The last loose ends after SOTR

After SOTR, there were so many references and callbacks and cameos and whatnot that we basically got everybody’s origin stories. We have Snow, Burdock and Astrid, Madge and fam, Haymitch, Effie. Peeta doesn’t really have much backstory to be had but we even saw his dad. We got tidbits about Gaul (she made it to the 25th), some info about Snow’s poisonings that Finnick talked about, stuff on Mags and Wiress and Beetee, the state of the Games themselves. And answers about the Covey no one was expecting, like what happened to who, how they were related to Katniss, what they became post-LG. And Plutarch fans got fed, I never expected to get more answers about him. It did an incredible job at wrapping up the story and answering most questions people had.

But! There were two very notable (to me) loose ends the book didn’t touch on at all, and these are the two possibilities I see for a new book.

1. The exclusion of Tigris. We know she was a stylist up until Katniss was alive, so why wasn’t she mentioned once? We have nothing on her story. At the end of BOSAS, she was Coryo’s loving older cousin who cared for and basically raised him. At the end of Mockingjay, she hated him enough to enjoy the idea of his death. What could possibly have happened? I don’t trust that it’s just that she hated what he became, because then it’d be sad acceptance. She did love him after all. No, something happened to her and we know absolutely nothing about it. So she’s a huge candidate for the (hopefully coming) next book POV, and I assume it’d be her account of the 25th Quell because we also have no answers about that. I do assume Tigris would be the stylist of whoever wins that one just from a storytelling perspective as well. But, all in all, it would give some super valuable insight to her own story, as well as Coriolanus’ rise to power which we also know little about, beyond that he was basically Gaul’s prodigy and got the Plinth money, as well as the start of the rebellion.

2. District 13, period. We know they’re off dying of pox and trying to become self-sufficient during SOTR. But other than that, all we know about 13 at all is what happened during Mockingjay. There’s no way they just walked up to Plutarch after the 74th games and brought up their plan, they’ve been working behind the scenes for decades to aid the rebellion. But not having a POV from anyone who even knows about them means we have no answers. For this one, I can only assume we’d get a Plutarch POV. But even then, the rebellion were years-long plans and schemes, there’s no way we could get the whole story in one year. So for this one, I can only imagine we’d get his account as a Gamemaker in Finnick’s through Johanna’s games (like, it’d span multiple years and show multiple games). I say that range because they’re possibly the two most desired fan-service stories, but most of us have come to the conclusion that they won’t add much to the story besides their SA experiences, since we’ve seen 4 games now. But, getting Plutarch’s POV of them would give us our fanservice and give real answers about the underground rebellion in the Capitol, how Capitol society is under Snow, a high-ranking and somewhat autonomous person’s account of his tyranny, etc. I think it’d give us lots of good commentary.

Out of these, I’m not even sure I have a preference, besides both. I think they’d give super unique perspectives on the rebellion, which we know very little about, as well as Snow rising to power and Snow well established in power. I don’t even think they’d conflict with each other or have overlapping messages, they’re both such unique stories to tell. And most importantly, it’ll basically answer every single question and tie up every loose end left in the story, effectively making the Hunger Games a fully self-contained saga. (7 books about Snow vs the Girl on Fire… with singing… omg Suzanne Collins is actually GRRM in a bodysuit and he switched to this song of ice and fire! No wonder WOW hasn’t come out yet….)