The Hunger Games (novel): Difference between revisions

* ''Mockingjay'' (2010)

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* [[Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage]]: The Capitol plans to do this to {{spoiler|Peeta and Katniss}}. This is later subverted in the end of the third book, where {{spoiler|they voluntarily decide to marry}}.

* [[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.}}

* [[Captain Obvious]]: [[Played for Laughs]] by {{spoiler|Peeta}} in ''Catching Fire''. After running head-first into the force field at the edge of the arena, he goes into cardiac arrest and [[CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable|gets saved by]] {{spoiler|Finnick}}. {{spoiler|Peeta's}} response? He mentions there's a force field ahead of them.

* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Buttercup is to everyone who isn't Prim. {{spoiler|Until Katniss and he finally bond after Prim's death.}}

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Katniss passes over it in a matter of paragraphs {{spoiler|at the end of ''Catching Fire''.}} And the rest of the series from there consists of [[It Got Worse|it getting worse]].

* [[Defictionalization]]: You can actually buy mockingjay pins. Interesting, because the citizens of the Capitol displayed this exact behavior in ''Catching Fire''.

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Katniss and Prim's father died in the mines a few years before the book begins. Gale's father also died in the same accident. It's concealed in somewhat of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but Haymitch's father might have been this as well. Haymitch has told Katniss that {{spoiler|President Snow had his mother, baby brother, and girlfriend killed as punishment for making the Capitol look bad in the arena,}} but a father is never mentioned.

* [[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.

* {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide]]: Katniss understandably attempts various suicidal things after the end of the war in the final book. None are fulfilled naturally}}

* [[Drunken Master]]: Haymitch is a hopeless alcoholic, but his knowledge of people and tactics is astounding.

* [[Dying Alone]]

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Go figure.

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

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]:

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

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: More like earn your bittersweet ending.

** Gale maintains a surprising harem in the fandom for someone who was a tertiary character for the first book.

** Also, Finnick, both in-universe, and out.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:

** 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]]).

* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Peeta is kind and patient and {{spoiler|totally kills people in the arena, including finishing off one girl in cold blood while he's in the Career pack}}, besides being three steps ahead when it comes to manipulating the on-camera narrative.

* [[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}}.

* [[Gorn]]: How the Capitol citizens view the Hunger Games. In-universe only, hopefully.

* [[Gotta Kill Them All]]: Throughout the Hunger Games, Katniss quite literally counts the number of remaining contestants on her fingers and toes. {{spoiler|Although she only personally kills two or three in the end.}}

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

* [[Guys Smash Girls Shoot]]: In the first book:

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

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

** A mag is a type of nut. Mags knows a lot about plants and nuts.

** Pollux and Castor, the twin cameramen from ''Mockingjay'' are named for the Gemini of Roman mythology. Like the myth, Castor dies and Pollux is allowed to live - only with some horrible mutilation.

** In Mockingjay, the expression {{spoiler|"the opposite side of the same Coin"}} comes to mind.

** Panem sounds like a mutilation of "Pan America", but is meant as a reference to the Latin phrase "panem et circenses", meaning "bread and circuses", or idiomatically, sustenance and entertainment - the two things you need to give a population to keep them happy.

* [[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}}.

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]:

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

* [[The Ophelia]]: {{spoiler|Katniss}} near the end of the third book, after {{spoiler|killing Coin}}. Annie is also presented as unstable at the best of times.

** Later in ''Catching Fire'', Katniss is upset that nothing is different in the arena, saying that she'd hoped the tributes would show restraint. This completely ignores the fact that ''Katniss'' was the first tribute in the 75th games to try and attack anyone (Finnick).

** {{spoiler|District 8}} is so lacking in medical personnel and supplies, people are left with unchanged bandages and untreated infections; their hospital is basically a morgue. Peeta alone, on the other hand, gets a whole team of doctors because he's Katniss's love interest. This is never brought up as morally questionable.

* [[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''.

* [[Regional Speciality]]: Each district's bread is very distinct.

* [[Replacement Goldfish]]: Katniss {{spoiler|forms an alliance with Rue, stays with her while she dies, and vows to win for her}}, who reminds her of her own little sister Prim back home.

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

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

** [[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.

* [["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.

* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Katniss and Prim

* [[Super Happy Fun Trope of Doom]]: The role of the Peacekeepers isn't as sweet as it sounds. (Bit like in [[Real Life]], then?) Pretty much everything surrounding the Games is treated as fun and entertaining; being a "tribute" is an ''honor.''

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

* [[Survival Mantra]]:

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

* [[Taking the Bullet]]: During the Quarter Quell, {{spoiler|one of the morphlings is killed by an attack from a vicious monkey that was meant for Peeta}}.

* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]: Gale.

* [[A Taste of the Lash]]: {{spoiler|Gale}} in Catching Fire

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

* [[To Absent Friends]]: {{spoiler|The book that Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch create at the end of Mockingjay.}}

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Katniss and Prim, Katniss and Madge

* [[Too Happy to Live]]: {{spoiler|Finnick and Annie}} in ''Mockingjay''. As soon as {{spoiler|they got married}}, you knew at least one of them was doomed.

* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: By the end, try to count more surviving characters that haven't suffered one without running out of fingers. This is especially endemic amongst the victors of the games as the Capitol torments them to keep them from using their elevated status to foment rebellion.

* [[Villains Never Lie]]: {{spoiler|President Snow}}

* [[Voice of the Resistance]]: Katniss and her fellow Victors, throughout book 3.

* [[War Is Hell]]: Absolutely nothing [[War Is Glorious|glorious]] about it.

* [[Wartime Wedding]]: {{spoiler|Finnick and Annie.}}

** Or how about {{spoiler|"And then the second round of parachutes goes off."}}

** In-universe, Peeta is the acknowledged master of the [[Wham! Line]], particularly when onstage with Caesar Flickerman. In the first book he sets up the [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] thing, and in the second he manages an even bigger one: {{spoiler|He claims he and Katniss are having a baby.}}

** We never learn ''why'' Cinna requested District 12 (as he says he did in book 1) and we never find out if Portia did the same. We also have no clue why he doesn't have the Capitol accent or the Capitol sense of style, despite that not making much sense if he's a fashion designer who's lived in the Capitol for his entire life. However, there is a theory stating that his mother had an affair with a Victor, perhaps from District 12, although that would kind of complicate things rather than resolve them. On the other hand, we never learn what happened to the other Victor from 12 apart from Haymitch and whether that one came before him or after.

** In book 2, Johanna says everyone she loves is dead. Elaboration? Explanation? Don't count on it. There's a popular guess in fanon, though.