Nubu Sanders- District Twelve (18)
Everyone needs a hero. When things are dark and it seems good will never return, we need something to depend on. In Twelve, it was Jack the Giant Slayer. Jack was poor, but he was clever. When giants came and threatened his town, he faced them head-on and he always won. I always knew they were just stories, but they didn't have to be real. Someone made that up, and that meant someone thought they could have been real. Someone believed in right defeating wrong and a world where heroes always won. If someone believed it could be true, we could work to make it true.
I'd seen heroes in the Games. I watched a little boy stay by his patient's side until a nightmare creature with wings and fangs wiped them both away. I saw a girl run toward a spider the size of a bear to push a little girl to safety. Even the Capitol couldn't tell those people that they decided wrong and right and that life wasn't valuable. There are heroes in the world. The Capitol does its best to weed them out.
Some people call me a hero. They don't know everything. They saw how close my allies and I were. They didn't know I joined the alliance because I thought it would give me a better chance to win. I didn't care about them at first. I only started to because I got attached to them. A hero cares for everyone, not just the people he likes. The people think I was brave because I didn't seem scared. I didn't seem scared because I was arrogant. I thought I had a good chance. I did win, but not without the help of my allies and a lot of sponsors.
Heroes don't win the Games. The best of us don't return from the Arena. If I was a hero, a little girl wouldn't have died in my arms. I got two things from my sponsors: a shield and a machete. A shield defends, and so does a hero. A machete attacks, and that's how I won the Games. Not by being a hero, but by being someone else's villain.
Of course Twelve's first Victor would be a District celebrity. It would have happened to anyone, not just a "hero". The children flocked around me whenever I went into town. They held up garbage lid shields and asked me to play with them. I hoped none of them wanted to grow up to be like me. I was glad if I made the Reapings less scary, but I didn't want any of them to think the Games were heroic.
It was scary to have such influence. I could have told them to throw rocks and people and they'd do it for their hero. Whatever I really was, I tried to use my powers for good. Over and over I told them that heroes never start fights or hurt people. They use their shields, not their swords. They never asked me why that rule didn't apply to me in the Games. I wished they would, so they'd see I wasn't what they thought.
Heroes were perfect. That was made them heroes. The real world wasn't like that. I was proof of that. I was the best they had, and people cling to any bit of hope. As much as I inspired them, they inspired me. I wanted to be what the children saw when they gathered around me. No matter how wrong they were, I was their hope. My worst nightmare was letting them down. I watched myself day and night, always striving to live up to their image. I wasn't perfect, and I never would be. But I would never stop trying. That's what heroes do.
Nubu wasn't always so noble. He was a normal guy with normal faults in his form, and I tried to emphasize that here. Once we saw the faceclaim it was inevitable, but he's more complex than he looks.