I know any move I would make toward Darius, any act of recognition, would only result in punishment for him.

 And you know this how?  There is never been any sort of indication that knowing the servants comes with any sort of consequences.  In the first book, with the girl, you could paint it as suspicious because you shouldn’t have had a chance to meet her, but the government knew she was out running around district 12 when she was caught.  The only danger was to you, because it would have proven that you were out in the woods that day, too.  Supposedly, that was supposed to be a secret. 

But with Darius here, they already know that you know him.  He’s from your home.  There’s nothing suspicious about knowing him and to reason why showing recognition would get anyone trouble. 

But Katniss has declared it to be so, therefore we’re supposed to just roll right along with it.  Leave your brains at the door and let Narrator Katniss hold your hand the whole way.  

No, Darius shouldn’t be glad he knew me. If I had been there to stop Thread, he wouldn’t have stepped forward to save Gale.

Wait.  So.  It’s now Katniss’s fault that Darius did something of his own accord?  It’s now Katniss’s responsibility to take care of everyone in her life, and if anyone else steps in and tries to do anything, that’s her fault because she didn’t get there first and perform her saintly duties?  

This book is feminist and don’t you forget it!

Book, please, if you can’t adopt logic or consistency, could you please at least stop blaming Katniss for stuff that other people do?    

Then Effie’s clucking at me from behind about how “That isn’t your job, Katniss!” and he lets go.

God, I hate you so much, book.  The “clucking” word choice implies the same problems that the word “harpy” does, but if just looking wrong at an avox is supposedly so dangerous, then certainly helping them clean up peas would be just as bad.

I haven’t changed my mind about saving him in the arena, but I don’t owe him more than that.

 You don’t owe him anything at all.  

As I watch the procession to the City Circle, I think how it’s bad enough that they dress us all up in costumes and parade us through the streets in chariots on a regular year.      

And yet when you’re in said parades, you do nothing except stare at the screens and think about how perfectly awesome and powerful you look.

Kids in costumes are silly, but aging victors, it turns out, are pitiful. A few who are on the younger side, like Johanna and Finnick, or whose bodies haven’t fallen into disrepair, like Seeder and Brutus, can still manage to maintain a little dignity.

See, because Katniss doesn’t actually have any problems with the very idea of death parades, she just thinks that people aren’t doing them right and look silly.  It’s not that dressing up to celebrate murder is wrong, no, it’s just that you should look good while doing it, and those other people aren’t good enough to pull it off.  

Small wonder the crowd goes wild when Peeta and I appear, looking so young and strong and beautiful in our brilliant costumes. The very image of what tributes should be.

There is something so very seriously wrong with you, Katniss.  

Poor Effie. She finally had a decent year in the Games with Peeta and me, and now it’s all broken down into a mess that even she can’t put a positive spin on. In Capitol terms, I’m guessing this counts as a true tragedy.

Well, fuck, if we believe you and the capitol is perfectly willing to kill and maim people just everything under the sun, maybe Effie is actually worried that some misstep in this game will lead to her becoming an avox and since the rules are so weird and different this year she doesn’t what would count as a misstep or not.  I mean, she felt the need to apologize to empty air last year over a benign statement, so she’s not exactly safe.

 But she’s a girl and she wears wigs, so let’s call her stupid and shallow instead.

 Feminism!

“And two, make some friends,” says Haymitch.

“No,” I say. “I don’t trust any of them, I can’t stand most of them, and I’d rather operate with just the two of us.”

 Why?  She’s only interacted with three of them, and that’s nowhere near “most” of them.  She has no reason to trust or distrust the others, and neither to we because we haven’t seen them.  

“You mean you want us in the Career pack this year?” I ask, unable to hide my distaste.

You had no problems with training for the games this year, but you’ll still happily act like everyone else who does the same is evil?  And I guess you’re little moment of regret when you killed Marvel last year didn’t change your mind on anything, nor did listening to Cato get gnawed on all night.  Despite everything that could have changed your mind and made you realize that these are just other victims like you, you still insist on viewing them as more your enemy than the capitol or the game makers.

 Fucking sociopath.  

Remember, you’re not in a ring full of trembling children anymore. These people are all experienced killers, no matter what shape they appear to be in.”

 Most of these people won their games years and years ago and haven’t killed anyone since then.  Many of them are in the grips of substance abuse, suggesting that their really not happy with the whole killing thing.  It’s very possible that these people survived there desperate acts and luck, not through skills, especially the ones from non-training districts.  In short, no, most of these people probably aren’t any better than the regular child tributes.  

Enobaria looks to be about thirty and all I can remember about her is that, in hand-to-hand combat, she killed one tribute by ripping open his throat with her teeth.

See?  That’s not really something a trained killer would do.  That’s something a desperate, scared little girl lashing out for anything to save her would do.  Biting is a knee-jerk kind of response, not a martial art.  

after about an hour and a half, someone puts his arms around me from behind, his fingers easily finishing the complicated knot I’ve been sweating over. Of course it’s Finnick

Personal space is for squares, which is why Katniss just rolls her eyes and leaves.  I mean, it’s not like someone who shows a clear lack or regard for someone else’s body could ever be dangerous, right?  

I already make excellent fires, but I’m still pretty dependent on matches for starting them.

Because in a place where you routinely starve to death, matches are just so common and easy to come across.

 Oh, who are we kidding.  She has indoor plumbing and a television.  I’m sure next she’ll tell us that she has a washing machine, too.

“It senses the density of the fabric and selects the strength,” she says, and then becomes absorbed in a bit of dry straw before she can go on.

“The strength of the thread,” Beetee finishes explaining. “Automatically. It rules out human error.” Then he talks about his recent success creating a musical chip that’s tiny enough to be concealed in a flake of glitter but can hold hours of songs.

 So, Wiress has mental problems, but Beetee doesn’t.  Wiress can’t hold on a continuous conversation, but Beetee can.  Wiress is inventing something we already have, and Beetee is making a super chip.

 In short, the girl is there to be mystical and/or a burden, and the guy is actually useful. 

Feminism!  

So, do all force fields have a spot like that?”

“Chink,” says Wiress vaguely.

“In the armor, as it were,” finishes Beetee. “Ideally it’d be invisible, wouldn’t it?”

We’ve seen several force fields so far in the books, but the discoloration plot point isn’t showing up until just now.  Presumably because the author just thought of it.  And you know what, fine, I can roll with that.  Except from here on out, there will be wavy patches on every single force field we see, whereas before they were completely absent.

“I’m okay with Seeder, not Chaff,” I say. “Not yet, anyway.”

“Come on and eat with him. I promise, I won’t let him kiss you again,” says Peeta.

 “Come on, Katniss.  It was just some harmless sexual harassment.  Why can’t you just get over it already?”

I wish I could mention meeting Twill and Bonnie in the woods, but I can’t figure out how.

 You’re about to go into murderdeath games and those two are either caught again or dead or long gone.  Just say it.  There’s no reason for why you keep withholding information and lying to people.

Cashmere and Gloss, the sister and brother from District 1, invite me over and we make hammocks for a while. They’re polite but cool,

 Even the designated bad guys are better protagonists than the chick we’re stuck with.  They don’t treat her like she’s scum before they even know her, and that’s with her acting hostile to absolutely everyone.  

Between her district accent and her garbled speech — possibly she’s had a stroke — I can’t make out more than one in four words.

Oh, look, yet another woman what can’t speak and depends on a man to translate for her.

 You know, if you combine this with Katniss’s insisting that she can’t talk to a crowd – and if you actually take her statement at value and ignore all the times she spoke just fine – then there’s zero women in these novels that are capable of speaking for themselves and communicating in the a larger sense.  All of them are dependent on men to talk to the world around them.

Because this book is feminist, and don’t you forget it.

Suddenly I remember how she volunteered to replace the young, hysterical woman in her district. It couldn’t be because she thought she had any chance of winning. She did it to save the girl, just like I volunteered last year to save Prim.

This just now occurred to you?

begins to launch these silly fake birds high into the air for me to hit. At first it seems stupid, but it turns out to be kind of fun.

…basic archery training seems silly to you?

So then how did you get so all-fired good with your bow?  Unicorn farts?

Even Finnick, who gives me an hour of trident lessons in exchange for an hour of archery instruction.

 So, basically, the two of you just wasted two hours?

And some I like. And a lot of them are so damaged that my natural instinct would be to protect them.

 You sit in your room eating cheese buns during a blizzard and care not for anyone except Gale and his family.  You’ve never tried to help anyone unless you could get something from it or unless you felt like you owed them somehow.  Don’t sit there blathering on about this “natural instinct” you supposedly have.

But how did he upset them? Because I’d love to do just that and more. To break through the smug veneer of those who use their brains to find amusing ways to kill us. To make them realize that while we’re vulnerable to the Capitol’s cruelties, they are as well.

Do you have any idea how much I hate you? I think. You, who have given your talents to the Games?

 It’s all well and good to have Katniss say lines like this, but they’re so isolated.  She doesn’t think like this until it’s time to become relevant.  Hell, even last year she didn’t even get mad at them for the games, just for ignoring her.  This year, she’s spent all her time talking about how the careers are still evil for no reason, and after this she’ll go right back to not thinking about them.