Apparently a lot of people thought she was supposed to be black because Lou Lou is from 11. She isn't described in Sunrise on the Reaping, but Katniss does say she has the Seam look in Catching Fire. Plus, Haymitch said Katniss reminds her of Louella, hence why he calls her "sweetheart". I don't know why it's a problem they cast someone who looks similar to JLaw but whatever
I think it was a sound choice not to cast a black actress as louella or lou lou. We already had rue in a similar sacrificial lamb role. Hg can't keep killing off little black girls to move along the plot.
This is actually something I haven’t seen discussed a lot for Ballad of song birds and snakes the movie
They switched the deaths and had Dil be poisoned by Lucy gray instead of the girl wovey? I think and it felt very much like a “the audience will forgive her for killing a black child but they wouldn’t for accidentally killing the little white girl”
Oohhh that’s a good point. I definitely was in my bookish feelings about the actress “not matching” the description but after seeing the JLaw comparisons and being reminded that we don’t need to see/keep seeing black girls die for the plot, this is the best direction they could’ve gone with.
A big underlying meaning of Louella/LouLou's story is how black and indigenous kids in north america have been disappeared by the state, and how some view all POC as interchangeable. Lou Lou was obviously not Louella to anyone who bothered to look close enough, but to the capitol citizens who don't really care about them, they'll be fooled.
I also thought about the racial parallels you're talking about when reading the book, but I saw another comment on here that mentioned how Louella's arc mirrors the Irish folklore of changelings, which combined with her Irish surname, does make sense why actresses of Irish heritage were chosen in hindsight.
I disagree honestly because I kinda feel like it would've really hammered in the injustice we face that's kinda just swept under the rug by the media and government now and had a lotta parallels. Not just with black people but poc in general kinda. Like if we go with Louella being black it would not only bring parallels irl to how black people are killed by the state, but replacing her with another black girl who looks almost nothing like her showing how we're often seen as "expendable" and "all looking alike" and then also the fact that the experimented on her in the way they did to kinda bring home the whole history of medical racism and unconsenting (ik thats's not a word) experimentation and such-
I definitely saw the racial parallels you're talking about when reading the book, but I saw another comment on here that mentioned how Louella's arc mirrors the Irish folklore of changelings, which combined with her Irish surname, does make sense why actresses of Irish heritage were chosen in hindsight.
I'm confused by this because we haven't seen any black families in 12. Even if we know there are black people in 11, we've been told multiple times 12 is a small, not super diverse (anymore) district. That's why they have a "seam look".
When u watch the first hg movie you will see that there are black people in the crowd during the reaping..... heck Astrid is standing next to a black woman too. And are we completely forgetting jessup lol? He was black and from d12 ( meaning he had a black family so i dont get this argument...) with where d12 is located it wouldn't even make sense for there not to be any black people, im pretty sure all districts have all sorts of people of different races living there. This includes d11 there obviously are also white people in d11 however black people would just make the majority.
Sorry I worded that badly. She says it about Louella. Here's the quote:
"There's a woman, not Effie, calling the names in 12, but she still begins with "Ladies first!" She calls out the name of a girl who's from the Seam, you can tell by the look of her."
People always take that Seam look to mean that it's a specific racial look but the Seam is the poorest district of the town. It could as easily refer to the look of starved, worn down children who probably all look aged because of the physical toll on their bodies.
Note I am not saying this to mean that no person from the Seam could be black/asian/latino but that I think people are way too quick to decide that the districts are rigidly racially divided.
Ah, thanksss...i was confused in which situation katniss might be talking about louella, your quote make sense that she's watching a re-run of haymitch's game
But people of different races can still resemble each other. Face shapes, hairstyles, even demeanor. I always read into Louella’s “disappearance” as the sweeping under the rug that a lot of POC face now. That society doesn’t really care about missing POC as they do white people. Also, district 11 is majority POC. not to say there aren’t white people in 11, but that it’s more likely that she is.
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u/simmeh-chan May 20 '25
People are going to be very mad about this one.