a deep dive into why the ballad of songbirds & snakes book is better than the movie 🐍 *spoilers*

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I hate how in the movie, after sejanus dies, it shows snow crying while looking at a photo of them, but in the book he cries for himself about how HE IS NEXT and doesn’t actually feel remorse for sejanus. It makes the audience think he lost someone he cared about when all through the book, snow constantly describes how much he hates sejanus. And the fact that the photo was actually one of sejanus and Marcus in district 2 that solidified Coriolanus’s choices in his mind

I found Sejanus a bit more complicated. He’s very sympathetic, but his privilege makes him a bit difficult to fully root for. That he calls out for his mother when he dies speaks to the way, unlike Katniss or Lucy Gray, who was forced to grow up fast, he stays a child despite everything because his parents has been able to keep him safe. He doesn’t feel the threat of standing up for the districts because he hasn’t had to truly risk anything while he was in the capitol. His death is tradgic, but I think it’s intentional that his naiveté largely becomes his downfall

One thing that also bummed me out more than anything was the way the ending was done. The relationship Snow has with the Plinths after Sejanus is absolutely sickening to read. He literally calls Mrs. Plinth "Ma" and functions as a replacement for Sejanus. I think it was mentioned in the movie that the Plinths paid for his schooling, but not how deep that connection went. I really think that would have highlighted his character and it was totally doable in the movie. That was my biggest disappointment

The fact that lucy gray explicitly said that she was the last loose end and still people dont understand the ending shows me why they made her say it hahahah

I loved the moment where Maude Ivory brings up the katniss roots and Lucy Gray says “it’s not time yet”. Like tiny foreshadowing is so good

im so proud of lucy gray she literally haunted snow for the rest of his life AS SHE SHOULD

the last thing you talked about criticising the dystopian governments etc. , i thought about a similar thing where they changed the whole beginning of the games scene, in the book there was no bloodbath, everyone just ran in different directions and nothing happened for a while, but in the movie they changed it completely, how there was lots of action, everyone fighting and attacking lucy gray where i thought it was quite important to keep it like it was in the book, and it really was ironic how they literally changed it for entertainment purposes so to say

finally someone who doesn't believe katniss and lucy grey are related somehow. I was so annoyed at the theories that they may be related somehow. I love the idea that katniss is just some random girl who reminded snow of lucy grey. it's much better than them being related

About that Arachne(Aracne? I truly don't remember how her name is written) scene, what they could've done to make it SO EASY for us to understand Snow was getting a shot "from" the cameras in which he locks eyes with us (the real camera) after Lucy says "help her" and we see the actor's eyes go from disinterest/panic to realisation just for a split second. That would've brought us (the audience) into the movie as hunger games viewers, like "oh, they're watching me, better make it good". And every time he does something for the audience, we return to a similar shot, like we are the capital viewers. That would've been easy, would've gotten the a closer meaning to the book and added a more dinamic layer.

everything from 18:42 to 20:43 needs to (a) be heard by the entire bookish community and (b) put as a disclaimer on dystopian novels. thank you so much hannah for restoring my faith in this community <3

I LOVE how you emphasize the hunger as a driving force in this book and in the original trilogy, and I think it's really interesting how both Snow and Katniss relate to their hunger: Katniss fights to survive, she takes the responsability of feeding herself and her family literally into her own hands and that's why she hunts, but Snow thinks he is entitled to his share of food, and maybe that's why he manupilates and uses everyone and everything around him without a second thought, the world owns him his food, and he will make them (the districts) pay for his hunger.

did anyone notice that it was mentioned that coryo’s father died in the district 12 forest and at the end of the plot the district 12 forest is where coryo decided to regain his fathers values as if continuing his legacy from where he died

I agree with everything you said but I'm also surprised how NOBODY mentions how they twisted the other tributes, especially Coral, to be brutal murderers and not just kids trying to survive. By doing this they played into the idea of the bloodthirsty district members and Gaul's idea of "humanity undressed" . Hollywood clearly wants a villian in the games and it can't just be the capitol. I would love to see an adaptation that tries to be more grounded like the first triology was, that makes it more of a psychological drama than a romance/action movie.

How in the world can ANYONE have read that book and accuse Collins of trying to make Snow sympathetic? It’s mind blowing.

I live in Palestine and I decided to read The hunger games for the first time when everything started in October and then I read the prequel In November and so many quotes and parallels to what’s happening right now really broke my heart, I’m living these things and I’m seeing my people live these things and seeing how so many people enjoy and love the series and not realize or want to acknowledge this parallel of it and the real world is honestly sad. I swear I would be reading a scene and then like discuss it with my sister and tell her omg this is exactly what’s happening right now or omg this describes my feelings right now, so yeah reading is political, and especially a dystopian that’s literally about these subjects. These 4 books honestly opened my mind like no other book could and also just delivered the hard truth Suzanne Collins wanted to deliver and get people to open their eyes to. Edit: I already watched The hunger games movies before but it was my first time reading and watching the movies as a full grown adult.

" you cant care about fiction characters who are resisting violent oppression & not care about real people who are resisting violent oppression" 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 so well said!! ive been thinking this for a while now while watching a few big booktubers read the series and post about loving the book & movie but have also been super silent about palestine right now for the last two months. ill never understand how people can read HG and Ballad and not connect it to the world and whats going on currently.

One thing that I also deeply loved about the book that I haven't heard in this video (it is also a very small detail so I dont blame you for not talking about that because if you had, the video would have been 6hours long) is the relationship between Coriolanus and his parents. Especially in the end, where he throws away the box from his mother and keeps the compass of his father and how he slowly but surely drifts away from his kind-hearted mother to his rather cold father is just brilliant! I loved this book so so much!! 😍

I really think we need the 4.5 hour version of the movie! I really hope it fleshes out how manipulative snow is

Nobody I know reads, so I finally get to "discuss my opinions with someone" lol