The Best of the 77th Hunger Games

Now that the Games are officially over, it's time to post this. I've been gathering my absolute favorites quotes from every tribute — the best dialogue and sections from posts. I would have liked to do the daily quotes for each Games day, but because of school, it was a bit unrealistic to do this. So here is the alternate edition: my favorite lines from all twenty-four tributes throughout their time in the Games. This has been one of my favorite Games ever, so I especially wanted to highlight just how awesome everyone's writing was. Hope you guys had a good experience this time around!


"But if I have to kill twice more to escape here with my life, to achieve the freedom that comes with the crown, if that is the price that I must pay — then you can bet your nonexistent ass that I'd pay it a hundred times over."

"Parallels, a tradition at this point as for the third straight time, One and Seven met in battle with everything on the line. Like Opal Earnest - then Opal Shore - and Justice Fray before her, a girl from Seven had been their final opponent.

And they'd both triumphed, escaped with their lives. But she was not so foolish as to believe that this would be a walk in the park either. Twin wounds across her chest from Ansel the day before still stung, the effects of blood loss were noticeable even now, nearly twenty four hours later, and eight days of trekking across the nightmare landscape had worn her down nearly as much as Ansel had.

But even now, even as every section of the arena became overrun with vegetation and plant growth, even as she was pushed into the moon pond, no longer quiet and eerie as the now bloodred water lapped at her knees, even as the familiar shine of the moon above was eclipsed into darkness, she was not afraid.

The calm before the storm, even as her opponent drew near. Parallels, One against Seven, but also of mere days ago, when the fractured remains of two had temporarily united into one against a greater threat - a greater threat that had been all but eliminated in the days that had passed since."

- Cynthia Rose Delgado, District One Female [ lance ] in a war in my head and even in the shadows, we are worthy


"NO! I’m strong. I'm strong, I'm strong, I'm strong."

"Mila was just there. Just fighting.

I don’t look out of the carriage at the Arena moving past me. I stare at my shoes, knuckles turning white as I grip them against my knees. The fear fades away and stops masking the pain, and that’s how the cuts on my arms and legs finally register. I don’t think when I wrap myself in bandages. I don’t think when I sew the needle through my flesh. I don’t think, I don’t think, I don’t think.

I focus on the rhythm of the carriage, drifting across the expanse of the Arena, lulling me to sleep so I can do a better job of ignoring the present.

I dream of my allies.

I dream of safety, of a place to call home. The vaguest of feelings overwhelms my heart, and I try to hold onto it.

I don’t know how much time passes before a jolt of the carriage wakes me up. For a moment, I’m groggy, and I can’t see anything in the dim light.

'Mila?'

(Then I remember.)"

- Ezen Moreno, District One Male [ Sunrise Rainier D2 // [Thundy] ] in Reprise, Reprisal and fates written in blood


"How can one be so sure that three women will fall to his blade? I bow to no man. Or woman, for that matter."

"'If you cannot live with yourself, live for another.' The advice is unwarranted- perhaps out of nowhere and I did not mean them to sound as loud as they did. 'That's my answer for you, find a reason to live in spite of yourself- of what one of us will become today.'

Delilah. Delilah. Delilah. She is all that I can think about, everything that I have ever needed and if her arms are not my final resting place then I have surely found myself in hell. An absolute, unyielding hell. I can't die here. Not before I've seen her again.

'I'm getting married.'

(If I survive.) The words are better left unsaid. I don't want Delilah to know of the doubts which currently plague me- that I am not as certain of my victory as I was the last time we spoke. When it was so easy to remember the feeling of her hand in mine.

There is more than pain. There has to be more than pain. I have felt it, I have known it, but it's so hard to recall after such prolonged suffering. To convince myself that it was more than a feeble fantasy."

- Hayden Harvard, District Two Female [ [nyte] ] in wrath and ruin and one risk to the next


"I don't want a way out. I invited death to my doorstep last night. Suffice to say that death fled in fear of me."

"But when I stop laughing and look up, I see her. A ghost of a person standing before me, and she looks like one of the tributes. I think her name is Serena, but I’m not sure completely. The girl from district six. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I can hear the voices in the wind. All my hairs are standing, and I kind of feel bad for laughing at Kraygon. Then he stops, and he says it’s a good place to rest. Sure. I can rest while these pawns stay awake making sure their king stays alive. I sit down on the ground preparing myself for rest when the anthem plays. I watch the faces. I remember Alice. She gave me a drink of something while on the roof. I wonder what happened to her. But she had to die anyway if I wanted to make it home. The next face gives me chills. Serena. I saw her ghost. My mouth is wide as I try to hide the fear slowly crawling through my veins. Nothing makes sense anymore. How could I have seen her ghost without knowing she was dead? Maybe that’s why I saw my brothers running around earlier. The gamemakers have done something to me. It has to be them. It has to be. "

- Rhaegar Hammerfell, District Two Male [ Cato ] in Pain Without Love and wrath and ruin


"So you wanna fight? You want a motherFUCKING FIGHT? Then let's F U C K I N G GO. I'll take on ALL OF YOU. EVERY. LAST. ONE."

"They approach like vultures, out of the darkness, squishing jack-o-lanterns and convering on one source. And for a moment she can't do anything but stare. Faces float in the crowd: that bitch Jacinta Salazar, who got a good hit for just a second. Mila's district partner, seemingly unbothered by attacking an ally of someone from home. And the boy from 6, who stabs Serena through the head. She never even had a chance.

Boom.

Boom. Boom boom boomboomboom the cannonfire echoes in her heart, through her veins and jumpstarts her nervous system. How- how- it doesn't matter. Fire explodes out of her as she grabs her axe, sidestepping Seven and stumbling over Lowe's foot."

- Alice Sullivan, District Three Female [ shrimp ] in it's a trap!


"I was going to let you pass without a scratch, but you seem to want to fight, so I'll fight. But not you. You seem lost without someone to command you. So I'll watch you be lost even more. It'll be more fun for me to see you scream as I cut down your allies with his sword."

"That girl needs to calm her butt down. I'll kill her is she doesn't shut up. I don't even know why I allied with her. She is mean, she is crazy, and I don't like her.

They spent the night away from Zagreus. We ended up in a different area then where we were. I couldn't see the forest we were in from here.

Ella pointed out that there were mutts coming toward us, but I didn't see no mutts. I saw children. I can't hurt children.

You can if you want to see Onyx.

Angel: 0

Devil: 1

Looks like the gamemakers got the outfit wrong. My devil is taking over."

- Bruce Clayton, District Three Male [ ♛ scandal ] in Definitely Not Lost and Definitely Not Lost


"Finally, some sinners. So tell me, why are you going to hell?"

"They all finally settle in for bed, and it’s kind of unspoken that I will take the first watch. I’ve never trusted anyone my whole life.

So I sure as hell wasn’t about to trust anybody here.

Finally I’m relieved from my post, but sleep does not come as easily as I had hoped. It seems ages before my eyes finally grow heavy, but sleep finally overcomes me. I’m blessed enough for Him to send me dreams of blood and victory.

And most importantly, a crown on my head.

Consciousness finally returns to my mind, but for the first time in a long time I am not woken by the sun peaking through my window. Instead it’s the chill of the morning air nipping at my skin, and just another moon lighting up the sky.

I can’t wait until I see the sun again."

- Samson Parish, District Four Female [ gamemaker sloane ♕ kaяi ♕ ] in wrath and ruin


"It’s fine, really. Sometimes I feel like he’s in my head, so he’s not really gone. Maybe we’ll meet again soon."

"I was never a fan of blood ever since the liquid typically found inside the body felt was neatly glossed around every corner of my dreams. It was the centerpiece of my consciousness. I saw it pool in Ezekiel’s bed, I saw it stain the sheets. I saw it turn him into an unfamiliar person.

I saw.. I saw..

'His head!'

I saw my everything turn to nothing. Through deja vu, I see it again.

The ivy cushioned Bruce’s head as it fell, but this moment was the most violent thing I’d seen in a long time. His head and neck detached, and a cannon blew.

I knew it was Bruce’s.

I look at the blood that practically pours from the sever lines, and suddenly, I don’t look at him the same anymore."

- Tobias Staite, District Four Male [ mat ] in fates written in blood and divided we fall


"I'M ELLA MOTHERFUCKING TRACY AND I WILL FIND HAPPINESS IN WEARING YOUR INTESTINES AS A SCARF!"

"But at this point what would that matter I'll be the fifth one to die when everything goes black and that'll be that no one cares about the early losers I'll be nothing but a two minute memory, someone whose death will have been but a confirmation of my own mediocrity in the eyes of the people. Of the other tributes as well, I'm assuming.

I can imagine it now. 'Did ya here that the 5 girl died?'"

- Ella Tracy, District Five Female [ Unitato15 ] in Definitely Not Lost and Squeak Squeak, Motherfuckers


"Kraygon. Thank you. No matter what happens, thank you."

"The night sky shatters, the clouds tear releasing poison from their veins. Red and rich of metallic incense the droplets pour across every inch of my skin. Every patter pierces my existence, illuminates my darkest depths, and destroys the boy I've longed to bury. I embrace the devilish delirium of joy and adrenaline which mingles and mixes inside my corrupted cells. I welcome the wash of blood onto my name as it elevates me from nonexistence. From her fall, I rise.

Around me the horrors halt suddenly with a final sword barely missing its ending of Rhaegar's life. Eyes turn towards the body fallen to the floor before turning to me, before looking at me. A sense of cold creeps slowly up the segments of my spine, this is how people look at a killer. They turn and flee without any other words, without any other canons. A little laughter lifts from my lips as blood bursts out of my mouth. No longer does a sense of fight or flight put wings upon my back to keep me lifted, I fall to the floor fingers tightly twisting around my stabbed stomach.

Its quiet.

On the ground the world ebbs and arches away leaving me alone in a land of black, in a land of silence. Here the pain pulls away and alone I wander through the stretching streams of darkness. Here no emotions or regrets riddle my mind, I feel no guilt for the sin my hands sewed into reality. I stop meandering for a moment. I smile. I exist. With the death of the girl by my hands I made my mark, and the feeling of excitement and achievement I feel is indescribable. I instinctively long for more, I want not just to exist but for my mark to be left so large no one will ever forget the name Atlas, who needs the Shim. "

- Atlas Shim, District Five Male [ Arrows ] in fates written in blood and Pain Without Love


"Look at this! You just fucking left me there to fight those four bitches all alone! Now they have an arsenal and we have, what?? At least they liked me getting beat up to fight four people at once!"

"It feels like a breath of cool air hitting her as she rises into the arena. Her bright green eyes alight with worry, eyeing those around her. Just a few days ago her mind had tricked her into thinking they were possible friends, but now she knows it is time for them to fight. It is time for them to battle, to fight, to die.

It's either you or them."

- Serena Fennel, District Six Female [ pup ] in it's a trap! and The Bloodbath


"Six faces are in the sky because of me and I plan to make it at least seven."

"Scatter my humanity across the stars; the sky has become a canvas for shades of red. I've dipped my hands in this bittersweet river of our family tree and tarnished my white wings in darkened shades of red, a red nebula drips from the edge of my wooden stake, one hand clutching my side as my feet drag along the the dirt and my other hand whitens at the iron grip around my weapon.

Killer -- she falls to the ground like the pillars that held my stable sanity upright, a red star system spilling from her face as her back hit the ground for the first and final time and I became something despicable in the withering shadow of my fragile humanity, I don't know if I truly expected it to stay.

Something despicable in the eyes of the sane and the powerful."

- Ansel Khiev, District Six Male [ kousei ♚ ] in sinners play as saints and a war in my head


"Ironic, isn't it? I volunteered for a noble cause, to be a hero. And now look at me. Look at us, Cynthia. I don't know what you mean when you say, 'whichever one of us that leaves here will be a killer.' We are already murderers. There's no going back from that now."

"'I've already left behind everything I believed in,' Jacinta tells her. It is a truth that she hates to admit, but the truth regardless. A truth that she must live with for the rest of her life, as short as that may be. 'I am exactly what I never wanted to be.' Like her mother and father, like the other Salazar heirs before her. Serpents, ruthless players of their own twisted game.

She wanted to be a hero — and now look at her. No better than her mother, killing without hardly blinking an eye. Jacinta killed Daniela without hesitation, just as Marina Salazar fired on the man against the brick wall, spattering blood and the contents of his brain all over the concrete floor. She did not even think twice about it — killing her was a necessity. It shouldn't be, but it is.

'I left it all behind all for the sake of living. Sometimes I look back and wish that I was still her — still that girl with big ideas about morals and heroics. But I think any sacrifice is worth it.' She had never considered just how valuable the price of life truly is before her time in the Games. She never realized that although she would like to think otherwise, she would pay anything, any amount of blood or gold, just to live. To breathe, to exist — it is everything.

'I never wanted the people I killed to suffer, but —' Jacinta heaves again, short of breath but still mustering all of the strength she has left in her to speak, to fight. '— I would rather suffer forever than die.'

She wasn't sure if she believed that before, but as she teeters on the brink of death, she knows now where she stands."

- Jacinta Salazar, District Seven Female [ я𝑜𝓈𝑒 ] in even in the shadows, we are worthy


"I might have to kill you for that."

"That night, he laid awake, thought about the second explosion he had felt. The others had sworn they didn't hear or feel anything, and as confused as Tobias had been at the time, he was certain he had felt it. At first he thought it might have just been hyper sensitivity, his brain choosing to overreact to everything in his surroundings. Perhaps he had only felt footsteps.

But ultimately, he decided to believe it was the sound of Quillon's soul being catapulted into the stars, never coming back to this piece of shit planet again. He liked that. Made more sense.

Be there soon, he thought.

Catapults and Cannon fire; both signified the fall of a great man. And somewhere, deeply into the night, when Tobias finally drifted off to sleep, it was with a hunger for vengeance taking root in the pit of his stomach and demanding to be fed.

He would find a way to ensure Quillon's death was not in vain."

- Tobias LaChance, District Seven Male [ umber vivuus 12b 🥀 [dars] ] in sinners play as saints and catapults and cannon fire


"Ansel, when were you planning on putting me out of my misery?"

"History is repeating itself.

Slain by the rat worshiper’s spear, his own fingers fed back to him. Maybe I ought to prepare for Jacinta’s axe coming into contact with my own fingers. Now I am fighting the biggest dilemma in my life. To continue or to surrender? A battle between mind and body, An injured forearm begins to shake, any feeling in it begins to fade away, quick glimpses to the limb confirm it is still attached as the questioning begins to swarm my mind. Focus is no longer a thing…

I was never prepared for this.

Deliver the blow and get out of here, I never thought to think about the blows that I could receive. So high and mighty, reality has knocked on the door and well Daniela girl, you are not fucking invincible.

Boom.

A familiar sound that is a blessing in more than one way. It is a wakeup call, to finally switch on and abandon the pain that is infesting me. The audio rattles my ear drums, shaking up the ringing noise in my ear unlike it has before. Weakness is swarming my body, inside and out. Every little thing is becoming a distraction. I was never prepared for this."

- Daniela Rasoio, District Eight Female [ d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel ] in fates written in blood and burning out our glory days


"I'll burn through all of your lives, if it means my allies and I can survive the night."

"My words to Alfie meant almost nothing. I struck him, but I didn’t kill. I would die as innocent as someone who’d made it this far in the Games possibly could be. I hadn’t killed anyone. I’d dealt damage but I didn’t end any lives. Now I was starting to feel like that was a good thing, no matter how much being here made me want to kill.

It was a strange feeling, death. As the ghastly creature lashed out at me with its claws as it had with Tobias, my body collapsed. For some reason, I barely felt the pain, but still let out a yelp. I would die like this. I knew it right then. Tobias and I would have the same killer, and maybe that was a good thing. It made me feel better, at least, to know how it felt for him when he died. It would feel the same way for me.

I tried my best not to imagine the terror those at home who cared about me we going through, watching me die. Clara. Jamie. Caitir. Jacob. Destrii. They were the people I cared about, too. It was weird, thinking about Destrii in that moment. I had barely thought about her the entire time that I was here in the Games, but now she crossed my mind. She didn’t visit me in the Justice Building, but I knew she still cared deeply for me. If anything, she was pretty much the only person related to me that I was exceptionally close with."

- Zagreus Moon, District Eight Male [ kap ] in Pain Without Love and Empty Shells


"No, please, just say it like it is. You want me to disappear."

"I wish it had all hit me more slowly. But it's more like a train, slamming into me as sleep fades from my muscles and bones. I start to groan as my wounds come to life like a flame in the cold air. I wiggle my toes within my boots, the cold making it painful. My knee, having sat still for so long within Hayden's splint, feels far better than the pair of gashes in my thigh.

I vaguely remember Hayden sewing the splits in my skin back together, but the memories are fuzzy. I swallow back pain as I force my arms back to pull me up. Bandages are wrapped around my chest, my hand screams as I put far too much weight on it when I sit up, and as I flinch, I notice Claudia has wrapped herself around my neck like a choker.

My memories blur together as I try to recall what's most recent. But no matter how hard I try, I can't quite remember how I got here. Or where here was exactly. Looking through the dark I see what looks like a thousand nooses swaying in the wind. Fear picks up in my heart again, beat, beat, beating wildly against my ribcage as the anthem begins overhead.

First I see Samson's face, hard with a cold glare just as always. I swear I can hear her hissing in my ears—it makes me look over my shoulder. And then it's the boy from my district, Q. I don't really mean to say it aloud, but my thoughts are just so close to the surface now that I've finally woken from slumber.

'Oh, no.'

Quiet. Only a whisper. Lost on the breeze."

- Mariela Pitre, District Nine Female [ arx!! ] in divided we fall and just hangin' out


"Guess I'm not that good looking, huh Tobias?"

"Two faces in the sky and he really should feel worse about the whole situation, he should, he knows that. They lift you up and put you on a pedestal and tape over your lips, hook the sides of your mouth, staple string to your limbs and force you to smile and dance and laugh but if you didn't break in this place you're heartless, hopeless, a reason for the districts to look at you like you're a fucking piece of shit.

Suppose it'll be easy for him, staring up at two dead girls and shifting uncomfortably -but that's all that evokes within him. It'll be easy to take the hate when he already hates himself, it'll be easy to walk away from Tobias and Jacinta and Ment, it'll be easy to kill them. He's killed before. Led people to their deaths. Second-nature. Right?

Quill turns on his side, away from the ghosts in the sky, and falls asleep with his demons and Tobias' golden eyes starting right into his soul."

- Quillon Blackfare, District Nine Male [ ✨ zozo. ] in sinners play as saints


"FUCK- Get the fuck off!"

"It's hard to imagine that, trusting Tobias and Jacinta with my life but I guess I already am. Between dinner dates and late night whispers, I'm stuck with them and they're stuck with me -- we're stuck without Q, the only one who knew what he was doing. I want to die and Jacinta has no business in a place like this. Tobias steers us on golden pavilion and I just pray I don't fuck it up for them to notice; just kill me quick.
please.

p l e a s e.

It's impossible not to realize this was so stupid - coming to this place again. I see it in every nightmare, before Myara died and after Emberly and I guess I thought it'd be easier to live the games myself than fear it forever. And I'm scared, just one mistake- just one slip up. I wasn't supposed to watch people die, not in real life -- I wasn't ever meant to be here and even just holding a weapon kills me I want to be dead but I still keep fucking doing this. I still keep fuckin breathing and watching and pretending that it'll just end someway that won't kill me, and in that sense I hate myself more than I think my father can. I've made mistakes, I just never wanted to be somebody else's. "

- Clementa Lowe, District Ten Female [ @fabulousraven ] in another weekend


"You will not leave this fight alive. You'll only return home in a body bag prepped for burial, and I hope you are ready."

"Nothing makes sense anymore.

Every hair stands on end as my eyes dart back and forth from the two bodies lying on the ground. Everyone is running, and I want to follow them, yet my feet are glued to the ground. My heart gallops inside my chest. Each breath catches in the back of my throat. He had to die eventually, but today wasn't his day. He had so much longer to live. So much longer to fight, and all I wanted was a chance to prove that I am a fighter. That I know how to survive.

I wanted to make him proud.

It doesn't matter anymore.

Nothing will ever matter.

Water pools in the corner of my eyes, and it takes every ounce of strength to prevent the tears from falling. I never thought I would care for someone like him. Someone that spent their entire life training for a game like this. But I patched him up just hours before. I gave him another chance at life, and now it was taken away. This only goes to prove that I am not a god. It is not my place to save those who've been condemned. "

- Kraygon Truus, District Ten Male [ Knuckles ] in divided we fall and Pain Without Love


"'Didn't make him suffer?' You murdered him. You watched him bleed out in front of you, you stopped his damn heart! You think he was just another step on your way to victory? He was a boy, with a mother and a father! He didn't deserve to die at your hands."

"The red across my vision turns grey, faded by the pure monotony of it. everything feels slow and odd. The weapon in my hand, the soil under my feet, the mirror-like pond that lies starkly calm next to our frenzied motion. Nothing is where it should be and everything seems to be missing all at once.

I can see the glass reverberating, light that's not really there shimmering against my wall, and then suddenly, it explodes. Someone's scream tears through me and at first I panic, thinking it's my own. But then I look, and I touch my mouth, and it's closed. I'm not sure I've said a single word since I've entered this God-forsaken place.

I'm not screaming, but someone is. I don't want to look. I can't. I can't, because if I do, my pieces will break and then I'm not sure I'll be able to put myself back together. I want to close my eyes, but I don't want this shaky reality to disappear completely."

- Josephine Emerson, District Eleven Female [ solo ] in the lesser of two evils and Pain Without Love


"Daniela! Alfie! Look out! There's... There's a giant fucking spider and... and two creepy babies..."

"Except fear, he could feel fear.

The bloodlust and elation from yesterday wasn't there this time. He almost wished it was, just so he might be able to do what he knew he had to with a bit more ease. Even so, fear was a powerful motivator. Watching Alfie get attacked as he had, he went to stand by the older boy. When his ally surged forward to slash deep into the bicep of the girl from Ten, he knew he had to help. This wasn't bloodlust, this was survival. He had known it from the beginning: it was kill or be killed.

He couldn't afford to feel guilty when he and his allies were under attack, whatever the circumstance. In a place like this, life was better than sanctity."

- Sirrah Birnam, District Eleven Male [ Kire ] in it's only blood and sinners play as saints


"Guys, really? I dunno about you, but I'd rather live sober than die drunk."

"No soul but wires, no heart but steel, there is no use in hating tall husks as empty as yesterday's demon-child illusion. No use in anger that is swallowed up by a bottomless void - I may as well hate the clouds for blocking out the stars.

Blood pours from me, and my fury pours out into the dirt with it as I lose the strength to stand, sinking to my knees, weapon slipping from my grasp to land next to Clementa's body.

Futility; inevitability. The faces may change - Quillon, Tobias, Clementa - but the structure remains the same; already they are closing the hole in their ranks left by her fall. They are inexhaustible, implacable, unyielding."

- Mila Breukelen, District Twelve Female [ Lyn𝛿is ] in it's a trap! and the faltering prayer


"I bet my mother is incredibly proud of me right about now. Y’all, I don’t think I can drink this. My, like, penis has been in it. But if any of y’all want it, just let me know."

"Hope here is but a fickle thing.

One can flux in and out of it or the belief of such, but there is no certainty at any point that this is indeed the realm in which one exists. I would like to commit myself to the idea that now I am entering into hope— into the notion that existence will be easier from this point on, but this is not something I can convince myself of as the creature charges forward once more.

Even with pain slight in comparison, my body burns— dry kindling set alight by the smallest spark.

I feel obligated to apologies; choking on a noose crafted of one loose promise too many. Regret drips from the tip of my tongue— the last drops of water in the desert, the last words of love on the lips of a man who know he will not return home.

There were no promises made between my mother and I when she had obliged herself to the doorway of the justice building. She had not crossed the threshold, and I had not desired for her to. She loved me because she had played a roll in my existence; she did not love me for the boy born from thoughts that existed only later.

Perhaps this was the most frightening aspect of it all— I am threatened with returning to an existence that only loves the rudimentary pieces of me my body my being."

- Alfie Larson, District Twelve Male [ heather - d2 [mylee] ] in sinners play as saints and it is not a question of memory