#johanna.

[pasdefleursarch]

i do love the punk-rock aesthetic the fandom assigns to johanna, but i think fanon forgets that johanna was able to get away with seeming weak and harmless, enough that nobody ever suspected her as a threat during her games. i'm interpreting this as her appearing somewhat mild and unassuming, even pretty in an innocent, benign way. that's precisely why she was so "attractive" to the denizens of panem after her games. she does not look like a killer, but she is, and she's not just any killer, she's particularly vicious about it, but you will never expect it from her simply by looking.

it is incredibly important to me that this quality of johanna is remembered. this was her strength, her upperhand. and though yes, people are now aware that she isn't as wholesome as she initially led them to believe, that's partly due to the games and also partly due to how snow curated her image after the games. johanna was packaged by snow as a fille fatale, and something about that is inherently exploitative ( it's got nothing to do with her age, and everything to do with how she looks. ) she refused to be a prostitute, but i doubt that after snow killed her entire family, she was allowed to go back to district 7, or that she was given further choice in the matter, especially because aside from her family, she's become close with other victors, but specifically finnick ( thank you @offireandrebellion and @damnatius for your contributions ) and it's not beyond snow to use him as leverage against johanna.

the point is... johanna resents this image they gave her. it turned her from someone who was fighting for her survival into a sex object for people to lust for and gawk at. it makes sense for her to veer off this course into a whole other direction by banking on the fact that she's actually dangerous, and no longer hiding that. but even this assertion gets sexualized, and she just graduates from fille fatale to femme fatale, which isn't any better in this context. it's why i think, per this portrayal, johannna doesn't go into that extreme. she doesn't drastically change her appearance in answer to snow's machinations. she just... does absolutely nothing. when she's not being paraded around for the highest bidder to pick out, johanna looks normal. she goes back to wearing the same clothes she would wear back at home, she doesn't wear any make-up. she doesn't succumb to any sort of need to appear anything else other than herself, because that's the person the capitol is trying so hard to erase / replace / reduce.

not to mention that wearing ludicrous clothes + make-up is such a panem / capitol thing to do, and simply based on principle, johanna will reject it. so whenever johanna appears decked out and made up in whatever sort of elaborate fashion around panem, it's safe to say that that was not a choice she made herself. that was a choice snow made for her.

[pasdefleursarch]

@damnatius : ‘but it’s no different, not really. not ever.’

promises of a better life. johanna thinks back to the time she clung to the thought of never going hungry again, of always having food on the table; real food, not the kind you imagine on the throes of starvation. she was sixteen when they drew her name from the reaping ball, and was it really any surprise? she collected enough tesserae for the odds to tilt wildly against her favor. feeding a family of six was a tall order. regardless of how hard you toiled, it never seemed to be enough. she still remembers that day, standing under the glare of the mid-morning sun, how her chest caved in when they called her name, how her mother cried out in terror. how her fear turned into resolve because the prospect of death seemed trivial for a shot at a better life.

it was a worthy compromise, or so she thought. johanna mason has chopped up so many stubborn pieces of lumber, hasn't she? killing calls for the same practiced motions. she became a purveyor of death, thinking it would buy her family a future. if only she had known, she would have taken the axe to them herself. she would have been kinder about it.

it's no different, finnick says. and he's right. ‘maybe we should have known.’ there is no mirth to her smile, but plenty of bitterness. plenty of rage simmering right under a flimsy surface. around finnick, johanna is calmer, as still as the ocean before a monsoon. they were both offered the same thing and made very different choices. she can never fault him for the choice he's made, not when she's paid for hers with the blood of everyone she's ever loved. ‘we shouldn't have fought so hard. dying in the arena would have been mercy.’ a laugh staggers, dissonant, out of her mouth. it is awkward and unwieldy, with no place in their conversation. but johanna has long since stopped punishing herself for the maladroit retaliation she has toward grief. ‘fuck the capitol,’ she whispers; harsh and unforgiving. ‘i'm going to kill snow one day.’ the jut of her chin is stubborn, defiant, as though she expects finnick to argue, though she doesn't think he will. they've had variations of this same talk many times over the years. she's always made the same promises.

‘i won't rest until this circus is razed to the ground.’ she looks at him then, and her eyes are empty. the glitter they piled on her face does nothing to soften the sharp edges of her wrath. ‘they've made monsters out of us. i think it's only fair that i pay them in kind.’

[plagueoftiveden]

- Tag Dump -

[viktoriya-dragov]

character aesthetic: viktoriya dragov & johanna silverman 

[viktoriya-dragov]

viktoriya dragov & johanna silverman + moodboard (2/?) 

“Hashtag Team Jo for life.” 

[tylerraye]

i feel you.

johanna.