A couple years after my parents divorced, we went on a camping holiday in Brittany. My oldest cousin and I are both big readers and she'd brought the Hunger Games books with her. On a rainy day, she leant the first book to me ; I was hooked. Everyone else was very irritated with me for finishing the first two books within about a week, spending a lot of time in a tent by myself and refusing to play with them. It was in my very early teens, and one of my sisters especially won't let me forget how I abandonned them. This also means that I initially read the trilogy in Dutch. I then had to wait for Mockingjay to come out, and as everyone who experienced it knows, waiting with that last line "Katniss, there is no District Twelve" was heartwrenching.
What are your favorite things about the series?
As a young teen, I think I started out loving the critiques I perceived the series made about the world we live in, especially propaganda and media, though of course my analysis has evolved a lot with age. As I've grown older, I think Panem as a country is what interests me most. Questionning how these societies within the different districts, District Thirteen, and the Capitol coexist with very limited information about one another and very different systems in place is fascinating to me. How they are all part of this one country where the Hunger Games are central to society in the way they determine the yearly calendar and impact every single citizen in some way is something I enjoy reflecting on a lot.
What’s something about the series that’s stayed with you or become more meaningful to you over time?
Something that I found interesting from the beginning but has grown even more meaningful to me is related to my profound and very personal interest in political violence. Questioning how individuals come to use violence against others and justify it, but also how Panem deals with war, conflict, inequalities, social injustice, and especially how they rebuild afterwards as a country, which does not mean all these structural issues magically disappear, is something that's become even more important to me.
What's something you want the fandom to know about you?
I read all the books but can't say the same for watching the movies. I saw the first movie when it came out, but haven't seen Catching Fire, or either Mockingjay movie in its entirety. Of course, I've seen some scenes on YouTube and stuff, but just never got around to watching them. I am kind of ashamed of having gone to the movies last year by myself to watch TBOSAS and did enjoy it somewhat...
When did you begin creating? What inspired you to begin?
I was a lurker in fandoms for a long time. I started out reading fanfiction somewhere in 2011 or 2012 on fanfiction.net. I first found the site through a YouTube video depicting an alternate POV for New Moon (yes, I guess I was that teenager, gosh, this is kind of embarrassing) and then spent a lot of time reading Harry Potter fics. I was kind of reluctant to read Hunger Games fics initially but found some really good ones with time, but it wasn't really my main fandom. I started reading again during Covid as I had more time to do so and that's when I went back to the series. I always had a lot of ideas that I'd love to write but never really felt I had the time, language skills or writing ability to do so. I only started this year, initially as a writing exercise to get over blank page anxiety as I was writing a thesis after some years away from grad school. A lot of great fics inspired me. But, in the end, the idea that if you can't find what you want to read as a fanfic reader, sometimes the best answer is to write it yourself is what gave me the push to actually start posting.
What’s your personal favorite of your works?
I think my favorite work is Minutes to Midnight. It's written as Finnick's memoirs in an AU where he survived the war. I really enjoy the very reflective style this allows and how much thought and room it gives for him developing his thoughts on the war, society, and his experiences as a Victor. Furthermore, I felt that it was an opportunity to explore the nuclear aspects of the war between the Capitol and District Thirteen that are hinted at in Mockingjay by Boggs and the existence of Nuclear History lessons for the refugees from Twelve... So I made Finnick a spy! Also, the fact this is him reflecting on the past and choosing how to present himself to Panem after a decade of silence allows for some of his more manipulative side to shine through without ever being obvious and I love playing with that. It's a WIP and one I'm having a hard time with when it comes to Chapter 4 right now, but it's a story I deeply love. The first chapter is my favorite piece of writing that I've posted so far.
Tell us about your favorite relationship (of any kind) in the series. Why is it your favorite?
I can't pick just one! Obviously, Odesta is a must, but I love Finnick's relationship with Mags. I think there is a lot of complexity to be explored there, a lot of love, but also some very heavy topics... Also, I think that Finnick's friendship with Johanna is very interesting but I haven't explored it much yet myself, there are definitely some fics out there that I've loved though! Finally, and leaving Finnick behind a bit, I'm really intrigued by Gale and Katniss' friendship, and feel there is a lot that could have been done with it and I do feel SC did us dirty when it comes to them by turning that into a potential romance...
Anyone you would like to shout out in the fandom?
Now that I'm actually involved in fandom, I've greatly enjoyed discussing the series with @ongreenergrasses who has some really well thought out takes on the series and the aspects that interest me, also I just adore their stories. When working on my own worldbuilding for District Four, I keep coming back to stories by @the-sun-and-the-sea (mdr_24601 on AO3) whose stories and OC's I really love. More recently, I've taken great joy in reading @aliceinthinkland 's WIP, Head Above Water and also recommend her one-shot Pull no Punches (explicit), I feel she's got a great grasp on the trafficking and its impact on Finnick!
If we’re being honest, most of us study our favourite character less like an entomologist studies a bug and more like an astronomer studies a distant star: drawing complicated inferences from extremely limited data, then getting tetchy about it when somebody else draws incompatible but equally well-supported inferences from the same data because it’s the fucking principle of the thing.
Yeah, I know Katniss’s choice between Peeta and Gale at the end of thg was supposed to represent the choice between peace and life vs. war and death, but like…did a brown, marginalized, disenfranchised and traumatized boy have to be the metaphor for rage and war and violence? And did a romance + nuclear family with a white boy have to be the metaphor for true peace and happiness?
Yeah no, I’m not done talking about body doubles. Not only does their execution make no logical sense whatsoever, but they have also produced the most ableist takes I have ever seen.
And when I say their execution, what I mean is; How are body doubles, from the Capitol’s perspective, more resource efficient and convenient than either:
1) Making up a story for why a tribute died*, reaping another tribute, and then creating and enforcing stricter safety protocol to avoid as many accidental pre-Games deaths in the future as possible.
*Let’s use Louella as an example. Here’s what I’d have the Capitol say about her death: “Louella didn’t follow the rules and that’s why she fell off the chariot. This is why you follow our rules. If you break them, you die like she did and we reap someone else in your place.” Additionally, they’d also use this as an opportunity to spread pro-Capitol propaganda by saying something like: “This is why you need our laws. Without our laws and control, chaos will ensue. Accidental deaths, like hers, will happen at a much greater scale if you don’t listen to us.” But obviously the story could change based on the circumstances.
2) Building androids that can be programmed to look and act exactly how the Capitol wants: preforming to their instruction in the pre-Games, dying in the bloodbath, and then rebuilt when necessary. They’d still have to be decommissioned eventually, of course, but you can’t tell me this isn’t more economically efficient than kidnapping a child, preforming cosmetic surgery on them, drugging them, and then controlling them with an earpiece (which in SotR, doesn’t even really work, by the way).
Now, obviously, unprecedented things do happen sometimes, regardless of in-place safety procedures. But safety procedures have time and time again proven to minimize risk. The Capitol government do not want to (or at least, they wouldn’t want to in a realistic setting) have to do all this extra work, regardless of which failsafe they would hypothetically choose. They (realistically would) want the machine to run smoothly.
In the case of the former failsafe, the Capitol would not want to come up with fake stories that sound less believable every time they make up a new one, and call emergency reapings every other year or so. Such an obvious hole in the system limits their threat as a governing body.
In the case of the latter failsafe, the Capitol would not want to waste Capitol talent (or even the exploited talent of a victor, which could be better used elsewhere) and resources on rebuilding androids every year or other year—as much as I do think it’s more realistic to how the body double system is executed in canon.
Failsafes exist for a reason and need to exist in any system, but the Capitol (realistically, would) not want to have to use them, if at all possible. There are, as I mentioned, obvious problems that emerge if either failsafe is relied on too much that would tarnish the Capitol’s public image. Improving safety procedures (like oh, I don’t know, not allowing FIREWORKS in an arena full of LIVE HORSES/having better security to make sure someone doesn’t sneak one in) should be the priority. The number of accidental pre-Games deaths should decrease significantly over time. By the 50th Games, they should be astronomically rare.
See that? I got paid absolutely nothing and I came up with two ideas that make way more logical sense than the canonical execution of body doubles.
I also think that the strength gap is at least partially manufactured women would in fact be stronger overall if little girls were encouraged to do physically taxing games and activities and eat their fill while they’re growing vs having to constantly diet and be sedentary indoors (or god forbid do intense cardio while under-eating). The amount of adult women honestly afraid to lift weights bc they think they’ll get bulky as though bulking isn’t a full time job that athletes have to spend all their time on and anyone on earth gets shredded from just using their adult muscles for their intended purpose, girl your bone density 🥀
if you say women are intentionally nerfed from birth in 2026 people look at you like you’re insane and start condescendingly telling you about how women are just better at different things (but not during their periods haha) but this was a completely basic feminist talking point I grew up with like “girls can do it too! [shot of little girls climbing and running with boys]” nickelodeon commercial tier base level I hate it how is everyone suddenly dumber than the average 7 year old
I'm going to answer this specifically for thg if that's ok
For me, there's a really specific way that the victors talk to each other and think about the world. It's less about the content of what they're saying (obviously that will depend on the story) and more about how they do it. Victors can't just go around saying whatever they want!! They are very public figures, they are always being watched, and speaking badly about the government is not allowed. They should have some understanding of this constantly in the back of their mind imo.
I guess the pet peeve is when victors show no restraint with what they're saying. I love dialogue that is multilayered, where they're saying something but meaning something else, or when there's something implied in the stuff they don't say, but I don't expect everyone to write this way necessarily. But if you're going to have the victors speak freely, establish some in-universe reason why they're able to do that. I know a popular one is going on the roof of the Training Center because it's harder to hear over the wind. Another one is d4 characters going out on boats because the houses in Victor's Village are bugged.
I also think that some characters (esp like Finnick) don't speak as freely because they don't want to confront the reality of their situation. It's less painful to lie, laugh it off, or change the subject. So I want those moments of honesty and bluntness to be impactful and rare because the character is choosing to face what they're feeling.
I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this as well!
Crispus is obviously more pleasant to work with than his predecessor, but if I were to ask the older mentors what era of the Games was the most tolerable overall, what would they say?
I think Mags and Woof (and the OCs Helen, Sawyer, Salva) would tell you that the most tolerable era was HG 11-20.
canonically, we know snow was still building power at this point, and it’s reasonable to theorize that the some form of the zoo treatment still existed so while the experience of being kept in a cage and forced to relieve the worst trauma of your life every year is horrific, I would argue it’s a different form of trauma than the later victors endured. Both are terrible, but the blunt violence of the early years coupled with the lack of a volunteer culture likely made the trauma easier to bear.
if I were Mags or Woof, I would also be in disbelief that this was happening year after year and have some semblance of hope that this was temporary. Haymitchs cohort of victors assumes the system will exist in perpetuity unless direct action is taken.
this is a really excellent question, and someday I’d love to read/ write more about that era someday
One of the things that my mind just straight up rejects from THG canon is these supposed magic plants that can bring people out of a catatonic state. There is evidence of certain natural supplements treating mild to moderate depression, but when it comes to psychotic symptoms, there isn't a natural equivalent.
This was put in, I believe, to make it so that it wouldn't appear Katniss was leaving Prim to have to take care of a catatonic mother when she risked killing herself at various points in all three books (which is a cop-out for making Katniss decide between priorities in high-risk situations).
But to me, giving Mrs. Everdeen these magic plants that are meant to cure her catatonia (and without psychotherapy) is erasing the fact that despite all that healers who rely on natural remedies can do, there are still limitations to how much you can do without medical advancements. Limitations that Mrs. Everdeen and others in D12 who need it were not given access to because of the oppression they faced. SC does show the limits in physical medicine, but inventing these magic plants for psychiatric concerns minimizes the symptoms of severe mental illness and the complexity of these cases.
Game companies hate emulation, but none of them seem to understand that a lot of us would just buy ROMs from them directly if we could. I don't want a fifth remake of Final Fantasy IV, I want to pay five bucks for the 3MB file you already made bank with thirty years ago. Nobody who wants to play something for the purpose of retro gaming is going to consider a $40 remake as the alternative option, and we're certainly not going to let the original dissappear. They're crying about opportunity cost for a product they're not even selling.
op i know you're probably talking about like, video games, etc, but this is also critical for research science - my lab has so much abandonware, either because the company's out of business, or the company decided to not maintain it, and it's a fucking nightmare. we have two windows 95 computers that are CRITICAL for performing experiments/data analysis because the software needed is abandonware. one of the main roles for a guy in my lab is to maintain these little dinosaurs because if they go out, we lose access to ~20 years of raw data for research. part of why is that these companies also make their own file types, and make it difficult-to-impossible to convert those file types without their specific software. by habit, i convert all research files to more generic versions (txt, pdf, tif, etc) so that i minimize risk of losing my shit, but some stuff can't be converted.
for example, we have a microscope that is perfectly functional, good microscope, but its software is abandonware because the company refused to maintain it. the company is still in business, still makes essentially the exact same software, but they made all of the old tech incompatible with new software to force people to buy the new microscope tech. it would cost a quarter million dollars to replace this microscope. this perfectly good microscope.
so like, i know a lot of people look at the original post here and go "well op just wants old video games to play" (which is valid! games companies should not be able to push shit to abandonware and then close it off) but also this is critical for like. biomedical research. if y'all had any idea how much basic infrastructure built on science relies on shit that is technically abandonware, you would probably be horrified.
When I worked for the government a few years ago, one of the offices I was in charge of managing for their network, security, and IT systems was the nuclear task response office, this is the office that is in charge of toxic cleanups, nuclear fallout (if such a thing ever happened), and more.
They required having tech from the past sixty years ready at a moments notice (if X fails, try Y, then Z, etc). A lot of the older digital methods are all abandonware, sitting on computers developed in 1991 because they couldn't figure out how to safely transfer or migrate them to newer hardware (or even knew they had! found a server from '95 at the back of a closet somehow still running! connected to a powerstrip from '89! I kept the powerstrip, it's so chunky.)
One of my favorite jobs was figuring out how to get this software that had virtually no documentation remaining (likely buried in the office, but I never found it), or instructions, or really anything to a modern, more resilient, system. The company went out of business in '93, and the only known developer I could track down was in a retirement home.
I did eventually shift it over to run in a container/emulator for DOS, but it was a nightmare (one I loved) that took me months of hacking things together to figure out how it all went together.
Abandonware, the source code, the documentation, the IP, all of it, should be legally required to be disclosed, released, and submitted to public and government archives after either 12 years after first release, and/or upon dissolution. Until that happens, this entire era is likely going to be referred to as the digital dark age. Where everything was once online and available, but where nearly all of it will be knowingly lost.
As someone who grew up bilingual and has spent years watching fiction handle this with the grace of a person trying to parallel park a cruise ship: please. i am asking nicely. stop phonetically spelling out accents in dialogue. stop having your multilingual character "think in english." and stop treating languages as cute flavour when they're actually load-bearing walls. let me explain:
⊹ Phonetic accent spelling-- "ze said zis," "I canna doo eet," "ees very 'ot"--does not convey an accent. it conveys that you find the accent hard to read and mildly comedic. actual accents are not misspellings. they are specific music, rhythm, stress patterns, vowel shapes that cannot be represented in text that way. what conveys accent is word order, idiom, the things a speaker reaches for. A character who says "it doesn't matter, leave it" and a character who says "never mind, let it go" are from different places. use that. not the apostrophes.
⊹ Multilingual people do not experience their languages as separate filing cabinets they access one at a time. languages blur and overlap and interfere with each other in beautiful ways. When you're tired you reach for the word from the other language because it's closer. when you're emotional you revert to your first language because it's where your feelings actually live. when you're angry you swear in the language you learned swearing in. when you're tender you use the diminutives and endearments that don't translate. your bilingual character's language choice in every scene is characterisation. use it as such.
⊹ the thing about not having a word for something is real and it matters. Every language has concepts the others can't carry cleanly. the grief for something you never had. the specific quality of afternoon light. the feeling of wanting to be home while you're already there. when your character encounters something their language doesn't have a word for, they don't just find a workaround, they feel the gap. they feel slightly untranslatable. multilingual people live with the knowledge that some part of who they are exists only in one language and cannot be fully brought across.
⊹ Language loss is grief and almost no one writes it. immigrants who stop speaking their first language regularly lose fluency within a generation, not the language itself but the ease of it, the poetry of it, the ability to joke in it. your character might understand everything their grandmother says and be unable to reply with the same grace. they reach for a word and find a hole. they dream in a language they can no longer speak fluently while awake. the untended first language going quiet is a whole kind of mourning and fiction almost never touches it.
I turn to Rue's family. “But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she'll always be with me. Everything beautiful brings her to mind. I see her in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow by my house. I see her in the mockingjays that sing in the trees. But most of all, I see her in my sister, Prim.” My voice is undependable, but I am almost finished. “Thank you for your children.” I raise my chin to address the crowd. “And thank you all for the bread.” — Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
When odesta is ur fav thg ship yet so many of their fics are either background for everlark (no shade i love everlark too) or its some slop that infantilizes and dumbs down annie even tho supplementary thg material has clearly established district 4 produced strong tributes even before it became a career district so she’s def not some twig weakling
I absolutely loved your post about Lavinia, to the point I started writing a fic about her (no promises it will ever leave the vault of wips), do you have any further thoughts about her and the boy that was with her ?
After rereading the first book, I am very intrigued by the way she shows A LOT of kindness towards Katniss note prior to the Games and in the hospital afterwards, I mean, she is the one to tell her that Peeta survived!!
Very curious about any further thoughts you might’ve about our red headed Avox girl!
(Manifesting that it makes it out of the wips vault!)
She's interesting! I always come back to the fact that she and the mysterious boy last several days on the run from the Capitol to 13. We know from Katniss's prep team that the average Capitol is not going to be able to do that.
I also reflect on the fact that she and Darius (who are only tangentially related to Peeta) get tortured in front of him. Later, when real or not real starts, Boggs is the only one who knows Lavinia and Darius's actual fate, meaning they were discussed at a high-level briefing.
My theory is that Lavinia was likely a long-term rebel who was just nice to Katniss because kindness is decency, and decency is a form of rebellion. Then the 75th happens, and she doesn't make it.
I'd love to see more of her in the fandom (and avox culture)
