District 12 | 74th Hunger Games | Past Tributes | Capitol | Spoiler Characters | The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
District 12
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Everdeen Family
Katniss Everdeen
Katniss Everdeen
"Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!"
Portrayed By: Jennifer Lawrence
Appearances: The Hunger Games | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
"I never asked for this. I never asked to be in the Games. I never asked to be the Mockingjay. I just wanted to save my sister and keep Peeta alive."
The main protagonist. A skilled hunter who volunteers to take her sister's place in the 74th Hunger Games.
- Action Girl: Katniss has been the breadwinner in her family since her father died and was a talented hunter even before that. She's lethal with a bow and when she enters the Hunger Games, she puts those skills to use. She quickly proves herself to be formidable, intelligent and determined. She manages to beat out other competitors that are not only physically stronger and working together, but whom have been training their entire lives to kill.
- All for Nothing: Zigzaged. She volunteers to keep her sister from getting killed in the Hunger Games. This leads to a domino effect that results in a revolution in which her sister gets killed anyway. But the Districts do get liberated.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She has dark hair and is rather emotionally distant and closed off from others, due to her numerous trust issues.
- Always Save the Girl: Or rather Always Save The Boy With The Bread. She continuously prioritizes Peeta's survival over what's best for her own survival, the rebellion and her squad.
- Ambiguously Brown: Averted. In the books, Katniss was stated as "olive-skinned" but with no specified race. In the movies, she is played by the white Jennifer Lawrence.
- Animal Motifs: From Catching Fire onwards, she's strongly identified with mockingjays. She received a pin of one early in The Hunger Games and it became her symbol.
- Anti Heroine: The pragmatic kind. And also an example of the good kind.
- Aloof Archer: She relies on her bow to hunt, survive, and lead. Katniss has strong and independent survivalist instincts due to her difficult past and is good at thinking outside the box. She is not socially adept and has a hard time making friends due to the emotional strain on her life which has made her hard and cold. She is usually very logical.
- Arc Symbol: Fire is strongly associated with her throughout the story. Of course, fire usually represents revolutions, even in real life, so it fits.
- Arrows on Fire: Beetee gives her special explosive-tipped arrows in Mockingjay Pt. 1. And they are very explosive.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As much as she bickers with Haymitch and as angry as she is with him in Mockingjay they still have moments that show how much they've grown to care about one another. For example it's his arms she cries in over Peeta's torture.
- Bad Liar: According to Peeta. "Never gamble at cards. You'll lose your last coin." Subverted later on, when she gradually becomes more effective at fooling people — starting with Peeta himself in the form of their initial romance.
- Becoming the Mask: After playing up the Romance with Peeta for the camera's since the 74th Hunger Games, her real genuine feelings for him become clearer and clearer as time goes on. And later, after being used as a symbol of the rebellion for propaganda purposes, she becomes a warrior and inspirational leader of the revolution war.
- Big Sister Instinct: Katniss is deeply devoted to her beloved sister Prim, and she volunteers to take her place in the Hunger Games after Prim's name is called, effectively kickstarting the story. This is essentially a death sentence and she's fully aware of it. When she's in the arena, she forms an attachment to Rue and becomes her steadfast ally. She's entirely heartbroken when Rue is killed, singing to her as she dies and burying her in flowers.
- Birds of a Feather: Her and Gale, both rebellious against the Capitol's regime but still working on providing for their families. Through illegal hunting, of course.
- Break the Cutie: Pretty much the gist of the film series. Watch as a young girl is given Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and watch as she's forced to keep on chugging as other characters decide that she's too important to whatever is going on to be allowed to recover from her shell shock, exacerbating it at every given opportunity.
- Broken Bird: She starts out as one due to her father's death and having to be her family's main source of financial support but after the Games it turns up to eleven.
- The Chosen One: Treated this way by the rebellion. Deliberately molded and shaped to serve as their Messiah Archetype.
- Color-Coded Eyes: Her eyes are a cold and distant grey, reflecting determinator status. And don't you forget her archery skills, too.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In the 74th Hunger Games, she and Peeta wore coal black jackets.
- Combat Pragmatist: Increasingly becomes this as the novels progress, though moreso during the games.
- Commitment Issues: The reason why she keeps Peeta at arm's length is that she is determined to never fall in love, get married and have children. The reason is implied to be a combination of not wanting to be a parent on Reaping Day, not wanting to put people into the world who will have to feel the same fear and hatred that she does, and not wanting to end up like her mother, who broke down completely when her husband died. In "Catching Fire" it's Katniss who suggests that she and Peeta get married but it's not because of romantic desire but rather a desperate attempt at keeping Snow happy. Peeta agrees, but not very happily.
- Crucified Hero Shot: In the second film near the end, as she is hoisted from the burning wreckage of the Arena by a resistance hovercraft.
- The Cynic: In contrast to Peeta's idealism, Katniss's utter lack of faith in people at the series' start is particularly grim. In the last book, after losing Prim, she even declares to have no allegiance to the human race anymore.
- Daddy's Girl: Her father was clearly her favored parent. Not helped very much by her mother virtually abandoning her after he died.
- Dark Messiah: She's not a light-hearted hero; she's a damaged girl barely holding it together. Because she's a genuine country girl who never tries to win people over, she wins them over. Because she's the poorest of the poor, who had to kill animals to keep her family fed, she's able to kill and win the games.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has her moments. Caesar Flickerman even calls her "cheeky" during her Catching Fire interview.(after shooting an apple from the mouth of the roast pig on the Gamemakers' platform because they were not paying attention to her)
Katniss: Thank you for your consideration.
- Declaration of Protection: Towards Prim, which sets the plot in motion. She later declares protection for Peeta at the Quarter Quell.
- Despair Event Horizon: Toes the line in Catching Fire when she realizes Haymitch only kept his promise to Peeta. Pushed over the edge after District Twelve is annihilated.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father died in a mining accident.
- Dumb Muscle: She's a savant with a bow and becomes a capable combatant from Catching Fire onwqrd, but she's not very well-educated, a great strategist, or good with social cues or taking a hint.Haymitch: You and a syringe against the Capitol? Sweetheart, this is why no one lets you make the plans.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Somewhat - while she will probably suffer from the effects of PTSD due to the games the rest of her life, she and Peeta find a way to carve out as much normalcy as they can for themselves and their children.
- Famed In-Story: Becomes one of the biggest celebrities in Panem.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason in Mockingjay.
- First Girl Wins: She met Peeta first, he declared his feelings for her first and she never did develop true romantic feelings for Gale.
- Flirting Under Fire: Builds her romance with Peeta during the Hunger Games.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: A heroic version: Katniss was a nobody from District 12 who volunteered as tribute and was not initially expected to survive. From there on, she blasts through the Hunger Games, kills numerous people, becomes one of the most well-known people in the world (with the sole exclusion of President Snow) and becomes the face of a revolution intent on toppling the government. Not bad for a young girl who only wanted to save her sister.
- Forced to Watch: In "Catching Fire" just before going into the arena, her transparent lift tube closes, and she is forced to watch as Cinna is beaten and dragged off to his death, no doubt a move by Snow to punish Katniss for her act of defiance of dressing up as the Mockingjay during the interviews.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: She's a good archer, but not particularly good at fighting hand-to-hand. Peeta, on the other hand, never touches a bow but has enough strength to make him a potent melee combatant.
- Hallucinations: In her first Games, courtesy of tracker jacker venom.
- Heartbroken Badass: In Mockingjay after Peeta has been hijacked into hating her. She takes the loss of his love so hard that she almost begins to hate him for not loving her anymore. Still stays very badass though.
- Heroic Neutral: She really isn't interested in becoming a symbol or sparking a revolution. She just wants to keep her family safe and keep her head down.
- Heroic Sacrifice: What volunteering for her sister was intended to be, as she knew her chances of getting out of the Games alive were extremely slim. She does make it out, though.
- High-School Sweethearts: They don't actually attend high school but she and Peeta begin their romance at age sixteen.
- Hope Bringer: She is considered a symbol of the rebellion. She even provides the current page image.
- Horrible Judge of Character: One of her biggest flaws, though not in the usual way. Quite simply, she has a nasty habit of always assuming the worst of everyone she meets when these people ironically often end up saving her life and or genuinely caring about her. Her trust issues mostly stem from her childhood trauma of never having anyone to be there for her, including people she thought she could trust, and in turn having to be there for her younger sister. This is also why she's so confused by Peeta, considering he did help her when no one else would, and as such she's unable to paint him with her usual worldview and doesn't know how else to see him.
- Icon of Rebellion: The mockingjay pin, and eventually Katniss herself.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The other tributes saw her as being this in the second Games, but largely due to the fact that she never had to be subjected to how the Capitol treats their victors, since she didn't last long after her victory tour and had a 'husband' anyway. Cue Finnick, Johanna, and Chaff trolling her and trying to 'corrupt' her.
- Ineffectual Loner: Katniss' trust issues mean she would very much like to take things on herself (maybe with Gale) as much as possible, though it quickly becomes clear that without help, she wouldn't last long in the Games. Moreso in Catching Fire, where she's kept in the dark about the plan to break out the Victors and as such almost derails it on several occasions by refusing to take allies and holding everyone at a distance in the arena.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Once she finds out she'll be headed for another Hunger Games in the Quarter Quell she immediately heads to Haymitch for a drink.Haymitch: Finally, something I can help with.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Haymitch, Mags and Effie.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Katniss is a good person with a huge capacity for love and the devotion of a saint, but personally she's bitter, sarcastic, distant and stand-offish. A lot of the Hunger Games deals with Haymitch and Effie's attempts to make her more 'presentable' to the Capitol.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: When asked to describe Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games, actress Jennifer Lawrence replied, "She's a futuristic Joan of Arc." Her co-star Donald Sutherland also compared Katniss to Joan. What clinches her role as Jeanne D'Archetype, however, is probably the whole "Girl on Fire" image which Katniss is given.
- Kirk Summation: lays out to the mooks why the president and ruling methods are evil and need to be defeated. It does not work 100% but still impressively so.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Her motivation is to keep herself and her family alive and fed, and that's it. She takes a while to join the fight for freedom, peace, and no more Hunger Games, after she starts looking beyond her own narrower worldview.
- Like Brother and Sister: Believes this to be her relationship with Gale in the first book. Turns out it's not quite so simple. However it remains an unrequited love from Gale's side.
- Love Hurts: One of the two main reasons why she's so reluctant to admit to herself that she's falling in love.
- Made of Iron: She has been strangled by Peeta, shot in the chest, and had her entire body (save her face) burned by fire, and survived all of those predicaments.
- Make-Out Kids: She and Peeta play this trope up for all it's worth during the Victory Tour.
- Mama Bear: Towards Prim and Rue.
- Mandatory Motherhood: It's implied that President Snow expects her to bear Peeta's children as a means of being able to control her.
- Master of the Mixed Message: To both Peeta and Gale. Gale eventually calls her on it.
- Meaningful Name: Katniss is a real plant. Its common name is "Arrowhead" (and its scientific name is Sagittaria, which means 'archer' in Latin).
- No Social Skills: Something that Haymitch frequently mocks Katniss over is her lack of people skills.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: All she wants is to ensure Peeta's survival. She has no interest in starting a war with the Capital, at least at first...
- Oblivious to Love: Cannot see that Gale and Peeta clearly love her until they outright state it to her. Even for Peeta, it took some time for her to realize after he blatantly says it.
- Pregnant Badass: In Catching Fire... or so Peeta would have you believe.
- Promotion to Parent: For her sister, due to her mother's depression and general ineffectiveness.
- Punny Name: An archer named after a plant also known as arrowhead.
- Red Baron: She's known both as 'The Girl on Fire' and 'Mockingjay'.
- Retired Badass: After earning her happy ending with Peeta.
- Revenge: Coin took Prim's life, so Katniss wants to take Coin's.
- Roguish Poacher: Illegal hunting to feed starving family and stick it to The Man? Check.
- Self-Sacrifice Scheme: Her goal in "Catching Fire" is to save Peeta at the cost of her own life and she's well aware that by martyring herself she might be of better use to the rebellion than if she lives.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Due to the events of the Hunger Games, and from there on it progresses from bad to worse.
- Shout-Out: Name serves as one to Bathsheba Everdene from Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: In the middle of Mockingjay, the Girl on Fire finds out the hard way that Rousing Speeches don't work on everyone.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: The role Katniss plays for the cameras is oh so in love with Peeta. Of course, her true self is nothing like that.
- Stylish Protection Gear: Her Mockingjay suit - designed by a professional stylist, no less.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: "Sugar" to Prim and Gale, "ice" to pretty much everyone else, including her mother. But she warms up to her and a few more people over the course of the series.
- Super Couple: With Peeta, including in-universe.
- Survival Mantra: In the beginning of Mockingjay.
- Sympathy for the Devil: In the 74th Games, when she ultimately kills Cato, it's not out of anger towards him or a desire to win, but as an act of compassion and pity for his condition.
- Tragic Keepsake: Keeps the pearl Peeta gave her and spends a lot of time holding it in her hand in Mockingjay.
- True Companions: With Peeta and Haymitch. She even refers to Haymitch as part of her family in "Catching Fire".
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: By the time she realizes she's in love with Peeta, he's been brainwashed so intensely that he tries to strangle her. Ouch. This leaves her... rather bitter, to say the least.
- Unwitting Pawn: Present, lampshaded, and part of the symbolism. A mockingjay is a powerful symbol to the rebels as a perversion of what the Capitol hoped for and wanted, but it's also a bird that can't sing its own songs, relying on what others sing to it.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Has no qualms whatsoever killing anyone she perceives to be a threat to Peeta in Catching Fire.
- Wreathed in Flames: Her entire public image is built around fire imagery after her debut at the 74th Games.
- You Are the New Trend: In the second film, she meets a girl on the Victory Tour who tells her that she wants to volunteer as tribute like her. Snow's granddaughter also wears her hair in a braid like Katniss, even saying that all the other girls at her school are doing it. This happens to most victors immediately after the Games, even when they haven't sparked a revolution.
- President Snow tries to defy this in the final parts, declaring possession of "Mockingjay" symbolics a ground for treason accusation and subsequent execution.
- You Are Worth Hell: Regarding Prim and later Peeta.
Primrose "Prim" Everdeen
Primrose "Prim" Everdeen
"Since the last games, something is different. I can see it."
Portrayed By Willow Shields
Appearances: The Hunger Games | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Katniss' kind-hearted younger sister.
- All-Loving Hero: Prim seems incapable of bearing any ill will towards anything. However, it's unsure how much of this is Prim and how much of it is a mask for Katniss, who's doing her best to hope that her little sister is still untainted to some degree by the horrors of the Capitol.
- Break the Cutie: Averted. Despite all that happens, she manages to remain relatively optimistic and kind.
- Floral Theme Naming: Primrose is a kind of flower, while her sister's name comes from an aquatic plant.
- Friend to All Living Things: Animals love her. The family cat, Buttercup, only responds positively to her. She evens risks her life during an air raid to save him.
- Generation Xerox: Prim looks like Mrs. Everdeen and has inherited her passion for healing. Also, Mrs. Everdeen was close friends with Katniss' friend, Madge's mother, as a teenager and the father of Katniss' love interest Peeta had a crush on Mrs. Everdeen.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Prim is a compassionate young blonde girl with blue eyes (hazel-to-green in the film, but still) who loves all living creatures and becomes a good healer at an early age, often helping her mother with patients. When Katniss leaves her family, she doesn't bother suggesting that Prim learn to hunt because her early attempts were disastrous due to her fear of the woods; also, whenever Katniss shot something, it would make Prim teary-eyed, and she'd talk about how they might be able to heal it.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Prim is practically like a shining light in the Crapsack World she lives in.
- In-Series Nickname: Prim's full name is Primrose, but everyone calls her Prim.
- Kill the Cutie: Dies in a bombing near the end of Mockingjay.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She simply adores her cat Buttercup, who is utterly nasty to everyone except her. Then again, she's the only one who seems to treat him with any sort of kindness.
- Loved by All: According to Joanne, Snow wouldn't dare mess with Prim, considering how beloved she has become to all of Panem.
- Morality Pet: Prim, for Katniss and Buttercup; she is one of few people they show any kindness to, and she's possibly the only person in the world that early Katniss believes is genuinely good.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She isn't present for most of the plot, but it's because of her that Katniss ends up in the Games in the first place.
- Team Pet: Buttercup, especially during the rebellion.
- Tender Tears: At the Reaping for the 74th Games, when her sister volunteers instead of her.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: At first. She loses the wide-eyed part, but keeps the idealism.
Mrs. Everdeen
Mrs. Everdeen
Portrayed By: Paula Malcolmson
Appearances: The Hunger Games | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Katniss and Prim's mother.
- Broken Bird: Mrs. Everdeen was entirely destroyed by her husband's death, and is more often than not barely hanging on.
- Happily Married: The Everdeens had a loving marriage prior to Mr. Everdeen's death.
- Heroic BSoD: Mrs. Everdeen had one after her husband died that was so bad it left her unable to take care of Katniss and Prim.
- The Medic: Mrs. Everdeen runs District 12's apothecary.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She loses Prim after she gets killed in a bombing orchestrated by Coin.
- Parental Abandonment: Mrs. Everdeen. After Mr. Everdeen dies, she falls into a depression and neglects the family out of sheer grief. Eventually, she manages to move past it. Katniss' strictest warning to her when she leaves is that if she does that again when Katniss most likely dies in the Games, Prim will die without Katniss' hunting skills to fall back on.Katniss: You can't check out again. Not like when Dad died.Mrs. Everdeen: I won't.Katniss: No. You can't.
- Unnamed Parent: We never find out her first name.
- Uptown Girl: Mrs. Everdeen was born into the merchant class but married a coal miner.
Mr. Everdeen
Mr. Everdeen
Portrayed By: Phillip Troy Linger
Appearances: The Hunger Games note
Katniss and Prim's deceased father.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Katniss views her dead father more highly than she does her loving but not-quite-there mother. This is not helped by the fact that her father taught her the skills that ultimately saved her entire family while her mother went into emotional shock and stopped trying to take care of her and Prim after his death.
- Disappeared Dad: Mr. Everdeen passed away in a coal mining accident five years before the story starts.
- The Ghost: Mr, Everdeen is only seen once in the first film during a flashback (and a few more times over the four films on photos), even then his appearance was very brief.
- Posthumous Character: He died in a mine disaster.
- Roguish Poacher: Katniss's father taught her everything she knows about hunting and survival.
- Unnamed Parent: As with his wife, we never find out Mr. Everdeen's first names.
Other Citizens
Peeta Mellark
Peeta Mellark
"You know, if I'm gonna die, I wanna still be me."
Portrayed By: Josh Hutcherson
Appearances: The Hunger Games | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
District 12's male tribute in the 74th Hunger Games. A baker's son who harbors a secret crush on Katniss.
- Abled in the Adaptation: In the original novel, he loses his leg, and has a few struggles learning how to properly use the prosthetic. This doesn't happen in the movie adaption, likely due to the presence of Josh Hutcherson's leg.
- Action Survivor: Unlike most of his fellow tributes, Peeta lacks training and experience and has absolutely no experience in the wilderness. He starts the series convinced he's going to die and doing everything he can to help Katniss get a leg up in the media.
- Adaptational Badass: He sees a lot more action in the films than in the books; being able to hold his own against Cato on top of the Cornucopia in his first Hunger Game and overpowering and drowning another tribute in the second.
- Ax-Crazy: The Capitol 'hijacks' him into becoming violent and unpredictable.
- Betty and Veronica: The Betty to Gale's Veronica for Katniss.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Although it gets brushed under the rug, he still kills a defenseless girl in the 74th games (granted, death at his hands would've been preferable to that of the Careers). It's also implied he's willing to kill almost anyone to try and keep Katniss alive. And this is without going into his Brainwashed and Crazy period in Mockingjay.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Capitol hijacks him, turning him violent.
- Break the Cutie: The boy had it even worse than his girlfriend — at least she wasn't subjected to continuous Mind Rape for weeks on end that caused him to hate the one person he loved right before finding out that everyone else he'd ever known and loved was demolished alongside his hometown. Katniss at least had her family.
- The Charmer: His strongest quality is his ability to win over the audience, and even his fellow tributes, with his magnetic personality and lies.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In the 74th Hunger Games, he and Katniss wore coal black jackets.
- Courtly Love: His affections for Katniss has strong aspects of this. He's deeply in love with her, has no real hope that she'll return his feelings (he thinks she's in love with Gale) yet is still willing to both kill and die for her. He plays the role of lover in public but is remarkably chaste with her in private. Even when she lets him into her bed and sleeps in his arms he never tries to so much as kiss her.
- Declaration of Protection: To Katniss. Well, until the Capitol brainwashes him, that is.
- Demoted to Extra: In Mockingjay, until his rescue from the Capitol.
- Deuteragonist: Of the franchise. If a rare moment isn't being spent with Katniss, then it most likely is spent with Peeta.
- Disney Death: Has one of these on the first day of the Quarter Quell.
- Distressed Dude: Is taken hostage by the Capitol at the end of Catching Fire and held prisoner throughout a part of Mockingjay.
- The Dulcinea Effect: He may have known Katniss since the age of five, but he only actually interacted with her once before being reaped with her and never speaks to her until they leave for the Capitol. All the same he's so determined to die for her survival's sake that Haymitch notes it's not even worth trying to save Peeta in the arena.
- Dying as Yourself: Kind of. It's what Peeta wanted. If he was going to die in the arena, he didn't want the Games to change who he was, like they often did with other tributes.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: While he will probably suffer from the effects of PTSD due to the games the rest of his life, as well as the constant looming threat he may fall prey to his brainwashing at any moment, he and Katniss find a way to carve out as much normalcy for themselves and their children.
- Fake Defector: When he allies with the careers.
- Famed In-Story: Becomes a huge celebrity after the 74th Games. According to Johanna in the second movie, "the whole world" wants to sleep with him (though she could be saying it just to annoy Katniss... and it works like a charm).
- Family of Choice: Never seems particularly close with his biological family but forms a very close bond with Katniss and Haymitch.
- Flirting Under Fire: Builds a romance with Katniss during the Hunger Games.
- Fighting from the Inside: After being hijacked by the Capitol, his real self struggles to show through, including sending a thinly-veiled warning to District Thirteen that there were bombs en route to their location as he spoke."How do you think this will end? What will be left? No one is safe. Not in the Capitol. Not in the districts. And you, in Thirteen... dead by morning!"
- Generation Xerox: The story goes that Peeta's father once fell in Love at First Sight with Katniss' mother, and later pointed Katniss out to Peeta.
- Good Is Not Dumb: Peeta is kind, patient, and three steps ahead when it comes to manipulating the on-camera narrative.
- Guile Hero: He may be a load physically, but he's saved Katniss a lot of problems by being a big fat liar. As such, he transforms into quite the
Magnificent Bastard when he is brainwashed in Mockingjay. - Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Very strong due to working as a baker's apprentice, but not very good at hunting.
- Happily Married: Oddly, in spite of everything he and Katniss with both having gone through massive amounts of dysfunction junction, being saddled with tons of psychological trauma from going through the games twice, losing almost everyone they are close to, participating in and being the figureheads of a revolution that nearly destroys what little remains of human civilization, and, in Peeta's case, Cold-Blooded Torture and mind rape, Katniss and he still seem to end up this way. In fact, it heavily implied that the only reason either of them is still functional is because of the other. The same goes for Haymitch, in a non romantic way.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Practically a basic character trait of his.
- Heroic Willpower: He is the only known case of a person recovering from hijacking and he does it almost entirely on his own, through sheer force of will.
- High-School Sweethearts: They don't attend school after the 74th Games, but he and Katniss are 16/17 when they begin their relationship and they go on to love each other for the rest of their lives.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Subverted for a point, but ultimately played straight.
- Insane Equals Violent: When he's hijacked.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Haymitch.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Paints pretty pictures, decorates cakes, bakes flower-shaped cookies, prefers diplomacy to violence, wears his heart on his sleeve...
- It Meant Something to Me: The made up romance he and Katniss portrayed in the first Hunger Games was very real to him, and it leaves the first novel with a Downer Ending for him to find out that she was just trying to survive.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: His plan in Catching Fire is to get Katniss through the Quarter Quells at the expense of his own life, so she can be with her family and even marry Gale.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: On a few occasions in the first and third book. It's implied that his crush on Katniss developed into full-blown infatuation when she refused to leave him during the 74th Games even though he was close to dying from sepsis and fully aware that he was The Load to her at that point.
- Living Emotional Crutch: To Katniss.
- The Load: He ends up becoming this after his leg gets injured. He's pretty much helpless, meaning Katniss has to risk her life twice as often to get food and supplies. Even after he heals enough to move around, he's a liability when Katniss fights and even when she hunts— he walks so clumsily that he scares off any prey within earshot.
- He gets an undeserved bad rep for being this in Catching Fire as well. He displays these traits the first day of the Quarter Quell - at the Cornucopia (because he can't swim - and even then, he drowns another tribute in self-defence) and when they're fleeing from the poisonous gas (because he's weak after getting severely electrocuted mere hours before). However the rest of the time he's either fighting monkey mutts with Katniss and Finnick, turning back and helping a tripped Katniss on her feet and shoving her ahead of him while fleeing from the poisonous fog, carrying Beetee around the arena, creating a map of the clock, doing all he can to ensure that Katniss survives at the cost of his own life, killing Brutus (one of their toughest competitors) and generally contributing as much as anyone else in the party. From the books...
- And again in Mockingjay Part 2. where for most of the film not only is he unable to step in and help during combat, being metaphorically dragged around town by the Star Team, but he also causes at least one ally death due to his brainwashing. And Katniss is told repeatedly to kill him or let him die, as he was only sent there to get her killed, and yet she drags his miserable butt through the whole movie. He was literally sent to her to be The Load. However, this is again averted when Peeta ends up saving Katniss from the lizard mutts in the sewers.
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Original scripting also had him save Katniss from the firebombs that killed Prim.
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- Love at First Sight/Love at First Note: Peeta first took note of Katniss when they were five, when his father pointed her out. Peeta's father originally wanted to marry Katniss's mother, but she fell in love with a miner, because when he sang, even the birds would listen. On the first day of school, the teacher asked if anyone knew a folk song, and Katniss's hand shot right up. When she sang, even the birds stopped to listen — and at that moment, Peeta was a goner. He's been in love with Katniss ever since.
- Make-Out Kids: He and Katniss play this trope up as much as they can during the Victory Tour.
- Mandatory Motherhood: It's heavily implied that President Snow expects him to father children by Katniss as means of controlling them both and keeping them in line. He's no more happy about becoming the parent of a future tribute than Katniss is. Once the war is over and the Games have been abolished he changes his mind about having children. In fact, the reason why Katniss changed her mind about children was because Peeta wanted them so badly.
- Martial Pacifist: A pacifist at heart who doesn't want to see more bloodshed, yet he can be deadly when he feels the need to be.
- Meaningful Name: Two-fold. Peeta sounds like it's an evolved version of Peter, who was Christ's rock. It also sounds like pita bread. Peeta is Katniss' rock and, well, he bakes.
- Morality Chain: Played up subtly in Catching Fire. By the end of Mockingjay, Katniss explicitly states this is why she ultimately chooses Peeta over Gale.
- Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe, much like Finnick before him, many of the Capital's Women swoon and would jump at the chance to bed "The Boy on Fire".
- Nice Guy: His kindness and compassion for others is his defining trait.
- Non-Action Guy: Played with. He's said to excel at hand-to-hand combat in the training prior to the Games and, in the Games themselves, participated in several fights. However, his physical feats are mostly off-screen and the rest of the time, he's more of a talker and less of a fighter.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Peeta did stay to fight it out in the opening bloodbath at the Cornucopia in the 74th Games and apparently did some serious fighting- enough to get some bad cuts and a limp. Whatever he did, the Careers did decide to team up with him after seeing him in action and even Cato compliments his skill with a knife.
- He's also heavily implied to have killed Brutus off screen in Catching Fire.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: In the movie, being played by the relatively short Josh Hutcherson. In the books he's taller than Katniss.
- Punny Name: Peeta the baker. Fandom loves to speculate on what his brothers' names are...
- Save This Person, Save the World: President Coin feels it's more important to save Peeta than Katniss in the Quell, even speaking out her feelings about this once. In Mockingjay she arranges for Peeta's rescue from the Capitol because Katniss cannot perform as the Mockingjay with Peeta in harm's way, making this trope apply by extension.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: Peeta is said to have this, and it's implied it's due to some level of parental abuse.
- Self-Sacrifice Scheme: Has no intention whatsoever of trying to win either one of the two Hunger Games he participates in, and every move of his is designed to help save Katniss instead.
- Sensitive Artist: Peeta is a baker's son, so he is well-trained in pastry creation and decoration, to the point that he is able to leverage this into extremely realistic camoflauge body painting when he and Katniss are sent to the Hunger Games. He is emotionally sensitive, empathetic, and attentive to the needs of others, which makes him a capable charmer when it comes to interviews. This is in contrast to Katniss, who is basically told by Haymitch to let Peeta do the talking for the both of them, and Gale, who, like Katniss, is much more stoic and adept at hunting than talking.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Katniss begins to see potential loves interests in two guys: Peeta, the baker's son who decorates the cakes and Gale, her hunting partner. Gale is angry with the Capitol for making them participate in the games, while Peeta is reflective on how he can maintain his identity in the games despite the Capitol using them.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: He temporarily sided with the Careers in the first Games. He later teamed up with Katniss and stayed with her for the rest of the Games.
- Smart People Play Chess: He's seen playing chess with Haymitch in Catching Fire.
- The Sneaky Guy: He's clever and understands the Capitol's politics. Also, his skill with makeup means he can hide in plain sight given a little time to prepare.
- So Happy Together: Plays this trope up for all it's worth before the Quarter Quell.
- Stealth Pun: A guy named Peeta who works at a bakery.
- The Strategist: Where Katniss is a bruiser, Peeta understands politics and the camera. He can manipulate the crowd. She wins the audience, he knows how to play them.
- Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Peeta can throw a hundred pound weight across the room, but Katniss is the fighter. His strength is his ability to manipulate the crowd.
- Super Couple: With Katniss, including in-universe.
- Survival Mantra: "Not real, not real, not real, not real..."
- Through His Stomach: Katniss really likes cheese buns.
- Tokyo Rose: Pressed into this role by the Capitol after being captured.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He takes a keen professional interest in bread.
- True Companions: With Haymitch and Katniss.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Peeta is a strong guy, but lacks the correct combat skill as seen in his fight with Cato, who's a big guy himself. Whenever Peeta could manage to get his hands on him, he'd be throwing him around. However, Cato easily gets him in a lock once he fights back.
- Uptown Girl: A member of the merchant class who's in love with a girl from the Seam. Once they're both victors they're on equal social standing, though.
- You Are Worth Hell: Willingly goes back into the arena to try and protect Katniss in "Catching Fire" even though he still suffers from PTSD and terrible nightmares after surviving the previous one. It's also debatable whether this was worse hell for him, or if watching Katniss in danger and suffering while trying to schmooze crowds into sponsoring her without any guarantees would be worse.
Gale Hawthorne
Gale Hawthorne
"Guess the odds aren't exactly in my favor."
Portrayed By: Liam Hemsworth Other Languages
Appearances: The Hunger Games | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Katniss' best friend, with whom she often sneaks out to hunt.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire he receives a flogging from Thread because he tried to stop Thread from beating an old woman to death. In the book Gale had a black market deal with Thread's predecessor, Cray, and went to Cray's house to bring him the usual supplies... only to find that Cray had been replaced by Thread, leading to Gale being whipped for his black market dealings with Peacekeepers.
- Secondly, in Mockingjay Part 2, Gale is much more openly remorseful and tries to console Katniss and discuss Prim's death, but Katniss is understandably upset and enraged over Gale's role in it, thus wanting nothing more to do with him. Gale's book counterpart didn't even make the effort to approach the issue.
- Anti-Hero: Cynical and hot-tempered, with a burning hatred of the Capitol.
- Ascended Extra: He doesn't see much action until Mockingjay, with smaller roles in first two films.
- Advertised Extra: Liam Hemsworth was featured in many publicity materials despite being (until the third movie) largely a tertiary character.
- Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Peeta's Betty for Katniss.
- Birds of a Feather: Him and Katniss. Both lost their fathers in a mine explosion and became the breadwinners of their respective families.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Explicitly defied by the Capitol highers-up, who think that Gale's Tall, Dark, and Handsome childhood friend character could damage viewers' opinions of Katniss and Peeta's onscreen romance.
- Deuteragonist: Of Mockingjay, for a bit.
- Disappeared Dad: His dad died in the same explosion that killed Katniss'.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: At the end of Catching Fire.Gale: [to Katniss] ...there is no District Twelve.
- Green-Eyed Monster: As he becomes more and more aware that Katniss' feelings for Peeta are more than just an act, he becomes increasingly possessive of her.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: However, after Katniss outright admits she loves Peeta, he is the first volunteer for District 13's mission to liberate Peeta, and the others victors, from the Capital's captivity.
- Hunk: To contrast Peeta's "boy next door" looks.
- The Lancer: To Katniss. He's her best friend and he becomes her most trusted ally during the revolution. While she's often uncertain of how to trust others, Katniss knows to place her trust in Gale.
- Loving a Shadow: His relationship with Katniss. He may love her, but she's far too broken by life and her experiences in the games to return his feelings in the same manner, making him bitter and hostile every time Peeta is brought up, the man she is able to truly be able to commit to.
- Meaningful Name: He has a stormy personality.
- Mr. Fanservice: Pretty much his defining role in the first two films, he appears in about 5-10 minutes of the nearly two and half hour first film, and about a half-hour of the second film, but dang it if he wasn't so good looking, they used him heavily in the marketing campaign.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Has this reaction after learning he may have been involved in the bombing that killed Prim, quietly accepting he has lost any chance of a future with Katniss, leaving without argument after she confronts him on her sister's death.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He's the manly man to Peeta's sensitive guy, since Gale is a hunter and isn't quite as compassionate as Peeta. All the same, he isn't afraid to show his softer side and is generally a caring man.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Due to being played by Liam Hemsworth. He's dark-haired and towers over both Katniss and Peeta.
- A Taste of the Lash: Courtesy of Romulus Thread.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: By Mockingjay, he has become a lot more ruthless and bloodthirsty. He shows little sympathy to Peeta's torture and brainwashing after his broadcasting, calls him weak in an effort to disillusion Katniss' love for him, sees the civilian refugees in District 2 as traitors, showing no remorse should they die due to the rebellion's plans, and is heavily implied to have been involved in the planning of the bombing that ended up killing countless innocent Capital children, and Prim.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not directly, but is heavily implied to have helped plan the bombing of the Capital children in order to frame Snow and end the war. Unfortunately for him, Coin takes advantage of this plan to have Prim killed by the bombing as well, leaving Gale guilt-stricken over what he had caused and permanently destroying his relationship with Katniss.
Greasy Sae
Greasy Sae
Portrayed By: Sandra Ellis Lafferty
Appearances: The Hunger Games
A vendor at The Hob, District 12's black market. She usually sells and buys food from Katniss.
- Composite Character: She gives Katniss the Mockingjay pin, instead of Madge.
- Demoted to Extra: In the films, Greasy Sae doesn't have much of a role past the first one.
Peacekeepers
Commander Romulus Thread
Comannder Romulus Thread
"Let's get to work."
Portrayed By: Patrick St. Esprit
Appearances: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The new Head Peacekeeper of District 12.
- Adaptational Villainy: Played with. While just as reprehensible as his book counterpart, in the film his reason for having Gale whipped is because he tried to stop Thread from beating an old woman to death; in the book Gale had a black market deal with Thread's predecessor, Cray, and went to Cray's house to bring him the usual supplies... only to find that Cray had been replaced by Thread, who had Gale whipped for his black market deal. He had Gale whipped for a lesser reason but didn't try to beat an elderly woman.
- Chewing the Scenery: He snarls every other line and seems constantly on the verge of exploding.Thread: CLEEEEAR THE SQUAAAARE! YOU ARE ALL UNDER CURFEW! ANYONE ON THE STREET AFTER DARK WILL BE SHOT! ON! SIGHT!
- Justified for him in the above line, since Thread's a ruthless bully trying to reassert his dominance after his authority was challenged in front of a crowd.
- Colonel Kilgore: He's passionately devoted to his job.
- Establishing Character Moment: Thread is introduced having the previous head peacekeeper arrested and removed without hesitation before immediately setting about instituting his brutal new policies. It's clear from the get-go that he's a ruthless, terrifying man.
- Fascists Bedtime: One of his new policies is a curfew, enforced by threat of death.
- Replacement Goldfish: Of Cray, who he immediately disposes of.
- A Taste of the Lash: Thread is a big fan of performing public whippings as punishment.
- Would Hit a Girl: The entire reason Gale is whipped is because he tried to stop Thread from beating an old woman to death. Later Thread hits Katniss across the face with his whip when she tries to intervene during his whipping of Gale, then whips her again for good measure when she loses her footing (only this time he hits part of her covered by her leather jacket).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Averted: whereas the novels don't mention his fate after District 12 was bombed, in the films Gale mentions all Peacekeepers left 12 before the bombing.
Cray
Cray
Portrayed By: Wilbur Fitzgerald
Appearances: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Head Peacekeeper at District 12.
- Adaptational Heroism: Played with. Through his smaller role in the movie, he comes across as being less oppressive, and he shows no sign of the perverted tendencies he had in the books.
- Demoted to Extra: Even in the books he wasn't a major character, but he has basically no role here save for a single scene.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's seen in exactly one shot in Catching Fire, and he could only utter one line before being arrested and likely executed right away courtesy of Thread.
- You Have Failed Me: He's a victim of this from Thread, presumably because he didn't keep a tight enough leash on the District, buying from the black market and setting up illegal deals because he knew the residents needed the market to survive.
