At fourteen, Finnick Odair was the golden boy of District Four. Spending his youth on his father's fishing boat, and his formative years at Practice to one day volunteer for The Hunger Games, there wasn't a doubt in anyone's mind that, in four year's time, he would be the very picture of a Victor. However, the odds, being the fickle mistress that they are, were not in Finnick's favor--he ended up to young, too experienced, and too far into the Games with no way out.
He would learn that all that is gold does not simply glitter.
I’M SORRY YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT NEWT SCAMANDER — NEWT “DON’T HURT MY CREATURES, THEY AREN’T DANGEROUS” SCAMANDER — IS THE ONE THAT IMPLEMENTED THE WEREWOLF REGISTRY?
Sorry, woman who supposedly wrote the books, we’re gonna have to agree to disagree about that
The Hunger Games was never about the Games or the romance, and that’s what so many people seem to forget. I see so many hg fans focusing on Everlark and nothing else, or talking about how they wanted Suzanne Collins’ new book to be about Finnick’s Games, or Mags’ Games, or Haymitch’s Games, and while that’s all fine and dandy, I can’t help but feel as if they are missing the entire point.
With the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I think Suzanne Collins expressed that. She made the Games unglamorous and brutal, broke up the lovers of the story, showed how despicable and callous the Capitol and Capitol people were from the very beginning and how easily they disregarded and used the District people, and overall made one be always aware of things that in the Hunger Games could be glazed over in the favor of pomp and show.
Why want more romance or another detailed story of the Games? That’s exactly what a Capitolite would want.
I haven’t been on this blog for a while but the fact that people are arguing over this is ridiculous. I’ve been apart of this fandom since 2011 — at that time I was 11 and I’ll be honest, I did focus on the romantic elements. I was a kid. I didn’t realize the themes that were laid out in front of me, didn’t realize that all the love triangle things surrounding the movie were exactly what happened in the books, surrounding the love story. But because of that base, I do have a love for wanting to see these battered and bruised characters happy, and that’s why I love the fandom. It allows us to continue the story. I just hope that, with continuing the story, we don’t forget the central themes, we don’t forget that most of them have had to kill to survive. That they’ve loved and lost and deal with pain.
But rereading it multiple times since then and becoming a young adult and growing up at a time where people deal with dictatorships and learning about mass genocides and the horrific acts that PEOPLE can cause, I think Snow being the subject for TBOSAS was perfect. Think about it. Think about the world today. Yes, we hate him in THG. He’s a monster.
But in TBOSAS, we see him as human, we see how greed and power can corrupt people. TBOSAS has a toxic romantic plot, honestly. But it serves to exemplify themes of classism and the single need of survival and manipulation. We see how The Games evolve, but more than that, we see how the higher-ups learn to take advantage of human nature.
TBOSAS is the prequel no one said they wanted, but it’s the one we needed.
I know everyone’s talking about character parallels in TBOSAS (and believe me, I have a lot to say on that, too) but I want to talk about the evolution of the Games, okay.
So POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
I think it’s so interesting how you see Snow’s vision of the Games changing throughout the novel, how you see him start to morph into what we can see him as in the original trilogy. It’s all about control, control, control.
At first, it’s been 10 years of the Games and really no one has a taste for them. Even those people in the Capitol, who have seen war an death by the districts. Many think them scum, but not necessarily enjoying the Games. So then they have to sell the Games to people -- to draw on their flaws in humanity. Their selfishness, their competition. This is the first time, to me, that I recognized who exactly this was. That this was the Snow that could torture, kill and terrorize people.
The tributes were kept in a zoo, and people could laugh at them, feed them, see them. They were no longer people, but playthings. Playthings that had no worth, just served as entertainment, as chess pieces. But the tributes COULDN’T MIND because a good show, a good performance, meant more food, more energy, more chances to stay alive for as long as possible. No not succumb to the elements before you were stuck in a pin to fight to the death.
And then to see that arena, and you have to think of the nine previous Games, where everyone was basically just trapped in a field and most of them died from starvation or exposure, just trapped like animals in a cage. Abused, neglected, not bloodthirsty. But then, with the bombings created hiding places, and things to be used in strategy. To make it a game. To make it more entertaining.
And it worked. People could bet on their favorites in the Capitol, could give money to help them stay alive. It was a vicarious sort of fame (not to mention the money for the mentors, but that’s a whole different conversation). They were excited about it, and had someone to cheer for rather than just witness the horror of child turning on child. The Capitol people were easy to sway. Just bits of money, a glint of fame.
But for the Districts, they had to make it benefit their life, so they cared. So they wanted their district to win. They needed a lifeline, and that’s what they got.
So, looking at that versus “modern” Hunger Games, here’s what I can see. The people in the Capitol who never faced war -- the generation after Snow -- probably didn’t want to see dirty, grimy district kids, they didn’t see a time when this wasn’t fun. They wanted it to be a celebration. Make things more interesting, build new areas; give us better chances at winning bets, let the Gamemakers rank them; let us get to know all of them, give them interviews; let them look presentable, make them up and dress them in frilly costumes. And once they’ve won the Games? Give them a talent, make them show off more for the Capitol, be yet another source of entertainment.
This is why The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was important. It’s Suzanne Collins’ way of telling us that hey! You guys fell into the same trap the first time! You got focused on the love triangle and became just as bad as the Capitol, completely forgetting the meaning of what she tried to make these books represent.
I just finished my reread of The Hunger Games series in anticipation for A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and wow. It’s been a few years since I’ve reread them and Mockingjay used to be my least favorite because it wasn’t about the Games.
Reading it again as an almost-adult has made me appreciate Suzanne Collins and her way to incapsulate the horrors of war and the repercussions of loss. Mockingjay is a book that physically pains me. It pains me, looking back at Katniss’s thoughts and over 3/4 of the book, she has accepted her own death, wants nothing more than to be dead. War ruins people.
And, I think the epilogue hones in on that point again. Because, yes, Katniss ended up with Peeta, but both of them struggle with nightmares and hallucinations. Both of them struggle with the loss of their families. Though, yes, it is the Games in the majority of them, it’s also the war. But they live. And continue to live. And have children, and they’ve put themselves back together, though they can never be fully healed.
That series is so smartly written, and absolutely heartbreaking. I’m so interested to see what A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will entail, and have no doubt it’s going to be something gut wrenchingly, terribly, beautiful.
Does anyone else relate immensely to awkward 13 year old James Herondale who doesn’t know how to talk to people and says his interests are that he “reads —erm—rather a lot”? Because me too.
