#Sejanus’s kills him

[ephemeral-phosphorescence]

Sejanus Plinth is Gale Hawthorne 60 years too early.

[waterlilyvioletfog]

Coriolanus for most of the book: omg look it’s Sejanus I hate him. He’s so rich and uppity and sanctimonious I hate him so much I can’t believe people think we’re friends I hate him literally why do I keep having to save him 🙄

Coriolanus the SECOND Sejanus shows up: OH THANK GOD SEJANUS I MISSED YOU [HUGS HIM] maybe the world is worth living in! 🥹

Coriolanus like a day later: ugh he’s so dramatic what is he even worried about he’s gonna get me in trouble I hate himmmm 🙄

[thelightningthicf]

I feel kinda stupid for not figuring this out earlier, but I understand lucy gray, because even if she didn't see what happened in the arena all the things that happened in D12 would've easily proven to her how much sejanus and coriolanus mean to eachother. and then snow gets him killed????? and it's so obvious too????? because coriolanus is the only person sejanus actually trusted???? and loved???? and there's no one else he could've told about the rebel plans except coriolanus???? i would've run, too, because sejanus meant more to coriolanus than lucy gray and she knew it. she didn't know he like, thought of her as a prize and an object and wanted to possess and control her, but she knew he cared for sejanus in a different, deeper way. and he killed him???? she knew he could and would do it to her too, if she ever became a threat to him. and she ran. and now she's free.

[burnt-up-stegosaurus]

I'm so sad about Sejanus Plinth.

Little Sejanus, who gets ripped from his District because his father fought for the Capitol in a war he barely remembers, because his ma wanted to give him a chance in life, to keep him away from the danger that awaited the district kids.

And yet Sejanus Plinth remembers, he has District 2 in his blood, etched in his soul. The first Hunger Games happen when he's seven, and he's horrified, and everyone around him is adamant that they're necessary, that the districts deserve it, that its a reminder of everything theyve lost to them.

He avoids the Reaping, but year by year he has the impending thought, the one that's all consuming: "it could've been me".

His old neighbours die in the Hunger Games, and he doesn't know all of them but he does remember some faces. He wishes he didn't.

He has to grow up in the Capitol feeling like he's going crazy or that he's the only sane one, and he misses a home he can't come back to. No one likes him in the Academy, because he's District and because he's got a good heart, which in the Capitol often means you're not in your right mind.

So he's alone.

He only has Ma Plinth, because his father stopped feeling like his father the first time he sat him down in front of the TV and turned on the Hunger Games' bloodbath, when he grabbed his little chin and forced him to look as children killed each other "This is the world we live in now, Sejanus" he had said "We have to live with it".

From that day onward, Strabo Plinth was no more than a stranger in his home, so now he only has his Ma.

His Ma and Coriolanus Snow.

He would be so lonely, all of his classmates snarling at him and talking behind his back. He would try to be nice, too, like his Ma told him to. He would try for them to like him, to be a part of the group, to have friends. But his classmates were too prideful, too cruel.

Until Coriolanus came along. Until he offered a helping hand, and Sejanus grabbed it like a man in the dessert would grab a water bottle, desperate, aching for friendship, camaraderie. Maybe it was because he was so lonely that he didn't see the red flags. Maybe Snow was too good at concealing them. Maybe Sejanus Plinth needed to believe that there was someone good in the Capitol, that he wasn't the odd one out.

And he died because of it. He died because he was lonely and craved a friend, and because he trusted him so much, because he was so sure that he was good that he was unable to see any other possibility.

Sejanus Plinth called for Coriolanus before he was walked to his death. When he was about to be hanged, he called for his Ma. Because to him, in the world, he only had two people, and one was his mother.

The other was his murderer.

[we-re-more-than-that]

honestly, people say sejanus was reckless only because they're seeing it from snow's pov. if sejanus was anyone else in the story, any other peacekeeper, would you have been like, uh, what is he doing, how dare he want to leave the district, how dare he want to buy guns to make sure he's safe, how dare he want to be away from the capitol's influence, how dare he want to make a life for himself away from cruelty and oppression

yes, he was naive, and he also was 18, but nothing that he did seems that crazy to me? if anything, he had allies and plans, he had guns, he was gonna run. snow poked and poked at him and prodded and sejanus told him about it bc he trusted him. coriolanus "i don't wanna hear about it" snow then don't fucking ask about it

sejanus never asked coriolanus to go with him up til then, never asked for help, he told him he didn't need him to rescue him; he distanced himself some and what does snow do? go and be all up in his business instead of distancing himself too. "they know we're friends" shut up coriolanus snow sejanus was also friends with all their other bunkmates and other people, were they gonna kill everyone? what evidence did they have that snow knew about sejanus wanting to flee? none.

i doubt that was the first time a peacekeeper was a rebel and i don't think they decided to kill all peacekeepers when one managed to escape. i find it unlikely snow couldn't have found a way out of it, but he was so paranoid so i do objectively understand his reaction. that's what he does all through the book, obsesses and spirals and overthinks. but sejanus running away was hardly a death sentence for snow. when they hanged arlo lil was jailed and was gonna be killed bc she protested. not just bc she knew arlo. and obviously snow was an excellent actor and liar, could have weaseled his way out of it when again, there was NO evidence that he knew anything about sejanus' plans

what i'm saying is betraying sejanus was by far not his only choice. but snow was so paralyzingly obsessive and paranoid he resorted to something drastic. i understand why he did what he did bc i understand the character, what i don't understand is why people agree with him

sejanus had to die bc he wanted a better life for himself and others. that's how it comes off.

also: to change the world was not the responsibility of a 18 year old boy. if he was completely selfish and just wanted to run away for himself i'd have still rooted for him. but he also wanted to, as he said, stop endangering snow, and he was also talking that he'll think about something to help the districts somehow. he just couldn't deal with the cruelty anymore. holding a gun every day and witnessing people being executed and hanged for nothing and not being able to study medicine because he was too good of a shot, ironically.

[mtvjedi]

okay not to hunger games post on main AGAIN but. i just know snow was shitting his pants every single day of the 74th hunger games and that’s what makes the theories that prim was preselected or the capitol was watching katniss so dumb because snow spent 60 years literally gaslighting himself into believing that he killed lucy gray and no one remembered her. and in those 60 years only one (1) tribute from district 12 won the hunger games. so of course he’d gotten comfortable and really believed that even though he still didn’t know what happened to lucy gray, even in district 12 they don’t know or care about her. but then some random 12 year old gets reaped in district 12 and her sister volunteers for her. and her sister’s name is katniss, which of course he knows is kind of a desperate, starving person’s sort of plant in district 12, because lucy gray told him about it, but that’s just a coincidence. she DOES kind of remind him of her, but that’s probably just because they both have dark hair and they’re both from district 12 and she really made an impact at the reaping. but then she allies herself with the little girl from district 11 who has no chance of winning, so she’s not just using rue as a means to an end, she really cares about her. and then when rue dies, she sings the meadow song as she covers her body with flowers. and the meadow song, well, that was one of lucy gray’s songs, and he didn’t think anyone still knew any of lucy gray’s songs. and then she fucking WINS, and everyone in the capitol loves her and peeta and prim, and at the crowning ceremony she’s wearing a mockingjay pin, and of course she couldn’t possibly know what it means to him, and when he compliments it she says “thank you. it’s from my district.” and that’s just in the hunger games! not even to mention that the symbol of the districts’ revolution is a mockingjay, and katniss becomes that symbol, and eventually it is lucy gray’s mockingjay that takes him down.

like lucy gray’s impact fr. he DID succeed in erasing her, no one in district 12 remembers her, but they do remember the songs and the birds, and snow realizes that he could never fully erase her. probably anyone in district 12 could tell you about the mockingjays.

[binarisunset]

the fact that emotional, sensitive, always-wears-his-heart-in-his-sleeve Sejanus Plinth is canonically a smooth liar is one of my favorite bits of characterization about him

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Favorite thing is coriolanus's internal monologue about sejanus being "he has big sad eyes. he had big soulful beautiful brown eyes. he had gorgeous wet sad eyes brown big sad eyes. he looked sad and scared, with his big sad scared eyes. what other choice did I have but to put him down like a dog. tbh. xoxo gossip girl"

[mitsuki91]

Coriolanus Snow opens fire in the woods because of a post traumatic stress response after the snake and I will die on this hill.

Also he never sees Lucy Gray as a threath because he belives in her. That's why the stress response happened in the first place. He never, not once, nada, uh-oh, nopety nope, goes like "omg she can actually frame me for Mayfair's murder" and panick about this possibility. I hate that the movies put in Lucy Gray mouth words about "loose ends". It was not like this at all. Coriolanus belives his Lucy Gray and trusts her even when he thinks about leaving her. He pictures her in the woods, not at the mayor's door.

That's why the snake is the trigger. The scarf, sure, but in that moment he is still thinking that something bad must have happened to Lucy Gray. The snake... The snake feels like the worst betrayal ever. Because it means that Lucy Gray lied to him. That she no longer trusts him so he no longer trusts her. So he was a fool to belive her in the first place. I like to think his mind splits right there and he lets out the worst and he hallucinates things that are no real - so bad was his crisis.

Coriolanus was a boy who, despite some snarky thoughts in the private of his own mind never shared to anyone ever, wants to belive in the word around him, in the people around him. He trusts with all his heart. And that's why his word shattered with the lies - funnly enough, it was the same for Lucy Gray, but he didn't see it coming. (Also it was the same with Sejanus, he tries so hard for him until he sees first hand Sejanus lies to his face and now his honesty was gone and he was unpredictable and he can not trust him anymore and his panic about the whole situation went x10).

[sejjiplinth]

Sorry for the anon ask, but what do you think would’ve happened if Marcus had been alive during the games and Sejanus actually had to mentor him? I’m surprised no one has written it yet!

oh sejanus Definitely still would have broken into the arena to try and get him out 😭 i don’t think marcus would even consider leaving with him, but he still ends up protecting sejanus when the other tributes find them because they were arguing too loud LMFAOOO

(alternatively, marcus wouldn’t accept his sponsors so he’d be screaming, crying, throwing up, in that order.)

[boabel]

vampire empire is sejanus about coriolanus

[caleohateclub]

sejanus (breaking down sobbing): CORIO, YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE I TRUST, PLEASE TRADE TRIBUTES WITH ME, I LOVE MARCUS TOO MUCH TO BE HIS MENTOR, THIS WHOLE THING IS WRONG, I CAN FEEL MYSELF GOING INSANE PLEASE HELP ME

coriolanus: yeah thats too bad but i like seeing you in pain so no

[we-re-more-than-that]

i keep wondering about some choices they made for the movie

they toned down sejanus quite a bit from the book and i wonder what was that supposed to show, like what kind of characteristics of snow was it supposed to highlight

bc we all know snow's an unreliable narrator. he describes sejanus as reckless and whatnot but baby boy was making PLANS. he BOUGHT those guns he wasn't surprised that the rebels got them he KNEW. he was very deliberate and honestly it shocked me when he was like "just gonna threaten the guards with the gun while we get out lil" i'm like damn sejanus. i would have thought you can't even stomach that from snow's narration

obviously, since it's all from snow's pov, the strength of his character is understated, undermined. let us not forget he was the only one who stood up to dr gaul. let us not forget he went into the arena where he could be killed easily. let us not forget he was tortured before his hanging and he did NOT give up the name of that traitor snow.

i just can't help thinking about how he was really like and how snow didn't want to see him: strong, kindhearted, intelligent, witty, possibly a little cunning but only for the right things.

nothing but death was gonna stop him and that kind of passion is just incredible. he was uncontrollable fire, that much we know, and snow hated that more than anything.

[deuteragonist1]

Dr. Gaul: I am going to ask all of you to come up with creative solutions to help raise the popularity of the Hunger Games, in order for them to survive.

Sejanus:

[brionysea]

this man is pissing me off

[stilldancewithyou]

so I read The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes at least a year ago and I just saw the movie today. And I have a crazy theory that I want to share because I haven't seen anyone else talk about it. My immediate first thought when I finished the book and at the end of the movie was wait...Lucy Gray almost definitely survived and probably made it to District 13. What if she is President Coin? She's the same age as Snow so she'd 100% still be alive when Katniss goes to the Hunger Games. Also Snow and Coin HATE each other and Coin was super desperate to take Snow down, I always kinda thought it was weird in Mockingjay how it was almost like they knew each other because they seemed to have such personal vendettas against each other, the way they hated each other felt a little too personal. And towards the end of Mockingjay, after the rebels take the president's mansion, Katniss finds Snow in the rose greenhouse and he tells her not to trust Coin and that Coin won't hesitate to betray her. And then in district 13 everything is gray, everyone wears gray and there is no singing and dancing, which Katniss points out and thinks is super odd.

Idk I also just really like the idea that the last thing Lucy Gray told Snow was that she was going to get Katniss and (if she is Coin) she DOES get Katniss when she rescues her from the arena in Catching Fire. Also remember Snow died because he was laughing so hard he choked on his blood after Katniss killed Coin instead of executing him (also the fact that she wanted to have him executed in from everybody, just like the hanging tree!!!), I always thought it was so bizarre because why was it that funny to him? It makes sense if she was Lucy Gray. When Katniss killed her instead, Snow won- HE convinced Katniss to do it, HE killed Coin (and he convinced someone who was definitely somehow connected to the Covey, after she tried killing him in the woods outside 12 just like how his father died!!!!!). He finally won the battle between him and Lucy Gray. No wonder he laughed so much. Snow lands on top.

I rest my case.