Seneca Crane

"An unfortunate sentimental streak."

- President Snow, on Seneca Crane

Seneca Crane was the Head Gamemaker of the 74th Hunger Games and his third year as Gamemaker. During the Games, Crane gave into public pressure to allow two victors from the same district to win. However, President Coriolanus Snow disagreed with this ruling and Crane rescinded the rule change. When the two remaining tributes, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, threatened to consume the deadly nightlock berries at the same time and commit suicide, Crane reinstated the ruling, choosing to have two victors instead of none. He was executed for this mistake.

Biography
Crane is not mentioned in The Hunger Games, but his influence on the events in the arena is clear. After the Games' conclusion, President Snow, upset that Crane allowed such a situation to occur, had him killed. In Catching Fire, Snow tells Katniss about Crane's death as an example of Snow's power and as a threat to her loved ones to ensure her compliance with what he wants. Later in the novel, while the Gamemakers are evaluating tributes for the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss hangs an in the form of a dummy with a noose she made and paints "SENECA CRANE" with berry juice on its chest. This earned her a 12 training score, in the same games, Peeta also receives a 12, meaning it was a first in Hunger Games history for both tributes from the same district to receive a 12 training score.

The Hunger Games (film)


In the opening of the film, he is seen being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman about his plans for the 74th Hunger Games and his career as Head Gamemaker. He had a direct hand in managing the Games from the tribute parade through the Games' conclusion, and was present in the Training Center, when Katniss shot the apple out of the roast pig's mouth.

Throughout the film, Crane met with President Snow in the latter's rose garden to discuss the rising popularity of Katniss with the Panem television audience and Snow's need to keep her (and the districts) in line. After a meeting with Haymitch Abernathy led to Crane's initial change in ruling to allow two victors, Snow discussed the implications of the change with Crane and expressed his opposition to the change.

Crane isn't mentioned in the first book at all, and is first mentioned in Catching Fire, when Snow implies to Katniss that he had been executed for allowing two victors in the 74th Hunger Games.

Death
Despite Snow's opposition, Crane decided to allow the two victors to live after they threatened to consume the poisonous nightlock berries and leave the Games with no victor. In the book it is never revealed how Crane died, only that his execution was ordered by Snow. Katniss suggested that he was hanged when she hung an effigy during her private session for the 75th Hunger Games painted with his name on it.

In the film, Snow has Peacekeepers escort Crane to an opulent Neoclassic room containing only an elegant bowl of deadly nightlock berries, locking him in. The implication is clear, but left open as to his ultimate fate.

Film portrayal
In the film adaptation, Seneca Crane is portrayed by Wes Bentley and is featured much more heavily than in the novel.

Seneca Crane Seneca Crane