Possible unpopular opinions and headcanon regarding Annie Cresta
I’m just going to do bullet points. It’s easier. Please let me apologize in advance if I phrase anything problematically or say anything that offends - that is soooo not my intention. And if this post raises any questions for you, please feel free to ask. To make it fun, I’ll try to answer questions with at least a drabble, ‘cause I like writing Annie fic. :D
•Annie is from a Career district. There is nothing in canon to indicate that she is anything but a Career. In fact, in Mockingjay, she and Enobaria are referred to as the last of the Careers (I don’t have a copy handy to give you either the quote or the page number). Career tributes receive training that the other kids in the district do not. They are chosen for the physical and mental makeup. They presumably have a better chance at winning the games than a kid whose name is drawn from the reaping bowl. Careers are not vicious or mindless killing machines, but they are trained to kill and are, again presumably, capable of killing. Thus I think it highly unlikely that Annie won entirely by default, in spite of the fact that she won “because she was the best swimmer.”
•Annie is not “mad.” She is not “crazy.” She is, however, a victim of the games and she suffers from fairly severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of the symptoms of her PTSD, when something triggers it, is covering her ears with her hands, possibly to drown out or hide from the actual trigger or possibly in response to some kind of hallucination or flashback. Another symptom is that she kind of zones out, or retreats inside herself. There is nothing in canon to indicate that she cries a lot (that’s Finnick) or that she is always sad or FOR GOD’S FREAKIN’ SAKE that she can’t function on her own and live a normal (for a victor) life.
•I don’t believe Annie has any underlying disability beyond the PTSD, but I also do not discount that possibility. I’ve seen theories that she is autistic, for example. I don’t believe that myself, mostly because, again, Career district and I don’t think TPTB in 4 would put forth anyone who they thought might be at some disadvantage in the arena, but obviously your mileage may vary and I don’t know enough about autism to say for certain one way or the other.
•I don’t believe Annie and Finnick knew each other before her games. I think they met at the reaping, not when they were children. I think she started creeping up on him without him even noticing it from that point forward and that it surprised (and scared) the hell out of him when, months later, he realized he truly needed her in his life.
•My headcanon for Annie is that she was good enough to train as a Career but that she was the sole support for her grandmother and so she was not actually trained as intensely as a Career tribute would have been. That being said, Annie impulsively voluteered for her games to take the place of a little girl who had no chance. (The girl who should have volunteered was too slow to do it and the compassionate and empathetic Annie stepped in.)
•I believe Annie learns to be a good mother to her son and that he keeps her grounded even more than his father did, especially as an infant and toddler, because he is even more dependent on her than Finnick was.
•Annie is far stronger than Finnick. Remember, he fell apart when she was gone, but she soldiered on when he was in the Capitol and later, after he died. She withstood what the Capitol did to her and she was strong enough and present enough to vote against one last games with Capitol children even in the face of such imposing victors as Katniss Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy, because she thought it was wrong. She made up her mind and voiced her opinion and stood behind that opinion on her own. No one told her what to think or how to feel about it.
•Speaking of Finnick in the Capitol, I think Annie knew exactly what was happening to him. I don’t think he hid it from her because he respected her too much for that. She was perfectly capable of figuring it out on her own, but I think he told her about it before they ever entered into a relationship with each other more than that of mentor and tribute.
•In my headcanon, Finnick was not Annie’s first. She had a boyfriend before him and she did not “lose her virginity” to Finnick. (And Finnick had no problem with that.)
•I think Annie was likely sold on her Victory Tour, if not after, and that Finnick protected her from that as much as he could by taking on those Capitol citizens Snow would have sold her to himself. He knew he could do it and he didn’t want her hurt the ways he’d been hurt.
•Lastly, the above below picture is of Stef Dawson. She has been cast as Annie Cresta in Mockingjay 1 & 2 (and appears way too briefly in Catching Fire). Let me repeat: Stef Dawson has been cast as Annie Cresta. She may not be the actress we wanted (my own personal headcanon for Annie is Mekenna Melvin), but that’s okay. She is the one who auditioned for the part and won it over a lot of other talented actresses, just like Sam Claflin won the part of Finnick Odair. Accept it and move on. I have. (And I’m pretty sure she’s going to nail it, just like Sam.) And it also doesn’t matter if her hair is brown (canon) or ginger (RL). It’s not an essential part of her identity as a character the way it is for Haymitch Abernathy (dark-haired, olive-skinned, gray-eyed, obviously from the Seam) vs. the awesome Woody Harrelson (blond-haired, pale-sknned, blue-eyed… oh wait, that’s how the District 12 merchant class is described). Ahem.
By the way, this was originally posted at Tumblr with this pic:
I'm posting it here, too, because the lovely and talented lorataprose asked if we could discuss Annie Career headcanon here on LJ. So please, discuss! I'll join in when I can. ♥
•Annie is from a Career district. There is nothing in canon to indicate that she is anything but a Career. In fact, in Mockingjay, she and Enobaria are referred to as the last of the Careers (I don’t have a copy handy to give you either the quote or the page number). Career tributes receive training that the other kids in the district do not. They are chosen for the physical and mental makeup. They presumably have a better chance at winning the games than a kid whose name is drawn from the reaping bowl. Careers are not vicious or mindless killing machines, but they are trained to kill and are, again presumably, capable of killing. Thus I think it highly unlikely that Annie won entirely by default, in spite of the fact that she won “because she was the best swimmer.”
•Annie is not “mad.” She is not “crazy.” She is, however, a victim of the games and she suffers from fairly severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One of the symptoms of her PTSD, when something triggers it, is covering her ears with her hands, possibly to drown out or hide from the actual trigger or possibly in response to some kind of hallucination or flashback. Another symptom is that she kind of zones out, or retreats inside herself. There is nothing in canon to indicate that she cries a lot (that’s Finnick) or that she is always sad or FOR GOD’S FREAKIN’ SAKE that she can’t function on her own and live a normal (for a victor) life.
•I don’t believe Annie has any underlying disability beyond the PTSD, but I also do not discount that possibility. I’ve seen theories that she is autistic, for example. I don’t believe that myself, mostly because, again, Career district and I don’t think TPTB in 4 would put forth anyone who they thought might be at some disadvantage in the arena, but obviously your mileage may vary and I don’t know enough about autism to say for certain one way or the other.
•I don’t believe Annie and Finnick knew each other before her games. I think they met at the reaping, not when they were children. I think she started creeping up on him without him even noticing it from that point forward and that it surprised (and scared) the hell out of him when, months later, he realized he truly needed her in his life.
•My headcanon for Annie is that she was good enough to train as a Career but that she was the sole support for her grandmother and so she was not actually trained as intensely as a Career tribute would have been. That being said, Annie impulsively voluteered for her games to take the place of a little girl who had no chance. (The girl who should have volunteered was too slow to do it and the compassionate and empathetic Annie stepped in.)
•I believe Annie learns to be a good mother to her son and that he keeps her grounded even more than his father did, especially as an infant and toddler, because he is even more dependent on her than Finnick was.
•Annie is far stronger than Finnick. Remember, he fell apart when she was gone, but she soldiered on when he was in the Capitol and later, after he died. She withstood what the Capitol did to her and she was strong enough and present enough to vote against one last games with Capitol children even in the face of such imposing victors as Katniss Everdeen and Haymitch Abernathy, because she thought it was wrong. She made up her mind and voiced her opinion and stood behind that opinion on her own. No one told her what to think or how to feel about it.
•Speaking of Finnick in the Capitol, I think Annie knew exactly what was happening to him. I don’t think he hid it from her because he respected her too much for that. She was perfectly capable of figuring it out on her own, but I think he told her about it before they ever entered into a relationship with each other more than that of mentor and tribute.
•In my headcanon, Finnick was not Annie’s first. She had a boyfriend before him and she did not “lose her virginity” to Finnick. (And Finnick had no problem with that.)
•I think Annie was likely sold on her Victory Tour, if not after, and that Finnick protected her from that as much as he could by taking on those Capitol citizens Snow would have sold her to himself. He knew he could do it and he didn’t want her hurt the ways he’d been hurt.
•Lastly, the above below picture is of Stef Dawson. She has been cast as Annie Cresta in Mockingjay 1 & 2 (and appears way too briefly in Catching Fire). Let me repeat: Stef Dawson has been cast as Annie Cresta. She may not be the actress we wanted (my own personal headcanon for Annie is Mekenna Melvin), but that’s okay. She is the one who auditioned for the part and won it over a lot of other talented actresses, just like Sam Claflin won the part of Finnick Odair. Accept it and move on. I have. (And I’m pretty sure she’s going to nail it, just like Sam.) And it also doesn’t matter if her hair is brown (canon) or ginger (RL). It’s not an essential part of her identity as a character the way it is for Haymitch Abernathy (dark-haired, olive-skinned, gray-eyed, obviously from the Seam) vs. the awesome Woody Harrelson (blond-haired, pale-sknned, blue-eyed… oh wait, that’s how the District 12 merchant class is described). Ahem.
By the way, this was originally posted at Tumblr with this pic:
I'm posting it here, too, because the lovely and talented lorataprose asked if we could discuss Annie Career headcanon here on LJ. So please, discuss! I'll join in when I can. ♥