Coriolanus Snow

"Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen. I thought we had agreed not to lie to each other."

- President Snow to Katniss

President Coriolanus Snow was the tyrannic president of Panem for at least 25 years. He is the main antagonist of The Hunger Games trilogy.

Biography
Being the President of Panem and its contained districts, he naturally has the regular duties of taking care of the country. He also works on the next Hunger Games once each year's are over and the security around districts. He sometimes uses intimidation in pursuit of his agenda, such as when he threatened to kill Katniss Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, Peeta Mellark, and their families. Two weeks after Haymitch won the 50th Hunger Games, Snow murdered Haymitch's mother, younger brother and girlfriend for the force field stunt because it made the Capitol look stupid. It is said that he has a granddaughter. It is revealed by Finnick Odair that he poisons his allies, as he believes that they would become future foes, but he had to drink the poison as well so that he wouldn't attract suspicion. Even though he took antidotes, the poison caused permanent sores on the inside of his mouth that never heal. This is the reason he always wears a genetically perfume-enhanced rose, to cover the scent of blood on his breath.

The Hunger Games


In The Hunger Games, President Snow welcomes all the tributes during the parade in a balcony above the chariots and gives a speech about the Hunger Games. He watches the Games and becomes furious when Katniss and Peeta are both crowned victors. He gives Katniss a long dark look while he places her half of the crown on her head. He has a party as usual at his mansion and observes her during the party. Later he plans to fix all that has been unbalanced due to Katniss and Peeta's rebellion.

Catching Fire
In Catching Fire, President Snow visits Katniss in her Victors' Village home and informs her of the rebellion in the other districts because of her suicide threat. He threatens to torture her by killing the people she loves unless she proves to all of Panem that what she did was driven by love, not by rebellion, in order to stop the uprising in the districts. He observes Katniss from a distance and makes sure she stays in line. During the victory tour, Peeta proposes to her publicly but Snow is still unsatisfied. During a ceremony aired all over Panem, he tells them about the Quarter Quell and how they differ from regular Hunger Games. President Snow reads the card that holds the theme of the Quarter Quell which reads "As a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors," He announces that this year for the Third Quarter Quell, the Hunger Games will be fought by previous victors. Snow greets the tributes and gives a speech as usual. President Snow confronts Cinna before interview night and tells him to dress Katniss in her wedding dress. Snow is infuriated when Cinna turns Katniss' wedding dress into a mockingjay dress and orders for him to be killed. He watches the Third Quarter Quell and is shocked when Katniss and a number of other victors escape the arena. He manages to capture four victors and demands for the others to be killed, and declares war with the rebel forces.

Mockingjay
In Mockingjay President Snow holds Peeta, Annie, Johanna and Enobaria captive and tortures them for information about the rebellion. Snow let Enobaria get off easy since she is from the most loyal district and he fully trusted her. During the interrogation, he had two avoxes, Lavinia and Darius electrocuted to death and excecuted Portia and the other stylists and prep teams. He did this not for answers but for Peeta to see. He also at some point shaved Johanna's hair off. President Snow keeps Peeta healthy so he can use him to break Katniss. President Snow at some point went to District 12 and left a white rose in Katniss' room to give her a message only she would know "I can find you. I can reach you. Perhaps I am watching you now."

He makes Peeta do an interview with Caesar Flickerman so he can manipulate and break Katniss. President Snow appears on screen during Peeta's third interview and introduces him and Caesar. After Peeta implies there will be an attack from the Capitol on District 13, President Snow orders for him to be taken away and to cut the interview. After Peeta is taken away, President Snow orders for him to be hijacked in order to use him aganist Katniss. During an interview Katniss and Finnick shot to distract the Capitol from the rescue team, Finnick reveals President Snow kills his enemies and allies who can become threats to him. He also reveals that he used Finnick by selling his body to wealthy Capitol women for high prices. President Snow is enraged by this and becomes angry at them, but plans to kill Katniss by using the brainwashed Peeta. Boggs reveals that retreiving Peeta was far too easy and suspects that President Snow let them take Peeta so he could kill Katniss.

President Snow goes on television to discuss the death of Squad 451. His broadcast is cut short after Beetee hacks into the system and airs a propo. President Snow discovers the remains of Boggs in an apartment of a Capitol citizen and realizes he has been fooled. President Snow figures out Katniss is still alive and sends a pod of lizard-human mutts to hunt her down and kill her and her squad.

During the final battle of the war, President Snow was going to call an official surrender but before he could there was an explosion outside his mansion that killed Capitol children and rebel medics, including Prim. Snow was arrested and found guilty. Katniss finds him, and he tells her the bomb that killed Prim and the others was not from him but from President Coin. Katniss refuses to believe him but he reminds her of the promise they made not to lie to each other.

Death
After the overthrow of the Capitol in Mockingjay, Snow is tried, convicted and sentenced to death. As the mockingjay, Katniss is given the opportunity to execute Snow. Snow laughs and grins at the irony and the thought of Prim's death and Katniss and him being used as pawns. When Katniss is supposed to shoot him with an arrow through his heart, she instead assassinates President Coin because she thinks Coin is just as bad as President Snow: she was the one who came up with the idea for another Hunger Games where the Capitols' children would have to compete and was part of the cause of Prim's death. In the chaos that follows, Katniss witnesses Snow laughing and coughing up blood as a crush of people surround them. When everything calms down, Snow is found dead; either from choking on his own blood, or being crushed by the crowd. Either way, the dictator that has long ruled Panem is dead.

Personality
A ruthlessly cruel man, President Coriolanus Snow was obsessed with perfection and maintained little respect for human life. He is a very tyrranical ruler who ruled over Panem with an iron fist. He constantly threatened, and killed people who stood in his way to holding absolute power over Panem. He was not hesitant to use people for his personal advantage. For example, he used Finnick and other (unknown) attractive victors and sold them into prostituion to affluent Capitol citizens. His obsession with perfection arises out of his paranoia. He is paranoid that he will lose his power. As a result he murders allies and enemies alike, and in his effort to still appear perfect he drinks his own murderous poison, and is left with a mouthful of bloody sores, which are the only outward sign of his insanity. He uses the the thick perfume of the roses to cover the thick scent of his bloody mouth. He fails however, as Katniss decribes his aroma as that of faux roses and blood. His name, Snow, and his white roses symbolize his mental need to appear flawless, despite his obvious flaws. Despite all this, he claims that he is not wasteful. He'll only kill people for just reasons. He is obviously highly intelligent and cunning as evidenced by his manipulation of Katniss during Catching Fire, and his ability to maintain control of Panem for at least 25 years, probably longer.

Physical description
The President was a small, thin man, with paper-white hair and thick lips that seem pulled across his face. His lips were thought to be changed, to make them more appealing. Katniss once stated that his lips smelled of blood and roses. In Mockingjay, it is revealed that the smell of blood is due to mouth sores he got from one of the poisons that he used to kill people in his monomaniacal efforts to control Panem. He drank the poison in order to allay suspicions, then took the antidote, but they could not cure him of the sores. He also smells strongly of genetically enhanced roses. He always wears a white rose in his lapel to cover the scent of blood. The strong smell invariably makes Katniss gag. His eyes were that of a snake's. Overall, his appearance is quite snake-like. His trademark sign is a single white rose, which he always wears, and that Katniss finds in her house at the beginning of the third book.

Residence
Snow resided in a huge mansion in the City Circle of the Capitol, in which he sometimes held parties. It's big enough to get lost in, and big enough to hide if you don't want to be found.

Family
Snow is known to have a granddaughter who is the right age to participate in the proposed final Hunger Games.