#50x74

[ongreenergrasses]

thg hot take. more pathetic finnick. make him loserish and whimpy. show how his maturity is notably stunted based on the abuse he's suffered! show the toll his mental health has on odesta and the fact that annie is actually more tethered down in terms of her emotions! finnick's annie??? what about annie's finnick?????

📢📢📢 FINNICK’S ANNIE??? WHAT ABOUT ANNIE’S FINNICK??? 📢📢📢

in all sincerity that’s the crux of it to me. that’s the fucking crux of it right there. everyone needs to move past Annie’s stated mental health issues and look at the canon evidence in front of you. one of them is so codependent on the other that the other person being out of reach means that they immediately threaten suicide. one of them is so fixated on the other that they are completely unable to function when the other person is in danger, to the point of spending most of the day sedated out of necessity. one of them is so clingy that they will not physically let go of the other person once they are back within reach. and guess who that’s not!!!!! It’s not Annie!!!

Annie is by Katniss’s own admission, “less mad than unstable” (mj, 225). Katniss, who has almost certainly never met anyone like Annie before, and who is operating entirely off of stereotypes, preconceived notions, and Capitol propaganda, realizes wait. Annie’s maybe not as crazy as everyone says she is. from one meeting with her. and then we see that newly widowed newly pregnant max 23 year old Annie is talking, coherent, and making incredibly difficult decisions by herself AND being as manipulative as she can while she does that, throwing Finnick’s name behind her decision to give it more weight and give herself credibility that she knows she otherwise doesn’t have.

I’m not saying that Finnick’s not smart or calculating, because even in his worst moments he is, but what he is not is functional when Annie’s not there. he could never in a million years take her place at the end of mj if their roles were reversed. he loves her and she’s important to him but additionally, because of all that trauma, he has wrapped up a good chunk of his sense of self and his entire feeling of safety in her. when she is not safe, his entire world fully and completely shatters. she has to be safe, because if she is not, then neither is he. his entire ability for emotional regulation rests on her continued presence. that is an incredibly heavy burden for him to put on her (even though he is not emotionally mature enough to control that) and there is absolutely no way that doesn’t wreak absolute havoc on their relationship.

and also he’s a loser. I’m not the only one who sees this I can’t be. give me a hand here people let’s all chip in and make him more of a loser

[ongreenergrasses]

OH that one ask about haymitch adultifying katniss was bang on. i've been trying to think about exactly how i interpret what exactly it is about his relationship with her that is so Yikes so often and it is that. haymitch places her into this assumed position of competency at every opportunity, and when she, a teenager, does not meet this assumption, he undermines her and digs his heels about it.

i think it's particularly evident when he returns from the rehabilitation facility and immediately shits on her acting ability in mockingjay. you just scraped past death and somehow have time to harp on the fact that the same kid whose trust you subsequently lost cannot do something that is clearly out of her ability? i think haymitch has this sort of mindset due to his own trauma and his premature aging which then determines this ideology that he places onto her.

the idea that because katniss has grown up so fast, she is able to make herself amicable to adult situations, which is often not true of her! it's why i don't like people woobifying haymitch, and why i hate SOTR for doing it vehemently. haymitch is an asshole. he is as much of a shitty person due to trauma & combined age as he is a good person. and we see the assholeisms first. his cruelty and quick jump to immediate shaming is something that stunts him considerably. there is immaturity in his inability to face things with the seriousness it deserves, rather than being cynical! it shows up in their relationship all the time! (see my ceo moment in real time)

ABSOLUTELY and I think crucially (bc I want to go on the record saying this) Haymitch being an asshole is a) a fundamental part of his character and b) doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have the capacity to be a good person. both of those things can and do coexist. and we have to remember as well that Haymitch lost his whole family at 16! he’s relating to Katniss in a way that makes sense for him. he also was adultified as a teenager because there was literally no one else to care for him. that experience is what he knows and the shared commonalities there do bring him and Katniss together, but he doesn’t know how to be a healthy adult for her, at all. his support of her is firmly conditional and he views her as a peer and places borderline unachievable expectations on her, and then is an asshole when she can’t meet them (as you said).

and I hate this thing where people use his trauma to excuse away him being an asshole or try and soften that character trait. people do it with him and some other characters I can mention and I fully hate it. Haymitch is an adult with agency, and even as a 16 year old (in the trilogy ofc) he has strength and agency and charisma. one of his traits EVEN THEN, though, is that he’s an asshole and that’s part of what makes him so compelling imo. stop woobyfing this guy just let him be a dick

[ongreenergrasses]

eric versus finnick in the cuckmaggeddon v2 fic was so angelic i need to hear about the mechanics of it

this got so so fucking long. I wrote this instead of the essay. kill me

the mechanics...the machinations...beloved AO3 user Jajajaja left a brief comment that has had me thinking about this even more

the dichotomy present here between Eric vs Finnick is very simple. Eric is secure in himself, and Finnick is not. obviously there's reasons for this, but Eric (who at this point is married with three children and a fourth on the way – a fun fact I like to throw in whenever I can because I think it slaps) is so secure in himself, his marriage, his sexuality, and mostly, his close friendship with Annie, that he enthusiastically agrees to fuck her while her boyfriend watches, because he is so confident and settled that his approach to this? he and Annie always have a good time together, it'll be a neat new experience, he's really thrilled about the chance to needle Finnick as well, everyone wins.

because critically, Eric does not like Finnick. Eric is a solid 15 years older than Annie (another fun fact I love including) and he really likes her. he worries about her! he wants her to have a good life, and in a slightly overbearing slightly traditionalist man in a heavily patriarchal society way, wants her to be taken care of. Eric of course knows that Finnick's being trafficked, but put all that aside, he does not think that Finnick is capable of giving her what she deserves. (he didn't like him anyway pre Annie, but then the way that Finnick and Annie got together really pissed him off because he's like hey. how's this dipshit getting jealous of you having a good time with me when I'm married and my marriage isn't open emotionally so there's literally zero threat, but more crucially we know he's fucking his best friend (Johanna) on the regular. doesn't add up.) he doesn't like Finnick's jealousy, he doesn't like his insecurity, he doesn't think he's stable enough to take care of Annie and provide for her, and while he supports Annie's decisions, he's like this guy is Bad News. of course, he would never say that to Annie's face because again, he really likes her! but now he gets the opportunity to really piss Finnick off in a way that counts, which he's wanted to do forever, so he's like hell yeah sign me up

Finnick is of course a disaster, as we see throughout the narration, but the lines that I think really sum up the antagonism between them are some of my favorites because it's such a dick thing to think and because Arbos scared everyone silent, no one's caught it yet afaik.

Eric, who’s always liked Annie. Who’s known her, really known her, for longer than Finnick has. Who’s fucked her more than Finnick has. Who got there before Finnick did.

at the end of the day, Finnick does not see Eric as Annie's friend who she loves and who has a good time with her, who is a great support system for her (along with his family!) and helped her establish a routine and find a sense of purpose after her victory, as well as being part of her journey of reconnecting with her body and rediscovering her sense of self that way. Eric is instead a competitor for Annie's attention and her love, because I think Finnick is that special type of misogynist where if Annie wants to sleep with another woman, he is all about that, but the second there is another man in Annie's life in any capacity, he freaks out because he sees it as an encroachment on his space and position in her life and a threat to him. and because he also has a lot of insecurities about how he fits in at all even with the victors, and particularly with how he expresses masculinity, Eric, who's The stereotypical Four guy, makes that insecurity worse (which is also why Eric takes that final parting shot at him and tells him to fuck her like a man). but of course, what makes Arbos possible is that I think Finnick deeply and truly believes that he is not worthy of Annie, that he does not deserve her, and that it's some sort of miracle that she's deciding to be with him. so the creation of a scenario where that belief is validated, he is powerless to change her mind, and all he is allowed to do is watch what is basically porn created for him, and then she ends up choosing him? hottest thing in the world.

on Annie's part, she's just having a good time lol

[ongreenergrasses]

massive hot take but i think that if you are physically incapable of writing something with the respect and gravitas that it deserves, you shouldn't be writing it. or if you aren't at least willing to do some sort of research. e.g. the way people handle the trafficked victors storyline, or anything to do with mental health and addiction. many people try and cut corners and in the end come out with these offensive/ignorant plotlines because they aren't willing to educate themselves. that's weird.

yeah…yeah. I have read work by incredibly talented writers that I loved and had to dnf because of the sheer offensiveness of their work, born not out of anything they’d done that was actively malicious but just coming from complete ignorance around a complex issue such as mental health issues or addiction or sex trafficking. this is not just fanfic btw, published books are even more guilty of this and I am far less forgiving of a published work because so many eyes were on it pre publication than a fanfic. but I can firmly attest to you that if I did not commit to researching the things I portray and constantly learning and growing as a person and a writer, I could be one of those authors. we all can be.

you can always do whatever you want creatively and I will always support that but you cannot ever escape people’s judgments and decisions around your art, and if you do not do research about these topics a) I will most likely see it in the writing. and b) I will then stop reading it. now I am neither that well known nor frankly all that popular, but I am also not the only person who thinks like this. people are obsessed with getting readers (fair!) and the way to get readers in my opinion is to write from the heart and write with knowledge. you don’t have to be perfect but you also I do think need to try a little. if you want to write a story about sex trafficking, go read some survivor testimonials about sex trafficking. if you want to write a story about addiction, go on Reddit and read people’s addiction stories there. there’s lots of resource lists that educate about both of those issues. there’s lots of people willing to educate. the internet is free. there are so many tools at your fingertips!

and again there is no need to be perfect (and people don’t expect perfection!) but I think it is reasonable and fair to expect that some sort of effort be made when you are creatively portraying an event that in reality ruins many people’s lives.

[ongreenergrasses]

for this ask game & odesta (or joannie):

This is the only thing that feels right to her, as awful as it is.

did you read sepulcher. I can’t remember. anyway I got this and said ooh reverse pov of That One Scene. bon appetite everyone

This is the only thing that feels right to her, as awful as it is.

Annie’s a mother. She’s a widow. She’s supposed to be grieving, she’s supposed to be strong but not strong enough to abrade, still delicate and elegant and poised, the face of all the dead victors from Four, the face of the Odair legacy, and above all, take the yawning cavern of loss gracefully.

Instead, she’s getting fucked on her husband’s empty grave by his best friend in the dead of night, hard enough to bleed, and when the thought surfaces, she welcomes it.

Finnick could never make her feel this way.

[ongreenergrasses]

i keep forgetting to say that i like your theme but i've been in & out of here for a bit and have only seen it briefly... very cool and very stylish i'd say

thank you!!! Felt like a change 💜

[ongreenergrasses]

20 for cellulose nitrate 🙂‍↕️

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

so definitely for this one its existence. it’s far and away some of my best smut. obviously it’s beyond unhinged, totally makes sense it gets passed over, but for those who do read it, I think the quality of the work really makes it worthwhile.

outside of that, I think there’s a very, very palpable tension between Finnick and Annie that’s not sexual tension or romantic tension, but the tension of their relationship slowly crumbling and disintegrating. beloved guest commenter yumyum absolutely nailed it when they noted that Annie’s desire in this fic is simply to be close to Finnick. he’s completely closed off to her, and their reality has become so warped that when he allows her that closeness, she is so fully overwhelmed by it that she ignores the reality of it being an incredibly violent and damaging intimacy that physically and emotionally harms both of them. in that verse, I don’t think their relationship lasts. it’s gotten too twisted.

🎬 behind the scenes asks 🎬

[ongreenergrasses]

i'm thinking about YOUR guys today. can you evict them from my thoughts or something

that is so unfortunate, they’ve also exploded in my head and are being completely out of control…I’ll try and collect them. maybe our combined thoughts can make whatever’s happening in my brain with this fic coalesce