Summary

• The prequel film, "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes," effectively explains how Coriolanus Snow became the villain seen in "The Hunger Games" films.
• The movie captures Snow's horrific thought process and his complex relationship with Lucy Gray Baird, staying true to the essence of the novel.
• Snow's lack of remorse and his feeling of power from killing foreshadow his transformation into a sociopathic dictator, driving his desire for power and enabling the deadlier Hunger Games.

One key line in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes explains how Coriolanus Snow was able to become the villain that audiences saw wreak havoc in The Hunger Games films. The prequel film does an excellent job of telling the backstory of Coriolanus Snow and explaining how the Hunger Games were able to become as deadly as they did. By the end of The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes, viewers have a clear picture of Snow's villainous transformation and are able to better understand the events that shaped Panem's history.

Though there are a number of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes book moments that needed to be cut for the film, it ultimately was able to remain true to the source material. The essence of the novel is explaining Snow's horrific thought process and his complicated relationship with Lucy Gray Baird. The movie was able to capture both of these things, and one of the lines from it perfectly encapsulates Snow's terrifying mindset throughout his life.

Snow's Villain Turn Is Explained Through "Powerful" Songbirds & Snakes Line

One moment in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes foreshadowed Snow's major villain turn. When Tigris tells Snow that it must have been terrible to have killed a tribute, Snow does not show remorse. Instead, he responded that it felt "powerful". The fact that he showed zero guilt when asked about the killing highlights that he was going to go down a dark and villainous path.

Snow's Desire For Power Makes His Hunger Games Changes More Despicable

Snow deriving a feeling of power from killing people also explains his large role in the Hunger Games. In The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, it is evident that Snow goes through a transformation into a sociopathic dictator, and that line marks the beginning of it. The horrible things he does throughout the rest of the film stem from this desire for power. Though he is not the one who kills every tribute in the Games, he has a huge hand in each of their deaths. He was the one who kept the Games going and made them bigger and deadlier.

With every change that Snow makes to make the games more of a spectacle and more violent, he is most likely feeling more and more powerful. These changes exemplify how much of a power-hungry, bloodthirsty individual he was able to become. It is highly possible that if killing that first tribute was harder on him, he would have thought twice about his actions moving forward and not have caused as much destruction as he did. The "powerful" line, however, proves that he was always troubled and was destined to become the horrifying individual viewers saw within The Hunger Games films.