Why does coin kill prim?

[Najma]

Why does coin kill prim?

[Derek]

First off, we don't know it was Coin with complete certainty.

But for the most part, Coin did that to make it look like it was President Snow and his Capitol regime, to complete the rebellion's desire for a new form of government.

[Kristen]

Actually, it's pretty clear that Coin was responsible for Prim being killed. That's the reason when Katniss votes yes for the final Hunger Games with the Capitol children, she says "for Prim". It was the deciding factor for her to get rid of Coin.
Also, Prim was too young to have left district 13. It was only by Coin's express permission that she was able to.

But she does it as a way to try to break Katniss. Coin couldn't control her and she was no longer useful as the symbol for the rebellion, so she wanted her out of the way. Destroying the thing she loves most was her attempt to make her either careless about her own life or to go more or less insane.

[Derek]

Damn, I was way off!

[Kristen]

Well, not completely. She did use the Capitol's ship to bomb them, not to mention the parachutes, so she was trying to make it seem like Snow was behind it.
But she had her own agenda about becoming the 'new and improved' Snow. I don't think she planned on actually implementing the ideals of the rebellion. At least not for long. That's why Katniss kills her. By trying to hold another Hunger Games (not to mention sacrificing all those kids with the bombs), she showed that she was essentially no different than Snow.

[Hungergameslover123]

I do not think anyone knows if it was actually coin prim's death could of been a more wrong time wrong place type scenario. The book never full explains who was behind prim's death although I would say coin would be part responsible since I think coin was the one who sent prim into the capital to help the injured in the first place.

[Shirley]

I feel like Coin put Primrose in that situation on purpose, knowing full-well that she was going to use one of Gale's strategy that bombs the first crowd, then bombs the first responders "drawing on human compassion" I believe it was referred to as in the book. Coin did that because she knew that Katniss wouldn't tolerate her presidency, as she was essentially another version of Snow. Coin never intended for Katniss to hear the truth from Snow, she meant for the whole thing to look like Snow arranged for.

Also, I think a detail people overlook is that it was Paylor who gave permission for Katniss to encounter Snow - perhaps Paylor knew what Coin had done and wanted Katniss to hear the truth about Coin. Paylor was the right one for the job all along.

If it helps, Primrose didn't die in vain. If she wasn't on the front lines that day, Katniss might not have killed Coin instead of Snow. Coin could have risen to great power and wrought havoc on Panem. Suzanne Collins knew what she was doing there - Snow was about to be replaced with a woman who had no problem bombing innocent children when the war was clearly over at that point. Katniss would have never known that Coin was responsible for those heinous acts if Prim were still alive. Finnick and the others would have died for no reason.

Prim represented the ultimate good, her death being a part of that. And since I'm this far along, maybe somebody else will be reading these books in 2018 and will wonder about how Katniss and Gale ended up. Personally, I feel like Gale was consumed with guilt for the death of Prim, for one, and for two, was incredibly traumatized himself. He almost needed a female version of Peeta to soften his edges a bit and Katniss could never be that for him after all that she had been through. Gale could have never been emotionally available enough to bring her back to life, especially considering the fact that it was his strategy that was used and he was suffering as well. Katniss needed Peeta, who is quite possibly the strongest character in the whole book as he never lost his gentleness in the face of all he went through. I think the intricate details in these series were simply perfect. Great writing on Suzanne Collins part.

[Rhi]

i think that it was not intentional that it was just so that a lot of capital children wod die. but then why would she have sent the medics to the capital if she did not want them going out there and saving the capital children. the medics would try to save the capital children so why would she let the medics go to the capital.

[Leah]

Shirley wrote: "I feel like Coin put Primrose in that situation on purpose, knowing full-well that she was going to use one of Gale's strategy that bombs the first crowd, then bombs the first responders "drawing o..."

This. Absolutely this.

[Rhi]

Leah wrote: "Shirley wrote: "I feel like Coin put Primrose in that situation on purpose, knowing full well that she was going to use one of Gale's strategy that bombs the first crowd, then bombs the first respo..."

I think this is absolutely true. coin felt that katniss would oppose her unless she was broken. she knew that katniss would not say that she wanted someone else to be the president if prim was dead and she was convinced that snow did it. in reality snow did not because wouldn't snow rather get out if he had an extra plane than drop bombs on his own capital members. but then coin knew that katniss would not oppose her if she was broken. and she knew that if prim died she would be broken.

[Hannah]

I don't think Coin cared who she was killing, she was just trying to protect the building or something (it's been awhile since I read it). Coin didn't intend for Katniss (or anyone, for that matter) to find out it was her. She wanted to get to where she wanted to be, and didn't care about the cost. Since she could use Prim, she did, I don't think it had anything to do with Katniss.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I read the book a year ago and I've forgotten a lot of it.

[Jane]

I think after Coin's plan of killing off Katniss by sending Peeta to join her crew failed, Coin desperately needed Katniss to be on her side and she needed her to be enraged. Also, partly this could be a form of punishment for Katniss' disobeying Coin's orders (to die, essentially).

Perhaps, the "last Hunger Games" plan was formed a long while ago and Coin knew Katniss to be much more of an emotional/impulsive person than a calculated one so killing Prim was a way to ensure Katniss' "revenge" vote on the "last Games". Apart from this, if Katniss were sure Snow was behind the killing of the children and the medics, with Prim among them, she would pay much less attention to Coin's persona and all the rest of the candidates on the position of the president (according to Boggs, Coin was afraid Katniss' word in favor of another candidate could endanger her securing her presidency).

About why Katniss said "yes" while voting. This, I think, was a purely calculated move: even enraged and vengeful Katniss would never really consent to sending kids like Prim and Rue to the Games. She only voted "yes" because she figured out Coin's plan and because she knew that those Games would never happen. In the chapters leading to the execution, Katniss was worried that she would not be allowed to do it. She had to prove her only purpose now was to kill Snow, thus she would have her bow and arrow during the execution and in the presence of Coin, who had to believe Katniss was on her side. Besides, the fact that Haymitch voted accordingly (note the scene with Katniss running to his rooms earlier to tell him something important), could only mean that he knew something changed and she had a plan. He would not just be like "idc about the kids, just gonna vote like Katniss cause yeah".

I hope this makes sense! :)

[Katherine]

It was also part of Gale's plan if you think about it because, he was talking to Beetee in the bombing about dropping one set of bombs having them explode and then letting in all of the medics and let the second string of bombs explode...

[Vinyet]

Najma wrote: "Why does coin kill prim?"

Because she's mean

[Cosmo412]

Well, if Katniss was right about Coin wanting her dead, then maybe killing Prim was her way of trying to get to Katniss (just in case Katniss was still alive because during the time no one knew that Katniss and her squad were still alive). Either this, or maybe Coin didn't know that the medics were there and she was just trying to get at the Capitol by killing their children, though I doubt this because Coin was already planning on killing Katniss.