propaganda im not falling for: peeta mellark is a soft, innocent cinnamon roll pacifist who doesn’t have a mean bone in his body and never kills anyone on purpose bc he’s too pure for this world
WRONG
yes, he’s kind and sweet and caring and loving. but he has a darkness in him too. in cf, he has a meltdown in the attic in d11 and literally starts throwing shit cos he’s so upset about katniss and haymitch keeping secrets from him again. we don’t see it very often pre-hijacking cos he’s soft for katniss, but that boy has a temper.
he straight up tells katniss himself that he’s just as fucked up as haymitch, but it’s easier for him to wake up with a paintbrush in his hand than a knife.
let’s not ignore the fact that he voluntarily challenged cato—fucking cato—in hand-to-hand combat so that katniss could escape. in cf, it’s highly implied that he kills brutus too whilst minimally armed and running through the jungle in the dark bc brutus (being the fool he is) gets in the way of peeta reaching katniss.
mind you, this is all before the hijacking.
people take one look at the fact that he got through the first games by only making one known direct kill himself—which is widely viewed as just putting a girl out of her misery—and that he said he didn’t want to be a piece in their games, but they don’t take into account literally anything else about him.
he challenged arguably the most powerful opponent in their games without hesitation and armed with a weapon he’s unfamiliar with the second he became a real threat against the girl he loves, and later assisted in his actual death. we also don’t actually know if he killed anyone else when he was with the careers, nor do we know how he managed to prove himself to them (i personally reckon there may be another kill or two that we don’t know about).
not only that, but he also spends several days laying in the mud and dying, as well as several more dying of sepsis in a cave. i fear it’s incredibly obvious we’re not getting Peak Fighter Peeta™️, so his lack of kills as narrated by katniss after 2/3 of the tributes are already dead isn’t very representative of his skill OR his willingness to fight/kill.
peeta is a badass with suppressed rage, and he is not afraid to unleash it when someone threatens him and/or katniss. i will die on this hill.
