Mockingjay--**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

[Runa]

Hey, just thought we needed a place for nerdfighters who have finished Mockingjay to safely discuss what happens.  So...what did you all think?  

[Rebecca Ritter]

Oh, my god was it amazing. I can't believe (you read the spoiler bit, didn't you?) that they killed Prim! That was just useless! I kept expecting someone to pull her out of the rubble, with some story magic, but she was just gone! Hated how Katniss's mother handled the whole thing- can't she ever be there for her daughter?

I'm still not sure how I feel about Katniss ending up with Peeta. I was always going back and forth between Peeta and Gale, so I'm not that upset about it. But I really thought Katniss would end up with Gale- they worked so well as a team when she was being the Mockingjay. Then Peeta would end up with that girl Delly (who came out of nowhere. did they mention her in the earlier books?) Did Gale's prediction for that come true? Did Katniss really pick "the one she couldn't survive without"? I'm still not sure how Katniss exactly picked Peeta- it seemed just like Gale wasn't there anymore, so she married Peeta. I loved the whole "Real or not real" idea though- really sweet.

The epilogue was bogus- worse than Deathly Hallows. They didn't even mention Gale, or Haymitch (I'm assuming he died- he was already pretty old, and the drinking was probably about to catch up with his liver.) I think the last line was really well done- 'But there are worse games to be played." Perhaps a little too obvious, but still nice.

Also, did they HAVE to kill off Finnick? I loved him- and he and Annie were so happy! He didn't even get a proper death scene- his was just blurred in with all the others. The pregnancy was a nice touch, though- that's what I've always wanted to happen for Zoe (in Firefly) after Wash died, so that she would have his son after Serenity ended.

Throughout the beginning of the book, I kept expecting Cinna to show up- they never really, positively declared him dead. But I guess he was gone, too. Sigh.

I really liked the descriptions of District 13- the differences between them and the other districts were funny, until you realized how serious and almost tyrannical they were. Like when Katniss made keeping the cat a condition of her being the Mockingjay- the Capitol rebels thought that was no problem, but it was such an issue for Coin's people; or the wedding- the differences between a 13 wedding and a Capitol wedding were cute. But then you get to Katniss's stylists being imprisoned for taking bread (Jean Valjean, anyone?), the way the guard defended it - "You can't take bread" - it scared me a little.

Oh, I wrote a lot- I've been talking my mom's ear off about all this, even though she knows nothing about the books. All my friends that have read the Hunger Games + Catching Fire haven't finished yet- I needed to talk to someone about Mockingjay! :D

[Runa]

RIGHT? After all that, the very reason Katniss even went to the Hunger Games in the first place was to SAVE Prim, and she just dies anyways! =O

Boo for Katniss' mom. I'm so worried that Katniss is going to be a mentally-absent mother for her kids, too =\

Yeah...I was team Gale (with the strong belief that romance should not be the main focus of the books, and I would have been fine if she had chosen neither), so I was just shocked that Gale disappeared out of the picture. I'm just going to pretend that years pass and she and Gale meet up and things somehow get back to normalish between the two of them. It frustrates me, though. Suzanne Collins knew that a lot of her fans were emotionally attached to Gale, and I get that there's storytelling to be done, but she really could have given Gale a better, or at least a more significant, ending.

I actually liked the Deathly Hallows epilogue, so I'm kind of shocked that I didn't like this one. I liked that Katniss was obviously not perfectly okay, I liked that it wasn't happily-ever-after (not that there's anything wrong with that, I rather liked it in Deathly Hallows), but really? Sitting at home, popping out Peeta's babies? That's not the Katniss I know :( [Yeah, yeah, I know, the war changed her. STILL. You can't possibly expect me to believe she's okay with the life she has, she's miserable, and is just living her life waiting to die, the way I see it.]

Finnick! <3 I can't believe she killed him off, right after he got married, too. I don't want to think about the mental state that left Annie in :(

They did at one point say that Cinna died :( I really wanted him to show up, too, though. The Mockingjay costume was a nice tribute, though.
Also, I really expected to see Madge & her family pop up at a totally unexpected time. DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Your thoughts were an awesome read :)

[sarah dawn belanger]

So frustrated. If Katniss were to have just chosen Peeta, I would have been upset but ultimately okay with it. If Gale died, I would have been okay with it. Instead, the author has to make Gale into some bad guy, and then act as if choosing Peeta was as easy as pie, no thought required. And that last sentance about how Gale was too angry for her - made me want to punch someone.

[Runa]

Yeah. As if Gale couldn't change. He and Katniss both went through a huge war, how does someone come out of that without being angry. I mean, Peeta doesn't, which just reinforces his lack of personality, which I really dislike. =\

[Kate]

I was stoked she chose Peeta, she couldn't have been with Gale, not while it was possible his bomb killed Prim. Also, Gale was just, too mecenary, Katniss, like almost EVERY main character in popular 'quest' fictions of today (Potter, Percy Jackson etc) has one fatal flaw, she cares too much about people; she can't sacrifice, Gale can, far too easily.

I liked the epilogue, its was a welcome warm fuzzy after the wreck Prim's death left. Although I would have liked to have heard more about Haymitch

I can believe she killed off Finnick though, I loved his character, and he had such a tragic past, he just deserved some happiness, so did Annie, more so then Katniss even.

[Runa]

I don't think Katniss cared too much about people at the end of Mockingjay. I think she had a difficult time caring about much of anything at that point.
Also, how can Gale sacrifice easily? He did *once*. He didn't give up on Katniss easily, and we didn't really get his thoughts at the end, on how he felt when Katniss left. I really don't think he "easily" lost her...

[Nicole Wilwerding]

That's ridiculous though! Her being mad at Gale, I mean. It's war, what was Katniss expecting? 
I realize I'm majorly late to this discussion. I'm a new Nerdfighter though, and I loved this series until the end, and I like to argue about books. :)

[Lydia Stephenson]

i totallly agree with you on the peeta and gale thing! he seems to stone cold about everything and doesnt even respond to hhiss emotions like for real. also i have always liked peeta more cuz he isnt afraid to tell a girls he likes her. gale waited forever to just kiss her once and he left it to nothing and that bugged me sooooo much. I also liked the epiloge it was kinda short and sweet but thats kinda wht i needed to end that book, and i was also itching to know more about hamich, and gale i mean everyone told me he died but it never said that, did it? and yes she deffinetly killed off Finnick way to fast, and in my opinion prim should have lived that went a little too far and it kida pissed me off that she would do that, and i totally saw that coming tho cuz it seemed like evvery time something happy happend it eithar stopped or got killed which made me angry 

[Haley]

First off, I think that the ending was toatlly rushed, and lacking of some sort of epiphany. It felt like there wasn't really any closure, like Katniss should have had the last say in the war somehow, not just locked up in a little room and then off to 12. I liked that she ended up with Peeta, but the whole thing was just so rushed! It seemed like the only reason she even ended up with him was because he was there, and she had nothing else to do with her life. I think it would have been better suited to her character to end up more involved with the government( or at least something) in the end, instead of having a couple of kids and settling down. It was like everything she did didn't matter to anyone by the end of it.

I also thought that the epilogue should have mentioned some of the other characters, like Gale and Haymatch, and also what happened to Panem. LIke obviously no more hunger games, but even just a bit of info on 12's condition would have been just fine.

Finnick dying was horrible. He was my favorite character. I really wanted him to live!

Prim dying was useless. The entire reason everything started was Katnisss saving Prim, and in the end she dies anyways!?!? Bogus. I think they just wanted Katniss to be a big ball of broken at the end. Which she was. And they needed a reason for her to not chose Gale. Which she didn't.

I really kept expecting Cinna to show up. Everytime someone unknown to the reader was talking, I imediatly thought "Cinna?".

Also did anyone else notice how many times Katniss blacked out???

[Runa]

I liked seeing 'broken' Katniss, as it really did give the reader a face to the atrocities of war, but at the same time, yeah, I find it really hard to believe that Katniss would just settle and pop out babies with Peeta. I would have thought this would have just motivated her to fight harder.
I definitely agree with you that it would have been nice to see what happens to the other characters and especially Panem in the epilogue.

[Sydney Rose]

Agreed 100% with Haley McDonnell. The end felt totally rushed to me.
I liked that they ended up back rebuilding 12. I love that she ended up with Peeta, but i feel like Peeta was shortchanged, a lot like Gale was. But first Peeta: i felt like the whole book he was either not there or so different and we never saw him really return to normal. Yes, i understand war changes people, but i would've like to see him and Katniss living in 12, talking and living together and helping each other when Peeta felt the affects of the hijacking or when Katniss had nightmares. Instead we got two pages of a brief description of their life.
I thought the epilogue was way too short!!!! and we didn't get kids names which really bugged me for some reason. but i thought it went in a good direction.

I would've liked to hear that Gale lived happily in 2 with some girl he fell in love with instead of what felt like Katniss slightly wondering about his life. But i was fine, actually kinda pleased he went a little evil and all army like.

I would've like to hear a little about Haymitch, but by my extremely shaky math he must've been over 60 plus like someone said liver damage. But he was like Katniss's surrogate papa.

URGH i wanted to punch something when she voted yes for the Capitol Hunger Games... for Prim. Seriously Katniss seriously? Not okay!

[Runa]

I like that we didn't get the kids' names--could you imagine the fandom scandal if we had another Albus Severus on our hands? =P