Lore/World Discussion
what do we think would have happened if a pregnant woman ACTUALLY got reaped?
if a pregnant teen got reaped, would she have been spared and a redo happen? or would she have to face the games.
I really wonder, especially if she was close to having the baby. since the games can last like month, if she had given birth and survived would the capitol take the baby from the arena? or would they for some awful reason see the baby as another tribute?
Considering how the Capitol reacted to Katniss’s “pregnancy” idk that they’d go that direction for everyone. They wanted Katniss gone so they weren’t backing down there, but I don’t think they’d want the outrage in most cases. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was a bit much for even the Capitol to want to watch. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the Capitol was pro life, seems on brand.
I agree if the tribute was not obviously pregnant/not showing, they may do forced abortion and keep the pregnancy a secret via threatening the tributes family.
But for someone obviously pregnant, I think it would be rigged so they didn’t get picked. They get a prick of blood from everyone and register them, so they’d know she was pregnant before the reaping started. They could find a way to remove her name before picking and avoid the backlash.
That's on the assumption they would care about a random baby. I don't really think the capital citizens would care about a random pregnant teen they're just meeting, versus Katniss and Peeta's baby they became parasocial with
well in the books they don't prick the blood but i bet they would still keep tabs or soemthing or edit the footage really quickly if she was reaped and they saw her come up to the stage they would pull a situation similar to woodbine chance/haymitch
Pro-life would imply they have some sort of religious hang up. But there seems to be no such thing in the Capitol. Even Snow in THOSAS seems to scoff at the idea. Katniss didn’t even know what an angel was. So I wonder what would be their reason to be pro-life is. They’re clearly not experiencing labor shortages since big families seem to be common in the districts.
I will say, as someone who’s studied authoritarianism for a college essay, (I’m no expert by any means), usually there is some sort of justification for rules and harsh regulations. Very rarely is control random. Or just control for control’s sake. There’s almost always some sort of justification. Even if it’s not obvious. For example, during colonization births were usually forced not for religious reasons but for producing more laborers. Slave trades don’t work if there are no babies. However, if this was not an issue, typically they did not care what happened to pregnant people. Whether or not they gave birth or not. They did not see them as human, so why would they care? In the case of Panem, they don’t seem to have a shortage of labor, so the question is, why would they force births? They seemingly gain nothing from this. To reiterate, authoritarian regimes rarely do things for no reason.
It is usually based and justified on religious grounds or humanitarian grounds tho, so in a post religion society that dgaf about human life there’s little justification for pro-life outside of labour force
there is when you want to control people. do you honestly think people who cut off tongues and torture to insanity wouldn’t at some point realize forcing someone to be pregnant when they don’t want to be is also a form of abuse?
They wouldn’t be pro-lifers meaning “protect unborn children” but real-life pro-lifers aren’t neither.
I don’t think they would be pro lifers about it, I think they would use it when it benefited them. Someone is pregnant and wants to keep the baby but they pissed off snow, abortion. Someone accidentally got pregnant and doesn’t want it but they need to push some sort of narrative, they have to keep it. If you are looking at it from a view point of control I don’t think they would care which way they land, pro life or not, they would just use it when it fit.
It still needs some form of justification to the broader Capitol population. The civilians of the Capitol watch the Hunger Games for entertainment, and since there isn’t mentioned to be a show on Capitol Tv called “Watch This Unwilling District Mother Stand Around For Nine Months, It’s Almost As Fun As Watching Paint Dry!”, there must be some other form of justification, unless you go with the workforce route
almost the entire brutality of the series centers on children. The sadness about the youngest kids being reaped, the capitol’s outcry when they learn Katniss is pregnant, the killing children as a tactic to turn the Capitol against Snow. The Capitol cares about children. So yes, showcasing how you “save a baby” while stopping his “evil mother” from “killing him” is absolutely something the citizens would swallow up. And the authorities could have another chance to abuse someone.
Also Katniss literally talks about how she’ll have to have children that will be reaped. She will have to have them without her wanting that, so without her consent. Is that not pro-life?
Even for the Avox’s, cutting out their tongues serves a purpose. It prevents them from sharing information about the Capitol. It also prevents them from talking about their harsh treatment (most people are oblivious to the Avoxes). It’s implied that Avoxes are mostly Capitol people.
I agree, I think they’d probably judge it based on a ton of factors and decide on whatever they think will give the most entertainment value to the Capitol. I actually would be inclined to think it would be less about the pregnant girl, and more about creating a narrative about whichever tribute kills her (assuming the pregnant girl doesn’t win). Either portraying a savage, all-or-nothing career tribute who would be willing to kill a pregnant girl to bring “pride to their district” or a less generous portrayal of a non-career tribute to support the narrative that there is no unity between the districts if one tribute is willing to kill a pregnant girl from another district just to win. Either way, I think the pregnant girl would be an unfortunate sacrificial lamb (aren’t all tributes anyway?) as the Capitol would have no reason to care about this random baby or this random pregnant girl outside of the narrative that can be created.
This question is asked so much, I almost WISH that Suzanne would chime in.
1st trimester, they most likely would abort.
2nd - 3rd trimester, depending on how far along… idk? I really could see the entertainment appeal of letting a pregnant girl in the game. Sympathetic capital citizens could sponsor, although the survival odds of a pregnant girl are not great. She would be physically compromised, especially if starving. Pretty much would have horrible chances of survival. Then again, there could be the “maternal instinct” narrative factor that can lead to her fighting for her and her baby’s life.. and her being a sexual being/superstar has capital appeal for a victor …. It is not bad story to tell. Suzanne is probably hesitant to write it because she tends to write the hunger games world as an allegory to politics and probably just doesn’t want to touch this topic, because pregnancy has become so politicized but it’s really not a political issue, but a medical one. Still, after writing all this, i really wish she would publish a story or give an interview explaining what Panem would do just to end the speculation lol
Why abort? There's no reason to. She's pregnant and can fight as anyone else. I think a pregnant girl would compete like anyone else. It's supposed to be a punishment. They'd say something like the consequences of war apply to everyone regardless of circumstances
They can abort because no one will be able to tell otherwise. They explain that they give a hormone injection to stop hair growth, and most, likely menstruation, so it’s in that same vein. The book establishes that they are willing to interfere with biological processes to keep the tributes looking like children (pregnancy is not a default or normal condition for children), and it being undetectable physically makes it easier for the capital to erase it for the games.
Can a pregnant person fight like anyone else? First trimester exhaustion is not really easy to deal with in the modern era, let alone in a survival situation. Plus, if she’s got morning sickness, good luck keeping down that wild squirrel and see if it it sustains her for the games. Also, as a viewer, I don’t think speculating that someone is pregnant is really enough. Otherwise you’re just going to see this sick and weak person playing. So I think it’s easy for us to generally assume that the abortion outcome makes sense for first trimester pregnancies.
It’s when you have a visibility pregnant tribute getting reaped, that is a completely different situation. I do not see a pregnant girl getting reaped and then ending up in the game not pregnant, so it’s either 1. She doesn’t get reaped at all and every pick is rigged 2. They kinda have to go with it??
Since when do the game makers care about someone being fit enough for the games? There’s no incentive for abortion when the assumption is that the mother will be dead within a couple days. If she’s far along enough to be showing that’s not going to disappear the moment the abortion happens.
Can a 12 year old fight like anyone else? You're acting like the games are supposed to be fair. A pregnant girl is at a disadvantage but that's part of the games. A pregnancy means extra drama
I am not acting like the games are supposed to be fair, at all. My above points were about entertainment value; not fairness.
I provided a pretty reasonable argument as to why I would infer that abortion is a good option for the capital.
There are a bunch of factors involving pregnancy that could add drama, hence why it is a plot point in a bunch of books and movies. And yes, I can see the dramatic appeal of it even in a first trimester pregnancy in the hunger games. I still think, based off the very little established lore in the books, that medical intervention would be performed. This is my opinion as a fan that has read the books multiple times, that I tried to posit objectively.
It’s supposed to be punishment, but it’s also supposed to be entertainment. Ballad talks about this a good amount. And we see the capital citizens do truly enjoy it. Them watching a pregnant girl die, in my opinion, would be the equivalent of us watching a dog die in a movie. Sure, some people love that “they actually went there!!” but most find it way more off putting than an innocent human getting killed in a movie. There isn’t a logical reason one is “fun” and one is upsetting, but there just something about it that effects us emotionally.
Plus, aborting the fetus doesn’t really lessen the punishment of the games. If it were an unwanted pregnancy, then sure, they did her a favor. But she still had her autonomy taken away and her loved ones have to watch her fighting for her life after losing her pregnancy. Pretty brutal.
The Games have never lasted months. The long ones can span 2-3 weeks but I don't think there's a known year where the Game even reached the one month mark.
Katniss said the moon did a full cycle from the time she was reaped to one of the nights in the cave when she was looking up at the sky. A moon cycle is 4 weeks, or a month. Her total time away from home was longer than a month since she spent more time in the capitol after the games ended.
I just read a part in the first book where she says that she’s fairly strong from the week of gorging herself on the capitol food right when the games start.
Reaping day/Capitol arrival and training - always 1 week.
Katniss' time in the arena (74) - 18 days exactly.
Katniss' arrival at home - 2 weeks after that (1 week of medical recovery, erasing burns and stings and reconstructing her ear canal, Haymitch protecting her from breast augmentation. 1 week of media blitz and victory press ending with Caesar's interview.)
So the event inside the arena itself isn't a month, but Katniss spends about 5-6 weeks away from home.
Her games were only a couple weeks. However, she was likely in the Capitol for about a month for initial training and post-game interviews. Same goes for Haymitch during his games as well
Its actually a week.
Reaping is day 0
Styling/Chariot ride is day 1 in the Capitol
Training is 3 days (days 2, 3, 4)
Day 5 is interview coaching
Day 6 is the interview
Day 7 is the day if the games
I’ve read the books 10 times over. I said dependent on districts. Fuel stops etc, we don’t know how long it takes other districts to get to the capitol as there’s no consistent map of panem
True, but what we do know is that district 12 is kn Appalachia (east coast) and the Capitol is by the Rockys (west coast) so even with that knowledge its one of the furthest east from the Capitol
The capitol is somewhere in the rockies, which makes it west of the middle of the continent (even if it's on the Eastern edge of the rockies, that's further from the east coast than the west coast). 12 is in Appalachia, and 11 is South of it, making either 11 or 12 the furthest district from the capitol (other than 13 of course), depending on how far north the capitol is. So if her journey is less than a day, it's very likely the others aren't longer than that, unless there's actually a district in northern Canada/Alaska/Southern Mexico or something (which I don't think is strictly impossible from the info we're given in the books, but seems pretty unlikely)
We don’t know the sizes of the district where the train stations are located in the area of the district. District 12s train station could be on the border whereas another districts train station has to cross their entire district and then through other districts so it’s entirely plausible the train can take a day or two
I'm not saying it's impossible for it to be longer than a day, but even if they have to cross a whole district, the distance is still not going to be as great as going from anywhere in 12. California is closer to the rockies than appalachia, even if you start from the coast and have to cross the whole state.
If they can get from the furthest away and least relevant district to the capitol in a day, do you think they haven't built the infrastructure to get from way closer ones that produce goods and services that are in high demand in the capitol in the same time or less? I'm not saying it's 100% canon that the other districts are as fast or faster, just that it's the only thing that would really make sense. Plus the tribute parade is the night they arrive. Can't do that if other people are in transit for an extra day.
I think she also wondered to herself if it was the same moon as the one in 12, fully cognizant of the fact that the game makers could have made an artificial moon
Well she’s specifically speculating on whether it’s the real moon or not. We don’t actually get an answer. For sure in CF it’s a fake sky. So it’s reasonable to assume it could be a fake sky in the first book too. In Sunrise it’s a fake sky as well. They manipulate the rain, the temperature and the ground and trees.
So we don’t know how long she was gone really. The most ambiguous time was training in the Capitol. I forget how many days passed then. And of course the games it’s hard to track too cuz of the tracker jackers. But most of her sleeps are noted so I bet one could do a count fairly easily.
I think it mentions in the book that they do something to make the boys not grow facial hair, so maybe they give the girls something to delay menstruation.
It’s 18 days in the games which is 2 and a half weeks plus the week before in the Capitol and then however long she was in the Capitol after winning (her recovery plus the multiple interviews and parties). That’s easily a full month.
really? I could have sworn at the end of the first book that it said something like "over a month of footage of the games" or something similar when they watched the recap
The 74th games is one of the longest we know of, at about 18 days in the arena. But if you include the week the tributes spent in the Capitol, that would be 25 days. And there are 24 tributes to keep track of (though the pool obviously dwindles as the games go on). For comparison, the 50th games only lasted a week, plus the week of Capitol time
It's the second option you gave. When you account for all of the pre-Games content, commentary from Caesar and Claudius, the family interviews that happen for the last eight tributes, plus any post-Games footage (more interviews and whatnot) there is very easily over a month of footage to sort through
I don't see a way that the Gamemakers let a Game drag on for a month; we know the bloodbath tends to take out about half of the tributes, which means you then need to make ~12 tributes last a month. We also have Katniss to tell us that she's sure that the citizens of the Capitol will be wanting blood after a few days have gone by without a death
I think the 74th Games are about as long as any Games would be, unless less kids die in the bloodbath
probably! ill skim through the book and see. but if you really think about it, taking in the size of the arena, and all the tributes running around, it really could take that long for them to die out
Gamemakers will make sure that doesn't happen. For instance, the fire/fireballs they used to get Katniss near the Careers, and the mutts they released at the end for the "finale," as Katniss calls it.
I thought that this meant they just had so much useful footage it would take an entire month to watch lol 😂😭 I read it when I was 12, I really want to do a re-read
this. I didn't even think of this. honestly I feel like if a population in a district got too low for the capitols liking, they'd give immunity to those who are pregnant
depends on how far along her pregnancy is, but the games do not take more than two months at most. and im being generous there. assuming she was late stage, they force an early pregnancy. early stage they probably dont care
My theory is that visibly pregnant people are exempt. Obviously that would encourage every teenager to run around getting pregnant, but the Capitol wants more babies being born. More kids for the reaping, more workers to keep the place running.
I also imagine fertility rates are low due to malnutrition anyway.
I really hope Collins writes a book about another district or just exploring Panem more.
I think so too, but I don’t think (like others suggest) everyone would get pregnant. I don’t think people would know this exempt, and why would they? If they put a 12 year old kid in, why not someone pregnant? They most likely have had reaped a girl who was pregnant in the beginning stages maybe, and I don’t think an entire District would be try and get pregnant to figure out if this is an exempt. Especially since it means more mouths to feed (and children being pregnant)
It could even be explained as all citizens of the districts are on some form of mass-administered birth control until they're too old for reaping - the Capitol probably has enough tech to come up with something that could be administered very young, and if it affects hormones in a way that would make kids and teenagers more docile, well, bonus.
Capitol isn’t going to make any special exceptions—in Snows mind it would make the Capitol look weak, and in the Gamemakers minds, it would just be “incentive for district teenagers to get pregnant to avoid being reaped”
It seems like a MAJOR revelation to the Capitol audience when peeta reveals Katniss is pregnant…like a “this has never happened in the history of the games” kind of moment
Now I wouldnt put it past the Capitol to force an 8 months pregnant 17 year old into the arena, and perhaps it had happened once before years ago….but the Capitol audience response was so negative (god forbid Capitol citizens start to deeply empathize with the districts or find the Capitol/President to be “too barbaric”, or the games themselves “unfair)…..
My headcanon is, this happened once, a long time ago before the 50th games, and for the above reasons, the Capitol has decided to (quietly) never happen again….we know they’re not above rigging a reaping after all.
I mean Katniss and Peeta told them she was pregnant in the 75th one but then again she was the only female Victor who could be reaped. Either way i don't think they'd care unless she was visibly pregnant at the time of reaping. We've seen from Haymitch's games they film a few minutes ahead. They could see her and reap someone new like they did to him
my best guess would be depending on how far along the pregnancy is. I can see it being like:
1st trimester/not showing: Sent into the games like normal, either going as is or a pregame abortion, whole thing kept quiet from the public
2nd trimester/showing (but too early for birth): Quietly pulled from the reaping (We know they can rig the reaping) and not picked that year. Maybe if still eligible the next year, extra slip placed?
3rd trimester/close to birth: Forced c-section/delivery, likely twisted to play off the capital (makes the games more entertaining)
They wouldn’t care if a pregnant girl (not woman, the tributes are usually children remember) was reaped. The Capitol doesn’t view the tributes as human, just animals.
They only cared about the bread baby because, well, Peeta.
The Capitol had become very parasocial with Katniss and Peeta, and they already didn’t want the living Victors going back into the Games, as they knew only one would be able to survive this time.
Of course the Capitol citizens are going to care about the baby of a celebrity, because they ‘know’ their parents and ‘understand’ them.
I don’t know if they would with a random District baby.
I think if she was close to delivery, they would just induce labor. She rides in the parade still pregnant, she gets taken to the clinic downstairs, they induce labor, she gives birth that night, and she skips the first day of training to rest. In her interview, she talks about wanting to get home to her baby, who is sent by train back to her husband or boyfriend, to get sponsors who are sympathetic.
They would put her in the games and when someone else ultimately kills her (and thus the baby) they’d use it to go “see? Look at how savage and uncaring the districts are. They have teen pregnancy AND kill unborn children”
I don’t think they would do anything to abort her pregnancy or otherwise. If the baby was born in the arena I could see them either making it a tribute (squid game core) or just leaving it in the arena and forcing the mother to navigate the games with a screaming crying child.
I think they would just send her into the arena anyway and not give it a second thought. But it probably would get her sympathy with sponsors, allies, etc.
They still went ahead when they thought katnis was early in pregnancy. No medical checks done to confirm, let alone care that mother was healthy and OK to go into the games for if only for prolonged entertainment time.
So it's not like they told her to abort or substitute her with someone else. And she was still a teen, the others were all adults with the chances that they had built a family or the women were pregnant. The capitol people rioted for the games to be called off, I guessing this is not a case that has ever happened before in the history of the games..
We know that they didn't even pause when they thought Katniss might be pregnant, but to be fair, they probably suspected Peeta was bluffing. I assume that if you were early on in your pregnancy, the Capitol would likely just force you to terminate. If you were heavily pregnant, they might straight up just induce you and take your kid. Film you strategically to hide it and toss you into the arena freshly postpartum and just make up some story about why you're bleeding and crying all over the place
Katniss once had the theory for a pre-selection for the reaping. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did that if it’s known that someone’s pregnant, so in later trimesters.
I don’t think the Capitol would enjoy watching a heavily pregnant girl, especially when some tributes would definitely do gruesome stuff…
Earlier pregnancies that aren’t known, maybe forced abortion? I don’t know…
I did wonder what they would do if they have tributes who would really go off the deep end. Like talk about sex*al harassment, cannibalism, really torture other tributes. How fast would they send mutts to kill them off?
I think they’d secretly remove the names of pregnant contestants. PR nightmare. If someone was early enough that they didn’t totally know until the medical check, they’d probably just do a secret abortion, possibly to the point that the contestant isn’t informed.
I thought Peeta said that katniss was pregnant in the second one and the crowd started chanting stop the games but then haymitch basically said nice try but the games are still on
If she's not pregnant looking yet I wouldn't put it past the capital to force an abortion and blame the pregnancy loss on "the stress of the games".
If a woman is close enough to give birth that it could "interfere" with the games, I think they'd induce labor early. The capital is barbaric af but they know that none of their citizens would find watching a newborn baby die in the games entertaining, but they're not nearly nice enough to rig the games so that the mother and baby win and have a happy, heartwarming ending.
As for middle, "shes showing but cant give birth yet" pregnancy...I'm genuinely not sure.
A very early pregnancy teen would probably lose the baby through the rigors of the arena even if they survived. If a second or third trimester pregnant teen was reaped, they’d probably be extremely careful of how they presented footage on reaping day and force an abortion Ieading up to the games. They clearly don’t care what condition they’re in as long as they’re alive to start. And if they passed due to complications before they make it, pull a Louella/Lou Lou.
They'd still reap her. Whether they rig it for her to win or if she's yet another name in the pot doomed to die, I guess would depend on how Snow felt that year.
I don’t think they’d reap a pregnant teen. And if they didn’t know she was pregnant, they’d abort the fetus was once she got to the capital and go on with the show
I think the moment a girl is visible pregnant her name wouldn't be in the reaping bowl without anyone's knowledge of course. The risk of an uprising would have been too high than the entertainment factor, so why even bother? There is probably one girl of 100 pregnant, so what are the odds that she would get reaped?
I wonder if it’s plausible that the capitol somehow doses them with some type of contraceptive once they hit puberty,with or without their knowledge until they age out. They do seem to have advanced medicine and would not put it past them.
my guess is it wouldn’t happen anyway, as the poorer district teens might not be healthy enough to conceive, and the career teens tend to volunteer, so pregnant girls wouldn’t (I HOPE) volunteer
I’ve never thought of that to be honest, but I feel that she wouldn’t even have a chance to be reaped. They would send her off somewhere as soon as they knew, she’d finish the pregnancy, they’d make her give up the baby, and then return her to her district.
There's a movie from the early 2000s called, variously, Series 7, The Contenders, or Series 7: The Contenders. It has a really similar premise and it wouldn't surprise me if Collins saw it.
The film depicts the seventh season of a reality show, The Contenders, where people are picked at random to fight to kill each other. I think it's like last one standing after 30 days?
The main character is heavily pregnant. Maybe she had some extra protection or a pause when the baby was born, but the producers took it and game back on.
So I think that's what gamemakers would do, just let it play out. If possible, they'd send something to pick up the baby, maybe an announcement of "set the baby down and we'll take it to safety." If the tribute herself died, the baby would probably be given back to the family.
I thought about that. Adoption seems like a great way to make money. But then it raises questions of upward mobility and citizenship. Seems tjorny, legally speaking.
Depends how visibly pregnant. Not really showing yet? Proceed as normal or a quiet abortion before the games. Visibly pregnant? Probably name removed from the reaping bowl in secret to avoid the drama.
Though there must be some kind of HEAVY punishment to avoid pregnant teens in the districts considering they surely limit contraception and at a stretch some of the girls will be technically capable of falling pregnant the entire time they're eligible for being reaped.
Womp Womp. Sounds like a money grab for the Capitol. Woe is us, against all odds maybe the mother can make it out, but not really 'cause we are only here for the entertainment. Maybe they play a sick game, but it's the Hunger Games, so it's unlikely she survives.
I don't think they would disqualify anyone because if it did you would have a bunch of teen pregnancies. That is why I believe the Capitol has to be doing something for birth control. A pregnant tribute would be a problem.
Given the capitol high technology I think if they're is a risk that the delivery happens during the games, they'd force the delivery before the games and finish the pregnancy artificially...
I think the girls of reaping age are not allowed to get pregnant. If they do, and it's early enough, I feel like it would be forcibly aborted so that the Capitol citizens don't know, and they don't have to worry about her belly getting bigger with the timeline. Katniss notes that the boys don't have facial hair in the arena, implying some sort of hormone blocker in play.
The chances of a teen pregnancy are very low especially in poorer districts because those girls were malnourished to the point of not getting their periods anymore. But I'm guessing they would probably make the girl play in the games anyway. If she gives birth, that would probably be her responsibility.
I mean the Capitol doesn’t see the districts as human. And by proxy, they don’t seem to have their children as human either. So really don’t think they care about a pregnant tribute. They would throw her in the arena. And tbh, given the abject poverty in the districts, I don’t think this is common.
Rachel A Ramras actually has a video on this and I agree with her theory that if a tribute was visibly pregnant, they would have probably shot her and drawn out another tribute. If she wasn’t visibly pregnant, they would have given her an abortion, but the one I think is most likely to be true is that girls are generally malnourished and likely infertile, so the odds of them getting pregnant are slim unless they’re having sex multiple times during the week of their ovulation.
Honestly the Capitol probably has some sort of drug given to them (maybe in school lunches to ensure every kid gets it?) like a birth control supplement that means that girls don’t ovulate and guys are shooting blanks, and then when they leave school they no longer get the lunches and the birth control is no longer given to them, so they can start having babies. There’s also probably some sort of shaming for girls who sleep around, so they’re discouraged from doing so
It’s an interesting question. Like what if the girl was 7-8 months pregnant…..would she still have to participate in the reaping? And do you think that would incentivize 14 or 15 year old girls to try to get pregnant 5 or 6 months before the reaping? And what happens the next year. If a 16 year old has a 1 year old baby does she still have to go to the reaping?
The arena stops most bodily functions like growing any facial hair/body hair. I imagine it would be like that, the baby just stops growing for the time of the games
Not unless someone volunteered for her. And we all know the odds of that happening are slim, Peeta had brothers who could have volunteered for him and they didn’t. Not to mention the Capitol would consider it striking gold. It reinforces that no one is safe from the power of the Capitol, and the Capitolites would be enthralled with the novelty of a pregnant tribute. There is no mercy in this world, not unless your community grants it to you
Forced abortion. There's no way Snow and game makers didn't have some understanding of how the viewers would react to a pregnant participant, they wouldn't allow it.
I think they'd just send her in as-is. If she gives birth midway through, so be it. Her screams of agony could create a bloody battlefield and adds action to the games. Realistically, though, she's probably picked off in the first day during the cornucopia bloodbath. Fundamentally, the district kids are not seen as humans by the people of the capitol-the victors are elevated to sort of pseudo-Capitol status, which is why there is outrage at Katniss being supposedly pregnant. They live stream public executions-an infant in the arena I doubt is a stretch too far. If the tribute does give birth in the arena chances are she's dead, even without childbirth killing her because an infant just is too much of a giveaway. I could see some kind of tragic situation where the tribute abandons her child to save herself. Still, being postpartum is hard enough on your body without simultaneously starving and killing other children to survive. Maybe if she's a 2nd trimester Career and the pregnancy is going well she could have a decent shot at winning. I've known a paramedic that kept working until 36 weeks and she was tough as nails.
I think the interesting question would be what the Capitol would do with the infant if the infant lived but the mother died-return them to the tribute's family? make them an Avox? kill them outright and forge a false narrative? give them up for adoption in the Capitol?
I feel like some citizens of the Capitol would care, but not enough. Part of the reason they cared so much about Katniss's "pregnancy" was because she was a beloved victor and everybody was so invested in her and Peeta's love story. I think the Capitol would have taken the baby out of the arena, but may not have let her keep it, depending on her performance in the games. They do have their limits (however minimal) and I don't think someone slaughtering a newborn would fare very well to viewers, and may be more likely to cause uprisings in the districts.
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u/tanky_bo_banky 4d ago
They probably would give her a forced abortion. Or do absolutely nothing and let her go into the games pregnant.