Let The Games Begin!

(There are spoilers in this post. If you haven't read the Hunger Games trilogy, this may spoil suspense. You have been warned.)

On the ashes of a continent once known as North America, there is a country called Panem. It has twelve districts ruled from a shining city called the Capitol.

Seventy four years ago, the districts rebelled against the Capitol. The rebellion was mercilessly crushed. The thirteenth district was destroyed, and as a warning to the survivors and their descendants, the officials of the Capitol created the Hunger Games. Every year, two children- a boy and a girl- called tributes, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, are chosen from each district. They are sent into an arena with one goal- to be the last of twenty four tributes to survive.

That is how the first book of the trilogy, The Hunger Games, starts. The series was a huge hit and caused major arguments in our class. So naturally, I had to choose characters from the books for my voting survey. I chose Katniss Everdeen, the heroine, Peeta, the boy tribute from District Twelve in love with her, Gale, Katniss' best friend, and Rue, Katniss' twelve-year-old ally in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games (she dies).

How did they do in the polls? I'll take each character separately.

Music-loving Rue. The twelve-year-old from District Eleven who is chosen for the Hunger Games. When the audience is asked whether there will be any volunteers, there is only the sound of the wind in the trees. Nothing else. 

So Rue is in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. She reminds Katniss of her sister Prim, and becomes Katniss' ally in the Games.

Rue loves music, and sings well. She also is fierce and scores high in the training session, and is a good ally to have. She points out the tracker jackers above Katniss' head, saving her life.

Rue dies when the boy from District One throws a spear through her body. The scene where she dies is cut out from the official film that is shown once the Games are over, enraging Katniss, who had killed the District One boy seconds after the spear was thrown. She only appears in The Hunger Games, but is mentioned many times in the later books, such as when Katniss is listing her reasons for hating Snow, and when Peeta paints a picture of Rue dying in the Games. She is one of the tributes on We Remember in the third book.

Rue scored 13, tying with Hermione in fourth place. Quite a few voters hadn't read the book and didn't add or subtract points from her. Most of the ones who knew her voted positively. A couple of people voted negatively for Rue. What are the flaws in her character that caused that?

Maybe it's because there are so few that those voters didn't like her. They thought her personality was too perfect. Several of my classmates, including me, are not big fans of perfect characters, especially if they play a big part in the story. Most popular characters have flaws- it's what makes them likeable. However, somehow Rue is a very popular character, yet it's hard to find flaws in her personality. That 'perfectness' turned a couple of voters against her.

Gale, the fighter. The only one of the four I chose who wasn't a tribute. Gale Hawthorne is Katniss' best friend, and is two years older than her. He knows Katniss better than even her mother does, and promises to help her family if she dies in the Games (which she doesn't). He's good at setting traps and he becomes a miner when he is spared from the Hunger Games at the age of eighteen, the last year of eligibility. 

He has a crush on Katniss, which he says outright in the second book. The survivors of District Twelve, after it is attacked at the end of Catching Fire, are survivors only because he saved them. He's part of the Star Sqaud in Mockingjay and fights hard to overthrow the Capitol. Gale is captured by the Capitol soon before the rebellion ends and the Capitol surrenders. He hates the Capitol and doesn't believe any atrocity beneath them. He's fierce, unrelenting, and so passionate about the rebellion that he hates even the peaceful citizens of the Capitol.

At the end of Mockingjay, he becomes a police officer in District Two without saying goodbye to Katniss. He simply disappears out of the narrative after he meets Katniss briefly before the public execution of Snow (just before the twist in the tale).

He scored 12, tying with Harry in fifth place. In the beginning of the polls, he was left alone- no points added or removed, until one voter took away a point. This was followed by two positive points, one negative, and another two positive points. This means only six people voted for or against Gale- four liked him, the other two didn't. 

Six people didn't vote Gale, which either means that they hadn't read the book or they didn't have a opinion of him. Four liked him. They may have liked the fact that he fought fiercely, or his liking for Katniss, or his role in the rebellion. He does have flaws, which makes him realistic. Two voters didn't like Gale (one asked if he could deduct two points. I flatly refused. That was against the rules). They may have thought he was going overboard with the rebellion, or they may not have liked his sudden disappearance from the story. One told me that he considered Gale to be too protective of Katniss.

Peeta the painter. The baker's son, the one who gave a starving Katniss bread when both were eleven, so he's referred to as the 'boy with the bread' throughout the series. He's a talented artist, who paints really good pictures. And as Katniss says, he doesn't need a brush and paint- he does just as well with words. He's chosen for the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games and plays a huge role in getting himself and Katniss an advantage with his 'star-crossed lovers' act. In his second Games, when he finds that both he and Katniss are in danger because of the berries, he elaborates on the act, trying to make it clear that he and Katniss actually are in love. However, he does rebel- made clear by the painting of Rue in his private training session. He is captured by the Capitol in Catching Fire when the Games end because some tributes (including Katniss) are pulled out by the rebel forces of District Thirteen.
He is tortured by the Capitol before he is rescued in Mockingjay, when the rebels discover that his memories have been tampered with. Prim helps to heal him. He is sent to the Star Squad by Coin and survives the rebellion. After Coin's assasination (the twist in the tale!), Peeta stops Katniss from biting the nightlock pill. In the epilogue, fifteen or twenty years later, he marries Katniss, and they have two kids.

Peeta nearly ended up being the least popular boy character, escaping by the virtue of one point. The voters obviously aren't huge fans of his. Why?
Haymitch repeatedly tells Katniss, "He's too good for you," to which she says, "I know." (What sort of a reply is that?!) He's fierce, but sensitive, strong, considerate, self-punishing, talented, protective...the list goes on, and he can be summarized as 'good', according to his mentor. 'Too good'. That's probably why the voters don't like him. Except, maybe, for the part when his memories are changed in Mockingjay so he's unforgiving and cold.The only flaw mentioned is his inability to be quiet while hunting. That's about it. And therefore, it turns many voters against him. He ended up with 6 points.

And finally, I present to you...KATNISS, the girl on fire. Katniss Everdeen- hunter, singer, tribute, victor, Mockingjay, rebel, archer, and youth icon.
When twelve-year-old Primrose Everdeen is selected for the Hunger Games, her sister Katniss can't believe it. She volunteers to take Prim's place in the Games, though it almost certainly means death. She soon realizes, though, that with her amazing stylist Cinna, her fellow tribute Peeta, her killer attitude, and the eleven she scored in her training session, she has a huge advantage. But when she holds out the berries...she seals her fate. Unknown to her, rebel leaders have marked her as the face of the future rebellion- the Mockingjay, after her symbol.
Katniss is determined, impulsive, suspicious, fierce and quick-tempered. She's a good hunter with an amazing voice. She knows how to keep herself alive -mostly- and she can climb a tree faster and higher than any other tribute.
So why did she score so low? She was the second least popular girl character, though she scored higher than Peeta.
What happened? She's the protagonist of a bestselling trilogy. She's portrayed by a famous actress in the movie adaptation. She's fierce, she's a survivor (as Peeta's mom puts it), and she's rebellious.

Let's also mention that she can be insensitive and distrustful- she doesn't even trust Peeta for quite a long time. She doesn't have much respect for anyone (except maybe Cinna and sometimes Gale). She also is very judgemental- she doesn't trust Peeta for a long time, then likes him, then hates him when he's cold towards her. She's rash- I mean, look at the berries, the cause of the whole problem. She blames Gale for not telling her things ("It's just what you said. And I totally agree that you should be the accessible one," says Katniss- more or less- in Mockingjay). And coming to the parts where she's in love- assuming that she has fallen in love- she can't decide who she's in love with. Gale or Peeta? Peeta or Gale?

Maybe it's not such a surprise that she scored 8 points. There are definitely quite a few negative aspects to her character.

And that brings us to the end of the list.
Next up on Cartwheels in the Rain- the performance of Rick Riordan's characters in the polls.