The Connections Are Connecting! - Tumblr Posts
The significance of Haymitch's Games as the initial spark for the rebellion cannot be overstated. Katniss, unburdened by the propaganda that likely followed after Haymitch's play with the forcefield, saw right through this as an act of rebellion.
Haymitch is the starting point, the sunrise, for the plotting behind the scenes. Plutarch must have seen the Games in some shape or form as an impressionable young adult. The arena is, despite what the Capitol itself believes, a place lacking control. Aired live, a tribute can act in ways that the Capitol finds undesirable, with only minimal chances to interfere.
Haymitch's Games are the starting and reference point for Plutarch's plan. It is no surprise that he had been searching for another tribute to lead his campaign in an attempt to repeat Haymitch's efforts under better conditions—conditions he, no longer a young professional, had the power to control.
Perhaps most evident of this parallel is Plutarch's usage of the forcefield as the final act of destruction. Hovercrafts can pass through at any time. Even if the passing through was controlled elsewhere, Head Gamemaker Heavensbee entering and exiting the arena at a moment of crisis is an innocuous action. This begs the question on whether the destruction of the forcefield was truly necessary, or if it had been a signal for all of Panem that the arena was no more, and a symbol for where it all had started—a boy that had used the forcefield against the Capitol.
I adore the parallels between Peeta and Caesar. On that first interview night, Caesar saw someone who managed to get the crowd to their seat's edge in much the same way as he can. He's likely only seen that a few times in his career & that made something with this character in how he views and perceives Peeta.
While I theorise that he saw Peeta winning that whole thing on that very night, meeting him again & again in front of a camera was seeing a genius bounce off of another genius to watching a kid deteriorate in front of his eyes.
I think more than once before the war began, Caesar must have seen something in Peeta that resembled himself. There was this kid with so much talent and charisma that he could have given Caesar a run for it had he been born in the Capitol.
What did that do to Caesar? To look at a kid from the Districts and have that kid stare back? Did he recognise a younger version of himself in him—separated only by place of birth in how their chances played out? And how must it have felt to watch that mirror deteriorate in front of him?