ultimately tbosas is an inversion of thg, and our main three characters in each are inversions of the main three counterparts. snow is an inverted katniss; lucy gray is an inverted peeta; sejanus is an inverted gale.

snow and katniss are both constantly aware of their self as it relates to how they are being perceived. they’re both hyper aware of the unspoken rules of society that dictate how they must live their lives. but while snow uses his knowledge to manipulate others for personal political gain within the rules of that society, katniss uses her knowledge to highlight the injustice of the rules themselves. snow would see a friend killed before he would allow himself to be implicated in a crime; katniss would rather kill herself than lose the boy she’s grown to care for in the arena. snow would kill the girl he loves to avoid the potential for political backlash; katniss cannot even perform the most simple of her political duties until she is reunited the boy she loves. they are mirrors — they show us that we all have the potential for greatness in us, the decision we make is whether we use our awareness of the roles we play in society for self-serving gain or for selfless love and compassion.

lucy gray is the inverted peeta. first, they’re both artists who use their art as a strategy: lucy grays songs and peetas camouflage. but more importantly, they both use their ability to perform and manipulate a crowd in order to help another person succeed — to help another person survive the games. peeta confesses his love for katniss in order to draw the audiences attention as a way to help her win; lucy gray performs her songs to the crowd as a way to help snow win. for both of them, it’s a fairly selfless act — they do it because they believe in the inherent goodness in humanity, because they love another person. only where lucy gray believes snow is compassionate and good, he lets her down. peeta believes the same about katniss, and she proves him right.

and sejanus is an inverted gale. they both believe in the injustice of the regime, and neither one of them can mask their disgust for the society that forces them to live this way. sejanus cannot mask his feelings about the capitol students; gale cannot hide his frustration with madge. but where sejanus cannot let himself lose sight of the human cost of it all, and that is ultimately what leads to his undoing, it is the exact opposite that undoes gale. the minute gale loses sight of the fact that he is capable of perpetuating the same horrors he claims to speak out against, he loses himself. and thus he ends the trilogy where sejanus begins: in district 2.

all six characters prove the series’ argument. tbosas shows us the other side of everything we’re shown in thg and comes to the exact same conclusion: we all have our own histories, our own baggage, our own traumas, and they all inform how we engage with our society and how we identify and interact with the injustices that are built into our systems. but we all have a choice: and that choice comes down to whether or not we use the skills we learn from our unique histories for self interest, for violence and revenge and war, or whether we use them for compassion, for love, for understanding.

it’s all the same argument; it’s all the same story.

Just finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. What blows me away is how Coryo has all the influences for him to become worse and to become better.

Here's what I mean, he's a mentor, so he has a close view of the games, which could make him more sympathetic with the districts or more cruel to them.

He writes the papers for Dr Gaul and talks with her a lot, their interactions could have made him more pro or more anti Capitol.

Dean Highbottom resents the Snows, which makes coryo anti-whatever-highbottom-believes, but hearing about the origin of the games could have changed his mind.

Sejanus, Tigris, and Lucy are all anti-capitol and they are the greatest influences in his personal life.

Spending time in D12 could have made him sympathize with the people that are the same as Capitol people, but instead he becomes more pro-capitol.

But as the first chapter makes very clear, he's out for personal success. It foreshadows everything. At the beginning he has some sympathy for the tributes but sees them as pawns for his own success. At any point, he had the catalysts in place for him to become anti-capitol. The conversations and family and friends. He could have been.

Do you think Peeta strangling Katniss affects their relationship in the growing back together phase? Most seem to think it would be Peeta getting reassurance and comfort from Katniss but I find that a little wrong since it was her getting strangled and with the neck covered in bruises

Why does it have to be either one or the other needing/getting reassurance and/or healing from the strangling?

By the end of Mockingjay, both Katniss and Peeta are dealing with complex ptsd, which means both of them have an assortment, a complicated mess of traumas they have to sort through during the grow back together phase. That’s why it’s essential that both of them work with Dr Aurelius. So I absolutely believe that it does impact their relationship, at least a little. But there’s A LOT that is going to affect their relationship during the grow back together phase. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a fact of living with ptsd.

I agree with your hypothetical “most” that Peeta would absolutely feel guilt and responsibility over his trying to strangle Katniss. He put his hands on her and physically hurt her, left her marked and unable to speak for a significant amount of time. She needed to be hospitalized for her injuries. As a person with childhood abuse in his past, who we can readily assume wanted to break that cycle of violence, Peeta would be devastated to learn that he did that to Katniss. Just like he was devastated seeing himself throw Mitchell into the barbed net in the Capitol. Hijacked or not, he’s going to have to come to terms with the fact that he did it. He’s going to need reassurance from Katniss over it, and would have to learn to forgive himself as part of their growing back together phase.

As for Katniss… what I’ve seen argued is that she was more concerned with the verbal hurts Peeta inflicted upon her when he was recovering from the hijacking than she was with the physical ones… which I can see the case for this textually. She doesn’t fixate on the strangling itself but on the words he speaks and how she thinks he sees her, the “real” her in her self-loathing, after his hijacking. She almost acts like she deserved that violence against her body.

But here’s the thing. If we can assume that Peeta never wants to repeat the abuse his mother heaped on him by abusing those he loves… he’s going to feel like shit for the things he said to her in his pseudo hijacked phase as well. Peeta internalizes the things his mother said about him. She calls him a “stupid, worthless creature” in Katniss’s memory of the bread flashback. And in Catching Fire, Peeta lashes out at Katniss and Haymitch for keeping secrets from him by saying “Like I’m too stupid or inconsequential” to understand or deserve the truth…

Inconsequential is another way of saying worthless, my friend. He repeats what we know his mother has said about him. Because on some level, he believes that it’s true… symptom of trauma and abuse, my friend.

So of course, even if Katniss fixates only on the cruel things that hijacked Peeta says to her rather than the physical act of strangling her, there are still going to be a host of issues they have to deal with, and eventually, they’re going to have to deal with the strangulation aspect as well.

And Peeta’s no stranger to lashing out physically either. In addition to verbally lashing out, Peeta also physically breaks a lamp in that CF scene. Some people will argue that it’s a stretch, but it is still an indicator of his anger on occasion manifesting as physical ACTION. Lest we forget, he somehow kills Brutus in the Quell, and Brutus is billed as one of the stronger, more ruthless Victor Tributes in that arena. Oh and by the way, Beetee had Peeta’s knife at the lightning tree. So what in the fuck was Peeta armed with when he killed Brutus? His bare hands?!?!

Now, Katniss might not actively fixate on those things during Mockingjay, but I find it highly likely that she would flinch or visibly react to the possibility of physical violence when post MJ Peeta gets angry or distraught… because she knows what he’s capable of and knows that he’s lashed out physically before. And that is absolutely going to affect them both.

Do I think Peeta is abusive towards Katniss? No. Absolutely not. I don’t think that at all. But lemme give you a real life example.

I’m married to someone with ptsd. Some of that is a result of having physical violence inflicted on him personally. Some of it is just from witnessing violence and its results in real life. Some of it is from existing for long periods of time in a place where he was constantly in danger of dying. I have never physically hurt him. But one time, shortly after he came home, I playfully smacked his arm (not even all that hard, Anon) while we were hanging a picture on the wall, we were laughing and teasing each other… and he legit froze, completely tense, and whispered “Don’t… don’t do that again.” I had triggered a flashback.

So there is no doubt in my mind that at some point, Everlark has to deal with Peeta triggering a flashback in Katniss to the moment he tried to strangle her.

Conclusion: It’s both of them that will have to deal with it, will need to heal and need reassurance. I just think that it is going to take a lot of work for both of them to process, deal with, and overcome the verbal and physical violence in their pasts. I think really, the discussion you’re probably seeing right now is simply an acknowledgment that Peeta, as loving and soft as he can be, is also fully capable of violence, and he knows it, and he’s going to have to deal with it. He’s no cream puff. He’s got fire in him and is fully capable of biting back. But acknowledging what he has to deal with in terms of him almost strangling Katniss isn’t necessarily a dismissal of what Katniss will have to deal with alongside him. She’ll just be dealing with it from a different aspect and probably at a different pace.

❤️ kdnfb

Peeta my beloved 😍

Thoughts on music in the Hunger Games (trilogy + prequel)

After finishing the trilogy, and especially after Katniss sings again in MJ, I remember thinking of the Hunger Games’ story each time I was listening to folk, country and gospel songs. The lyrics sometimes reminded me of the story and I pictured Katniss singing these songs with her dad. Songs condemning war, songs about working class people, songs about wildflowers and birds. And when I read the prequel, I was so happy to see that music was a big part of it. So here are some things I’ve noticed and wanted to share, sorry if it’s a bit messy :))

1/ Everdeen’s family // The Carter family 

In Tbosas, Maude Ivory sings “Keep on the sunny side”, a song written by The Carter Family who come from the Appalachian mountains, where District 12 is located. Its original members, A.P, Sara and Maybelle Carter mostly sang ballads and mountain songs. Recently, I watched a documentary about the history and origins of country music, and learned that A.P. fell in love with Sara Dougherty when he heard her sing. He was from what was called Poor Valley while she lived in Rich Valley. I automatically thought of Katniss’ parents, her dad from the Seam, her mom, a Townie falling in love with his voice when he sang. Katniss was taught how to sing by her father, and if we consider Maude Ivory to be her grandmother, then the tradition sure has been there for many generations. 

2/ Unity through music 

We don’t have much information about other districts, but I have this headcanon that District 11 and 12 share some of the same songs. We know music is what Rue loved the most, and people there sing at work and at home. Considering that both districts are southern and quite geographically close  to each other, I believe they kept alive some old songs from bluegrass, blues, folk, gospel and country music. (I also hc District 10 as having country music). 

Also in MJ during Finnick and Annie’s wedding, District 12 refugees start to dance to their traditional music, “teach the steps to District 13 guests” and “insist on a special number for the bride and groom” (MJ, p.217). So Finnick and Annie from District 4 and the guests from 13 all “join hands and make a giant, spinning circle where people show off their footwork” (MJ, p.217). I’d like to add that I think they are clogging. Clogging originates from Irish step dancing and developed with Native Americans influences, especially Cherokee, and “was also shaped by African ‘buck dancing’, which originated during slavery.” Therefore this dance is already a mix between Europeans, African and Native Americans cultures. And in this scene, it shows unity between the districts, everyone gathers to dance together and Katniss states “Dancing transforms us” (MJ, p.217). The same way in Tbosas (p.28), Snow’s thoughts when seeing Lucy Gray on stage during her reaping were that “Singing transformed her”, and that he “no longer found her so disconcerting.” 

3/ Snow’s dislike for old songs 

Now in the prequel, we get to see that Snow doesn’t like the old songs, and prefers the recent ones : 

“Some of the numbers bordered on unintelligible, with un-familiar words that Coriolanus struggled to get the gist of, and he remembered Lucy Gray saying that they were from another time. During these in particular, the five Covey seemed to turn in on themselves, swaying and building complicated harmonies with their voices. Coriolanus didn’t care for it; the sound unsettled him. He sat through at least three songs of this kind before he realized it reminded him of the mockingjays. Fortunately, most of the songs were newer and more to his liking, and they finished up with the one he recognized from the reaping…” (Tbosas, p.286) 

Old songs, like “Clementine” or “The ballad of Barbara Allen” are older than Panem. They existed centuries before what caused the almost extinction of human beings in the story. Despite the loss of billions and the destruction of technologies, cities…and freedom, poetry and songs are passed down generation from generation. With them, a part of history. 

Bluegrass “was born from the creativity of working class and impoverished Southerners, Appalachians, and immigrants”, and how can I not think of District 12 when I hear Hazel Dickens sing about coal miners, and how can I not think of Katniss when I listen to country song “Coal miner’s daughter” now ? These old tunes (from bluegrass, blues, folk or country music) sometimes talk about slavery, poverty, workers’ life, hard times, but also hope and resilience. They show survival. And they also set an example of worlds existing before Panem. And in my opinion, this is why Snow doesn’t like them. 

Just imagine if thanks to the songs and lyrics, people knew some parts of what happened before Panem, if they knew the atrocities committed, the wars, revolutions, and struggles. They may not know a thing about the civil rights movement but still have songs about it, like “We shall overcome”. Even songs which have ancient names are rebellious to the Capitol, think of “Country roads”, “My native home”, “West Virginia, my home”, “Sunny Tennessee” or “You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive”. Think of all the songs and ballads telling the stories of people long dead like Joe Hill or Ira Hayes that may have survived. Cause as Rachel Baiman sings, “old songs never die, they just cry and cry out for you to sing them once again”

And it’s neither in the books nor in the movies, so it’s not canon, but in the fan movie where Katniss is a child and goes to the woods with her dad, there are these lines : 

Her dad (D) : “Because what’s in the woods ?” K : “Weapons, and food and mockingjays, and…” D : “All of it exists without the Capitol.” K : “Freedom.” D : “Freedom.”

And I believe that’s the reason for Snow's specific hatred for old songs. Also, the fact that when the Covey sung these, it made him think of mockingjays is telling. I keep thinking there must be an explanation for that, perhaps it's because the mockingjays are creatures who escaped the Capitol’s control just like traditional American music did ; because mockingjays represent a way out of the Capitol’s dictatorship later becoming a symbol of hope and revolt, and old songs can hold the same power.

I discovered people in the fandom complaining about how unrealistic Haffie is. Well, yeah, I kinda agree with that. The canon book characters don't go that well together, but I can imagine two scenarios, where I could picture them together:

Fuckbuddies- duuuuuh, Haymitch is so unfitting for a relationship in almost every aspect, but he still has some game. Everytime he is in the Capitol for some business or Effie is in D12 they spend some time together, mainly because they are bored. But it would be interesting, to get some one sided jealosy in the mix.

And this is a bit of a far strech but hang in there...An AU where Effie tries to stay in D12 permanently after Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch come back home, because she feels like she isn't welcomed in the Capitol anymore. She was part of the Games, most of the escorts, beauty teams and stylists have been killed, and now she is one of the few people left. Effie notices strange looks from every corner and decides she can't take it anymore. So, she goes to the people who she thinks, actually liked her for herself. After her arrival, she knocks at Haymitch's door and asks him, if she could stay a while. A few days later, Haymitch asks her, when she will go back again, she declines and explains why. Haymitch says: "Well, it won't be easy making a life here" and Effie says: "Teach me then" and after that it's basically like a 2000 feel-good teen movie, where the rich posh girl is moved to the country side and at first she hates every second of it, but while the romance progresses, she admits to herself, she likes it in a way she never expected. And the main concept of this story would be comedy, sweet simple slice of life comedy with just a pinch of romance, because we don't wanna overdo it. Write at 2am for about three hours and we are good to go... E Voilá a mouth-watering Haffie story!

Just imagine Effie trying to help Haymitch with his geese, while Peeta and Katniss are watching from their kitchen window and decide: "Well, that's definitely not our problem."

Or there is no hot water yet and Effie demanding a bath after a long day of work. So Haymitch and her keep filling up his tub with warm water from the stove. Once it's done, Effie undresses herself and gets in the tub. She is finally relaxing and... Haymitch comes in, wearing just a towel and wants to join in, just to prank her.

"Well, sweetheart, what did you thought... I would put in all this work just for you?", he asked her, rubbing his stubbly chin with dirt-covered fingers. She- still wrapped in her arms for protection from his keen looks- retorted: "Actually... yes." But she couldn't interpret his reaction. Haymitch was shaking his head as the smile on his lips turned into a grin and then into a big laughter. "You expect me to", he started and had to pause right then, because he couldn't contain himself. "You expect me to bath in your cold water." His voice was much colder now, since he stopped laughing. It was almost unsettingly calm now. Effie didn't know where to look. She gulped just thinking about him standing there half naked. Usually, she liked being seen. That's why she joined the Games as an escort. In a family of six, with four sisters, she was rarely noticed. Overlooked, most of the time. And while she was there on stage in her meticulously composed outfits, she was adore and admired by the masses. But that didn't last. Now, every pair of eyes set on her, was one pair too much. Especially his. His grey eyes pierced her soul and shattered her like she was glass. She blinked and looked up to him. "I thought, you were being nice. I really tried my best today and I already had such a hard time setting in." "A lots of Is in there... I thought, I tried, I had. Don't you think you're being a bit self-centered here? Since you came to me and asked me for help, I assumed you changed. Guess I was wrong about that." He was already at the doorstep, when Effie called for him. "Wait, Haymitch... I'm sorry. Please come back, I'm sure we find a way to share this tub." With a grin he turned around, rolling his eyes. "For a second, I believed you left me hanging." The towel flew down from his hips. A whince left Effie's mouth. She didn't know where to look, but only realized she kept staring, when Haymitch scoffed: "My eyes are up here, darling."

You can change one single thing in The Hunger Games trilogy novels and/or movies—what is it?

Why?

Thank you 😊,

@curiousnonny

Oh, I know exactly what I’d change about the movies. The way they portrayed the kids, especially the careers. These are scared children, not killing machines. The careers never should have been villanized.

IF your younger sister/brother being reaped to the hunger games, would you volunteer like Katniss did to replace Primrose?

Yes/No? Why?

If yes, what kind of strategy would you use to win the hunger games?

Thank you 😊

@curiousnonny

I honestly don't know?

I know, I know it sounds horrible but i feel like this sort of thing has so many factors that would have to culminate in an almost split-second decision. For one thing how do I perceive this hypothetical younger sibling of mine; are they fragile and in need of protecting, or strong and capable.

Are they a boy or a girl (yes, this would be a factor, for me at least) because generally speaking boys tend to be stronger fighters, faster runners, and physically more capable (genetically speaking, and again, GENERALLY).

How old are they? Are they likeable, conventionally attractive? Where are we living in this scenario (career district, or dirt poor district?). What's my relationship like with this sibling (yes i'm being for real).

So yeah, I honestly couldn't say for sure. Because realistically, I would have EXTREMELY low chances at winning anything like the Hunger Games. I'm not physically strong or a survivalist, and sure I might be likeable in a sense but that can only get you so far. So, if I knew that my younger sibling probably had a higher chance of winning and was more capable than me, I'm sorry but no, I wouldn't volunteer for them. But if I had a sibling that was weak, technically speaking, and would probably die pretty quickly I might maybeeee consider it.

Let me be srs for a moment here tho, if I was in a situation like this where I had to decide on the spot if I was going to sentence myself to death, i have no idea how i would react to that, bc surprise surprise i've never rlly been in a situation like that. I might freeze up, I might feint. Who's to say I wouldn't combust on the spot. Anything would be possible in a situation like that bc it's all hypothetical.

So, yeah, my final answer is I would hypothetically explode if my hypothetical younger sibling was reaped for the hunger games. Argue with the wall

when snow says "it's the things we love most that destroy us" we always assume it's about lucy gray but are we sure he's talking about lucy gray and not about his love for power and control that destroyed his relationship with lucy and with sejanus and later destroyed him as a human being

All Sejanus Plinth did was be hot, sad, and sensitive with daddy issues and he got fucked over by a mediocre white man and honestly who hasn’t been there

i wake up thanking god every day that a tweet calling peeta motherrr went viral🧎‍♀️

both snow and katniss understand the way poverty forces an individual to “perform” in one way or another (albeit for different ends). see: snow engaging in the performance of wealth at school and pretending his family is not struggling in order to maintain his class status in the aftermath of the war. and katniss performing that her family’s level of poverty is not as bad as it truly is in order to avoid prim being sent away to the community home.

this makes it interesting that snow says at the end of mj that they have both been “played for fools” by coin. and perhaps it’s because neither of them understood her. because coin was never performing — her cards were always on the table. (she’s the one who casually suggests that they present gale as katniss’ new lover — she doesn’t ask katniss to perform for her, she just states the game outright.) but at the same time, this is coin’s ultimate weakness — because she doesn’t understand this axis of performance, of “playing the games” so to speak, she can’t anticipate that katniss would lie about wanting the final hunger games to win her favor. she assumes the game is over — but katniss knows that there is always a level of performance that must be involved in self-expression. whether that be in how one presents their sister to the world in order to mask their true poverty, or how one presents themselves on a screen to win an audiences favor, or even how one speaks to the president in order to manipulate the highest levels of government. the game never ends — it only evolves.

so in that way, snow and katniss are the same: they are both adept at playing the game of their society. but while snow abuses that knowledge to reinforce these unspoken social rules and raise himself and his status higher, katniss uses it to undermine, disrupt, and subsequently dismantle it all.

What do you think everlark would call each other post war? Like in terms of terms of endearment 😆

Personally, I’m a huge fan of them both calling each other “my love.” Simple and yet it’s a way for them to reaffirm that their feelings, their love for each other is both enduring and real.

I have a really hard time imagining them using most other common terms of endearments in canon, for some reason. It just doesn’t quite fit them in my mind. Although, I have toyed with the idea of Katniss referring to Peeta as “sugar” but I can’t quite articulate why just yet. It would only be during certain circumstances like when he’s sick or having a bad day and she’s pampering him.

Peeta uses “sweetheart” when he’s roasting Katniss, as he sometimes playfully does because he’s sassy af.

Katniss does not use any terms of endearment ironically for Peeta, not even when she’s teasing him, because of the things his mother used to say about him. I realize they’d be completely different words being used but I dunno, I feel like she’d be extra careful of what she says to Peeta when she’s teasing him. So terms of endearment, in her mind, are reserved for loving and affectionate moments only as a way to kind of protect those words, if that makes sense?

Sweetheart already kind of belongs to their link with Haymitch and moments when Peeta was sassing Katniss anyways (you here to finish me off, sweetheart?) so that one is different.

mags flanagan was the victor of the 11th hunger games. she is probably one of the last people we know of canonically in the games who directly, vividly, remembers lucy gray baird.

she remembers the girl from district 12, who dropped a snake down someone's dress, who sang a song the day of her reaping as a fuck you to the capitol. the girl who charmed an entire country and won the games using sheer ingenuity.

she probably remembers reports of the capitol boy who served as her mentor, remembers the blond boy who broke the rules and stayed in that zoo enclosure with her. probably remembers the reports of him doing everything he can to save this girl. coriolanus snow. she remembers that name, tucks it away, connecting it with decency and integrity.

she probably, as a young girl, thought that maybe there was some good left in this world. if a capitol boy would put his neck and life on the line for a lowly girl from district 12, who would defy every social rule for her, then maybe there was some hope.

she probably remembers the rumours that floated around after those games, remembers how they said that blond boy ran away to be with her. remembers how no one heard from or about lucy gray baird ever again, and then next year she goes on to compete and win the games.

and then when the victors are made to be mentors, she looks for that girl, lucy gray baird, wonders if she could ask her questions about her games, about her life now, about coriolanus snow, the blond boy who changed the games themselves for her. but she is nowhere to be found. lucy gray baird is now a legend, passed down in hushed tones amongst the ones who still remember her. the girl who charmed an entire arena of snakes, the girl with the guitar, the girl who said nothing they could take from her was worth keeping.

and then she returns year after year, and a decade or so passes until she hears a familiar name. a name she expected died away in district 12 in obscurity, because there is no way the capitol would let his impunity pass unpunished, would they?

but here he is, president coriolanus snow.

she wonders how he's still here, and how he betrayed her memory, betrayed what lucy gray baird stood for, what he once stood for. but there he stands, impassive, cursorily shaking her hand before she stops herself from asking about the girl with the rainbow skirt.

then comes another victor from district 12, and she turns the games on their head, much like her predecessor. mags watches her, wonders if president coriolanus snow is thinking the same thing she is. when the quarter quell rolls around and finnick tells her about the burgeoning spark of a rebellion and how the girl on fire might be the one who fully set it ablaze, she agrees wholeheartedly to return to that arena.

she thinks about telling him about lucy gray baird and her story, but doesn't think he would believe her if she did. when she sees snow again, knowing certain death lies ahead, she finally asks him the question that's rested on her lips for half a century.

she asks him about the girl in the rainbow skirt.

Katniss in the Capitol

I read the tags in on my first posts of the little series called: “Katniss and Peeta’s roles reversed in Mockingjay” and quite a few people mentioned, that they’ll like the version of hijacked! Katniss the most when she is hysterically afraid.

And I already explained, why I think, turning her just like Peeta more violent, would make little to no sense for the Capitol, actually playing into Coin’s hands.

Well, I honestly must say the focus of the people commenting was clearing on the time after Katniss would be rescued from the Capitol, but in Mockingjay it took a while to come up with a plan and convincing Coin to go through with this and she liked Peeta more than Katniss.

If their roles would have been reversed, I highly doubt, Coin had any plans on rescuing Katniss, who was perceived by Coin as a wildcard. Coin even tried to kill Katniss in Mockingjay, by sending Peeta to them, to turn Katniss post-mortem into martyr. Which would benefit her, because then they have the symbol of the Mockingjay without actually having to deal with Katniss’ temper. So, why would that be any different, if she was the one to be stuck in the Capitol?

For Coin, it’s the best position to put Katniss in. She is suffering for the cause and Peeta is advocating for her. This, of course, pains a wonderful picture for the two star-crossed lovers, being torn apart by the consequences once again.

Peeta gets the image of a sympathic and dedicated lover, who would do anything for his girl and their baby. Showing the people in the districts, that everything the Capitol does is cruel and inhuman, while also showing them a boy, who is trying to fight the odds once again, even if they are not remotely in his favor.

So, no, Coin wouldn’t rush getting Katniss, even with Peeta pressing on that issue. She would milk it as long as she gets something out of it.

And while Katniss stays in the Capitol, she would have had an interview of course. Because Snow’s and Coin’s thinking are very much alike. He would also use the Victor he has to work in his favor. This time only, he didn’t get ‘good with words Peeta’ but ‘can’t act to save a fucking life Katniss’.

He knows, what Coin is thinking, wouldn’t kill Katniss. Since her victory, he had plenty of opportunities to do so, and he didn’t even try. But like I said, he would use her for interviews to promote the things, he wants her to say.

In the books, he is using Peeta to discredit Katniss, by portraying her as a dumb, naïve little girl, who had definitely no clue what she was doing and who never had in mind to start a rebellion. While the last part might apply to Katniss, the first part is certainly not true. When she picked up the berries, she was very aware, what the direct consequences might be. Katniss has proven herself to be somewhat of a quick thinker (solving the riddle with the clock, which even Beetee didn’t get).

Also, and okay, Snow couldn’t have known this, but Peeta trusts Katniss to think one step ahead. He never doubted her intentions. She told him to eat the berries, he did. She asked him to run away, he was ready to go. When she revoked that decision, he stayed with her. Peeta is 100% right or die with her. Which the first interview, they discredit that. Not only, that Katniss was destroying the arena on purpose, but also Peeta’s trust in her doings.

It effectively hurt Katniss and the cause at the same time. Katniss knew, Peeta didn’t quite mean, what he was saying, but she was still felt betrayed. Just like the rest of the rebels thought he was a traitor. But those still in between sides, saw someone who was begging for peace and mercy. Apart from Katniss’ POV, I think the interviews worked well. Not as well as the propos of course, but that’s a different discussing.

Finally, we can turn this around. There is a date set for an interview with Katniss and Ceasar to discredit Peeta and diminish the rebel’s cause. What would the Capitol do, with all their game makers and stylists and Snow?

They do have a certain flair for drama and Snow is a pretty petty bitch. Well, why not hit them, where it hurts and playing their own cards back at them. Meaning… portraying Katniss as pregnant, pointing out, how cruel it was for Peeta to leave her and the baby behind to join the rebels. A crying Katniss begging to cease fire.

To achieve this, they had to held Katniss at gun point, so she felt pressured enough to say, what they wanted to say and act how they wanted her to act. Probably nobody would have told her about the bombing in District 12 and they would threaten her to kill Peeta, Prim, her mother, Gale just everyone she cared about. But this is nothing new. Probably showing her some images from the uprising in the districts saying this is her fault.

Just imagine (yes, the true diabolic part starts now) being in Katniss’s position… talking about a baby, which was never there, talking about Peeta, not knowing if he is alive and talking down the rebellion, while she is convinced this is her fault AND on the same time, she still agrees with their demands, but now she has to act her way out of this, knowing she is not good at this, her first time trying to get out of this by playing the role Snow had assigned her failed terribly.

Now we think of Peeta. His own lie being thrown back at him. Seeing Katniss in clear distress. Knowing she is being held hostage and she has no information, so she is probably tortured just because. The looks he get from others just prove how he sees himself at that moment… as a coward, a failure and a prick.  His plan to keep her safe, which he had since the reaping, ultimately failed and the words, he said to protect her, are getting back to him again. She is now in more danger than ever, because she is at Snow’s mercy.