My Mockingjay thoughts, let me show you them
Wow, I had kind of forgotten just how much these books fucking hurt. They are ridiculously brutal, jfc.
Okay. OVERALL I don't know, I have mixed feelings?! AND FINNICK GODDAMNIT I THINK EVERYONE KNOWS HOW I FEEL ABOUT FINNICK. ALSO AKLSDJAKLSJDKL CINNA. HE SURVIVED OKAY, HE RAN AND HID AND HE IS NOT DEAD.
I think I will do a more critical/measured post later? THESE ARE JUST MY EMOTIONS.
CHARACTER THOUGHTS:
KATNISS: Katniss continues to be a bad. ass. That part where she is like I KILL SNOW: FUCK YES. I basically love her a lot; this book she totally fucking blossomed and got to OWN MY HEART. I think I'm a little iffy on her ending, but I LOVE that she got her own agency and got to be AWESOME but within the constraints the universe had set up.
GALE: I FUCKING LOVE GALE, THIS BOOK SHOWS WHY. He is so fucked up and smart and sharp and he LOVES her, guys, he LOVES HER SO MUCH HE LEFT HER, and his conversation with Peeta was SO PERFECT AND RIGHT, THREESOME OMFG. I kind of love that ultimately he was more ruthless than both Katniss and Peeta, despite having never been in the Games: Gale/Johanna is where it is at, y'all.
PEETA: HI OKAY PEETA ♥♥♥ YOU ARE SO DELIGHTFUL DUDE, ILU. PLS MARRY ME. I love that he is ALWAYS the girl and he basically does nothing violent just DELIVERS INFORMATION, YOU TROOPER.
HAYMITCH: 1!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!! My love for Haymitch cannot be textually rendered guys. He is basically THE BEST. I love how he is totally Katniss and Peeta's awkward uncomfortable alcoholic dad who kind of smells bad and is totally fucked in the head. I LOVE THAT SHE WENT TO HIM. Basically oh my god, Haymitch, ILU. (Also ahahaha breakfast club is totally canon.)
FINNICK: UM WHY ARE YOU DEAD FINN, I CANNOT HANDLE THIS. PLEASE COME BACK. Idk, I loved crazy!Finn at the beginning and all of his interaction with Katniss but um... Annie really didn't work for me, guys. :///// Like, she wasn't even crazy? ON THE OTHER HAND, HIS WHOLE "THIS IS WHAT THE CAPITOL DID TO ME" GOT ME IN MY FUCKING HEART, OH FINN. YOU ARE SO AMAZING AND I AM SO SORRY YOU ARE DEAD :/ BUT YOU CAN BE WITH CINNA!
CINNA: WTF CINNA CANNOT BE DEAD LIKE THAT, I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT. (HIS SKETCHES/DESIGNS FOR HER WERE PRETTY FUCKING BADASS THOUGH, OMFG.)
JOHANNA: Hi, you are awesome lady! I love her badassery and her crazy and I just. Want Finn/Johanna fuckbuddies fic forever. When she kept running in the rain? OH MY GOD, JOHANNA.
PRIM: OH PRIM!!!!! DDDDDDD:
BOGGS: My favourite of the new people, even though he didn't last long. He was super awesome and smart and great.
PRESIDENTS: BOTH OF THEM SUCKED. I LIKED IT WHEN COIN WAS ALL "FLIP A COIN," THO.
PAIRING THOUGHTS:
KATNISS/GALE: They were fucking cute, and I think I can use Mockingjay to point to why my shippy tendencies for them are NOT WRONG DAMMIT.
KATNISS/PEETA: Um HI OTP. What I really needed for their relationship to work for me was a)Peeta to grow a spine and b)Katniss to fucking lose it because she cares about him. THANK YOU FOR DELIVERING, BOOK. I really needed that equality/balance from his being bitter about her and it really, really worked. Idk if I am fond of the WE HAVE CHILDREN ending, but whatever.
FINNICK/ANNIE: Wow, um. Where is electrumqueen, I really did not like this at alllll. Like, it kind of just made me feel uncomfortable? Annie needed to either be actually batshit insane or secretly badass. She was kind of just.. there. I felt like she needed to have more of a presence to balance him.
FINNICK/JOHANNA: This is canon now, right? They are total friends with benefits.
ALSO: I have just realized why I have some cognitive dissonance-- from the cover I think I expected at least a little of a victory march, but instead Mockingjay is very much a funeral dirge. This is not a happy ending: it is a victory, but it is a painful one.
MORE LATER.