The upcoming The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, will show that the early days of the Games were brutally different from when Katniss was selected as a tribute. Based on the book of the same name by The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be set 65 years before the revolution that would put the Games to an end. This places it during the early days of the events, and it turns out that it wasn't always the grand affair that audiences are used to.
In The Hunger Games books and movies, the tributes from each of the 12 Districts are sent to the Capitol to fight in an arena to the death. Before officially entering the battlefield, they are cleaned, dressed up, and paraded like celebrities to the citizens of the Capitol of Panem. These citizens pick their favorites and shower them with praise and money as gifts in the arena. They bet on the ones they think will win, and if they do, those victors are treated almost as though they belong in the Capitol— they aren't quite as good, but they are better than regular District citizens anyway.
The Early Days Of The Hunger Games Were Even Worse Than In Katniss' Time
In The Hunger Games, the concept of throwing children into an arena to kill one another is disturbing. Still, the celebrity-like treatment of the tributes makes the affair seem artificially palatable. However, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes gives a peek into how the Games were run shortly after the devastating war between the Capitol and Districts. The hate festering among the upper class citizens of Panem meant that when the tributes came to the Capitol in the early days they were treated as less than animals.
While Katniss and Peeta were given luxurious quarters and more food than they had ever imagined, the Hunger Games' first tributes were brought to the Capitol in a dirty cattle car. By the time they arrived, they were already sick and starving. Regardless, they received no medical care and were thrown into the zoo's monkey enclosure. There, they could be bitten by snakes or rabid rats or die before the Games had even started.
The Hunger Games' Prequel Will Be More Brutal Than The Original Trilogy
Since the Hunger Games in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was made up of sick and abused children, their deaths within the arena were often even more disturbing. One tribute wound up with rabies and turned on his allied tribute, while others just slowly died, disturbingly emaciated in front of the onlookers. The only prize to the victor was to live– no mansion or supply of food. So, there was no motivation for "brave warriors" to volunteer and put up a fight in The Hunger Games, as District 1 would later be known for. Still, this isn't the only disturbing element in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
The prequel to The Hunger Games shows what the Capitol was like during and in the aftermath of the war. Through the eyes of a young President Coriolanus Snow, audiences also see flashbacks to how even the highest-class citizens turned to murder and cannibalism to survive. The Capitol itself formed something similar to their own version of the brutality of the Hunger Games, and later became the inspiration for the event. While these concepts are disturbing to see, they help audiences understand why District rebels were so despised and therefore punished after the war ended.
Why The Hunger Games Changed By The Time Katniss Competed
In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a young Coriolanus Snow is made a Hunger Games mentor for the District 12 female tribute as a school assignment. The creators of the Games had realized that the event was unfavorable to the Capitol audiences, and they needed the fresh ideas of young people to figure out how to make them a grander spectacle. Not only did sick and injured children make audiences feel disgusted and disturbed, but they didn't make for a great show if they all died before they could fight one another.
So, by the time Katniss participated in The Hunger Games, the Capitol had mastered how to create the most entertaining spectacle to keep their high-class citizens happy and docile on "bread and circuses." Audience approval was raised by treating the Hunger Games tributes and winners more humanely, but the changes just ensured that the 24 children would be more able and willing to give the bloodiest show possible. It all came down to the ideas of President Coriolanus Snow, whose experience in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes would shape the Hunger Games as they would later be known.