But when I open the door to step out into the world, there’s only a tremendous void. A pale gray nothingness that is all my future holds.

So I guess as long as there’s not literal blank pages involved, this is considered okay?

Also, hey Katniss, remember that little sister you still have?  How about the mother that you’re trying to rebuild a relationship with?  Your friend Finnick?  Your friend Haymich, who is already on thin ice as it is?  I mean, we already know you don’t give a rat’s ass about the war effort and the freedom of thousands of people from death and oppression, but still!  There is (barely) more in your life than just the pretty boys you’re not having squishy times with.

Or at least there should be, but of course, we know there’s really not.

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

[Haymich] must have had people he loved […] Where are they now? How is it that until Peeta and I were thrust upon him, there was no one at all in his life? What did Snow do to them?

Once again, all evil in the world is thrust squarely upon Snow’s shoulders, as if he is the only person ever to be held responsible for the capitol’s crimes.  Just like how everything bad in D13 is Coin’s fault and directed personally at a person, everything bad from the capitol is Snow’s fault, and it’s always personal.

This takes a lot of the drama and confusion and moral grey-ness out of the war.  Because that is a huge part of the moral quandary that comes up with war: are the soldiers responsible for what their country is doing?  After all, a country is made up of people, so it’s the whole of them together doing stuff, but how does that apply when you’re going mono-a-mono with someone?  If someone participates in the evil of the group, how much responsibility does he personally carry?  An equal share?  Less?  Dependent on his position?  Is the enemy soldier actually innocent or not?  If the culture and past politics are a deeply imbedded part of the cause of the war, does that alleviate guilt or not?  Do you blame someone for not bucking their culture, or do you forgive them for it?

PSH, moral quandaries are for other books, this one has an evil wizard that once you punch him in the face, everything is all better.

“Don’t you see, Katniss, this will decide things. One way or the other. By the end of the day, they’ll either be dead or with us. It’s … it’s more than we could hope for!”

…you broke your toys so other kids couldn’t play with them, didn’t you?

“What we really need is something so riveting that even President Snow won’t be able to tear himself away. Got anything like that?”

Judging by the subsequent shipper interview, no.  No they don’t.  Because Snow is not actually a shipper, and the romance angle will never be that fascinating, no matter how much the book wants it to be.

I’m serious here.  I know that it’s central to Katniss and her life and her priorities and what-not.  But she’s living it.  From the outside, from the POV of people who have much bigger shit going on, it’s just another teenaged romance.

President Snow must be wondering how that blood-splattered floor and his roses are affecting me. If he wants me broken, then I will have to be whole.

So, all that break-down from the previous chapter is over and done with, and we’ll have no lingering repercussions.  It was just an episode and that’s it.  We’re done with that drama, time to move on to new drama, and accurate depictions of how hard it is to overcome emotional injury be damned.

Lovely.

It was hard to see clearly because I was so afraid. Now I’m not. The Capitol’s fragile because it depends on the districts for everything. Food, energy, even the Peacekeepers that police us. If we declare our freedom, the Capitol collapses.

That might work as a personal excuse for Katniss, because she’s rather self-centered and unobservant except when the text needs a shortcut, but what about everyone else?  This is a painfully obvious truth, so how did it even get set up like this?  How did everyone miss this huge, enormous tactical weakness?  It should have been evident from the very start, and better safeguards should have been taken.

“President Snow used to … sell me … my body, that is,”

This…was this necessary? 

Say it, book.  Say it.  Finnick was raped.  He’s a rape victim.  And you never once use the word or treat him with any amount of dignity.  This entire subplot is shoved in just to give him more pathos and create drama.  THIS ENTIRE SCENE’S EXPRESSED INTENTION IS TO BE A DISTRACTION.  Literally, you said that, not me.  You are using rape as a shiny bobble to wave around in front of people and up the shock value, nothing else.  The beginning, middle, and end of you discussion about rape and about this rape victim in particular is “oooooooooo, I’m so edgy, yes?  Teeheehee.”

And shame on the entire fandom for continuing to treat him as a sex object after this book came out.

Finnick begins to weave a tapestry so rich in detail that you can’t doubt its authenticity. Tales of strange sexual appetites, betrayals of the heart, bottomless greed, and bloody power plays.

So the capitol is a pit of excess and perversion and greed and lust and decadence, where everyone is so lazy and posh and has nothing to do with themselves except throw extravagant parties and gossip all day…but gossip about all that is oh so very shocking?

If a bad haircut can lead to hours of gossip, what will charges of incest, back-stabbing, blackmail, and arson produce?

First of all, your prep team is not a good standard of judgement here; bad haircuts are their job so of course they’re going to pay more attention to that than usual.

Second, SERIOUSLY, DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS HASN’T HAPPENED BEFORE?  THIS IS POLITICS, SLANDER CAMPAIGNS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME, SCANDALS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME!  Yes, it causes a stir at the time and might ruin the career of whoever is involved, but just the fact that scandals exist should not cause people to fair faint with shock.  The only way this could be reasonably impressive is if we knew that the capitol was insulated from such things, but all circumstantial evidence points directly to the contrary.

Finnick goes back to Snow’s political ascension, which I know nothing of, and works his way up to the present, pointing out case after case of the mysterious deaths of Snow’s adversaries or, even worse, his allies who had the potential to become threats.

Erm, and no one noticed this before?

The fact that everyone seems to take this on face value before Finnick comes up and points it out makes it seem like poison is a standard tool in capitol politics, which means plenty of people should have already made these accusations or connected these dots already.

This whole scene seriously feels like a middle school kid who just discovered gossip.  Katniss and Finnick are all “oooooh, look at this that I just discovered” and really all they’ve got is the sort of stuff that any reasonable adult should have been eyeball deep in for decades now.  “That’s nice, honey, you discovered gossip and backstabbing and scandals.  I know they’re new to you, but please stop jumping up and down and carrying on about them, everyone already knows.”

Poison. The perfect weapon for a snake.

This is all happening backwards.  Katniss first though he looked like a snake, and then all this snake motif stuff came up around him.

even Plutarch occasionally reacts in surprise, maybe wondering how a specific tidbit passed him by.

See?  The only shock the capitol people have in regard to the gossip is the same as you or I might have in regard to the latest episode of Downton Abbey.

You know what, I’ve been slacking on the drinking game angle, go ahead and have two shots for all that self-congratulations over propaganda/interviews/gossip.  \~/ \~/

A pang of jealousy hits me. Not for either Finnick or Annie but for their certainty. No one seeing them could doubt their love.

I can!  Especially considering all they did was hug during an emotionally intense situation.

Fuck it, I’ve hugged people like that just because I was glad to see them alive, no romance needed.

And then we get to Peeta, but all those drinking game shots will have to wait until tomorrow.

Episode of MASH you should be watching instead: Our Finest Hour