Gotta love the irony of the people in the capital caring more about an unborn child rather than the literal children already dying in the games.

33:30 they also probably assumed Kat couldn’t swim, most of her district can’t but her Dad taught her in a lake in the forest.

Katniss: PTSD, anxiety, depression, breadwinner of her family, survivors guilt, protecting her district from vanishing, unknowingly leading a revolution

Gale: "do you love me🤨? Cross "yes" or "no" for answer"

22:20 - It's a tiny moment, blink and you'll miss it but I had to include it. When Mags volunteers for Annie (Finnick's girlfriend), he is so happy he reaches in for a hug. Mags is unable to talk but shakes her head and motions towards the camera. She was worried that the other tributes were watching. She didn't want to expose one of his weaknesses... her

The Quarter Quells are more messed up than regular Games. The 25th Games were to remind the Districts that by rebelling they were responsible for the Games, so that year the tributes were elected by their fellow citizens instead of the standard lottery. The 50th Games included double the amount of contesters (48) and that was the year that Haymitch won

The progress from “This guy’s a prick” and “I don’t see this guy being a good guy” to “He seems like a stand up dude” with Finnick is awesome 🤣 Only Finnick can make you hate him and then completely fall in love with him

Delighted you guys understood Peeta painted Rue. For some reason SO MANY reactors, like literally 99% of them, think the Capitol did it to mess with Katniss and it makes no sense!
Also, the aspect ratio changing as we enter the arena is soooo good

effie’s butterfly dress is actually supposed to represent her metamorphosis of waking up and seeing things how they truly are

i just love in the books as soon as katniss sees the arena she immediately thinks that this isn’t a place for a girl on fire

One of my favourite things about this series is how it shows art as political.. Cinna with his final dress, Peeta with the painting of Rue, Katniss with her singing. All of it is just so well done I’ll never move on from it

I appreciate you guys showing Katniss so much grace. She’s a teenager, DEEPLY traumatized, and she’s being pushed around a lot into making romantic decisions and declarations- fake and real. It’s probably hard for her to not only tell what’s real but also what she even feels beneath all that fear and anxiety. She obviously loves Gale because he’s her lifelong best friend (though that doesn’t necessarily mean “in love”). She loves Peeta too after they survived so many harrowing situations together and developed a real bond (again, that doesn’t necessarily mean “in love”). Trauma bonds and friendship dynamics are tangled webs even under the best of circumstances.

I like that you guys understood her bond with Peeta. Some reactors accuse Katniss of playing with Peeta’s feelings just because she relies on him emotionally. But their displays of emotional closeness (like Peeta staying with her through her nightmares) isn’t inherently romantic or sexual- Prim does that for Katniss, too. And just because Peeta is there for her emotionally while also having feelings, doesn’t mean Katniss owes him romantic feelings back. Even if feelings are budding, those things come from genuine friendship, too. In the end, I think Katniss is allowed to be lost and confused about her feelings even if it maybe gets a bit messy. But I certainly know mine lol.

This is my TED talk on Peeta vs. Gale, apologies for the length of this comment

Katniss faked love for Peeta in the first games and Gale got all pissy. Yet Peeta, who was deeply in love with her and was the target of the fakery, managed to get over it. In fact, he continued the ruse despite how much it was probably hurting him because he understood the necessity. Gale got pissy when Katniss said she’s too traumatized to be thinking about romance. Peeta was willing to meet her where she is mentally. Not only does he understand she’s in no condition to be making mature romantic choices, he knows that her feelings for him are new and need time to grow organically so he never pushes. Gale got pissy about bringing Peeta along in their escape plan even though he should know that she cares about him at least on some level since they survived the games together. Peeta gave Katniss a locket with Gale’s picture, knowing that she cares about him deeply and his picture would be a comfort.

In many ways, Peeta subverts expectations of a traditional romantic hero by embodying what women look for in a healthy relationship. He's supportive and kind to everyone. He sees Katniss's bravery and strength and seeks to support her in that, not eclipse it or push to balance it. He's patient and empathetic rather than looking for a fight. He knows how to show friendship and emotional support to a woman he loves without using it like an IOU coupon. And most of all- MOST OF ALL- he recognizes when he's putting unfair expectations on her feelings and accommodates in a way that shows compassion and understanding.

“Pissy” will always be deeply unattractive in my book. It’s not really fair that we didn’t get to see the years of fun and friendship Katniss had with Gale prior to this and that’s probably a massive factor in Katniss’s feelings. But it is what it is. All we get to see of Gale is pissy in this movie. The “love triangle” was nowhere near as prominent in the books but I think they beefed it up because love triangles were all the rage at the time. It was the height of Twilight mania. But I wish they wouldn’t have accentuated that aspect of the plot. It’s just really not the point of this series at all.

Snow wanted her to specifically kill Finnick O'dare because he was the most popular tribute in the world, extremely popular and charismatic (in his pre-game interview he made a carefully worded and extremely vague declaration of undying love to the cameras - one can only imagine how many sponsors and former clients of his he might have melted with those words) and also with a good boy reputation for trying to save his mentor. Having her kill him would tarnish her reputation with a lot of people. Having her refuse to kill him, instead, galvanized popular opinion to her side.

"shut UP Gale!" we all yell in unison😂

The juxtaposition of you guys laughing about Peeta painting himself as a tree and then seeing the painting of Rue 😮 made me burst out laughing. Thank you for that.

I've watched MANY reactions are ya'll are seriously the only ones who understand the pressure Katniss is under, and the fact that she had to pretend to be in love with Peeta to save EVERYONE'S lives... the PRESIDENT OF PANEM showed up at her house and told her that if she didn't convince him of her love, he would burn the entirety of District 12 to the GROUND... like PLEASE!!!

Something interesting to know, in the books Peeta actually lost the bottom half of one of his legs, so in the beginning when Peeta tells Katniss not to look at him like he's woonded she would actually be looking at his prostetic/robotic leg

The butterflies represent Effie’s transformation. This is the first time we see her not able to keep up the facade and we see she really does care for Peeta and Katniss. It’s one thing for Katniss to inspire the districts who are oppressed. For her to also inspire the Capitol shows the power in her acts of humanity. The question is where is our breaking point and what does it take to bring us back once we’ve crossed it?

Fun fact: Since Haymitch won the 50th Hunger Games he won the Second Quater Quell and for his games the twist was that there would be twice as many tributes representing double the losses of the first rebellion. So it’s 2 boys and 2 girls from each district so 48 tributes in total. Haymitch won his games at 16.

The gamemakers (and snow) did think that peeta and katniss both can’t swim because there is no body of water to learn swimming in district 12 and in the book peeta actually can’t swim and has to be saved by Finnick but Katniss learned how to swim because her dad took her to a lake outside the fence of district 12 since she was a child (the lake can be seen in the beginning of the movie). So making the arena water based should have made katniss and peeta an easy target for the other tributes. And in the book it took the group much longer to figure out what the tool for getting water out of trees is for, Katniss remembered that she had seen the tool before but she couldn’t remember what it was for at first

THANK YOU for the empathy and compassion for Katniss. You'd be surprised how many reactors judge her heavy by this point. She's a child trying not to die!!!! Great reaction 🫶🏻💕😊