Shane Donegal

Shane Donegal is the Victor of the forty-second Hunger Games.

## Games Description

Arena: Mountain

Shane had an unconventional moral compass for a Career, and he declined to participate in the Bloodbath. He had harbored a delusion that the other Careers were as idealistic as he was, and he was horrified to see the reality of the Games. He knew immediately that he had made a mistake by volunteering, and he became afraid of the allies he had hoped would become brothers in arms. He left the Careers the first night, taking only his shillelagh and a few supplies. He moved lower on the mountain and prowled the slopes, avoiding the others while he tried to figure things out. He no longer considered himself a warrior, feeling unworthy of the title and afraid of his former allies. When his former ally Tuesday Erelle attacked Violet Robbins, Shane sprang into action, killing former ally Jason Lenn in a panic when the boy moved to defend Tuesday. Shane spared the wounded Tuesday out of a sense of honor. Days later, he ran across former ally Rain Odessa and began a friendly conversation with her. They had both been Career rejects even before they left the pack, and they quickly formed an alliance of their own. The pair bonded over face paint and stories of the ancient warriors Shane idolized, and he was devastated when Rhoda speared Rain from afar while they were still swapping stories.

It was then that Shane changed. The two cannons that followed soon after Rain's meant that only he and Rhoda were left in the Arena. He knew what he was up against, and he was newly humbled as battle drew nearer with an opponent he considered to be his superior. The Gamemakers led the pair together, and Shane was determined to avenge Rain and remove a woman he saw as a merciless killer. Shane fought defensively when Rhoda attacked, and she aimed for his shillelagh, knowing it would break against the metal of her sword. In desperation and with his weapon broken, Shane grabbed Rhoda in a hug to get inside her strike. Rhoda tripped him and brought her sword down at his head, and he saved himself by catching the blade with his naked hand, catching Rhoda off-balance. As Rhoda fell, he pulled her toward him and found the broken end of his shillelagh in the snow. He smashed it into the side of her head, fatally wounding her. Rhoda stabbed him in the side in an attempt to kill him before she died, but Shane survived long enough to deal two more devastating blows to her head, killing her.

## Personality

Shane underwent perhaps the most complete metamorphosis of any Victor. Before the Games, he was an idealistic boy nursing thoughts of becoming one of the ancient Irish heroes he knew about only through stories. He relished the idea of going to battle and becoming a great warrior, but he knew nothing of the reality of war. He trained to volunteer because he thought the Games were a grand battlefield and not a slaughter.

In the Games, Shane realized how very wrong he was. He saw his allies killing helpless children and saw he was not on the heroes' side. He fell into despair as his definitions of warfare and honor were tested, and he foundered as he tried to find a reason to fight. He wanted to be a warrior, but he no longer understood the reason to fight. He tried to rectify his actions by defending weaker Tributes, but he saw as they died that his efforts were useless. When Rain was killed by Rhoda's spear, he felt true fear at the thought of facing a seemingly undefeatable opponent. Only when he was inches from death and fighting for his life did he finally find what it meant to be a warrior. He cast aside his thoughts of honor, greatness, or valor and came to know that the only reason to fight was to put an end to war. He saw that warriors were honored because war was the worst thing on Earth, and they only did it so no one else would have to.

Shane lost four fingers and seven toes to frostbite. Capitol doctors fitted him with lifelike prosthetics and cosmetic surgeons heightened his Irish looks. He experienced PTSD and massive guilt after his Victory, blaming himself for volunteering and taking another Tribute's chance to survive. He decorated himself with tattoos for his initiation, choosing designs that commemorated Rain (a dolphin, which in Irish myth is associated with intelligence and strength), Rhoda (A Panem insignia) and himself (Ken and spiral runes, which mark a growing warrior). Upon returning home, Shane surrounded himself with simpler stories of ancient worlds and hung his broken shillelagh above his bed, declining to repair it until he needed it.

## Family

Dad- Brenden

Mom- Kennedy

Younger Brother (Tribute in the 49th Games)- Patrick

## Trivia

* Shane has become associated with the rebellion in the years following his victory, considering it the only thing worth going back to war.
* Shane is the least popular Career Victor among the Career Districts, due to his reluctance to kill and his unconventionally merciful nature.
* For obvious reasons, fellow Victor Rhoda Hamilton is not fond of Shane, though she does begrudgingly respect him for being able to kill her.
* Shane is of Irish descent and his family retains a few ancestral traditions, such as the shillelagh passed on to Shane all the way from ancient Ireland. This is not, however, the shillelagh he used in the Arena.