now that the hunger games is popular again with the new movie out, ive realized there are a whole crop of fans who don’t know/forgot these incredible fan made videos exist. they were huge in the fandom at the time for how good they were
What I think is kind of interesting is that if Dean Casca Highbottom, seeing exactly how good of a student Young Coriolanus Snow was, had taken the boy under his wing instead of despising him and trying to get revenge on a boy that never knew his father (and who only had of his father the words of others about the great man that he was), he might have had a good helping hand in stopping the games he so deeply despised.
It would have been, at the same time, quite a revenge on Crassus Snow to use his son to dismantle the Games the man helped implement. Not only that, but it would have offered young Coryo a person to depend on during his most formative years where he had to grow up under the immense pressure of keeping up appearances, taking care of an ailing grandmother and fighting everyday to keep himself and his family fed.
What Casca failed to realise during the 10th Games was that there weren’t 24 tributes, but 25. Snow was fighting for survival just as much as the rest; of course, with the caveat that Snow was never in danger of losing his life. But, for a boy who had for all his life to survive instead of to live, those two might have been the same thing. In saving himself, Coryo would also save Tigris and his grandmother, while all the other tributes were saving mosty themselves since they would be going home with nothing to show for winning the games other than their lives and some (crippling in some cases) trauma.
Maybe things would have played out differently, maybe not, but we have seen time and time again through all four of the Hunger Games books, the power of a kind gesture: Peeta with the bread, Rue healing Katniss, Katniss singing to Rue, Mags sacrificing herself, Boggs treating Katniss like a young traumatised girl when no one else did. Who knows if Snow (and, in turn, the rest of Panem) wouldn’t have benefited from it?
The way Lucy went from saying, “it’s too early for Katniss” after finding the plant that wasn’t quite ripe for harvest yet at the lake and then saying “I’m going to dig up Katniss” after Snow lies about the people he killed and she realizes who he really is changed my brain chemistry yall like what the hell
to my knowledge (someone correct me) Snow never hears Katniss sing The Hanging Tree (that’s a movie invention, and it’s not even confirmed in the movies that he’s hearing it), but those are not the only songs Lucy Gray sings … and can you imagine the slow creeping paranoia beginning to crawl back up his spine when Katniss honors Rue in much the way Sejanus honored Marcus … when she then begins to sing Deep in the Meadow, Maude Ivory’s song … when Peeta tells the story of how he fell for his girl, when she was singing, of all things, the Valley Song … not to mention all the references to mockingjays throughout the first arena (whose idea was that?) … oh, it’s delicious … the first similarity Snow could dismiss as mere coincidence (it’s not uncommon, we know, for tributes to stay with a dying peer), the second, as a product of an insular backwoods culture (right? RIGHT?) but by the third … he must have felt a ghost-chill on the back of his neck … and I LOVE it … Snow lands on top, but as soon as that burning chariot burst out of the night, he should have known … his time was up
The respect he had for the other tributes. The grave he made for the fallen tributes. He was completely exposed and could have been killed by anyone, but recognizing those kids and respecting them the way they deserve was more important to him. The way he tore down the symbol of the government that was supposed to protect them, and used it to cover the bodies of the kids it failed so badly. His calm demeanor. The love he had for his sick and fragile district partner. The love he had for Wovey. The way he protected those gentle souls the best he could. He didn’t even try to fight. He knew he wasn’t going to kill any of these kids. He’s the original revolution. He wasn’t going to play the capitol’s games. He didn’t let them turn him into something he’s not. He is everything good.
This is the funniest take on “what if Snow chose to be a good person” because instead of imagining young Snow being this sweet kind person, it’s just Donald Sutherland playing a senile old uncle who constantly beefs with birds.
