My New THG "Obsession"

Spoiler Alert! (Although I’m sure you’ve read or watched it)

I’ve recently gotten into The Hunger Games franchise. I’ve even gone so far as to have Hunger Games-themed wallpapers on my phone and laptop. My little brother shoved the first book into my hands after I mentioned that a mate had watched the movie. I started reading it and couldn’t put it down.

The Hunger Games is basically about 2 kids that got reaped into a televised fight to the death with 22 other kids. They live in Authoritarian/Totalitarian state named Panem, much like North Korea, in a post-global-disaster North America after the USA fell.

I made light work of reading the first book and had finished all three by the end of that month. The only book I haven’t read yet is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - that’s just because I don’t have a copy yet. My brother also bought Sunrise on the Reaping, and that is one depressing book. I’m excited to see what the movie might look like.

I thought the movies were really good, although a few bits from the books didn’t make it into the films. For example, in Catching Fire, Peeta and Katniss have an all-day picnic on the rooftop of the training center. That scene was omitted from the movie for some stupid reason.

You should play the movie’s Panem Anthem “Horn Of Plenty” and other tracks from the soundtrack on a big sound system, because it sounds really good. (It is a big budget movie, after all.)

But in other cases, scenes that weren’t in the books were added to the movies. In the first film, we see Seneca Crane and President Snow talking, and Haymitch speaking to Seneca - likely about pushing the whole star-crossed lovers angle. This gave us more perspectives of the story rather than just Katniss’ POV. In Mockingjay Part 2, the scene where Katniss shoots Coin was kind of funny because of Snow’s face and the way Coin dropped. Donald Sutherland was the perfect President Snow, and I hope his son Kiefer gets cast as Snow in the SOTR movie.

Snow waving to the crowd

I even read some fanfiction! It took me a few weeks, but I managed to finish a 35-chapter fanfic called Give You My Wild. It has 207,000 words! I had to skip over a few parts where it gets into “detail”, but other than that, it’s a really sweet story of how Peeta and Katniss start a family—with Haymitch as honorary grandpa (and geese wrangler)!

I’ve been watching a lot of videos about THG. They give really good insight into theories and lore. One of my theories is that if the Capitol was in present-day Salt Lake City, UT, Panem could’ve started out Mormon after the big wipeout of the current USA. Although Panem isn’t religious as far as I can tell, some people may have tried to keep the Mormon church going, but they were stifled by others. I’m sure The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes would give me more detail, but I’ve yet to read that book. My library only has the e-book, and I’d much rather read a real copy.

Videos from Hunger Games Explained and Rachel A Ramras are great watches and I recommend checking them out!

Peeta, Gale and Katniss I am very much Team Peeta. There are many reasons why, but considering he’s the one who ends up with Katniss, I reckon Peeta’s the G. Josh Hutcherson is the perfect Peeta—some other guy auditioned, but he had no chance. I reckon both guys cared for Katniss, but Peeta ended up with her because he balances out the fire in Katniss, unlike Gale, who adds to it. (I got this theory from some YouTube video, but I agree with it.)

Fun fact: I’m into THG Universe as much as I was into Harry Potter universe when I was a kid.