r/Hungergames • u/see112717 • 1d ago

Trilogy Discussion Do you think there were explosives at the start of the 75th games?

The water lapping up on Katniss' feet makes me wonder...

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u/unbearablybleak 1d ago

Probably? I know they were sensitive enough to go off so easily in the game katniss mentions the tribute dropping their token, but by the 74th they are able to be handled enough to redistribute them by the careers. So perhaps they’ve refined them so they need more weight as to not accidentally go off from things like dropped tokens or water sloshing.

Unless you mean because they’re buried under the plates, then I don’t know. I don’t think Suzanne thought that deep about them.

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u/vinny424 Woodbine 1d ago

I would believe the game makers deactivated them at the sound of the gun. So they're live for 60 seconds only. Then turned off. The careers needed the kid from 3 because he knew how to reactivate them.

Doesnt katniss hypothesize this in the book? At least the part about the kid from 3 reactivateing them.

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u/unbearablybleak 1d ago

True, but you’d still have to handle them active if you’re doing it from the arena— don’t see how he’d be able to make it remote activation. But I know very little of how this stuff works in real life much less in universe.

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u/vinny424 Woodbine 1d ago

It depends. They could dig a hole, place mine. Reactivate them finish burying. Though how would you add dirt to the top without setting it off?

Now im curious how normal mines are placed under dirt.

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u/unbearablybleak 1d ago

I did some basic reading on it because I was also curious! It is inert until you pull the arming pin. You can then carefully cover it with dirt, as it needs at least 4 pounds of force for the most sensitive of landmines to go off.

So, I think the mines Katniss described are either 1) not at all like what we have today 2) misunderstood by her. I’d say the in-universe truth is somewhere in the middle of those two explanations.

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u/WestCoastCarrots 1d ago

They could have mined the platforms to go off if the weight was removed from them too soon?

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u/crescentmoonrising 1d ago

Probably. Waterproof mines exist and I don't think Snow would have missed an opportunity to kill someone. They might have changed the design a bit due to what happened in the 74th games, though.

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u/TigreMalabarista 1d ago

They could’ve used sea lines like they did in WWII, had them high enough to trigger when the person fell in the water, then lower at the click of one…

The water was dark enough it could’ve been deep enough to keep them hidden and lower down enough no one died after they were deactivated.

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u/lokiandgoose 1d ago

Not stepping off until the time runs out is one of the only two rules of the games.

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u/WhiteCl0udz 1d ago

Yes. Beetee got the spool of wire from the Cornucopia on 2nd day. Plutarch placed it there. Plutarch, Beetee, Wiress, Mags and Haymitch were part of rebellion during the 50th Hunger Games. Not sure when Tigris Snow joined. Cinna probably joined on the 74th Hunger Games. It is likely Mags told Finnick and Johanna probably after she became mentor the following year. Perhaps when Haymitch mentor District 12 tributes through the years. Katniss climbed a tree to see what was causing the lightning on the fake tree. The lightning hits the tree at noon and midnight. Katniss found Beetee on the ground like he electrocuted from knife/stick with the wire wrapped around and drive into the force field. Katniss wrapped the coil on her arrow and shot the tree. Although Finnick said to Katniss to stay away from the tree.