Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes!

Summary

• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes showcases the transformation of Coriolanus Snow into a villain, as he murders several characters on his path to power.
• Snow's descent into darkness is fueled by his desire to restore his family's position and achieve wealth and power, resulting in a path of death and destruction.
• Snow's relationships with characters like Lucy Gray Baird and Sejanus Plinth are filled with conflict and betrayal, further solidifying his journey into becoming a ruthless and self-absorbed monster.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' protagonist, Coriolanus Snow, is seen to murder several major characters throughout the film's runtime on his journey to becoming a villain. While the original trilogy features President Snow as a major antagonist, Songbirds & Snakes features a younger version as the lead character. Young Coryo, as he is affectionately referred to by his family and friends, is highly intelligent and determined to restore his family's position in the Capitol.

The prequel sees him lose his parents in the war, becoming largely destitute, living off of scraps, and becoming a mentor for the 10th Annual Hunger Games. He is also seen to be a conflicted character who connects with and even develops a romantic relationship with his tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. However, as Snow sets his sights on lofty goals of wealth and power, along with providing for his family, he descends a path of death and destruction, leaving bodies in his wake.

5 Snow Kills Bobbin In The 10th Hunger Games

Bobbin Played By Knox Gibson

As the 10th Hunger Games progressed, Sejanus Plinth, snuck into the arena during the night to pay respect and perform a District 2 tradition for his tribute, and former friend, from District 2. Snow was directed by Dr. Volumnia Gaul to go in and bring Plinth out before anyone noticed. Snow obliged and went into the arena to persuade and coax his friend out, but while they were there, some of the tributes spotted them and began to attack.

As Snow and Plinth ran to the exit, a boy from District 8, Bobbin, caught up to them and sliced into Snow's back. Snow then uses a large blunt-force weapon to knock Bobbin back. While Bobbin lay on the floor, both Snow and Plinth could have made their escape, but instead, Snow savagely attacked the boy as he lay on the ground defenseless. Bobbin died as a result, and Snow snapped out of his fury briefly, which allowed him and Plinth to escape the arena before more of the tributes caught them. This is the first moment when Snow recognizes the intoxicating power he feels when taking lives into his own hands.

4 Snow Shoots District 12's Mayor's Daughter Mayfair Lipp

Mayfair Lipp Played By Isobel Jesper Jones

While Snow influences the deaths of several others in the arena by giving Lucy Gray Baird rat poison in a small compact mirror and strategically launching supply drones into the arena, his next direct attack does not happen until the third act of the film. Mayfair Lipp is the daughter of the District 12 mayor, who was dating Billy Taupe while Taupe planned to break free from District 12. With help from Sejanus in the form of money, Taupe and his friends acquired guns which they hoped to use to protect themselves on their exit.

When Snow stumbles upon a secret meeting with Taupe, Plinth, and another man, which is then interrupted by Mayfair and Lucy Gray, things get messy and Mayfair threatens to tell her father about the rebel plans. Snow, recognizing that he would also be in danger if Mayfair were to inform her father, shoots her in the back as she is exiting the room. In the chaos, Taupe's friend then shoots Taupe as he becomes enraged. Snow then takes control of the situation, barking orders and making plans to cover up what happened.

3 Sejanus Plinth Dies After Snow Betrays Him

Sejanus Plinth Played By Josh Andrés Rivera

Sejanus was a close friend to Snow, who followed him out during his exile to District 12, as a volunteer peacekeeper. Plinth came from the District's himself and only lived in the Capitol thanks to his father's enormous wealth, which he accumulated through the war in Panem. As a result, Plinth had great sympathy for the people of the District's. Plinth felt a need to step in and help these people, as he did with his tribute, Marcus, in the 10th Hunger Games. In District 12, he communicated with rebels to try and help them break free of the authoritarian governing powers in Panem.

Plinth hatches a plan to help the rebels escape District 12 and free an innocent woman from the prison, but when Snow confronts him about his plans, he is unaware that Snow is recording the conversation with a Jabberjay. Snow then tagged the birdcage for Dr. Gaul which led to the execution of Plinth in District 12 along with the other rebels. Snow's betrayal of his best and only friend is a major turning point that sees him transform from a young man, trying to protect loved ones, to a sly, plotting monster who is most concerned with protecting himself. This was also the first murder that Snow concealed from Lucy Gray.

2 Casca Highbottom Is Poisoned By Snow

Casca Highbottom Played By Peter Dinklage

Casca was a close friend of Coriolanus' father, Crassus when they studied at the academy together. As a final project, the students were assigned to come up with a cruel and terrible punishment so vile that those on the receiving end would never forget their wrongdoing. Casca then dreamed up The Hunger Games in a drunken thought, but never one he intended to share as it was too horrific. However, his project partner, Crassus recorded Casca's ideas and handed them in to earn a high grade. When the war was coming to an end, Dr. Gaul implemented Casca's idea and publicly announced that he was the creator of The Hunger Games.

This led to Casca holding a grudge against young Coriolanus, continually blocking him from success and trying to punish him for his father's actions. When Coriolanus made his way back to the Capitol through his secret communication with Gaul, he visited Casca to return some of the morphling drugs that Plinth had taken with him to District 12, and his personal effects. Knowing full well about Casca's addiction to the drug, Snow poisoned the small vial of morphling and left him to drink it and die. This then became Snow's signature method of killing, and a call back to the poisoning in the 10th Hunger Games.

1 Did Snow Kill Lucy Gray?

Lucy Gray Baird Played By Rachel Zegler

Snow developed a deep emotional connection with Lucy Gray through their relationship during The Hunger Games, and then again in District 12. Due to his position, as a citizen of the Capitol and then a peacekeeper, he did not act on his romantic feelings until he was in District 12, and even then only in secret. However, when Snow breaks Lucy Gray's trust and lies about his involvement in getting Sejanus killed, the relationship quickly falls apart. While the couple is leaving District 12, Snow lets slip about having killed three people, and Lucy Gray is immediately suspicious.

When he lies, and then discovers the guns which serve as the only remaining evidence that could incriminate him, the pair then become suspicious of one another. Lucy Gray hastily goes out to pick katniss flowers, and Snow follows her, gun in hand, becoming more paranoid and angry. Snow spots her running and attempts to gun her down. Moments later, a group of Mockingjays begin echoing Lucy Gray Baird's singing, suggesting she survived. In total, Coriolanus Snow murdered four people through direct actions in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and many more in the years following up to the original trilogy.