[After being told she’s not going to the capitol fighting] “That’ll be too late! I’ll miss all the fighting. You need me — I’m the best shot you’ve got!” I shout. I don’t usually brag about this, but it’s got to be at least close to true.

Dafuq?

Katniss has been in exactly one combat engagement, during which she shot down some anti-logic planes with her anti-logic arrows.  Ever since that point, even when she went to District 2, she has done zip-diddly-zero except sit in front of a camera.  She is completely useless to the actual fighting of this war, completely removed from it.  Even if she did go to the capitol with everyone else at this point, she wouldn’t be fighting, because hasn’t been fighting.  The fact that she thinks she is in any way even close to important much less ‘the best shot’ at this final bit of fighting is ridiculous.

Then again, if there’s anything these books are good at, it’s casually rewriting the continuity for the sake of drama.

Boggs and Coin then go on to make several very valid points about how Katniss is a lackadaisical layabout who can’t be trusted for anything, while I cheer in the background.

I can’t very well say it’s so I can carry out my own personal vendetta against Snow.

And Katniss has no response, because they’re absolutely right, and the only reason she wants to go is because she’s arbitrarily decided that she should get to kill snow because reasons.

On the one hand, the book is at least acknowledging that this is a flaw and that Katniss really is a terrible person for all the reasons listed here.  On the other hand, this admition doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.  She still goes on her selfish mission and she still gets people killed and she still acts like a terrible, terrible person with no remorse whatsoever and she never gets punished for it.  So what’s the message?  “Katniss is terrible, but also she’s awesome so she should get away with it”?

Or maybe it’s “Katniss may be terrible, but she’s important, alright?  Important people get what they want.”

I guess it’s my own fault. I did blow off my schedule every single day unless something suited me. It didn’t seem like much of a priority, jogging around a field with a gun with so many other things going on. And now I’m paying for my negligence.

And by “paying for” she really means “padding” because, let’s face it, the only change that comes of this is one chapter’s worth of extra words.  Nothing actually changes.  She passes her training and goes into combat anyway, just like she wanted, so in the end she got to blow off her schedule and still do what she wants.

That’s not a consequence, that’s a nuisance.

Back in the hospital, I find Johanna in the same circumstance and spitting mad.

Not quite the same, seeing as she’s missed training for reasons of capture and torture, and you missed training for reasons of being a douche.  That’s a notable difference.

“That’s what they say. But they could speed up the process if I recommend it. I warn you, though, it isn’t any fun,” she tells me.

Oh, look, another medical marvel brought up just to get rid of a lingering nuisance.  I guess we’re done with ‘Katniss being injured’ now, time to randomly drop that for something else.

And I do mean randomly.  Why would there be a cure for bruised ribs?  What is their level of technology and medical know-how anyway?  There’s no connection to any of this.  Stuff just pops up at random whenever it’s needed to patch a hole in the plot, with no lead in and no reasonable connection and no flow.  Just like with the military stuff, the medical stuff makes no sense, because everything is dependent on the plot.  They can heal Katniss’s ribs because she needs to be better now and they can’t heal Peeta’s leg because fuck you that’s why.

It’s a bad night in our room. [… due to Katniss’s pointless-pathos-rib-healing and Johanna’s morphine withdrawal … ] At dawn, she drags me out of bed, determined to get to training.

And then they go through training anyway.  The whole thing is even told in summary.  There’s still no consequence, there’s just extra words about how it’s hard, but the decision to skip over everything means that claim gets reduced to nothing.  “ooh, it’s so hard to do everything required and get top scores and be perfectly fine and have no problems at all.  But, you know, hard and shit.  And then we went on to doing more stuff, hard-ly of course, because THIS BOOK DOES NOT FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHAT CONSEQUENCES ARE.”

In this context, a consequence means the character has to change.  They have to change their attitude or their plans or their actions.  Something needs to change.  Their goals need to be impeded.  Plan A has been blocked, time to go to Plan B.  “Plan A + Addendum C” is still Plan A.  “Plan A + adjectives” is still Plan A.

It takes some adjusting from a bow to a gun, but by the end of the day, I’ve got the best score in my class.

Bullshit.  If anything, she should be the worst in the class.  Guns and bows are nothing alike, and Katniss should have a bevy of “bad habits” from firing a bow that would get in the way of firing a gun.  During basic training, it was the people who had never touched a firearm who tended to do the best, because they followed instructions and learned the right way from the start.  People who had been firing but didn’t have formal instructions did terribly, because they had to correct their bad habits first.  Katniss should be standing wrong, holding her weapon wrong, sighting wrong, breathing wrong, etc, and she would have to undo years of habit in order to learn rifle marksmanship.

After I take a shower, and Johanna sort of wipes herself down with a damp cloth,

This is more in line with what I would expect to see in terms of trauma reactions.  Johanna has issues with water, and that makes her actually change her actions.  She won’t even take a shower, she does this instead.

“Maybe. But he’s changed,” I say.

“So have you. So have I. And Finnick and Haymitch and Beetee. […]“That’s the one thing I think my head doctor might be right about. There’s no going back. So we might as well get on with things.”

Thank you, Johanna.

It’s something to see Finnick’s transformation since his marriage.

Yeah, everyone who claims this book has anything even remotely akin to ‘real’ PTSD portrayal can take this line and shove it up their asses.  Then they can go and talk to the friends and family of real mental illness patients and find out how utterly devastating shit is to everyone involved, and how hard it is to try and be supportive in a situation like that while feeling completely ineffectual, and how there’s no support for the supporters and heaven forbid you complain about it because of all the guilt attached by jackasses who think that if you just love you parent enough they’ll stop being depressed.

One of my favorite characters from MASH is Dr. Sydney Freeman, a psychiatrist who frequently visits the 4077 for both business and pleasure.  On one occasion, he come in as a casualty because he was making a visit to one of his patients at the front when both of them were wounded.  The patient, Tom, blames Sydney for his injuries and professes to hate the man, despite all the care and attention Sydney has given him, and despite his continued efforts to help Tom.  Even though Tom is well-adjusted enough to be relaxed with the other doctors and is positive about his recovery, he can’t be anything but vitriolic to Sydney.  He’s guilt-ridden and devastated about Tom’s reactions, because he genuinely cares about the man and wants to be helpful.  In a bittersweet moment at the end of the episode, after being spurned again, Sydney admits that Tom is probably directed all his frustration and anger on a tangible target, and that’s probably the best thing for him right now, so even though it kills Sydney on a personal level he knows letting Tom hate him is the right thing to do.  Because your love and good intentions aren’t enough sometimes, and bystanders get hurt as well, and that sucks.  (Season 6, War of Nerves)

BUT, PSH, ACTUAL HARD DECISIONS AND GREY MORALS IN THIS BOOK?  FUCK THAT, BRING ON THE POWER OF LOVE.

“Annie,” says Delly brightly, “did you know it was Peeta who decorated your wedding cake? Back home, his family ran the bakery and he did all the icing.”

Annie cautiously looks across Johanna. “Thank you, Peeta. It was beautiful.”

SHE SPEAKS!  Our very first line from Annie!  And, look at that, it seems fairly rational.  She’s responding in an appropriate manner to information.  I mean, it’s not much to go on, but it’s all this book is offering since Annie talking doesn’t seem to be considered important.

“My pleasure, Annie,” says Peeta, and I hear that old note of gentleness in his voice that I thought was gone forever. Not that it’s directed at me. But still.

God, you are so utterly selfish.  There’s no indication at all that he was ever anything but gentle to everyone else, but according Katniss, that’s small potatoes because it’s not directed at her.

“He did save your life, Peeta. More than once.”

“For her.” He gives me a brief nod. “For the rebellion. Not for me. I don’t owe him anything.”

‘Crazy’ Peeta is right again. \~/

Anyone else get the feeling that ‘crazy’ Peeta is actually ‘sane’ Peeta?

“So, are you two officially a couple now, or are they still dragging out the star-crossed lover thing?”

Fuck it, let’s drink again. \~/

“That they’ve replaced you with the evil-mutt version of yourself,” says Johanna.

Peeta has been perfectly nice to everyone but Katniss, and the only thing that’s different is that he’s not on the ‘let’s sacrifice the world for Katniss’ train, and that’s what book considers evil.

Not liking Katniss is what this book considers evil.  It doesn’t matter that he’s controlling his (maybe) murderous impulses, it doesn’t matter that he’s nice to other people, it doesn’t matter that as far as we know he’s no threat to anyone, nor does he even particular seem to want anything.  Nope. He’s stopped praising Katniss, so he’s evil.

Episode of MASH you should watch instead: Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?