Part of the reason why The Hunger Games was so captivating was the complex and truly terrifying villain: President Snow. He wrapped up his evil in well-reasoned arguments and perfumed class, making him a baddie that every Hunger Games fan loved to hate.
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With the upcoming release of A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to the original four The Hunger Games movies, Snow moves from primary antagonist to primary protagonist, as we learn what he was like in his youth and what he experienced during the period of the tenth Hunger Games.
Warning: spoilers ahead for A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and all of The Hunger Games books and films.
Coryo Snow as a young man
Although his full name is Coriolanus Snow, in his youth he was known by the nickname Coryo, dubbed so by his cousin, Tigris. Years before he would become president, Snow attended the Academy in the Capitol, where he mentored the female tribute of the tenth Hunger Games, Lucy Gray Baird. The pair developed a close relationship and the closest that Snow will ever seem to come to true emotion comes about as a result of her death. While he came from a once-wealthy family, their riches and social status had begun to decline, leaving Snow with a burning desire to prove himself as a young man.
A dedicated Capitol citizen, Snow had a typical career, studying advanced military studies and serving briefly in the Peacekeepers. He had the option of becoming an officer there, but chose to pursue a career as an apprentice Gamemaker. He quickly introduced several new reforms to the Games, including the creation of the Victors’ Village.
Poisonous tactics
To rise through the ranks of Panem, Snow is known to poison those in his way. Sometimes this is for political gain, sometimes it’s for personal revenge. As noted above, his care for Lucy resulted in him poisoning her supposed murderer.
His preferred method of poison is to spike drinks. As people began to wise up to this, he started drinking the poison as well, only to quickly give himself the antidote before it could fully work. However, the result of regularly drinking poison resulted in open sores on the inside of his mouth, constantly weeping with blood. Later in life, we see him cough blood frequently, highlighting the long-term effects of his poisonous politics.
President Snow in the books
When we meet President Snow in The Hunger Games books, it’s clear that he’s a ruthless man—but also a smart one. He identifies Katniss Everdeen’s danger quickly, when others advising him wave her off as a child.
Snow is clearly ruthless, rampantly killing and threatening Victors’ families to ensure obedience. For example, he murdered Haymitch Abernathy’s mother, younger brother, and girlfriend as punishment because Haymitch’s move that won him his Hunger Games made the Capitol look foolish.
President Snow is all about image. He doesn’t care that Katniss doesn’t intend to start a revolution; all that matters is that her image has the potential to do so—and he’s willing to kill. everyone she loves to prevent that from happening.
President Snow on the big screen
Played by Donald Sutherland in The Hunger Games movies, the depiction of Snow in the films is fairly accurate. Sutherland captures the sinister politeness of Snow perfectly, masking his cruelty behind a veneer of calmness. He never visibly loses his temper, even when faced with huge obstacles and ultimately losing to the rebellion.
While Snow reasoned that many of his actions were for the greater good of peace in Panem, Snow showed no remorse for his tyranny and murderous desire for power. Instead, he often behaved with self-righteousness, even going so far as to blame Katniss and the rebels for the deaths carried out on his orders because they disrupted the status quo.
Ultimately, Snow appeared to genuinely believe that the Hunger Games were a necessary evil to maintain order and control in Panem. By his logic, a few needed to die every year to avoid another all-out war (which didn’t work out that well, considering the rebels launched a war to stop the Games). However, his logic did seem to have an impact on Katniss, pushing her to argue against holding another Hunger Games for Capital children. She recognized the danger of thinking like Snow and acted to prevent another dictatorship from rising in the form of President Coin. In the end, Snow’s final words to Katniss highlighting his continued belief in his twisted system, were what finally sowed the seeds of true peace.
(featured image: Lionsgate)
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