May the odds be ever in your favor

[justfornow]

I know I'm a little late on the uptake, but I decided to read the Hunger Games trilogy over break. (God knows I got nothing else done.) Now that I'm finished, I'm going to rant a little bit. (And I'll put it under a cut just in case there's someone who hasn't read it yet and I spoil it.)



Disclaimer: It should be said that in spite of everything I might say here, I really did enjoy the books. 

I picked up the first book when I was hanging out with my mom in Barnes and Noble and I read through it in a day. I LOVED it, was thoroughly shocked by it and couldn't shut up about it. I fell totally in love with Peeta and Haymitch. I felt like I was in the arena with Katniss. The part with Rue's death broke my heart.

I went back to Barnes and Noble and bought Catching Fire. I was kind of meh about it at first to be honest, and then they announced the Quarter Quell and I fell back in love with it again. I felt like the writing of the Quarter Quell was fantastic. The arena was so interesting and meeting all the new characters was wonerful. Finnick. <3 

As soon as I finished the second book, I went and bought Mockingjay and then.... Just.... Where do I start with this book? Well, here are my major complaints:

1. Katniss was SO WHINY. I get that she was traumatized but she went the entire book being whiny and changing her mind every split second. 

2. There was such amazing build to Katniss storming Snow's mansion and then the stupid parachutes fell and burned her half to death. That felt like a major cop out so that the author didn't actually have to write an intense battle scene. It especially annoyed me that all those awesome characters were killed off (Finnick, why Finnick???!!!) and then Katniss didn't even play a part in the final triumph.

3. Why the fuck did Prim die? I really, honestly saw no point in killing off Prim, especially since the entire war hadn't taken place as it had if it weren't for her being alive. (At least in my head, because Katniss went into the games because she didn't want her sister to go and then Katniss became the face of the rebellion after the whole shindig with the berries.)

4. Then after Prim died, Katniss went back to being crazy. She did EXACTLY what her mother had done after their father died. How hypocritical. 

5. Why did they even talk about having a Hunger Games with people of the Capitol? It was never mentioned in the book after that. That whole conversation was so dumb. And then Katniss voted yes! WTF, Katniss? I was so pissed off when she did that that I literally threw my book own in disgust. "Yes, for Prim." WTF? WTF??!

6. Then Katniss killed Coin. Why? I still don't know. I honest to goodness don't understand. Maybe I missed something. Don't get me wrong, I like Coin as well as the next person (which is, not at all), but I don't get the point in Katniss killing her.

7. And then Katniss is imprisoned and goes crazy AGAIN. I seriously can't deal with her mental instability. Grow a pair of balls, in the name of all that is good in the world.

8. Backtracking a little bit, I'm still confuse as to why it was necessary to make Peeta hate Katniss. It's not like anything really came out of it. He didn't kill her. She didn't have to kill him. I guess maybe it could be symbolic of how everyone and everything was change forever after the war, but personally, I don't think Peeta would have been the same anyway, with or without the hijacking. 

9. And then, of course, Peeta and Katniss end up together. Of course, I always wanted them to be together, since the very beginning. (Didn't everyone?) But there's no build up to their relationship after the war. He's just there. She doesn't have to choose between him and Gale because Gale just ceases to be around. 

All in all, I just really feel disappointed. Like I was gypped out of something that could have been absolutely astounding, something that I would have remembered for the rest of my life. I'm really sad, to be honest. I wanted it to be some much better than it was. But maybe my standards are just too high.


That being said, if anyone knows of any good Hunger Games fanfiction, I'd love to get my hands on it.

Comments

[stopthere.livejournal.com]

I can't read your rant because I've only read the first book. But... is it a bad ending? Will I like it, do you think? Or is this a different kind of rant?

ANYWAY. Hiiii. You should come hang out with me on DW and I can help you set stuff up and find communities or something. Even though you probably don't need anything else taking up any of your time.

[untiltimeends.livejournal.com]

It's not a bad ending. It ended how it probably should. It's just that the route the author took to get there was a little frustrating. But yes. You should definitely read the rest. I think you'd probably like it. It's still an amazing series. :)

And yes, I have an account there now. I just don't know what to do with it. I'm really terrible about starting over with new things. Lol.

[stopthere.livejournal.com]

well you can come play with me at my account if you ever get bored, for starters :)

then also, what are your current interests?

[untiltimeends.livejournal.com]

Fandom-wise? God, I don't even know. Hunger Games, I guess. Once Upon A Time. Still Kradam. Forever Kradam. The Social Network. Kind of Glee, but not really. Glee fandom has too much wank and not enough decent fanfiction.

Besides that? Nothing really. I've been kind of looking for a fandom to dive into.

[stopthere.livejournal.com]

So... I don't really have a fandom either. I ship Gale/Katniss, by the way. I don't know if you have a ship or not. If it's too hard to talk about without spoilers, we'll find something else to talk about.

Yeah, there's too much wank in a lot of fandoms. Actually, most fandoms aren't really even fandoms anymore. I think that's why I spend so much time roaming the journals, just looking for people with at least a couple fandoms such as mine hoping we'll communicate at some point.

These aren't all incredibly active, but I figure the more people who join, the better chance the community will have:
• http://addme-fandom.dreamwidth.org/profile
• http://fandomcalendar.dreamwidth.org/profile
• http://harrypotter.dreamwidth.org/profile
• http://hungergames.dreamwidth.org/profile
• http://zuckonit.dreamwidth.org/profile
• http://kradamadness.dreamwidth.org/
• http://kradamreclist.dreamwidth.org/

[untiltimeends.livejournal.com]

I shipped Gale/Katniss after only reading the first book but now it's a bit more complicated than that.

Thanks for all those. I think I'll explore them tomorrow. I should probably go to bed now, though, before I get so immersed in interneting that it's hard to stop. lol.

Btw, have you read any good Harry/Snape fics lately? I've been having an itching for them and I haven't found any good ones that I haven't already read.

[stopthere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured it would get that way.

No problem.

Not really, but I haven't been looking. Here's some art though: http://snape-potter.dreamwidth.org/224477.html

[justfornow]

Holy crap. I think the importer worked. Hahaha. So much for sleeping.

[metonymia.livejournal.com]

BROOHAHAHINNYHOOHOO spoilers ahead for the trilogy

Mockingjay was such a. a weird book. It was really just. It makes sort-of-sense in retrospect, if you look at it as what it is: a war novel. These things come with a cost, and that cost is Finnick and Cinna and all those characters that we think are immortal, because she couldn't really kill them off.

Killing Coin took me completely by surprise, but at that point Katniss was so unpredictable to me that I was just like "okay, wtf-ever. 8\"

Haymitch will always be the best fucking character of all time ever hands down full stop it's just fact. :|

[untiltimeends.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, that's true. If that war had happened in real life Katniss probably would have acted exactly like she did in the novels and maybe that's what Collins was going for. It's just that if you're going to have someone be a heroine, make them be a heroine. If I wanted someone whiny all the time, I'd go read Twilight.

Haaaaymitch. Love him so so much. Definitely the best character. I feel like we was the most well-developed, too, maybe. But either way. I just want to cuddle him. Is that weird?