There Is Always More

This is a repost in honor of the upcoming TBOSAS film. Enjoy!

Spoiler alert for those who have not read Suzanne Collins’ prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy. You’ve been warned.

One of the noticeable differences between the 10th Hunger Games and 74th and 75th Games that we are privy to during Katniss’ era, is the outright abuse and maltreatment of the tributes before they even reach the arena. Many of the children did not survive their time in the Capitol to actually participate in the Games. These details were in stark contrast to the luxuries lavished on Katniss, Peeta and their fellow tributes before they entered the arena.

Collins’ made it clear that these Games were a forerunner that would show the origins and early stages of the sadistic show. By the time Coriolanus Snow begins his time as a mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games, the not-so-distant war is still fresh on many citizens’ minds, and the nature of the Games is not lost on many. This is why the mentor program was developed by Dr. Gaul. It was a way to devise how to get the Capitol citizens more interested and invested in watching the horrors play out on screen.

It’s also made clear that Snow had a personal hand in suggesting updates and improvements of the Games due to his time as a mentor and, by the end of the novel, his renewed investment in the punishment of the districts. At first glance, it may seem that Snow made an effort to make life easier on the tributes before the start of the Games, but Collins’ ensures that the reader is not fooled one bit. Everything, from the tributes being lavished on to the stylists’ and mentors’ efforts to help the tributes make lasting impressions to being allowed time to train and build strength is all for the benefit of the Capitol. Let’s break it down.

From the moment the tributes are gathered and brought to the Capitol they are essentially captives. This was made clear when Snow went to the train station to greet his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird. They arrived in a cattle car, all 24 children thrown in with one another, in chains and starving. It could not be more clear. They were animals and were to be treated as such. From there they were piled into the monkey house of an old zoo, locked behind bars in which they were exposed to the view of anyone who wandered by. Peacekeepers stood guard and again they were not given food or water. They are kept here until the start of the Games in which they are meant to be dropped into the arena, in the clothes they came in, where they will then have to fight for their lives. No training, no outside help. At least until Snow and his fellow students step in to the picture.

However, during the 74th and 75th Hunger Games we see Katniss and Peeta escorted onto a high-tech train with all the latest technology, decked out in luxurious furniture with their own private rooms and all the best foods they could ask for. On arrival they are assigned to a stylist with a team of prep artists who will clean, groom and ready the tribute for presentation in a flashy costume designed to draw the attention of sponsors. They are then taken to apartments set aside for their district, again given private chambers, a fresh wardrobe and all the food they could want. Each tribute has a mentor and escort who work together along with the stylists to create a profile of sorts for their tribute as they train and ready themselves for the Games. By the time of their interviews and subsequent entrance into the arenas, they’ve been presented in the best possible light to the sponsors, scored on their abilities and overall treated well. At least until they are expected to fight to the death.

Now why would Snow in particular go to all those lengths in making sure the tributes are treated well before the arena? Is it all for entertainment purposes? The better condition of the tributes and the more training they’ve had the more interesting the Games will be? He even initiates the celebrity status of the survivors. Providing the victors new homes and riches upon their return to their districts, pouring gifts in to the districts of the winner. Why put in the efforts if he hates the tributes so much?

I think the answer to that is actually shown when Collins’ narrates that after Snow’s return to Capitol life following his return from District 12 and his courtship of and turn on Lucy Gray he makes the conscious decision to not allow himself to fall in love again. He states that he will marry someone he could never love and will never gain a hold on his heart. In that way, he will never be swayed from his quest for power and control. I think the same goes for the Games.

During his time as a mentor, he and a few of his fellow classmates were unable to deny the inhumane treatment of the tributes during their time in the Capitol. This forced them and many other Capitol citizens to question why the Games were even allowed and whether or not they should continue. In essence, the inhumane treatment forced them to recognize their own humanity and the humanity of the tributes. Some were merely uncomfortable, some determined to try and slip food to the tributes out of pity, and some even openly protested the Games. Snow might have had multiple ulterior motives for wanting to help his tribute, but there were times when he could not justify the actions of the Capitol.

However, Snow comes to view this less as a humane response to cruelty and evil and more as a weakness that keeps the viewer from remembering the inferiority of the tributes. Therefore, going forward Snow makes sure that the tributes are treated well and amply prepared for the Games accomplishing two goals simultaneously. Create higher odds to amp up the entertainment factor to draw in the interest of the Capitol citizens, and keep them from questioning their own humanity. He basically provides all the justifications of why there’s nothing wrong with what they do to these children.

The children are presented with skills and talents that will help them fight and survive in the arena. Incentives are thrown in to even get some of the district children to volunteer for the Games in order to gain riches and honor. This serves to present the tributes as people who want to be in the arena and live for the fight so much so that they spend time developing and honing skills. Why would Capitol citizens question this if the tributes are raised as fighters anyways? It’s in their blood, it’s what they want. In his subtle snakelike way, Snow keeps the Capitol citizens in the mindset that however pretty and human-like the tributes look, the people in the district are still barbaric, inferior, and more animal than human because all they really want is to kill one another with an audience to cheer them on.

This is a repost in honor of the upcoming TBOSAS film. I can’t wait to glean more from the story.

Telling you now, spoiler alert to those who have not read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Before Suzanne Collins gave us the Hunger Games prequel known as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, she gave us The Hunger Games trilogy which follows Katniss Everdeen as she goes from tribute to rebel to the face of a revolution. From the start, Katniss was a clear protagonist who none could help root for. Flawed she may be, but the root of her existence was always clear: the survival of her family. In the course of her journey we also meet President Coriolanus Snow, a cruel and heartless tyrant bent on destroying Katniss, the revolution and continuing the oppression of the districts.

It is through Collins’ prequel that we finally come to see the origins of the Games, background on the Dark Days and most importantly, President Snow’s history explaining why and how he became the awful dictator we know so well. As I read through the prequel I could not help noticing how different Snow was from Katniss. Despite, their tenacity, strong beliefs in their actions, and an ability to garner a following that influences the masses, these characters could not be more different. In this article I have broken down the essential traits that separate Katniss from Snow and allow her to become his ultimate foil.

Fire vs Snow

Throughout the trilogy Katniss is repeatedly referred to and known as “the girl on fire”. She has a fiery temper, her actions act as a spark to the revolution, and her influences spread throughout the districts like a wildfire. She also hails from a coal mining town, and by the end of the trilogy even suffers from major burns. Her fire burns the Capitol, the districts, her family and even herself. Like a fire set on a forest that’s become too wild, her flames set about a new beginning for the nation of Panem, but no one is left unaffected or unharmed. Everyone gets burnt. 

In the prequel, Snow has a family saying that also repeated throughout the novel: “Snow lands on top”. In nature, a fire burns through brush, but snow acts like a blanket, covering all that remains. Plant-life can’t grow until temperatures rise, the snow melts and spring comes along bringing with it new life. This is a perfect analogy of what  President Snow attempts to do with the entertainment qualities of the games. Blanket coverage over the inhumanity of the games, keep people from addressing the morality of it, so that the districts stay in line and children continue to die. Nothing changes, nothing grows. That is until fire melts snow.

Wilderness vs City-life

Another difference between Katniss and Snow is there preferences for environments. Katniss obviously prefers the wilderness of the forest. She was raised near the woods, grew up hunting, gathering and running through trees. Before the Games, Katniss was desperately hoping for trees and woods. She feels safe among them, knows how to survive among the plant and animal life and even loves the color green which is clearly an indication that the trees and plants are a major source of comfort to her. She’s a nature girl through and through.

If you have indeed read the entirety of the prequel, you know exactly how different Snow is from Katniss in this regard. Coriolanus spent barely two minutes in the woods with the prospect of having to live off the land before he began to completely lose his shit. Having been raised in the Capitol, even despite his family’s financial struggle, he has almost no experience in the woods. Snow prefers buildings and man-made structures. He does not enjoy the unpredictability of wildlife for to him it is too chaotic, too difficult to control. And more than that, I believe he prefers the coldness and indifference of city-life. For some, living in the city brings joy in the form of artistry and diversity. For Snow, however it’s all about capitalism, profit and power. In the wilderness these things do not matter. Forces of nature require survival, adaptability and endurance. Its power will trump yours easily for it cannot be controlled or predicted, the longer you thrive in the woods the more you must come to depend on it. This is something Snow realized immediately he was ill-equipped and unwilling to do. Interestingly, nature still provides everything you need to survive, food, water and shelter if you know how to find it. But without the things Snow craves most, the man-made structures of a city can provide none of that. 

Survival vs Status

One of the things that surprised me about the prequel was when we learned that in his childhood Snow had very little. His family suffered after the war and they had very little to live off. He, his grandmother and his cousin Tigris, had to do all they could just to provide themselves food. In this way he and Katniss both understand the nature of poverty. However, as I read the prequel I also noticed a difference in how Snow dealt with and struggled with his poverty over how Katniss dealt with and struggled with hers.

Katniss was older than Prim and her mother had slipped into a mental depression that left her unable to provide for her children. Therefore, Katniss became the primary caregiver of her family. She hunted, gathered, entered herself into the Reaping additional times in exchange for food, and essentially did all she could to gain even a morsel of food. In Catching Fire, she even reflects on how if she’d been older she may have even sold herself to the Head Peacekeeper who was known to prey on desperate young women. She sacrificed time and resources and put herself at additional risk of being reaped, because her goal was always about survival. Hers and her families. She did not care if she was disliked by all around her or that she came from the Seam. She was poor and knew it and therefore did what she could.

Snow on the other hand was younger than Tigris who was in this case, the primary caregiver. Like Katniss, Tigris did all she could to provide for her family, selling her services and even alluding to the fact that she prostituted herself in order to provide for them. But Snow being younger and in school was focused more on keeping up with his education, determined to receive a scholarship that would enable him to attend university and thereby escape his impoverished life. Status was what was most important to him. Even in the midst of struggling to survive, he was more concerned about what people would say if they knew he was poor. In the very beginning of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Snow is consuming a bowl of cabbage and lamenting how much he hates it and how when he is older he is determined never to have to eat the stuff again. In this very moment, he proves to be different from Katniss who would have been grateful for the cabbage if it had been all they had to survive on. For Snow, growing up offered a ray of hope, because as a citizen of the Capitol there was a chance to escape impoverished life. For Katniss, the only escape from poverty was if she became a victor of the Hunger Games, something she had no desire to compete in and therefore no prospects of ever escaping poverty.

Freedom vs Control

I think Katniss’ preference for nature over Snow’s preference for the city actually hints at a deeper desire. Katniss’ main priority in life may be her family’s survival but in the first Hunger games book she admits to herself that some of the only times when she is truly happy is when she is out in the woods, hunting with Gale. Now, some ‘Team Gale’ fans might just take this to mean that she’s in love with Gale, but I think it’s more simply that she loves the freedom the woods and Gale offer her. Among the trees and her best friend, she is at liberty to do what she wants, say what she wants, and simply be herself. No need to wear a mask or conceal her thoughts or choose her words carefully.

Snow on the other hand views freedom as a form of chaos and in the prequel he clearly despises and even fears chaos. It’s easy to see why that is when you consider the lessons he was taught by Dr. Gaul, and his memories of the Dark Days and the war with the districts. It was a chaotic time of which he, being a small child, had little control. Add to that his subsequent poverty due to the war and you get a young man who values being able to control himself, others and his environment. As his beliefs come to align with Dr. Gaul’s in that humans are little more than beasts who will tear one another apart without structure, without someone being in control, Snow comes to the conclusion that ruling the districts with an iron-fist is the only way to keep control of his world. 

I owe you vs You owe me

Perhaps, one of the most important qualities between these two characters is how each views owing a debt. When someone saves Katniss she feels indebted to them. Rue, Thresh, Peeta Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy, Finnick Odair. These are some of the people who have spared and saved her life, sometimes multiple times, and it causes Katniss to feel a connection to each of them, feeling as if she owes them. And she hates it. She does not like to feel indebted to people, and looks for ways where she can return the favor. But on the flip-side, when Katniss saves a life she does not look for or expect return favors. She does not care if she is owed something, because she has always looked out for herself anyhow, but being in debt invites the possibility of someone having a level of control on her.

Snow is the complete opposite. When he saved Sejanus’ life in the arena he not only wanted repayment, but expected it. And yet, when Lucy Gray saved his life after the bombings he did not go around feeling indebted to her or feeling the need to return the favor. By end of the novel, he had even convinced himself that Lucy Gray was in fact evil and everything she had done was only for herself, thereby wiping away any trace of feeling that he owed her. Once again, Snow relishes having that control on people, being able to say you owe me and I’m here to collect whereas Katniss only wishes to feel free of her debts.

But so, it seems, is love.

Love is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway.

Without it, we cannot continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.

Steve Craine- The Haunting of Hill House

This quote is rather enlightening on the meaning behind Old Ben's "He is more machine now than man" line in ROTJ to explain that Vader is "twisted and evil", something I always found a bit out of the blue. While the OT is rife with themes of nature over technology, and technology being used to control and harm the people, the ultimate evil of the trilogy (Palpatine) is entirely organic. Now, I read Ben's quote more as a commentary that being so removed from the Force has only worsened Vader's evil.

I do understand what Lucas is going for with his construction of "more machine than man" Vader being weakened and twisted by his state. Vader is on life-support in the OT and general understanding is that the Force lightning killed him by disabling said life support. He is 'the walking wounded' or perhaps more accurately 'the walking dead' -- his life ended on Mustafar and it's just misery and evil that keeps him going. We understand that he's barely human anymore.

The problem comes from the fact that there are real people out there who are missing limbs and surviving thanks to medical intervention, and to say there's something inherently "twisted and evil" about this state is ableist. It also raises questions about how much of your flesh you can lose before your experience a power loss, which is a very dry way of looking at things. (Come on. One arm = 10% power loss? What do you think?) And, obviously, it can contradict "luminous being we are, not this crude matter" and the whole existence of Force ghosts, which prove that the body is hardly necessary to be powerful and present in the Force.

What I would say is that, as with so much of the Force, this is entirely a matter of the spirit, and perception of self. When Anakin lost an arm, it didn't slow him down. So what if that's it? The prosthetic is a part of him that he accepts. He still considers himself whole, so he is still able to access the Force fully. Then Mustafar, and the spiritual death of Anakin Skywalker. He's lost everything. He's a monster. He's left in a permanent state of chronic, debilitating pain. He has no choice about being put in the suit, and the only thing that he was holding onto -- Padmé -- is revealed to be lost to him. From this point on he is in a state of spiritual unbalance, and he never has a chance to feel whole again. His body is no longer a vessel, but a prison, an unwilling, perpetual walk forward when he's lost what makes him Anakin Skywalker.

He defeats Palpatine because Luke leads by example, showing him what peace and acceptance in face of great suffering looks like. He's empowered by his son, and able to reject his own apathy, pain, and imprisonment to act. He's not interested in being the walking dead any longer, and so he chooses to finally die. This is a narrative that doesn't rely on him being in the suit, but rather the suit becomes a metaphor for.

As a nature-lover, I am endlessly fascinated in how Suzanne used themes of nature and seasons to represent this world and its characters and conflicts. The biggest elements of course are Katniss’ “catching fire” and snow. In a previous post in which I analyzed the differences between Katniss and Coriolanus, I talked about how Katniss’ effect is like a wildfire and Coriolanus’ tyranny is like a blanket of snow. The interesting thing about snow and wildfires is that you actually need snow, as well as rainfall, in order for revegation to occur as the land is in desperate need of moisture.

When I thought about this angle of nature it made me think about how Catching Fire is about Katniss’ influence spreading throughout the nation. The wildfire. The rebellion. The war. However, wildfires are devastating and leave the land starved and in serious need of water, aka fuel. Snow’s crackdown on the districts, the havoc he reigns down on District 12 and the already suffering people only act to fuel their rage, fuel their desire to regroup and fight. But how can they when they are so desperate and feel too weak? Too damaged by this wildfire that has left everyone burned? 

Even Katniss was lost and downtrodden at the beginning of Mockingjay. Her focus was lost, her spirit nearly broken. Snow’s bombing of her home seemed to wipe away all she had done and Snow had indeed landed on top. But as we all know the next step in revitalizing a forest after a wildfire is for spring to arrive. To warm the land, melt the snow, and begin regrowth. Katniss only began to regather herself when she saw Peeta alive and, well, alive. She had new hope, new warmth, and she pulled her forces together and kept fighting and spread that hope and that warmth until the last of the snow was gone and finally the nation could regrow.

As for it’s possible ties to the scene in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes it’s a jump, to say the least. Obviously the symbolism of Snow equaling death, blanket coverage over injustices, cold equaling cruelty is all still there. However, I think that scene is more in lines with Lucy’s ballad. The girl lost in the snowstorm. And maybe, maybe she found her way to a better, more peaceful world. Another way you can view it is that the fallout between Coriolanus and Lucy was quick and violent, just like a snowstorm. But Snow’s tyranny over the districts lasted for years and only grew more brutal, thus “snow accumulated” over a period of time.

There have been many times when I didn't like my brother, when I wanted nothing to do with him, and there are still no excuses for his actions. but I can at least understand the roots. and at the end of the day he's my brother and I love him. I love that this show is not afraid to create those kind of dynamics. to show how pain and suffering strengthen and forge some into good-hearted, considerate people while others are just beaten into a further copies of who made them suffer.

Billy was never supposed to be a likable character. he was meant to reflect a flawed human being who failed to rise above his own pain and instead took it out on others. And he was meant to reflect that he was still a human with feelings, and fears, morals and compassion. Saving El wasn't his only single humane act. There were multiple scenes that showed he had a moral code from trying to resist attacking Heather, to telling Karen to stay away from him, as well as when he showed remorse and fear over what he was being forced to do and the tears running down his face while the mind flayer used him to speak to El.

Billy represents a flawed, miserable, scared and, ultimately human character who loses any chance of building a better life for himself, with healthier relationships, when he sacrifices himself for a girl he knows almost nothing about and dies a horrific death that no one deserves, bully or not. Billy's story is tragic because he never got the chance to change his attitude or grow into a better person or atone for his offenses against others. But his death, his sacrifice, emulates a person who had the possibility of being a far better person if he had gotten the chance.

And Max' pain over the loss of her step-brother despite the suffering he caused her shows us that she at least found things about Billy worth mourning. She found compassion in her heart for him despite him being the one who often tormented her, and part of her grief was in the loss of any hope that they could have one day forged a better sibling relationship.

“There is a moment- just one moment,” McDiarmid remembers. “It’s after Anakin’s been almost destroyed and he’s got little life in him. Palpatine has sent for the medical team and he’s waiting for them to arrive- and he just gently touches Anakin’s forehead. Sidious doesn’t have any qualities we normally associate with humanity, except he does have a master-servant relationship with Anakin. Anakin means something to him.”

Yet he got never bitter or cynical because of it.

Grindelwald however isn't quite the same because I think he is capable of and desires love but doesn't know how to love. In the scene after the blood oath is destroyed he asks Dumbledore "who will love you now"? Immediately, I thought of my dad and every other abusive relationship I've ever heard of in which the abuser will try to use fear and manipulation to keep their partner from leaving by telling them no one else could or would ever love them. My dad used this on my mom for years and it worked. It wasn't until my 20s, and some much needed therapy, that I realized my dad used this because deep down he feared the same thing for himself.

Now I could be reading into it, or just applying my own experiences to the film, but it was honestly uncanny when I realized how similar Grindelwald is to my dad, minus the magic, 😉 which is why I think as a villain he's not outright evil, or devoid of goodness, like Voldemort. I think he does love, in a limited and unhealthy way like my dad, and he has a desire to be loved and admired which I think is why he loves having followers, loves hearing his name chanted in the streets and prefers to think he is part of a superior race. However, true and selfless love doesn't hurt the ones we love and it doesn't hold them hostage by telling them no one else can love them or in this case holding them under a blood oath. Dumbledore and Grindelwald's love story is tragic not because it could never be but because it was never true and Dumbledore knows it.

However, like many abusers fail to realize love can come from many places and in many forms. Dumbledore never fell in love again romantically but he was most certainly loved by the many children who came and went to Hogwarts. The scene of his death, his funeral, and the legacy he left behind, the title his students chose in Harry's year "Dumbledore's Army", was evidence of a man who was not just respected and admired but loved completely and fully.

"Who will love you now?" Grindelwald asked.

If Dumbledore ever dwelled on these words all he needed to do was look at the loyalty, respect and love those kids gave him and his staff had for him. While their love might not be what he had dreamed of during the "summer Gellert and I fell in love" it would be far better because it would be a love that was full and selfless and innocent. Harry was as close to a son or grandson as Dumbledore ever had and despite Dumbledore's attempts to keep him at arms length, he loved Harry immensely and Harry loved him in return and mourned him for years to come.