The Hunger Games Mentors

Happy mid-week Fanaticals! Today I want to bring up a thought that I have seen floating around online that has become quite intriguing to me the more I have thought about it. However, it will bring Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes into play a little as well.

Today we are going to talk about the Hunger Games themselves, and the Mentors for the Tributes.

We know that by the original trilogy, previous Victors now become Mentors to the new Tributes in an effort to get them home and bring victory to their District. However, since the release of BoSaS, we now know that it was not always this way. From the sounds of it, Sponsorships did not exist either. The first 9 Games were LITERALLY "fend for yourself".

Then the 10th Games come along and suddenly there is a Mentorship program that begins with students from the Academy in the Capitol. We also are starting to learn that prior to this, not all the Tributes actually make it from the Reaping to the Arena; now, whether this was due to the implementation of the new Mentorship or if this was normal, as it seems the Tributes were locked in a literal Zoo and then placed into the Arena wearing the clothes they wore when Reaped, is still unclear.

One of the things that we DO learn is that our sweet, favourite Mags who sacrificed herself in the 3rd Quarter Quell was not only the oldest surviving Victor, but also the first one to receive prizes, and live in the newly erected Victor Village. I feel like it would be safe to assume that for the 12th Games, instead of two Academy Students mentoring District 4 it would have been one student and Mags. However, if this is true then it would beg the question of after a period of time, what happened to the Districts who didn't have enough Victors?

Obviously, we want to focus primarily on District 12 with this considering that it sounds as though every other District has at least 3-5 Victors probably around the time of the 2nd Quarter Quell, the 50th Games and the year that Haymitch won. This was the year that they doubled the number of Tributes, and Haymitch's victory was actually accidental. Considering the fact that all the tapes of the 10th Games are completely missing, it makes you wonder if there wasn't some form of rigging of the Games going on from behind the scenes like Snow making sure that District 12 never won again after Lucy.

It's honestly not too far-fetched of an idea considering that Snow overreacted a lot when he heard The Hanging Tree song because he knew exactly what it was about since he was there when it happened. Considering that Haymitch won only because his opponent threw an axe that bounced back and killed her, making Haymitch the only winner besides Lucy, it's definitely food for thought.

However, considering that by the time he won every District except 12 had Victors, and the Mentor- and Sponsorship programs clearly were going strong enough that they passed the Mentorship over to previous Victors it leaves one question: who or how was District 12 mentored until Haymitch's victory?

Did the Capitol continue to have Academy Students mentor the District? It always seemed a bit weird that Haymitch was in charge of mentoring BOTH Tributes from 12, but what is the possibility that as all the other Districts had Victors, Snow finally cut 12 having any Mentors altogether until someone won?

Honestly, when we consider all known events, it actually seems pretty logical and possible that Snow did just that. It is completely unknown if Haymitch actually had a Mentor, but when you consider that Snow had his mother, brother, and girlfriend killed after his "stunt" with the axe it is completely possible that he had absolutely no help from a Mentor.

It would also explain one of the several reasons he drank so much, so heavily, and really didn't take an interest in actually being a Mentor until Katniss and Peeta came along. Besides the fact that none of them apparently showed much want in fighting for the lives the way these two did, he didn't know exactly how to coach them or what to say.

Some people online believe that one of the reasons that Caff and Haymitch were so close was because Caff mentored him despite being from District 11. Honestly, I don't see that happening in any way. The whole point in the Mentorship, once it was built up to the point that it was passed to the Victor's hands, was to secure victory for YOUR District; no one would be willing to help another District if it meant that theirs lost the food boon.

What do you think? Did Haymitch survive without a Mentor? Or did the Capitol supply the District with at least one to keep the playing field relatively equal? Come exchange your own theories about this with our community! Until tomorrow, keep on theorizing Fanaticals!