Starsofatlantis - Sawyer! - Tumblr Blog

lol i appreciate you not wanting to insult my intelligence!

i disagree with the statement that the writers only deducted things from lamina’s character and didn’t add anything. i think the entire addition of treech and lamina’s relationship (because i feel as though we can all agree there had to have been *something* there?) adds to her character. i believe i’ve mentioned this before in some post or another but something i think the movie does really well is breathe life into the tributes. they give glimpses of who they are and who they might have been or might have loved before being ripped from their homes. it shows the kids as people in a way snow’s limited perspective in the books can’t. of course, they don’t do that with every tribute, and instead end up sacrificing certain plot lines to beef up others which is sad, and disappointing, and the nature of hollywood.

i do agree they took certain aspects of her character away! fr losing the tiny alliance reaper and lamina had was sad and she isn’t the visibly poor, scrawny, girl the books portray her as. i think just where the disagreement comes is the deduction of traits vs the deduction and addition of traits and that’s just a matter of perspective!

the point brought up about how certain more ruthless traits of female characters being diminished in the movies is a really good one!! i can’t necessarily say that i see it as being intentional considering tons of other characters were offed in the bloodbath for means of moving the story along, but that makes it no lesser of a valid critique.

i particularly enjoy the sensitivity of movie!lamina, so i have never really been disheartened over the removal of book!lamina’s character traits of being more calculated.

i do agree she’s more strategical in the books. however, i don’t see that as necessarily cutthroat as it seems you see her and instead see that as simply her being intelligent and knowing her strengths and weaknesses, which is again just a difference of opinions!

for the slippery slope thing, i used it as a term of speech and was not using it to say you were committing a logical fallacy, but i appreciate the kindness and consideration with which you expressed your concern :)

sometimes i see someone complain about something in the fandom and just sit there confused, because i must admit, that has never happened in the history of forever

frankie is so funny

treech is eurydice lamina is orpheus no i wont be explaining

like the original angst of their relationship was just??? so good??? because we didn’t have anything else ALL we had was the life-threatening edits to chemtrails over the country club and two birds not these cheesy happy ending au’s 🙄

in a constant state of nostalgia for december 2023 at the peak of the tbosas fandom when i was desperate for content and kept the lamina tab on ao3 open on my phone, checking it maybe 13 times a day, and the scene of treech pulling lamina away from the bullets was my lifeline, when they were little people on my screen who i didn’t really have personalities for but was obsessed with anyway

like the original angst of their relationship was just??? so good??? because we didn’t have anything else ALL we had was the life-threatening edits to chemtrails over the country club and two birds not these cheesy happy ending au’s 🙄

in a constant state of nostalgia for december 2023 at the peak of the tbosas fandom when i was desperate for content and kept the lamina tab on ao3 open on my phone, checking it maybe 13 times a day, and the scene of treech pulling lamina away from the bullets was my lifeline, when they were little people on my screen who i didn’t really have personalities for but was obsessed with anyway

in a constant state of nostalgia for december 2023 at the peak of the tbosas fandom when i was desperate for content and kept the lamina tab on ao3 open on my phone, checking it maybe 13 times a day, and the scene of treech pulling lamina away from the bullets was my lifeline, when they were little people on my screen who i didn’t really have personalities for but was obsessed with anyway

in a constant state of nostalgia for december 2023 at the peak of the tbosas fandom when i was desperate for content and kept the lamina tab on ao3 open on my phone, checking it maybe 13 times a day, and the scene of treech pulling lamina away from the bullets was my lifeline, when they were little people on my screen who i didn’t really have personalities for but was obsessed with anyway

this is what it feels like when i drive between two semi trucks

this is what it feels like when i drive between two semi trucks

sawyer come home the kids miss u (literally)

hi fiona (?)

sawyer come home the kids miss u (literally)

hi fiona (?)

being friends with fellow writers is desperately trying to pawn off au’s on each other like a tennis match

being friends with fellow writers is desperately trying to pawn off au’s on each other like a tennis match

i actually laughed out loud

good morning

i plead the fifth

pack it up boys our work here is done

i plead the fifth

pack it up boys our work here is done

i raise you: double down and get us to 420

pack it up boys our work here is done

i raise you: double down and get us to 420

pack it up boys our work here is done

Part 1:

In my head, there are five key elements that color Treech and Lamina’s relationship and the downfall of it. Those are:

1. their youth

2. they are never in line with each other

3. regret

4. circumstance

5. love

THEIR YOUTH

I think The Hunger Games fans are particularly good at remembering that if a character is young it is fundamental to that character, but everyone needs a reminder every now and then

Lamina is fifteen. Treech is head cannoned as a year to two years older. They are teenagers.

Teenagers in particular have a really hard time when it comes to looking outside yourself. Their worldview is so small because it isn’t even two decades old.

Teenage relationships are so special because there is nothing like it, but they are also so fragile.

There’s nothing quite like trying to figure out who tf you are while also having big intense feelings for someone else.

In my writing, I play around with how the tragedy of their relationship is that it was never given the chance to mend. As I said previously, I think they knew each other long before the games, and I also think they meant something to each other (whatever that means to you). However, I think they were also broken before the games.

This comes mostly from my own conviction that I don’t believe that anyone, even repressed Treech, could abandon someone they love the way he did, but also from the look on Lamina’s face afterward.

I’d like to clarify that the way I view the love Treech has for Lamina as deep and (for him) frustratingly unwavering. I don’t believe that if he was actively in a positive relationship with her, he would have been able to leave her on her own. They also knew each other in a way no one else did for years. If he had abandoned her while being on good terms, in my eyes, he is irredeemable.

But also, I think the look on Lamina’s face wasn’t shocked. It was full of hurt and fear, but there wasn’t the kind of shock on her face that would convey “we’re besties for the resties right now and I trust him more than anything but he just betrayed me”. To me, there was the look of someone who had just been faced with something they knew had the possibility of happening and was now having to face the aftermath.

Also, this is probably important. I think Treech would have happily laid down and died for her (it’s the self-hatred and the feeling of unworthiness) if he didn’t have that pesky devotion to duty trait. The duty in question being his obligation to survive for his family’s sake.

^another example of the juxtaposition of his character

So I think they broke before. Whether it be through distance, time, an argument or something else, I believe something happened that reduced the trust Lamina had in their relationship and allowed Treech to convince himself he no longer owed her his loyalty.

Because like I said, Treech does not want to love people. He loves his family because it is his duty, but that is where he draws the line. He absolutely, under no circumstances, goes out looking for anyone else to love.

(And then he meets Lamina whose defining quality is an inherent lovability but I digress.)

So they were broken, but I do believe that by that point they were too entwined in each other’s lives to stay broken so eventually, they would have healed…

Had they been given the time.

Their youth is such an important part of who they are to me, because they died at those ages. They were broken and died before they could fix it. Before they could grow and mature and form a relationship that is mature and not one from a child’s perspective.

When you meet someone at a young age as I headcannon they did, that’s the core of who they are to you. Treech still viewed her as above him because he was seventeen and it is so easy to think others are better than you when you are seventeen. Lamina loved Treech without blame because he was the first person to show her kindness and a part of her is still that little lonely girl.

But loving someone as a child, and as a teenager, and loving them as an adult is different, because they are different.

I think they were broken because learning to love someone as they age and as you age is so so difficult. It is inevitable there be hiccups, but I think they would have figured it out.

They just got Reaped before they could.

THEY ARE NEVER IN LINE WITH EACH OTHER.

I also touch on this a lot in my writing, but I think a lot of their relationship is a race.

I’ve mentioned how they are similar, it’s just that the way they view those similarities is entirely different.

I don’t know if anyone else can relate, but it is one of the most frustrating things in the world to have all the same traits as someone and use them entirely differently— especially if it’s someone you care about.

I think much of their relationship is a game of catch-up. Lamina finally understands something about Treech but when she goes to tell him he has ran in the other direction. When she reaches him, he has realized the same thing she has, but she is already at a different place and too far to tell. I don’t mean this to say that Lamina is smarter or always ahead, in fact I mean this to say that they are so infuriatingly the same that they are different.

They go at different speeds, and in Lamina’s case she tries her hardest to walk in line with Treech, while he does everything in his power to make sure they are nowhere near in step, because if they’re in-step, that is just someone else to lose.

I think they are always on different pages and part of that is why they just can’t give the other up. It is too fascinating, even for Treech, the idea of what will it be like when we are finally in tune? How will that feel? What could that bring us?

It’s every child’s game wrapped up. Tag, Hide and Seek, Telephone, Ghosts in the Graveyard. One person knows and the other is a victim of that knowing. It’s just a matter of whoever’s “it” at the time.

And it isn’t just their own flaws that won’t allow them to be on the same page. It’s the tumultuous lives they will never escape. Not that I have much experience, but I imagine living in the world of Panem doesn’t allow one the luxury of discovering who the person they love is in a sweet and natural growing way. It’s either you know or you don’t. It’s why Treech’s inability to get close to others is so frustrating, because there is no time to convince him to when death is a very close friend. I picture a constant sense of urgency in their world, one with rooms full of held-breaths and one where being able to sit still is unheard of. There is always something happening.

Often times we take for granted the luxury to not only discover who we are, but to also discover who our loved ones are.

They don’t have that luxury. It’s all or nothing at once.

We see this throughout the main trilogy a lot. Peeta loves Katniss from the start and then when he’s hijacked hates her. Katniss protects the people she loves with no reservations. Even with Peeta, she switches from intense hatred and mistrust to nursing him back to health and risking her own life to do so.

This is because they literally don’t have the luxury of time to figure out just exactly how you feel about someone. In that world you need to know instantly because the promise of time is nonexistent.

I imagine Treech as the exact opposite. I think he goes back and forth all the time on his emotions with Lamina because of how contradictory his personality is. I think this is incredibly frustrating for Lamina who never knows where she stands with him.

I joke a lot about how Treemina ain’t Treemina if they don’t have miscommunication and this is why. They are both so similar that they are never together.

Yet Lamina refuses to give up and tries all her life to pick away at Treech’s walls and there are moments where he lets her and moments when he fights her, and there are even moments when Lamina stops. There are few moments where he helps her, and never ones where they swing at the same time.

You can’t be with someone you aren’t walking in line with.

REGRET.

This might just be the most obvious part of their relationship. The way I write them canonically, almost every single negative interaction is colored with regret.

Clearly, the betrayal is the biggest form of that. Treech regrets having to do it in the first place and he regrets not feeling guilty enough to change it.

I think he regrets that Lamina has to die for him to live. I think he regrets that he loves her and I also think he regrets that he doesn’t love her enough.

I think Lamina towards the end of her life regrets that she ever knew Treech at all, but I also think she regrets that they were never given time. The look on her face as she dies is one of anger but I think it’s mostly pain— and I think that pain encompasses a lot of things. I think it’s the pain of what he did, who they were, what they could have been, and the fact that they never got the chance to discover that.

Regret to me is threaded through all of their interactions and honestly, regret is a main theme of The Hunger Games. When you’re faced with death it’s so easy to think of all the things you’ve done wrong and everything you could have done better.

I also picture the regret to not only be about the betrayal and the knowledge they both have of their imminent deaths but I also think it’s regret that happened long before the games.

This stems mostly from Treech’s look down as he walks toward Coral to accept her offer. It’s one of shame but it also looks to me again, much like Lamina’s as one of acceptance.

I think they both went into the Games knowing this would happen because it’s happened before. I said how I thought they were broken before and while I don’t have a concrete picture of what that looks like I think it’s no surprise to either of them that they go their separate ways because of a betrayal.

That to me adds another layer of tragedy to their relationship. Loving someone that you also have no trust in is miserable, and knowing that the person you love has no trust in you but also not caring to do anything to change that is also miserable.

By now it should be pretty obvious that I view their entire relationship as constantly being at odds. Regret for doing something, regret for not doing something else. Regret for loving each other, regret for not loving each other enough. Regret for what has happened, regret for what will never happen.

It’s so easy to regret things when it comes to people you love. The definition of regret is to feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity.

In my opinion, their entire relationship is compiled of missed opportunities, whether that be the missed opportunity to walk away and leave, or the missed opportunity to stay and fight both in and out of the arena.

CIRCUMSTANCE.

Obviously, circumstance is big with every relationship. Maybe this shouldn’t be called a key component but being Tributes in The Hunger Games is a pretty big circumstance.

I believe before I mentioned how I think the tragedy of their relationship is that they were never given the chance to fix what had been broken because they died before they could.

I know it may seem like I think Treech is a self-hating, cowardly little bastard (which lowkey yes) but also no.

One of the most interesting things about The Hunger Games is the theme of how fear brings out the worst in people.

It’s the whole thing about how misery loves company and bad emotions breed bad emotions. We see it in literally every Game how it is a consistent fight to stay positive and to hold onto your head. In Catching Fire Katniss is constantly having to be reminded of who the real enemy is.

It is no secret how different the 10th Hunger Games are compared to the ones we see in the original Trilogy. I just want to reiterate how much of a death sentence it was to be Reaped in the early days. Even Katniss, who views The Hunger Games as the horrific practice they are, still has some level of reverence for the Victors. It’s hard not to have reverence for glory, and that is what it means to be a Victor in the Hunger Games of Katniss’s books.

And maybe reverence isn’t the right word, but at least hope that there is a possibility to win, because the Victors are shoved down their throats until the next Game.

During tbosas, it’s the opposite. We don’t even know if the other Districts know who wins the Hunger Games once they do. These kids aren’t thinking about winning because they’ll get rich or a nice house, they’re thinking about winning for the sole luxury of living.

That is a HUGE difference in my opinion and one that is very prevalent through the books. I haven’t read the original trilogy in a while so I could be wrong, and as dire as the circumstances are there is always that underlying thread of “lifelong glory for the winners”, and this is obtained through the way the Tributes are treated pre-games. Personally, I think part of the reason they do that is to make the Tributes even more bloodthirsty. It’s to show them that hey, if you fight hard to win, not ONLY will you survive, but you’ll ALSO have a life of luxury after. It’s horrific, and manipulative, and works completely if the acts of some Victors (Enobaria ripping an opponents throat out with her teeth) is anything to go by.

With tbosas, it feels literally so dire. The Tributes are MISERABLE before the Games and in all honestly I would be too. You’re having to fight to live just to go back to the same hard life you’ve always had. It’s literally insane.

It’s why I think all the good in the 10th Hunger Games is so shocking, because why tf would anyone have any goodness left in their heart when they’ve been stuck in a zoo, barely fed, bombed, and been to two funerals before you even get to the arena?

That kind of suffering brings out either the best in people, or the worst and we see it with all the Tributes.

That’s why I think it’s important to note the circumstance. If it were the 74th Hunger Games, I’m not sure if I’m convinced that Treech would have left Lamina the way he did, because he wouldn’t have been beat down so badly before, the way he was in the 10th.

But after going through everything they did before the arena in the 10th? What is one more heartache on top of the pile? They’re dead anyway.

LOVE.

A bit on the nose I know, but it’s important.

Everything I’ve mentioned before— the sadness, the betrayal, the regret— would not be possible if they didn’t love each other.

It’s that whole quote that’s like a traitor never comes from an enemy it comes from a friend.

That is literally them. That is the tragedy of their relationship. Because for once love did not fix all. It didn’t save anyone, it didn’t protect anyone, and it didn’t do anything besides exist.

However, that is why I find it so cool. If you’ve been on tumblr for even a short while you’ve definitely seen all those posts about how love doesn’t always have to be world-ending to matter.

For me, what I always try to remember is that at the end of the day they loved each other. Yes, they wished they didn’t and it would be so much easier for everyone if they didn’t, but they did.

As confusing, and tumultuous, and complicated as their relationship gets, the core of it is love.

That’s why it hurts as bad as it does. They loved each other. It didn’t do anything to help, but they still did.

If you’ve read my fics you know that I almost always write them as romantic, however, that does not always have to be the end goal. I think that the love they have for each other is deep and unrelenting and it doesn’t always have to end with them in a relationship.

Again, the love was there, whatever type, and that is what matters.

The tumblr post that’s like “not romantic, not platonic but a secret third thing (so devoted the lines blur)” is the easiest way to put it.

It is a luxury to love and it is also a burden, and though neither of them lived long they experienced both sides of that.

Part 1:

In my head, there are five key elements that color Treech and Lamina’s relationship and the downfall of it. Those are:

1. their youth

2. they are never in line with each other

3. regret

4. circumstance

5. love

THEIR YOUTH

I think The Hunger Games fans are particularly good at remembering that if a character is young it is fundamental to that character, but everyone needs a reminder every now and then

Lamina is fifteen. Treech is head cannoned as a year to two years older. They are teenagers.

Teenagers in particular have a really hard time when it comes to looking outside yourself. Their worldview is so small because it isn’t even two decades old.

Teenage relationships are so special because there is nothing like it, but they are also so fragile.

There’s nothing quite like trying to figure out who tf you are while also having big intense feelings for someone else.

In my writing, I play around with how the tragedy of their relationship is that it was never given the chance to mend. As I said previously, I think they knew each other long before the games, and I also think they meant something to each other (whatever that means to you). However, I think they were also broken before the games.

This comes mostly from my own conviction that I don’t believe that anyone, even repressed Treech, could abandon someone they love the way he did, but also from the look on Lamina’s face afterward.

I’d like to clarify that the way I view the love Treech has for Lamina as deep and (for him) frustratingly unwavering. I don’t believe that if he was actively in a positive relationship with her, he would have been able to leave her on her own. They also knew each other in a way no one else did for years. If he had abandoned her while being on good terms, in my eyes, he is irredeemable.

But also, I think the look on Lamina’s face wasn’t shocked. It was full of hurt and fear, but there wasn’t the kind of shock on her face that would convey “we’re besties for the resties right now and I trust him more than anything but he just betrayed me”. To me, there was the look of someone who had just been faced with something they knew had the possibility of happening and was now having to face the aftermath.

Also, this is probably important. I think Treech would have happily laid down and died for her (it’s the self-hatred and the feeling of unworthiness) if he didn’t have that pesky devotion to duty trait. The duty in question being his obligation to survive for his family’s sake.

^another example of the juxtaposition of his character

So I think they broke before. Whether it be through distance, time, an argument or something else, I believe something happened that reduced the trust Lamina had in their relationship and allowed Treech to convince himself he no longer owed her his loyalty.

Because like I said, Treech does not want to love people. He loves his family because it is his duty, but that is where he draws the line. He absolutely, under no circumstances, goes out looking for anyone else to love.

(And then he meets Lamina whose defining quality is an inherent lovability but I digress.)

So they were broken, but I do believe that by that point they were too entwined in each other’s lives to stay broken so eventually, they would have healed…

Had they been given the time.

Their youth is such an important part of who they are to me, because they died at those ages. They were broken and died before they could fix it. Before they could grow and mature and form a relationship that is mature and not one from a child’s perspective.

When you meet someone at a young age as I headcannon they did, that’s the core of who they are to you. Treech still viewed her as above him because he was seventeen and it is so easy to think others are better than you when you are seventeen. Lamina loved Treech without blame because he was the first person to show her kindness and a part of her is still that little lonely girl.

But loving someone as a child, and as a teenager, and loving them as an adult is different, because they are different.

I think they were broken because learning to love someone as they age and as you age is so so difficult. It is inevitable there be hiccups, but I think they would have figured it out.

They just got Reaped before they could.

THEY ARE NEVER IN LINE WITH EACH OTHER.

I also touch on this a lot in my writing, but I think a lot of their relationship is a race.

I’ve mentioned how they are similar, it’s just that the way they view those similarities is entirely different.

I don’t know if anyone else can relate, but it is one of the most frustrating things in the world to have all the same traits as someone and use them entirely differently— especially if it’s someone you care about.

I think much of their relationship is a game of catch-up. Lamina finally understands something about Treech but when she goes to tell him he has ran in the other direction. When she reaches him, he has realized the same thing she has, but she is already at a different place and too far to tell. I don’t mean this to say that Lamina is smarter or always ahead, in fact I mean this to say that they are so infuriatingly the same that they are different.

They go at different speeds, and in Lamina’s case she tries her hardest to walk in line with Treech, while he does everything in his power to make sure they are nowhere near in step, because if they’re in-step, that is just someone else to lose.

I think they are always on different pages and part of that is why they just can’t give the other up. It is too fascinating, even for Treech, the idea of what will it be like when we are finally in tune? How will that feel? What could that bring us?

It’s every child’s game wrapped up. Tag, Hide and Seek, Telephone, Ghosts in the Graveyard. One person knows and the other is a victim of that knowing. It’s just a matter of whoever’s “it” at the time.

And it isn’t just their own flaws that won’t allow them to be on the same page. It’s the tumultuous lives they will never escape. Not that I have much experience, but I imagine living in the world of Panem doesn’t allow one the luxury of discovering who the person they love is in a sweet and natural growing way. It’s either you know or you don’t. It’s why Treech’s inability to get close to others is so frustrating, because there is no time to convince him to when death is a very close friend. I picture a constant sense of urgency in their world, one with rooms full of held-breaths and one where being able to sit still is unheard of. There is always something happening.

Often times we take for granted the luxury to not only discover who we are, but to also discover who our loved ones are.

They don’t have that luxury. It’s all or nothing at once.

We see this throughout the main trilogy a lot. Peeta loves Katniss from the start and then when he’s hijacked hates her. Katniss protects the people she loves with no reservations. Even with Peeta, she switches from intense hatred and mistrust to nursing him back to health and risking her own life to do so.

This is because they literally don’t have the luxury of time to figure out just exactly how you feel about someone. In that world you need to know instantly because the promise of time is nonexistent.

I imagine Treech as the exact opposite. I think he goes back and forth all the time on his emotions with Lamina because of how contradictory his personality is. I think this is incredibly frustrating for Lamina who never knows where she stands with him.

I joke a lot about how Treemina ain’t Treemina if they don’t have miscommunication and this is why. They are both so similar that they are never together.

Yet Lamina refuses to give up and tries all her life to pick away at Treech’s walls and there are moments where he lets her and moments when he fights her, and there are even moments when Lamina stops. There are few moments where he helps her, and never ones where they swing at the same time.

You can’t be with someone you aren’t walking in line with.

REGRET.

This might just be the most obvious part of their relationship. The way I write them canonically, almost every single negative interaction is colored with regret.

Clearly, the betrayal is the biggest form of that. Treech regrets having to do it in the first place and he regrets not feeling guilty enough to change it.

I think he regrets that Lamina has to die for him to live. I think he regrets that he loves her and I also think he regrets that he doesn’t love her enough.

I think Lamina towards the end of her life regrets that she ever knew Treech at all, but I also think she regrets that they were never given time. The look on her face as she dies is one of anger but I think it’s mostly pain— and I think that pain encompasses a lot of things. I think it’s the pain of what he did, who they were, what they could have been, and the fact that they never got the chance to discover that.

Regret to me is threaded through all of their interactions and honestly, regret is a main theme of The Hunger Games. When you’re faced with death it’s so easy to think of all the things you’ve done wrong and everything you could have done better.

I also picture the regret to not only be about the betrayal and the knowledge they both have of their imminent deaths but I also think it’s regret that happened long before the games.

This stems mostly from Treech’s look down as he walks toward Coral to accept her offer. It’s one of shame but it also looks to me again, much like Lamina’s as one of acceptance.

I think they both went into the Games knowing this would happen because it’s happened before. I said how I thought they were broken before and while I don’t have a concrete picture of what that looks like I think it’s no surprise to either of them that they go their separate ways because of a betrayal.

That to me adds another layer of tragedy to their relationship. Loving someone that you also have no trust in is miserable, and knowing that the person you love has no trust in you but also not caring to do anything to change that is also miserable.

By now it should be pretty obvious that I view their entire relationship as constantly being at odds. Regret for doing something, regret for not doing something else. Regret for loving each other, regret for not loving each other enough. Regret for what has happened, regret for what will never happen.

It’s so easy to regret things when it comes to people you love. The definition of regret is to feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over something that has happened or been done, especially a loss or missed opportunity.

In my opinion, their entire relationship is compiled of missed opportunities, whether that be the missed opportunity to walk away and leave, or the missed opportunity to stay and fight both in and out of the arena.

CIRCUMSTANCE.

Obviously, circumstance is big with every relationship. Maybe this shouldn’t be called a key component but being Tributes in The Hunger Games is a pretty big circumstance.

I believe before I mentioned how I think the tragedy of their relationship is that they were never given the chance to fix what had been broken because they died before they could.

I know it may seem like I think Treech is a self-hating, cowardly little bastard (which lowkey yes) but also no.

One of the most interesting things about The Hunger Games is the theme of how fear brings out the worst in people.

It’s the whole thing about how misery loves company and bad emotions breed bad emotions. We see it in literally every Game how it is a consistent fight to stay positive and to hold onto your head. In Catching Fire Katniss is constantly having to be reminded of who the real enemy is.

It is no secret how different the 10th Hunger Games are compared to the ones we see in the original Trilogy. I just want to reiterate how much of a death sentence it was to be Reaped in the early days. Even Katniss, who views The Hunger Games as the horrific practice they are, still has some level of reverence for the Victors. It’s hard not to have reverence for glory, and that is what it means to be a Victor in the Hunger Games of Katniss’s books.

And maybe reverence isn’t the right word, but at least hope that there is a possibility to win, because the Victors are shoved down their throats until the next Game.

During tbosas, it’s the opposite. We don’t even know if the other Districts know who wins the Hunger Games once they do. These kids aren’t thinking about winning because they’ll get rich or a nice house, they’re thinking about winning for the sole luxury of living.

That is a HUGE difference in my opinion and one that is very prevalent through the books. I haven’t read the original trilogy in a while so I could be wrong, and as dire as the circumstances are there is always that underlying thread of “lifelong glory for the winners”, and this is obtained through the way the Tributes are treated pre-games. Personally, I think part of the reason they do that is to make the Tributes even more bloodthirsty. It’s to show them that hey, if you fight hard to win, not ONLY will you survive, but you’ll ALSO have a life of luxury after. It’s horrific, and manipulative, and works completely if the acts of some Victors (Enobaria ripping an opponents throat out with her teeth) is anything to go by.

With tbosas, it feels literally so dire. The Tributes are MISERABLE before the Games and in all honestly I would be too. You’re having to fight to live just to go back to the same hard life you’ve always had. It’s literally insane.

It’s why I think all the good in the 10th Hunger Games is so shocking, because why tf would anyone have any goodness left in their heart when they’ve been stuck in a zoo, barely fed, bombed, and been to two funerals before you even get to the arena?

That kind of suffering brings out either the best in people, or the worst and we see it with all the Tributes.

That’s why I think it’s important to note the circumstance. If it were the 74th Hunger Games, I’m not sure if I’m convinced that Treech would have left Lamina the way he did, because he wouldn’t have been beat down so badly before, the way he was in the 10th.

But after going through everything they did before the arena in the 10th? What is one more heartache on top of the pile? They’re dead anyway.

LOVE.

A bit on the nose I know, but it’s important.

Everything I’ve mentioned before— the sadness, the betrayal, the regret— would not be possible if they didn’t love each other.

It’s that whole quote that’s like a traitor never comes from an enemy it comes from a friend.

That is literally them. That is the tragedy of their relationship. Because for once love did not fix all. It didn’t save anyone, it didn’t protect anyone, and it didn’t do anything besides exist.

However, that is why I find it so cool. If you’ve been on tumblr for even a short while you’ve definitely seen all those posts about how love doesn’t always have to be world-ending to matter.

For me, what I always try to remember is that at the end of the day they loved each other. Yes, they wished they didn’t and it would be so much easier for everyone if they didn’t, but they did.

As confusing, and tumultuous, and complicated as their relationship gets, the core of it is love.

That’s why it hurts as bad as it does. They loved each other. It didn’t do anything to help, but they still did.

If you’ve read my fics you know that I almost always write them as romantic, however, that does not always have to be the end goal. I think that the love they have for each other is deep and unrelenting and it doesn’t always have to end with them in a relationship.

Again, the love was there, whatever type, and that is what matters.

The tumblr post that’s like “not romantic, not platonic but a secret third thing (so devoted the lines blur)” is the easiest way to put it.

It is a luxury to love and it is also a burden, and though neither of them lived long they experienced both sides of that.

nurse she’s out again

I’ve been thinking a lot about who Treech and Lamina are and their relationship to each other and mostly the downfall of it. I wanted to put all those thoughts down into one place and I always enjoy reading character analyses so I thought I’d share!

To preface, this is my own personal take on them and an insight to the way I write them in fics. This is entirely the movie side of them. I enjoy their book versions, but the movie created a very compelling relationship that I have yet to move on from. I would love to hear other thoughts and opinions so please don’t hesitate to share if you feel the need to!

To start, I view them as childhood friends. There are a few options of how I think their relationship could have gone (that is to say developing into a romantic relationship or staying friends) pre-hunger games, but I know that in all of them, they care deeply about the other.

Individually, this is how I write them:

Treech:

To me, Treech is the oldest of two younger sisters and the burden of that is a defining part of his character. His entire family is still intact and that also weighs heavy on him. I think he lives in fear of what could happen to him, his family, and everything he cares about. This leads to an attempt at trying to care about as few people as possible. He tries to keep his head down and mind his own. He keeps everyone at arms-length. He has friends but they are shallow relationships and only viewed as people to spend time with. He will not do anything to put his life and his family’s life at risk. They get by and in that world, have a good life. He is not going to be the one to ruin that. He has not lost anything of value in his life and in turn, that makes him terrified.

Treech has never lost anyone. He doesn’t know how he would react to grief. It terrifies him because he’s never done it. As much as he tries not to he loves deeply, but he is so afraid of loving more than necessary because he has never lost, and when you live in the world they do, losing is inevitable and simply a matter of waiting.

I view him as a slave to self-imposed duty, someone who would sacrifice anything for the few people he loves (*cough cough* his own innocence), as well as someone with an unhealthy dose of self-hatred.

I think Treech is constantly fighting with himself. His dislike for himself, his inability to allow himself to be close to people and his unwavering kindness and sense of duty are in direct opposition of each other at all times. Everything in him is always fighting to gain the power and it really is just a matter of what day it is as to which trait is the strongest.

He is not consistent with his thoughts and feelings and switches up very easily. He’s hard to get a read on because you think you understand him and you do but only for that moment because the next minute he feels the opposite way.

I think Treech views himself as uninfluential and not really someone of any consequence, which to me is why he becomes so infatuated with Lamina.

Lamina:

Lamina lost a mother during the war, and later two older twin brothers who were rebels and died because of that. It is just her and her father (which in my head also meets the headcanon of why she is better dressed than Treech; family of two vs. family of five). Where Treech has never lost anyone he’s loved, Lamina has lost nearly everyone. While a lot of times this would make someone cold, it makes Lamina even more determined to relish in the things she values. She loves, and she refuses to lessen that love just because she may lose it.

I think when you lose someone, it forces you to face not only your own mortality but also everyone else’s. Lamina takes that mortality and instead of being scared of it promises to make the most of it. Not only that but I think it makes you even more confident in your own strength. If you can get through the loss of someone you love, I think there are very few things you can’t get through. Lamina knows this and she knows how she reacts to grief. She trusts that she has the strength to love and lose because she has done it— multiple times— and she has survived.

I think Lamina is wickedly smart and enjoys learning. I view her as someone who is extremely emotionally intelligent and mature, but for all her confidence in her strength, I think she is also insecure. Typically, I find that people with that kind of maturity at such a young age are ostracized because their peers simply aren’t at that level yet and most of the time what kids don’t understand they label as weird. I think Lamina became very used to the feeling of being alone and at times fed into the notion that her differences were bad. I imagine Treech was the first person to ever treat her intelligence as something that is simply “cool” and not something that makes her incapable of being a kid.

I picture Lamina as someone who is cohesive and a flowing picture of all of her different traits. She accepts each one for what it is and allows it to do its job in her life. She tries to always be better but she doesn’t drown in her faults.

Notice how above I say often “this is what they think about themselves”. They think certain ways about themselves when the opposite is true. Perspective!

In actuality, Treech is strong in his devotions and uneasily swayed from them. He views himself as weak-minded when really he is so stuck in his views he cannot change. He believes that keeping everyone at arms length will keep his heart safe when in reality it does more harm than good. He thinks he is of no consequence to anyone, tries so hard to not cause any trouble, yet makes an impact on every person he’s come into contact with. I believe Treech’s number one character trait is that he is kind. It’s in his nature to help and I think he physically cannot stop himself. It’s just something that happens. It’ll be one instance that he thinks means nothing but means everything to someone else (i.e. being kind to Lamina as children is something he doesn’t even think of because “anyone would do this” yet none of their peers had ever done it before). He thinks he’s inconsequential but he impacts people without even knowing it.

Lamina believes she is unnerving to others when in reality she has that kind of spark that makes it hard to look away. Think about those people who are inexplicably infatuating. So yeah, in a way she is unnerving, but only because you can’t help but notice her. She’s an enigma who’s been labeled as weird.

However, I don’t think they are that different from each other. Instead, I think it is the way they go about those similarities that make them different.

For example:

Treech is kind and he wants so badly not to be. Lamina is kind and wishes she were more so. Where she sees her kindness and empathy as a strength, Treech views his as a weakness.

I think they both are intense about their love, but where one runs from the strength of his love, the other does everything she can to make it stronger.

They both are fiercely loyal. Treech tries to limit that loyalty to his family, but Lamina wishes to give it to everyone.

The ironic part about this is that the traits Treech sees as faults in himself he sees as otherworldly in Lamina. (Perspective 😍)

I picture Treech to have almost in a sense placed Lamina atop a pedestal. She is everything he wishes he were; open, free, and believing in good. Lamina in his eyes is something he is unworthy of, but also something he thinks would ruin him should he ever lose it. She is something to be protected but never touched.

This is so unhealthy though, because it’s impossible to be in a relationship with someone you don’t view as an equal.

Lamina, however, grounded sweetheart that she is, views Treech as human. She adores him for all that he is— good and bad. She adores him for his kindness and for his fearfulness. Lamina values Treech because she values every living being. But she loves him because he is Treech.

However, the downside of this is that I imagine she lets him get away with many things because he was the first person outside of her family to be kind for the sake of being kind. I think Treech would reject a lot of her attempts at getting closer and refuse to admit how much he cares about her. I think Lamina, who is so declarative with her love and wants the same back, is only able to look past this because she convinces herself that the only thing that matters about him is his kindness. Kindness she has been a firsthand witness to and kindness that impacted her at a young age. She’s seen the good in him and refuses to let that good be outshined by all his bad, even if that means becoming a bit of a doormat for his bad habits.

Lamina grows to love Treech over a period of time as she forces herself to push past all his flaws. Treech loves her in an instant because he can’t help himself.

This plays into the part above where I talked about how Treech thinks he doesn’t impact anyone when in reality it’s impossible for him not to and how Lamina has that quality about her that forces everyone to at least look at her.

When Treech shows Lamina that first act of kindness as kids, he impacts her life in a way that makes it impossible for her to not want to know him. Lamina inherently has that quality about her, the quality that makes people want to know her, and Treech, guarded, closed-off Treech, is unable to escape her pull.

In my head, there is literally no world where they don’t immediately mean something to each other, because it is literally engraved into who they are. Treech impacts everyone, Lamina forces everyone to impact her.

In a perfect world, Treech goes to therapy for his self-hatred and Lamina gains a little bit of self-worth (i.e. tells Treech to figure his shit out instead of taking it out on her) however they live in Panem and that is not possible.

Thus their downfall.

nurse she’s out again

I’ve been thinking a lot about who Treech and Lamina are and their relationship to each other and mostly the downfall of it. I wanted to put all those thoughts down into one place and I always enjoy reading character analyses so I thought I’d share!

To preface, this is my own personal take on them and an insight to the way I write them in fics. This is entirely the movie side of them. I enjoy their book versions, but the movie created a very compelling relationship that I have yet to move on from. I would love to hear other thoughts and opinions so please don’t hesitate to share if you feel the need to!

To start, I view them as childhood friends. There are a few options of how I think their relationship could have gone (that is to say developing into a romantic relationship or staying friends) pre-hunger games, but I know that in all of them, they care deeply about the other.

Individually, this is how I write them:

Treech:

To me, Treech is the oldest of two younger sisters and the burden of that is a defining part of his character. His entire family is still intact and that also weighs heavy on him. I think he lives in fear of what could happen to him, his family, and everything he cares about. This leads to an attempt at trying to care about as few people as possible. He tries to keep his head down and mind his own. He keeps everyone at arms-length. He has friends but they are shallow relationships and only viewed as people to spend time with. He will not do anything to put his life and his family’s life at risk. They get by and in that world, have a good life. He is not going to be the one to ruin that. He has not lost anything of value in his life and in turn, that makes him terrified.

Treech has never lost anyone. He doesn’t know how he would react to grief. It terrifies him because he’s never done it. As much as he tries not to he loves deeply, but he is so afraid of loving more than necessary because he has never lost, and when you live in the world they do, losing is inevitable and simply a matter of waiting.

I view him as a slave to self-imposed duty, someone who would sacrifice anything for the few people he loves (*cough cough* his own innocence), as well as someone with an unhealthy dose of self-hatred.

I think Treech is constantly fighting with himself. His dislike for himself, his inability to allow himself to be close to people and his unwavering kindness and sense of duty are in direct opposition of each other at all times. Everything in him is always fighting to gain the power and it really is just a matter of what day it is as to which trait is the strongest.

He is not consistent with his thoughts and feelings and switches up very easily. He’s hard to get a read on because you think you understand him and you do but only for that moment because the next minute he feels the opposite way.

I think Treech views himself as uninfluential and not really someone of any consequence, which to me is why he becomes so infatuated with Lamina.

Lamina:

Lamina lost a mother during the war, and later two older twin brothers who were rebels and died because of that. It is just her and her father (which in my head also meets the headcanon of why she is better dressed than Treech; family of two vs. family of five). Where Treech has never lost anyone he’s loved, Lamina has lost nearly everyone. While a lot of times this would make someone cold, it makes Lamina even more determined to relish in the things she values. She loves, and she refuses to lessen that love just because she may lose it.

I think when you lose someone, it forces you to face not only your own mortality but also everyone else’s. Lamina takes that mortality and instead of being scared of it promises to make the most of it. Not only that but I think it makes you even more confident in your own strength. If you can get through the loss of someone you love, I think there are very few things you can’t get through. Lamina knows this and she knows how she reacts to grief. She trusts that she has the strength to love and lose because she has done it— multiple times— and she has survived.

I think Lamina is wickedly smart and enjoys learning. I view her as someone who is extremely emotionally intelligent and mature, but for all her confidence in her strength, I think she is also insecure. Typically, I find that people with that kind of maturity at such a young age are ostracized because their peers simply aren’t at that level yet and most of the time what kids don’t understand they label as weird. I think Lamina became very used to the feeling of being alone and at times fed into the notion that her differences were bad. I imagine Treech was the first person to ever treat her intelligence as something that is simply “cool” and not something that makes her incapable of being a kid.

I picture Lamina as someone who is cohesive and a flowing picture of all of her different traits. She accepts each one for what it is and allows it to do its job in her life. She tries to always be better but she doesn’t drown in her faults.

Notice how above I say often “this is what they think about themselves”. They think certain ways about themselves when the opposite is true. Perspective!

In actuality, Treech is strong in his devotions and uneasily swayed from them. He views himself as weak-minded when really he is so stuck in his views he cannot change. He believes that keeping everyone at arms length will keep his heart safe when in reality it does more harm than good. He thinks he is of no consequence to anyone, tries so hard to not cause any trouble, yet makes an impact on every person he’s come into contact with. I believe Treech’s number one character trait is that he is kind. It’s in his nature to help and I think he physically cannot stop himself. It’s just something that happens. It’ll be one instance that he thinks means nothing but means everything to someone else (i.e. being kind to Lamina as children is something he doesn’t even think of because “anyone would do this” yet none of their peers had ever done it before). He thinks he’s inconsequential but he impacts people without even knowing it.

Lamina believes she is unnerving to others when in reality she has that kind of spark that makes it hard to look away. Think about those people who are inexplicably infatuating. So yeah, in a way she is unnerving, but only because you can’t help but notice her. She’s an enigma who’s been labeled as weird.

However, I don’t think they are that different from each other. Instead, I think it is the way they go about those similarities that make them different.

For example:

Treech is kind and he wants so badly not to be. Lamina is kind and wishes she were more so. Where she sees her kindness and empathy as a strength, Treech views his as a weakness.

I think they both are intense about their love, but where one runs from the strength of his love, the other does everything she can to make it stronger.

They both are fiercely loyal. Treech tries to limit that loyalty to his family, but Lamina wishes to give it to everyone.

The ironic part about this is that the traits Treech sees as faults in himself he sees as otherworldly in Lamina. (Perspective 😍)

I picture Treech to have almost in a sense placed Lamina atop a pedestal. She is everything he wishes he were; open, free, and believing in good. Lamina in his eyes is something he is unworthy of, but also something he thinks would ruin him should he ever lose it. She is something to be protected but never touched.

This is so unhealthy though, because it’s impossible to be in a relationship with someone you don’t view as an equal.

Lamina, however, grounded sweetheart that she is, views Treech as human. She adores him for all that he is— good and bad. She adores him for his kindness and for his fearfulness. Lamina values Treech because she values every living being. But she loves him because he is Treech.

However, the downside of this is that I imagine she lets him get away with many things because he was the first person outside of her family to be kind for the sake of being kind. I think Treech would reject a lot of her attempts at getting closer and refuse to admit how much he cares about her. I think Lamina, who is so declarative with her love and wants the same back, is only able to look past this because she convinces herself that the only thing that matters about him is his kindness. Kindness she has been a firsthand witness to and kindness that impacted her at a young age. She’s seen the good in him and refuses to let that good be outshined by all his bad, even if that means becoming a bit of a doormat for his bad habits.

Lamina grows to love Treech over a period of time as she forces herself to push past all his flaws. Treech loves her in an instant because he can’t help himself.

This plays into the part above where I talked about how Treech thinks he doesn’t impact anyone when in reality it’s impossible for him not to and how Lamina has that quality about her that forces everyone to at least look at her.

When Treech shows Lamina that first act of kindness as kids, he impacts her life in a way that makes it impossible for her to not want to know him. Lamina inherently has that quality about her, the quality that makes people want to know her, and Treech, guarded, closed-off Treech, is unable to escape her pull.

In my head, there is literally no world where they don’t immediately mean something to each other, because it is literally engraved into who they are. Treech impacts everyone, Lamina forces everyone to impact her.

In a perfect world, Treech goes to therapy for his self-hatred and Lamina gains a little bit of self-worth (i.e. tells Treech to figure his shit out instead of taking it out on her) however they live in Panem and that is not possible.

Thus their downfall.

et tu brutus?