The Hunger Games (novel): Difference between revisions

* [[Action Girl]]: Katniss and most of the other female contestants.

* [[Adult Fear]]:

** Also the fact that Katniss has sworn off the idea of marriage or children because she knows that any children she had would have to face the Reapings just as she had. {{spoiler|She only breaks this promise to herself ''fifteen years after'' Panem has changed.}}

** {{spoiler|Prim's death.}} A girl who's barely a teenager is mercilessly blown up {{spoiler|by an explosive parachute.}}

** On one hand, you've got normal names like Annie and Johanna, but then on the other you've got more unusual names like Katniss, Peeta, Twill, Plutarch, and Beetee.

** During the 74th Games, Katniss comments on the odd naming conventions of District 1 (which result in names like Cashmere, Gloss and Marvel) once she learns Glimmer's name.

* [[Animal Motifs]]: Metaphorically, Snow as a snake. Visually, Katniss as a mockingjay. Tigris as a cat-person as both.

** Also Foxface from the first book. The reader never even learns her real name.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: The Hunger Games is actually an interesting example. Many of the characters are ''guaranteed'' to die, due to the format of the Games, however, as with most other works, main characters are very rarely if ever killed (depending on who you'd be willing to count as a main character), and only in major events. Katniss, as the first person narrator, inevitably survives the entire series.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: In the backstory. It's continental societal disruption at the least, leading to the creation of Panem.

** Katniss also picks Buttercup up by the scruff of his neck without supporting his rump. He's a grown tom cat. Any pet owner will tell you that is a ''humongous'' no-no.

** After Buttercup is forced into a bag, he allows Prim to tie a ribbon around his neck and hold him in her arms. After being bagged? Both of these actions would probably cause a cat a great deal of distress (possibly causing the animal to retaliate in violence) in real life.

** In ''Mockingjay'', Katniss sees Peeta planting evening primrose and the only part she registers at first is ''rose''. Fortunately the thorny roses Snow leaves and primrose are not even mildly similar to look at, so she realizes her mistake pretty quickly. Mistaking one for the other would be more or less impossible.

* [[Artistic License Pharmacology]]:

* [[An Axe to Grind]]: Johanna Mason in the Quarter Quell; after all, she's from the lumber district.

* [[Babies Ever After]]: {{spoiler|Katniss and Peeta}} have two kids.

** {{spoiler|Peeta}} deliberately invokes this trope {{spoiler|by claiming Katniss is pregnant after the two are forced back into the arena for the Quarter Quell.}} Apparently not even the bloodthirsty denizens of the Capitol seem to want to watch a pregnant woman be killed.

** Subverted in the series epilogue: while {{spoiler|Peeta and Katniss have two children, and this is a sign of hope, the world is still far from a good place, and Peeta and Katniss both retain enduring psychological issues as a result of the events of the books}}.

* [[Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work]]: This occurs with regard to {{spoiler|Rue.}}

* [[Band of Brothers]]: The victors in the second book.

* [[Battle Royale With Cheese]]: Subverted in that {{spoiler|defeated characters don't come back to help fight the [[Big Bad]], they come back in another more sinister form to rip the remaining tributes limb from limb.}}

* [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished]]: Brutally subverted. By the end of the first book, Katniss has several wounds, at the end of the second she has a nasty scar on her arm, and by the end of the third {{spoiler|she's covered in burn scars}}.

* [[Big Brother Is Watching]]: Cameras are waiting to catch every minute of Katniss and Peeta's lives once they become contestants in the Hunger Games. Life in the districts is also very closely monitored, leaving people afraid to say anything that might come off as negative about the Capitol. President Snow even {{spoiler|knows Gale and Katniss kissed in the woods outside District 12}}.

* [[Birds of a Feather]]: Katniss and Gale, though ultimately inverted when {{spoiler|Katniss decides that she needs Peeta}} to balance her own personality out.

* [[Black and Gray Morality]]

* [[Black Market Produce]]: Katniss makes her living poaching game and selling it on the black market. In addition, most food that isn't made from grain rations is expensive and rather rare in the Districts. The decadent Capitol, on the other hand, has tons of food of all kinds.

** Subverted by President Snow, since it's neither overt nor a sign of his impending death. {{spoiler|Played straight later.}}

** The first tribute Katniss sees die suddenly sprays blood onto her face while fighting with her over supplies, due to a sudden and terminal case of throwing-knife-in-back. Katniss herself narrowly avoids succumbing to the malady a few seconds later.

* [[Blood-Splattered Innocents]]: About thirty seconds into the 74th Hunger Games, the boy from District 9 coughs blood into Katniss' face after getting knifed by Clove.

* [[Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress]]: Invoked with Katniss's wedding dress: {{spoiler|instead of being spattered with blood, it lights itself on fire then turns into a mockingjay dress.}}

* [[Bread and Circuses]]: ''Panem et Circenses''. [[Discussed Trope]] in ''Mockingjay.''

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Peeta's [[Trauma Conga Line]] is significantly longer than that of most of the other characters, though for the most part he takes it all in stride.

* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: Gale at the beginning of the first novel, inciting one of about five times where Katniss actually ''laughs''.

** In the first book, {{spoiler|Katniss is blown back by the explosion she sets off destroying the Careers' supplies and is rendered completely deaf in her left ear. Unable to escape, she only survives by hiding right under their noses}}.

** In the Quarter Quell, {{spoiler|Katniss nearly kills herself breaking the force field over the arena}}.

* [[Brother-Sister Team]]: Gloss and Cashmere.

* [[The Brute]]: Cato, in the first book, and the aptly named Brutus in the second.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: {{spoiler|Poor Boggs. His life is a string of tribulations, from Katniss puking all over him to Gale breaking his nose to getting his legs blown off and dying horribly. The closest he comes to complaining is a sigh when Katniss pukes on him.}}

* [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]]: The addictive painkiller in use around Panem is called "morphling" (morphine) and the people addicted to it are called "morphlings."

** District 11 gets less limelight, but are this as well. {{spoiler|They pool their money to buy Katniss a thank you gift in the arena for treating Rue well and giving her a proper funeral.}}

* [[Conditioned to Accept Horror]]: The whole point of life in the Districts, and the Games. Katniss takes a lot of horror in stride in the first book, but over the course of the trilogy the conditioning wears off.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]:

** In-universe. Family members of past tributes are disproportionately likely to be selected as tributes themselves. Katniss figures the drawings must be rigged that way to create [[Rule of Drama|extra drama]].

* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: The arena of the second Quarter Quell (Haymitch's) is this. At first glance it's the "most breathtaking place imaginable." There're blue skies, puffy white clouds, songbirds flying by, [[Cool, Clear Water|crystalline streams]], luscious fruit, gorgeous flowers, butterflies, etc. Then everyone realizes [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything]] is [[Death World|deadly poisonous]]. And the [[Killer Rabbit|fluffy, golden squirrels are carnivorous]].

* [[Crapsack World]]: Most of the districts are horrible places to live. The people are poor, starving, and oppressed while those in the Capitol live outrageously decadent lives but are also extremely closely watched and more likely to be punished or even executed for speaking out. And that's even without mentioning the eponymous [[Deadly Game]].

** Johanna Mason famously exploited this trope to win the games, appearing to be helpless when she is actually a ruthless killer.

* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: Anyone who's died in the Games, really. And the last book.

* [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]: Wiress knows what she's talking about. The trick is ''figuring out'' just what that is.

* [[Dark Action Girl]]: Pretty much any female Career tribute by definition, but Clove fits the trope to a T. Annie is the exception.

* [[Disposable Woman]]: {{spoiler|Rue}} in the first book. In the others, {{spoiler|Prim. For someone driving the plot of the first book, she}} gets almost no screentime and dies to instigate the ending.

* [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]: The Hunger Games are hateful, deplorable, they ruin their victors psychologically, and the series as a whole is viciously anti-war... but a major part of the story's appeal is the actual excitement of the Hunger Games sequences... ''For both the Capitol and the readers!''

** In District 11, the dark-skinned population is forced to farm and are treated with particular brutality. This sounds a lot like slavery in the American South.

** Panem and {{spoiler|District 13}} are nuclear powers locked in a stalemate. Panem is decadent, wealthy, and corrupt. Its citizens enjoy outrageous luxury while they exploit the surrounding communities to feed their enormous appetites. {{spoiler|District 13}}, on the other hand, is a dull and drab place, ruled by an a totalitarian regime that regiments every aspect of its citizens' lives. That's pretty much how the US and the USSR portrayed each other during the Cold War.

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Go figure.

* [[Dystopia]]: Panem is not a great place to live.

** Johanna Mason gets a brief mention in the first book, then appears in the flesh ([[Naked on Arrival|literally!]]) a book later.

** Delly Cartwright is mentioned in the first part of the first book in passing, but doesn't appear until the middle of the third.

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: {{spoiler|District 13}}.

* [[Embarrassing First Name]]: While the people themselves don't seem to be, at least Katniss notes that a lot of District 1 ''should'' be embarrassed by their names, the likes of which include Glimmer, Marvel, Cashmere, and Gloss.

* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: Often used in-universe with Katniss.

** She's never warned about Peeta's interview strategy so that her reaction will be more genuine.

* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: Inverted. A group of deadly monkey muttations show up in the arena in ''Catching Fire.''

* [[Everything's Worse with Bees]]: Tracker jacker wasps.

** The gamemakers frown on certain behaviors in the Hunger Games, but moreso because it will draw a poor reaction from the audience rather than out of moral disdain. They will not tolerate cannibalism, nor will they allow a psychopath to become a victor (unless they can be charming about it, as the Career Tributes tend to be somewhat... [[Ax Crazy]]).

** The Capitol citizens will gleefully watch children fight to the death, but send a young woman who's alledgedly pregnant into the arena and they'll call it barbaric.

** In the third book, {{spoiler|Snow never exercises his Nuclear Option, which would damn humanity to extinction, even when he realizes that he's doomed.}} He states that he would never kill someone if it gave him no advantage.

* [[Evil Gloating]]: When Clove catches {{spoiler|Katniss}}, she decides to give her something to think about. Followed- as usual- by a [[Thwarted Coup De Grace]].

** President Snow smells of blood and cloying roses. It seems symbolic at first, but a reason for it is given in ''Mockingjay'': {{spoiler|Snow killed many rivals with poison. He uses the roses to cover up the smell of poison, and his bloody breath is from the mouth sores left by poisoned drinks he shared with his victims after taking less-than-perfect antidotes.}}

** Snow uses the overpowering smell of roses to intimidate his enemies, especially Katniss. The lizard mutts in ''Mockingjay'' were specifically given this trait to screw with her head.

** [[The Heart]] / [[The Chick]]: {{spoiler|Peeta}}, who is also something of [[The Load]].

* [[First Girl Wins|First Boy Wins]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Peeta is the first boy chronologically speaking, which should cast him as Unlucky Childhood Admirer, but he is introduced within the story after Gale.}}

* [[Flat Character]]: Prim. Many of the minor characters. Arguably, ''many'' characters (including Katniss) qualify for this; their motivations are not generally complex. (Survive, hunt, run, and survive.)

* [[Flaw Exploitation]]: Katniss exploits the Capitol's {{spoiler|need for a victor}}.

* [[Flower Motifs]]: Several characters are named after flowers or plants, the President reeks of roses, and of course there's {{spoiler|Rue's death}} scene.

* [[Flowery Insults]]: Zig-zagged by Peeta {{spoiler|when he paints the picture of dead Rue covered in flowers for his private session but he never says a word to the Gamemakers}}.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: In the first book, Katniss mentions she first met the avox in the train while in the forest with Gale. {{spoiler|She ponders where the avox could have been headed since [[Blatant Lies|there’s nothing beyond the forest of district 12...]]}}

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Rue, who can move deftly in the treetops, but can't face anyone in a confrontation.

** After Rue is {{spoiler|fatally injured by the District 1 Career}}, in a panic, Katniss refers to her as 'Prim' in her narration, though it's not really a secret that Rue has been a surrogate Prim in Katniss' eyes before that.

** And reversed in a later book Katniss sees Prim after {{spoiler|Rue's death}} and calls Prim 'Rue' in the narration.

* [[Generation Xerox]]: Katniss looks like Mr. Everdeen, has inherited his hunting abilities, singing voice and, like him, {{spoiler|will marry someone from the town}}. 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.

* [[Genghis Gambit]]: In order to rally the people in the Capitol on her side and end things early, {{spoiler|Coin blows up a bunch of children and makes it look like Snow is responsible. It works}}.

* [[Genre Shift]]: ''Mockingjay'' abandons the Games entirely, [[Broken Base|breaking the base]] as it does so.

* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: Just one fight left. Environment is herding the survivors towards the lake for a final brawl. {{spoiler|SUDDENLY WEREWOLVES!}}

** The Capitol itself could also be seen as this - for somewhere that is supposedly very privileged, we see several people willing to risk their lives to escape. The fact that {{spoiler|Seneca Crane was executed for simply [[You Have Failed Me|failing at his job]]}} implies at least a very restrictive society, where [[Big Brother Is Watching|you're watched constantly]] and not toeing the line has terrible consequences. In 'Catching Fire', Effie actually says 'That sort of thinking...it's forbidden, Peeta. Absolutely.' when Peeta tries to hold the Gamemakers accountable for killing children by {{spoiler|painting a picture of Rue's death}} which implies the Capitol citizens [[Thoughtcrime|may not quite have the freedom Katniss assumes.]]

* [[Gladiator Revolt]]: The series, especially the third book, could be seen as a post-apocalyptic version of this, with {{spoiler|Katniss and other Hunger Games winners becoming major figures in the rebellion.}}

* [[Good Scars, Evil Scars]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''Mockingjay'', when {{spoiler|Katniss}} has her uglier scars surgically cleaned up, but is left with some more attractive scars, because she's got to have ''some'' scars to show how bravely she's been fighting. Averted in the end, however, when {{spoiler|she gets ugly skin grafts, and there's no attempt to blend them because District 13 has no more need of her}}.

* [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil]] / [[Black and Gray Morality]]: {{spoiler|District 13 is just as full of assholes as the Capitol.}} The conflict really boils down to some truly horrible people who happen to be in power and all the innocents who get caught in-between. [[Crapsack World]] indeed.

** Even then, the majority of the rebellion is off-screen, with the individual Districts' revolts (sans Two and Eight) and even {{spoiler|the final capture of Snow}} being done away from Katniss and therefore the reader. It helps to emphasize the fact that Katniss is only a tool in the war, not a soldier and certainly not a major player.

* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: Gale tries damned hard not to like Peeta.

** On the female side, Clove uses [[Knife Nut|throwing knives]], Glimmer and Katniss use a [[The Archer|bow]], and Rue uses a [[Brats with Slingshots|slingshot]].

* [[Hair of Gold]]: Peeta, Prim, Delly Cartwright

* [[Hands-On Approach]]: Finnick uses this to show Katniss how to tie a difficult knot.

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Katniss' last conversation with President Snow. {{spoiler|She decides [[Hannibal Has a Point]].}}

* [[Harmful to Minors]]: Only minors are selected for the standard Hunger Games. {{spoiler|The 75th Hunger Game changes the rules.}}

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: Gale, especially after {{spoiler|setting off what is essentially a giant mine explosion in District 2 to win a battle.}}

* [[Her Heart Will Go On]]: Peeta tries to invoke this in a [[More Hero Than Thou]] dispute. Katniss' internal monologue reveals she'll have none of it.

** Katniss at the end of the second book, and all over the third.

** Minor one (compared to the later BSOD's) in the first one occurs for Katniss {{spoiler|after Rue dies}}

** Katniss taking her sister's place.

** {{spoiler|Mags}} in the second book--''twice.''

** And all over the place in ''Mockingjay''.

* [[Hero Secret Service]]

* [[Holding Hands]]: Most notably during the interviews for the Quarter Quell.

* [[Hollywood Healing]]: Due to the advanced medicine available in the Capitol, most injuries sustained by the characters are healed completely. Aversions include Chaff's hand and Peeta's leg, though he gets a prosthetic leg that is rarely referred to again. In the end, {{spoiler|Katniss and Peeta are both covered in skin grafts and burns that the medics didn't bother replacing}}.

** When the rebels attack the Capitol, direct siege would have included trying to seize or disable the Capitol's nuclear missiles, or else bombarding the Capitol into submission. The narrator mentions that they can't do aerial bombing because of anti-air defenses -- but what about plain old artillery? Or maybe the rebels could have first attacked the anti-air emplacements, and then bombed the Capitol flat. Or they could have just declared victory and negotiated the Capitol's surrender. All of these options would probably have been easier than block-by-block urban warfare through a maze of boobie traps.

** There seems to be a lack of any standard infantry weapons besides assault rifles and pistols. No grenades, shotguns, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, mounted machine guns, battle rifles, submachine guns, etc.

** No one has armored ground vehicles.

** District 13 is still shooting propaganda spots long past the point that they would be useful. A huge tactical problem once you realize that people's lives, including the life of Coin's second in command, are put in danger for this purpose.

* [[Hollywood Psych]]:

** ''Catching Fire'' describes Annie as hysterical when she's reaped for the 75th games, without going into any sort of detail. This is enough to have Katniss think she's completely insane. Later in ''Mockingjay'', we meet Annie and Katniss seems to think she's just a little quirky, though she occasionally covers her ears with her hands for no apparent reason. In real life, a person covering their ears that way would imply that they are hearing things that aren't there. Being that this isn't a one off (she does it "occasionally") it's a pretty big alarm bell for a psychotic disorder not otherwise specified. This is not to mention that she's also implied to ''see'' things that aren't there. So yeah.

** Hijacking. {{spoiler|The way Tracker Jacker venom works in the first book is somewhat questionable,}} but in ''Mockingjay'' it really doesn't make sense as a conditioning tool. For one, the brain really doesn't work that way. Conditioning is an unconscious mechanism that can't be manipulated into a deliberate response the way the book describes. This is why the CIA stopped trying to do this in the first place. For another, the part of the brain that controls fear is so separate from your memory that it's unlikely that a drug designed to affect the fear part of your brain would have any affect on memory whatsoever.

* [[Idiot Ball]]:

** Katniss and Peeta pass this back and forth in the first book: {{spoiler|Katniss for not picking up on Peeta's crush, and Peeta for assuming her reciprocation was real.}}

** Cinna, Haymitch and Effie all tell Katniss that her high score after firing an arrow at the Gamemasters is a good thing, no one seems to notice the big ol' bullseye that this stunt grants her. It had also just been mentioned that high scores have often put big ol' bullseyes on the tributes who received them.

** Katniss seems to be clutching this ball rather firmly for someone who's quite familiar with nature. The fact that she isn't the least bit perturbed by the monkeys' initial behavior is silly. Even if she wasn't familiar with monkeys, she knows how animals behave, and she knows that the gamemakers stick 'mutts' into the games. Not hard to work out there's something sinister about them.

** The Career tributes are hyped-up as being trained practically from birth to be efficient, ruthless, cunning, killing machines. They don't know how to treat tracker jacker stings, and seem to think that the best way to flush Katniss out of a tree is to wait at the base of said tree, which is convenient for when someone wants to drop a hive of tracker jackers on you.

* [[Inelegant Blubbering]]: During Katniss' breakdown after the announcement of the Quarter Quell, most notably.

* [[Interrupted Suicide]]: {{spoiler|Katniss }}tries to kill herself at the end of ''Mockingjay'', but {{spoiler|Peeta}} stops her.

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: One of Katniss's prep team.

* [[It Was a Gift]]: Katniss' Mockingjay pin.

* [[It's All About Me]]: For whom is the Quarter Quell a real ordeal?

* [[Just Friends]]: Katniss and Gale.

* [[Karmic Death]]: Marvel got an arrow in his neck from Katniss {{spoiler|as revenge for killing Rue.}}

* [[Leitmotif]]: Rue's song.

* [[Lockdown]]: During the bombing of {{spoiler|District 13}} in book 3.

** {{spoiler|Katniss}} at the end of the second book.

** {{spoiler|She completely loses it in}} the third one as well.

* [[Magical Negro]]: Rue.

* [[Maniac Monkeys]]: One of the many delights of the Quarter Quell.

** Katniss gets lit on fire five times: thrice in the name of fashion and twice in combat situations. There is a reason they call her ''The Girl Who Was On Fire''.

** Peeta also gets singed {{spoiler|at the very end, when he was presumably following Katniss.}}

* [[Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy]]: Peeta is the male version of [[Feminine Women Can Cook]] and Katniss is the female version of [[Manly Men Can Hunt]].

** Katniss is a real plant. Its common name? "Arrowhead". And its scientific name is ''Sagittaria,'' which is a transparent reference to [[Western Zodiac|the Zodiac sign Sagittarius,]] a fire sign whose symbol is an archer.

** Peeta the baker sounds like "pita," a type of bread.

** Cinna was the name of {{spoiler|both a doomed opponent of Sulla the dictator and a conspirator against Augustus ''Caesar''.}}

** One of the meanings of "Rue" is "regret." {{spoiler|Her death haunts Katniss, who failed to protect her.}}

*** District 11, agriculture, has Rue, Thresh, Chaff, and Seeder. 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.

*** District 12 has no set theme for names; they're mostly things that are important to the parents. There's Peeta, after the type of bread (his parents are bakers), and Katniss and Prim were named after flowers their father was fond of. And of course Katniss' nickname, "The Girl On Fire", may refer to District 12's main industry: coal mining.

*** District 2 is noted for having the closest relationship to the Capitol, and their tributes also have Roman names: Cato, Brutus, and Clove (derived from Clovis).

** In Katniss' case it's a nickname but the drama largely boils down to "The girl who was on fire" against President ''Snow''.

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: The pearl in ''Mockingjay''.

* [[Memetic Sex God]]: Finnick is an in-universe example.

** After Katniss puts {{spoiler|Cato}} out of his misery at the end of the 74th Hunger Games.

** In ''Catching Fire,'' Katniss considers doing this for {{spoiler|Peeta and possibly Beetee as well}}.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Katniss has Prim and Rue, and Gale has his own younger siblings.

* [[More Hero Than Thou]]: In ''Catching Fire'', {{spoiler|Katniss and Peeta}} are each determined the other will be the survivor.

** Katniss's mother goes into a near-catatonic depression after the death of Katniss's father, leaving Katniss to support the family. Even when the mother becomes functional again, she never really gets over his death.

** In Mockingjay Katniss goes into this after {{spoiler|Prim's death}}

* [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: People from the Capitol are often named after Ancient Roman historical figures: Cinna, Caesar (Flickerman), Seneca (Crane), Coriolanus (Snow), Claudius (Templesmith), etc.

* [[Neck Snap]]: Cato to {{spoiler|the boy from District 3}}.

** Katniss' main goal through the second book is to find a way to trick Snow into believing she's in love with Peeta. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, she does convince him (and just about everyone else), and therefore manages to give him the leverage to break her during ''Mockingjay''.}}

** One can say that the entire series is this. {{spoiler|Prim dies anyway, which was what the instigation of the plot of the first book was trying to prevent.}}

* [[Non-Action Guy]]: Peeta, whose sole moment of badassery is so early on in the games that it's easily outshined by his persistent habit of being [[The Load]].

* [[Non-Action Big Bad]]: President Snow.

* [[Not in This For Your Revolution]]: It takes Katniss a long time to decide to actively help the revolutionaries instead of just looking out for her own survival.

* [[Not Me This Time]]: When confronted with {{spoiler|the bombing of the children in front of the mansion,}} Snow reveals that he had absolutely nothing to do with it, and in fact it was {{spoiler|President Coin}}.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: Slowly occurs over the course of the second book, finally setting in for good at the very last line. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the third book when Katniss' last routine from home, hunting with Gale, {{spoiler|stops when their relationship deteriorates and they go their separate ways}}.

* [[Nuclear Option]]: Discussed. {{spoiler|Both District 13 and the Capitol}} have nukes trained on each other, but mutually assured destruction of all humanity keeps them both at bay.

** Katniss remarks this was Johanna Mason's strategy in her Games: everyone thought she was a sniveling, useless weakling and overlooked her... until she turned out to be a vicious killer who ended up the victor.

** Oddly enough, Haymitch counts -- not only is he quite the strategist in the first Games, but he turns out to be a {{spoiler|major figure in the underground resistance by the end of book 2.}} Not bad for someone most people just think of as the town drunk.

* [[Official Couple]]: Katniss and Peeta (at least, as advertised by the Capitol), and Finnick and Annie. In ''Mockingjay'', {{spoiler|Katniss and Peeta end up together for real}}.

** The implied epic two-day battle between [[Cool Versus Awesome|Cato and Thresh.]] [[Battle in the Rain|In the rain]].

** Peeta killing {{spoiler|Brutus}} in the Quarter Quell could count. Not bad for the guy who's usually seen as [[The Load]].

* [[Opposites Attract]]

* [[Ornamental Weapon]]: Subverted with Katniss' bow. After all, just because it's pretty doesn't mean it can't be deadly.

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: One of the Gamemakers' traps.

* [[Planet of Hats]]: Each of the districts has a different primary industry, which serves as its theme. This is an [[Invoked Trope]] in the Hunger Games, since the tributes are each trope are traditionally dressed in ways that reference their theme.

{{quote|Finnick: "Why? Do you find this... distracting?"}}

* [[Police State]]: Panem is one. {{spoiler|District 13}} is less openly cruel but even more restrictive.

** "Muttation" is a generic in-universe term for a genetically engineered creature, probably derived from "mutt" and "mutation". Lots of things count, like those wolves at the end of the first book, or Jabberjays and Tracker Jackers. Many more exotic variants are introduced in the third book when {{spoiler|they're storming the Capitol}}.

** Poisonous berries called "nightlock" (nightshade, hemlock).

* [[Promotion to Parent]]:

** The death of [[Disappeared Dad|Katniss' father]] and her mother's subsequent depression make her the breadwinner of the family.

* [[Prongs of Poseidon]]: Since he's from the fishing district, Finnick is dangerously adept with a trident.

* [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]: Pretty thoroughly.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Tributes from Districts 1 and 2 tend to come off this way due to those Districts' practice of training children specifically in order to volunteer for the Hunger Games. As a result, these "Career" Tributes are also far more likely to win than Tributes from other Districts, although Haymitch describes their arrogance as a flaw that can lead to their defeat.

* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: The ending of ''Mockingjay''.

* [[Rain of Blood]]: ''Literally.''

* [[Reality Ensues]]: Pretty much what Mockingjay runs on.

** Some fans found {{spoiler|Finnick's}} death to be unnecessary and lacking in heroism. But that makes sense in a war.

* [[Reality Show]]: The eponymous games.

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]: The third book is FULL of this.

* [[Romantic False Lead]]: {{spoiler|Gale.}}

* [[Rousing Speech]]:

** Katniss tries to give one in the middle of a firefight in District 2. {{spoiler|It succeeds in turning the workers against the pro-Capital soldiers, but doesn't keep her from getting shot by one first.}}

* [[Rule of Drama]]: Ties with [[Rule of Empathy]], below. The Capitol loves best those victors who put on a great show.

* [[Rule of Empathy]]: Tributes must be able to invoke sympathy from the Capitol and District audiences. Sympathy will equal sponsors and money for necessities in the arena, and could therefore make the difference in the Games. Peeta, it turns out, is a natural at invoking the [[Rule of Empathy]] at the drop of a hat. Katniss is not.

* [[Sacrificial Lion]]:

** It's debatable whether {{spoiler|Rue in book 1}} was this or [[Sacrificial Lamb]].

* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Justified in that the Capitol deliberately suppresses technology in the Districts, especially weapons tech.

* [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|Screw The Rules We Make Them]]: The Gamemakers.

* [[Sex Slave]]: In book 3, according to {{spoiler|Finnick, this happens to a lot of victors}}, himself included.

* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: The story begins in the first book with Katniss sacrificing herself to save Prim's life. {{spoiler|Prim dies at the end of the third book.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Ship Sinking]]}}: In the third book, Katniss and Gale's relationship is increasingly strained, especially after {{spoiler|the battle in District 2}}. They may have been able to work past that, but it's when they realize that {{spoiler|Gale made the bombs that killed Prim (not to mention horribly scarring Peeta and Katniss) that puts the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. Possibly for both of them, since Gale didn't seem to upset about losing her.}}

* [[Shoot the Hostage]]: {{spoiler|President Coin orders a bombing attack on children being used as human shields by President Snow - and makes it appear that the attack was initiated by Snow, in order to destroy any remaining public support for Snow's regime.}}

** [[Word of God]] has stated that Katniss's family name is a reference to the Thomas Hardy character Bathsheba Everdene.

** Katniss (the "Girl on Fire") is in Squad Four Five One, a reference to Ray Bradbury's ''Fahrenheit 451'', which is another dystopian novel with a fire motif.

* [[Shout-Out/To Shakespeare]]: Lavinia, who has no tongue, is a reference to ''[[Titus Andronicus (theatre)|Titus Andronicus]]''. Titus is also name-dropped, a Tribute who goes cannibal in the games.

* [["Shut Up" Kiss]]: Katniss does this to Peeta in the cave when he attempts to give her an [[If I Do Not Return]] speech. He shuts up.

* [[Simulated Urban Combat Area]]

* [[Single-Target Sexuality]]: Peeta towards Katniss. He fell in love with her when he was 5 and never fell out of love. {{spoiler|Except of course for the brief time while he was hijacked, and even then it seems that a part of him still loved her.}}

* [[The Speechless]]: Avoxes, traitors who've had their tongues mutilated as punishment.

* [[Spoiled Sweet]]:

** Though we aren't one hundred percent sure of his financial situation, probably Cinna, who treats Katniss with respect and the games with disgust despite being from the Capitol.

* [[Spot the Thread]]: The official, "live-action" shots of District 13 are revealed to be [[Stock Footage]] by a mockingjay which flies past the screen.

* [[Strange Salute]]: When Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place, the entire crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hands to their lips, and then holds it out to her. Katniss explains that it's an old District 12 gesture that means thanks, admiration, and goodbye to someone you love. {{spoiler|It becomes a little more meaningful later on.}}

* [[Super-Persistent Predator]]: The tracker jacker wasps do not give up an attack once pissed off. Running away doesn't help.

* [[Sure, Let's Go with That]]: When Caesar Flickerman asks Katniss exactly when she first {{spoiler|fell for Peeta}}, she's evasive at first (since at this point {{spoiler|she hasn't actually fallen for him yet}}) and then immediately goes along with his first guess.

** Although nonverbal, Finnick's compulsive knotting in ''Mockingjay''.

** Katniss shares Finnick's knotting habit for a bit in the third book, but has one of her own.

* [[Tears of Remorse]]: After Katniss's meeting with the Gamemakers.

* [[Teenage Wasteland]]: Subverted. [[Actor Allusion|The kids are all right]], adult authority in the form of [[The Empire|The Capitol]] is ''forcing'' them to kill or be killed.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]:

** The districts are implied to have therapists, as Katniss's mother was able to somehow gain access to one in order to get hold of drugs to treat her depression. Largely, people do not seem to seek psychological help, though. This could be attributed to a lack of money, however Katniss's family struggles to eat, so...

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: {{spoiler|Gale}}

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Katniss feels this way, since she's constantly out of the loop.

** Attempted by {{spoiler|President Coin, who sends Peeta out with Katniss's team in the Capitol, with a gun, while he's still [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] and Katniss is his [[Berserk Button]].}} It fails.

** Katniss being sent {{spoiler|back into the arena in book 2}} might also qualify, if you believe it was rigged by {{spoiler|President Snow}}.

** Leads to Cato [[Neck Snap|snapping the neck]] of {{spoiler|District 3's}} boy in the first book.

** {{spoiler|President Coin attempts this with Katniss}} towards the end of Mockingjay.

** In ''Mockingjay'', {{spoiler|either President Snow or President Coin kills Prim.}}

** Katniss understands that if the conditions were not so bad in the coal mines due to the decadent lifestyle in the Capitol and the corrupt government, her father would not have died in the mine accident.