History NightmareFuel / TheHungerGames

* At the beginning of the Games, the tributes stand on metal plates surrounded by landmines to prevent them from running into the arena before the opening siren goes off. One year, a girl accidentally dropped her token--a small wooden ball--and was blown to bits.

* Katniss mentions that some tributes go completely feral in the arena, comparing them to raging beasts. A few years before the 74th Hunger Games, a tribute named [[Literature/TitusAndronicus Titus]] from District 6 went insane and started [[ImAHumanitarian eating]] the others. The Gamemakers had to stun him with tasers in order to collect the bodies of his victims before he ate them, and eventually killed him with an avalanche just so they wouldn't have a lunatic for a winner.

* Katniss mentions that some tributes go completely feral in the arena, comparing them to raging beasts. A few years before the 74th Hunger Games, a tribute named Titus from District 6 went insane and started [[ImAHumanitarian eating]] the others. The Gamemakers had to stun him with tasers in order to collect the bodies of his victims before he ate them, and eventually killed him with an avalanche just so they wouldn't have a lunatic for a winner.

* Mixed with TearJerker -- after Katniss' father died in a mine explosion when she was 11 and Prim was 7, their mother fell into a state of such deep depression that she stopped taking care of both herself and her daughters. Katniss did her best to provide for her family, in order to keep herself and Prim from being sent to the OrphanageOfFear. But the money began to run out, and the family came with inches of starving to death. They would have, if Peeta hadn't taken pity on Katniss and thrown her two loaves of burned bread that [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments reignited Katniss' will to live.]]

* Mixed with TearJerker -- after Katniss' father died in a mine explosion when she was 11 and Prim was 7, their mother fell into a state of such deep depression that she stopped taking care of both herself and her daughters. Katniss did her best to provide for her family, in order to keep herself and Prim from being sent to the OrphanageOfFear. But the money began to run out, and the family came with inches of starving to death. They would have, if Peeta hadn't taken pity on Katniss and thrown her two loaves of burned bread.

* Primrose's death in ''Mockingjay.'' She was burned ''alive'' and :in front of her sister, Katniss. Almost certainly she died instantaneously and didn't suffer. Still horrible, though not quite as much.
* "By the way, I know about the kiss." Also ParanoiaFuel, because HOW does he know? And how did the Peacekeepers know Katniss went into the woods that time, so they turned on the fence? Was it cameras, spies? And how long has the area been monitored? Did the Capitol know about Katniss, Gale, even her dad hunting, but just didn't care until she became a Victor , the Mockingjay, and a threat? Or has she only been watched since then? Katniss never actually finds out, so neither do we.

* The fact that the children who were behind the barricade happily took the parachutes, believing them to have food or gifts, and were brutally murdered. Some of them did not even die; no, they were only mutilated. And then Prim and other rebel medics came in...and a second set of explosions went off, killing them too. All of this happened on ''Coin's orders.'' And Katniss ended up seeing the entire thing in person.

** President Snow has a granddaughter that he dotes on. Imagine what it would have been like for her; she would definitely have been forced to play in the Hunger games. People who hated her grandfather would have made sure that she was humiliated and killed in an absolutely cruel way. Sponsors? Forget about that; unless they want to prolong her suffering, she might not have sponsors on account of the fact that the audience will be people who were wronged by Snow. And IF she manages to survive that Hunger Game, what's to say that she won't be killed by an assassin? Or worse, forced to go through another Hunger Game, or more? Her life will become a living nightmare...and ''she's a child.''

* When starving girls in District 12 are desperate, they end up sleeping with Cray, the Head Peacekeeper, in exchange for a few coins to feed their families. Katniss even says that this could have happened to her if she did not know how to hunt.

* Cray, the Head Peacekeeper, takes advantage of starving young women in District 12 by offering to sleep with them in exchange for a few coins to feed their families. Katniss is aware that if she had been older when her father died, and she hadn't known how to hunt, she would have had to sell herself to Cray to keep herself and her family alive.

* During the Victory Tour, when Katniss gives her speech in District 11 and thanks them for giving her the bread during the 74th Games, an old man whistles Rue's four note song, inciting an act of rebellion in which every person in the crowd performs District 12's funerary salute. The Peacekeepers promptly drag the old man out in front of the crowd and execute him on the spot. Two more shots are fired, but Katniss only hears them, not knowing who else was shot.
* After an uprising in District 8, Gale brings a wild turkey to Cray's house expecting to be paid for it like he always is. He finds the new Head Peacekeeper there, Thread, who promptly arrests him for poaching and has him publicly whipped more than forty times (and it would have been more if Katniss, Haymitch and Peeta hadn't stepped in). Darius, a friendly Peacekeeper, tries to protest the whipping but is taken away and turned into an Avox. And this is only the first sign of things to come, as President Snow cracks down harder on the districts to kill any hope of a rebellion.

* After an uprising in District 8, Gale brings a wild turkey to Cray's house expecting to be paid for it like he always is. He finds the new Head Peacekeeper there, Thread, who promptly arrests him for poaching and has him publicly whipped more than forty times. And this is only the first sign of things to come, as President Snow cracks down harder on the districts to kill any hope of a rebellion.

* After an uprising in District 8, Gale brings a wild turkey to Cray's house expecting to be paid for it like he always is. He finds the new Head Peacekeeper there, Thread, who promptly arrests him and has him publicly whipped more than forty times. And this is only the first sign of things to come, as President Snow cracks down harder on the districts to kill any hope of a rebellion.

* When starving girls in District 12 are desperate, they end up sleeping with Cray, the Head Peacekeeper, in exchange for a few coins. Katniss even says that this could have happened to her if she did not know how to hunt.

* Some of the ways the rebels, including Johanna, Darius, and Lavinia, are brutally tortured in Mockingjay, which include [[spoiler: cutting off people's body parts one by one until they are dead, delivering electric shocks to the rebel until they have died, and drowning the rebel in water and then electrocuting them]].

* ''Mockingjay'' is filled with these. At one point, [[spoiler: Katniss witnesses a group of Capitol refuges get mowed down by rebels, who were apparently aiming at the Peacekeepers. She sees a little girl in a yellow coat, one who had just seen her face scant minutes before, sobbing over the dead body of her mother. More bullets rain down, tear through the little girl, and she dies instantly.]] Katniss is so horrified she can't even speak at first.

* Watching Snow, who wasn't the nicest person to be around but certainly far from the President we all know in The Hunger Games trilogy, move further and further towards his future personality in ''The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes''. A boy on the fringes of Capitol society just trying to secure his spot towards a good future ends up [[spoiler: with a body count of '''FOUR''' (Bobbin, Mayfair, Sejanus and Dean Highbottom)]] and he's only '''EIGHTEEN''' with his power and influence growing. If he can poison and kill at just eighteen, there's no telling what else he did in order to eventually become the President Snow we all meet in the first Hunger Games book.

* The Hunger Games in general. These children finish High School with approximately 12 less school-mates. Haymitch is the only District 12 Victor alive in 74 years, and his year was a Quarter Quell where double the usual number of Tributes were taken. Which means the 12 districts have lost a total of 1,725 children in the arena.

* To get more food for their family, a child can sign up for tesserae starting from age 12, which involves entering their name more times in the Hunger Games reaping ball in exchange for enough grain and oil to feed one person for a year. By age 18, Gale has his name in the reaping ball 42 times because he's been providing for himself, his mother, and his three younger siblings.

* To get more food for their family, a child can sign up for tesserae, which entails entering their name more times in the Hunger Games reaping ball in exchange for enough grain and oil to feed one person for a year. By age 18, Gale has his name in the reaping ball 42 times because he's been providing for himself, his mother, and his three younger siblings.

* Cray. When starving girls in District 12 are desperate, they end up sleeping with him in exchange for a few coins. Katniss even says that this could have happened to her if she did not know how to hunt.
* A few years before the 74th Hunger Games, one of the tributes, Titus of District 6, went insane and started [[ImAHumanitarian eating]] the others. The Gamemakers had to stun him with tasers in order to collect the bodies of his victims before he ate them, and eventually killed him with an avalanche just so they wouldn't have a lunatic for a winner.

* In a previous Hunger Games, one of the tributes, Titus of District 6, went insane and started [[ImAHumanitarian eating]] the others. The Gamemakers had to have him stunned with tasers in order to collect the bodies of his victims before he ate them, and eventually killed him with an avalanche just so they wouldn't have a lunatic for a winner.