Defense of Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games:
Some of these things I understand, some of them are just…Oy.
Before I begin, let me establish that while I am aiming to defend these traits for dislike towards the character, that they are, for the most part, character flaws - necessary components to creating a rounded character. The important part is why these flaws are part of them and how they impact their movement through the story.
(On the plus side, good job on the fandoms end for not listing her love-life in reasons to hate her. A big plus for you guys!)
(Um, I dunno how to read more, would you mind…?)
Whiny
To be fair, her mother checked out mentally once her father died, and she’s been the sole breadwinner, food-bringer and the one taking care of Prim since her mothers checking out. She lives in the poorest District in the country, she’s on the bottom of the scale in said poorest District and now she has to step in and play a role she doesn’t actually want to play in a game she entered so her sister could live. I’d whine too. Doesn’t make it okay that she does, but the action of her whining is in response to what, let’s be fair, is a lot of bullshit. She’s, like, sixteen years old and going through all of this.
She’s also, as I just said, sixteen years old. Teenagers do a lot of whining about things that bother them. And of all the things for her to whine about, it’s a good thing that it’s something relevant to her character and to the story, not just whining for the sake of it.
Katniss also focuses very much on her tasks - she doesn’t let herself (or anyone else, obviously) forget them. I think her whining and constant negativity is a way to motivate her to do something to keep her sister and mother okay. ‘Shit sucks, don’t forget it cuz you’re the one who’s gunna make it not suck for them’. There are a lot of ways to interpret her complaints, but they’re valid complaints, at least.
Hypocritical
I’m going to confess, I haven’t really seen this about her. Katniss has always struck me as very blunt and very honest, I would call her deceitful, certainly, but hypocritical does throw me for a loop (though I do have an idea why this is there).
Nonetheless,both actions stated above are for the purpose of survival. Psychologically speaking, morality takes a step back when survival is on the line and that’s the entire point of the series. Katniss needs to do what she needs to in order for her and her loved ones to survive.
[Spoilers]
Though I do believe this is directed at her decision at the end of Mockingjay which I would call not a bad character trait, but poor writing. I’ve yet to meet anyone at peace with the entirety of Mockingjay. The book was not only poorly written, the ending disrupted characterization for more than just Katniss.
However, let’s treat it as it was intended - as Katniss’ decision. One last Hunger Games and then no more…and all involving the Capitals children.
My first point? Katniss could’ve done a lot worse. The Capital fucked her over her entire life before she even became an adult. They fucked over her District. They tried to kill her twice, one of those times being a bullshit Hunger Game because she was pissing people off. They trapped her and everyone she knew into a prison state and then killed off her entire District like they did District 13. She had been threatened by them, multiple times. They took someone close to her and tortured him, brutally, and tried to force him to kill her.
It takes a lot of restraint of her own anger to make that decision.
My second point? It was a decision of solidarity. The Capital is the image of perfect luxury and boredom as a result. The rich get richer and watch the peasants dogfight. It was a decision not only of vengeance, but to show humility, to humble the Capital. To show they’re the same, and to show them the cruelty of watching their children fight. And unlike the other Districts that got benefits for producing luxury items, these children had no talents to use to kill people or survive.
It would be watching a hideous, slow, struggle of children starving and dying, yes. For a purpose.
‘What makes this better than what you did to us’.
One last Hunger Game, and no more. There were a lot of reasons behind that decision.
Though again, I chalk it up more to bad writing than any of that.
Too Competent
Katniss struggled a lot in the books. The first book had great benefit because she was in her element, but that element was established. Her competence comes from her willingness to survive, and her drive to protect herself and her loved ones. Her physical competence was challenged throughout the series, though - the Tracker Jackers in book one, she was heavily hindered by the injured Peeta, the clock puzzle in book 2. She’s not a thinker, she’s a fighter, and that’s a rare thing to see in female characters. Katniss does better with actions than with words.
Though just because she’s talented physically, doesn’t make her too competent. When she needs to be personable, she falls flat on her face. She’s cold, she’s kind of always in a bad mood, she’s got a generally unhappy resting face and she’s, as we stated before, a whiner and a hypocrite. Notice she doesn’t approach people, people approach her. She’s not good at socializing.
Her competence is in her actions, not much else.
Immature
There are two ways to see this, in my eyes.
1) She’s sixteen and life is kind of going in a direction that’s way too fast that she didn’t expect. She’s gunna be immature.
2) Her stepping up to take the risks and do the tasks she does (volunteering in her sisters place, risking her own life to illegally provide for her family because it’s the only way how, risking her life to save Peeta (berries), and her ability to show emotional restraint can be seen as very mature character traits.
Spoiled
This one needs to be explained to me. Katniss, to me, has always seemed a very self-sacrificial character…and a lot more reasons that just make me go ‘what’ at this very notion. I’m really struggling to even understand why ‘spoiled’ comes up.
She didn’t grow up with a lot, and she very rarely treated herself both to luxuries and basic needs such as companionship. She’s stated she doesn’t want kids because she doesn’t want them to live with the fear of the Hunger Games, implying that she would consider it otherwise (I feel she would still not want them, but she’d be more willing to think about it if the threat of their deaths wasn’t involved). I’m going to be honest, this one just doesn’t make much sense to me.
People Worship Her Too Much And She Comes Off Like A Mary Sue
First off, the entire concept of Mary-Sue is “a character with so much power and influence, it breaks the rules of the world they inhabit". Katniss’s world is influenced by her own vision and mindset. We see it through her eyes. They’re her rules. Even if they weren’t, Katniss is flawed enough, as stated above, to not break them.
Second, even if she was a rule-breaker, she doesn’t want to be. The rule-breaking she does is imposed on her from the writing and the world, not her own want to break them. Katniss isn’t really motivated to break the rules. She’s not an aggressive revolutionary like Gale is. She just wants to be left alone, she wants to life simply and happily with her family and her few friends. Her rule-breaking is imposed onto her by both the Capital and Suzanne Collins (painfully obvious by Mockingjay). Remember that she was done in Book 2…Until the second Hunger Games were announced? She didn’t even have a choice at the end of that, just ‘BE THE MOCKINGJAY’ ‘I don’t wanna’ ‘SHIT SUCKS AND YOU GOTTA MAKE IT NOT SUCK’ ‘damnit those are my words’.
Third, if the fandom makes her into this Goddess of Archery and Perfection, that’s hardly a reflection of her as a character, simply a reflection of a fandom with rose-tinted glasses on. Fandom is infamous for that, no matter what the fandom is for. The overall Fandom Glasses are always fogged and always have a distorted vision.
All in all, while these reasons are valid criticisms of the character, they’re also part of the really good things about her character. Good and bad traits draw from the same core essence of a character, it’s just a matter of which side wins out, in my book.
Thanks for listening!