In Mockingjay, Katniss is said to have learned the song from her father and would sing it while making necklaces with her sister Primrose. Her mother banned the song from being sung in their house after hearing it.
In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020), the song is revealed to have been penned by Lucy Gray Baird, the first Hunger Games victor from District 12. Lucy Gray wrote the song after she and Coriolanus Snow witnessed the execution of a rebel called Arlo Chance.
In Ballad, Lucy composes the song and performs it in one of their shows. Afterward, she's asked not to sing the song anymore because it's too rebellious. Later, Katniss learns the song from her father, but she stops singing it because it's forbidden.
She makes her bed in the tree branches, her burns screaming, and then notices a pair of eyes in a tree beside her. It's Rue, and she's pointing to something above Katniss' head. This chapter reveals how much control the Gamemakers have over the Hunger Games.
How does The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes connections to Hunger Games?
In the book and movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes details a fundamental turning point for the Hunger Games and draws out Snow's backstory, adding dimension to the villainous character who later becomes Panem's tyrannical president.
The Hanging Tree’ James Newton Howard ft. Jennifer Lawrence (Official Audio)
Was Lucy Grey Baird mentioned in The Hunger Games?
Lucy Gray's character was alluded to in the original Hunger Games trilogy, as District 12's very first victor, although she was not named at the time. The reason for this was due to her being a part of the 10th Annual Hunger Games, of which all the records were removed.
No, Lucy Gray has no relation to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. When the original novel for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes first came out, some fans suspected that Lucy might actually be Katniss' grandmother.
Katniss sings a song called “The Hanging Tree” about a man who has been hanged. In the song he calls out for his lover, still alive, to “flee,” but in the end, it becomes clear that he's asking her to die along with him, hanging from a tree.
Ultimately, Dr. Gaul considered these games a disaster, presenting the Capitol as far too vulnerable. She erased all recordings of the games, keeping only a master copy in her own personal vault for her own purposes.
Fan theories posit that Lucy Gray Baird may be a relative of Katniss Everdeen or President Coin. Director Francis Lawrence told us Baird likely isn't Coin, but could have ties to the character.
He married Julia Pompey but their marriage was loveless. It was suggested by many that he poisoned his wife because she tried to kill him and take their sons place.
Snow can't stand to see a young woman betray a young man's affection—his view of what happened 65 years ago. And so he takes out his old, festering wound on Katniss.
In a pivotal scene, Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, sings the haunting “The Hanging Tree.” Despite her discomfort with singing, Lawrence herself performed the song, and the single was a surprise smash, charting as high as 12 on Billboard's Hot 100.
Hanging Tree. Yes, early-day Helena Vigilantes really did hang miscreants from a tree. From 1865 to 1870, at least ten men dropped to their deaths from the limbs of a gaunt dead Ponderosa pine tree, which was located near the northwest corner of present-day Blake and Highland Streets.
Katniss's focus on survival and her family's safety prevented her from fully considering romance, but her feelings for Peeta and Gale diverged in the end. Katniss ultimately chose Peeta because he understood her trauma and she didn't want to lose him, proving her love for him.
l Peeta did it so that the citizens of the Capitol would be unhappy with President Snow/the Gamemakers. Because of course they would be outraged if they were going to kill one of their favourite victors AND her unborn child.
This interaction was so surprising to fans because it's not in the books at all. While, throughout the series, there's some chemistry between the two, nothing ever comes of the tension in Suzanne Collins' novels. Beyond the kiss, nothing happened between the two in the movies either.
Seneca Crane was the previous Head Gamemaker, who was executed for allowing two victors. Katniss painted his name on a dummy and hanged it to warn them that they're not safe and the same thing could easily happen to them.
The song was written by The Hunger Games' author, Suzanne Collins, and the Lumineers (of “Ho Hey” fame) were called in to provide a haunting melody to match Collins's lyrics. And as you also may have noticed in the lead-up to release, Jennifer Lawrence sounds lovely.
The bottom line is that we do not know exactly what happened to Lucy Gray Baird. The movie leaves her fate ambiguous, matching the ending of her fate in the book.
Believing Lucy Gray planted the snake to harm him, Snow goes on a rampage, shooting his gun into the woods. For a moment, it seems like he has hit Lucy Gray but then she starts singing “The Hanging Tree,” causing countless Mockingjays to join in chorus.
Throughout the years, Tigris started to get surgical enhancements, specifically to alter her looks to look somewhat like a tiger getting face and arm tattoos, flattening her nose and getting some of the largest whiskers Katniss had ever seen from a Capitol citizen.
