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the hunger games - Who was responsible for the bombing at the end of Mockingjay?


At the end of Mockingjay (both the book and the part 2 movie)



a hovercraft drops a bunch of parachutes into a group of children and some blow up. Then, after the rebel medics come in, the rest of the parachutes blow up.




In both the novel and the movie, it's never stated definitively who is responsible for that happening. The assumption is that



President Coin was responsible.



However, I have my doubts. For example



those parachute bombs would have needed to be prepared ahead of time, but gathering the capitol citizens as human shields around the presidential mansion only happened shortly before the parachutes were dropped. Also, one of the reasons why Katniss believes it is Coin is that Snow claimed to not be responsible. How do we know Snow isn't just lying about it?




Answer



It is heavily implied to be Coin.



When Snow suggests that Coin was responsible, and Katniss begins to mull it over, we get arguments that Snow has neither the motive nor the means to conduct such an attack. Coin and the rebels have both.




  • When Katniss meets Snow, and he plants the idea that it was Coin who dropped the bombs, not him, he argues that dropping bombs on the children doesn’t fit his MO:



    What he's said makes no sense. When they released the parachutes? "Well, you really didn't think I gave the order, did you? Forget the obvious fact that if I'd had a working hovercraft at my disposal, I'd have been using it to make an escape. But that aside, what purpose could it have served? We both know I'm not above killing children, but I'm not wasteful. I take life for very specific reasons. And there was no reason for me to destroy a pen full of Capitol children. None at all."



    By contrast, he provides a very plausible motive for Coin:



    “I must concede it was a masterful move on Coin's part. The idea that I was bombing our own helpless children instantly snapped whatever frail allegiance my people still felt to me. There was no real resistance after that. Did you know it aired live? You can see Plutarch's hand there. And in the parachutes. Well, it's that sort of thinking that you look for in a Head Gamemaker, isn't it?” Snow dabs the corners of his mouth. “I'm sure he wasn't gunning for your sister, but these things happen.”




    (I think he’s being disingenuous with the last sentence. If it was Coin, she was definitely gunning for Prim – the point of this exercise was to compromise Katniss’s ability to lead the rebels, and get her squarely behind Coin.)




  • Naturally, Katniss is as sceptical as you:



    I refuse for this to be true. Some things even I can't survive. I utter my first words since my sister's death. “I don't believe you.”


    Snow shakes his head in mock disappointment. “Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other.”



    Of course, Snow could still be lying. But he’s already lost his presidency, and there’s a death sentence on his head. There’s very little to gain by continuing to lie (and if he is lying, evidence would eventually be found to the contrary).





  • When she leaves the meeting, Katniss is still sceptical, but is coming around to the idea that the rebels might be responsible:



    Then what's nagging at me? Those double-exploding bombs, for one. It's not that the Capitol couldn't have the same weapon, it's just that I'm sure the rebels did. Gale and Beetee's brainchild. Then there's the fact that Snow made no escape attempt, when I know him to be the consummate survivor. It seems hard to believe he didn't have a retreat somewhere, some bunker stocked with provisions where he could live out the rest of his snaky little life. And finally, there's his assessment of Coin. What's irrefutable is that she's done exactly what he said. Let the Capitol and the districts run one another into the ground and then sauntered in to take power. Even if that was her plan, it doesn't mean she dropped those parachutes. Victory was already in her grasp. Everything was in her grasp.



    We know the rebels had such bombs, and presumably had an aircraft loaded with them, ready to use against Capitol soldiers. They probably weren’t loaded with the intention of killing the Capitol children, but when the opportunity presented itself, they were ready and waiting.


    It’s possible that the Capitol had indeed built similar weapons, and stockpiled them before the attack. But the Capitol never used them – why? It seems more likely that they didn’t have any.





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