there’s a lot of talk about Gabriel being brainwashed by Talon into hating Jack and Overwatch
but has anyone considered the fact that the UN might have done a little brainwashing of their own to Jack?
Reyes starts digging around in things he shouldn’t be, and the UN know it’s only a matter of time before he takes them to Morrison. And although Morrison is loyal to them and Overwatch, the UN knows that he and Reyes have been in a relationship. They know that Morrison will wind up believing Reyes, and they can’t have that. So they take their golden boy and do a little bit of torturing and reconditioning that probably rivals Talon’s own methods, and by the time they’re done with him, he’s 100% loyal to everything Overwatch and the UN.
Fast forward. The UN arranges a meeting between Reyes and Morrison at the Swiss base. Reyes has proof of the UN’s dirty deeds, but Morrison won’t hear it, claiming that the UN couldn’t be responsible for any of it. They fight. The base explodes. The blast knocks sense back into Morrison, but it’s too late. Reyes is dead, and Morrison is left blind and half mute and reeling from a double betrayal.
Soldier 76 rises from the ashes, determined to find the answers that Reyes took to his grave. Reaper rises a few weeks later, knowing only that Overwatch was corrupt and that those who were involved were guilty and have to die. :))
A few months before the showdown, Morrison starts acting strange. While their relationship had been strained for a while (yeah Reyes is jealous, but he knows Morrison never asked for the promotion, so he tries to swallow his anger and jealousy and does his best to never direct his frustrations at the other man), its mostly due to them being on opposite ends of the world at all times. Those video calls they manage to sneak in in between missions were all they had sometimes, but they make do.
That is, until Morrison starts acting like a straight-up dick. They typically put on a show in front of the troops, but the second the curtain fell, Morrison steps out of his military leader face and into Reyes’ arms. Abruptly that stops, and Morrison is in military mode all hours of the day, brutally criticizing Reyes and his methods and Blackwatch. Reyes, already on edge, fights back with nasty words of his own. The late night video calls stop. The only time Reyes and Morrison see each other is to chew each other out. To anyone else, any friendship they might have had was in dire jeopardy.
But Reyes doesn’t want to lose hope. He figures the UN is just cracking down on Morrison for the latest mission flubs – there were a lot, now that he thinks about it – and the dude is stressed out. Despite his growing rage, Reyes tries to keep this in mind as he and Morrison agree to meet up at the Swiss base for a chat. By then Reyes had all the information he needed to prove to Morrison that the UN was corrupt, and that some of Overwatch was too.
Can we just stop and talk about this for a minute?
Thresh doesn’t make an alliance. Thresh doesn’t waste time liking her. Thresh knows that either he must kill her or she must kill him for one of them to win.
But this is the only way he can repay her for protecting Rue when he couldn’t. It’s the only way he can repay her for honoring Rue when he couldn’t. He honors her by sparing her friend, the girl who would have died for her.
The revolution really doesn’t start with Katniss.
It starts with Rue.
SOMEBODY FINALLY SAID IT
This is exactly the point I’ve been trying to make for years. Okay, so the revolution gets it’s kindling with Katniss. She volunteers, well that’s new, she rebels in the display of talents by shooting the apple. This triggers her perfect score, okay. These aren’t really “Revolutionary” though.
It’s not even revolutionary when Peeta professes his love, because, let’s face it, the rules of the game haven’t changed. They’re still just two kids who would have to KILL each other to win. Without a doubt, it would bring some interest to the games, so the Capitol makes propaganda about it. The “Star Crossed Lovers” in a game of life and death.
But what changes the game is Rue. Right away from her introduction in the books we know Rue is going to be somewhat of a big deal. She was compared to the most important character to Katniss, Prim, so that’s a huge indicator. She’s small, young, she’s what Prim would have been.
So Katniss instantly feels a subconscious pull toward her.
When they meet in the trees, Katniss could have killed Rue easily, and Rue probably could have pulled a sneak attack or alerted the Careers of Katniss’s presence. Instead, Rue points out the Tracker Jacker nest.
Then it escalates, Rue and Katniss become an odd team, they’re an alliance, which is never new in the Hunger Games, as forming teams and then betraying them at the end seems to be a common, but there’s is different. It’s close, it’s sisterly, protective.
And then Rue get’s impaled. Katniss kills her first tribute with ease after that. Comparing it to hunting game. Katniss holds Rue, she cries, and then she sings. She sings for Rue a song of promised safety and warmth, something completely absent in the arena.
And this is where the metaphorical canon fires. Katniss could have left Rue, the hovercraft would have been along to pick her up, but she can’t. She’s morally obligated to love this girl as much as possible. And this is where the revolution starts.
She honors the dead. She honors a dead tribute from a district she’d never seen, a person she’d known for only a short period of time. But she throws away Hunger Games norms. She rejects them completely.
In the Hunger Games you’re supposed to kill mercilessly and leave the victims for the plain box they’re shipped home in.
Katniss gives Rue a funeral in the Games, she decorates the body, she makes it look like Rue is sleeping. Like no harm had come. Katniss just ignited the coals that Rue had placed.
Rue’s District sends a parachute. Homemade bread.
Then Thresh kills Clove and distracts Cato by taking his bag.
The fire is going now, and the actions in Catching Fire are even more obvious.
The Speech for Rue. Peeta’s painting. Everything eludes back to this one little girl who became Katniss’s family.
So the revolution never started with Katniss, she was just the tinder for Rue’s ignition.
Rue was the real Mockingjay.
Also, who’s four note whistle is constantly attached to the trailers?
Rue’s whistle.
Rue is omnipresent in the books and movies, and I absolutely love it.
The rebellion was started because the innocence of a black girl was defiled.
That is a powerful statement that a lot of people gloss over for this book
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