The Great Peeta vs. Gale Debate, Round 2: Peeta Is To Bryan Adams As Gale Is To Jay-Z

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 Seam (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.

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