fic: Best of Luck, Mockingjay

[marble_sharp]

Fandom: The Hunger Games
Title: Best of Luck, Mockingjay
Rating: T for language, violence, mentions of multiple character deaths
Words: 1,300
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Suzanne Collins owns characters and universe, tagline from Mumford & Sons' Broken CrownSummary: Jackson wishes Katniss luck because she and all of Panem need it

Comments

[marykaterine]

I love how you've fleshed out Jackson here. A lot of the characters who died in Mockingjay were very faceless, which was one of the flaws of the book imo. But you've really brought Jackson to life. My favorite part is probably the way you tied in the infertility of District 13 citizens in with Jackson's story. That whole point is really skimmed over in the book, and I think the narrative intends for it to serve as a metaphor for the sterility of D13 life. But I've never been a huge fan of using something as personal and emotional as infertility or physical deformities (a popular one here seems to be scars on evil characters) to reflect personality or some huge flaw of a person, so I'm glad you expanded on this point and really hammered home how the infertility of many D13 citizens probably weighed very heavily on their lives. D13 in general just never had a fighting chance to be portrayed even slightly positively from Katniss's POV, so it's refreshing to see a new take on the district

[marble_sharp]

Thank you so much!

Yeah, the epidemic is completely skimmed over. Jackson's middle-aged and the epidemic was said to be a few years back so she was probably within the generation that was most affected.

Even without Katniss' bitter narration, they'd still be presented as evil communists by Collins so I'm not really surprised that there isn't much D13-based fic. But it's so interesting how they've managed to survive when they have this whole unknown history separate from the other districts.

They formally address each other as 'soldier' there so I figured Jackson was just short for Soldier Jackson. I think the same about the other members of Star Squad 451 and actually had all their first names picked in case I had to use them.

[marykaterine]

I'm sure you're completely right on Jackson being her last name. I don't know how I thought it was her first name. Probably because it sounded more like a first name than most of the characters' actual given names in the series. I'm still not sure how in the course of just a few hundred years the entire naming system would morph that badly, but that's another story.

[marble_sharp]

It is, one that no one has the time to even try to explain. Though I think 'Maysilee' is the prettiest Panem name. 'Haymitch' is the worst only because I see it as the ugly version of Hamish (and I love it). Of course, that's not including the overly symbolic, overdone Roman and Greek names. Then there's PEETA son of the BAKER.