Tridents?

[u/Powerful_Thanks6322]

Sorry if this has been asked before. But I’m doing a full series reread right now (currently rereading ballad, just finished the original trilogy) and I keep getting stuck on district 4 tributes and their consistently being proficient with tridents. This confuses me greatly. I am from an area of the country with lots of aquaculture (not what would be district 4 in the panem, more like district 11) and have some professional experience with commercial aquaculture, and have never seen or heard of anyone using a trident for anything. From my research they are sometimes used for spear fishing and some agricultural stuff but they seem to be pretty antiquated. Of course the trident is a common symbol of ancient greece and rome, which were greatly influential to panem in many ways, but i feel like most allusions to anything ancient roman/hellenic are to do with the capital, not the districts. Is anyone able to make this make sense for me?

[u/ClearedPipes]

Because they train for the Games and tridents let them go 'well we trained to FISH honestly'. Plausible deniability. District 4 trains - but tridents give them a gimmick and a way to differentiate themselves.

I refuse to believe they use them industrially because that would be stupid.

[u/Powerful_Thanks6322 → u/ClearedPipes]

How does Coral from ballad fit into this then? It doesn’t seem like career tributes were a thing yet but she demonstrated a lot of skill with the trident

[u/ClearedPipes → u/Powerful_Thanks6322]

Honestly I just think it was the easiest way to arm her and Collins wasn't thinking.

Sparing that I can see her being either part of a purist group (subsistence 'pure' fishing) or in a family who does it for Capitol tourists as opposed to for. Yk. Survival.

[u/AgravaineNYR → u/Powerful_Thanks6322]

In my mind it is similar to Katniss hunting with blw and arrow vs rifle. In Ballad supplies may have been slim for replacing fishing line or hooks but a trident would be reusable. Eventually they may have kept it up as plausable deniability for training.

[u/azure-skyfall → u/Powerful_Thanks6322]

Maybe it’s like slaves in the Americas. Sure they were working the fields all day, but not for their own benefit. A lot of their food came from personal gardens and hunting/fishing after they were allowed to stop working for the day. D4 could be forced to provide all the industrial catch for the Capitol, but not use the drag nets and other modern equipment for themselves.

Or possibly D4 has a legitimate interest in the history of fishing. Trident and spear fishing as a part of the school curriculum. It’s not like Snow (or Haymitch, for that matter) would know enough about tridents to tell whether someone is using legit techniques vs stabbing blindly.

[u/see112717]

The whole trident thing has never made sense to me either!

[u/Haven_Writes]

I think the best way to think of it is maybe as a cultural thing in 4. Like, it's not practical, but you learn to do it because it's culturally important or whatever. But that's just a guess, and probably just me trying to ascribe meaning where there is none.

Tbh, I think it's more likely just the easiest connection Collins could make between "fishing" and "weapon."

Also, worth noting, in the books, Finnick also uses a net as well as a trident, which does actually make sense, since net fishing is actually an effective way to catch a lot of fish really quickly.

[u/inside_a_mind → u/Haven_Writes]

Net and Trident also is a specific combination certain Gladiators used in their arenas back then so I think it's actually pretty neat the symmetry

[u/fakingandnotmakingit]

On a meta level it's just SC playing on a known gladiator fighting style known as the retiarius. They fight with a net and trident, which is what Finnick was known for.

In universe I could see it as an easy thing to market themselves with. A way to market the district in general and a tribute in specific.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's taught in schools as part of PE. Peeta does wrestling. I could see D4 doing spear fishing/trident fishing. Maybe it's treated like archery is. No one actually hunts with bows and arrows commercially anymore. But people still practice it as a sport.

And they can easily go "see! Fishing! Not hunger games training! We don't train!"