Welcome to the District 6 stop on The Panem Companion Victory Tour! We’re celebrating the upcoming release of V. Arrow and Smart Pop Books‘ super detailed tour de force of all things Hunger Games, The Panem Companion!
Each fansite on the Victory Tour represents one district of Panem and we’re here to give you an exclusive excerpt from what V. Arrow has identified as the Pharmaceutical district! Is anyone really surprised that we’re all pills and cannibalism?
District 6 – Excerpt from The Panem Companion by V. Arrow
“What did District 6 do if not manufacture medicine? Did its skilled workers migrate to District 12? Or did districts become responsible for producing more of their goods locally, returning to a system more akin to the one North America knew before the world wars? How did all of the various district cultures intermingle in the years after the war?”
Panem Names glossary excerpt:
Titus, District 6 Tribute who “went crazy” in the arena and resorted to cannibalism in a previous Hunger Games
“The name Titus is most likely taken from Emperor Titus. It was during Titus’ short reign that the Coliseum—the stadium for gladiatorial games—was completed; the inaugural games lasted for a hundred days and were said to be extremely elaborate, including gladiatorial combat, fights between wild animals (including elephants and cranes), mock naval battles for which the theater was flooded, horse races, and chariot races. Titus died shortly after the inaugural games’ end.”
Check out our book review of the Panem Companion here! The book goes on sale tomorrow and you can order it here!
GIVEAWAY ALERT! Smart Pop Books has been kind enough to give us ONE COPY of The Panem Companion to give away to a lucky fan! To enter, all you have to do is comment on this post with your favorite crazy theory about The Hunger Games by 11:59pm PST on Friday, December 7!
We’ll choose the winner through random drawing. Remember to use a valid email address so we can contact you.
Want to give or receive some more fabulous Hunger Games swag this holiday season? Check out the Smart Pop Hunger Games Holiday Gift Guide!
Victor's Village 
Titus is more likely a reference to Shakespeare’s play Titus Andronicus, which features canibalism. All the more likely since Collins probably took the name Lavinia from that play, too – Shakespeare’s Lavinia certainly had things in common with THG Lavinia!…
*SPOILER*
Lavinia is raped and mutilated – her hands are cut off and her tongue is cut out. The canibalism in the play isn’t voluntary though – it’s a character tricking another into eating a pie containing the flesh of their child.
That’s mentioned in the book, too…. not sure why the website cropped the selection like this!!
And Lavinia’s name goes on for a while and explains her story, too. Read before criticising!
Elle– we didn’t crop the selection. This was the exact selection sent to us by Smart Pop Books. It would be illegal for us to post more than what they’ve approved, so it was their choice not to include the Shakespeare references on Titus here. *shrug*
Peeta’s other brothers are also named for bread: Ciabatta and Challah.
yeah ok
there’s a difference between looking at what’s in the hunger games
and being a moron
It’s a joke, silly anonymous troll (who is really not anonymous because your icon is the same as all your other comments because the IP addresses match but heyyyyy)!
A sense of humor. Get one.
I think my fav crazy theory that I have thought about is About President Snow. I think that considering Panem had been arond from such a long period of time and the hunger games have been in effect for 5 years I think its safe to say that president snow has not been president alll of those 75 years. I think that there is a strong possibility that in fact President snow could have grown up in a district say District 2, who is known to supply peacekeepers. I think that there is a great possibility that President Snow Had a family memenber possibly his father who had a government related job into which caused them to move to the capitol. I think alot of President Snows emotional pain and hate towards the district could be because of abandoment issues, considering that if his father would have worked in the capitol he problly would have not been around alot. I think that president snow could have followed in his fathers foot steps and took a role in the government or maybe through blood ties or depending on what his fathers job was or event the possibility that his father was president before him President Snow eventually beca,e President. Ok now I Understand that, that while scenerio is probally really unlikely but we were never givin President snows background story and after collecting the little bits of info we were givin I think its a pretty good educated guess.
Oh I also Have one more theory President Snow and President Coin are siblings and thats why the have such a hate for each other my guess is thta President snow was more favored by their parents then President Coin.
I don’t have any crackpot theories to add, just wanted to express agreement with timetravelingbunny that Titus Andronicus is the more likely source for the name of the cannibal. Though it’s possible SC took inspiration from both sources. Also agree with the theory of where Lavinia’s name came from.
I think we need to realize that, at the end of the day, this book is an UNOFFICIAL guide to the series, written by ONE person. (Also, it is not meant to be compliant with the movieverse, hence why the District locations and industries, are different than the ones in the movie companion books and websites).
I’ve been following the Tour around other fansites, and it seems some people are all like, “Ohhh now I get to find out everything I wanted to know about Panem!” as if book is meant to be the final word on all things Panem, and it’s not. Not even the author claims that.
The book mentions LAvinia’s story! Not sure why timetravelbunny brought it up here like V is wrong…
and yup, it doesn’t go with the movie canon, and the intro to the book makes that pretty d**n clear! 🙂
Uh, maybe timetravelingbunny brought it up because she hasn’t read the book yet, and therefore didn’t know that info was there? I don’t think either of us are saying that “V is wrong” or bashing her book. However, this is an UNOFFICIAL companion book. I’ve read the parts of the intro posted on-line, and V acknowledges that she’s not trying to say her theories are reflecting what SC intended.
Now, I can’t speak for TTB, but personally, I am a little disturbed that some fans are taking what’s in the book as the Final Word on all things Panem, as if V getting her theories published means they’re all golden, and that the rest of us can all turn off our brains now. For example, neither me or TTB back V’s theory about who Prim’s biological father is, and TTB can provide a LOT of genetics info to rebut that. Doesn’t make either of us “wrong”.
I brought it up because the subject has been brought up in the quote and the quote didn’t mention Titus Andronicus. It wasn’t meant as a criticism of the book since I haven’t read it.
Mr. Everdeen and Mr. Hawthorne were actually rebels who were planning to overthrow the Capitol but the Capitol found out. And, tthe Capitol caused the “accidental” mine explosion to prevent a rebellion
My favourite crackpot theory is that Foxface was -smart enough- to commit suicide in the 74th Hunger Games. Even though it had been an unintentionally clever trick by Katniss and Peeta, I’d like to think Foxface realised and accepted the odds weren’t in her favour for amy longer. So the berries.
I’m partial to the theory that Suzanne Collins is really Madge Undersee. Time travel!
Thank you so much, Victor’s Village crew! I really, really appreciate all of your support, and I hope you enjoyed the book!
Cato had been helping Katniss throughout the book by protecting Peeta and trying to contain her by injuring Peeta so that she would have to care for him instead of doing something foolhardy and attacking the career pack.
Hmm my crazy theory is that Katniss’ father is really Haymitch, though she never knew for certain. She was brought up by her father after a sordid affair of her mother’s at a young age… Only to learn her “father’s” good qualities like singing etc because Haymitch was such a dunkard. Out of pity, her father raised Katniss as his own, taught her to hunt, and to sing- but those songs of rebellion and discontent were in honor of her biological father, Haymitch.
I love the foxface suicide theory! She was one of the smartest if not the smartest tribute, surley she would have know what nightlock was? So she knew that only the big stronger players who had specialiesed weapon skills, and because she wasn’t able to wield a weapon she killed herself simply instead of having a gruesome death that would have otherwise been promised. May the odds be ever in my favour! Thankyou!
My theory would be that buttercup is almost like a cockroach in the future! And cats in general at that time hardly ever died, he can live through anything!
I think my favorite is that Suzanne Collins is actually Madge Undersee. She didn’t die during the bombings, but escaped to D13 and used their technology to travel to our time and used Suzanne Collins as a fake identity to prevent the Hunger Games from ever happening. 😉
My favourite theory is one that is addressed in the book “the curious case of Primrose Everdeen.” For some reason when I first heard about it all the tidbits of information about genes (e.g. recessive genes of blonde hair) from year 12 biology came back to me and really got me thinking.
I haven’t read the book, could you please tell me what the author based this theory on? If it’s just on genetics and the recessive genes, these are misconceptions about genetics. It doesn’t work like that. Blue eye gene being recessive doesn’t mean that, say, a parent with blue eyes + a parent with brown (grey, green) eyes = a child with brown (grey, green) eyes, as many people seem to think. While the parent with blue eyes can be assumed to have two blue eye genes, the parent with brown (green, grey) eyes may have a recessive blue eye gene, which makes it quite likely that the child will have blue eyes. (In fact, it’s not unusual or surprising if two grey eyed or brown eyed parents have a blue eyed child, if they both have recessive blue eye genes.) In this case, Mr Everdeen simply had a grey eyed and a blue eyed gene, as did, probably, many other people from the Seam. I’m choosing to talk about the eye color since hair color is more complicated and determined by multiple genes. But widespread misconceptions about genetics seem to be responsible for things like the “Blondes will go extinct” hoax. Real life is full of examples – see Boris Becker’s children and their mothers: http://mulatresmetis.xooit.com/t281-Barbara-et-Boris-Becker.htm
I am really curious if there is anything but bad genetics that this theory is based on. The books make it clear that Mr Mellark’s love for Mrs Everdeen was unrequited, and that she was madly in love with her husband and never got over his death, which make this theory very unlikely. And I don’t see anything in the books to point at it. At no point in any of the books does anyone ever say that Prim and Peeta look alike, or that Prim looks like Mr Mellark, other than having blue eyes and blonde hair, which is hardly unique and which they share with most of the people from the town – including Prim’s own mother. Surely, if Collins intended those two to look alike, Katniss or someone else would’ve noticed it, the way that people, including Katniss, notice that Katniss and Gale look alike. (Funny thing is, there would be stronger evidence for Gale and Katniss being half-siblings, than Peeta and Prim, but I don’t see that crackpot theory anywhere. Wonder why that is.. 😉 )
Hey TTB, if you go to affiliate site Welcome to District 12 site, there is a quote from the book about this theory. Part of it reads “Is blonde-haired, blue-eyed Prim really the “passes”-for-merchant biracial daughter of darkhaired Mr. Everdeen? Or should Prim really be Primrose Mellark? There are staunch supporters on both sides of the issue . . .
As I mentioned on another site, this theory really seems to reflect a race-based view of society that is common in the US. V has stated before (on other sites) that she sees the Seam inhabitants as representing a completely different race from the merchants (though I disagree with this because Katniss never says that ALL Seam inhabitants look like her and Gale, nor does she say ALL merchants have blue eyes and blond hair).
I think people tend to assume that if someone from a dark-skinned race or ethnic group has a child with a lighter-skinned person, then the child’s skin color is going to be, more or less, halfway inbetween the skin colors of the parents, but that it’s impossible for them to be light-skinned or “look white”. (Though “olive skin” is actually NOT confined to “people of color” but can be found in other Mediterranian ethnic groups that are considered “white”.) And even if Seam and Merchant are different races, the idea that it’s impossible for Mr. Everdeen to have fathered Prim, is a very simplistic view of race and genetics that can be contradicted by examples such as the ones you have of the “white” Becker’s kids with “biracial” mothers.
The quote also says: “Some of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Prim’s potential Mellark lineage come from the subtle ways that the Mellarks have become integral to the Everdeens’ family life and the similarities between Prim and the Mellark men.”
Personally, I don’t find it compelling at all. I really don’t find Prim to be that similar to Peeta in personality; they are both compassionate, but Peeta’s sense of humor and deceptive nature is quite different. As for Prim and Mr. Mellark; actually, if this theory is true, it means he let his biological daughter almost starve to death without lifting a finger to help her. That’s far from compassionate, that’s him being the kind of deadbeat dad that would, in modern society at least, be hauled into court. I can’t see Prim ever acting that way. So the theory that “Mr. Mellark is Prim’s dad because they have similar personalities” actually self-refutes itself.
PS to my last post: Now, I guess you could argue that since Prim is a girl, she would never be put in that situation of having a biological child being raised by others, but let’s say she had a child she gave up for adoption when she was poor. And that she later becomes much better off than the adoptive family, who wind up destitute and starving. I doubt that Prim, who dies trying to help children of the “enemy” Capitol, would let her OWN child starve. Even if she was married to an abusive spouse the way Mr. Mellark is, she would take risks to help the kid. Is the theory possible? Sure, much as like the “foxface killed herself” theory is possible, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near canon.
“As for Prim and Mr. Mellark; actually, if this theory is true, it means he let his biological daughter almost starve to death without lifting a finger to help her. That’s far from compassionate, that’s him being the kind of deadbeat dad that would, in modern society at least, be hauled into court. I can’t see Prim ever acting that way. So the theory that “Mr. Mellark is Prim’s dad because they have similar personalities” actually self-refutes itself.”
That’s a great point.
I’m with you on Prim and Peeta not being that incredibly similar in personality; sure, there are similarities, but there are also significant differences that you point out. Prim doesn’t seem all that similar to Mr. Mellark, either. One of the first things we learn from Katniss’ narration is that “The baker’s not a very talkative man in the best of times, and today he has no words at all.” A trait that, ironically, links him with Katniss, and probably Mrs Everdeen as well, more than with Prim, who doesn’t seem to have that problem, and as we see in Mockingjay, knows how to find the right words to confort Katniss or to make suggestions to Peeta’s team of doctors. So, another trait that could be used to link Prim to Peeta is a trait that Mr. Mellark doesn’t share. Furthermore, though Mr. Mellark seems to be a nice man, he also seems docile and unable to stand up to his wife, to the point that he was either too oblivious or too passive to stop the abuse of his own son. On the other hand, Katniss believes that Prim has the same willigness to fight for what she cares about that she, Katniss, does, and Prim’s actions in Mockingjay seem to confirm that.
Granted, none of this proves that Mr. Mellark can’t be Prim’s biological father, since those differences also exist between him and Peeta, but the burden of proof is on the claim that he *is* her father based on their personalities. Katniss furthermore thinks that Prim’s personality is similar to Mr. Everdeen’s in some ways, i.e. that he has his “level head”.
Furthermore, the idea that Prim and Peeta must be related or that she must have a biological link to the Mellark family because she’s compassionate or nice would imply that Mr. Everdeen was not compassionate and not nice, and there is nothing to suggest that. It’s not even fair, since, as a poor coal-miner and part-time hunter from the Seam, I don’t know how many opportunities he would have to share with others, and for all we know, he might have at times; it’s not like Mr. Mellark is known throughout the district for giving away free bread and cookies to everyone. (If you asked Gale, he didn’t have a high opinion of Peeta’s family, since he assumed they would inform the Peacemakers if they knew about the plan to escape into the woods, which is probably just a sign of Gale’s prejudice towards the people from the town, and he probably doesn’t even know the Mellarks that well – but it suggests that it’s not like Mr. Mellark was universally known in the Seam for his kind acts.) I also happen to think that Katniss, while not “nice”, is a compassionate person, even though others may disagree (I’m looking forward to the next part of your Katniss essay). And as for Mrs. Everdeen, I would dare to suggest that the fact that she’s chosen the work of a healer may suggest that she likes helping people (and perhaps finds it the only way to do that, since she’s really not someone apt to give emotional support; we see her in MJ dealing with her grief by burrying herself in her work, and physically healing people is the one thing she does well.
I don’t really see those ways that the Mellarks have supposedly become integral to the Everdeens’ family life. This is something that could be said of Gale and his family – one of the reasons why it was so easy to sell the lie that Gale and Katniss are cousins may be because they really often act like family, Katniss entrusts Gale with taking care of her family and there’s a cousin-like degree of closeness with Hazelle and the kids – but not even Peeta ever got so close with Prim and Mrs. Everdeen, while Mr. Mellark doesn’t socialize with the Everdeens at all (obviously, it’s something his wife wouldn’t approve of), and Peeta’s two elder brothers have nothing to do with them. Sure, Mr. Mellark has been buying Katniss’ squirrels, but by the same token, he’s as integral to their family life as Greasy Sae, the Mayor’s family, some of the Peacekeepers and a bunch of other people from 12.
does well.)
There idea
I wish there was an edit button on this blog. Does anyone else have trouble writing their replies, since the text is not showing in full until you post it? I constantly have to write them in Notepad and then copy paste them, but it doesn’t always work that well.