not to be all “tw*light did nothing wrong” but misogyny honest to god killed the hunger games
it was no masterpiece sure but it also sure as hell wasnt the love triangle bullshit everyone made it out to be. seriously everyone blames this whole “YA fiction with the special One and teens overthrowing the oppressive government tropes” trend on the hunger games but the truth is that none of those books are anything like thg
god!!! im mad!! name one cliche YA novel where the government actually is BAD like not just “oh love is illegal” or “they barcode you!!uwu” instead of like. actual slavery and rampant poverty while the rich waste their money on dumb bullshit!! and name one main character who ACTUALLY suffers under the government’s regime!! who actually starves and works and suffers and has genuine REASON to rebel!! thg is the only YA book that had anything to say about wealth disparity and the dehumanization of the poor,, every other YA book uses it as a plot device to put some dumbass romance together or show how “badass” the MC is!! thg is genuinely emotional and the focus of the book isnt katniss’s archery and how cool she is and its NOT gale or fucking peeta bread. and then the marketing for the stupid fucking movies took the WHOLE POINT OF THE BOOK (which is to satirize and critique how women in entertainment have any serious things about them ignored in favor of whatever dress theyre wearing or who they’re dating) and turns that into……….. a fucking love triangle. and then the world forgets it because its just another dumb teen girl series. okay.
Me @ myself rn
oh also last thing. the fact that at the end katniss chose to kill Coin (the rebel leader/soon to be newest dictator) instead of just having a plain and simple boring happy ending shows just how different thg is from the YA fiction its compared to. no other book in this genre would have the guts (or even the idea) to put out such a blatant, obvious “the fight against oppression never ends, stay diligent” message and thg is iconic for it and it shows how much thought was actually put into its message. im sorry to susan collins for my 12 yo self for not understanding at the time and thinking it was just bad writing
thanks to everyone adding on about the representation! about finnick’s story and being trafficked! and about peeta and his disability!! and katniss and her indigenous coding and PTSD!! And about how it shows how war n dictatorships always prey on marginalized groups!! and a billion other things!!! that the movies just fucked off n forgot about!!!
Also, like…Katniss’ love triangle with Peeta and Gale was never about the love aspect. She was choosing between war and peace. It wasn’t “oh nooo i have too many boys :(” it was “one of these people represents war and violence and revolt, which is necessary in the world but unsustainable, and one of them represents peace and love and rebuilding, which can tolerate too much but ultimately is the goal.” and it had to be a romantic relationship because she had to be put into a position where choosing one cut her off from the other. katniss choosing peeta was NEVER about choosing the boy she loved most; it was about choosing a future where she counted up good things in the world, where she had children because she was no longer terrified of what their future would look like, where she grew primroses in her garden and started moving on from living her entire life steeped in trauma. gale was important to her because he was ferocious like her; but even he goes further than her, like when he refuses to run away with katniss because he wants to be part of the rebellion.
thg is a war story. peeta and gale both represent another aspect of what happens when the war is over - you can focus on it, enjoy it even, continue to bring it back every time something goes wrong; or you can slow down, rebuild, heal, refuse to glorify the effect it had on society and you personally. choosing one means you cannot have the other. you cannot hold hands and play in the grass with peace and war at the same time: you marry one of them. doing so erases your ability to commit to the other. and katniss’ choice of peeta is significant because she is choosing peace. she is choosing, despite how hard it is and how easy it would be to be bitter and broken and angry, to heal.
YES THAT LAST PART
The Hunger Games is just a good book. Period.
