The Hunger Games Trilogy

[smockery]

Well, Jackson's making two movies out of The Hobbit, so I guess he's on that bandwagon.

It has been awhile since I read it, but I wouldn't think there was enough material in The Hobbit to stretch to two movies.

[Deleted]

I read on MovieFone that HG is going to be PG13. I think that is going to be incredibly difficult, but I just cannot see how Mockingjay can be anything but Rated R.

So who were you guys rooting for, Gale or Peeta? Neither? Peeta was my favorite character (well, it might have been a tie with Haymitch), but I was convinced that he was going to bite the big one.

[petitesuite]

Jun 2, 2011 9:35:59 GMT -4 tabby said:

If LOTR was being made today, I bet some bright spark would come up with the idea of making the trilogy 6 films.

Well, Jackson's making two movies out of The Hobbit, so I guess he's on that bandwagon.

BoroKat, my stepdaughter recommended the series to me (she's now 13). If the movies are true to the books, they'll be R-rated. Maybe she (and/or her publishers) went for the YA audience because of the extreme youth of the protagonists. Plus, it seems like a lot of YA fiction these days is very bleak indeed.

Not just 'these days,' I'd say. I hope this isn't too off-topic, but when I was in elementary and middle school, the summer reading lists were regularly filled with extremely depressing books--A Child Called It comes to mind, but it was one of many of its ilk. So it might be a trend, but it's been around for at least 10, 15 years.

I was rooting for Peeta, especially because I think it's extremely likely that two people who've been through such a uniquely traumatic experience would end up together, simply because they would 'get' each other in a way no one else would. Maybe it's not a good reason to end up with someone, but it rings very true to me.

[roseland]

I thought it was obvious it was going to be Peeta, given the amount of time the books spent on their relationship. Katniss hardly spent any time with Gale. Sure the book talked about all the time they had spent together prior to the beginning of where the book starts but once the book opens up, they don't actually spend much time together. But I liked Peeta the best anyway. Not that I had anything against Gale but I just thought Peeta and Katniss were a better match for the reasons expressed above but also for the reasons the book explained. Peeta was about hope and happiness and I think Gale's anger would have dragged Katniss down. I was actually hoping that Gale would get together with the Mayor's daughter (and I have absolutely no reason why that couple appealed to me, it just did) but alas, it was not meant to be.

[Deleted]

Jun 6, 2011 13:50:10 GMT -4 roseland said:

I thought it was obvious it was going to be Peeta, given the amount of time the books spent on their relationship. Katniss hardly spent any time with Gale. Sure the book talked about all the time they had spent together prior to the beginning of where the book starts but once the book opens up, they don't actually spend much time together.

I know. When I finished reading the first book, I was surprised that the online fandom was all Team Peeta or Team Gale. I wasn't quite like "Who's Gale, again?" but I wouldn't have thought he was a major enough character to acquire his own team. In the 2nd and 3rd books, Gale's role grew, but he never became a male lead in the way Peeta obviously was. Plus, the romance really wasn't the biggest focus of the books.

I did think Peeta was too much of a wuss for Katniss for most of the series but the sweetness of the last "Real or not real?" moment sold me completely on those two.

[Deleted]

I think that Peeta inched towards wussy in the first two books, but Collins seemed to want to give him an edge in the last book with his storyline. I did like how she made the main male character not your typical hero- he was a baker. He liked to decorate cakes, for heaven's sake! And let's be honest, without Katniss, I don't think that he would have won the Games. He did better than I thought he would, but he would not have survived very long. And I am not knocking Peeta at all, he was my favorite character.

[roseland]

No, I agree. He wouldn't have won without Katniss. Of course, he wouldn't have sustained a life-threatening injury if he hadn't been so busy protecting Katniss over his own interests. I think, in the first Hunger Games, he would have gone far, due to his ability to camouflage but eventually, he would have been taken out. In the second Hunger Games, he would have been taken out by that black fog without help from the others. Although, again, I can't remember if he was in danger because he was protecting Katniss or not.

But I disagree that was wussy. He had a quiet strength. His physicality wasn't as strong as some of the alpha males in the books but his emotional strength was always there and his unwillingness to lose his humanity (until it was brainwashed out of him) was always a strong selling point for me.

[Deleted]

You are right, Roseland. Wussy is the wrong word. I think that in the first two books, he was written as impossibly good. Good-looking, kind, moral, eloquent- there was part of me who liked the edge that he had in the last book, even if it was the result of the hijacking.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

I admit I was Team Gale even though it was really obvious she would end up with Peeta. Gale was more dark and mysterious, but it seemed like he knew her better than anyone else. I felt like the author unfairly trashed his character in the third book so as to make Katniss' choice easier.

[Deleted]

I preferred Gale too. I thought that Peeta was a little too perfect. I liked though that the books really did not emphasize the whole romantic triangle. I know they get compared to Twilight but I think they are completely different. It almost feels like the romance is an after thought at times. Even the ending despite being technically a happy ending did not really feel that way.

One of my many reservations about the movie is that they are really going to play up the whole romantic triangle. On a completely shallow note just based on the pictures of the actors playing Peeta and Gale I am still going to be Team Gale.