@stillfrombrooklyn: Replying to @S. this doesn't feel quite sufficient either, but it's the closest I can get other than silka having her own downsides – but that's a different video. #thehungergames #haymitchabernathy #sunriseonthereaping

Amed Núñez :

For sure they got arrogant. Wanted to make the show last and thought Silka could take him out. But it backfired as many things do for them. I also don’t think they expected the last few to be the ones remaining. Wellie and Maysilee were not gonna kill him. And Maritte taking out the game maker was not part of their plot. Leaving Silka as the only contender to eliminate him.

Ez n Bobs :

There’s also the fact that having the victor be decided by mutts would’ve made whoever was betting in the Capitol PISSED at the money they lost because of the game makers and in general would’ve been less satisfying than letting Haymitch get taken out by Silka. It’s the same reason they call off the mutts after Cato dies, the final fight HAS to be between tributes for the games to be satisfying

sambam292 :

My theory is that they knew that killing Haymitch would almost be giving him what he wanted, they saw him always putting himself in harms way knowing full well it could kill him but it could save others, so they knew the way to torment him the most would be to kill the ones he wanted to be protected.

MGR :

I firmly believe that the “mutt” programed specifically for Haymitch was Lou Lou. She obviously isn’t actually a mutt nor would kill him.

Kore🌷 :

I think Haymitch was popular enough not to take out, the same way Katniss and Peeta gained popularity because of their “love story.” They had unsatisfied viewers in the previous games so they needed to keep the capital favorites.

olivia :

Another reason is good tv. After ampert was killed, it was pretty reasonable to assume haymitch would be taken out by other tributes (and he almost was), so why not keep him around for ratings? Then, after the mutts killed Masilyee and Marriette, there were only three tributes left. The capitol loves a final battle, and welly was not going to give them that, so they left Haymitch for Silka to kill

Hartley :

I think the game makers didn’t realize the games would take longer bc of putting more people in when it was announced and since the games are only supposed to go for a couple of weeks max they had to improvise and every once and a while direct mutts at the least popular person i mean remember part of what Haymitch said about winning the games “ you get people to like you”

Mateo Curley 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐 :

Jenny :

snow decided haymitch wouldnt get the relief of dying in the arena by mutts he wanted him to suffer as much as possible by seeing his closest allies targeted knowing he would blame himself then go home and see everyone he loved die

sophie :

I think a lot of people forget that they did send mutts after him!! While he’s underground in the berm (?) setting the bomb to blow up the water tank, they send bat mutts after him, and it’s the force of the flood that kills/ disperses the bat mutts and let him live. I think that those bats were supposed to kill him the same way the squirrels killed Ampert.

acurioushiker :

I think it was more simple than that. He made for good tv. He got sent a lot of gifts and people enjoyed watching him. They wanted to engineer the epic battle, they weren’t expecting him to get to the end and be in the perfect position to blow it all up.

dangeronline :

Imo Haymich won despite capital intervention (and tech atp) and once he became a victor they couldn’t unvictor him. Unlike the 10th games, the 50th despite being edited were not something they could sweep under a rug, so him winning was him winning despite their best efforts. Afterwards purveying him as an example was the best option left, destroying everything he loved and pointing at the sad, depressed alcoholic as an example was the best use he had to the capital once they couldn’t cleanly eliminate him without other, more complicated, issues arising.

user2559551659933 :

This was my least favourite part of SOTR. It felt like ridiculous plot armour for Snow to literally tell Haymitch he's going to kill him, kill all other rebellious tribute in the arena immediately with mutts but leave Haymitch alone to become victor. Maybe it wouldve seemed less weird if Haymitch had theorised reasons why, but he literally never thinks to himself "it's so weird I've been spared"

LeesieLex :

Don't the mutts that take our Finnick in the final books in the tunnels hiss his name and stuff? Or Catniss at least thinks it sounds like they hiss his name? Am i misremembering that?