Dr. Volumnia Gaul quotes from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Dr. Gaul

"Snow fell down in the cage, it fell down in the cage." You're good at games. Maybe you'll be a Gamemaker like me.

That's if the Games continue at all.

Dr. Gaul

Oh, they'll continue. With performances like young Mr. Snow's in that zoo. I came to ask your star mentor a question. What are the Hunger Games for?

They’re to punish the districts for their uprising, to commemorate the end of the war-

Dr. Gaul

"They're to commemorate"- blah, blah, blah, dull, dull, dull. Punishment can take myriad forms. Why not drop bombs, cancel food shipments, stage executions? Why games?

Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves whether or not they’re right in the first place?

Dr. Gaul

You have a problem with my Games?

Some of those kids were two years old when the war ended. The oldest of them were only eight. The Capitol is supposed to be everyone’s government now. It is supposed to protect all of us. I don’t see how making children fight each other to the death is protecting anyone.

Dr. Gaul

That sort of sympathy might interfere with your mentoring assignment.

Perhaps the Capitol students are ill-suited to be mentoring tributes. Perhaps the Game’s time has passed.

Dean Highbottom is wrong. My classmates, too. Maybe Sejanus is onto something here. Maybe we should be viewing those Tributes as human beings. I mean, you saw those kids in the zoo, they just... they just wanted to get to know Lucy Gray. If we need people to watch, we should be letting them get closer to the tributes before the Games. To make the stakes personal.

Dr. Gaul

Who will watch the Games if they care what happens to the Tributes?

Everyone. If they thought the Tribute they cared about had a chance of winning. People need someone to root for and someone to root against. We need them to invest. And if we bend a few Capitol laws, we could even have them place bets. Look, I know Lucy Gray may not win in the arena but if you give her a chance, I would bet the Plinth Prize that she can win people's attention.

Dr. Gaul

I'd like you to write up a proposal of these thoughts tonight, Mr. Snow.

Wait. You mean you might actually use his ideas?

Dr. Gaul

If it'll help the ratings, why not.

Dr. Gaul

Mr. Snow. Ms. Dovecote. Come and see my new babies.

Is there a point to the color?

Dr. Gaul

There's a point to everything, Ms. Dovecote, or to nothing at all. Which brings me neatly to your proposal. Which one of you actually wrote it?

Well, there was-

I was inspired by Coriolanus yesterday, of course. His little betting idea. But the sponsorships and the gifts in the arena, those were all mine.

Clemmie?

Dr. Gaul

So it's your sweaty handwriting on that page. Very impressive, Ms. Dovecote. Unfortunately, my assistant mistook it for trash this morning and lined the shelf of this very terrarium with it. So, please, Ms. Dovecote, retrieve it for us, won't you? So we might all consider your inspired ideas. Don't worry, my little predators are perfectly docile with those they can trust. So if they're used to your scent, if you've handled their food, for example, or if they've inhaled the sweat of your palm on a page, they'll leave you alone. [coldly] A new scent, however ... You'd be on your own, little girl. [stares Clemensia down] Retrieve it.

Clemmie! [Clemmie falls off the stand] Clemmie, no! No!

Dr. Gaul

You asked about the colors, Ms. Dovecote? I want my enemies to see a rainbow of destruction engulfing the world. I'm not above using spectacle to create a little terror. A strategy your classmate here articulated very well in his proposal. [grins at Coryo] They're good, your suggestions! I'm going to recommend my team implement as many as possible tomorrow.

What? Will she die?

Dr. Gaul

The pleasure in breaking ground in one's research is one gets to find out. You better keep Ms. Dovecote's fate between us. I don't think her mother would be happy to learn how she caught this sudden flu. Now run along. You have an arena to promote and it's time for my milk and crackers.

Dr. Gaul

Congratulations, Mr. Snow. You've passed all my tests. I've asked President Ravinstill to grant you a full pardon, effective immediately. I also told him that you are too promising to waste in the military. So you'll be studying under me now at the Capitol University.

I can't afford University.

Dr. Gaul

A certain Mr. Strabo Plinth has offered to pay for everything you need while you're there. All for being a good friend to his Sejanus. He doesn't know quite how good a friend you were, of course. I never made mention of your little recording. Quite impressive, how you sent your only friend to the noose just to get my attention.

That's not what I did.

Dr. Gaul

Are you sure? Because I think that won you the Plinth Prize, after all. The President has agreed to another year of The Games. People watched. And I have to thank you for that. But before I take you under my wing, after everything you've seen out there in the real world, let me ask you one final time. What are The Hunger Games for?

I used to think The Hunger Games were a punishment for The Districts. Then I thought they served as a warning to us here in The Capitol about the threat The Districts posed. Now I know the whole world is an arena. And we need The Hunger Games. Every year. To remind us all who we truly are.

Dr. Gaul

And who are you, do you determine?

The victor.

Dr. Gaul

Welcome home, Mr. Snow.