In the Hunger Games, President Snow is Really the Good Guy.

If you will allow me, I would like the definition of "good guy" to be changed from 'any person who is on your side' to 'a person with righteous morals and actions'. 'Any person who is on your side' would be a better definition of a protagonist, which President Snow is not, and although protagonists are generally good people, they don't have to be. I also wish to ask, are we basing answers solely on books or also from the movies? For this round, I will rely only on the books for my arguments. Assertion #1 - President Snow shows little, if any, love for his family It is true that President Snow has a granddaughter. Therefore, he must have at least one child and a wife, or at least a partner. (I also wish to know, where did Pro get the name of his wife? It wasn't mentioned in any of the books or movies, as far as I remember). However, his family is only mentioned once, in the third book, when Johanna Mason, a previous victor from District 7, states "Snow even has a granddaughter" (369, Mockingjay). As this is the only mention of Snow's family, and it's not even coming from the President, we can assume his family was not important enough to him to be included in the book. If Pro has found another mention of his family in the books, they are welcome to bring it to my attention. Assertion #2 - President Snow is cruel and horrible to others. Yes, there are certainly different standards of right and wrong in this world. But, there are different standards of right and wrong in places around even our world. That doesn't make what they do justified. Even Snow himself cannot deny that his actions are wrong. He states in Mockingjay, "We both know I'm not above killing children..." (356). To be above something means that you believe you are better than something, or you have better morals. Snow is implying in this statement that he acknowledges that killing children is heinous, but he does it anyways. He may have even himself been the one to create the Hunger Games. We know the Hunger Games are 74 years old at the beginning of the series. President Snow is a very old man who came to power very early and held on to it for a long time. This is stated in the book. He also kills his own friends and colleagues, not because they're doing something wrong, but because they stand in the way of him - that is, his rise to power. Which brings us to our next assertion. Assertion #3 - Everything President Snow does can be traced back to a need for power. Everything, from the first to last books, can be traced back to power. That's why he poisoned friends. And that's why he became president. It's even the reason for the Hunger Games - not to prevent more deaths. This could have been done in a better way - such as actually treating the people of the districts fairly so they don't WANT to rebel. The point of the Hunger Games is to show the Districts how much power the Capitol has over them. This is even stated in the first book - "Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy" (18). He repeatedly throughout the books manipulates Katniss and others to get what he wants - another way to get power. With Snow, everything always comes back to power. This concludes my debate upon this subject. Vote Con!!!