I dump the bag onto a seat, where the loathsome creature begins a low, deep-throated growl. “Oh, shut up,” I tell the bag

You shut up.  How do you not realize that he’s scared?  Even if you are stupid enough to think cats work just like humans, how would you like to be stuffed unceremoniously into a bag and then literally tossed about without any regard to your well-being?

Bonnie and Twill, the District 8 refugees who I encountered in the woods last winter, weren’t so far from their destination after all. They apparently didn’t make it, though. When I asked about them in 13, no one seemed to know who I was talking about. Died in the woods, I guess.

That is the saddest thing in this book.  Not just because I would much rather be hearing about their story.  And Katniss has negative fucks to give about them.  Jeeze, could that “I guess” sound any more dismissive?

From the air, 13 looks about as cheerful as 12. The rubble isn’t smoking, the way the Capitol shows it on television,

Because duh.

You can’t miss your schedule. […]Except for showing up for meals, though, I pretty much ignore the words on my arm. I just go back to our compartment or wander around 13 or fall asleep somewhere hidden.

So, by “can’t” you really mean “eh, they’re more like stern suggestions.”

Also, drink! \~/ Forget about helping the war effort; Katniss is such a lazy little shit she can’t even clean up her own breakfast dishes.

They’re so frugal with things here, waste is practically a criminal activity. […]I saw Fulvia Cardew crumple up a sheet of paper with just a couple of words written on it and you would’ve thought she’d murdered someone from the looks she got. Her face turned tomato red, making the silver flowers inlaid in her plump cheeks even more noticeable. The very portrait of excess.

Hey, you know what’s another limited resource that can be wasted?

TIME!

YOU KNOW, LIKE YOU’VE WASTED AN ENTIRE FUCKING MONTH SLEEPING IN CLOSETS.

Seriously, one sheet of paper is nothing compared to Katniss.  She literally does nothing all day except laze about and use resources that other people have worked for.  That is the very picture of excess.  At least Fulvia is doing shit.

One of my few pleasures in 13 is watching the handful of pampered Capitol “rebels” squirming as they try to fit in.

Shut up, you judgmental little brat.  Here we have people who have left their lives of comfort to commit treason to try and make people’s lives better, and because the adjustment is a little bit hard, that pleases you?

Right now, they leave me alone because I’m classified as mentally disoriented

If that were the case, they wouldn’t let you ignore your schedule.  Sticking to a schedule is actually a very important part of the recovery process for brain injuries.

We could take the elevator, only it reminds me too much of the one that lifted me into the arena.

Drink! \~/ D13 = Capitol.

My mother and sister are home for 18:00 — Reflection,

For all Katniss goes on about how draconian the schedules are in D13, I’m not really seeing anything bad.  The controlled activity is necessary because they’re living in a very strict environment.  There’s literally not enough extra bodies, space, time, or material for anyone to slack off, because there’s too much work to be done simply to survive.  And you can’t let everyone wander around, because of the space issue: not everyone can take a shower at the same time, because your water systems can’t handle it.  Not everyone can eat at the same time, because the dining hall is only so large.  These things have to be rationed out so everyone can have a fair share.

But at the same time, they’re clearly not working people past their abilities, and they recognize the importance of down time. 

What, exactly, is supposed to be so bad about this?  Especially to someone who’s had to work constantly all through her life just in order to keep her family fed.  She should be used to constant activity.

I mean, not Katniss, of course, but this mythical other girl who’s worked so hard, she’d be used to it.  Katniss, clearly, is a middle class brat who’s complaining about going to school.

Prim just sits on the floor weeping and rocking that awful Buttercup, who interrupts his purring only for an occasional hiss at me. He gives me a particularly smug look when she ties the blue ribbon around his neck.

So…not how cats work.

Like, at all.

Many cats are not comforted by cuddles, nor would they see something around the neck as a sign of affection.  They also don’t get smug in the same way or for the same reasons that a human would.  The book is basically treating Buttercup as a cat-shaped human character, instead of recognizing that he’s an animal who’s just been SHOVED INTO A BAG AND THEN TOSSED AROUND, PROBABLY CAUSING HIM PAIN IN ADDITION TO THE TERROR OF NOT KNOWING WHAT’S GOING ON, I’M NOT GOING TO FORGET YOU DID THAT, BOOK.

Pets are not people.  Pets are not people.  Pets are not people.  I’m saying this over and over again because pet owners routinely fuck over their pets by reacting to them as if they’re people.  You don’t cuddle scared cats, you don’t yell at a barking dog, because pets are not people, you have to interact with them in a manner they can understand, they don’t react like a person would.

Being granted a communicuff is a special privilege that’s reserved for those important to the cause, a status Gale achieved by his rescue of the citizens of 12.

…okay, but it seems like they’re actually a useful and limited communication tool, not a ribbon you can hang on your jacket for having done a good job.  They should be given to people who are continuing to be useful to the cause.  Gale’s job of rescuing people is done.  He shouldn’t have a cuff unless he’s actively still doing something.

The same combination of gasp and groan that comes from being submerged in water, deprived of oxygen to the point of pain.

Yes, I often take a deep and sudden breath when I can’t breathe.

What?

I search his eyes for any sign of hurt, any reflection of the agony of torture. There is nothing. Peeta looks healthy to the point of robustness. His skin is glowing, flawless, in that full-body-polish way.

Okay. But. First of all, torture doesn’t have to leave marks.  Second of all, torture doesn’t have to leave marks on your face.  Third of all THEY HAVE MAGIC SCIENCE MEDICINE.  So, basically, this means nothing.

The book has such limiting views on what torture is or could possibly be, as if unless someone is being punched in the face, then they’re fine, because it’s not like anyone could be caning their feet.

And that’s even if we go along with the book’s assumption that anyone would want to torture him.

Has Peeta guessed, then, how the rebels used us as pawns? How my rescue was arranged from the beginning?

…would it really be a “guess” at this point?

“Once you’re in the arena, the rest of the world becomes very distant,” he continues. “All the people and things you loved or cared about almost cease to exist. The pink sky and the monsters in the jungle and the tributes who want your blood become your final reality, the only one that ever mattered. As bad as it makes you feel, you’re going to have to do some killing,

…it’s almost eerie how much this speaks to me.  I’ve said very similar things about being deployed.  Well, not about pink skies, but about being distant and having a new reality.

“Oh, no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?” says Peeta. “It costs everything you are.”

Unless you’re named Katniss or Peeta.  Because, let’s face it, they haven’t changed at all since we first met them.  Or maybe killing did take “everything” and they just didn’t have much besides selfishness and kisses to offer up.

A nation leaning in toward its screens. Because no one has ever talked about what it’s really like in the arena before.

Okay, but why not?  You’ve made an entire season, nearly an entire culture around these games, to the point where huge amounts of time and effort are invested.  Not just on the part of the people running it, but on the part of the capitol citizens watching it, if Katniss is to be believed.  So why wouldn’t they want to hear stuff like this?  This is cinematic drama gold.  We have an entire genre of war movies that are built on the idea that people want to hear this sort of stuff.  I’ve had more people than I can count ask me to tell them this sort of stuff, because it’s fascinating to those who haven’t experienced it.  (And, in some ways, to those that have.)

“I didn’t want to!” Peeta flushes in agitation. “But I couldn’t argue with Beetee without indicating we were about to break away from the alliance. When that wire was cut, everything just went insane. I can only remember bits and pieces. Trying to find her. Watching Brutus kill Chaff. Killing Brutus myself. I know she was calling my name. Then the lightning bolt hit the tree, and the force field around the arena … blew out.”

Just…what is the point of all this?  Why are we rehashing the last book this way?  What benefit does this interview give to anyone?  Literally everyone in the country already knows the events of that night, so what is this?

“All right. It just looks suspicious,” says Caesar. “As if she was part of the rebels’ plan all along.”

And then we get to the new bits, speculating about Katniss’s involvement, but…what is the point of that?  Who are they trying to convince?  We’ve already covered that the capitol is an evil despotic government who hates her, so even if they’re convinced she didn’t know what she was doing, they’re still going to kill her for shits and giggles.  Even if they weren’t going to for that, she’s with the rebels now.  And much like with the berries thing, there’s no point in trying to tell the rebels she didn’t do it on purpose; we’ve already covered that none of them give a shit about her motivations, just in what was actually accomplished.

Finally, Haymitch is being forced into sobriety, with no secret stashes or home-brewed concoctions to ease his transition. They’ve got him in seclusion until he’s dried out, as he’s not deemed fit for public display.

If he’s really been as drunk as you claim for the past 25 years, then it’s quite possibly also deadly. 

Yes, you can die from detoxing if you’re dependent enough.  It’s rare, but it happens, and even without that, look at all these symptoms.  It’s worst when you go cold turkey, btw, as Haymich is being forced to.  So he’s not “unfit for public,” he’s probably under constant medical supervision just to make sure he doesn’t choke on his own spit.

So, dedicated care at a time when every able body is necessary for the war effort going on.  But go ahead, Katniss, go sleep in a closet.  You could be at least running gopher errands or something, free up someone more skilled to save your mentor, but no, you’ve got too much pain.

Caesar pats Peeta’s shoulder. “We can stop now if you want.”

“Was there more to discuss?” says Peeta wryly.

“I was going to ask your thoughts on the war, but if you’re too upset …” begins Caesar.

Really, WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS?  Are we on the all-Games channel, and they just had to fill time with something?

Now our numbers are even fewer. Our conditions more tenuous. Is this really what we want to do? Kill ourselves off completely? In the hopes that — what? Some decent species will inherit the smoking remains of the earth?”

Look, given how stupid your government is, you’re headed for extinction anyway.  Hope for something decent to be leftover is actually your best bet at this point.

Also, if their numbers are so tenuous, then why is the capitol okay with mass-killing an entire district?

his undeniable complicity with the Capitol now that he’s called for a cease-fire.

…he also mentioned that there’s guards escorting him back to his room, where he does nothing but build card houses, so it’s clear he’s not there of his own volition.  Also, in the grand scheme of things, a cease-fire isn’t all that terrible.  “Oh, no, that traitor wants peace!  How dare he!”

One of Coin’s men lays a hand on my arm. It’s not an aggressive move, really, but after the arena, I react defensively to any unfamiliar touch.

I would like to counter your point with the entirety of Catching Fire, in which you never once did this despite being touched many times.

With the pressure of the Capitol’s arranged marriage between Peeta and me gone, we’ve managed to regain our friendship.

Wait, what?  First of all, that wasn’t an arranged marriage, you suggested it.  Second, that’s really the biggest thing between you?  Your fake relationship with another guy?  Not any of the real feelings you’ve had for him, or…you know EVERYTHING ELSE THAT’S HAPPENED?  “We had ideological differences about how helpful rebellion would be, and he decided to hate me for doing what I needed to survive, and he doesn’t seem to trust me, and he physically assaulted me that one time in the woods, but now that I’m not publically ‘claimed’ by another penis, I can be friends with him again!”

“I like to think Twelve wouldn’t have abandoned the rest of the rebels back in the Dark Days,” I say.

13 didn’t abandon squat.  They got bombed into rubble, and you yourself said that they almost died out several times since then.  They’ve been scrabbling to hang on, and one presumes that they’ve only just recently been able to make any kind of serious bid at rebellion.  But given their diminished position, they wouldn’t have been able to do anything – even after recovering as much as they have – without the rest of the country working with them.  They were in a perilous position of needing to wait for the right time, for the moment when their paltry few resources would do the most good, because making a move too early would spell utter annihilation.

Now, she can be mad that they didn’t let people know that they were around and waiting for such a moment, but again, that’s assuming they had the capacity for doing that without tipping off the all-seeing capitol.  Also, this is Katniss.  Maybe 13 had sleeper agents all over the place; it’s not like Katniss has the situational awareness to catch on to that.

They would be even more powerful if that pox epidemic hadn’t flattened their birthrate and made them so desperate for a new gene pool […]“Still, it took them long enough to show up,” I say.

Those thoughts are right next to each other.  What is your problem?

Well, at least Gale knows what I’m talking about.  He tries to explain the whole “you can’t start a war when you’re flat on your back” concept, but she stubbornly holds on to the belief that 13…I don’t know, should have magiced up some resources?

“Peeta might have done a lot of damage tonight. Most of the rebels will dismiss what he said immediately, of course.

It’s like the book mocks itself.

The cease-fire’s clearly President Snow’s idea. But it seems so reasonable coming out of Peeta’s mouth.

Does Peeta have some sort of charm-magic going on when you hear him in person?  Because he sounded kind of bland to me.

He’d put forth the idea of the cease-fire if Snow let him present you as a confused pregnant girl who had no idea what was going on when she was taken prisoner by the rebels. This way, if the districts lose, there’s still a chance of leniency for you. If you play it right.

The only thing keeping Katniss alive in Catching Fire is that killing her would enrage the rebellion.  If there is no rebellion to deal with anymore, there’s nothing keeping her from being killed out of spite.  THEY’RE AN EVIL DESPOT GOVERNMENT, THEY DON’T NEED A FAIR TRIAL.  IF THINGS WERE DONE FAIRLY, WE WOULDN’T NEED A REBELLION, NOW WOULD WE?

Snow may have tried to spin it that way, but Peeta should have seen through it, if he’s smart as people say.

The stupid sticks won’t go in the box and I snap several in my frustration.

Hey, remember when Katniss was delighting at Fulvia’s embarrassment when she wasted that one piece of paper?

Katniss has no fucks to give about conservation.

“I’m going to be the Mockingjay.”

Drink for the Mockingjay! \~/  Was I just not paying attention this chapter?  Not many drinks…  Hm, let’s have a drink for that whole interview! Propaganda masturbation! \~/

Episode of MASH you should watch instead: Peace On Us