5. The Sponsorship System Is Much More Efficient During Katniss’ Hunger Games
Lucy Gray’s year is the first time Capitol citizens can sponsor tributes in the Hunger Games.
As seen in Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the 10th Games is the first year Capitol citizens can buy gifts of food and water for the tributes. Snow comes up with this idea to make the Games more engaging, also suggesting betting be allowed. The technology surrounding this is still faulty in the 10th Hunger Games, with the delivery drones crashing and even being used as weapons if the mentors time their orders well. By the time of Katniss’ Games, the sponsorship system operates flawlessly: Gifts are delivered smoothly without disrupting any fights.
The gifts available for purchase also likely grew with time. In Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the mentors are only ever seen sending water bottles to their tributes. Katniss and her allies can receive food, water, medicine, and more. Among every known winner of the Hunger Games, Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) stands out because he famously won when he was gifted a trident. Katniss notes in the Catching Fire novel that this is probably the most expensive gift she has ever seen sent to the arena.
4. Katniss’ Arena Was Built Specifically For The 74th Hunger Games
The arena where Lucy Gray’s Hunger Games takes place has been used several times before.
Lucy Gray mentions that she knows there is nowhere to hide in the arena because she has seen it before. Presumably, this means that the arena where the 10th Hunger Games takes place has been used every year up until then. It appears to simply be an abandoned stadium in the Capitol. Possibly the only things the Gamemakers had done beforehand were Capitol flags being put up to remind the tributes of their place and circles painted for them to stand on until the gong went off.
Eventually, the Capitol would construct different arenas with unique ecosystems and threats for every Games, contained within a force field dome. Katniss’ first arena is a forest environment, while the Quarter Quell arena is a tropical environment structured like a clock. The books mention others, and some clips from a Games taking place in a ruined city setting are seen in the first Hunger Games movie. This does raise the question of how much land the Capitol has used up solely for building new arenas, but they may have destroyed old ones to make more space.
3. All 24 Tributes Participate In The 74th Hunger Games
Several tributes die before the 10th Hunger Games begins.
The luxury is also accompanied by advanced security surrounding the tributes, making it impossible for them to escape before the Games begin. Therefore, all 24 tributes are alive at the beginning of the 74th Hunger Games. More than likely, this was the case for every Games for decades before. On the other hand, Lucy Gray’s year was considered a disaster by the Capitol because of the deaths among the tributes and mentors leading up to the Games.
After Brandy (Luna Kuse) kills her mentor Arachne Crane (Lilli Cooper), she is shot dead by Peacekeepers. Several more tributes are killed when the arena is bombed in Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes or are shot when they subsequently try to escape. According to the Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes novel, only 15 tributes are still alive at the start of the Games, including Marcus (Jerome Lance) from District 2. Marcus manages to escape during the bombing but is captured, beaten, and strung up in the arena. Lamina (Irene Böhm) from District 7 later kills him to end his suffering.
