Psychology of a Villain: President Snow

Despite the thumbnail..I think I can fix this man..

TBH this was such a fun video to make but a hassle to edit so thank you so so much for your patience guys!! I hope you enjoy this one, I tried improving the audio, but there are still parts that are not amazing so bear with me while I get through this learning curve!!

˜chapters˜

0:00 intro
1:27 Tigris & the grandma'am
6:57 Dehumanization of the Tributes
9:30 Control & Gaul
14:37 Obsession with Appearances
21:25 Elitism & the Plinths
24:57 Possessiveness & Lucy Gray
30:01 Outro

˜socials˜

instagram: ramatou_my

Copyright Disclaimer: - Under section 107 of the copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purpose such a as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statues that might otherwise be infringing.
None of the images and videos belong to me. All videos belong to Lionsgate (The Hunger Games Franchise), 20th Century Fox (The Maze Runner Franchise), and Red Wagon Entertainment Summit Entertainment (Divergent Franchise) among other companies.

The Hunger Games
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Sunrise on the Reaping
Commentary
Video Essay
Psychology of a Villain
Lucy Gray
Sejanus
Katniss Everdeen
Peeta Mellark
Haymitch Abernathy
President Coriolanus Snow
Movies

[rama..]

Hey everyone!! I hope you guys enjoyed this video as President Snow is honestly one of the most interesting characters from this franchise imo and I loved exploring his story!! There will be another poll on my community posts for the next video so go vote and lmk what you want to watch next (and to my American viewers, wishing you all the best in the coming days, please be safe, and vote!!). See you soon❤️❤️

[forestgrump]

You know I think Snow miscalculated again with Katniss. The smartest thing to do with her, rather than throw her into the arena again would have been to make her a Capitol citizen. Give her and Peeta a small house in the Capitol, heck maybe even bring Prim since the Capitol loves her so much, and keep them in house arrest basically except for when he wants to show them off. The rebels couldn’t have made her a symbol then because he could convince the districts she was what all of them wanted. They all just want to be district. Make them jealous of her. And eventually when the districts have stopped caring and the capitol has lost interest and gotten bored… then arrange an accident. Oh no, there was a house fire! Isn’t that tragic, the odds are never in their favour are they? Poor them. The girl on fire, died of smoke inhalation. No more problem. I mean, would t have been as good a story but seems like something he should have considered. I think it would have worked.

[fantasyfangirlno]

90 % of the fandom needs to watch this. a handsome man who is evil wont change for you, he will kill you if it serves his agenda

[the-thunderbird]

I think the biggest challenge when adapting the book into a movie was the lack of Snow's inner monologue. So much of Snow's true character is revealed in his thoughts. This missing component allows many actions and scenes to be misinterpreted as kindness or sincerity when in actuality Snow's choices are selfish and calculated. Without his inner monologue, we as an audience are unaware of his deep resentment for Sejanus, his intense possessiveness towards Lucy Gray, and his overwhelming lack of empathy for anyone. Coriolanus Snow is a textbook narcissist. Every choice he makes is for his own personal gain, even the choices that seem like kindness. Not only does Coriolanus desperately want success, he believes he deserves it by birthright. He can excuse any choice he makes, nothing is truly his fault, and he is superior to those around him.

Snow & Lucy Gray
The pair are an interesting dichotomy. They bond over their similar circumstances in their struggles as orphaned children. As well, they both were forced to "perform" to survive. Lucy Gray literally sang with the Covey; however, Coriolanus acted as though his family was not poor in order to maintain social status and potentially regain their wealth. For Lucy Gray, refusal to sing would lead to starvation. Yet for Coriolanus the inability to keep up pretenses would lead to a major fall in social status resulting in a future of extreme poverty and shame. A fate Coriolanus would consider equal to or worse than death. They develop a kinship because of this understanding of each other. They also understand that in this relationship they both have something to gain if the other does well. Lucy Gray needs Coriolanus to be successful just as much as Coriolanus needs Lucy Gray to win.
Lucy Gray and Coriolanus exist as arguments of Nature vs Nurture. These characters though do not give us a clear answer as to which argument is correct and instead suggests a mixture of both. During the games themselves, we can see how the Lucy Gray and Coriolanus are both forced into positions in which they must make choices to decide their futures. 
Lucy Gray is a kind person who is forced to make selfish decisions to live. (Killing other tributes.)
Coriolanus is a selfish person who is forced to make selfless decisions to succeed. (Helping Sejanus and Lucy Gray.)
Because of the games, Coriolanus has to intercede for Lucy Gray. He has to take risks and break rules to help her live. Since she is his only shot at wealth and power, he has to care about her as much as he cares about himself.
Later, he is stationed in District 12 and has the possibility to return to his Capitol life and we see how quickly he decides to rid himself of Lucy Gray now that she has become an obstacle rather than an asset. Coriolanus Snow is a man who had multiple opportunities to become a kind person and potentially end the hunger games before they truly began but instead he CHOOSES power and success.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is NOT a story explaining the backstory of a tragic villain. It is the rise of an eager and willing villain.

[emilyrln]

Snow consistently allows his fear to rule him instead of his love. What a sad, terrifying, stifled life.

[mashashumayt]

The fact his cousin Tigris tried to prevent him becoming like his Father but ends up that 😢

[emilyau]

Tigeris tried to suppress their father's influence on him, but the father in his head won. I didn't think about the scent of his mom dissipating, though. That was an interesting addition!

[beesare_cool]

i chose to read the book before watching the movie. one minute in i absolutely agree with you that the movie wasn’t able to capture how AWFUL it was to read songbirds and snakes. we can pretend he’s reliable but he’s not. you can read one chapter with horrible implications, hope it doesn’t work, but it does.

[julesdk]

you know, if we all work together i think we can still fix him.

jokes aside this is a brilliant video and it portrays perfectly the selfishness and lack of empathy, that movie-only fans miss out on. showing the parallels between the hunger games and the ballad of songbirds and snakes gave me the shivers because i never even thought that far. very very good video, already recommended it to my thg loving friends!

[lifeoutsidecomfortzone]

I think it’s awesome that we get this contrast of Book vs Movie Snow. I think it’s a true look inside what a real manipulator is—in the book, we get his true thoughts, and in the movie, we see how he appeared to others. And Movie Snow could convince you of his goodness—but Book Snow shows you what he actually harbors inside.

[madsterkitty]

thank God someone who’s not like “oh young snow is hot I can fix him” I hate that mindset

I appreciate you seeing things for how it’s supposed to be lol

[michaelodonnell]

While Snow appears to want to co-opt Katniss at the start of Catching Fire, Katniss quickly becomes aware, through her reading of the crowds assembled throughout the Victory Tour, that there was never anything she or Peeta could ever have done that would quell the discontent in the Districts. Moreover, as Snow, through the Peacekeepers must have known this before he visited the Everdeen family in District 12, his sole purpose was to intimidate and attempt to control Katniss, probably because, to his disgust, she was a Capitol favourite (witness how the, clearly prominent Capitol citizens, demonstrated their "Mockingjay" love through Jewellery and tattoos at the Victory Ball).
For Snow, he needed to find a way to kill Katniss that Capitol citizens would accept, because while he felt only contempt for the Districts, he knew that others in the Capitol wanted his job...

[KatieandTyler]

I appreciated that about the book. I would find myself slipping, forgetting, and rooting for him, but then he would say something sideways and remind me who the hell he is. "Ohhhh yeahhhh.... gahd dammit"

[hoperodriguez]

“it’s our life’s work to stay on the right side of that line”
“LUCY GRAY” *RATATATA*

[juliantheapostate]

Great video! And I very much agree with your points. Especially when you essentialy describe the Snow of the books as pretty far gone but still salvagable. He cleary is no Voldemort, he has the capacity to feel and form actual human connections, but he chooses not to for power and control and satisfying his ego. He constantly makes self-interested and manipulative choices but rationalizes them away as necessary and rational. I think Snow's arc is basically the reverse hero's journey. He isn't someone fundamentally decent tempted by evil, he is someone very wicked tempted by good and love for the very last times in his life.

[dalayneejo]

coriolanus snow is one of my all time favourite characters in all of fiction. you did a PHENOMENAL job explaining why — yes he’s a villain, and yes he’s evil, but he’s oh so incredibly human.

[rowanjoy]

We don't know what happened to Lucy Gray, if she really escaped she is the truly winner of this all.

[TheSoundonly]

You mentioned Volumnia and Snow's _inability_ to care for other human beings, and I feel like it's important to understand that this was exactly that - an inability, or, rather, a mental disability that prevents some people from feeling empathy. A person can be born with it or develop it after some heavy trauma, especially in early childhood (in Coriolanus' case it could be either or both). People with anti-social disorder exist and it's not their fault that they are this way (the book does a great job of portraying this condition from the inside, as far as I can tell). The thing is, they are not bound to become murderers or tyrants; they are extremely good at adapting to the behavior patterns of the people around them, so in a society where kindness and caring for others are the norm, and the cost of a life is high, such a person would just be... a person.
Coriolanus wasn't inherently "evil", the "darkness" in him was just a pile of trauma and a mental disorder.
To "fix him" you'd have to fix the society. It would force him to adapt and conform to the new rule set, because that's what he does.

[Ганна-ий]

Reading the trilogy and then ballad of songbirds and snakes highlighted the self-importance and cruelty of Snow for me, the way he rationalised every horrible, selfish decision he made in endless attempts to maintain an image of virtue while possessing practically none. The ending especially, as he moved in with Plinths, lived on as their heir, and used their money to build a life he imagined worth a Snow after betraying and killing their son and years of secretly despising them. I adore how Susanne Collins showed what the Snows were actually worth with their choices, and what the so-called district scum was, in contrast, too. Snow is complex, human, and even understandable, and because of that he is terrifying.

[Loki-gk]

Has anyone noticed that in these recent years, we had more movies and series about irredeemable villains than before?? It's a new trend to bring back classic storytelling with a clear battle between a hero and their antagonist.