You know what's really ironic when it comes to Coriolanus Snow? It's the fact that according to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, he garners attention and approval and finally mentorship under Dr. Gaul by pushing the idea of balancing humanity and spectacle in the hunger games. Make the tributes human enough to get attention and get people invested in the games. But make them spectacle enough that people don't look deep enough to question the games themselves. Make the competition human enough that people will pick sides and pour money. But make it spectacle enough that they don't protest their side losing.
It's the idea that paves his rise to power. But it's also the same thing that brings about his downfall. The spectacle of the hunger games gave a front and center platform to a naive but defiant girl from District Twelve to become the face of a revolution and the ultimate weapon against him. The measured humanity that he urged into the games got people to trust her word, trust her very image in ways that Snow had never anticipated. The balanced wielding of humanity and spectacle that Lucy Gray used to win her games is what Katniss used to end them, both enabled by Snow.
And here's the final kicker- the reason his brutally brilliant plan failed him in the end was because of the one thing Snow never took seriously enough to consider. The Districts. Snow had keen insight into how the people of the Capitol worked and thought. It allowed him to manipulate many of them. But he dismissed the role of the districts as inconsequential in the larger play of things. As long as they were kept suppressed, it didn't matter. And that's where his oversight cost him. He didn't consider the effects of the same humanity and spectacle when perceived by the districts. He didn't see how he was giving them the spark they were always looking for until the match had already been lit. The girl was already on fire. The Capitol was already burning. The snow was already melting.
Idk man....there's no trauma....
...it's not like the idea of there being a pairing where one person has mistreated the other in the past but grows up and genuinely apologizes and tries to atone for it is relatable to my childhood or anything....
...or that the idea of someone who yells at you and is pretty rough around the edges sometimes still loves and cares for you underneath it all even though they don't seem to know how to say it is something I desperately want to believe is true....
...and it's most certainly not that in a lot of ways both of them have been let down or adultified by many of the actual adults in their life and the older generation at large done fucked up with these kids and might be a little too relatable to my generation in general...
...hahaha it's definitely not any of those things...nope...no trauma here
Hunger Games fanfic blurb:
I sipped the last of my water, slow as I could, hoping it would tide me awhile through the heat of the Hobb. Business was slow today. Not that we make much on other days, selling trinkets and scraps of metal and cloth in a district where most people could barely buy bread. But we scrape by.
But today, I hadn't a single body come by to look at the wares. Although, I s'pose, when you've got a Reaping tomorrow, you're probably not in a buying sorta mood. Even Greasy Sae is selling her stew for half price today for the youngins that usually come around to her corner.
Speaking of the youngins, one of them walks my way. The one with stern eyes who brings fresh game from the woods. The butcher's wife says she hunts 'em with a bow and her arrows never miss the mark. Must be nice to have a useful trade like that. Sometimes, she trades me berries for balls of yarn. That's probably what she's making her way over for.
Never got her name. I call her "Stern Eyes" and word around the Seam is she sings like a songbird. My Gammy Maude would've liked that. She gives me berries wrapped in cloth, and I give her the yarn. But she doesn't walk away.
She reaches her hand into one of the boxes, the one with old pins for hair and clothes that might've been pretty once but had gotten rusty and dusty since. Then she pulls out that pin. Gammy Maude's pin that used to belong to her friend. The friend with bad luck in love and even worse in life. Some say she ran away, and some say got shot in the woods by her lover. Gammy said her friend used to sing too. Like a songbird.
Gammy never liked that pin much. Said it never brought nothing but bad luck. I think it just reminded her too much of her friend and the lover who might've shot her. But she still kept the pin till she died. Guess reminders are still reminders.
It's a mockingjay pin. Might be gold, but it's too old and grimy to tell. Could've sold it for scrap metal, but after hearing Gammy's stories, I could never bring myself to melt the damn thing down. And it's not like I could just walk up to the fancy parts of town with a mockingjay pin to sell. The peacekeepers would have cuffed me before I could quote a price. Probably really is bad luck anyway.
Stern Eyes is holding the pin and askin how much. I think of asking for a couple of coins, and then I remember the Reaping. She's probably young enough to have her name in the bowl. More than a couple of times, like every Seam kid. I wonder if it'd bring bad luck to her too. Or maybe it'd bring her good luck. If I'm being honest, I just want the pin gone. Can't keep holding on to a thing like that.
I tell her she can take it. No charge. Can't ask people to pay you for what could be bad luck. Don't know why she picked that one, but I wonder if she knows anything about the last songbird who had it.
I really hope it brings her better luck than Gammy's friend.
Writer's note: I know this isn't accurate to the books where Katniss gets the pin from Madge and the pin isn't really mentioned in TBOSAS. But I remember she gets it in the Hobb in the movie and it does make an appearance in the prequel movie as well. Soooo, that's where this idea came from!
Grover being all sweet innocent cinnamon roll reasurring Percy and Annabeth that he'll be okay staying behind with Ares like he isn't planning 5D chess psychological warfare on the god of war be like
On Feeld, where curious people come to connect, you can now add a ✨celibacy✨tag to your profile—and search for others who do the same. Find your thing. Find everything when you download Feeld.
They knew what he was the moment he opened his eyes. Or rather, what he would become. What they would make him.
When the word spread, they called him different things. A sign from above. A savior. The strongest sorcerer this world has seen in centuries. The pride of the Gojo clan. The wielder of the Six Eyes.
The titles were pretty, but they all meant the same thing. From the moment Gojo Satoru opened his eyes, he was a weapon.
A weapon does not need to love or be loved. Love is vulnerability. A weapon cannot be vulnerable.
A weapon does not need to care, only kill. When they tell you to. Whatever (or whoever) they tell you to. A good weapon asks no questions. A weapon does not care.
A weapon does not need to be happy. Happiness is having friends and laughing at stupid things and playing in the sun. Happiness us for children. A weapon is not a child.
Gojo Satoru was a weapon. The best one in centuries.
Until he wasn't.
Until Geto Suguru looked at his eyes like they were beautiful. Like he was beautiful. Weapons are not beautiful. But he looked at him like he was not a weapon. And he made him want to believe it.
And then they gave him the order to execute him. But the weapon was no longer a weapon. Weapons did not have hearts. Suguru may have left it bleeding and broken in the wake of his departure, but it was still the greatest gift he had given Satoru. A weapon did not know love or care or happiness. Satoru was not a weapon.
Epic: the musical poster~
GAHHH i cant stop listening to circe's songs ngl, this poster was a birthday gift for my gf and it turned out so good :)
I'm thinking about how Katniss describes the rock that Thresh uses to kill Clove. She compares its size to "a small loaf of bread." This is what I mean when I say I could talk about the bread symbolism for hours. It's actually insane that Thresh is saving her life here, but in Katniss' mind, it echoes Peeta. The first person who saved her. Peeta will always be the epitome of safety to her. God, it's just so—
For some reason I’m still seeing people being racist about the Disney+ PJO show, so if you’re out there hating on Leah for being a black Annabeth, here’s what you need to realize:
A big part of Annabeth’s character is how she felt she was never taken seriously because of the way she looked. In the books, it was specifically because she was blonde, and blondes were seen as dumb.
Well, that stereotype is much less common today, and most blondes aren’t really looked down upon. But you know who is? People of color. Especially young black girls. Leah’s Annabeth will still have to deal with prejudice because of how she looks.
Annabeth’s key trait wasn’t her hair color, it was how she proved to be the best despite how others judged her. It just so happens that her skin color is now what causes her to be judged.
I think Leah is perfect to play Annabeth in today’s world. Just how young blonde girls used to be empowered by book Annabeth, I know Leah’s Annabeth will teach young black girls that they can be everything she is.
#LeahIsOurAnnabeth
I have too many thoughts at 3am and only one head
60 posts