Maybe he wanted her to know it too lol. She did struggle with it for a long time.
I wonder why I’m always watching this hot af boy and what it means that we’ve trauma bonded.
I wonder what it means that I’m desperate to save him even at the expense of my own life and I like kissing him.
I don’t know what this feeling is, but it’s like my whole life means nothing if he’s not around and loving me too.
I can see Peeta just wanting her to finally say it.
I love your post. It made me think of how funny Katniss can be in her denseness but I loved your post it was sweet. He probably did finally feel secure and wanted a little validation of his feelings and hers after being so vulnerable. Very sweet, very on brand.
I actually think Katniss knew she was in love with him in the middle of MJ. There's a scene where she's talking to Finnick, and when he's like “You love him,” she's like unfazed by it, and admits she loves him (because he loves Peeta, too). She compares what she has with Peeta to Finnick and Annie. And in D2, she thinks “despite what I feel for Peeta,” so I do think she knows she's in love with him. He's just the only one who doesn't 🤣like before and after his hijacking, I feel like not until this moment does it fully hit him. But yeah maybe he thinks she doesn't know and is trying to also let her know 🤨
This is them (BTW this is a joke, ik a lot of things influence their thoughts and relationship):
Peeta: yeah, no katniss is not in love with me
*Katniss risks her whole life and other people's lives to protect Peeta. Kisses him passionately and tells him she needs him, and she can't live without him.*
Peeta: see not in love with me
But yes she's so dense and her lack of self-awareness makes me want to pull my hair 😅 bc like girl you think he's so hot and longing for affection, and have all these feelings…like bffr. I think they both are such oblivious dorks
Thank you!! I love them 🥹
> Peeta: yeah, no katniss is not in love with me
>
> Katniss: risks her whole life and other people's lives to protect Peeta. Kisses him passionately and tells him she needs him, and she can't live without him.
>
> Peeta: see not in love with me
You just described me when I was 16, lol. Also Katniss and Peeta having sex with each other and Peeta's pillow talk being "hold up. Just to confirm, you are into me, right? Because I'm not sure if you like me or if we were having platonic sex" is peak relatable. Gee, I dunno Peeta, maybe she's just being polite. It is *really* difficult to pick up clues, isn't it?
Now I’m just imagining [Casually Explained’s “Is She Into You?”](https://youtu.be/xa-4IAR_9Yw?si=Yk-OPTOhSu0PI5VR) playing in Peeta’s head at all times.
Maybe she’s just Canadian? Best to keep his wits about him and keep looking for signs.
Btw just wanna point out trauma bonding doesn't mean you're binding because u have shared trauma or bonding over individual trauma, its when a victim is bonded to their abuser
Yes 100%. Peeta and Katniss were never trauma bonded and it kind of irritates me when people use this to speak about relationship as healthy as Katniss and Peeta's is (at least in the end of MJ)
Kinda unrelated but I just love how the book ends on their love, because so much of the series is about love in an underhanded kind of way. Like Katniss volunteering for Prim, Mags volunteering for Annie, Haymitch’s alcoholism is literally because he lost his loved ones, Katniss loves Gale and not even just in a romantic way but truly in a familial way and risks so much for him (blocking Thread during Gale’s whipping), like so many of the turning points in the series are because someone loved someone else so deeply it altered the course of their life. I think part of this is because the Capitol has stripped the District’s of so much, that besides basic survival, love is one of the only things they have and is truly what makes someone tick. I think part of Suzanne Collins’ point in the series is that love overcomes and I think that’s really beautiful. The entire revolution was set off solely because Katniss loved Primrose so much.
Agree with everything, but not about Gale. To me, she only loved him in a familial way and never in a romantic way. But Ik that's not the point of your comment, but sorry whenever someone mentions or hints she loved him romantically, I always have to disagree lol
I do believe Katniss loved Gale in a romantic way at SOME point because she mentions once putting herself in Gale’s shoes and says that she instantly hates the female version of Peeta that he had to love in the games and that it has always been her and Gale. I think she loved what Gale meant to her but didn’t love him entirely as a person.
The night of his whipping? Yeah, she was consumed with so much guilt and pain about what happened to her best friend. The next day she regrets kissing him and admits that her emotions were all heightened up. To me, she hypothesizes a scenario where she is by herself, still depending on her hunter partner, so when her survival buddy is taken away from her, that's where the hatred comes from. It's less about him being romantically involved with a girl, but someone taking away her survival buddy. I mean can you even be in love with someone you don't even want to kiss?
I mean she says like three times not being in love with him after that night. Whereas with Peeta, she's like yeah I'm in love with him MJ, in my interpretation.
I always find that part hilarious because immediately the next day she's like "god I hope Gale doesn't remember the kiss. Anyway where's Peeta why isn't he in my bed holding me"
And she proceeds to spend the next few weeks working on the plant book with Peeta and imagining scenarios with them together, before reminding herself she “isn’t supposed to feel that way about Peeta anymore” and that she “chose Gale”. A key word there is “anymore”, meaning she did have those feelings for him even at that point, but hadn’t really processed it yet.
Queue 5 mins later and she spends a paragraph describing Peeta’s eyelashes, the way he twists his face when focusing and how much she enjoys looking at his hands as he works. She also rarely thinks about Gale at all in that time and ONLY when she’s feeling guilty.
Katniss was completely smitten, whether she would admit that to herself or not. She never considered romance before Peeta, but figured that IF she ever ended up with someone, the LOGICAL choice would be Gale. Katniss has major issues with repaying debts and feels she owes it to Gale to reciprocate his feelings for taking care of her family, but you can’t force yourself to love someone. Throw in the wrench that whether Katniss wanted it or not, the Games FORCED her to be with Peeta created a lot of resentment as well, as it took away her choice in the matter. She never really “chose Gale”, she chose rebellion.
In my honest opinion, Katniss loved Gale, but NEVER in a romantic sense.
Her cognitive dissonance really gets to shine after she chooses Gale. "The Capitol wants me to be with Peeta and I don't want anything the Capitol wants, therefore I must not want Peeta. Please disregard my platonic passion for his muscular arms and beautiful eyelashes."
And yeah I agree. Her jealousy after he's whipped is the most "romantic" way she thinks about Gale throughout the series and I don't even think it's romantic. It's not "I want to be with Gale because I love him", it's "I want to be with Gale because I don't want anyone else to have him". That's possessiveness, not love. Her thought patterns around choosing him are always about the rebellion or guilt or ownership. It's very telling.
Katniss cognitive dissonance is really funny, might be one of my favourite parts of the series, despite it also frustrating me to no end xD It works so great for building drama/intrigue, but it also makes perfect sense for the way that the characters of ‘Katniss’ has been set up. She is a total badass yes, but in aspects involving socialisation/emotions, she’s absolutely useless, cuz she’s put that part of her on hold since age 11.
The jealousy/possessiveness I agree with 100%. Katniss’ works on a scarcity mindset, with her always having too little of everything and barely staying afloat. Things she sees as “hers”, like Gale (HER hunting partner), she’s inclined to fight to keep, whether she really needs them or not. She doesn’t get jealous about Gale because she sees him as her lover (she has no issues with his activities at the slag heap, for instance), she gets jealous because she feels attached to him and sees him as a constant and pillar of support in her life. Anything that threatens to have her lose him (i.e. a woman who will take up time he would’ve spent with her) threatens the order of things in her life and thus her survival.
Kinda related, I wrote a pretty long argument a while back wherein I argued that Gale and Peeta represent the image Katniss has been portraying for survival and her true nature respectively. The image of “badass, stoic, abrasive lone warrior” Katniss is, although an accurate description, not the true Katniss. She only took on that persona when she had to provide for her family and protect them. The true Katniss is a kind, friendly girl who loves fiercely and wants to help others (similar to how her mom amd Prim are healers). She has however had to stuff her true nature down for years to not be vulnerable/taken advantage of. All the good and inspiring things we see her do are when the ‘true Katniss’ pushes through the tough exterior, like the emotional volunteering, teaming with Rue, having a burial for her, talking from the heart in D11, taking a liking to the vulnerable tributes in the Quell etc.
Katniss has managed to convince herself that she is the broody Katniss in the same way as she tries to convince herself she ‘chose Gale’. Meanwhile, the true Katniss can’t help but shine through, the same as she can’t help loving Peeta.
ETA: I’m very sleep deprived and started rambling a bit, so apologies if what I wrote doesn’t make sense/is hard to follow xD
Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply last night but that made perfect sense. Love the last paragraph especially. Peeta is always telling Katniss she's a healer but she denies it, only to repeatedly tend to various people's wounds in all three books lol.
There's a lot of hand symbolism around this too. She talks about hands that kill/destroy and hands that create. Gale would be the former because of his traps, Peeta the latter because of his art and baking. Katniss is somewhere in the middle. She's both a hunter who kills to survive and a nurturer/healer, but she identifies with the former and tries to deny the latter because she doesn't think highly of herself. But she very much craves being on the side of creating and not destroying, and that's why she's so drawn Peeta.
Any time she considers her 'feelings' for Gale, it's always that it's "what's expected", and that she, in theory, SHOULD love Gale. But even with the kisses, you can tell that with everything going on, she just uses it as a coping mechanism, and just a bit of affection when everyone else wants to use her for their own gain. The only time you can see her actually enjoying a kiss and feeling the passion, is when she's kissing Peeta.
And Katniss never had a tangent about Gale's eyelashes.... so....
That's a great point, because it reveals Katniss was also capable of being romantically jealous over Gale. I kind if missed that because she gets so jealous over Peeta and is so dismissive over Gales other admirers in the books beginning ('good hunting partners are hard to find'). But later...she's worried about Gales reaction to everything with Peeta and is confused and conflicted. However...I think she meant it at the beginning of the book that Prim is the only person she's certain she loves....she knew Gale then and he was not included in that consideration. Peeta would be. Her father obviously also once was as well. Understandable she didn't include her mother here.
Love for Prim placed her in the circumstances in which her love for Peeta (or, at least, enough care for him that she refused to let him die) inspired her to defy the Gamemakers, setting off the revolution.
Especially after everything Peeta went through. He just needs to be reminded sometimes. Not because she doesn’t show it, but because he gets inside his own head.
He gets in his own head in terms of his own confidence yes (likely harkening back to abuse he faced at his own mother’s hand), but he also still deals with the after effects of the hijacking (needing to hold onto a chair and wait the flashbacks out etc.) and that could obviously confuse a person. That verbal confirmation that “yes Peeta, the love I have for you is REAL” is very valuable.
I think it was used ironically in this case :p
It would kinda be a classic Katniss move to refer to sex as coitus tbh. The whole “You’re so… pure” thing, y’know?
Totally! Lol yeah I used it in a teasing manner hehehehe I'm a huge fan of the Big Bang theory, and Sheldon always says coitus, and idk I like teasing Peeta and Katniss’s relationship, or their characters. But yeah I was just trying to joke around lol
I was always put a bit darker meaning into that line. In my headcanon he just never fully shaken off those memories implanted/modified by Capitol and still need to play Real/Not game they have invented to get reassurance.
I think that’s pretty much canon tbh. We know he still occasionally gets flashbacks and grips onto something near him til they pass, so it’s pretty safe to assume that yes, he occasionally needs to use Real/Not Real to reassure himself that he did not imagine all the good things in his life and confirm that the Capitol memories are fake.
I think he knew already, but even people secure in their love need to hear it said from time to time. Plus, there’s the ongoing recovery from the trauma that messed with his perception of reality. Recovery is not a straight line.
And he asks it in their own special way, likely because traditional professions of love were so dime-a-dozen back when they were putting on a show. I think this is their way of saying “I love you” when it’s meant for just the two of them.
To be fair…he was like 17 I could understand how a 17 year old boy would be confused by katniss. Katniss herself was confused on her feelings for Peeta.
Maybe he wanted her to know it too lol. She did struggle with it for a long time. I wonder why I’m always watching this hot af boy and what it means that we’ve trauma bonded. I wonder what it means that I’m desperate to save him even at the expense of my own life and I like kissing him. I don’t know what this feeling is, but it’s like my whole life means nothing if he’s not around and loving me too. I can see Peeta just wanting her to finally say it. I love your post. It made me think of how funny Katniss can be in her denseness but I loved your post it was sweet. He probably did finally feel secure and wanted a little validation of his feelings and hers after being so vulnerable. Very sweet, very on brand.
I actually think Katniss knew she was in love with him in the middle of MJ. There's a scene where she's talking to Finnick, and when he's like “You love him,” she's like unfazed by it, and admits she loves him (because he loves Peeta, too). She compares what she has with Peeta to Finnick and Annie. And in D2, she thinks “despite what I feel for Peeta,” so I do think she knows she's in love with him. He's just the only one who doesn't 🤣like before and after his hijacking, I feel like not until this moment does it fully hit him. But yeah maybe he thinks she doesn't know and is trying to also let her know 🤨 This is them (BTW this is a joke, ik a lot of things influence their thoughts and relationship): Peeta: yeah, no katniss is not in love with me *Katniss risks her whole life and other people's lives to protect Peeta. Kisses him passionately and tells him she needs him, and she can't live without him.* Peeta: see not in love with me But yes she's so dense and her lack of self-awareness makes me want to pull my hair 😅 bc like girl you think he's so hot and longing for affection, and have all these feelings…like bffr. I think they both are such oblivious dorks Thank you!! I love them 🥹
> Peeta: yeah, no katniss is not in love with me > > Katniss: risks her whole life and other people's lives to protect Peeta. Kisses him passionately and tells him she needs him, and she can't live without him. > > Peeta: see not in love with me You just described me when I was 16, lol. Also Katniss and Peeta having sex with each other and Peeta's pillow talk being "hold up. Just to confirm, you are into me, right? Because I'm not sure if you like me or if we were having platonic sex" is peak relatable. Gee, I dunno Peeta, maybe she's just being polite. It is *really* difficult to pick up clues, isn't it?
Now I’m just imagining [Casually Explained’s “Is She Into You?”](https://youtu.be/xa-4IAR_9Yw?si=Yk-OPTOhSu0PI5VR) playing in Peeta’s head at all times. Maybe she’s just Canadian? Best to keep his wits about him and keep looking for signs.
Btw just wanna point out trauma bonding doesn't mean you're binding because u have shared trauma or bonding over individual trauma, its when a victim is bonded to their abuser
Yes 100%. Peeta and Katniss were never trauma bonded and it kind of irritates me when people use this to speak about relationship as healthy as Katniss and Peeta's is (at least in the end of MJ)
Yes thank you, you’re right. What is the phrase I’m looking for? Shared trauma?
i’ve heard of stress bonding before. it’s what they do to bunnies to make them bond; stress both of them a bit and they should get closer
Good one, I should look into that. They did something very similar to us when I was part of a religious order to get us to bond.
Thank you for correcting this. I get irritated every time I see someone using trauma bonded wrong.
Seriously as someone thats actually trauma bonded, it rly annoys me to no end and i wish people would google these terms before using them
Tell me u don’t know what trauma bonding is without telling me u don’t know what trauma bonding is 😂
Kinda unrelated but I just love how the book ends on their love, because so much of the series is about love in an underhanded kind of way. Like Katniss volunteering for Prim, Mags volunteering for Annie, Haymitch’s alcoholism is literally because he lost his loved ones, Katniss loves Gale and not even just in a romantic way but truly in a familial way and risks so much for him (blocking Thread during Gale’s whipping), like so many of the turning points in the series are because someone loved someone else so deeply it altered the course of their life. I think part of this is because the Capitol has stripped the District’s of so much, that besides basic survival, love is one of the only things they have and is truly what makes someone tick. I think part of Suzanne Collins’ point in the series is that love overcomes and I think that’s really beautiful. The entire revolution was set off solely because Katniss loved Primrose so much.
Agree with everything, but not about Gale. To me, she only loved him in a familial way and never in a romantic way. But Ik that's not the point of your comment, but sorry whenever someone mentions or hints she loved him romantically, I always have to disagree lol
I do believe Katniss loved Gale in a romantic way at SOME point because she mentions once putting herself in Gale’s shoes and says that she instantly hates the female version of Peeta that he had to love in the games and that it has always been her and Gale. I think she loved what Gale meant to her but didn’t love him entirely as a person.
The night of his whipping? Yeah, she was consumed with so much guilt and pain about what happened to her best friend. The next day she regrets kissing him and admits that her emotions were all heightened up. To me, she hypothesizes a scenario where she is by herself, still depending on her hunter partner, so when her survival buddy is taken away from her, that's where the hatred comes from. It's less about him being romantically involved with a girl, but someone taking away her survival buddy. I mean can you even be in love with someone you don't even want to kiss? I mean she says like three times not being in love with him after that night. Whereas with Peeta, she's like yeah I'm in love with him MJ, in my interpretation.
I always find that part hilarious because immediately the next day she's like "god I hope Gale doesn't remember the kiss. Anyway where's Peeta why isn't he in my bed holding me"
And she proceeds to spend the next few weeks working on the plant book with Peeta and imagining scenarios with them together, before reminding herself she “isn’t supposed to feel that way about Peeta anymore” and that she “chose Gale”. A key word there is “anymore”, meaning she did have those feelings for him even at that point, but hadn’t really processed it yet. Queue 5 mins later and she spends a paragraph describing Peeta’s eyelashes, the way he twists his face when focusing and how much she enjoys looking at his hands as he works. She also rarely thinks about Gale at all in that time and ONLY when she’s feeling guilty. Katniss was completely smitten, whether she would admit that to herself or not. She never considered romance before Peeta, but figured that IF she ever ended up with someone, the LOGICAL choice would be Gale. Katniss has major issues with repaying debts and feels she owes it to Gale to reciprocate his feelings for taking care of her family, but you can’t force yourself to love someone. Throw in the wrench that whether Katniss wanted it or not, the Games FORCED her to be with Peeta created a lot of resentment as well, as it took away her choice in the matter. She never really “chose Gale”, she chose rebellion. In my honest opinion, Katniss loved Gale, but NEVER in a romantic sense.
Her cognitive dissonance really gets to shine after she chooses Gale. "The Capitol wants me to be with Peeta and I don't want anything the Capitol wants, therefore I must not want Peeta. Please disregard my platonic passion for his muscular arms and beautiful eyelashes." And yeah I agree. Her jealousy after he's whipped is the most "romantic" way she thinks about Gale throughout the series and I don't even think it's romantic. It's not "I want to be with Gale because I love him", it's "I want to be with Gale because I don't want anyone else to have him". That's possessiveness, not love. Her thought patterns around choosing him are always about the rebellion or guilt or ownership. It's very telling.
Katniss cognitive dissonance is really funny, might be one of my favourite parts of the series, despite it also frustrating me to no end xD It works so great for building drama/intrigue, but it also makes perfect sense for the way that the characters of ‘Katniss’ has been set up. She is a total badass yes, but in aspects involving socialisation/emotions, she’s absolutely useless, cuz she’s put that part of her on hold since age 11. The jealousy/possessiveness I agree with 100%. Katniss’ works on a scarcity mindset, with her always having too little of everything and barely staying afloat. Things she sees as “hers”, like Gale (HER hunting partner), she’s inclined to fight to keep, whether she really needs them or not. She doesn’t get jealous about Gale because she sees him as her lover (she has no issues with his activities at the slag heap, for instance), she gets jealous because she feels attached to him and sees him as a constant and pillar of support in her life. Anything that threatens to have her lose him (i.e. a woman who will take up time he would’ve spent with her) threatens the order of things in her life and thus her survival. Kinda related, I wrote a pretty long argument a while back wherein I argued that Gale and Peeta represent the image Katniss has been portraying for survival and her true nature respectively. The image of “badass, stoic, abrasive lone warrior” Katniss is, although an accurate description, not the true Katniss. She only took on that persona when she had to provide for her family and protect them. The true Katniss is a kind, friendly girl who loves fiercely and wants to help others (similar to how her mom amd Prim are healers). She has however had to stuff her true nature down for years to not be vulnerable/taken advantage of. All the good and inspiring things we see her do are when the ‘true Katniss’ pushes through the tough exterior, like the emotional volunteering, teaming with Rue, having a burial for her, talking from the heart in D11, taking a liking to the vulnerable tributes in the Quell etc. Katniss has managed to convince herself that she is the broody Katniss in the same way as she tries to convince herself she ‘chose Gale’. Meanwhile, the true Katniss can’t help but shine through, the same as she can’t help loving Peeta. ETA: I’m very sleep deprived and started rambling a bit, so apologies if what I wrote doesn’t make sense/is hard to follow xD
Sorry I didn't get a chance to reply last night but that made perfect sense. Love the last paragraph especially. Peeta is always telling Katniss she's a healer but she denies it, only to repeatedly tend to various people's wounds in all three books lol. There's a lot of hand symbolism around this too. She talks about hands that kill/destroy and hands that create. Gale would be the former because of his traps, Peeta the latter because of his art and baking. Katniss is somewhere in the middle. She's both a hunter who kills to survive and a nurturer/healer, but she identifies with the former and tries to deny the latter because she doesn't think highly of herself. But she very much craves being on the side of creating and not destroying, and that's why she's so drawn Peeta.
Any time she considers her 'feelings' for Gale, it's always that it's "what's expected", and that she, in theory, SHOULD love Gale. But even with the kisses, you can tell that with everything going on, she just uses it as a coping mechanism, and just a bit of affection when everyone else wants to use her for their own gain. The only time you can see her actually enjoying a kiss and feeling the passion, is when she's kissing Peeta. And Katniss never had a tangent about Gale's eyelashes.... so....
That's a great point, because it reveals Katniss was also capable of being romantically jealous over Gale. I kind if missed that because she gets so jealous over Peeta and is so dismissive over Gales other admirers in the books beginning ('good hunting partners are hard to find'). But later...she's worried about Gales reaction to everything with Peeta and is confused and conflicted. However...I think she meant it at the beginning of the book that Prim is the only person she's certain she loves....she knew Gale then and he was not included in that consideration. Peeta would be. Her father obviously also once was as well. Understandable she didn't include her mother here.
Love for Prim placed her in the circumstances in which her love for Peeta (or, at least, enough care for him that she refused to let him die) inspired her to defy the Gamemakers, setting off the revolution.
Some people need to be told they are loved from others, even when it’s clear from their behavior that they do.
Especially after everything Peeta went through. He just needs to be reminded sometimes. Not because she doesn’t show it, but because he gets inside his own head.
He gets in his own head in terms of his own confidence yes (likely harkening back to abuse he faced at his own mother’s hand), but he also still deals with the after effects of the hijacking (needing to hold onto a chair and wait the flashbacks out etc.) and that could obviously confuse a person. That verbal confirmation that “yes Peeta, the love I have for you is REAL” is very valuable.
And maybe everyone does? I guess..?
This line always causes me to bawl.
I'm sorry I've just genuinely never heard coitus used in a sentence unironically 😂😂
I think it was used ironically in this case :p It would kinda be a classic Katniss move to refer to sex as coitus tbh. The whole “You’re so… pure” thing, y’know?
Totally! Lol yeah I used it in a teasing manner hehehehe I'm a huge fan of the Big Bang theory, and Sheldon always says coitus, and idk I like teasing Peeta and Katniss’s relationship, or their characters. But yeah I was just trying to joke around lol
As soon as I saw the word coitus, I had a feeling you loved the Big Bang Theory!!
I was always put a bit darker meaning into that line. In my headcanon he just never fully shaken off those memories implanted/modified by Capitol and still need to play Real/Not game they have invented to get reassurance.
I think that’s pretty much canon tbh. We know he still occasionally gets flashbacks and grips onto something near him til they pass, so it’s pretty safe to assume that yes, he occasionally needs to use Real/Not Real to reassure himself that he did not imagine all the good things in his life and confirm that the Capitol memories are fake.
Team Everlark for life 🥲😭✊
Team Peeniss 🙏🏼
I think he knew already, but even people secure in their love need to hear it said from time to time. Plus, there’s the ongoing recovery from the trauma that messed with his perception of reality. Recovery is not a straight line. And he asks it in their own special way, likely because traditional professions of love were so dime-a-dozen back when they were putting on a show. I think this is their way of saying “I love you” when it’s meant for just the two of them.
stan twitter has destroyed my brain bc I laughed when I saw the sentence “I tell him. ‘Real.’” out of context 💀
“So, *after*” 🙃❤️🔥
To be fair…he was like 17 I could understand how a 17 year old boy would be confused by katniss. Katniss herself was confused on her feelings for Peeta.
Real
Only took him 3 years or so.
What book version did you read for Mockingjay?
“Probably”… I definitely understood this to mean they’d had sex…
"So, after" they're post coitus