Stats:
Name: Katniss Everdeen
Occupation: Hunter Gatherer, Hunger games contestant and Joint Winner of the 74th Games
Skills: Pretty handy with a bow and arrow, super intelligent, cunning, crazy fighting skills
So Katniss lives in dystopian, post apocalyptic America (Panem). She lives in one of 12 districts that surround the governmental capital. Her district is District 12, and they are coal miners. Each area has a speciality and that’s what the people who live there are born and die to do. They all live in abject poverty, and are constantly hungry. Bottom line, it’s no life.
So, why is it like that? Well, there was some kind of war/uprising in the past and everyone revolted against the capital. The government won the war and as penance for burning the country to the ground they make each of the districts give up one boy and one girl aged between 12 and 18 to take part in a vicious televised game show:
The Hunger Games
This is an event in which the participants (or “tributes”) must fight in an outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol, until only one individual remains.
So, Katniss lives there and to feed her family she hunts every day in the woods and has become an expert with a bow and arrow. She catches squirrels mostly, sometimes birds, and she sells them at a black market for essential supplies, while the rest feed her sister and mum.
So the hunger games comes to town to select the two from District 12 that will represent them. Katniss’ little sister Primrose is selected to take part. Horrified at the thought of her 12-year-old sister dying Katniss steps up and becomes the first ever person in D 12 to volunteer for the games, thus taking the place of her sis. A boy called Peeta is also chosen (Whom Katniss has a little history with) and they are then in the games.
Katniss and Peeta are taken to the Capitol where their drunken mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, winner of the 50th Hunger Games, instructs them to watch and learn the talents of the other tributes.
Katniss is given a very glamorous make-over by Cinna, which involves her exuding fake fire from her back as she and Peeta enter the capital to be filmed and shown live to all the viewers for the first time. This earns her the title ‘The Girl on Fire’ and she quickly becomes a hit with the public. This is important, because during the games the viewers send packages/aid to contestants they like in times of need. Example: if you cut your arm in the arena, a ‘sponsor’ might send you bandages/antibiotics etc to help you. Basically something that could save your life.
They are then publicly displayed to the Capitol audience in a televised session with interviewer Caesar Flickerman (he’s fucking crazy – blue hair and all). During this time, Peeta reveals on-air his longtime unrequited love for Katniss. Katniss doesn’t take that too well, she’s thinks Peeta is just playing to the camera’s, which he is a bit, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.
Katniss has to go through a brutal training regime to prepare her for the games and by the time they are about to begin she is absolutely shitting herself with fear. And with good fucking cause.
On Day 1 of the games, nearly half the tributes are killed in the first day of the Games alone, Katniss relies on her well-practiced hunting and outdoor skills to survive. A few days into the games, Katniss develops an alliance with Rue, a 12-year-old girl from the agricultural District 11 who reminds Katniss of her sister, Primrose. The alliance is short-lived; Rue is killed by another tribute. At Rue’s request Katniss sings to her, then spreads flowers over her body as a sign of respect—and of disgust towards the Capitol.
Supposedly due to Katniss and Peeta’s beloved image in the minds of the audience as star-crossed lovers, a rule change is announced midway through the Games, stating that two tributes from the same district can win the Hunger Games as a pair. Upon hearing this, Katniss searches for Peeta and eventually finds him wounded. As she nurses him back to health, she acts the part of a young girl falling in love to gain more favor with the audience and, consequently, gifts from her sponsors.
When the couple is finally the last two tributes, the Gamemakers reverse the rule change in an attempt to force them into a dramatic finale, where one must kill the other to win. Katniss, knowing that the Gamemakers would rather have two victors than none, retrieves highly poisonous berries known as “nightlock” from her pouch and offers some to Peeta. Thinking that Katniss and Peeta intend to commit suicide, the Gamemakers announce that both will be the victors of the 74th Hunger Games.
Well, this is just the beginning of Katniss’ Journey but she is single-handedly fighting the system all on her own. Not since Robin Hood has anyone rocked a bow so much. She’s amazing and a very worth number one in my list.
Here she is in action:
And again…
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