Hello, new follower. I haven't gotten through all your meta/posts, so it's possible this has been covered extensively before. I just reread the series this past weekend (first time I've read them in nearly a decade, and my second read through) and I got to thinking about Gale and how perhaps he wasn't even interested in Katniss romantically before the Games, when he got to watch someone else be in love with her and her falling in love with someone else. Thoughts?
Hi 😊 I have alot! And I also scour for other people's metas too so it would take forever to get through all the meta posts here haha. If there's anything specific you're interested in reading about my memory is pretty good and I can usually find what someone is looking for.
As for the Gale stuff, he does say specifically that it was around 6 months before the 74th Games that he realized he had feelings for her, when Darius joked around about getting a kiss from her when they were at the Hob once. There has been minor speculation that it was just a fleeting crush and the only reason he got as jealous as he did is that he had to watch her with Peeta. But we can never truly know.
Personally I think Gale loved the version of her that he had built up inside his head. When we meet Katniss she has no identity beyond provider/survivor. She ruminates on this towards the end of the time in the cave in the Games and a couple more times as well. Her character arc is her defining herself and shaping her world view, we come to find out that Gale doesn't really know her like he thinks he does, mostly because she doesn't know herself well without having had the time to figure it out. With Gale it took a long time for trust to build between them, they developed familiarity and security but it took many months (possibly even a year, I'd have to review the timeline now that we have more solid dates and I am planning to do that soon).He doesn't understand parts of her and yet Peeta does and this isn't about what they experience in the Games together either (drives me bonkers when that gets cited as a reason for their relationship).
With Peeta it took one action for him to connect with Katniss, the bread, one act of kindness. If it wasn't for the Games she'd have had no reason to doubt him and in a non reaped timeline, once he did strike up a friendship things would have developed much quicker, as displayed once she realizes he is her ally in the Games. That one act of kindness with the bread is why she feels so safe and secure with Peeta so soon. It's why she feels betrayed when she thinks he is working with the Careers.
Back to Gale. We do know that Katniss and Gale operate similarly. There's a wonderful meta by @everlarkedalways on the "He is mine, I am his, anything else is unthinkable." line, and I think alot of what she touches on there explains where Gale is probably operating from in regards to his feelings for Katniss. I'll go find it.
