I think at this point everyone has different opinions on each of the Districts and honestly I love that. It's so fun to read people's thoughts.
(I'm sure I'm not the first person to think or say this but) I have a theory on why District One/Two win so many of the games beyond just being Volunteers in a game full of people going in blind.
It's something I've thought heavily about and even incorporated into my own fanfics.
But District One, I think, they win by raising their volunteers to be pretty. They train them to fight, yes, but I think they pull sponsors by making their kids "sexy." In both the book and movie, Glimmer is heavily sexualized. In the book, she's in a sheer gown that shows everything. In the movie, they tone it down but still show quite a bit of her body during the interview. Even the two victors we get to hear a little more about (Cashmere and Gloss) are mentioned to be pretty. Despite being a sibling duo, they're incredibly popular within the Capitol.
But even after they get 'popular' they don't turn down their attractiveness. She still dresses pretty with make up and smiles like she's been taught to do. He's still beefy and hot. You would think if they had any bodily autonomy they would start to tone themselves down in order to get away from the sex slavery.
I think sex appeal is what makes them a victor. Literally. People 'sponsor' them in the hopes of getting to fuck them. They get told that these people are who they're indebted to and most likely are forced into sex as a way to 'repay' them. Everyone says if Glimmer had won she would become the next Cashmere. Which is true. But no one points out how this is planned and a tactic that one consistently uses. Once they win they realize how fucked they are. They don't know they shouldn't want to win until it's over. It's too late to back out. Part of why Cashmeres life is devastating is because Gloss knew what was coming and he wanted better for her. But it happened away. And now they're stuck repaying the Capitol with their bodies.
In Two I think they raise fighters. They put all their effort into skill, endurance and survival. Out of all of the districts I think they do the best at giving them a chance. They make sure they send the best trained, the most skilled and the smartest. Clove is such a good example of this. She never missed her target. (Except for when Katniss moved the backpack making her miss). She was brilliant. Cato too. He was strong and a fantastic fighter. They only lost because the story demanded Katniss win. Hell there's so many moments where Katniss almost dies at their hands only to **magically** get away. (Thresh owing her, tracker jacker nest, not seeing her a few feet away) all of it. They weren't stupid meat heads. They were warriors. Children raised to kill.
I think they delbrately send plain victors. They don't want want to send "pretty" kids. They tone down any sort of beauty their tributes have. One of my favorite examples is Enobaria. She's pretty. And I think that's her downfall. It's mentioned in the series that she wins by ripping another tributes throat out with her teeth. (A popular theory is she was raped and used the very last thing she had in order to get away.) But she ends up getting her teeth filed down. While a lot of people think it was the Capitol, I believe it was her mentors. They filed them down, knowing she wouldn't be able to be raped again. I mean, who would have sex with her knowing one wrong move and you could be dead? She can bite your dick off in seconds if she wanted to. (Not to say she doesn't get booked) It would sway a lot of people away. I think much like Haymitch fighting against Katniss's breast implants, her mentors fought to get her teeth sharpened.
If they're able to I believe Two will alter the victors in order to make them less desirable. One plays it up, Two tones it down winning off skill and merit alone. Any sponsors they get isn't driven by sex.
It's why they win so much, and why the other districts have such a hard time getting sponsors.
I also think that District Four, the last of the career pack, has it's own way of creating victors. They send tributes like the rest but I think they do something different from the rest. My own headcanon is that they send orphans. It's fucked up but if I remember correctly they never mention Finnick having family.
I think they take the kids with nowhere else to go and put them in a training center. Whoever scores the best goes that year. Unluckily for Finnick, he was picked at 14. He was attractive, and part of me thinks Mags played into that to give him the advantage, thinking he didn't have family to leverage. It would have been fine, but then Annie happened. They use her as a control tactic.
I also think Finnick is the reason it was a one and done on leaning into the sex appeal. It fucked him over. Annie was pretty too but she wasn't used. (No one has ever said ah yes she's crazy let's just not rape her, fuckwads do it anyways.) But I think Mags learned from her mistake and played Annie down. Made her less pretty like they do in Two.
It's fucked. The entire system is fucked. But I think each 'career' district creates winners any way they can. No one in Four would volunteer they're disillusioned unlike one and two. So why not send the kids who have nothing, no one to come back to? In Two why not train them and maim them after to keep them safer? In One why not make them fuckable to win? They won't understand until its too late?
Maybe I've overthought this. Probably have. Idk. Just a thought.
The more I continue to think about this, the more I want to add on.
Age is a heavy factor in why I think Four uses orphans. Out of all the 'careers', they consistently send in the youngest ones. Hell, even Finnick (a career) was 14 when he first won. It doesn't make sense to me why they wouldn't follow Twos steps and send in older, better, more well trained kids. Part of me wonders if they can't because once they get old enough, they could run or leave the academy. Instead, they send them when they're still too young to survive on their own. When they're most dependent upon the academy for food and resources.
Age is another thing that I find interesting about One's tactic. They also send a certain age group. I'd say from what we see in the books that they are consistently around 16/17 (for the girls) and 18 (for the boys). As we've seen from Finnick, the Capitol likes them young. It's sick but clearly works. They give them the best chance they can by playing into "sex appeal."
In Two, they send the older kids. Part of why I think Two wins the majority of the games is because they do everything they can to give their kids the advantage. Send in the best, the oldest, the most well trained and maim them if need be. I'd say from what we get in books/movies, the boys are consistently 18. Part of me believes that they also pick 18 year old girls. (Although I do think Clove was an exception and was 16. Maybe it's because her actress was so young at the time, only fourteen!!) But I think they send the oldest age they can.
District Three does not volunteer, and yet the victors we see win by being smart.
Beetee won by using wire. He electrocuted his enemies. While we don't get much on Wiress and how she won, it's still very clear how smart she is. Even while melting down and practically nonverbal during Catching Fire, she still manages to tell her allies that the entire arena is a giant ticking clock. She's brilliant. She worked it out.
And the trick we see with the boy from Three in Hunger Games astounds me. This child that is no more than 13/14 has managed to dig up and rebury the landmines while allying himself with the Careers. He made himself valuable to them. He was smart enough to do all that without blowing himself up in addition to manipulating trained killers.
Three wins by sheer brilliance. They are the tech makers, the idea men, the brains behind Panem. It's devastating to see how these brilliant people lose to violence. Cato snapping a scared child's neck just puts it into this weird type of view for me. Being smart is good, it helps create a winner. But even the smart ones died a scared and pointless death.
Both Wiress and the unnamed boy die at a careers hand.
The moment two characters become "platonic besties" or "sibling coded" it becomes a losing battle in Fandom to like what you like. Everyone yells at you because you dont choose to ship things the popular way.
imo the term "walkable" in "walkable cities" should be understood to mean "wheelchair accessible" as well, not just literally "possible to walk in". the act of walking in a city doesn't automatically make it walkable
As an EMT, wheelchair accessibility makes a huge difference in our ability to do the job quick. Most of the people we personally get called for cant make it to the cot themselves so we have to bring it to them.
If theres nothing but stairs and tight narrow turns our options become sheet lift you out or stair chair. Both are physically demanding and always come with risks to the patient and provider.
With a ramp, or elevator or curb cut, it makes it so much easier to just take the cot where we need. You can load and go. Often doing emergency lifts means we waste time getting you to the hospital because theres no other option to get you out.
By creating "short cuts" or other options for those who need it, it often makes life better for everyone around.
rules: answer these questions & tag 9 people you'd like to know better
reading: nothing rn i'm doopit :( but the last book i read was I Who Have Never Known Men and i still think about it a lot!
last series: rewatching arcane >:)
last movie: The Truman Show (there are a lot of really "movieish" movies i haven't seen so i'm trying to catch up)
last song: probably You Lose by Magdalena Bay?? i bought a Mercurial World cd at the cutie music store today and we were listening to it in da car
working on: a diy music benefit show thingy for a local family impacted by ICE, my muscles, i was also working on a lil collage zine that i am hoping to scan and post here Soon
sweet or salty: i am a savory boy through and through
coffee or tea: i need coffee to function but i drink tea just for the love of the game
tagging: i have a lot of new mutuals!! here goes š
Reading: mostly fanfic. Last published book i read was Sunrise on the Reaping. Definitely worth the read.
Last series: rewatching Buffy the Vampire slayer. Its so nostalgic for me.
Last movie: Mike & Nick and Nick & Alice. I like to wash dishes and enjoy comedies. Looked cool and certainly a fun watch.
Last song: Homesick by Noah Kahan. His songs speak to my soul.
Working on: way too many fanfics. I have a million unpublished ones, and a couple im debating on deleting from AO3 until I finish. My docs are an unfinished graveyard.
Sweet or salty: salty all the way.
Coffee or tea: (iced) coffee. The only tea I can tolerate is earl gray.
Damn so I was researching and rereading the OG Hunger Games book for my Clato fic, and honestly Katniss is definitely mentioning Cato A LOT and I know heās like the biggest threat to her survival and stuff but it made me realize why people ship those two so much and I canāt decide if I love or hate it
Part of what makes Catoniss so fun is they're genuinely enemies to lovers. Theyre so ready to kill each other and maybe a little obsessed with the idea of it. But if they ever achieved that....?
Cato in book one sobered up to reality pretty quickly. I think killing Katniss would have some lasting emotional damage. It wouldn't be immediate but years later he would regret it.
Katniss on the other hand would immediately regret it. She was only willing to kill him in self defense. If she hadn't been pushed into it and done it willingly it would have haunted her.
Im obsessed with their flaws. They each look at each other as the enemy, as if the others death would solve everything.
Clato and Everlark are still fantasic. But Catoniss offers an interesting dynamic that isnt played into enough.
We've gotten too comfortable letting them manage our country. We've trusted them for far too long. We've given them the power by not taking it back the moment they stepped over the line.
Respect to China for putting the rabid dogs down the moment it snarled.
There are lots of stories where 14-17 year olds experience their first crushes and first relationships and figure out their sexualities etc., but as soon as there's a story where a 14-17yo realises they are aroace people get mad? Maybe some kids are late bloomers, but some kids are not, and it would have meant the world for me as a teenager to read a book where someone my age was also uninterested in hot people and never got crushes
The first time I learned of asexuality I read it in a book. I wish I could remember what the title was but its been over a decade and it wasn't the greatest book. Like it was actually kinda batshit insane.
But there was a side male character that had an emotional thing with a girl (maybe succubus?) and he had to tell her no, hes just not interested. And little 15 year old me was shocked. It resonated. Ive forgotten almost everything about that book but I will never forget it for showing me that it was okay.
i do not ādelete sentencesā when they start āhindering the plotā i COPY PASTE THEM into a SEPARATE DOC made just for keeping all my USELESS LINES that i will also NEVER USE so therefore i should JUST DELETE THEM but i DONT because id FEEL BAD if i did
I hate when I complain that I am exhausted and people go āoh Iām tired tooā. You do not understand, there is a difference.
Tired is something where you can just take a nap and feel better.
The type of tired I am is fatigued. A type of tired that you canāt sleep off, itās prolonged and makes you feel weighed down and unable to do much. Itās not the same thing and I hate when people think it is. I wish I could sleep it off but I canāt since itās not that type of tired.
okay so just like a fic about both Billy and Eddie flirting with Steve. And Steve realizing that he's gay. But not for Billy or Eddie. But for Jonathan
Billy: homoerotic bullying to get Steve's attention
Eddie: heavily flirting so Steve picks up on it
Steve: wow, this makes me realize that my very good friend Jonathan is kinda....a loser....thats hot
Meanwhile Jonathan is minding his own fucking business and deeply confused why these two dudes have beef with him and doesnt understand Steve's sudden attitude change
Ooooo imagine: Jonathan and Steve being friends when he finds out about Robin telling Steve. Then he begins to pull away hurt by having been called a queer years ago. Steve doesnt understand what changed and eventually it comes up that Robin told Jonathan. Steve confronts Jonathan saying 'are you like homophobic or some shit?' Which is stupid because he knows about Will.
Jonathan is pissed and lets it slip that Steve called him a queer and made his life hell and now hes cool as a cucumber with Robin.
Steve apologizes and is like 'im sorry. I know you aren't. I was just being a dick.'
Jon gives him a look like hes fucking stupid and has to lay it out for him.
