Spoilers ahead!
Okay I finally got to watch the movie on Saturday and I've had time to process.
The brutality of the deaths really showed how horrific it was for both the Capitol and the Districts at the time. And slowly sensationalizing the games was portrayed really well. Lucky Flickerman was the forefront of the desensitization within the Capitol.
Hunter Schafer was amazing as Tigress, she was truly eye-catching and her last line in the move was...rough to say the least. I was genuinely heartbroken for her, after all her efforts to make sure Coriolanus didn't go down the dark path, it's the utter defeat when she said the line.
Rachel and Tom have amazing chemistry, just like the books, I was rooting for them until the second portion of the 3rd act. Would definitely petition for them to star in a RomCom or something just happier.
Josh gave the most wonderfully heart-breaking performance as Sejanus, I have no notes.
The songs are a bop, and next time I read the book again, 100% reading it with them in mind.
The foreshadowing of Katniss throughout the movie was awesome to see. Also Snow being left with his thoughts for two seconds and having a complete meltdown is so on brand.
The fashion of the Capitol was so wild to see, as they were dressed so "normal" like you would instantly be like "I would wear that," in contrast to the original trilogy shows how vapid and vile the Capitol became x2. Cause the classism and elitist mentality is already there.
Things I wish were added:
The first kiss the night before the games, I think for me it was both a emotional point, as these two have been bonding and falling for each other slowly, they might never see each other and I feel like it should've stayed.
Just more Clemmie in general.
I don't know why I jus really would've like to see Snow and the Covey interacting. Especially him and Maude Ivory more.
But overall this movie was amazing, and I felt a wave of nostalgia hit when I was watching it. Being immersed back into this world, and its complexities. And today my sister and I watched the first hunger games movies again, and I was just thinking about all the parallels, genuinely so cool and well done.
If it wasn't for fucking exams. I'd be in that theater first show watching TBOSAS.
Another rant.
In a sense I do believe that Snow did love Lucy Gray, but I saw this tiktok talk about how it isn't a love story, it's a tragedy. I have to agree, because Snow was given so many chances to choose the good path, he had people that genuinely believe in him. Tigris, Lucy Gray and Sejanus but Snow is so emotionally stunted and not willing to progress. (At least from my view that's what I concluded)
So many times throughout the book I caught myself smiling or laughing at something he said. And I literally would be like "wtf" but Suzanne Collins is such a genius writer like that, and like a broken clock I'll repeat, she wrote this book so well that, I was genuinely forgetting that this young man will become a man I will hate and wish death upon.
Reading the original trilogy as a pre-teen I never truly understood the gravity of Snow's evil and watching the movies again recently with context from the book, made so many little actions and lines hold more weight.
I hate over-analysing books because of English in school, but books like this remind me why I love to read and get lost in worlds that are are different but the same.
I'm rambling but this book and this whole franchise has been on my mind for a while and I need a creative outlet.
I just finished the book, and people are right, you actively find yourself rooting for Snow, for a split second you completely forget who he is, who he is to become. You want him to be a good person, the moment I knew his humanity was faltering was when he killed Mayfair and Billy Taupe. He excused it as protecting Sejanus and Lucy Gray, but at the root of it, Coriolanus Snow is a product of Capitol brainwashing and taught to dehumanize the people of the districts.
He's so complex and fucked up and sociopathic and Olivia's song is a perfect encapsulation of Lucy Gray, AND Sejanus Plinth haunting him for the rest of his life. Snow can pretend and poison and erase the memory of them but people with unfinished business tend to come back to finish it.
I had refused to read the last chapter holding it off, cause I already saw the mental change in Snow's character, I was invested but I knew my heart will be broken. Because we only ever knew her through Snow's lens; Lucy Gray Baird's fate forever a mystery, just like her life.
Thank you for reading this mini rant, I'll probably rant again after a while.
Is it just me or does "Carolina" by Taylor Swift really suit Lucy Gray Baird?
OK I'm half way through TBOSAS and since I knew about the the basic plot points beforehand. I can't stop thinking, do you think current or even middle-aged Snow ever thinks about Lucy? Or Sejanus? The first people he truly committed evil deeds too? I'm not even suggesting in a fond way and not through even Katniss and Peeta mirroring Lucy and Sejanus. Like in his lifetime, I've been dwelling on this for too long.
Just finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. What blows me away is how Coryo has all the influences for him to become worse and to become better.
Here's what I mean, he's a mentor, so he has a close view of the games, which could make him more sympathetic with the districts or more cruel to them.
He writes the papers for Dr Gaul and talks with her a lot, their interactions could have made him more pro or more anti Capitol.
Dean Highbottom resents the Snows, which makes coryo anti-whatever-highbottom-believes, but hearing about the origin of the games could have changed his mind.
Sejanus, Tigris, and Lucy are all anti-capitol and they are the greatest influences in his personal life.
Spending time in D12 could have made him sympathize with the people that are the same as Capitol people, but instead he becomes more pro-capitol.
But as the first chapter makes very clear, he's out for personal success. It foreshadows everything. At the beginning he has some sympathy for the tributes but sees them as pawns for his own success. At any point, he had the catalysts in place for him to become anti-capitol. The conversations and family and friends. He could have been.
finished reading TBOSAS & due to undisclosed personal reasons i have decided chapter 30 and the epilogue don’t exist
i was so confused when lucy gray actually ran from snow and for a split second i was hoping she'd come back even tho i knew how terrible of a person he was and it just made me realise how brainwashed we are and used to girls in romance books/movies always ignoring all the red flags and almost willingly getting manipulated. and i know i'd be real mad if she didn't run— i'd be disappointed but (unfortunately) not surprised and yet for a split second i got mad and disappointed when she did run too. i guess what i'm trying to say is we really should normalise RUNNING and quite literally disappearing in the woods when a man is being sus no matter how hot he is. in this essay i will—
might fuck around and pull a lucy gray
'tom blyth' this 'coriolanus snow' that— i'm so tired like bffr have y'all seen lucy gray?? have y'all HEARD her?? she's literally perfect it's 2023 why are we still simping for racist mean stupid white guys???? i'm so done