Oy to the vey, everyone. Have I had some computer nonsense today! Anyway, I'm in, under the wire, but here we go! Thanks for not complaining.
SO! Katniss wakes up thinking "delicious" thoughts of Peeta. (GaleGaleGale.) She agrees to remain allied until the Careers are dead. Beetee's awesome plan is laid out, and everyone agrees to it. (I never thought of that tree being hit by lightning again and again not being burned...I should have after all the lightning struck trees I saw on my tour of District 12. Do you think it can be tapped for water?) So it's Beetee, Finnick, Johanna, Peets and Katniss against the world. Er, Enobaria and Brutus.
Beetee is the teacher/leader, and everyone else naps and goofs off. Peeta finds a pearl and had a good joke at Effie's expense (imagine how well her scarlet blush would go with her gold wig!) Katniss is still sure she'll die in the arena.
So, at this point, what did you make of the factory rolls arriving again and again? I just thought that the electronics district wasn't very creative, especially since they had so much food already.
Does Beetee's plan make sense? Do you think it's a lot of work just to take out the careers? PK9, how far to the force field from the water is it? They make it seem like miles, but in my head, it's max 1 mile. Still, a mile of wire is a LOT of wire.
How do you feel about the locket? Where do you think Peeta got it/the pics? I guess this should have been yesterday's question. What does he mean by "I guess the locket didn't work"?
So two chapters left. How will the gang get out of it this time? Zoinks!
Guys, many apologies for being so super late today. Forgives!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
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Here are the comments I wrote last week immediately after reading chapter 25. There are no spoilers in these comments, just my own unspoiled conjecture about what I think happens in the remaining chapters:
ReplyDeleteNot too much happens in this chapter, just the discussion of breaking the alliance, and Beetee’s trap planning.
What is with the constant arithmetic about the rolls? Sure it’s one of those weird number things like when the number of buns never matches the number of hot dogs, but Katniss usually misses so much that when she focuses on certain details they’re usually significant.
I wonder how they plan on breaking the alliance after the Careers are dead? Sneaking away will just mean they’d have to hunt each other and Katniss will, for the first time in two books, have to start making proactive kills. She’s gonna have to shoot from the blinds to take out Johanna and Finnick. She’d have to finish off Beetee if the other two don’t. I know she considered shooting Finnick in the back earlier, but that was the only moment in two books that she’s even toyed with the idea of killing to win rather than killing in defense or mercy.
Lightning tree. Hmm. I would say it’s a pretty elegant trap… if Beetee was working alone against like 10 other competitors. With an alliance distribution of 5-2-1, though, it seems hardly necessary. They’d be better off working counterclockwise and trying to herd the remaining contenders into one of the active danger zones. So here, right now, before turning the page to chapter 26, I’m going to call it: Beetee’s gonna use the lightning to overload the force field and create an exit. I could be totally wrong and embarrassing myself, but I WILL post this prediction on 8/21 regardless of whether it comes true.
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Now responding to Heather's post:
I honestly never gave the lightning tree much thought. I always assumed it was artificial, so much of every arena is artificial, even the life forms. I mean, we know that natural lightning isn't a perfectly timed phenomenon, so it had to be Gamemaker intervention.
Regarding the rolls, as you can see in my comments above, I thought something was up, but I never guessed what the specific significance was that we find out later. I was actually trying to figure out how many more deliveries it would take to get it to a dividable number.
Beetee's plan, I discussed above (we're really thinking along the same lines a lot). This is not my own research (although I did check to confirm): I read on the mockingjay.net forum that the width of the jungle was about two miles. On the first day they go for about a mile before taking a rest and having Katniss climb a tree to observe the bloodbath. Then they go for about another mile before Peeta dies.
Hmm, I never thought about where Peeta got the pics. Haymitch, I guess. Maybe it's a sign that Haymitch has chosen to keep his promise to Peeta and not Katniss. I think he meant the locket didn't work because it was supposed to break Katniss and make her want to go home.
Was anyone else frustrated that K was looking to take Peeta and escape the alliance? They're all working together well, receiving gifts as a team, and could she truly run off with the spile, thereby depriving the others of water?
ReplyDeleteI agree with PK9, Peeta was probably hoping the locket would break K's resolve to die for Peeta's victory. Glad these two could at least hold hands there at the end of the chapter, even if they can't see eye-to-eye on the Game's outcome.
Just had a thought. There's a suspicion that President Blood-Breath Snow rigged the envelope at "the reading of the card" so that we had this specific challenge for the 3rd quarter quell, in hopes of killing off rebel-leader-Katniss in the arena. What are other possible motivations? To kill off victors who are leaders in the districts and also have connections in the Capitol that can assist the rebellions? To treat the districts to a year in which no new children are lost to the Games, only adult victors who have lived comfortable lives?
I'm a firm believer in the "screw Katniss" motivation, but I did think about the possible side effect. After the announcement of the Quarter Quell, wouldn't every child who is 18 years old or would turn 18 before the reaping immediately take out tesserae, whether they need it or not? It's free, since they'd be 19 by the time the 76th Games rolled around.
ReplyDelete