The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 DVD - Final Chapter of Katniss Everdeen's Journey | Perfect for Movie Nights & Dystopian Fiction Fans

Katniss Everdeen has always had to bear the burden of responsibility. Up through the end of Mokingjay Part 1, she was able to bear that enormous responsibility with a stoic grace and dry humor. She learned and grew and improved her abilities. She added to her stoicism and cynicism the discernment she needed to cut through the hypocrisy of her world. She learned how to stay ahead of her real enemies by sensing the truth behind the sweet, venomous words. She trusted no one implicitly. In short she was a consummate loner, holding even her friends outside the inner circles of her thoughts and imaginations.She loved her mother and Prim without condition and would have died 100 times to save either one of them. She loved Gale and shared hopes of a future together free from the oppression of Snow. She had no interest in or use for Peeta, until she stepped forward to save Prim, only to see that Peeta was chosen for the Games. Gale stayed behind with one purpose: Protect Katniss' mother and Prim. Helpless to protect the three people she loved, Katniss focused on protecting Peeta.Those three burdens weighed heavily on Katniss through the end of Mockingjay, the first part. Becoming the Mockingjay made her more of an isolated figure and increased her sense of responsibility. It also increased her concern for her mother and Prim and for Gale's ability to protect them if Snow wanted to use them as leverage to get to her. Peeta, it turned out, needed all the protection that Katniss could provide for him and more.Mockingjay Part 2 begins with the scenes of Katniss recovering from the almost mortal injuries that Peeta inflicted on her when she had gone in to help him recover from the torture that he had received at the hands of Snow. Peeta turned on Katniss intent on killing her. Snow had turned Peeta into a killing machine with only one target in mind: Katniss.Her body was healing slowly but steadily. Her spirit was not healing at all. She felt the bitter taste of loss and failure. Snow had mocked her at every turn. He had planned ahead for her and been ready. The once resilient, reluctant leader could conceive of only one thing: she wanted to die, and she had to take Snow with her. We see her distance herself from anyone and everyone. Whom could she trust? Her answer was devastating: She could trust no one, not even Katniss Everdeen.In this dark and desperate world, Katniss could take no relief or joy from the victories of the rebels and the defeats of Snow's forces. As long as Snow was alive, she, her mother and Prim, and Gale would never be safe. Peeta was no longer in danger from Snow because there was nothing more that needed to be done. Peeta was lost, a danger to Katniss.Into this miasma of desperation, and very early in the plot line, another threat develops, trying to conceal itself from all who would follow the Mockingjay. The leader of the rebels spoke in comforting tones with reassuring words that sounded just like Snow. She was ruthless. She was merciless. She was autocratic. She was a tyrant waiting only the defeat of Snow to replace him as the absolute authority in Panem. None of the others, not even Hamish, saw her as a threat, but Katniss understood that after Snow there would be another tyrant who would terrorize the people.The one thing that Katniss missed was that the leader had already made plans for the Mockingjay to become the ultimate martyr, to die on a live broadcast in battle, to be used as a symbol that would be more powerful in uniting the people against Snow, and who being dead would be easier to manipulate for propaganda than the ever unpredictable and rebellious Katniss. Boggs was the only one to warn Katniss of this added danger as he was dying.Katniss did not miss the duplicity of the rebels at the direction of the leader planning to bomb and kill innocent noncombatant citizens of the capitol. That Snow's tactics. It was inherently wrong, and she opposed it. The rift between her and Gale began when he supported this tactic. She knew that she was being ignored by the leader.The acting in the scenes in the capitol was excellent. It did not give away the plot twist that was completely obvious to Hamish when he voted with Katniss to break the tie vote and have Snow executed publicly. I would have been disappointed if Katniss had not eliminated the subtle and rising threat of the leader, leaving Snow to the wrath of the mob.There are three lines in the closing scenes of Mockingjay Part 2 that stand out to me as real, solid and extremely sad. They areWhen Effie sees Katniss for the last time and says as a farewell greeting, "Katniss, I hope some day you will get what you deserve." Very long pause that gave all of us time to wonder what Effie might mean, after all Katniss had killed the leader before this. Finally Effie picks up her idea and says, "I hope you get to live the life of a victor."When Gale comes to see Katniss in the palace. He is a soldier leading his men in a distant area of Panem. I believe he is hoping that Katniss will give him some indication that she still loves him. But Katniss asked him the one question he never wanted to hear: "Did you participate in the bombing that killed my sister Prim?" He had participated in it. His admission of failure is a humiliating statement in light of his participation in the bombing that killed Prim, "I had only one job to do, to protect your family, and I have failed at that." As Gale opens the door to leave, Katniss clarifies her relationship to him because of his part in Prim's death when she says, "Gale, Good-bye."Peeta is playing with their daughter. The setting is idyllic. They are laughing and enjoying the games of a young girl with her father. Katniss is holding the baby who cries. She asks if it had been a nightmare and talks about her own nightmares that still come these many years later. Katniss' final statement to her baby about one day telling her how to make the nightmares go away is so sad with just the smallest glimmer that some day in the future in the peace and simplicity of their home town Katniss, Peeta and their children may indeed get the life of a victor.