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Muttations, or simply mutts, are genetically modified animals created by the Capitol for use as weapons, both in conflicts against rebels and within Hunger Games arenas.
Quick Answers
What is the purpose of the Muttations in the Hunger Games?
What abilities do the Jabberjay birds possess?
How were the Muttations used against the rebels?
What types of Muttations were created for the Hunger Games arenas?
What is the role of the fire mutt in the Hunger Games?
Known mutts
Jabberjays
The jabberjay is a type of exclusively male bird that was created to eavesdrop on enemies of the Capitol during the Dark Days. They had the ability to memorize and reproduce whole human conversations and repeat them back to their Capitol handlers. However, once the people in the districts realized how their private conversations were being transmitted, they used the jabberjays to feed endless lies to the Capitol. When they realized they were being played, the Capitol ceased using the jabberjays and abandoned them to die off in the wild. Eventually they did die off, but not before unexpectedly mating with female mockingbirds to produce a whole new species; the mockingjay.[1] That new species became a symbol of the Second Rebellion, maybe because of it being born from the Capitol wanting to eliminate jabberjays and failing to.
By the time of the 75th Hunger Games, the Capitol had replenished the jabberjay population and used them in one of the sectors of the clock arena, where tributes Finnick Odair and Katniss Everdeen were trapped and forced to listen to the birds' mimicry of their loved ones' screams. They were described as black and crested, similar to the mockingjays' appearance.[2]
Mockingjays
A mockingjay as seen in Mockingjay - Part 1
Mockingjays are accidental muttations that were created when female mockingbirds mated with male jabberjays. They are mainly black like their jabberjay fathers, with white patches under their wings like their mockingbird mothers. They have a crest, also inherited from the jabberjays, which may be similar to that of a blue jay. They pick up songs very quickly by imitating the pitch of a human's voice and can relay them back and forth to people or other mockingjays. Since the Capitol did not mean for these birds to exist, they are viewed as a symbol of rebellion within the districts.[1] However, after victor Katniss Everdeen sported a mockingjay pin in the 74th Hunger Games, mockingjays went into vogue with the people of the Capitol; their likeness often appeared in clothing, jewelry, tattoos, and other accessories.[3]
Tracker jackers
Tracker jackers on a Hunger Games promo poster.
Tracker jackers are deadly wasps that were made by the Capitol and placed around the districts during the Dark Days. They are larger than regular wasps and have a gold-colored body. Their stings raise lumps the size of plums on their victims, and their venom (engineered to target fear in a victim's brain and alter their memories) causes hallucinations that can drive people to madness. More than a few stings can kill a person; some people die after just one. These mutts will also hunt down anyone who disturbs their nest and attempt to kill them, hence the name tracker jackers. They live in huge hives high up in trees.[4]
Wolf mutts
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A wolf mutt in The Hunger Games (film)
In the 74th Hunger Games, the Gamemakers released a pack of wolves to drive the final three tributes— Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, and Cato— to the Cornucopia. Each one resembled a tribute who had died in that year's Games, wearing a collar marked with the district number, and they had remarkably human eyes. The resemblance was so strong that Peeta wondered if they had been made using the tributes' real eyes.[5]
They mortally wounded Cato, but did not kill him because he was shielded by body armor. Katniss and Peeta listened to him suffer through the night, and Katniss was only able to take a mercy shot once the sun rose at dawn. The wolves left the arena through a hole that opened up in the ground.[5]
The Hunger Games (film)
A wolf mutt being created in the Gamemakers' Control Room.
In the film, the wolf mutts held no resemblance to the tributes. They were large, bulky dogs with sparse fur, short muzzles, and powerful jaws, and they ran on all fours.[6] They were responsible for killing Thresh as well as mauling Cato. At the end of the scene, the mutts ran off into the woods, and Katniss put Cato out of his misery much sooner.[6]
Monkey mutts
Monkey mutts in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
One section of the 75th Hunger Games arena contained a mutated species of monkey with orange fur, fangs, and claws that came out like switchblades. They used their claws and teeth to make deep punctures in their victims' flesh that looked harmless, but in reality were deep enough to cause internal bleeding. They viciously attacked the tributes, harming them and even killing the female morphling from District 6, who saved Peeta's life.[7] In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the mutts were made to look like mandrills.
Lizard mutts
A lizard mutt in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
During the Battle of the Capitol, Squad 451 headed underground in order to avoid people and pods on the streets above. Squad 451 was attacked by lizard mutts in the sewers, and were then chased into the Transfer. The mutts were white with clawed hands and feet, long reptilian tails, and powerful jaws, which they used killed their victims by biting their necks to decapitate them. The lizard mutts gave off a strong scent of roses that was meant to unsettle those familiar with President Snow, and they hissed Katniss's name. They were very durable, but they were all wiped out in an explosion when Katniss activated the Holo's self-destruct. These were the deadliest known mutts in The Hunger Games trilogy, killing 3-5 named characters— Finnick, Castor, Homes, and possibly Leeg 1 and Jackson— as well as multiple unnamed Avoxes and Peacekeepers.[8]
In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, the mutts were more humanoid in overall build, and they could move on two legs as well as four. Like some real cave-dwelling creatures, they lacked pigmentation and they had no eyes, so their other senses had strengthened to compensate.[9]
Snake mutts
The snake mutts in Dr. Gaul's lab
The snakes were of various bright colors, including neon pink, yellow, and blue. Each was no longer than a ruler and not much thicker than a pencil. They could not see too well and could hear even less, but were bred to have a more acute sense of smell than normal snakes.[10] Dr. Volumnia Gaul later explained that the mutts were only snakelets, so they were not yet fully grown. At maturity, she expected that they would be able to "easily outrun a human" and scale difficult or unusual terrain.[11] Their venom was lethal, but one could recover if the antivenom was administered quickly enough;[12] however, even then they would still suffer side effects for as long as a year afterward.[13]
Other snake mutts
The aquatic mutts seen in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
Following his brief time as a Peacekeeper in District 12, Coriolanus observed Dr. Gaul dropping mice into a tank of golden snakes.[14] In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, he instead saw her feeding black aquatic snake mutts in a pool of water.[15]
After the 50th Hunger Games, Snow had a snake mutt devour the rabbit that had helped Haymitch Abernathy right in front of him as a way of tormenting Haymitch.[16]
Venomous snakes were also mentioned as having appeared in an unknown desert arena prior to the 74th Hunger Games. It is unknown, but likely, that these were mutts.[1]
Rabbit mutts
- "Hippity, hoppity. How was the zoo? It's like a children's rhyme."
- —Dr. Gaul to Coriolanus Snow after teasing one of her rabbit mutts[src]
In addition to her snakes, Dr. Gaul had at least one rabbit muttation. She had modified it to have the jaw strength of a pit bull[17] and stated that it was, in fact, part pit bull. She would tease it with a metal rod, poking at it until it would yank it from her hand and snap it in two. She often brought it with her when visiting the mentors for the 10th Hunger Games and fed it carrots.
50th Hunger Games
- "Death by mutt tends to be the most memorable. We have some beauties this year. Programmable to serve individual tributes. And far scarier than the weasels."
- —Coriolanus Snow[src]
The 50th Hunger Games arena was a mutt heavy program, and featured a number of dangerous mutts, several of which were programmed to target specific tributes and thus ignored the others.
- Stinging butterflies that caused severe pain.[18] They were used by the Gamemakers to force Haymitch Abernathy to let them take Lou Lou's body. The effects of the butterfly stings were similar to the electric shocks of a taser and left behind no visible markings. Haymitch was able to burn most of the flock using a gas plant and chased the rest back to their mutt portal under the guise of retaliation.[19]
- Bats with transparent wings tinted every color of the rainbow, a vicious face, and two back feet with four-inch curved claws. A flock attacked Haymitch in Sub-A when he bombed the arena's water tank. They were presumably drowned in the flood's initial wave.[20]
- Golden, fluffy, carnivorous squirrels who attacked in packs.[18] A pack was sent to kill Ampert Latier after the bombing of the arena's water tank[20] while another pack killed Maritte following her murder of a Gamemaker.[21][16]
- Adorable baby deer with spiked hooves that went crazy when Haymitch caused the arena to malfunction.[20] After the volcano eruption, the deer stopped running around, but Haymitch spotted a few dead ones under the ash.[22]
- A trio of fox mutts with fur as orange as sunset who appeared to have died eating poisonous eggs. Maysilee Donner speculated that they were meant to steal the tributes' food while Haymitch speculated that they were supposed to eat the tributes like the squirrels, possibly even having been programmed to target Haymitch himself.[23]
- Ladybugs that were disguised as the holly berries of the arena's hedge. When Haymitch and Maysilee tried to cut through, the ladybugs revealed themselves, latched on to their flesh, inflated to the size of acorns and began exploding, splattering the tributes' faces with blood.[23] Fleeing from the hedge, Haymitch and Maysilee began plucking the ladybugs out, but the suckers were dug in deep, akin to those on a really determined tick. Gripping near the head and pulling slowly and firmly caused them to pop out in a spray of blood. After clearing himself of the bugs, Haymitch helped Maysilee.[24] When the two tried again, Maysilee used a makeshift torch to burn the ladybugs as Haymitch burned through the hedge with a dead Career's blowtorch.[25] The heavily edited footage of the attempts by Haymitch and Maysilee to carve through the hedge were edited into one big sequence involving the ladybugs and the blowtorch.[16]
- A massive porcupine that sounded like a baby or a harmless animal at a distance. Haymitch suspected that it was created by combining a bear and a porcupine in a lab given its size, claws, and teeth. It had poisonous gold, silver and bronze quills adorning its back, sides and tail. One killed Buck, Chicory and Hull despite Maysilee and Haymitch's efforts to save their allies. Haymitch was able to lure it away by throwing olives at the porcupine to lead it away.[24]
- Waterbirds resembling the ones at the lake in District 12 with long, piercing beaks and colored candy pink, the color of the bubblegum sold at the Donner family sweetshop. These mutts were responsible for killing Maysilee;[18] despite Haymitch's attempts to defend her, they were specifically programmed to attack her and ignored him.[26]
Other muttations
- Weasel mutts a few years before the 50th Hunger Games who apparently caused long, horrible deaths.[27] Snow told Haymitch Abernathy that the mutts in the 50th Hunger Games were "far scarier than the weasels."[28]
- The 49th Hunger Games arena contained shiny beetles that suffocated the tributes.
- In the 75th Hunger Games, one of the arena's sections held an unidentified mutt that ripped apart a tribute so badly they could not be identified. Peeta called it "the Beast".[2]
- Another section contained a large quantity of insects that made continuous clicking noises. The tributes speculated that the mutts likely had pincers and could probably strip them to the bone in seconds.[29]
- While he was imprisoned in the Capitol, Peeta was hijacked into believing that Katniss was not human, but in fact one of the Capitol's mutts.[30]
- Conversely, Johanna Mason suggested that the Capitol's torture replaced Peeta with an "evil-mutt version" of himself.[31] This sentiment was later echoed by Katniss.[32]
- Muttation gnats[33] and flesh-eating rats[8] were mentioned to be in some of the pods found during the Battle of the Capitol. Unknown mutts, described as black forms crawling in the shadows, also appeared in a pit below a pod near Snow's mansion.[34]
- In the sewers, Pollux helped steer Squad 451 clear of rats the size of beavers.[35] It is unknown if these were muttations or simply large rats, although the first is more likely due to the nature of the area.
- in an unspecified Hunger Games Haymitch mentions that there were moles that attacked the tributes
Etymology
The name is a portmanteau of the word "mutt", meaning a mixed breed animal, and "mutation", which refers to heritable changes to genes.
Trivia
- Mutt sculptures in the Citadel lab in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes film were created by Twilight Creations, a special effects makeup studio based in Berlin. The team was led by Jörn Seifert,[36] who had previously worked on Mockingjay - Part 1 and Part 2.[37]
- Fans have speculated that the aquatic mutts seen near the end of the Ballad film were an Easter egg for the 11th Hunger Games, won by Mags Flanagan from District 4,[38] because her district's main industry was fishing.
- In Sunrise on the Reaping, Plutarch Heavensbee advises Haymitch Abernathy to find berms as these are where the muttations enter and leave the arena.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Hunger Games, Chapter 3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 24
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 6
- ↑ The Hunger Games, Chapter 14
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Hunger Games, Chapter 25
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Hunger Games (film)
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 21
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Mockingjay, Chapter 22
- ↑ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 audio commentary by Francis Lawrence and Nina Jacobson
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 7
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 19
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 8
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 20
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 30
- ↑ The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 25
- ↑ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 4
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 14
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 17
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 18
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 23
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 19
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 20
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 21
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 22
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 23
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 7
- ↑ Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 9
- ↑ Catching Fire, Chapter 25
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 13
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 17
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 19
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 18
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 24
- ↑ Mockingjay, Chapter 21
- ↑ https://www.panempropaganda.com/movie-countdown/2023/10/1/the-ballad-of-songbirds-snakes-makeup-designer-sherri-berman.html
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1720604/
- ↑ MAGS, THE 11TH VICTOR - Capitol Couture