Remember that great book? Here's the prequel!

Remember a time when you could safely put the last book in a series on your bookcase and think you’re done living in that book series’ universe?

That used to be the case. Sadly, more and more authors have started trying to milk every last drop of their books trying to turn it into a franchise. While some creators can pull it off, some simply can’t reproduce that magic.

What prompted this week’s rant is Suzanne Collins and her most recent attempted cash grab called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It’s a prequel to her Hunger Games trilogy. Having recently finished the trilogy earlier this year, I enjoyed all of them. When I saw that the prequel was going to have the villain of the trilogy as the main character I was hesitant.

I felt that Collins would try to make Snow as an innocent guy trying to do his best but he ends up corrupted by the government and that everything he did in the trilogy could be explained away. Without giving any spoilers away, I wasn’t far from the mark. Snow becomes a mentor in the tenth Hunger Games and he falls in love with the female tribute from District 12. I know that there’s a lot of readers that enjoyed this book. On Goodreads, it has a 3.87 out of 5 stars. Overall, not a bad rating. In my humble opinion, this book was destroyed by too many callbacks to the orig trig (my cute way of saying original trilogy). As the book dragged on, with every time a minor reference was made I cringed just a little harder.

There’s one part where Snow asks if the katniss plant is ready to harvest and the answer he gets is “The katniss is still to early.” I’m paraphrasing there, but I mean come on Suzanne Collins. The reader is also bashed over the head with how much Snow hates mocking jays and how he wants to kill them. Oh, I wonder what Collins was trying to foreshadow?

And that’s one of the issues I have with authors writing a prequel after the main source is published. Too much nostalgia. Look at the Star Wars prequels. Some of the phrases you’ll hear over and over again include:

• Hello there.

• I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

• Anything about the chosen one.

• Also, anything R2-D2 says, haha.

Once or twice is fine, but after awhile, you could play a drinking game.

Another issue I have with prequels is that creators like to use characters from the originals as a way to link them. I could see why. People want to see how some of their favorite characters came to be the characters whom the fans love. I get it. However, like in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) we didn’t really need to know how Solo got his name, his ship, his Wookie, his blaster, his golden dice that were prominently featured in Episode VIII. Sometimes, things are better left mired in vague shadows. Because Han being named Solo because there was one of him was absolutely horrible.

And the same goes with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I didn’t need an explanation on how all those minute details about the originals came to fruition. I also didn’t need to know that without Snow, none of those things would have happened.

There’s also no threat to the main character if he/she is in the original material. Snow is the villain in the originals so I know for a fact that he will come out the prequel just fine and dandy. The same thing goes for Obi-wan Kenobi in Episode III when he gets into that lightsaber duel with Anakin.

If you want to write a decent prequel, again in my humblest of opinions, follow these three pieces of advice:

• Keep the dialogue and overall story free from frequently used references.

• Stop trying to explain away every little detail from the original source material.

• Don’t recycle your characters by showing off their origin story. Have fresh faced characters that don’t show up in the original material. Why do you think Ahsoka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is so beloved by characters? It’s because she wasn’t in the orig trig or the prequel trig so viewers don’t know if she lives or dies.

Sometimes, it’s better to keep your books on the shelf and never pick them up again. Create some new content for once in your life. Your books, movies, franchise, and other creations aren’t Philosopher Stones y’all. Not every prequel can produce gold so maybe don’t try your hand at them.