#ballad of songbirds and snakes

[shyjusticewarrior]

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, summarized:

[musenilla]

‘You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same.’

Theyyyy more art of them again. I think about how tragic they are almost ever hour. 

[jabberdrop]

I got banned from the SotR community on here lmfao

[ghostsandyoumightdie]

"Suzanne Collins gave Coriolanus Snow a tragic backstory and made him sympathetic!" So close. Actually, she put the reader in the POV of an extremely privileged character whose thoughts and views and morals still ultimately aligned with fascism, who constantly fell back on those philosophies no matter how many brief moments of humanity he felt for the Districts. She wrote a realistic human being who aligned himself with the status quo and benefited from it. She demonstrated a character who did not become kinder or more empathetic through his suffering, but instead became angrier at the indignity of it, and punished the ones he saw as "deserving" it sevenfold. She showed you, the reader, that those in power know exactly how much the oppressed suffer, and do it anyway, even if they briefly suffer the same.

[agentoffangirling]

I call this attractive white man syndrome, in which if a character is a guy, white, and conventionally attractive, they suddenly have thousands of fans excusing everything they've done and villainizing their (typically) person of color counterpart

[vesteneris]

drawing Tigris as a stylist once again before SOTR comes out in about 2 weeks okay bye

[easier-thanlying]

I want to believe there will be a third HG prequel book mostly because the original series was a trilogy. (I'm not gonna argue the ethics of wanting another hunger games book, go to tiktok for that)

I'm seeing lots of folks talk about the possibility of Finnick or Plutarch book, and respectfully I really don't want either of those povs. I rather not read first hand the trauma Finnick experienced, and the idea of spending a minute in Plutarch's head gives me a migraine. (If that's the direction Suzanne Collins goes, I'll still read it and eat it up).

I was thinking about which perspective we're missing. We have povs from the districts and the Capitol. The only perspective we don't have is District 13.

We have so many unanswered questions, like what caused the dark days? Why did they sign the treaty that meant the hunger games for the other districts? What was life like completely underground for decades? How could they do nothing for 74 years? Who is Coin and how did she rise into power? What made them decide Katniss would be the symbol of the rebellion? Why would they drop bombs on children when they knew they were going to win? I'm not asking for a Coin pov but maybe someone else in 13 like Boggs.

[insignificant457]

The scene was powerful in the book, but there was just something about watching reaper collect the bodies of the dead tributes in the arena. The way he removes the weapons from their hands, lays them out nicely, giving them the smallest bit of dignity in death. The contrast to the capitol gasping in shock as he pulls down the flag, not in rebellion, but in mourning. The way mourning in the hunger games IS an act of rebellion. “How are you going to punish me now?” The feed then immediately cutting to the news of the death of one capitol boy, whose death will be avenged upon those who had nothing to do with it. Only certain deaths are allowed to mean anything. God. Suzanne Collins knows what she’s doing.

[timelesslords]

thinking about how the hunger games were designed to prove that without society, order, government, someone to rule, we devolve into little more than animals, and how the games themselves prove over and over again that this is not true. We see it in every single game we witness.

Katniss placing flowers around Rue's body in the arena. Thresh sparing Katniss because she was kind to Rue, even though he was making it that much harder for himself to win.

Haymitch going back for Maysilee after hearing her scream even though their alliance had been broken. Haymitch holding her as she dies the same way Katniss did Rue.

Coral's "I can't have killed them all for nothing" when she realizes she's not going home. Lamina cutting down Marcus at great personal risk. And, my favorite moment in tbosas, Reaper collecting the bodies of his fellow tributes, his peers, even the ones who tried to kill him, into a pile. Taking the weapons from their hands. Closing their eyes and crossing their arms in the best approximation of a proper burial he can manage, covering them with the Capitol flag as a makeshift shroud.

The Games bring out the worst in people, yes. But despite the extreme circumstances, despite the exterior pressure of the Capitol, despite the fact that it could mean pain and heartbreak and death, it also shows that people have an enormous capacity for goodness. That even in a situation purposefully designed to make empathy impossible, people can't help but have it anyway.

Snow looks at the Games and all he can see is what's inside himself-- this pure animalistic drive to conquer and defeat. He kills and it feels good and he thinks that everyone else must feel that way too. He doesn't realize (maybe can't realize) that he is the exception, not the rule. He cannot see outside himself, outside his own warped perspective, to realize that the fact that people do show humanity in the games proves his entire worldview wrong.

[borchkinati]

snow lands on top

[siminiecricketart]

I adore my district 12 girlies

[jabberdrop]

More Hayffie stuff, no one is ripping me apart from this ship and no one is ripping Haymitch and Effie apart either✋ (I drew this before sotr)

[six-miscellaneous-nebulae]

alright so this took me twenty six hours. yay! please click for quality there are way too many details that i’m super proud of

you know what? labeled version under the cut

1. The flowers/vines wrapped around the frame are primroses. they’re also present to the right of Prim herself

2. The Capitol insignia is present in the four corners of the frame

3. The mockingjay (obv)

4. Dandelions in between Katniss and Peeta

5. A lark for Peeta (I had all the other birds, needed one for him!)

6. The katniss plant is by Katniss herself and Boggs, with a flower right in front of Katniss’s chest

7. A burdock plant, between Katniss and Prim

8. A Honeysuckle flower (Katniss runs into these after her tracker-jacker debacle in book one and remembers them from home)

9. Rue flowers, with other wildflowers (specifically white, purple, and yellow, which are the colors of the flowers Katniss used after Rue died)

10. Buttercup flowers (did you know these are poisonous? I didn’t)

11. Nightshade plant, of which the night lock is based on

12. Dahlias, because if I remember right there was one on Finnick and Annie’s wedding cake

13. Pine tree branches/pinecones, to represent Johanna’s home district, district seven

14. Potato plant/flowers next to Betee and Ampert. They’re also present to the right of Haymitch

15. Mockingjay graffiti

16. Yellow roses in between Haymitch and Maysilee, for friendship

17. Haymitch’s four little doves

18. Cattail, for Mags

19. Graffiti reading “The odds are never in our favor”

20. Blueberries—Maysilee uses blueberries in Sunrise on The Reaping to replenish her poison for her darts

21. Bee Balm

22. Sunflowers, for Lou Lou and the district nine and eleven tributes in Sunrise on The Reaping

23. Red Roses

24. Another mockingjay for Sejanus (this one is a little bluer/more saturated than Katniss’s, due to less generations of breeding with mocking birds)

25. Wheat for Reaper

26. A songbird for Lucy Gray

27. A snake, particularly the one Lucy Gray uses in the beginning of Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

28. A raven, for Lenore Dove

29. Marigolds, symbolic of the cycle of and connection between life and death

30. White Roses

31. A snake from the 10th Hunger Games

[diamondsunbursts-and-marblehalls]

Reaper is everything.

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.

[mallydraws]

My soul will always seek yours