Headscratchers / The Hunger Games Other Characters

Here are the headscratchers about the other characters in Hunger Games. To view the rest, click here.

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Other characters

Why did Gale risk taking so many tesseraes?

• Why did Gale who appears to be the only bread winner for his house hold, take out 42 tesseraes on himself. Did he not think about what would happen to his family if he happened to be chosen and sent off to the hunger games? He's skilled, but he's not that skilled, and his chances of getting killed are pretty good. If he really is the only one in his family gathering food, then won't his family be far worse off than if he just put in a couple extra tessraes?
  • Gale would have very high chances to win the Games. He is very tall, strong, can move totally silent in the forest, can feed himself with excellent snares and also some archery and knifes. And he is intelligent and also cold blooded as he explains to Katniss "Hunting humans is no different than hunting animals." Finally he is very handsome, probably receiving adoration from sponsors. If I were a game maker, I would rate him 11. He can do what Cato can do physically but he is a far better survivalist and more appealing to sponsors.
  • It's risky, yes. But plenty of people live all seven years of Reaping eligibility and never get Reaped. He probably thought that it was worth gambling that, even if he put in tesserae (as many, many D-12 children did) his name would never be called, so his family wouldn't lose their main breadwinner to the Games, but would get extra bread. And as it so happens, that strategy worked out fine for him.
  • Gale took tesserae before his father died - he told Madge that he had six entries when he was twelve, but he would have been thirteen when his father died - so it could be that once you sign up, you can't back out at a later date. It's also probable that while hunting can supplement the tesserae provisions and Hazelle's earnings, it isn't enough to provide for a family of five, including three young children without Gale taking tesserae.
  • Also, wasn't Gale the only member of his family who could take tesserae? It's said that his only other siblings are his three younger brothers and it's safe to assume that they weren't eligible to have tesserae, and that Gale had more chance of surviving than them.
• If Gale went into the Hunger Games and died, Katniss would've looked after his family, just like he would've done the same for Prim.

Haymitch's 'betrayal'?

• Here's something that I thought about for quite some time. In the second book, at one point, Haymitch tells Katniss that Effie asked him if he would like to "betray her". What does he mean by that? I always had the feeling that Effie completely bought the Katniss/Peeta lovestory and that she was largely unaware of the consequences and the whole civil unrest thing, at least at this point in the series. It certainly didn't feel like she was let in on the whole president Snow threat stuff. So what kind of betrayal is she talking about?
  • If you mean when Haymitch tells Katniss that Effie asked him if he would like to "give you away," he meant during her wedding to Peeta, a role usually performed by the bride's father.
  • Oh my god, that's a case of terrible translation then. In the German version, which is the only one I read, he literally says Effie asked him if he would like to betray her. That explains a lot.

Foxface's real name

• Did we ever find out Foxface's name? I remember reading the end of hunger games and being disappointed that Katniss didn't even want to know, she had mentioned that she admired her and Foxface didn't kill or even try to kill anyone, and I was a bit disappointed that Katniss didn't even have an "I wish I knew her real name " moment after she died. I was wondering if maybe they mentioned it when they did the reaping recap. I thought Katniss just said "a fox faced girl" but did I miss a name as well?
  • Marisa Reynard. Because why not?
  • Considering that her district is the power district and that people are frequently named for something in their district, my headcanon name for her is "Electra". It's as good a guess as anything.
  • The movie guide names her Finch.

Why was Prim with the Capitol children

• Why was Prim with the Capitol children? I don't remember any of them being injured and her needing to heal them, but past that she was barely thirteen (I think). Why would they send a child to take care of the sick? Sending Katniss's mother would have made some sense, and it would be really unexpected seeing that Prim reeks of death. But Prim's death was really... contrived, and unnecessary. I don't mean from the story's perspective because after getting the whole moral at the end that war is bad and unnecessary, but more from a writing perspective that the whole setup just doesn't make enough sense to have any impact.
  • Katniss seems to decide it was orchestrated by Coin to hurt her. It's completely understandable that a kid like Prim, who matured tremendously by the last book, would want to go help people despite any risk to her own safety; it's Katniss's realization that Prim would be too young to be approved without intervention on the part of someone very high up, like Coin, that leads her to believe Prim's presence was no accident. As to why she was with the Capitol children specifically, the bombs in the parachutes were designed to go off in two waves: first wave, most of the kids are killed or injured, then people rush in to help and the second wave hits. As to why Prim, specifically, was there, this can be interpreted one of two ways: either Coin gave orders for her unit to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or she was dropped in with others whose mission it was to try to treat anyone who needed it, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rue and Marvel's deaths

• Ok, so Rue and Marvel's death scene doesn't make sense. To review, Marvel has Rue stuck in a net that she cannot get out of. Rue, realizing she is helpless, starts to scream for help. Katniss is running toward Rue's location, also screaming. Katniss arrives just in time to see Marvel stab Rue. One moment later, Marvel has a arrow in his throat. My question is, why did Marvel decide to kill Rue right then, when he can hear Katniss coming? Rue is a non-threat while stuck in the net, so there's no rush to finish her off. Yes, she is screaming and attracting attention, but you take care of any incoming tributes before you shut her up. Unless Marvel is deaf, he had to have heard Katniss screaming and approaching. Katniss is clearly the bigger threat, since she a) killed two careers already, b) got a good training score, and c) isn't stuck in a net. Even if Marvel couldn't recognize who was screaming, you'd think he'd be concerned about the possibly-armed person running toward him over the helpless girl stuck in a net.
  • It is implied that Marvel used Rue as bait and aimed at Katniss, but she evaded his spear and Rue got hit.
  • Given that the Careers' weakness is arrogance, I'm sure he didn't expect Katniss to become so instantly deadly the second Rue died. He probably thought she would stop and grieve, or be too shocked to act, or at least be shaken enough to miss her shots. Theoretically, that kind of emotional warfare would be the perfect way to undermine her high training score.
  • Ok, that makes sense to me, but also makes me think of another question: where were the other careers during all this? They are still in a pack at this point, so they should be nearby enough to hear the screams. They don't even show up later while Katniss is tending to Rue's body.
    • IIRC, Rue's role in the whole plot was to set fires to lure the careers away from their actual escape route. Marvel, for whatever reason, wasn't with the careers and intercepted her on her way back to the rally point.
  • Marvel may have thought he Katniss was further away than she was. Also, if he was with the other Careers, last thing he might not know that Katniss had been able to recover a ranged weapon from Glimmer's body and might have though he could take her with the spear.
  • Maybe he panicked?

Clove's Taunts

• At the feast, Clove taunts Katniss about how Marvel killed her friend Rue and there are a couple other times the careers mention Katniss and Rue being allies . How do they know that? The careers never see the two of them together, do they? Rue was completely hidden during the trackerjack attack and the only other time the two of them are together around a career is when Rue is killed by Marvel, who dies seconds later. So how could Clove know that Rue's death had anything to do with Katniss?

Prim's death

• Prim's death. Yes, it was meant to drive the point home that War Is Hell, that Anyone Can Die, but...wasn't the whole driving force behind the premise of the series that Katniss was getting herself into this mess because of her sister Prim! So in other words, killing Prim pretty much defeats the purpose of Katniss entering the Games in the first place. For comparison, it would be the same as what happened to Nunally in Code Geass (except she actually wasn't dead, it turns out) — since Katniss and Prim have the same dynamic as Lelouch and Nunally. What bothers me is that Katniss didn't become a Death Seeker or was Driven to Suicide (though she did go into an Angst Coma and went temporarily insane shortly afterward). In a sense, that whole part of Mockingjay made for something of an Esoteric Happy Ending for me.
  • Katniss attempted suicide two times afterwards. With the nightlock pill after she assassinated Coin. And by starving to death or drug overdose in custody.
  • Well, it certainly isn't supposed to be a "happily ever after" ending at all. Yes, Katniss ultimately failed. This happens. Sometimes even in stories.
  • Exactly, War Is Hell, and it certainly isn't poetic. Despite expectations, real life simply doesn't always resolve itself in a poetic or meaningful manner. A common theme in other books detailing a experiences in war is how utterly meaningless/senseless someone's death or suffering was.

How was Haymitch able to pull the trick with the force field?

• So, Haymitch won his Games by avoiding all the other tributes and basically just making a beeline till he hit the very edge of the arena. Where were the Gamemakers in all of this? Don't they typically drive the tributes towards each other? Especially in a case like Haymitch's, since he was heading towards something was never supposed to be part of the game?
  • In his case, there's the chance that the Gamemakers were too busy with forty-seven other tributes to really care about that schmuck who's wandering by himself in the woods.
  • Also, it's mentioned that the Gamemakers learn from past mistakes and adjust accordingly (the Games where everyone froze, for instance: future Games had easier terrain.) This was the first time this problem happened, so they adjusted. When Katniss tried this years later, they threw fire at her.
  • Actually, I think he did more than hang out on the edge. He formed a partnership with the other District 12 tribute that didn't end until they decided the number of remaining tributes was getting to low. Then, later, he's closer to the interior, or at least the other tributes, for some reason and gets in a last longer race until he reaches the force field. It even seems to be implied that if the girl's axe had missed her when it rebounded, his injuries were such that she would have outlasted him even if they both just collapsed. Also, there was more built-in danger because that arena was a case of "everything can kill you." No matter where he hung out, there was a flock of razor-beaked birds that could send him running towards a Career.
  • Note also that Haymitch didn't avoid all the tributes. At the very least, he fought three of them (the three Carriers before allying himself with Maysilee). After their alliance, it's implied that they have to fight several times, since they get their food by taking it from the backpacks of the Tributes they killed.

Why was it bad that Haymitch pulled the trick with the force field?

• Different to the one above, but related. In almost all the books, it's made clear that there is a great deal of manipulation involved in the Games, and the winners basically always benefit from it: i.e. Annie only survived because the arena flooded and she was a very strong swimmer. A large number of people froze to death in another. Although nobody from that group ended up winning, the boy from District 4(?) rigged the explosives around the food in Katniss' game. Katniss's suicide trick with the berries unexpectedly worked, although Snow was still willing to kill her, but didn't. So why was it bad that Haymitch used the forcefield, so much to warrant killing his whole family's when Katniss' survived? (And presumably Annie's - it's stated that her insanity stems from her Games so we can assume her family weren't targeted.) Katniss states that it's because Haymith manipulated the arena, but isn't this entirely commonplace and not an exception? And it's not like it just made bad TV - Haymitch and the other girl were the only two left alive, so they'd had their Games.

Finnick is a young career

• Briefly touched on earlier, but why *was* Finnick in the games at 14? It seems it would make the most sense to wait until a Career is 18, since a) they're at the strongest and best-trained and b) they get a longer pre-game life that way.
  • Honestly, the story works a lot better if you assume that District 4 isn't a career district. That way, you can ignore all of those annoying questions like "why was he 14?" and "why was he on boats his whole life instead of training?" and "why was he good with a trident, but not a weapon actually found in the Arena?". But, to truly answer your question, remember that the definition of a career is just "one that trains specifically for the Games." Therefore, I assume that everyone in District 4 gets basic survival and weapons training in school (instead of recess or gym or something) and so their tributes technically qualify as careers because of it.
  • Since training tributes with the intent of sending them into the Games is technically "illegal," there can be no official, technical, written, legally-enforceable rule in the 3 Career Districts saying "You must be 18 before you can volunteer." Maybe they typically train until they're 18, maybe the prevailing theory is that being older and training longer ups your chances of winning, but if a 14-year-old wants the glory and is too excited to wait 4 more years, how could they legally prevent him from volunteering?
    • Yes, I get the impression that if you volunteer over someone you're in. In Movie Two (though I can't recall if the book's the same), exchanges between the District 12 Victors suggest this may be so.
  • I think volunteering is a good explanation. But... consider that District 4 might not have been a career district at the time he was reaped for the 65th Annual Hunger Games. After all, his mentor was Mags, who won the 11th Hunger Games decades before. Finnick was well sponsered because of his good looks. His trident was a sponsership gift. Since then, he's been a mentor for other District 4 Tributes, and has undoubtedly used his charm to get them better sponsers. So for the last ten years (and most of Katniss's memory), District 4 has been a real contender. They could very well think of themselves as underdogs compared to One and Two.

How did Cato not kill Peeta?

• Ok, so in the film, Katniss drops the wasps on the Careers+Peeta, and they run away screaming. The next time we see the Careers, they've teamed up with the D3 boy. The next time we see Peeta, he has a leg wound from Cato's sword. I doubt Cato accidentally nicked Peeta with the sword while running from the wasps, so it had to be after. Why didn't he just kill him instead?
  • Everybody ran to the nearest body of water to drive off the Tracker Jackers. Peeta was the first to return and yelled at Katniss to leave. Cato probably entered shortly after and fought with Peeta after seeing this but passed out quickly due to the stings. Peeta's stings were less serious so he managed to cover a bit more distance after being cut before blacking out near a riverbank.

Why are Cinna and Plutarch working for the rebellion?

• Do the books ever explain why Cinna and Plutarch are working with the rebellion? It just seems jarring that the Capitol is seen as this monolithic entity of childmurdering and oppession, but those two guys from the Capitol? Totally cool. Even if they are directly involved in the Games.
  • It's never explained, but implied. Cinna asked to style district 12 in his first year as stylist. He told Katniss that her volunteering was extraordinarily brave. And that he would bet on her to win if he were allowed to. This and his decent own style and demeanor makes me assume he hated the Capitols depravity and wanted to make statement against it. Which he did with the Mockingjay evening dress. Plutarch had been a member of district 13's undercover agents for along time. He recognized Katniss' revolutionary potential and therefore volunteered to become head game maker to be her secret helper in he 75th Games.
  • Well, what you don't understand is that Cinna is a nice guy. Because only nice guys turn young girls into sex objects to be paraded in front of a nation before being sent off to be slaughtered, right? Right?
    • Hey, Cinna isn't that picky; he'll turn young boys into sex objects too. Besides, he's really doing them a favor, since more sex appeal means more sponsors. I'm sure Finnick would agree with me on this one.
    • Katniss didn't know that many victors were prostituted; in fact, she thought all of Finnick's partners were consensual. It isn't that much of a stretch that Cinna wouldn't know either. So, in his eyes, he's turning people into sex objects so they can catch the public's eye, get sponsors, win the games, get out of the arena and live happily-ever-after. More importantly, in Katniss- the narrator's- eyes, he's turning her into a sex object so she can survive the arena and live happily-ever-after. He treats her like a human being rather than a pet or TV character, he tells her he specifically requests district 12, in contrast with Effie, who constantly complains about how she wants a better district, thus making it all about her rather than the children going to their deaths, he sits with her before she goes into the games and gives her some comfort, he works hard to get her token in the arena with her, and he tells her he's rooting for her. Later, he DIES because he helped her to rebel against the Capitol. It's not like he turned her into a sex object out of malice or gross negligence. He had no way of knowing he was doing anything wrong, especially considering he was a new stylist. Maybe he isn't the brave, incredible hero the book makes him out to be, but he certainly isn't a bad guy, and from Katniss' perspective, that already puts him ahead of most people she knows from the Capitol. Also, don't forget that Stockholm Syndrome could be playing a factor in it- after facing so much cruelty her entire life, it wouldn't take much kindness for her to latch on to and idealize someone.
    • Why wouldn't Cinna know about the prostitution? Why would the government keep it a secret from the Capitol citizens? You can't make money off of the victors unless people know that they are for sale. Also, Katniss not knowing about it doesn't mean anything; she didn't know about the Avox either.
    • Everyone is fed a story that Finnick, at least, is in this all voluntarily: he's seen as a heartthrob. It's a lie, but that's what they think. It's a secret that it's involuntary, not that he's doing it at all, if you can see the difference.
    • Isn't it kind of suspicious that most of the victors willingly decide to prostitute themselves, then? Unless that's just something celebrities regularly do in the Capitol to make some extra cash, that should give Cinna pause.
    • It's been a couple years since I've read the books, but is it specified that it was a regular thing for victors to be forced into prostitution? I was under the impression that it was just Finnick. But regardless, I think it's something that the Capitol citizens know goes on, but they kind of look the other way or turn a blind eye unless they take a specific interest in that victor/Finnick. If Cinna knew about it at all, he probably did think it was voluntary. It's not unheard of for people to turn to sex to cope after going through something traumatic. We also can't forget that Finnick's lovers paid him with secrets, not money, which makes it a little less obvious that it's prostitution and not just promiscuity.
  • I don't know where all this "sex object" talk is coming from to begin with. Remember that Cinna's not like most stylists. Katniss expected to be stripped naked or sexualized, but Cinna gave her something much more meaningful — and much more effective. He's gone for symbols, emotion, and uniqueness over sex appeal every time.
  • The fact that Cinna doesn't use sex appeal doesn't change the fact that his job is to make sure people look nice before they die. Yes, he's good at making Katniss stand out in a crowd, but again, that's his job. Other than realizing that the sex appeal angle was played out, Cinna is (mostly) exactly like the other stylists. I will give Cinna this: when Katniss firsts meets him, she realizes that he's new. She then asks if he was assigned to district 12 (which apparently is where all the newbie stylists go) and he replies that he SPECIFICALLY asked for D12. So, is he a from a secret underground anti-Games movement in the Capitol? Who knows, but an explanation would have been nice.
  • Just because he did not strip her down to near nakedness does not mean he did not use sex appeal or turn her into a sex object. Why did she need to look beautiful? Why did she not have to look "fake"? Why use a beautiful dress for the interview and the allure of the fire and dazzling gown when parading? This is all about making her look desirable to the audience - they're supposed to want her. Also, as sort of an aside, if he hates this whole thing so much, why be a willing particpant in it? It's one thing for Plutarch, as someone important, he might be able to effect change or to sabotage the games. As a stylist of some district, Cinna had no idea he would be in a position to do anything meaningful - unless the whole narrative was some elaborate conspiracy theory, Cinna just got lucky.
    • I think the mistake made here is using our values for another society and taking them as absolutes. This does not work in history, it does not work in storytelling. Cinna may be kind of a career dick within our scales, but for the time and place he is (or seems) more than decent. Many of those you know from history as liberators of suppressed minorities would be considered the opposite if they showed the exact same values today, but they pushed society into the right (from our point of view) direction. Outside of Hollywood and the Book World you do not change everything at once to the better, but step by step. So he may not be "good" by our standards, but he is "better" than those around him. While he certainly somewhat objectifies Katniss, he uses it to play the system he's living in to her advantage instead of just denigrating her like others in his place did. Within the whole situation you cannot really try to say "I don't like what's going on here so I'm openly protesting it" without it being without anny effect. So, like many others, he tries to get into a position where he can make subtle differences and then does.
    • I think a good example of this is Oskar Schindler. By many accounts, the man was an ASSHOLE. However, he had is own moral line that he refused to cross. He saved lives, even if working for him was less than a treat. For that, he's a hero. I put Cinna into the same category. He used his only tool (designing talent) to take on an impossible empire by doing some things we ordinarily wouldn't care for (sexualizing a teenage girl).
    • I do not know how you can say that Cinna is better than those around him - we have not metric against which to measure him (except for the fact that his predecessors were bad at their jobs). And I'm not sure what subtle difference he is making aside from making people who usually look creepy or campy look sexy. How does that effect even subtle change? It would be like saying the gladiator trainer who trained gladiators better than the other trainers was somehow a great guy because his charges were better prepared to kill/not die. That is not effecting change, that's just helping in the process.
    • Agreed. Being a good stylist doesn't (necessarily) make you a good person. We did see Cinna being nice to Katniss, but there is no reason to think that this is strange or unusual (unless you assume that Cinna looked normal and is therefore nice, while the other stylists looked fake and are therefore mean, which is another can of worms entirely.) And also, using symbolism and subdued sex appeal instead of crazy costumes and blatant sex appeal isn't progress. The basic premise of "24 children are competing for attention that may help them not die in an Arena" is unchallenged. In fact, by drawing attention to Katniss, Cinna probably sealed the fate of some of those other kids.
    • I don't think Cinna got into being a stylist to try to create a rebellion, he just wanted to help out District 12 since they were usually written off and not even given a shot. He only decided to become part of the rebellion and create the mockingjay dress after seeing what Katniss did in her first Games and how much unrest she'd created in the districts. He wasn't trying to overthrow the Games because the thoughte probably never crossed his mind that there was a chance until Katniss came along.
    • This troper actually quite likes Cinna because he seems to be more aesthete than activist, like his highest loyalty was to his art. He probably thought District 12 would provide an interesting design challenge because he knew he could reinterpret the whole Appalachian coal miner look in a fresh way that was sure to attract attention. And Katniss was first and foremost his muse, before she was his friend or revolutionary emblem or whatever. He managed to get through fashion school, or whatever, without attracting any disadvantageous attention from the Capitol elites, but once they try to constrain the content of his design, he is not about that at all.
  • Back on topic, Cinna and Plutarch have lived in the Capitol their whole lives, so there must be other district-sympathizers in the Capitol, too. Maybe some people were smart enough to realize that pissing off the districts and rubbing it in their face was a bad idea? Would have been nice to see them in action.

Why did Haymitch go on the Victory Tour?

• Why did Haymitch go on the Victory Tour?
  • He probably had to. He was the mentor.
  • Yes, and mentors are suppose to give life-saving advice, help devise strategy in the Arena, drop parachutes, and get money from sponsors. None of those things are needed on the Tour. What did he do that Effie couldn't? It seemed he was shoehorned in just because he was a major character.
    • Katniss mentions in the first book how her conversation with Rue about life in District 11 probably isn't being aired, because the Capitol controls information flow. If the Capitol is that paranoid, I can't see them allowing anyone other than the current victor across district lines.
    • Like the second troper said, because he was a mentor. Of course they go on the tours to celebrate the tribute they helped become a victor. And I guess going across district lines isn't really an issue, since they're pretty much in and out within the day. And victors/mentors congregate every year at the Games anyway. But they know the Capitol is always watching...
    • Haymitch himself described the reason, right after Katniss's speech at district 11.
    Haymitch: This trip, girl? Wake up! This trip doesn't end when you get back home. You never get off this train. You two are mentors now, that means that every year they're gonna drag you out and broadcast the details of your romance. Every year your private life becomes theirs. From now on your job is to be a distraction so that people forget what the real problems are.

Why did Thresh not win the games?

• How did Thresh not win the games of the first book? Katniss only lives because Thresh spares her, he is resourceful enough to actually gain weight during the games, and he is even bigger and more skilled than his only real competitor, Cato.
  • Thresh had just killed Clove, which Cato was not happy about. Roaring Rampage of Revenge might have had something to do with it.
  • More skilled? Cato is trained. Thresh is not.
  • To ask that question, one must wonder: How did Peeta survive? How did Annie survive? How did the boy from District 10 make it so far? How did Foxface die? How did Clove die? How did Cato die? Ergo, sometimes the world works in funny ways, and those you expect to have an advantage are the first to go, whereas those you expect to never last are holding on in the end. Use your imagination. This troper likes to believe that, having received an identical "gift" as Cato (that being, heavy armor) and probably wandering around in that armor during a lengthy rainstorm looking for Cato led him to a sticky situation he was unable to get out of with the added weight.
  • Thresh is black, and he's not the protagonist. He was never going to win. Just be happy he didn't fulfill the "Black man dies first" trope. Without a plot driven story that needed him to die, Thresh probably wins.
    • Annie's a career. She just went batshit and could swim.
    • Specifically this. She could swim, everyone else drowned by default. The books make it clear Annie's Game was more surviving against the environment (controlled Earthquakes) than other players.
    • Or as a certain good book puts it, "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... for time and chance overtake them all."
    • The film attempts to answer this by heavily implying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the mutts were first released. Which, if he was living in the plains or a field like in the book the whole time, makes some kind of sense.
    • Thresh has made 3 mistakes which i believe were the reason why he died : 1. He stopped Clove from killing Katniss, 2. He killed Clove (and Cato didn't take it lightly!) and 3. He stole the backpack which should be taken either by Cato or Clove. Cato got mad because Thresh has ruined his almost perfect plan (If Katniss was killed, Peeta wouldn't get his medicine and would die as well) and also stole his gift from the sponsors. Even Katniss says later that Cato instead of hunting her, probably went to kill Thresh.
  • The books never state when Cato picked up and started using body armor. If Cato killed Thresh, it could have been before their battle.
    • Actually, Katniss makes the assumption that the body armour was the thing Cato desperately needed in the backpack. Thresh stole Cato's backpack, so Cato hunted him down. I suppose he could have sneaked in and stolen it before Thresh could touch him, but that doesn't sound like Cato's style.
  • Thresh might be bigger and stronger than Cato, but like Rue, he's spent his life working fields/orchards, etc. Cato's spent it training to kill (they're called Careers for a reason). Even if you armed them both with a sword, odds on the person who has skill with the weapon being the one who'll win. There's also the implication from the film that he's the mutts' first kill before Cato.
  • Also, Thresh has some rocks while Cato has a sword and spear. Isn't exactly hard to guess who would win then.
    • Not to mention that Cato is no slouch himself. He was likely the largest and strongest tribute after Thresh, and definitely a more skilled fighter.
    • How soon we forget the story of David and Goliath
  • Let's not forget that Cato is a strong fighter too. After all, he's able to fight off a group of muttations by himself and after being exhausted by a long run for quite some time before being overwhelmed. While Thresh has the advantage in terms of strength, Cato has his training and his sword (Thresh hasn't been shown with a weapon, he killed Clove with a rock). So I guess Cato has a legitimate chance to win against Thresh without receiving any help. We don't see the actual fight. Because of the rain, Cato may have been able to surprise him.

Why did the careers not set the tree on fire?

• So the careers have Katniss trapped on a tree, couldn't hit her, gave up, then figured the best thing to do is to set up a fire NEXT TO the tree? How did it not occur to any of them to just move the fire a few feet over, watch until the tree starts burning, and leave?
  • A lot of people speculate about this
  • Hang on. Have you ever tried to set fire to a live tree? It's like setting fire to a book. Sure the substance is burnable, but it's too compressed for the fire to get a foothold. My husband saw a fire where lightning had struck a tree and the gas main under it, and the gas burned around the tree for almost an hour—and the tree survived. Didn't burn, just got scorched some. Now maybe if they built a big enough bonfire around the tree they might kill her from smoke inhalation.
  • In the movie Clove is smaller than Katniss and could've scaled the tree pretty easily.
    • Clove was of the right size to climb the tree, but that doesn't mean that she had the necessary skills. Climbing is about more than just being small enough not to break the branches.
    • Clove not climbing the tree might be a holdover from the book. In the book, Katniss is tiny, while the careers are the largest kids in the field. It looks weird in the movie, but that's what you get for casting for talent instead of size.
  • Starting a forest fire and then leaving wouldn't help the careers. For one, it would make any nearby tributes scatter, and there's no guarantee the fire would kill Katniss after they left.
  • Why did they stay? They couldn't get her while she was in the tree, couldn't get up the tree themselves, and there was no way Katniss was climbing down on her own. There was nothing to suggest that waiting around would fix any of these issues, unless they were planning for Katniss to starve to death. They should have either started chucking knives and spears at her (which has the potential of giving Katniss a weapon) or "left" and then ambushed her when climbing down from the tree.
  • Couldn't they have cut the tree down?
    • Both the book and the movie state that the reason the careers are staying is because they agree with Peeta's point that Katniss is coming down anyway - which is true. Katniss could only possibly last in the tree for 2 days before she either dehydrated and fainted, climbed down to make a run for it, or got forced out of the tree by the gamemakers who would not take kindly to the most entertaining tribute keeping herself in a position that brought the action to a complete halt. The only thing that burning or cutting down the tree would help the careers accomplish is getting her out of the tree faster. And both the book and the movie show that a) Time is not an issue and Katniss is the careers' top concern, so there's no reason for the careers to rush her kill; and b) the tree is so huge that the amount of time it would take to accomplish either task would not be worth the effort expounded for the amount of time it would save anyway. Furthermore, attempting to burn or cut down the tree or do a fake leave and ambush potentially creates more problems than the one it attempts to solve. The careers basically went with the sure, steady bet instead of the fast, risky work.
    • Considering Catching Fire makes it clear that some of the trees are artificial to the point of withstanding several lightning strikes, and in the movie we see trees fall on command and have cameras in them? Being Careers, they may have been warned in training that at least some trees are fake. Due to this don't waste energy in trying to bring them down.
  • Keep in mind that they're on television and hoping to impress the sponsors. They already made themselves look stupid trying to and failing to reach her. The last thing they want to do is make it look like they're being outsmarted. Instead they try to look like they're on top of things by keeping her trapped and waiting her out - reminding the audience that SHE's the helpless one and not them.
  • Logically, couldn't Clove just have chucked some knives up there? There wasn't that much distance, Katniss couldn't run, and Clove has arguably the best aim out of anyone.
  • In the book, Katniss has some experience with throwing knives. Maybe they were worried about accidentally arming her?
  • And throwing a knife into a tree kind of leaves you short. In the film at least Clove does throw a knife at Katniss as soon as the games begin - and thus gave Katniss a weapon (which she used to drop the Tracker Jackers on them). The Careers had Katniss trapped and they had the advantage. There was no reason for them to waste any of their precious resources trying to get her out of the tree - when she'd inevitably have to make a break for it when she got too tired or hungry. In fact Katniss only escaped because Rue pointed out the nest to her in the first place.

How did Cato kill Thresh?

• How did Cato kill Thresh?
  • The Worf Effect? Also keep in mind, it was raining during their fight, so maybe that had some part in it.
  • The Gamemakers Did It. No, seriously: Cato vs. District 12 would provide more tension and violence for the finale than would Thresh vs. District 12, especially since Thresh is sane enough to team up with them against the muttributes. That's one of the points of the novels, really: a lot of us are reading because we like the characters, but according to Capitol, we should be reading because of the gorn.
  • Cato had body armor that he got from the backpack at the Cornucopia, IIRC.
    • No, Thresh took Cato's bag, so Cato must have retrieved it from him. Of course, it's entirely possible that he just took it from his body before the hovercraft appeared.
  • We don't know that Cato killed Thresh, we just assume it. This troper read a fanfic (forgot the title) where Foxface snuck up on Thresh and killed him. For that matter, we don't know Foxface can't fight either. She just never chooses to show it.
    • If Foxface had killed Thresh, Cato probably wouldn't have been wearing the body armor that was in the backpack.
  • Let's not forget that Cato is a strong fighter too. After all, he's able to fight off a group of muttations by himself and after being exhausted by a long run for quite some time before being overwhelmed. While Thresh has the advantage in terms of strength, Cato has his training and his sword (Thresh hasn't been shown with a weapon, he killed Clove with a rock). So I guess Cato has a legitimate chance to win against Thresh without receiving any help. We don't see the actual fight. Because of the rain, Cato may have been able to surprise him.
• Why are we assuming he killed Thresh in a fair fight? Cato might not be an expert in stealth, but I can't imagine it would be impossible for him to get the drop on Thresh. Maybe he snuck up on him when he was sleeping and slit his throat.

Why did Coin trust Katniss to kill Snow

• President Coin fears Katniss so much she tries to get her killed by sending a mole into her team. The point is hammered again and again - particularly with the utterly unnecessary bombing of her sister to death (to be clear: I can see the "logic" of killing children to shorten the war, but not the part of enraging Katniss even more by including her sister in the deal). And yet, at the end, President Coin hands her a bow, gives her an arrow and stands in front of her with no protection. It is absurd. All I can think of is that the author painted herself into a corner, and pulled a ridiculous deus ex machina to move the plot further.
  • Coin never saw Katniss as a threat to her life, only to her position. She thought Katniss was interested in ruling Panem once Snow fell, and had Prim killed to ensure Katniss would be in no state to do so after Katniss proved very difficult to kill... She obviously thought she could pin it on Snow, but made the mistake of having Katniss's best friend be one of the conspirators, meaning Katniss did find out it was Coin in the end.
    • So, Coin was simply stupid? A politically-savvy, manipulating president that has ruled a nation that relies on never giving your opponent the chance to destroy you simply wouldn't throw all caution to the winds and hand a person that has every reason to hate you and has repeatedly establish is desire to kill people in such positions the chance to strike. I mean, all it would've taken is a simple window.
    • Many politically-savvy people are idiots.
    • Coin didn't take Katniss seriously from the beginning- she only wanted her around to give District 13 someone to rally around. The fact that she was behind Prim's death was never supposed to come to the forefront (why would she want it to?), and she obviously underestimated Katniss. As far as she was concerned, she probably never gave Katniss a reason to hate her, but Gale ruined it by telling her.
    • I think it was because Katniss didn't seem to be supporting Coin. After the war they were going to have an election for the next president, Coin was going to be a canditate and would thus need all the popularity she could get. Katniss was very popular, even outside the Capitol, and so her opinion would be highly valued in the eyes of the public and Katniss never really seemed to particularly like Coin. So politically it'd be in Coin's best interest to get rid of Katniss, this is why she sent mentally unstable Peeta to join Katniss's team in the hopes that Peeta would get rid of Katniss for her.
  • Is it ever confirmed that Coin deliberately killed Prim? I can understand that she called for the False Flag Operation on the Capitol children, but did she actually order her medics into the blast zone? It seems like that was just an unfortunate element of the plan from Coin's perspective. Feeding an entire unit of medics into the meatgrinder doesn't really advance her goal or breaking the Capitol's support and goes against the hyper-conservationist society she was running in D13. And there is no way on Earth she could have known Katniss would actually be there to witness it, her unit had gone off the grid. I thought she had intended for Capitol medics to be the ones caught in the blast and under-estimated how close her own forces were.
    • Snow, being established as never lying to Katniss, told Katniss in the book that "I am sure Plutarch was not gunning for your sister." In the movie, he spoke about Coin. But Snow makes an assumption about things he has no knowledge about. It could be that Coin deliberately led Prim into the blast zone do destroy Katniss' mind. A mentally destroyed Katniss would be no political opponent to Coin's presidency - or so Coin could have assumed.
    • It's not confirmed, but Prim was technically too young to have been out on the front lines. Katniss points out that someone pretty high up would have had to approve Prim's assignment, and Coin seems like a logical choice.
    • But possibly, they approved her simply because she had talent, had been well-trained, maybe they were short of medics and hey! this is war we'r going to let the issue of her age slip by. Maybe she wasn't sent to the front lines deliberately to be killed. Katniss assumed this at one point, but at this exact moment she was speculating on things she didn't really know and could very well have been wrong about. Although, Katniss seeing her sister killed in front of her would have worked well for Coin had Katniss not found out it was not Snow who dropped the bombs. I think her saying "for Prim" was Katniss "confirming" to Coin that her plan had worked and Katniss was so enraged against the Capitol that she would support Coin's games. But Katniss of course meant something very different with those words...
    • However, did Coin intend her own medics or Capitol medics to be killed by the second blast? Keep in mind that the whole point of this ruse is to cause the immediate end of the war by turning the population of the Capitol against President Snow. So, it has to be somewhat believable and make at least a little sense. President Snow sending out a hovercraft that bombs Capitol children so he can kill the rebel medics who rush to their aid in the second blast? As he himself points out, that would be an unwise and pointless Kick the Dog move, but President Snow sending out a Capitol hovercraft, bombing Capitol children and then killing CAPITOL medics as well? That would be completely insane, so that a large portion of the Capitol spectators might start immediately wondering if the rebels hijacked one of their hovercrafts. So, perhaps Coin sees sacrificing her medics as a necessary move to end the war. Even as it is, I wonder if more people than President Snow and Katniss would eventually start to put two and two together...
  • To be fair, quite a few people in the books are stupid for no apparent reason. The government and Coin share stupidity for misunderstanding Katniss and her intentions. Katniss is clearly not interested in ruling, she's barely interested in most things. Coin gets it in her head that she will have to rub her out, just like Snow decided Katniss was sparking a rebellion (Katniss didn't even pick up on Plutarch telling her he was part of the resistance in book 2).
  • Coin doesn't fear Katniss wants to rule, she fears she may support someone else's leadership. And she believes she's got Katniss on her side when Katniss votes "Yes" on a last Hunger Games with Capitol children.
  • The story of Katniss volunteering to save Prim was pretty famous, so Coin would know she's her Morality Pet. Having Prim killed while Snow is still in charge would in her mind push Katniss into siding with her as the lesser of two evils. This also allows Coin to sneakily get Katniss on her side by giving her the chance to execute Snow herself - so it's a two-fold plan to a) give Katniss an even bigger reason to hate Snow and b) give Katniss a reason to like Coin for giving her the chance to get revenge. Coin was possibly in such an echo chamber that she didn't doubt her plan would work.

Clove is a young career

• Rewatched the movie, and realized that Clove was 15 during the Games. The careers' advantages going into the Hunger Games are 1) their training, and 2) being some of the oldest kids competing. Clove would be older and better trained in three years, so why did they send her now?
  • Perhaps the preferred, older female tribute from her District got injured during training? Considering what they learn to do, it's not much of stretch to consider.
    • If tributes were at risk of getting hurt before the Games, then the districts that train would have replacements ready, since it's in their best interest to have the oldest/biggest/most trained kids there. If the first-choice 18-year old female is unable to go, there should be a second-choice 18-year old to replace her. Sending Clove in at 15 implies that there are no 16, 17, or 18-year old uninjured trained females in District 2.
    • Just checked, Clove is 18 in the book, but the actress who played her was fourteen.
    • That's really weird, cause a shot of an information board around 42 minutes into the movie clearly lists her as 15 years old (and 5'4" and 100 pounds and with 5-1 odds of winning, if anyone out there was wondering.) For comparison, Cato is 18, and both Glimmer and Marvel are 17. So, they didn't use either Clove's age or the actress' age when making the prop? Weird. They should have just listed her as an 18-year old, the actress could pass for one.
    • I hate to say it (this particular excuse always riles me up when people use it) but it seems to me that the people who wrote the screenplay didn't put that much thought into Clove's age. I mean, they didn't bother giving last names to any of the tributes except for Katniss and Peeta, which was exceptionally careless. Either every tribute should get their last and first names mentioned, or none of them should. That's an intense IJBM moment for the film, for me.
    • Last names? You can't blame the movie for lacking them when the author didn't even bother to give most of the kids FIRST names! Out of 24 tributes, we have eight names (and Foxface.) It would've helped the narrative if everyone had a name/description, not just the obviously important characters. It was all just so telegraphed. Was anyone surprised when all the named characters survived the bloodbath? Or when Rue managed to meet up with Katniss in the Arena?
    • Good point. But the book is told strictly from Katniss' POV, and she's not interested in learning about other tributes except for what threat they pose to her. The movie didn't even have that excuse.
    • I agree with this wholeheartedly. Katniss had no reason to memorize their names (but they should still have them!), since it won't help her live. (Just checked: Thresh is the only name Katniss learns of her own volition (by paying attention to his interview.) Peeta tells her both Rue's (in training) and Clove's (in the cave), and idle conversation after she got chased up the tree gives her Cato's and Glimmer's. She doesn't learn Marvel's name until the victory tour.) What will help her live is giving a quick once-over to each tribute, and determining if they are a threat or not. This would have been a good time for Katniss to describe everyone while giving her opinion. She does this on the train, describing the monstrous boy from 2, the redheaded girl from 5, the boy with a crippled leg from 10, and a small 12-year-old girl from 11. I don't know why the author didn't have her continue this during training; it would have helped the other tributes feel more like people, rather than numbers.
    • Maybe they do have names. The fact that they're not mentioned doesn't mean they don't have any. And frankly, I wouldn't have wanted an extended description of everyone. There are 24 Tributes. Fewer than half of them are important. I don't really care what color hair some random boy who died in the bloodbath had. And it would take a very skilled author to make all 24 of them unique, distinct, interesting characters, so that option's out too.
    • Nice stealth insult against the author. Honestly, if we had more than half a chapter dedicated to the three days of training, this wouldn't be an issue. We'd have seen Katniss sizing up the competition.
    • They are right though. Collins is a good author, but pulling that off is just very difficult, especially from first person POV. Compare it (once again) to Battle Royale, which isn't written from that perspective, and therefore allows the author to switch to the POV of other characters and to establish backstories of people who may have died within the first hour of the game. Trying to emotionally distance herself from the other tributes also fits in well with Katniss's character. Also, keep in mind that half of the characters die very quickly in the initial bloodbath. In BR, the characters were sent out alone with a couple of minutes between each exit. Using up a couple of chapters to establish characters who quickly die off-screen would probably be a bad move. And generally, people want to read about the game. Delaying it for another couple of chapters probably wouldn't have done the story a favour.
  • Back to the original question - the out of universe reason is possibly Ability over Appearance, since most of the fans loved Isabelle Furman's performance, so presumably her audition was so good they felt her being a couple of years younger wouldn't affect the story at all. In-universe, maybe Clove is just that good. Or maybe she's headstrong enough that she volunteered when she wasn't supposed to, thinking she had a good chance. From what we see of her, she's very skilled and only gets done in by taunting Katniss about Rue, not knowing Thresh was listening.

Madge's mockingjay pin

• Did Madge giving Katniss the pin for purely sentimental reasons or was Katniess already being set up (after she volunteered) as the mockingjay and someone nudged Madge to do so, to set up everything that happened (and it was just sheer luck that Peeta was reaped with her?).

The sores in Snow’s mouth

• We find out that Snow used poison to ascend to power and hold on to it, and that in order to avoid suspicion he ingested the poisoned food or drink as well and used antidotes to survive. However the antidotes didn’t always work, and he was left with sores in his mouth that never healed. This, in turn, is why he wears perfumed roses, to cover the blood smell. My question is, how does this make any sense? First of all, while an injury might never fully heal it’s not going to continuously bleed. Blood coaculates, even on body parts that are oftentimes moving (such as your lips or your tongue). Second, this is even more true within the mouth, as saliva helps with healing (unless it gets deep into a cut where it can cause infection, but that’s not what’s ailing Snow). There’s a reason why animals lick their wounds. Third, the Capitol has advanced medical technology. Sure, it can’t fix everything, Peeta loses a leg after all. But if they can heal sepsis through just one injection and remove scar tissue (if memory serves, Katniss notices after the first arena that all the scars she had from before are now gone), then it makes no sense that they cannot make the sores in Snow’s mouth stop bleeding. Besides, he would have to bleed a LOT in order for it to smell enough (especially since it’s meant to be inside his mouth and not, say, on his forehead) that it would require flowers reeking of perfume to hide it. He would have exsanguinated decades before Katniss was even born if that were the case, or drowned in his own blood while he slept.