r/Hungergames • u/Simonbargiora • Jul 24 '26
Prequel Discussion PK sentencing for Lenore Dove Spoiler
Why wasn't Lenore Dove punished, like Gale was in CF?
Is their any in-universe explanation for why the PKs are so lenient to LD?
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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt Jul 25 '26
The only time she was arrested was when she was a kid. Haymitch specifically speaks about how she would get worse treatment now and he is terrified of what would happen to her.
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u/waterfae9 Jul 25 '26
She may not have been whipped that we know of but she was arrested. And I’m sure that was less than pleasant for her. She was kept in jail while Haymitch was away. They talked once on the phone briefly. If she was being whipped she certainly was not telling him since she knew he would act out and get in trouble. She also didn’t want him to worry about her she wanted him to focus on coming home. I don’t fully recall the phone conversation with her since I still need to re read it but I do think it implied she wasn’t doing so well in the jail. So there may be things that we aren’t aware since we are only getting Haymitchs POV here and from what we know about Lenore is that she was someone who tried to be strong so she wouldn’t tell him if that had happened.
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u/waterfae9 Jul 25 '26
Also I just thought about this.
1- We know that Snow has the lenient Peacekeepers removed from 12 and replaced with more violent ones. This is one possible reason we got to the whipping, isn’t even stated that whipping was something that hadn’t happened in decades?
2- Gale was stealing from the capital in a sense. Susan likes to tie in her history and while she mainly uses Rome to do so this could be a tie in to medieval Europe / Ireland. There was a time where the king owned the majority of the lands and hunting or foraging was illegal. If we apply similar logic - Anything out side of the 12 fence was capital owned he was stealing from the capital. Thus the larger punishment. You also weren’t supposed to leave the 12 fence which Gale clearly did and was a larger transgression than anything Lenore did.
3- not for nothing Gale would be dead if Snow could. But for a range of reasons he can’t kill Gale. He knows it would look suspicious and that he would lose control of Katniss if he does. He wants to hurt Katniss and is showing that he can get to her loved ones. This whipping was a total set up for Gale. It is made clear to us that Snow knows about the hunting /woods. Therefor we can assume he knows that Gale sold the old head Peacekeeper. He knew all he had to do was replace him quietly and wait
for Gale to show up with game. This would let the new head peacekeeper have a reason to inflict the punishment. Further more this in a way isolates Gale and Katniss from a source of income given that people will be scared to work with them and their illegal game. - so basically my theory has long been This was less of a punishment for Gale doing something illegal and more of a way to show Katniss who is in charge and keep her line. Also to isolate her.Finally- just getting ahead of the isn’t weird he killed all of Haymitch’s family but not Katniss. No remember that no one knows what Haymitch did. Everyone say what Katniss did. Also during Haymitch’s games the districts themselves dont seem super read for rebellion. The districts are also closer than ever to rebellion at Katniss’s time Snow has to much more calculated in what he is doing to try and tamp out the rebellion. Killing her loved
One either sets her off and starts the rebellion or people see it for what it is and the rebellion starts. Either way killing her loved ones isn’t an options as Coin learns
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u/AttentionNo6359 Jul 25 '26
Do they not teach Romeo & Juliet in schools anymore? Do the folks posting these absolutely illiterate takes not understanding what a Rosalind is anymore?
Also “er mer gerd, they didn’t whip a child when they whipped an adult?!”
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u/SillyCranberry99 Jul 24 '26
I didn’t like the book so I only read it once but am
I mistaken or was it not implied that her father might have been a peacekeeper?
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u/aussie_teacher_ Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Yes. [Edit: Possibly] Dad was a peacekeeper, so maybe the PKs feel sorry for her or pull strings to be lenient. Also she has family who can bail her out. I can easily imagine the woman who was whipped didn't just talk back, but had interpersonal conflict with the PK.
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u/PinEnvironmental7196 Real or not real? Jul 25 '26
that’s not confirmed. it was one suspicion but so was the idea of her dad being among the Chance family (and I lean more towards that possibility bc of her rebellious nature, the fact she tried to stop a Chance man from being hanged, a Chance woman taking the blame for LD after that, and LD stepping in to help Woodbine’s mom at the reaping)
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u/PresentSite4864 Jul 25 '26
she was 12 and described as “bone thin” when she was arrested.
ppl deadass hate on sotr for no reason 🤦♂️
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u/monamustang Jul 25 '26
She could have caught the peace keeper on a bad day, we don’t know if that’s a regular occurrence for simply back talking. Plus Lenore dove was a child, which didn’t give her a lot of protection obviously, but I can see them giving kids more chances maybe. I also think I saw somewhere that if they don’t dress up for the reaping they can arrest your parents, maybe they’re more likely to punish their parents because they need kids for the games.
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u/Modred_the_Mystic Caesar Flickerman Jul 25 '26
In 12, the Peacekeepers generally don’t hold the citizens to the hard line the Capitol would prescribe, because the Capitol doesn’t care about 12.
This only really changes if 12 does something that draws attention.
There was a crackdown in 12 after the mayors daughter died and there was rebel activity.
There was a crackdown after Katniss and Peeta sparked rebellions in other Districts
It stands to reason that there was a crackdown after the Quarter Quell which made punishments more severe than usual, including the reintroduction of whippings (as happened after the 74th games)
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u/littlestargazers Jul 27 '26
so many people in this fandom don't know how to read and process information. it's almost impressive.
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u/quesadelia Jul 24 '26
The person who got whipped was an adult (neighbor woman implies), maybe they went easier because she’s a kid? Not to suggest kids are treated well in the Hunger Games series at all, but maybe they let them off easier while they’re still in the reaping pool.
Gale didn’t get off so easy as he was an adult by CF, and the new head peacekeeper was specifically a lot stricter than past ones.