When I first read The Hunger Games a few years back on a recommendation from a friend (thanks, Tara!), I was all about the triangle: Who was Katniss going to pick, Peeta or Gale?
(Warning: Beware of possible SPOILERS for all 3 books in the series.)
I was Team Gale then, naturally, as I’ve always been a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, and Katniss made it clear pretty early on in The Hunger Games (on page 6, in fact) that there was potential for this, at least: “In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale.” There were other great moments, too, like in Catching Fire, when Katniss thought to herself: “Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.” *happy sigh*
By the end of Mockingjay, however, I was really frustrated with Katniss. Her fragility (how many times did she have to get tranquilized?), her inability to just make a decision (did you really need to keep both boys on the hook for so long?), her misplaced blame (how was Gale evil for doing his part in the same war you were fighting?). It all drove me nuts. In the end, she turned out not to be the character I’d thought, or hoped, she was. Of course, now, in hindsight, I can see she was never interested in becoming the badass revolutionary I’d hoped she’d become. But Gale? He totally was! (As was Johanna, even though she got robbed in the lead-up to the last battle, but that’s a whole other post.) And so my interest in the trilogy shifted, and I became Team Gale for a different reason.
I loved learning more about Gale in Mockingjay. Loved that he’d managed to get himself, his family, and Katniss’s family all out of District 12. Loved that he’d taken care of his family for years before that and was obviously so smart and resourceful. Loved that was not only idealistic but brave and ready to back up his beliefs with words and actions. Loved that no matter what, he had Katniss’s back.
He was angry, sure, by why shouldn’t he have been? He lived in an awful, awful world, and until the revolution was powerless to do much more than survive. But when he got the chance, he channeled the anger into being a good soldier to win the war and ultimately make the world a better place, and man, do I admire that.
Gale got screwed over in Mockingjay, he really did; maybe that’s why I love him even more now. Whatever the reason, though, I know what I’m most looking forward to in The Hunger Games movie: More Gale!
So let’s hear it—who’s with me? Vote Team Gale (one vote per person, please, but comment as many times as you’d like!) in the comments and let me know why YOU love him. And watch this space, ’cause on Wednesday, things’ll really heat up when Chris and I post our rebuttals.
