AN: What would happen if for some reason "The Girl on Fire" failed to make enough of an impression to start a revolution? This story was inspired by gethsemane342's collection of stories "Five Worlds in which Katniss Everdeen Did Not Become the Mockingjay". Thank you to AD for beta reading this story.
Prologue
Almost every year there were some tributes who rebelled against the Games. In large ways or small, quietly or openly, intentionally or unintentionally, but almost every Game had a potential to become a disaster for the President. Or at least an embarrassment.
Some tributes either refused, or were almost physically incapable, of killing, or even seriously hurting, another person. Some complained about the games while in the Arena. Some even scathingly condemned The Capitol as they were about to die. After all, desperate people with nothing left to lose can speak far more freely than anybody else in that kind of police state. And to a person who lost the little control they might have over their life, the ability to speak their mind would be even more gratifying - the final act of freedom before the inevitable death.
So why didn't any other tribute spark a rebellion earlier? The simple answer is: Censorship. Even supposedly live broadcasts were always slightly time-delayed and heavily edited. So if the Gamemakers saw a potentially dangerous situation developing, they would cut away to another part of the Arena, or a studio interview, or some reaction shots from the audiences. By the time the focus returned to the tribute in question, the situation would be over. A rebellious speech, a friendly conversation with another tribute, a decision to not attack a weaker opponent ... all of them would happen off-camera, with the cuts arranged in such a way that nobody would suspect that anything important happened while they weren't looking.
Creative editing could even make a tribute's actions seem to be the opposite of what he intended: A refusal to fight can be edited to look like a quick loss from an outmatched competitor. A defiant speech could be "adjusted" into an incoherent scream. And a non-hostile meeting could be turned into tributes stalking, but never quite catching, each other.
However, in time the Rebels and their Capitol sympathizers found ways to get around these safeguards.
The first successful attempt was made during the 74th Games, when the Star-Crossed Lovers, the Couple on Fire, captured the hearts of the audience. The couple died too quickly for their spark to grow into a flame of rebellion, but their job was done: The people behind their performance proved that the Games' censorship could be subverted, even if not entirely bypassed.