🔥 scratches my chin. any hot takes on johanna outside of the norm
outside of the norm…
I think people don’t know what to do with Johanna when they write her because she doesn’t fit their idea of a victim. Johanna is angry, aggressive, manipulative, punitive in her desire for revenge, chafes at all authority, and an addict. this is obviously due to the immense physical and emotional trauma she has endured for years but I think that reality makes people extremely uncomfortable and so they just…ignore it? there are definitely some banger fanworks out there for her but I tend to not read for her character because it bothers me the extent to which large parts of her character are left out. it bothers me so much because I think she is actually one of the best written characters in the books because she has those trauma responses, but people again cannot handle them and so leave them out. the fact that she has a full blown morphling addiction at the end of mj…she’s in worse shape than Haymitch!
my older sister (a thg veteran) initially owned a copy of the first book that belonged to her school library. i took it with me to read one day while at a relative's, and found that i really liked the story. relayed this information to her, and for that christmas in particular, she bought me catching fire and mockingjay (all copies that i still own.)
my interest in the hunger games is more of a special interest aligned with neurodivergence than i suppose, a casual fleeting obsession. after rereading the series for the first time all those years ago, i got hooked in a way which has resulted in 7 or so years of loving it, and being extremely indulged in all of its (positive) factors, alongside the negative.
What are your favorite things about the series?
i don't believe that people should classify thg as a series based on facets of war alone. before that, i feel like it is very strongly about the love a young teenage girl from an impoverished village has for her little sister, and that sentiment carries on throughout everything she does. i think themes of oppression are sometimes conveyed well by collins, as well as characters who represent revolution against oppressors (e.g. gale, the victors)
What’s something about the series that’s stayed with you or become more meaningful to you over time?
i think the representation of adultification and the failures of people in power/adults. kids such as katniss have to step up to the plate in order to claw and fight against the world in a way she might not of had to if her mother had been a stronger force in her life, or if her father was alive. children wouldn't die at the hands of the wealthy if they weren't so obsessed with repentance and crime, and if figures like the capitol owned humanity.
What's something you want the fandom to know about you?
i have a collection of 60+ hunger games pieces of memorabilia that began back in 2023! steadily growing faster by the months
When did you begin creating? What inspired you to begin?
2023 is a good landmark to pin when i first made fanfiction for the fandom, but i really picked up wind last year with some now-orphaned stuff. all roads lead back to my love for trilogy-canon haymitch and the importance of his character to me.
What is your favorite thing to depict in your work?
grief, loss and radicalization, if i can. a lot of my earlier works focus on mourning, based on how unexplored i feel it is within certain areas. grief means a lot within the existence of the series, and i like to really push to display it as an experience.
What’s your personal favorite of your works?
i usually have high praise for king of the horseflies (dark prince of death) because it was a post-sotr work where i wanted to dote on areas that suzanne didn't, or failed to convey well. as of now it remains unfinished, but the series it belongs to is usually revived when people show a little bit of interest.
If you could recommend just one, which would it be?
another fic of high praise but boy, trojan is always one that i recommend because of the format i went with.
What are the main characteristics of your favorite canon characters you always try to maintain in your stories?
survivor's guilt, cycles of violence & the idea of a fall from grace after traumatic events. i always find these things to intrigue me a lot when I write or set out to characterize a certain character.
Tell us about an OC of yours. What inspired them and what purpose do they serve in your works?
cassia (canonically named willamae in SOTR) is haymitch's mother from my series, abernathy extended. i can't tell you what inspired her exactly, but she serves the purpose of building his character in a way that ends with a mix of resentment and admiration. she's hard on him, and often differs in tradition, but later down the line he realizes as an adult how important she was, and how much she came to sacrifice.
cassia is my favorite OC as through her, i explored unconventional motherhood (and feeling a disconnection to your children) as well as marital loss. she bears the brunt of a lot of injury as a mother and wife, and then goes on to die gruesomely because of her role as a mother — forgotten to all but few seam elders and her living son.
Tell us about your favorite relationship (of any kind) in the series. Why is it your favorite?
katniss & haymitch's relationship which goes between mentorship and something slightly familial (and only slightly) interests me greatly. i think they're so similar to each other, and a perfect example of what could've been/what might be depending on the paths they go down. i also just think that they have a really funny dynamic. annoying old man and exasperated teenage girl. they're important to me!
What is a question you wish we asked and what would your answer be?
how many fics have i writen — to that would be a count of 87 and moving!
I love love love how dedicated you are to your interests, how you engage with them so thoroughly. Your collections are especially admirable to me! In an age of overconsumption for clout it's so refreshing to see something that's actually been curated and built overtime out of passion.
I've just barely scratched the surface when it comes to your writing, but from what i've seen so far everything is so well put together and the way you describe things in your fics is genuinely so fun to read and they paint such a clear picture. We didn't get to interact much this year i fear, but you seem super nice and very funny !! I hope you have a wonderful new years !! <3
important question... why do you call the ot3 driftwood................ i like it honestly
AH YES SO! I can’t take credit for the name driftwood, it was I think the first serious ot3 appreciation day on this account and people were tossing around different names for the ship in the ask box, @anniecrest4 came up with driftwood and I also really liked it…I’ve also seen jodesta but idk, I feel like the more characters involved the more unwieldy the traditional name smash becomes. also, I thought driftwood was kind of a poetic and elegant ship name and that’s truly the only poetic and elegant thing that can be ascribed to the three of them so! driftwood stuck
of the things that were both written and posted this year, Coriander was the quickest!
18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?
Finnick…that fucker. I don’t even like how I write him!!! and still it’s like pulling teeth even though I can’t quite get it right!!! maybe this is why I’m currently demoralized writing wise
25. Did you receive any gifts this year?
I was incredibly fortunate!!! I received four gifts this year (two from you 💜) and am obsessed with all of them
Portrait of a Headless Man by Ellenka / @hawtnip (Finnick likes to deface his posters. Johanna likes to help. Annie doesn't. (A series of blurry snapshots.))
six - ongreenergrasses (podfic recording) by bodyelectric77 (A recording of "six" by ongreenergrasses for the Valentine's Day podfic exchange!)
Spinal by divincis / @tiffynathy (Sometimes, he thinks Annie might just want to eat him.)
Anteater by divincis / @tiffynathy (Years of flings and falsely-named lovers meant that when he had gotten his hands on a real relationship, it would quickly infest with his own issues, and fast. Not that Annie couldn't handle loving him, and not that she wasn't once happy to tend to the bruise that made him up, but the shivering boy that her man became seemed susceptible to a fear in which permeated her entire life. // or: Johanna has a plan, and Annie helps to execute)
tbh I’m thrilled you sent the second one because I’ve completely lost perspective on if the characters are behaving abnormally or not. one can assume they are but I think you were the first person who mentioned cuck Haymitch in the third chapter of the behemoth and it truly made me realize a) odesta are freaks and b) because there’s something wrong with me I follow the logic and rationale of their actions and am like “oh yeah that makes sense!” and don’t recognize that wow. they are acting fully insane rn
