The Hunger Games Recap
The 8th Annual Hunger Games
Although almost seventy years have passed since, the 8th Annual Hunger Games stand out for several reasons, and it's hard to say which one is the most notable. The first sand desert arena, the shortest Hunger Games of all time, and the birth of a legend; Amadeus Hadrianus Cato. I'm sure this is a story you've all heard in some form or another, but here's exactly what happened.
By the 8th Games, everyone was beginning to get used to the Hunger Games. They were beginning to become a part of everyday life, achieving that wonderful balance of being both a regular comfort and a special event. In fact, the 8th Games was the first year than none of the names that had been in the reaping bowl for the 1st Games were eligible for selection. Even the twelve-year-olds for the first Games were now nineteen.
While many of the early years of the Games have a very different feel to them, by the 8th Games, the Hunger Games was becoming the spectacle we know today. Eight past victors meant eight mentors, giving early advantages to districts lucky enough to have someone on their side with personal experience - by this Games, that meant Districts 1, 2, 4, 9, 10 and 12.
Another often-overlooked event from this time was in the actions of District 2's first victor, Augustus Holt, winner of the 3rd Hunger Games. Shortly after his victory, he gave a now-infamous speech to the young men and women of his district, urging them to prepare for the Hunger Games each summer using any means possible to get an advantage in the arena, and spoke of the glory of a victor, the riches acquired by having the skill and good fortune to win the Games. The money line at the end of the speech was that he told the young of District 2 to step forward and claim a career as a victor. Adopted sometime in the years shortly afterwards, term Career tribute is still often used by many of the tributes we see in the Games each year, describing those from District 1, 2 and 4 who have moulded themselves in the shadow of Augustus Holt's speech.
Augustus Holt also had the spark of thought to reach out to his fellow victors about the possibilities of inter-district alliances; Charity Green, victor of the 2nd Games for District 9, refused on principle. However, Fraser Reynolds, who won the first Hunger Games for District 4, took up the offer.
And so, the traditional Career Alliance was born. The tributes of Districts 2 and 4, who would often prepare heavily for the Games using any means necessary, volunteer as tributes at the reaping and band together through the early and middle stages of the Games. Over the years, we've become so accustomed to seeing the Careers on screen that we often don't stop to think about how the unlikely union came about.
Following Topaz McArthur's victory for District 1 in the 6th Games, the tributes of District 1 were permitted to the Career Alliance for the following year's Games, and little has changed since. However, the alliances were often tentative in those early years, a factor that played a part in the 8th Games becoming the shortest Hunger Games to date.
The Games began just as any other; a reaping opened with a rush of volunteers that petered out to a grim fate, watching an unusually young field of tributes pulled from the crowds in the outer districts. Even among the Careers, who were more favoured than in other Games, two of the volunteers stood out; the massive males from Districts 1 and 2. With uncharacteristically low training scores as a result of the generally young age, Nova from One and Amadeus from District 2 stood head and shoulders above the rest.
The morning of the Games brought an inhospitable sandy desert, and the hostile conditions forced more tributes than average to the Cornucopia for the early bloodbath. That, coupled with a well-implemented plan by Nova and Amadeus to rid themselves of their allies left sixteen dead little more than fifteen minutes into the Games. Coupled with Amadeus blind-siding Nova after the chaos had died down and him tracking down another younger tribute before nightfall left eighteen faces in the sky on day one, less than twelve hours into the Games.
From there, Amadeus - a monstrously-sized boy and an athletic wonder with no real competition left - hunted through the night, eliminating tributes who didn't dare to stray far from the Cornucopia. Armed with a landslide of sponsor support from the adoring Capitol audience, Amadeus strode through the field with a drive rarely seen in the arena.
He claimed his final kill just after sunrise on the second day, becoming the first tribute to reach ten kills in the arena in the process, escaping the arena in just under twenty-two hours, an unparalleled feat to this day. In later years, interviews with the Gamemakers of the day revealed that the Gamemakers had a variety of traps and devices to use on the tributes that year, but they never had a chance to. Amadeus did their job for them.
History has judged Amadeus well, the first in a line of successful tributes and an influential mentor along with equal Augustus Holt, shaping and mentoring generations of tributes from District 2, the only victor to have four or more victories as a mentor in the history of the Games. His most notable victory as a mentor was that of his son, Brutus, thirty-six years after his own victory, which broke its own records along the way.
For any Hunger Games fanatic, the story of the 8th Games rolls off the tongue as easy as any. For the more casual audience, however - perhaps some of you sitting here tonight, inspired to come and watch interview night in person due to the special nature of the Quarter Quell - there is no substitute for going back to watch the 8th Hunger Games. A thrilling ride that never had any room to breathe, turn followed turn as a legend was born.
While the record set by Amadeus will likely never be broken, with all of the volatile characters in the mix this years, sparks will surely fly. For quick impact, we'll never see a repeat of the 8th Games, but I wouldn't put it past the Gamemakers to mimic its frantic pace in the arena this year.