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An arena is a large, enclosed, outdoor area where the Hunger Games were held each year. Arenas were designed by the Gamemakers and a new one was built every year. It could be anything from dense forest to an open meadow, or a frozen wasteland to a scorched desert. The Gamemakers planted traps and introduced cunning twists to entertain the people of Panem.

The arenas were considered important historical landmarks and were preserved after the conclusion of each year's competition. They were also popular tourist destinations for many Capitol citizens, where they would be able to rewatch the Games, visit the sites of tributes' deaths, and even take part in reenactments.[1] After the end of the Second Rebellion, all the arenas were destroyed, and memorials were constructed in their place.[2]

Key features[]

Gamemaker control[]

Most arenas were seemingly natural environments that were actually under strict control by the Gamemakers. They could remotely trigger traps to herd tributes towards one another, unleash vicious muttations upon them, and manipulate the weather conditions, such as temperature and precipitation. In the films, they could even artificially simulate different times of day.[3][4]

Arenas were enclosed by dome-shaped[5] force fields.[6][3][7][4] Capitol hovercraft were able to come and go through them to extract tributes' remains, and a cloaked hovercraft carrying a huge screen displayed the nightly tally of the dead during the anthem.[8] In the films, the dead tributes' images were instead projected against a false sky.[3][4]

Catacombs[]

Underneath each arena was a series of catacombs that held the tributes' Launch Rooms, known to the districts as the Stockyard.[1] Muttations likely entered and exited the arena via the catacombs as well.[9] Inside their individual Launch Rooms, tributes changed into their arena wear and stepped onto metal platforms that lifted them into the arena.[1]

Cornucopia[]

Once in the arena, tributes would find themselves arranged in a circle around the Cornucopia. This provided tributes with weapons, food, survival gear, and other useful supplies, if they went in and fought for it at the bloodbath. However, tributes had to remain in place for a sixty-second countdown before the Games could begin, or else they would be blown up by landmines around their platforms.[8]

Major arenas[]

1st through 10th Hunger Games[]

Main article: Capitol Arena

Up until at least the 10th Hunger Games, the Hunger Games were hosted in the same location: a dilapidated amphitheater that had been used for sporting, entertainment, and military events prior to the Dark Days, but fell into disrepair afterwards.[10] Tributes were simply thrown into the arena and left to fight. Since there was no cover, the Hunger Games tended to proceed quickly. Things changed in the 10th Hunger Games when a bombing of the arena opened up access to various tunnels,[11] resulting in a number of new strategies. Brightly colored snake mutts were released into the arena on the fourth day.[12]


50th Hunger Games / Second Quarter Quell[]

The 50th Hunger Games arena was a big, beautiful meadow, with flowers, streams, pools, birds and a picturesque mountain and sharp, jagged rocks. But everything was lethal. The tributes of these Games had to face stinging butterflies; fluffy, golden squirrels which were in fact carnivorous; the picturesque mountain that was actually a volcano; flowers that poisoned someone if inhaled too directly; pink birds with skewer-like beaks that killed Maysilee Donner; and dehydration, due to the fact that the only sources of water that weren't toxic were from the bounty at the Cornucopia or rainfall. Victor Haymitch Abernathy weaponized the force field at the arena's edge against the District 1 female in their final confrontation.[6]


74th Hunger Games[]

HG13

The 74th Hunger Games arena.

The 74th Hunger Games arena was a large expanse of various terrains. In the center around the Cornucopia where the tributes launch was a plain of hard packed dirt. In one direction, there was a wheat field which was not visible from the Cornucopia, because there was a steep downward slope and this area was a lot lower down than the rest of the arena. In another direction there was a large lake, next to which the Careers set up camp and used as their main source of water. In the other two directions, there was a forest which made up most of the arena.[8] In the woods, there was a stream that led to the lake, and a rocky area with numerous caves beside it. There were also several ponds, a variety of different trees, and a marshy area.

Poolthingthatkatnisswasin

Inhabiting the arena, there were natural animals such as rabbits, squirrels, deer, groosling, and water birds. There were also several Gamemaker muttations: tracker jackers,[13] mockingjays, and wolf mutts.[9] The forest was rigged with traps such as devices that could launch fireballs.[14] The Gamemakers could manipulate the temperature so that it was freezing at night and hot during the day, even drying up the stream later into the Games.[15]

74hungergamesarena

74th Hunger Games arena as seen on the Gamemakers' map.

In the movie, the arena was mostly a wooded forest, with mountainous higher areas to the south flat plains to the west. A single large river ran through the east of the arena that fed into the large lake by the Cornucopia.[3]


75th Hunger Games / Third Quarter Quell[]

Arena of 75th Hunger Games

Cornucopia in the 75th Hunger Games.

The 75th Hunger Games arena was set up like a clock. The 12 to 1 wedge consisted of the tall tree that was periodically struck by lightning during the 12th hour,[16] which proved to be a very important factor later on in the novel. The other sections of the "clock" each had a tall tree identical to the 12 to 1 tree to throw tributes off, and were made up of different "horrors" that were unleashed by the hour. Known threats included blood rain,[17] acid fog,[18] carnivorous monkeys,[17] jabberjays, an unknown beast,[19] a tidal wave,[17] and unknown insects.[20]

Arena 75th

75th Hunger Games arena.

This arena was very small, and circular in shape, enclosed by a powerful force field. The Cornucopia lay at its center, tail pointing in the direction of the 12th hour, and was surrounded by water and twelve spokes between each set of two tributes as they were first raised into the arena.[7] The trees were the only source of drinkable water, which had to be extracted by a spile or by hacking at the bark. In the film, this arena appeared to be made of a series of hexagonal screens mounted to a girder system with a force field on the inside that prevented damage from occurring.[4]

On the third night inside the arena, Katniss blew out the force field during the midnight lightning storm,[5] allowing rebels to extract her by hovercraft alongside fellow victors Finnick Odair and Beetee Latier.[21]

Minor arenas[]

70th Hunger Games[]

The 70th Hunger Games arena had a dam that was later broken by an earthquake, flooding the arena.[19]

6

The 73rd Hunger Games arena.

Unknown Games[]

Some other arenas are mentioned throughout the series, but it is unknown in which Hunger Games they appeared.

  • A ruined city arena is briefly shown in the first film, set during an unknown year.[3] However, this is likely drawn from the original movie script, which began with the 73rd Hunger Games. That year, the arena was the "abandoned resort town" of Aspen, Colorado.[22]
  • There once was a freezing cold arena with no firewood (likely a frozen tundra). The Capitol audience considered this "anticlimactic" because so many tributes huddled into balls and quietly froze to death.[23]
  • One arena had a landscape of boulders, sand, and scruffy bushes. Many tributes were bitten by venomous snakes or "went insane from thirst".[23]
  • "A few years" prior to the 74th Hunger Games, an avalanche killed Titus, a tribute who had snapped and cannibalized his victims.[1] To facilitate the avalanche, the arena probably had a snowy mountain.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Hunger Games, Chapter 10
  2. Mockingjay, Epilogue
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Hunger Games (film)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  5. 5.0 5.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 26
  6. 6.0 6.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 14
  7. 7.0 7.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 19
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Hunger Games, Chapter 11
  9. 9.0 9.1 The Hunger Games, Chapter 25
  10. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 9
  11. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 14
  12. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 19
  13. The Hunger Games, Chapter 14
  14. The Hunger Games, Chapter 13
  15. The Hunger Games, Chapter 24
  16. Catching Fire, Chapter 20
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 22
  18. Catching Fire, Chapter 21
  19. 19.0 19.1 Catching Fire, Chapter 24
  20. Catching Fire, Chapter 25
  21. Catching Fire, Chapter 27
  22. Original draft of The Hunger Games movie script, written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray
  23. 23.0 23.1 The Hunger Games, Chapter 3
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