I think one of the most overlooked scenes in Mockingjay (specifically in the book) is the scene after the bombing when they go out of the wreckage to do the propo.
Katniss has just learned what Snow is doing to Peeta, she's seen him beaten and bloody, and heard him screaming in pain on live television, and she's already aching at his absence. She is barely hanging on.
I swing my arms to loosen myself up. Place my fists on my hips. Then drop them to my sides. Saliva's filling my mouth at a ridiculous rate and I feel vomit in the back of my throat. I swallow hard and open my lips so I can get the stupid line out and go hide in the woods and -- that's when I start crying. (ch. 11)
I don't know about you, but when I am to this point, crying is an eventuality not just a possibility. She's been holding onto her tears (this level of intensity) and refusing to give the people who don't understand her grief a front row seat to the magnitude of her pain. She's had the conversation with Finnick, she understands now what Snow is doing. She's had the revelation that she did convince Snow, and that gave him her greatest weapon.
Poor Finnick, who's been dying with this knowledge for weeks is watching in real time as his friend is losing her marbles, in the same way that he'd been doing thus far. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be in his shoes watching this.
There's something like a collective sigh of regret from the semicircle of people spread out before me. Because I know this now. Because there will never be a way for me to not know this again. Because, beyond the military disadvantage losing a Mockingjay entials. I am broken.
Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end. The only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he's there, holding me and patting my back. "It's okay. It'll be okay, sweetheart." He sits me on a length of broken marble pillar and keeps an arm around me while I sob. (ch. 11)
THEN the poor girl starts to completely crumble. She blames herself and...
Then I cross some line into hysteria and there's a needle in my arm and the world slips away. (ch. 11)
Finnick, the poor babe, proceeds to lose it after they knock Katniss out. The pair of them are a complete and total mess. AND taking Sunrise on the Reaping into account here, also, Haymitch never really got Lenore Dove back, she was dangled and then ripped away from him, too. He knows what Katniss is feeling, perhaps better than she knows herself.
I don't know, but for the first time in my Hunger Games fandom life...I cried reading this part of the book. I'm a sympathy cryer, so if someone else is losing it, I do too. This goes for movies and tv shows also. She is completely heartbroken, and I'm heartbroken for her.
jacobvanloon
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
blakekathryn
