r/moviecritic 1d ago

Is President Snow from “The Hunger Games” evil?

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0 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

110

u/NobodyLikedThat1 1d ago

He hosts an annual child-murder tournament. Is there a world where that's not evil?

12

u/Suspicious_Hand_2194 1d ago

Best answer here

10

u/IIIIIIW 21h ago

Who amongst us hasn’t done that though

4

u/ICU-P2 17h ago

Football matches with the cousins at family parties.

1

u/fetuspiston 16h ago

It’s called a beauty pageant lets get this straight

5

u/CamRee357 1d ago

He is. He even admits it when he’s talking to Katniss in the greenhouse.

5

u/lawfromabove 1d ago

No way, he should be given a Nobel Peace Prize for hosting the Hunger Games

what is this post even

3

u/Downtown-Tear124 18h ago

Probably an AI generated interaction post as part of the Dead Internet.

12

u/Bethsmom05 1d ago

I think he is.

12

u/Specialist-Top-406 1d ago

He became evil, he didn’t start out as evil. It’s an environment of survival. If you’ve read The Ballad of Songsbirds and Snakes you go through his origin story. Ultimately, he was a good willed person who had to adapt as his experiences progressed, and the outcome was he chose a side.

7

u/StaySafePovertyGhost 1d ago

Snow became a product of his environment. In the beginning it was about survival. Unless you were on top and in the ruling class you went hungry.

The Capital represented power and luxury and that was attractive to a person like a young Corlio who saw being there as a way out of the debt his family was in.

However once you’ve had a taste of the good life, you don’t want to give it up and keep yourself and your family protected. So the only way to do that is to stay in power. Which then becomes by any means necessary.

Over time Snow became more obsessed with remaining in control than evil. The games participants were pawns on a chessboard. As he says “moves and counter moves”. It’s not that he doesn’t value life - it’s that he values staying in power more thus life becomes expendable.

8

u/diligentnickel 22h ago

You can’t seriously try to soften Snow as a product of his environment. He was a rotting rotten man. He does have a soothing voice, but he’s wonderfully, almost seductively rotten. His roses help hide his stench

0

u/StaySafePovertyGhost 18h ago

I think you missed a whole theme of the franchise unfortunately. The Hunger Games may be a young adult genre series but there are some much deeper political and social commentary things beneath the surface.

If Snow were this evil soulless bloodthirsty person, then he’d forego the games and as he tells Seneca in THG, “why not just round up 24 people and execute them?” It’d be faster”. He continues the games as a mechanism for staying in power.

He also tells Katniss - truthfully - in MJ2 that he’s not above killing children but he only takes life for specific reasons. Only when it makes sense to maintain his grip on power. This is someone who is obsessed with power, not death. He also could’ve easily killed Katniss immediately after THG for her and Peeta’s defiance but didn’t because she could be of further use to him staying in power. Again - moves and counter moves.

There’s a brilliant deeper social commentary in the Snow character - especially if you really invest in TBS&S. I think you are cheapening the character by oversimplifying him to be this “rotten man” who has always wanted to just kill people.

Snow doesn’t have a lust for blood. He has a lust for power and control which causes him to force bloodshed to enforce his will. Those are two completely different things.

1

u/Occupationalupside 1d ago

Great way of putting it.

6

u/Most_Clock1131 1d ago

He’s a chill dude only trying to get his dick wet. Who here amongst us can blame the man.

1

u/Emcee_nobody 1d ago

The way that dude talks, it's probably not just wet, but buttery too. Can't blame a buttery tonguesmith like that for nuttin'

2

u/Automatic-Blue-1878 1d ago

Yes. He’s lawful evil though which makes him seem better than he is

2

u/StolzHound 20h ago

Regardless of environment, people still have a choice, he is 100% an evil person. No ifs, ands, or buts.

2

u/Efraimrocker 19h ago

He was born a bastard and never accepted by his mother. He had to serve at the wall and build ramps and clap cheeks. To make things worse, coke was everywhere, and he never should have started with that shit. That does things to a man.

2

u/ImaginaryAd3183 14h ago

Honestly he is such a giving, selfless man. How many other people coordinated and evolved an annual child murder tournament where kids as young as 12 can brutally kill each other for our amusement? He's a hero imo.

1

u/Emcee_nobody 1d ago

I dunno. But I'm pretty sure he's just Donald Sutherland been plucked out of another movie and told to 'just act normal' except with a little added, 'but you're kinda the bad guy' 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Different_Volume5627 1d ago

Yes!!! Absolutely!

1

u/imapangolinn 1d ago

When Katniss shot the other one through the chest he laughed, I thought that was pretty prickly of the man.

1

u/MalformedStabber 1d ago

Affirmative.

1

u/Meesa_Darth_Jarjar 22h ago

How could that kind looking old uncle be evil?

1

u/kassiusx 22h ago

Read Ballad of Songbirds ( here's hoping you've also read the others). You'll see he is a product of what is already an evil system. A good story showing how everything around you can change who you are.

1

u/TemporaryLiving5049 20h ago

Something happened between Ballad of The Songbird and The Hunger Games

1

u/PastaSalas 18h ago

Yes. Next question.

1

u/Historian469 20h ago

The amount of low effort questions on this sub is appalling.

0

u/zbtrylii 15h ago

I’ve examined some of your posts. Your HYPOCRISY is appalling.

0

u/Historian469 14h ago

You’re karma farming with a new account.

My posts are legitimate questions.

1

u/zbtrylii 13h ago

Im not karma farming lol. I was curious if anyone thought he wasnt.

2

u/Historian469 12h ago

He’s the obvious antagonist who leads a sadistic regime. Yes, he’s evil.

0

u/Appropriate_Music_24 1d ago

Yes. He is a product of his environment. He didn’t start out as evil. Life made him that way….