*gasp* I'M TEAM GALE NOW??? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!? I specifically remember writing a post a few months back when I listed the pros and cons of each guy/team and then declared that I leaned more towards Team Peeta. What changed between then and now?
Well, what changed is that I reread the books.
It was inevitable, the rereading. Every day I go on Twitter and read that someone else I know has been rereading The Hunger Games and Catching Fire in preparation for Mockingjay. While I felt I had a pretty good impression of what happened in the first two books, I decided to reread them in order to make sure I was remembering everything accurately.
Boy, it was even better the second time around.
The complexity! The layers! The tension! The writing! The action! Qualities of a beyond-words amazing series that I will reread for decades to come. I reread to inform my predictions for Mockingjay, but in the meantime I started noticing things about the love triangle, things that kind of made me sad (in that I was switching teams) but that also made me feel certain this is right).
Note: as always, if you haven't read the first two books and don't want spoilers, don't read on!
Katniss realized that, in a perfect world, one where the Hunger Games doesn't exist and she doesn't have to worry about her kids being reaped, she and Gale would've gotten together eventually. Not just because everyone assumes it of them, but because the two of them really understand one another. Katniss is rarely comfortable around people, but is astoundingly loyal to those she loves, like her mother, Prim, and Gale. For a girl who finds it hard to be herself around most people (and I can relate to her on this), establishing a comfortable-enough relationship with a guy is so rare that, when that happens, you want to hold onto it for as long as you can. It's unfortunate that it takes the Hunger Games and Peeta for Katniss to realize just how important Gale is to her, but that's what she does realize over the course of the two books.
This may be a reference that some Hunger Games fans might find appalling, but in rereading and informing my Team Gale position, I kept on thinking about Bella's realization regarding Jacob in Eclipse. All along Bella is very certain that she loves Edward inexplicably and unconditionally, but in Eclipse, she does realize that, had she lived in a normal world, one where vampires and werewolves didn't exist, Edward would not exist, but Jacob still would (only he would not be a werewolf), and then she and Jacob would've fallen in love and had a future together. I don't have direct quotes with me, but there's that line in Eclipse when she says she can see the entirety of their future mapped out before her: marrying him, raising their children, growing old together. In a normal world, Bella and Jacob would've been perfect for one another (and the Renesmee deus ex machina wouldn't have had to be invented, friggin' cop-out).
In a normal world, Peeta and Katniss might've crossed paths, but he, like everyone else in District 12, would've assumed that Gale was her boyfriend, and thus would not have approached her with his love for her. Katniss would've eventually realized that she thinks of Gale as more than just a friend, and then they would've gotten together, perhaps raised a family, grown old together.
But this is not a normal world.
The verdict? Katniss is Team Gale. As I am, in the very end, Team Katniss, so I am Team Whichever-Guy-She-Loves-More. And since I think she realizes Gale is the guy for her, thus I am Team Gale.
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What do you guys think? What are your reasons for Team Gale or Team Peeta? Will you embrace my switch lovingly, or will you banish me from your Google Reader into the realm of cyber-Pluto?
Like I said, I'm really Team Katniss, and I can see the numerous ways in which the love triangle might resolve. Tomorrow I'll share with you some of my theories regarding the outcomes of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.... Read if you dare!
