The Capitol Series

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Capitol Series is a series of fanfictions based on The Hunger Games, published on Fanfiction.net by author Claratrix Le Chatham. The series consists of A Capitol Experience, With A Capitol G (a spamfic), and Capitol Punishment (which was abandoned two chapters short of its planned completion, but the Games are complete).

Tropes used in The Capitol Series include:
  • Action Girl:
    • Several, mostly Careers, but Demetra is probably in the running for most triumphant example.
    • Kali would like to contest that assertion, though she is more of a Dark Action Girl herself.
  • Action Survivor:
    • Lectic, definitely. He is alive thanks to a generous amount of intervention on Demetra's part, and a good amount of luck and intelligence on his own.
    • See also Carden, Hypatia, Holland, Actassi... most of the non-Careers who actually... y'know, survived. The bloodbath, anyway.
  • Action Duo: Lectic and Demetra do pretty well for themselves, though Demetra would sooner cut her tongue out than admit it.
  • Aerith and Bob: Rachel/Asha/Tanner/Diane: all relatively typical names. Auroch/Hetcher/Rippel/Pasque: not so much.
  • Alpha Bitch: Lycra.
  • Alternate Universe Fic: Each and every one of them.
  • And Now for Something Completely Different: Enforced. Fanfiction.net doesn't allow list-format stories, so the first page of With A Capitol G (a character list) has been replaced with a place-holding Crack Fic while the story is on hold.
  • Anti-Hero: Soren, Lucian, Demetra... a good portion of the Careers.
  • Axe Crazy:
    • Demetra is flamethrower crazy.
    • Chalice starts going this way, too, until Diele kills her.
  • The Berserker: Diele puts an end to it pretty quickly, but Chalice seemed to be turning into one.
  • Blood Sport: The Hunger Games.
  • Brainless Beauty: Twyla. Though she's prefectly aware of her effect on Sherman, and is smart enough to use it to her advantage.
  • Brains and Brawn: In Capitol Punishment, Lectic is brains and Demetra is brawns.
  • The Brute:
    • Martial.
    • Bond from A Capitol Experience, and, debatably, Royce.
  • Children Forced to Kill: And not-so-forced, in some cases.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Soren and Demetra know how it's done.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Demetra's friends spend most of her interview time gushing over how lucky she is to be in the Hunger Games with a cute guy and a flamethrower.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Subverted. Strong, smart Auroch is beaten by not one, but two of his Games' youngest contestants. You gotta feel sorry for the poor guy.
  • Deadly Games: The Hunger Games.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • Demetra informs the readers that snarking is one of her very favorite things to do.
    • Soren, her uncle, shares the trait as well as the trope.
    • Maren too.
    • And they all qualify as First Person Smartasses, too.
  • Death From Above: The mutt that looks like Actassi's mother in A Capitol Experience, and then the Giant Flyer in Capitol Punishment.
  • Doomed by Canon: The District 12 tributes in A Capitol Experience.
  • Dual-Wielding: Kali is described as wielding a knife in her left hand a staff in her right.
  • Driven to Suicide: Diane, after her victory.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Lectic, both in and out-of-universe.
  • Cute Kitten: Lectic has a pet kitten. Named Sparky. Can I get an "aww", please?
  • Eye Scream:
    • Actassi kills Kali by stabbing a spear through her eye and into her brain.
    • Skiff gets a quarter launched into his eye.
  • Fingore: Kali loses part of her thumb, not that she notices.
  • Five-Bad Band: The Careers in aCE.
  • Fragile Speedster: Lissom is the poster child. Poor girl can't take a hit, and isn't wonderful at dishing it out in the first place.
  • Genius Bruiser: Auroch is something of one.
  • Go Out with a Smile: Sherman, because he believes he'll be Together in Death with Twyla.
  • Home Base:
    • Lectic and Demetra's car.
    • The cave on the island with the freshwater spring that Hetcher, Diane, and Carden always seem to find their way back to.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun:
    • The author has a sort of love affair with these. A Capitol Experience? A 'capital' experience! Capitol Punishment? 'Capital' punishment. With a Capitol G? With a 'capital' G.
    • In-universe, Demetra makes a comment to herself about "pushing [the] buttons" of a girl wearing a calculator costume.
  • It's Quiet... Too Quiet: Soren drops one.
  • It Has Been an Honor: Lectic to Demetra, as they part ways.
  • I Was Beaten by a Girl: Soren and Kali had an similar dynamic until she killed him and cut off his jaw.
  • Just Friends: Lectic and Demetra. Hetcher and Diane. Diele and Dylan. Maren and Actassi. The Capitol Series is rife with this trope.
  • Kill It with Fire: Demetra's general attitude towards anything that bugs her. The flamethrower helps.
  • Lack of Empathy:
    • Lucian. Word of God states that he was borderline autistic before suffering a skull fracture, and picked up a few worse traits accompanying his not-quite-recovery and the encouragement of District Two's warped values.
    • Kali from aCE was a perfect example of The Sociopath, no genetic disorders involved aside from whatever is going through most District Two DNA.
  • Love Confession: Aww, Carden and Hypatia. Oops, now she's dead.
  • Meaningful Name: The author has a fondness for these, and, luckily, such names or within the relms of canon.
    • Lissom, lithe and flexible. Auroch (Aurochs), an enormous, extinct breed of cattle comparable to a buffalo. Forester... forester.
  • Mercy Kill: Lissom to Skiff.
  • Moment of Silence: As an out-of-universe example, Claratrix Le Chatham calls for one in an author's note after Diele's death.
  • Morality Pet: Lecia to Soren, Carden to Franz/Esther/Diane, and, in measure, Lectic to Demetra.
  • More Dakka: Demetra knows how to fight perfectly well, but prefers the raw power of her flamethower.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Chalice snaps. And Auroch is on the receiving end.
  • Oh Crap:
    • Soren knows exactly what's going to happen, exactly who's going to do it, and exactly one syllable to summarize his thought process.
    • "Oh crap," is also the first thing Esther says in response to her reaping.
  • Older Than They Look: Head Gamemaker Xenia is quite a bit older than she looks, thanks to the wonders of Capitol beauty treatments.
  • Original Character: At least twenty-two of 'em per story.
  • Out, Damned Spot!: After Sherman's fever-induced hallucination leads him to believe he murdered Twyla, he tries to wash the black blood off his hands, to no avail.
  • Overly Long Name: Forester Montgomery-Cunningham.
  • Playful Hacker: Lectic is somewhere between this and The Cracker. He has no real malicious intent, but he does use his hacking skills for material and monetary gain.
  • Plot Tumor: Lectic and Demetra's subplot in Capitol Punichment. Most definitely not a Romantic Plot Tumor, though.
  • Quit Your Whining: Demetra really, really doesn't care about other peoples' problems. Especially when they're getting between her and a giant vulture. Even if it's Lectic.

"LECTIC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LISTEN TO ME!"

Forcefieldsforcefieldsforce... I give up.

    • Lissom's inner monologue has a tendency towards this trope, as well as third person.
  • Tears of Remorse: Actassi, after the bloodbath, and killing Sherman.]
  • Tempting Fate:
    • Subverted. As Hetcher bemoans the failure of his attempt to steal the Careers' fever medicine, he says, "But it could be raining, right?" Unlike most times a character says something along these lines, it doesn't start raining.
    • Played straight with Dylan and Diele. See Why Did It Have To Be Birds? below.
  • Theme Naming:
    • All of the titles include the word "Capitol", usually as a pun where one would expect "capital" to be used instead.
    • Lectic's prep team members are named Veni, Vidi, and Vici.
  • There Can Only Be One: Only one tribute gets to leave the arena alive.
  • Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Very much not Played for Laughs. Diane, convinced that not only is Actassi Kali who is already dead, but that he somehow killed Hetcher. He's got no clue what's going on, and she is unaware of the mistake until shortly after she's killed him.
    • On the same vein, Franz kills Esther believing that she is the Career girl who murdered his sister.
  • Too Dumb to Live: If you know your teammate is a sociopath with a gun, what do you do? Hopefully not confront him about it on your own, as several of Lucian's allies did.
  • Too Happy to Live: Carden was taking everything incredibly well, until he was crushed by a giant rock. Whoops. If he had any foreknowledge, he would have tried to fit in one last smile...
  • Two Out of Three Ain't Bad: Demetra to Lectic.

"I'm looking for someone smart, strong, and not allied with my dear comrades from before. You know what, Lectic? Two out of three isn't half bad."
"Umm… You're right. It's only a third bad."

  • The Unfettered: Lucian doesn't care who he has to kill, what he has to do. But he doesn't exactly have a goal, just doesn't want to die.
  • Violence Is the Only Option: Good luck getting out of the games without breaking a few necks... or skulls, or just plain indirectly killing other kids. Foxface couldn't do it, and neither can you.
  • Why Did It Have To Be Birds?: Dylan and Diele share a moment of distaste for avians in general shortly before they are set upon by a flock of terror birds. Diele thinks they are beautiful. Dylan disagrees.
  • Write Who You Know: Soren and Maren are based off of real-life friends of the author.
  • World of No Grandparents: Subverted. Asha's grandmother not only appears, but is her Parental Substitute.