"You and me. Always."

I think the Hunger Games series sits in a similar literary position to The Lord of the Rings, as a piece of literature (by a Catholic author) that sparked a whole new subgenre and then gets blamed for flaws that exist in the copycat books and aren’t actually part of the original.

Like, despite what parodies might say, Katniss is nowhere near the stereotypical “unqualified teenager chosen to lead a rebellion for no good reason”.  The entire point is that she’s not leading the rebellion. She’s a traumatized teenager who has emotional reactions to the horrors in her society, and is constantly being reined in by more experienced adults who have to tell her, “No, this is not how you fight the government, you are going to get people killed.” She’s not the upstart teenager showing the brainless adults what to do–she’s a teenager being manipulated by smarter and more experienced adults. She has no power in the rebellion except as a useful piece of propaganda, and the entire trilogy is her straining against that role. It’s much more realistic and far more nuanced than anyone who dismisses it as “stereotypical YA dystopian” gives it credit for.

And the misconceptions don’t end there. The Hunger Games has no “stereotypical YA love triangle”–yes, there are two potential love interests, but the romance is so not the point. There’s a war going on! Katniss has more important things to worry about than boys! The romance was never about her choosing between two hot boys–it’s about choosing between two diametrically opposed worldviews. Will she choose anger and war, or compassion and peace? Of course a trilogy filled with the horrors of war ends with her marriage to the peace-loving Peeta. Unlike some of the YA dystopian copycats, the romance here is part of the message, not just something to pacify readers who expect “hot love triangles” in their YA. 

The worldbuilding in the Hunger Games trilogy is simplistic and not realistic, but unlike some of her imitators, Collins does this because she has something to say, not because she’s cobbling together a grim and gritty dystopia that’s “similar to the Hunger Games”. The worldbuilding has an allegorical function, kept simple so we can see beyond it to what Collins is really saying–and it’s nothing so comforting as “we need to fight the evil people who are ruining society”. The Capitol’s not just the powerful, greedy bad guys–the Capitol is us, First World America, living in luxury while we ignore the problems of the rest of the world, and thinking of other nations largely in terms of what resources we can get from them. This simplistic world is a sparsely set stage that lets us explore the larger themes about exploitation and war and the horrors people will commit for the sake of their bread and circuses, meant to make us think deeper about what separates a hero from a villain.

There’s a reason these books became a literary phenomenon. There’s a reason that dozens upon dozens of authors attempted to imitate them. But these imitators can’t capture that same genius, largely because they’re trying to imitate the trappings of another book, and failing to capture the larger and more meaningful message underneath. Make a copy of a copy of a copy, and you’ll wind up with something far removed from the original masterpiece. But we shouldn’t make the mistake of blaming those flaws on the original work.

@girlinlotsoffandoms 👀👀👀👀 you know what I’m seeing here right ?

Jonsa Modern Au

How I basically see Jonsa in any modern universe. Jon puts on anything in his closet as long as it’s black, and Sansa meticulously puts her outfits together. And yes, Jon is carrying Sansa’s purse bc he is a gentleman (◡‿◡).

This is actually perfect. Thank you for this 🥺

Stardust (2007) Dir. Matthew Vaughn

Hudson & Rex 6.07 (2024)

Stardust (2007) Dir. Matthew Vaughn

day three - car accident

notes: hi friends and welcome back for febwhump day three! What better way to ring in day three than by having Squad 3 in a bit of a pickle? This is part one and part two will be posted tomorrow!

read on AO3 or below

Touching grass is not enough; I need to travel far over the misty mountains cold.

Says you. I however need to travel to dungeons deep and caverns old.

And *I* must seek my long-forgotten gold. We all, however, must away ere break of day.

day one - stab wound

notes: hi friends and welcome to febwhump 2024 or sev whump as I've been calling it. that's right, 29 days where I hurt or torture everyone's favorite squad lieutenant!

read on AO3 or below

I love fanfics for various reasons, one of them being obviously that I can read more stories about my favorite characters.

BUT I love how warnings work on ao3.

I just saw a reel (like a booktok reel except it's instagram?) in which a girl is horrified because a sex scene begins, like the kissing part (specifically kissing the fmc's stomach) and then it straight skips to the next morning. She wanted the smut i suppose, but she didn't get it, on ao3 if I wanted to read smut (happens more often than I'd admit) I'd use specific tags and e rating, on books you cant do that. honestly this fact will freak me out the next i read a real book because I'm gonna feel like I'm going in blind. Because Now in ao3 this would be a T- rated fic/book unless there are other non sexual mature scenes.

On ao3, more often than not we always know what level of maturity we're reading.

this is my perspective doesn't have to be everyones

g rated fics? okay could've some sensitive mental stuff at the MOST

t rated fics? soft romance maybe some mild violence

m rated? either has normal sex or like violent descriptive violence and/or trauma

e rated fics? could have ANYTHING (bonus points if dead dove tag is present in the room w us)

not rated? well I hope for informative tags or it's just mild (no violence, trauma anything, literally sunshine and gardens)

so my point is, well nothing really, except I love ao3 and how informative it is and generally doesn't give severe whiplash at the explicit (or the lack thereof) scenes.

thank you for coming to my yap talk!

repeat after me

I WILL FINISH MY WIP

I WILL FINISH MY WIP

I WILL FINISH MY WIP

@girlinlotsoffandoms I swear one day I will. 🥺🥺

the sluttiest thing a character can be is crowley in a turtleneck

while we’re at it let’s consider turtleneck crowley + half-bun hairstyle tho

Embrace the cringe.

Write weird fanfic.

Read weird fanfic.