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[deathmallow]

Gacked from redbrunja

Give me a fannish topic and I'll meta for at least 100 words. Then I'll give you a topic to meta on for at least 100 words.

(Fandoms include: THG, ATLA/LoK, BSG, Spartacus, LotR/Tolkien, Neverwinter Nights 2, HP, GoT/ASoIAF, Breaking Bad, Homeland, some Marvel and DC, Firefly, Sleepy Hollow, Les Miz, PotC, or historical)

Comments

[deathmallow]

I typically like my villains well-developed. Yeah, occasionally you just need an outright puppy-kicking asshole, but I think that's rare and it's frankly kind of boring and unrealistic to just depict black-and-white psychopaths. Even the villain, in their own mind, is the hero of the story.

Granted as well, sometimes to develop the villain and talk all about how they had a rough childhood or whatever is to disrespect the suffering they've inflicted on others. It's a delicate balance between understanding their psyche and using it to excuse their acts.

Villains are really fascinating when you can see where they're coming from, but you're horrified at the choices they've made in pursuit of that mistaken ideal. If there's a way for them to back down from the ledge and redeem themselves, that can be an interesting arc. If there isn't, it makes their downfall kind of the end of a tragedy, rather than just a "cheer for their inevitable asskicking".

A good redemption arc, mind, is not just "My mommy didn't love me and that's why I did bad things" and all is forgiven. That's cheap. It's a process of dawning realization, clear effort, and actively seeking forgiveness and demonstrating changed ways. Fully realized redemption arcs are unfortunately too rare.

Your question: what's your general headcanon for District Three (ways, culture, etc.)?

[marble_sharp]

Totally love your insight on D3. :3

[deathmallow]

Me too. I love when I braintwin with people too. XD

[deathmallow]

Woot!

[deathmallow]

Thanks for erasing the whole reply, LJ!

Anyhow...I wrote headcanon for each district for my postwar Reconstruction fic "Away From All the Fears and All the Faults You've Left Behind"/AFAF. Interesting that you and I came to the same conclusions here.

It must have been terrible for someone as bright as Haymitch to be stuck somewhere like Twelve with no opportunities at all, but being somewhere like Three can be equally hellish.

I have it as an early filtering education classification system as well, with four levels. A-Grades are pretty much the rock stars (Beetee, etc.) They're the research/lab directors, the inventors, the innovators.

B-Grades are like perpetual grad students. They may have their own projects to direct, but it's always under the umbrella of the A-Grade's direction, and the A-Grade always decides what research will and won't go on in that lab.

C-Grades are the lab techs. They'll carry out the mundane daily tasks, but they're not really trusted to do the "higher" science like the number crunching, write up, brainstorming of future ideas, etc.

D-Grades are the ones judged with no science ability, whether from lack of intelligence or just lack of scientific aptitude. They're "support staff": janitors, cafeteria workers, paper pushers, supply room, etc.

So if you're not classified as an A or B-Grade, you're more or less considered not a "real" scientist/engineer, and God help you, your life from childhood will suck and other kids will be mean about it.

Agreed on the hours and tight security to keep their potential in check. I have a headcanon that one of the Three tributes from the Second Quell had an older brother executed because he thoughtlessly put some wires, batteries, etc. in his lab coat pocket to take them to a colleague down the hall, forgot about them, and tried to go through the security checkpoint.

(Another headcanon: all work on muttations, i.e. Panem's entire genetic research initiative, from crops to cattle to arena nightmares, is done out at the facility we currently call Area 51.)

[deathmallow]

Well, Area 51 also works a lot with mundane mutts: crops for Nine and Eleven for higher yield, growing cacaoa and coffee in a non-tropical environment, etc.

But I imagine arena mutts is an entirely different thing. In AFAF I have Beetee say that the security out there is so high even he never got to visit, and being an extreme A-Grade and a victor would make him one of the most elite Three has to offer.

And yeah, I have the people who worked on the arena mutts, or "control mutts" like the "forest cats" they released into Seven to control the deer population (and also mostly to dissuade lumberjacks from running away) feeling very conflicted about it, to the point where as part of their initial rebellion, they destroy every mutt in there, from the nearly-grown to the petri dish ones, as an act of defiance in their own feelings of horror, and also so that the Capitol can't use them in the war. But they kept the records, so that people would see what they were forced to do.

[penfold_x]

We have convergent headcanons. :D

Any chance you've put any of this in fic form? *eyebrow waggle*

[penfold_x]

I love how we've gone to exactly the same place about how basically miserable school must be in D3 (except perhaps if you're an impervious genius like Beetee), and I really dig your thoughts about the ban on growing/capturing your own food. Totally agree that the Capitol is extremely wary of D3's potential power and though my hc is that D3 is pretty much always ready to throw down against the Capitol, even if they were much better behaved it wouldn't matter because the Capitol would never risk D3 developing a warrior culture in addition to their technological prowess--far too dangerous a combination!

Don't underestimate fandom's interest in Enobaria--lorataprose has completely sold me on the awesomeness that is D2, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. :D

Alas, I've only just started trying my hand at fiction. I've scratched out a couple of ficlets that have Beetee in them, but they don't really get at the D3 headcanon.