S6 E5: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Today's Podcast: Abbie Scoby sits down with Hunger Games fans Jessica Reeves and Addie Savley to discuss the latest Hunger Games installment and the series as a whole.

Hosts: Abbie Scoby

Guests: Jessica Reeves & Addie Savley

Scriptwriter: Abbie Scoby

Podcast Editor & Producer: Luke Judkins

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Bear Talk is produced by the GoldenbergGazette, not Juliet Highchool Student newspaper.
Hello, welcome back to bear Talk. We are excited to bring you the

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latest episode of your school News.I'm your host, Abby Scobie. Today
we have two very special guests whoare self proclaimed experts on the topic of
Hunger Games. Would you please introduceyourselves. I'm Addie. Safely, I
would say I'm an expert because I'veread the books over and over, watch
the movies over and over, andi do have a Pinter's board full of

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Hunger Games, so I don't wantto say about it. Oh no,
yeah, And I'm Jessica Reeves.I would say that I'm an expert because
I read the books in middle schoolwhen Hunger Gains hit its peak, and
I've the movies half a dozen times. Plus i am a diehard Peda supporter.
Okay, So, as you mayknow, one of the first thing
that comes to mind when people thinkHunger Games is the Hanging Tree song.

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So I want to talk a littlebit about that and how it's significant to
the movie and maybe more so inthe book. Since I've not personally read
the books, I've watched all themovies, so I wanted to hear you
guys' perspectives on it. So,yeah, with the Hanging Tree Song,
I think it'll be really interesting tosee the with the new movie how they
have its origins. Because with theoriginal movies, all you saw was Catness's

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involvement with the Hanging Tree Song,and you just saw her in her revolutionary
state and how it was used todepict that. But it's great that we're
going to see in the new moviewhere it came from, and we're going
to see a girl who also hadthe same dreams as Catnus bringing that about.
That's awesome. Yeah. Okay,speaking of Lucy Gray, Addie,

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do you know how her her characteractually relates to Catinus from the old movies.
So it's pretty cool Lucy Gray.You like, with the Hanging Tree
Song, she wrote it and she'ssang it first, and then once you
get to Cattiness, Catiness is likethis embodiment of Lucy Gray in the past
kind of and the revolution that LucyGray wanted to have. So I'm gonna

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say mocking her Day. Yeah,I mean, the Catiness is the mocking
Day and so it's it's cool tosee the full circle moment because it starts
with Lucy Gray in the prequel andthen you get to see Catinus finish it
out. Yeah. Nice. Okay, So, speaking of the old movies

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in comparison to the new movie comingout, I wanted to talk a little
bit more about Primrose and Gail's plans, you know, how that affected Catness
and her development throughout the movie andthe books. Jessica, would you like
to start us off? Please?Oh? Kay? Yeah. So,
as I mentioned earlier, I'm anavid Peter defender, so means hating Gail

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at all times apparently. So mything with Gail is that, yes,
I understand that the situation was amilitary idea and that it was either what's
better for the many versus what's badfor the few. But I would also

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like to say though, that Ifeel like Gail is a very self centered
person who is very selfish, andI do. And when he originally brought
up the idea, many people werelike, hey, we probably shouldn't kill
all these innocent bystanders, especially thechildren, and so, you know,
you thought the idea went away,but it came back up and Katnus's sister

(03:54):
literally died because of Gail and hispride, what exactly and so whenever,
And the thing is is, wheneveryou think back to this one moment in
history, it's always going to bethat guy Gail came up with this idea,
so he'll forever be embodied. Look, I'm not going to defend everything

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he did, but I do thinkthat he didn't intend to kill his CRUSH's
sister. I mean, I thinkhis plan was for the military that he
thought was good. Now, Idon't know. I'm not defending his actions.
I don't think that's how I can't. But did he have an active
role in actually executing it or wasit just his idea that people took from

(04:40):
him? In the books, Gailis someone who sets traps, he's killing
the animals to eat. So hebrings it over into, especially the third
book, into planning the war andplanning war strategies. So that was something
he came up with. And Idon't know if he thought it was going
to be used or if you isbrainstorming. I'm not sure the book really

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goes way into it. But wasit his plan? Yes? Did he
mean to kill prem obviously not,yeah, but it was past the bombs.
It was whatever. I guess whatback in whatever. Well, speaking
of our boy Gail, I wantedto touch on that little rivalry before I

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state anything, I would like toreiterate that I've limited knowledge on the books
and I've only watched the movies once, so my knowledge is quite faded.
So the Gail versus Peter backstory,it's going to be a little bit of
a hot take, so prepare yourselves. But I don't think Peter ever truly

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loved Catenus. Wow. Scobie wow. And I'm not the only one who
thinks that. But I'd say you'rein the minority. Perhaps one so perhaps,
But I also whatever, I haveno defense. I just like Gail
better, and I think Pete isreally sad character. Okay, let me

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just start with I think people onlyliked Gail in the movies because he had
a conventionally attractive actor playing him.I don't think people really liked him as
much in the books. Are yousaying that Pete is unattractive? I have
no I wouldn't say that. Iwould just say I think people just were
more drawn to Gail than they werein the books, and so they Yeah,

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for sure. So I think petwhen you look at the relationship with
Peta and Catness. He was alwaysa support. So maybe they weren't in
love with each other. They wereonly sixteen, but they went through a
lot together and I don't think Galecould ever relate to it. See,
I think that they were in lovefrom the start. There's I think,

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like, wait to clarify Gale andCatness. No, Peter, Oh,
we all know Gail was in lovewith Catness, but Peta was pining over
her since like their little grades school, and she had been head over heels.
He made sacrifices for her even beforethe Hunger Games, like when he
threw her out the bread and heliterally took a beating from his parents for

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it. And then true love,I know, true And then you get
to the Hunger Games and he isdefending Cateness constantly. And the biggest thing
from the separation from Gail versus Petais that Peta was always the one that
made sure Catnus was safe, whileCatness was always protecting others around her,

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and he always worried about her safety. And he also just whenever Catness needed
somebody, she always went to Peta. And I think that says something a
lot about it, so as afriendly rebuttal, who else is she even
going to talk to, to behonest, Like, there's not really many
people that she can talk to,so of course it's going to be someone
from her district. Also, Ifeel like Gail was actually protecting what she

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had at home. The whole reasonCatenus went into the Hunger Games is because
she was protecting her people at home, which Gail was doing while she was
away. And I think a lotof the things that Peter did to quote
unquote protect Catenus during the Hunger Gameswas a lot of press stunts to protect
himself. I feel like that's opinion. I think every press stunt he ever

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did was for Catness. I mean, if you saw, like in the
first movie, he says, oh, basically says he has a crush on
Catonis in the middle of the interview, Like that's him protecting her because he
can make it through you know,his interview just fine. Especially in the
books, she figure out he's verycharismatic and can win things over. So

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I think he's protecting Catenus. AndI think throughout the movies you see everything
he does is to protect Catness allright, and quickly just because I'm sure
the viewers are dying to know.Are you guys team repete It or Gail?
I mean, I think it's obviousboth t p contrary to your contrary

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to your host beliefs. I'm teamGail. Very sorry, limited knowledge,
That's what I'm blaming it on.It's the movies, lovers. I'm sorry.
I'm a sucker for first love.I'm a sucker for first love.
I don't know. Okay, movingon, Sorry, I want to say
a little bit more about the pasttribute games, Eddie. Would you mind
starting with Hamage. Yeah, Hamichis he's really complicated, especially in the

(09:35):
books. You see like his drinkingproblem and that he's pretty checked out,
especially in the beginning. He's beenthrough a lot. There's a lot of
background on his games and the wayhe was treated. But you know,
he's got the drinking problem, sohe's you know, he doesn't want to
invest time in these tributes because hejust watches them die over and over.

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So yeah, I'm his games wasa quarter quell the fiftieth and it was
a lot, So I think that'swhy the way he is is his games.
She was very taxing. Okay,Well, thank you so much.
And for our final piece of thissegment, I wanted to talk a little
bit about how we anticipate the newmovie to be, especially with our villains.

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No, yes, I hear thatwe're going to be learning more about
his background and seeing that kind ofperspective, Jessica, would you like to
talk a little bit about that.Yeah, So, I actually am really
excited for this new version of Snowthat we're going to be able to see.
So with like recently, there's beena lot of makes of villains where

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we have made where their decisions havebeen more justifiable. But with Suzanne Collins
writing, she does an amazing jobof making showing Snow's past without making him
any less of a villain. Andso I'm really excited for us to see
what happened to make him become theperson that you see in the originals,

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because he's a very complicated individual.In Finic actually I love in the movies
and books, Finic hints at thefact that Snow has a very complicated past
and we're finally seeing it. I'mexcited. Eddie. Is there anything you'd
like to add to that? Yeah, I mean I'm a big reader,
so I love like watching one bookscitmade into movies. Sometimes it's good,

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sometimes just bad. I feel likeit'll be good. I think I'm excited
to watch the characters and the actorsand see how they do, so it'll
be cool, all right. Well, thank you to so much for joining
us on this bear Talk and forour listeners for this podcast who will be
viewing the new Hunger Games movie thisFriday or on the other release dates,

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please consider tagging us at mj Underscorebear Talk. We would love to hear
your opinions and your experience with thenew movie. Thank you so much for
listening. If you have a newsto or would like for us to feature
a topic on our next episode,please drop a note in our dropbox outside
B one eighteen. Please also giveus a follow on our socials at mj

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Underscore bear Talk before we catch youon our next episode. Here are a
few announcements. As you may know, Veterans Day was this Saturday, and
we have five veterans who work atMJHS. Mister Gary Brewster, Sergeant Major
Jonathan Clark, mister jeff Ethridge,Major al And Tilley, and mister Bill
Schwarz all served in the military.And we would like to thank them for

(12:37):
their service. On Friday morning,November tenth, our Vocal Ensemble performed a
special rendition of America the Beautiful inhonor of Veterans Day. You can view
the performance at Empty Juliet Bears.Also on this past Saturday, our JOTWC
program hosted the two hundred and fortyeighth Marine Corps Birthday Ball. It was

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a great night honoring the Marine CorpsBirthday as well as current and former military
members. The Mountjoyet Hockey Club remainsin the top division and faces off against
NBA at eight thirty at Centennial Sportsplexand admission is free and we'd love to
see you there tonight for the game. And as you may know, new

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members of National Honor Society will beinducted on Thursday, November thirtieth at six
pm in the theater. Family andfriends are welcome to attend. That's all
we have for you today. Stayclassy, MJ. And may the odds
be ever in your favor. Thatthey know how to boogie. They can

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boogie. They can boogie, damnboogie. But that's the felly, the
food cringeing eight