The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

I think she did a really good job.

I mean, I've only read the Ballad of Songbird and Snakes.

I have not done Sunrise on the Reaping yet.

I am waiting till

the

movie on that one.

I think she does a she did a really good job with Ballad of Songbird and Snakes because sometimes prequels can be very, you know, formulaic and you kind of like already know certain things and like, well, this character is not in danger because, you know, they survive, right? Like it takes away some of that, you know, element of surprise on things and You know, I think she did a really good job of providing enough new information that we didn't know that you kind of lost sight of all the things that you did.

You weren't focused on all the, well, this isn't going to happen that way and, you know, all that stuff.

If I was doing something of a thriller, it's kind of obvious.

Young Palpatine, I think, could be really interesting, right? Sort of like what Suzanne Collins did with Young Snow in Ballad of Songbird and Snakes.

I think you could do something really interesting with young Palpatine and kind of like, how did he get on this path? Like how, like what point? And I'm sure it's been, I'm sure it's been touched on and I'm just forgetting it.

But like, at what point did he know, you know, when did he become a Sith? Like, and just, I think like, like evil teen Palpatine could be really fun.

You're translating architecture, societal structures, and entire ecologies.

Let's start with number nine on our list, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

This is a film based on Suzanne Collins' prequel novel.

Right.

Oh, that's interesting.

And they want an ambiguous ending that leaves them questioning the reality of what they just saw.

You can see echoes of this in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Coriolanus Snow is entirely driven by ego and performance.

Um, so yeah, that's how we're gonna do it.

It's gonna be full spoilery, like, we're gonna spoil stuff within the OG trilogy as we talk about Ballad today.

Like, I feel like if you know the story, you know the story-

Mm-hmm

... at this point, [laughs] you know.

And yeah, I don't know fully how we're formatting the OG trilogy episodes, but, like, for Ballad, I think we're gonna split this up into two episodes.

Mm-hmm.

And then we'll see about Sunrise.

Nerds and

Birds?

Yep, Nerds and Birds book.

She decapitates her with her silver flame, her magic sword, the Astari head is gone by Vesperus.

Nesta understood the assignment.

The ultimate safety net.

We're talking about a franchise giant that was greenlit practically before the ink on the book was even dry.

Yeah.

We have to start with Suzanne Collins and the sunrise on The Reaping.

Okay, so the business logic here, if we look at the context, makes total sense.

How so?

Well, think about Collins' last revival with the franchise, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Oh, right, the 2020 book.

Ah, it's hard to pick.

Okay, let's talk about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.

Woohoo.

I know I'm very late to this party.

Holy shit balls.

The point being, we're now in double digits, and he is reading Suzanne Collins.

Now, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes absolutely ripped me apart.

I am shredded, and I don't even feel the need to put myself back together because we're probably just going to immediately buddy-read Sunrise on the Reaping-

Oh, uh, like Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt becoming the film Carol with Cate Blanchett.

Yes, and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Right, starring Hunter Schafer, and the source references an interview with, uh, Flora Lythman.

And of course, Julia Quinn's Bridgerton.