The Hunger Games: A Complex and Controversial Series - My Thoughts After Watching the Movie

As I sat down to watch The Hunger Games movie, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. I had read the book, and my experience with it was vastly different from what I expected from the film adaptation. The marketing campaign for the movie seemed to have left a bad taste in my mouth, making me question whether I would enjoy the film as much as I enjoyed the book.

However, after watching the movie three times, I realized that my initial impression was not entirely fair. The Hunger Games is a thought-provoking and well-crafted series that explores complex themes such as government control, rebellion, and the effects of war on individuals and society. While the film adaptation may have toned down some of the more graphic content from the book, it still managed to convey the essence of the story and its message.

One of my biggest takeaways from watching The Hunger Games movie is that you need to read the book in order to fully understand the series. The book provides a level of depth and detail that is not always present in the film adaptation. It delves deeper into the characters' thoughts, feelings, and motivations, making it easier for readers to become emotionally invested in their journeys. While watching the movie was enjoyable, I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was getting only a sanitized version of the story.

I must admit that I have been obsessed with The Hunger Games book since finishing it. I literally spent hours thinking about it and analyzing its themes, characters, and plot. One of my favorite things to do is make playlists for books - in this case, I created a playlist called "Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" that captures the mood and atmosphere of the book. The songs are carefully curated to match the tone and emotions expressed by Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch as they navigate the complexities of their lives in Panem.

I am very proud of my playlist, and I would love for readers to check it out while reading or listening to the movie. The Hunger Games book is a masterpiece that deserves to be celebrated and appreciated in its full glory, without any watered-down or superficial interpretations. It's not just a story about a rebellion; it's an exploration of the human condition, with all its complexities and nuances.

As I reflect on my experience watching The Hunger Games movie, I realize that I was not alone in feeling that way. Many readers have expressed similar sentiments, feeling that the film adaptation missed the mark or failed to capture the essence of the book. However, this is where I believe the marketing campaign for the movie fell short - it didn't give readers a fair chance to experience the series as it was meant to be experienced: through the pages of the book.

In conclusion, my thoughts on The Hunger Games movie are complex and multifaceted. While I enjoyed watching it, I couldn't help but feel that it left something to be desired compared to the book. However, this is not a criticism of the film; rather, it's a testament to the power and depth of the book, which continues to captivate readers with its themes, characters, and story.

My final thoughts are that you should read the book. It's the only way to truly understand The Hunger Games series in all its complexity and beauty. Don't rely on the movie adaptation; it's not enough. Read the book, and then watch the movie. This will give you a more nuanced understanding of the story and its themes.

If you would like to discuss The Hunger Games book or movie further, I encourage you to do so in the comments below. I'll be happy to respond and engage in a conversation about this incredible series. To keep up with my latest reading adventures and other content, please follow me on social media, where all of my links are available.

And that's it for now. Thank you for watching my video, and I look forward to seeing you soon in my next video!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou know that Tik Tok sound that's like I could go into heavy detail and I will I will go into heavy  detail that is me so prepare yourself because we have a lot a lot and I mean a lot of detail to  go into in the past couple of months I have fully re-entered my Hunger Games era I've regressed back  to my 14-year-old self and I can't think talk write read or consume any content that is not  related to the Hunger Games or the ballot of song birds and snakes I just can't do it my mind is  filled with nothing except the current world news and The Hunger Games that's it that's literally  all that's in here right now and I need to let some of that out I've ranted to basically every  single member of my family and every single one of my close friends for hours about this at this  point and I think they're all sick and tired of me so now it's your turn and this all started because  I decided to read The Ballad of song birds and snakes before before the movie came out because  I hadn't read it and I wanted to be prepared before I watched the movie so I read it and then  I reread all of The Hunger Games books and then I watched the movie and then I reread the book  and then I watched the movie again and now we're here and I'm just like overflowing with thoughts  and feelings and words so I'm going to try and get them all out as articulately as I possibly  can this is going to be an incredibly long video I already know I don't really write scripts for my  videos I pretty much always just go off the cuff occasionally if it's something I know I'm going  to need to talk about in more depth I'll do a few bullet points but this time around I wrote I don't  even know how many pages uh literal Pages because I just had so many thoughts and I I don't even  think this covers everything I would like to talk about because I could genuinely I think make this  video like 6 hours I could sit here and probably talk to you about this for 6 hours I'm not going  to do that I don't think it's going to be that long but we're going to be here for a good bit  so grab a snack grab a seat get comfortable and let's dive in quickly before we get into all my  thoughts on the book and movie I have a few housekeeping items first up I want to thank  today's sponsor which is book of the month book of the month is a monthly bookish subscription  box that helps readers discover new books to read every month they offer a new selection of  curated books for you to choose from and they focus mostly on debut authors upand cominging  authors and new releases every month you can go through their selections and pick the book that  you want to receive in your book of the month box that month they've also recently started offering  audio books which I think is fantastic because then you can choose if that month you would like  to receive an audio book or a hard cover book and based on your preferred reading format you can  pick whichever one you like my favorite thing about book of the month is their incredible  pricing and the fact that they always offer free shipping which is amazing but if you use my link  and code in the description box you can get a brand new hard cover book for just $5 which is  an incredible price and as a book collector myself and an Avid Reader it makes it really easy to read  more or get new books that I'm excited about at a really affordable price so let me show you my  book of the month picks for the month of December so my first pick is Tomb sweeping by Alexandra  Chang this is a fiction short Story collection that has stories set in both the US and across  Asia and from what I understand the stories are about family immigrant family specifically and  that experience and I'm always on the hunt for a good immigrant family experience story cuz I find  them very relatable a lot of the time and I loved the cover art for this one as well I thought it  was really really beautiful and my second pick for this month is Gwen and art are not in love  by Lex Croucher this is from what I understand a story about King Arthur and gwendaline except they  both queer and it's a romance and a love story so they're supposed to be married to each other but  they're not into each other and it looks really fun and funny and romantic and something that I  think I'll really enjoy I just think it's going to be a lot of fun so I can't wait to dive into this  too so yeah those are my book of the month picks for December again if you would like to get your  first book of the month box use my link and code sweater in the description box to get your very  first book of the month box for just $5 but again thank you to book of the month for sponsoring  today's video but without any further Ado let's get back into the video next up I also want to  remind you all that my journals the O Clockwork reader film and TV journal and the O Clockwork  reader reading Journal are both available in the description box down below I don't have my  personal one with me right now but I've already recorded my entry for ballot of song birds and  snakes the movie in my film and TV Journal as well as my review for the book in my reading Journal  but yeah again as always these are linked in the description box below especially if you want to  get them as a gift this holiday season so I've divided this video up into four separate parts  because there are four main things I kind of want to talk about I was really trying to keep to three  so that we could stay on theme with The Hunger Games and Suzanne Collins's three act structure  that she has with every book that she writes but I needed to add in the fourth little section cuz it  was important to me and something I really want to discuss first we're going to talk about the book  and I'll give you my in-depth thoughts and review then we'll get into my thoughts on the movie in a  more General sense with fewer spoilers and then we will get into my comparison of the book and movie  and then lastly my final little section which is on a topic that I've been mulling over for a few  years now and I feel is very related to this topic so I wanted to talk about it so yeah you can feel  free to skip around if you only want to hear my thoughts on the movie or you only want to see the  comparison or whatever go ahead and jump around as you wish but without any further Ado let's get  into it I was so hesitant about reading this book I remember even before the book had come out there  were early reviews of people talking about how they felt like this book made snow too sympathetic  of a character people who were criticizing it saying that we didn't need a story from the  perspective of the evil dictator in the original trilogy there was just like a lot of early Buzz  around the book that was honestly mostly negative I think this is in part because of the time that  this book was released the book came out on the heels of the 2020 election in the US and I think  people were feeling particularly perturbed about reading a story from the perspective of that kind  of character it was just bad timing I think at that time and then it also came out like during  Co like the first year of Co so I think I think the combination of those two things didn't really  set this book up for a lot of early success so I remember hearing all these early reviews and  people were just not feeling it and I didn't want to touch it because I didn't want something to  ruin my feelings about The Hunger Games because that series was always so special to me and so  important to me so I was so so afraid of reading this book so I decided that I just wouldn't touch  it and it would be better that way fast forward almost 3 years later now the announcement for  the movie came out and once I saw that and once I saw the trailer for the film I knew that I had to  read this book if you know me at all you know that I have always had criticisms of The Hunger Games  films as much of a fan as I am of the books I've never loved the movies and we'll get more into  that later when I talk about the movies and the comparison and stuff I have since rewatched them I  do like them a lot more than I used to but still they never compared to the books for me and so  when the trailer first dropped and I still hadn't seen it yet I was like okay I'll probably watch  this movie but I don't know and then I watched the trailer and it looked so good that I immediately  knew I had to read the book The Trailer felt to me so nostalgic and felt like Cinema was back even  before I'd seen the movie so I knew that I wanted to read the book because I'm such a book purist I  always like reading the book before I go into the adaptation so I decided it was finally time and I  picked up the book and it it has consumed me it has changed me as a person but having read the  book now knowing how people perceived it back then and what a lot of early reviews and critics were  saying I just feel like this book is deeply misunderstood and was also probably a little  bit mismarked at the time obviously like I said people believed that this book was going to make  snow seem like a sympathetic character and it was going to be not just a villain origin story but  a villain origin story that was meant to make you feel bad for the villain or understand the villain  and empathize with them and that really couldn't be further from the truth of what it's actually  about but I also think that a lot of people and these are not necessarily the same people but  this comes into play with the market of the book I think a lot of people were under the impression  that this was a romance or that romance is like a main plot point of the story and that also could  not be further from the truth there is obviously a romance in the story but the story itself is  not a romantic story and it never sets out to be it's actually the opposite of that it's not the  driving force of the story and the relationship is not meant to be depicted as romantic it's meant to  teach the audience about snow as a character and how he views this relationship ship yes it's a  villain origin story but I think this book is actually somewhat critical of villain origin  stories in general it's not a villain origin story that sets out to make us feel sympathy for him or  to excuse his actions or to even make him more digestible to us but rather to show us that just  because somebody has experienced hurt or pain or trauma or loss or hardship in their life doesn't  give them any right to impose that pain onto others she does humanize snow in my opinion and  I don't think it's in the way that a lot of people criticize size I actually don't really think that  there's anything wrong with humanizing even a villainous character or a bad person because we  are all human and that's I think what she's trying to say it's not to Garner sympathy it's to show us  that villains are human too they're not these all powerful beings who don't have a good bone  in their body that are monsters to their core but rather real human people who are willing to choose  greed and Power in their own self-interest over the needs of others even when they know better and  sometimes especially when they know better because my opinion if you look at a villain as this big  bad this all powerful purely evil being who isn't human in any respect how are you ever expected to  take that person down and I think that's kind of the question she's asking with this and I think  it's a question she also poses in the original trilogy but it's one that she really explores in  this book particularly personally after I read this book I came away from it hating snow more  than I ever did reading the original books or watching the movies because when you are in his  head when you get his perspective Ive and you see what he's really thinking what he believes about  himself what he believes about the world I've hated him since reading the books originally  for what he does to all the tributes for what he does to panm in general for what he does to  Finnick for what he does to Peta but at this point like it became personal like I've been in your  head dude I know what you think there is no way I could have walked away from this book feeling any  kind of sympathy for him it makes it even worse because he could have made better choices but  he didn't because he chooses himself and his own greed over and over over and over again despite  being given opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing and he still never does and that  I think makes you hate someone even more than when you don't really know anything about why they're  so horrible so I really do think it's a true misrepresentation and it does a disservice to this  book to say that it makes you feel sympathetic for a character like snow I think it genuinely does  the complete opposite of that because when you read The Hunger Games he really does just kind of  feel like this big bad you do learn a little bit about his motivations and his intentions but you  never really truly understand why he's actually like this or why he personally hates Katniss in  a lot of ways too but when you have the context of this story it adds so much depth it adds so  much more meaning and it really and truly will make you despise him on an entirely new level in  my opinion the whole thesis of this book is summed up perfectly by a quote that Lucy gray says at the  very end of the book and I believe she also says some variation of it in the movie but she says I  think there's a natural goodness built into human beings you know when you've stepped across the  line into evil and it's your life's challenge to stay on the right side of that line that to  me is the essence of this story it perfectly encapsulates everything Suzanne Collins sets  out to achieve with this book I love the moral questions that she poses in this book she asks  is it our environments that are responsible for who we are is it something that's just naturally  born into us or is it the choices that we make that make us who we are you know your classic  nature versus nurture debate but she takes it much further than that in a scene after Cory elanus  goes into the arena to get sanus out and he comes back and Dr Gul is stitching him up and they're  talking about it and she says what happened in the arena that's Humanity undressed the tributes  and you two how quickly civilization disappears all your fine manners education family background  everything you pride yourself on Stripped Away in the blink of an eye revealing everything you  actually are a boy with a club who beats another boy to death that's Mankind in its natural state  and I think that quote ju deposed with what Lucy graay says about humanity and how people  are naturally good is really the debate that's kind of stuck in L's head him trying to decide  which one is really right he's never ever really leaning towards Lucy Gray's opinion on Humanity  to be honest with you never once does he ever go that far towards what she believes but there are  plenty of times where characters are trying to guide him in that direction but he constantly  resists and is pulled in by his greed and his ambition and his need for power and ultimately  sides with Dr Gul there's also a conversation that snow has with Dean High bottom at the end  of the book as well where they're kind of debating this same thing and he is telling Dean High bottom  about the games and how using children supports G's theory that human nature is just naturally  violent and he says it certainly supports her view of humanity said snow especially using  children and why is that asked Dean High bottom because we credit them with innocence and if even  the most innocent of us turned to killers in The Hunger Games what does that say that our essential  nature is violent snow explained self-destructive Dean High botom murmured the combination of those  three passages really give you an idea of where the book kind of stands on this obviously the  book does not say that human nature is inherently violent that would be antithetical to the entire  message of The Hunger Games but it really gives you an understanding of the place snow comes  to and who he really is as president and why he believes what he believes his beliefs fully align  with Dr GS in that he does think that humanity is inherently violent and needs to be controlled  hence his justification for everything the capital does but Dean High bottom says self-destructive  it's not an inherent violence that we have in us but perhaps an inherent self-destructiveness  that's something that we often turn to as human beings which I think also supports Lucy Gay's  theory that human beings are innately good and Tow this line and it's our job to do our best  to stay on the right side of that and not fall into that self-destruction which is the opposite  of what Cory Lena snow does so yeah to me that is really the core and the essence of this story  and the message that Suzanne Collins is trying to get across that we are not inherently evil people  that we all have this goodness in us and it's up to us to try our best to stay on that path and to  do as little harm as we possibly can and that's the moral quandry that snow is struggling with  throughout the entire book and we see him fall further and further and further away from the  side of good because he values nothing more than his own Survival I have way more to say about snow  as a character um which we'll get into a little bit later and also a lot more when I talk about  the book and movie comparison but I also want to spend some time talking about my favorite  characters and Snow's relationship with the characters because that's also a significant part  of who he is as well and how we get to see who he is first up I want to talk about Tigris because  I was gagged honestly I had no idea that she was going to be in the book I was so shocked when we  got the reveal of her being Snow's cousin and the implications for what that means in mocking jay  it gives us a much clearer understanding of why she's willing to help Katniss and how she could  get to the point of wanting snow dead and being okay with letting Katniss go after him they had  such similar upbringings but they end up on very different sides of a war later on they also grow  into very different people who have very different values tigis is truly empathetic and she spends a  good amount of this book trying her best to convince snow that he is also good and that  he can be good she believes in Him deeply and he never really lives up to her belief in him and I  think this is very true for his relationship with sanus as well and almost everybody in his life  but with Tigress I think it's especially evident because she's so close to him and she knows him so  well since they grew up together and that's what makes it all the more devastating when you hear  his internal monologue about her sometimes and also in the obvious disappointment she  will inevitably feel with him and betrayal that she'll feel by him as we know from what happens  in mocking jay there's this quote about her very early on in the book that I think gives you a  perfect understanding of how snow actually sees her because he definitely does love her on some  level as much as he's capable of loving anybody really but I would argue that he probably cares  about her more than he cares about anybody else even with the people that he has been raised to  care about that have been there for him his entire life that are probably the easiest for  him to love this is still how he describes Tigris with her long pointed nose and skinny body Tigress  was no great Beauty but she had a sweetness a vulnerability that invited abuse that's like on  page 10 or something like that not even it's like really early on my copy is an ebook so the page  numbers are off but to describe somebody who has a vulnerability that invites abuse it's sickening  and I feel like that gives you a very good picture of how he really sees her very very early on next  of course I have to talk about sanus because oh my God sanus sanus is probably no he's definitely my  favorite character in this book from the second he stands up in that classroom and yells at everybody  and tells them that the Hunger Games are immoral I knew I knew that he was going to be the one that I  would need to protect with my life and I would I would give up my life for to Janis plinth because  he did not deserve anything that happened to him this was the quote that I read where I was like oh  no I'm going to love this book and I should have trusted my gut and I should have trusted Suzanne  Collins this whole time because she doesn't disappoint and this quote is another piece I  think you could easily say is part of the thesis of this story and one of the main Central themes  of the story and something that really shook me to my core when I first read it not because  it's something I've never heard before but just because it was so unbelievably relevant to what  we are all witnessing right now this is the scene after Marcus has escaped and the students are all  talking to Dr Gaul and she's having the debate basically the morality of The Hunger Games and  they're asking sanus if he knows where Marcus is and he says he's either dead or about to be when  you catch him and drag him through the streets in Chains that's all right Dr Gul countered no  it isn't I don't care what you say you've no right to starve people to punish them for no reason no  right to take away their life and freedom those are things that everyone is born with and they're  not yours for the taking winning a war doesn't give you that right having more weapons doesn't  give you that right being from the capital doesn't give you that right nothing does I I get chills  every single time I read it I I'm trying not to cry I read this a little bit after everything  that's been happening in Palestine started and reading this after scrolling through the  news and watching the news and seeing everything that's been going on was just so so heartbreaking  I know that the hunger gam Series has always been very very politically relevant uh because Suzanne  Collins wrote it with all of that in mind I mean the original series is heavily inspired by what  she was witnessing scrolling between channels of reality TV and images of the Iraq War and how we  are becoming desensitized to seeing images of war and so reading this right now I really couldn't  think about anything else because it was just too real and I don't think that these two things are  inseparable I know so many people are always like not everything is political you couldn't be more  wrong or will always be political a dystopian novel will always be political if it isn't it's  not a good dystopian novel if it isn't it doesn't mean anything it doesn't stand for anything and  it's just cheap writing she didn't put a line in here like that having the villain say it's  our right to defend ourselves by dragging a kid through the street in Chains and then having sjana  say what he says all of that is intentional and there's a reason it feels so relevant to right now  even though she wrote this 3 4 years ago because there's no way that I can talk about this book and  not address what's going on in the world because it is far too relevant to the genocide we're all  witnessing because that is genuinely what this capital is arguing the talking points are the  same and that's intentional and I cannot fathom how people can read something like this or watch  the movie or read the original trilogy or watch those movies and not understand what the message  of these stories are and still take the side of the oppressor you can't care about fictional  characters who are resisting violent oppression and not care about real people who are resisting  violent oppression but all that to say this was painful to read in more ways than one and  I think is a story that is hyper hyper relevant to what's going on in our world right now and I think  it's something people should read if only for this reason the other thing I really loved about sanus  his character was that he represented somebody who was living in the capital but was originally  from the districts so in some ways he's kind of considered like an immigrant and the things  that snow feels about sanus and his family the attitude he has towards them makes his feelings  about District people so abundantly clear and it's sickening to read snow resents him he says things  like sanus has taken what's his as if he's coming here and taking what's rightfully his talking  points you hear all the time from the right about immigrants he sees him as new money as a second  class citizen as less deserving than he is of The Prestige and the accolades and everything that he  wants that he feels sanus is stealing from him and that metaphor is definitely not lost on me  I thought it was really well done and it just really makes you hate snow even more because  sanus does nothing but love and respect snow he cares and trusts Cory lenus so so deeply and that  is the thing about their relationship that's so utterly devastating Cory lenus does not feel that  way about him like I know people will argue and be like no he did actually care about him because  there's that one line in the book where he says that now he's lost like all the people that he  loves but I don't think Cory elanus is capable of truly loving a person I don't think he has it in  him at this point anymore especially not with the way that he talks about sanus he resents him he  resents him for who he is and what he is and what he represents and he will never get over that he  sees him as lesser than himself and you cannot love a person that you don't view as your equal  the only way that he has any sort of respect for sanus is because sanus respects him and snow views  all of his relationships as transactional and he knows that sanus is someone he can manipulate  and so he takes advantage of that another sanus moment that like really really killed me was when  he goes into the arena to spread the breadcrumbs on Marcus's body that scene made me cry I was so  devastated the just pure kind heart that he has reminded me a lot of pea sometimes even though  they're still very different characters I think they're similar in that way I really think that  sanus serves as a foil for snow because he kind of gets into Snow's head occasionally and snow  will catch himself thinking something similar to the way that sanus would think about things  about how the districts maybe aren't that bad or how the capital maybe isn't doing everything the  best way they possibly could be and then he catches himself and he's like no I'm thinking  like sanus there's definitely a line where he says almost exactly that verbatim he's like I'm  thinking like sanus like we're not going there I think that's why in a lot of ways sanus kind  of serves as a foil for him because he offers the opposing view to Snow's view he challenges snow he  challenges the way snow thinks about the Capital about the districts and what that means for who he  is and what he's been taught and fed to believe his entire life and so sometimes you have these  moments where you really think that snow is going to lean into that a little bit where he's going to  somewhat side with sanus and he never really fully commits he never does because he doesn't have any  true respect for him he spends the whole book fighting for those tributes fighting to do the  right thing fighting to just keep his head above water there's a line where he says something along  the lines of I'm so innocent I'm choking on it and I loved the way that she used s janus's character  to show us somebody who is technically in a place of privilege but is struggling with the  guilt that comes along with benefiting from the oppression of others because we've never really  gotten that perspective from a character in The Hunger Games before so I thought it just made  him a really interesting character to explore and I loved him I loved him he was just so good and  so kind and I sobbed when he died the tragedy of his death the Betrayal the pain that you feel oh  my God it ruined me it ruined me my friends and I literally have a group chat called the sanus fan  club because we are his number one fans I would do anything for him he's too precious he's too  good for the world that he was put into and he deserved so much better rip to San's plinth you  would have loved Peta malar and Katniss everine and I'm so sorry you never got to meet them and  then of course we have to talk about Lucy gray I've seen in some reviews of the book  that people criticize her character saying she's a bit underdeveloped but personally I really think  that was intentional I mean we're really getting Lucy gray through Snow's eyes in the entire book  like we don't get her perspective we only ever get his version of her and to him she's not really a  whole person he doesn't view her as a person with agency he views her as a means to an end he views  her as a prize something to be won and when you look at some body like that they're never going  to be a fully fleshed out person because you don't even value them enough to look at them as a full  person so I really think it was intentional the Mystique and mystery surrounding her and the fact  that she's almost giving manic pixie dream girl sometimes I think it was very very intentional on  Suzanne Collins's part and I think it really worked in my opinion but I loved everything  that she represented I loved that she was a bit untrustworthy so you never really know exactly  what she's thinking because snow can never decide what he actually thinks of her but every single  quote we get about her about the Mocking Jays and the references to catniss and all of that  like every little thing that she adds in that alludes to what's to come in The Hunger Games I  loved it I ate all of that up like the fact that this man had this one situationship in his teens  and suddenly it comes back to haunt him 60 years later decades later this girl comes back and is  singing the same song that he hasn't heard for so long and is now the face of the Revolution trying  to take him down that's Poetic Justice quite literally Poetic Justice and I live for it it  was fantastic I'm obsessed I'm obsessed with what she did with that you know that he was losing his  mind when he first heard katnis Sting the Hanging Tree in those propos from mocking jay he  lost his mind he did not know what to do he did not know what to do with himself the second he  saw that mocking jpin he took it personally okay it gives you so much context for why he  hates Katniss on such a deep level it goes beyond just like some girl as the face of a revolution  for him at that point catniss is still definitely not any kind of chosen one or anything but he now  takes it personally and that's why he's coming after her tenfold why he's using everything in  his power to go after her and ultimately honestly I think why he fails because Lucy gray did come  back to haunt him just like she said she would and uh I I love Poetic Justice it's what he deserved  one comparison between this book and the original Hunger Games trilogy that I really like was the  fact that she chose to write the Hunger Games in the first person present tense perspective whereas  she chose to write this book in the third person and I think that that was incredibly intentional  the point of writing the Hunger Games in the first person is to put you directly into Katniss's shoes  you are inside the head of this young girl who's experiencing some of the worst atrocities a person  can possibly experience and the intention is to get the reader to understand that as firsthand as  they possibly can there's no way to be closer to a character than when you're reading from their  first person present tense perspective and so I think that she chose to write that series that  way to get you to empathize with Katniss and understand her on an entirely different level  because that's not an experience that a lot of us or at least her main demographic of those books  has experienced whereas in Ballad of song birds and snakes choosing to write that in the third  person takes you out of the experience a little bit while we're still getting Snow's in monologue  and we still get his inner thoughts and we can clearly understand what he thinks it's just not  as intimate of an experience as it is reading The Hunger Games trilogy and I think the point of that  is to get you to understand Snow's character but not empathize with him in the same way that's not  to say that you can't have any kind of sympathy or empathy for him or that you won't feel any reading  this book I think there are definitely moments that you still do it's just not the intention of  the book to get the reader to feel everything he feels as deeply as he feels it because we're not  supposed to agree with snow as a person because he is the villain we are meant to humanize him  to understand that he's just as human as we are but he is also completely wrong she's just trying  to get you to see why he is the way he is but not to get you to excuse his behavior I think  there's also another layer to this specifically writing from the perspective of catniss in the  first person when she is part of a marginalized group versus writing from Snow's perspective in  the third person when he's part of the privileged class everyone knows that the Hunger Games is a  very clear allegory for not just authoritarian governments in general but specifically the US  government and US capitalism and so the main audience the main demographic for her books  her readership and the movie audience as well they are the capital like we are the capital the people  consuming this content are part of that system in some way shape or form I know the capital is  obviously like the elite elite we all know that but the majority of her readers are in some way  a part of that system and so she's writing to us in the third person in this book because she knows  that we understand this perspective better than we understood Katniss is and so with Katniss it does  us a disservice to have that degree of separation from her we need to be put directly into her shoes  whereas with snow we can deal with the degree of separation because most of us probably understand  his lived experience a bit better than we'll understand Katniss's so to choose to tell the  story of the character from the capital in the third person perspective I think was a really  smart move on her part and gives you a really good understanding of how deeply she actually thinks  about her writing another comparison between this book and the original trilogy that I really really  loved was Hunger as a central theme of the story I know with The Hunger Games it's quite obvious that  hunger is going to be a central theme of the story it's literally in the title but I think before I  reread it this time around I had forgotten how much Suzanne Collins actually uses food as like  a driving force throughout the story Katniss spends so much time especially in that first  book just looking for food purely just to survive food motivates almost every single thing that she  does and I didn't remember how often she uses that in the book and then when I was reading a ballad  of song birds and snakes I had noticed it too and so I saw the comparison between the two because  for snow too a driving force in his life the main driving force in his life is the search for food I  mean the very first line of the book is literally him eating this cabbage soup that he swears that  he'll one day never eat again because it's so disgusting but it's all they have available to  them because they have no money and he spends the ENT entire book talking about food he's constantly  going to certain places because he knows that they're going to have food at that event or at  that party or something it reminded me of how in college like you'll go to a specific event just  because they have food there and you don't have money to buy food that week so you're literally  just going to go to the event even if you don't care about the seminar or whatever is going on  just for the free food of it that's literally how snow lives his life and it's a major driving force  for him it's one of the reasons I think that he's so hellbent on Survival and why he never wants to  live like that again I mean we see the scene of him learning that people are cannibalizing each  other during the dark days because that's how desperate people are for food there's a line  he even says where the capital people had turned into monsters turning on each other eating each  other because they had no other options and that's how desperate they are and he will do  anything to prevent that from happening again even if that means causing harm to other people causing  harm to the districts to save himself which is ultimately what he does but I just really loved  that parallel because it also parallels Katniss and snow as characters as well and it just goes  to further emphasize Suzanne Collins's message in the book because both catniss and snow are living  under terrible circumstances although I'd argue that catniss are far worse than his are and they  both make choices to protect themselves and the people that they care about but Katniss routinely  chooses to protect the people she loves and snow more often than not will choose to protect himself  over anything else and that's why they walk on different sides of that line that Lucy gry talks  about another smaller detail that was a call back to the original trilogy that I really really loved  there's a line where his grandmother says to him your father used to say these people only drink  water because it didn't reain blood and she's talking about the districts which gives you a  really clear picture of the capitals attitude as well as his own families and his attitude  towards the people in the districts they truly view them as like animalistic and inhumane which  is sickening to read but I immediately thought about the quarter quell and the blood reain in  the quarter Quil like that was just such a great little mention like you know that he did that  on purpose because he was so mad at that point but I just loved that reference in there it was  disgusting to read but it was genius on her part including it okay I definitely can't talk about  the book and not mention people's theories about Lucy gray somehow being related to Katniss which I  think is absurd I think that that is really just ridiculous because it's just so antithetical to  the message of The Hunger Games the whole point of The Hunger Games is that Katniss is not a chosen  one she is quite literally just some girl and to say that maybe she's related to Lucy gray really  diminishes that and takes away from the meaning of that and I definitely don't think that she  is I know Suzanne Collins leaves her ending Lucy Gray's ending up in the air a lot for the reader  to interpret however they want to but I truly do not believe that she ever intended to make  catness and Lucy gra related to each other I think a lot of people believe that she has to somehow  be related to the cvy because her father was a singer and also because he knew the Hanging Tree  song but there were so many people in 12 who knew the Hanging Tree song Because Lucy gra sings it  at that Peacekeeper birthday party right before her and snow run away so a lot of people in the  district are going to know that song I definitely don't think that she's related to Lucy gray I  think there's a slight possibility that maybe she could somehow be related to ma Ivory but I also  more than anything don't think any of that's true I think that he's just haunted by another girl  from the same place and that triggered something for him and it ruined his life as it should have  so overall thoughts on the book I absolutely love it I think it is a must read for anybody who loves  the original Hunger Games trilogy I think it's a fantastic addition to the trilogy I think it adds  a lot of not necessarily necessary World building it's not like we had to have this information but  I think having it does add to your experience of reading The Hunger Games and I think it gives us  a lot of good insight and explanations into the creation of the game into understanding why the  games are what they are in the following series and it gives you a better understanding of how  everything is connected to each other and flushes out the world a bit more so I really appreciated  it in that sense I love the messaging of the story I love the themes she explores I love  the political commentary that this book makes it's incredibly culturally relevant just like  the Hunger Games is and it's just a fantastic fantastic book now moving along we get into my  overall movie thoughts so this is going to be a little bit less spoilery than the book  discussion I'll still talk about some spoilers but these are just kind of My overall positive  thoughts because most of my negative thoughts I want to talk about In the comparison to the book  so first things first I really enjoyed the movie I thought it was a great adaptation I thought it was  really accurate for the most part to the source material one of my favorite things about it was  that visually really felt like it fit in with The Hunger Games franchise it was obviously made by  the same director so they have that it going on there but sometimes you don't get that with  uh movie franchises but in this one you really really do it felt nostalgic in that sense and  I really loved that about it the actors were all fantastic they all put on such great performances  I loved Rachel zegler as Lucy gray I loved Tom BL as snow as well I think that he did a really  good job he really looked so much like Donald Sutherland and everyone else too I thought it  was just really really well acted and well cast I loved the costuming and again it felt like  the world of the hunger games like visually as I was reading it it looked exactly like what I had  pictured which I always love I love when a book has music in it and then the adaptation actually  does the music Justice and I really really feel like they did with this one I didn't really have  a sound for them in my head exactly but once I heard them they sounded right my only complaint  is that I'm sad that they didn't include like every song and there were some songs that I  felt like were really relevant that they probably should have had but it's okay I understand they  obviously can't include everything for time's sake but Rachel Ziggler's voice is also just fantastic  like I've loved her voice as a singer for years now and so it was great to hear her sing those  songs and the fact that she did so many of those live is just crazy but it's the true essence of  Lucy gray so I think she was truly the perfect casting and specifically my actual favorite song  is Olivia Rodriguez can't catch me now that song I have had on Loop endlessly since the  day that it came out I can't stop listening to it because it's just so so good and it captures the  essence of this story and Lucy Gray's character so perfectly like I don't know how she was able  to write that song so well like it's like she was genuinely in her head but props to her it's genius  I'm obsessed with it it's the best thing to come out of the entire movie franchise I can't even lie  it is my favorite Hunger Games soundtrack song of all time it tops every Lord song it tops all the  Taylor Swift ones can't catch me now is The Hunger Games soundtrack song there's nothing that tops it  for me I also want to mention my favorite scene in the movie cuz there was one scene that visually to  me worked so so well on screen I thought it was just perfect got chills when I watched it and I  think it was even better than in the book it was the type of thing that you needed to see in that  way it's the scene where Reaper tears down the flag and he's carrying it on his back visually  that scene was stunning whoever like directed that shot oh my God best shot of the entire film  I don't hear enough people talking about that shot but best shot of the entire film hands down that  was fantastic on every level all right so those are my Pros for the movie again really enjoyed it  I had a great time watching it I think it's a good faithful adaptation for the most part but now we  got to get into my book and movie comparisons because I've got a lot of gripes I'm so sorry  like I know that you maybe don't want to hear me complain because you really loved the movie but  as the annoying person who's always going to say that didn't happen in the book um I need  to say that didn't happen in the book because it didn't and it changed the meaning and I'm a little  upset about some stuff so I got to complain so my number one gripe and this is basically pretty much  all I'm going to be talking about is that I feel like book snow and movie Snow are two different  people I don't think the movie does a good job of capturing his character at all they genuinely feel  like two different people in my opinion the film completely misrepresents his character and makes  him seem far more sympathetic than he actually is and the way that they did this is actually really  really interesting to me because the problem was that they actually made really small changes they  weren't even a bunch of big substantial changes that they made from the book that made it feel  very different and made him feel like a different character and more sympathetic it was really  small things that they changed seemingly small things that to me actually really just added up  to completely changing how we interpret him as a character and yeah let's just get into them  so my biggest thing is that certain things that were his idea in the movie were actually other  people's ideas in the book and I found this particularly irritating for two main reasons  first I think it gives him too much credit and it makes him look like he's far more intelligent than  he actually is that's not to say he's not smart he definitely is but I think a true Hallmark of  his character is that more than being intelligent he's opportunistic he often just takes credit for  somebody else's idea without making it seem like that's what he's actually doing or because he's  just in the right place at the right time there's a really good quote early on in the book that I  think does a good job of describing this specific aspect of his personality it says the world still  thought coralus rich but his only real currency was charm which he spread liberally as he made  his way through the crowd and I think that sums it up I think the movie really makes it seem like  he's actually much smarter than he is because he comes up with these ideas on his own instead of  the reality in the book where he doesn't come up with any of these ideas and he just happens to  be there and knows how to work a crowd in reality Above All Else he's just manipulative but that's  the whole point with him right like he wants you to think that he's smart he doesn't want  you to be able to see through the facade because if you could then he couldn't manipulate you but  I don't think the movie does a clear enough job of explaining that or getting the audience to  understand that and it's in part cuz we don't have his inner monologue so it makes it more difficult  but at the same time the small not so small changes that they made I think would have made  this abundantly clear a perfect example of this is in the movie when snow goes to scope out the  arena before the first day of the games and then goes to the zoo to give Lucy gray advice and tell  her what to do and tell her to hide in this spot and there's a hole in the underground area and you  know he like helps her out he takes initiative none of that happens in the book he doesn't go  into the arena he doesn't scope anything out he doesn't tell her where to go she figures all of  that out by herself and so that change I think was kind of ridiculous because he would never do  something like that he deeply cares about winning but he doesn't care in that way to take that kind  of initiative and I also think that discredits Lucy Gray's character in her agency because those  were all her ideas she knew where to look to find places to hide she took advantage of that  situation and she knew what she was doing that was all from her none of that was from him and I think  it gives him way too much credit you know what was his idea when he becomes a peacekeeper he creates  an entire team to kill all of the Mocking Jays because he can't stand them he's just repulsed  by them and disgusted by them and he thinks that they should execute all of them so He suggests to  his Superior officer that they create a team of people to take out all the Mocking Jays and then  that's what they do so any ideas that he comes up with on his own are violent but every time he's  moved to act empathetically it's never his idea and this bleeds into my second point in that I  think it not only makes him seem smarter than he is and gives him more credit it also makes  him seem way more empathetic than he really is and it discredits the other characters agency  and how much of an influential role they play in his life if you've read the book you'll notice  that every single time snow Acts empathetically or even thinks about doing something that's somewhat  empathetic it's because he's motivated or pushed by the other people in his life to do so and never  because it's his own idea but that's not the case in the movie and I think one of the scenes that  upset me the most about this specifically which I think to some people might seem like it's really  not that big of a change but to me this was the first moment I watched where I was like oh no like  this this changes things substantially the scene in the zoo when Arachne is taunting the tribute  from District 10 with the food and then she kills her and snow in the movie runs up to Arachne he's  like taking care of her trying to make sure she's okay and trying to help her that's not  how that scene happens at all in the book and I think that that scene is a really pivotal scene  in understanding who snow is in the book because you really really understand how manipulative and  calculated he is because in the book he doesn't just run up to Arachne and just immediately try  helping her when the tribute from District 10 cuts her throat snow freezes up he doesn't know  what to do he's just looking over there and he doesn't move he doesn't do anything until Lucy  gray tells him help her she literally says help her and then he looks around he remembers that  there are cameras watching him and he calculates and realizes that it's not going to be a good look  for him if he's caught on camera not helping out a fellow classmate and so that's why he goes to  help her and I think that that was an absolutely ridiculous change because that tells you so much  about who he is and that didn't need to be changed at all because it was so easy to add that in there  you could have easily had Lucy gray just say help her had one shot of him looking at her and like  looking at the cameras assessing his situation and his surroundings and then running over to Arachne  but to have him just run over there it makes it seem like he cares but he doesn't they made so  many changes like that that seem unimportant seem insignificant but they are so so significant in  understanding who snow is what his motivations are and how he thinks and to take that away I  think really really misrepresents his character the representation of his character was actually  the thing I was the most worried about before I watched the movie because I was like they're  probably going to make him more sympathetic and it's probably going to be kind of hard to not do  that because you don't have his internal monologue but these small changes that they made proved to  me that actually they really easily could have made his intentions very very clear had they  just kept things the way that they were in the book so I really don't know why they made these  changes the only thing I can think of is that Hollywood wanted to make him more digestible and  more likable but that leads into a point that I have later on that we'll get into another example  of this that really really bothered me was when um they bring the food to the tributes at the  zoo in the movie Lucy gray tells Cory elanus if you get a chance bring us some food Jessup and  I haven't eaten since the reaping and so then he starts packing some food while they're at  their lunch and then sjana sits down with him and he's like what are you trying to feed her now and  then they go to the zoo and then they're helping out the tributes but that's not what happens in  the book and this this hurt me on such a personal level because it did such a disservice to my boy  s in the book it was s janus's idea what happens is that sanus has a backpack full of sandwiches  that he had his mom make for him that he takes to the zoo he's there Cory lanus happens to go to the  zoo at the same time he sees sanus there sanus is trying to feed these tributes but nobody is going  near him because they're all afraid of him and then sanus asks snow can you help me I'm trying  to give them food because they probably haven't eaten anything and they're starving and I don't  want them to starve it was his idea and so he asks corilanus for his help and corilanus uses  it to his Advantage he plays it up and he makes it seem like he was in on this idea the entire time  when he never was that was all s janus's idea so I really don't know why they took that out  I feel like they really misrepresented sanus in a lot of ways too to me they took a lot of  his initiative away and they just kind of made him seem like he was just more disgruntled and  angry with the capital but he was really really trying throughout the books and he does so many  good things and that moment rubbed me the wrong way I was so upset that they changed that I was  like that was his idea that was literally his idea how could you take that away from him again  another example of giving snow more credit than he deserves making him seem like he's smarter  taking more initiative than he actually takes when in the movie he puts the handkerchief in  the snake pit so that he can save Lucy gray he hears somebody talking about the snakes and then  it gets him thinking and then he runs over there and then he is coming up with all these ideas he's  like okay what am I going to do he goes there he sneaks the um handkerchief in there and he like  had to plan out like a whole thing but that is not what happens in the book and I know I sound like  a broken record but it's just frustrating because in the book he just happens to be in Dr G's office  someone makes an off-handed comment he thinks it's possible that they might put the snakes  in the arena and then as he says his hand slips and he drops his handkerchief into the tank cuz  he's just standing nearby it you know he's just passing by and this I think is a disservice in  two different ways first of all because this is actually something snow does a lot he also says  this when he records sanus using the jabber Jays and then sends it to Dr Gul he says the same thing  but his hand just slipped and he turned the switch to on or to record as if he's trying to take blame  away from himself so he doesn't feel as much guilt for doing these horrible things for cheating for  betraying a friend but at the same time the other thing that that emphasizes is that he just takes  advantage of the situation that's in front of him he doesn't really go after a lot of things  he's just opportunistic the situation presents itself to him and he's going to use it in a way  that benefits him the most and so he doesn't like seek out the snake pit to try and help  Lucy gray because he's so worried about her he's there he sees the opportunity and he calculates  the decision he has to make in that moment and I think that that's another moment where I was like  you did not need to change this you really could have just kept it that way because really makes  him seem like he cares more than he actually does when in reality he is far more narcissistic than  that another scene related to the snake pit as well that I found frustrating was when clemencia  and him go to Dr Gaul and they're talking about their paper that they turned in in the movie in  the book it's completely different in the movie clemencia wants credit for this paper as well so  she offers and is like well we're class Partners so we should write this paper together even though  Dr G didn't care about her writing it so it seems like she's the type of person who will  kind of like step on other people to get what she wants and she wants to take credit for something  that she didn't put any effort into or any work into and that's kind of how they play it off in  the movie because then when they go into Dr gul's office Gul is asking her to take the paper out of  the snake pit she tells them what is going to happen to them that the snakes will only bite  people who scent they don't recognize but she still puts her hand in there anyway that's not  what happens first of all clemencia never offers to help write this paper too because it was a sign  to both of them the only reason she doesn't help Cory lenus write the paper is because that's the  night that Arachne dies and she's too devastated by the fact that her classmate was just murdered  to write a paper for class and cor elanus couldn't care less so he writes the paper himself anyway  and so then when she finds out that he still wrote it he's like don't worry we'll both put our names  on it it doesn't matter and so when they go into Dr G's office he reaches into the tank  first and clemencia then goes in to reach after him because nothing happens to him neither of  them know anything is going to happen neither of them know the risks or the danger and then  clemensia gets bit obviously and then is dragged off to the hospital in the movie she never comes  back again but in the book she does come back and her relationship with him especially after that  incident I think is really important in showing us who snow is because she keeps getting upset with  him because he abandoned her he never visited her in the hospital he lies to her parents about what  happened to her and he doesn't take her side he sides with Dr Gaul the person who almost got her  killed and has now ruined her life and so she makes him feel bad for that she tells him again  and again you abandoned me and I think that's a really important moment because it gives us  a good understanding of how he then treats the other people in his life later on he abandons  Lucy gray he abandons sanus he abandons Tigris too he abandons everybody and that was the first  test of that and we see it pretty early on so I think it's a missed opportunity to just kind  of write off her character like that I also think that the small change they made at the end of the  movie when Lucy gray and snow are in the cabin right when he finds the weapons and Lucy gray  leaves the cabin they made a slight change in the movie they have her say a line that he's thinking  he's thinking in the book that there are no more loose ends left except for her but in the movie  she says there are no loose ends left well except for me so she vocalizes his internal monologue in  that moment so I get why they did that I do think it takes away from it a little bit because I don't  think Lucy gray would ever say something like that and again it gives you a better understanding of  how snow thinks when he's thinking that when nobody even said anything like that to him and  also that scene I think really does not emphasize how much he's like devolving in that moment he's  losing his mind he is bargaining with himself negotiating with himself convincing himself  that Lucy gray is actually a cold-blooded killer and she intentionally killed those people in the  games and none of it was Mercy none of it was forced she actually could very easily kill him  and so he has to kill her first and so before he even sets foot outside of that cabin in the book  he has decided what he's going to do there's a literal line where he says he checks if the  rifle is loaded before he opens the cabin doors so he's fully decided he knows in his mind that  he is going to try and kill her before he sets foot outside but in the movie again that doesn't  happen you can definitely tell he's contemplating he's assessing he's calculating he's trying to  figure out what to do but he goes outside and then he sees that Lucy gray is gone and then he  starts following her and trying to see where she is and then he starts to devolve and goes after  her and everything but in the book again he's already decided that gun is loaded he knows it's  loaded he's prepared for what he's about to do and then he finds out that she's run away he knew he  wanted to kill her before he even knew that she had run away so again it gives you a different  understanding of who he is and how crazy he really actually is another small thing that they left out  of the movie I think that was important they never mentioned that they deleted all of the footage of  the 10th Hunger Games so when snow goes back to uh the capital and he's talking to Dr Gaul in the  book she mentions to to him that they deleted all of the footage of the games so there's no  more evidence of the 10th Hunger Games and that left out a really important line in my opinion a  really really powerful line that I'll read to you now the quote reads he was glad about the Eraser  it was just one more way to eliminate Lucy Gray from the world the capital would forget her the  districts barely knew her and District 12 had never accepted her as one of their own in a few  years there would be a vague memory that a girl had once sung in the arena and then that would be  forgotten too goodbye Lucy gray we hardly knew you I got pills when I first read that because  you know that's not the last you're going to see of her she will come back she will come back to  haunt his ass and I live for it really his whole conversation with Gaul at the end of the movie  is a little bit different that whole scene plays out slightly differently and there's one specific  thing that I just wanted to mention this isn't really a complaint but I've liked this quote in  the book and it reminded me of something this is when he's explaining his theory about the purpose  of The Hunger Games now he says they're not just to punish the districts they're part of an eternal  War each one its own battle one we can hold in the palm of our hand and instead of waging a real war  that could get out of our control it reminded me a lot of penm at senses I don't know Latin so I'm  probably butchering that we learn in mocking jay that penm gets its name from this phrase bread and  circuses in Latin the whole quote being something like give them bread and circuses and they will  never revolt and I think Snow's interpretation of The Hunger Games really drives this home it really  is a circus you distract them give them these little games and keep their eyes away from the  bigger problem and of course we now have to talk about the comparison of his relationship with Lucy  gray in the book versus in the movie which all just feeds back into the same thing I've been  saying so snow and Lucy gray or snow beard as has been dubbed their ship name I'm not going  to lie to you people's reactions to this after the movie came out I I'm concerned I'm actually not at  all surprised by the audience reaction to snow and Lucy gray both together and like him individually  as a character I'm I'm not shocked that the girlies are going feral for this school shooter  ass looking man because I knew it was going to be hard to properly interpret and represent his  character when you don't have someone's internal monologue but at the same time I still think and  I I've tested this on friends who watched the movie without having read the book and they felt  like this too that you still get a pretty clear picture of who he is and nothing about the movie  made them like him at all they still didn't like him and then when I told them the other stuff that  he does in the book that makes him seem even worse they were like oh my God no that's even  10 times worse but I still didn't like him so I think the movie still accomplishes its goal like  it makes it clear to the audience that he's not a good person but maybe it doesn't make it clear  enough because there there are unfortunately too many people who are trying to excuse the behavior  of corolina snow like I said I do think the movie does make him more sympathetic so if you haven't  read the book if you don't have the context of his internal monologue and you don't know what  he's actually thinking in all of those moments then I can see why it's easier Maybe kind of  sort of a little bit to see him as somewhat more sympathetic but at the same time it doesn't make  his relationship with Lucy gray any different to me even without the internal monologue everything  he does is still horrific I think the biggest example of this I think they probably changed  that was the biggest was the ending of the games in the movie it ends with the snakes being dropped  in the arena and then Lucy graay singing and then Corina is like yelling at Gaul telling her to get  her out and everyone else coming in and chanting everyone's chanting get her out get her out and it  seems like Cory lanus kind of cares about her in that moment right like it feels like he is really  advocating for her probably partially just cuz he really wants to win CU he wants this scholarship  but also at the same time because it's unfair what's happening to her and so he's telling her to  get her out he's standing up for her essentially but that does not happen in the book again I'm a  broken record but it doesn't I think that gave him a lot of credit that he didn't deserve that made  him seem like he was really trying to fight for her really trying to advocate for her he doesn't  do that the games don't end on the snakes being put into the pit that's not how the last of the  tributes die it's all completely different and they don't all chant get her out because they're  leaving Lucy gray stuck in there Lucy gray ends up winning and they take her out right when they're  supposed to he's not like fighting for her or anything and I think some people have latched on  to that moment and they're like oh my God he was really really trying to help her like he still had  feelings for her in that moment and he was really trying to make everything work out but again when  you know that that doesn't happen in the book and that he would never actually do that it's  really hard to feel any of those things about him because Cory L snow would never do that he does  not care about her he doesn't see her as a person he sees her as an object he sees her as a prize he  sees her as something to possess his jealousy is unreal in those books there's a line where she's  laughing about something and he sees her and he looks at her and he's like she's beautiful but  she's beautiful in a way that other people will notice and that's dangerous and it's just like  it's so gross like every time he has any kind of thought about her it's just laced with so much  jealousy so much bitterness it turns malicious so quickly because he doesn't respect her he doesn't  value her it's not a relationship of love it's not a romance because he does not care about her  he cares about what she means for him to care for someone to love someone is selfless and nothing  about what he feels for her or any of the other people in his life is ever selfless it's always  selfish he really sees her as a prize and the movie does not do a good job of showing that to  you like he straight up follows her into the woods chases her down with a gun and tries to kill her  and people are still sitting here like Kicking and Screaming my feet over Cory Elena's snow like at  least he asked to communicate with her before he chased her down girl respect yourself please I'm  begging you I know some people are joking but too many people are not joking for my taste and  I'm worried I'm genuinely worried for you all I know that the girlies love a villain I know that  they love a dyed blondee tall lanky white man to make excuses for regardless of what war crimes  he's committed I am aware that people will make excuses for a hot person just because they are  hot that is actually quite literally the reason that Cory elanus is supposed to be conventionally  attractive and good-look she made him good-look as a character in the book too to emphasize the fact  that he's able to get away with so much because he's conventionally attractive he uses it to his  benefit he has pretty privilege literally people are willing to excuse his behavior  in the book because they take him seriously they take him at face value because he's charming and  he knows how to turn that on but the thing about this that drives me absolutely wild is that once  again the phenomenon that she's criticizing in this book is exactly what the audience ends up  doing and this leads me into my final point the final section of this video which is on dystopian  fiction in late stage capitalism and the death of media literacy I feel like this could be its  own video in entirely to be honest with you and maybe one day it will be but we're going to talk  about it at least for a little bit here because I have a lot to say so I've never been able to  properly articulate what I mean by this and how I feel about this because it's been something I've  been thinking about for years and if you know me you know I've always been somewhat critical  of The Hunger Games films because I've always felt it's not even just the content in the films  themselves but the way that those movies were marketed and then the audience reaction to them  that I feel like diminishes the meaning of the original work and that's because the marketing  around the film and the audience reception to it overwhelmingly not everyone who watched it  I think most people who watch it understand what the movie is trying to say that's not me trying  to say people don't know what they're watching but the general the like marketable audience reaction  has always been to me incredibly ironic and this is not just the case with The Hunger Games it's  just the most evident with The Hunger Games to me and now also especially with something  like squid game it's extremely clear you can see it like night and day adaptations like this of  dystopian content often end up creating the exact same situations or systems of Oppression that  they are criticizing like take the Hunger Games franchise for example when they were promoting  those films a film and story that is originally about resisting an oppressive power and fighting  back in a revolution against an oppressive power who was indiscriminately killing its own people  and killing its own children for sport and for entertainment was marketed to the general public  as a a movie that included a love triangle so they could sell you shirts that said Team pea  versus Team Gail or sell you Hunger Games nail polish or sell you just so much merchandise which  is quite literally exactly what Suzanne Collins is criticizing in The Hunger Games trilogy she's  criticizing the fact that the capital profit off of watching children kill each other the  fact that they are so desensitized to violence that they will turn it into sports they will  turn it into a game and they will make money from it in order to further subjugate their own people  and that's literally what happened with the marketing of The Hunger Games movies and I've  never been able to properly describe this it's always so hard for me to put into words and I  did so much Googling while I Was preparing for this video because I couldn't figure out how to  properly explain this I can't find like a phrase or a term or anything that people use for this I'm  sure there has to be something I just haven't found it so if you know please let me know I'm  I'm literally dying to know if other people talk about this or if there's a paper or something on  this but the closest thing I could find was a Reddit thread which I know makes me sound  like I go on Reddit I don't I literally only found this because I was Googling I had to download the  Reddit app so I could look at it and screenshot it and everything but it's a Reddit thread that  is titled when the dystopian genre criticizing capitalism is in the hands of capitalism it kind  of ruins the point even though this doesn't fully go into everything that I'm describing This Thread  is specifically about actually Divergent it's just a reposted Tumblr post actually but it's  about Divergence specifically and how that book fails the dystopian genre and how it actually  destroys the why dystopian genre but it's really the closest thing I've ever been able to find  that kind of describes this phenomena that I'm trying to explain the whole point of that threat  is essentially that Divergent doesn't really have any sort of messaging whatsoever like it doesn't  have a point it doesn't actually have any sort of real critique or criticism and it's just pulling  on different tropes from the ya genre that are really easily marketable and then selling that  back to you in the form of a dystopian novel that's not actually a dystopian novel and so  it sucks all the meaning out of dystopian as a genre in general because then when other people  are trying to publish their dystopian works that's kind of your new Baseline especially  when it became that popular so again it's a really good read definitely recommend checking out that  post but it kind of goes a little bit hand inand with what I'm trying to describe here there's  just like this deep deep irony in the fact that something that that is intended to criticize a  capitalistic government is then put into the hands of capitalism to sell back to us exactly the thing  that the original work was critiquing and I was worried that the same thing was going to happen  with ballot of song birds and snakes and I'm not surprised that it kind of did in this case I feel  like it's specifically the fact that Snow's character is just deeply deeply misinterpreted  and misrepresented and his relationship with Lucy gray is deeply misrepresented and misinterpreted  because that's exactly what she is warning us against in the book the fact that he is this  possessive jealous power hungry man who's willing to step on whoever to get to what he wants and  then people will watch the movie and they'll start excusing his behavior it then brings me into the  whole death of media literacy I think the whole problem with something like this a phenomenon  like this when we give to capitalism a critique of itself and have capitalism sell that to us we  are watering down the original messaging right and so so when we do that we don't have to engage with  that content as critically and if we don't have to engage with that content as critically then we're  not really thinking and if we're not thinking then it takes the messaging away do you see  what I mean like it's all just a circle to put you back into the place you originally were in where  you were not thinking about how this was actually supposed to be a critique that's my problem that  is my problem with most dystopian adaptations not necessarily even with like dystopian fiction it's  not the actual fiction usually that's the issue but the adaptations when it's put into the hands  of the people it's criticizing those hands whitewash it water it down and spoon feed it  back to you in a way that's digestible to you so that you don't actually properly engage with it  and truly question what you're consuming this is late stage capitalism at its finest I think maybe  one day I will sit down and I will write like a full hourong video essay about this when I can  talk about it in more detail after I've done some more research but for now that's kind of  what I have to say about it but it has left a bad taste in my mouth the way that the with The Hunger  Games movies it left a bad taste in my mouth I have since literally rewatched those movies like  three times and I love them I actually do really like them I've changed my mind about the actual  content of the films but I think the marketing around them had left such a bad taste in my mouth  that I couldn't separate that from the actual just like content we get but I still find it upsetting  that that is the case and there will always be this level of watering something down of stripping  it of its full depth and its full meaning just to make it more digestible to people when it really  doesn't need that so I've been talking for nearly 3 hours the Sun is going down but we have finally  reached almost the end we're going to wrap up my final thoughts my biggest takeaway from this  is that you have to read the book I know that that sounds really obvious coming from me being  a book person like I am but you have to read the book I don't think that you were going to get the  same thing out of the movie if you haven't read the book I think if you watched the movie movie  and then you want to read the book that's cool too that totally works but I think you need the  context of the book to truly understand this story otherwise you're kind of just getting  a sanitized Hollywood version of this story that is not really going to get you the actual message  that Suzanne Collins is trying to get across I love the book I think it adds so much Insight  so much World building so much commentary that is so relevant and so well done and so intelligent  I still think the movie is worth watching I think it's a good movie it's really well made but again  you need the context of the book because I've been so obsessed with ballot of song birds and snakes I  literally sat down one day and I made a playlist uh for the book this was before I'd even watched  the movie but I made a playlist for the book of songs that I feel like fit the story perfectly  and I have to say I think it's pretty Genius of me I think it's an incredible playlist it's some  of my best work I'm not going to lie so I'm going to link my Spotify playlist in the description box  if you want to check it out if you want to listen to it while you're reading or if you just want to  listen to it cuz you just watched the movie or anything feel feel free I'm very proud of it but  very well have it that pretty much wraps up all of my thoughts not even all of them honestly I think  I could probably sit here for another like two hours and keep going I actually left stuff out  from my script because I had way more to say but I am running out of time I'm also running out of  sunlight and I'm losing my voice so I don't think I can go for that much longer but I have so much  more to discuss so feel free to discuss as much as you want in the comments down below I will be  typing I will be responding because I have much to say many thoughts it's consumed my life like  I said and I think it will continue to consume my life please let me know all of your thoughts  on the ballot of song birds and snakes both the book or the movie I would love to discuss with  you all if you would like to follow me on any of my social media to keep up with what I'm reading  and whatever else I'm doing all of my links are in the description box as well but thank you all so  much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed and I will see you very soon in my next videobye\n"