited another few years for new talent to emerge and fan favs to be selected. That’s a whole other issue, one that is definitely not of importance in this particular conversation lol, but anyway. I’m just saying that snow, with the ardent support of the capitol, probably could’ve managed to sneak an “all stars” games in whenever he wanted. Would the people like it? no, but I’m assuming that if he’s resorting to that, it’s probably already too late and the people are past the point of control. It would act as a delay, nothing more. It is speculated in the books and suggested by one of the deleted scenes in Catching Fire (I mean, I know we can’t trust the movies, esp the deleted scenes, but it’s an interesting thought, at least. It was my suspicion from the beginning that the Victor’s games was a last-ditch effort, not something with loads of pre-planning, though I know that’s never confirmed, and clearly, my feelings don’t match everyone else’s) that the “Victor’s” games was not part of the original plan for the games, at least at that time. If Katniss doesn’t win the games, she goes down as another great “could’ve been.” If she wins without Peeta, she’s threatened and prostituted into submission and obedience, like Finnick. If she refuses, she becomes another Johanna. Maybe she drinks away her days like Haymitch and tries her best to tow the line so everyone who she loves (that is still alive) is spared from the wrath of Snow. I don’t know. Finnick, Johanna, and Haymitch are all deadly warriors and excellent almosts. But they do not have the pull, the intrigue, or the support that Katniss has. I’m pretty sure that, without volunteering and without Peeta living and especially without the berries, Katniss  doesn’t become the figurehead of the rebellion, and they have to wait another however many years for someone else to come along. 

Emotions were high, people were fed up, rebellion was all around, but they needed a catalyst. Someone to spark the fire, cause a reaction. And the Katniss Everdeen who volunteered for her sister and was willing to eat those berries for the boy she loved is the perfect one. Without volunteering (which gained her the attention and put her in the games), she is of no matter. If she comes home alone, she is sad and broken and subdued, maybe forever. But an undeniably defiant Katniss holding up the berries? that’s the face of the rebellion. 

So, I’ve been rambling for like 10 minutes, but essentially what I’m saying is that the berries get things moving. Not only does the rebellion happen (as it always would’ve), but it happens now. that cements Katniss as the figurehead, makes her an unstoppable force. That, to me, is how Katniss really well and truly influences the revolution.

There are a million moments after the berries as well, but I think the berries are really when the action sparks.