Mockingjay, Part 2

Good morning. The link to sourdough carrot cake still is not working so I guess there won’t be any today, either. That’s okay because we really don’t need anything like that. I mean, I did make sourdough chocolate cake yesterday and Joanna brought us cinnamon rolls last night. It just doesn’t get much better than that. The amazing thing is that after eating two of them, Lincoln said he really doesn’t like them. Joanna says he’s perfectly happy to eat the sticky buns or whatever they are that come in a package for a dollar. I think he and Paul must be related; they both like crap from the store way too much. Paul may like more of it, though.

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie and you plan on going to watch the movie, you might want to skip the rest.

Joanna and I went to see Mockingjay Part 2 and it was good. It didn’t depart from the book as much as I thought it was going to from the previews which is good. There were some annoying places where it obviously did but overall, it was good. I do wonder about a couple of things, though.

Did Snow really think that Coin had been playing her own game in a bid to take over his position? I personally think he did. I mean, a snake can see and recognize a snake, right? Honestly, I think I like Snow better than Coin (if you can imagine liking either of them) because, as he said, “At least I don’t waste resources.” Coin obviously was quite willing to do so. This is evident when she was willing to send in the bombs that first killed many innocent children and then the medics and others who’d gone to assist the victims of the first blast.

When Boggs told Katniss that Coin had wanted Peeta all along, it seemed clear that he knew what Coin had planned. In spite of the fact that he worked for Coin and was loyal to her, he also knew what the focus needed to be. He knew what Katniss had planned to do and he supported that. On the other hand, Katniss was more likely to be killed by going to the Capital than by staying in District 13 so in a way, Boggs was actually doing Coin a favor. I think Coin was perfectly aware of how things were likely to play out when she told Katniss to stay in District 13. I like Boggs. In the book I like him a lot more. In the movie it just seems too obvious that he is actually playing into Coin’s hands whereas in the book, he is helping things move along as they need to. This, I believe is at least partly attributable to the timeline in the movie versus the timeline in the book. What takes weeks to unfold in the book happens in just a couple of days in the movie.

Then there is Plutarch. Did he know what Coin had up her sleeve? He obviously knew Coin before the events unfold in either the book or the movie as he was part of the underground movement but how well did he know her and what she ultimately wanted? I think he knew a lot. Coin wanted Peeta. Plutarch wanted Katniss. Peeta would have been perfect for what Coin wanted from a mockingjay; saying and doing the right thing was instinctual for him. Peeta would not have worked for what Plutarch wanted and knew would need to happen, based on my thought that he knew exactly what Coin was up to. Katniss worked pretty well as the mockingjay; all that needed to happen for her to say the right thing was to get her angry. Maybe angry isn’t the right word. She needed to have her righteous indignation riled up. That isn’t the same thing as being angry. Still, Katniss was exactly what Plutarch needed to bring about what was ultimately best for Panem.

Finally, when did Katniss decide to kill Coin rather than Snow? I believe in the book she had only the one arrow. In the movie I don’t recall if she had one but it seems like she may have had more. Had she made up her mind before she marched out? Did she make a final decision just before she let lose the arrow? I do not believe her action was premeditated. Clearly, she had to meet Snow and have a conversation with him in his garden because without that, she would not have known exactly what kind of a person Coin was or what her intentions were. That she was not a kind or even a good person, Katniss knew. That she wanted to take over was beginning to be noticeably apparent when she answered Haymitch’s pointed question about the length of time she would need to be an interim president. He was obviously quite aware of the inherent dangers of this action.

All of this just leads to one question: what would have happened had Effie not pulled Prim’s name out? From that moment, everything began working to bring about the downfall of Snow and his government and, ultimately, Coin’s ambitions to take his place. Were there others in other districts who could have done what Katniss did? Was there anyone else in District 12 who could have? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, just some of my thoughts. I’m ready to go watch it again, but from the back of the theater this time (we sat pretty close to the front and it’s kind of hard to watch the whole thing from that angle), and if the new Star Wars movie does as well as Mockingjay Part 2, the world will be a good place for a few hours.

Have a spectacular day!