Source: https://www.themarysue.com/does-lucy-gray-win-the-hunger-games-answered/
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SPOILERS: This article contains information about all the battle scenes in the arena in The Hunger Games: Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes. You can leave this article if you do not want to hear any spoilers about the movie. But you have been warned!
What can be more terrifying than being chosen to fight to the death? Teenagers aged twelve through eighteen are selected annually, one boy and one girl, supposedly as a punishment for the 12 districts in Panem for their failed rebellion a while before the first Hunger Games. In the new movie, The Hunger Games: Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes, not only does the audience get to see the history of Coriolanus Snow before he became a despotic president, but we also get to see the tribute he was mentoring, Lucy Gray Baird, in action as she was chosen to be the female tribute for District 12 in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Plus, with this movie, we can understand why Coriolanus had such a grudge against District 12. So, for all you thrill-seekers who have or have not seen the movie, here’s a breakdown of all fighting scenes in The Hunger Games: Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes.
To begin with, here are all the districts’ meaning and their chosen tributes for the 10th Hunger Games. Something else to note is that a few are also considered career districts. Career districts train kids at a young age to fight in the Hunger Games.
District 1: The district of luxury. This district is known as a career district.
Tributes: Facet (male) and Velvereen (female)
District 2: The district of masonry (also known as stonework). This district is known as a career district.
Tributes: Marcus (male) and Sabyn (female)
District 3: The district of technology.
Tributes: Circ (male) and Teslee (female)
District 4: The district of fishing. Technically, this district is known as a career district, but in the movies, only Districts 1 and 2 are careers.
Tributes: Mizzen (male) and Coral (female)
District 5: The district of power.
Tributes: Hy (male) and Sol (female)
District 6: The district of transportation.
Tributes: Otto (male) and Ginnee (female)
District 7: The district of lumber.
Tributes: Treech (male) and Lamina (female)
District 8: The district of textiles.
Tributes: Bobbin (male) and Wovey (female)
District 9: The district of grain.
Tributes: Panlo (male) and Sheaf (female)
District 10: The district of livestock.
Tributes: Tanner (male) and Brandy (female)
District 11: The district of agriculture.
Tributes: Reaper (male) and Dill (female)
District 12: The district of mining.
Tributes: Jessup (male) and Lucy Gray (female)
Source: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/on-location-hunger-games-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes
Photo courtesy of Condé Nast Traveler
But it’s time for the battle you must have been waiting for! Before we talk about the Bloodbath, the beginning of the fight in the arena where many tributes die, there are a few casualties before the games begin. In last place, we have Brandy (D10 female), who was shot to death by Peacekeepers after killing her mentor, Arachne, who was taunting her. Later in the film, all the tributes are introduced to the arena they will fight in and have fifteen minutes to strategize with their mentors. But shortly after, the arena is bombed, and as the arena crumbles, chaos ensues. A rebel explosion had occurred, giving tributes a chance to flee. In this bombing, four tributes died. In 23rd place, we have Sabyn (D2 female); in 22nd, we have Ginnee (D6 female). Both girls were killed off-screen, but the actors for these two tributes did confirm that their character died during the rebel bombing. In the 21st and 20th place, we have both District 1 tributes, Facet and Velvereen, die in the rebel bombing, too. In the movie, they can be seen trying to escape the arena but are instantly shot by Peacekeepers. However, the only person to get away was Marcus from District 2.
Even after the rebel bombing, Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games, continued to host the event since fewer people were watching it than all the other years, and the game makers were desperate for a bigger audience. Eventually, as the games were about to begin, Coriolanus, Lucy Gray’s mentor, gave her a little makeup case with rat poison just in case. He also explored the arena and gave Lucy Gray tips so she could survive better. These things Coriolanus did were considered cheating, but he was determined to help Lucy Gray prevail and win the Hunger Games; he never cared for the money or prize he would get. But he did leave her one message: to forget about everyone else in the arena and only worry about herself.
Source: https://themockingjaysnest.com/stills-official-medias-gallery/
Photo courtesy of The Mockingjay’s Nest
Coriolanus bade goodbye to Lucy Gray, and as Lucy Gray entered the crumbled arena, she noticed that Marcus had been caught and beaten by the Peacekeepers and was strapped onto two high beams. But it was every man for themselves, so she ignored him. Then, all nineteen remaining tributes stood on their platform (except for Marcus) and waited for the countdown to finish. As it slowly reached zero, Lucy Gray thought about her male tribute, Jessup, and immediately changed her mind. She was going to help Jessup, even if she risked dying. Suddenly, the buzzer goes off, the game begins, and so does the Bloodbath.
As stated before, the Bloodbath is where tributes first run to the center of the arena for weapons and is usually where most tributes die. In this Bloodbath, a few tributes die. In 19th place, we have Panlo (D9 male) fighting another tribute and then being killed by Coral (D4 female), who wielded a trident. Shortly after, his district partner, Sheaf, died after being shot twice by Otto (D6 male) with a crossbow, putting her in 18th place. After some time in the Bloodbath, Lucy Gray found Jessup and ran towards him, and as she was running, Circ (D3 male) died by Coral, who threw a trident at him, putting him in 17th place. But, if we look closely, we can see that Coral saved Lucy Gray since it appears that Circ was going to kill her. In 16th place, we have Teslee (D3 female), who was killed off-screen. Still, after analyzing the scene a little bit, she was most likely attacked by Mizzen (D4 male) since we can see her crawling frantically away from Mizzen, who is slowly walking towards her during the scene when Circ dies. Mizzen also used a knife as his weapon during the entire movie. After that, Lucy Gray and Jessup meet and run to a tunnel, where Coriolanus suggests that Lucy Gray should go once the game begins. But, they are followed by The Pack, a four-member alliance with District 4 members, Treech from District 7, and Tanner from District 10. As they are followed, on the other side of the tunnel, both tributes from District 5 (Hy and Sol) follow Lucy Gray and Jessup. Lucy Gray and Jessup break a hole into a room and crawl through it. Right behind them are the District 5 members, who try to pull them out, but that’s when The Pack catches up and sees them trying to kill their prey. As a result, The Pack kills Hy and Sol, putting them in 15th and 14th place, respectively.
We go back to the arena, and we see Lamina (D7 female), who hid inside debris that fell during the bombing. She sees Marcus and climbs up the high beams to check on him. Marcus, in pain, asks for Lamina to put him out of his misery sadly. 13th place sadly goes to Marcus, who Lamina killed with an axe. Lamina remains on the high beam since she has nowhere else to go. The final casualty goes to Otto (D6 male), whose death is anonymous in the movie, but most likely died to the Pack since there is one scene where we can see his lifeless body being dragged by the Pack.
Finally, after the Bloodbath and eight fatalities, ten tributes remain. Some tributes rest, and some tributes go out to search for others. As time passes, night falls, and Coriolanus, who stayed to watch the games and make sure Lucy Gray was okay, is awakened by Dr. Gaul, who is furious. Dr. Gaul angrily says that his friend, Seajanus, who mentored Marcus and hated the Hunger Games, had entered the arena, and Coriolanus was forced to get him out of there. After entering the arena, he finds Seajanus, but due to the noise they make, they wake up Lamina, who does not interfere with them, but also wakes up Bobbin (D8 male), who runs towards them with a knife. As they run, Bobbin catches up to them, so Coriolanus has no choice but to fight back. He grabs some debris and bashes Bobbin until he dies, therefore putting Bobbin in 11th place.
Source: https://themockingjaysnest.com/stills-official-medias-gallery/
Photo courtesy of The Mockingjay’s Nest
It was the next day, and the only death during the night was Bobbin. Suddenly, when Lucy Gray and Jessup are together, Jessup begins to twitch and act very weirdly. Eventually, he begins to attack Lucy Gray, and we later learn that he had gotten rabies due to a rat bite before the game started. Lucy Gray runs towards the center of the arena, and while on the debris, Coriolanus and Lysistrata Vickers, Jessup’s mentor, discuss how to help Lucy Gray. In the end, they send a drone with a bottle of water, and since the drones are not very reliable, the drone and bottle smashes into Jessup. In fear, Jessup backs up and falls off the debris, killing him. Jessup would now take 10th place.
Lucy Gray is melancholy after her companion’s death, but soon after that, The Pack arrives and surrounds Lucy Gray. She is attacked, but Lucy Gray is saved thanks to Coriolanus sending water with unreliable drones, and she runs away and hides. But, this shifts their focus on Lamina. Lamina, defenseless, had no way to fight off the four of them, so in an attempt to fight them off, she was killed by Coral’s trident, betrayed by her fellow District 7 tribute, Treech, and was pushed off the high beam, which secured her spot as 9th place. During the fight against Lamina, Lucy Gray grabbed the poison that Coriolanus gave to her, emptied the water bottles that had remained after the drone attack, and poisoned one of them, hoping that one member from The Pack would drink it.
As Tanner (D10 male) is about to pick up the poisoned water, he eventually gets into an altercation with the leader, Coral, and suddenly, Coral betrays Tanner and impales him with her trident. Tanner is killed, putting him in 8th place. Just as Coral is about to drink the water, Mizzen alerts her that Wovey, a defenseless and small little girl from District 8, is nearby. They abandon the water bottle, and Dill (D11 female) appears out of nowhere after a bit. Coughing, she approaches the water bottle and kneels to the ground, drinks the water bottle, and slowly lies on the ground as she succumbs to her death from the poison. She now takes 7th place. Later on, Treech (D7 male) was also poisoned by Lucy Gray, putting him in 6th place.
After all this, the snake event was the last major event during the Hunger Games. A glass tube full of snakes is sent to the middle of the arena, and eventually, the tube breaks, and all tributes can do nothing but run away. Moving on to the snake event, as soon as the snakes break free, the first one to die is Wovey (D8 female), who sadly got too close to the snakes when they escaped. This puts her in 5th place. Coral and Mizzen, chasing Lucy Gray after she poisoned Treech, stop and frantically run away with Lucy Gray. Unfortunately, Mizzen was attacked by a snake, fell, and was buried by a swarm of snakes. Mizzen would take 4th place. Reaper (D11 male), devastated by Dill’s death, accepted his fate and would take 3rd place. Lucy Gray manages to get high ground, and after Coral is attacked, she begs for Lucy Gray’s help. Coral has never liked Lucy Gray and has been attempting to kill her this entire game, so the irony is quite visible during this scene. Lucy Gray decides not to help her, and as a result, Coral cries as she quickly dies by the snakes, putting her in 2nd place.
The last remaining person is the winner, Lucy Gray Baird! After calming down the snakes with her singing, she is taken out of the arena and declared the winner of the 10th Hunger Games. However, what happened was that Coriolanus put a napkin with Lucy Gray’s scent in the tube full of snakes before they were released into the arena, which saved Lucy Gray from dying. But why did this happen, you may ask? As stated earlier by Dr. Gaul in the film, the snakes will attack anyone if they do not have their scent, but if they do, they will simply ignore and not attack you. So, in other words, Coriolanus cheated. Had he not done this, there would be no victor for the 10th Hunger Games.
What makes the Hunger Games series so fun to watch is the dystopian theme present during the movie, plus the thrill of the battles. This movie does not match the book perfectly; for example, Teslee gets 4th place but places 16th in the film, and how Wovey drinks the poisoned water instead of Dill. My favorite character in this Hunger Games is Coral or Lamina. Coral’s actress played very well, and I liked how evil she was! Maybe she wasn’t evil, but instead, was just desperate to leave the arena alive. Although Lamina said no words throughout the movie, I liked how she was brave and stayed determined when no one believed in her. She even tried fighting back when The Pack ambushed her. Overall, this movie successfully revived the Hunger Games after its last film was released almost ten years ago. So all we can think about is: what’s next for the Hunger Games?
Source: https://themockingjaysnest.com/official-bts-set-pictures-gallery/
Photo courtesy of The Mockingjay’s Nest