History Headscratchers / TheHungerGames

* Oh. My. Word. This troper has been stunned by the complete and utter lack of research on anything and everything to do with weapons and combat. Considering the entire series is based on a premise of combat, that's hard to swallow.
** Some examples include arrow "sheaths", bows and arrows that are, if their description is to be believed, made of silver or gold, arrows packed with so much explosive they can blow the tail off a bomber plane, and bows that are mostly devoid of outward enhancements but allow the user to shoot accurately at a distance of over 100 meters.
*** Although in defence of technical enhancements of the arrows: It ''is'' the future after all, and if the Capitol can find a way to create genetically enhanced supercreatures, the technology probably exists to make an arrow appear to be silver or gold, or carry enough junk in the trunk to do some decent incendiary damage. If we're going to argue about the technology behind the weapons, let's start with the fact that Finnick's trident in the third book will return to him on command...
**** Future or not, too many of those things (Finnick's trident included) break the laws of physics and are just not possible.
*** In relation to that, Katniss is apparently a fugitive Tolkien elf related to Legolas, if her shooting ability is to be believed. She always shoots her kills in the eye--even though they're usually rabbits and squirrels. This troper is baffled as to how and why she picked up this skill when she was supposed to be hunting to assuage her family's desperate need for food. Or why anyone would ask her if she had ever shot a hummingbird with an arrow in the extremely not-hummingbird-friendly climate of Panem.
** The author also appears to think that traditional bows and crossbows are the same thing. Though Katniss strings her bow at one point, she also "loads" it. There's some mention of a "notch" but never a "nock" and one character even shoulders one of the more technologically advanced models--before aiming it around the room and sighting through the scope. But there is otherwise no evidence that Katness or said character knows how to handle a crossbow.
*** It's never implicitly stated that Gale's bow is a crossbow, which makes the scope and bells and whistles make even less sense. Even if it is a crossbow, there's a catch-22 wherein he can cast and load in time with Katniss and her recurve.
**** Pardon. This troper meant to point out that the actions Gale takes with the bow sound like a crossbow is being referred to, adding to the impression that the author doesn't understand the difference.
** The author also seems to think that a big guy wielding a great big sword always has the advantage--even over a smart, swift bit of nothing that can hop from tree to tree like a monkey and never misses a shot with a slingshot.

*** RealityIsUnrealistic. One could also use as a point of reference the human sacrifice rituals of certain ancient cultures. Generally the person to be sacrificed was treated like a god or king for a certain amount of time, and then killed. It's not an unfamiliar theme in fiction, either: In contemporary lit there's a good example in W. D. Valgardson's ''Bloodflowers'': a man is a god among men for a year, given whatever he pleases, and killed as part of a ritual spring sacrifice. The entire environment Katniss describes in the Capitol serves as a foil to the grittiness of the Arena, and without describing how lavish and simultaneously disgusting the Capitol is by treating its tributes like gods, one would miss that. To simply say "the celebrations are horrible because we're just going to die anyway" not only goes against Katniss' rather cavalier nature wherein death is just another part of life, but also would be incredibly poor writing because there wouldn't be much to back it up.

*** One could also use as a point of reference the human sacrifice rituals of certain ancient cultures. Generally the person to be sacrificed was treated like a god or king for a certain amount of time, and then killed. Take from contemporary lit the example of W. D. Valgardson's ''Bloodflowers'': a man is a god among men for a year, given whatever he pleases, and killed as part of a ritual spring sacrifice. The entire environment Katniss describes in the Capitol serves as a foil to the grittiness of the Arena, and without describing how lavish and simultaneously disgusting the Capitol is by treating its tributes like gods, one would miss that. To simply say "the celebrations are horrible because we're just going to die anyway" not only goes against Katniss' rather cavalier nature wherein death is just another part of life, but also would be incredibly poor writing because there wouldn't be much to back it up.

** Yes, because the premise of teenagers killing one another for the amusement of a richer society was never ''intended'' to be enjoyable to begin with. Mockingjay was true to life and very realistic because it shows that sometimes life is goddamn unfair, that people will always be people, and that nothing comes without losses. This coming from a troper who has a parent who suffers from PTSD- just like Katniss, whose life post-war is written with painful realism. If you're going to draw anything from these books, make it a lesson instead of enjoyment: Imagine that Panem ''will'' exist in some-odd hundred years, and try to make changes with your own lifetime that will prevent the outcome that Mockingjay had.

** They don't say hardship breeds talent for a reason: At least she uses skills she developed before training, and with legit explanation (which is to say, she didn't take up archery because she felt like it, nor did she get immediately good at it). On the other side of things, she's quite frankly a bitch a lot of the time, she's socially awkward, a loner, she has a grand total of three friends, and it's implied she's as hairy as a friggin' Sasquatch. There's two boys who love her, both who have been at least acquainted with her for years. She's not infallible, and she's not particularly noble when she's running on base instinct, either. Even if you run her through a litmus test she usually only tops out at about 35. This troper calls a case of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, which by the way we are all entitled to.

** They don't say hardship breeds talent for a reason: At least she uses skills she developed before training, and with legit explanation (which is to say, she didn't take up archery because she felt like it, nor did she get immediately good at it). On the other side of things, she's quite frankly a bitch a lot of the time, she's socially awkward, a loner, she has a grand total of three friends, and it's implied she's as hairy as a friggin' Sasquatch. There's two boys who love her, both who have been at least acquainted with her for years. She's not infallible, and she's not particularly noble when she's running on base instinct, either. This troper calls a case of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, which by the way we are all entitled to.

* KATNISS IS A SUE. A big stinking Mary Sue. She's ~irresitable, has had a hard and neglected childhood, but conveniently has EXACTLY the right traits (and then some: Singing? Come on) to help her survive not only extreme poverty, but the god damned Hunger Games. I could tolerate the rest of the book (despite it being from her POV) but every time her exceptional Sueyness shows up, I'm tempted to throw it at a wall.

* Ohh boy... Let's start with the exposition. This troper was personally annoyed by how long the exposition was. In my opinion, the author should've stopped beating around the bush and actually started the Hunger Games about a ''hundred'' pages before she did. This ties in with something else that annoyed me: namely, that Tributes are treated like celebrities and given a parade, makeovers, interviews, etc. Treating them like honored guests before their final showdown (good meals, nice clothes, a nice place to stay) is acceptable, but it just doesn't make any sense to treat them like beloved celebrities before forcing them to fight to the death. Plus, it delayed the actual Games, which was ''the reason I bought the book''. In addition to those, I hated the Katniss/Peeta romance. I felt that it was poorly done, and that the author kept [[RetCon retconning]] Peeta's feelings for Katniss for no particular reason (He hints that [[LoveInterest he loves her]], then admits it on live TV! But then [[spoiler: it turns out [[SubvertedTrope he faked it for the PR]]!]] But then [[spoiler: he really did love her, and it turns out he [[DoubleSubversion faked faking it for the PR]]!]]) And then there's the fact that Peeta is TheLoad and is utterly useless except for [[spoiler: rescuing Katniss once]] and [[spoiler: killing Foxface by being too inept to tell poisonous berries apart from edible ones.]] * deep breath* Okay, I'm done. Other than that, good book.

** Her name was Rue, and keep in mind she * was* only 12, and underfed, more so than Katniss and Peeta. it was pretty much a miracle she survived as long as she did, even with her speed. and this troper would have tossed away the book if Katniss had killed the little girl she considered her sister.

* You'd think that after possibly hundreds of years, or at least with North American being fused into one country, they'd be using the metric system.
But no, wishful thinking.
** Wasn't there some sort of war that destroyed cities? I doubt switching to the metric system was really a priority.

** Peeta seems pretty sure that the Capitol made the muttations seem like they had been made with Tributes' DNA, but weren't really. I think it was to create some nice <i>Mind Rape</i> for the remaining Tributes. I thought that the "Rue" muttation was snarling in hatred at Katniss was a hint that it wasn't really Rue, even if its eyes <i>looked</i> like hers. There's another muttation scene in <i>Catching Fire</i> that seems to support the idea that it's easier for the Capitol to fake involving humans in the creation of muttations, and it gets the same horrified results. I'm hoping that Collins will follow through on this in <i>Mockingjay</i>.