mildred-of-midgard on Dreamwidth asked for Johanna and/or Finnick, so here's some for Jo:
1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?
AFAIK there's no canon on this, I have her as an only child but not for any deep and important reason
2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like? 3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?
Doing these together: Johanna was always kind of a daddy's girl growing up, had fairly typical teenage parental relationship issues but nothing major.
After the games everything got weird: her parents didn't want to live off their daughter's stipend so her dad got a job in town (i think i said paper mill? or sawmill? idk), and her mom doesn't have a regular job but she does hassle the bachelor 7 victors into letting her do stuff like mending clothes or what have you.
They don't really know how to deal with Johanna's trauma issues. She gets angry and sullen and lashes out or tears off into the woods or whatever, doesn't want to talk about it, she wants to be able to curl up on her mom's lap and go out fishing with her dad but it just doesn't...work. Her parents want to let her...do what she needs to do, but also they want their little girl back, they want her to keep some kind of daily routine because they think it'd be good for her, they want her to actually find a Talent she can do because just sitting around all day isn't good for anyone...
They're not wrong, exactly, but Johanna doesn't want to hear it. Mom ends up doing most of the hard conversations while Dad gets to be the fun one for the most part. It only gets worse when she's being sold and going to the Capitol and they see her on TV looking out-of-control and wild. They want to talk to her about it, like "honey we want you to be happy, is this good for you?" but seeing as Johanna can't (and definitely doesn't want to) tell them what's actually going on, things are just kind of tense and hostile a lot of the time.
And then she gets them killed (in her mind), and all she wants is to have them back, and she can't believe she treated them like that and it's a big horrible mess of guilt and shame and awful, and that's when she starts spending more and more time in the Capitol, drinking and taking whatever drugs seem like they'll let her not feel like shit for a while and sleeping around because same. Snow could put a stop to it but it's entertainment and it means most people see Jo as just a crazy girl, and that's fine with him. Plus he's just a sadist and enjoys watching people self-destruct.
20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?
So this is where I really hope people realize that Johanna is the furthest thing from a reliable narrator. She looks at Finnick and sees someone who has it figured out, who is in the same position she was but has managed NOT to get his family killed and NOT to go nuts, and so clearly if she was just BETTER she could do the same. But she's a fuckup, everybody knows it, and it's not like there's any point in trying to be different now.
Of course, Finnick is not as put together as she thinks he is, he just has a better support system (which is to say, he has a support system) in Four, and more socially-acceptable coping mechanisms.
There's probably nobody among the Victors Johanna doesn't think is better than she is. Mayyybe the morphlings from Six but then again she's not that different, she just has different drugs of choice. (again, this is johanna's pov, an objective observer might well see it differently)
Which brings us to...
21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?
Of course it's her fault, why wouldn't it be? Getting her parents killed. Failing her Block test in 13 means in canon she wants to blame herself for Finnick's death (except let's be real, she's useless anyway so it's not like she could have helped anything, but then again whose fault is it that she's useless? Hers.)
Johanna's levels of self-hatred are.... A Lot.
AAAAND THAT'S ALL HORRIBLY DEPRESSING SO I'M GONNA STOP NOW
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-06-24 11:48 pm (UTC)1. Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with?
AFAIK there's no canon on this, I have her as an only child but not for any deep and important reason
2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like?
3. What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like?
Doing these together: Johanna was always kind of a daddy's girl growing up, had fairly typical teenage parental relationship issues but nothing major.
After the games everything got weird: her parents didn't want to live off their daughter's stipend so her dad got a job in town (i think i said paper mill? or sawmill? idk), and her mom doesn't have a regular job but she does hassle the bachelor 7 victors into letting her do stuff like mending clothes or what have you.
They don't really know how to deal with Johanna's trauma issues. She gets angry and sullen and lashes out or tears off into the woods or whatever, doesn't want to talk about it, she wants to be able to curl up on her mom's lap and go out fishing with her dad but it just doesn't...work. Her parents want to let her...do what she needs to do, but also they want their little girl back, they want her to keep some kind of daily routine because they think it'd be good for her, they want her to actually find a Talent she can do because just sitting around all day isn't good for anyone...
They're not wrong, exactly, but Johanna doesn't want to hear it. Mom ends up doing most of the hard conversations while Dad gets to be the fun one for the most part. It only gets worse when she's being sold and going to the Capitol and they see her on TV looking out-of-control and wild. They want to talk to her about it, like "honey we want you to be happy, is this good for you?" but seeing as Johanna can't (and definitely doesn't want to) tell them what's actually going on, things are just kind of tense and hostile a lot of the time.
And then she gets them killed (in her mind), and all she wants is to have them back, and she can't believe she treated them like that and it's a big horrible mess of guilt and shame and awful, and that's when she starts spending more and more time in the Capitol, drinking and taking whatever drugs seem like they'll let her not feel like shit for a while and sleeping around because same. Snow could put a stop to it but it's entertainment and it means most people see Jo as just a crazy girl, and that's fine with him. Plus he's just a sadist and enjoys watching people self-destruct.
20. In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism?
So this is where I really hope people realize that Johanna is the furthest thing from a reliable narrator. She looks at Finnick and sees someone who has it figured out, who is in the same position she was but has managed NOT to get his family killed and NOT to go nuts, and so clearly if she was just BETTER she could do the same. But she's a fuckup, everybody knows it, and it's not like there's any point in trying to be different now.
Of course, Finnick is not as put together as she thinks he is, he just has a better support system (which is to say, he has a support system) in Four, and more socially-acceptable coping mechanisms.
There's probably nobody among the Victors Johanna doesn't think is better than she is. Mayyybe the morphlings from Six but then again she's not that different, she just has different drugs of choice. (again, this is johanna's pov, an objective observer might well see it differently)
Which brings us to...
21. If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others?
Of course it's her fault, why wouldn't it be? Getting her parents killed. Failing her Block test in 13 means in canon she wants to blame herself for Finnick's death (except let's be real, she's useless anyway so it's not like she could have helped anything, but then again whose fault is it that she's useless? Hers.)
Johanna's levels of self-hatred are.... A Lot.
AAAAND THAT'S ALL HORRIBLY DEPRESSING SO I'M GONNA STOP NOW