The Hunger Games: A Rant (?)

So, just to get myself started ...

Not going to bother with any introductory posts or anything like that. This blog is going to be really fun to write (she said, with great conviction)!

I'm just going to go right ahead and delve into what seems to be the hottest topic right now: The Hunger Games. There will be spoilers, but I'll white them out, don't worry!



Hottest topic, you say? Girl, why would you use a phrase so lame? Um, well, because all of a sudden they're EVERYWHERE. When I read the first novel, they were already being heavily advertised, but the craze had not yet started. Used to be that nine out of ten girls my age I saw reading were reading one of the Twilight books - now it's The Hunger Games. And even back when I was reading them (you know, before it was cool and all *adjusts glasses*), their fate had been read in the stars as - precisely - the next Twilight. I didn't understand why, then.

Today, I saw that someone had scribbled "May the odds ever be in your favor! THG <3" on a desk at school. And that was when I knew what would be my next pet peeve.

yeah you guessed it

I don't mean to be elitist, really I don't. I like explaining it as a difference in motivation. I enjoy works of fiction for the works themselves as well as discussion of their content, their tropes, and their characters; any merchandise or propaganda hullabaloo is just an extra bonus. But as soon as something hits the dreaded mainstream, a lot of people who might have thought a work was "meh" upon a recommendation from me or somebody else will be declaring that they "LOVED it!" Keyboardsmash and manic less-than-three sequences optional. I get that, of course it's more fun to be part of a kind of big smushy hug pile of love for this work, but it just means that it's harder for me to find people who like these things the same way I like them, if that makes sense. (Or else I am just Snob Central. Heh heh.)

But okay. Here's the thing: I enjoyed the first novel, really I did. I liked the concept, I ADORE dystopian sci-fi, and the whole (*deep inhale*) "bloody brutal murder televised conspiracy HIT SHOW" made for fast-paced, fun reading, although Katniss's whole self-sacrificial white knighting didn't really do it for me. Plump, spoiled child that I am, perhaps I shouldn't say anything; maybe that sort of situation does make you put family before everything else. But I just couldn't help thinking that Katniss is ... too good. (And that that situation can go both ways. Either you risk your life to feed your family ... or you sustain your own by feeding on them oh no that was a horrible thing to say regrets instantly. I think.)

The second novel was good too. Most of the way through. Here's why.

Spoilers for Catching Fire (select from bracket to bracket for minimum annoyance):
[Up until now, part of what made The Hunger Games so enticing was the fact that anyone could die. Anyone, at any time, could be horribly mauled or killed or even brought back as something else entirely, like Rue and the rest of the tributes in the first novel. 


But then Peeta survived.


I'm the sort of horrible person who enjoys it when fictional characters die. An author who is not afraid to kill off their characters - preferably when it's not heroic and definitely not when it's convenient in the story - is an author who has my respect. Plus, that's the sort of thing that creates emotion in the reader. If a character dies, we're sad for them. There's a reason most books are not about utopias, where no one is unhappy or has a bad relationship or is suddenly hit by a truck. We want bad things to happen, and we want these things to make us part of the story's world and the feelings of the story's characters. The Hunger Games did this really well at first. We were never sure who we would have to part from next. But then Peeta was granted this ... immunity. Not to mention that, if I remember correctly, he pretty much ... did die. They resuscitated him. And frankly? I wasn't relieved at all. I was all nice and ready to have a good cry and then the little bugger survived. His time had friggin' come! It was the Pein arc of Naruto all over again.


Yeah, ya see, the whole killing off characters thing doesn't work if there are some characters we know we don't have to worry about. Katniss's miraculous rescue of Peeta in the first book was awesome. It was unexpected and clever and tied the plot up neatly. But being hauled back from the brink of death a couple of times a year is less likely than getting struck by lightning (say these statistics that I pulled out of my ass just now) and frankly makes a character really boring unless it is humorously obvious.


Plus, Peeta's survival let the thing that bothered me the most about these books live on. And that's what I'm getting at NEXT ... on ANNOYING WALLS OF TEXT.]

Phew! I feel like Doc Scratch right about now.

Uh, but yeah. I don't actually have to spoiler-ize this part, so here we go: The most annoying thing about The Hunger Games was the ridiculous Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle. Okay, so "WILL SHE SURVIVE THE ARENA OF GORY AWFUL MURDER?!?!" is obviously so last year, so we have to throw in "WHICH OF THE HOT BOYS WILL SHE CHOOSE?!?!?!" on top of it all? Just for the lulz? Seriously, what. I found the whole thing silly, especially since this is The Hunger Games' number one similarity to Twilight, which is fine to like, but again, a little bit silly. Two unbelievably adorable and awesome boys with special endearing characteristics who both love some chick unconditionally, 5ever. Whatever shall she do. Really? Nope. (Actually, Gale's cutesy childhood crush on Katniss was one of the few things I disliked about his character. Wow I'm such a killjoy hee hee hee.)

Oh, just in case you were wondering? Team Gale vs. Team Peeta is actually a thing.

And this is an actual image that someone made
I think I liked bloody murder arena of doom better, tbh
(NIPPLES)

So, to wrap things up, here come the significantly shorter

Spoilers for Mockingjay:


[What the whole thing culminates in is that Katniss and Peeta get married and have color coded babies. Which is basically the laziest and most shit ending that anyone could ever have thought of for this series. "Everyone dies at the end" would have been better, seriously. At least that is the teeniest bit in tone with the series' premise. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly screaming for blood, but at least something innovative. Something that isn't like Breaking Dawn, a book whose last chapter is actually titled "The Happily Ever After." Jesus H. Christ, I hope someone wrote an alternate timeline fanfiction that is better than this.]

So, yeah. I guess to sum up, what I'm basically trying to say here is that the concept is excellent, and the execution had massive, massive potential ... but it stopped short at what I can only call laziness. (Because really? Really???)

Meh, okay! I'm going to let everyone go back to looking forward to the film (which I may or may not be watching) and enjoying the books, now that I'm done and have thrown in my two cents' worth of furious yelling. See ya!