In light of all of the comparison posts lately, based solely on the movies or the "hotness" of Liam Hemsworth, placing unrealistic looks to what is supposedly components of a healthy relationship, and how Gale Hawthorne somehow embodies all of these ridiculous and superficial qualities he seems to possess, making him the ideal and only "right choice" for Katniss in the end. But let me preface this list with the fact that Katniss is a 17 year old girl suffering from PTSD, and who she chooses or does not choose is not the end of the world at that age, especially when she is fighting in a war. Now without further ado, I will count down from least bad to downright horrible.
12. Offended Katniss
There are several instances where things that Gale says greatly offend Katniss and she has a hard time taking him seriously. One such moment is in regards to them finding her prep team in the bowels of District 13, abused and abandoned.
"Katniss why do you care so much about your prep team?" he asks her. She acknowledges in her head that yes, they are silly, but they are like pets to her and she cares about them because they actually cared about her. Probably stemming from how she had to go back into the arena. Katniss observes, "The sight of Peeta and me sleeping together is too much for Octavia, because she bursts into tears right away." All of them at some point have to leave the room because they are absolutely distraught by what Katniss is going to have to go through again. Gale dismisses them so quickly in Mockingjay that Katniss is not only put off by that moment, but offended. (Mockingjay, and Catching Fire quotes)
Another such example in Mockingjay is when he neglects to tell her about Peeta's interview (the one he sees in the movie) and how angry she gets with him for not telling her. She refuses to talk to him for quite awhile. In fact, they spend most of Mockingjay butting heads and arguing with each other, especially as their ideals of what is acceptable in war start to change. But that's just a couple of examples. Moving on.
11. Bad Mouthed People Katniss Cared About
Like I previously mentioned, the prep team is the subject of battery from him. He finds them despicable. "They don't know what, Katniss? That tributes -- who are the actual children involved here, not your trio of freaks -- are forced to fight to the death? That you were going into that arena for people's amusement? Was that a big secret in the Capitol?" She tries to defend them and he gets upset with her. This moment stays with her long enough that before they make it back to District 13 from their hunting excursion, she adds, "During the Quarter Quell, Octavia and Flavius had to quit because they couldn't stop crying over me going back in. And Venia could barely say good-bye." She cares about them and he would readily see them put to death, purely because they work for the Capitol. (Catching Fire, and Mockingjay quotes)
10. Guilt Trips Katniss
This list is so lengthy, I'm not even sure I could list them all. But he gets upset with her so frequently after she gets engaged to Peeta that he sees little sense in just having a normal conversation with her. In the meadow she asks him to leave with her, but he refuses in favor of the uprisings, gets upset that she would bring Peeta with them. "And me, would you leave me?" And when he kisses her in District 2, but that's my next point. (Catching Fire quote)
9. Kissing Katniss in District 2
He knows at this point that she loves Peeta, and yet he still kisses her. Then he tells her it's like "kissing someone who's drunk." So not only does he kiss her uninvited, he insults her in the process because she didn't kiss him like she did Peeta. The sheer fact that he knows she loves Peeta is why this kiss should never have happened in the first place. But in his defense - which I hate - he is 19. (Mockingjay quote)
8. Possessive of Katniss
There are so many instances where the things he says or does is incredibly possessive and not at all healthy for a relationship, let alone, a friendship. Friendships are wonderful, and to some extent we all have moments of possessive tendencies (that's my best friend), but his goes beyond just the friendship possessive when he never even had a relationship with her. She had a relationship with Peeta (while founded on survival, blossomed into an actual romance, an actual real relationship), and Gale is angry about that. But it is his fault he didn't tell her how he felt before the first Games. It's not exactly her fault that she didn't know that before the Games.
7. Physically Shoved Katniss
I don't know about you, but shoving people is not a good thing, especially when it's in anger. It's following her asking him to leave the District with her, but once he knows about the uprisings it's almost like she's not even standing in front of him, and he wastes no time in moving her and returning to town. "Gale pushes me roughly away from him." and then he has the audacity to say, "You leave, then. I'd never go in a million years." Adversely, she asks Peeta and his response is, "Sure, Katniss. I'll go." Gale listens to her, my ass. Peeta does go on to say, "But I don't think for a minute you will." And he's right, empty threats on her part, and even if she did leave Peeta would have gone with her. (Catching Fire quotes)
6. Put The Rebellion/Revolution Above Katniss
From the moment he finds out about the uprisings in District 8, it's as if nothing ever mattered, and then he makes calculated decisions from that moment on that further the rebellion and that anger and fervor consume him. Katniss takes a back seat to the rebellion, except for when he tries to make her feel bad about her loving Peeta and her heart is undeniably stuck on Peeta. He doesn't even talk to her about his philosophy because he knows that she won't agree with them, so there's little instances of them actually communicating about it. He even becomes a part of Coins inner-sanctum and joins Beetee in the construction of weapons. War corrupts. There's other instances of him putting the rebellion ahead of her, but I don't want to make myself sad-der.
5. Messing With Peeta's Head
Sure, make an argument that the conversation in Tigris' basement is kind on his part, what with the "no you won her over" bit, but it's not. Peeta's already confused about his feelings, I love her, I love her not, kind of confusion and Gale breaks into that uncertainty pointing out that "she never kissed me liked that," but that could be taken either way. And this leads me into my next point.
4. "Our next move . . . is to kill me."
Words said by Peeta, directly to Gale. Because he knows Katniss won't do it, and this is the sad part, he trusts that Gale would actually do it. And he might. No matter how much Gale cares about Katniss that kind of an action would be fueled by jealousy. The moment comes up in their assault on the Capitol. And then to add insult to injury, he gives Peeta his nightlock pill, not to be kind, but essentially to give an already suicidal Peeta a way out which Katniss has been fighting against from the beginning of the trip.
3. Aligned Himself With Coin
I like the line in the movie when Katniss says, "when did 'we' become you and Coin?" There is a shift in Mockingjay as the efforts progress. He essentially becomes Coin's lap dog. His ideologies start to become more like Coin's, what he finds acceptable in war, the loss of life comes to reflect that of Coin's beliefs. Killing innocents to him is just collateral damage in the grand scheme of things, which is exactly how Coin thinks. It was Lord Acton who said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Which leads me into my final two points.
2. The Nut
Katniss is so appalled by what he's willing to do, to blow it up, because their fathers died in the same type of explosion. This is the moment when she starts to see that what he thinks, and that it is - on so many levels - really and truly wrong. She wishes Peeta were there to tell them why what they're thinking of doing is wrong. Because it's something that neither Katniss nor Peeta would ever be able to do, at least not with a clear conscious. Having lived through two arena's, they'd had their fair share of killing innocent people, and so the Nut hits Katniss on a very personal level. It's the moment that she realizes just how far he'll go in war, just how different he is from the person she thought she knew. She can't see the justification in what he wants to do, and she is so upset by the guns drawn at the survivors that she runs up to talk to one - resulting in her getting shot - because she doesn't want them to be Snow's slaves anymore. She knows that she is one, that she became one as a victor, and she wants to give them the opportunity to say no as well, and Gale just wants them all dead...because they work for the Capitol.
1. He Killed Prim
People can argue and say "he didn't actually kill her, it was just his bomb," but that's the issue, isn't it? It was his bomb. His brainchild, his and Beetee's. It was a snare, something he is very good at. His idea was to first take out the weak and then snap the trap over the stronger that come to the rescue because of people's natural response to help the helpless and defenseless. Perhaps he didn't mean for it to be used on children, maybe he didn't actually know Prim would be there...but the argument, the issue I have with this...is that he didn't even apologize. In the end they had won, regardless of Prim's death, and the only thing he could say to her was to guilt trip her about how the only thing he had going for him was protecting her family. And it's true, but he'd lost that race a long time before that. There's no redemption from this moment for Katniss. There's no excusing it, and he knows that, but to not even apologize? That's what I find most offensive about the whole thing. He cares that he lost the girl, nothing is said of Prim, the one person in the whole crazy mess Katniss had always been sure she loved. The war consumed him, the hatred he felt for the Capitol so strong and unshakeable, that he lost more than just Katniss. He lost his humanity.
At The End . . .
I've never liked Gale as a character, and I'm sure I can add more to this list, but the callousness that he shows towards Katniss. The disdain for the Capitol, for human life. If anyone had a right to be angry with the Capitol, it was Katniss and Peeta (and the other victors) because they saw first hand what it meant to be a tribute. To experience the things that they did. When it came right down to it, the reason Katniss chose Peeta, wasn't because Gale went away. Prim dying was the end of the road for Gale. She chose Peeta, because he was the hope in her life - long before the first Hunger Games - Gale represents fire and hatred to her, and Peeta represents everything that's good...that could be good again, and that's why she chooses Peeta. It's the moments of clarity at the end of a tunnel. She doesn't need Gale, she needs Peeta. She needs that hope, because without it, and without Prim, she would be lost to the world forever.
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