The Hunger Games : The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes FULL LENGTH Reaction (no sync required test)
Added 2025-09-19 19:42:01 +0000 UTCIF YOU RUN INTO ANY ISSUES WITH THE VIDEO, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! This is a new format for me!
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Hi guys! I am SO SORRY for the wait on this one! I completely messed up (and explain at the start of the video).
Here is our first 'non-Katniss' addition to the series, and I could not in a million years have predicted this one! It was excellent and makes me love and more importantly hate Snow more than ever!
This is my first ever 'No Sync' movie reaction (meaning you do not need to sync up with your own version), so please let me know if you run into any problems! Don't worry, if this falls apart, you will still get the usual version. But if this works, that is great!
Love you, guys! I was thinking 'wow, we are all done' around half way through... I was DEFINITEY wrong!
Comments
Well written I would recommend the new prequel to the reading list too It may answer some questions Sunrise on the reaping Ballad of song birds is well worth a read it gives a little more insight of snows thoughts. Sunrise on the reaping in my opinion is even better then ballad of song birds and snakes I do recommend tissues though I totally agree on snow not being some one dimensional villain as that is incredibly boring and unrealistic. Lucy grey knew she was in danger She’s not a killer Who knows maybe she dropped the scarf and a snake being under there just a coincidence.
Rose Gwin
2025-09-29 15:21:20 +0000 UTCUh, this was perfect timing for me! I'm on vacation and wouldn't be able to start another device to sync up the movie. And it worked perfectly on my end! I love this movie. I havn't read the book yet (it is on my lenghty to-read list), but apparently there is quite the difference to the book - like they had to shorten everything quite a bit and just like the OG ones we only have the brilliant performance, not the actual inner dialogue (and thankfully they opted out of doing voice over!) But the performance is so freaking strong, that we understand what is going on, I think. Snow really fascinates me in this. I always felt that there was more to him than the one-dimensional villain some people make him to be in the OG movies (in the books we know even less of him and he is just this ominous figure - creepy!), but with this backstory? Fascinating! I do feel though that while there was goodness within him, and (as Lucy Grey pointed out) he could have made choices to stay on that side of the line, he also was incredibly opportunistic from the start. There was a dark streak to begin with and he played everyone around him like a fiddle to his own benefit. I also don't really think that he really loved Lucy Grey. He liked the idea of being in love, but there was always that hint of a wall around him. He only seems to love, when it's convenient to him. At least that is my interpretation of the acting... As for Lucy Grey, she did say that trust is more important to her than love. The moment she learned about the third murder (and totally didn't buy his line) she couldn't trust him anymore. And then they found the guns and Snow had an out - with only her in the way. I personally don't think she wanted to kill him. Just slow him down, force him to turn around to get help, so she can get away. I really love the style choices of this movie. Like, there isn't much of a difference in 12 between 10th game and 74th. But the capitol? Here they are still rebuilding after the war (I also love that you can see construction going on everywhere in the capitol) so while they are slightly more excentric than the rest, it isn't ostentatious. But 64 years later? For decades they had nothing to worry about. They lived in blissfull wealth and had nothing better to do than outdo each other in fashion and lifestyle and food stuff and whatnot. So by then they obviously lost all sense of normalcy! That is just VERY GOOD visual story telling!!! When this book came out there was actually a theory that Katnisses father was Covey. That is how Katniss know these songs (in the books we actually learn that he taught her the hanging tree), and how she knows that lake (it IS the same lake as when she sang the Hanging Tree)
PumpkinSparks
2025-09-24 00:29:51 +0000 UTCAlso, love it when you recommend other reactors! I'll definitely check out popcorns GOT reactions!
Rey's Got Plans
2025-09-21 21:13:34 +0000 UTCLoved this reaction and no issues whatsoever! I even get to press and hold for 2X speed! So happy 😊
Rey's Got Plans
2025-09-21 21:04:19 +0000 UTCThank you for your reaction. I'm glad you liked the film. It's my favourite film in the franchise. The book is even better. The film was shot in Germany and Poland. The actors performed very well, and the songs, which I don't usually like in films, fit in well here and make sense. There are also many references to the films of the main trilogy. Tom Blyth played brilliantly and did everything he could within the script to reveal Snow's character. The book is written in the first person, and we know Snow's thoughts. In the film, I think they wanted to make him more positive at first. But in the book, he did everything for himself from the very beginning. He loves control and power, he has no empathy for other people. And he loves Lucy Gray as a thing, he wants to possess her. It was only when I watched the film for the second time that I realised he wasn't positive from the start. He manipulates people for his own benefit. He never considered Sejanus as a friend; he used him because he had rich parents. He could have made the right choice many times, but he always chose what was best for him. And when he finds the guns, he realises that only Lucy Gray stands between him and his return to the Capitol. I don't really like how they filmed the scene in the forest cabin — yes, it's difficult to film, but many who haven't read the book think that Lucy Gray provoked him, when in fact he made it all up himself — the threat from her. She simply left because he lied about his third victim, and when he found the guns, she realised he would kill her. She just left, and nothing is known about her fate. After this film, it's even clearer why Snow is so obsessed with Katniss, because she reminds him of Lucy Gray.
Alina B
2025-09-21 19:31:40 +0000 UTCOh I love that about Katniss' name! I was wondering what the purpose of that moment was!
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-21 15:38:53 +0000 UTCI don’t know where this District 12 was filmed, maybe Germany? But it takes place in the Appalachian Mountains in the U.S., where coal has historically been mined. States like Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. One of the poorest areas of the U.S. The home of the largest uprising outside of the U.S. Civil War, so bad they called in the National Guard (look up the Coal Wars, Battle of Blair Mountain, Matewan, and Bloody Harlan if you’re curious.) The original trilogy was partially filmed in western North Carolina, also Appalachia. They got the look down perfectly here; it looks like Harlan County, Kentucky. Suzanne Collins did her research well and chose a fantastic location for her revolutionaries to be born. This movie is an ode to Appalachian music. Haymitch’s story involves Appalachian cuisine, and I hope that features in the movie like it did in the book. It’s basically implied that Katniss has Covey ancestry. She’s written to have a beautiful voice. She knows Covey songs that had long since faded from daily life, like the Hanging Tree and meadow song. Her knowledge of the lake, her hunting and gathering abilities, all things the Covey lived that the average District 12 mining family didn’t.
K
2025-09-21 05:59:04 +0000 UTCGreat reaction! The no sync made it for me much better! I don't know if you watche4d the end credits. But after the logo they play Olivia Rodrigos Cant catch me now. You should listen or maybe react to it, if you didn't listen to it already. She wrote the song for the movie and it captures the vibe perfectly. Its like Lucy Gray is speaking to Snow after the event in the forest. Its really haunting in some way. Thanks for watching the movie! Have a great day!
Celle
2025-09-20 16:00:52 +0000 UTClovely reaction as always veggie, finally watched it this morning. a lot of the students have names we would recognize if only by relation: arachne crane, an ancestor of seneca crane, the first game maker we meet. some of the others don’t come up until the next book, Sunrise on the Reaping, so i won’t spoil anything else. but hopefully someday these books make it to the book club and we can all get way more in depth with it!
Dani Phantom
2025-09-20 15:58:55 +0000 UTCOr if you read the book. I always saw the book and movie as two sides of a coin. The book is his thought process, and the movie shows us the outside perspective, showing just how it was he was able to fool everyone
Mikayla Prushik
2025-09-20 13:33:10 +0000 UTCI got to be the only person I know who did not feel bad for Sejanus. When you compassion puts other people's lives at risk and you don't care, I can be mad at the choices they make. I also think that up until after turning in Sejanus, Snow was making very human choices. The only people who disagree are those who assume they would be saints in these circumstances.
Ophe-phe
2025-09-20 13:08:31 +0000 UTCI did not dislike Snow in the book. I think people are aware of what he becomes so they insert that into the story but if you look it with unbiased, he's a poor kid trying to make his way in the world and having to do it on the backs of other poor kids forced to be in this game. His thoughts are not pure but they are not evil...they're just conflicting
Ophe-phe
2025-09-20 13:06:13 +0000 UTCGreat comment! Out of all the hunger games movies this is definitely the one where lack of inner dialogue of the main character is most notable. The book is also long and i think the movie feels a bit rushed because they had to fit in so much stuff. But overall i agree that it is a good adaptation, and i'm suprised so many people think otherwise.
Oona M
2025-09-20 12:46:33 +0000 UTCLove this new format! Often have had issues syncing up in the past so this is great, and thank you for reacting to this franchise, it has a very special place in my heart!
Heather Judge
2025-09-20 10:49:24 +0000 UTCOkay, performance done, time to ramble about Hunger Games! Forgive this essay of a comment, I just so rarely have people to talk about this book/movie with! lol I really do love this movie… a lot of fans of the book seem to feel it wasn’t a good adaptation, but I really enjoy it (and I did read the book first, right when it came out). Not a perfect adaptation, sure, but overall great. As others have already said, I hope you do read the book at some point. Going through this story with more of Snow’s inner monologue is a VERY different journey, and it’s a really good read (in a chilling, horrifying way, of course, lol). I love the parallel right off the bat between Snow and Katniss, where they’re both starving and both having to HIDE IT. I think Katniss only talks about it in the books, but when she and Prim are starving after their father dies, they have to pretend everything’s fine, because if it’s found out that their mother can’t take care of them they’ll be taken away and placed in a horrific group home. And Snow has to hide his situation so his family can maintain their social standing, so he’ll have a better chance at future opportunities (and getting them rich again). Their situations are SO different, but there they both are, starving and pretending they’re not. I can’t take credit for coming up with this, but shortly after the book came out someone online made this incredible comparison: Katniss was a fighter who was forced to perform; Lucy Grey is a performer who is forced to fight. Such a perfect description of them! I don’t think that Lucy Grey is trying to charm the snakes in the arena. I’ve seen people go so far as to say it’s ‘so stupid’ that she starts singing there, ‘like, she thinks that’s going to save her?’ And I always think that no, Lucy Grey doesn’t start to sing because she thinks it will save her. She starts to sing because she KNOWS in that moment that NOTHING will save her. She is about to die, and that is how she chooses to face death. The snakes have already killed 4 or 5 people in front of her, she’s run as far as she can, there’s thousands of them so she can’t possibly fight them off…. AND she’s the last one standing, and they’re still coming. (I’m sticking to the movie version for this comment; I know the sequence of events is a bit different in the book.) The ONE thing you can do to save yourself in the Games is to WIN, and she’s DONE THAT, and it’s still not ending. They’ve clearly decided to kill her, so she does the only thing she can do: she takes over the show. My favourite moment, almost in the whole movie, is near the end of the song when she glares straight down the barrel of the camera, and her voice gets a little growl in it, and she is SO powerful. Looking the Capitol dead in the eyes and saying “You can kill me in here, but my death will be MY show. I will give the performance I choose.” It’s SO good. So many of the tribute deaths are heartbreaking, but Coral always surprises me with that devastating last line, “It’s not fair…. I can’t have killed them all for nothing.” Oof. I agree with you about how great the design of the movie is, and the depiction of Panem’s technology. It’s such a different divide between have and have-not in this post-war era, compared to what we see 65 years later in the original trilogy. In this era, they clearly have significant technological capabilities, but as they recover from the war they lack the resources to mass produce technology and make it widely accessible, even in the Capitol. So the Games are being run on fairly advanced computer systems, Snow gets to make a video call from the military base, Dr. Gaul is genetically engineering entire new species of animals…. but the students at the most prestigious academy in the Capitol are working with paper and inkwells, no one has personal devices, most communication is through hand-written mailed letters, etc. Contrasted with the Katniss era where the Capitol citizens have everything at their fingertips, and the continued scarcity in the Districts is entirely manufactured by the Capitol. I have a little head-canon for something after the story ends…. I see Dean Highbottom as Snow’s first pre-meditated murder. Not to say he wasn’t responsible for the other three, he was, they just weren’t murders that he planned in advance like Highbottom, that was new for Snow. I think that his SECOND premeditated murder, sometime fairly soon after we leave him at the end of this story, was Mayor Lipp of District 12. While Lipp has no reason to suspect Snow’s involvement in his daughter’s death, he IS a potential loose end there. But more than that, I think Snow would NEED to kill him for having rigged the reaping. Snow wouldn’t care about revenge for Lucy Grey’s sake by that point, but a DISTRICT citizen, choosing for HIMSELF who to send into the arena? USING the Games, which are the CAPITOL’s tool, for his own purposes, to get rid of the girl his daughter hates?? Unforgivable. As others have pointed out, no you didn’t miss an explanation of Lucy Grey’s fate. Snow will never know what happened to her, and it will haunt him forever. She will haunt him forever. So, we don’t get to know either. It’s frustrating, and it’s perfect, lol. And the way at the very end, he’s looking at the statue through the falling snow, and suddenly the sun cuts through the snow and hits the fountain so that a rainbow is thrown across the statue’s skirt, turning her into Lucy Grey before Snow’s eyes and looming over him for the rest of his LIFE…. It’s just so good!! Okay, thanks for letting me ramble here!
Elizabeth Rose
2025-09-20 04:36:41 +0000 UTCNot sure if you made this connection but the first hanging with the man who told that girl to run is what inspired Lucy to write the hanging tree song. The second verse (”the dead man called out for his love to flee”) is a direct reference to that moment. Snow's fascination with Katniss and hatred of mocking jays and this song make a lot more sense with his backstory. By Katniss era Lucy Gray is a fable because the 10th hunger games were erased from public knowledge. The Capitol has the only remaining copy of the footage
Josh Z
2025-09-20 03:34:51 +0000 UTCThat being said, if you're going to use streamable, I would highly suggest getting something with 1080p HD, as where you have the video can be somewhat blurry. If you can afford it, great, if not, I don't think your loyal supporters will care. Just a suggestion. :)
Stephen Hert
2025-09-20 00:50:14 +0000 UTCI so enjoyed watching this! I love this book and movie, and watching it 'with' you this evening was a delight :D I have THOUGHTS to share, lol, but I have to get ready for a virtual theatre performance, so I'll have to come back and write them out later. 💙
Elizabeth Rose
2025-09-20 00:37:10 +0000 UTCThanks Laurie! Glad it went smooth for you!
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-19 23:50:29 +0000 UTCOh wow, that is a powerful backstory. So glad you enjoyed the reaction, this movie completely surprised me! :)
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-19 23:49:42 +0000 UTCSo the song for Lucy gray that you heard while they were swimming, is a real poem about a little girl sent into town in winter who vanished, they went looking for her and her footsteps in the snow stopped at one point on a plank, they never found her in the poem. It is a mystery what happened to her, some say she died and is a ghost, some say she survived, lucy said maybe she flew away. Its the same with our sweet Lucy Gray here too, she has to remain a mystery, some fans do wish we could know her fate for certain but the mystery is truly what makes me love her story. Wonderful reaction as per usual! ❤️ "Yet some maintain that to this day, she is a living child That you may see sweet Lucy gray upon the lonesome wild" In the true story behind the poem, the parents couldnt find her after her footsteps stopped on the bridge, but eventually she washed up in the canal in Halifax yorkshire. RIP
Cari Ann
2025-09-19 23:11:52 +0000 UTCI was trying to come up with something to watch tonight and this is perfect! Really looking forward to your reaction to this one, Veggie!
Unholy Tater
2025-09-19 22:18:40 +0000 UTCI am at the mid point pause, got to you saying "I really like snow" and yes this is where I am so excited to compare to the books, see if you really like snow up until this point in the story here or if seeing his mind tick the way it does makes you have a different perspective. When I first seen this movie I hadn't read the book yet so I think I was feeling the same way at the time as you too, like "where does it all go wrong?"
Cari Ann
2025-09-19 22:12:33 +0000 UTCHi ! No issue on my end. Perfect as far as I am concern.
Laurie Gadeau
2025-09-19 21:42:33 +0000 UTCThanks for the feedback Dani! I hope there is a work around for the full screen version!
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-19 21:14:44 +0000 UTCoh this is exciting! i don’t have the time to watch it right at the moment but im glad to see the full version available. i hope its not much more trouble for you, it makes it so much easier for me because i usually listen to you with headphones while i do house chores! i also have problems rotating it/making it full screen but its not that big of a deal, i have the same issues on Badd Medicine’s page ever since they started using streamable too.
Dani Phantom
2025-09-19 21:13:39 +0000 UTCI want a Tigris book & movie, so bad! Preferably with Hunter Schafer.
Stephen Hert
2025-09-19 20:39:53 +0000 UTCThis is the book I am most excited for you to read, its told from snows perspective and you really get so much more of his thought process its fascinating. I do hope you plan to read these, you are going to love them.
Cari Ann
2025-09-19 20:34:44 +0000 UTCMuch appreciated, Terry! I am afraid I am brand new to Streamable, so I am not sure about a work around. Anyone else reading, do you know how this usually works? Is it on my end?
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-19 20:03:40 +0000 UTCOk yea it does become lighter should’ve just been patient but still can’t get it to go full screen don’t know what’s up with that
Terry Duckworth
2025-09-19 20:02:05 +0000 UTCWasn’t expecting this upload! Nice surprise. So, Sunrise on the Reaping, the movie, comes out next year, and it’s Haymitchs games. Snow is worse than he is in any of the books in that one. No spoilers. Badd Medicine uses streamable, also. Extremely convenient.
Stephen Hert
2025-09-19 19:55:54 +0000 UTCThanks for the quick feedback, Terry! Does the darkness continue after the first scene? It really does start off very dark, at least on my version! I don't know if there is a fix to the rotate, sorry, unless someone else reading this knows a way?
VEGGIE GAMER
2025-09-19 19:55:33 +0000 UTCRunning into a couple issues the movie is extremely dark almost just a black screen and it won’t rotate into full screen. I don’t know if anyone else is having these issues but just sending some feedback
Terry Duckworth
2025-09-19 19:52:50 +0000 UTC
