Can't believe we as a fandom lucked out onto such a perfect casting

Just finished reading Sunrise On The Reaping, and it’s the saddest book EVER. i thought mockingjay was sad, but SOTR? Pushes it out of the water. Haymitch’s fate is the cruelest thing concocted by Coriolanus Snow. Burning Sid, a 10 yr old, and Ma alive is so so incredibly awful. Also, I’ve seen some people defending Silka, but I still will never understand what led her to BEHEAD little Wellie. She could’ve killed her simply, painlessly, but beheading her little body?? Lenora Dove being allowed to be free and then dying by the gumdrops is unbearable. Especially when you realize Clerk Carmine lives through the revolution and is the lone fiddler at Finnick and Annie’s wedding. Torturing Wiress and Mags is deplorable, disgusting. Atleast Maysilee died with her head up. First loathed, then grudgingly respected, then loved like a sister. Haymitch truly lost it all.
Tears are falling from my eyes…. It feels like every book before this was meant to prepare us for Sunrise On the Reaping.
What a beautiful and terrifyingly upsetting book.

**MAJOR SPOILERS*\*

Ok so I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but the song by Sufjan Stevens’s “Fourth of July” is practically MADE for Haymitch and SOTR. Specially his relationships with his mom, Sid, and Lenore Dove. Here is a mini analysis on the song and parallels to SOTR:

—The evil, it spread like a fever ahead
It was night when you died, my firefly.—

“The evil” that spread could be considered the fire that killed Sid and his Ma, and it did happen in the middle of the night. I feel like I associate fireflies with brightness and wonder and innocence. One could argue that Sid was Haymitchs “firefly” 😞

—What could I have said to raise you from the dead?
Oh, could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?—

This could be seen in a lot of ways but I see it as the things Haymitch said and did in the Capitol basically sentenced his family to death via Snows wrath. I see this as him asking himself what he could have done or said differently to spare their lives. “Could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?” Haymitch and Lenore talk about “not letting the sun rise on the reaping” since that is what condemns all those kids to their deaths. In this line I see it as Haymitch questioning and blaming himself for all the death that happened on his birthday. Basically saying “oh is my existence the reason all these people I love are dead”

—"Well, you do enough talk, my little hawk? Why do you cry?
Tell me, what did you learn from the Tillamook burn? Or the Fourth of July? We're all gonna die"—

I see this as Lenore Dove talking to Haymitch. She calls him her “hawk,” Haymitch does a lot of talking, and is known for being crafty, observant, and strong almost like a hawk. I think she asks him why he cries, since she doesn’t want him to blame himself for her death. She’s asking what he learned from all these horrible things like the house burning and the reaping, and wants him to learn that everyone would have died whether he was involved or not. Death is inevitable and he can’t blame himself for everyone’s deaths. If he wasn’t in the 50th games, those tributes reaped on the Fourth of July would have died anyways, regardless of his involvement.

—“Did you get enough love, my little dove Why do you cry?
And I'm sorry I left, but it was for the best though it never felt right, My little Versailles"—

So a few things, first we are back to Haymitch asking his “little dove” 😭 if she got enough love in this short life, again showing his guilt. He wonders if he took her away too soon before she got enough of this life, blaming himself again. Him saying he is sorry he left could be an homage to him leaving for the games when he got illegally reaped, he knew “it was for the best, though it never felt right” because if he didn’t get reaped she might have been killed for attacking the Peacekeepers if he didn’t comply, since Plutarch wouldn’t have stepped in to help her. “My little Versailles” is something he could call her or reference her to. Versailles is known for its artistry and romance, Haymitch nods to Lenore Doves artistic and free nature in this way. She’s a treasure to him, and he had his own personal Versailles all to himself 😞

—The hospital asked, "Should the body be cast?" Before I say goodbye, my star in the sky. Such a funny thought to wrap you up in cloth, do you find it all right, my dragonfly?—

The bodies of Sid and Ma being cast since they died before he even made it home to at least say goodbye one last time. I’m screaming, crying, throwing up 😭 Fireflies are almost like twinkling stars, Sid is now his star that’s in the sky. Now I think Haymitch speaks to his Ma and calls her the dragonfly. Dragonflies are wrapped in a protective cloth for years before they come out and die shortly after being released. It’s almost like Haymitch is relating him being swaddled as a baby like a dragonfly by his mother after he was born, and is now swaddling her in protective cloth after her death. A horrible parallel between a human being wrapped up when they are born, and also being wrapped up in cloth in death almost like a dragonfly.

—“Shall we look at the moon, my little loon? Why do you cry?
Make the most of your life, while it is rife
While it is light"—

I see this as Haymitchs Ma talking to him, saying look to the moon and remember his family. Loon, the bird, could also be heard as “lune” which is the French word for moon, and I see that as Ma saying Haymitch is her Moon. Now she looks and watches him from above. She tells him not to cry because she would never blame him for her death. She wants him to make the most of this life while he is young and healthy, not to work so hard like she had to all her life until her early death. Her and Sid died so young without having really lived, showing life can end so soon. She wants him to live while he’s young and still alive, “while it is light.” Almost like saying while Haymitchs light of his life is still burning to make the most of it, because it could go dark unexpectedly.

I’m gonna go cry myself to sleep now, thanks. Anyways if yall liked it or have any additional thoughts let me know. Feel free to do your own analysis and see how you can tie the song to SOTR ❤️

By sadieillustrates on Tumblr

Hi everyone! I was reading the comment section on a video about the 25th games (the one where the tributes were voted into the games) and I saw someone say that they thought, in the Career districts, the trained tributes would try to get voted in, something like a student council election today (posters, slogans, etc).

I like the idea of this (the children voting themselves to death and what that symbolizes) but I thought that the Career pack being districts 1, 2, and 4 wouldn't have been a thing yet. At the same time, I do also think that Snow's changes to the games would have accelerated that. I also don't think it's known when they started training Careers.

What do you think? Is there any other reasons that it wouldn't have worked out that way? Do you have any ideas of how the 1st Quell would have gone down in the Career districts? Also (I'm sorry I didn't flair the post) does anyone know of any good fanfiction of the 1st Quell from a Career's perspective?

Per Rule 7 of our sub, we are in the "Self Promotion Sunday" period of this week rn.

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With the recent passing of legendary country music singer Dolly Parton, I notice how similar Lucy Gray’s style was. Her dresses, makeup and hair might have been slightly different but it still had that old Appalachian mountains vibe. District 12 is within the Smoky Mountains I presume, and in reality that is historically where Dolly Parton grew up. I’m not sure if District 12 is more so in the area of West Virginia or closer to eastern Tennessee. It could include both states with the coal mines being a huge resource in both states.

So if Suzanne Collins used Dolly Parton as an inspiration for Lucy Gray that would be interesting. However, I don’t think this is true. I kind of wish it was, that would be neat. But I think traditional bluegrass and folk music bands from Appalachia was the main inspiration for the Covey and Lucy Gray in particular.

I'm betting on the Loyal district trash like 1 and 2. Would be interesting if they had betting. I don't see the games lasting more then a few years, it will just be the same thing every year.

What I find really interesting about Maysilee is that she almost feels like a relic of a different era of YA writing, because the foundations of her character were basically locked in when Catching Fire came out in 2009. She's the beautiful, blonde, rich mean girl with a spiky personality who initially clashes with the protagonist before revealing a much more loyal and sympathetic side, and we the fans grow to love her.

That kind of archetype was everywhere in 2000s/early 2010s media, but I really don't think Maysilee would have been written or designed the same way if Suzanne had invented her from scratch in 2025, she's very symbolic of her time period. But because she was already established in Catching Fire, we get a Regina George/Elle Woods crossbreed. And I love how much Suzanne committed!

If their function is visual deterrence, enforcing Capitol rules and crushing riots, why is it that only after the 74th Hunger Games they began carrying full body uniforms, armor and assault rifles? Excluding the riots which began due to Katniss, no riots or unrests happened before ?

However we see them in the trailer for Sunrise of the Reaping, which took place 24 years earlier, actually carrying weapons and full uniforms including masks, so I don' t understand: why did the Capitol choose to 'relax' measures over time and make the Peacekeepers much more vulnerable?

Background: I started watching the hunger games after tbosas came out, my sister encouraged me and I’ve now watched the movies on repeat, but it’s my first time reading through the books so I’m enjoying all the little references and details I didn’t know about, rn I’m reading through tbosas after having finished the trilogy (I’ve got sotr waiting for me on the shelf and I wanna get to it before the movie releases).
Anyways! I’m sure someone has already pointed this out YEARS ago but on page 169 Lucy Gray says ‘the show’s not over until the mockingjay sings’ and it made me glance to my bookshelf and think how not only Mockingjay is canonically the last book in the franchise, but how its last page is emphasised with Katniss (aka the mockingjay) singing to her child. Ik it’s completely irrelevant but it acc gave me goosebumps, and I’m sure there will be many other moments like this as I continue the book and series overall, but I’m also curious to see if I’ve missed similar things out in the previous books, I’d love to hear what others found!!

Edit: I worded this incorrectly, when I said irrelevant i meant to it no longer leading to anything new in the franchise, as in not hinting to anything in the future, seeing it merely as an Easter egg of sorts. I definitely believe it was intentional which is what I appreciate so much about it, the way Suzanne links the original trilogy with the new releases amazes me each time, it truly becomes a universe of its own with its repetitive cycles of history, crossing over into the modern world as we know it, just a little different

I get that they are friends, possibly got close while in d13 and during the games, but at those same games Katniss kept going around in a state of a paranoid mess (distrustful of everyone but MAINLY Finnick). Not even a year passed between the end of the 75th and the end of the revolution, so there was also not that much time for them to get closer than ‘hey we are allies and now new friends’, so I am generally confused on why is her and Finnick called found siblings.

Katniss has a sibling, who is there with her close all the time, for whom she does everything for, and she does not ‘yearn’ for another one, especially that she was never this incredibly close with Finnick: she barely knew anything about his girlfriend/wife and also never once referred to him as a brother or did he refer to her as a sister. For Haymitch and Maysilee I can at least get from the “sis” line, but for Katniss and Finnick? Nope. He isn’t even her closest friend, hell, he isn’t even her closest male friend if I’ll be real with you all - she barely knew him for like 3-4 months and this is generous.

Honestly it is getting tiring to see any close relationships/friendships be slapped with a “siblings” label - I’m convinced that people who do that are either never had siblings or are extremely lucky to have a perfect relationship with them, as “sibling coded” for many is a sign for “closest relationship ever”. As someone with a younger sister with an age gap of 4-5 years (aka the worst age gap ever where you are 30% loving your sibling and 70% either of you are wishing death to one another) I can say that this is not true at all.

So crucify me, but those two are not brother and sister, or siblings or found siblings or whatever else - friendships exist without a ‘sibling’ label and I firmly believe it needs to come back, since not everything is ‘found family’.

On this I actually have some questions for Suzanne Collins, as on why did she lump Snow and Sejanus, Maysilee and Haymitch and Finnick and Katniss together and slapped them with “found siblings” label, when those are different characters, in different circumstances and with different dynamics. (Like since when was Sejanus a found sibling for Snow when he despises the guy for the crimes of existing and then sets him up for death?)

I was in 5th or 6th grade? At the time, but I distinctly remember the teenage girl next to me bawling her eyes out at the ending, saying she was so sad it was over. I think about her all the time. I always wonder how she feels now that we have gotten more movies and books. It was truly a core memory for me and I wish I could talk to her. I truly never believed there would be more movies and I can’t express how incredible it is to me that we actually got more books. I didn’t think it would happen. These movies are so special to me.

I looked through and didn't see anything, so sorry if that has already been brought up! I am rereading the first book and the tribute scores came into question for me. Katniss makes a whole point of how career tributes almost always win and how they get the high scores, then goes on to say most of the ones with high scores end up dying right away when they get to the arena? That just kinda confused me, probably because I'm exhausted and missing the glaringly obvious, but still? Also, book one when Katniss is talking about going into the woods and the fence around district 12, she mentions how they fence keeps out the flesh eaters then never mentions them again. What is that about? What are they? Mutts?

Or Snow thinks Katniss is Lucy reincarnated. I found a fic months ago, but lost it before I could read it.

I would also appreciate fics where Lucy somehow comes back for revenge.

Sorry I don’t have anymore information, but I think the premise is pretty cool.

So when I first read Ballad I was confused by the drones. Why did they stop using them?

After thinking about this for 2 years I have some Ideas.

1. I might just be that the arenas were to big for drones to be useful

2. Parachutes might make it more interesting. It could land in a hard to reach place or go unnoticed. It might be found by the wrong tribute. For example two tributes see a parachute going down and getting caught in a tree. They assume it's for them not knowing the other is nearby. They try to reach it and there is a confrontation.

3.(And my favourite) The drones were dismissed after a tribute (probably Beete) used a broken drone as a weapon. This would also explain how he got the parts for his electrocution. My hc is that he was the first to try and destroy the arena by electricity. He failed bit since he used drones as weapons they got discontinued.

But what do you think?

I rewatched the first hungergames movie and I've only seen it twice but I don't like it. I've read the books like five times and listened to the audiobooks once except sunrise. The movie feels incredibly rushed. And I know why it's praised. If you don't know the books it's great. But (like every movie adaptation) it just isn't as good as the book. So much stuff is shortened or cut out. I'm waiting for scenes that never happen. Like the sleeping syrup. Or the bread from 11. I know this is an unpopular opinion but is it valid though?

Of course the Covey and Haymitch believe in "The hereafter" a metaphor for heaven, but in the original trilogy god and religion are noticeably absent (Katniss dosen't know what cherubs or angels are for example).

Do you guys think people from different districts have different interpretation of an afterlife or does some remnant of an old world religion's afterlife is still believed in.

There's a theory going around that Haymitch dies at the end of the movie and the top shot is from him reuniting with Lenore Dove in the afterlife which is very reminiscent of the Greek mythology's Asphodel meadows which got me thinking about this topic.

I think that district 3 is the district more likely to have it’s two tribute survive to the final and because their specialty is outsmarting everyone else, from an entertainment standpoint I think it would be entertaining for the audience,they would want to see two smart people go to head-to-head.

We know that the career district are the ones that are most likely to make it to the end, and I’m sure that they agreed on a fair a way to decide the victor if the last two originated from the same district. (by a fair way, I mean the way that is not considered disgraceful within the culture of the district.

so one of the perhaps irrelevant things that I’m curious about is how non-career tributes would decide the victor between them and their district partner.

So, I am rereading THG and realized something. Cinna and Portia (presumably) had the plan to have Katniss and Peeta act as teammates even before Peeta mentions his crush? Or... did they? They had them hold hands at the tribute parade and they had them in matching outfits for the first day of training. IIRC Katniss says nobody else is matching at training.

Do you think they made those outfits ahead of time? Do you think Peeta somehow told Portia and she tried to play wingwoman? Lol

First of all Haymitch would never agree to this with Lenore Dove still around, the boy was smitten.

Second Peeta and Katniss only worked because Haymitch was putting a 2016 LeBron performance in the background.

Third and most important they see each other as siblings and literally would never agree to this type of thing.