Talking Shop, I'm still thinking about Serafina and Four's training program. How do you picture its evolution and "cover story" if training is technically illegal? Was there a point at which the scale tipped from very covert to less covert? How did that change the program? Interested in all of it, but I'm thinking about the sacks in particular and how sourcing them would be way easier after the program stopped trying to be so covert and the Capitol began looking the other way a little more.
in all honesty I think the reason for the existence of the Career training programs has almost nothing to do with the actual physicality and weapons training for the Games. I think the reason that Snow enables and encourages Career training is entirely rooted in the ideological elements, the indoctrination and patriotism, and the opportunities for propaganda.
so this whole thing is about entertainment for the Capitol, right, and I think a lot of meta around Career training and programs can lose sight of that. it has way less to do with the laws and norms and more to do with how to make the Games as entertaining as possible for Capitolites specifically, as well as how to maintain a preexisting power structure and compliance with that. as such, the level of covert vs overt vs open encouragement is going to change depending on what the Capitol wants from the Games. having a bunch of frightened children in the arena who are all basically on the same level is not entertaining, but having some children who are more prepared and seem more poised and advanced, or who have a way to stand out, that makes people more likely to root for them. we see Snow figure this all out in tbosas. he knows there’s no way that every year they’re going to luck into getting a charismatic, clever Lucy Gray, but he can invest in making charismatic and clever children year after year, and if he can invest in that, he can also have a hand in guiding the narrative around the Games at a district level. if he is recruiting from the districts for the Games, he is also controlling the narrative around the Games, and that’s something I think Snow would see the value of.
I do think there was a tipping point from where training became extremely covert to less so, and I think that it was around the first Quarter Quell. we don’t know when the volunteering started, but I think we can probably make a fair guess from information we have about the Quell and also sotr and tbosas that during that Quell, the tributes from 1, 2, and 4 were trained and were voted in because of their training, with the mindset of sparing other children. that may have been the first real showing of a full Career pack within the Games but more importantly, that may be the first example of Career ideology that the district is buying into collectively. if the district successfully votes in trained kids with the mindset of protecting other children, that is a huge ideological shift that Snow would take notice of and I think almost pounce on, because it is a district wide if not outright agreement, then begrudging acceptance and compliance, with the Games and that mindset creates an incredible new locus of control. so I think he then capitalizes on that and starts to hammer in the messaging and install people who spread the idea that volunteering for your district brings pride, it’s an honorable way to serve your community and your country, etc etc, because that type of patriotism is a very effective tool to subjugate a country. if your desire is to serve your country, then you have to comply with its rules and norms to do that.
by the time Serafina rolls around, I think the training programs in the districts look a little different but are like. relatively badly kept secrets with differing levels of organization. I did just realize on a rewatch that Haymitch literally says out loud in the first movie that the Careers train in a special academy, so I think that’s where that interpretation comes from and I don’t want to discount that. like it or not, it is some type of canon. I think that Snow mostly looks the other way around any type of physical and weapons training because that’s what’s going to be most important to the kids, but that’s what’s technically illegal, but he is more involved in ensuring the propaganda machine and messaging within training is working the way he wants it.
the whole sacking thing I think by the time Serafina comes around comes from two places. 1) entertainment value. to me it’s like. sure. it’s a thought that these kids could be killing others for the first time in the Games, but these are children. they have to be desensitized to that because there is no way a child, even if they’ve been indoctrinated for years, is going to be able to enact violence to that degree on one of their peers and have a predictable reaction. Snow knows this and again, the entertainment aspect is a huge element. he needs children who will react predictably and be able to keep killing, and so I think he sort of looks the other way around the sacking because he wants tributes that can put on a reliably good show.
2) we know Panem operates on a system of capital punishment and executions for infractions. to me it makes so much sense that Snow would see it as an obvious option to have people who are scheduled to be executed anyway just funneled into the training centers and used as practice for the Careers. it’s a way to be efficient, and I think another element is how effective of a propaganda tool this also could be. In Serafina, Annie sees the executions in the other districts as barbaric because they’re public, prolongued, and their families have to watch. in Four, though, things are different. they do it more cleanly and humanely, and the message is it’s because they’re better. it’s a really effective way to further sink these kids into the ideology they need to perpetuate, but also have a way to pit them against the other districts and make them see themselves as superior because of their training.
that is very long and I don’t think it answered your question but I hope you enjoyed skdkdjfn
