Gale Killed Prim, and his relationship with Katniss ended because of it. Why is Peeta different?
"Why was she able to forgive Peeta but not him? She had dismissed Gale from her life with barely a blink. Snow had twisted Peeta’s gifts and turned him into a weapon against the people he loved. Hadn’t Coin done the same thing to Gale? He loved Prim like his own sister." A quote from oakfarmer on ao3 that I actually have SO many thoughts on, though I can't remember which of their fanfics this is from. Darn me for not labelling my notes well enough.
What it boils down to, for me I think, is that the capitol has to create things to manipulate Peeta but D13 used what was already there for Gale. Gale already had a mean arrogant streak and wasn't good at taking criticism or rejection. He already had a cold callousness about killing and death. He was already a bit radicalized, and Coin did twist that into something worse. No, Gale didn't kill Prim, Coin did. BUT Gale did invent the weapon + tactic used by his ally and superior to kill her. Katniss told him it was wrong, this trap he'd made, and he condescended to her about it, how this is just how war works. Acted like she was just naive about it. His own ignorance of the reality of life and death and his complete disregard for human life on the other side of the war is what got Prim killed.
Peeta, on the other hand, is nothing like his highjacked self. They didn't take pieces of his personality, personal flaws, etc. and twist them into their perfect soldier. The capitol had to use false memories, had to inflate his insecurities, had to use chemicals and torture and mutated venom. They didn't make Peeta aggressive through hatred or vengeance, they made him aggressive through bodily fear. The venom and his body's extreme adrenaline, the fight or flight response to that. He didn't attack Katniss bc he thought he was better than her or bc she deserved it, he attacked her because the very sight of her caused his body to go into overdrive of adrenaline to protect himself from her. This is a Peeta that *hates* Katniss, and he wants to kill her, but her specifically. He only reacts negatively towards other people (other than normal trauma-induced stuff) when she is involved somehow, like him flipping out on Delly while Katniss watched behind the glass.
These characters are not equivalent. And from a meta perspective, they're not supposed to be. Katniss ends up picking Peeta. Yes, the character obviously would have picked him, but also Katniss as a narrative figure picks him. She picks what he represents. Integrity in war. That boy on the rooftop that said he was willing to kill in self defense and to do what he needed to do but wanted to stay himself. Wanted to stay a human being even in that violence. Wanted to come out the other side of it still intact. Wanted the flowers to grow again after the harsh winter; a dandelion in the spring. Not the cycle of destruction, of forever punishing those that have wronged you, that both Gale and a capitol-kids hunger game would represent.
Which brings my thoughts also to the male loneliness epidemic. (We won't even get started on the fact that when women have problems it's something they need to just get over and take a joke, but when men have problems it's an epidemic) That is Gale. Yes, he has absolutely valid reasons behind his emotions. But he then takes those emotions and becomes radicalized, become something lesser. And that is so indicative of our current political climate in a lot of ways. Men have been hurt by the patriarchy also, they have been raised and socialized and desensitized and to not forming genuine emotional connections with the men around them or the women there in a relationships with. And I do separate those specifically, because men are also taught to not see women as people, so to a lot of men you are either a. someone they are related to b. someone they are romantically interested in or c. someone they are sexually interested in. And that is all a woman can be to them, not a friend.
So every which way they turn men are not taught the skills it takes to not be lonely. Community and having a support system and a network of people doesn't just happen by accident. That is something that you build, and cultivate, and prune, and intentionally add to. Men are lonely because they want someone else to do the work for them. But the onus is on them and the system that made them that way.
And that man is the same as Gale. Someone who is rightfully hurt and wounded by the society they live in but then takes those real feelings and experiences and lets it justify all of the awfulness that follows.
Gale and Peeta are not equivalent. In dumbed down terms, Gale became bad because of what was already in him and then was fine to stay that way. Peeta became bad because of something someone else put in him, and then he did the work to not stay that way.
Oakfarmer again, to bring my rambling back to its original point: "Snow turned Peeta into a weapon, Coin turned Gale into a weapon. Both had been unleashed to destroy Katniss. They were the same, but they weren’t the same at all. The Capitol pumped venom into Peeta to create a hateful mutt. Coin only needed to provide an outlet for the hateful venom already circulating Gale’s veins. Hate and rage, he had never tried to suppress. Hate and rage, Peeta painstakingly clawed his way out of to recover his identity."
Rye headcanons- that he is Mrs. Mellark’s favorite and gets away with more than Peeta and the oldest. He’s a better liar than Peeta. And him and Gale have had words over a girl they were both casually dating at the same time.
THESE ALMOST PERFECTLY MATCH MY FEELINGS AND HEADCANONS WITH HIM!
I headcanon him as the jokey one in the family, with lowkey middle child syndrome in a way. Like he kind of vies for attention a lot, because their household is often tense or fraught with stress. I also always headcanon he’s Mrs. Mellark’s favorite son, like he’s the one who gets away with the most from her. She tends to snap at Peeta the most because he’s the one she sees the most of herself in.
And him and Gale, in my mind, are in the same grade and know each other semi-well. But they don’t like each other at all because they’re the two boys that all the girls at school fawn over the most — both merchant girls and Seam — and so they view each other as competition. I also imagine Rye being very outgoing whereas Gale is more quiet and stoic and so they butt heads / rub each other the wrong way.
Also I always imagine him as very close to Peeta. Closer than Wheaton, their elder brother. They probably even shared a bed in their childhood, since they only have a small second story home (I always picture an apartment but that may just be me?) for a family of five.
Only thing I don’t necessarily picture the same as you is I always imagine Rye being super confident and funny and outgoing but kind of lacks Peeta’s charisma? Like Rye wouldn’t have done well on Caesar’s talkshow because he’s kind of slow on the uptake and lacks Peeta’s natural wit and cunning edge.
“Where are you taking me??” Katniss asks yet again as she anxiously squirms in the passenger seat with a blindfold covering her eyes. She could easily remove the blindfold, but she’s complying to her partner’s request.
“You know I’m not going to answer that. It’s a surprise,” Peeta replies amusedly. “We’re about 15 minutes out. Patience, young grasshopper.”
“My patience is running thin. I got home from work only for you to come running out of the house telling me we’re going away for the weekend and then blindfolded me.”
Peeta/Lucy Gray in Snow’s mind or the narrative? I think there are some deliberate contrasts between Peeta/Katniss and Lucy Gray. What she did to Reaper and the way she pulled off the flags pieces that he was honoring the dead tributes with being a major stand out.
Oh, I don't think it's a one to one, no, no. Lucy Gray is her own character. She may be even more of a chaos child than Peeta is. But just, if I were Snow, I would be watching him drop bombs on national television and be like "I know this crowd-playing behavior ... hope this kid and his girlfriend don't have any other meaningful reminders of my past to antagonize me with." I actually still think that Katniss and Peeta are some of the most compassionate and selfless people in the whole series, and Lucy Gray and Sejanus are included in that, and that's why they're so, like, impressive, and ultimately unbreakable by Snow. I think mostly I just find that the Lucy Gray and Katniss comparisons hinge on them being girls who vex Snow in some way. But I'm happy to see a comparison chart. I only read the book once, in a weird mood, so maybe I'm just interpreting vibes that don't exist.
