Marcus

Marcus was the male tribute from District 2 in the 10th Hunger Games. His mentor was Sejanus Plinth. During the Capitol Arena bombing, he managed to escape, but he faced major consequences after being caught.

Biography

During the First Rebellion, he was in the same class in school as Sejanus Plinth. One day, when Sejanus smashed his finger in a door, Marcus immediately scooped a cup of snow off the windowsill to help bring down the swelling. They weren't exactly friends nor enemies, but Sejanus's move to the Capitol made Marcus despise him.^[2]

Marcus was reaped for the 10th Hunger Games, and Sejanus suspected this had been rigged by his father, Strabo Plinth. Marcus and the other tributes were taken to the Capitol in a dirty cattle car, then transferred into a truck, which dumped them all into the monkey house at the Capitol Zoo.^[3]

When Marcus saw Sejanus at the zoo, he was the only tribute that refused to accept food from Sejanus, remaining stone-faced despite his mentor pleading him to take a sandwich. Instead, he got ready for the night and easily broke apart two other tributes who had been fighting over a bale of hay, claiming it for himself.^[2] Later, during the first official meeting the mentors had with their tributes, Sejanus put a meal of roast beef sandwiches and cake between them while he talked animatedly, but Marcus remained unresponsive.^[4]

During a tour of the Capitol Arena, several explosions planted by the rebels were detonated. The bombs exploded a large hole near the entrance of the arena, and through the chaos, each tribute from District 1 and District 2 made a run for it. Facet, Velvereen and Sabyn were killed, but Marcus disappeared completely, presumably having climbed underground to the Transfer.^[5]

Death

Marcus's fate was unknown until the Games begin to broadcast. He was strung up by steel poles in the air at the main entrance to the Arena and left to hang from his manacles, still alive and badly beaten. This left him prone for any tribute to kill him.^[6] Because of this, Sejanus hurled a chair towards the screen in anger, then left the mentor section.^[7]

Lamina, the female tribute from District 7, climbed up to where Marcus hung and spoke to him. After bracing herself, she mercy killed Marcus by driving an axe to his neck three times. His death took place about thirty minutes after the Games started, and was the first kill of the day.^[7] In the film, he ranked in 13th.^[8]

That night, Sejanus slipped into the arena and arrived at Marcus's corpse. After straightening his body, he sprinkled bread crumbs over it, as was tradition in District 2. Coriolanus Snow soon came to persuade Sejanus to return, and they both dragged Marcus's body toward the barricade.^[9] However, they left his body after being attacked by other tributes, and it later became part of Reaper Ash's makeshift morgue in the arena.^[10]

Physical description

Marcus towered above the other tributes^[11] and had a lot of physical strength, which was shown when he easily tossed two other tributes several yards in the air. However, when Sejanus Plinth spoke to him, he remained stone-faced and unresponsive.^[2]

When he was taken to the arena at the beginning of the 10th Hunger Games, Marcus hung from the steel poles near the entrance, his wrists chained and his body battered and bloody.^[6]

Trivia

• Marcus was the only tribute to successfully escape the arena from the bombing, and the only tribute to be left in the open when the Games began.
• He was technically the first death in the Games.
• He was similar to Cato in that they were both male tributes from District 2 who were mercy killed by a female tribute. While Cato was the last death in the 74th Hunger Games, Marcus was the first to die in the actual period of the 10th Hunger Games.

References