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Buttercup was a "hideous-looking cat" that belonged to Primrose Everdeen.[1] He later came into the ownership of Prim's older sister, Katniss Everdeen.[2]

Biography[]

Origins[]

Years before the trilogy, Buttercup was found by Prim as a kitten. Katniss described him as "scrawny... [his] belly swollen with worms, [and] crawling with fleas." Katniss was averse to adopting him because it was another mouth to feed. She tried to drown Buttercup in a bucket, but Prim "begged so hard, cried even", that Katniss reluctantly allowed him to stay. Mrs. Everdeen "got rid of the vermin", nursing him back to health.[1]

He was presumably adopted by the Everdeens sometime after the death of Mr. Everdeen, since Katniss was running the household, but it had to have been sometime after Mrs. Everdeen overcame from her depression, since she was able to heal him. As a result, Buttercup is probably about 3-4 years old at the start of the trilogy.

Once healed, Buttercup grew to be a "born mouser", even catching rats occasionally. He used to hiss at Katniss, but she built trust by feeding him entrails, so the hissing stopped.[1]

The Hunger Games[]

On the morning of the reaping, Buttercup sat at Prim's knees and guarded her while she slept, as he often did.[1]

In the film adaptation, he appeared momentarily to hiss at Katniss on her way out of the house. She replied that she would "still cook [him]."[3]

Buttercup en LJH En Llamas

Buttercup glaring at Katniss.

Catching Fire[]

Buttercup moved to the Victors' Village with his family after Katniss won the 74th Hunger Games, but he disliked their new house, often returning to their old home in the Seam while Prim was at school. On the morning the Victory Tour began, Katniss found Buttercup wailing at the back door of their old home and let him in. She fed him some beaver fat and rubbed between his ears, then told him he was "hideous". When he nudged her for more petting, she scooped him up into her arms and left, but Buttercup sprang away to disappear under a bush.[4]

In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Buttercup sat in Prim's lap as she and her family watched the reading of the card for the third Quarter Quell.[5]

Mockingjay[]

When Katniss returned to District 12 after the bombing, she found Buttercup in her house in the Victors' Village. Katniss lamented that she had found him and not Lady, Prim's goat, "an animal of actual value". Katniss mentioned that the cat looked fat and healthy, supposing that he fed on field mice because she "[refused] to consider the alternative"— hinting he might have been feeding on the corpses of victims from the bombing. Katniss asked Buttercup if he wanted to see Prim, to which he meowed at her; then she stuffed him into her game bag, as she doubted he would be allowed on the hovercraft.[6]

Buttercup growled at Katniss for the mistreatment, but he was freed in their compartment in District 13. Prim rocked him in her arms and wept as he purred. He occasionally paused to hiss at Katniss, and evidently gave her a "particularly smug look" as Prim tied a blue ribbon around his neck.[7] Reunited, he went back to guarding Prim as she slept.[8]

Once Katniss agreed to work with the rebels, the first stipulation of the Mockingjay Deal was that her family would be able to keep Buttercup. This started an argument between Capitol rebels, who thought this was reasonable, and rebels from 13, who pointed out difficulties this would pose. Eventually the request was accepted, and Katniss and her family moved to a compartment with an "eight-inch window aboveground" that Buttercup could use to come and go, feeding himself. He would be locked out if he missed curfew, and if he posed any security issues, he would be shot.[8]

Later, the citizens of District 13 evacuated to a subterranean bunker during a bombing, and Prim went back to their compartment to retrieve Buttercup. They barely avoided getting locked out. Once inside, Prim placed Buttercup on the lower bunk, nestled under a blanket, and she pet him.[9] During brief periods of socialization amid the bombing, Buttercup kept the people of District 13 entertained with evening games of Crazy Cat: Katniss wiggled a flashlight around and he would try to catch it. It drove him crazy if she left the light shining in a place where he couldn't reach it, and when the light was turned off, he would be confused and upset for a while, but eventually got over it. On the third night, Katniss compared this to the way the Capitol was using Peeta Mellark against her.[10]

Katniss hugging Buttercup to her in Mockingjay - Part 2.

Katniss hugging Buttercup to her in Mockingjay - Part 2.

After Prim's death and Katniss's trial for the assassination of Alma Coin, Katniss returned once more to District 12. Several weeks later, she came home one day only to hear Buttercup hissing at her. When she turned to look at him, she saw that he had been clawed by a wild animal, that he held his back paw above the ground, and that the bones in his face had become "prominent". She concluded that Buttercup had traveled all the way from District 13 on foot, searching for Prim. She threw a pillow at him and screamed that Prim was dead, but quickly broke down in tears. Buttercup wailed with her, staying nearby. When Katniss went to bed that night, she found Buttercup waiting there to guard her. The next morning, Katniss tended to his injuries and they cried together, and when Greasy Sae came to make Katniss breakfast, she fed all her bacon to Buttercup.[2]

Buttercup presumably died sometime before the epilogue, as he is not seen or mentioned.[11]

Physical description[]

According to Katniss, Buttercup had a mashed-in nose and half of one ear missing, with eyes the color of rotting squash and a muddy yellow coat. She even described him as the world's ugliest cat,[1][6] so some of her description may have been colored by her fraught relationship with him.

Buttercup en Los Juegos del Hambre

Buttercup in the The Hunger Games film.

In The Hunger Games film, Buttercup appeared as a black and white cat with yellow eyes. However, in Catching Fire, he appeared as a ginger cat as described in the trilogy. This remained the case for both Mockingjay - Part 1 and Part 2.

Relationships[]

Buttercup sitting in Prim's lap in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Buttercup sitting in Prim's lap in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Primrose Everdeen[]

Prim was the one who found Buttercup, begged Katniss not to drown him, and later healed him, keeping him as a pet. Buttercup always slept with Prim, watching over her during the night.[1] In Catching Fire, though he did not like the new house in the Victors' Village, he always came back for Prim,[4] and in Mockingjay, he even traveled all the way from District 13 to find her.[2]

Prim also went to great lengths for Buttercup; she nearly got locked out of the bunker during the bombing in order to rescue him.[9] She was moved to tears when Katniss brought him to District 13 from 12,[7] and she turned to him for comfort in difficult times.[5][9]

Katniss Everdeen[]

"I'm still going to cook you!"
—Katniss Everdeen to Buttercup[src]

At first, Katniss and Buttercup did not like each other at all. Katniss saw Buttercup as another mouth to feed, so she tried to drown him in a bucket of water before Prim begged for his life. After that, Buttercup tended to hiss at her, though he stopped when she started to give him entrails from the game she hunted. Still, Katniss thought he was the ugliest cat in the world.[1]

In Catching Fire, Katniss and Buttercup both disliked the new house in the Victors Village and often visited the old place in the Seam. Katniss said they had formed a new bond over this.[4]

In Mockingjay, Katniss brought him with her to District 13 for Prim,[6][7] and she included him as the first item of the Mockingjay Deal.[8] When she became Buttercup's owner after Prim's death, the two bonded over their loss, and Buttercup stayed by her side much like he had Prim.[2]

Etymology[]

Prim named him Buttercup because she insisted that his muddy yellow coat matched the bright yellow buttercup flower.[1]

Trivia[]

  • In The Hunger Games film, Buttercup was a black and white cat. However, in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Buttercup was recast as a large, fluffy ginger tabby, portrayed by a seven-year-old Maine Coon named Orion.[12][13]
  • Buttercup was afraid of thunder, and liked to be hidden underneath a blanket during storms. Katniss said it was the one thing that frightened him.[9]
  • Katniss invented Crazy Cat by accident several years before Mockingjay, during a winter blackout.[10]
  • Buttercup appeared in all three books in the trilogy, and all four films.
  • Buttercup is the only known cat in the trilogy. The only other cat, appearing in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is Boa Bell.[14]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 The Hunger Games, Chapter 1
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Mockingjay, Chapter 27
  3. The Hunger Games (film)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Catching Fire, Chapter 1
  5. 5.0 5.1 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Mockingjay, Chapter 1
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Mockingjay, Chapter 2
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Mockingjay, Chapter 3
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Mockingjay, Chapter 10
  10. 10.0 10.1 Mockingjay, Chapter 11
  11. Mockingjay, Epilogue
  12. Ford, Rebecca (April 27, 2016). Film Felines: ‘Keanu’ Kitten and 7 More Scene-Stealing Cats. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on May 7, 2023.
  13. Haley, Cain (November 2014). GP, SGCA, RW Panther Hill Orion. ShowCatsOnline.com. Retrieved on May 7, 2023.
  14. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Chapter 4
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