This has been an unpopular opinion but i actually think after the books Peeta wouldn’t like Gale not because of jealousy but because he treated Katniss really rough. What do you think?
can’t wait to get cancelled for this one LMAO. warning: if you’re someone who can’t accept criticism of gale, just dni.
i think peeta despises gale, and not because of anything remotely resembling jealousy. HOWEVER. i don’t think he would ever push his feelings toward gale on katniss.
peeta isn’t disrespectful toward her relationship with gale. even when it pains him. he’s made a couple snide comments about their weird dynamic, but he’s never badmouthed gale. ever. even when gale doesn’t pay him the same respect.
peeta’s smart enough to know it’s a sensitive topic. friend breakups suck, even if the reason they end is cos they were turning sour. he’d listen and probably agree with katniss if she brought it up herself and needed to vent, but i highly doubt he’d go out of his way to voice every grievance he’s had with gale unprompted.
internally though? if gale has no haters, peeta mellark is dead.
the last interaction we know of between him and gale is the conversation in tigris’ basement when gale tries to tell peeta that katniss will choose whoever she can’t survive without, which is a) incorrect and b) incredibly reductive of her feelings toward both of them, which is especially cruel coming from the person who’s supposed to be her best friend.
and i never see anyone talk ab that it’s lowkey a jab at peeta too considering gale has previously established a distinct lack of faith in peeta’s survival skills in cf (doesn’t want him to come along into the wilderness when katniss suggests they make a run for it, both bc of jealousy and bc he continually underestimates him (and then proceeds to call him a traitor in mj for doing whatever it takes to survive? bffr guy)).
alas, peeta doesn’t care how gale feels ab him. he never has. but katniss? i don’t need to read peeta’s pov to know this man was utterly baffled at what gale was yapping ab. like. by the end of mj, katniss herself narrates that there’s no sign of the kids they were when they became friends in the woods.
he just doesn’t know her anymore, at least not the person she’s become, and this is when it becomes clear to peeta that he’s been severely overestimating gale’s role in katniss’ life. he only knows what he has seen and what our lovely, unreliable katniss has told him, and she was actively trying not to pit them against each other.
but in the basement, this is the first time peeta hears things unfiltered from gale’s side, the first time he hears how off base he was to assume that there was so much more to their relationship than there is. bc wdym he thinks he has a chance w katniss when he’s not even bothering to factor her feelings into it?
and peeta thought he was the crazy one.
not to mention the fact that of everyone gale saved, he didn’t manage to save a single member of peeta’s family.
and yk what? credit where credit is due — it is thanks to gale that so many people made it out of 12 alive.
but personally, i have my doubts about how hard he tried to get the townies out. the seam and victors village are on opposite sides of town; he would’ve had to go through the town square to get prim and asterid to the meadow. past the bakery. past the justice building. past peeta’s and madge’s families.
knowing full well how important they are to katniss.
delly and her brother are the only townies i can recall from mj, the rest are seam, and he could have easily just plucked them up if they were outside when they ran through the square.
is it a fucked up idea that he might leave them behind in favour of saving seam kids? yes. but that doesn’t make it any less plausible. i wouldn’t be surprised if that same thought has crossed peeta’s mind, especially considering gale isn’t exactly subtle about his disdain for townies.
so yeah. i don’t reckon peeta likes gale at all. but he respects katniss and their history enough to keep that to himself.
i really need to figure out how to shorten these rants of mine lol
