The Hunger Games' Biggest Missed Opportunity? Ignoring This Book Detail
Fans are still angry about the movies deviating from the original books.
Many book adaptations suffer from the same thing — they stray too far from the source material, ruining the story and alienating a large portion of the books' fans. The Hunger Games largely managed to avoid this pitfall by carefully translating the books' stories into live action, while gently adding more substance to make the movies exciting even for those who have read Suzanne Collins' novels multiple times.
But unfortunately, The Hunger Games' creators chose not to pay attention to one small detail that could have made the movies even more compelling.
Everyone knows that the Mockingjay pin is extremely important to Katniss, but the true meaning of the pin was completely lost on those who never read the books. In the film, Katniss stumbles upon the pin in the Hob and decides to keep it as a symbol of her fight against injustice. In the book, however, the pin's backstory is much more heartbreaking, making it an essential element of the overall narrative.
In Collins' book series, the pin was given to Katniss by her friend Madge, whose aunt Maysilee Donner was the original owner of the pin because she was the female District 12 tribute for the 50th Hunger Games. Maysilee was also Katniss' mother's best friend, so the pin meant a lot to Katniss and served as a constant reminder of why her rebellion was just.
Neither Madge nor her aunt were ever mentioned in the movies, so it is pretty hard for viewers to understand why the Mockingjay pin became such an important thing to the protagonist, and that's something that still irks The Hunger Games fans to this day.
'The only thing they did wrong was the origin of the Mockingjay pin. I get not making time for Madge, but just make it personal, like the one non-essential family item that Katniss has never had it in her to try to sell no matter how hard times were,' one fan argued.
Despite this annoying deviation from the books, The Hunger Games is often cited as one of the best film adaptations in Hollywood's history.
Source: Reddit.