Finnick in his Underwear: A Mockingjay Discussion

[Lucy]

I feel like there aren't many great YA novels being published these
days, so many of them seem to be focused on a formula that involves the
*cough* supernatural.  It's so nice to have a novel that it distinctly different from what is typically being offered.

Anywho...This discussion is solely for nerdfighters who have finished Mockingjay and are willing to get into a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth-with-enthusiasm discussion about it. If you haven't finished and don't want to read any spoilers, hit that back button RIGHT NOW. Are they gone? Good, on to the business at hand.

I just finished the book about two hours ago, and I find that I can still feel the sensation of tears running down my face. There is so much to talk about...where do I start?

Katniss. I won't say she's my favorite character, but I love how she develops in Mockingjay. I love that instead of her always rallying against all odds, she actually does break and suffers from the decisions she makes. It really emphasizes her humanity. She cracks down, she plots, she seeks revenge.

In fact, I love that there are almost no purely good characters in Mockingjay. (Aside from maybe Prim.) Everyone faces the grim reality of what they're doing, and they know the cost. The entire novel is saying that there is no good or evil, only people and the decisions they make. I cannot get enough of it.

I'm not going to say any other extensive thing, because I really want to get some topics rolling.

What constitutes right and wrong here? President Snow is the omnipresent evil in the novel, but there are so many other forms of it that are less obvious. Take Coin, she fights on the side of the rebellion, but at times she is just as cruel and manipulative as Snow. Think of Prim.

Who was your favorite character? Why?
Mine was Finnick. He came off as such an ass initially in Catching Fire, but you learn so much about him later that is utterly redeeming. He's honest, earnest, vulnerable, clever and completely charming. And now you understand the title of this discussion. Let's face it, that scene was a super subtle parody of Edtard's "Do I dazzle you?" and that's what made it awesome.

What about all the violence? Was it necessary? What does this say about the casualties of war?
There were lives taken in the thousands by both sides, but was any killing less significant because of who was under fire?

Epilogue, love it or hate it?
(I thought it was perfect. Closure achieved.)

Overall reaction? Lay it on me.

EDIT: There have been a few mentions of Team Gale and Team Peeta. Can we talk about that? Do you think that having the love triangle become less and less significant in the novel was a good thing? (Yes.) Do these teams coexist better than certain *ahem* other character teams? (Yes.)
Do they even matter as much? (Probably not.)

[Cassi Marie]

Hey. Great discussion forum. Just a question: Did Peeta fall in love with Katniss again? Or did all his memories get fixed and he was the same? I do not feel he can just be the same after what happened to him but Collins didn't give very many hints... I also feel that her and Peeta marrying eachother was very forced for Katniss. And I thought the reason she had kids was because Prim was killed and she missed her and she wanted someone else to kind of... replace her. But thats just my thoughts. I wish Collins would make another book to see how Katniss's kids react to her telling them about the Hunger Games, and to how Panem works now. Although I have a strong feeling shes not going to because on Mockingjay, it says "The final book in the Hunger Games trilogy" ...sigh...

But if anyone else has any other thoughts on any of these topics please reply! I want to see what other people think.

[Kristie Petillo]

Finnick doesn't die.  He's still alive when Katniss throws in the Holo.  What happened (and I will hear nothing else)  was that the snake mutts were intelligent enough to guess that anything the rebels would drop on them would be a bomb.  They turn their attention from Finnick to it, knocking our hero into the sewage below.  The Holo explodes, killing the mutts and our aquatic Hercules pulls himself out.  He is scarred by the acid; his open wounds filled with raw waste.  The pain has made him delusional and he is on the edge of consciousness, but he has to keep moving because he can hear Peace Keepers behind him.  After torturous hours of wandering around, activating pods and trying to rub off the rest of the runoff before it eats anymore of his skin, Finnick finds a ladder and escapes.  The ladder leads to an apartment's maintenance room and he collapses as the last dregs of adrenaline wain.  

He wakes up in a Capitol hospital.  Once the Capitol had been claimed, rebel troops scanned every home so that they could round up all the pampered citizens.  A group of them found Finnick on the floor and sent for help.  His wounds were able to be cleaned but his skin is marred and maimed.  His left arm, having had the deepest bite from the venomous mutts and been left to marinate in feces for a day or two, is mutilated; sections of muscle having been replaced with prosthetic fillers.  After an hour filled with nothing but vacant staring, Annie crashes in the hospital room like at their reunion, only this time she does not jump in his arms.  He is so weak, so raw, that she does nothing but stroke his hair and explain that they have won.  Finnick's mind doesn't have enough room to comprehend that at the moment.  He instead asks Annie to forgive him for being destroyed.  It is not surprising that someone who was bought and sold for his looks would think a loved one would be angry at the loss of them, but Annie, his poor mad girl, assures him that she would not have loved him less, even if they only managed to scrape half of him off the pavement to bring home to her.  The recovery is not swift. The recovery is not painless.  Finnick has to hold his newborn son, Mags, in his right arm because his left is still paralyzed.

Everyone now knows where Finnick's flawless beauty flew when they left him and that was right into his wife's womb.  The boy is beautiful and as he grows, it is obvious that his mother's vanished mind found its way to him too.  Though never fully recovering control of his arm or sight into his right eye, Finnick survives the revolution and has a beautifully brilliant family with his love and lives happily the frick ever after.

The end.
(Tell me what you think. Plausible?)

[Ella Bea]

I'm going with your story:)

[Robert Medina]

When I first finished the book, I disliked the ending. But, after more time to accept and think about it, I grew to love it. It was very realistic and showed how damaged Katniss and Peeta were. It wasn't a happy ending and that's what makes it great, imo.

 

As for liking Katniss, I found her quite interesting. She wasn't always the nicest or most respectful but she had plenty of reasons not to be. After all the crap that happened when she was young, she had a right to be cautious when it came to trusting people. And when the serious is done, she's cracked and has to try to recover and accept all the death and war and blood.

[Julia Stowell]

Finnick has to be my favourite character because I love the way he brings hope and humour into the book, even after all he has been through, and what the other characters were going through. He just brings a ray of sunshine to the book. I cried in his death scene :(