Snow (doesn’t) Land on Top
Hunger Games lovers… we have to stay strong. We cannot let Tom Blythe convince us that Coriolanus Snow could ever be redeemable. Don’t look into his eyes, they will lure you in and soon enough you will go from a Peeta lover to a Snow apologist. The most important thing to remember while watching The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is that Snow is the reason our beloved Finnick is dead.
After collecting dust on my shelves for two years, this October I finally read The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I had low expectations going in. As a huge fan of the original trilogy, I couldn’t understand the need for a prequel book where Snow is the main character. Who would want to read about an evil lame loser man who is the reason so many of our favorites are dead or traumatized?
Well, that would be me. Unfortunately guys that would be me… and many more of you freaks too. At over 500 pages long, BOSAS had me hooked from the first page. I quickly realized that this book was not in any way meant to redeem Snow. If anything, it makes you despise him even more as a character– if you can believe that. Although I had seen the trailers, I didn’t really picture Snow as Tom Blythe as I read, so he wasn’t all that pretty in my mind.
The book is split into three parts, which are basically before the games, the games, and after the games. I’m not going to go in depth to the book, especially since I don’t want to spoil much for whoever hasn’t read it yet. If you are one of those people, I highly suggest you go and read it!
From the beginning, Snow sucks. His inner dialogue is mean, and even if it may seem like he is doing something for someone else, he always has his ulterior motives. That doesn’t change when he becomes a mentor to Lucy Gray. Even as he falls in love with her, his main priority is her winning the games so he can receive the Plinth Prize. Sure, if Lucy Gray died in the games, Snow would be upset. But he would be more upset over not having won the Plinth Prize–he comes before everyone else in his life, including his cousin Tigris (who would do anything for him), and that’s a very important thing to remember.
Lucy Gray is one of the best book characters ever created. She is kind and fierce and loyal and loves unapologetically. All of those things combined make her such a wonderful character to read, and seeing her love Snow? Writing a song about him, for him, so he knows she loves him (all for him to only listen so he could talk about it if the Covey were to bring it up later) and doesn’t doubt her feelings. In the most respectful way to Lucy Gray possible, she is Snow’s manic pixie dream girl.
I would also like to add that I absolutely LOVE Rachel Zegler. People online are hating on her for what? If a man shares an unpopular opinion it’s silly and cute, but if a woman does it, it’s shamed? Right… right right right…
I loved the way the book ended. You don’t know what happened to Lucy Gray, and it fits perfectly to her character. She is a mystery, she was always a mystery, and for the rest of Snow’s life she remained one. Did she die in that forest? Did she get away and live a free life in the forest? No one knows, and it’s exactly what Lucy Gray would have wanted.
To shift over to the movie, I am a stickler about adaptations–especially when I have a real connection to the book. After I heard that the movie was being compared to that of Catching Fire, I had very high hopes. I’m pleased to say that the movie was fantastic, an incredible adaptation. Of course, I should add that the book was better… but when is it not?
After Five Nights at Freddy’s came out, I started using Tiktok again regularly for edits. So, since seeing BOSAS, of course I am knee deep in Hunger Games edits on Tiktok. I feel the need to buy a bow and quiver of arrows, put my hair in a braid, and run in the forest. But all of that gets squashed over the fact that people are thirsting over one President Coriolanus Snow. I get it– trust me, I do. Tom Blythe is outrageously attractive, it actually makes me sick to my stomach. But remember who the real enemy is… have we learned nothing!!!
The movie lacked Snow’s internal dialogue, which was incredibly important in the book. Everything is done for his own personal gain, nothing he does is because he truly cares, and I think in the movie it isn’t easy to notice that. I firmly believe Snow did love Lucy Gray in his own twisted way. He saw her and grew close to her as her mentor and genuinely did want her to make it out of the games. But the movie forgets to add that he had tried to swap tributes before dealing with Lucy Gray, which I think was a simple but important thing they could have included.
I wish that the movie had shown a bit more just how terribly the Capitol treated the tributes this early on in the games as well. Tributes were killed and hung above the arena, some of their dead bodies were paraded around and dragged on the back of horse drawn carriages, it was brutal. I can understand why it wasn’t shown, but I think it took a bit away from how awful those first years were. Every year is awful that the games exist, but those first few games were a whole other level of insanity.
There was also a lack of just how integrated Snow became with Sejanus and the Plinth family as a whole. They viewed him as family in a way, and when he went off to District 12, the movie didn’t include the fact that Sejanus’ Ma sent trunks of goodies quite often. Skipping ahead, after Snow returned to the district the Plinth family took him in and treated him as his own son. No one ever found out that Sejanus’ blood was on his hands, that he ratted him out in his own way to the Capitol. The movie did a good job of making you believe that he regretted it, but I really don’t think he did. He would do it all over again if it meant returning back to the Capitol.
The ending… I am unwell. When Lucy Gray took that knife and went to go get Katniss (who didn’t end up emerging for President Snow to see for another few decades) I knew the jig was up. I expected it in the movie of course, but the book caught me a little more off guard. You begin to realize that Lucy Gray had a bad feeling about Snow, and they added a few key things that Lucy Gray said, especially the fact that she had also been a loose end for Snow, that hinted more toward it. I think that was a fantastic, small addition that made that last scene with Lucy Gray even better.
It was a really good book to movie adaptation. I think there was more they could have added, like Clemensia’s snake bite and the aftermath of it all, or even how Lucy Gray got that guitar for her interview with Lucky. I really could go on about more things, but I also don’t want to complain, because this movie surpassed my expectations. Was it perfect? No, but it was such a fun movie, incredibly enjoyable to watch, and entertained the entire way through. Rachel Zegler sang everything live and took the term ‘serve’ to a whole new level. And Tom Blythe had a buzz cut. That’s also another seriously wonderful addition to the movie.
Overall, I’m very glad to say I loved it. Snow is not a redeemable character, and although it’s easy to kick your feet while watching him on the screen, he’s a psycho! I wish there was a bit more of his personality from the book in the movie, because although he really did suck in the movie, it was even worse in the book. I also think context from the original book trilogy makes both the book and this movie so much richer than it already is.
So, with all that being said, what are you waiting for? Go to the movies and get your custom popcorn bucket for BOSAS, read the book if you haven’t, and create a new folder on Tiktok for The Hunger Games edits.
