Catching Fire
Jan. 21st, 2018 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThe great Hunger Games Watch of 2018 continues! Today we watched Catching Fire, and I'm afraid I have had some more thoughts on How to Be a Better Dictator again, because this movie (like the first) gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Snow's plans and GOOD GOD MAN, you are an embarrassment to dictatorship.
Seeing Snow's decision-making process only makes it more obvious that Snow has made a spectacular series of miscalculations. First, he trusted Plutarch Heavensbee, who turned out to be a mole - why is your spy craft so unimpressive, Snow! He manages to get a photograph of the one kiss that Katniss and Gale share, and yet he can't keep enough of an eye on his Head Gamekeeper to make sure he's not part of a far-reaching conspiracy. GOOD LORD.
And THEN he lets Plutarch talk him into the truly awful idea of sending the former winners, who are now beloved celebrities in their own right, back into the arena.
SNOW. NO. You were so insightful about the need to give your people a narrow avenue of hope in the first movie! And now you are LITERALLY KILLING the hope which may at this point be the only thing keeping them in line!
His personal animosity against Katniss really clouds his judgment. There are better ways of getting her back in line, Snow. LET ME SHARE.
1. Keep her in the Capitol. What good does sending her back to District 12 do? Seeing the suffering there will only strengthen her stubborn, rebellious streak, as well as strengthening the people's sense that she stands with them. You want to disconnect Katniss from her roots. Show that she is not one of them.
2. And you have the absolutely perfect excuse in her upcoming wedding to Peeta! Make it a ludicrous round of non-negotiable revelry. Every single host and hostess in the Capitol is expected to give an extravagant party in Katniss & Peeta's honor and Katniss and Peeta must attend every. Single. One. At least one party a night.
3. Preferably in a different outfit each time. All those fittings should keep them busy. Take LOTS of photographs and broadcast them everywhere. You want to give the impression that the lovebirds have ascended to the 1% and couldn't care less about everyone they've left behind.
4. Can you plot a Lindsay-Lohan-like downward spiral for Katniss and/or Peeta? DO IT. It's fine if you have to make 75% of it up.
5. In short, make Katniss and Peeta look like a couple of selfish twits with not a care in the world beyond throwing the biggest, glitziest, most tastelessly lavish wedding ever. Thrust it down people's throats till they're sick of it. Make their names synonymous with horrifying Capitol excess.
You can't kill a symbol of hope, President Snow. That only makes a martyr. But a hope betrayed becomes despair.
Now I realize that President Snow hoped that Katniss would conveniently undermine herself by behaving badly in the Games, but that was a gamble from the beginning. The big glitzy whirlwind wedding, with lots of photographs of an endlessly ludicrous wardrobe and very few chances for Katniss or Peeta to speak to the press, would have achieved the same goal much more safely.
Also, let me be real with you, I think this would make a completely fabulous AU fic. Katniss and Peeta have to go through with the wedding. They are forced to keep up the charade, or at least try to; I imagine cracks would appear in the not-to-distant future, and why shouldn't they? Young love, you know, it never lasts. That can be folded into their story too.
The hope they represented slowly curdles - but in such a way that it is easy for the Capitol to slough off the blame. They just couldn't handle the limelight, you know. Personality flaws. Sad but true. People buy the gossip rags to cluck maliciously over Katniss's latest drunken antics (for she is following in Haymitch's footsteps now: the first Games where she had to act as mentor broke her).
"No time for the folks back home," they scoff, although in actual fact, Katniss is rarely allowed to leave the Capitol. She comes back to 12 when she can, but soon enough her visits only confirm the distance that has grown between her and her former home. She doesn't belong here. She doesn't belong anywhere, except maybe the hazily drunken society of the other victors.
Snow likes to come along on her yearly visit to 12. He claims to enjoy "the homey atmosphere," and takes a fatherly interest in Prim's studies. Maybe she'll come to the Capitol to study medicine; "Assuming, of course," and Snow smiles, looking like Santa Claus with his white beard, "you aren't chosen for tribute before you can attend."
Isolate her, Snow. Isolate them both. Remind them that you have the power to crush everyone they live with a clench of your hand, and don't give them access to any riotous crowds that might suggest another way out.
Seeing Snow's decision-making process only makes it more obvious that Snow has made a spectacular series of miscalculations. First, he trusted Plutarch Heavensbee, who turned out to be a mole - why is your spy craft so unimpressive, Snow! He manages to get a photograph of the one kiss that Katniss and Gale share, and yet he can't keep enough of an eye on his Head Gamekeeper to make sure he's not part of a far-reaching conspiracy. GOOD LORD.
And THEN he lets Plutarch talk him into the truly awful idea of sending the former winners, who are now beloved celebrities in their own right, back into the arena.
SNOW. NO. You were so insightful about the need to give your people a narrow avenue of hope in the first movie! And now you are LITERALLY KILLING the hope which may at this point be the only thing keeping them in line!
His personal animosity against Katniss really clouds his judgment. There are better ways of getting her back in line, Snow. LET ME SHARE.
1. Keep her in the Capitol. What good does sending her back to District 12 do? Seeing the suffering there will only strengthen her stubborn, rebellious streak, as well as strengthening the people's sense that she stands with them. You want to disconnect Katniss from her roots. Show that she is not one of them.
2. And you have the absolutely perfect excuse in her upcoming wedding to Peeta! Make it a ludicrous round of non-negotiable revelry. Every single host and hostess in the Capitol is expected to give an extravagant party in Katniss & Peeta's honor and Katniss and Peeta must attend every. Single. One. At least one party a night.
3. Preferably in a different outfit each time. All those fittings should keep them busy. Take LOTS of photographs and broadcast them everywhere. You want to give the impression that the lovebirds have ascended to the 1% and couldn't care less about everyone they've left behind.
4. Can you plot a Lindsay-Lohan-like downward spiral for Katniss and/or Peeta? DO IT. It's fine if you have to make 75% of it up.
5. In short, make Katniss and Peeta look like a couple of selfish twits with not a care in the world beyond throwing the biggest, glitziest, most tastelessly lavish wedding ever. Thrust it down people's throats till they're sick of it. Make their names synonymous with horrifying Capitol excess.
You can't kill a symbol of hope, President Snow. That only makes a martyr. But a hope betrayed becomes despair.
Now I realize that President Snow hoped that Katniss would conveniently undermine herself by behaving badly in the Games, but that was a gamble from the beginning. The big glitzy whirlwind wedding, with lots of photographs of an endlessly ludicrous wardrobe and very few chances for Katniss or Peeta to speak to the press, would have achieved the same goal much more safely.
Also, let me be real with you, I think this would make a completely fabulous AU fic. Katniss and Peeta have to go through with the wedding. They are forced to keep up the charade, or at least try to; I imagine cracks would appear in the not-to-distant future, and why shouldn't they? Young love, you know, it never lasts. That can be folded into their story too.
The hope they represented slowly curdles - but in such a way that it is easy for the Capitol to slough off the blame. They just couldn't handle the limelight, you know. Personality flaws. Sad but true. People buy the gossip rags to cluck maliciously over Katniss's latest drunken antics (for she is following in Haymitch's footsteps now: the first Games where she had to act as mentor broke her).
"No time for the folks back home," they scoff, although in actual fact, Katniss is rarely allowed to leave the Capitol. She comes back to 12 when she can, but soon enough her visits only confirm the distance that has grown between her and her former home. She doesn't belong here. She doesn't belong anywhere, except maybe the hazily drunken society of the other victors.
Snow likes to come along on her yearly visit to 12. He claims to enjoy "the homey atmosphere," and takes a fatherly interest in Prim's studies. Maybe she'll come to the Capitol to study medicine; "Assuming, of course," and Snow smiles, looking like Santa Claus with his white beard, "you aren't chosen for tribute before you can attend."
Isolate her, Snow. Isolate them both. Remind them that you have the power to crush everyone they live with a clench of your hand, and don't give them access to any riotous crowds that might suggest another way out.
