Line #69 NightmareFuel/TheVictorsProject


1	'''Beware of any unmarked spoilers!'''
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6	* Like Collins, [=Oisin55=] doesn't skimp on the terrifying deaths shown throughout the fic.
7	* Ahenobarbus goes berserker mode and kills sixteen other tributes in less than forty minutes. Afterward, the narrative refers to him as TheButcher.
8	* The DomesticAbuse in Woof's household is quite ugly, as is how Woof and his sisters end up on the street after he accidentally kills their father.
9	* The 21st Hunger Games arena after a week into the Games. It transforms from a beautiful paradise to a GardenOfEvil full of horrific mutts and dark-looking terrain that makes many of the remaining tributes (including the Victor) go into hysterics.
10	* The Black Banquet Massacre that kills ''ninety-seven'' people. To quantify it: if this was a real-life event and it was indeed Coriolanus Snow who was behind it, he would have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_number_of_victims one of the highest known victim counts as a serial killer]] at the very ''beginning'' of his bloody career.
11	* When Virtus befriends a pregnant stray dog, as soon as the puppies are born, Boudicca [[KickTheDog forces him to kill and eat them and their mother]].
12	* [[KnightTemplar Justus]] transforms into a vicious killer in the arena, parroting the Capitol's SinsOfOurFathers rhetoric with each kill and calling it "justice".
13	* [[SinsOfOurFathers Nellie Mills]]' death during the 25th Hunger Games, where she's hacked to death by the District Two boy, sending bits of bone, blood, and organ spattering across the shield between the tributes and the Capitol crowd.
14	* The first Quell in general. Some of the tributes were chosen for the sins of their families, some because no one would miss them, others because the district had to send ''someone'' in and they had a chance of surviving. But others were genuinely bad people, particularly the District 6 and 8 boys, a parricidal drug lord and a SerialRapist, respectively. And as the Chevy J., the aforementioned drug lord, notes in ''Quell'', someone ''always'' comes back, with the power and status of a victor and a ''grudge''.
15	* The [[AcademyOfEvil DAEYD]] after Luster Lancaster takes control of it. Attendance is mandatory for those who pass certain evaluations, where they're trained to become [[SexSlave sex slaves]], AxCrazy sociopaths, or a mix of both.
16	** The genuine worries from some pregnant mothers, where they drink and smoke in hopes of their child(ren) having birth defects so their child(ren) fail the evaluation.
17	** Once you become a Victor, [[HopeSpot you get to escape the DAEYD without anyone there bothering you, right]]? ''[[YankTheDogsChain Not a chance]].'' Luster would still try to control you (and is good at doing so), as seen with Wonder following his Hunger Games and Ermine when she's assigned Song as a mentee. As much as she likes her, Jade is uncomfortable interacting with Song due to the attention she would attract from Luster.
18	** It's also mentioned that cadets are encouraged to maim and murder their peers. Can you imagine being a top-ranking DAEYD student, where your peers are nice to your face but will [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstab you]] for a shot at competing in the Hunger Games? Esther wouldn't, as seen in Ermine's chapter. Same with the main rival who Jade incapacitated.
19	* Scipio's dismembering at the hands of Luster, after he and Wonder unsuccessfully try to flee the district. One can imagine how it would look (and smell) like inside the box that Luster would eventually give to Wonder.
20	* Barty's games feature a terrifying assortment of carnivorous and/or toxic plants that eat people alive or melt their faces off.
21	* The rabid dog attack that almost claims the life of Viola is a creepy bit of RealismInducedHorror.
22	* The RealismInducedHorror of the high-stakes tribute betting system. Nothing about children killing children; just the horrible effects of how it can ruin someone's life over the wrong tribute: loss of fortune, addiction, debt, and suicide (as seen with one unlucky gambler following Beetee's victory).
23	* President Snow's conversation with Spartacus Brandybane about the purpose of Career tributes and how disposable he is as a Head Gamemaker. Even though Brandybane complies with Snow's orders to make a point to the Career districts, it's unsettling to listen to.
24	* The 44th Hunger Games arena is a jungle with the usual Cornucopia in the centre. Except at the start, a chasm swallows everyone within the area, taking advantage of the Careers' usual strategy to capture the Cornucopia.
25	** The chasm doesn't swallow all six of the Careers (the people that Snow wanted to target), but also six other outliers just to make a point to Luster, Boudicca, and Mags as a collective.
26	** Later in the 44th Hunger Games, one boy is eaten alive by fire ants in his sleep and a girl is driven insane by lizards stalking her in the dark.
27	* The [[PaedoHunt pedophilic]] sex parties Justinian hosts and attends are described in nauseating detail. While the majority of the more explicit details are thankfully omitted, Finnick notes that Justinian raped ''at least'' one District One girl who couldn't have been more than nine or ten, and definitely did so to numerous others.
28	* Several kills the [[{{Sadist}} District 4 boy]] makes in the 45th Hunger Games feel like something from a TorturePorn flick. Highlights include him slowly hanging the boy from 9 (whose death is described in excruciatingly realistic detail as he slowly strangles to death), burning the District 10 boy alive while poking at him with a red-hot metal poker, and doing ''[[NothingIsScarier something]]'' [[NothingIsScarier nasty enough to Cora's tribute]] [[GoryDiscretionShot that only the aftermath is shown]]. If all this wasn't enough, the horrific death of the District 9 boy does nothing but [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence sexually arouse him]] and drive him to masturbate out of sight of the pack.
29	** His death is pretty nasty as well, with Chaff half-strangling him before smashing the Career's head to pulp against a sharpened splinter of steel sticking out from one of the arena's garbage piles.
30	* Matty's habit of skinning animals and how he employs this against a wounded Career tribute in the arena are ugly reading.
31	* Arachnophobes might be advised to avoid the scene where Brutus is nearly eaten by {{giant spider}} mutations.
32	* Coin executing many of the remaining Career Victors in a KangarooCourt for being Career Victors. It doesn't help that most of their views of the Games were [[TykeBomb hammered into them at either the DAEYD or the Institute]], and that most of them are at least [[TragicVillain Tragic Villains]] of one stripe or another when they aren't outright allied to the Rebellion.
33	** Granyte and Brilliance's deaths hit particularly hard. Doesn't matter if you're a wheelchair-bound seventy-four-year-old and reliant on an oxygen tank to breathe, it won't save you from the firing squad. Act DefiantToTheEnd by refusing to pledge your loyalty to the [[FullCircleRevolution new]] PresidentEvil, and you [[AgonizingStomachWound get deliberately shot in the gut and left to bleed out]], with the implication being that your family will also be targeted.
34	* Jade, from the perspective of her peers at DAEYD. She manages to help Ermine kill two other people and "ruin" one, is implied to have killed or maimed anyone who gets into her way (without it being traced to her), and manages to incapacitate her main rival before the 49th Hunger Games. The fact that it wasn't firmly traced back to her till recently makes it more creepy.
35	* Jade's [[TheSociopath casual mention]] to Caesar following her Hunger Games about killing eight people in the arena. Even if she's faking it, it's very chilling to hear as an outlying district citizen.
36	* The Capitol doesn't mind reaping pregnant girls into the Hunger Games. Just ask Miriam Murray, one of the District Seven female tributes for the 50th Hunger Games.
37	* District 2's tribute Trials, where the tributes have to survive in the wild, are subjected to brutal MindRape, and then forced to commit a cold-blooded murder (with the victims sometimes being people they personally know, or the children of traitors).
38	* Mitt's BodyHorror and mental trauma after leaving the arctic arena are enough to startle even the head gamemaker.
39	* [[HateSink Roan's]] racist murder of his district partner [[TheFarmerAndTheViper when she tries to help him]]. Almost everything about [[{{Sadist}} Roan]] might count, really.
40	* The District Five girl's death at the hands of Crystal during the 61st Hunger Games, in which she's essentially vivisected by the victorious career.
41	* Titus's descent into cannibalism, which begins when he kills his ally in a fight over a sponsor gift. And then there's how Song and her ally spend three days chasing Titus, while only getting the occasional glimpse of "bloody teeth and wild eyes" before he vanishes again. The memories of what he did are enough to give Johanna a genuine FreakOut during her reaping a year later.
42	* Mick Cahill's death at the hands of Lupus, where it's mentioned that his head was squashed open easily like some overripe fruit.
43	* [[AbusiveParents Lupus's father Malchus]] raises his kids to be Victors, burns Lupus's hand when he's six for hesitating, and is eager to send his younger children into the 3rd Quarter Quell together even while knowing that doing so means at least one of them will die... even when he already had one son who was ''already'' a Victor.
44	** [[TheBerserker Lupus himself]] is pretty damn scary when [[UnstoppableRage enraged]]. He's frothing at the mouth from sheer hatred and fury by the time his Games end, beating the bodies of the District One tributes to the point where they have to be literally scraped off the ground; despite being drugged to the gills with morphling after he's lifted out, he still wakes up several times and smashes everything in sight to splinters in the throes of his rage.
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48	* The [[AxCrazy Career]] [[ColdBloodedTorture tributes]], save for [[TokenGoodTeammate Plautia]]. They're happy to torture another tribute for seven hours before killing him, which includes [[FlayingAlive flaying him alive]] [[ForcedToWatch in front of his ally]], and killed Plautia for trying to spare them from being tortured. The duration would make both Citrine and Enobaria's two-hour-long kills look like a MercyKill, and is also their arguably their official MoralEventHorizon.
49	* While it's definitely far quicker than the above, the ways the some of the Careers die are pretty horrific (if [[LaserGuidedKarma well-deserved]]):
50	** Alabaster gets kicked down and has her throat graphically torn out by one of the horse muttations that Blight calls to the pack, with the horse at least partly eating her remains (possibly before she dies).
51	** Tara is caught between two pony mutts, which manage to bite into and grip her wrists. She has just enough time for to [[OhCrap look utterly terrified as she realises what's about to happen]] before the mutts run in opposite directions, [[TearApartTugOfWar pulling her apart like a wishbone]].
52	** Quintus is left to die by his allies, and the mutts toy with him as they kill him.
53	** Romani pushes another tribute off the top of a Ferris wheel, only to be [[TakingYouWithMe dragged down with her]], screaming in terror for several seconds before hitting the ground in a merciful GoryDiscretionShot.
54	* The Bleeding Blight outbreak in the epilogue. Snow infects District 7 with a lab-created plague, killing several major characters, just to see if it will work before he unleashes it on District 13.
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58	* Enobaraia and her friends being captured by the reavers, tortured, and forced to fight each other or vicious animals. Then Enobaria gets free and goes on a bloody RoaringRampageOfRevenge. She's half-crazy when rescuers find her.
59	* Rob's [[ElectricTorture torture via electric shocks]] is bad enough for him to require a MercyKill.
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63	* The description that many District One tributes attempt SuicideByCop. Imagine thinking that an early death is more desirable than becoming a SexSlave either after your victory or graduation (if you weren't the first person to touch the reaping bowl).
64	** Even more so when the reader realized they've ''read about'' many of these suicides in ''The Victors Project''.
65	* The rebellion of District One in itself is a great example of how brutal TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized can be. While the rebellion proper (having been planning ahead for years) is fairly restrained, the mobs that swiftly erupt are far less so, quite literally [[TornApartByTheMob tearing the Peacekeepers of the District limb from limb]] before leaving the bits to rot on the streets in the days after, lynching Song and her husband [[MisplacedRetribution despite their relative lack of connection to the Capitol]] (save for Song acting as TheQuisling to void her husband's Peacekeeper contract), and dragging LesCollaborateurs [[FamilyExtermination (along with their families)]] out into the streets before gunning them down as they beg for mercy.
66	** Gleam and the [[EvilMentor DAEYD instructors]] get locked inside their academy, which is promptly [[KillItWithFire set on fire by the cadets]]. KarmicDeath or not, it's a pretty nasty way to go, particularly considering that Gleam is effectively an old man with [[MisplacedRetribution minimal influence over]] the [[TrainingFromHell horrors]] [[SexSlave of the]] DAEYD.
67	** What happens when a live human is thrown into the graphite compressor is thankfully not shown, though it's mentioned that the victim's (Luster's body double) scream turns to that of an "animalistic wail", followed by a sudden silence and a heavily-flawed diamond dropping down the chute.
68	* District 3 wipes out their Peacekeepers by recreating every piece of technology and every muttation ever used in the Games, then unleashing them all at once. The result is a pure MookHorrorShow described in loving detail; Peacekeepers are ripped apart by explosions, shredded by blade traps, dissolved by acid, caught in nets of barbed wire, eaten by [[NothingIsScarier whatever kind of hellish muttation Wiress had stored in her house]], or suffer various other horrific fates.
69	-->Peacekeepers die. [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice They die impaled on whirling shards of steel]]. [[EyeScream They die with their eyeballs melting from their faces]]. They die half devoured or dissolved. They die screaming, and they die in silence. [[DefiantToTheEnd They die defiantly]], or [[VillainsWantMercy they die begging for their lives]]. But they die.
70	** Just to emphasise the sheer MookHorrorShow that the battle turned into, the chapter ends by revealing District 3's losses.
71	--->During the Dark Days, District 3 lost half their citizens. In the Mockingjay Rebellion, they are the only district to win without firing a single shot, or losing a single life.
72	* District 5's rebellion is [[ChildSoldiers mostly fought by children]], with [[DeathOfAChild appropriately horrific results]] -- the Capitol is shown to have absolutely no qualms about ordering at least one pair of children hanged in the main square as an example to others, and orders [[GeneralRipper Romulus Thread]] to perform decimation on the entirety of the district's Reaping-age population while forcing the parents to watch.
73	* What passes for a rebellion in District 6 is bloodthirsty gangs taking victors' relatives as hostages while trying to claim the district for themselves, the Capitol gunning down anyone who tries to find shelter with them while the Rebellion bombs at least one train trying to leave, and the district's in-fighting starting massive urban fires. [[StuffBlowingUp Then the fires hit the petrol refineries]], [[TheTokyoFireball and half of District 6 simply]] ''[[TheTokyoFireball vanishes]]''.
74	* While the ScoobyDooHoax and BigDamnHeroes moment is more of an awesome moment, it can be genuinely spooky [[RewatchBonus on the first read]] when it looks as if the vengeful ghosts of District 7's tributes have come back to life for revenge in a story that hasn't shown any signs of the supernatural beforehand.
75	-->They're still alive, and he knows each of them is heart-hammeringly grateful for that fact, but in District 7, every child knows that when gods and ghosts walk, you get the hell out of their way.
76	* Chapter 9 mentions that the Capitol relied on [[ChildSoldiers reaping-aged Institute kids as soldiers]]. How many unlucky cadets had the front lines of the Second Rebellion as one of their first assignments?
77	* The fighting in District 9 causes a grassfire that endangers even those who remain neutral in the Mockingjay Rebellion. One girl describes how her family ran for miles before the fire caught up to them and burned everyone but her and her baby brother.
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Context NightmareFuel / TheVictorsProject