the new hunger games movie is more relevant than you think | a ballad of songbirds deep dive

I’m so disappointed that the large majority of videos about the hunger games never bring up its relevance to current events.. as if it’s just far off fiction. Thank you for actually speaking up

Fan theory: Here’s why I think Tigris has a falling out with her cousin, that’s so drastic she would become a rebel sympathizer. Katniss says during Mockingjay that she remembers Tigris being a stylist in one of the oldest games she can remember… I assume 10 years before this. Well guess who won 10 years before Katniss? Finnick. I think Tigris was Finnicks stylist, and whenever Snow decides to prostitute him, Tigris began to hate him; and would never forgive him for it. Because in the books, Tigris has to sell herself to take care of Snow while growing up, and it’s one of her biggest traumas.

I don’t think he was ever a rebel, I just think he was selfish. He didn’t cheat on the HG to save a human being or because he was against the concept of it. He cheated to be a Victor and to win money.

Snow being handsome and hot is like a reverse femme-fatale, mainly to subvert the whole “being ugly means being evil” and “being attractive means being good” trope. Femme fatale is about a beautiful seductive woman using her charm to manipulate men into doing what she wants (most of the time it’s about evil things). Snow is a handsome man using his charm to manipulate people (especially the audience) to drop their guards and believe that because of his beautiful body and face, there must still be a good in him, even though he’s evil af. It’s like a passive aggressive response from the writer and director to those dark romance genre like 50 Shades, 365 Days. You know, the whole criticism that “If Christian Grey was ugly and poor, the books would be labeled as horror, not romance”.

Some critics of the movie said that it was an stretch that it took the organizers of the Hunger Games 10 years to realize that a likable and good-looking contestant would give them more rating, but if you think about it, before Snow the people from the Capitol saw the games as a punishment/display of strenght first and as a TV show second. The movie is about how in a deshumanizing society empathy and cruelty aren't as opposite as they should be, they both become two face of a coin named "espectacle"; its about how an autoritarian regime does the jump from "we're cruel because its a practical way to mantain our power" to "we're cruel because cruelty is profitable". Snow feels empathy for a tribute and instead of taking it as a call to change the system that inevitably leads to the tribute's death, he sees empathy as the wining card, the secret weapon that will facilitate his rise to power

I don’t understand people’s criticism of the movie saying there are too many musical numbers…like hello??? Ballad is literally part of the movie’s title.

I also like they nuanced take on disability. You have Bobbin, who was a pretty strong tribute. And then you have Wovey, who embodies naivity and vulnerability. I can see my sister saying, "Can we go home now?"

actually interesting when you said "we've got pigeons" because we domesticated them for our purposes and then dropped them as they became obsolete and now they've become a plague to us when we made them become dependent on and close to us, kinda similar to the jabberjay/mockingjay thing. our own creation turns threatening

The first thought I had was how similar this feels to our current reality and the reason why the movie continues to haunt me over a week later

ngl I tried to read the book a few weeks before the movie came out but I completely failed and only got to about halfway because I was so bored. After seeing the movie, I DEVOURED the rest of the book so I could understand Snow's character more after seeing what happens in the movie. Have never had that happen before. I think either one alone is underwhelming but both the book and the movie together = INCREDIBLE. I've never experienced having two separate media that are the same story (with the movie actually being very faithful to the events of the book) that somehow complement each other so well. I felt that the movie actually made the material interesting and engaging in a way that the book fails to do. However, the movie on its own lacks Snow's inner monologue which can only be understood from the book. I would quite honestly recommend people follow what I did and read some of the book first, watch the movie, and then read the rest of the book.

16:20 - I actually liked how unexpected the ending felt, when his true colors are finally revealed, to the audience as well as to himself. As someone who read the book again right before I watched the movie, it was great going into the theater knowing his inner thoughts and why he did what he did. But I almost wish I could have gone in with no prior knowledge. Even with my past knowledge, I had to keep reminding myself, "he's not the good guy, don't fall for his act". It was hard not to root for him. The whole point of his character is that he is so attractive and charming, and you want to believe that he's the good guy, but he's not. We know who he becomes by the time of the Hunger Games. And if Lucy Gray Baird is the songbird, then Coriolanus Snow is the snake.

So glad that my obsession with this series has allowed me to discover all of these new amazing channels on YT 😂

I like the books more cause I sympathise with Snow too much in the movie, thinking I would do the same thing for self preservation. He seemed really redeemable and just insane cause of the things that happened to him. If only they show Snow living with Sejanus' parents, that would've disgusted me a lot more, or maybe I'm just easily manipulated by his charms. Who knows? 🤷‍♂️

Point of note After Lucy Gray, music was banned by district 12's new commander (who replaces Hoff shortly after Snow returns to the Capital) who said it caused trouble The reason singing doen't occur again, it is because music was banned So Katniss sings on her own, which she inherrited and learned from her father whose descended from Lucy Gray.

I think you also missed the fact that the capitol keeps referring to any sort of oppression against these unfair conditions (the games) as acts of terror

I honestly couldnt help but notice SO many parallels between this movie and the massacre in Palestine

Honestly I could see all the seeds for his maliciuosness in the movie from the very start, and I haven't read the book. I do think that at least part of the audience wasn't paying attention, which is very telling. His words and actions, from the get go, were so obviously selfish and disturbing, that what amazes me is that a lot of people did not notice or somehow found him sympathetic. You CAN have some empathy for him, of course, and even hope that he will wake up, but it is so blatantly obvious that he does not have good or altruistic intentions. Ever. AND we even had other people like Tigris and Sejanus to compare and contrast him with. From the beginning, he resonated more with Dr. Gaul and she with him. That...wasn't a sign for you? When he suggested to make a spectacle of the tributes...that wasn't a sign for you? When he played into the racist sh*t about people in the districts in like scene 3...that wasn't a sign for you? When he insulted Sejanus (his "friend") in the FIRST ACT for speaking up about the games and was always condescending to him...that wasn't a sign for you? When his classmate died and he carried on with an assignment for the games as if nothing had happened...that wasn't a sign for you? His SELECTIVE interest for Lucy Gray and disregard for every other tribute...wasn't a sign for you? And even when he displayed unnecessary cruelty to Bobbin in the arena (no, what he did was not the only thing he could do to survive) and said he felt powerful for doing it...that wasn't a sign for you? I mean, damn. To me, the fact that some people got distracted or manipulated by his looks, charm, weaponization of "empathy", his so called "romance" with Lucy Gray or his way of justifying himself only adds irony and layers to the movie. If you need someone's internal monologue or some kind of stereotypical, dripping, obvious EVIL to see reprehensible actions, then...f**k. It is so scary how we can overlook things.

The funny thing is that snow is so close to getting it. Like he sees the horrors of Dr. Gaul’s experiments on people, he himself gets into the arena and experiences the horrors of the games (for like less than an hour but still), and he’s surrounded by good people who are against the capital (Sejanus, Tigris, and Lucy Gray) but it’s all overshadowed by his superiority complex and his view on humanity. He thinks he is the best humanity has to offer because he’s capital while also believing that the capital control is needed because humanity is “barbaric” without it (similar to how Dr. Gaul believes that the arena shows “humanity undressed”).

I agree, the movies actually made me appreciate the book a lot more.

I’ll have to come back to the comments section when there are more comments, but I did want to say that I appreciate your different perspective on the movie. I was slightly taken aback by it, considering I didn’t read the book. Even after, those feelings were just being justified as a lot of reviews focused more on the drawbacks of the film, so it was nice to see it in a new light