Considering the Irrationality of Your Characters

In honor of The Hunger Games movies finishing up this last year, I re-read the trilogy (again), and realized (again) that when it comes to Katniss Everdeen, Suzanne Collins doesn't forget to consider Katniss's irrational side.

Often when we deal with characters, we spend a lot of time building their rational side. We look at their rational motives and try to make sure they are thinking logically for the story line. I know I have spent hours trying to brainstorm and pin down the logical thoughts in some of my characters' heads. But considering how your character can be irrational can provide plenty of ideas for you to play with.

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Mockingjay: Why Katniss Needed to Kill C instead of S (Thematically)

(Spoilers)

Yet another problem people had with the Mockingjay book is that we've had all this build up toward killing Snow and having Katniss do it, and we never get that payoff. Katniss kills Coin instead. It's obvious why she needed to kill Coin on a plot level, but it was important it happened on a thematic level also.

Like I said in my earlier post, The Hunger Games has never been a good guy vs. bad guy story--just look at the first installment. Katniss isn't pitted against other villains. She's pitted against other youth who are also victims of their society. Katniss's real enemy is the wicked appetites of human nature, the natural man. The Hunger Games has always been a story about the good of human nature and even more so, the wickedness of it.

Also like I mentioned earlier, just as Katniss becomes the face of the rebellion, Snow becomes the face of the evil:

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Mockingjay: Why Katniss did NOT Mean What She Voted

(SPOILERS) (Side Note: Don't forget to enter my Comic Con giveaway, where you can choose from several prizes, including a Hunger Games t-shirt.)

Last week I talked about why Prim actually needed to die to in Mockingjay to cement the themes of the entire Hunger Games series. A lot of people were upset and downright angry about her death, thinking it was pointless to the story. But it isn't. You don't have to like the ending of Mockingjay--I mean it's not as if we were meant to feel good about everything that happened in these books--but you can still appreciate and respect it.

A second problem some people had with how the series ended was that Katniss voted in favor of another Hunger Games. A lot of audience members felt betrayed, and they should--if Katniss had actually meant it.

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