And it’s backfired spectacularly. Even the citizens of the Capital were upset over past victors (all of whom have established fandoms instead of being anonymous outside their home district) being sent back into the Games.
My basic problem with the books is that the main character makes no sense. Katniss is a starving, barely educated hick. And yet she’s able to outwit almost everyone else in the most spectacular way possible? Nah. I could buy the character if she were 35 but not at half that age. In the last one she finally acts her age in a way and it’s really annoying to read. Teenage angst is not my idea of fun.
The books are fast, shallow, and enjoying (although I skipped over some of the more violent parts) but I don’t think they’re compelling lit that will be read a hundred years from now.
At least Rowling’s Harry is twelve and acts like he’s twelve. He’s also not starving and he’s being mentored and educated at every turn. Plus Rowling is a far better writer than Collins.
Some more questions. Some of these may have been explained but I might have missed them.
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What was the purpose of the selection process? If there were 25 winners in the previous 24 years, then everyone knew who would be playing, with the exception of Peeta or Haymitch. Why did they need to pick Katniss’s name from the hat. Presumably a few of the districts would have had multiple winners over the 24 years, while others would have had none. So in reality the districts without any previous winners were lucky that they didn’t have to play and lose 2 of their kids, right? Also, shouldn’t there have been more age diversity? It seems there should have been more 30 to 40-years olds since some winners were from a couple decades back.
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This was probably explained in the movie but what was the deal with Mags? She was clearly a liability to her younger partner. I guessed that she must have won 24 years ago but aged badly? I asked my son who watched the movie with me and he said that she took the place of someone else who won. I thought that this wouldn’t be allowed, or else someone could theoretically have taken Katniss’s place ruining President Snow’s plan. If Mags did volunteer for someone else, why?
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Speaking of volunteering, I would think that there would actually be many more kids from the poor districts actually wanting to volunteer every year. I mean they are living pathetic slave-like lives anyway, so why not take a shot at glory?
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At the end it’s revealed that a few of the players teamed up to destroy the game and begin the revolution. How could they have done this and why didn’t they tell Katniss and Peeta?
Well, not just the past 24 years, any surviving victors going back as far as possible. Mags is pretty old, for instance, I’m sure her games were well over 24 years previous. That said, yeah, it’s slim pickings, Snow’s goal was to not just eliminate Katniss, but every victor he possibly could.
It was stated that she volunteered for a younger victor. Just like Peeta volunteered to save Haymitch, Mags volunteered to save a little girl. I get the sense that this is partially because she’s a sweet old lady that knew she was on the verge of death anyway, and partially a symbolic move to mirror what Katniss did for her younger sister.
Remember, these people need every helping hand they can get. A kid that’s dead means one less kid working, one less kid with ration stamps, one less hunting for food, one less helping hand when another family member gets sick. They can’t afford to just go off and die. It’s detrimental to the family. Besides, most of the people in the districts see it for what it is: hell. They’re not under any delusions that glory is involved. I could see them maybe intentionally doing suicide-by-tribute, but I don’t think most teenagers are at that point in their lives yet.
Also remember that tributes from poor districts basically never win. Because the higher richer districts are better nourished, better educated, and better trained. It’s not really glory when you basically have higher than coin flip odds dying in the blood bath. That’s not glory, that’s going down like a chump.
Peeta was in on it, Katniss was basically the only one who wasn’t. Partially because Snow was watching her, partially because Katniss is kind of rash and would probably foul it up, partially because plot. I guess the revolution happened like any other revolution – secret meetings, coded messages, whispers in back-alleys, friends in high places willing to “lose” security footage. I don’t get the sense that the capital monitors everything, the fact that we saw footage of Katniss was largely because Katniss was being directly targeted by Snow, because she was the most visible rabble rouser and the symbol.
Why would they even bother monitoring, say, Haymitch? He’s a drunken lout who hasn’t caused trouble aside from maybe some drunken outbursts since he’s been victor. I imagine the capital felt so in control they had little reason to monitor most of the tributes aside from a few yearly check-ins and the free surveillance they get when they attend parties.
What, you mean like “how come there are bakeries in places with squatters”? Not everybody in the district eats black market squirrel meat - Peeta is from a family that’s well-off although not politically connected. Do you think closing Rio’s bakeries would get it rid of its favelas?
He’s from the rich families and still rather poor, just not as poor. He even said in the first book that h can’t afford to eat the vast majority of the stuff he makes.
Uneducated does not equal stupid. Katniss is shown in both books and movies as being well trained with weapons and clever. She may not have the same book knowledge as the Capitol kids, but she does know how to hide, build traps, and get away with stuff she shouldn’t be doing. All skills she needed in the Games.
There are issues with the books, but Katniss is a believable winner of the Games. She may be emotional and rash, but she is very smart when it comes to surviving.
I did love Catching Fire. It was well acted and well well scripted. My husband has not read the books but followed the movie and enjoyed it. It’s good 'splode-y fun. There are some great topics on entertainment, government, ethics, and economics in the books and movies that can really open up a great discussion between a parent and teen.
I was thinking about this last night, and I THINK there’s an interesting difference in the plot of how the Quarter Quell is done.
Now, it was ages ago when I read it, but I got the impression from the book that Pres Snow was the one who basically said “Fuckit, kill all the victors. They’re getting uppity, and causing the Districts to think about the Games too much. Oooh, look! The “magic sealed envelope” says kill all the victors! Ta-da!”
When I watched it, I got a very different impression (which I actually liked better, honestly) that the whole plot was a carefully-constructed doublecross by Heavensbee, starting immediately after the previous Games when Katniss and Peeta won together, basically planting the idea of killing off the previous victors to Snow, to futher Heavensbee’s plans. Here’s my thoughts from the film:
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Previous gamesmaster kicked it rather unpleasantly. Not many people interested in the job, so Heavensbee can volunteer and seem to be either bloodthirsty, overconfident, or clueless, all of which Snow would like in a gamesmaster that might need to be gotten rid of.
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Katniss is a populist hero, but she’s not aware of that. Peeta however, IS aware of that, and he’s nearly always close to her. Likewise Haymitch, even though he’s a drunken sot. Those two could be “in” on a plot from before the beginnings of a movie, and that also explains why the two guys are so chummy now.
3a) God only knows who gets picked in a regular Games, but if you’re picking from the Victors pool, that’s a lot smaller group, and a lot easier to get to, because they all end up in the Capitol at least part of the time, some of them most of the time. Easier to plot with people you can get to more easily.
3b) There’s a line towards the end of the film something like “at least half of the tributes were in on” the plot to get Katniss rescued. Working out something like that would have to happen before the Games even began, to slowly persuade the Victors to be in on it, carefully work out what can be said and what has to be secret, and finally (most importantly) so they all could be ready to volunteer if necessary to guarantee they would be present (making Mag’s volunteering a bit more political than personal).
I like this idea because it makes the rebellion/revolution/uprising seem like it is better organized and not just frantically taking advantage of opportunities at the last minute.
But then, perhaps it was that way in the book also, and I just missed it…
All living former victors were eligible to be selected, and this was the 75th annual Hunger Games so there were more than 25 of them.
The name drawing is part of the pomp and ceremony of the Games. Although Katniss was the only female victor in District 12, they went ahead and drew her name as part of the show.
There are no districts with no previous winners. IIRC it’s stated in the first book that District 12 is the only district with only one past victor (Haymitch) who can serve as a mentor, so every other district must have at least two living victors.
There are three older past victors who play a significant role in the movie – Mags and the two from District 3 (the electronics district) – and IIRC we do briefly see a few more during the opening ceremony and training who look to be well over 30. I believe there’s at least one elderly man mentioned in the book. But a fair number of the competitors in the 75th Games aren’t really important to the plot and don’t show up much in the book or movie. Some of them were presumably older, and in some districts there may also have been younger victors who took the place of older, less competitive, ones.
Mags won a lot more than 24 years previously. She volunteered to take the place of Annie, another past victor from her district. Annie suffered from serious psychological problems due to her experiences in the Games, and was not likely to survive another competition and wouldn’t have been much help to Finnick or the other rebels. I don’t think Mags really expected to survive either, but she was old and decided it was better that she go. This comes up only briefly in the movie, but despite his boytoy reputation Finnick was truly in love with Annie (her voice is the one he hears the birds imitating when Katniss hears her sister’s) so Mags was doing him and Annie both a big favor by stepping in for her.
In theory someone else could have volunteered to replace Katniss, but in reality this was impossible as there were no other female victors from District 12.
A lot of the Mellarks’ business is with Peacekeepers & other Panem functionaries stationed in District 12. Plus there is a small local elite of people, mostly local civil servants appointed by the Capital.