headcanon ➴ work in progress
PANEM
➴ Panem is located in the ruins of what used to be Appalachia (around the area of Kentucky), and Katniss probably has the slightest of southern accents. It's a Seam thing, not a merchant kid thing.
➴ Religion was banned in Panem. There are a myriad of reasons I have for believing this - most notably that even though characters face extreme, life-or-death situations every day, there is never a single mention of 'god' or any other sort of deity in any of the books, even in situations where most would turn to them as a last resort. Even in District 12, where it's demonstrated that the rules are more relaxed, nothing. It also fits into what the profile of what the Capitol was - after all, the Hunger Games themselves was their way of showing the people that they were all-powerful. It wouldn't do for people to believe that there was a power above the Capitol. It's a route taken by many authoritarian regimes, only that as part of the technologically advanced future, the Capitol has even better ways of monitoring and wiping out such things. It's likely that Katniss' generation doesn't remember or even entertain such an idea at their current time of crisis.
➴ There is a definite divide between the merchant class and those who live in the Seam in District 12. It was often said that Seam kids are so dark because they have coal dust in their blood, and although that was a joke it's still evidence of mistrust at the very least.
➴ There is a tradition in the Seam of naming girls after things that grow. Katniss, Primrose, Posey, Hazelle.
KATNISS
➴ This probably won't come up, but I think it's fascinating so I'll include it here: Katniss has a very...twisted, skewed view of sex and sexuality. We know that she has 'feelings' due to it being very, very loosely implied in canon, but I also believe that her view of it isn't like others'. From a young age, she watched girls in the Seam sell themselves to the Peacekeepers for extra food - and casually remarks that if she were older, that would be her. And then Finnick admitted that President Snow used to sell Victors off at the highest price, a fate which could have easily been hers. So at this point, Katniss tends to view it as power, and something that's used as such. She knows it isn't like that between most people, but these are the things she's seen and they stay with her. It seems stupid to let someone get so close to her after being physically attacked so many times.
➴ She has a thing that can be best known as a hero complex, even if she's so unlike a conventional hero that it's ridiculous. It's difficult because Katniss has both blamed herself and refused to do so in canon. I believe that she really does blame herself for every. single. death. of the war, but then tells herself that it couldn't be her fault in order to function properly, because that's the only way to do so.
➴ Katniss has PTSD in a major way. It's not explicitly named in canon, but that's what it is, really. Symptoms of PTSD include nightmares, re-experiencing the traumatic event (plural in this case), feelings of detachment, anger, hyperarousal (touching her out of the blue will lead to her lashing out or running away) all of which Katniss is seen displaying more than a few times.
➴ She's a coward. Most people don't see that, because Katniss is a girl with a gun, and damn well knows how to use it. They see her as being brave because of that. The thing is that Katniss' first instinct is usually to run away, save herself and those few she cares about - it's only lately that she's begun to fight back. These first instincts are human, but they matter a lot to her, and she uses them to determine exactly what kind of person she is.