Solace

So I re-read The Hunger Games again, mostly because I keep seeing Peeta-hate all over my dash.  ”He manipulated Katniss!”  ”He’s a Nice Guy (tm)!”

idk, I don’t see it.  Like, I’m Team Katniss all the way.  But that doesn’t mean that Peeta isn’t allowed to be in love with her?  He didn’t try to force her into anything.  He didn’t even tell her about his feelings for her until after the reaping.  He never says why, but it’s safe to say that it’s because he’s shy and/or because he knew there was no point: they may have been in the same District, and gone to the same school, but they might as well have been from different worlds until they were thrown together unexpectedly.

Katniss doubts his motives at every turn, and no one can blame her.  And since we see him through her eyes, it’s easy to doubt him at every turn, too.  But in the end we find out that he was telling her the truth from the beginning, and I think Katniss is beginning to realize that on the train home, too.  He is genuinely in love with her.  He went into the Games with the intention of protecting her from the beginning, having no intention of winning himself, and never asking her for anything in return, except a kiss that was mainly for the benefit of the audience.  He did nothing but try to help her, and she pushed him away.  Again: I don’t blame her for pushing him away, but if you put yourself in Peeta’s shoes it’s very easy to see why he was hurt.

When the rules “changed,” and suddenly they were a team, and Katniss found him, Peeta tried desperately to be the least amount of burden he could on her, even if she didn’t necessarily see it that way.  He begged her not to go get the backpack that saved his life because he didn’t want her to die for him.  He wanted her to stay with him as he died - he made it pretty clear that he knew he was dying - because her life meant more to him that his own did.  And honestly, if Clove hadn’t been so hell-bent on torturing Katniss before killing her, and if Thresh hadn’t shown mercy, Katniss would have died for Peeta.

He thought she had genuinely had a change of heart in the cave, when she was acting for the Capitol, probably because he so desperately wanted her to, and he was still more than willing to let her kill him when it became clear that the Capitol wasn’t actually going to allow to victors.  And when it became clear to him that she was acting, after the Games, he was hurt.  Who wouldn’t be, in that situation?  And yet, instead of begging her, instead of pleading, instead of guilt tripping her…  he walked away to the best of his ability, still willing to act for the Capitol as long as it would keep her safe.

I haven’t re-read Catching Fire of Mockingjay yet, so I suppose there might be some manipulative bullshit there that I don’t remember…  but I saw none of it in The Hunger Games.  Peeta is the kind person that Katniss feared before the games, as far as I can tell.

I know that not everyone liked the idea of him marrying Katniss in the end.  Honestly, the first time I read it I was like, “This is almost as bad as the shit-tastic fanfiction that was the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows epilouge,” but I really think that it’s supposed to show how much Katniss changed her world.  She says in The Hunger Games that she doesn’t want to bring children into the world, even as a victor, because being a victor would not protect those children from the reaping.  The reaping is not something she needs to fear at the end of Mockingjay, so her change of heart makes sense to me.

idk, I’m just rambling.  I just…  like Peeta as a character, and I don’t like seeing him misrepresented on my dash like this.  :(