🍊 The Orange by Wendy Cope

🌅 Illustrated by Peeta Mellark

No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created

no thoughts just this collection of parallels between the hunger games everlark and catching fire beach scene everlark

That unexpected warmth rushes through me.

Thinking about how Katniss's relationship with her mother gets better as her romance with Peeta progresses. How she is basically saying "I know what it is to love now. I understand the pain you went through when Dad died. I'm sorry"

just thinking about how Katniss associates dandelions with rebirth and hope and the feelings of things being good again when most people today view dandelions as intrusive and invasive weeds. something to be tamed. thinking about how Katniss initially felt like Peeta was her metaphorical weed - intruding on her life at home, her feelings for him needing to be tamed. but in the end, like a dandelion blooming in spring, her feelings for him were also inevitable.

only if it werent for the baby! id in alt.

do i smell like roses to you? id in alt.

I can't stop thinking about, "This would've happened anyway," and the actual tragedy that lies beneath that. At the end of Mockingjay, Katniss knows she and Peeta would've fallen in love no matter what. No matter what. They didn't fall in love because of their circumstances but in spite of them. These two kids should've fallen in love on their own terms, in their own time, but that was stolen from them.

Their natural, inevitable love was taken and twisted at every turn. Their love was exploited. It was used to terrorize and oppress them. And guess what? They fell in love anyway. They did, they did, they did.

At the end of the series, Katniss and Peeta reclaim the love they would've had for each other regardless. They reclaim their life together and their future together. The one they should've been allowed to have. They are traumatized. They are burned and scarred, but they are in love, the girl from the Seam and the boy with the bread. Despite it all, they end up exactly where they were always meant to be.

There’s something very “this would’ve happened anyway” in Katniss and Peeta knowing each other through so many phases of life, especially in contrast to what happens with Katniss and Gale’s friendship which diminishes the minute it’s something other than hunting in the woods.

Peeta had feelings for Katniss since she was 5. So he knew and liked the girl with the braids who would sing, then still liked the 11 year old who because guarded because her mom checked out and dad died, then he still liked the girl who was trying to survive the Hunger Games, then he loved the girl that he actually got to know who was an amalgamation of all those things and traumatized. And he grows back together with a depressed girl who lost everything .

A similar thing happens with Katniss on a smaller time scale where she likes the boy who took a beating to give her the bread, she likes the charming guy who wants to remain himself in the games, she loves the boy who she actually got to know who is all those things but also thinks nobody needs him. And she grows back together with a boy who was brainwashed to hate her

And that’s the inevitability of Everlark, they’ll always come back to each other no matter what life throws at them, and that’s because at their core they have similar principles and seem to be fond of every aspect of the others’ character instead of only one dimension. Not because they were thrown into a traumatic situation together.

it is just dawning on me the insanity that katniss, a girl who had not gotten physically close enough to embrace her male best friend before the games (thg, 38), reaches up to kiss peeta on the cheek after speaking to him for like... two days (thg, 72).

this is before the starcrossed lovers act. before the whole we need to play up the romance to survive.

so, if anything, i think that this scene reveals that a little part of katniss had a little crush on peeta. a boy that she wanted to kiss. maybe just a little.

Rewatching Catching Fire (not my fault, they added it to Netflix so my hands were tied)

And I fucking love this face:

Finnick is like "wait, shit, ya'll two are for real? no lie? if it weren't for the baby???"

Something about Snow ordering Katniss to convince the world that she loved Peeta. Something about Katniss and Peeta's marriage being all but mandated by Snow. Something about the wedding dress Snow ordered Katniss to wear being covered in pearls. Something about Peeta accidentally finding a pearl in the arena and giving it to Katniss. Something about Katniss treasuring that pearl. Something about how, in spite of Snow's plans for their future, Katniss and Peeta were able to find and share something precious and real in the arena. Something about how Katniss and Peeta's love was always out of the Snow's control. Something something it formed and grew right in the heart of his murderous political games, just like that pearl

“oh what would’ve happened if gale went in the games and not peeta?” he would’ve died probably. and there would be no rebellion. there would be no chance of both katniss and gale winning because neither of them would’ve spun the star crossed lovers story. gale would have never listened to haymitch’s advice and it’s likely they both would’ve died sacrificing themselves for each other. gale wouldn’t have had the patience to team up with the careers to throw them off katniss’ trail so she probably would’ve been killed off quite early and in the meantime their families would be starving back home. it would’ve been incredibly sad but ultimately pointless. even if one of them did win nothing would happen. the rebellion relied on the very specific set of circumstances that came with katniss and peeta.

katniss being the person who gave hope to everybody during the rebellion but peeta being the person that always gave katniss hope and strength since the moment they met is so poetic lord

There are so many Everlark moment but there was just something about Katniss stroking Peeta's head in the capitol mission in Mockingjay...

His head by her feet. Her feeding him in the middle of the night, holding on to the lid so he doesn't hurt himself. Asking about the time he was tortured, assuring him she is still trying to protect him. Moving the hair out of his forehead which is probably a relief because his wrists are bloody in the handcuffs. How he froze but didn't withdraw and she kept going. And how he finally fell asleep because he felt safe enough around her.

Chills.