I'll Never Get Over How Fucking Ridiculous The Post-hunger Games Dystopian YA Trend Was. Every Book Was

I'll never get over how fucking ridiculous the post-hunger games dystopian YA trend was. Every book was "society is sorted into *rolls dice* 5 groups based on *picks card* astrology signs. It is illegal to *throws dart at wall* sing. The main character is special because she *spins wheel* knows how to read. Two boys are in love with her."

it's sorta funny to me how president snow basically ignored peeta until mockingjay, despite peeta being veeery similar to snow when he was young. they were both:

experts at lying and manipulating (peeta successfully lied to the entire nation on multiple occasions, and snow made everyone think he was a sweet, studious, polite person when underneath it all he was a snake).

star crossed lovers with a singing black-haired girl from the seam who was initially only in the relationship for survival (although in lucy gray's defense, it might not have been entirely for survival. she might have genuinely loved snow to some degree, we don't really know. snow perceives her as a user who played with his feelings, but it's just as likely that she truly liked him and he just thinks she's a manipulator bc he got dumped in the end lol).

relationship with said girl starts in the hunger games (although snow is a mentor and peeta is a tribute. I'm probably reaching but there could be some meaning in this? at least in peeta and katniss' relationship, they were both tributes, so they started off as equals in their relationship. whereas as snow was in a position of power over lucy when they dated. he basically abused his authority, although he doesn't seem to realise it).

jealousy over a boy from the seam despite their love interest either a) no longer having any feelings for that boy bc he hurt her too badly (lucy) or b) never having any romantic interest in that boy in the first place (katniss). (although peeta is way more reasonable and not toxic about it like snow was, which shows the difference between the two of them).

both charming and charismatic, and use this to their advantage. they know how to talk to ppl, they know how to make the audience like them.

both always thinking five steps ahead. they're extremely intelligent, neither of them are dumb blonds.

both from upper class families in their society (peeta was from the wealthy merchant class of district 12, snow was from the aristocratic snow family).

and in spite of them both technically being upper class, they also struggled with food insecurity. peeta's family couldn't afford a varied diet and they had to live on stale bread. and snow's family lived on cabbage and lima beans and he often went hungry.

they have one nice parent (peeta's dad, snow's mum), and one cold parent (snow's dad, peeta's mum).

the connection to poison. peeta (accidently) poisons foxface, and then tries to commit suicide via nightlock. snow gives lucy rat poison to use on her opponents in the arena, and then begins to directly poison ppl himself who he thinks stand in the way of him gaining/maintaining power.

they both have flower motifs. peeta decorates cookies with flowers, and is compared to a dandelion by katniss. and snow has his grandmother's rose garden, the rose powder and compact belonging to his mother, wears a rose in his lapel at events, gives a rose to his tribute, and later on uses roses as his calling card in the main series.

they even have the same hair and eye colour.

i know snow was focused on katniss bc she was the one who pulled out the berries and sparked the rebellion and reminded him of his ex-girlfriend but considering how self-centered snow is, you'd think he would have taken more of an interest in peeta, who was so similar to him. I feel like peeta is what snow could have been, if he hadn't lost his parents, fallen into poverty, and developed a need for control and status bc of that, and if tigris, lucy and sejanus' influence on him (trying to convince him that humans are inherently good) had outweighed dr gaul's influence on him (convincing him that humans are inherently brutes and need to be tightly controlled in order to stop society from collapsing). the main difference between them is that peeta was selfless, while snow was very similar to him in every other way but with a big dose of selfishness. peeta was fundamentally good, and never could have taken the dark path that snow did, whereas snow was morally grey but had the potential to be good like peeta. unfortunately he ended up rejecting the good traits he had in favour of furthering his career.

Could you explain this one: "friendly reminder peeta most probably suffered from abuse from his mother throughout the majority of his childhood"? How?

I don’t even go here but I’m still so angry about what happened to Hunger Games. The CLEAR allegories and political messages that were swept to the side and/or completely ignored in favor of a cool sci-fi dystopia story and a love triangle. The casting of a white adult Katniss. The REMOVAL of all (or nearly all) disabilities from the movies. How every fucking YA book jumped on the hot new trend of Rebel Girl Against Evil Society yet NONE of them managed to grasp that the Hunger Games dystopia wasn’t MADE UP based on some bullshit Hogwarts House sorting type system. And it wasn’t some bullshit teenage wish fulfillment fantasy about being Special and teenagers being The Only Smart Ones but rather Katniss is caught up in a groundswell movement that is so much BIGGER THAN HER. How when the movies came out corporate America started making fashion & beauty “Capitol” lines in a hilariously devastating display of irony. How nobody liked Mockingjay because it was “too dark” as though that wasn’t PRECISELY the point. How Katniss Herself was written off as though she’s just a Mary Sue action hero and she was “annoying” and not uniquely gifted because she had STRUGGLED and STARVED and learned how to survive the hard way and she was ANGRY. It basically inspired a new genre and yet all of these books were so pale and uninspired in comparison and the movies though they largely follow the plot somehow STILL managed to miss the point and the whole message was lost because of both these things.

Thai Exhibitor Pulls ‘Mockingjay’ As Coup Protesters Resurface Salute

A day after five students were detained in Thailand for flashing the Hunger Games salute at Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, three more students were detained by police today at the opening of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I in Bangkok, the Associated Press reports.

A cinema chain in Bangkok also canceled all screenings of the movie ahead of its opening today. Activists told the AP that police pressured the chain to stop showing the movie but Apex Group, which operates cinemas in Bangkok told The Bangkok Post that it was because a student group planned a protest over the May 22 coup d’état. Apex said it had received a phone call asking for 200 tickets for the film’s premiere on Thursday.

The tickets, it turned out, were being given out for free on the Facebook page of The League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy under a campaign titled, “Raise Three Fingers, Bring Popcorn and Go to the Movies.” Per the Bangkok Post, Apex said authorities had met with management to talk about the film, but contended that its decision to cancel the screenings was not related to the events of Wednesday when the five students were detained.

Regarding the students taken into custody today, a police colonel told the AP that they would not be charged and rather, “We will just talk to them and let them go.” One of the students told the news agency, “The Mockingjay movie reflects what’s happening in our society… When people have been suppressed for some time, they would want to resist and fight for their rights. Going to the cinema is the basic rights of the people. I’m here today to call for and to protect my rights.”

SOURCE

 the hunger games is basically hadestown with more murder

don’t tell me peeta wouldn’t go into the underworld with only the power of love and song and accidentally start a revolution like orpheus (yes i know katniss is technically the one who started it in the books but she’s Eurydicie in this  - hungry young girl, fuck this romance nonsense, better survival instincts et cetera - cause i feel liker Eurydice is the true hero of the musical)

i mean, one of the songs is literally called “his kiss, the riot” 

they’re both stories about trying to save your loved one and accidentally starting a whole thing you weren’t really trying to start, but now that it’s started they’re sure as hell not gonna stop it

plus i think patrick page would be a good president snow