Well In The Epilog Katniss Didnt Really Seem To Want The Children Or Feel Anything For Them But Went

well in the epilog katniss didnt really seem to want the children or feel anything for them but went through with it becuase "peeta wanted them so badly" so theyre sort of right becuase "woman pushed into having children she didnt want , possibly traumatising hermore becuase of someones desires" is a very anti choce stance.

See, that’s the prevailing viewpoint, but I’ve always had a problem with it. It’s so widely accepted by the fandom, but it ignores that the birth of those children fulfills both the character and thematic arcs of the series.

Let’s look at the entire quote.

They play in the Meadow. The dancing girl with the dark hair and blue eyes. The boy with blond curls and gray eyes, struggling to keep up with her on his chubby toddler legs. It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly. When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding her in my arms could tame it. Carrying him was a little easier, but not much.

At first glance, it looks kind of bad. Like Peeta pushed her into having children despite her bone-deep terror. But this overlooks the fact that Peeta waited those five, ten, fifteen years for her to be ready. If he wasn’t concerned about Katniss’ choice, Peeta could have been more forceful in taking what he wanted. He could have left her and found a woman more willing to provide children. But he didn’t. And that heavily suggests that Katniss, in the end, is the one who made the choice.

Katniss feared having children because she feared for their future--feared a world where they’d starve to death, feared a world where they could be ripped from her arms and thrown to the slaughter of the Hunger Games. Katniss fears, more than even her own death, losing those she loves--look at how she was devastated by the loss of her father. Of course she’d be afraid to bring children into a world that’s designed to kill them. But the struggles of the series wouldn’t have much point if Katniss remained trapped in that fear, if her world remained a place hostile to new life. So the end of the series has to show that growth and change.

Of course it’s Peeta who helps her to move beyond her fear. Never forget that for Katniss, Peeta always represents hope. A new chance at life. When she was starving, at her lowest point of despair, he provided, at the cost of pain to himself, the bread that gave her hope. When they were in the Hunger Games, he gave her hope that the world could be transformed into something better by choosing to look beyond their own fears for survival and putting someone else’s needs above their own. Acting, not out of fear or self-interest, but for the good of the other could--and did--change the world. That changed world is one that welcomes children, and makes it possible, eventually, for Katniss to do so, too.

Giving birth to children doesn’t add to Katniss’ trauma. It shows her healing from it. Choosing to hope despite her fear. And what is her reward for it? Joy. Not mere happiness that ignores the pain, but joy that transcends it. Joy that does not erase the fear but makes the fear worthwhile. Joy that heals her enough to face a second pregnancy. And the joy of having two children who don’t know what it means to live in fear.

I appreciate that having children doesn’t magically erase Katniss’ trauma. Children are not a magical balm that will heal all ills and will bring fulfillment to every woman’s life, and the series isn’t arguing that it does. As the passage above shows, she will continue to live with her fears and regrets. But with Peeta and her children around her, she will also live with new life. And love. And always, always, hope.

Divergent is a bad book, but its accidental brilliance is that it completely mauled the YA dystopian genre by stripping it down to its barest bones for maximum marketability, utterly destroying the chances of YA dystopian literature’s long-term survival 

my ideal suzanne collins written heroes of olympus would end with an epilogue of annabeth permanently blinded from tartarus being handed her daughter by percy. she asks what color her eyes are and he tells her they’re green like his. she tells him she doesnt remember what that looks like. the end! :)

W-what did you just say?

ok but the hunger games literally did mention it All like… the use of propaganda by the elite as an attempt to divide the minority groups they oppress by making them perceive each other as rivals and prevent them from recognizing and uniting against their real enemy? check. criticism of the way we consume media with no consideration for other people’s privacy like we’re entitled to every detail of their lives and a lack of empathy for their pain because it makes good entertainment? yeah. realistic depictions and explorations of the effects of trauma, particularly that caused by conflict? hunger games has you covered. acknowledgement of the existence of and links between racism and classism, and that conventional standards of beauty are influenced by the societal elite, which people are encouraged to harm themselves in order to conform to (the fact that the weathier people in district 12 are white, blonde and blue-eyed while the coal miner families are mostly people of color; that the two poorest districts, 11 and 12, have majority poc populations; that most people, katniss herself included, consider prim to be prettier than katniss partly because she looks like her white, blonde, blue-eyed mother, who was from the wealthier part of the district; that the first thing that happens to the tributes when they’re taken to the capitol is they they’re “prepped” to conform to capitol beauty standards before they even meet their stylists in ways that literally violate their bodies permanently, and that many of the capitol residents have extreme body modifying surgery that can take a severe toll on their health and wellbeing in the long term)? none of this is accidental, and is both brought up and criticised multiple times throughout the trilogy. the sexualization of minors for adult consumption, especially young celebrities? the fact that politicians in positions of power and authority gain those positions through corruption and by considering anyone harmed in their acension collateral damage? the significance of propaganda and social influence in modern warfare? the misery caused by poverty, which is caused and intentionally maintained by the wealthy elite? the brutal and violating experience of living in a surveillance police state, especially as a member of a minority group and/or poor person? the inherently immoral and corruptive nature of warfare and the military and the unimaginable atrocities and suffering it leads to for ordinary civilians? every YA dystopia novelist tried so hard to be mrs collins but most didn’t even understand half of what went into her books that made them so compelling.

things the hunger games movies left out that should have been included (side eying you, gary ross)

katniss should have been a woman of color.

gale was also a man of color. most likely haymitch was too.

katniss was disabled in her left ear.

peeta and the district 10 tribute were disabled - peeta’s leg bit off by a mutt and the district 10 tribute having gone into the games with a pre-existing cripple.

THE TRIBUTES SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLAYED BY TEENAGERS

cato begging clove to stay with him, showing his rare humanity and emphasizing the fact that the tributes were literal children and NOT warriors.

the movies should have focused on the victors more, and their lives after winning the games - especially annie/wiress’s mental illnesses and finnick’s forced prostitution not long after he won the games at 14 years old

stop whitewashing canonical characters of color, stop erasing disabilities, and more importantly, stop with the nauseating shaky cam. that was weird and unnecessary.