The Time Everyone Tried To Copy Hunger Games 

Go to tryfum.com/PINELY and use code PINELY to get a discount off your order today! Also to all the people who are commenting that katniss and gale weren't dating. Im sorry. I was wrong. I got the vibe that they were a thing from the hunting scene and now every comment is about that one sentence. This will haunt me till the end of times.

I would like to make the very important point here that, in the books, Peeta did not paint his face to look like a rock. He just buried himself into the ground and covered the upper half of his body in moss and mud to blend with the environment more

Katniss was not dating Gale 😭 They were only friends. He had a crush on her, but it was unreciprocated. Katniss wasn't in love with him, she felt guilty for not returning those feelings and for hurting him. Gale is one of those "friends" who acts nice until you express romantic interest in someone other than him

On the Gale being whiny and jealous thing, he actually wasn’t dating Katniss in the first novel…so he extra had no right to be that annoying. I was so mad in the second book when he was upset with her on-screen romance with Peeta as if she wasn’t literally being hunted down by crazy people and killer wasps, and the only saving grace being sponsors who liked their romance.

i like how both haters and enjoyers of this genre can all agree that the hunger games is a banger series

What I like about the Hunger Games is that men don't have to the stereotypical hunk to get the girl. Peeta was calm, gentle and probably the most supportive of Katniss. He was willing to sacrifice himself for her (and probably others too) but Gale was the complete opposite. Choosing Peeta showcased that men with gentle qualities are desirable as well. It's okay to take a step back and support women who run the world.

Peeta in the book: covers himself in mud and pretends to be dead, like any other sensible person would Peeta in the movie: "look Katniss, I turned myself into a rock! I'm Peeta Rock!"

The Hunger Games are good because the writer actually wrote it from a real understanding of politics, war and classism during the 00's. She was channel surfing and went from some stupid reality shows to footage of the war in Iraq and it weirded her out so much it gave her an idea for a whole trilogy. Honestly, the oversaturation of reality shows during a time of horrible pointless war was insane

Teen dystopians had an absolute chokehold on the teens of the 2010s.

In the Hunger Games theres this big misconception that Katniss was put into Quarter Quell in hopes of just her dying. But its not like that at all (thanks to the movies) In the books. Its stated that in Catching Fire, Snow put all these victors into the Hunger Games, despite their granted immunity since he wants every single one them dead because of the uprising. And it horrifyingly works. In MockingJay, during the rebellion victors are killed left and right by the Capitol AND the Rebels. It literally has a name, the Victors Purge. The Capitol wanted the Victors dead because they thought they were all part of the rebellion and the Rebels wanted them all dead because they thought they all sided with the Capitol. From all Victors throughout 1-75th games only 7 people come out alive. Its a huge tragic thing in the books but in the movies it just gets about a single line and its devastating.

find it absolutely hilarious that, in the world of divergent, being kind and selfless are mutually exclusive traits as if those don't have an insane amount of overlap. Like it implies hat it;s a world full of kind people who will fuck you over to get ahead and people who are selfless and always put others first but are also really mean

A couple of small details that get overlooked by both the hunger games movies and my people watching them are 1) katniss has body hair in the book which i get Hollywood like to ignore but i feel like that fleshes out the world a little. Like katniss can't worry about that when she's too busy surviving but when the capital staff get her tv ready they wax it all off of her. 2) for the berry scene (and I'll be honest i don't know why this bothers me) in the book they make it clear that katniss and peeta already had the berries in their mouths before anyone stopped them but for some reason the movie didn't do. Idk i think it's just that they don't sell us on the idea that they were actually gonna kill themselves (which take that as you will)

What's really funny to me is that the DIVERGENTS in Divergent are basically special/normal because they're neurotypical. Like there's even a part in Book 2, I think, where evil president lady is describing the neurological differences and it's like "yes... you are less intense about your interests and have a strong control over how you regulate and direct your attention."

My personal biggest regret about the Hunger Games movies as adaptations is that we lost our chance for mainstream disability rep. Katniss and Peeta both come out of their first Games physically disabled: an explosion leaves her deaf in one ear, and he loses his leg. Including that in the film might've influenced a lot of the authors who hopped on the trend to put disabled characters in their works as well. (However, considering how badly a lot of the later YA dystopian authors misunderstood the genre they wrote in, I'm almost glad that we were spared their half-hearted attempts.) Edit before the second part of my comment: I forgot; Katniss's hearing is restored by the Capitol after the Games. The added feeling of disorientation and fear that the loss of half of one of her senses delivered had such an impact on me that I forgot it was fixed. Even though it was temporary, I think it was an important part of her character, and it would have been so easy to add during the movie! It wouldn't have been like a prosthetic that they'd need SFX for; partial deafness can be conveyed through good sound design, and the first Hunger Games is already brilliant with how it uses silence to intensify scenes. Think about the Cornucopia, for example. It would have been an interesting symmetry, since the explosion also happens there. Also: Rue, Prim, and Chuck's deaths hit us hard because they represent the goodness and innocence that is lost under the dystopian system. First off, they're literal children. You can't exactly get more "inherently good" than that. But also, and mostly because they're kids, they show a more innocent perspective on the events of the story. (Think about Chuck's "Woah, that's awesome," how Rue teases Katniss about Peeta, or how Prim brings her grumpy cat with her to District Thirteen. They are able to find joy in the horror of the world.) Prim's decision to become a medic also feeds into this; she risks her life to save others, making her representative of selfless altruism. (This also shows how trauma makes kids grow up too fast. Katniss reflects at one point in Mockingjay that the young girl she volunteered for at the Reaping is gone, even though it's only been a year.) The death of a healer is thematically symbolic in and of itself, but a healer who also happens to be thirteen years old and the motivation for almost all of Katniss's decisions (volunteering, winning, pretending to be in love with Peeta, being the Mockingjay, etc) over the course of the series? Collins might as well have titled the chapter "The Death of the Last Bits of Good in the World".

Peeta's real talent was charisma. He was a naturally likeable person who managed to not only win people over but make others also root for Katniss, who was rough around the edges and angry. He manipulated the capitol audience into rooting for their love, even though it was very much one sided. He manipulated the alliance into believing he was going to help them hunt her down. He manipulated the capitol audience again into being angry in the second games.

The Hunger Games was a genuinely very good book series that was turned into a film series. Divergent was a mediocre book series that was turned into a not great film series. The Maze Runner was a fairly good book series that was flipped on its head for the film series, after the first book, 90% of the films aren't what happened in the books.

I always thought it would be cool if Hunger Games had an R Rated remake. Could be a really good horror film

katniss never dated gale and never actually liked him! she thought she was SUPPOSED to like him so she tried her best to do so but she never did! also peeta did in fact decorate cakes and cookies :)

Allegient was actually supposed to be a 2-parter, with part 2 titled "Ascendant". However, the studio made the decision to turn it into a tv series at the very last minute, so all of the actors bailed because that was not in their contract. So it just got cancelled.

For a good 6 years writers were quite literally trying to steal out of Suzanne Collins' purse

the Peeta rock scene is the most iconic moment in film history idc what anyone says

the cut from “they’re coming, katniss, you’ll be dead by morning” to “he’s warning us 🤔” is so funny 😭

I was willing to sit through Divergent... until the moment they captured Triss a second time, and put her in a simulation instead of fucking killing her, which is supposedly their intent. Not only is this dystopian government built around meaningless segregations with no real function, it's also fucking stupid and incompetent. Also, it was funny to find out Shailene Woodley was apparently _insufferable_ to work with. It makes sense.

Fun fact I didn’t learn until recently, most of the stupid names in the Hunger Games are reasonable deviations of present day names, corrupted through time since HG is supposed to be hundreds of years in the future. Prime example is fondant boy himself, whose name is Peter, if you spell it like it’s pronounced in the Kentucky/WV area district 12 is most likely to be.

As far as The Hunger Games, the books and movies are bangers, though I really think they didn't have to drag out the last one into two parts. But the movie version of Catching Fire slaps the hardest.

I love the Hunger Games as it tries to say something about our current society (well for America). All these movies act like they do but the hunger games was able to focus on smaller details and say something about it (like the whole "if it wasn't for the baby" being commentary on how people care about unborn children more than actual children)

It's so funny that the rock paint scene remained unchanged in the parody movie lmao

I was OBSESSED with The Hunger Games books when they came out and my dad took me to see the first movie, I think as a bonding exercise. It became a tradition with the rest of the movies. My dad was *unironically* Team Gale from the very first movie because “Katniss should have been loyal to the guy who was there first”🙄

As someone who was the exact target demographic age during this time, plus having actually met both Veronica Roth and James Dashner, it's interesting to look back. Kids today don't remember just how huge Divergent was back in the day. At Bookcon 2017, Veronica Roth had huge lines. I actually liked the films, but as someone who saw all three films in the theater, you could definitely tell that the third film went off the rails. Still, it's a shame that it never got a proper conclusion. I swear, I'm pretty sure Divergent killed the practice of splitting the last book into two films. At least Maze Runner got to do all three films, plus a new sequel series. But NO ONE is talking about Divergent these days. Plus another funny tidbit: the first Divergent film and Fault in Our Stars came out around the same time. So whichever film you saw first definitely weirded you out on the other one.

9:26 they didn't bring Mags back, she volunteered so Annie, the other tribute Finick's partner, didn't have to go in and compete against him, not to mention Annie was extremely traumatised by her games, more than most.

Actually peeta in the books is described as someone with broad shoulders and he can carry heavy stuff and throw them around due to carrying flour in the bakery. So it gave him more advantage as a threat to other tributes than katniss who was perceived as naive childlike person who was in love. And btw she wasn’t dating gale before the games but it was hinted that they are jealous of each other’s potential love interests.

The divergent series has the kind of script you'd see from a very bad immature fanfic inspired by the Hunger Games, it being inspired by Battle Royal and it being inspired by the running man.

Best franchise-hunger games The Quality of the movies staying the same- Maze Runner Best for a drinking game with friends- whatever the other one is

I used to be absolutely insane for Maze Runner and being in the teen dystopia YA fandoms, Maze Runner never really got the praise and attention as the other ones did so seeing someone outside of that circle really enjoy them healed something in me. I also feel like I have to reread and rewatch it now and let it completely take over me again, like a dormant curse that Pinely just HAD to reawkaken. thanks a lot.

27:43 "You can only be DAUNTLESS if you're BRAVE enough to SHIT in front of OTHER PEOPLE"

It’s a common misconception that Suzanne Collins had insider information about Fortnite which inspired the Hunger Games franchise. In fact, it was actually the Minecraft: Hunger Games minigame which inspired the Hunger Games series.

A point: the Divergent movie series drastically diverges from the books and make them even worse (the books are still terrible in their own right). Four's name is explained in the books but it's irrelevant in the movie so there's no point in explaining it here. Either way, the divergent books made me angry and the movies made me angrier.

knowing that the author of divergent started as like a fanfic writer explains why it the plot makes no sense. not that fanfic writers can’t be talented, but usually when their work gets turned into a whole franchise it doesn’t end well (i’m looking at you, After)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie is so unbelievably good. They wrote it so well, and all the actors did outstanding. You are so connected to the characters and it breaks your heart when they go.

I always found it hilarious that in the world of Divergent people are categorized into a singular personality. Like they don't think a smart person can be honest or kind, or a brave person can be smart. It expects you to believe that the adults in this world don't have enough of a personality to have more than one archetype.

Maze Runner will forever be my fav of the 3 series. I just absolutely adore the bond between all the characters and love that it doesn't really focus on a particular romance, but mainly just the friendship and brotherly relationship of the boys. They all feel like one big family and are incredibly loyal to one another. It's just so adorable and refreshing to see.😭

I just finished rewatching the Hunger Games series like two days ago, thought they held up pretty good. Wild that you just dropped this right after haha

Maze Runner was always cool to me because it was one of few YA dystopian series that was geared towards boys, and the most important theme in the series is the relationship between all the characters. I haven't read it in years but i remember feeling like they were really healthy and supportive and stuff, and were emotionally mature in a way that youths could understand. They give each other privacy to deal with their circumstances in their own way, they create a whole functional society, and the dynamics they build in that society they created carry them in the rest of the series. Also, I think it's silly that the girl character who I'm pretty sure is the catalyst of the whole plot was mentioned halfway through the second movie section. I don't remember how the book treated her character, maybe I should watch them again? Please tell me if I got anything wrong here or totally misremembered everything lol

When i was like ten and definitely not gay i wrote a whole fanfic on paper about katniss rejecting both peeta and gale and just being really good friends with this girl OC i created while they were doing revolution things. This has nothing to do eith the video but i felt compelled to share. Thanks for another banger video mr pinely (and dystopia pinely with a k).

in defense of the live broadcasting, the games specifically need to be live so that sponsors can interact with the tributes in real time

Hunger games was a genuine interesting analysis of how American culture exploits minorities and normalises brutality. Then everyone copied them and the entire point was eroded.

i just finished my twelfth rewatch of this video. truly a pinely classic.

Lmao in high school, i got kicked out of my friends' book club bc i said the Divergent books are garbage and i wasn't allowed to go see the movies with them

What’s even worse about gale is they NEVER dated, they were just friends so close they were often referred to as being cousins 💀💀💀

The live broadcasting creating a conflict could be solved easily by having the plot explain "only the capital citizens are allowed the live broadcast as a perk, while everyone gets the edit 1 week later", but it always being illegally accessed by everyone in the districts. It could even bring in an interesting dynamic of the capital trying to shut down these streaming parties or trying to eliminate the unedited videos.

omg i used to be obsessed with the maze runner books! i remember being super disappointed with the 3rd movie cause of how they changed newts death scene. just hit a lot harder in the books. also there were a couple of prequels to the main series that made it a lot darker imo. i can't remember if it was mentioned in the last movie but (spoilers ig?) the guys were all friends in their little lab facility before they entered the maze. thomas was the one who actually designed the maze along with theresa. he had to watch his friends get their memories wiped and live in the walls through some surveillance thingy. crazy stuff

With Divergent, I always thought the whole thing made sense if you see it as a metaphor for autism; if you're neurodivergent you're sometimes considered both defective and a burden to society, and also a savant that is a danger to the status quo at the same time. No idea if any of that is intentional from the writers, but it always made sense to me personally at least.

the hunger games is so good because it actually feels like a world that your mind can put istelf into, due to great world building and good direction. divergent feels like people acting in a movie. it never seems like anything is actually that serious, like the characters just don't care, and that's why it feels so fake. i think it also has something to do with the fact that divergent's love story takes such a foreground role, unlike the one in the hunger games that never feels more important than the actual situations that the characters get into. there's also something to be said about the size of the setting, with THG spanning a whole country, while divergent is just one city. the maze runner doesn't seem all that comparable to either in these ways considering the main setting for at least the first book/film is manufactured and not really meant to have much general world building, but i think that also means that people lose interest following them being outside of it since any familiarity is lost.

The best thing about the Divergent series is they had the balls to make Tris sacrifice herself and actually stay dead, but they didn’t make it to that book in the movies

0:00 i’m literally reading the hunger games books to write a essay about teen dystopian books right now oh my god this could have literally never been better timing

I love how the title went from something like watching all the teen dystopia movies to that time everyone copied The Hunger Games 💀

I have to say, this is probably my favourite video I've seen of yours. The comedy was really on it, you made some great points, and I think you managed to keep a one hour video entertaining and snappy rather than having it drag on. I've been having a really terrible week and this really cheered me up :) Also going to watch the new HG movie now!

I LOVE Maze Runner. There's no one who's evil- like he said, there's mystery and confusion. The plot makes sense mostly in the books (though Scorch Trials is a bit.. questionable).

I remember reading the maze runner as a teen and ngl the first book opened my eyes to all the work someone can put into a book! Like Tolkien the author had basically made a whole different language that the kids spoke bc they'd lived isolated for so long??? It took some work getting used to but damn it was worth it

Great video; one complaint: Not enough Newt from Maze Runner. Lack of Newt? Day ruined, crops unwatered, family unfed.

pinely i unfortunately have to deduct points for saying gale and katniss were dating! gale definitely wanted them to be but they weren't on the same page about that

LOVED teen dystopia as a teen. THG and TMR were some of my biggest obsessions when i was 14 lmao, honestly the genre is still fun but there are some stinkers. One year in highschool our english teachers gave us teen dystopia novels to read and analyse, my class got the first book in the 'mortal engines' series and it's really good! At least from what i can remember, not sure about the movie it looks kinda ass comparatively. I should reread/watch these old obsessions of mine again for fun sake

Always here for Gale hate. And I will never get over the decision they made to have Peeta paint himself like a rock.

You know what's most frustrating about the love triangle in Hunger Games? THERE'S NO TRIANGLE - Katniss was never into Gale, she keeps saying in her narration how they're like family, by the end of book 3 she's like "wow you'd do a war crime? yikes" Peeta is the only real romantic option for Katniss *in Katniss' eyes* and Gale is just coming onto her but hey Twilight made profit with its love triangle let's pretend it's here as well yaaaaaaay

whats also important to remember is that in the books Gale, unlike Peeta, has a family that he loves and wants to protect (i mean peeta doesnt want his fam dead but he really only cares about protecting katniss). they're part of why he puts his name in so many times and i believe even says he also would've volunteered if his siblings were old enough and selected. Which makes it even more outrageous that he both says he wouldnt break like peeta and sacrifices Katniss's little sister (who was *her* mockingjay. *her* hope and symbol of change. literally the reason she did any of this) if he were in peeta's position and they threatened his little siblings he'd snap like a twig. and if katniss sacrificed his siblings im pretty sure he'd have killed her tbh.

When I was a kid and read that scene in the book when Peeta disguises himself my dumb ass thought he did it with frosting and was just… lying there covered in frosting 💀

I think the point of The Hunger Games is that the games are freaking vile, and they don't really need a ton of the games to show that. While its obv central to the plot, the more of them the story explores, the more you are fotting into the capital's desensitized point of view

Divergent is literally one woman liking both parkour and cottage core somehow bringing down a government

I loveee THG and TMR equally it's nice that TMR is slowly getting the praise it should've deserved and gotten when the books+movies came out ALSO FUN FACT: The author James dashner he said he chose the name 'WICKED' to make us the readers/watchers question them whenever someone said "WICKED is good"

i genuinely forgot gale existed in the hunger games, that's how insignificant he was to the plot

The Hunger Games worked because it blended fiction with a serious potential reality setting. The characters, themes and story all felt real, and it made it so much more terrifying. Not to mention all the actors nailed their performances. Katniss was a truly fantastic heroine! Divergent and Maze Runner just did not have that same rawness and realness.

I didn't love divergent but I've watched it several times in my college dorm with people simply because Four is like the perfect case study for an attractive male supporting character in a YA movie. His quote "I don’t want to be just one thing. I want to be brave and selfless and intelligent and honest and kind." Was fucking phenomenal in that scene.

Referring to Hunger Games Tributes as "Hungry Gamers" got a chuckle out of me😂

Thanks for the very fun and informative video about all the Star Wars projects, Drew!

Tris went to the salon and said "Make me look like a butch lesbian." She did stop at dying her hair blue, though.

The aggressiveness when defending Maze Runner is valid, I feel it

How could you forget to include The Host!? It's such a hilariously terrible movie and was based off Stephanie Meyer's attempt at making scifi. It's one of my favorites but nobody else seems to remember it

a bonus to Gale being a Weird Freak: they werent even dating before she went, it was just a "haha we're just such good friends" thing so him being an absolute freak about it is even Weirder

Peeta was secretly the second coming of Bob Ross🤫

I swore I read in the 1st Hunger Games book, that Peeta's family does do cakes for some people of the Capitol. And that's how he got supplies for the whole scene where he camouflage himself as a rock.

49:33 "its essentially like Saw for teenagers really" made me laugh thats a good one

i can’t believe you didn’t mention newt (the best character) once when discussing the maze runner smh

Your point about live broadcasting is so fucking funny and so true but it has literally never once occurred to be before this

My hunger games head Canon is the inner district's schools that train kids actually have them do a practice hunger game or two, so they're sending regional champions, while the outer districts just send clueless rookies which is why they don't win. Also, it's called the hunger games because the inner districts don't have food despite their apparent opulence.

Katniss and Gale NEVER DATED! She didn't have feelings for him like that, she saw him as a brother!

I'm glad we agree Minho's an absolute legend

The divergent movies could’ve been great if they were just written well

i gotta admit you got a hypnotic style, my friend. i'm 14 minutes into a video about a series i've never even seen a clip from. like these images are the first moving images i've seen of this movie and i STILL don't care about it and i'm still 14 minutes into this video and i'm shkraight chillin rn somehow, good jorb

55:57 the chokehold that clip had over me in middle school was WILD

Also realized when you were mentioning Peeta’s warning that it could have been skipped if the capital just used a deepfake.

I feel like THG aged pretty well. Like yeah maybe i hold them close to my heart bc they were a part of my childhood but looking at it objectively, they're good. They touch interesting subjects. I think what makes them great is the fact that it combines fiction with a lot of things that truly happen in our world. That's why other sagas didn't stick as much as these books. Another important saga that even tho i dont like (and maybe doesnt belong to this genre) is Harry Potter. I dont like it but i can admit that JK did a pretty good job building a big fantasy world

the maze runner appreciation in this video was unexpected but very appreciated as someone who was rlly into it back in the day (rip chuck)

dude i swear you could make a video on anything and i would love it!!! your content is so unique and entertaining asf!!!

The fact that Divergent was so dead as a series they didn’t even bother making Allegiant part 2 is so funny to me.

The Divergent series is just The Giver mixed with Harry Potter mixed with Hunger Games.

Every time I new video drops I get so pumped because it’s always about the exact subject I didn’t know I needed to hear about lol hilarious and great as always ❤️

No joke, you are one of THE BEST and my favorite creator on this platform. If there's one thing your videos are going to give is entertainment. In your more serious ones, I learn a lot AND I get entertained, but in the funny ones, I get so happy! Much love from Latin America. ❤

Looking forward to the second part of this video, where Pinely talks about Logan Paul's failed dystopian saga "The Thinning" (it was supposed to be a trilogy, but they only made two)

I’ve never cried harder reading a book then when Chuck died literally…. lmfao

the pixie cut was indeed criminal ngl