Protagonists | Other District 12 Residents | Tributes of the 74th Hunger Games | Past Tributes | The Capitol | Spoiler Characters | The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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In General
Notable tributes that participated in Games before the 74th. Winning Games leads to a life of luxury and stability for themselves and their families, or so the Capitol would have you believe. Victors then act as mentors to the succeeding tributes from their district - it's their job to prepare them for arena and line up sponsors for them.
- The Alcoholic: Many past victors turn to vice due to having too much time, money, and PTSD on their hands.
- The Chew Toy: All of them in-universe. Although part of the allure of winning is, allegedly, that all of them get to live left alone, none of them are. If this isn't being sexually abused at the Capitol and by sponsors like Finnick, it's getting your whole family killed for something you did in the Games like Haymitch, or whatever happened to Johanna that meant there was no-one left she loved.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Most Victors attempt to do this through one means or another in order to cope with the guilt and PTSD that often comes with winning the Games.
- Dwindling Party: Fifty-nine victors are still alive at the beginning of Catching Fire. By the end of the next book, only seven (Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, Beetee, Annie, and Enobaria) are left.
- Gilded Cage: Their five-star housing and life of luxury post-Games is this. The Capitol can still kill their loved ones if they don't behave.
- Hero of Another Story:
- We don't learn much about any of their Games, but we do know that most of them survived some extremely tough and brutal times, even through heroism or villainy (see below). Haymitch is a notable example.
- Averted with Lucy Gray and the rest of the 10th Hunger Games tributes, as their Games is the focus of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Panem has produced a new teenage victor every single year for the better part of a century. They all share a traumatic experience unique only to them and are apparently required to be in close proximity while mentoring, making this trope inevitable.
- Mentor Archetype: It's their job to mentor the tributes from their district.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The majority of them consider their victory as such, due to all the people they outlive, or even personally kill, as well as the pressure the Capitol puts on them.
- Retired Badass: Technically all of them (especially the Careers who trained for it), due to walking out of an arena requiring survival skills, then sitting back for years until the Third Quarter Quell comes around.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: To varying degrees. How would you react if you live well, despite knowing you only got that far due to 23 (or in Haymitch's case, 47) other kids dying (some of which you watched die or killed yourself)? For bonus points, There Are No Therapists.
- Villain of Another Story: Enobarbia and Brutus are terrifyingly brutal people, but Katniss is not very concerned with them as she has bigger fish to fry.
District 1
Facet and Velvereen
See their entry here.
Gloss and Cashmere
The District 1 tributes for the Third Quarter Quell.
- Brother–Sister Team: They're siblings who won back-to-back Games.
- Females Are More Innocent: Unlike her brother, Cashmere isn't confirmed to have killed anyone during the Quell (although she might have off-screen).
- Sex Slave: Mockingjay implies that the stunningly beautiful Cashmere was a victim of this, alongside Finnick and possibly Johanna.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Katniss didn't spend much time with them, and didn't get to know them well.
District 2
Marcus
See his entry here.
Sabyn
See her entry here.
Brutus
The District 2 male tribute for the Third Quarter Quell.
- Big Bad: Averted. Unlike Cato, Brutus is just another competitor. This is because Katniss has realized that the Careers are pawns in the Capitol's game too, and this time, she has bigger fish to fry.
- Blood Knight: Katniss describes him as seeming eager to get back into the Games, to the point that he apparently volunteered for the Third Quarter Quell.
- The Brute: A strong, ex-Career Blood Knight who's more than willing to go back into the Hunger Games to kill people. However, it's downplayed in that he's not the main antagonist.
- Expy: He's essentially Cato MKII. In fact, he and Cato's final kills were the males from District 11, both were the next to die and the last in each game, and both were killed by the volunteer from District 12 for that year.
- Meaningful Name: He's a brute.
- Worthy Opponent: Downplayed, since he isn't really an antagonist and he and Katniss are only on opposite sides through circumstance. However, he's impressed enough by her shooting ability to request her as an ally in the Quell. It's noted that he and Enobaria are not in on the rebel plot, so he seemingly has no reason to ally with Katniss other than genuinely thinking her skill might come in handy.
Enobaria
The District 2 female tribute for the Third Quarter Quell.
- Dark Action Girl: She's a very tough Career fighter who spends a lot of her appearance in Catching Fire hunting Katniss and her alliance.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Subverted; she's the leader of the Career pack in the third Quarter Quell, but the only reason she's any kind of antagonist to Katniss and the others is her own desire to live. Katniss even recognizes this and lampshades it to herself as she switches her focus to destroying the arena.
- Man Bites Man: She killed a tribute during her original games by ripping out their throat with her teeth, and had them sharpened afterward as a reminder.
- Punch-Clock Villain: She's an antagonist in the third Quarter Quell only because she's another competitor in a game that can only have one victor. Outside the Games, while she and Katniss don't really get along, they're not antagonistic to each other either.
- Scary Teeth: Although she never actually gets to use them, she keeps her teeth sharpened.
- Sole Survivor: The only Career tribute of the third Quarter Quell to survive to the end.
- Sparing the Aces: She gets picked up along with Peeta and Johanna after the third Quarter Quell, but is let go pretty much immediately; not only is her home, District 2, the only district that enters the rebellion loyal to the Capitol, she didn't have any knowledge about the rebellion plot.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: States this word-for-word when she explains the reason why she votes yes for the Revenge Hunger Games.
- Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed. She is the only still-eager Career among the surviving Victors, making her allegiance ambiguous. However, Katniss still demands that she be saved along with the other Victors, and later on, she exhibits a vindictive attitude against the Capitol by voting yes for the Revenge Hunger Games, which puts her nominally on the rebels' side.
Lyme
A former Victor from District 2 and commander of the rebellion in District 2.
- Action Girl: She's middle-aged, muscular, and a past Victor of the Hunger Games.
- Frontline General: Personally leads several raids against the Nut.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She comes across as not wanting to waste lives and being interested in listening to Gale and Katniss.
- Rebel Leader: She's the leader of District 2's rebels and works with District 13 to bring them to the rebellion's side in the war.
- Uncertain Doom: She doesn't appear when President Coin gathers the surviving tributes to vote for the Revenge Hunger Games. Since Coin explicitly says that she has gathered all surviving tributes, this means that she must have died off-screen, but the specifics are never revealed. The films have her survive to lead forces at the start of the battle for the Capitol at least.
District 3
Circ
See his entry here.
Teslee
See her entry here.
Wiress and Beetee
A pair of former victors from District 3, electronics and explosives. Like Johanna and Finnick, both are part of the alliance of victors whose job it is to make sure Katniss and Peeta survive the Quell.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Wiress has difficulty communicating, often sprouting what comes across as gibberish without the proper context or being easily distracted.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Beetee in turn is described as having to translate for her, and given their ages, it's likely he was her mentor.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Wiress keeps saying "Tick tock" for no apparent reason. She's trying to hint that the Third Quarter Quell arena is a clock.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Beetee usually finishes Wiress's sentences for her.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Beetee used technology to win his Games and electrocute his enemies. It can be assumed Wiress is this as well.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Wiress is killed in the middle of her singing "Hickory-Dickory Dock". This alerts Katniss and the others that the Careers have arrived.
- In-Series Nickname: Called "Nuts" (Wiress) and "Volts" (Beetee) by Johanna.
- The Load: Beetee spends a lot of time in Catching Fire being carried around by Peeta (and occasionally Finnick), and Wiress is not much use due to her babbling. Subverted, though, since it's thanks to him that they were able to leave the arena at all.
- Madness Mantra: Wiress constantly mutters "tick tock" during the Games and nothing else. Subverted; she was trying to hint that the arena was a clock, and Beetee was at the time unconscious and unable to translate for her.
- No Full Name Given: Their surnames are never given in the books.
- Non-Action Guy: Both Beetee and Wiress don't participate in actual combat scenarios, but both make up for it by clearly being geniuses.
- The Ophelia: Wiress spends most of her time in the arena wandering around, mumbling, and singing. What she's singing, however, more or less solves the Third Quarter Quell problems.
- The Smart Guys: Beetee in particular is described as having managed to win his Games by building an electrified trap for his competitors; he also develops new weapons for the rebellion and helps cut into the Capitol's TV broadcasts so the rebels can spread their own propaganda. Wiress is more intuitive and able to notice things others would not much quicker.
District 4
Mizzen
See his entry here.
Carol
See her entry here.
Finnick Odair
"It takes ten times longer to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."
A devilishly handsome former victor from District 4, the fishing district. Best known for being one of the youngest victors (he was fourteen at the time) and for the string of broken hearts he leaves behind him in the Capitol. Won his Games by earning so many sponsors that he earned himself an ornate trident that he used to single-handedly destroy the rest of the competition. He later allies himself with Katniss and Peeta during the Third Quarter Quell, and turns out to be a rebel who is surreptitiously using his unique position as a former victor and quell participant to make sure the two of them survive so Katniss can become the figurehead of the second rebellion.
- Anti-Villain: A "villain in name only" type. He only seems to be potentially villainous to Katniss at first because he's a Career, but he's actually not that bad of a guy.
- Beta Couple: With Annie. The two receive a decent amount of romantic presence.
- The Casanova: His public persona is going from woman to woman. He's actually devastatingly loyal to Annie, who loves him back.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: During his Games, he was kept well supplied with food, medicine, and weapons by Capitol sponsors entranced by his beauty. When a sponsor sent him a parachute with a trident, it only took him a few days to kill all of his opponents with it and win.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Subverted. Katniss is horrified to learn that Finnick was coerced to service both men and women, starting when he was underage, and thus suffered statutory rape. He explains he didn't have a choice because President Snow threatened the girl he really loved, Annie, unless he went along with it.
- Even the Guys Want Him: At no point are his lovers (besides Annie, his eventual wife) specified by gender. In her narration, Katniss refers to them as "people of the Capitol". Finnick himself refers to them in gender-neutral terms as "patrons".
- Famed In-Story: One of the most popular victors because he's young, handsome, and charming.
- Fun Personified: Implied to be his natural personality, when he's not in the midst of crippling depression or otherwise wearing one of his other masks. He's easygoing, likes to tease and play little jokes on people, but also prone to cracking jokes at his own expense, such as when he says he can't leave Mags because she actually likes him.
- Gallows Humor: Literally; he makes a noose and pretends to hang himself for Katniss' amusement.
- Hands-On Approach: How he teaches Katniss how to knot.
- Hidden Depths: Lampshaded by Katniss in Mockingjay, where she lists off the various facets Finnick has shown her (smarmy heartthrob, enigmatic ally, broken man). She builds him up as a ruthless manslut, making fun of him for being a pretty womanizer and privately wary of the fact that he won his Games by being irresistible to the audience and merciless to his competitors. She respects him more as she gets to know him, seeing his playfulness when he suggests scaring Peeta awake, how he cares for Mags and Annie, and is stunned when he reveals that his 'womanizing' is just the public presentation of the fact that President Snow has been prostituting him to the highest bidder, and if he refuses, someone he loves will be killed.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Makes his first appearance in Catching Fire and is easily one of the most well-known characters from the series.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The "jerk" facade only really applies in Catching Fire. Katniss doesn't trust him a bit and constantly anticipates his betrayal, as he is pretty snarky. She later finds out he has more than several good reasons to have a hard shell, and his heart of gold fully emerges.
- Ladykiller in Love: Subverted with Annie; the "ladykiller" part is a façade he puts on to ensure that Annie doesn't get killed.
- The Lancer: To Katniss in the Third Quarter Quell, being a co-leader of her Alliance.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Johanna; Finnick is one of the only people Johanna trusts.
- Mr. Fanservice: In-universe example; later deconstructed due to what the Capitol did as a result.
- Nice Guy: By far one of the least flawed and generally likable people in Panem whom we meet. It may seem odd at first because career tributes are typically portrayed in a more negative light, but Katniss eventually comes to realize that they are just pawns like everyone else in the Capitol's sadistic and varied games of control.
- "Not So Different" Remark: He relates to Katniss having to fake a relationship for the cameras as he tells her since all of his lovers are actually "patrons" paying to have sex with him. Then, he says he realized it was Not an Act when Peeta's heart stopped and Katniss freaked out, even if Katniss isn't ready to admit that she loves Peeta.
- Off with His Head!: He is killed by having his head bitten off by giant white lizard mutts in Mockingjay.
- Prongs of Poseidon: His weapon of choice.
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Essentially Snow's method of making sure Finnick plays along with being sold to Capitol citizens is threatening to kill those he loves if he fails to comply.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: According to Katniss, this is one of his genuine charm points. He mocks his own reputation as a shallow pretty boy a couple of times, such as asking Katniss if she finds him distracting after stripping down to his underwear.
- Sex Slave: What President Snow turned him into, whoring him out to Capitol citizens. Apparently, this is not uncommon among physically-attractive victors.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Zigzagged. Finnick is one of the only victors we meet who seems to be a relatively well-adjusted individual. If you're willing to forget the fact he is a ruthless killer, he's actually not too bad a guy at his core. It's justified in that he is a Career, and therefore was not nearly as unprepared for the horror of his Games as other victors from say, the lower districts were. He even seems to handle what happened after his Games relatively well. However, he sinks into a terrible depression after Annie is arrested by the Capitol, has trouble focusing on anything, and has a nervous breakdown over what might be happening to her after watching Katniss do the same. He seems relatively able to hold himself together, but it's a fragile thing and he does it mostly for other people's benefit. With Annie gone in Mockingjay, he's relatively out of it, up until he realizes that he needs to help Katniss hold herself together.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Zigzagged. On one hand, his beauty helps him to survive his Games, but he's then made a sex slave for the rest of his life.
- So Happy Together: Gets to marry Annie and then gets to die.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: While Katniss and Peeta are actually an aversion, Finnick and Annie play this straight. They're not allowed to be together because he's far too attractive for Snow to be able to resist turning him into a sex slave and she is too mentally unstable to be considered a suitable partner for him in public. Once they are both in District Thirteen they are able to get married but they only have a short time together before he leaves to fight in the Capitol which leads to his death.
- Stepford Smiler: He's pretty chipper considering that he's been a child prostitute since he won the Games. Katniss realizes how much this has traumatized him when he tells her the truth about his patrons and worries about Annie.
- Survival Mantra: Non-verbal example: his constant knotting in the third book.
- Troll: Tries to corrupt Katniss by seductively eating sugar cubes in front of her before the Third Quarter Quell.
- Tyke Bomb: He'd qualify just for being a Career, but while most Careers volunteer at 18, Finnick is specifically singled out for winning his Games at 14. In the books, Katniss says that he's one of the youngest victors ever; in the film adaptation, he's called the youngest victor ever, period.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Johanna like to bicker, but they're very close and trust each other immensely.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Befitting his status as Mr. Fanservice, he's constantly shirtless before the Third Quarter Quell.
- Wartime Wedding: With Annie in Mockingjay. It ends tragically when he leaves shortly after only to die.
Mags
Finnick's partner in the Third Quarter Quell and previously his mentor. She won the 11th Hunger Games, making her the second oldest known victor behind Lucy Gray Baird who won the 10th. She volunteers for the Quell after Annie is reaped to save her, despite being 80 years old and having likely had a stroke. Part of the alliance to keep Katniss and Peeta alive during the quell.
- Cool Old Lady: At eighty years old, she's at the very least one of the oldest living tributes.
- Death Seeker: She doesn't care about living or dying, but she knows that she won't live past the second Games; she just does it to save Annie. And she then commits suicide by the fog to save Finnick.
- Face Death with Dignity: She simply kisses Finnick good-bye and walks right into the poison fog.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Took Annie's place in the Third Quarter Quell, knowing that the Games are a death sentence at the best of times. At her age, she doesn't stand a chance. Then she makes one again when she walks into the poison fog, since Katniss is injured and Finnick isn't strong enough to carry her and Peeta.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Finnick, Katniss, and Peeta, especially Finnick, all of whom respect her or talk to her with strong familiarity. Possibly to Annie.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: Walks into poison fog so that Finnick can focus on rescuing Peeta instead.
- The Load: She is literally the Load in Catching Fire, as she is an elderly stroke victim whom Finnick carries around in the arena. She eventually gives up her own life by walking into a poisonous fog, so that Finnick will turn his efforts to protecting Katniss.
- The Mentor: She is Finnick's mentor.
- Morality Pet: She's the first indication that Finnick is a decent guy by the way he cares about her. Despite being a Career, he, like Katniss, values her over the younger, stronger competitors.
- Parental Substitute: To Finnick. She is repeatedly described as being the only thing he has to family, and Finnick says she more or less raised him.
- Retired Badass: A young victor of an early Games who has now had a stroke.
- The Unintelligible: Her speech is nearly unintelligible and Katniss speculates that she may have had a stroke at some point.
Annie Cresta
"She crept up on me."
—Finnick on Annie
A past tribute from District 4. During her games, Annie was traumatized by seeing her district partner get beheaded. She ran off on her own and managed to win after the arena was flooded because she was the best swimmer. She is Finnick's partner but their relationship is kept secret.
- Beta Couple: With Finnick. The two receive a decent amount of romantic presence.
- Break the Cutie: Her experience in the Games wasn't pleasant, to say the least, and left her shell-shocked to the point that she almost completely lost her mind.
- Damsel in Distress: Annie is captured and held prisoner by the Capitol at the end of Catching Fire, but she is rescued in Mockingjay.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She appears briefly in Catching Fire before becoming an important supporting character in Mockingjay.
- Famed In-Story: As a Victor, most of the country has seen her on TV.
- Freak Out: The loss of her mental stability began when she saw her district partner beheaded right in front of her, and it's only gone downhill from there.
- Heroic BSoD: Twice: first when she witnesses her district partner being beheaded in her Games, and again when her name is drawn for the Third Quarter Quell. Luckily for her, Mags volunteers to take her place.
- I Have Your Wife: Captured by the Capitol to be used as leverage against Finnick. Fortunately, the rebels save her.
- Insane Equals Violent: Subverted. Though she is strange and can often be difficult to understand, Annie—in contrast to most other Victors—is a sweet girl and doesn't seem to pose a threat to anyone's well-being.
- Meaningful Name: Annie Cresta is from District 4, whose main industry is fishing.
- The Ophelia: She's presented as unstable at the best of times.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Not necessarily a more extreme example than many other Victors, who are just as broken after their Games, but simply a more noticeable one. Haymitch lampshades this at one point, commenting that Annie is actually not crazy, it's just that her PTSD manifests itself in a form which makes most people think she is, instead of the typical substance abuse, or reckless, self-destructive, jerkass behavior that comes to define most of the other Victors.
- So Happy Together: She and Finnick finally get married... and her husband goes off to fight in the war that's going on in the background and dies.
- Someone to Remember Him By: In the epilogue, we find out that Annie has given birth to Finnick's son.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: While Katniss and Peeta are actually an aversion, Finnick and Annie play this straight. They're not allowed to be together because he's far too attractive for Snow to be able to resist turning him into a sex slave and she is too mentally unstable to be considered a suitable partner for him in public. Once they are both in District Thirteen they are able to get married but they only have a short time together before he leaves to fight in the Capitol, which leads to his death.
- Super Swimming Skills: During her games, the arena was flooded and she won by outlasting everyone else in the water.
- Victory by Endurance: She won because she outlasted everyone else swimming.
- Wartime Wedding: With Finnick in Mockingjay.
- Weak, but Skilled: We never heard of her killing anyone, but she could swim, so she outlasted everyone when the arena flooded. Though it is a safe bet she killed a few tributes before the death of her district partner, given that she was a Career tribute.
- What Does He See in Her?: Out of all the rich and powerful lovers that Finnick's had, "the mad girl he left behind him" is the only one he truly loves.
District 5
Hy
See his entry here.
Sol
See her entry here.
District 5 Quarter Quell Tributes
Tributes District 5 who compete in the Third Quarter Quell. The male is the first person killed in the bloodbath. The female survives, but is killed by the tidal wave the next day.
- The Alcoholic: The male, like Haymitch and Chaff, was an alcoholic.
- No Name Given: They're only referred to as "the man from District 5" and "the woman from District 5", never by names.
- Recurring Extra: The male, along with the District 9 female, are the most seen unnamed tributes.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Neither gets a name or much characterization.
District 6
Otto and Ginnee
See their entry here.
Titus
A tribute from District 6 who went crazy and ate his fellow tributes before being killed by an avalanche.
- Ax-Crazy: Went insane during his Games.
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Katniss mentions that a lot of people believe the avalanche that killed him was deliberately triggered by the Gamemakers who didn't want an insane cannibal as a victor.
- I'm a Humanitarian: During his Games, he went insane and started eating the bodies of the tributes that he killed.
- Meaningful Name: Named for Titus Andronicus, the Shakespearean character who killed his daughter's rapists and cooked him, then served him to his own mother.
The Morphlings
A pair of drug addicts who compete in the Third Quarter Quell. Part of the alliance to keep both Katniss and Peeta alive during the quell.
- Big Damn Heroes: The female saves Peeta in the nick of time.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Played with. It seems both of them are completely out of their minds on drugs all the time, but not enough to stop them joining the Games to save Katniss and Peeta, best shown when the woman saves Peeta at the cost of her own life.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The female tribute sacrifices her life to save Peeta. He feels some guilt over being saved by someone whose name he doesn't even know.
- Hidden Depths: Haymitch must have known that they would be able to protect Katniss and Peeta, despite how addled they were.
- Lethal Joke Character: The female seems like just an Addled Addict who does art at inopportune times, then she saves Peeta's life.
- Master of Disguise: The female's talent. She uses it to appear from thin air in order to protect Peeta. Haymitch said this is how both the morphlings won their Games.
- Meaningful Name: Nickname in this case, but while the name stems from their addiction to morphling drugs, they were also skilled at camouflaging themselves with paint.
- No Name Given: Referred to only as the Male and Female Morphlings. Lampshaded by Peeta later on, when he feels guilty about not knowing the name of the person who gave up her life for him.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The male is killed in the initial brawl at the Cornucopia.
District 7
Treech
See his entry here.
Lamina
See her entry here.
Blight
The District 7 male for the Third Quarter Quell. Part of the alliance to keep Katniss and Peeta alive during the Quell.
- Meaningful Name: He's from the forestry district, and "Blight" is an illness that afflicts trees.
- Morality Pet: Makes Johanna show an unusual feeling of sadness and empathy.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Katniss never really gets to meet him. He is later killed when he ran into the forcefield during the blood rain. Thus, he never had the chance to protect Katniss and Peeta.
Johanna Mason
A former arena tribute from District 7, the lumber district, who pretended to be weak and useless before ruthlessly cutting her way to victory. It is later revealed that she is part of the alliance of victors whose job is to keep both Katniss and Peeta alive during the Quell.
- Action Girl: She's an athletic axe-wielder capable of killing a Career in close combat.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Can be quite snarky most of the time.
- Anti-Hero: Her strategy in her own Hunger Games was to make herself appear weak but then be ruthless when committing murders, which is not a scheme one would expect from a heroic character. She also has no qualms in stealing Katniss' painkillers while they share a room in District 13's hospital, knowing that Katniss won't say anything about it despite her own pain because of what Johanna went through. Johanna is also the only sympathetic character who votes "yes" to a final Hunger Games in order to get back at the Capitol, even mentioning that Snow has a granddaughter.
- Badass in Distress: She's taken hostage by the Capitol at the end of Catching Fire and held in their captivity throughout a part of Mockingjay.
- The Big Guy: In the Quarter Quell, Johanna does much of the heavy-lifting in the Rebel-aligned tribute alliance.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Her gambit in her original Games she acted meek and non-threatening until the axe came out.
- Boyish Short Hair: Representing her tough and haughty personality.
- Broken Bird: Considering that Johanna has stated that jabberjay cries can't hurt her since all her loved ones are gone, it's safe to conclude that it has affected her in some way. The 'broken' part shows more in Mockingjay after her capture and torture in the Capitol.
- Consummate Liar: Besides her strategy in her original Games, in which she pretended to be meek and timid when she was actually great at killing other tributes, let's take a look at her interview before the Quell. She gets up on stage and talks about the love between the victors and the Capitol. If that's not a lie, coming from her, one of the angriest, most anti-Snow of the victors (which is saying something)...
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: How she won her Games, by deliberately seeming cowardly and unskilled. When she actually appears, she drops it.
- Deadpan Snarker: "At least they'll have a hard time figuring out our plan, since we can't even understand it ourselves."
- Defrosting Ice Queen: When she's introduced, she acts as little more than a jerkass. However, she becomes somewhat nicer later on, as well as more sympathetic, especially when it turns out that she's one of the tributes in on the operation from District 13 to break out Katniss.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Though she's quick to anger as a general rule, it appears as though unwanted affection or pity gets on her nerves the most. Overlaps with Berserk Button.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Does this by means of morphling in the third book, shamelessly stealing her supply from Katniss as she knows the girl feels indebted to Johanna for essentially saving her life.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She's named and mentioned in the first book, where Katniss recounts how she won her Games.
- Electric Torture: The Capitol tortured her by shocking her.
- Famed In-Story: As a Victor, most of the country has seen her on TV.
- Foil: She's Katniss, if Katniss didn't have a younger sister to care for, right down to being the only living female victor in her district. At one point, Katniss wonders if Johanna's treatment of her is what it's like to have an older sister that hates you.
- Good Is Not Nice: Being on Katniss's side doesn't stop her from being rude, insulting, and harsh.
- Hates Baths: Katniss notes in Mockingjay that Johanna never seems to shower. Turns out she was tortured by being soaked in water and then given electrical shocks, implying the reason behind this is that it would trigger her.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: She grows close with Katniss in Mockingjay while recovering together in the hospital, enough for them to temporarily move in together and train together for the final assault on the Capitol.
- Hidden Depths: Much, much more subtle than with Finnick, due her to comparative lack of attention (and Katniss's initial dislike of her), but lines like "There's no one left that I love" have been fueling fanficcers ever since. She herself sheds a bit of light on this, when Katniss asks her point-blank why Johanna hates her so much, and she points out just how much special privilege Katniss gets for being the face of the rebellion, while Johanna has gone through ordeals just as bad or worse just to make sure Katniss was alive to be that face.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A very young victor whose whole tactic was to seem as weak and helpless as possible, turned into a sour, aggressive slightly older woman, but we find out that Johanna is actually mostly pragmatic.
- Knight in Sour Armor: She's part of the alliance to save Katniss and Peeta, but she seems to dislike Katniss for a lot of genuine reasons — such as Katniss's special treatment — and so she'll bitch about it a lot.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Finnick, to the point that Katniss initially thinks that Finnick is the only reason Johanna agrees to an alliance.
- Naked on Arrival: Not exactly, but the first thing she does on-page is complain about her costume and strip down to her slippers. And then get in an elevator with Katniss and Peeta, chatting casually the whole way up.
- Not Worth Killing: Her strategy in the Games was to make herself look like such a pathetic, whimpering fool that nobody saw her as a threat. Then, when it was down to only a handful of tributes left, it turned out she could kill viciously...
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Again, how she won her Games. She appeared so weak and harmless that everyone pretty much left her alone. Then she started kicking ass.
- Plot-Powered Stamina: Goes nearly two whole days without sleep at the start of the Third Quarter Quell.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Usually combined with Naked People Are Funny, playing on the awkwardness or absurdity of the situation.
- Traumatic Haircut: The implied reason why she's bald in Mockingjay, as it certainly wouldn't have been her own choice to shave.
- Troll: Her constant stripping off is an attempt at making Katniss feel uncomfortable.
- Two First Names: Her surname, Mason, can also be a first name.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She and Finnick like to bicker, but they're very close and trust each other immensely.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In Mockingjay, after going through torture at the hands of the Capitol by being soaked and then shocked, she has a fear of water.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not directly, but at the end of the rebellion, she agrees with the idea of holding a last Hunger Games with the children of Capitol politicians as tributes, including Snow's granddaughter.
District 8
Bobbin
See his entry here.
Wovey
See her entry here.
Cecelia and Woof
The District 8 tributes for the Third Quarter Quell. Part of the alliance to keep Katniss and Peeta alive during the Quell.
- Babies Ever After: After Cecelia won her Games, she had three kids who were seen being torn from her embrace at her reaping.
- Hidden Depths: Despite not being seen much, Haymitch must have known that they could protect Katniss and Peeta throughout the Quell.
- Nice Girl: Cecelia is described as being kind and motherly, which made Katniss want to be her ally.
- Retired Badass: Both, as they were both Victors.
- Take Care of the Kids: Cecelia knew she wouldn't make it out of the Third Quarter Quell alive.
- Too Stupid To Live: Woof tries to eat poisonous bugs in the training center. Justified due to him being senile.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Both were killed in the bloodbath.
District 9
Panlo and Sheaf
See their entry here.
District 9 Quarter Quell Tributes
Tributes from District 9, who competed in the Third Quarter Quell.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Were dressed as bread, of all things, at the chariot rides. Justified as their district is grain.
- No Name Given: Neither of their names are known.
- Recurring Extra: The female, along with the District 5 male, are the most seen unnamed tributes.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Both were killed in the initial bloodbath.
District 10
Tanner
See his entry here.
Brandy
See her entry here.
District 10 Quarter Quell Tributes
Tributes from District 10 who participated in the 75th Hunger Games. The female is one of the last killed in the bloodbath, but the male survived until the next day, when he was mauled by a muttation only referred to as "The Beast".
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The male had to be retrieved in pieces...
- Legacy Character: Sorta, the male, like the previous District 10 male, survived the bloodbath, while his female counterpart didn't.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: They were dressed in a ridiculous-looking cow-inspired outfit, with flaming belts, at the chariot rides, which unintentionally appeared as if the cows were broiling themselves.
- No Name Given: Neither is named in canon.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: None of them receive any mention besides their deaths and their parade costumes.
District 11
Reaper Ash
See his entry here.
Dill
See her entry here.
Chaff
A competitor in the Third Quarter Quell, and Haymitch's drinking buddy. Part of the alliance to keep both Katniss and Peeta alive during the Quell.
- The Alcoholic: Drinks to cope with his trauma as a survivor of the Games and as a mentor to years of tributes killed in them.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost his hand during his Games, and refused to have it replaced after his victory.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Though he talks too loud and makes too many bad jokes for Katniss's tastes, Chaff seems to be a pretty jovial guy. And according to Effie, he never could stay out of a fight. The timing of her comment (said during the reaping recaps) heavily implies that he was one of the few Quell tributes who actually volunteered to participate.
- Dirty Old Man: Drunkenly makes out with Katniss. Haymitch and Peeta think this is hilarious, but Katniss doesn't see the funny side.
- Drowning My Sorrows: He's a friend of Haymitch's. They both turned to drinking after their Games.
- Handicapped Badass: If you thought that a middle-aged man with only one hand would be taken out early on in the Quell, you thought wrong. He somehow survived right up to the end and was only taken down when Brutus got involved.
- Meaningful Name: Chaff is a double example. Not only does it mean "the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing", but it also means, "worthless matter". Chaff never becomes important to the plot.
- Troll: He's in on Finnick and Johanna's pranking Katniss.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's introduced about midway through Catching Fire, plays a minor role, and is killed off by the end of the installment.
Seeder
The District 11 female for the Third Quarter Quell. Part of the alliance to keep Katniss and Peeta alive during the Quell.
- Cool Old Lady: Katniss guesses that Seeder is roughly 60 years old, which would make her the third-oldest named tribute (behind Mags and Woof). However, she is still physically fit and positively portrayed during what little screen time she has, as well as quickly going to assure Katniss that Thresh and Rue's families are safe.
- Meaningful Name: Her name references a person who plants seeds in the ground. She's from the agriculture District.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She is killed in the initial brawl at the Cornucopia.
District 12
Jessup Diggs
See his entry here.
Lucy Gray Baird
See her entry here.
Haymitch Abernathy
"Remember who the real enemy is."
Katniss and Peeta's mentor, a participant in the 50th Hunger Games (and Second Quarter Quell) and the only surviving victor from District 12 (the only other one they've ever had has passed away by the time the story begins). His duty is to give them tips on how to survive the arena, arrange deals with sponsors to get them potentially life-saving items, and other things for which you generally would prefer someone to be sober - which unfortunately is not one of Haymitch's better skills. Also turns out to be a key member of La Résistance.
- The Alcoholic: Always has a bottle of alcohol around him.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Bickers a lot with Katniss and at one point outright tells her he would have rather focused on saving Peeta in the 74th Games but there are also moments that show that he and Katniss care deeply about each other. It's his embrace she throws herself into after winning the Games and in Mockingjay it's his arms she cries in over the torture of Peeta.
- Birds of a Feather: Has a lot of similarities to Katniss which they can provide comfort and understanding with each other at best. Perversely, this often results in them taking out their own self-hatred on each other.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Though Catching Fire shows that he's damn smart when it comes down to it, he doesn't put any effort into helping his Tributes at all. That being said, with the revelations of Snow employing brutal methods to keep the Victors in the line at the top of the trauma that they will get for participating the eponymous game, it's heavily implied that he considers winning a Fate Worse than Death, making it possible that he is deliberately (or subconsciously) preventing kids becoming Victors as a result.
- The Chessmaster: In Catching Fire, Haymitch helps orchestrate Katniss's escape from the Third Quarter Quell.
- Catchphrase:
- Calling Katniss "sweetheart".
- "Stay alive."
- Combat Pragmatist: How he manages to survive the Hunger Games—by using the forcefield to deflect his last opponent's weapon after the difficulties of fighting her became clear. Unfortunately, President Snow doesn't put up with it and killed his family.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Haymitch Abernathy seems like a useless drunk, but he did actually win a Hunger Game after all. In Catching Fire, we learn that Haymitch survived his Hunger Games using extreme cunning. We also learn that he's a member of the underground resistance.
- Cutting the Knot: Spent his Game actually looking for the end of the arena, which probably inspired the escape plan in Catching Fire. Instead of playing the game the Capitol demands, he helps mastermind the plan to have the tributes break out of the arena.
- Cynical Mentor: Caused by a combination of having to mentor tributes only to watch them die year after year, and the trauma of his own Games and the aftermath, when President Snow had his family and girlfriend killed. Also seems to be well aware that winning the Games is just as bad as losing them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Even when he was a teenager, Haymitch was quite prone to sarcastic quips. During his Interview before the Second Quarter Quell, in response to being asked if his odds would be affected with a hundred percent more tributes in the arena, Haymitch replied that the other tributes would likely "still be one hundred percent as stupid as usual", so he believed his odds would be mostly unaffected.
- Defrosting Ice King: At first, Haymitch is fairly apathetic about Katniss and Peeta, believing them to be two average teenagers from District 12 being shipped off to their doom in the Hunger Games. However, later on, when he realizes both of them have enough spirit to stand a chance in the Games and win, he starts to take a more hands-on role in mentoring them and gradually becomes closer to them throughout the first book.
- Determinator: The description of him winning his Games involves him outrunning someone trying to kill him while physically holding his stomach to keep his guts from falling out.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Unable to cope with the emotional fallout of having been a tribute in the Games and subsequently having to lead fresh tributes to the slaughter, he dives into a bottle. While he seems to recover somewhat during the course of the series, by the end of Mockingjay he's as much of a hopeless drunk as he ever was.
- Drunken Master: Although sober when he won his own games through genius and brute strength, he's still extremely intelligent and brilliant, just half-dead from drink.
- Famed In-Story: Pretty much the only celebrity District 12 has, until the 74th Games.
- Found Family: His parents and girlfriend were killed by Snow, but by the end of the series he's become a surrogate father to Katniss and Peeta and the three of them make a home in District 12 together.
- Genius Bruiser: In his Games, he ultimately won by using a quirk of the arena against his enemies, but until then, he got by largely by sheer ass-kicking ability.
- Good Flaws, Bad Flaws: Played with. His alcoholism, which he is able to overcome at several points in the story only to fall back into the bottle later on, is initially played as an unsympathetic flaw that angers Katniss because she considers it to be one of the reasons that District 12 tributes — whom the often-drunk Haymatich is supposed to mentor — die so often. As the series progresses, she learns more about the severe trauma he's undergone and starts to sympathize more with his attempts to cope, especially as she temporarily tries the same method.
- Guile Hero: How he won his Games — which happened to be the Second Quarter Quell, where there was double the number of tributes. His tactic was to not only stay away from the majority of the fighting, but to use the properties of the arena itself as a weapon. He imparts the first bit of knowledge to Katniss right before the Games begin in earnest (i.e. "get the hell away from the Cornucopia bloodbath ASAP").
- Hidden Depths: Katniss initially writes him off as an irritating drunk, but it becomes clear that there's a lot more to him than that.
- Insufferable Genius: Back in the day. When asked how felt about being thrown into a Hunger Games where there would be "one hundred percent more competitors than usual, meaning the odds for the average tribute were twice as bad as they already were in a normal year" (47-1 compared to the average of "only" 23-1, not to mention that the odds for a child from his district were usually even worse), he says, "They'll still be one hundred percent as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be roughly the same." He backs up the claim when he wins by making use of the arena's force field, which none of the other tributes had even noticed.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Katniss and Peeta. He likes Peeta best (at least, that's what he tells Katniss), but he and Katniss are so alike that he has an easier time understanding and manipulating her.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Katniss is discomfited when she watches the video of Haymitch's Games and realizes he was actually pretty handsome.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's jaded and bitter, certainly, but that's because of how many times where he's watched Non-Action Guy tributes get blown up. He becomes a lot more helpful when Katniss gets fed up with his bull and proves herself to have more than a snowball's chance in hell.
- Kid Hero All Grown-Up: He was a winning tribute of the Hunger Games as a teen but has since become a depressed alcoholic, but eventually returns to heroism as a leader of the rebellion in the final book.
- Knight in Sour Armor: He's one of the most morally upstanding characters in the setting. It's just by the time we first meet him he is so utterly broken that he just seems to be nothing more than a useless drunkard who couldn't care less about the fate of the kids under his care.
- Mentor in Sour Armor: Embittered by the loss of his previous students, but still cares about Katniss and Peeta deep down.
- Nailed to the Wagon: Courtesy of Peeta in Catching Fire and of District Thirteen in Mockingjay. In Catching Fire, Peeta pours all of the alcoholic Haymitch's liquor down the drain and bribes the local bootlegger from selling him more. In District Thirteen, alcoholic beverages are illegal, and Haymitch reacts to being completely cut off so badly that he's kept secluded while he recovers.
- The Nicknamer: Katniss is "sweetheart" and Peeta is "the boy".
- Obfuscating Stupidity: At first Katniss just assumes (like everyone else in her district) that he is nothing but a useless drunkard with no social skills. Then it's revealed that Haymitch is secretly manipulating the events of the quell to aid the rebel cause and is nowhere near as stupid or as useless as everyone assumes him to be... while also being a drunkard with no social skills. Although to be fair, both Katniss and Peeta had already begun to realize this. It's the Capitol that (sadly for them) does not.
- One-Man Army: In his Hunger Games, he was downright scary, able to take on whole squads of armed careers with a knife and win.
- Parental Favoritism: Surrogate variety, but Katniss is often annoyed by his confessed fondness for Peeta. It might help that the boy understands Haymitch's strategies more than Katniss do enough to let him in into his plans.
- Parental Substitute: For Katniss; although they both seem to loathe to admit it, it is certainly there. Peeta lampshades this by pointing out that how similar the two of them are to each other seems to be the reason they bicker so much.
- Pet the Dog: However deadly he is in his own Games, he runs to Maysilee and is genuinely devastated by her awful death.
- Sadistic Choice: Before the rule change in the 74th Hunger Games allowing two tributes from the same district to win together, he could only hope to get either Katniss or Peeta out of the arena alive, not both of them. He chooses Katniss, because although he admits to liking Peeta more, Katniss's skills combined with Peeta's determination to protect Katniss makes him think she has the better shot at winning. Peeta doesn't begrudge him for it, understanding that he had to make a choice and noting that he would have wanted it to be her too. Also, he would have been forced into making this choice every year, being the only mentor from District 12.
- Shipper on Deck: For Katniss and Peeta. At first, it seems like he merely supports the idea of them pretending to have a romance, but by the second book, he seems to support the pairing for real.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: He starts off as this but progresses to Cynical Mentor when he discovers that Katniss and Peeta may actually have a fighting chance, and ends up as something of a Team Dad.
- Smart People Play Chess: In Catching Fire, which firmly establishes him as The Smart Guy who won his Games with cleverness, he is seen playing chess with Peeta.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: The president had Haymitch's loved ones killed for defying him. On top of that, he's the official coach to the tributes from his district. For years, he's been responsible for training kids for a fight to the death that, statistically, they have no hope of surviving, and there's not really anything he can do about it. It would only make sense that he would refuse to let others get close to him.
- Spear Counterpart: Humorously, despite his and Katniss's arguments, it seems that a large part of their clashing is because of how similar they are - both are haughty, jaded, snarky action survivors.
- Stealth Mentor: While his tributes are in the arena, he usually doesn't give them directly what they need, but either lets them figure it out for themselves or uses his gifts to send them a message, usually one he knows Katniss will get. He doesn't send her water when she needs it because he wants her to figure out that she's near mud and thus close to a pond; he sends her and Peeta a basket filled with food when they cement their relationship with a kiss to win the sponsors over; when she's alone, he sends her a vial of sleep syrup so she can trick Peeta into drinking it to keep him out of harm's way while she goes to face down the other tributes at the Feast.
- Team Dad: And he is a Papa Wolf when you threaten or hurt his two surviving tributes.
- Too Much Alike: The reason why he and Katniss have friction, both of them are cynical, snarky, and jaded Jerks With A Heart of Gold who definitely hate being controlled and underestimated by others.
- Trash of the Titans: His house is filled with trash, empty alcohol bottles, and spoiled food.
- True Companions: With many of the victors but most importantly with Katniss and Peeta.
- Try Not to Die: His go-to advice.
- Undiscriminating Addict: Haymitch was once so desperate for a drink, he went to the Hob and purchased rubbing alcohol to drink. Katniss and Peeta panicked and went to stop him, realizing that drinking pure alcohol would blind him.
- Wake Up Fighting: Sleeps with a knife in his hands and if you wake him up you'd best take a step back.
Maysilee Donner
Madge's aunt and one of the four District 12 tributes of the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell. Also the original owner of the mockingjay pin.
- Alliterative Family: Maysilee's niece (whom she never met) is named Madge.
- Always Identical Twins: She and Mrs. Undersee.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Haymitch finds her just as a flock of sharp-beaked birds are finishing up with ripping out her throat.
- Doomed by Canon: She's first mentioned when Katniss's mother talks about having a friend who was a tribute in the second Quarter Quell, which we already know was won by Haymitch. So it was inevitable that she was going to be killed at some point during the Fiftieth Games.
- Generation Xerox: She was very close to Katniss's mother, a friendship Katniss and Madge would later replicate.
- Poisoned Weapons: How she got so far during her Games; she fought using poison darts. She was good enough with them to be able to kill a Career.
- Posthumous Character: We only know her from recollections as well as the recording of the 50th Hunger Games.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Apparently looked a lot like Madge, her identical twin's daughter.
- Tragic Keepsake: She was the original owner of the mockingjay pin, which Madge later gives to Katniss as a tribute token. It later graduates to Icon of Rebellion. Katniss' mother also says that she was given Maysilee's pet canary after she died.
