"That's up to you," he says. "I can only think of two or three in my own district with a good chance of winning. But it's important to me at least to do what I can for the rest. Even if they lose, they're going back in the Arena. They survive everything that happens to them."

He shakes his head, trailing off. The glamour Stephen used to associate with the Arena is all but gone -- there are traces of it, of course, but for the most part, sending his Tributes into the arena is something that makes him feel both sad and guilty. In the new Games, there's no such thing as a quick death. Telling one of his Tributes that because they had no chance, he was going to focus on Bro or Molotov? No. He couldn't do that.