What Do You Think Was The Arena For The First Quarter Quell ? I Headcannon It Was A Labyrinth . Since

what do you think was the arena for the first quarter quell ? I headcannon it was a labyrinth . Since this was the first arena built by scratch , I think the game makers wanted this arena to be memorable and honour the origins the games should they modelled the arena after the myth which inspired the hunger games ( Theseus and the Minotaur )

Also since Haymitch said Snow needed the 2QQ to go perfectly meaning something went wrong during the 1QQ. What do you think went wrong ? Maybe there was a Minotaur mutt in the arena that was killed by one of the tributes causing uprisings to happen in the districts ? Maybe they capitol was forced to let that person be victor because the remaining tribute were worse ?

A labyrinth would be so interesting! I’m gonna steal your line of thinking and pull from something else religious/mythological: the Mountains of Moriah.

Collins seems to have an affinity with the book of Genesis. The arena resembles the Garden of Eden, the poison berries mirror the poison fruit, snakes as message bearers (you’re murdering us), seeking to go beyond the walls (the force field), and I’m sure there’s plenty more I’m missing. 

The districts had to vote their own children into the Games for the first Quarter Quell. It resembles another story in Genesis: the Sacrifice of Isaac, where God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son on top of one of the mountains in Moriah. The districts are told the same thing: sacrifice your sons to the Games. I think it’s too strict of a parallel to not place it in the mountains, especially when Haymitch uses the word “environment” here: 

For the last twenty-four years, they’ve unveiled a brand-new arena each year based on a different environment or theme, from a desert to a frigid landscape to Wiress’s reflective puzzle, which they called the Nest of Mirrors.

However, the word theme and the mirrors both lend themselves towards the labyrinth idea. I see the appeal of a labyrinth in construction. Like you said, it’s the first arena they have constructed themselves for the sole purpose of the Games. A pure landscape of mountains wouldn’t give the image of grandiosity the Capitol would want to portray, and it wouldn’t mark the era of constructed arenas. So maybe, in keeping with the theme, perhaps there is an altar of sorts, symbolic of the sacrifice they are making at the altar of the Capitol, and that altar can hold the labyrinth. Two symbolic allusions in one.

As for what I think went wrong, my mind immediately jumps to construction. I highly doubt they had the technology for an efficient Sub-A back then. We see in the 50th games that they’re still using manual labor to clean up, but they are removing the bodies with the hovercrafts, so they do have some distance technology that works. It’s the first arena they have built. Something is bound to go wrong, whether the altar’s door won’t open, or the cornucopia rolls down the mountain.

Neither of those things seem like they would affect the “smoothness” of the Games, though, so my theory is more rebellious. What strikes me between the 74th and the 50th Games is the fact Haymitch was so close to Maysilee’s body when they removed it. Katniss knew that the hovercraft won’t take the bodies if someone is there. Haymitch knows it’s less likely, but they still take the bodies as we see with Maysilee. So what if that rule started in the 25th games? Maybe a tribute or two hitched a ride on the claw and hijacked a hovercraft. There’d be no reason to have a large staff on the ship itself until it happens. It seems simple enough.  

You raise a good point about the victor. We don’t know the victor, yet we know Mags. Mags is significantly older than the victor from the first QQ. Something happened to that victor to make them disappear. A QQ victor is not someone Panem forgets unless the Capitol wants them gone. Katniss says it herself in the 75th Games, all eyes would be on Haymitch because he won the 2nd QQ. All eyes should have been on the first QQ winner, but they weren’t. They weren’t even mentioned by name. So maybe that victor was a rebel after all. Now you’ve got me thinking. 

I’m curious what your theories on the victor would be.