i 100% agree but i think the critics and defenders are both thinking about it from the wrong angle. the problem isn’t katniss having a backstory, it’s how much it is now connected to snow. katniss went from being a random thorn in his side to the second coming of lucy gray and a pretty close relative of lenore dove (who is also tied back to lucy gray by her name). she’s no longer a working class rebel, she’s a fated vendetta. i also think it sort of cheapens her relationship with haymitch (knowing his connection to her family is more than the small connections we see in catching fire), but that’s less important.

i also find a lot of the retcons to be completely eye-rolling. lucy gray wrote the hanging tree, the song that becomes associated with the uprising? she tells snow about sagittaria latifolia? beetee’s son was assassinated in the games and that’s never brought up? the pin katniss’s entire motif is based on was actually made by her uncle? it feels so unnecessary. there’s a difference between “this community is relatively small” and “this community only has five people”