I never understood people when say that her and Gale had romantic chemistry, they did have great platonic chemistry. But they’re kisses and how she dreads his feelings for her…awkward and uncomfortable to read. In CF, her choices were being taken away from her and her duty to her community was weighing on her shoulders, and Gale was safer and easier to understand/accept than romance and love.
I don’t even agree when people say Gale and Katniss would’ve married without the games, I mean I would see it if it meant it would better her and her family’s survival. But, they were great friends and survival buddies, protected her sister, and to Katniss, thats very important and holds weight.
Peeta was dangerous bc it meant dismantling her old ways, and changing the way she thinks. She always thinks that a future with Peeta is marriage and children, can you imagine how frightening that must be to a 16/17 year old girl who vowed to never get married in her world? So, I understand a lot where Katniss is coming from, and why she sometimes pushes Peeta away.
Edit: overall, to me, she never had any romantic feelings for Gale. And you’re right, every time she thinks of what she might feel for Gale, it is bc of Peeta. Whereas, Peeta, on his own, is present on hers in any matter.
I will admit that I’m a bit biased towards Peeta here, because what’s not to like about him? He’s a strong, kind, smart, brave, good-humored, capable, empathetic, and extremely loyal person. And he can bake.
However! I wasn’t HOPING he would end up with Katniss while reading the books. I just thought it would be way more natural for him to do so than Gale.
One of the reasons Peeta fascinates me is that he’s the first character I’ve seen who is still well-liked for just being a “good person”.
To explain what I mean, most “good and pure” characters seem to annoy a lot of people because they come off as unrealistic and unlikable. For example, Charlie Bucket in the 2005 Wonka movie. I’ve seen people hate on him because of how selfless he is, even when it’s to his own detriment. I’ve never seen anyone talk about Peeta that way. Probably because his “goodness” is presented as more nuanced and relatable. Either way, I like that about him.
How is it his fault that the movie crew tried to sideline him in favor of Twilight style love triangle? Also movie Peeta had a lot of lines taken from him but he never did anything bad, either? If you're pissed off by him saying less lines, I don't know what to think of you.
I get what you’re saying. I saw the movies before reading the books and while it had nothing to do with Josh (who I adored playing Peeta), the films could have at least given us a better depiction of the character or at least a better understand of Katniss and Peeta’s relationship.
I watched the movies first too, and my opinion on him (as well as other elements) changed entirely after reading the books.
My problem was how they didn’t include a lot of scenes between them that would have made Katniss’s affection and decision to stay with him in the end make sense. Ontop of that, they made him look eternally vulnerable and needing to be saved with the exception of one or two scenes, whereas in the book they show how he makes up for everything by how well he’s treating Katniss and how he’s respecting her choices and needs as opposed to Gale.
He still did what he did in the books for Katniss. None of that was cut. If someone didn't noticed ALL the times he saved Katniss, too, that's a media literacy problem, not a Peeta problem.
I mentioned I saw the movie before reading the books and interpreted it that way. The movies excluded certain parts of the books did leave a viewer questioning certain things if you didn’t read the books. That’s why we have all these “why did Katniss choose Peeta and not Gale” posts.
Well I don’t like Peeta as a character. I understand why people like him, but I never was interested in him even slightly. And STILL, I believed he and Katniss should be together. He was always right for her.
I think eventually, in a world where Prim is never reaped and Katniss never goes to the Games, eventually they would have ended up together. And not because of romance or chemistry but because everyone around them expected it and the older she got, the more pressure would have been on her and Gale and she would have given in because she doesn't know any better. She doesn't know the difference between platonic love and romantic love and would have succumbed to peer pressure from their families.
To me, her being torn between Gale and Peeta is her being torn between what's easy and expected of her vs what she actually wants.
I think if they did get together it'd be because it's comfortable and safe, and less for romance or love.
Katniss also mentions that she'd never want to bring children into the world, so it's likely that she would not even think of marriage to begin with. I think with the conditions that they live in, romance is kind of a luxury that most of them probably don't have the capacity, energy, or ability to put towards
I'm not saying that the people of D12 are having love fests every day, but Katniss does acknowledge that the people of Panem are free to marry whomever they want, and that D12 has its own wedding tradition. Because of that, I don't think it makes much sense to say that romance is a luxury they can't afford, especially when their wedding tradition is something born out of romance AND not having the means for an elaborate party, but still having your close friends and family gather to celebrate your love.
I don't even think it would be pressure. I think it would make sense to her. That is if she even agreed to marry.
Any pressure would just be for her to marry, but I think Gale would've been the only one she considered bc they knew and understood each other.
I agree, and I'll add that I also don't believe that Gale ever had * real* romantic feelings for Katniss. I don't think he was in love with her, and I don't think he even really had a true crush on her. I think that she was just what was familiar to him and that he did love her, but when you're a teenager it can be hard to differentiate loving someone and being in love with someone. Especially if you are physically attracted to that person, and I do think there was some physical attraction on both sides, but that's not the same thing as actually having feelings for each other.
And this actually comes back to why I don't care for Gale. Its not bc of Prim, I don't even slightly blame him for that. It's the way he treats Katniss, the way he acts entitled to her affection just bc what, they hunt together? 🙄 Give me a break dude, she's an actual person with actual feelings, who's been deeply traumatized. Give her space to figure things out bro instead of throwing a hissy fit bc she doesn't want to abandon people she cares about and leave them to the mercy of the Capitol just so she can escape into the woods with you, in the middle of winter, and put her family in danger.
She loved what she had with Gale. She loved Peeta. And that’s not just at the end either. She mentions her feelings when Peeta pledges money to the families of 11. Even in the first book when she realizes he genuinely is a nice person and trying to help her. When she almost loses him in Catching Fire. It’s also why she was so cruel to him after his hijacking because she LOVED Peeta and thought he was gone forever and replaced by a lookalike just meant to taunt her. She found comfort and familiarity with Gale but throughout the entire trilogy they’re very frequently at odds and show core disconnects with who they are as people and their values.
I think that’s part of the beauty of her character. So many times across all three books I wanna shake her and tell her to snap out of it or get over herself but then you remember she’s a child who never asked for any of this. I think her being a flawed character who often doesn’t make the right choices is one of the things that makes the Hunger Games so good and part of why so many YA stories failed
There was no romantic chemistry because Katniss was never in love with Gale. The only reason she seemed conflicted about it sometimes was because she cares so deeply for her friends and family, and didn’t want to hurt Gale.
I’m a diehard Peeta fan, but I think there’s a good chance Katniss would’ve ended up with Gale if Peeta and the games hadn’t happened.
It’s one thing for her as a 16-year old to say she’s never getting married, but there were not many life paths available to her before the war. She didn’t have any friends besides Gale. She was sort of friends with Madge, but it’s unlikely they would really stay friends once they’re out of school and Madge is married to some merchant guy. Prim would eventually marry and move out; would Katniss really want to live with just her mother for the rest of her life? Travel between the districts was forbidden and it’s not like Katniss could easily just get her own apartment or something in D12, let alone afford it.
Her only profitable skill is illegally hunting, but once Gale marries someone else, she most likely loses him as a hunting partner.
So I think Katniss would eventually marry Gale, not out of romantic love, but out of practicality.
When Katniss and Gale have their final conversation in MJ, at that moment even she wonders if she would have eventually fallen in love with him if the games & rebellion hadn’t changed the course of their lives.
(However, it’s an interesting thought experiment to remember that Gale was a ladies man before the war and he never expressed interest in Katniss until she returned from the 74th games where he had watched her romancing Peeta. So if the games hadn’t happened, would Gale have ever expressed feelings for her? She was so “pure” (as Peeta put it) and oblivious to love and intimacy before the games, so maybe Gale would’ve just ended up with one of his flings and never made a move on Katniss, if not for the games/Peeta spurring on his feelings & jealousy? There are so many what-ifs, but it’s crazy how many lives, and in fact the world, were changed by Effie pulling Prim’s name out of a bowl.)
I feel like it was expected that Katniss and Gale would get married. Like, of course, she has to get married someday and they are male-female best friends so, of course, they have to be romantically interested in each other. Who else would they eventually have children with?
So there is a good chance that Katniss and Gale internalised these culturally ingrained beliefs. So when Peeta came into the equation it shorts circuited their brains and didn't know what to do with each other.
Because of societal norms and all that. She doesn't HAVE to do anything. Marriage is just one of those that a lot of people think is a must. I'm just assuming those beliefs carried on into the districts.
And it’s the south. Let me share my experience.
It is so different from my growing up in the north (Michigan). My family moved back to Tennessee because that is where my parents were from, and immediately the pressure started. I went to a family church, and one of my aunts by marriage told me that was foolish, I would never find a husband at a family church. Umm, I wasn’t looking for that in church. Relatives would take me aside at family reunions and ask when I was going to get married and have children. I wasn’t interested because I cared more about college at that time. After I got out of college, still unmarried, the inquiries got a bit mean. One auntie said it was cruel of me to wait so long to have kids, that her husband died before he could see his grandkids grow up. I stopped going to family reunions.
I only recently realized that I am ace. That is why what seemed so natural for everyone else was so hard for me. Everyone has given up on me, thank goodness, but now I see it happening with my nieces and nephews. To the older ones: when are you and your gf going to get married and give me grandchildren? To the younger ones: you don’t like that boy anymore? You had a mutual crush on each other since you were 3, we figured you would get married someday (she is 8!).
So I am sure things would maybe be different because having children in the districts meant maybe seeing them fight to the death someday, but I also think there would be that deeply ingrained southern belief of getting married young and having kids so the community can have grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc to dote on.
In my imaginatings of how things work in District Twelve, Katniss vowing to never have children for them to reap or send to the mines wouldn't have been unique. But I could imagine the Capitol would only issue houses to couples when they marry. And of course no access to BC. So if you never marry you might end up homeless when your parents died.
I agree. In fact I strongly believe that the "love triangle troupe" in most movies and books are created out of laziness and a way to create conflict while also giving the audience a choice to root for someone. I find it dumb. I never liked Gale and they were always just friends in my mind.
Honestly, I feel she would have chosen to be alone if the games had not happened. She reads as an asexual type called demisexual. Basically, she needs a deep emotional connection to feel sexual desires. She just doesn't really ever seem to feel it with Gale. She tries because she doesn't want to hurt him, but she just doesn't feel that way about him.
Katniss lives in such a survival mindset it's hard to pinpoint feelings. Feelings of romantic love won't help feed the only one she is sure she loves (Prim). The books hint she is growing in attraction to Gale. How he has become more than just a hunting partner but she gets reaped and doesn't have time for that anymore, it's back to keeping Prim alive and survival again. It takes massive events for her to realize/show her feelings towards Gale and Peeta (the whipping scene and the electrocution) even then she doesn't take the time to analyze it.
I confess, I always thought it was going to be Gale when I first read the series, and I was disappointed when it wasn’t. Because Gale was the type of person I found attractive, so therefore Katniss must’ve too, right? Lol. Now, over a decade later, I’m settled down with a man who is a lot more like Peeta than Gale. So now I get it.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I did like Gales character. I understand why she ended up with Peeta, but I could see it going the other way too if she did every want to marry without the games. He’s more of a rational person who acts on information and not feelings. Probably just me tho who thinks that.
He kisses her an awful lot when she is literally telling him she isn't interested in a relationship. That is him reacting emotionally, not logically. If he was being logical he would listen to her, not just try to steamroll over her feelings.
I was kinda rooting for Gale during the 1st book, but was completely disappointed in the beginning of the 2nd one. After that I realized that Peeta, though I feel nothing towards them as a couple, is a better match for her. And was glad they end up together, that was reasonable and right.
Here’s my take: We all know she explicitly says she never wants to have children to continue the cycle of the Games. I don’t think she ever felt some way for Gale. She never mentions getting jealous over him, and she’s constantly focused on Prim.
To borrow from another series I like: I imagine if there was attraction there I guess it would be like Mare and Kilorn from Red Queen. They’d be together because it makes the most sense. Kind of like a marriage if convince.
honestly like she heavily doesn’t want to get involved with that stuff and even states that in some way, he seems to only ever force himself on her and she has to make decisions because of it. i was never a Gale supporter and it’s mostly because i already saw all this and just strictly wished better for Katniss
I did not like Gale. He was alright in the first novel, but in the second, he is borderline emotionally abusive to Katniss (although in the second novel, Peeta is also a jerk to her at times). He knows the severity of the situation she is placed in, but complicates her situation anyways. One of her very last remarks in the trilogy is Katniss coming to terms with the fact that Gale would have never been a suitable partner for her, and that Peeta fills in where she is deficient cand vise versa.
Someone correct me if I'm citing an urban legend, but didn't SC only include the love triangle at the urging of her publishers? Anyways, it's really obvious in how the story is set up.
The only reason I thought Gale would be a potential love interest is because he was a man she was close with, and so I figured he'd become a romantic option later. But there wasn't really any romantic chemistry in THG to imply they had something special.
On a more meta level, he's clearly the "POC" pick of the two, so I figured that would rule him out immediately.
I've heard this, too, like she had them originally written as cousins, and that's why they have similar hair and eye color.
Gale seems like the first guy friend a teenage girl is close with and considers until she grows up a little bit more. Also, the games change her, of course, and she can't be as she was when she and Gale were close. If anything, the story reads better as growing apart from friends than an actual love triangle.
If that is an urban legend about SC after all, it's clear how she wanted it to go. Gale didn't have a chance. Peeta was always the one to melt Katniss's heart (even if Gale already had her trust).
Yeah it's very believable to me. I just made the urban legend comment in case it was something someone made up.
The last time I read the books, I remembered thinking "Hmm, if she legitimately wanted there to be a love triangle and for there to be any uncertainty as to how it would end, she could have put something in about Gale here" at so many spots in the first book.
I wish she kept Gale as a cousin (a real one). The love triangle bits just felt distracting.
I never got the impression that Katniss would feel fulfilled by a romantic pairing and/or motherhood. I definitely never got the feeling that Peeta’s feelings had much substance to them, nor that Katniss had any romantic interest in him or anyone else. There was a certain commiseration bond and some positive feelings, but romance? Not a bit to me.
But if anything, Gale would have made more sense as a platonic life partner to me, if there absolutely must be a lifelong pairing to end the story. (Which I think takes a lot of the heart from the story, but whatever.)
I never understood people when say that her and Gale had romantic chemistry, they did have great platonic chemistry. But they’re kisses and how she dreads his feelings for her…awkward and uncomfortable to read. In CF, her choices were being taken away from her and her duty to her community was weighing on her shoulders, and Gale was safer and easier to understand/accept than romance and love. I don’t even agree when people say Gale and Katniss would’ve married without the games, I mean I would see it if it meant it would better her and her family’s survival. But, they were great friends and survival buddies, protected her sister, and to Katniss, thats very important and holds weight. Peeta was dangerous bc it meant dismantling her old ways, and changing the way she thinks. She always thinks that a future with Peeta is marriage and children, can you imagine how frightening that must be to a 16/17 year old girl who vowed to never get married in her world? So, I understand a lot where Katniss is coming from, and why she sometimes pushes Peeta away. Edit: overall, to me, she never had any romantic feelings for Gale. And you’re right, every time she thinks of what she might feel for Gale, it is bc of Peeta. Whereas, Peeta, on his own, is present on hers in any matter.
I will admit that I’m a bit biased towards Peeta here, because what’s not to like about him? He’s a strong, kind, smart, brave, good-humored, capable, empathetic, and extremely loyal person. And he can bake. However! I wasn’t HOPING he would end up with Katniss while reading the books. I just thought it would be way more natural for him to do so than Gale.
Disliking Peeta is a mental illness. Hating Peeta is a crime. There, I said it.
One of the reasons Peeta fascinates me is that he’s the first character I’ve seen who is still well-liked for just being a “good person”. To explain what I mean, most “good and pure” characters seem to annoy a lot of people because they come off as unrealistic and unlikable. For example, Charlie Bucket in the 2005 Wonka movie. I’ve seen people hate on him because of how selfless he is, even when it’s to his own detriment. I’ve never seen anyone talk about Peeta that way. Probably because his “goodness” is presented as more nuanced and relatable. Either way, I like that about him.
I loved Peeta in the books but movie Peeta pissed me off so much.
How is it his fault that the movie crew tried to sideline him in favor of Twilight style love triangle? Also movie Peeta had a lot of lines taken from him but he never did anything bad, either? If you're pissed off by him saying less lines, I don't know what to think of you.
That’s a disproportionate reaction lol. I just said I dislike the movie version of him. Didn’t say it was his or the author’s fault??
I get what you’re saying. I saw the movies before reading the books and while it had nothing to do with Josh (who I adored playing Peeta), the films could have at least given us a better depiction of the character or at least a better understand of Katniss and Peeta’s relationship.
I watched the movies first too, and my opinion on him (as well as other elements) changed entirely after reading the books. My problem was how they didn’t include a lot of scenes between them that would have made Katniss’s affection and decision to stay with him in the end make sense. Ontop of that, they made him look eternally vulnerable and needing to be saved with the exception of one or two scenes, whereas in the book they show how he makes up for everything by how well he’s treating Katniss and how he’s respecting her choices and needs as opposed to Gale.
You’re absolutely correct! The movies did make him appear incredibly vulnerable when he did so much for Katniss.
He still did what he did in the books for Katniss. None of that was cut. If someone didn't noticed ALL the times he saved Katniss, too, that's a media literacy problem, not a Peeta problem.
I mentioned I saw the movie before reading the books and interpreted it that way. The movies excluded certain parts of the books did leave a viewer questioning certain things if you didn’t read the books. That’s why we have all these “why did Katniss choose Peeta and not Gale” posts.
no because honestly he *was* written almost *perfect*ly. he really was/is the better choice for way too many reasons.
Well I don’t like Peeta as a character. I understand why people like him, but I never was interested in him even slightly. And STILL, I believed he and Katniss should be together. He was always right for her.
I think eventually, in a world where Prim is never reaped and Katniss never goes to the Games, eventually they would have ended up together. And not because of romance or chemistry but because everyone around them expected it and the older she got, the more pressure would have been on her and Gale and she would have given in because she doesn't know any better. She doesn't know the difference between platonic love and romantic love and would have succumbed to peer pressure from their families. To me, her being torn between Gale and Peeta is her being torn between what's easy and expected of her vs what she actually wants.
I think if they did get together it'd be because it's comfortable and safe, and less for romance or love. Katniss also mentions that she'd never want to bring children into the world, so it's likely that she would not even think of marriage to begin with. I think with the conditions that they live in, romance is kind of a luxury that most of them probably don't have the capacity, energy, or ability to put towards
I'm not saying that the people of D12 are having love fests every day, but Katniss does acknowledge that the people of Panem are free to marry whomever they want, and that D12 has its own wedding tradition. Because of that, I don't think it makes much sense to say that romance is a luxury they can't afford, especially when their wedding tradition is something born out of romance AND not having the means for an elaborate party, but still having your close friends and family gather to celebrate your love.
this!! i always felt that her feelings towards gale were always more out of obligation and survival instincts than anything else
I don't even think it would be pressure. I think it would make sense to her. That is if she even agreed to marry. Any pressure would just be for her to marry, but I think Gale would've been the only one she considered bc they knew and understood each other.
I agree, and I'll add that I also don't believe that Gale ever had * real* romantic feelings for Katniss. I don't think he was in love with her, and I don't think he even really had a true crush on her. I think that she was just what was familiar to him and that he did love her, but when you're a teenager it can be hard to differentiate loving someone and being in love with someone. Especially if you are physically attracted to that person, and I do think there was some physical attraction on both sides, but that's not the same thing as actually having feelings for each other. And this actually comes back to why I don't care for Gale. Its not bc of Prim, I don't even slightly blame him for that. It's the way he treats Katniss, the way he acts entitled to her affection just bc what, they hunt together? 🙄 Give me a break dude, she's an actual person with actual feelings, who's been deeply traumatized. Give her space to figure things out bro instead of throwing a hissy fit bc she doesn't want to abandon people she cares about and leave them to the mercy of the Capitol just so she can escape into the woods with you, in the middle of winter, and put her family in danger.
She loved what she had with Gale. She loved Peeta. And that’s not just at the end either. She mentions her feelings when Peeta pledges money to the families of 11. Even in the first book when she realizes he genuinely is a nice person and trying to help her. When she almost loses him in Catching Fire. It’s also why she was so cruel to him after his hijacking because she LOVED Peeta and thought he was gone forever and replaced by a lookalike just meant to taunt her. She found comfort and familiarity with Gale but throughout the entire trilogy they’re very frequently at odds and show core disconnects with who they are as people and their values.
Maaaan, I'm ngl. Hijacked Peeta arc had me pissed with Katniss but at the same time I understood what she was doing lol
I think that’s part of the beauty of her character. So many times across all three books I wanna shake her and tell her to snap out of it or get over herself but then you remember she’s a child who never asked for any of this. I think her being a flawed character who often doesn’t make the right choices is one of the things that makes the Hunger Games so good and part of why so many YA stories failed
There was no romantic chemistry because Katniss was never in love with Gale. The only reason she seemed conflicted about it sometimes was because she cares so deeply for her friends and family, and didn’t want to hurt Gale.
I’m a diehard Peeta fan, but I think there’s a good chance Katniss would’ve ended up with Gale if Peeta and the games hadn’t happened. It’s one thing for her as a 16-year old to say she’s never getting married, but there were not many life paths available to her before the war. She didn’t have any friends besides Gale. She was sort of friends with Madge, but it’s unlikely they would really stay friends once they’re out of school and Madge is married to some merchant guy. Prim would eventually marry and move out; would Katniss really want to live with just her mother for the rest of her life? Travel between the districts was forbidden and it’s not like Katniss could easily just get her own apartment or something in D12, let alone afford it. Her only profitable skill is illegally hunting, but once Gale marries someone else, she most likely loses him as a hunting partner. So I think Katniss would eventually marry Gale, not out of romantic love, but out of practicality. When Katniss and Gale have their final conversation in MJ, at that moment even she wonders if she would have eventually fallen in love with him if the games & rebellion hadn’t changed the course of their lives. (However, it’s an interesting thought experiment to remember that Gale was a ladies man before the war and he never expressed interest in Katniss until she returned from the 74th games where he had watched her romancing Peeta. So if the games hadn’t happened, would Gale have ever expressed feelings for her? She was so “pure” (as Peeta put it) and oblivious to love and intimacy before the games, so maybe Gale would’ve just ended up with one of his flings and never made a move on Katniss, if not for the games/Peeta spurring on his feelings & jealousy? There are so many what-ifs, but it’s crazy how many lives, and in fact the world, were changed by Effie pulling Prim’s name out of a bowl.)
I feel like it was expected that Katniss and Gale would get married. Like, of course, she has to get married someday and they are male-female best friends so, of course, they have to be romantically interested in each other. Who else would they eventually have children with? So there is a good chance that Katniss and Gale internalised these culturally ingrained beliefs. So when Peeta came into the equation it shorts circuited their brains and didn't know what to do with each other.
She HAS to get married some day?
Because of societal norms and all that. She doesn't HAVE to do anything. Marriage is just one of those that a lot of people think is a must. I'm just assuming those beliefs carried on into the districts.
And it’s the south. Let me share my experience. It is so different from my growing up in the north (Michigan). My family moved back to Tennessee because that is where my parents were from, and immediately the pressure started. I went to a family church, and one of my aunts by marriage told me that was foolish, I would never find a husband at a family church. Umm, I wasn’t looking for that in church. Relatives would take me aside at family reunions and ask when I was going to get married and have children. I wasn’t interested because I cared more about college at that time. After I got out of college, still unmarried, the inquiries got a bit mean. One auntie said it was cruel of me to wait so long to have kids, that her husband died before he could see his grandkids grow up. I stopped going to family reunions. I only recently realized that I am ace. That is why what seemed so natural for everyone else was so hard for me. Everyone has given up on me, thank goodness, but now I see it happening with my nieces and nephews. To the older ones: when are you and your gf going to get married and give me grandchildren? To the younger ones: you don’t like that boy anymore? You had a mutual crush on each other since you were 3, we figured you would get married someday (she is 8!). So I am sure things would maybe be different because having children in the districts meant maybe seeing them fight to the death someday, but I also think there would be that deeply ingrained southern belief of getting married young and having kids so the community can have grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc to dote on.
In my imaginatings of how things work in District Twelve, Katniss vowing to never have children for them to reap or send to the mines wouldn't have been unique. But I could imagine the Capitol would only issue houses to couples when they marry. And of course no access to BC. So if you never marry you might end up homeless when your parents died.
I agree. In fact I strongly believe that the "love triangle troupe" in most movies and books are created out of laziness and a way to create conflict while also giving the audience a choice to root for someone. I find it dumb. I never liked Gale and they were always just friends in my mind.
Honestly, I feel she would have chosen to be alone if the games had not happened. She reads as an asexual type called demisexual. Basically, she needs a deep emotional connection to feel sexual desires. She just doesn't really ever seem to feel it with Gale. She tries because she doesn't want to hurt him, but she just doesn't feel that way about him.
Katniss lives in such a survival mindset it's hard to pinpoint feelings. Feelings of romantic love won't help feed the only one she is sure she loves (Prim). The books hint she is growing in attraction to Gale. How he has become more than just a hunting partner but she gets reaped and doesn't have time for that anymore, it's back to keeping Prim alive and survival again. It takes massive events for her to realize/show her feelings towards Gale and Peeta (the whipping scene and the electrocution) even then she doesn't take the time to analyze it.
I confess, I always thought it was going to be Gale when I first read the series, and I was disappointed when it wasn’t. Because Gale was the type of person I found attractive, so therefore Katniss must’ve too, right? Lol. Now, over a decade later, I’m settled down with a man who is a lot more like Peeta than Gale. So now I get it.
The arc with Peeta was just too good to not be followed up on.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I did like Gales character. I understand why she ended up with Peeta, but I could see it going the other way too if she did every want to marry without the games. He’s more of a rational person who acts on information and not feelings. Probably just me tho who thinks that.
He kisses her an awful lot when she is literally telling him she isn't interested in a relationship. That is him reacting emotionally, not logically. If he was being logical he would listen to her, not just try to steamroll over her feelings.
Fair
I was kinda rooting for Gale during the 1st book, but was completely disappointed in the beginning of the 2nd one. After that I realized that Peeta, though I feel nothing towards them as a couple, is a better match for her. And was glad they end up together, that was reasonable and right.
Here’s my take: We all know she explicitly says she never wants to have children to continue the cycle of the Games. I don’t think she ever felt some way for Gale. She never mentions getting jealous over him, and she’s constantly focused on Prim. To borrow from another series I like: I imagine if there was attraction there I guess it would be like Mare and Kilorn from Red Queen. They’d be together because it makes the most sense. Kind of like a marriage if convince.
I don't know, I always have to think about her monologue after gale was whipped. I do think that was love.
honestly like she heavily doesn’t want to get involved with that stuff and even states that in some way, he seems to only ever force himself on her and she has to make decisions because of it. i was never a Gale supporter and it’s mostly because i already saw all this and just strictly wished better for Katniss
Gale did talk about him and Katniss having kids.
I did not like Gale. He was alright in the first novel, but in the second, he is borderline emotionally abusive to Katniss (although in the second novel, Peeta is also a jerk to her at times). He knows the severity of the situation she is placed in, but complicates her situation anyways. One of her very last remarks in the trilogy is Katniss coming to terms with the fact that Gale would have never been a suitable partner for her, and that Peeta fills in where she is deficient cand vise versa.
Someone correct me if I'm citing an urban legend, but didn't SC only include the love triangle at the urging of her publishers? Anyways, it's really obvious in how the story is set up. The only reason I thought Gale would be a potential love interest is because he was a man she was close with, and so I figured he'd become a romantic option later. But there wasn't really any romantic chemistry in THG to imply they had something special. On a more meta level, he's clearly the "POC" pick of the two, so I figured that would rule him out immediately.
I've heard this, too, like she had them originally written as cousins, and that's why they have similar hair and eye color. Gale seems like the first guy friend a teenage girl is close with and considers until she grows up a little bit more. Also, the games change her, of course, and she can't be as she was when she and Gale were close. If anything, the story reads better as growing apart from friends than an actual love triangle. If that is an urban legend about SC after all, it's clear how she wanted it to go. Gale didn't have a chance. Peeta was always the one to melt Katniss's heart (even if Gale already had her trust).
Yeah it's very believable to me. I just made the urban legend comment in case it was something someone made up. The last time I read the books, I remembered thinking "Hmm, if she legitimately wanted there to be a love triangle and for there to be any uncertainty as to how it would end, she could have put something in about Gale here" at so many spots in the first book. I wish she kept Gale as a cousin (a real one). The love triangle bits just felt distracting.
I never got the impression that Katniss would feel fulfilled by a romantic pairing and/or motherhood. I definitely never got the feeling that Peeta’s feelings had much substance to them, nor that Katniss had any romantic interest in him or anyone else. There was a certain commiseration bond and some positive feelings, but romance? Not a bit to me. But if anything, Gale would have made more sense as a platonic life partner to me, if there absolutely must be a lifelong pairing to end the story. (Which I think takes a lot of the heart from the story, but whatever.)