Hunger Games Rollercoaster, Dark-Skinned Hermione, and An Alive-and-Kicking Fourtris?

There have been three interesting mainstream developments in the YA movie and now also theatre industry. Some of you might already guess some of the things I'm pointing towards. Here's another hint: it are my three most mainstream and beloved fandoms that contain some of my favorite young heroines: the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Divergent. Guessed it yet? No? Let me clarify.



The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Hello, fellow Mockingjays. Now this is my first year in which I was with you the entire ride towards the movie. I watched the trailers, movie clips, and reactions of the world to Mockingjay part 2. Thanks to a lack of money and company, I have not yet seen the movie in my local theatre, but that is not what I wanted to talk about. If you haven't caught up with the news yet, you might still think the annual November box office party with your friends is over now. Odds of you being correct? They might not be in your favor here, because fire has been catching the past few months and the rumors may not be ignored. Even though Suzanne Collins has stated clearly that the trilogy will remain that, a trilogy (read clearer here), people have been getting there hopes high. But the ideas on this are extremely vague. I have read articles saying that Lionsgate had ideas for prequels regardless of the existence of more books. But cast and director Francis Lawrence insist there have to be more books for there to be more movies. My opinion: I don't think the movies survive because they're good, but there are two basics that really make it into what it is now: 1. The book fandom. 2. The three main actors. I'm not saying the roles of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale couldn't be played by anyone else, but they have become a key part of the franchise. A possible idea for a prequel is a movie about the Dark Days and the beginning of the Hunger Games. Now, I would be interested if there was a book of this, but the series is so locked to Katniss' voice and personality that I feel like it would be weird for me, at least at first, to have a different hero/heroine. Another thing that has been discussed is a Hunger Games Theme park. I subscribe most to this reaction I found online:

What's next, Twilight Ferris wheel, The Giver concession stand, Maze Runner petting zoo, with a Divergent rollercoaster?

 I agree with this most, but even if IF there was a theme park and I felt the need to visit it, I wouldn't be able to, because I live in a shitty little country. I also find it undermines the whole purpose of the Hunger Games books. Newsflash: Suzanne Collins tried to show us that we, the rich people who overrate things like appearance and sick entertainment, are letting the less fortunate work for us like slaves, leaving them to starve and live in terrible circumstances, while our world is trembling, and that we should do something about it. A Hunger Games Theme park turns it into a less serious and significant piece of literature. It's sad, and hypocritical.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

I have to talk about this, even though I'm most certainly NOT going to see this play. Reasons:

1. I'm not a play person.

2. I'm not going to go to my parents and say, "Hey, I'm spending all of my savings on a ticket to London to watch a play of the new Harry Potter book." Not doing that. It would be to awkward.

*realizes she's going to England near London this summer with her family*

*looks up the date the play opens*

*sees it's July 2016*

*feels like she should get back to this later, once she's figured out what exactly she's planning to do*

Okay, we'll go over my going or not-going to the play later again. I don't know whether my parents would be willing to sacrifice a day to London to watch a play only one family member will probably like.

But that wasn't what I wanted to voice my opinion about. There has been this thing going around about casting choices for the grown-up Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and particularly the choice for Hermione.

Warning: I forbid you to judge me about anything I'm writing down below, whatever side you pick in this argument. I tend to make mistakes in how I formulate my opinion and I sincerely hope this won't cause any misunderstandings or rants.

So, since I didn't grow up with Harry Potter and my first introduction to it was through the movies, I have always pictured the characters as the young cast from the eight movies. Naturally, my first reaction to this casting was, "But they don't look like the characters at all!" (Except maybe with Ron, I could imagine him like that.) Now, I wasn't necessarily more bothered with Hermione's change of skin than with Harry's hair color, but the internet is always there to argue about every single thing that ever had anything to do with race. At first, I just thought it was one of those funny things that someone launches on Twitter and he is just sitting in his office smirking at the mobile phone in his hand, because he know he just set the internet on fire with something that, after Martin Luther King and many years of hard work shouldn't even be an issue anymore.

No, seriously, can you just for a moment imagine how this person must have been smirking when he tweeted this:

I would have been smirking. Or doing this evil laugh. Mhuhahaha!

But then I started thinking about it. About what it really means, and what Hermione stands for in the book and the movies. A girl who gets ridiculed for battling slavery, standing up for the rights of those others deem inferior, and most of all, her blood. 

And then I went on thinking (yes, I had a good day). About how I never really picture characters colored if it isn't specified. I always picture them white. In the Netherlands, this is quite normal, because most people here are white. I don't have any girls in my class with a dark skin. Still, it continues to amaze me how little ethnic diversity there is in YA. Yes, Rue is dark-skinned, as are Uriah and Christina, but let's look a little nearer. At our favorite couples. Here is a list of the series I have read the past year, picking the two or more main characters.

1. Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.

2. Tris and Tobias.

3. Mia and Adam.

4. Wanda and Ian.

5. Hazel and Gus.

6. Cinder and Kai, Scarlet and Wolf, Cress and Thorne, and Winter and Jacin.

7. Jonas, Kira, Matty, and Claire.

8. Kestrel and Arin.

9. Q and Margo.

10. America, Aspen, and Maxon.

11. Thomas, Theresa, and Brenda.

12. Gwyneth and Gideon.

13. Cassie, Ben, and Evan.

14. Alina and Mal.

15. Juliette, Warner, and Adam.

16. June and Day.

17. Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

18. Liesel and Rudy.

Now, some of these I can forgive, because it wouldn't have worked for the story (Liesel and Rudy in Nazi Germany, Gwyneth and Gideon back in time) or the absence seems to have a purpose (Jonas in the Giver, in THG all black people seem to live in D11), I feel like it would've been a small effort to have a more diverse cast of main characters (the Lunar Chronicles get bonus points for this). But it's my fault as well, because there was nothing in Harry Potter that prevented me from picturing Hermione as a woman of color. African Americans face problems similar to the prejudices Hermione deals with on a daily basis. Now that I have finished the series and have realized all this, I honestly wish very very much that I had known this all when picking up the Sorcerer's Stone, so that in my head then, Hermione could have had a little extra color (literally and figuratively).
I feel like the appearance of a character can make you relate to them more. I don't just emotionally relate to Tris, but also physically. We're both small, with dull eyes and straight blond hair. It made me see myself as her on a different level than I did with other characters. It would annoy me to barely ever have that with a character, especially at an age at which the way you look affects your life more than it should.
So, authors of the present and the future, when you create a new main character, don't just paint them white immediately. Consider giving them an Asian, Latina, or African American look. It would be our generations' gift to literature!

Oh, and to all you producers out there who take the freedom to change some skin colors and create some diversity in our whitened world that needs change like I need hot chocolate after a bad day at school!

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Contains that one big thing about Allegiant that is looming in the corners of every blogger's mind once the word 'spoiler' dances through the conversation! Don't read if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Now, I hope you're aware by now that the Allegiant movie has been split in two, choosing two different titles in favor of the 'parts'. Let's start there then. I think that's a terrible decision. I hate to break it to you, but since Insurgent, even loyal fans have agreed to not get our hopes high with these movies. Face it, Insurgent didn't fit. It was completely off. And now you split one of the most criticized last books in YA history in two, making it even longer? No. Bad Hollywood. Very bad.

But I gave give  gave give gave give them a second chance. I'm not judging what I haven't seen yet. I'm going to try and be brave. It will be okay. We can survive this.

And then I saw two very distressing announcements.

1. The trailer.

2. The Ending Is Never What You Expect

1. The trailer was a walking disaster. The world is red, the airport is to futy (is that a thing?), and the whole plot seems to have been tampered with. No. Wrong choice. Again.

2. When I first read that sentence and noticed it was meant to go with Ascendant, I burst into a laughing fit. Oh, us smart book people of course know exactly what director is teasing people with. Yep. Hilarious. Until I read THIS VERY DISTURBING ARTICLE. I know some of you want an alternative ending to the Divergent movie franchise, just like these people. But I WILL CONVINCE YOU HOW WRONG IT IS! Okay. I'm okay. Possibilities:

A. Tris dies just like in the book and basically it's the same ending. (Please.)

B. Tris and Tobias both live happily ever after without further ado.

C. Tris dies and Tobias kills himself. (Romeo and Julliet scenario.).

D. Worst case scenario for me: Stephanie Ziel's very popular ending. Tris loses her memory and retrieves it after a kiss with Tobias.

If you hang around here often, you might know just about how I feel about memory loss. If you have no clue, let me clarify.

It's basically character death but about twenty times worse.

I hate it. I really do. I hated Wall-E because of it. I was just about able to live with it in Mockingjay, but not happily. I hate memory loss. It's a crime. How dare you forget all the beautiful things we've been through together? Don't you dare. I will never forgive it. There's about one thing that could make it even a bit worse. The extreme cheesyness of having a kiss solve everything. What is this? Disney? Sleeping Beauty? With tragedy, you need to either mean it or not even try in the first place. These half-hearted attempts bother me.

If you take away Tris' sacrifice, you take away the very thing that sets this series apart from the others. It would be a chance to show that there is more to this franchise than steamy kisses and teenagers with guns. Don't take away the most beautiful and memorable point in the series. It would be a betrayal to the books and the character of Tris. My cheery little opinion.

What do you think about the new developments in our beloved stories? Do you agree with me or have you stopped reading somewhere halfway through because you think I'm talking rubbish? Let me know in the comments below please.