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"The price of celebrity."
Beetee Latier[src]

The Victors' Purge is an unofficial name for the mass killing of previous Hunger Games victors, perpetrated by both Capitol and rebel forces during the Second Rebellion.[1]

History[]

Over the course of 75 years, there were seventy-five Hunger Games victors.[2] The first nine did not receive any monetary prize for winning, but after the events of the 10th Hunger Games, the subsequent 65 enjoyed special privileges, as some meager restitution for the lifetime of trauma. The true purpose of the special treatment was to alienate them from the impoverished masses.[3] To some extent, this had the intended effect, but it also gave victors wealth and a relative amount of power, turning them into symbols of hope.[4] In the case of Katniss Everdeen, she became a symbol of rebellion across all of Panem. This was a major inciting factor behind the purge.

Third Quarter Quell[]

Coriolanus Snow: "If you cannot contain Katniss Everdeen, then I will have to terminate her. ... And not just her. Her entire species has to be eliminated."
Plutarch Heavensbee: "Her species, sir?"
Snow: "The other victors."
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The purge began with the reading of the card of the third Quarter Quell; it stated that tributes in the 75th Hunger Games would be reaped from each district's existing pool of victors.[5] Victors represented the hope of escaping poverty, so by eliminating them, it sent a clear message that any hope they had was an illusion.[4]

Plutarch burning the third Quarter Quell envelope.

Plutarch burning the third Quarter Quell envelope.

In the film adaption of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, President Coriolanus Snow warned Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee that failure to control Katniss Everdeen would result in the elimination of all victors. As he put it, she made the other victors think they were all "invincible" to the Capitol's control. Plutarch then suggested a different path. In a deleted scene, he destroyed the Hunger Games founders' original written hard copy of the third Quell rule, then replaced it with a card dictating the reaping of victors.[6] The convenience of the rule was something Katniss called into question in the novel, as it was too perfect of a solution to Snow's problems for it to truly have been penned 75 years ago.[4]

At the time of the reaping, 59 victors were alive,[2] and of the 24 reaped victors, eighteen died during the Games. Six of the tributes survived.[7]

Second Rebellion[]

Civil war broke out with 41 victors still alive, including six survivors from the Quell.[7] Four victors were taken by the Capitol as prisoners of war, then rescued and protected from persecution by rebels through the Mockingjay Deal: Peeta Mellark, Johanna Mason, Enobaria,[8] and Annie Cresta.[9] Over the course of the conflict, an unknown number of victors could have died in battle as combatants; Finnick Odair was the only victor known to have been killed in action (KIA).[10]

The Capitol killed victors they suspected to be rebels, while rebels killed victors thought to support the Capitol. By the end of the Second Rebellion, only seven victors survived the purge.[1] With 18 victims of the Quell, one confirmed KIA, and 33 more offscreen victor deaths, the Victors' Purge claimed a total of 52 casualties.

Victims[]

75th Hunger Games[]

Most deaths in the Quell were caused by other tributes, so victors contributed to the purge as well.

Second Rebellion[]

The Career districts of 1, 2, and 4 had the largest pools of victors,[2] so they probably incurred the most casualties in the purge.

Other possible casualties[]

Survivors[]

Of the seven survivors, four were left as the only victors still living from each of their respective districts. The other three all originated from District 12. Five made it out of the 75th Hunger Games (bolded), and four were protected under the Mockingjay Deal.[8]

Gallery[]

75th Hunger Games gallery[]

Second Rebellion gallery[]

Other possible casualties[]

Trivia[]

  • "Victors' Purge" is a fan-created name for the event, as it is not described in those terms in the books or films.[18]
  • Hunger Games stylists and prep teams faced similar purges; all stylists from the Quarter Quell were killed, and the only surviving prep team was Katniss'. Like the victors, it's assumed both Capitol and rebel sides were responsible for the killings.[1]
  • Of the six victors that survived the Quell, only one died in the purge: Finnick Odair.[10]
  • In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, President Snow compared the culling of victors to the extermination of jabberjays.[6]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Mockingjay, Chapter 26
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 14
  3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Epilogue
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 13
  5. Catching Fire, Chapter 12
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  7. 7.0 7.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 27
  8. 8.0 8.1 Mockingjay, Chapter 3
  9. Mockingjay, Chapter 4
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Mockingjay, Chapter 22
  11. Catching Fire, Chapter 19
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 Catching Fire, Chapter 20
  13. Catching Fire, Chapter 22
  14. Catching Fire, Chapter 21
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 23
  16. Catching Fire, Chapter 24
  17. 17.0 17.1 Mockingjay, Chapter 2
  18. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
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