Ahead of the release of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, an interesting Hunger Games theory connects its lead character Lucy Gray to a crucial character from the final book in the original trilogy, Mockingjay. Ten years after publishing Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins decided to continue The Hunger Games series with its first and currently only prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which takes place 64 years before the first book’s events. The main thread connecting the prequel to the rest of The Hunger Games is the character of Coriolanus Snow, but one theory suggests that Lucy Gray actually has some strong, unexplored ties to the rest of the series.
The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes tells the story of Snow when he was an academy student, some years before he became president of Panem. Most of the prequel is focused on the 10th Hunger Games, in which Snow is appointed the mentor of the female District 12 tribute, Lucy Gray Baird. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is the longest in The Hunger Games series, deeply exploring the backstory of the Games, Snow, Lucy Gray, and their relationship, but there are some gaps between the prequel and the original series that left readers and viewers with questions and theories.
Songbirds & Snakes’ Ending Leaves Lucy Gray’s Future A Mystery
The rest of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes shows what happens to Snow and Lucy Gray after she is named the victor of the 10th Hunger Games. After it was discovered that they had cheated to make sure Lucy Gray was the last one standing in the arena, she was sent back to District 12, where Snow then chose to be stationed after he was forced to leave the Capitol and become a Peacekeeper. During his time in District 12, Snow grappled with his place in Panem, the relationship between the Capitol and the Districts, and his love for Lucy Gray.
While he planned to run away with Lucy Gray at the end of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the plan went awry when Snow became paranoid and believed she would kill him. He attempted to hunt her, but whether he was successful in killing her or not is purposefully left ambiguous. Neither Snow nor the readers know if she was able to escape Snow’s gunfire, but most believe that she was able to survive based on her history. However, because The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is told from Snow’s limited point of view, there is nothing in the book about what happened to Lucy Gray after her potential escape.
Theory: Lucy Gray Is President Coin’s Mom In Hunger Games
Lucy Gray’s ambiguous ending in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes led to the plausible theory that she is actually the mother of President Coin, who was introduced to The Hunger Games series in Mockingjay. While there is no information on what happened to Lucy Gray post-prequel, Coin’s story could help fill in the blanks. There is no official map of Panem and its districts in The Hunger Games, but descriptions have shown that District 13 is northeast of District 12, meaning Lucy Gray could have wound up in the forgotten district when she fled from Snow at the end of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
Alma Coin was introduced in Mockingjay as the president of District 13 and was about 50 years old at the time, meaning Lucy Gray could have fallen in love again in District 13 and had her daughter about 15 years after The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ended. Little is known about Coin’s backstory, but before Katniss arrived, there was a pox outbreak in District 13 that wiped out a good amount of the population, which could have included Lucy Gray. With the timelines and the pox outbreak explaining Lucy Gray’s absence in The Hunger Games’ present storyline, it is very possible that she could be President Coin’s mother.
How Lucy Gray Being Coin’s Mother Would Change Hunger Games
President Coin is an important character in Mockingjay who serves as both a hero and a villain in the final book. She is originally an ally to Katniss due to having a shared enemy in President Snow and a goal to depose the Snow regime. As District 13 President, Coin was a leader of the Second Rebellion in The Hunger Games, with Katniss serving as its face. It is later revealed that Coin did not have the same motivations and end goal as Katniss, happy to take the power from Snow for herself when she was named the new president of Panem.
This reveal suggests that Coin’s problem was with Snow and the Capitol being in power, which would align with the theory that Lucy Gray is her mother. It would mean that Coin’s true reasoning for wanting Snow out of power and dead is because of his past with his mother and how the Capitol had treated her. In The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Lucy Gray was always a rebel at heart while Snow was a product of the Capitol, and though they loved each other, this eventually led to their relationship falling apart and Snow trying to kill Lucy.
Related: 10 Things To Know About Coriolanus Snow Before The Hunger Games Prequel
In killing Snow, President Coin would be able to get justice for her mother in a way she was never able to when she was alive. This would help to explain why she was so power-hungry and why she wanted to revive The Hunger Games with the children of the Capitol, as her quest for revenge on Snow and the Capitol for what they put her mother through likely would have blinded her to the true mission of the rebellion. Lucy Gray being Coin’s mother could also add depth to Coin as a Hunger Games villain and make her more sympathetic, as it would make her actions more understandable.
Songbirds & Snakes 2 Could Answer This Lucy Gray & Coin Theory
The current books and films in The Hunger Games series have no answer to the theory about Lucy Gray and President Coin’s relation, nor other theories surrounding the prequel like the theory about Katniss’s grandmother. However, the publication of another book following the events of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes before the start of The Hunger Games trilogy could prove the theory either true or false. It would certainly be interesting to see what became of Lucy Gray, as well as more about District 13 and President Coin’s backstory, the unfilled gaps warranting a potential sequel to the prequel.
Given the fact that Katniss killed President Coin in the second part of Mockingjay, the truth about her parentage cannot be revealed in the original series, leaving another prequel as the only way for the theory to be confirmed or denied. Though Lucy Gray is one of the main characters in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, it is ultimately Snow’s book, but her compelling character is deserving of her own book. Not only could another prequel to The Hunger Games potentially address the theory about Lucy Gray and President Coin, but Collins could finally reveal whether Lucy Gray survived or not.
