ME: A/N: Afterword.

Well I was able to get this story done in about four or so months; I hope y'all enjoyed it.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank T.J.98, ForFutureReference and CJ Timm for consistently sending me PMs telling me their thoughts regarding this story.

I also thank 90TheGeneral09 IlovemeforwhoIam and NeonsLover for favoriting this story.

I would also like to thank Indiana1985, Moca Mofo Styles Cupcakes and Spectrobes Princess for following this story.

Reasons for writing this story:

I wanted to show the fandom that Gale's actions in Mockingjay were inexcusable. His snare bombs were specifically designed to target medics and other noncombatants coming to the aid of the wounded, which is a war crime in accordance with the Nuremberg principles and the Geneva Conventions. For those of you who say "war is hell," ask those found guilty by the International Military Tribunals after World War Two how that worked out for them. Oh wait, it didn't; the cowards got hanged, only a few of the guilty got anything else, namely a couple decades in prison (assuming they didn't get life). That also goes for the fact he targeted the Nut, which undoubtedly had civilians sheltered inside given how everyone but Gale was awfully concerned about what was supposedly a purely military installation. He specifically proposed a plan not out of strategic necessity, but to maximize the death toll (even going as far to propose destroying the train tunnel, dooming any would-be escapees); you don't shoot lifeboats, for example, because there's no point in killing hapless survivors, making it murder. He doesn't even have the, "I was only following orders," excuse used by defendants during the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials; Gale committed war crimes of his own free will.

However, he did show signs of decency in the past (leading the survivors of District Twelve) and thus could be redeemed by being shown the human cost of his actions and repenting.

I also wanted to portray the Peacekeepers for what they are; ordinary human beings recruited from the Career Districts and the Capitol. Too many fanfics portray them as inhumane monsters eager to gun down unarmed civilians. Similar to the Career Tributes (who aren't nearly as vilified by fans; even Big Bad Cato got his speech in the first movie), chances are your average Peacekeeper joined out of a sense of duty or to defend their homes rather than defend Snow and his Gamemakers. While they'd be more brutal and zealous than your average modern military or police force, District Thirteen isn't a paragorn of virtue either considering they're obviously communist (everyone wears the same clothes, food is strictly rationed to the point of where you can't take your leftovers beyond the communal mess hall, no elections are mentioned and they don't even use money like the USSR did; not to mention Coin killing Prim and all the other medics and children for political points) and Gale committed his atrocities of his own free will.

NOT reasons for writing this story:

I'm not saying Snow's regime is better than the rebellion; if Katniss had not made the right shot and killed Coin instead of him, then it would have been.

This is not a pro-tyranny/anti-democracy story. Dictatorships, specifically racist and communist ones, are the worst kind of governments. In contrast, representative democracies (be they republics or constitutional monarchies) are the best forms of government.

Above all else, I'm not saying the Games are justified, they never had justification even with whatever provoked the Capitol (in my or anyone's headcanon) into establishing them.

And on another note: Wars aren't as black and white as they seem. The Wehrmacht and IJA, for instance, had decent soldiers in the ranks (contrast with the SS and particularly zealous Japanese soldiers, respectively), while the Soviet Armed Forces committed numerous war crimes during World War Two in Berlin and thoughout east Germany ranging from rape to murder and their commander-in-chief, Joseph Stalin, was a mass murdering monster who died painfully and alone, as he deserved.

For an analogy of the various groups in the Hunger Games Trilogy and how they correspond to WWII factions-

The Capitol: Axis Powers, particularly Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Additionally, despite all the Third Reich references in both canon and the fandom (the red National Banner with it's eagle, for instance), odds are the Peacekeepers combined the strict discipline of the Roman Legions with the zealous and near-insane fanaticism of the Imperial Japanese Army.

District Thirteen: The USSR, especially considering Coin is essentially the Stalin to Snow's Hitler/Mussolini. For those of you who don't believe they're a communist state, look at North Korea then look at Thirteen. It even makes more sense if you parallel the Non-Aggression Pact between the USSR and Third Reich with Thirteen abandoning the other Districts in exchange for political independence.

Continental Rebels: Western Allied Powers, especially since they have the "purest" goals overall; end the Hunger Games and establish a representative democratic republic. Though there are fanatical extremists like Gale...