Alright you loyal fans of the book.
For me... the film was better.
*dodges flaming arrows shot at me*
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great intro to sociology for teenage girls.
But I really want to knock some sense into Katniss sometimes.
I can't stand hearing her thoughts and not being able to shout at her.
Such a heartbreaker.
Why do such girls get the attention of ridiculously desirable guys in books?
Gale and Peeta are on opposite sides of the awesome guys coin.
Edward and Jacob too. Kinda.
Why would the most desirable guys be fighting over such a girl who does not have the backbone to honor them by not playing with their hearts?
I know these books were written for teenage girls, but does this reflect real life?
For me... the film was better.
*dodges flaming arrows shot at me*
Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great intro to sociology for teenage girls.
But I really want to knock some sense into Katniss sometimes.
I can't stand hearing her thoughts and not being able to shout at her.
Such a heartbreaker.
Why do such girls get the attention of ridiculously desirable guys in books?
Gale and Peeta are on opposite sides of the awesome guys coin.
Edward and Jacob too. Kinda.
Why would the most desirable guys be fighting over such a girl who does not have the backbone to honor them by not playing with their hearts?
I know these books were written for teenage girls, but does this reflect real life?
the writing's not great which is probably why the narration sounds so dumb sometimes. but the point is Katniss is very flawed, but her redeeming features make readers sympathetic anyway, and makes it kinda believable that the guys would fall for her. and there are quite a few mentions of how she is told (and realises herself) that she totally doesn't deserve Peeta's goodness. anyway the thing is the story was never just all about the love triangle. it's been played up a lot because it's easy to talk about instead of so many other issues that it makes you think about. for me the book did a much better job with emotional tension and drama, because a lot of what makes the series good is the investing in the characters and the psychological effects of "hearing" directly what happens to them/what they're thinking.
ReplyDeletebtw Katniss was not playing with their hearts, she was trying to survive. she's a survivor at all cost and will make sure she and her family are safe and if other people get hurt along the way she regrets it but she will take it.
What happens in the movies is nonsensical and we wonder why they did something stupid when they could have done something we know to be sensible. But I try to remember that they generally know less than the audience and that's what makes good actors and actresses what they are, the ability to step into somebody else's shoes, especially when they know the whole story in advance
ReplyDeleteI find the book a coming of age teenage girl's story set in a dystopian future. Same old issues of love lah. And yes, Katniss is a very likable character because she is a fighter and people secretly support a fighter, though they dare not openly rebel.
ReplyDeleteKatniss survived by playing with their hearts. That's not cool for a teenage love story (it's perfectly fine when black widow does it in the Avengers though) because she basically put survival as her goal at all cost, even other's death or heartbreak. That troubles me. When she makes use of people like that... she'll lose track of what is pure and real soon.
Yeah they did not have the gift of hindsight, but i was making judgements about Katniss based on what I had read till that point in the book, and many of the consequences I was writing about came true. Which sucked in that I could do nothing to change the flow of things, and was reduced to an armchair critic. That sucks.
I'm also concerned that teenage girls start thinking like Katniss and her "do first, think later" attitude. And her spineless character.
no leh i saw the books more as commentary and something thought-provoking instead of just a love story or coming of age of a teenager etc.. the themes and the decisions they have to make are much larger than that, with these relationship struggles punctuating it (keeping it relatable and reminding us that she is after all a teenager). which is why i didnt like the ending of the third book Mockingjay because it reduced the series to a love story that needed to be resolved in choosing one over the other. i wished she didn't end up with anyone because her independence was such a significant aspect of her character and the story was about so much more than whether she settled with a guy or not.
ReplyDeleteas for survival, it was more of her loved one's safety that she put as the highest goal. i think she made it clear that she would willingly sacrifice herself for them. and everyone else has less priority, it's not that she deliberately wants to be manipulative or that others aren't important (in fact she always got traumatised over people being sacrificed along the way), but she prioritises when she needs to and uses what she can to protect what is most important to her. i found Gale to be the same way. and the two of them might not be the noble ones (like Peeta whom i like less for being too perfect) for being that way but it's understandable.. at least to me. i always thought she was a slytherin actually. btw in the second and third books she also made protecting Peeta a priority over her own life because he became one of those she truly cared about and she knew he deserved it because of how good he was.
i found Katniss to be a commendable strong female character for teenage girls to look at even with all her weaknesses because of all her redeeming features like her strong sense of compassion and justice and authenticity and independence.. except for the ending where she still needed to end up with someone to be "healed" and all that grr