SotR Is A Realisation. A Realisation That The Rebellion Didn’t Start With Katniss. That All The People

It's the things we love most, that destroy us.

TOM BLYTH as CORIOLANUS SNOW and RACHEL ZEGLER as LUCY GRAY BAIRD in THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES (2023) dir. Francis Lawrence

"I love you like all-fire"

I think what I found most fascinating about Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the brilliant exploration it makes on empathy.

Capitol citicents have been programed to ignore their empathy towards the people on the districts. We see that on Coriolanus and Tigris's grandma, she is incapable of feeling it and feels entitled to despise them as creatures naturally inferior to her.

Generational thinking is vital to the prevalence of long term propaganda.

Snow and Tigris on the other hand, are orphan, their parents didn't have enough time to teach them to ignore that empathy.

And they have lived much more precarization as kids than their grandmother, and therefore have more in common with the people of the districts than with the adults in the capitol. Is easier fot them to feel empathy towards the tributes.

If Snow and Tigris had allowed themselves to dive into that empathy, to let it drive them, their children would have been even more empathetic then them. Their generation was already different, already putting in question all the propaganda, we see that in many instances with Coriolanus's classmates.

But all it took was one of them with the determination to think like the adults, one of them with the determination to perpetuate the order, one of them choosing to be driven by pride instead of empathy, for the chain of empathy to be broken.

And the system endulged him, impulse him to power. Because he could feed into it, help it evolve and survive. Because that's what systems like those do. They scratch and kill and make bloodbaths to keep themselves alive. They create their own keepers.

Coriolanus Snow knew exactly what he was doing. He knew the people from the districs were human like him, he knew on some level they were deserving of his empathy. He chose not to have any for them. The perpetuators of the propaganda are hardly belivers of it themselves. They pull the strings because they know what they are made of, what would happen if someone broke them.

They want the power because are able to recognize everyone else is blind to it.

It was honestly bone chilling to read.

i truly disagree with and resent the idea that “everlark is what snowbaird could have been”. rachel zegler said it recently in an interview, and in my opinion it couldn’t be farther from the truth. describing coryo as “a kind eyed blond” is so inaccurate it’s laughable. even in the film tigris says about the hatred in coryo’s eyes. from even the beginning of the ballad of songbirds and snakes novel, we see how highly coryo deifies power. from the start, he keeps up his image as a charming but humble rich boy, regardless of the fact he’s starving and penniless, simply because its the best way for him to maintain control over others.

coryo only ever is kind to others when it is convenient for him - take sejanus for example. his parents gave him gifts and fed him and treated him with great respect (to the eventual point of leaving him their fortune when sejanus dies) simply because coryo pretended to care about their son to receive those effects.

with lucy, it was, to use her own words “written in the stars” that their relationship would end up in ruin, because ultimately coryo was never a person who valued love over power. i stand by the fact that while he may have cared for and loved her, the ultimate truth is that that love did not trump (in coriolanus’ values) the inheritance of power he believed he was owed generationally, from his father and every other snow before him. he would have done anything to get back to where he “belonged”, in the capitol. even had she not run from him, it would have happened a different way eventually.

SHJDJFN STOP PUTTING SNOW ON A PEDESTAL AND SAYING U CAN FIX HIM NO YOU CAN’T HE’S HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!! THE WORST!!!!!!

i don’t think any love of his would have led him to a redemption!!

Love love love the implication that Lucy Gray came back to haunt Coriolanus Snow in his last years of life, through her mockingjays, her songs, and her District, particularly Peeta.

I also can’t get out of my head the idea of an 80 something year old Snow absolutely haunted by the fact that every time Katniss Everdeen opens her mouth, Sejanus’ voice comes out.

I think the most radical thing the hunger games does is tell young people that the most revolutionary thing you can do is have unconditional love for humanity. Katniss throughout the entire series is guided by a deep sense of compassion for the people around her. It is what causes her to volunteer, to bury rue, to mercy kill cato, its why she tries to save peeta, why finnick telling her to remember who the real enemy is works, and even though her compassion for the larger world falters when peeta is kidnapped, it comes back when she visits hospitals and asks for mercy for other victors and ultimately, it is love and belief in a better humanity that makes her kill coin. Through it all, she maintains an unfaltering belief in the fundemental goodness of humanity, which is diametrically opposed to dr gaul's and snow's worldview. Peeta is even more unwaveringly compassionate

So the series tells young people that the most revolutionary thing you can be is compassionate. Let compassion drive your politics. Let yourself believe in the fundemental goodness of people. And i think that's deeply important in a world that touts the superiority of pure reason or logic, to allow yourself to be guided by something as emotional as compassion. Katniss everdeen tells us that your politics should be rooted in compassion in a world that thinks detatchment or cynicism is intelligence and i think thats v cool

its haunting honestly

the hunger games with a sprinkling of our universe's problems as if they needed any more

another idea that i take immense issue with in the hunger games community is that “peeta played the games better than katniss did” - essentially saying that he knew how to play the capitol and the audience but katniss didn’t.

there is a number of evidence to counter this. the first point the people who believe this like to make is that “peeta came up with the love concept”, and while this is true it’s only true to an extent. peeta did come up with the idea of telling the audience that he loved katniss, to gain their sympathy and favour for sponsorships, but not the ploy that happens in the games where katniss falls greatly in love with him too - in the audience’s eyes. we know this because and the end of the first book, peeta and katniss have a conversation where peeta seems to realise, to quote president snow in catching fire “the extent of her indifference” to him (though of course she’s not indifferent, just not fully in love with him at this point).

there’s also the moment post the 74th hunger games, when katniss and haymitch are secretly discussing how to justify the berry incident and haymitch tells her that “her only defence can be she was so madly in love she wasn’t responsible for her actions.” katniss responds asking if he had told peeta of the situation, to which haymitch says, “don’t have to. he’s already there” (thg, pgs. 417-418). what this explains to us is that peeta doesn’t actually need instruction on ‘the love ploy’ as he is actually in love with her. this is also backed up by the fact katniss was instructed with the sponsor items in the game wheres peeta isnt.

in terms of how katniss played the capitol and the audience, there’s great evidence to her proficiency in it, too. foremost is of course the berry incident, which she came up with knowing its meaning and its danger. it is an act done in anger at the captiol, at their murder of innocent children, at their manipulation to get the two people in the arena closest to eachother emotionally to be the last to standing, to have the greatest possible ending regardless of how it felt for the tributes. katniss realises “yes, they have to have a victor” (thg, pg. 402) so she makes them have two or none.

not to mention, throughout the entire 74th hunger games, katniss is constantly thinking of how the audience will view her actions. when peeta passes with the career pack, she “needs to look one step ahead of the game” despite the fact she is confused and angry, so she “gives [the cameras] a knowing smile” and thinks “there, let them figure out what that means”. (thg, pg. 191)

there’s also the moment where she calls out peeta’s name when she finds out they could both win together, the entirety of their time in the cave, the kissing and almost their whole relationship was a great con to get them both home, and was lead by peeta’s love, yes, but also katniss’ ability to play the capitol’s hearts.

there’s so much more i can discuss about the first and the other books bc i’ve mainly talked about book 1 but this is getting super long LOL. my point is not that peeta couldn’t play the games, or that katniss was better than him at it because i dont believe either of those things. it’s that i want people to stop acting like peeta was the greater voice of the revolution, was better at playing an audience and speaking. he certainly was excellent at it, especially in catching fire when he is aware of his need to act for the capitol (after the district 11 shooting and through to the end of the quarter quell), but katniss was too. that’s all!! sorry for the essay.

so you’re telling me that after what happened to louella/lou lou haymitch had to watch peeta come back from the capitol as a “mutt version of himself” and question whether the shell of a human with peeta’s face was even peeta at all

and he had to do all that SOBER???