#everthorne

[crvngefrvll]

Do you just prefer non-canon ships more or do you actually yearn the existence of choice and autonomy in a character's story where a character's life isn't decided, puppeteered, or tied by the narrative, destiny, or a greater force to just "follow the story" and actually want to see them to CHOOSE to love someone and have the potential of loving someone else NOT ONLY just because "the narrative wrote them to be" ???

[paroxysmalwords]

As a teenager I understood why Gale was more hateful and resentful than Peeta. He did have a tougher upbringing, after all, and his father died in the mines when he was only 13, and he had to assume the position as head of his family and put his name more times in the reaping. On the day of the reaping for the 74th Hunger Games, his name was in 42 times, whereas Peeta, for reference, likely only had five entries.

And yet by the end of the series — by the end of the first book, even — Peeta had arguably gone through worse than Gale. For all his entries, Gale was never actually reaped. Didn’t have to go into the Games, fight for his life in a sadistic, controlled environment, or forced to kill other people. Never lost his leg, a disability no amount of childhood privilege can make up for. Gale never lost his family in a bombing, and was never hijacked and tortured by the Capitol.

Despite it all, Peeta didn’t let any of that turn him bitter, or dull his sincerity and compassion. He didn’t take his anger out on Katniss like Gale, or act huffy when she didn’t immediately love him back. He simply loved her, purely and genuinely and passionately, until she loved him back. Enthusiastically, out of her own free will.

I think it links to a larger argument about privilege and virtue. Suffering is tough, but it’s not inherently virtuous. Peeta was more privileged than Gale, but he was still District, after all, and eligible to be reaped. And he could have chosen to let his horrible experiences plunge him into a rage and anger — and RIGHTFULLY so! — but he chose otherwise. He chose love, and hope.

[jackcebk]

Apparently some ships are tagged pink and give you a new heart animation so I’m tagging a bunch to see which ones work

[graciepasty]

What people don’t understand about Gale and Katniss’ relationship is that their relationship with love is almost the exact same

“Gale thinks Katniss owes him her love” well yes he views relationships as transactional… because that is how all of his relationships have ever functioned. That’s how district 12 works. Katniss teaches him to hunt, he teaches her how to trap. She takes care of his family, he takes care of hers. Katniss functions in the same way except she’s always worrying about paying back her debts rather than cashing them in

Katniss is constantly thinking about paying Peeta back for acts of love or kindness. It goes back to the bread, even. She feels like she owes him and the Mellarks as a whole because he saved her life, it’s a debt she doesn’t feel like she can ever pay back

Love has only been given to both of them when they give something in return. Katniss feels constantly indebted to Peeta for this reason, and Gale thinks him and Katniss are inevitable because if he’s giving her love, her “duty” is to give it back

It is an entitled attitude to have, but Katniss would think the exact same way if she were in Gale’s position and I don’t think people realize that

Katniss grows out of this mindset while Gale never never does and that is their key difference to me

(To be clear I’m not an everthorne truther. Everlark till I die. But I’m SICK of everthornes complexity going under the radar)

[veronasfilm]

none of the main romantic relationships in thg are ‘distractions’ from the true message of the story. i don't know why this is the common consensus among fans of the books who feel weirdly ashamed of enjoying yafiction that uses these tropes to tell a story.

katniss and peeta's relationship is the most obvious and has the most narrative focus. their relationship is central to them surviving the games both in and out of the arena. they defy the rules of the games by being willing to die for each other, something that contradicts the purpouse of the games to strip humans down to their most bare survival instincts and self preservation. it goes as far to say that their love is part of their revolution and healing.

even katniss and gale's relationship, whether you read their love as romantic/platonic/familial, the showing deterioration of their relationship showcases the cost of war and how it has destroyed them both and pushing them towards different ideologies. regardless of whether you see them as an 'endgame' the end of their partnership is something to be mourned.

coriolanus and lucy gray's relationship is a direct foil to katniss/peeta's; where their connection shows the contradictions between the main philosophies in ballad, of the balance between control and freedom. his betrayal of her and her haunting of him shows the erosion of ambition over love and the cost of that.

obviously within the latest book haymitch and lenore dove's romance is the most pure and idyllic form of love compared to the rest as it is meant to be one of the things lost from haymitch through his trauma, yet the love haymitch has cannot be taken away from him fully.

even the background love stories play a key role within the narrative: finnick and annie's story shows how even despite the capitol's commodification their love cannot be bought or sold, arlo and lil are the backdrop to the anthem of the revolution, and asterid & burdock's story establish a fear of loss and love within her mindset from the start.

all this to say, i don't understand why fans are so dismissive of a large aspect of the series while treating collins as some moral entity and act like they're all only meant to be tricks on the reader or that the audience is 'just like the capitol' for focusing on them. i cannot stress that romantic love is not the only form of love important within thg, but whether you interact them in a traditional fandom 'shippy' way or through analysis, they're clearly not meant to be minimized as they are.

[sangrefae]

katniss + gale, a brief history

[mayonaisie]

By removing Madge from the story of the original trilogy we also very much remove Maysilee and Merrilee set up - every time Katniss thinks of home out of the haze of confusion and denial that surrounds Gale/Peeta, Madge is on the list right next to her mother and Prim. Madge is very much one of the people that the capital interviews as Katniss’ ‘friends and family’ before or even after Gale himself. Madge gives her the mockingjay pin, from her aunt, in an act that is sentimental and purposeful - she knows that Maysilee was an original tribute with 12's sole victor of the time. Likely that Katniss’ mother and hers and her aunt were all friends as well. To send Katniss out with the token of a mockingjay is not only because it is something of a symbol of rebellion, because also it will very viscerally remind the people who will remember Maysilee that the hunger games needs to end. The generations of pain passed from mother to daughter and aunt to niece and sister to twin. Haymitch will remember, too, Maysilee at least as a tribute from his district.

Madge, along with Peeta, but more importantly Madge as the pinnacle of it all - serves to also represent the humanisation of the perceived ‘elite’ of the world of the districts. Her name is also in the reaping bowl, she will never have to draw extra slips, she will never starve because of her father’s and her family’s positions of power. But yet still, she dies. She is lost with district 12 and katniss can’t even register that she has lost Madge because of the sheer amount of people and concepts she has to mourn now. But it is so very stark – Madge is brought up every time Katniss thinks of the people she has to lose (hears her screams in the jabberjays of the Catching Fire arena, too) but Madge is not brought up much in Mockingjay so carefully. So purposefully that shows, to me, how Katniss can really never go back. 

[mega-ringsandthings-world]

I wouldn't wish that walk home on anyone