How to build a better Capitol in twelve easy steps

 I’m not a fan of the Hunger Games. There are a lot of things about it that make no sense to me, and they genuinely fill me with a burning rage.

 A lot of this has to do with the world building.

 Primarily with the Capitol and how it makes no sense as an evil empire.

 It leaves far too many openings for people to screw it over and generally behaves in a non-logical fashion.

 In many ways, it seems like the plot of this series is only able to happen because the Hunger Games are run in a way that even an incompetent reality show producer would find laughable.

 So, here’s my guide into making an evil empire that isn’t run by total morons.

1. Make sure the Districts hate each other more than they hate you.

 The Hunger Games would make a perfect opportunity to do this. Instead of having each district send you a team of two for no reason, add a reason!

 If both participants from a District survive, the prize is doubled. This means that if any situation arises where a participant whose partner has died kills the partner of the winning participant, their District will be the focus of all hatred for the winning District.

2. Appear to be fair

 Never take sides in any inter-District conflict. Remain totally neutral for the District’s own good.

 Have every participant of the Hunger Games be the same age. Do not needlessly give one District an advantage over another. Give them the opportunity to do that themselves.

3. Set up ‘friendlies’ and local derbies.

 Have non-lethal matches between Districts that would allow the participants to ‘practice’. Use these to foster animosity between Districts. Giving one District’s participants an opportunity to hurt or cripple another’s will cause tension and help ensure that they do not join forces.

 Be sure to punish any ‘fouls’ with progressive fines that do not actually serve as a proper disincentive.

4. Delay the stream of the Hunger Games.

 You’re going to have to do this anyway, as having twenty four teenagers in a high aggression environment is bound to lead to acts too horrific for public viewing.

 If you’ve followed steps one to three, this will be vital in order to prevent accidentally airing rape to a national audience.

 It will also allow ample time to fake an error if any of the participants try anything clever.

5. Make it clear to the participants that you are in control.

 Dissuade them from trying anything clever by subtly dropping hints that their families are still under your control and that it would be a shame if anything were to happen to them.

6. Create local government, and allow it to be self-regulating.

 Corrupt District councils are your friend. They will bring the focus of dissatisfaction closer to home.

 Be sure to occasionally act as a benevolent force and sanction particularly corrupt councils. This will help bring other councils into line periodically, and make the general population grateful towards you.

7. Encourage Districts to regulate imports into their District using taxation.

 Do this by having it be a non-deductible means of revenue for their local government.

8. Allow upward social mobility, but only sometimes.

 This helps in the pursuit of number two by making you seem fair on a personal level. It also allows for the greater vilification of the poor by giving examples who ‘worked their way out of poverty’.

9. Treat the Hunger Games as a method of allowing upwards social mobility.

 Don’t just give a prize to the winning district, provide benefits to the families of the top six participants. This will encourage families to put their children up for being participants of the Hunger Games and make you seem a more benevolent force while making sure you have something to threaten participants with.

10. Show disappointment in dissenters.

 Encourage winners, and the families who have had their lives improved,to speak against anyone who speaks out against the status quo.

 Remember, you’re doing it for the benefit of the poorer districts. It’s just that nothing is free in this world, people have to work to improve their lives.

11. Don’t name the District that has nuclear power ‘District 13’

 On a related note, do not name it ‘District 4’ either. You’re just tempting fate.

12. Don’t allow Hunger Games participants from different Districts to hang out socially.

 If you don’t understand why, you deserve what you get.


 If you follow these simple steps, you should be able to avoid getting overthrown because you got outsmarted by a seventeen year old and her creepy stalker.

Why I'm not Divergent, and neither are you- an uninformed opinion about a book I have not read

Why is the Divergent trailer asking me if I'm divergent?

 I thought the whole point of Divergent was that the people who live in that hellhole were the result of some genetic tomfoolery that left them incapable of having normal human emotions and responses.

 As I am not the result of genetic tomfoolery, I am capable of being by turns, Dauntless and cowardly, Erudite and ignorant, full of Abnegation and selfish, Candorous and deceitful, the picture of Amity and a vengeful, violent, angry piece of shit. Hell, I can be all of these things at the same time. It is entirely possible to be brave and cowardly simultaneously.

 I am a normal human being, the people in this weird dystopic vision of Chicago aren't. Therefore, I am incapable of being divergent.

 This is worse than the Muggle/wizard thing in Harry Potter.

 Because we are the people they were put into evacuated and walled Chicago to protect.

 They were put there for our benefit.

 This would be like asking wolves if they were wolf-like if dogs only existed in a fictional world where being wolf-like was a really big deal because all the dogs were put in a big kennel for the benefit of the wolves.

 Also, I have a question.

 If divergent people are the ones who have more than one of a set number of traits, why are they called 'divergent'? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to be called 'convergent'? Because all of these traits are converging onto one individual? Or the factions are converging to behave in a similar way?

 If you know anything about evolutionary biology, you've probably heard of convergent evolution. If you haven't, it's this really cool thing that happens in nature where totally unrelated species evolve to fill the same niche. They tend to look similar, act similarly and live similarly.

 Here's an example: sharks, icthyosaurs and dolphins.

 The superorder of Selachimorpha (and some others from the subclass Elasmobranchii), order of Ichthyosauria and family of Delphinidae all look very similar, have similar lifestyles and live in similar environments despite the fact that they're from different classes. Sharks are fish, ichthyosaurs were reptiles and dolphins are mammals.

 Yet look at them. They seem so similar.

 So how does the label 'divergent' make any sense? These people aren't splitting off, they're multiple factions coming together. And it's far, far more literal than sharks, ichthyosaurs and dolphins.

 Is this label explained in universe as trying to make them seem other and bad (even though they're plainly not ‘other’ in the slightest) or is this really just to make the teenage audience feel different and special, like good little pseudo non-conformists?

 As a side note, in Divergent, is Chicago still twinned with Birmingham? What happened there? I'd like to know.