Discussion Literature / TheHungerGames

Page needs a bit of a clean-up. There's a few too many entries that apply to things from Catching Fire and Mockingjay even though those books have their own pages- while the series as a whole is called The Hunger Games, this page is specifically for the first book.

Always expect the worst and you can only be pleasantly surprised. Hide / Show Replies

Concerning this entry: "Informed Ability: Peeta is mentioned as being good with a knife and Katniss makes a point of giving him one during the Quarter Quell, yet he's more proficient at being The Load."

Does it really apply? First of all we never see anything that suggests Peeta is bad at using the knife and he used one at the cornucopia on book one with enough skill that even Cato was impressed (and when they're fighting off the monkey mutts). Second of all he may have been The Load in the first book but hardly in the second. Aside from being too slow during the nerve gas/fog events (due to his prosthetic leg and to having been in cardiac arrest a few hours before) he holds is own quite well in the second arena. He even kills Brutus!

To me it seems like the trope doesn't actually apply, but I'm not sure, so I'd rather bring it up here than just delete it.

(shortened to avoid spoilers) Becoming the Mask: At the end of the first book, she's prepared to kill him [Peeta] to save herself.

Is this a reference to the scene with the berries? I was under the impression that Katniss was prepared to die herself if necessary, even if she didn't really think it would be necessary. Or is this a reference to another part? Please clarify. Thanks!

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I forgot to add a reason for deleting my Bi The Way entry for Katniss. I deleted it because I misunderstood the context of the scene I was referring to, and the quote wasn't talking about her being attracted to a girl.

• Broken Aesop: If the message of the books, particularly the first, is that we shouldn't glorify violence, then why are the career tributes presented with no humanity or justification for their actions (like being raised in an environment where violence is glorified) and as an audience we are meant to cheer for their deaths? Moreover, the Capitol is portrayed as tyrannical for using violence as a means of submission, but at the end, Katniss votes in favor of new games to punish the Capitol, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence and vengeance. Even further, once she realizes all this death and destruction may have only achieved substituting one villain for other, her solution is more public violence by assassinating Coin. Fortunately, this last bit of death solves everything and doesn't have any negative consequences for anyone whatsoever.
  • Subverted. The books are told from the voice and perspective of a girl whose primary focus has always been survival, so the first book demonizes the Careers simply because that's how she views them. In the second book, she finally realizes that the real enemy is the Capitol, not the Careers, and by book three she's in full acknowledgment that Cato and Clove were nothing but unfortunate pawns bred for slaughter.

Please settle this on the discussion, not the main page.

I'm a Troper!!!

The trope list has to be broken up, with either A to Z, or sections relating to the individual books.

I noticed that this:

• Let's Read: A highly critical one can be found here (and is continued here).

was removed, with no reason given. I would like to know why. Generally, things shouldn't be removed from pages without community consensus anyway.

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Wasn't there a Chinese /Japanese film with the same basic premise as the hunger games?

Update: Found a forum thread discussing this here

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New page for the movie?

Adaptation Distillation: In the book, she gets her pin from Madge. Madge wasn't in the movie, so it was a gift from Greasy Sae.

All There in the Manual: Some people's names are never mentioned, but you can tell who they are supposed to be.

Limited Wardrobe: Seneca Crane wears the same weird vest the whole time.

Edited by condottiera More pluck than an Alabama banjo festival Hide / Show Replies

Did Not Dothe Research: Collins' knowledge of basic archery is hurting, and she seems to not be 100% clear on the difference between a crossbow and a flat bow.

Actually, as someone who shoots a bow and arrow frequently, this troper can say that her knowledge/descriptions of archery are pretty spot-on. And unless Collin's described any triggers on Katniss's bows, she's pretty clear on the difference between a crossbow and a recurve bow (note: a crossbow has a trigger mechanism and shoots the arrows horizontally, while a recurve/longbow/flatbow shoots vertically and the shooter manually pulls it back, aims and shoots.)

Edited by TEGsFactual0527

Copied from the main page—deleted because it's looking to get a little thready, but both are good points. Ways to make it more concise?

• Villain Ball: The Capitol wouldn't have had to face a major rebellion (or at least, not for a while) if it wasn't so hellbent on making Katniss's life miserable. Indeed, there wouldn't be a rebellion at all if they had allowed the Hunger Games to cease after the first few times.
  • Aside from the central extravagance of the Hunger Games (and even that is in some ways an inspired form of repression in that it forces people to become complicit in it through starvation, quite Stalin-esque actually) the tactics the capital uses to repress the districts are actually a fairly realistic representation of the terror methods that Real Life regimes use, and just like in Real Life but unlike in most stories: they work, to a point. In 75 years of power the capital had almost certainly weathered minor uprisings that it had been able to quell through force, control of information, and playing disctricts off against each other. What tips the scale in the period of the plot is military support from district 13, inter-district organizational and information support from district 13 and rebels in the capital, and a unifying symbol for all the districts in the form of Katniss and Peeta that had already been helpfully broadcast through the capital's own propaganda machine.
  • Indeed, in addition the games helped keep a degree of animosity between the individual districts (not only as basic competition but because that competition involved killing each others children) which helped to reduce the chances of them organizing as well as letting the capital showcase all the amazing technology for killing they have at their disposal (where as the districts are lucky to have a few weapons between them, much less be skilled at using them). As for Katniss, the capital is just so used to winning (having put down uprisings in the past as well as winning the initial war) I doubt they really considered it a major issue until it began getting out of control.
  • The games may also serve as more than simple entertainment to the Capital citizens. They also remind them of their own government's power and desensitize them to the oppression of the districts.

Edited by fullerene Doodles