notyourexrotic: onceuponamirror:lwyllastorch:tsundeanre:thealycorn:revstrychninetwitch:ineffable-huf
notyourexrotic: onceuponamirror: lwyllastorch: tsundeanre: thealycorn: revstrychninetwitch: ineffable-hufflepuff: booksandwildthings: backdoorteenmom: regiinamills: xxmickeydxx: This is how many children that died in their Hunger Games, without even being mentioned throughout the three books. All these children were under 18. All these children had parents. All these parents’ hearts sank to their knees during their child’s reaping. All these parents saw their terrified child off at the train station. All these parents heard the sound that signified their child’s death. All these parents received their cold, dead child in a wooden box. All these parents’ lives ended there. All these parents could say or do nothing. All these parents were merely thanked that they gave up their child. Thanked. And the media focuses on the love triangle. All these children and all these parents aren’t real Yeah, sure, I guess that’s true. None of these people were real. But let’s focus on what this series, and this fact, say about our society. In the series, the Capitol’s media focuses entirely on the ‘fun’ of the Games- the fashion, the plot twists, the favorites, the strategies, the romance. And the entire time, they completely overlook the fact that 1,678 children between the ages of 12 and 18 have died. Usually brutally murdered by other 12 to 18 year old children. And how does our real-life media react to this story when news of a movie adaptation reaches them? They talk about the romance. This tragic story of a girl who must choose between her long-time best friend and her new love. Even if she chooses Peeta, they still must fight to the death. The star-crossed lovers of District 12. And many readers of the original novels saw the books through the same lens. You would tell them that you read/ were reading the books and their first reaction was, “Are you Team Gale or Team Peeta?” Meanwhile, children are fighting to the death. The fact that our media, and many every-day people reacted to the Hunger Games the same as the Capitol media scares me. I don’t want this world to be anything like the Capitol. I don’t think any of us do. And the fact that most of us (including myself) never really considered how many children had died in the games also scares me. But, hey, it didn’t happen now/ in the current story, so it doesn’t matter, right? I’m not sure about that math though. I think it’s MORE. Let’s talk about just the first 73 games, ok? Every year before Katniss and Peta. 24 Tributes (1 girl + 1 boy x 12 districts)= 1 Victor + 23 Dead Every year 23 x 73 = 1,697 EXCEPT, the 50th games (The games Haymitch competed in) had DOUBLE the number of tributes. An extra 24 kids died that year. 1,703. Now, 22 kids died in Katniss and Peeta’s first game, because they both live. 1,725. In 74 years, the brutal, violent murders of 1,725 children aired on TV in Panem, and in both the Capitol, and on the red carpet in our world, the first question people want to ask it “Team Peeta?” Damn. i’m not even in this fandom, but damn, that’s scary And here we have people who GET the hunger games. #until this moment#i didn’t realize there were still people who haven’t figured out that our reactions to media are an important indicator of our values#it doesn’t matter that they aren’t real#our reaction on a story primarily about children killing each other#was to focus on the romance#it wasn’t a romance#it’s a story about a tyrannical governemt sentencing children to death as a means of intimidating the sectors into submission#and we reacted to the games exactly the same way the capitol did you can be as meta as you can but you can never be this meta this is why not the media’s focus on JUST the love triangle is important—because it goes beyond that. Maybelline released a “Hunger Games” themed make up campaign. Barbie dolls were made of Katniss. T shirts. Plastic jewelry. This is the real lesson. The Hunger Games’s marketing department’s decision to basically make us The Capitol was genius. There were a couple of things where you could pledge allegiance to some District or other, but for the most part we were treated as citizens of The Capitol - with the fashion & makeup, the heavy consumerism, the presentation of Tributes as celebrities. We were culpable. Though I’d like to complicate the OP’s claim that all the parents of all those children had their lives ended or were broken down by the death of their kids. We know from the books that for some of the more well-off Districts, their children are specifically trained to volunteer as Tribute. They know they are going to a deathmatch and they see this as a great honour. Probably many of them end up victorious because they had a massive head start, but there are a couple of ways their deaths could have been handled. They could have died as martyrs, in which case the death becomes a kind of celebration and act of gratitude, or they could have died as shame, because how dare they fail. The parents’ grief is pushed aside for reputation. -- source link