I'm curious, what are your thoughts on the Hunger Games movies as a whole? I could never really get into them, though if I'm remembering right I think Catching Fire was the best of the bunch (haven't seen SBAS or SOTR yet) I liked some of the ideas they brought to the table, but they could just never compare to the books for me. Did they give you any unique inspiration?
in general i feel like the vibes of the OG are pretty good and the actors killed it even if i don't necessarily like every specific casting choice. like did jena look like my johanna? not really. did she kill it? you bet
my favourite part of the entire original trilogy is the very beginning of the hunger games when they have caesar and claudius templesmith talking about previous games and they show that poor kid (who can definitely be nero or could be someone else) bashing a skull in looking traumatized and they say "ah, the moment :) :) when a tribute :) :) becomes a victor :) :)"
and you just sit there like what.......... my dudes.......... is wrong with you but it was FANTASTIC
i really loved all the little moments like that, when they'd cut back from the action to show the audience (almost always in silence) but! sometimes caesar making absolutely tone-deaf commentary! ditto the scene where katniss is trying to clean her burn and haymitch snaps and talks to the g-d sponsors to get the salve for her. absolutely flawless
my one controversial opinion is that i didn't like cato's speech bc i thought it was overdone / over the top / on the nose / what have you, having obviously been obsessed with cato and clove since the books lol, and i was like ugh really? we needed this? BUT OBVIOUSLY IT WAS NECESSARY bc soooo many people were like ohhhh i never considered he was a person until this super obvious thesis statement so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
if i had my druthers i would have cut that speech AND KEPT cato ignoring katniss and thresh in favour of falling to the ground and begging clove to stay with him as she died. BUT WHATEVER.
mockingjay should never have been split into two movies and the less said about part 2 the better BUT the scene with the singing and the dam still gives me chills and can't get enough of it every time
catching fire was ... fine? like the actors nailed it, but again i felt like the writers failed to trust the audience at times and went for the obvious instead (compare johanna's book vs. movie interview). i also don't remember any scenes that really made me stop and catch my breath but maybe it's just been a while since i've seen it
as for inspiration or what have you the one thing i will say is that it really was too late to walk back movie clove. the huge cato tiny clove pairing was too visually delicious for fic writers (and azelmaroark also enjoyed it, which is who i started this whole thing with) so that is what i use for shared universe stuff, out of continuity.
HOWEVER i am personally partial to book clove. she's big! she's buff! she canonically has at least 50 pounds on katniss and is too heavy for her to throw off (vs isabelle whom jlaw compared to "a chihuahua" when blocking the pinning scene). JUSTICE FOR BUFF CLOVE like yeah we love tiny badasses for the visual but ............ big ............
