The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a wonderful film on its individual, but it will become a masterpiece when you start out to see all the means it connects to The Starvation Games saga. The film about Coriolanus Snow’s youth delivers a treasure trove of insight into how the Hunger Game titles began, and how they developed into the bloody spectacle Snow presided above. But amongst all the telling specifics, it is Lucy Gray’s final line in the prequel that most cleverly foreshadows Snow’s fate.

Spoiler inform: This write-up discusses the ending of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Because the prequel motion picture is set more than 60 yrs prior to the events depicted in the Starvation Game titles movies, people like Katniss and Peeta are even now generations away from coming into the photograph. But Katniss even now manages to present up in some unforeseen sites.

The initial nod to the Snow’s potential nemesis is during the 10th Annual Hunger Online games, when Coriolanus spots an unused bow and arrow on the ground as he enters the arena to retrieve Sejanus. No one made use of that weapon in these Video games, but it would be picked up 64 many years later when Katniss entered the 74th Starvation Video games.

The motion picture also describes the origin for the “Hanging Tree” song that Katniss famously sings in Mockingjay — Section 1. Lucy Grey is revealed composing the tune just after witnessing Peacekeepers executing a District 12 resident accused of murder. Meaningfully, Lucy Gray’s do the job would survive the take a look at of time and turn out to be an anthem for the insurrection towards her one-time ally, Coriolanus Snow.

But the most overt Starvation Online games reference is a straight-up shoutout to Katniss. As Lucy Grey shows Coriolanus around District 12, she tells him about katniss, a resilient “swamp potato” that she and her pals harvest.

This all prospects to Lucy Gray’s final instant, when she realizes she requires to escape from Coriolanus and tends to make up a really prescient justification to get away from him. “I imagine I’ll go dig up some katniss, since we acquired the hearth heading anyway,” she suggests. The line is a apparent nod that Katniss’ time is coming, and Lucy Gray “digging her up” connects the two ladies as leaders in the riot in opposition to the Capitol. The mention of a acquiring hearth is also a intelligent allusion to the fire motif in The Starvation Video games. Katniss attained the nickname Female on Fireplace many thanks to her flame-accented outfits, and pointed to the imagery of fireplace as a symbol of her increasing rebellion.

Prior to Lucy Gray goes, Coriolanus stops her with a single remaining remark, recalling how she had not long ago said it was way too early to start out buying katniss. Her very last words and phrases double as a warning to his long run self: “The planet improvements awfully fast.”