The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes detailed many gruesome aspects of President Coriolanus Snow’s origin story but left out the most important part. Based on the book of the same name by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, the prequel movie explored Snow’s teenage years, providing context for how he became the terrible dictator seen in Katniss’ story. However, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes never explained how the man developed the habit that would ultimately lead to his death.
The end of Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes demonstrated how, even as a young man, Snow was dangerous. Growing up in the Capitol during Panem’s civil war left a lasting impact on his psyche, and though he tried for a time to make moral choices, his first murders solidified the future dictator’s brutal ways. The Hunger Games series revealed that Snow eventually preferred poison as a weapon of choice, which is established in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. However, the prequel movie missed how this impacted the man himself.
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The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Didn’t Show The Origin Of Snow’s Mouth Bleeding
Throughout the Hunger Games movies, Snow frequently dabbed blood from his mouth. At one point, while drinking champagne, an alarming amount of blood washed back into the glass. Though the films didn’t directly address this, it was revealed in the Catching Fire book that the bleeding mouth sores that plagued Snow were the result of his tendency to use poison to murder his enemies. To avoid suspicion, the dictator would drink from the poisoned substance himself, depending on antidotes to protect him. However, over the years, this took a toll.
Though The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes sees Snow discover the usefulness of poison, there is never a moment in which he ingests it himself. Therefore, the beginning of the man’s mouth sores is never addressed. Since The Hunger Games hints that Snow’s habit of taking the poison himself to fool his enemies was slowly leading him toward his death (a bit of poetic irony), it seems that he would have been a full-circle feature of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. However, the prequel left it out.
Songbirds & Snakes’ Ending Shows How Snow’s Mouth Bleeding Could’ve Been Avoided
Though it’s likely that Snow’s mouth sores didn’t develop until years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it would have been interesting to see the first time he realized he would have to take the poison himself to fool his enemy. It would have meant a poetic end for the prequel movie since audiences would know that this would be Snow’s inevitable cause of death. Still, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at least delivered on the first time that Snow used poison to kill a Capitol enemy, and it demonstrated how taking poison himself shouldn’t have been necessary.
At the end of the Hunger Games prequel, Coriolanus Snow puts rat poison in a bottle of morphling, which he gives to Casca Highbottom, knowing the man couldn’t resist taking it. It was a sneaky and clever crime and ultimately furthers the mystery of why Snow would ever need to take the poison himself to begin with. Regardless of an antidote, ingesting such dangerous substances would always be risky, so it’s interesting to consider why Snow didn’t avoid this as he did with Highbottom. Unfortunately, since The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes left this out, we will never know.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel movie set 64 years before the events of the original movie with Katniss Everdeen. The film centers on a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) and shows his rise to power as the leader of Panem. Taking place during the 10th Hunger Games, Snow is tasked with mentoring Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the tribute from District 12.
- Director
- Francis Lawrence
- Release Date
- November 17, 2023
- Studio(s)
- Color Force , Lionsgate
- Distributor(s)
- Lionsgate
- Writers
- Michael Lesslie , Michael Arndt , Suzanne Collins
- Cast
- Tom Blyth , Rachel Zegler , Hunter Schafer , Jason Schwartzman , Peter Dinklage , Josh Andrés , Josh Andrés Rivera , Viola Davis
- Runtime
- 157 Minutes
- Franchise(s)
- The Hunger Games
- Sequel(s)
- The Hunger Games , The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 , The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
