rena's writing blog

rena, twenty, entp. mdni. ask me about 2010s werewolf fics

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[farfromhome87]

Volunteering to help your sister pretty up children for slaughter so that she can get a good grade on her school project ≠ volunteering to help your sister avoid being murdered in a child death arena.

[lunavdam]

Like all-fire 🪿🍬

[amusablecherry]

RIP Plutarch Heavansbee, you would have loved working on the Dance Moms production team and then quitting during season 4 to testify against Abby in court.

[2ndquarteredquell]

Wyatt now being the only poc from the D12 group dying for a little white girl, and Ampert being the only main black character having the most brutal death. Do these casting directors think at all

[rosalinesurvived]

So Haymitch and Louella (+Lou Lou by default) are all going to be played by white actors despite the former being from the Seam and olive skinned and the latter being from District 11. Despite the Seam being located in Appalachia and District 11 having heavy allusions to slavery experienced by brown and black people. District 12 only has one Poc and its Wyatt. The faces of the rebellion are white. Again. As usual!

And already you’ve got people on Twitter and TikTok defending it ‘ohh its because Louella had to remind Haymitch of Katniss’ despite her toughness and braids being the link between the two and despite Rue reminding Katniss of Prim despite them being different races. And you’ve got people dumbing down Wyatt now to ‘hurr durr Asian boy cast for the Number Person.’ AND you have people bitching about how Lenore haaaas to be white and redheaded bc her hair had a tint of red in it. You’ve got people saying that The Hunger Games is dystopian and rAcE dOeSn’T mAtTeR as if race, inequality, generational abuse, systematic injusticies aren’t all linked, intertwined to each other.

And I—I’m just so fucking tired. Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered getting my hopes up for white people but its 2025. This is a woman who said her inspiration for the hunger games came from a blend of the Iraq war and a game host show. Her Covey were rip offs of real life Romani people and her refusal to stand up for Poc as Katniss, Gale and Haymitch is what kickstarted this pretext of ‘ohhhhh but the film version-’. She’ll use us for a story and cash grabs, she’s all in for the pretty dresses but you know her real priorities lie in making sure her fellow white’s delicate eyes are affected too much.

Because isn’t it soooo fucking awesome that a book supposedly concerned with propoganda and the Capitol’s sucess at wiping out a rebellion attempt by POC and changing the narrative is now fine and dandy with whitewashing its main characters.

[thecommunistswingkid]

Why is no one talking about the fact that they used the gym sejanus' father donated to the academy for the tributes in sotr? I'm unwell.

[onefail-at-atime]

Am I the only one who feels increasingly annoyed that Appalachia, the region that Suzanne Collins devoted so much time incorporating into the lore of District 12, has been overlooked as a filming location once again?

The decision to film Ballad in Germany was wild, considering how the second half of the film was almost entirely set in 12. I know filming in the States can be expensive, but we're talking about Appalachia here. States like North Carolina and Kentucky would have tripped over their feet to offer film location incentives.

Now, it's happening once again. Announced film locations for Sunrise are for the same locations as Ballad. Even though the scenes in 12 are small compared to that of Ballad (essentially the build up to the Reaping and Haymitch's return home), I still can't comprehend why the producers who outright scrap the option to film those scenes in the region that actually represents District 12.

I think what really gets me about Sunrise not being filmed anywhere in Appalachia is because of how hard Collins went to give the tributes their district identity and how she emphasized just how comforting some of those things, like the smell of ham and beans soup, became so comforting to them.

Especially the ham hock and bean soup. Growing up, soup beans and ham were a staple. My family's from all over SE Ohio, EKY, and western North Carolina. We froze the ham bone from the Christmas or Easter ham, and once the cuts of ham were gone, that's what went into the soup beans. There's nothing like coming home from school as a kid and smelling that ham and soup beans simmering on the stove or in a crock pot. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

And the Covey's roots in bluegrass music? Those scenes in Ballad should have been filmed in an abandoned warehouse in Appalachia, somewhere along the Ohio River (because there are plenty), and the extras should have been locals who had connections to that kind of music in their very blood, bones, and soul.

I don't know if anyone else feels the same, but the recent floods and tornados across the region have brought up a lot of feelings about how overlooked the region even more all while the entertainment industry work to profit off our culture.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make cornbread and canned green beans for dinner. While listening to Dolly, Loretta, Skaggs, and Earl Scruggs.

[shirtlessriotess]

How I'm feeling about recent casting announcements.

[triassictriserratops]

I'm fucking furious. Absolutely furious.

Look. I have accepted that the movies removed the racial implications in the storytelling from the first. If it wasn't clear in the main character casting, it was certainly clear in the shot of that first reaping scene in District 12 where there isn't even a single HINT of melanin.

I've accepted that the relevant themes of racial subjugation were removed not just from Capitol to District but also within classes in the districts themselves.

But the ONE case in which the movies maintained the racial themes in their storytelling? District 11. Across FIVE movies it has been made clear through FILM CANON that District 11 is predominately black. And the characters we have known by name from 11 have all been black. And their blackness has always been a part of their kindness, their heroism, their rebelliousness, their community, their bravery, their sacrifice, and their mercy.

To cast a white girl as Lou Lou (and by extension Louella) is so cowardly I don't even have enough words to express it.

"But Katniss reminded Haymitch of Louella and movie Katniss is white."

FUCK YOU

Rue reminded Katniss of Prim. That is the SINGLE argument people have used for AGES to justify the argument that Rue should have been white.

As if skin color had anything to do with how young and vulnerable and GENTLE she was. As if all of those reasons weren't ENOUGH reasons to have Katniss be reminded of Prim when she saw Rue.

If you can't look at a child and be reminded of the spirit of another person because of their skin color - that's a skill issue, I don't know what to tell you. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Choosing to cast these girls as white is a very specific backtrack on the ONLY racial commentary we EVER got in these films and everyone who had a decision in it is a COWARD.

(and, to be VERY clear, I'm certain these two kids are going to be incredible. I don't want to hear a single thing about them or see anything directed towards them. ALLLLLLL of my smoke is for the decision makers. Cowards, every single one of them.)

[dwellordream]

jane eyre is a book i like a lot but also have intense feelings about bc i don’t interpret Rochester as a ‘sweet good guy hiding behind an intimidating shell’ and i dislike adaptations and retellings which try to soften him or make him out to be an aggrieved victim of society. the entire point of the novel imo is that Jane, in grasping her autonomy and personhood, decides to put her personal happiness and passion over expectations of ‘perfect moral womanhood’.

she rejects the virtuous, religious suitor who wants to devote their lives to missionary work and chooses Rochester, the man who treats her like an intellectual equal and who shares her dark sense of humor and fascination with wild things.

Rochester is not a good, upright guy. While he should be commended for not consigning his wife to an asylum where she’d be tortured and abused, he keeps her shut up in a dark attic cell and freely admits he married her primarily for her money and that he never tried to understand her as a person even before her mental illness.

The loss of his hand and the burn scars inflicted on him during the climax are absolutely supposed to carry moral judgment. He lied to and manipulated Jane, imprisoned his wife (who he hates), and just because he comes to see Jane as an equal, it doesn’t mean he suddenly believes men and women should share the same rights and privileges. He is still very much a man of his time and culture. But the point is that Jane’s life is so narrow and so limited that the only real way for her to experience some joy and freedom is to embrace Rochester, even if he’s a bastard. He loves her and she loves him.

Being with him will probably not make her a better person, but it will bring her pleasure, and it will be her choice, not something coerced or demanded of her. It complicates the ending of the book. Rochester’s a beast. But Jane is no angel either, and only by accepting this does she find peace with herself.

[auntiewiggles]

I might have overdone it on caffeine tonight.  Maybe.  Just a smidge.

[1o1o1o1o1o1o1o1o1o1o1]

i cant

[not-a-comedian]

[roughentumble]

you know it really isnt immoral, if you do it right, to raise cows and sheep for meat. so. well. i think there should be a story about, vampires who have a town of humans that they keep well-maintained, so long as the humans donate their blood once a month, like vampire blood farm stuff

but instead of antagonistic everyone's like. no he's a nice man you leave the count alone. he keeps us safe and cared for and he just needs a lil snack now and then, it dont hurt anyone. like a cow that loves the farmer and the farmer that loves the cow, even with both knowing one will end up on the other's table. because its like. its like. cows just have such pretty eyes, you know? they love you so much. i think it should be like that

[roughentumble]

literallyyyyyy

i want to be part of a vampire's herd. and i want him to pet me like a cow

[sarnakhwritesthings]

It's only safe for humans to donate a full unit of blood every eight weeks (and even if they only manage to get a partial out of you, they still recommend you wait 2 months), so our hypothetical count would need to have 56 healthy, non-anemic humans in his pool, presuming he needs a full 500 mL of blood each feeding, and he needs to feed once per day.

Obviously, a vampire family will need a larger community to care for, scaling linearly with the number of adult members of the family, assuming the above blood intake.

This still lets a vampire build a healthy relationship with his herd, presuming that he has Traditional Human Dinner with his donor before feeding, or some other social bonding ritual, on a rotating basis.

[vampires-official]

official vampire post

[degloved]

from katniss' perspective, the 75th hunger games & the 3rd quarter quell are all about her disobedience (and peeta's to some extent, but most of all that was her doing.) being that this was the only perspective we've had for years and years and years, that's the only assumption the rest of us could've made too. and sotr, against all odds, continues to ruthlessly add context to so many aspects of the series, whether we like it or not. the inclusion of so many known names and faces is something i've seen criticized and accused of being fanservice/nostalgia fuel, which... spectacularly misses the point.

beetee has, up until then, been a victor with known rebel tendencies. he's already being punished for that in sotr, let alone after. we don't know the details of mags' and wiress' involvement with the rebellion attempt in sotr, but we last see them tired, hurt, and visibly post-torture. johanna mason won her games by doing nothing offensive at all (...for all we know...) and yet her whole family has been wiped out—why? what did she do in the games, after the games? before the games? annie, who was herself reaped for the quarter quell, won when a huge wave drowned all the remaining tributes—think about it: is that what the capitol likes? so many "boring" deaths in one fell swoop, is that entertaining tv? of course not. what happened in that arena that caused this potential error in the system that ended up being played off as annie's great strategy?

point being, there are so many things we don't know but can possibly infer about the pre-quell lives of these specific tributes & how they may have rebelled, incited rebellion, or attempted to undermine snow/the capitol. yes, this quell was rigged. yes, snow did this largely to punish katniss in that moment in time specifically. no, the selection of her fellow tributes was not happenstance. (neither was, for that matter, the selection of the careers random: gloss and cashmere, siblings, beloved of the capitol and certainly the pre-determined winners.)

snow's fatal mistake here was not being able to let the sleeping dogs lie; he saw the chance to punish everyone who pissed him off, took it, and paid very dearly for the arrogant stupidity it takes to put panem's smartest and deadliest and angriest and rebelliest eggs in one tiny horrible basket.

[whenthewallfell]

I'll add it to the list of words I use to try to figure you out

[somethingbrightly]

interesting to think about how, on some level, jane eyre and st john rivers parallel one another in jane's relationships with mr rochester and st john rivers respectively. when jane leaves rochester, it is because of her moral beliefs - which stem from her religious ones. rochester has no real issue with the supposed religious laws their continued relationship would have broken, but jane feels compelled by her devotion to god and religion to leave rochester. whereas in her relationship with rivers, she's effectively leaving and rejecting him because he is more devoted to god than she is, to an extent she views as excessive.

she ultimately holds the median sort of view between rochesters godlessness and st johns self sacrificial devotion.

which i think is interesting because the novel is viewed as very religious, and a strong corner of janes character is her religion - but it's not really advocating for the sort of total devotion demonstrated by st john, rather a reasonable middle ground. because another thing strongly emphasised in the book is janes need for freedom and independence, her self respect and sense of self. so there's this element of balancing a care for yourself with religious belief.

[mayonaisie]

in light of the new book - it annoys me when people talk about the victors of district 12 and talk about lucy gray (the mockingbird, the entertainer (where the other 3 tried to stop the games she actually kept them going by introducing the entertainment factor in her efforts to survive), rigged reaping) and haymitch (the jabberjay, the flintstriker, forced into the games) and katniss (the girl on fire, the mockingjay, volunteered for love) but leave out PEETA. the boy with the bread, the dandelion in the spring, the one who is genuinely reaped and had the most chance of surviving and actually DID have the odds in his favour and yet still was made to join the games. where lucy gray and haymitch and katniss were the rebellion and the rising up of the districts - peeta is the hope for the after. he is the hope for what it takes to survive. the kindness of humanity, that we do good things purely for the rightness of those acts. dont get me wrong, he is rebellion. he can be a calculating game maker in the face of the odds moreso than haymitch or katniss or lucy gray ever was in their somewhat mostly incidental large acts of rebellion. his acts of rebellion were calculated precisely, again, in view of the future. he pushed the star struck lovers act with katniss in calculation that it would push HER in favour where she could not get it herself. so that she could have sponsors and and audience that loved her and the spotlight so that she could win and survive the games. he helped her in the 74th hunger games purely because it was right and kind and the quasi-formed love for her that he could have had for just about any other district partner he could have had - whether if it was prim or whoever. (where his love was also a crush on the surface, i believe that at the start at least, it was mostly out of goodness that he wouldve had in any odds) - peeta would have been wyatt callow again, sacrificing himself immediately for a 12 year old primrose everdeen in the bloodbath of the arena. because that is just who he is. he is goodness and the hope for a future

so, dont discredit him too fast in your pool of district 12 victors.