Mentor Profile
Alexander Neville
Age: 33
District: 9
Hunger Games: 60th, aged 18
Mentored By: Marcel Fielding
Kills in the Arena: 1
Preferred Weapons: Scalpel, Knife
Tribute: Marcel Fielding
Mentoring Record: 5 Games/0 Victors
With such a long list of victors parading across our television screens every year, we can forgive some of them for being a little forgettable; in a whirlwind of famous faces, Alexander Neville of District 9 doesn't stand out too much.
In many ways, Alexander is an unremarkable victor from a remarkable Hunger Games from the last years of Ignatius Plant's tenure of Head Gamemaker. Set in an abandoned hospital, supplies were so plentiful that when the Gamemakers called a feast in an attempt to spice up the action, all of the tributes had enough supplies and nobody bothered to turn up. A controlled demolition led to Games' anticlimactic finale, with one of the final two tributes becoming stuck in the rubble, slowly starving to death. Through the chaos, Alexander Neville found his way to victory, yet another tribute from the outer districts who became a victor with just one kill.
In escaping the arena after thirty-four days, Alexander's Games were the longest in the history of the Hunger Games. His victory also meant that, in following Holly Thorpe's victory the previous summer, District 9 became the third district to produce back-to-back victors, after Districts 4 and 2, although District 1 would achieve the feat twice in the years shortly following Alexander's Games.
Tall and charismatic, you could be forgiven for thinking that Alexander had won his Games with a stack of kills flying the flag of District 1 - he certainly looks the part of a victor. Popular ever since his winning performance on interview night for his Games, Alexander has, in many ways, followed in the footsteps of his mentor Marcel, warming to the Capitol crowd in a way few victors can, and with an ease that the victors of District 9 have certainly managed to show.
In the years immediately following his victory, there were stories aplenty during the Games each summer, drunken escapades at downtown parties, rumours of a string of lovers left behind him each year, often enquiring after him. In many ways, Alexander was always hard to pin down. Thankfully, this side of him has largely been left behind since he's turned thirty, but Alexander is still not afraid to make the front page for a variety of incidents.
Thankfully, though, he's never managed to cause trouble, something that many victors forget about, either causing trouble within their districts, with the public here in the Capitol, and sometimes with each other. Amicable and talkative by day, extroverted and engaging by night, Alexander might be a full-on character, but he never acts without malice.
This energy of his has come in handy in his few years of experience as a mentor, often alongside Holly Thorpe. Despite being one of the least experienced mentors in this year's Games, previous Quarter Quells have often failed to stick to the rulebook. In this case, a lack of entrenched ideals might actually be to his benefit, along with years building up a close relationship with his tribute, Marcel. Like many in this year's Games, Alexander is another who is returning the favour to his former mentor, and he is giving it his all to get them out of the arena alive.
We already know that heads will be turning towards Marcel tonight during the interviews. It would do us good to not forget about the strengths of those taking care of him in the arena, too.