President Snow’s prequel story inspired several big theories regarding his character, and I’m hoping the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping confirms one in particular. This newest prequel of the Hunger Games franchise will be set 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so it should cover Haymitch Abernathy’s 50th Hunger Games. We already know quite a bit about these particular games, but there is a great opportunity here to fill in some of the gaps left in what has already been revealed by the Hunger Games books.

In the Catching Fire book, Katniss and Peeta watched recorded footage of the 50th Hunger Games, which included the bloody details of Haymitch’s victory against his 47 opponents. The District 12 tribute had taken advantage of the magnetic forcefields surrounding the arena to launch a weapon into his final opponent’s skull, which was certainly not what the Head Gamemaker would have intended. As punishment, Haymitch returned home to find all his loved ones dead. It’s a tragic story, and one Sunrise on the Reaping is sure to explore. However, a great deal of this has always struck me as odd.

One Of My Favorite Hunger Games Theories Is That President Snow Was Head Gamemaker For Haymitch’s Games

Snow’s Anger At Haymitch’s Victory Makes More Sense If The 50th Games Were His Creation

Haymitch’s Hunger Games story has always left me with various questions, but there is one theory that would answer most of them. Haymitch specifically said in Catching Fire that Snow was responsible for the deaths of his loved ones, but when I first read this, I didn’t understand why his using the magnetics to kill an opponent would make the president so angry. Sure, this wasn’t how the arena was meant to be used, but, if anything, this would only have made the games more exciting for the Capitol audience. However, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes provided some hints.

We know that, after his experience with Lucy Gray, Snow would have had a significant reason to hate District 12. Therefore, a boy from this District coming in and winning the games through unconventional means—just as Lucy Gray did—would have been enough to elicit an emotional response from the dictator. Still, the decision to murder all of Haymitch’s loved ones was extreme. Snow was known to use his victors’ loved ones as leverage against them, but his punishment made this impossible in Haymitch’s case. Something must have made Snow so angry that he didn’t stop to think about the consequences.

The only thing I know that would explain Snow’s thoughtless rage would be personal stakes in the 50th Hunger Games. The dictator had already been president for decades by this point in the Hunger Games timeline, but it’s possible that he would have returned to the role of Head Gamemaker for the highly significant Quarter Quell. He might have seen the 50th Games as a blank canvas on which he could create his bloody art—an opportunity for the greatest Hunger Games Panem had ever seen. Naturally, a District 12 tribute spitting on his efforts would have been enough to set President Snow off.

The Arena For The 50th Hunger Games Fits Perfectly With President Snow’s M.O.

The Beautiful But Deadly Quarter Quell Arena Was Just Snow’s Style

The theory that President Snow was the Head Gamemaker for the 50th Hunger Games makes perfect sense when considering the unique details of these games. As a Quarter Quell, the rules were different this time around, and twice as many tributes were reaped from each District. Then, these 48 children were thrown into the most beautiful arena that Panem had ever seen. There were rolling green fields, impossibly blue skies, glimmering mountain peaks, and bubbling waterfalls. However, everything in sight, from the grass to the adorable animals, was poisonous.

Poison was President Snow’s weapon of choice. This was made evident in both the central Hunger Games trilogy, which revealed that Snow’s affinity for poison was causing his decline, and in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes prequel, where his character realized that poison was a far more sophisticated method of murder. This fact, in particular, convinces me that this Hunger Games theory is true. The deceptively beautiful arena full of poison reminds me of Snow’s fragrant roses that don’t entirely cover the rotting scent of blood during Katniss’ story.

This Theory Would Make Sunrise On The Reaping A Seamless Follow-Up To Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes

A Haymitch Prequel Is Even More Intriguing After Snow’s Origin Story

After Katniss’ story, I was among those requesting a Haymitch prequel and was surprised to get Snow’s origin story instead. Still, this isn’t to say I wasn’t pleased. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was an intelligent prequel that passively added a stronger foundation to the central Hunger Games story. It also retroactively made the details of Haymitch’s games more intriguing, which naturally meant I was even more eager to see this story told in another prequel. Now that Collins has officially confirmed Sunrise in the Reaping, I am absolutely giddy.

If the theory that Snow was the Head Gamemaker for the 50th Hunger Games is correct, then a prequel covering Haymitch’s victory simply wouldn’t have worked as well without The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes coming first. The president’s old romance with Lucy Gray was necessary before diving into how another victory from a District 12 tribute would affect the leader of Panem. Of course, I trust Collins to create a great story nonetheless, but I hope to see Sunrise on the Reaping create more delicious connections with Snow’s overarching tale.