a Dip in the Ink

Sometimes, it's not enough to read between the lines. Sometimes, you have to write your own.

[melontoyos-art]

Sanguine Bloom 🌸🩸 Where Thorn meets Bud, and Blood forgets Blood

Hardcover illustration for the Owlcrate edition of Shen Tao's "The Poet Empress" all my links

[adip-in-theink]

Still thinking about that Lucy Gray footage.

She was singing the song for her interview performance, the one supposedly for Billy Taupe.

But why would there be young Coryo's silhouette on that footage?

Iirc that was around the time when the rebels bombed the arena so Coryo was in the hospital right?

I can only conclude that this was a footage from the hospital cameras and it was recording that scene when he went to the television when he saw and heard her.

MEANING somehow all of the Tenth Hunger Games footage was erased except this unofficial one.

One where they can be together in those few frames.

And Snow kept it.

[adip-in-theink]

In TBOSAS, we get Lucy Gray reaped in a rigged Reaping. A free spirit who loves to sing and perform. She had firm beliefs but was far from being a rebel. It was young Coriolanus Snow who broke all the rules. For her. Of his own accord.

In the original THG trilogy, we have no-nonsense Katniss who has honed her hunting skills to support her family. Who was sure she loved her sister, if no one else. Aware of the injustices around her but kept her head low. Until her sister was reaped. She was not a rebel but she did not take shit from anyone. Even when she was chosen as the face of the revolution, she was essentially kept in the dark. It was Peeta and Haymitch and how many other people conspiring behind the scenes.

And now in SOTR, we see young Haymitch resigned to the fact that the Reaping happens and the Capitol has all the power. His only concern was helping his Ma get by and for his brother to grow up strong and looking to the sky, as always. The book put a name to it - implicit submission. Far from being a rebel. Who was? Lenore Dove. She was explicitly mentioned doing stuff that get people hanged. She was not afraid to speak her mind (privately) and do something about it (semi publicly).

What I wanted to say is, the key figures in the books were never rebels. They were all just pieces in the puzzle that soon became THE piece to complete the puzzle.

And I love it.

[adip-in-theink]

Okay but can we talk about how Mags and Wiress became Haymitch's mentors, the winners of the 11th and 49th Hunger Games, respectively.

After and before two of the pivotal Hunger Games years in canon.

It was definitely the least of Haymitch's worries but what if he asked Mags out of curiosity about the Victor of the 10th Hunger Games, would Mags have been able to tell him or was it censored to the point it was treason to even talk about it.

And Wiress was around the same age as him and he (and the District 12 quartet, counting Lou Lou) were her first mentees.

I feel like Mags volunteered to be a mentor but Wiress was required as the previous Victor to have mentees.

[adip-in-theink]

So we have Snow, after 40 years, telling Haymitch he's better off dying in an arena than loving a Covey and then after 34 years more, telling Katniss to make him believe she loves Peeta...

Oh he really didn't move on one bit.

[adip-in-theink]

The book starting and ending with his little brother's "Happy birthday, Haymitch" is so gut wrenching especially when he started becoming the mentor for two hapless kids every year, bodies of people he couldn't protect piling up. Imprisoned by guilt and a promise he can't keep.

[adip-in-theink]

"You love her. And she seemingly loves you too. But then you wonder because you are not in any of her plans."

Coriolanus Snow had never gotten over Lucy Gray. Love or not, she haunts his every waking moment and you cannot tell me otherwise.

[adip-in-theink]

It saddens me but I think we got confirmation that Lucy Gray did die in TBOSAS by Snow's hand, if Tam Amber's "Not again" is anything to go by.

[adip-in-theink]

President Snow might have brushed off Haymitch literally calling him out for Louella's death if not for the flint striker that clearly shows a snake and a mockingjay.

Because it reminded him of someone.

[adip-in-theink]

Important tidbits we got:

(Some of these may be spoilers)

1. Katniss' parents are named Burdock and Asterid (nee March)

2. Mr. Everdeen is related to the Covey and Lenore Dove is a cousin

3. Mrs. Everdeen is the daughter of the apothecary people and Prim inherited her skills (as we all know)

4. Haymitch and Mr. Everdeen were close friends

5. Mrs. Everdeen and Maysilee Donner were close friends

6. The alliance in Catching Fire was formed as early as the 50th Hunger Games

7. Haymitch saw Lucy Gray's footage with a silhouette of young Coriolanus Snow

[adip-in-theink]

I just finished reading Sunrise on the Reaping and even though I know how it ends, I still devoured the book in less than a day and now my emotions are once again all over the place.

[adip-in-theink]

I saw some posts wondering what could have happened to Tigris between TBOSAS and the trilogy and I could only think she might have been similar to Cinna.

In TBOSAS, we already know she doesn't like/does not approve of the Hunger Games. She openly tells Coriolanus this. And we know at the end of the book he becomes an intern as a Gamemaker and I assume he was responsible for most of the changes in the Games.

So Tigris became an official stylist of the Games, we know this. So what if she designed costumes that are also strong testaments for the tribute. Maybe going so far as walking the line with what was allowed. Of course, Snow would pick up on this. Eventually, he fired her but didn't kill her (as he did Cinna) because she was still a Snow.

I'm torn about the tattoos though. On one hand, I think she did it so she would "disappear" (since people must recognize her as a Game stylist) and perhaps distance herself from who she was (a Capitol citizen) in the guise of following the trend. On the other, what if Snow ordered her to stop meddling with Capitol business, not without a threat, and drove her in hiding?

[adip-in-theink]

I love the fact that a book about Coriolanus Snow, future President of Panem, is entitled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

All of which (Ballad-Songbird-Snake) pertains not/is not related to him but someone else entirely.

[adip-in-theink]

I just finished the book and I am so happy I read it. It was a great read because everything tied into the trilogy and the characterization of the villain was a testament to excellent writing.

[winnie-the-monster]

🥺🥺🥺🥺

[adip-in-theink]

I still need to rewatch it (maybe over the weekend) but lemme just put it out there that if there will be a s2, they will probably show us Queen Charlotte's death.

And I know it would be more painful because we all have those scenes of her always worried the king might have died only for her to die before him according to actual history.

And atp I know Shonda Rhimes would probably insert a scene of young Charlotte's ghost visiting the old King George and him calling her Lottie.

"Your Venus has to return to the heavens now, dearest."

And that would worsen his condition, always yelling at the skies to give back his Venus almost everyday. Until he falls ill.

Then we see the young King George and Queen Charlotte in the same garden scene where they first met.

"Now we can climb over the wall together."

[tabethawithane]

bridgerton has me simping over this colonizer and idk what to do with that information.