Fans are nearly a year away from the expected November 2023 release of the Hunger Games prequel film, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. There has yet to be a trailer, but fans of author Suzanne Collins know that the movie will center around President Coriolanus Snow during the days of his youth and the early years of the Hunger Games. Audiences are likely to hear some familiar names, like Heavensbee, Flickerman, and, of course, Snow, but not the likes of Hunger Games protagonist Katniss Everdeen.

While the Girl on Fire won't be featured, audiences will get to see how the Hunger Games came to be and how this affected the lives of Katniss' ancestors in District 12. After all, it is because of Katniss' destitute living conditions that she became the hard survivalist whom fans are familiar with. Katniss Everdeen lived an arduous life, and her many complex characteristics can be summed up with a couple of comical (or not so much) memes.

Katniss Isn't Perfect

As stone cold as Katniss is most of the time, she could still falter under pressure. Hunting for survival is a very different motivation than having to impress a group of Capitol Game Makers. So, under their critical eyes, she missed.

Of course, this imperfection gave audiences one of their favorite Katniss moments. Shooting an apple out of a pig's mouth made Katniss Everdeen one of the most badass women in movies, and doing it through a crowd of murderers made it all the better.

Katniss Had A Lot On Her Mind

Even before entering the Hunger Games, which can be summed up by the way they traumatize victors, Katniss was a clearly hardened person. She carries the weight of her family on her shoulders and has since a very young age. Book audiences could see into her thoughts and understand that she wasn't afraid to do horrible things, as long as it meant surviving.

Living this way caused Katniss immense damage, and throughout much of the series, only Peeta could help her stay calm. In the end, Katniss was outrageously strong, but that strength was exactly why she needed so much support.

Katniss Was Created By The Capitol

Ultimately, the thing that made Katniss into precisely who she was was the Capitol itself. The idea was that doing the Hunger Games every year would give the Districts a combination of hope and desperation to keep them under control. In the case of Katniss, it almost worked.

Of course, it only took a little to tip that balance, and the desperation of people like Katniss grew just enough that they wouldn't stand for it anymore. Katniss would have lived her whole life working hard to survive, but being thrown into the Games caused her to turn her aim to the Capitol.

Katniss' Romance Troubles

With everything going on in her life in The Hunger Games, relationships were far from Katniss' mind. Between getting thrown into the Games multiple times and suddenly becoming the face of a rebellion, there wasn't much time for her to choose between Team Gale or Team Peeta.

But, this did not stop the boys from placing their expectations on her shoulders. First, Katniss had to deal with Peeta being angry that she had put on an act to keep them both alive. Then, Gale accused her of actually being in love with the baker's son. No wonder she just abstained from the decision.

Katniss Is The Girl On Fire

From the moment that Katniss and Peeta rode through the Victors Parade burning with flames, Katniss became known as "Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire." For the majority of the series, this was seen as a statement of her power. Of course, in the end, the meaning became ironically literal.

This painful irony is a common theme in The Hunger Games, and Katniss is typically the one stuck with the backlash. Everything that could go wrong for her often does, and like becoming the actual girl on fire, it always happens in the most personal ways.

Peeta The Baker's Boy

Since Katniss was forced to take care of her family during impossible circumstances, she had to put aside any thoughts of unnecessary joy. Art, music, games, and fun had no place in her heart since she had no time to do enjoy anything.

However, Peeta, despite living in abuse, always kept time for art and beauty. He maintained his creative identity even after the horrors of the Hunger Games. This made the baker's son the unlikely but perfect match for Katniss. He reminded her to enjoy life's beauty and even got her to sing for the first time since her father died. It's a perfect fairy tale (sort of).

Katniss Was A Little Violent

Since the Hunger Games movies couldn't dive into Katniss' thoughts, film audiences lost a lot of information that had only been given through inner dialogue in the books. For this reason, Katniss' character comes across as more mellow in the movies, when really she was distrustful and aggressive.

One moment where this does come across is when she attacks Peeta after he tells the world that he is in love with her. At this point, Katniss still thinks that Peeta is trying to kill her, so she sees this action as a tactic to make her seem weak. Even after she was told that it only helped her cause, it was still months before she realized that Peeta's confession was genuine, proving just how oblivious to kindness she could be.

Always A Close Call For Katniss

Another key ironic moment in The Hunger Games is when Prim's name is selected in the reaping, despite her name only being in the bowl once. This is even more astronomical when audiences consider that the films significantly downplayed the number of names that would have been in the reaping in a community of around 8,000 people (2,000 kids).

Assuming that most other girls had to enter their names even close to half of Katniss' count, that would still make Prim's chances of being picked around 1 in 10,000. Katniss hadn't even considered this a possibility, but it happened. It was the start of the character's outrageously horrible luck.

Katniss Volunteers

What makes Katniss' journey so difficult to swallow is that she knows each of her choices has a huge impact on not only her future but those of the people that she loves most. Additionally, her choices started to affect the country as a whole. And all of this began with the simple act of volunteering for her sister.

Of course, this would forever change Panem. However, Katniss struggled back and forth with whether or not she cared about what happened to the people of Panem or if she should focus on her family. Ultimately, she chose the people, and her sister died, leaving her to think about every Hunger Games "what if" scenario that could have changed her story in The Hunger Games— so harsh.

NEXT: 10 Things From The Hunger Games Movies People Commonly Mistake For Book Canon