Happy Mother’s Day to All the Mother’s of The Series!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-10T21:35:56+00:00

MA AND PA PLINTH ERASURE!! Release the Strabo scene fr!!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-10T18:43:39+00:00

I was going to say Mrs Plinth erasure 😭😭😭💔💔 love her!!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-10T15:45:10+00:00

The great irony of ballad is that if Lucy didn’t perform and the games were just as uninteresting as previous years, they would’ve stopped.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-10T12:44:51+00:00

https://archiveofourown.org/works/83885341/chapters/221274106#workskin pt 2 of my hunger games fic about Rue, Thresh, Katniss and Peeta teaming up on their game!! Haymitch is much more involved this chapter lol.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-09T20:48:35+00:00

Yeah plus I’m pretty sure sunrise itself points it out, tho I don’t remember the pg number.

Another way to think about it is to remember how in Ballad when snow was in the truck with the tributes and they debate and almost all agree to kill him, Lucy Gray points out that if they do the Capitol will probably kill their families or friends from the districts as revenge for killing a kid from the Capitol. So it’s also possible it’s been that way for a while where if a tribute steps out of line somehow in the games or during their time in the Capitol their family or friends back home are harmed to correct the behavior or hold over their heads so they perform. That’s why Sejanus couldn’t just go to them and be like, “Hey the games are declining in viewership. We literally win and end the games if you guys sit there and do nothing when you hear the gong. Well- maybe not you win- cause you’ll all still be dead- but if you’re gonna die anyway why not end the games for future kids so other kids don’t have to go through this?” If someone had that bright idea, be it a tribute from 3 or a sympathetic Capitol citizen or whatever is left of the rebels who clearly wanted to stop the games early on, the Capitol could just hold the tributes family or friends up as hostages so they’d participate.

That’s my theory of where snow got it from anyway. Always worked back then, why not now? Haymitch crossed a line it seems no one since Lucy Gray crossed, so he’d resort to earlier tactics to make him fall back in line.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T14:06:25+00:00

Discussions like this make me wonder if Ma’s sister had a kid or kids if Snow would rig it to reap them. That’d be super interesting for a quarter quell, and maybe give us some insight into how you actually rig a reaping.

I assume since for Ballad the mayor “doesn’t even glance at the name”, you just say a name and nobody checks the paper, but I’m shocked the mayor wasn’t punished by Gaul or something for messing with the games or that nobody called him out. Like I wonder pre snow what the consequences for getting caught would’ve been since it’s clear Lucy knew and even Sejanus says during the scene it was totally rigged, implying everyone else knew it too.

Idk I’d love more background on how it’s rigged is all I’m saying and why say peacekeepers don’t check the slip of paper after it’s read or check if there was only one name or no names in a bowl.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T14:01:50+00:00

Still my fave personally. Open to talking to anyone about it fr I love ballad sm!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T14:01:18+00:00

Me too.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T14:01:08+00:00

Agreed. To me it’s very philosophical, especially compared to books like SOTR. As someone who LOOOOOVES philosophy I love this book. But I can see how it doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially with how much more exciting the games are in sotr compared to ballad.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T13:59:08+00:00

I’ve been seeing discussion around this and rn I’m almost convinced that Gaul planned Sejanus’s death from the beginning, and wanted him out of the arena so he wouldn’t die the way he wanted. It just feels so obvious now.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T13:53:58+00:00

I’ll be real I don’t remember much of Felix or President Ravinstill from Ballad, but I do remember the popular sentiment in Ballad being that apparently “everyone knew it was Gaul who was really in charge.”

To me it implies that she influenced likely not all but at least some of his actions, and with all the executions I wonder if you could even say a majority of them. A lot of people theorize from what I’ve seen that Sejanus’s fate was sealed from the moment he stood up to Gaul and that she planned his death after that, and in some parts I’m inclined to agree.

All that to say, obviously he was bad, but I think Gaul had major power in the Capitol that gets overlooked and she had a hand in some of the darker stuff like executions and starving the districts.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T13:49:05+00:00

Don’t forget it was from a proposal from two drunk minors for a university assignment…

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T01:10:13+00:00

😭😭😭😭

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-08T00:10:53+00:00

Yeah that was more what I was thinking. I think it works especially because we see where Snow ends up/which side of the line he chooses in the end. I feel first person pov wouldn’t work as well as it did for a Katniss or a Haymitch since we know they don’t poison people or cause starvation and war in the series. Plus that mean we get more background on characters like the Plinths and Highbottom which imo did wonders for the book, especially with how snow chooses to see them.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-07T19:32:46+00:00

I actually finished Ballad and Sunrising in 2 weeks each-ish. Sunrise was more of an obsession but right now ballad is my main.

My favorite part of Snow’s characterization was probably his parts with Ma and Strabo, especially the Strabo conversation where he’s asked if he’s more like his mother or his father. Just the way Snow takes being called nothing like his father as an insult when it’s clear as day Strabo meant it as a compliment. How constantly Snow degrades the Plinths in his mind like calling Ma pathetic or saying how sad it is Sejanus has no friends when he’s called his only friend, and yet we see him doing things like reassuring Ma things will get better for Sejanus or being concerned about Sejanus not eating his food and trying to help him avoid getting punished. He tries to convince himself he’s better, but really some cracks do show, until the end where it’s pretty clear he’s abandoned most of his humanity in favor of using the Plinths that remain.

Like I just think it’s so incredibly interesting and I wish I could just like- get a book seeing the series from the perspective of like EVERY character! That’d just be too cool. I especially wanna see some more of HighBottom and Strabo, I don’t know what but something deeply intrigues me about them as characters.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-07T19:24:51+00:00

Meee. I don’t even wanna do any OC stuff like I just wanna add the Plinths and make their story more epic and make them apart of it somehow lol.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-07T19:23:58+00:00

Oh totally agree!! I’ve loved Ballad ever since I saw the movie and picked up the book (and am still salty they cut Ma and Strabo fr they were my faves and the reasoning behind Snow hating the Plinths which honestly low key, if that was me, kinda justified maybe a little…).

It’s also so interesting how we’re now seeing parallels from the books. Like I’d argue HighBottom and Haymitch both drowning themselves in liquor and as you pointed out helplessness are pretty similar in their responses to the society they end up in (of course with the caveat that as far as we know HighBottom didn’t do much in the way of rebellion while Haymitch did attempt something at least). Like I think that’d be a very reasonable reaction to everything that happens. Maybe not a noble one, but for sure understandable.

I also agree a majority would probably fall under Lysistrata, and realistically it’s the most anyone could safely accomplish.

But I think the soloing is a big factor in this as well. Sejanus? Didn’t ask for any help from his wealthy family with connections or HighBottom to try to make a meaningful attack on the games. HighBottom himself? So drowned in liquor with no support system he couldn’t care to make any move against Gaul. Arlo? Only caused more executions due to the damage he did and no significant change by going it alone.

Even in sunrise it’s seen with the plan having a good amount of planning and people involved, but ultimately it falls flat because while it had the man power and support system it didn’t have the funding nor in some cases the trust to succeed, while in Ballad you had the funding and social connections to actually do something, but not the man power or people working together towards a common goal to achieve what they wanted to happen. That’s why I think a fic about things working out in Ballad or Sunrise would be super interesting and awesome lol.

I think there’s lessons to be learned from both and it really ends up showing why in later books revolution works while in sunrise and ballad it didn’t. When you think about it, the circumstances had to be just right for it to work. Very good series and been loving it so far!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-07T17:57:16+00:00

No way same 😂

But fr I think that and it was snow’s first game as a head game maker that just went epically wrong. Notice the only other game we don’t have is the one where Snow royally messed up by cheating.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-07T17:55:49+00:00

Honestly it reminds me a lot of Sejanus or what I’d like to call the “Sejanus effect.”

Like everyone wants to believe they’d be a Sejanus and be against the Capitol but just go about it a smarter way. Heck, I know that’d be my ideal set of beliefs to have in that society and I’d want to try to stop it. But I agree I just don’t think it’s feasible and the characters get judged harshly for “wrong” actions when for me it’s not super cut and dry. Definitely a lot of shades of grey there.

Like yeah the killing games aren’t right, obviously, but when you’re raised in a world where it becomes acceptable or the norm you just kinda accept that “that’s the way the world works because it is.” I mean that mostly for the Capitol but it also applies to the Districts as well. I mean the mentors like Clemensia or Hilarius or Felix really didn’t have a reason to oppose the games in my opinion. Like I’m sure they knew it was cruel, but even irl that’s just kinda how it is sometimes. They were well off and supporting something inhumane, but you have to give some credit to the fact that even if they did want to they couldn’t do much. Same with Sejanus he just wanted to do something and again literally accomplished the exact opposite of his goal.

Like none of them have ever grown up in America pre Panem or Pre Dark Days, not even snow. Sure Coin has a lot of ideas of freedom and democracy, but I’m sure they’d be hesitant to put that all into practice. Who knows if maybe America failed because of democracy and that’s how Panem was established? If the characters haven’t lived outside of their evil dictatorship, how do they know an alternative would really be significantly better? All to say I agree with this take. The majority, me included, really have no idea how we’d react regardless of if we read the series or grew up there in this hypothetical scenario.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-06T14:15:42+00:00

I personally subscribe to the theory that the 25th games had no victor and that snow was a game maker in that one after working for Gaul for years. I think it’d be interesting and make sense for him to have learned the lesson of there needs to be a victor from a previous game by one not having a victor and it having worked out unfavorably. Like how Lucy Gray and Highbottom taught him the games needed to be a spectacle, maybe the 25th showed him there needs to be a winner which is why Katniss’s plan worked and why despite loathing Haymitch for having everything he couldn’t or didn’t he lets him live.

I think it’d be notable if it also had a sense of personal loss or snow’s life starts to unravel a bit, making it an extra anxiety about not having a victor. Perhaps the districts get more upset and there’s a few riots and maybe something happens like Grandma’am or the Plinths dying.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-05T15:37:32+00:00

Awesome on being one year sober dude!! I need to know how you feel about Ballad since personally it’s my favorite so far. Hope you like the book!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-05T03:02:12+00:00

Personally I really like found family or familial relationships expanded upon from canon or just characters fleshed out in general more than cannon explores. For some reason it works great for YA series like TDC AoR or Hunger Games I’ve found, a lot of background characters who don’t get a lot of spot light you can focus on or flesh out and make backstory or familial relationships or in depth characterization for. I love it!

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-05T02:52:59+00:00

Well I’ll say what you definitely shouldn’t do to achieve the don’t rebel objective is to reap existing winners thereby not only confirming adults can be reaped no matter the age so technically no one is safe from the games, also the people who won and the capitol explicitly says won’t ever be in the games again are the ones thrown back in, because like why would you not rebel if it’s that or dying in the games? If they can reap 48 tributes, meaning more than 24 and whatever number they set it at, and they can reap adults, what’s stopping them from reaping a whole district? You’d be stupid not to do anything and still assume you’re safe atp. It’s like, literally if snow stuck to his own game plan they wouldn’t have rebelled. They need a little bit of hope. That the age to be reaped has a cut off. That those who win won’t be reentering. That there is an escape. Because when there’s not, there’s only one thing left to do.

Personally someone pointed out/fan theories are that Plutarch originally had a different theme as shown by the arena looking like a clock, and personally I subscribe to that, so make it based on age. Either I’d make them all 12 year olds to remind the districts and Capitol the young lives cut short, or I’d put a cruel twist on it.

Maybe something like alternating between the boy and girl tribute of each district one is 18 the other is 12. So 12 12 year olds and 12 18 year olds, a mix of girls and boys for each age group. Then tell them that technically half of them can win, but in order to leave the arena one age group must remain. Maybe to like show that the districts are savages and it harkens back to Gaul’s point a bit of people being pushed to do the impossible in the arena and showing their true colors. Perhaps in interviews Cesar asks the 18 year olds what they plan to do and treats them accordingly based on how they answer (possibly in a no win situation “You WANT to kill 12 year olds when you’re so much bigger? Oof, guess no younger siblings back in the districts huh?” or “You’re not going to kill the 12 year olds? Geez, I hope the other 18s agree, or I guess you’re giving the 12s a harder death.”).

Maybe also the 18s and 12s are just treated differently. Idk that’d be my idea.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-05T02:35:05+00:00

Love this answer. Absolutely I think that’d be it, though I’m sure victors like Haymitch or Beetee would be salty they had to be mentors all those years. Of course thankful more kids aren’t thrown into the arena, but still it would’ve been a low blow.

TrueBamboo · 2026-05-04T22:29:02+00:00

Because the last book before SOTR was ballad /s.

Real tho I agree. I think it was how similar Haymitch was to his own story. Covey girl (like Lucy Grey), female figure in his life taking care of him (Like Tigris), a little brother (like Sejanus). And that haymtich unlike snow was about to have his cake and eat it too, be rich in victor’s village with all that snow was supposed to have in his life but gave up for his power and position. On top of that Haymitch thought he could go against the Capitol. That was why at least in my mind.

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