u/JC_vee

This may be wildly unpopular... but here goes.

I'm not at all convinced Haymitch and Lenore Dove's love reads like a parallel of Katniss and Peeta like I've heard some readers claim. And I also don't think it's intended to be.

In my opinion, Suzanne Collins deliberately wrote Haymitch and LD's relationship as doomed from the start and wove in seeds of this throughout SOTR.

A big indicator of this is the way they say I love you: "I love you like all-fire."

That expression "all-fire" is used several times throughout the novel about their love/relationship. Haymitch and LD say it to each other and Haymitch thinks it repeatedly. And what do we know about fire from the original trilogy? What does too much fire do?

We know very clearly that Katniss and Haymitch are counterparts. But by the end of the trilogy Katniss learns that she does not need more fire - "I have enough fire of my own." She needs something very different: "What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."

And who is the person in Katniss's life she has too much fire to be with? Gale. And there is one very evident, very significant shared characteristic between Lenore Dove and Gale - rebellion above all else. The cause comes first.

LD and Haymitch's conversation pre-reaping also has definite similarities to that of Gale and Katniss's 24 years later. And it includes the same lack of common ground in their perspectives. There's also a clear parallel drawn between Katniss defending Gale from the whip and Haymitch defending LD from the head blow. Haymitch's defence of LD lands him in the Games. Katniss's defence of Gale almost gets her killed. If not for the intervention of other, savvier people.

Not only does LD's fire mean Haymitch ends up in the Games, it leads to her own imprisonment and, ultimately, her own death. Even once Haymitch is in the Games, she can't help but still openly rebel. And she shouldn't be villainised for this. She is undoubtedly very brave and her desire to end the Games very laudable. But, damn, she does not learn. She still keeps openly rebelling and refuses to keep it cool, play the long game. Stay silent when you need to. Use words against the Capitol in a clever way. Like a Peeta would. And even Katniss herself, with her undoubted fire, is much more cautious than LD. And in the end, LD dies because even when she's unexpectedly let out of prison she still refuses to abide by even a house arrest. Any restraint at all is anathema to her. (And, yes, I believe she would come to see Haymitch himself as a restraint on her life if she had lived. Hence her thoughts about a nomadic life away from him.) She disobeys her uncles, goes walkabout, and finds the gum drops.

And what does Haymitch do in the Games? The same thing. He keeps openly rebelling again and again, even once he knows Snow will hurt his family. And then is surprised when they're all slaughtered. Again, that's not to criticise Haymitch for his desire to make his death count, but he is "not clever with it". Like adult Haymitch and Peeta and the female Peacekeeper are when they get Thread to stop whipping Gale and save Katniss from herself. He just acts impulsively again and again. Both of them, arguably, have too much fire in their own right. Put them together.... I dread to think what might have happened if they'd both lived and stayed together.

Even in their happy moments before Haymitch gets reaped, what is there in their conversation to suggest the dandelion? Not that they need to be opposites, but how do they bring hope to one another? Obviously, it's Reaping day so that's on their minds but where's the feeling of peace between them? Of ease and contentment? Instead, we have LD talking about things which Haymitch feels he's on the outside of; he feels he can't reach her and is worrying she's too smart for him. I think that lack of symbiosis would have led to their end even without the Games.

Even if she'd lived, hell, even if Sid and his Ma had lived, Haymitch's terrible PTSD from what he'd been through in the Games would have set even more barriers between them. Haymitch having seen the reality of what the Capitol can do would have learned some caution. Some hard lessons. He would have been terrified at LD's apparent total inability, or perhaps total refusal, not to keep openly rebelling. And I don't think it would take long for that terror to turn to anger. Especially when you look at the Haymitch we meet as an adult. We know his potential.

Haymitch would be harder, more remote, unable to share what he'd been through because no one else can really understand the Games that hasn't been through it. Silence becomes distance. Anger turns to resentment, then a criticising of each other's characters. Their relationship falls apart because of "a twisted darkness grown between them."

But what if Haymitch hadn't gone into the Games? Say, somehow, their combined fire didn't consume the bonds that bind them or, worse, lead one or both of them to imprisonment or execution? Well, we also have Snow's comment that Haymitch deems partially off but which still definitely hit hard about LD having thoughts and plans that don't include him. This is not the language of a long-term relationship. This is not a foundation for a relationship that will last.

This relationship was never going to last.

I got all that from just one reading of SOTR. I suspect there are probably more indications. But even if that's it, I just don't think as good a writer as Suzanne Collins would have sown that many seeds and written that many parallels accidentally.

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