At the end of the final Hunger Games movie, Jennifer Lawrence's character Katniss Everdeen fires an arrow into the chest of Alma Coin, Julianne Moore's character, killing her. It is an important part of the story line, one in which Katniss breaks the cycle of despotic rulers plaguing the country. Although guards take her to a cell after the kill, she is soon released and spends her the rest of her days raising a family in the country with her lover.
We are with Kitness as she makes many difficult choices throughout the story and are shown how well-calibrated her moral compass is. We never question her killing of Coin.
Quick recap on that assassination: President Snow—a serial murderer, liar, and sworn enemy of Katniss—tells her that Coin is evil, will rule like he did, and is the reason Katniss' sister is dead. She believes him, kills Coin, and is released without even a trial. She had no authority to kill Coin and completely acted on her own.
She is the hero of the story.
Let's be honest, Katniss makes a very authoritarian decision here, essentially saying: "In the face of evil and corruption, I need to take it upon myself to kill a leader for the good of the country, to protect it."
How many Americans have had that same thought and replaced Julianne Moore with Trump or Obama? It wouldn't be the first time a leader was shot by a citizen.
Here's what is scary: we are all the heroes or heroines of our own story. But we all see ourselves as Katniss and never as Lee Harvey Oswald. We're always righteous and never deluded or misinformed.
That's the thing about crazy people. They don't think they're crazy. They think their violence is justified.
So when we decide it's okay to punch Neo Nazi Richard Spencer in the face, how do we know we're any different than Jared Loughner?
