The Hunger Games (novel)/WMG

Finnick is related to sugarcube guy from Baccano
Yes, it's probably because of their love for sugarcubes.

Panem is Earth-That-Was from Firefly.
Everything about the society seems to reflect very similarly to how societies function in Firefly, with a decadent, aloof Core system (the capitol) and a bunch of outlying Rim planets (the Districts). Panem is what's left of Earth after the starships left to go somewhere else, thinking Earth was wholly used up and Panem is comprised of those who remained afterward.

Miss Yukari takes over District 13 after the revolution.
Well, there was nobody left to run it after the revolution, so the residents probably voted her in, thinking she'd be a better leader than.

Panem isn't the remains of America - It's the remains of the One Piece world
And, some of the Districts match up perfectly with locations in One Piece - District 4 would be Water Seven, District 2 would probably be Alabasta, District 10 or 11 would be that island Ace was on in his cover story, and the Capitol would be Enies Lobby/Impel Down/Marineford/Mariejois. Plus, don't the Capitol residents who have dyed skin kind of remind you of Fishmen?

The Pokémon universe is set in Panem centuries after Katniss overthrew the Capitol; Pokemon evolved out of Capitol muttations set loose after the war
After Panem fell and there was no more Capitol to deal with the muttations, they were set loose in the wilderness. Over time, tracker jackers, etc. became Beedrills, etc., technology were developed to capture these animals, and inspired by a warped, legendary view of Katniss, 10-year-old kids began taming muttations and going out on journeys through the forest. Ash Ketchum has olive skin, dark hair, and a nature-based first name, pegging him as coming from the former District 12. The theme naming based on region/employment was kept, and Misty/the water gym area is what used to be District 4; Brock comes from 2, Surge from 5, Erika from 7, etc. The color-named cities came from popular depictions of the luxury in the former Capitol.

Lady Gaga had something to do with the planning of the Capitol
People in the Capitol have ridiculous hairstyles, outlandish clothing, and some of them even dye their skin. Lady Gaga is known for her hairstyles and clothing, so she may have had some type of influence on the culture in the Capitol.
 * Her and Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. I'd buy that they influenced a lot.

Foxface knew that they were nightlock berries
In the training room, she was doing that huge plant memorization game and flying through it. And during her interview, she said that she would always analyze the situation and apply herself. Additionally, without others to reliably steal food from, she was starving. So when it came down to her and the fearful Thresh and Cato, and the unstoppable team from 12, or death by starvation she knew she had no chance of winning. Seeing Peeta with the berries just made her ending quicker and hopefully less painful. The reason she also took the cheese was because she was worried that if the Capitol knew it was suicide they would hurt her family.
 * This is very likely, actually. I doubt someone as clever as Foxface would be stupid enough to die from unknowingly eating poison berries. I think she knew her chances of winning were low then, so the most she could do was kill herself in a quick and painless way. And in doing so, she'd ensure nobody else would get the pleasure of killing her and that (by taking the cheese) the capitol would never know of her true intentions and her family would be safe. In a way, then, she was a Victorious Loser.

Peeta is named after pita bread
His parents are bakers. The difference in spelling can be attributed to years that have passed between now and then. Mrs. Everdeen the apothecary named both her daughters after plants, and Peeta's parents named their son after bread.
 * Peeta is a terrible name. They should have named him something dignified, something proud...young Turn Over.
 * I believe that District 12's name scheme for children (yes, fanfiction authors, they have name schemes!) are named after their parents' professions. Katniss and primrose are plants; Katniss and Primrose are the daughters of the owner of the apothecary. Peeta is a corruption of pita, a type of bread; his parents run the bakery. A gale is a gust of wind, staying nowhere at once; and when we first meet Gale, his mother is unemployed, wandering like the wind.

At least in part, the districts were used to separate different sectors of culture and/or races
There's very little variety in the districts. Other than the blonde town kids and the olive-skinned Seam kids, you see no racial variety within the districts. In 11, everyone is described as "dark-skinned," and if you read very carefully in the text, the District 3 tributes could be seen as Asian-looking, with their dark hair and ashy skin. Also, both districts behave like (very unfortunate) stereotypes may portray those races. From what we've seen of District 1, the tributes are fair, with the female District 1 tribute being described as blonde. I think that when the districts were created, different races were penned off into them to prevent diversity. Perhaps the Capitol though that a more diverse population would lead to greater tolerance of other Districts? I have two theories for District 12: One being that a certain economic group was put there, and the other is that the "town" residents were originally from another District, but were put into 12 to both raise the population (the whole place only has 8,000 people) or to run the town.
 * Crosses the line to Unfortunate Implications quite easily: District 11 people are "dark skinned", live in the south, work the earth and are treated horribly by their masters. The District 3 people are all Asian and Nerdy. District 4 is made up of Irish fishermen (with red hair and names like "Finnick O'dair"). And, the District 10 residents are descendants of Mexican cattle ranchers.
 * Sounds like a classic founder effect to me. EG, the descendants of a few families of coal miners way back in the hills of West Virginia (maybe they hid in the mines when the bombs fell) survived the apocalypse and were later annexed by the Capitol. A genetic bottleneck gives most of district 12 the similar, limited set of genes.

Nudity is no big deal, at least in the Capitol
Katniss mentions that sometimes the tributes show up in the chariots naked. Her prep team sees her naked all the time. In Catching Fire, when the thing with the dress happens, she wonders if it has left her naked. And then there's Johanna...
 * Well, with all the other stuff in the Capitol, I wouldn't be surprised.
 * I'd think it would be specifically a Capitol thing. Remember how squeamish Katniss is when she thinks about being naked in front of everyone, or when she has to see Peeta in his underwear to clean his leg wound? Nudity is definitely a big deal for her.
 * Johanna, Finnick and Peeta are all decidedly not squeamish about being naked (or half-naked) and Glimmer’s interview dress was see-through, so I think nudity is mostly a big deal just for Katniss and it’s meant to showcase how out of place she is in the Capitol and around other people. Either that or Values Dissonance between 12 and the other Districts and the Capitol and Peeta was too sick/worried about dying to care about what people saw.
 * Though Katniss doesn't seem especially bothered about stripping off for her prep team, even initially.

Mirror's Edge takes place in the Capitol
A sparkling clean city with cameras EVERYWHERE and information is so closely controlled that even outside on a roof you have to whisper? Familiar, no?
 * Only further backed up by Mockingjay, wherein most of the movement throughout the Capitol occurs via service shafts and the like. Anyone who has played Mirror's Edge knows just how much time you spend in ventilation ducts and gritty unseen areas.
 * Actually, while the Capitol is described as colourful, Mirror's Edge is about lack of vivid colours by game design (the colour red is seen almost exclusively using runner vision and developers actually said things about cold/warm colour contrast). Although, the trigger-happy blues of Mirror's Edge and the peacekeepers of Mockingjay bear striking similarities. And both cities are brought down (though only implied in ME) by a girl trying to save her sister.

The Mutts at the end are Stalkers
Self explanatory, no?
 * No.

District 12 is actually ruled by Persia
"Proof": Katniss's mother is an Apothecary. The Apothecary's is the Persian replacement for the Grocer in Civilization IV. Perhaps the government of District 12 pays lip service to the Capitol while in reality being run by the Shahs/Supreme Leaders/Whoever's leading Iran/Persia at the time?
 * I don't know why the discussion for this got deleted, but it ended with the original poster saying that this was supposed to be sarcastic. Just FYI to the next person like me who is rather bothered by the Insane Troll Logic and has trouble detecting subtle sarcasm on the internet.

The Hunger Games are in the future of Battle Royale.
The resemblances are clearly there. Apparently after whatever happened to North America, the Panem government thought that the Greater East Asia had some pretty good ideas.

The idea for The Hunger Games evolved from old shows such as 'Big Brother' and 'Survivor'
There are lots of similarities between these shows and the Games: being stuck in an enclosed area with strangers, elimination (death in the latter), the idea of fierce compitition. I think that the Capitol was not wholly original in their idea of the Games, but drew back into pre-disaster North America and drew ideas from these old shows.
 * This was part of the point of the series- to show how sick those shows really are.

President Snow is a Peeta/Katniss shipper
...What? Until the third book comes out it's the only rational explanation of why he insisted After all, there's really no reason he'd think  would actually help. If anything, it would only elicit the reaction it did.
 * It's seen throughout the series (made most obvious in Mockingjay) that President Snow toys with his victors for fun and profit, especially in their relations with other characters. This fits perfectly with his
 * Confirmed in the third book, as he thought that by having Katniss actually fall in love with Peeta, she will have a weakness with which he can break her. And he almost succeeds.

The author will introduce a Third Option Love Interest and have Katniss and Finnick end up together
...What? It does make some kind of sense. Collins may do this because she might be fed up with the whole 'Team Peeta' or 'Team Gale' stuff hat she may end up doing a Last Girl Wins.

Peeta's name is a corruption of the name Peter
Nearly everyone's name is a noun of some sort (Katniss, Snow, Gale, Primrose, etc) but Peeta isn't. It's argued it's a corruption of a type of bread, which also makes sense, but since this was our world (probably), some names remaining makes sense.
 * The etymology fits remarkably well, although the truth probably lies somewhere between this and the WMG that he's named after the type of bread.
 * When I read the books I made this assumption, Peeta = Peter, Haymitch = Hamish

The Reapings are all rigged.
Katniss has already stated that the children of victors aren't excluded, and in fact they're put in the arena too often to be luck of the draw. So those are definitely rigged. The reapings could be rigged to weed out anyone who might try to start an uprising while they're still young. Peeta talks about not being the Capitol's pawn in the Games, and it's possible he's disliked the Capitol and spoke about it at some point before the reaping. We already know that Katniss said bad things about the Capitol as a child. Prim was chosen in the reaping because it was known that Katniss hunted illegally and they didn't want her to be able to win with her hunting skills, so hurting her emotionally by having her sister killed was the best thing they could do to her. Gale was never chosen because he has hunting skills and he's strong, giving him a chance to win, and the Capitol doesn't want anyone who is against them to become a victor.
 * And then there's Haymitch, who was a liability to the Capitol's stability from the beginning, yet somehow got drawn?
 * That's why he was reaped during a Quarter Quell. They figured that, with 47 other kids against him, including (presumably) a Career pack of 12, he wouldn't have a chance. Not only was the timing convenient, they wanted to use the Quell to kill him off as opposed to a random accident back in D12. More entertainment for the masses.
 * I actually wondered at that myself, especially during the first book. I think somehow Katniss's little excursions were known about and they decided the games would be her punishment and her sister's name coming up would be the dramatic icing on the cake.
 * This is completely defeated by the twist of the first Quarter Quell, where the Districts voted on which tributes to send into the arena. At least one game is exempt.
 * Or they could have just rigged the votes. Kinda defeats the purpose of the punishment, though...
 * Well, Katniss did mention that it would have have been much worse to be voted into the games than picked randomly, so maybe they did this for a sort of psychological thing to mess with the kids' heads, make them less happy to go home if they win, stuff like that.
 * Oh, like they made the kids think that they had been chosen as tributes by the people of their districts even though the tributes in the games might not have necessarily been the ones with the most votes? That'd certainly make the Victor more willing to bend to the Capitol's will (because whatever district loyalty they had would be at least tarnished in most cases and the Capitol would be providing for their every want and need) and less likely to stir up trouble and they could still cherry pick the most appropriate children to be in the Games.
 * I think that even if the games ARE rigged, forcing the districts to vote instead of making it "the luck of the draw" would have a heavy psychological impact on both the tributes and the populace. The people will be forced to send two of their citizens to their potential deaths (considering the impracticalities of going through 8000 people, it will likely be chosen from those that they know personally), while the tributes will be angered at the apparent betrayal of being forced into The Hunger Games.

Haymitch is not going to survive Mockingjay
He's going to die. Collins always kills off mentors of the main characters. And I'm gonna bet that at least one of Gale's sibs is going to expire before the end of the book. Who else is going down?

The ending of Mockingjay was a result of Executive Meddling.

 * Collins intended a different ending, one in which Katniss ends up with neither Peeta or Gale, but her editor said no.
 * Pandering to the Base being an understatement: Judging by the whining that exists with the present ending, if Collins had done anything less, it'd be hissy fits heard around the globe.
 * If it turns out to be true I might forgive the author, the ending seemed abrupt and out of zone with the rest of the story.

Lavinia (the Avox that Katniss recognizes) was escaping to District 13 when Katniss and Gale saw her and the boy in the woods.
Both Katniss and Peeta felt like she looked like she was from the Capitol. Why else would someone from the Capitol be in District 12?

Where is everything?
Since Word of God states there will be no map, we may as well try to figure it out on our own. This troper thinks it's obvious that all of Panem is in North America. Please use the bullet point format to suggest locations and do not remove what other people have said! This is NOT a reference for what is correct (except for facts about districts, like "District 12 does coal mining"); this is Wild Mass Guessing.
 * Updated to give Word of God exports, pursuant to the new viral site.
 * The Capitol: Mountainous city.
 * West of or lying in the Rockies, cold in winter with substantial snowfall. Probably Montana/southern Alberta, judging by climate.
 * Quite possibly founded by the survivors from a government hidey-hole in Cheyenne mountain (or something similar)
 * Denver. Considered to be the backup capital of the US (should anything ever happen to DC).
 * Vancouver, British Columbia -- assuming the author hasn't gone with the "absurd sea level rise" angle.
 * Los Angeles.
 * Can't be Los Angeles - even though there's the San Gabriel Mountains nearby - because the Capitol was stated to be in a snowy area where the Rockies would be. This Troper is a Los Angelino, and she's only seen snow in the Los Angeles area three times (and, it usually doesn't stick).
 * If global warming has left some or other layer of the atmosphere "too thin for airplanes to fly in," I think it'd be a safe bet that it has affected the climate quite massively.
 * District 1: Luxury goods.
 * Could be anywhere, probably a former metropolitan center like New York City.
 * Can't be NYC. Districts 1-4 were mentioned as being closer to the Capitol, and partially because of that, more their favorites. 2 was the closest, but no one knows how big the Seam is.
 * Districts 3 & 4 aren't distinctly mentioned to be close by, especially considering 3 isn't a career district. 1 is probably California.
 * I support the theory that 1 is in California. I would also like to add on to this theory - I believe that District 1 would include the areas of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, since both cities are world-famous centers of luxury and decedance.
 * California and Nevada. They already have luxury good and service industries, and produce a lot of gold and gemstones.
 * District 2: Masonry
 * Colorado and environs, without dispute. Marble is mentioned as an export, and Colorado is the only mountainous producer of marble on the continent.
 * Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. It's mentioned to be close to the capital, but if my theory about the Capitol being in Colorado, it's unlikely to be Colorado, since it's not all that plausible that Colorado rebelled if the centre of authority is there (see my theory about Loyalist Regions below).
 * Doesn't District 2 include the "Nut"? Sounds like Cheyenne Mountain to me.
 * District 3: Electronics.
 * Somewhere where steel and petroleum products are readily available, or possibly near the ocean where goods can be shipped from other areas. Judging by the fact that their seal seems to contain the space needle in it, Washington is a good bet.
 * New England. New England is up and coming in the technology and electronics sectors, especially around Boston. It's America's main rival to Silicon Valley.
 * Or just Silicon Valley itself, given that low-numbered Districts are supposed to be close to the Capitol.
 * District 4: Fishing (Finnick's district).
 * Finnick seems to know something about tropical plants. Somewhere on the Gulf Coast?
 * Finnick wasn't too familiar with tropical plants: Mags ate some nuts based on knowledge from previous games. However, there's some cultural implications that it's in New England/Maritime Canada, given the blatantly Gaelic nature of some of the names (Fionn = "fair", Odair(e) = "pale/dun"), the nature of their industry, and their wedding ceremony procedures. This would put 4 awfully far away from the Capitol, however.
 * It would make sense, though -- the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were once renowned for the abundance of fish in the area.
 * My guess is the Pacific Northwest.
 * Cascadia (Washington and Oregon). Fishing, especially salmon, is very important to the region's culture and economy today.
 * District 5: Power.
 * Florida. It produces the greatest amount of electricity of any state in the Union (including California).
 * Northern Quebec is the centre for a lot of hydroelectric power generation, to the point where hydro accounts for almost all of Quebec's generating capacity. This would conflict with the likely location of District 13 though (see below).
 * District 6: Transportation.
 * Presumably dead center of the country, possibly leaning slightly closer to the major production centers of Panem (electronics and luxuries are produced in limited quantities, and are less likely need dedicated transport links than lumber or masonry). District 6 could well be in Nebraska, roughly in the middle of North America (ignoring the largely uninhabited areas of Northern Canada and Alaska) and home to Union Pacific and the largest railway yard in the world.
 * Somewhere near Detroit might be thematically fitting as well.
 * Texas. It has the most transport infrastructure of any state in the Union today.
 * The Chicago/St. Louis area? Famous for being the gateway to the West.
 * District 7: Lumber.
 * IIRC, this included redwoods. Pacific northwest?
 * Not redwood. Predominantly softwoods. Must be in between 12 and the Capitol, as Katniss guesses the train is passing through it on her way to the 74th Games.
 * I guess for that matter, there's no guarantee there haven't been major climate changes since present time that reforested any region of the US.
 * This Tropette thinks that District Seven could be somewhere around Minnesota, Wisconsin, and maybe the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, given the climate there.
 * Alaska. 12% of the country's forests are located in Alaska. No other state even comes close to the sheer amount of trees in Alaska.
 * A lot of Alaska is bare tundra though.
 * My guess is northern and central Ontario, probably stretching into Quebec and Manitoba. The softwood forests there are vast.
 * District 8: Textiles.
 * North and South Carolina. It's really the only place left in the US with a textile industry.
 * Lots of factories too. Could possibly be in the "rust belt" of Michigan/Ohio.
 * District 9: Grain
 * Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. These three states are the centre of the US' Corn Belt. Might also include the UP for aesthetics.
 * District 10: Livestock/husbandry. Likely Great Plains states/provinces, since it along with 7 are mentioned as necessary to pass through to get to the Capitol.
 * Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Kansas is currently the second largest producer of cattle in the US (Texas is already used up with District 6). The High Plains in the other three states are likely to be used for it as well.
 * District 11: Agricultural (Rue's district). Hinted to be the Deep South, and the train heads that way on the victory tour.
 * Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The location of the Cotton Belt (cotton is mentioned to be one of the district's exports). It's also the most likely district demographically to send two black children as tribute (as shown in the film at least).
 * District 12: Coal (Katniss's district).
 * Given the fact that it's stated to be a week's walk from District 13, which is stuck in Quebec or Ontario, it's either Pennsylvania or possibly West Virginia. West Virginia has the largest coal output of all the states, which makes it a front runner.
 * In a book reading somewhere on YouTube, Collins gives Katniss a Southern accent, further supporting the West Virginia theory.
 * There's also the rich Kentucky coal mining fields.
 * As someone from Kentucky, I think Kentucky is the best possibility. There are a lot of woods in Kentucky, and the lake mentioned in my opinion is Cave Run because when I went there it was surrounded by woodlands. The same could also be said about the Kentucky River. Though I've never hunted there are places that I assume would be good hunting. And if we could no longer produce horses its not a long shot that we'd go back to coal mining.
 * Considering that before Daniel Boone, Kentucky was HUNTING grounds...
 * There are woodland-surrounded lakes throughout the continent. Besides, Cave Run Lake isn't even a natural lake, and given the obvious disintegration most relics of our time have suffered, the dam would probably be gone as would the lake itself.
 * IIRC The lake was never specified as being natural or artificial, and depending on when it was made, and how well it was made, theres a decent chance a dam could survive. That being said, Trout Pond in West Virginia would fit the bill decently enough I think. It's a natural lake in West Virginia, though not a huge one. It is located in an area with a large coal deposit, and a great deal of potential forest area. Plus it's closer to Canada, where district 13 would have to be if the info further down is accurate.
 * Also, there's nothing to suggest that district 12 doesn't run through both Kentucky and West Virginia.
 * Didn't Katniss state that District 12 was near Appalachia at some point?
 * That probably cuts W.Va. then. West Virginia isn't near Appalachia, it's the only state to exist entirely in Appalachia.
 * The precise quote states that it is located "in a region once known as Appalachia". West Virginia is still in.
 * It really makes sense to be in West Virginia, if the folks are Mediterranean descent. A friend of mine's family are coal miners and Italian and that's where they hail from, and she says a lot of folks there are like that.
 * If not for some evidence pointing otherwise (the Appalachia reference, the southern accent in the book reading, etc), it could also be in Atlantic Canada. 6.5 days walk from the Laurentian area to Halifax, Nova Scotia, according to Google Maps. I personally choose to believe this despite any evidence to the contrary, because I like to think that I live in/near District 12.
 * I'm an expy Nova Scotian and think this is a crock, you can walk a day and see the ocean no matter where you are, and it's the ass end of the Appalachians. Look into District 4 instead, given the fishing industry and Gaelic ties. Also there's the fact that Nova Scotia is doomed to be an island in very short order so it seems odd that nobody mentioned having to swim to get out of the District. 12 is clearly in the Cumberland Gap, especially given that the Seam's physical descriptions almost certainly indicate its residents are Melungeon.
 * West Virginia and Kentucky. These regions are the kings of coal production in the US. Pennsylvania would also be part of this district, except that it's anchored to Philadelphia and the East Coast power structure (see my theory below on Loyalist Regions).
 * District 13: Graphite (revealed in newscasts from second book), and also.
 * District 13 can't be anywhere except the Laurentian mountains in Canada. No other place on the continent produces graphite.
 * Here are some maps from Deviant ART, it's not perfect but it's better than nothing.
 * The districts aren't regions: they are small outposts. District 12 is basically a mining company town in the woods (and a small town at that). District 11 is essentially a plantation. The very biggest agricultural districts might not cover more than several hundred square miles, the smaller ones are the size of small towns and cities.
 * But in Catching Fire, Katniss describes District 11 as being massive to the point of endlessness, with a population so large that even a portion of it can successfully rebel and in Mockingjay, she says District 2 is made up of many villages spread throughout the mountains. Those don't exactly sound like outposts.

When this book is made into a movie, "Rue's Lullaby" will be an Award Bait Song

 * C'mon, you know it will.
 * The entire movie can only be Oscar Bait or a shitshow, really.
 * Songs nominated for the Academy Awards must be written for the film. I'm not sure if using pre-existing lyrics and setting them to a new melody counts. There'll be an Oscar Bait song anyway, though.
 * Jossed. Rue's Lullaby will be in the film (break our hearts, Jennifer!), but not the official soundtrack. It does have an Award Bait Song performed by Taylor Swift seen here. Since Whitney's dead and Celine's largely retired, Taylor will probably be the go-to girl for Award Bait Songs. It would be nice to see her win something without some jackass ruining everything.

Cinna wasn't born in the Capitol

 * Look at him compared to the other residents: he's calm, quiet, down to earth, and seems to lack their accent. My guess is he was made to live in the Capitol after his talent with fashion came out; and chances are, he’s not the only one. Given what we know about them, it’s not so hard to believe the Capitol wouldn’t have a problem removing someone from their home and forcing them to adapt to their lifestyle so it can make use of that person's abilities.
 * Cinna is described as olive skinned and cropped dark hair, and has an amazing ability with electronics (he stated he and his designing partner created the Ember effect etc), I assumed he came from where Nuts and Volts did (District 3, I think)
 * District 8 (Textiles) perhaps? Does any one remember what the District 8 tributes looked like?
 * I don't think they ever say, but yeah, I think 8 is a strong possibility.
 * However, Cinna's name is of Graeco-Roman origin, like those of Capitol and District 2 residents.
 * He could have changed his name after moving to the Capitol so he could fit in better.
 * In the movie he's played by Lenny Kravitz, who is mixed race. So at least Film!Cinna could be the result of a Capitol resident's visit to a District 11 Tribute turned Sex Slave (in the film both Thresh and Rue are black instead of Ambiguously Brown) who was possibly kept around as a curiosity.
 * Thresh and Rue were black in the books too as well, though, weren't they? I feel like Suzanne Collins said as much in an interview or something.
 * My guess would be that he was either an immigrant from District 3 who made enough of an impression on a higher-up from the Capitol to be transferred over to work for him and changed his name to fit in, or his parents consisted of a Capitol parent and an outer district parent, either through the Capitol one falling in love while on a trip and taking the child (either by force, law, or after the death of the poorer parent) or had the child with a sex slave and brought it back to raise as their own.

Later on Katniss will meet up again with Gale...
...and proceed to have an affair.
 * Katniss is self-centered, and could easily have an affair.
 * She doesn't really blame Gale for Prim's death, and after time passes she may come to terms with what he did.
 * She never really resolved her feelings for Gale, and she certainly still has feelings for him.
 * She does however say that because she couldn't be sure if Coin or Snow ordered the bombing, Gale would forever be linked in her mind with Prim's death. Although she may choose to forgive him, she's never going to forget that fact.

Tying in with the above WMG, Katniss' son isn't Peeta's.
He's Gale's. Sure, he has blond hair (assumed to be from Peeta) and gray eyes (assumed to be from Katniss) but then again, Katniss does have blond genes in her (her mother and sister are both blond).
 * Jossed. Her son has curly hair, like Peeta: the curly haired allele is considered to be genetically dominant, and therefore if Gale was his father, Gale would have to have curly hair too since Katniss does not. As both Gale and Katniss have straight hair, the allele could only have come from Peeta. This logic may also be applied to the daughter: she has blue eyes, which are dominant over Katniss and Gale's grey eyes, meaning that Peeta is the father of both of Katniss' children.

Haymitch has been a Katniss/Peeta shipper from the beginning.
He's always been the first to work out the next step to take (e.g. Katniss has to justify her actions as purely out of love for Peeta, Katniss has to marry Peeta), and that's the only reason he wanted them to stick together in the arena. Really, if you look past the fact that it did help the two stay alive, he's all over them.

The Movie will give more Character Development to other tributes
Since the book was told from Katniss' perspective, we didn't really know anything about the other tributes, save for Rue. Hopefully, we'll learn more about Cato, Clove, and Thresh.
 * CONFIRMED!

When the movie comes out, there will be outrage from the Moral Guardians
Come on. We'll all see that coming.
 * The film will likely have mostly implied violence in order to secure the age rating that will maximise the audience capabilities. For example, Rue's death, either the spear will come out or there won't be any blood.
 * Or they'll keep the violence and take out all the nudity. Extreme violence is ok but not nudity.
 * CONFIRMED.

Cinna is God or an alien, and the mastermind behind the entire plot.
First off, how can he set Katniss' dress on fire without it burning her? For that matter, how could he fit an entire second dress under the wedding dress without Katniss noticing? Especially with the Mockingjay wings hidden under the dress, the outfit would have to have used some form of spatial compression in order to fit that much cloth in. Not even the Capitol appears to possess the technology for that or heat-free fire. Cinna must therefore be in possession of technologies or abilities beyond anything achievable by any of the other characters. Apart from that, his extreme confidence in Katniss can be explained by his knowing what would happen from the start - hence his "still betting on her" throughout the books. Besides, after setting Katniss' dress on fire, he still somehow gains her trust, and he has to have had some motivation for giving her so many pretty and absurdly elaborate things. What better motivation than the foreknowledge that a plan started up to seventy-three years prior would finally come to fruition, precisely as planned? For that matter, we never do see Cinna die - Katniss is only informed indirectly, and Cinna's last scene only shows him being beaten. The circumstances provided Katniss with some extra motivation to play Mockingjay - which Cinna had already fully prepared for, as if he were aware of what would happen.
 * While she doesn't outright say there's a second dress, Katniss does notice that the wedding dress is way heavier than she remembered. As for the fire she wears, there are fireworks (usually meant for indoors) which burn at a cold enough temperature to at least put a hand through without fear.

Taken all in all, the Hunger Games were just radical enough, perhaps, to serve as entertainment for a bored deity or an immensely powerful extraterrestrial with no concept of human morality - but of course, plans of that magnitude would have to include provisions for their eventual conclusion. That being picked Cinna, the innocuous clothing designer, as a persona for the last, most important, and most exciting event of the plan; the entire series is simply one big, all-encompassing Hunger Games, and Cinna is its Gamemaker.


 * Maybe Cinna (or, frankly, Snow) is actually Q, still bent on screwing with humanity.

The entire setting takes place after Caesar's Legion takes over the East coast.
After their defeat at Hoover Dam, and because of the death of Caesar and inability to maintain control under the Legate Lanius, remnants of Caesar's legion fought their way Eastward. It could explain why they use Roman Latin naming. As for the tech: without Caesar's influence that technology is bad, the remnants grew to become accustom to technology, and some even learned how to make them. The fashion though, I assume it's because some of them are a bit... loony.
 * Alternatively, it is what becomes of Caesar's lands once the NCR wipe them out. They have a President after all and women are seen as being equals in the military. It is also possible that District 13 is the home of descendants of the Brotherhood of Steel; they have a lot of power in the East, less so in the West which is still NCR territory and live in an underground bunker.

Paylor plotted to replace Coin from the start
Paylor was high up enough to know that the bombing of the children wasn't done by the Capitol. She let Katniss see Snow because she knew he would tell her what District 13 did and hoped it would motivate Katniss to assassinate Coin. Once Coin was dead, she would be able to seize power with little objection.

Prim is the child of Mrs. Everdeen and Mr. Mellark.
They both realized that they still had feelings for each other (much like Katniss/Gale affair portrayed above). Prim looks much like Peeta, Mrs. Everdeen, and pretty much everyone from the merchant quarters. Exactly like everyone from the merchant quarters. So, unless Mr. Everdeen had some merchant genes somewhere along the line, the odds of that happening are very slim. Mrs. Everdeen's breakdown after the mines exploded was just as much guilt as it was grief. Also, Mr. Mellark is shown to be especially nice to Prim and to Katniss by extension, promising after Katniss was reaped that he wouldn't let Prim starve.
 * I'm pretty certain that the books say that Mrs Everdeen came from the merchant class, and that in marrying Katniss's father, married beneath herself. So that's where Prim's genes came from.

Heading on down to the Capitol, gonna have myself a time
The Capitol is South Park, Colorado. The first President of Panem was Eric Cartman, who finally and successfully seized power. He then began his plan to re-locate and separate the hippies, gingers, Jews, etc. District 1 got all the hippies, which is why they have silly names like Glimmer and Marvel, and he punished them by forcing them to make spurious luxury goods.

The punishments the Capitol inflicted and The Hunger Games are no more effective than the Treaty of Versailles of 1919
After the Treaty of Versailles was implemented, Germany was ruined, its economy destroyed, and the people made to make up for the entire First World War. After the Apocalypse and the Dark Days, the Capitol forced the rest of the human population under their banner of Panem to surrender goods and services to them, basically enslaving them. Then the population rebelled against the state(s) that forced them into poverty and desolation, with massive loss of human life, hatred on both sides, and a fustercluck of atrocities from both the Capitol and lost District 13.

Panem isn't the United States; Panem is the remnant of all nations on Earth
Each of the districts is descended from the refugees/immigrants of different nations or sets of nations. After some major ecological or national disaster, the survivors from all over the world migrated to North America. The new conglomerate-state put the wealthiest in the secure and safe Capitol and scattered the others to different districts, wiping out other languages with universal English and putting the Panem that we know into effect.
 * District 3 is Japan and maybe China, to go with the theories of Asian and Nerdy on the main page.
 * District 4 is the refugees of Ireland -- look at their names, and the unintelligible patois Mags speaks -- Gaelic, perhaps?
 * District 7 is Canada.
 * District 10 is Mexico
 * District 11 is the remnants of all the African nations, put together into the South because Panem didn't mind history repeating itself.
 * District 12, whose residents are olive-skinned with dark hair, is the remnant of the Arab nations, and possibly Israel as well. Panem's aristocracy blames the Middle East wars for the disaster, and so punishes them with the poorest district and the deadliest job.
 * Shame the film casting doesn't bear this idea out.
 * How would you explain the blondes in district twelve then? They are probably just the surviving North American population, The olive skinned seam residents could have been olive skinned before the catastrophe, or their skin darkened due to being in a warmer climate than their ancestors lived in.
 * The descendants of blonde Jews from Israel?
 * I was thinking Italian because from southern Italy a lot of people have olive skin and dark hair, but in northern Italy, a lot of people have blonde hair and blue eyes.

Cocoon and Gran Pulse is the future of Panem, or an Alternate Universe thereof
Specifically, Cocoon being the Capitol. The parallels are striking: the weird-dressed people who all live in prosperity, while the people on Pulse struggle to even stay alive; The trigger-happy soldier policemen who do more harm than good; A brutal method which they kill people with, with the populace's consent (Hunger games, purge); The artificial military beasts (mutts/biomechanical monsters and cie'th); both besieged at the end of the book/game
 * And the characters: the main heroine (a no-nonsense tough woman who appears almost emotionless) is struggling to save her sister. The black-haired tanned hunter who always has a snidy remark and is fiercely protective of his/her loved ones (and remember that in early stages of development, Fang was male!). The fan-favourite male characters (Finnick and Cid Raines) who help the main characters and  And both casts have a character named Snow (one as first name, one as surname).
 * And Final Fantasy XIII-2: this time, the hunter character (Noel) is male and still resembles Gale, while the main heroine wields a bow (and her motives also have to do with her sister, though this time, the protagonist's the younger one), and is still engaged to Snow, while he barely has any screen-time in the game (and Peeta is.

The Movie will lead to a Defictionalization of the Games.
Of course, participation will be voluntary and nobody'll really kill each other (for now, the host'll emphasize). It'll be cancelled after half a season.

Cato was in love with/physically attracted to Peeta
Mostly because of this tumblr post. It could explain why Peeta was accepted into the Career pack, (part of) why Cato wants to kill Katniss so much and why Cato dealt with Peeta himself after he helped Katniss (he was jealous and felt betrayed, with a touch of If I Can't Have You).

Peeta got into the Career Pack because of Haymitch and Finnick's friendship
Finnick was a mentor during the 74th Games as revealed in Mockingjay. Haymitch also states that alliances are usually formed before the Games themselves. It doesn't make much sense that the Careers would want anything to do with the District 12 Tributes that are some of the weakest competitors unless there was some string pulling from Haymitch's end and using some leverage with Finnick to get Peeta in. Why not Katniss? Well he appeared more likable and the belief may have been he would win more sponsors. Why not both? Who knows?

Haymitch drinks vodka
Vodka is clear and can be made from anything. Which means in the first book on the train when he's pouring it into red stuff, he could be making a Bloody Mary.
 * I thought it was implied that Haymitch drinks whatever booze he can get his hands on. It probably was vodka on the train, but I think he'll drink anything just as long as it gives him a buzz.
 * His drinks are normally described as being white in colour. Unless in the future they sell White Russians in bottles, it's unlikely to be vodka he drinks.
 * Considering the region he is from I would assume his usual drink is actually White Dog. White Dog is Bourbon before it is aged and is usually clear to a translucent white in color.
 * Clearly y'all stick too close to the straight and narrow to have ever seen moonshine. I have this theory: Ripper will ferment whatever is available. And Haymitch is dumb enough to drink it.

Cinna and President Snow come from the same social class
My issue with the WMG that Cinna isn't from the Capitol is that it assumes that everyone from the Capitol fits the stereotype of the Capitol citizen that Katniss knows. Growing up, she only ever saw or heard the most outrageous, attention seeking and affluent Capitol people in the Hunger Games and she still only really ever interacted with that same type of person after she was reaped, with really only two exceptions : Cinna and Snow. I think that both of them were from relatively poor Capitol families and worked their ways up the ranks because of their talent and ingenuity and that's why neither of them really exhibits the typical Capitol traits. The lower class might not be able to afford to be quite as eccentric as the richest Capitol citizens and would be more level headed and practically minded and it could also account for the lack of accent. The lower class wouldn't have the money to participate in the type of things the upper class does and then wouldn't be raised with/have the opportunity to pick up the "Capitol" accent, or at least it wouldn't be so marked that Katniss would have noticed or felt the need to mention it.

Also, Castor, Pollux and Lavinia might be from the same class. I don't think it's ever explicitly stated where any of them are from, but Katniss says Lavinia has the "Capitol look" and I can't think of any other reason whatever Pollux did to become an avox would lead him to become an avox instead of being executed and none of them seem to fit into Capitol stereotypes.
 * Maybe President Snow is a bastard from the North?

The flood that won Annie her Games was caused by the Gamemakers to stop a group of tributes from escaping the arena
Based on the fact that they put up a force-field after Katniss shot at them, the Gamemakers seem very keen to learn from their mistakes. So, I figured someone tried to kill themselves by jumping off the roof - they did the same thing and then again after someone tried with a cliff, which lead to the creation of the force-field in the arena of the 2nd Quarter Quell that helped Haymitch win. After Haymitch won, they must have realized that it's possible for a tribute to reach the end of the arena and use it to their benefit, so they started putting in what were essentially self-destruct buttons in the arenas in case anyone got too close but no one did for another 20 years. The escape attempt made in the 70th Hunger Games is what inspired the rebellion's plan for the 3rd Quarter Quell.
 * Also, in The Movie, part of the reason the fire the Gamemakers used to corral Katniss is set off is because she was too close to the edge of the arena, so maybe they at least have less drastic versions of this that don't completely destroy the arena.

If it wasn't such an Epic Movie, The Hunger Games would've been shelved because of the Trayvon Martin killing.
Only because the publicity machine had been cranking for months and had just shifted into total-saturation high gear, has nobody called it Too Soon.

Katniss's are twins

 * The boy just has a muscular problem in his legs that caused them not to grow normally while the rest of him does.

The Dog-things are Mabari War Hounds

 * The resemblance in the movie is uncanny.

Finnick will be Spared by the Adaptation

 * I really hope this happens.

Suzanne Collins knew full well that people would have trouble making a Portmanteau Couple Name from "Katniss" and "Peeta"...

 * ... and cracks up laughing about seeing "KatPee" and "Peeniss" all over the internet...
 * On the flip-flop, "Everlark" is really quite beautiful.

Hunger Games is set in the far future of the same universe as Atlas Shrugged

 * The whole world itself is a Randian paradise where the teaming masses are ruled over by an inherently superior elite, whose primary form of transportation outside of their capitol is a super-efficient high-speed train system.
 * Additionally, most of the people living in The Capitol appear to be the long-term products of a system that encourages people to view others only in terms of how they are of use to them personally and to view altruism and self-sacrifice as deviant behavior.

The arenas aren't real- the Games take place in a Matrix-style machine.

 * Considering that the Gamemakers control everything on their computers (at least in the movie) it would be easier to have everything directly broadcast into the Tribute's brains and over television, instead of wasting resources building a new arena each time. The tubes the tributes go into are actually sensory chambers that make them see and feel everything in the arena, and kill them if needed. This explains why most every winner heals completely, dogs pop out of the ground, and wounds can shrink to nothing from simple creams. It would also make the muttations a hell of a lot easier to do, and why Katniss's hallucinations are so perfectly tailored to her worst fears- the Gamemakers designed them.
 * What about Chaff's hand and Peeta's leg? And Katniss had a history of really specifically frightening nightmares and since tracker jacker venom was described as being able to drive people mad, maybe there's something in it that targets fears anyway because they were genetically engineered to be weapons. That's not even mentioning how impossible the escape from the arena in Catching Fire would be if this were true. Also, how would you explain why the gamemakers would need to use fire to get Katniss away from the edge in The Movie (Suzanne Collins was involved with writing the screenplay) or how Haymitch used the barrier to win his games? If it were a Matrix-style machine, they could just create more arena.
 * Deserted arenas are used as tourist attractions for Capitol citizens. While this may be a lie, I think it's safe to assume that arenas actually do exist.

Everything after the tracker jacker incident in the 74th Games is just in Katniss' head.

 * We know that it causes massive hallucinations and that Peeta's perception of reality is distorted beyond complete repair after being hijacked. Even though Katniss is only stung by four tracker jackers or so, there's no saying if maybe the entire story from the incident on is just a dream she has during her black-out.

The Hunger Games takes place several hundred years after 1984.
The rebellion mentioned in the backstory was led by Winston's grandchild(ren) to try to overthrow the Party, but it failed and caused everything to be reorganized. Oceania becomes Panem and ends up getting divided into 12 districts plus the area that would have been District 13. What would have been District 13 is where Winston was from. The Peacekeepers are (arguably) nicer versions of the thought police and the Big Brother idea was scrapped entirely over time in favor of the Hunger Games. The Gamemakers are what became of the Ministry of Love.

Madge was supposed to be the Mockingjay.
The Mockingjay being the symbol of the rebellion was planned from the beginning. At some point Madge was chosen (or maybe she wanted to, because she felt guilty for living off the Capitol when so many people in her District starved to death), to be a martyr for the cause because who better than the pretty niece of a fallen tribute to win over all of Panem and then turn the districts against the Capitol with her death, (which might have been planned to be an in-game suicide)? Madge had access to information about the Capitol and the other Districts because of her father and knew that tensions were rising and that a rebellion wasn’t far off. She planned to volunteer for whichever girl got reaped that year, but Katniss beat her to the punch. Why was Madge so eager to give Katniss the Mockingjay pin? Because ‘’someone’’ needed to be the Mockingjay. The next year was the quarter quell and there was no telling what could happen then and before then, Madge wouldn’t have been old enough to be able to survive. If this was going to happen, it had to happen during the 74th Hunger Games. And when Madge kissed Katniss, it wasn’t just an “I’ll miss you because you’ll be dead within the week” sort of thing, it was an “I’m sorry that I’m dooming you even if you survive, but this is for the good of all of Panem” sort of thing. Madge Katniss was a hunter (and, probably, that Peeta had a crush on her); if anyone from District 12 could survive Hunger Games, it would have been Katniss. It was just the rebellion’s luck that Katniss ended up being a more effective Mockingjay than Madge could have ever been.

Peeta and his father are the Baker and his son from Into the Woods.
I'm going out on a limb here a bit, but it's WMG, it's allowed. The "Kingdom" that got destroyed was a secluded part of District Twelve, which was allowed to have it's little monarchy for sentimental reasons. After the Baker's wife died and he was left alone with his son, Cinderella, Little Red, and Jack, they wandered through the woods until they reached the Seam. Cinderella and Little Red went to live on their own when they got old enough, but Jack stayed with the Baker. The heartbroken Baker soon realized that he couldn't raise his young son Peeta on his own, so he married a woman with a young son of her own. She soon proved a bitter and cruel, jealous of the dead wife the Baker son clearly preferred. She took it out on Peeta, who after all wasn't her son, and doted on her own son. The brother that was too old to sacrifice himself for Peeta was Jack, and the other boy had grown up thinking being cruel to Peeta was acceptable.

Things would have played out about the same if Katniss hadn't volunteered as tribute.
Katniss would have told Peeta to kill Prim last and protect her with his life until then, Peeta would have played the "I'm in love with the other tribute's sister" card, and the rule change would have happened because the audience wouldn't have wanted Prim's "mystery sister" to hate Peeta when he gets back. In the end it would be Peeta who comes up with the double suicide plan.
 * Assuming both Prim and Peeta lived that long, which is unfortunately unlikely, I think it'd be more likely for him to kill himself, no joint-suicide plan. Anyway, I doubt either of them would have made it for more than a couple days.
 * You're probably right about Prim dying soon (I can't imagine Haymitch saying sober long enough to help her because she wasn't a fighter like Katniss, unless maybe she reminded him of Maysilee, but there were probably other girls from the merchant class that he mentored) but Peeta was still strong and good at camouflage. If he allied himself with the Careers he probably could have lived long enough to have one of them kill him in his sleep after they picked off the weaker tributes. Alternatively, he could have spent a good deal time at the plant identification station and gotten enough knowledge to feed himself like that (he would have stood a decent chance against the Careers in a confrontation) and, on the off chance Prim survived, find and defend/ally himself with her.

The people of Capitol are otakus.
From where else did they get the idea of colouring their hair with odd colours? Anime of course.

Brink took place sometime before/during the events of The Hunger Games.
Global Warming is one reason for natural disasters to occur which, along with wars, caused the world to go to shit. The Ark is somewhere out there when the sea level rose. Just like Panem, The Ark is a Shining City but heavily besieged by warring rebels and security forces. The Resistance also hoped to make contact with civilization on the mainlands. They eventually found Panem and decided to take refuge in it rather than continue fighting on The Ark. Unfortunately for them, the Districts are just as bland as the Guest Slums, the Capitol treats them like crap and some of their younger members gets chosen to fight in a Reality TV deathmatch. And all of that pissed them off, again. Naturally, they contributed to the rebellion. Revolution begins again (with a nice touch of Le Parkour)!
 * And probably some of The Security moved to Panem and became peacekeepers.

Not all of Panem is divided into districts.
If Panem is supposed to be the USA, there are clear divisions already, with some regions more likely to rebel and others aren't. And it's quite unlikely, if not completely impossible, for a single city and its surrounding suburbs to vanquish the rest of the country. So, a large swath of the country didn't rebel, and therefore were not divided into districts. The rebellious regions were reconquered and organised into the thirteen districts. Those regions that did not rebel were allowed to keep their original status, and are not required to send two tributes to the Hunger Games every year. In my headcanon, sixteen states and DC are part of the so-called 'Loyalist Regions:'
 * Hawaii
 * Utah
 * Arizona
 * Colorado
 * New Mexico
 * Oklahoma
 * Missouri
 * Illinois
 * Indiana
 * Michigan
 * Ohio
 * Pennsylvania
 * Maryland
 * Delaware
 * Virginia
 * Washington, DC
 * New York

Katniss set the net that entangled Rue.
Just think about it. The book mentions Katniss setting snares several times before she allied herself with Rue. It would make sense that she might use a larger trap she learned in training to capture bigger game. It would also provide another reason for Katniss to feel guilty about Rue's death.

An uprising was already brewing before the 74th Hunger Games.
Let's be honest, uprisings and rebellions never happen overnight. The whole deal with Katniss and Peeta only set things off. It's made very clear how most of the Districts are in such poor condition, always oppressed, close to dying of starvation, and almost no possibility of moving up in life. Another rebellion was bound to happen sooner or later. If the whole Katniss+Peeta thing didn't happen, something else would've set things off. Especially since a Quarter Quell was coming up, which are worse for the tributes than most of the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games occurs in the future after Fahrenheit 451.
451 ends with some kind of war beginning; despite losing a number of cities, America survived the war intact and at some point was reformed as Panem.

The new system of government at the end of the series will be based on the US Constitution.
Thirteen districts combining to create one of the most successful and long-lasting republics in the history of the continent? Too good a historical parallel to pass up. And they can also use that precedent to deny the Capitol voting rights.

The Hunger Games trilogy is set in the Bad Future of the DC Universe.
The Hunger Games universe is what would happen if the villains won and got rid of all the heroes. The crazy death traps in the arenas and used as defense for the Capitol are inspired by the Riddler. Tracker jackers were created by adding genes from the plant that provides the hallucinogenic component of Scarecrow's fear toxin. The jabberjays were probably Penguin's idea. The first war that initially destroyed so much humanity was between the heroes and villains, then between factions of villains.

Panem isn't the remains of all of North America.
It's the North Korea of a fairly prosperous world which has for the most part rebuilt itself, and occupies a fairly small area somewhere around Appalachia. Assertions that all of humanity has been reduced to a country of only a few million people is propaganda meant to discourage efforts to flee the repressive dystopia. Alternately, the districts are tiny city-states spread out across North America, and the train lines between them actually run across narrow strips of Panem land between other countries.