may the odds be ever in your favor

 When I first learned there was going to be a new Hunger Games movie from tiktok, my initial thought was "....people still care about that?"  

To me, The Hunger Games occupies the same category as mustaches and owl necklaces—fads that peaked in 2012 and would stay long dead.  But clearly, I am wrong. 

Don't get it twisted, I don't mind The Hunger Games.  Looking back, I think those books are pretty astute critiques of our post-capitalist society, but I wasn't able to fully appreciate that fact as a sheltered 13-year-old.  I somewhat enjoyed reading them, but I only ever picked them up because everyone else was shoving them down my throat.  I didn't quite get the hype, or why all of my peers were suddenly fawning over Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth (not to sound like an NLOG or anything).  

Still, The Hunger Games are inseparable from my middle school memories.  I remember one of my friends had her own version of The Hanging Tree song she made after reading the books; her version was much better than the soundtrack's.  I never told her that, and I wish I did.  She'd also ask me to braid her hair diagonally like Katniss' during class.  I tried many times and failed because her pin-straight platinum hair was so thin; meanwhile, the popular girls got into a heated debate over Team Peeta vs. Team Gale.   If a teacher asked someone for a favor, one kid would inevitably shout “I volunteer as tribute!” much to that teacher's chagrin.  Instead of wishing our friends good luck on exams, we'd say "may the odds be ever in your favor."

Even though I was lukewarm about The Hunger Games during its peak,  I've found myself watching 2012 cast interviews and clips from the original movie.  There's something comforting about listening to Jennifer Lawrence talk about pizza and watching her volunteer as tribute in the games, probably because I saw them gifed a million times on my tumblr dashboard during my formative years.  And, I think the Hunger Games franchise aged incredibly well—I think I like it more as an adult than I did as a teen.  Funny how nostalgia can work like that.