This Is So Important 🤍

my trick for getting through grad school is learning to navigate the quadrants with all their nuances

The only thing that comforts me about that scene is that Joel knew how much Ellie loved him. Even though it was horrific, Joel watching Ellie plead and beg for his life with all her heart showed Joel that even though they were going through a difficult time, she loved him so much. She never stopped loving him and he never stopped loving her. That was a daughter screaming for her dad. He meant the world to her, so it makes me feel a bit better knowing he knew that.

NAMJOON’S BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN: “My favorite quote these days is, ‘done is better than perfect.’ I think it means that doing something is better than trying just to be perfect. That’s how I see it. I liked it. ‘Done is better than perfect.’ Nothing is really ever perfect. So these days, I’ve taken that quote to heart.” 🤍 [cr. okayoonji, wind2song; transl. odetonamu, @bts-trans​, hyyhmona]

what do you think was the arena for the first quarter quell ? I headcannon it was a labyrinth . Since this was the first arena built by scratch , I think the game makers wanted this arena to be memorable and honour the origins the games should they modelled the arena after the myth which inspired the hunger games ( Theseus and the Minotaur )

Also since Haymitch said Snow needed the 2QQ to go perfectly meaning something went wrong during the 1QQ. What do you think went wrong ? Maybe there was a Minotaur mutt in the arena that was killed by one of the tributes causing uprisings to happen in the districts ? Maybe they capitol was forced to let that person be victor because the remaining tribute were worse ?

A labyrinth would be so interesting! I’m gonna steal your line of thinking and pull from something else religious/mythological: the Mountains of Moriah.

Collins seems to have an affinity with the book of Genesis. The arena resembles the Garden of Eden, the poison berries mirror the poison fruit, snakes as message bearers (you’re murdering us), seeking to go beyond the walls (the force field), and I’m sure there’s plenty more I’m missing. 

The districts had to vote their own children into the Games for the first Quarter Quell. It resembles another story in Genesis: the Sacrifice of Isaac, where God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son on top of one of the mountains in Moriah. The districts are told the same thing: sacrifice your sons to the Games. I think it’s too strict of a parallel to not place it in the mountains, especially when Haymitch uses the word “environment” here: 

For the last twenty-four years, they’ve unveiled a brand-new arena each year based on a different environment or theme, from a desert to a frigid landscape to Wiress’s reflective puzzle, which they called the Nest of Mirrors.

However, the word theme and the mirrors both lend themselves towards the labyrinth idea. I see the appeal of a labyrinth in construction. Like you said, it’s the first arena they have constructed themselves for the sole purpose of the Games. A pure landscape of mountains wouldn’t give the image of grandiosity the Capitol would want to portray, and it wouldn’t mark the era of constructed arenas. So maybe, in keeping with the theme, perhaps there is an altar of sorts, symbolic of the sacrifice they are making at the altar of the Capitol, and that altar can hold the labyrinth. Two symbolic allusions in one.

As for what I think went wrong, my mind immediately jumps to construction. I highly doubt they had the technology for an efficient Sub-A back then. We see in the 50th games that they’re still using manual labor to clean up, but they are removing the bodies with the hovercrafts, so they do have some distance technology that works. It’s the first arena they have built. Something is bound to go wrong, whether the altar’s door won’t open, or the cornucopia rolls down the mountain.

Neither of those things seem like they would affect the “smoothness” of the Games, though, so my theory is more rebellious. What strikes me between the 74th and the 50th Games is the fact Haymitch was so close to Maysilee’s body when they removed it. Katniss knew that the hovercraft won’t take the bodies if someone is there. Haymitch knows it’s less likely, but they still take the bodies as we see with Maysilee. So what if that rule started in the 25th games? Maybe a tribute or two hitched a ride on the claw and hijacked a hovercraft. There’d be no reason to have a large staff on the ship itself until it happens. It seems simple enough.  

You raise a good point about the victor. We don’t know the victor, yet we know Mags. Mags is significantly older than the victor from the first QQ. Something happened to that victor to make them disappear. A QQ victor is not someone Panem forgets unless the Capitol wants them gone. Katniss says it herself in the 75th Games, all eyes would be on Haymitch because he won the 2nd QQ. All eyes should have been on the first QQ winner, but they weren’t. They weren’t even mentioned by name. So maybe that victor was a rebel after all. Now you’ve got me thinking. 

I’m curious what your theories on the victor would be.

one of the hardest things to learn as a depressed former Gifted Kid™ is that half-assed is better than nothing. take the 50%, 40%, even 20% job. scrubbing your face is better than not taking a shower at all. picking up your clothes is better than never cleaning. nibbling on some bread is better than starving.

DO THINGS HALFWAY. NOW YOU’RE 100% BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE BEFORE.

Something i didnt quite understand in the book is why in the arena they had to kill the game makers is theres any bigger piece to it or is it just pure brutality?

Thanks for your ask!

The answer comes from a few different places, but it ultimately leads back to David Hume’s essay Of the First Principles of Government. (It's a short read, and I highly recommend it!)

In Of the First Principles of Government, Hume discusses implicit submission. He maintains governing bodies derive their power from public opinion, and it is exactly why all of the characters acted the way they did in that scene. I will break it down by character, but first I want to examine some context in SOTR.

In the text, the training scene right before Plutarch begins to question Haymitch foreshadows the later scene:

“There’s this moment, just as I get to my feet, where I look around, and I’m armed, and they’re armed. A half dozen of us hold sleek, deadly knives. And I see that there aren’t many Peacekeepers here today. Not really. We outnumber them four to one. And if we moved quickly, we could probably free up some of those tridents and spears and swords at the other stations and have ourselves a real nice arsenal. I meet Ringina’s eyes, and I’d swear she’s thinking the same thing.” [...] “The more I think it over, the more my dismay grows. Every year we let them herd us into their killing machine. Every year they pay no price for the slaughter. They just throw a big party and box up our bodies like presents for our families to open back home.”

When you read this as context to the scene in the arena, it is the same idea. The armed tributes outnumber the Gamemakers, and in the arena, everyone is on equal footing. The tributes have the numbers and the momentum of days in the arena behind them. 

There are two lines that are thematically significant in this section. The first line is from a Gamemaker: 

The Gamemaker with the drill raises her mask and straightens up to a full height. "That’s right. And all four of you are in absolute violation of the rules. You must immediately withdraw or there will be repercussions." "That’d be a lot more impressive if you weren’t shaking like a leaf," observes Maysilee, fingering her blowgun. 

The only defense the Capitol worker has is that of governing status. She attempts to assert the rules of governance on her side by claiming that they are all in violation of the rules, and therefore they must submit to the Capitol by leaving them alone. Even she knows, as her shaking voice exposes, there is no true way to enforce this rule. This is where David Hume’s essay comes in:

"When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion."

The force is always on the side of the governed. The governed, in this case, are the tributes of the arena. Yet, in the arena, where the purpose, according to Dr. Gaul, is to strip man down to his base instincts, a governing body cannot exist. The government exists to make sure man doesn’t regress to said instincts. Therefore, the government cannot exist in the arena in the same way it does in the rest of Panem. Ergo, the public opinion needed to enforce the rules is obsolete, to the point where both parties are on equal grounds. There is no illusion of power. 

The second line is: 

Silka seems stunned into inertia as well. “What’d you do? Did you kill Gamemmakers? They’ll never let us win now!”

Silka still believes there are winners in the games. In fact, she goes so far as to say “let us win”, thus she recognizes that the Capitol has true control over who wins, and prior to this, she expected to be able to win. Now, she believes winning is a right that the Capitol can revoke, which lends itself to the idea of Hume’s secondary principles of government:

"There are indeed other principles, which add force to these, and determine, limit, or alter their operation; such as self-interest, fear, and affection: But still we may assert, that these other principles can have no influence alone, but suppose the antecedent influence of those opinions above-mentioned."

Because Silka expects to be able to win, she is stunned into submission under her expectation of particular rewards:

"For, first, as to self-interest, by which I mean the expectation of particular rewards, distinct from the general protection which we receive from government, it is evident that the magistrate's authority must be antecedently established, at least be hoped for, in order to produce this expectation."

On the other side, fear stuns Haymitch. Hume details how fear is a form of submission:

"No man would have any reason to fear the fury of a tyrant, if he had no authority over any but from fear; since, as a single man, his bodily force can reach but a small way, and all the farther power he possesses must be founded either on our own opinion, or on the presumed opinion of others."

Haymitch recognizes how futile it would be to take down a few Gamemakers. It is the same reason he deduces when he reflects on his time in the training center. They may outnumber the peacekeepers in the training center, but what would happen? It would be a fruitless rebellion, and public opinion would squash anything that could potentially develop from it. Hume’s discussion of fear is not exactly fear of the tyrant himself, rather, fear of the power he possesses over others. Snow had public opinion on his side outside of the arena. Killing a few Gamemakers here would just bring upon the tyrant’s arsenal.

Maysilee and Maritte, however, both recognize that the perception of power via public opinion doesn’t exist in the arena. Both realize they cannot be punished more than they already are. I don’t usually quote the movies, but I think Reaper’s taunting of the Capitol when he rips the flag down in the 10th Games suits this philosophy extremely well: 

“Are you gonna punish me now? Are you going to punish me now?”

Both girls act because they are disillusioned with the power of the Capitol. They refuse to submit. They are free from the secondary aspects of self-interest, fear, and affection. Maysilee alludes to the idea that winning was never going to happen in the first place: 

Maysilee’s voice drips honey. “Still chasing that sad little dream, Silka?” 

While one can interpret this by assuming Maysilee means she was going to kill Silka, it can also be taken to counter Silka’s belief of a fair win, calling it a dream. Maysilee likely recognizes the Capitol can always give advantages to people they want to win, or send mutts on whoever they don’t like. We see this with Titus in his games. She doesn’t submit. 

I would like to cross reference this with the 10th Games in Ballad, where Coriolanus and Sejanus entered the arena. Dr. Gaul used Coryo’s experience in the arena about a lesson on human nature: 

“Without the threat of death, it wouldn’t have been much of a lesson,” said Dr. Gaul. “What happened in the arena? That’s humanity undressed. The tributes. And you, too. How quickly civilization disappears. All your fine manners, education, family background, everything you pride yourself on, stripped away in the blink of an eye, revealing everything you actually are. A boy with a club who beats another boy to death. That’s mankind in its natural state.”

Later in the scene, she talks about how the death of Coryo and Sejanus would not have brought anyone closer to winning. This is the same idea, just from the perspective of what would have been the Gamemakers, had they survived: 

“What did you think of them, now that their chains have been removed? Now that they’ve tried to kill you? Because it was of no benefit to them, your death. You’re not the competition.”  It was true. They’d been close enough to recognize him. But they’d hunted down him and Sejanus — Sejanus, who’d treated the tributes so well, fed them, defended them, given them last rites! — even though they could have used that opportunity to kill one another.  “I think I underestimated how much they hate us,” said Coriolanus.  “And when you realized that, what was your response?” she asked.  He thought back to Bobbin, to the escape, to the tributes’ bloodlust even after he’d cleared the bars. “I wanted them dead. I wanted every one of them dead.”

Interestingly, he makes a point about human nature that calls back to what Hume is saying:

“I think I wouldn’t have beaten anyone to death if you hadn’t stuck me in that arena!” he retorted.  “You can blame it on the circumstances, the environment, but you made the choices you made, no one else. It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it’s essential that you make an effort to answer that question. Who are human beings? Because who we are determines the type of governing we need. Later on, I hope you can reflect and be honest with yourself about what you learned tonight.” Dr. Gaul began to wrap his wound in gauze.

While initially it seems to validate Dr. Gaul’s argument that humans, by nature, are violent creatures, his refutation actually provides the basis for the very reason Maysilee and Maritte killed the Gamemakers. “[They] wouldn’t have beaten anyone to death if [the Capitol] hadn’t stuck [them] in that arena”. 

The arena does not strip people of their nature. It forces them to submit for the very secondary aspects Hume provides. The governing body forces them to kill, and by stepping into the arena, where the Capitol has stripped itself and all beings of their own power to display what it believes to be human nature in its primitive form, it has erased the protection of public opinion. 

The Capitol holds no real power in the arena itself. Sure, they bomb it afterwards to clear out the four tributes. Sure, they sic the mutts on Maysilee and Maritte, but they do not govern in the way they do over Panem. 

Inasmuch, the Gamemakers died because the arena disillusioned Maysilee and Maritte to their implicit submission. The moment the Gamemakers entered the arena, they were powerless as of their own creation.

I hope this makes sense. Thanks for the ask!

This is so 🥹💗‼️

when the interviewer asked hoseok if the members have heard his album (this is from the time of JITB) and he replied by saying that the first person he shared his album with is namjoon 🫶🏽🤍

The first person I shared the album with ... it's always the same for me. I always share with RM first. I could have also shared it with Suga, but he likes to be very respectful of the process. He told me, "I'll listen to it when it comes out." Healways says that to me. There's a bit of shock and motivation that comes after hearing that. "When it gets released, I'll look it up and listen to it then."

I have ADHD and I currently have some yet-to-be-diagnosed probably neurological thing going on which is really slowing me down so my house work has been getting away from me and crap piles have been growing. I want to share 3 methods that have been helping me get on top of it today - I've actually almost got my kitchen clean and my floordrobe put away.

Do 10 things. This is a trick my mother would use on me when I was a kid. I don't have to clean my room, I just have to pick up/tidy/clean/put away 10 things. 10 things is nothing, 10 things is easy peasy. Every time I need to get up to go to the bathroom or get a drink or a snack I'm doing 10 things - it builds up. It also leads naturally into:

I might as well. I often end up doing more than 10 things because if I'm putting this thing away in the bathroom I might as well empty the bathroom trash can while I'm there. And if I'm emptying that trash can I might as well take the empty shampoo bottle, that's been sitting on the ledge in the shower for days since I finished it, to the recycling while I'm at it. If I get up to get a drink and do 10 things in the kitchen before I grab it, I might as well refill the Brita jug and while I'm filling stuff with water I might as well fill up my watering can too. Which leads naturally into:

I don't have to do it right now but I'll get ready for it. Just because I've filled my watering can doesn't mean I need to water my plants right now. I've done my 10 things (or more because I might as well) I need a rest. I can go and sit back down and next time I need to get up and I'm going to do 10 things then watering plants is likely to be on that list because the watering can is already full. Say as part of my 10 things I've gathered up a bunch of reusable shopping bags and a bunch of things that need to go to other places in the house - I don't need to put all that stuff away right now, I can sort it into places it needs to go, designate a bag for each place, put the bags down next to me so next time I get up and do 10 things I can easily take them with me and put them away.

If you asked me what I've been doing today I'd say I've been doing nothing on the internet and resting as my doctor told me to. But somehow my house is getting clean and tidy at the same time.