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** The first tribute Katniss sees die suddenly sprays blood onto her face while fighting with her over supplies, due to a sudden and terminal case of throwing-knife-in-back. Katniss herself narrowly avoids succumbing to the malady a few seconds later.
* [[Blood Knight]]: "Careers" are kids who train all their young lives to win glory in the Games, volunteering for them if they're not selected by lottery.
* [[Blood -Splattered Innocents]]: About thirty seconds into the 74th Hunger Games, the boy from District 9 coughs blood into Katniss' face after getting knifed by Clove.
* [[Blood -Splattered Wedding Dress]]: Invoked with Katniss's wedding dress: {{spoiler|instead of being spattered with blood, it lights itself on fire then turns into a mockingjay dress.}}
* [[Blue Eyes]]: Prim, Mrs. Everdeen, and Peeta. Implied to be a trait of the merchant class.
* [[Boomerang Comeback]]: This is how {{spoiler|Haymitch}} won his game. {{spoiler|He made it to the edge of the arena, where he discovered there was a force field that reflected back everything that was thrown at it. The other remaining competitor caught up with him, threw an axe, Haymitch ducked, the axe bounced back, and killed the thrower.}}
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** In the first book, {{spoiler|Katniss is blown back by the explosion she sets off destroying the Careers' supplies and is rendered completely deaf in her left ear. Unable to escape, she only survives by hiding right under their noses}}.
** In the Quarter Quell, {{spoiler|Katniss nearly kills herself breaking the force field over the arena}}.
* [[Brother -Sister Team]]: Gloss and Cashmere.
* [[The Brute]]: Cato, in the first book, and the aptly named Brutus in the second.
* [[Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage]]: The Capitol plans to do this to {{spoiler|Peeta and Katniss}}. This is later subverted in the end of the third book, where {{spoiler|they voluntarily decide to marry}}.
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* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: The arena of the second Quarter Quell (Haymitch's) is this. At first glance it's the "most breathtaking place imaginable." There're blue skies, puffy white clouds, songbirds flying by, [[Cool Clear Water|crystalline streams]], luscious fruit, gorgeous flowers, butterflies, etc. Then everyone realizes [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything]] is [[Death World|deadly poisonous]]. And the [[Killer Rabbit|fluffy, golden squirrels are carnivorous]].
* [[Crapsack World]]: Most of the districts are horrible places to live. The people are poor, starving, and oppressed while those in the Capitol live outrageously decadent lives but are also extremely closely watched and more likely to be punished or even executed for speaking out. And that's even without mentioning the eponymous [[Deadly Game]].
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]:
** Haymitch Abernathy seems like a useless drunk, but he did actually win a Hunger Game after all. In ''Catching Fire,'' we learn that Haymitch survived his Games using extreme cunning. {{spoiler|We also learn that he's a member of the underground resistance.}}
** Johanna Mason famously exploited this trope to win the games, appearing to be helpless when she is actually a ruthless killer.
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* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Katniss passes over it in a matter of paragraphs {{spoiler|at the end of ''Catching Fire''.}} And the rest of the series from there consists of [[It Got Worse|it getting worse]].
* [[Defictionalization]]: You can actually buy mockingjay pins. Interesting, because the citizens of the Capitol displayed this exact behavior in ''Catching Fire''.
* [[Did Mom Just Have Tea With Cthulhu?]]: At the beginning of ''Catching Fire'', the president drops by for a terrifying "chat" with {{spoiler|Katniss, during which he threatens to kill her whole family if she doesn't conduct herself properly on the Victory Tour. (Katniss's mother isn't present for this part of the conversation, but she does drop in to serve them tea. Katniss then has to conceal the conversation from her mother, telling her the president was just wishing her luck.)}}
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Katniss and Prim's father died in the mines a few years before the book begins. Gale's father also died in the same accident. It's concealed in somewhat of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but Haymitch's father might have been this as well. Haymitch has told Katniss that {{spoiler|President Snow had his mother, baby brother, and girlfriend killed as punishment for making the Capitol look bad in the arena,}} but a father is never mentioned.
* [[Disposable Woman]]: {{spoiler|Rue}} in the first book. In the others, {{spoiler|Prim. For someone driving the plot of the first book, she}} gets almost no screentime and dies to instigate the ending.
* [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]]: The Hunger Games are hateful, deplorable, they ruin their victors psychologically, and the series as a whole is viciously anti-war... but a major part of the story's appeal is the actual excitement of the Hunger Games sequences... ''For both the Capitol and the readers!''
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]:
** In District 11, the dark-skinned population is forced to farm and are treated with particular brutality. This sounds a lot like slavery in the American South.
** Panem and {{spoiler|District 13}} are nuclear powers locked in a stalemate. Panem is decadent, wealthy, and corrupt. Its citizens enjoy outrageous luxury while they exploit the surrounding communities to feed their enormous appetites. {{spoiler|District 13}}, on the other hand, is a dull and drab place, ruled by an a totalitarian regime that regiments every aspect of its citizens' lives. That's pretty much how the US and the USSR portrayed each other during the Cold War.
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** Gale maintains a surprising harem in the fandom for someone who was a tertiary character for the first book.
** Also, Finnick, both in-universe, and out.
* [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Monkeys]]: Inverted. A group of deadly monkey muttations show up in the arena in ''Catching Fire.''
* [[EverythingsEverything's Worse With Bees]]: Tracker jacker wasps.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]:
** The gamemakers frown on certain behaviors in the Hunger Games, but moreso because it will draw a poor reaction from the audience rather than out of moral disdain. They will not tolerate cannibalism, nor will they allow a psychopath to become a victor (unless they can be charming about it, as the Career Tributes tend to be somewhat... [[Ax Crazy]]).
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** Arshad's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRSvoKoU3kk Girl on Fire]" could count as well. He wrote the song after reading the book and being inspired by the character Peeta. He submitted it as a potential track for the movie soundtrack, but it wasn't selected.
* [[Film of the Book]]
* [[Fire -Forged Friends]]: Katniss and {{spoiler|Johanna}}.
* [[First Kiss]]: Katniss has hers with Peeta. All she feels is that his lips are very warm, because he has a fever.
* [[Five -Bad Band]]: The Career tributes from the 74th Games.
** [[The Big Bad]]: Cato
** [[The Dragon]]: Clove
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** [[The Dark Chick]]: Glimmer
** [[Sixth Ranger Traitor]]: {{spoiler|Peeta, but mostly as [[The Load]].}}
* [[Five -Man Band]]: One of these forms during the Quarter Quell:
** [[The Hero]]: {{spoiler|Katniss}}
** [[The Lancer]]: {{spoiler|Finnick}}
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* [[Gladiator Revolt]]: The series, especially the third book, could be seen as a post-apocalyptic version of this, with {{spoiler|Katniss and other Hunger Games winners becoming major figures in the rebellion.}}
* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Peeta is kind and patient and {{spoiler|totally kills people in the arena, including finishing off one girl in cold blood while he's in the Career pack}}, besides being three steps ahead when it comes to manipulating the on-camera narrative.
* [[Good Scars, Evil Scars]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in ''Mockingjay'', when {{spoiler|Katniss}} has her uglier scars surgically cleaned up, but is left with some more attractive scars, because she's got to have ''some'' scars to show how bravely she's been fighting. Averted in the end, however, when {{spoiler|she gets ugly skin grafts, and there's no attempt to blend them because District 13 has no more need of her}}.
* [[The Good the Bad And The Evil]] / [[Black and Gray Morality]]: {{spoiler|District 13 is just as full of assholes as the Capitol.}} The conflict really boils down to some truly horrible people who happen to be in power and all the innocents who get caught in-between. [[Crapsack World]] indeed.
* [[Gorn]]: How the Capitol citizens view the Hunger Games. In-universe only, hopefully.
* [[Gotta Kill Them All]]: Throughout the Hunger Games, Katniss quite literally counts the number of remaining contestants on her fingers and toes. {{spoiler|Although she only personally kills two or three in the end.}}
* [[The Government]]
* [[G -Rated Sex]]: The act is alluded to at the end of ''Mockingjay'', then skipped over to a brief conversation between the characters afterward.
* [[Gray Eyes]]: Apparently fairly common in the Seam, including Katniss and Gale.
* [[Great Offscreen War]]:
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** Most of the fighting in the revolution is also off-screen, up until Katniss gets directly involved in District 2.
** Even then, the majority of the rebellion is off-screen, with the individual Districts' revolts (sans Two and Eight) and even {{spoiler|the final capture of Snow}} being done away from Katniss and therefore the reader. It helps to emphasize the fact that Katniss is only a tool in the war, not a soldier and certainly not a major player.
* [[Green -Eyed Monster]]: Gale tries damned hard not to like Peeta.
* [[Guys Smash Girls Shoot]]: In the first book:
** On the female side, Clove uses [[Knife Nut|throwing knives]], Glimmer and Katniss use a [[The Archer|bow]], and Rue uses a [[Brats With Slingshots|slingshot]].
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** Haymitch, pretty much all the time.
* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: Katniss is surprised at how handsome Haymitch used to be.
* [[I Will Only Slow YoudownYou Down]]: {{spoiler|Mags}}.
* [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure]]:
** Snow's favorite tactic.
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* [[It Meant Something to Me]]: {{spoiler|Peeta to Katniss}} at the end of the first book.
* [[It Was a Gift]]: Katniss' Mockingjay pin.
* [[ItsIt's All About Me]]: For whom is the Quarter Quell a real ordeal?
* [[ItsIt's Personal]]: Between Katniss and Snow.
* [[Just Friends]]: Katniss and Gale.
* [[Karmic Death]]: Marvel got an arrow in his neck from Katniss {{spoiler|as revenge for killing Rue.}}
* [[Kill 'Em All]]: The Games are to end with one person left standing. {{spoiler|Both the 74th and 75th end a little differently.}}
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: You never know who will stay alive in the arena until the very end.
* [[Kissing Cousins]]: Gale pretends to be Katniss's cousin to explain his close relationship with her when Peeta is supposed to be her lover.
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** Katniss gets lit on fire five times: thrice in the name of fashion and twice in combat situations. There is a reason they call her ''The Girl Who Was On Fire''.
** Peeta also gets singed {{spoiler|at the very end, when he was presumably following Katniss.}}
* [[Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy]]: Peeta is the male version of [[Feminine Women Can Cook]] and Katniss is the female version of [[Manly Men Can Hunt]].
* [[Meaningful Name]]:
** Katniss is a real plant. Its common name? "Arrowhead". And its scientific name is ''Sagittaria,'' which is a transparent reference to [[Western Zodiac|the Zodiac sign Sagittarius,]] a fire sign whose symbol is an archer.
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* [[Named After Somebody Famous]]: People from the Capitol are often named after Ancient Roman historical figures: Cinna, Caesar (Flickerman), Seneca (Crane), Coriolanus (Snow), Claudius (Templesmith), etc.
* [[Neck Snap]]: Cato to {{spoiler|the boy from District 3}}.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:
** Katniss' main goal through the second book is to find a way to trick Snow into believing she's in love with Peeta. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, she does convince him (and just about everyone else), and therefore manages to give him the leverage to break her during ''Mockingjay''.}}
** One can say that the entire series is this. {{spoiler|Prim dies anyway, which was what the instigation of the plot of the first book was trying to prevent.}}
* [[Nightmare Fuel StationattendantStation Attendant]]: President Snow and the Gamemakers.
* [[Nightmare Sequence]]: Katniss's dreams are usually a horrifying mishmash of bad memories and fear-gripped imagination, like everyone getting their tongues cut out or all her loved ones screaming in agony.
* [[Nobody Poops]]: Bears may shit in woods but tributes, apparently, do not. It wouldn't be so noticeable, except that Collins takes pains to make everything about the Hunger Games and the horrors of the arena seem dirty and uncomfortable and horrible, so in the first book at least it's a glaring omission. They do, however, urinate. Possible justification: if you're exercising a lot (say, fighting in an arena) and not getting much to eat (say, fighting in an arena), your body makes use of more of the food you eat. But you'd think Katniss would've noticed the ''lack'' of... [[MST3K Mantra|Well, whatever.]]
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* [[No Name Given]]: Katniss never learns the names of most of the tributes. She doesn't find out until well after the games are over that the boy from District 1 was named Marvel, even though {{spoiler|she was the one who killed him}}.
* [[Not So Different]]: {{spoiler|Presidents Coin and Snow.}}
* [[Non -Action Guy]]: Peeta, whose sole moment of badassery is so early on in the games that it's easily outshined by his persistent habit of being [[The Load]].
* [[Non -Action Big Bad]]: President Snow.
* [[No Periods Period]]: Either the books take places very strategically to avoid this problem or Collins simply overlooked it. Even when Katniss becomes well fed and {{spoiler|goes to war in a squad with multiple women}} it's never an issue. and See also: [[Nobody Poops]].
* [[Not in This For Your Revolution]]: It takes Katniss a long time to decide to actively help the revolutionaries instead of just looking out for her own survival.
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** Gale is also the primary provider for his family after his father's death; his mother helps as best she can, but she's only able to bring in a pittance doing laundry.
* [[Prongs of Poseidon]]: Since he's from the fishing district, Finnick is dangerously adept with a trident.
* [[Protagonist -Centered Morality]]: Pretty thoroughly.
** With regard to clothing, it starts with Katniss looking down at the shallow, appearance-centered Panemites but then squealing in delight when Cinna makes her look pretty, and continues from there. Earlier she complains in her inner monologue that Madge's pin could feed a starving family for months, but later when she's given a dress covered in jewels, she makes no similar protest, the narrative instead expressing her awe at how amazing she looks in it.
** Early in ''Catching Fire'', Katniss complains about the Capitol needlessly wasting food. She seems to have forgotten the scene in the previous book where she throws out the cookies Peeta's father gave her.
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* [[Scary Black Man]]: Thresh.
* [[Schizo Tech]]: Justified in that the Capitol deliberately suppresses technology in the Districts, especially weapons tech.
* [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|Screw The Rules We Make Them]]: The Gamemakers.
* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Peeta (sensitive) vs. Gale (manly).
* [[Sex Slave]]: In book 3, according to {{spoiler|Finnick, this happens to a lot of victors}}, himself included.
* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: The story begins in the first book with Katniss sacrificing herself to save Prim's life. {{spoiler|Prim dies at the end of the third book.}}
* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: The fandom seems to be split on who this applies to. Gale is either truly the other half of the [[Official Couple]], or he's a [[Romantic False Lead|Paolo]]. Similarly, Peeta is either a cunning yet rather hopeless romantic, or a total idiot. [[Take a Third Option|Of course, there are also those who think this applies to both characters.]]
* [[Shell -Shocked Veteran]]: All of the Victors have some form of PTSD.
* {{spoiler|[[Ship Sinking]]}}: In the third book, Katniss and Gale's relationship is increasingly strained, especially after {{spoiler|the battle in District 2}}. They may have been able to work past that, but it's when they realize that {{spoiler|Gale made the bombs that killed Prim (not to mention horribly scarring Peeta and Katniss) that puts the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. Possibly for both of them, since Gale didn't seem to upset about losing her.}}
* [[Shoot the Hostage]]: {{spoiler|President Coin orders a bombing attack on children being used as human shields by President Snow - and makes it appear that the attack was initiated by Snow, in order to destroy any remaining public support for Snow's regime.}}
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* [[Shout Out to Shakespeare]]: Lavinia, who has no tongue, is a reference to ''[[Titus Andronicus (Theatre)|Titus Andronicus]]''. Titus is also name-dropped, a Tribute who goes cannibal in the games.
* [[Shut Up Kiss]]: Katniss does this to Peeta in the cave when he attempts to give her an [[If I Do Not Return]] speech. He shuts up.
* [[Sibling Yin -Yang]]: Katniss and Prim
* [[Simulated Urban Combat Area]]
* [[Single Target Sexuality]]: Peeta towards Katniss. He fell in love with her when he was 5 and never fell out of love. {{spoiler|Except of course for the brief time while he was hijacked, and even then it seems that a part of him still loved her.}}
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* [[Strange Salute]]: When Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place, the entire crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hands to their lips, and then holds it out to her. Katniss explains that it's an old District 12 gesture that means thanks, admiration, and goodbye to someone you love. {{spoiler|It becomes a little more meaningful later on.}}
* [[Stunned Silence]]: The first response to Katniss' exchange.
* [[Star -Crossed Lovers]]: Peeta and Katniss pretend to be this to garner sympathy. {{spoiler|They eventually do become real lovers, but get out of everything alive, so their stars were not crossed.}}
* [[Super Doc]]: Outside the poorer districts, medicine is ''far'' in advance of our own time.
* [[Super Happy Fun Trope of Doom]]: The role of the Peacekeepers isn't as sweet as it sounds. (Bit like in [[Real Life]], then?) Pretty much everything surrounding the Games is treated as fun and entertaining; being a "tribute" is an ''honor.''
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* [[Take That]]: In universe, the mockingjay becomes an increasingly unsubtle one of these towards the Capitol.
* [[Taking the Bullet]]: During the Quarter Quell, {{spoiler|one of the morphlings is killed by an attack from a vicious monkey that was meant for Peeta}}.
* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]]: Gale.
* [[Taking You With Me]]: Book 1: {{spoiler|Cato threatens to take Peeta with him into the jaws of the Muttations if Katniss shoots him with her arrows.}}
* [[A Taste of the Lash]]: {{spoiler|Gale}} in Catching Fire
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* [[Water Wakeup]]: When Haymitch is in a stupor, only this will rouse him.
* [[Weapons Kitchen Sink]]: Inevitable, given the fact that the Capitol just spreads them around in the Arena and hopes for a sloppy death scenario to increase the "entertainment" value. There's a [[Crosses the Line Twice|blackly-comic]] aside in Book 1 where Katniss mentions how one year the only weapons provided were horribly awkward maces.
* [[What Does She See in Him?|What Do They See In Her]]: It's a bit hard to believe that a girl who is mentally unstable, is [[The Stoic]], rarely shows compassion except in extreme circumstances, and only shows love to her little sister or a surrogate of her would be such a catch. Especially considering that there doesn't seem to be any real basis for a relationship with either [[Love Interest]]; Peeta's love came from a childhood crush from watching her sing, while her relationship with Gale seems to come from more of a familiarity and common interests (that of 'survival' and 'hunting') than genuine friendship. Although they are teenagers, and both of them seem to be catching onto her flaws by the third book. Oddly enough, the [[Love Triangle]] seems to be resolved because Katniss realizes that {{spoiler|she can't love Gale after being partially responsible for her sister's death rather than realizing that she does love Peeta}}.
* [[Wham Line]]:
** The very first chapter of ''The Hunger Games'': {{spoiler|"It's Primrose Everdeen."}}
** Chapters have a tendency to end with these, such as, {{spoiler|"Katniss, there is no District 12."}}
** Or how about {{spoiler|"And then the second round of parachutes goes off."}}
** In-universe, Peeta is the acknowledged master of the [[Wham Line]], particularly when onstage with Caesar Flickerman. In the first book he sets up the [[Star -Crossed Lovers]] thing, and in the second he manages an even bigger one: {{spoiler|He claims he and Katniss are having a baby.}}
* [[What Happened to The Mouse?]]:
** We never learn ''why'' Cinna requested District 12 (as he says he did in book 1) and we never find out if Portia did the same. We also have no clue why he doesn't have the Capitol accent or the Capitol sense of style, despite that not making much sense if he's a fashion designer who's lived in the Capitol for his entire life. However, there is a theory stating that his mother had an affair with a Victor, perhaps from District 12, although that would kind of complicate things rather than resolve them. On the other hand, we never learn what happened to the other Victor from 12 apart from Haymitch and whether that one came before him or after.
** In book 2, Johanna says everyone she loves is dead. Elaboration? Explanation? Don't count on it. There's a popular guess in fanon, though.
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* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Katniss sees Peeta as [[The Heart]]}} and thinks his power to love is much better than her ability to kill things.
* [[When the Clock Strikes Twelve]]: [[Race Against the Clock|Given the nature of the arena used by the Quarter Quell.]]
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: The Districts have a few geographical clues but otherwise the readers don't really learn where they are. [http://aimmyarrowshigh.livejournal.com/32461.html That didn't stop people from trying to map it, though.]
* [[White Knighting]]: Gale subtly blames Katniss of being a female version. The only way for a man to get noticed by her is to suffer so terribly that she feels obliged to tend and care for them.
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: Tough-as-nails {{spoiler|Johanna Mason}} is undone by water... because when she was a prisoner of the Capitol, they soaked her and then electrocuted her as part of her torture.
* [[Will Not Be a Victim]]: Invoked and then exploited. It's how {{spoiler|Johanna}} won her Hunger Games.
* [[The Worf Effect]]: {{spoiler|Cato taking out Thresh}} in Book 1.
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