Hunger
Games Retrospective
I meant to do this sooner, but I forgot. Never mind, though, since I’m
doing it now. Recently, I used the Hunger Games simulator to generate a Hunger
Game, then wrote a story based around the results. I must admit that I’m quite
pleased with the results. It presented a fun challenge, and having to write
around situations that I had no control over, forming a narrative through them,
provided a unique writing exercise. I would recommend doing it yourself if you’re
interested. I might do another one sometime in the future, and I already have
rosters planned for when the time comes.
I feel that I was fortunate here in that the random generator was on my
side for the most part, giving me scenarios that made it easy to have a
continuous plot and character relationships, as opposed to a series of vignettes.
These included:
·
President Snow being the last to die:
Considering the prologue in which he became a tribute against his will at the
last minute, Snow being the final tribute to die was the best possible outcome
for the story. There’s something poetic about this frail old man with no
particular abilities outlasting a rogue’s gallery of killers and ne’er-do-wells,
all far more capable than him, only to trip at the final hurdle, to another
ordinary person that he considered an ally to boot. It would have been a bit of
an anti-climax for Snow to die early after being set up as one of the main
protagonists at the start, so I’m lucky that didn’t happen.
·
Negating Dio’s weakness: As a vampire, Dio
wouldn’t have been able to do much in the daytime scenes, and I would have had
to keep coming up with ways for him to stay in shelter if he was to contribute.
Fortunately, teaming up with Amanda Waller on the first day gave me an
opportunity to write out that weakness via the containment suit Waller gave
him, allowing Dio to play a more active role. This leads perfectly onto the
next point…
·
The Suicide Squad: Amanda Waller got her own
little subplot where she went on a recruitment drive for a Suicide Squad in the
arena, and gathering intel on the other tributes in the process. Her control of
the other tributes, disposing of them once they had outlived their usefulness, scored
her the final two kills of the games, and the title of Champion. She even got
to detonate a head bomb once Xigbar proved to be unsuitable for the Squad,
having his own agenda.
·
Freddy VS Jason 2: I will admit, this one was a
bit of a cheat. The simulator text said that Freddy, Jason, Needles Kane and
the Giant Chicken formed a suicide pact. After seeing that Freddy and Jason
were involved, I couldn’t just do as the text said, and the result was the big
action setpiece of Part 3 that killed all four characters involved. Any of
those four committing suicide would be out of character, but Freddy and Jason
in particular provided the perfect opportunity for a rematch, with the other
two getting brought in later.
·
Dio’s Road Roller: No appearance from Dio Brando
would have been complete without a reference to the iconic scene where he
crushes Jotaro under a steamroller and starts pummelling it violently, trapping
Jotaro underneath. I could have left a steamroller lying around from the arena’s
construction, but using the Sweet Tooth van instead allowed me to bring back
something that had already been introduced, particularly since its driver had
died by this point in the story. This writing technique is known as Chekhov’s
Gun, fact fans.
·
Friends on the Other Side: Part 2 had a lot of
bloodshed thanks to Dr Facilier summoning his Friends on the Other Side, with around
half the surviving roster from Part 1 being killed off. This was poison gas in
the simulator, but I changed it after seeing that Dr Facilier was dying in this
scene, allowing the opportunity to recreate his death scene from The Princess and the Frog. This would
also be a bit more exciting than writing 15 variations of “Character dies from
inhaling poison gas.”
·
Actually a Doombot: Even though he didn’t win,
Doctor Doom still survived the Hunger Games because he didn’t compete and sent
a Doombot to compete for him. I would have had this reveal regardless of when
Doom died, but it worked particularly well when Doom ended up being a jobber
who was only there as cannon fodder which would have been rather disappointing
for such a grandiose, bombastic character. Now for a bit of what could have
been – If Doctor Doom had won, Doom would have been killed by the 2nd
place finisher, only for the real Doom to appear, reveal that the Doom the 2nd
place finisher killed was actually a Doombot, then kill them to win the games.
·
One, two, Freddy’s coming for you: Like Dio,
Freddy was another character whose full potential was dependent on the time of
day. I was very happy therefore, to see Freddy kill Luke Atmey at night,
allowing me to write a scene where Freddy killed someone in their dreams.
·
Inconceivable! Vizzini’s death was another one
that let me pay homage to the character’s source material. The simulation text
dictated that “Needles Kane, Vizzini and Wario get into an argument. Needles
gets the last word by killing the other two.” Vizzini is more of an
intellectual than a physical bruiser. (In The
Princess Bride, he had Inigo Montoya and Fezzik to provide the brawn for
him). Him getting into an argument instead of an action scene let me show off
Vizzini’s cunning by recreating his scheme with the iocane powder, which worked
this time as Wario isn’t nearly as smart as the Dread Pirate Roberts. I also
enjoyed having Needles steal Vizzini’s moment of glory by killing him from
behind as Vizzini was bragging to the poisoned Wario “Never go in against a
Sicilian when death is on the line!”
·
Saboteur T1000: That shape-shifting power was
fun! It also let me do a bit of messing with the character’s heads, playing
them against each other or leading them into traps. Killing him off near the
end was tough, though. I think I could have come up with a better death scene
for it (It sure is convenient that there is now a lava moat around the edge for
you to fall into, huh?)
There were a couple things that happened that I wasn’t hugely happy
about, and these are those.
·
Bakura and Alduin dying early: This is the major
one, and it’s a perfect example of the risk that comes from writing a story
from events I have no control over. Bakura and Alduin were built up to be major
characters early on, by virtue of teaming up with President Snow, who was one
of the main characters. Alduin in particular ended up being a surprise
favourite character of mine, since I got a fair bit of mileage out of using
Brainwashed Good Alduin as comic relief. Therefore, it was disappointing to see
them both go out early in the arena event. On the plus side, I do think I was
able to salvage their early prominence by working their deaths into President
Snow’s character development, and having the Millennium Ring come back as a
MacGuffin that several characters fought over later on.
·
Venom the Wimp: Of all the characters in this
game, I think Venom is the one who comes off worst. I feel like I overdid Venom’s
fire weakness, having it come up in all of his scenes, and he didn’t get any
cool scenes to balance them out. Jagi was similarly pitiful, but he’s both a
much weaker character than Venom, being pitiful fits him since he’s underhanded
and sneaky, preferring to avoid fair fights whenever possible, and he was
portrayed sympathetically in his death scene, so I don’t feel bad for
portraying him the way I did.
·
Character balance: Some characters didn’t get
much flavour text, particularly early on. In a sense, the premise makes this
difficult – in a last man standing contest, someone has to die early otherwise
the contest wouldn’t progress, and 36 characters is a lot to have to balance. This
got easier as time went on – more characters had flavour text or appearances in
the narrative in Part 3, and by Part 4, all the remaining tributes had a
defined personality, relationships to other characters and a role in the plot. Nevertheless,
I do think I could have done a better job in this regard. I choose to see this
as a learning experience, and I hope to do better next time.
And finally- Scenes I’d have liked to see. These are a few ideas for
how certain characters would have interacted had the story allowed for it.
·
A dragon battle between Alduin and Maleficent,
with a terrified Ripto caught in the middle.
·
Joker, Kefka and Needles Kane form the Insane
Clown Posse (I got two of them together in the story, but I’d have liked to
complete the set) but then Joker steals Kefka’s magic and becomes Emperor
Joker.
·
Bakura uses the Ring of Destruction trap card to
give Amanda Waller a taste of her own medicine.
·
A hunting contest between Predator and Gaston.
After all, no one hunts like Gaston!
·
An alliance of feathered fiends between the
Giant Chicken and Lord Shen.
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