Tear Jerker / Checkmate (Anla'Shok)

• During the 10th Hunger Games, Sable (whose Only Friend Constantine and Mags were allies during the previous Games) asks Mags who Mags would like her to protect to honor Constantine and his memory, only to become a ruthless killer in the arena (albeit with her terrified ally as a Protectorate), saying the good in her died with Constantine.
• District 4's first male volunteer, Petrel, is an overconfident twelve-year-old who has no chance in the arena but volunteers just to show up his Aloof Big Brother and help the District like Mags (who is quietly horrified to have inspired this) and leaves behind an angry and frightened family. An older boy wants to volunteer in his place, but the rules say the first volunteer is the one who has to go into the Games if the reaped tribute chooses to accept the volunteer and, after an agonizing pause, the reaped tribute can't summon the courage to refuse his young volunteer. Petrel is accidentally killed by one of his allies, who makes Please Wake Up pleas to his corpse until being killed by a mutt.
• A Rebellious Rebel in District 4 is sentenced to death by flogging at the hands of a sadist who enjoys slow, measured strikes for burning the district's first Career academy. The only thing Mags can do for him is to request to finish carrying out the sentence and then aim for the arteries so he will bleed out faster.
• Mags' first Victor, Tang, frustrates President Alchys enough that she forces his girlfriend's best friend to volunteer for the Hunger Games by threatening her family. Learning the truth devastates Tang and makes him attack Alchys, with Mags having to kill him to forestall bloody vengeance against the districts, which leads to Tang's girlfriend going on a suicidal anti-Capitol rampage when she gets an edited report about what happened.
• Snow and Caesar tricking a group of Rebels into derailing a train carrying relatives of Victors (including many children) to the Capitol for a Photo Op with the Dog moment, just to hurt the Victors and make the Rebels look bad.
• Right before the Quell, most of the Victor-tributes get some pretty sad moments.
  • Brutus thinks about how much he cares about his three Victors/surrogate children (all of whom are soon pointlessly targeted and killed by District 13) shortly before volunteering so Enobaria won't have to go into the arena with her mentor.
  • Columbus from District 6 morosely reflects on the deaths of most of his fellow District 6 Victors (including his beloved romantic partner and a younger Victor who was Like a Son to Me but turned to drugs after losing a child) have robbed him of his ability to enjoy life, even though he has spent fifty years being terrified of whatever comes after death. And still, throughout all of that, he is able to keep contributing to the Rebellion.
    How could Columbus care about a better world if there was no one to share it with?
  • Asclepiad from District 5 reflects on loved ones she's lost and her failure to save a single tribute despite trying so hard, and wakes up in a sweat desperately telling herself she is a good person.
  • Whittle from District 9 is a Sad Clown who has been unable to have any friendships due to fear of Snow hurting his loved ones.
  • Whittle's district partner Scythia is The Fundamentalist who tries to follow her grandfather and spiritual teacher's advice to treasure life but is a Death Seeker who is miserable over being sold as a Sex Slave after killing a girl from District 2 who (due to 2's deals with the Capitol) wouldn't have suffered the same fate.
    Of course it was Scythia's fault. Her choice to kill that girl for a life that wasn't worth it.
• Gloss exactly mimics the moves of District 1's first ever Career Victor during the Quell training as a tribute to her and indication of his own forlorn attitude.
• Mags and Plutarch's agonized reactions to watching the 3rd Quarter Quell begin and the Victor-tributes dying (including Cecelia, who secretly had kids with Plutarch) after Coin delays the rescue operation at the last minute.
• Moire's sense of suicidal self-loathing about how she didn't volunteer for Cecelia.
• District 4 Victor Chelsea commits suicide during the Rebellion due to losing so many of her emotional anchors and lingering guilt about the people she killed in her own Games.