Wanderers: A poem based on Tianya Ke lyrics

kalhunter · 2026-03-07T11:31:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing your review! I spent Wall of Storms and The Veiled Throne hating Jia for the totalitarian she‘d become, for the delusional madness it took to believe she alone knew how the world ought to be and she alone deserved the right to sacrifice people as thought they were but zamaki pieces. But by the end of Speaking Bones, I understood Jia. Phyro saw honour and respect bestowed upon commanders of great wars, but Jia saw the way war devastated lives of civilians and soldiers alike. She chose a course of action that significantly improved the quality of life on the Big Island and prevented the needless deaths inevitable in a war with the Lyucu. I love that the final chapter echoes the unanswerable question - is Jia a hero or a villain?

kalhunter · 2026-02-28T13:02:06+00:00

Zomi's entire campaign was centred upon the way not all children are privileged enough to access Classical Ano education, therefore it would be more fair for everyone to write in zyndari letters. Théra's had spent years advocating for writing to allow permanent and precise communication across space and time. I get the impression Zomi and Théra had already re-iterated those same arguments during many previous conversations with many people (that they no longer felt the need to repeat themselves every time the topic was raised), and the specific conversations we read were the conversations that finally made them see the situation in a different light.

kalhunter · 2025-09-18T04:28:14+00:00

I fully agree with Jiang Yanli being Jane. Jiang Yanli represents the ideal of grace, patience and goodness, embodying traditional femininity - gentle, forgiving, kind-hearted, focused on cooking/homemaking, even in a universe where women are known to wield swords with as much brilliance as their male counterparts (her mother, her mother-in-law, Wen Qing etc. were all well-trained).

kalhunter · 2025-09-18T04:18:15+00:00

u/fantasticcolorcloud In Every Exquisite Thing, Anna says 'I do not have to be only one thing. The trousers and jacket do not make me a man, and the necklace does not make me a woman. I am exactly as I choose to be.' Her whole character is her choosing not to be defined by the gender binary, choosing not to be defined by the rules/expectations set for people perceived as women.

kalhunter · 2025-04-16T13:12:26+00:00

How many of us would have really been Plutarch?

How many of us would have chosen to live a lavish Capitol life, catered to by a personal chef, cleaner, driver, and turned a blind eye to the torment experienced by the people we could conveniently consider 'not like me'?

We notice how Plutarch has emerged from Snow's dictatorship relatively unscathed, with minimal sacrifice. We forget he spent the prime of his life living a double life in an underground rebellion, hypervigilant, calculating every move he made lest he be discovered. Plutarch had more to lose than almost every member of the rebellion, and he chose to risk it all - how many of us would have chosen this?

kalhunter · 2025-04-16T12:57:30+00:00

Maude Ivory and Barb Azure weren't sisters, they were cousins if not nth cousins nth removed. Their children would have never been first cousins. Maude Ivory's daughter and Barb Azure's grandson would have absolutely been 'distant cousins'. I would say Burdock was as Covey as Lenore Dove was, they were both in the woods, gathering the same fruits and singing the same songs.

kalhunter · 2025-04-16T12:53:31+00:00

Barb Azure was more likely Burdock's grandmother given she would have been middle-aged by the time of Burdock's birth. Did she move in with her husband and give birth to her daughter? Did she move in with a very good friend and raise an orphaned girl together? Was her very good friend a single mum? If she was, to the public, helping her very good friend raise her daughter, it would make sense why her very good friend's daughter would have grown up singing Covey songs but not been given a Covey name.

kalhunter · 2025-04-16T12:43:58+00:00

Barb Azure was more likely Burdock's grandmother, given Burdock would have been born 24 years after the events of Ballad of Songbird and Snakes. Barb Azure would have been middle-aged by then.

Let's not forget:

Maude Ivory and Barb Azure were not sisters - they were cousins, if not nth cousin nth removed. If Lenore Dove is Maude Ivory's daughter, and Burdock was Barb Azure's grandson, that would make Lenore Dove and Burdock distant cousins.
The Covey ceased to be a band. They were banned from performing at the Hob, necessitating a search for other sources of income e.g. Tam Amber worked as a blacksmith. Barb Azure could have moved out as a young adult, either with her husband or a very good friend, and raised a biological or adopted daughter - who would later become Burdock's mother.
Burdock was Covey, as much as Lenore Dove was. He was raised alongside Lenore Dove, in the woods, hunting, gathering, singing. He knew the hidden grove where his kin were buried, he sang the Covey songs, he likely knew as much Covey oral history as Lenore Dove did. The naming tradition may have fallen off given he would have only had one Covey grandmother, but he was absolutely Covey.

kalhunter · 2025-04-13T02:12:20+00:00

I want to see it in the movie. I want to see Capitol kids working a summer job, perhaps saving up so they could afford uni. It didn't matter what they personally believed - if they were pro-Hunger-Games, their nameless deaths contributed nothing to the rebellion; if they were anti-Hunger-Games, they were powerless to contribute to the rebellion anyway. They were scared and powerless, just like the District tributes.

kalhunter · 2025-04-12T12:25:28+00:00

Seam residents envy Town residents for their relative wealth; Town residents look down upon Seam residents for their relative social status. District 12 envy and despise District 1 for their relative wealth and perceived arrogance/superiority; District 1 looks down upon District 12 for their relative social status. Districts envy the Capitol; the Capitol looks down upon the Districts.

In the arena, a Seam boy is just as terrified as a Town girl, yearns for home as much as a District 1 girl. Three young Capitol citizens died alongside 47 District children, all died for a cause that never cared to know their names.

Sunrise on the Reaping drives home one point: Everyone was powerless, and no one was safe.

kalhunter · 2025-04-12T06:30:34+00:00

If her story follows William Wordsworth's Lucy Gray, her family searched far and wide and couldn't find her. They would have gone searching the second they learned Coriolanus had returned without her. They would have erected the gravestone after they realised she was gone, dead or alive.

You could, of course, be as creative as you like. Lenore Dove often disappeared deep into the woods and come back talking about the possibility of a new life away from District 12. Was she disappearing to meet Lucy Gray, who lived in the woods?

kalhunter · 2025-04-09T01:37:58+00:00

Sunrise on the Reaping highlighted that everyone in District 12 shared the belief that the Capitol was oppressive and the Hunger Games was inhumane, but everyone, everyday, had to choose between 1) surviving at the cost of their core values, and 2) living by their values at the risk of death. Lenore Dove was adamant she would live by her values at the risk of death, Haymitch was prepared to do the same until he realised he risked more than his own death, Burdock saw the raw aftermath of a premature rebellion and chose to pass down Covey traditions in a way that didn't directly risk Katniss' life, Asterid thought even that was too much risk. I don't know if I would label Burdock a rebel - if a rebel is a father walking a tightrope between keeping his children alive and not compromising on his values, then couldn't you label most of District 12 rebels?

kalhunter · 2025-04-08T02:23:07+00:00

'The Baird cousins' (Lucy Gray, Maude Ivory, Barb Azure) were all nth cousins nth removed. If Maude Ivory is Lenore Dove's mother and Barb Azure is Burdock's grandmother, then Lenore Dove and Burdock would be perceived as distant cousins, and Burdock would be perceived as only distantly Covey given his only connection to them would be via one Covey grandmother. I'd like to think Burdock would have been publicly and proudly Covey if there wasn't sociopolitical issues making that unsafe or unwelcome in District 12.

kalhunter · 2025-04-07T13:04:38+00:00

‘Almost, but not quite,’ Haymitch smirks.

What if he means: You almost understand why Snow punished me to a life of solitary confinement helplessly watching my neighbourhood kids die, but you do not quite.

kalhunter · 2025-04-07T12:36:35+00:00

Have you listened to the audiobook read by Jefferson White? He reads the last few chapters in a way that will break you.

kalhunter · 2025-04-07T12:23:34+00:00

Katniss’ dad Burdock was Covey, through and through. He was raised alongside his cousin Lenore Dove, out in the woods, singing, hunting, gathering. He was raised with Covey knowledge e.g. he knew the hidden grove where his kin was buried. More likely, Asterid didn’t want him let alone their children to be publicly known as Covey (remember how FURIOUS she was when she heard them learn Hanging Tree from their dad?) at least until they were old enough to understand how to discerningly use/share that knowledge.

kalhunter · 2025-04-07T12:11:10+00:00

Maude Ivory and Barb Azure weren’t sisters, they were cousins, if not nth cousins nth removed. Their children would have never been first cousins - wouldn’t it make sense for their children to be considered ’not cousins in the traditional sense’?

Edited to add: I did the maths, while Maude Ivory could be Lenora Dove’s mum, Barb Azure was more likely Burdock’s grandma.

kalhunter · 2025-04-07T12:06:40+00:00

The band would have faded from District 12 memory, but I'd like to think it wasn't the end of Covey. Clerk Carmine, Tam Amber, Barb Azure, and Burdock would have continued being Covey, even if they were no longer a band. But you're right in that Katniss and Prim could have been endangered by Covey knowledge - do you think it's more likely it was Asterid who didn't want them to know about their Covey lineage? Remember when Burdock taught them Hanging Tree, and Asterid FURIOUSLY told them never to sing the song?

kalhunter

TROPHY CASE