The fiercest debate in literary history rages on in Round 2 as Henri rebuts Erin’s defense of Peeta, aka FACE HARD!
Okay, I don’t understand any of what you’re talking about, Erin. Here’s how you describe Nice Guys: Nice Guys just want to help out. Nice Guys want you to tell them your problems. Nice Guys think, because they are so nice, you should let them touch you in the girly bits. That’s pretty much Peeta to a T.
1) Meredith pointed this out, too, but it’s worth repeating – Peeta has had a silent crush on Katniss for YEARS and never once said anything. And he wasn’t just in the satellite area or hanging out in his bakery watching her pass by without having an opportunity to say anything. He was in school with her for what I assume was a usual five day a week schedule. So that’s five days a week for years and years, and he never said a damned thing.
2) He’s sooo not a good guy. He doesn’t risk his life to feed anyone else from the seem (or however you spell it, I’m an audiobook man so I never know how to write made up words). He does it for Her, because it’s Her, and She is everything to him even though he doesn’t actually know her at all and just thinks she’s pretty and not like the other girls in school and so maybe, just maybe, she’ll understand him in a way that the other girls don’t. He doesn’t do anything because it’s the right thing to do. He joins the careers and wants to save Katniss not because it’s right, but because her life is more valuable to him than his own. And that might sound romantic at first, but think of it in terms of pop music. Peeta is basically Bryan Adams to Gale’s Jay-Z. You know it’s true, everything I do… I do it for you. Is that anyone’s favorite song? If it is, then yeah, Peeta’s the guy for you.
3) He’s always always asking Katniss to tell him her problems! It’s like all he’ll talk about.
4) I don’t think Peeta can play games, either. Yeah, he joined up with the Careers, but he didn’t do anything to really help Katniss while he was there until the end. He didn’t come up with any strategy for how to take them out, or have useful information for Katniss to use against them or ANYTHING. He just had a broken ass leg, and even though he wanted to die rather than know that Katniss would, he still lets her help him. And in the end, he’s completely willing to eat the berries and let her eat them, too.
PANSY.
Bottom line on Peeta: He loved Katniss before he knew her? That pretty much makes it clear that he’s actually just obsessed with Katniss and more in love with the idea of her than with the actual person. More than anyone else, he treats her like an object. But he’s worse for her than President Snow because he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.
So let’s take a look at Gale. For starters, your assertion that he Secretly Pined For His Best Friend. I don’t buy it.
1) “This guy has grown up with Kat.” That’s just plain wrong. They met in the woods a few years ago, and have been slowly getting to know each other. Katniss says in the beginning of HG that there’s nothing romantic between them, and I believe her and think that was a two way street. Just like she only recently discovered she had some feelings for him, his feelings for her grew over time.
2) He hunts. Meat > Baked Goods. And I know I lost some of you there, but it explains a lot. Meredith’s favorite food is bacon. Sarah is a cupcake person. But man, there’s just no competition between those two things. And you can always trade it for bread and pastries when you need some carbs.
3) Yeah, he broods a bit, but the dude is PASSIONATE. In the coming battles, that’s gonna be much more necessary than Peeta’s ability to talk on TV.
4) Gale is pretty much the only person who doesn’t need her to take care of him. And as Meredith also pointed out, he’s the one that taught her to be able to take care of herself. That’s love, for the whole person, and the whole family. He gave her sooooo much more than some burnt bread.
Bottom line on Gale: Gale only loves Katniss because he knows her. And that, it just so happens, is the only way to actually love anything.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Team Bacon!
henri, as usual you’ve made some excellent points BUT i think we need to take this outside when it comes to point #4 because YOU’RE SO WRONG, DUDE. peeta TOTALLY knows how to play games! sure, in HG, he’s just getting started, but in CF, the boy is a straight up hustler, something you and jay-z should appreciate. peeta may not be a lithe hunter, but he is FULL of strategery. hello, the whole pregnancy thing? GENIUS. and sure, he’s actually in love with katniss, so he doesn’t have to pretend, but my boy is totes aware of how to play the media, not only to save their lives but also to further the revolution (the latter in CF).
gale, on the other hand, acts on impulse and gets totally whipped (literally) which doesn’t help ANYONE except maybe prim, who finally gets to do something useful for a change.
as for the objectification, i think katniss gets used by both guys, and i’m definitely hoping that she finally takes control of her own life in book three. also i’m assuming that suzanne collins will kill off peeta or gale just because honestly HOW COULD SHE CHOOSE? i realize that this debate is supposed to be answering that question, but all it’s done is make me feel even more torn (which is why i am in totes agreement with talya’s suggestion of polygamy).
Yeah, I agree that Suzanne will probably kill someone off, and it’ll most likely be Gale. But I also think that as compelling as the books are and as fun as it is to debate the two of them, Suzanne ain’t the best writer. When she kills Gale off she will only be confirming that suspicion.
If she kills off Katniss, on the other hand… that would be sad but actually kind of rule. Then Gale and Peeta can each blame the other and end up pitted against each other until their twisted love pain makes both of them super evil and they end up running the Games for the next generation.
As for strategy, that requires seeing the big picture, and Peeta’s a dreamer but he’s no visionary. Of course, neither is Katniss. That girl’s hopeless unless she gets over both Peeta and Gale and just runs away with Cinna.
“That girl’s hopeless unless she gets over both Peeta and Gale and just runs away with Cinna.”
Thank you, Henri, because that is awesome and totally makes up for getting Bryan Adams stuck in my head for most of the morning. Almost.
OH, HENRI, IT IS ON.
You did NOT just compare my Peeta to Bryan Adams! Ryan Adams, maybe. But Bryan????
Although you may be on to something with your thing about Cinna.
holy SMOKES the plot twist of having katniss killed and turning gale and peeta into evil dictator supervillians is awesome. plus it totally relieves me of having to choose. cos i am just too easily swayed by all the arguments. polygamy it is — bacon AND croissants.
So this does raise a deeper philosophical question, for me. Does it really boil down to meat or baked goods? Because I’m with Henri and Meredith. I choose meat every time. Could the food we crave give us some insight into what (or whom) we would choose for ourself? ‘Cause it kind of makes sense to me now.
That is the exact theme of my rebuttal, Jenny! I’m starting to think maybe it’s true (i.e. I am crafting an elaborate metaphor to make it true).
So if Gale is Jay-Z, is he “99 Problems” Jay-Z? Or post-Beyonce Jay-Z?
Leslie, that’s an excellent question. I’d like to add, or is he “I married Beyonce and then slept with Rihanna” Jay-Z?
Hmm…very good debate here. I’m thisclose on being sold on Gale. I’ve been on the fence and really just want her to choose. Either is fine with me. But I feel that Collins will kill off Peeta. It just makes more sense that Peeta would die because he has continually put himself in positions likely to lead to death in order to protect Katniss. I feel a big sacrificial “Take Me” kind of scene coming in the next book. But the ultimate twist of killing off Katniss would really wrinkle LOTS of panties in the world.
Jill! I’m so with you on the ‘take me’ thing! However, it is my fear that it will be Gale that sacrifices himself for Peeta…