Plutarch's actions in the book and movie versions of Catching Fire are not in contradiction with each other.
In the book, he states to Katniss at the end that he showed her his watch to help her out as a mentor and he had no idea at the time she'd be a tribute. In the movie, he did know; he proposed the idea to have this year's Quarter Quell be from the victors to President Snow. At first, this seemed like a change. But re-reading Catching Fire and Mockingjay, I think there's no contradiction. He was lying to Katniss. Otherwise, why would he particularly care about District Twelve and Katniss's mentor career to the point of actually attempting to tell her, in a quite risky manner, how the arena worked and give them a HUGE advantage? I think whether or not he actually suggested the Victors being reaped, he knew exactly what the Quarter Quell would consist of when he showed Katniss his watch. He (and the rebellion) were not taken by surprise by it; they had been planning this arena specifically with the escape in mind. If he was partially responsible for Katniss returning to the arena, I could see why he wouldn't say it to her face. Sorry if this is too obvious for a WMG, but I wanted to share the theory, as I've seen some reviewers acting like that was a big change to the movie. Heavensbee will get the same treatmant as Senaca Crane in the Catching fire film.
While Heavnsbee gets much more focus in Mocking Jay his role in the book of Catching Fire is minimal. Given that he's played by Philip Seymor Hofman this would seem to be a waste unless they give him a role similar to Crane,- The trailer seems to possibly confirm.
The ending to Catching Fire is Katniss' Dying Dream
The way its set up with Katniss bleeding out and setting the arena to be destroyed with Beetee's plan would make it clear that's something that would have likely killed her. It also helps that she wakes up to be told Haymitch used her and Peeta to help start up a rebellion of the districts, District 12 has been destroyed while she's been away. In the Quarter Quell, the Career tributes (Districts 1 and 2) are in on the plan.
Since so many of the victors are Careers, any attempt to set up a resistance among victors will have to include a few of them. Also, the main risk in the Quell to the plan comes from the opponents of Katniss' alliance. There has to be some opposition or the entire game looks staged. Better that the opposition also be following the plan. The Career tributes gave their lives for the plan, knowing that they'd only be remembered as stereotypical brutes opposing the heroes of the rebellion.- Also the career that the Careers are named after is the Games. It would make sense for the Careers to be doing what they've been trained since birth as part of the plan.
- If ALL the tributes were in on the plan, how would that work? The Careers try to kill Katniss, Peeta, and the alliance to keep up appearances, knowing however they are not supposed to kill Katniss and Peeta? If they knew, they might give the appearance of holding back from killing Katniss and Peeta and targeting others. Cashmere and Gloss did, however, actually try to kill Katniss and Peeta, and didn't succeed. Brutus and Enobaria tried very hard to survive and outlived many. I don't see what the rebellion even had to gain from getting the Careers in on it, if staged opposition would have the same effect as real opposition anyway? 1 and especially 2 were very loyalist districts and the Victors appreciated what the Capitol gave them.
Possible Quarter Quell Twists / "Gimmicks"
It's established that there's multiple gimmicks prepared for future Quarter Quells, but aside from the three, the rest is up to speculation.- A Quarter Quell where its gimmick is that Tributes get eliminated instead of killed.
- It may be weird, but from what I'm thinking, the angle of it would be "We, the Capitol, have felt that, time around, it will be us who will be at your mercy. We shall show mercy this time around and spare your Tributes, though only after they're eliminated in this year's Hunger Games."
- A Capitol games as Coin proposed in Mockingjay. It's unlikely, but it could happen.
- A Quarter Quell that selects tributes from ages 5-12.
- Even sicker, a 4-and-under only one.
- A Quarter Quell that selects only siblings as pairs from each district.
- A Quarter Quell that selects two tributes, but one must kill the other before they enter the arena.
- A Quarter Quell that selects two tributes randomly, without regard to gender.
- A Quarter Quell that selects four tributes per district, with two tributes being over the age to go into the reaping.
- A Quarter Quell that selects three tributes per district with no regard to gender.
- A Quarter Quell that puts the tributes up against fully armed Peacekeepers, with no weapons, no food, no water.
- A Quarter Quell with no winner. Everyone dies.
- A Quarter Quell with only the parents or siblings/children of past Victors.
- A Quarter Quell where each set of tributes will be parents who have at least one child.
- A Quarter Quell where one parent gets reaped as a tribute, and one is their child.
- A Quarter Quell where parents themselves have to vote, rather than all the townspeople as it was in the First Quarter Quell.
- A Quarter Quell with a tiny Arena, little shelter, and no supplies except what the (vengeful) Arena itself has, weapons included.
- A Quarter Quell with no cornucopia.
- A Quarter Quell with no weapons. Everyone is forced to fight to the death with their bare hands.
- A Quarter Quell tournament style! Each tribute will be randomly matched against another in a one-on-one fight, the winners move on to round two and so on, until there are three left and then the final three compete the regular way.
- A Quarter Quell that selects tributes from ANY age.
- A Quarter Quell where only over-eighteens are reaped.
- A Quarter Quell that only accepts volunteers (the Capital will find a way to ensure that people volunteer).
- A Quarter Quell where each tribute gets to choose their weapon.
- A Quarter Quell where the tributes from each district act as Tag Teams, with only one tribute per district being allowed in the Arena at a time. The last team standing wins.
- A Quarter Quell where a game occurs in every district (so a District 1, 2, 3, 4-specific Hunger Games) rather than one overall.
- A Quarter Quell where only males or only females participate.
- Or, possibly, where both happen, but boys can only find other boys, and the same with girls.
- A Quarter Quell that takes place in total darkness.
- A Quarter Quell with no mentors, no training, and no sponsors.
- A Quarter Quell where the Capitol is explicitly allowed to vote for who they want to see die next.
- A Quarter Quell where the districts are allowed to vote for who they want to die next.
- A Quarter Quell where a Hunger Games takes place within every single age group - so each district has to give up twelve kids, one of every age from 12-18, then they fight to the death.
- A Quarter Quell where the tributes are chosen via assessment - the cleverest (or slowest, or literally anything the Capitol chooses) gets chosen to go into the Arena.
- A Quarter Quell where the first reaping is to decide which district will be chosen. They are then the only district who has to pick tributes.
- A Quarter Quell where previous victors have to choose who is reaped.
- A Quarter Quell where being a Career is not only normal for Districts 1-4, but for everyone. Everyone gets to train for a year or a certain amount of time, then gets put in the arena.
- A Quarter Quell where alliances are not allowed.
- A Quarter Quell where only one person gets reaped...because that tribute has to choose someone else from their district to be the other tribute.
- A Quarter Quell that doesn't take place in an arena, but in the Districts themselves.
- A Quarter Quell where both tributes from a given district are declared joint Victors if they outlast everyone else. Essentially the same result as the 74th Games, but without the rule changes.note
- A Quarter Quell where the victory conditions change at the drop of a hat.
- Every single previousQuarter Quell condition at once.
- An entire District’s population is forced to fight to the death.
- Challengers from another country are brought in.
Cecelia and Seeder died in the Cornucopia ensuring Beetee got his wire.
- Both were part of the rebel alliance and generally friendly or seen positively by Katniss before the games.
- Johanna mentions how Beetee took a knife to the back getting it, indicating it was probably a struggle fighting off the careers for control of the Cornucopia.
- My theory is the rebels realized that too big of an alliance would draw suspicion so broke everyone into two flexible teams (forming ad hoc once in the Arena and the relative positions are known) - one to protect Katniss/Peeta and one to protect Beetee. District 4's tributes ended up with Katniss and Peeta (probably because they were the best swimmers in a water-filled arena), while District's 7's tributes ended up with Beetee/Wiress. With the best rebel aligned fighters in the games already gone, it was up to others to fight the careers at a disadvantage in the Cornucopia which resulted in the older ones dying in the process (Cecelia, Seeder, the male morphling perishing and Beetee almost dying as well).
- Chaff and the female Morphling ended up on their own, either because they were supposed to be tracking down the Katniss/Peeta team or staying quiet in the woods in case they were needed. I also theorize that the reason why Peeta managed to kill Brutus is because Chaff tried to save him in his last moments, giving Peeta the advantage needed to come out ahead in the following fight.
