Mizzen

Mizzen was the male tribute from District 4 during the 10th Hunger Games. He finished in 5th place of the 24 tributes. He was preceded in death by his district partner Coral and followed by the female tribute from District 3, Teslee. His mentor was Persephone Price. He was in an alliance with Coral and the male tribute from District 10, Tanner.

Biography

Mizzen grew up in District 4 and became his district's male tribute in the Reaping for the 10th Hunger Games.^[2]

Along with the other tributes, Mizzen was taken to the Capitol in a dirty cattle car. From there, they were dumped into the monkey house at the Capitol Zoo.^[3]

10th Hunger Games

Early in the Games, Mizzen, Coral, Tanner and Bobbin taunted and attacked mentors Coriolanus Snow and Sejanus Plinth as they were exiting the arena after the former successfully coaxed the latter to leave. Plinth originally exposed himself and Snow to Mizzen and his alliance when he entered to die in protest of the Games while holding a traditional death ceremony for his assigned District 2 male tribute, former fellow childhood district community neighbor and classmate, Marcus.^[4] Mizzen was unsuccessful in killing either but the alliance was able to significantly injure both mentors, though Bobbin was killed in the assault.^[5]

On the second day of the Games, he, Coral and Tanner teamed together to kill Sol, the female tribute from District 5. The alliance chased Sol until Coral speared Sol's throat with a trident.^[5]

On the third day, Mizzen mounted one of two 20 foot vertical poles connecting an equal in length horizontal wooden beam where Lamina, the female tribute from District 7, had strategically placed herself from early in the Games. Coral climbed the other pole while Tanner took guard of the ground underneath. Mizzen made it up to the beam first but Tanner unsuccessfully threw up Mizzen's trident, allowing Lamina to fight him off the beam. Mizzen survived by catching the beam with one hand, but his knee was injured in the skirmish. Lamina had been too distracted by Mizzen's attempt and by the time she realized Coral had reached the beam, it had been too late to fight her off in the close proximity advantage she would need by wielding the axe. Lamina was then stabbed in the abdomen by Coral and fell to her death.

Coral and Mizzen then descend down the pole with Coral assisting him with his knee. Meanwhile, Tanner was doing some sort of victory dance over Lamina's corpse. As a smiling Mizzen initiated a "victory slap" with the District 10 boy, Coral snuck up from behind and speared Tanner through the back. Mizzen, furthering the betrayal, finished him off with a knife to his neck. After bandaging Mizzen's knee, the district partners retreated to the tunnels.^[6]

On Day 4, the District 8 female tribute, Wovey, died of suspicious causes and the District 11 boy tribute, Reaper, ignored her pile of sponsor gifts to take her to the tribute's remembrance pile of dead bodies. As he did, Mizzen and Coral arrived and consumed Wovey's sponsor gifts, oblivious to the cause of her death. Later that afternoon, Dr. Gaul, in retaliation for mentor Gaius Breen, who had earlier succumbed to injuries received by the arena bombing, released snake mutts into the arena. Not long after, Coral shrieked and ran out of a tunnel, Mizzen ahead of her. As Coral died of the snake bites, Mizzen flung his trident and leapt onto the pole opposite of where Teslee was seeking refuge, halving the time it took when he had previously climbed it. Teslee cried for Mizzen's help, as she was not strong enough to climb up to the horizontal beam and her grip on the pole weakened. Mizzen only shook his head, shocked and terrified. Eventually, the snake mutts were drawn away by Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12, and Teslee was able to retreat back to the tunnels.^[7] Mizzen decided to stay on the beam and follow the strategy Lamina had created before him.^[8]

Death

Seeking revenge for not helping her and/or because Mizzen was the only tribute in the open arena, Teslee came back to the beam he was stationed on during the fifth day. She presented an unknown device and a drone attached to her wrist by a string that she, and her now deceased district partner Circ, had modified earlier from parts of drones used to deliver sponsor gifts to the tributes. Mizzen, partially distracted by the bread he had just been gifted, was not worried by the District 3 girl. With this device, she caused the drones carrying her and Mizzen's sponsor gifts to continually circle around him, bumping into each other and hitting him, eventually damaging his eye. As Mizzen tried to escape the drones, he put too much weight on his injured knee, causing him to fall off the beam and die by snapping his neck upon impact with the ground.^[8]

Film adaptation

When the gong rang, he sprinted to the pile of weapons and began to fight. During the bloodbath, Mizzen followed Teslee, who was crawling to the pile, and tried to strangle her before stabbing her with a knife. His alliance gathered on top of the pile and proceeded to chase Lucy Gray Baird and Jessup Diggs into the tunnels. However, the two tributes narrowly escaped through a door, so they attacked the other alliance, killing Hy. They continued to inspect the tunnels until nightfall, when two of the group grabbed Otto, who had been killed by one of them, out of the rubble.

At night, the four saw Coriolanus Snow and Sejanus Plinth running towards the exit and decided to chase him, not stopping even when Bobbin was killed. After Coriolanus and Sejanus escaped, the tributes returned to the center of the arena. The next day, the four had cornered Lucy Gray Baird when Coriolanus sent her several drones with water. The drones crashed into the alliance, and Lucy Gray was able to escape.

The group then attacked Lamina. Mizzen climbed up the beam she was standing on, attacking her despite Lamina's attempts to defend herself. After Coral killed her, the alliance saw Lucy Gray and chased her into a ventilation shaft. Mizzen witnessed and unsheathed his knife as Tanner began to reproach Coral and was punished by a trident to the chest.

Later, while Mizzen attacked Lucy Gray through the vent opening she was hiding in, Coral and Treech stood below as she ventured through the ducts, attacking her with a trident from beneath. When the vent collapsed, they chased her into the center of the arena, where a drone deposited a large tank that released hundreds of snakes.

The tributes all ran, but the snakes reached Mizzen before he could escape. He fell to the ground and got overwhelmed by the snakes, placing 4th.^[9]

Etymology

Mizzen was most likely named after a mizzen-mast, a type of nomenclature for a type of boat mast.

Trivia

• Mizzen, Lamina, Lucy Gray, and Jessup are the only tributes in the 10th Hunger Games to have their ages confirmed, being 13, 15, 16, and 18 respectively.
• Mizzen is the youngest known tribute in the 10th Hunger Games.
• Coral and Mizzen could be seen as an early iteration of a Career Tribute. For the 10th Hunger Games, several new systems and methods to further develop the Games were tested, and Mizzen could have inspired his district to begin producing Careers, as his performance in the 10th Hunger Games clearly showcased how his prior training with using a trident, knives and fishing nets greatly increased his chances of surviving.
• He dies in a similar way to Lamina. He originally undermines the threat directly under him and falls to his death.
• His death is also ironic due to the fact that not only was Teslee attacking him with his own hijacked drones, but he attempted to evade them by sliding down the same pole that Teslee was on when he refused her plea for rescue when she was evading the snake mutts.
• The relationship between Coral and Mizzen is reminiscent of the relationship between Cato and Clove in The Hunger Games.
• Actor Cooper Dillon auditioned using Mizzen's death scene.^[10]

References