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At the end of the third book of the Hunger Games, President Coin proposed a certain plan. Katniss agreed to it, though the reason behind agreeing seems out of character. Why did she agree?

The plan is that there would be a final Hunger Games occurring, with the participants being children of the people of the capitol. Katniss say "I vote yes... for Prim". After enduring two Hunger Games herself, it seems strange that she would agree to a Hunger Games using children from the capitol.

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    I think the author really wrote herself into a corner: since the books were all from Katniss' point of view up until this point, she couldn't suddenly switch to a different narrator or point of view. But the problem with first person point of view is that the narrator can't lie to the reader about her own thoughts. :/
    – Martha
    Apr 16, 2013 at 2:44
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    Well it was only supposed to be 1 book remember.
    – Gaius
    May 23, 2015 at 20:33
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    If Hp Shout's answer solves your question, you should consider accepting it. :)
    – RedCaio
    Jan 24, 2016 at 5:36

7 Answers 7

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I have a different take on why Katniss agrees with President Coin. I believe that Katniss connected the dots and realized the Coin was responsible for Prim's death afterall. She voted yes to feign allegiance with President Coin. As was previously said, if she wasn't with Coin then she was a threat. By agreeing with Coin, Katniss gains her trust and the chance to avenge Prim's death.

At this point of the story Katniss has some serious doubts as to the motives and methods undertaken by Coin to win the war. Did Coin bomb the children at the end of the war to frame the Capitol? Did Coin ensure Prim was killed in the explosion to sway The Mockingjay from any Capitol sympathy? Is Coin just as evil as President Snow? When President Coin proposes a final hunger games Katniss realizes the answer to her questions is yes. Coin truly is the same as Snow, and responsible for killing Prim. Coin must die. Voting yes gains Coin's trust.

Katniss votes yes to the final hunger games... "for Prim". Remember that Prim put this entire story into motion. It seems only fitting that Prim should end it. Katniss lures President Coin into believing Prim's death swayed her complete allegiance to District 13. However, it just the opposite. Katniss knows the capitol was framed for Prim's death and is now set on a mission of revenge. Katniss may just as well repeated that same sentiment when she shot Coin through the heart: "For Prim". It's always been for Prim. Not for the Capitol, not for the rebels, not for the hunger games. For Prim.

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    This was my interpretation. Coin is shown as being increasingly Snow-like throughout the third book, and all Katniss was doing here was setting up that fantastic execution scene.
    – peacedog
    Jun 14, 2012 at 20:30
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    And thanks to a quick-thinking Haymitch, she was able to carry-out the execution!
    – Möoz
    Jan 18, 2016 at 2:09
  • So they never did start a new hunger games?
    – Mikasa
    Apr 22, 2017 at 11:31
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When Coin suggested the final hunger games, Katniss had the final proof that life under Coin would be hardly better than life under the Capitol's iron fist. And now Coin suggested a final hunger games - the very thing Katniss fought against. I felt that in the moment she was asked about the final games, things fell into place for Katniss, she realized the full extent of Coin's cruelty. We got plenty of glimpses of that cruelty in the book: torturing the prep team over some bread, killing Prim, now the suggestion of another games... Katniss knows she must kill Coin, but remembers Bogg's words, how Coin already sees her as a threat and thus exposed her to a deadly situation, hoping Peeta would kill Katniss in the Capitol. So Katniss pretends to go along with the plan, to put Coin off her guard and to make it easier to kill the woman who took her sister's life. Katniss killed Coin - for Prim.

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It isn't really stressed, but Katniss was very distraught at the end of the series, with the death of her sister. There is some fair evidence that she has had psychotic breaks previously in the series, but the death of her sister really affected her. Remember, Katniss basically volunteered her life in place of Prim's in the first book, and really everything she did was to protect Prim and, to a lesser extent, her mother, at least initially.

So, she felt like since Prim died, it would be right for the children of the people responsible to die as well. It seems like it took her a while to connect the rest of the dots as to who she ultimately believed responsible.

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    I can't agree here. The book goes to some trouble to point out how utterly appalled she is by the entire concept. Kat was lying to get a shot at Coin.
    – Tynam
    May 14, 2012 at 15:16
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I really don't think she was agreeing to vote for the Games at all. I see her reply completely differently. I think that while she was silent, she was thinking only of what she was going to have to do in the next few minutes. How she was expected to go out and kill Snow, even though she knew he was telling the truth about the bombing. She was coming to terms with the idea of killing Coin, and was saying her conclusion alloud. It really makes more sense to me. Why would she need Coin's trust? She already has the bow and arrow, the chance to kill Coin. And Coin's not going to suddenly doubt her safety and miss the execution.
So, I don't think she ever agreed to have the new Games, really. How could she, after going through them twice? After working so hard to free the districts? After pitying the workers in the Nut, after seeing Capitol children killed by Gale's own brainchild? No, she couldn't possibly condemn 23 more children to death, and because she didn't need Coin to trust her in order to kill the woman, I don't think she lied, either.

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I agree with Hp Shout that Katniss only agrees to the Hunger Games proposal to stay in Coin's good graces, but I don't think she did it (at that moment) in order to kill Coin.

I think Katniss is a terrible mess at this point in the book, barely hanging on to her sanity. The one thing that keeps her going - the thing she needs above everything else - is to kill Snow. In this state, she knows that no one is likely to trust her much, and certainly Coin has never trusted her. Katniss suspects that the HG proposal is a final loyalty test. Coin has explicitly said that she will only honor her promises if Katniss does everything Coin asks of her. Besides, if Coin allows Katniss to play this powerfully symbolic executioner role and then Katniss turns on Coin, it would be a disaster for Coin. So Katniss knows that if she wants to kill Snow (for Prim and everything else she blames on Snow), then she needs to support this HG proposal. No matter how wrong and it is. No matter how much it tears her up. She is still in the Games.

But when she faces Snow, I think the horror of what she had to do to get there is to much for her, and the decision to kill Coin is essentially involuntary. I don't think she rationally decided that Coin had ordered Prim's death. But suddenly the idea of Coin's guilt, which she had been trying to ignore and suppress, was all too easy to believe. And now she knew that Coin was evil, just as evil as Snow. In fact... Coin is the new Snow. And she is there to kill Snow...

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I was confused too when I read the ending if her motives were to agree and kill Coin when she agreed or if she was just distraught and out of character. It's really hard to tell because Collins usually writes everything that is going through Katniss's head in a lot of detail, but doesn't now. Her internal thoughts during the meeting was that a new Hunger Games would be wrong, but agreed otherwise. I think Collins watered down Katniss's internal thoughts during this part so that it would be a surprise when Katniss killed Coin instead of Snow.

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I was thinking she says yes to the Games because she needed a reason to show people why Coin was bad. “Everyone” was against Hunger Games and everyone supported Coin because they believed she would bring them a different future. When Katniss and Haymitch agree to the games, it made the majority for the Games. Coin declares the new Hunger Games, and Katniss has a reason, beyond getting her revenge for Prim, to kill Coin.

She makes Coin the enemy of the people for declaring the new Games and creates a non-personal reason for killing Coin. Katniss is able to remove herself as the enemy of the people for killing Coin with her vote for the games.

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