Meeting New People, Part Hunger Games

I am soooooooooooooo so sorry that I haven't written in so long. So let's do the second part of "Meeting New People", shall we?
(Spoilers for the Hunger Games Trilogy.)
So Katniss is a pretty funny gal. She kind of has a people problem, she isn't very good in social situations. (Kind of like your average fandomeer.) So honestly, the way she felt about these people when she met them is pretty much the exact opposite of their relationship at the end of the story. It's kind of ironic. Nice one, Suzanne Collins.
So first, Katniss and Peeta. Which is pretty much the most ironic one of them all. So Katniss meets Peeta and he is a totally sweet guy. He gives her hand a comforting squeeze, he cries when he says goodbye to his family, he smiles at her, he gives her his jacket, he is a really nice guy. Aha, but wait a minute, guys, this is the Hunger Games. Everyone is out to get everyone else. (Who just thought of Brave New World? That's what I'm reading for my next book project in school. "Every one belongs to everyone else"..... That book is so disgusting.) His hand probably just had a nervous little spasm or something. He might be pulling the defenseless look like Johanna Mason. And above all, he is trying to get Katniss to trust him so he can kill her no problem when they get in the arena. Or, Katniss, maybe he's been in love with you since he was five years old. Maybe that's it. So pretty much Katniss is planning to kill Peeta and does not trust him at all. Quite a number of things can happen in a few years.... Like marriage and two children and a loving bond that not even hijacking can break. (Which is pretty much why Peeta is the best character ever and Mockingjay alongside the Harry Potter series best represents love over all fiction novels in the world.) That's pretty intense.
Gale...... This relationship is pretty depressing. Katniss and Gale, in the beginning, were inseparable best friends. They would do anything for each other. They were like siblings. That's all... at least for Katniss it was. What Gale wasn't saying was that he had been in love with Katniss for the past six months. And then she gets taken to the arena, comes back and wins with a boyfriend for the camera, and then Gale decides to speak up about his feelings. Guys, this is why you never say how you feel about them while you're still young kids. Why? Because Gale ends up running away to District Two to have a big important job or something, and in the end, Katniss doesn't even care. Don't get me wrong, I am one of the biggest Peeta shippers you will ever meet. But I wanted Katniss to end up with Peeta while staying friends with Gale. I guess the problem was Katniss and Gale are both not very good at forgiving or forgetting. I guess there was too much in the past few years to forget about, and the only way they could forget was for them to be separated.
Haymitch. In the beginning Katniss only knows him as the old victor from when her mom was a kid, the only victor of District Twelve that's still alive. When she finally gets to have actual in-person contact with him, she's not a big fan. He's not your idea of the perfect mentor. He is a drunk who honestly doesn't really care that much. About anything. Katniss and Haymitch cannot stand each other. But Katniss and Haymitch, in the end, I think remember each other as great friends. In the epilogue Suzanne Collins doesn't really say that much about Haymitch and the relationship they have with him after all those years. Maybe he isn't around anymore. Maybe he doesn't get out? She kind of said in the chapter previous that he didn't. He drank and raised geese. But they can't just forget the kind of father-daughter relationship they had. No one can replace Katniss's father. But at least she got to have a new father figure in her life.
Prim............... Don't cry. Don't cry. Not much changed about Katniss and Prim's relationship. Except for one thing, that I guess is a pretty big thing. It just goes to show that a lot can happen in a year, or even in just a few months. Katniss, in the beginning, has to completely take care of Prim. Prim was just born delicate. I wouldn't say frail, because that implies easy to break in a negative way, but Prim is an absolutely beautiful girl. (I've always really liked her.) She was more like her mother than her father, but she still didn't know that much about how to take care of anyone. She was a dainty little thing. So Katniss knew she had to take care of her. I guess that Katniss was expecting to have to take care of Prim when she got home, but I think she was highly mistaken. Because when Katniss gets home, Prim knows a lot about taking care of people and is honestly quite a motherly person and that is just adorable. So there is only one thing that changed about their relationship: instead of all the weight being on Katniss's shoulders, Prim grew strong and they helped take care of the family together, with the help of their mother who also got her mothering skills back. She'll always be remembered as a great sister.
Finnick Odair was an untrustworthy guy. He was a monster in his Games, is extremely attractive, has pretty much all of the Capitol convinced he's in love with them and to top it all off, now he's flirting with her. Yeah, I wouldn't trust him either. What we find out after that is that he was just trying to get close to her so that he could get her out of the Games alive. He was  a part of the rebellion. Which of course makes him really cool. Once Katniss knows this and gets over the fact that he and Haymitch betrayed her by saving her instead of Peeta, she is willing to be his friend. And they became really close. Katniss even made sure they remembered him in the additions to the family book that they were making. And she'll always remember him as a great friend.
Ahaha. Oh, Johanna....... Katniss isn't exactly what you'd call fond of this girl either. With the elevator incident, her making fun of Wiress and Beetee and pretty much everything about her Katniss isn't totally cool with her. And Johanna doesn't like her either. But honestly, were Katniss and Johanna not literally created to be best friends? They're just enough alike and just enough different to be BFFs forever. I guess some things just take time, because over the course of everything Johanna and Katniss become pretty good friends. Before we even knew what was happening, Katniss was bringing Johanna some needles from trees as a gift that she thought she would like. And we're almost wondering how that happened so fast. We don't know what happens to Johanna, but we do know that that Katniss and Johanna did have an adorable friendship.
And Effie. Katniss didn't like Effie at first. She was pretty much the exact definition of a Capitol person. But Harry didn't like Hermione at first, either. Again, a lot can happen over a few months. And Katniss and Effie didn't have the relationship that she and Haymitch did, or her and Finnick or even her and Johanna. But they still had something. And I think Katniss really loved Effie, and I think Effie really loved Katniss. That last encounter in Mockingjay. I'm just like uggh! I can't!

Meeting New People, Part Harry Potter

Do you have those friends where you think of the first time you met them, and you compare it to your relationship you have with them now and it's totally different? I certainly do. I just thought that works with the fandom characters too. Another three part post! So let's join our friend Harry and see how his relationship with his friends and not-friends when he first met them, and how they are in the end.
(Spoilers for Harry Potter)
When Harry meets Ron, Ron asks him if he can sit by him. Harry doesn't have any friends, so he has nothing against Ron sitting by him. He starts off a kid whose family helped him get on the train. Then we think of everything that happened in the years after that. By the end of Harry's story, Harry and Ron are still hanging out together. They're actually brothers. What if Ron had tried to squeeze into another compartment? They wouldn't have become friends! The story would be totally different! Ron, we are grateful that you made that choice.
Harry meets Hermione on the train too. Hermione's kind of a loner so she's just wandering around trying to make friends, I guess. Harry and Ron don't really care to hang out with her. She's kind of annoying. Can you believe that? She was totally annoying! In the end of course sometimes Hermione still annoys them. But she ended up to be like Harry's sister. Not to mention Ron's wife.
Ginny was just Ron's little sister. Harry loves Ron and his family, so he wanted to get to know her better. But Ginny was a fangirl, and she couldn't even act normal when Harry was around, she usually couldn't even stand to be around him at all. In the end Ginny can be herself around Harry, and that's what made them fall in love and get married. #Adorable
Neville was a dork that got sorted into Gryffindor just like Harry. He was really bad at magic. Harry and Ron kept trying to tell Neville not to let people get him down. In the end they were still friends. Harry and Ron were probably so proud of him because he really changed into a way more confident person. Friendship is cool.
Luna Lovegood. Harry thought she was completely crazy. She was totally weird. Like, really weird. It didn't help that she made Harry fear he was insane. But Harry and Luna became pretty good friends because of how weird she is. I think he admired her for the same reason I do: Luna knew people thought she was weird, but she didn't care because that's who she wanted to be and she knew they were wrong. You go, Luna.
And then there's Draco Malfoy. Harry met him in Madam Malkin's robe shop, and even then Harry wasn't too fond of Draco. And a lot happened between them in the years that followed. There was a lot of hatred there. In the end, though, Harry and Draco are willing to give it up. They know they will absolutely never, ever be friends. There's just no way. But they don't care enough to go on hating each other. So they just let it go. (Congratulations to Frozen for winning Best Original Song!) Life lessons from Harry Potter.

Never-Ending Seri



So maybe I'm just crazy. But never-ending seri drive me insane. I read them anyway. They're good. What choice do I have? But I am fond of writing. So I have told myself I will never, EVER write a never-ending series.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Stuff like Nancy Drew. You could start in the middle of the series and be totally okay. You didn't really miss anything. Worse yet, it just keeps going and going. Nancy Drew has way over a hundred books now. The girl can't stay eighteen forever! She doesn't even get older! When logically if she was eighteen in 1930 she certainly can't be eighteen now, and she most definitely can't be nine. I like there to be closure. For example, Harry Potter was perfect. Harry Potter was a pretty long series. It took place over many years. But then it was done. It ended. And there are people who wish their fandoms would never end, and sure, she can go on writing stuff like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but honestly, there is no story in a never-ending series! Stories end. So the individual books are stories. But not the series. So I guess that's what makes it okay enough. But they'll just keep living like that? There has to be an end to it. I don't know. Maybe it doesn't bother you. But I like endings. I like them a lot. And never-ending seri don't really have one.

The Capitol and Us

(Spoilers for Hunger Games)
Don't hate me for what I'm about to say.
So everyone thinks the Capitol is disgusting. Right? Because it is. The fact that they are living luxuriously while the other citizens are barely surviving and watching those lesser citizens fight to the death without a thought is horrendous. Then they do stuff like wearing obnoxious clothes and doing crazy stuff to their bodies. But one day I thought, "You know, we are not too far away from the Capitol. Not at all."
Let's start with the fandom itself. Most people didn't like Mockingjay as much as the other books. Let me just say that there were no Games in that book. And one day someone I know came clean and said it: "Face it, the Games are pretty much the best part. The other parts of the book are great. But we have to admit, we do actually like reading about the Games. The Games, not just the world around the Games.
Now you may be saying "It's my fandom it doesn't count." I'll give you that. Fandoms are a big deal. But we are crazy about that sort of thing in our own lives too. Reality T.V. It's pretty much the same thing. Sure, there is no fighting to the death on our T.V. But still, we are watching these people do their thing, and just like the Games, oftentimes people are eliminated, and we're sad when our favorites go, and we're rooting for our favorite to win. And then if someone's crying or something emotional is happening, you know the cameras will be right there. Just like in the Games. And I have one word: hockey. I went to one game in my life and, with all the fights and people cheering for them to happen, I actually said it was like a Hunger Games on ice. To which point my friend sitting next to me asked me why I always brought everything back to Hunger Games. But whatever.
Then we can all admit, there are some pretty weird styles out there, just like the Capitol with all the weird stuff they like to do. We all may be thinking of different trends right now. But no matter what, we still can all admit that there are weird trends that we would never do.
I don't know. I just thought one day.

Why J.K. Rowling is Wrong

(Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
If you didn't know this, I am a huge Romione shipper. They are probably my favorite ship. So you can imagine that when I see that J.K. Rowling regrets Ron and Hermione's relationship, I have to see what's up. So I read a bit of an article, I'll post a link so you can read it too.
http://www.hypable.com/2014/02/01/jk-rowling-ron-hermione-relationship-regret-interview/
You'll read that she said she wrote it for "personal reasons, not for reasons of credibility." Not for reasons of credibility?! What do you mean?! Romione is literally the most credible fictional couple in the universe! J.K. Rowling, you were right the first time! It's just so upsetting to find out the author of my favorite ship ships another ship!
But it gets better than that. Emma Watson, who is interviewing her, says that in the end Ron probably wouldn't have been able to make Hermione happy. Here's the thing, guys. Ron isn't a perfect guy. We could sit here and list his flaws. But he is a totally lovable guy. And he is perfect for Hermione. Ron likes to joke around and doesn't care about grades or rules. Hermione doesn't really like to joke around and cares only about grades and rules. They balance each other out. Hermione helps Ron get good grades, and Ron helps Hermione loosen up. He's one of the only people who can get Hermione to laugh. How is that not perfect?!
I mean, just look at them. They're so cute.