Haymitch had to harass Katniss outside of the arena and the bribe her with food (FOOD! Literal treats! Like a puppy with a temper!) once inside of the arena just to make friends with finnick, Cinna was doing up Panem Fashion Week: Rebellion Edition to make her into a symbol, and Plutarch was running around throwing signals at the girl like he was landing a damn plane not to mention putting a plan together to break them out of itâŚ
âŚand they still almost effed up their own rebellion because they didnât realise how feral Katniss would get if she didnât have Peeta đ
During my rereading I notice Katniss imply some sexual awakening when she hugs or kiss Peeta (especially in beach scene). I donât recall she mention such things about the Other Guy.
This is because she actually WANTS Peeta and only gives Other Guy affection when heâs in pain or heâs lowkey manipulating her into feeling bad for not wanting him.
Think about it, sheâs been his friend for at least four years. During that time sheâs smiled at home, been around him, presumably touched him. When he hugs her during their goodbye? Nothing, except for observations on how his body smells (I think? The man is so unremarkable honestly Iâve read this books dozens of times and still need to fact check everything he does). When she hugs him on their return, still nothing. When he kisses her in CF, confusion. When she kisses him, again with the clinical observations. Then she wants him to forget it. Then in the last one, she specifically says their kisses taste of âheat, ashes and miseryâ, which is so unbelievably depressing I almost feel sorry for him.
And honestly, he knows that Katniss doesnât want him. Itâs why he says that sheâll choose whoever she canât survive without. He knows that most of their relationship is based on survival, but that if she feels obligated to someone sheâll do whatever it takes to protect them, including kissing Other Guy because heâs in pain. Where Peeta by that point isnât sure whether their relationship was due to love or survival because heâs been given examples of both. Lover Katniss vs Survival Katniss. But Other Guy has only seen Obligated Katniss or Survival Katniss. He doesnât know what her desire looks like. I feel for Katniss when she says itâs cold for him to say it and for Peeta not to refute it, but thatâs how Other Guy sees her, and the best he can hope to get for her. Poor Peeta doesnât really know whether heâs loved or not, which is why he doesnât.
He also recently asked Katniss whether he could grow wings, so thereâs that.
But yes, she only ever feels attraction to Peeta and pretty much consistently affirms that it makes sense for other people to be attracted to Other Guy, but never includes herself in that group.
Random but at the end of Mockingjay when Katniss says she needs "the bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction", and that "only Peeta can give [her] that", she's specifically talking about Peeta as opposed to Other Guy.
Because, fun fact: rue, (evening) primrose, and dandelions are all yellow flowers. All three of the characters associated with them are explicitly linked with hope throughout the series.
Peeta is the obvious one. He's the one who gives her the bread at the beginning that not only physically feeds her in the moment, which in turn inspires her to remember that she is capable of survival, but its probably the first act of kindness remembers since her father has died. The book specifically shows how everyone has abandoned them and there's nowhere to turn. Nobody gives her hope until Peeta does, both as at the beginning of and the end of the story. In addition to making a good salad, dandelions are considered pioneer plants because after a land has been destroyed in some way they're the first ones to colonise it. Just like when Peeta comes back to 12 to help rebuild it.
Then, there's Prim. Prim frequently reminds Katniss that there's beauty in the world. She's the reason Katniss fights throughout the first Games, and you can see that she makes Katniss softer. In CF, she specifically mentions that Prim is one of the reasons she's supposed to keep fighting, because she wants a better world for her. And then in MJ, she feels that hope reignited when Prim says they're training her to be a doctor when she says "this is the sort of future a rebellion could bring". She wants Prim to be reborn into a different world where these things can happen, and she wants to fight to make that world a reality. Yes, evening primrose wilts quite quickly after it blooms (iirc), but it also blooms several times a year, so Katniss will always be reminded of her sister.
My personal favourite, however, is Rue. In the arena, Rue reminds Katniss of Prim, which brings out her protective nature, but also of herself, which is one of the reasons they relate to each other. Both are older sisters who are protective of their siblings. Katniss says it's a bad idea to ally with Rue but she does it anyway for these reasons. But I think the reason Rue represents hope for Katniss is because of how she protects her in the arena. She warns her about the tracker-jackers and draws the poison out of her body. When Peeta describes the Games, he says that the world around you and the people in it become your final reality. Katniss - and anyone else, for that matter - would not have expected a singular act of kindness from the moment they entered the Games. They know the time for kindness is over. I know Snow must have been screaming, crying and throwing up during the 74th because between Katniss volunteering, Peeta protecting her, then Rue protecting her, then Katniss singing to her, and then Peeta and Katniss protecting each other and refusing to live without the other, the rebellion was already starting. Rue could have left her to die, and didn't, which Katniss acknowledges. Instead, she saved her life and lost her own. This is the act of goodness that spurs her on in the Games, and together with Prim, in CF when she considers running away. In sleep, she sees Rue reborn in the same world as Prim, safe in dreams where nothing can hurt her. Dancing in the meadow. Katniss helps create that world for her children, where they play in a field of yellow flowers, likely including Rue. And while the meaning of the name Rue is significant because Katniss regrets not saving her, it's likely significant for Snow and the Gamemakers as well, who likely regret her entering the Games in the first place; the plant (not the flower; the Everlark babies are safe!) Rue is poisonous to the touch, and as soon as Rue enters the Games, it's the beginning of the end of Snow's Games. Rue poisoned the Games with hope! And helped make the Mockingjay.
So anyway, I do think Peeta gives Katniss the most hope for rebirth. They are in love, after all. But Rue and Prim definitely gave her that bright yellow, too.
(Apologies to Katniss because buttercups are also yellow đ)
"I did kiss [other guy] last night, in a moment when my emotions were running so high. But Iâm sure he doesnât remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get complicated and I really canât think about kissing when Iâve got a rebellion to incite. I give my head a little shake to clear it. âWhereâs Peeta?â
per your last post, could you gift us an essay explaining katniss's subconscious in this quote??
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Apologies for the delay @thesmileykate ! I wasn't ignoring you, I was jet lagged.
I guess maybe I should have said Katniss' subconscious throughout this whole section, because I tend to think of her subconscious between the tour and the quell as one long thought process, but anyway, here goes.
Katniss subconscious is my MVP of this series, for a lot of reasons - most importantly, that it always guides her actions, desires and hopes even if (especially if) she's saying or even doing something else. You see it a lot throughout the series, but it's very heavy in CF because she's falling in love with Peeta but being pulled in so many directions. Also, she's an unreliable narrator.
So, in this bit, Katniss is thinking about her kiss with Other Guy, after he's been whipped for "stealing" and he's in so much pain he's passed out. Katniss apologises for screaming at her mother for not giving Other Guy more painkillers, and she says "you seen what people are like, when someone they love is in pain". This sends our girl into a tailspin, and I love it.
First, the rebellion. Katniss has just spent pages upon pages telling herself that its right to stay and fight rather than run away, and berates herself because in Other Guy's eyes she was a scared and selfish girl "made in the Capitol". She puts herself in Other Guy's position, and despises the phantom girl that he's promising to marry when she imagines their situations are reversed. She's so overcome with it, with the whipping, with the Capitol forcing her marriage to Peeta that she says "I have chosen the [Other Guy] and the rebellion, and a future with Peeta is the Capitol's design, not mine". Because she is being pushed in one direction, she's gaslighting telling herself that choosing the other is rebelling.
But then she says "I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite". Fair enough. But does she think about Other Guy? Like, even in the context of how to get the rebellion started? No. She asks for Peeta (more on that in a minute). Because even though she says Other Guy is a "born rebel", she doesn't articulate anything that he could do for the cause. There's some vague stuff about fighting back in this section, but she says that Peeta is the one who could move a crowd to action. Because even though Katniss doesn't get it until she decides to die to keep Peeta alive, her subconscious knows that the true act of rebellion under the Capitol is empathy. It is "I will go through hell to save you". It is giving a starving girl bread, singing a dying girl a song to ease her on her journey. No, Katniss can't think about Other Guy as a lover, but even she already knows, on some level, that he doesn't inspire her the same way Peeta does.
Second, let's talk about the kissing. After she convinces herself that it's her fault that Other Guy got whipped and that she therefore owes him affection, she kisses him. Then she falls asleep. Is found by Peeta, and is told to go to bed. Then when she wakes up, she immediately wishes he's forgotten about it. Which means it's taken her two naps and a shower to wanting to forget about kissing Other Guy. Obvious enough, right? But Katniss specifically refers to her moment with Other Guy as "kissing". Katniss' mother was specifically talk about love. When she kisses Peeta, she talks about his warmth, his steadiness, how he comforts her. Even when she isn't sure about whether she loves him or not, she acknowledges that she gets more from him than just make out sessions. Other Guy's romantic overtures are brought on by obligation and then Katniss reduces them to physicality. To merely "kissing". Which, of course, does not a connection make. Even in MJ, their first kiss tastes like "heat, ashes and misery", and their second reminds her she's alive as long as she's not looking at him! Other Guy can only give her physicality and companionship and he does his level best to destroy even that.
Also, she says she can't think about kissing and then immediately wants to know where Peeta is. Guess who's thinking about kissing?
Finally, let's talk about Katniss' specificity. She frequently runs away from her emotions even as her loved ones, Panem, and us as the audience can see what she's feeling. This is because Katniss is afraid of romantic love. She tells us this all the time. Which is why even though she's saying she's choosing Other Guy, her subconscious is drawing a line in the sand by saying she wants him to forget about their kiss and she doesn't want to think about it. She's giving herself the excuse of the rebellion, but thats not it. Her subconscious gives her the feeling of not wanting Other Guy, and Katniss renames it as wanting to concentrate on the rebellion.
This is in contrast with Peeta. When she kisses him for the first time in CF, even as she ruminates on the situation with Snow threatening Other Guy, that he brings warmth and steadiness to everything. On stage after his speech, the kiss doesn't feel forced. And in between all of that, she constantly wants him around, and has to remind herself that, per my first point, "she isn't supposed to want that". Her subconscious gives her the feeling of wanting Peeta, and she rationalises it as wanting comfort or even that she's just used to his presence. Or she doesn't acknowledge it at all.
When Katniss cannot properly articulate her romantic feelings, its because she's protecting herself from the vulnerability of love, which is why she dances around how she feels about Peeta until he's taken from her.
This was hellaciously long and I could have cleaned it up a bit more, but I think all of that made sense. That section tickles me on every reread because Katniss is such a teenager about it but she's being so obvious. I know Mrs. Everdeen got a kick out of watching her beautiful, stubborn, wildly clueless daughter falling in love with her "Mr. Everdeen"...who turned out to be a baker.
(Also Suzanne definitely paralleled Mr E bringing Mrs E gifts everyday with Peeta bringing Katniss cheese buns and Mrs E definitely noticed! Also what did Other Guy ever gift her but stress)
Sorry yeah, I had to take your boyfriend away to further the plot. Unfortunately he is going to go through hell while heâs gone, yeah. No, sorry, heâs never going to be exactly the same. Oh it will permanently damage a piece of him and heâll never get it back. Oh but hey, you know that annoying best friend that keeps trying to force you into a relationship? You can still have him around! Yeah! Youâll like that, wonât you?
"I did kiss [other guy] last night, in a moment when my emotions were running so high. But Iâm sure he doesnât remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get complicated and I really canât think about kissing when Iâve got a rebellion to incite. I give my head a little shake to clear it. âWhereâs Peeta?â
per your last post, could you gift us an essay explaining katniss's subconscious in this quote??
đđđ
Apologies for the delay @thesmileykate ! I wasn't ignoring you, I was jet lagged.
I guess maybe I should have said Katniss' subconscious throughout this whole section, because I tend to think of her subconscious between the tour and the quell as one long thought process, but anyway, here goes.
Katniss subconscious is my MVP of this series, for a lot of reasons - most importantly, that it always guides her actions, desires and hopes even if (especially if) she's saying or even doing something else. You see it a lot throughout the series, but it's very heavy in CF because she's falling in love with Peeta but being pulled in so many directions. Also, she's an unreliable narrator.
So, in this bit, Katniss is thinking about her kiss with Other Guy, after he's been whipped for "stealing" and he's in so much pain he's passed out. Katniss apologises for screaming at her mother for not giving Other Guy more painkillers, and she says "you seen what people are like, when someone they love is in pain". This sends our girl into a tailspin, and I love it.
First, the rebellion. Katniss has just spent pages upon pages telling herself that its right to stay and fight rather than run away, and berates herself because in Other Guy's eyes she was a scared and selfish girl "made in the Capitol". She puts herself in Other Guy's position, and despises the phantom girl that he's promising to marry when she imagines their situations are reversed. She's so overcome with it, with the whipping, with the Capitol forcing her marriage to Peeta that she says "I have chosen the [Other Guy] and the rebellion, and a future with Peeta is the Capitol's design, not mine". Because she is being pushed in one direction, she's gaslighting telling herself that choosing the other is rebelling.
But then she says "I really can't think about kissing when I've got a rebellion to incite". Fair enough. But does she think about Other Guy? Like, even in the context of how to get the rebellion started? No. She asks for Peeta (more on that in a minute). Because even though she says Other Guy is a "born rebel", she doesn't articulate anything that he could do for the cause. There's some vague stuff about fighting back in this section, but she says that Peeta is the one who could move a crowd to action. Because even though Katniss doesn't get it until she decides to die to keep Peeta alive, her subconscious knows that the true act of rebellion under the Capitol is empathy. It is "I will go through hell to save you". It is giving a starving girl bread, singing a dying girl a song to ease her on her journey. No, Katniss can't think about Other Guy as a lover, but even she already knows, on some level, that he doesn't inspire her the same way Peeta does.
Second, let's talk about the kissing. After she convinces herself that it's her fault that Other Guy got whipped and that she therefore owes him affection, she kisses him. Then she falls asleep. Is found by Peeta, and is told to go to bed. Then when she wakes up, she immediately wishes he's forgotten about it. Which means it's taken her two naps and a shower to get to wanting to forget about kissing Other Guy. Obvious enough, right? But Katniss specifically refers to her moment with Other Guy as "kissing". Katniss' mother was specifically talk about love. When she kisses Peeta, she talks about his warmth, his steadiness, how he comforts her. Even when she isn't sure about whether she loves him or not, she acknowledges that she gets more from him than just make out sessions. Other Guy's romantic overtures are brought on by obligation and then Katniss reduces them to physicality. To merely "kissing". Which, of course, does not a connection make. Even in MJ, their first kiss tastes like "heat, ashes and misery", and their second reminds her she's alive as long as she's not looking at him! Other Guy can only give her physicality and companionship and he does his level best to destroy even that.
Also, she says she can't think about kissing and then immediately wants to know where Peeta is. Guess who's thinking about kissing?
Finally, let's talk about Katniss' specificity. She frequently runs away from her emotions even as her loved ones, Panem, and us as the audience can see what she's feeling. This is because Katniss is afraid of romantic love. She tells us this all the time. Which is why even though she's saying she's choosing Other Guy, her subconscious is drawing a line in the sand by saying she wants him to forget about their kiss and she doesn't want to think about it. She's giving herself the excuse of the rebellion, but thats not it. Her subconscious gives her the feeling of not wanting Other Guy, and Katniss renames it as wanting to concentrate on the rebellion.
This is in contrast with Peeta. When she kisses him for the first time in CF, even as she ruminates on the situation with Snow threatening Other Guy, that he brings warmth and steadiness to everything. On stage after his speech, the kiss doesn't feel forced. And in between all of that, she constantly wants him around, and has to remind herself that, per my first point, "she isn't supposed to want that". Her subconscious gives her the feeling of wanting Peeta, and she rationalises it as wanting comfort or even that she's just used to his presence. Or she doesn't acknowledge it at all.
When Katniss cannot properly articulate her romantic feelings, its because she's protecting herself from the vulnerability of love, which is why she dances around how she feels about Peeta until he's taken from her.
This was hellaciously long and I could have cleaned it up a bit more, but I think all of that made sense. That section tickles me on every reread because Katniss is such a teenager about it but she's being so obvious. I know Mrs. Everdeen got a kick out of watching her beautiful, stubborn, wildly clueless daughter falling in love with her "Mr. Everdeen"...who turned out to be a baker.
(Also Suzanne definitely paralleled Mr E bringing Mrs E gifts everyday with Peeta bringing Katniss cheese buns and Mrs E definitely noticed! Also what did Other Guy ever gift her but stress)
peeta likely didn't know that the bread that he gave katniss saved her life. when katniss first implies that he helped her when they are on the first train, he just shrugs it off (thg, 91). and even when she explicitly brings it up in the cave, he concludes that it isn't a big deal (thg, 293). even going as far to imply that it was a simple act. especially compared to the fact that katniss just risked her life to get the medicine at the cornucopia that would save his.
but i feel like he could have only really reacted this way to her bringing it up because he didn't understand that he saved her life.
it seems like he understands that he helped her out, but he doesn't know that she was two seconds away from death's door. that no one else gave her any kindness because she had nothing to give them in return. no one except for him.
peeta is always raving about how katniss has an effect of people. that people can somehow see katniss as a means to accomplish goals and preserve in the face of their cruel world.
but before the mockingjay was deemed valuable as a tool for revolution, a little boy loved a precious songbird. and he showed his love in the only way he knew how. by sacrificing in order to bring her life.
Also as @thesweetnessofspring points out, she kisses the other guy out of pity, obligation, or guilt. And the one time she manages to kiss him because of all three, we get this:
I did kiss [other guy] last night, in a moment when my emotions were running so high. But Iâm sure he doesnât remember it. Does he? I hope not. If he does, everything will just get complicated and I really canât think about kissing when Iâve got a rebellion to incite. I give my head a little shake to clear it. âWhereâs Peeta?â
I could write a whole essay on Katnissâ subconscious in this paragraph.
âShe cooks, I consume. I try to figure out my next move. Thereâs no obstacle now to taking my life. But I seem to be waiting for something.â
I love this because itâs such a brilliant parallel to Katnissâ last âbitter winterâ, but also expands on it. When her father died, and her mother was (functionally) gone, Katniss had no hope. When Peeta gave her the bread, he not only pushed her to survive, but he reminded her that âhope was not lostâ. It was the first time she felt joy in a long time, that she could feed herself with a skill she loved, that she could forage for salad with her sister, that âlife could be good againâ.
(The genius of Collins is that the friendship with that other guy was based on survival also, but not on hope. Thatâs why Katniss gets confused, because she and the other guy depended on each otherâs skills for surviving, but not the hope of living. Before she even ever met the other guy, her subconscious knew how to recognise the difference. So as soon as the bond of mutual survival was taken away, their friendship became harder to maintain. There is absolutely a reason Collins didnât have other guy comforting Katniss at all, but thatâs another post for another day).
Then, another bitter winter. Prim, her beloved sister, her reason for volunteering, is gone. Her mother is gone. Her friends are dead or gone. Nothing is good. Nothing is hopeful. And unlike before, nothing is pushing her to survive. The threat of starvation is gone, the Games are gone, Snow is gone. She does not have to fight for her own survival, because nothing is threatening it. But also? Nothing is telling her to live.
Then Peeta comes back, and plants the primroses. Another act of goodness from the boy with the bread, most likely the second one she lists (first being the bread itself) when she says sheâll tell her children âhow she survives itâ. On the first day of spring, Peetaâs act rights her world, and pushes her to start living again, rather than just surviving.
Katniss has been here before. She knows this bitter winter, even if the shape of it is different. This time, after all thatâs happened, after sheâs lost so much, she needs to be pushed past mere survival into actually living a meaningful life. In CF, aka The Big Everlark Dating Book, she gets a brief look at what living looks like, even if itâs under the duress of a more-oppressed district. Katniss was waiting for Peeta because sheâs always known, since that first dandelion, that she needs the hope that life can be good again.
Suzanne wrote âHaymitchâŚpasses the bag [of sweets] to a giggling Primâ and this is basically their most positive interaction but it hasnât stopped me headcanoning that she is one of the few people heâs unreservedly sweet to, that he tells her raunchy jokes when her mother isnât around, that after he went through withdrawal when the liquor ran out he tried to remind her that he wasnât always like that.
Haymitch had his brother and mother ripped from him after the Games, so I like to think that he relates to how much she adores Prim and low-key wants to make sure her innocence is protected.
(You know, before Snow announces that heâs going to have them all murdered in the QQ)
Iâm so sorry to suzanne collins but finnick lived through to the end of mockingjay. he raised his kid. he told me himself. sorry that he didnât tell her
Itâs still absolutely hilarious to me that throughout the first couple of chapters of Mockingjay, Gale is the only one to keep pointing out Katniss is supposedly carrying her and Peetaâs love child, I know the thought of it kept him up at night đ
I'm a Gale hater simply because of the way he treated Katniss throughout the books not because he was the "prim reaper", but because he was an asshole that felt entitled to her affection. You can make arguments about his trauma all you want I've read the books and I still hate him.
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