Ok, I’m putting this in a post since (1) it was getting mildly unwieldy; (2) these aren’t fixed so I want to be able to mull them over; and (3) I kind of want to digress and pick your brains re other Capitolite/District citizen headcanons.
Re my headcanons as to how much victors and Capitolites can interact (and I guess we’re taking the selling of victors as a given), I suppose that it’s at the discretion of the Capitol. We know that the mentors were the only ones who could effect the sponsorships from the Capitol citizens, so I imagine that they had a decent amount of interaction just from that. If we’re just considering how many times a Victor will come across Capitolites while they’re in the Capitol for the games, I tend to headcanon that the Victors aren’t allowed to randomly wander around the city or stuff.
While their tributes are alive, I imagine that there are plenty of organized events (although of various levels of exclusivity and sizes) where Capitol citizens can interact with the mentors (I kind of imagine it as a really grotesque variant of fan convention, tbh). I tend to headcanon that it just wouldn’t be very efficient for a mentor to forego organized events too often (apart from whatever is needed to seal a deal). I also think that there are benefits to keeping them under official supervision: one is that they at least nominally need to toe the party line because they know that they are being watched, and the other is that because they are still kind of performing for the Capitol citizens, there is a much reduced chance that the Capitol citizens will be privy to anything that humanizes the victors or gives an indication that being a victor is anything less than glorious.
I’m not really sure what happens to the mentors once both their tribute dies. In THG, Katniss seems to indicate that the bodies are shipped back as the tributes are killed rather than being held until the end of the games (when she talks about the cornucopia bloodbath, she narrates that if Peeta has been killed he may already be on his way home). If that’s the case, then absent being sold, I kind of don’t see why the Capitol would need a mentor to stay until the end of the Games - like sending a mentor home right at the height of their district’s grief might be a way to further punish a victor). Alternatively, keeping the victors to the end of the games and making them participate in the celebration of the newest victor would also accomplish what the victory tour does in terms of making it absolutely clear that they failed to keep their tributes alive.
In terms of interacting with the gamemakers, I do think that most mentors are at least personally acquainted with at least some gamemakers, but, again, I don’t think that Haymitch would have had a personal audience while the games were ongoing. I think that he would interact with the gamemakers at social events associated with the games, but I kind of imagine that the gamemakers sequestered themselves physically during the games (if only to make their eventual emergence more triumphant and celebrated). I do agree that mentors would be able to indirectly influence by, e.g., savvy soundbites, media interaction, or perhaps catching the ear/eye of another influential Capitol person.
And now to my digressions. I’ve been trying to figure out what I headcanon about the mayoral system and to what purpose they serve. For me, I can’t imagine that the mayors AREN’T Capitol citizens (at least at birth) because it’s pretty clear that the citizens understand that becoming a victor is the only surefire way to escape poverty. At the same time, Madge’s mother was definitely a d12 citizen, but she *somehow* ended up marrying the mayor of the district (was that also some sort of punishment by association even though Maysilee died, to force her sister to become in a way complicit with the Capitol)? To me, it doesn’t really seem like being a mayor is all that much an honor, since you can only go to the Capitol upon invitation, it can be a very long term assignment (based on Madge’s age), AND your children are still eligible for the reaping (presumably to keep you in line). And, tbh, I don’t really understand why one would want the mayor to develop strong, long term ties to a district - wouldn’t that just increase the risk of the mayor developing dangerous amounts of sympathy for their citizens? I’m guessing that the mayors don’t have much of a choice as to whether they accept the position, but I always kind of wonder what their deal was and if people with Capitol spouses and children were ever selected.
The last one (and if you’ve read this far, kudos) is that I imagine similar sort of concerns for the peacekeepers in terms of considerations that might go into whether they stay in one district long term (maybe even for the duration of their 20 yr term) or if they get moved around in order to prevent ties from forming. Also, do you headcanon that any migrated to a different district or did they return to D2/the Capitol?
