Hii I know you’re super critical of SOTR & wanted to know how you thought of Wiress in that book?? She’s one of my favorite characters and I would really appreciate your honest opinion of her, both in and out of SOTR!! Thanks
Oooh, I love this one! I'll start off by saying I already had some HCs of her before Sunrise that were directly contradicted and that I didn't really love, but we might not get into those. I haven't decided. (all of these gripes are w/ the plot as it stands, I could rant about the plot itself for hours but I won't)
Anyways, the good:
I really liked the concept of her arena and how she won. That 'I knew if I was going towards him, I was avoiding him' (paraphrased) about her final "fight" was lowkey haunting?? I'm not someone who ever considered this truly 'fake' arenas before Sunrise came out (the most man-made arena in my fics/lore were abandonned cities, malls, etc, never truly fabricated settings, if that makes sense).
I've always liked her, her dynamic w/ Beetee (never shipped them but we all know I'm a sucker for codependency :) ), and despite being a watered-down version of herself in Sunrise, I still love her.
Her inclusion in Catching Fire from start to finish was gold. Being uber shy and attached to Beetee, we stan. Figuring out the arena before anyone else? Love. Going out like a legend even if the narrative glosses over it (pun intended) and my two favs (Cashmere and Gloss) with an incredible amount of disrespect? Less love.
I will never forget her clapping for Katniss after her shooting show-off scene. What a supportive and probably-socially-inept queen. (I would like it noted that she also manages to get Enobaria to smile during that scene and that should be considered impressive bc, come on, it's En)
The actress (Amanda Plummer) is literal perfect casting. I love her and I love what she brought to Wiress.
The neutral:
she's a good character. But, then again, literally everyone in Sunrise is if they aren't Careers or Snow himself...so that's not saying much. She was honestly pretty bland in Sunrise (again, basically everyone was) which took away from what could've been a very interesting dive into the differences between D3 and D12, a Victor vs a tribute, an 'intellectual' vs a rascal, etc. But, as it stands, she was just nice, boring, and most importantly *there*
She generally had a lot more potential than what was delivered. And what was delivered, like with most of the book, was a very basic interpretation of a very rigid good vs evil 'conversation.' Nuance? Who is she. I'm not saying Wiress needed to kill someone in her arena to be nuanced but I will say that having Haymitch be won over by her largely bc she had no kill count and that 'goodness' in her never be questioned even once (again, she's Mentoring for ANOTHER District, why can't we play with her being a two-timer or jeopardizing D12??) is just...boring.
The bad:
she never got a last name?? The fucking what??
honestly, I hated her being the Mentor for D12. Period. I think her having been Mentoring just in general and having a decent crossover w/ D12's tributes/Haymitch could've made sense on its own. After all, we have a contrived reason for Haymitch to talk to Beetee in training of all places on top of all of the idiotic and way-too-obvious traitor talks afterwards... Having Panem's newest Victor Mentoring a random District's tributes just doesn't work, imo. A lot of people argue that it's 'a punishment' for how she outwitted the Gamemakers in her arena but, like, she could just do a poor job Mentoring for D12? Sabotage them? Not get attached? That feels remarkably easier than, idk, forcing her to Mentor kids she grew up with and would probably have literally any attachment to...and I'll die on that hill.
Having her in Sunrise, like with a lot of additions, takes away from the tone of the prior-written but following-chronologically books. It implies a closeness we don't see between her and Haymitch and raises questions as to why that wouldn't have come up (but so do a lot of things *cough cough* Burdock and Asterid *cough*).
Having her tortured at the end of Sunrise, especially, does a disservice to what seemed to be her previously-established character traits. Now, instead of being a high-key weirdo who's likely developmentally stunted in favor of being a literal genius, she's just an average genius who got tortured for basically very little reason and to no one's benefit, bc the plot demanded it. Idk, it just doesn't sit right with me.
Her being in the book at Haymitch's Mentor not only did her a disservice, and now we're getting into HC and preference territory, but it also was a disservice to what Sunrise could've been about: actual propoganda, disillusionment, Victor-comraderie, and a brewing rebellion (instead of hamfisted messaging, black and white evil, 2D goodness, an honestly insultingly open rebellion, and torture porn for the sake of it)... I'm not saying it had to be Lyme but we were severely lacking any sort of Career/Career-Victor POV of note and with how little Susanne actually did with Wiress (and less w/ Mags, tbh) I could've done without either.
Hopefully I covered enough but please feel free to comment/ask questions at will! I love talking about these 'minor' characters, clearly! lol
