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[micahrats]

I love how the general consensus on Plutarch is “I can’t really form an opinion on him” - babes, your ‘lack’ of opinion is, in itself, an opinion that Susanne Collins wants you to experience.

Plutarch isn’t painted in jarringly simple shades of black and white, he isn’t a representative of ultimate good or quintessential evil, he’s neither blindingly pure nor irredeemably corrupt - his morality is questionable, the trappings of his colours grey.

Plutarch is a delicious example of a morally ambiguous character in an age where such a thing can barely exist.

He’s a tireless rebel, mastermind of an underground organisation that risks everything for a seemingly unachievable goal yet he buys his time with the blood of innocent children. He’s an invaluable key to the success of the rebellion yet he airs the gruesome bombings live, severing the putrid cord of war at once. And next to his name, Panem’s history books will bear no mention of the countless souls that were killed, unwittingly or otherwise, by his hand or his word, for the cause of the rebellion or the order of the Capitol.

If there’s one character Suzanne Collins’ done consistently right, it’s Plutarch. And I thank her for it because aren’t we all fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction

[tryingssss]

i don't like "katniss and effie getting involved into hunger games because of their sisters" parallel, as someone once said it's not at all the same to help your sister from getting bad grade or whatever by dressing up the kids for slaughter, and going into the arena to give your life instead of your sister's in the slaughter

[katnissmellarkkk]

peeta : suffered an abusive childhood, low self-esteem, survived two hunger games, was willing to die multiple times throughout the series, lost his leg, was captured and tortured by the president and his men, his entire family died, lost his entire memory/sense of self, practically had nothing left to live for.

gale : lost his father at thirteen, had to risk his life every day to provide for his mother and all his younger siblings, watched the genocide of his people and was powerless to stop it, was whipped publicly until he almost bled out and died, was manipulated and exploited by a president who saw his trauma as a weapon she could use.

people who zero reading comprehension : “those boys only cared about katniss! she had a revolution to lead and they just dragged her down and focused only on kissing! the books would have been more nuanced without romance!”

[rosegardeninwinter]

I think Donald Sutherland was really onto something when he said that Snow adores Katniss in a strange way, and she is a kind of window to what he could have been, and I would go further and propose he feels similarly about all four victors.

He loves their spoken and unspoken understandings, the messages he sends them (milk for Haymitch, roses for Katniss). He wants to possess them (golden cage for Haymitch, the wedding clothes, making Peeta his wartime mouthpiece). There’s a kind of hideous affection or intimacy to all of it. It’s why he laughs when Katniss assassinates Coin. That’s his (never his) clever girl. And it all begins with Lucy Gray, the ghost girl he loved, but not enough.

It’s like the mockingjays. He hates them to a degree that it becomes an obsession.

It’s such a deliciously twisted take on a villain.

[redstonedust]

it turns out a lot of people are actually on the same page about whether or not they'd work if they didn't have to earn money, we just all seem to have wildly different definitions of what counts as work. i'll see one person say "of course i would, i'd still want to create art and volunteer in my local community" and another say "hell no i wouldn't, i'd quit work and just create art and volunteer in my local community" and then they look at eachother like they said something incomprehensible.

[grison-in-space]

*collapsed in laughter* yes, this exactly. Can you imagine? I'd tell my boss the study the grant people were shitty about was on again, I'd relax, and I'd get to get on with being a scientist without being so fucking scared and tired all the time.

Next question.

[crazy-pages]

I'd probably work fewer hours and also get more done at my research job if I had a robust universal basic income to fall back on, and I could just push back against the asinine whims of my department manager more freely.

[firebirdeternal]

ive realized in the last few years that I'm actually the type of person that enjoys working retail. Short social interactions with a script like flow but room to be silly and make people laugh, predictable schedule and tasks, it's great. I'd love to keep doing it, I'd just prefer not feeling constantly stressed and like I have a financial gun to my head. I'd like the freedom and security to push my employer for better treatment without the threat of death or poverty in response.

[benepla-deactivated20180521]

male entitlement in academic spaces is so boring. can’t tell you how many times i’ve been in a class and a girl gives a short, insightful analysis, and then a dude raises his hand and says “jumping off of that…” then says literally the same thing she said but longer and worse.

[zurizaldun-deactivated20241104]

I hate to be that guy, but it doesn’t just happen to women. The assholes who do that will do that to anyone who’s analysis isn’t sufficiently complex and long winded for them. 

Been done to me by people of both genders. 

Also I have been guilty of doing this, so I apologize. Because I was overly excited and just couldn’t wait to talk…. yeah. 

(Nothing is ever clear cut eh….) 

[benepla-deactivated20180521]

dude.

[221cbakerstreet]

this is art

[korra-of-the-watertribe]

#a fun fact about tumblr is that if you dare to complain about a mundanely frustrating type of person#that exact type of person will appear in your notes as if summoned via a ouija board

[corasparasol]

The Hunger Games feel so needlessly risky in the Capitol’s control of the districts, especially given that they’re ultimately a huge part of what brings down the entire system in the end.

But then TBOSAS shows us that the Hunger Games are where a young Coriolanus Snow first got to experience the power and control he’d always felt entitled to by birthright. He’s shown to be resentful of the new world order post war, and that he has so little power that he has to suck up to people like the Plinths to get something as basic as his education.

He gets immense satisfaction from being the one to tip the odds in Lucy Gray’s favour, and to be the one who (in his mind especially) determines her fate in the arena. This wild girl who doesn’t submit to the Capitol or districts, who values freedom and agency above all else has to rely on him to survive.

I fully believe that’s a huge part of why he continues the games, despite constantly running into opposition for its brutality. He fundamentally believes everyone gets the same pleasure and comfort from exercising control of others, and therefore can only interpret hesitation or opposition to the games as an active attempt to rebel against the Capitol

[winterlorn]

Like so many things parents do out of loving solicitude, putting pressure on girls to lose weight has no good outcomes and a lot of bad ones. It has repeatedly been shown to leave children more at risk of body dissatisfaction, excessive worry about weight, depression, bingeing and disordered eating. In one study, nearly a third of fifteen-year-old girls whose mothers encouraged them to lose weight engaged in extreme weight-control behaviors—including laxatives, vomiting, skipping meals, smoking as a meal substitute and diet pills—as against just 5 per cent of girls whose mothers did not encourage them to diet. There are similar consequences from family 'weight teasing' of overweight girls. One study found that girls who were teased 'very often' for being chubby by relatives were far more likely to resort to binge eating than those with more courteous families. Even if this doesn't deter you from hinting to your daughter to slim down, consider this: it probably won't work. Having parents pressure an overweight child to diet left them with a higher risk of being overweight after five years.

First Bite, Bee Wilson

[thinfatfit]

My ethics professor once told our class that society justifies hating fat people by saying they overburden the healthcare system but no one uses that excuse to hate high level athletes who also disproportionately use the healthcare system

[parentheticalaside]

They don’t even need to be high-level. Active people who are just regular folks are some of the most expensive people for health care systems. When I lived in Boulder, a professor pointed out that the city had some of the highest orthopedic costs in the country, just from the bicyclists, runners and joggers, hikers, mountain climbers and others breaking bones during recreational pursuits.

[fred-the-dinosaur]

not to mention it is impossible to overburden a health system, given that its entire purpose is to provide care proportionately to those who need it. From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. More health issues, more healthcare.

The only way to overburden a health system is to provide poor or restricted enough healthcare that it causes more health problems due to neglect and malpractice. Doctors neglecting fat people into health crises creates far more of a burden on health services than fat people existing does.

[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.

[esmethesciencewitch-deactivated]

Revolutionary parenting hack:

If your child is in the middle of some activity and clearly enjoying it (and wasn't supposed to be doing something else instead), DO NOT interrupt them and have them do chores that will "only take 5 minutes or so!"

You haven't asked them to do anything before they got out the Legos, started reading a chapter of their book or painting the complicated picture, or began playing their video game.

As a result of being repeatedly interrupted, they will learn that their presence in public space of the household=availability to do chores, so they will make themselves scarce so you can't find them and order them around. They will also become suspicious of your efforts to engage with them as they play, as they've learned that these pleasantries are a prelude to "Take out the trash", or "move your boots and vacuum the entryway, there's dirt everywhere ".

"But I need my children to help me around the house!", I hear you cry. I understand. Children should not be treated like royalty and left to their own devices 24/7.

An alternative is to give the kids a clearly delineated chore chart and stick to it, resisting the urge to add anything to it. There are some chores that are easier and quicker with two people, though. A (in my opinion) even better option is to divide the child's day into "on-duty" and "off-duty " time. When they're on-duty, you can interrupt them as before, but you have *consulted with your child beforehand * and they understand that during this time they can relax, but they must be ready to jump in and lend a hand.

That way they won't start trying to level up in their video game or break out the clay and make stuff. When they are off-duty, you leave them alone and their only responsibilities are to clean up whatever mess they make at the end of this time.

Also, if they are tearing around the house or whining about being bored, don't make them do chores so they will "have something to do"; this could make the child conflate extra chores with punishment for whining and make them reluctant to help out when you randomly tell them to at other times because they might think they're being punished but they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY DID. And IMO children should see chores as things everyone has to do no matter what, not punishments.

I may seem unqualified to offer parenting advice as I have no kids, but I was talking with my dad today and he said: "I wish you didn't hide from us in your room so much, but every time your mom walked by she'd give you a chore to do, so I can't blame you for that." A kid who hides in their room to play has an entirely different relationship to the family than the child who sprawls on the livingroom floor and excitedly describes the city they are building out of Legos.

And today, in times of Covid I play a complicated game of hide-and-seek with my mother as I try to do my online coding homework and apply for jobs. I am now attempting to turn my bedroom into my own tiny office because if I work in our home office, she'll find me and go "I can't attach this file to my email," and so on.

Children *have* to obey their parents when they are young. But true respect and honoring collective responsibilities is stronger than forced obedience. If you demonstrate to your children that you respect them and their time, they will reciprocate.

[esmethesciencewitch-deactivated]

Tl;dr if your child is "always hiding in their room", there is a reason for it and setting a regular routine and boundaries will benefit both of you in the long run.

[sevastiel]

I still can't focus in public spaces for this precise reason. If I'm being observed, my brain simply won't let me get comfortable doing Anything, because it STILL expects to be interrupted.

[cwicseolfor]

This will cost your kid thousands in therapy or years of relationship stress.

And it’s ten thousand times worse if they have ADHD.

[crazy-pages]

Learning how to have a healthy relationship with free time is also a skill. It's a muscle too, it is a thing we develop and maintain. If you don't ever give your child a free time, genuine free time not on call time, they will never develop it.

[rosegardeninwinter]

Katniss:

Haymitch:

Coriolanus:

[triassictriserratops]

there's something very sneaky about the fact that Suzanne Collins specifically chooses Prim to be the character that says this to Katniss, in these exact words. Earlier in the book, Finnick says something on a similar vein to Katniss and it would have made just as much sense for him to reiterate the idea. But having Prim, instead, convey the message that killing Peeta is the only way left to hurt Katniss - diabolical of Suzanne. Because, yes, that WOULD be true. If Snow wasn't the only enemy. If there wasn't the other side of the coin. Katniss, Prim, and everyone else presume that the only person left that can be used against Katniss is Peeta. But that's not true and Coin knows it. She knows that she has the only other person she can truly hurt Katniss with - Prim.

[thesmileykate]

in the first Games, the shift from "oh, I don't care if you see me" when peeta is teasing about being comfortable naked in front of katniss to the soft, whispery "all right" when she kisses him is so... peeta.

because on the one hand, peeta is the kind of boy who finds katniss’s discomfort with overt sexualness funny and wants to egg her on. especially if it might be entertaining for the cameras.

but on the other hand, he’s also the kind of boy who finds genuine connection (and what seems like some sort of desire from his crush) scary. and unfamiliar.

because when he’s joking around, he doesn’t have to think about the reality of his feelings. it’s all a show. all for the cameras. and he’s a practiced performer.

but now that she’s kissed him… now it almost seems real.

it makes this boy, who’s always ready with a comeback, suddenly at a loss for words.

[agentmilayawithshield]

“No, [...] we need someone exactly like you.”

"Just luckier?"

[rosegardeninwinter]

I am so fully convinced that Peeta is Lucy Gray but luckier just as much as Katniss is Haymitch but luckier … this makes so, so much sense to me, and I yearn for more people to draw this parallel in their edits/art/analysis, etc. Bless you, op.

[ella467c]

I just realised that Haymitch was the last person to be reaped for the Hunger Games just as he promised, it was simply 25 years later than he intended.

[evermarch]

i have so much more to say on asterid march everdeen but for now i will leave you with the implications of how she wore her hair in one long braid down her back as her signature style. so. yeah