#obligatory disclaimer of ‘i have a lot of thg lore thats canon to my writing but not entirely to the rest of the books’

[darthnell]

These are such good questions yeah 👀 i don’t have an exact timeline myself, but as someone in the replies pointed out, it’s kind of assumed that this all takes place a few hundred years or so after modern day, so theoretically some of the modern day tech could carry over! (It’s also worth keeping in mind the amount that modern tech has developed since the trilogy itself was written. A quick google search says that facial recognition was around in the late 60s but wasn’t quite at the level it is now until much later - the FBI started really using it around the early 2010s, and it wasn’t put into iPhones until 2017; and feel free to look into that on ur own too! My point is moreso that it’s difficult as an author to predict that kind of thing, but u coud absolutely just make it all up LOL). We do know though that muttations like jabberjays and tracker jackers have been around before the Dark Days since the capitol used them against rebels in the war (Rue mentions this I believe, and also Snow spends enough time with the snakes and jabberjays in BOSAS). Mutts (and that type of genetic engineering in general) seem pretty advanced, so it seems reasonable enough imo that the Capitol is fairly technologically advanced since before the Dark Days. How much of that they recycled from the pre-apocalyptic world vs how much they created on their own is up to anyone’s interpretation. I think it’s fun to consider a mix of both (:

As for what might be considered groundbreaking by the 74th… so based on the movies at least, it seems that the Capitol can very quickly fabricate mutts at will (though how much of that is Reasonable is. Hand-wave-y). We do know that the development of the force fields came from Beetee iirc, which means that definitely wasn’t around by the 10th. And we can see that in BOSAS - no way is anyone just gonna up and Walk into the 74th arena 😭 75th games I think show a lot of technological innovation regarding the arena as well - the way the GMs can control what happens so smoothly in each of the pie slices. They can control the beasts and the lightning and a TIDAL WAVE, and they can spin the arena around just to confuse the tributes. Even things like temperature control that we saw in the 74th (maybe books moreso than movies). They had none of that in the 10th games! In my personal headcanons, the Capitol generally sees the arenas as an opportunity for innovation, and it’s definitely a fun sort of testing ground for all sorts of horrific inventions!

Also re: Katniss.. she got away with a lot of stuff before the Games when she was just a nobody from the Seam. The Capitol doesn’t even bother electrifying the district fence in D12, which kinda goes to show how little they gave a shit about D12 and how little of a threat they saw them as. But this changes once Katniss and Peeta become Victors - now they’re high level targets for surveillance, bc of course the gvt would want to keep a keen eye on the pair (!!!) of victors that defied them so blatantly and successfully. Katniss can’t skate by under the radar anymore, and she learns that the hard way.

And your point about the victors having their houses constantly bugged - yeah. I’m right with you on that one (: not sure how much of that thought is shown or hinted at in canon (i could do for a reread also) - maybe Katniss just didn’t know to look for it - but. Yeah. We already know how little the Capitol cares about the privacy of their tributes. I definitely imagine them having eyes on the victors pretty damn often. But also they would have to consider how much they want the victors to be aware of this, and consequently if/when to step in and flex their muscles (a la Snow showing Katniss the video clips). If the victors don’t realize how closely they’re being watched, they’re more likely to act freely, and maybe the Capitol would be more willing to let the illegal poaching slide if it means catching an entire rebel cell later on.

(…sorry for the rambling, i just think this is Neat to think about 😅)

I need a book nerd to create a timeline for me in regards to Hunger Games technological advancements. Because how did they have facial recognition technology and drones during the 10th Hunger Games?? What year is it?? What was considered groundbreaking during the 74th games??

Maybe I need to reread the OG books, I’m currently on the prequel ‘cause I wanted to get ready for the movie. But I guess it makes me wonder that if they had this tech during the 10th Games, what did they have prior to the war?? And how did Katniss think she could get away with half the shit she pulled in twelve if they had drones for 6 decades?? Like, miss gurl, what do you mean you were surprised when Snow showed up at your house and played you that clip of you with Gale?? Or you in the woods?? I’m honestly surprised every citizen in the districts, or at the very least the victors, didn’t have their houses mic’d up or with secret cameras.