Of course, no musical would be without some romantic duet. In the Hunger Games, we’re all aware that the main relationship is between Katniss and Peeta. Sure Peeta might be deeply in love with Katniss since he was a young boy. This to the point that when he and Katniss are tributes in the Hunger Games, he figures that he stands no chance of winning because there’s no way he’d be able to kill her. So he might as well do what he can so she can survive. Yet, while Katniss certainly does have feelings for him, she’s most likely not aware of it for a good chunk of the series. This is probably because Katniss swore never to marry or have a family and for two very good reasons. First, she doesn’t want to be a parent on Reaping Day, which is self-explanatory. Because if your kid is reaped there’s a 23 to 1 chance that they won’t come back and you’ll have to see them violently die on national television. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Second, when Katniss was 11, her coal miner dad died in an explosion which caused her mom to break down completely that she had to grow up quickly and provide for her family. And it’s because of this, she believes love is a weakness that she’s so reluctant to admit she’s falling in love with Peeta. Even when the two of them start sleeping together during the Victory Tour and Quell training. She also believes that she doesn’t deserve him.

A good song I thought would be a duet for them would be “This Night” by Billy Joel from his Innocent Man album. It’s one of those love songs which is lovely but not very cheesy to the point of annoyance. Besides, it pertains to two people falling for each other even though they decided not to get incredibly serious for fear that they’d screw everything up. In the Hunger Games version, I had it set with the two of them on the beach during the Quarter Quell in Catching Fire which ends with the two sharing a kiss and him telling her that she’s his whole life. And it really seems to them that this might be the last time they’d be together like this.

 

“This Night” (Hunger Games Edition)

Sung by Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen

 

Peeta Mellark:

Didn’t you say

That you weren’t going for romance

Didn’t we promise

We would only be friends

 

And so we played on

With our charade of a romance

I started breaking my promises

Right there and then

 

Didn’t we swear

There would be no complications

Didn’t you want

Someone you’ve known long time before

 

Now that you’re here

It’s not the same situation

Suddenly I don’t remember the rules anymore

 

This night is mine

It’s only you and I

Tomorrow

Is a long time away

This night can last forever

 

Katniss Everdeen:

I’ve been around

Someone like me should know better

Falling in love

Would be the worst thing I could do

 

Didn’t I say

I didn’t want to be like my mother

After my father died you wouldn’t know

What I’ve been through

 

How many nights

Have I been lonely without you

I tell myself

How much I really don’t care

 

How many nights

Have I been thinking about you

Wanting to hold you

But knowing you would not be there

 

This night

You’re mine

It’s only you and I

I’ll tell you

To forget yesterday

This night we are together

 

Both:

This night

Is mine

It’s only you and I

Tomorrow

Is such a long time away

This night can last forever

 

Tomorrow

Is such a long time away

This night can last forever

Note: This post contains spoilers. So if you haven’t read the books up to Mockingjay or seen the movies up to Mockingjay Part 2, then you shouldn’t be viewing it. Even if you’re a die hard Billy Joel fan like my mother.

You have to feel for Peeta who doesn’t seem to catch a break. In the first book, he’s reaped for the Hunger Games the same year the girl he’s been completely head over heels for volunteers to take her sister’s place. And even though he and Katniss survive as victors, he’s utterly heartbroken when he finds out that Katniss was just playing it for the cameras. Add to that suffering PTSD and terrible nightmares. In the second book, he goes into the arena again with Katniss (voluntarily), only to end up captured by the Capitol, where he’s held prisoner through part of the third. During that time, he’s tortured, hijacked, and forced to be a mouthpiece for the Capitol. And when he’s rescued by District 13, he ends up attacking Katniss, which breaks her heart. Later, Alma Coin puts him on the Star Squad in hopes that he’d kill her. Luckily by this point, Peeta has recovered enough from the hijacking that he becomes aware on how much he has changed. Yet, he begins to view himself as a mutt and loathes what he’s become. Fearing that he might hurt Katniss or anyone else, he’s now asking the Star Squad to kill him because he poses a danger to the group as well as doubts whether he could heal. But he keeps going.

As for a song depicting his state of mind at the time, I decided to go with “An Innocent Man” by Billy Joel from the 1980s album of the same name. In the original version, the narrator is telling the girl to give him a chance since he really likes her and thinks love is worth it. But he understands that she’s been broken before, possibly many times. Perhaps to the point she’s suspicious and skeptical of any guy who shows any interest in her. Yet, he insists that he’d never do anything to hurt her and sees no reason why she should distrust him. However, he also tells her that he’s not going to put up with her crap lying down and will dump her if it becomes too much for him. In the Hunger Games version, I have Peeta being skeptical of his own sanity as well as willing to have Star Squad members kill him if he poses too much of a danger. Yet, he also shows the determination to fight off the hijacking and regain his old self, despite his doubts.

 

“An Innocent Man” (Hunger Games Edition)

Sung by Peeta Mellark

 

Some people stay far away from my door

If there’s a chance that I’d see a mutt

They think I was this on Snow’s designs

And think that my old self has died

 

Sometimes I live with the fear of a mutt

And the anger of having been a tool

Can I ever listen to anyone

When nobody tells me a lie

 

I know you’re only protecting yourselves

I know I’ve acted like somebody else

Someone who’d hurt you

But I’m not above

Being put into cuffs

Though I’m denying I could ever heal

I’m not above doing anything

To restore your faith if I can

Not sure if how I can retain self-control

Before I feel my mind slipping away

Yet, I won’t let my old self die

Because I am an innocent man

Oh yes I am

 

Not even sure I will ever believe

Another promise I hear in the dark

Because I don’t remember too well

What what’s real or what’s not anymore

Not sure my mind is in any way right

Or whether I am better off dead

Guess it’s not always easier to see one

As a monster before

I know you don’t want to hear what I say

I know you’re gonna keep turning away

But I will fight it and if I can survive

You can keep me alive

As long as I don’t go through it again

I’m not above being cool for a while

If you’re cruel to me I’ll understand

 

Some people run from a possible fight

Some people figure they can never win

And although this is a fight I can lose

The accused is an innocent man

Oh yes I am

An innocent man

 

I’m not a guy who’d ever hurt out of spite

I guess I’d rather be a martyr tonight

That’s your decision

But I’m not below

Anybody I know

If there’s a way I can recover my soul

I’m not certain I can go back to the start

To find out where the hijacking began

 

Not sure if there’s any miracle cure

Or should I just accept my fate as it is

But if you want me to lay down and die

Just know I am an innocent man

 

I am an innocent man

Oh yes I am

An innocent man

Despite being the most significant character in the Hunger Games after Katniss, I barely did any songs for Peeta to do on his own. Mostly because I haven’t come across any. Sure he may not be the Hunger Games contender Katniss is and he was lucky to survive both times. Yet, he was only a burden for Katniss after he got his leg injured. Because he was fighting Cato off while Katniss was in the middle of a tracker jacker hallucination. Not to mention, Peeta’s confessing his love for Katniss on national television helped her get sponsors as well as eventually allowed them both survive. But for some reason, I find it difficult to do a song parody with him singing. Maybe it’s because of the kind of music I like. Maybe it’s due to the fact that some of the song parodies don’t seem to fit his personality. I don’t know. I guess it’s complicated since it’s easy to dismiss Peeta as a useless weakling despite that he’s not. Or think that confessing his love for Katniss was self-serving and naive when it was neither of the sort. After all, he doesn’t feel he has long to live and probably consulted Haymitch on the matter beforehand anyway. And you really can’t make fun of what he went through at the Capitol in Mockingjay. Well, at least when it pertains to him.

In an attempt to make an appropriate song for Peeta, I’ll try with “Belle Isle” by Bob Dylan. It’s one of those beautiful love songs about a guy falling for some maid in a seaside town. But it’s not one of the artist’s best known. For the Hunger Games version, I have Peeta talking about how he’s been stuck on Katniss since they were little kids. And how he was a goner when all the birds outside stopped when she sang the valley song. He told her this when they were in the cave in the first novel.

 

“Girl from the Seam”

Sung by Peeta Mellark

 

When I was a young boy, no older than 5

On the first day in school

You had on a plaid red dress

And your hair in two braids stead of one

 

My father pointed you out while we were waiting

He said he wanted to marry your mom

And I thought of a goddess to beauty

At this blooming bright star of the Seam

 

I asked why she married a miner

He said it was because how he sings

He had such a voice of an angel

That even the birds stop to hear

 

That day in the musical assembly

The teacher asked about the valley song

Your hand shot high up right in the air

As she then stood you up on a stool

 

Therefore when you sang for the classroom

Every bird outside the windows fell silent

I knew from them that I was a goner

For that beautiful girl from the Seam

 

Young maiden I wish not to banter

It’s true I waited eleven years

To work up the nerve to speak to you

Until Reaping Day to my tears

 

I’ve known you’re a maid I love dearly

And you’ve been in my heart all the while

For me there is no other damsel

Than my blooming bright star of the Seam

 

When it comes to the Hunger Games, you can’t blame the tributes having an emotionally hard time as the Games officially begin. I mean imagine being a teenager who suddenly has to grapple with their inevitable death. Let’s just say you’re better off being either drafted into the military or having a serious illness. Seriously, a teenager has a better chance of surviving a war or cancer than the Hunger Games where the competition is literally deadly. And let’s just say, most teenagers aren’t really prepared to face their own mortality. So it’s not unusual for many of the tributes to be scared. As for Katniss, well, it’s one thing that she had to come close to death in the first Hunger Games. Yet, when she found out about the Quarter Quell being an All-Stars competition, she feels like she doesn’t have much time to live. After all, victors are tougher competition than your peers. Let’s just say she’s facing issues that any normal 17 year old girl shouldn’t be dealing with.

For a good song depicting Katniss agonizing through her own mortality in Catching Fire, I used “Gethsemane” from Jesus Christ Superstar. The original has Jesus praying to God and agonizing about his upcoming crucifixion. You’d think that Jesus knew that he was to suffer a most painful death he’d be more courageous about the whole thing. But it’s not the case, contrary to how biblical movies depict it. After all, facing one’s death is a very scary thing, especially if you’re relatively young. In the Hunger Games version, I have Katniss struggle with a possible death in the arena during the Quarter Quell as well as evaluate how much as changed since she and Peeta won the previous year.

 

“Katniss’s Lament”

Sung b Katniss Everdeen

 

I only want to say

If there is a way

Take this cup away from me for I don’t want to taste

Its poison

Feel it burn me, I have changed, I’m not as sure as

When I started

 

Then I was on fire

Now I’m sad and tired

Listen surely I’ve exceeded expectations tried for since last year

Seems like thirty

Could they ask as much from any other girl?

 

But if I die

In the Quell will they mourn their Katniss Everdeen

Let them hate me, hit me, hurt me, put me from misery

I’d wanna know I’d wanna know my odds

I’d wanna see I’d wanna see my odds

 

Why I should die

Would I be more noticed than I ever was before?

Would the things I’ve said and done matter anymore?

I’d have to know I’d have to know the score

I’d have to see I’d have to see the score

If I die what will be my reward?

I’d have to know I’d have to know the score

 

Why should I die?

Can it ever be now that I would not be killed in vain?

Will dear Peeta live on or will he end up being slain

Show me how it’s worth it if there’s a chance I’ll die

They’re far too keen on where and how and not so hot on why

 

Alright I’ll die!

Just watch me die!

See how I die!

 

Then I was inspired

Now I’m sad and tired

After all I’ve tried since last year seems like ninety

Why then am I scared to finish what I started

What they started – I didn’t start it

God, their will is hard

But Snow holds every card

I will drink his cup of poison

Fight in his Quell and break me

Bleed me beat me kill me take me now –

Before I change my mind