Lucy Gray Baird, the heroine of Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is only ever seen through Coriolanus Snow’s perspective. All of her mannerism, dialogue and decisions are layered with mystery and allure in Snow’s eyes. He doesn’t understand why she wants to help Jessup. He doesn’t expect her to use the rat poison he gives her so well n the arena. He doesn’t think she’ll catch his lie in the woods. He doesn’t anticipate her running away, mimicking the ballad she tried in vain to explain to him. And up until she runs away, he loves it. He loves trying to anticipate her next move and better yet, trying to control her next move. Something incredibly common with the iconic Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
The Manic Pixie Girl exists only in the eye of the narrator, an eye which turns her into a whimsical mystery in need of saving or solving and the audience usually wants the narrator to succeed in understanding her and subsequently getting the girl. Lucy Gray Baird fits quite well in the ranks of Manic Pixie Dream Girls as a colorful, enigmatic and quirky teenage girl that some, usually lame, dude wants to understand so badly. Except… is Snow really lame? He’s more of a power-hungry dick than lame, which is part of what makes Lucy Gray an especially cool Manic Pixie Dream Girl. We’re not rooting for Snow to end up with her because it is incredibly obvious that he fucking sucks and will always suck. This framing of the trope adds another dimension to it as the larger audience absolutely does not want Lucy Gray to stay with Coriolanus.
In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the viewer usually wants Scott to at least have a date with Ramona. In Looking for Alaska, the reader is rooting for Miles to get with Alaska. But in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the audience is hoping and praying that Lucy Gray can make her escape from this fucking psycho! Part of the reason is that we know what Snow will become; he’s going to get worse and no one can stop him. Killing his best friend in order to get back to the Capitol definitely doesn’t help that sentiment! He’s an unlikeable and unreliable narrator, leading the audience to make their own judgements and assumptions about Lucy Gray and creating a character outside of Snow’s creation.
Featured Image from Lionsgate’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
