Protest Plot Announcement

With more than half the votes, the main protest plot will be:

There is an incident after the tributes have all arrived at the colosseum and are locked in their holding cells. One of the tributes spits in the face of a peacekeeper or curses the officer under their breath and the peacekeeper's temper flares. The sound of the tribute and the peacekeeper shouting at each other can be heard throughout the catacombs. It escalates. Other tributes join in, yelling and attempting to fight back from behind bars. Despite not being able to see what's happening, everyone knows. The voices of more peacekeepers rise in anger. Perhaps all twenty-four tributes join in, perhaps some stay silent because they don't want to engage or they're too afraid, perhaps some of the silent tributes are punished just as badly as the ones acting out. The sound of children being beaten echos as loudly through the halls as the screaming.

In the morning, when the cells rise up to the arena, more than one tribute is too exhausted from fighting last night's battle to participate in another. The peacekeepers may have wiped the blood from the faces of beaten tributes, brushed their hair, and masked bruises with just enough concealer to hide the evidence from the audience and the television cameras, but up close on the arena floor every tribute sees each other's truth. Many tributes refuse to even touch their weapons, silently walking past them. Others only do so in order to hurl the swords at the wall closing them in. Any tributes scared or uncertain enough to raise a blade in self-defense soon realize that they are not staring down their enemies, not today... at least, not until all twenty-four of them stand together and look up.

NOTES:

The first tribute in the holding cells to act out against a peacekeeper will be chosen via the Reaping. This tribute should not act out in an attempt to start a protest — their actions are personal and it is only when like-minded tributes begin joining in that the group's resentment against the peacekeepers becomes the start of something bigger and more intentional. The events in the holding cells are not intended to be part of the protest, but instead a conflict that provides a shared experience for the tributes. It is a collective fuse for the start of the protest and a jumping off point for characters that otherwise might not have come from a background of deep resentment for the Games/Capitol, to unite them with those that do.

It is up to each writer to decide if their tribute would act out against the peacekeepers or not. This may happen immediately upon overhearing evidence of conflict or perhaps later as things escalate. Perhaps a tribute attempts to avoid conflict altogether. Tributes may be written as being punished for the actions of others. Tributes may be written as avoiding the conflict completely and simply overhearing it.

Any and all tributes may begin protesting once they are released into the actual arena and the Games begin. Tributes may immediately refuse their weapons or otherwise act out. Tributes should acknowledge others who appear resistant to fighting and keep the narrative on the group coming together, rather than an individual seizing the lead.


ADDITIONALLY:

The number of pre-existing relationships between tributes will be increased for these games, due to consistent enthusiasm for these themes during the voting process. Instead of one or two, there will be up to EIGHT personal connections allowed — writers will be chosen via the Reaping. One set of district partners within those eight tributes (also decided via Reaping) will be allowed to have an extra close connection with each other, such as strong friendship or lifelong classmates (but they may not be relatives).

As we have moved away from tributes being former rebel soldiers (tributes would have been 14 or younger at the end of the war), non-combat ideas are highly encouraged. For example, tributes could be children of rebel soldiers or have previously lived in a different district before border enforcement was strengthened at the end of the war. One tribute's family could have temporarily housed the family of another following destruction in a different neighborhood. Tributes may be connected to ongoing rebellion efforts, rather than having been active in the actual war. The goal is for these minor, coincidental connections to give small reasons for trust and bonding. As a rule there should be just enough familiarity to do a double-take, but not so much as to make it feel like a conspiracy that all these kids have been placed in the same arena together.