“They should at least have a chance to surrender,” says Lyme.

Did they not before?

Because no, really, this is a big point.  The book goes on about how horrible this plan of Gale’s is, and they debate the option of surrendering and such while Gale goes on about how D12 didn’t have that luxury and yadda yadda yadda, but don’t forget they’ve been attacking this mountain for weeks, if not months, the timeline is a big shaky.  They were doing it ineffectually, but that doesn’t change the fact that they had lots of guns and were trying to get inside and…then what?  What was the plan from there?  Kill everyone but it’s okay because you came in the front door?

“The Nut’s an old mine. It’d be like causing a massive coal mining accident.” Surely the words are enough to make anyone from 12 think twice about the plan.

“But not so quick as the one that killed our fathers,” he retorts. “Is that everyone’s problem? That our enemies might have a few hours to reflect on the fact that they’re dying, instead of just being blown to bits?”

That does, indeed, seem to be everyone’s problem, because they aren’t offering up anything else.

Gale’s arguments are fairly emotional, and I can’t say I blame him.  It’s not like he’s being painted as justified, he’s just emotional, as people are wont to get when their home and friends are all burned to the ground.  But the counter-arguments are just as emotional, but going in the other direction.  There’s not one single argument against the ‘kill em all’ plan that doesn’t involve saying ‘oh but it’s so mean’ as if other forms of killing people are…nicer?

And, really, the issue of surrender has still not been addressed.  They should have a standing position on this matter, because as they point out, most of the people they’re fighting are district civilians who probably got coerced into this.  In fact, in every district that should be the case, so what was their previous SOP?  This should not be up for discussion, because making it not the standing procedure makes it sound like they’ve been merrily slaughtering their coerced enemies all before this. \~/

I’m suited up in my Mockingjay outfit, with my bow slung over my shoulder and an earpiece that connects me to Haymitch in 13 — just in case a good opportunity for a propo arises.

Because of course. \~/

The mountainsides are naturally unstable, but weakened by the explosions, they seem almost fluid.

When this was brought up last chapter, it seemed just a bit stupid, but given this level of instability it just crosses the line.  When you’re entire mountain is liable to slide around, then you do something about it before you start building your base there.  They have magic science; surely they can do something!  At the very least, set off their own explosions to get all the loose debris down and then start.

Or just build your base somewhere else.  I don’t care how much you want an underground base, this is not an option by anyone, not even the capitol.

I mean, a bit of rocksliding right around the entrances would have been enough to call it a trap without reaching for this level of overblown.

I imagine the hell inside the mountain. Sirens wailing. Lights flickering into darkness. Stone dust choking the air.

I would say you’re stupid, but I know that later in the chapter she’s proven right.

If the place is so vulnerable that rocks sliding around on the outside are enough to do this kind of damage, then actual bombs should have done it before now.  Did you not try bombs, rebels?  Why?  Were you just being polite?  \~/

What did we just do?

We get a page-long recount of the day Katniss’s father died, followed by this line.  And…book, were you trying to make a point?  Because I’m missing it.

Yes, mine accidents suck.  Yes, killing people sucks.  But you haven’t really made any statement besides that the two incidents are superficially similar.  This fails particularly because the book has no fucks to give about other methods of killing people.  Everything about this seems to rest on ‘dead people are sad’ and ‘Katniss particularly has issues about mines.’  One is going to be true no matter what your methods are (not that you’ve bothered to explore that), and the second is just a purely emotional response with no moral message attached to it.

I remember how sick I was the day Peeta and I accepted congratulations there for winning the Games. Worn down by the Victory Tour, failing in my attempt to calm the districts, facing the memories of Clove and Cato, particularly Cato’s gruesome, slow death by mutts.

Jee, wouldn’t that have been nice to see back at the time?  Too bad we just got a tepid summary.

“We could send in trains ourselves. Help evacuate the wounded,” I say.

Katniss, a few pages ago, merely imagined all the damage going on inside the mountain and we don’t get any confirmation of that.  And this happens a lot.  Katniss imagines something or assumes something and then the book carries right along as if she’s right.  And as if not only is she right, but everyone around her is imagining and assuming the same thing.  It’s her supposition being treated as fact.  She’s never wrong about anything except boys.  Ever.

Even when she should be because really, if the mountain was impenetrable then why are they suffering more than blocked doors from that?

“Interesting turn of events with Peeta this afternoon. Thought you’d want to know,”

Because we haven’t had any romance yet this chapter, and right after you inexplicably destroy your enemy’s mountain stronghold with magic physics is the perfect time. \~/

My father. He seems to be everywhere today. Dying in the mine. Singing his way into Peeta’s muddled consciousness. Flickering in the look Boggs gives me as he protectively wraps the blanket around my shoulders. I miss him so badly it hurts.

Her mother, as far as we know, wasn’t even told before she left.  Because who cares about her?

we need you to make a speech.”

“A speech?” I say, immediately feeling queasy.

“I’ll feed it to you, line by line,” he assures me.

Then why does she need to make it?  And didn’t we have a whole chapter of praise-wanking that was all about how Katniss can’t do scripted stuff because her own words are just so much more awesome than what anyone else could hope to come up with?

Surely you could come up with someone better.  Lyme, maybe?  One of their own people; surely you’ve captured a few by now?  Katniss hasn’t done shit besides sort of stand around and film commercials since she arrived, so I’m not sure how someone so uninvolved in the fighting would have much of an impact.

A young man staggers out from the station, one hand pressed against a bloody cloth at his cheek, the other dragging a gun.

So as these injured, scared people stumble into the station, on the defensive and clearly not attacking, just preparing for an attack, do you know what DOESN’T happen?

In fact, in all the time they were waiting for someone to come out, you know what DOESN’T happen?

NO ONE HAS SAID THAT THEY CAN SURRENDER.  Wouldn’t that have been a nice message to send in?  “Come out unarmed and we promise not to shoot you in the face.  Or come out fighting and we’ll fight back.”  How hard is that?  Because without that message, these people have no reason to believe that they’ll get anything more than lead when they come out, so of course they’re going to take precautions.

We had that entire fucking ‘debate’ about allowing them to surrender, so why is no one offering them the chance to surrender?  Does this book assume that’s something that has to originate with the surrendering side?  \~/

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t shoot you.”

[…]

“I can’t.”

HOW ABOUT SAYING “BECAUSE IF YOU SURRENDER WE’LL BE NICE TO YOU”?  HUH, HOW ABOUT THAT?  WHY AREN’T YOU SAYING THAT, MISS DEATH-TRAPS-ARE-BAD?

“I am [the capitol’s slave],” I say. “That’s why I killed Cato … and he killed Thresh … and he killed Clove … and she tried to kill me. It just goes around and around, and who wins? Not us. Not the districts. Always the Capitol. But I’m tired of being a piece in their Games.”

Peeta. On the rooftop the night before our first Hunger Games. He understood it all before we’d even set foot in the arena.

Hey, you finally figured it out.  Too bad there’s still no sign that Peeta understood it or meant it, since he carried merrily along killing people.

Also, this isn’t really the greatest of places to do this, because we’re not in a game right now.  No matter how badly the book wants everything to come back to game dynamics, a war is still different.  She’s got a point in the broader sense, but not in this case.  Because in this case, killing the capitol lackies means moving on to kill the people in charge.  It sucks, but the dynamics are different, the goals are different, the cost/benefit is different.  Killing the other side doesn’t mean the same thing in a war as it does in the game, because there’s an actual mission to be accomplished in one, not so much in the other.  They may be innocent in the same way, but the situation has still changed.  Winning the war means something very different from winning a game.  Winning the war means no more oppression, whereas winning the game means perpetuating the system, so you can’t treat the morals as being the same.

I mean, the morals in war are still sticky and worth talking about, but they’re not the same and you can’t keep calling them the same.

AND STILL NO ONE HAS SAID THAT THEY CAN SURRENDER AND BE SAFE.

I reach out my hands to the man, to the wounded, to the reluctant rebels across Panem. “Please! Join us!”

My words hang in the air. I look to the screen

JFC, you can’t at least pay attention to the man you’re talking to, you still get distracted by watching yourself on television?

Instead I watch myself get shot on television.

Katniss Everdeen has died for your sins. |~|

Episode of MASH you should be watching instead: C*A*V*E

(Alas, I haven’t been doing as many MASH comparisons lately.  As the book goes on, it gets stupider, and there’s less in common with MASH.  Or maybe I’m just distracted by the holidays.)