EXTRA!!-- and to complete the trilogy of HG essays, here's one for gale.
right, so i already have a peeta essay and a katniss essay, so i figure it's only fair to write up a little something about gale, too. as always, keep in mind that this is more me rambling than an actual structured essay. also, this one's shorter, so it's more of a mini-essay, because it was focused toward one question in particular instead of gale's character in general. but you know how wordy i get, so i may expand on this in the future.
this whole thing started, as usual, with one of my reviewers. the fantastic texas-devil-or-angel @ ff.net was commenting on a chapter of my fanfic, ricochet, which was from gale's point of view, and the idea came up that one of the things people sometimes don't like about gale as a character is that in the books it read like he felt he had just made up his mind that he and katniss should be together, and he wouldn't let go of that idea regardless of what was happening in katniss's life-- so maybe he never knew her that well to begin with.
this idea of gale feeling some kind of "entitlement" to katniss is something i had actually heard a few times before from other people in the fandom, and i thought it was interesting because i can definitely see where it came from, but i personally think there are more factors involved to gale and katniss's relationship so i see things somewhat differently.
i think... i think gale and katniss know each other pretty well, but not necessarily because they talked about things (katniss doesn't "talk about things" with anyone, really), but simply because they're just very similar. both coming from the seam, both having lost their fathers at an early age, and both being forced to become the head of their respective families-- their personalities developed in very similar "branches" of the same tree, so to speak. in most aspects, he understands why she reacts the way she does because he would react the same way, and viceversa.
yeah, there was something of a sense of entitlement to his feelings, but to be fair, i saw that in katniss's feelings for him, too: her jealousy of even the insinuation of madge as having a role in gale's life, the whole "he is mine, i am his" thing... she even mentions in catching fire that she knew she would feel hate for any imaginary girl whom gale had to pretend a relationship with had their positions been reversed. she didn't necessarily blame him for being angry-- she knew, even when she was in the games and pretending to love peeta, that such a thing would hurt gale, and she felt guilty about it. they may never have spoken about anything romantic before she went to the games, but they both knew there was the possibility of something there.
basically, they both assumed, had things gone on the way they were before prim was reaped, that they would've been together eventually. it might not have been the most passionate love affair ever (at least from katniss's part), but they could be comfortable and content with each other. for two people who went through such struggles as they did, "comfortable" and "content" was probably the most they ever dreamed of having in life, and in my opinion that's very understandable.
only gale, who has a more revolutionary mindset, could entertain the possibility of a future. maybe not a great one, not if they had to stay in twelve for the rest of their lives, but he was a lot more willing to think about a future than katniss was; katniss never had love as a goal in life, she never saw the appeal of it, but he did-- he did want to find some kind of happiness in the absolute misery that was district life-- and as a result his feelings went deeper than hers did.
so yes, i do think he really loved her. i've always been a believer that people who go through hardships together can become so close, love could actually be borne of it. tough situations allow us to see the best and worst sides of people and put them into perspective really clearly. and gale and katniss went through the same experiences with their fathers and their families, and they were basically each other's only support system for years. that makes one develop a bond, no question. gale might've been with tons of girls, but i'm sure none of them were as close to his heart as katniss was, just because of that bond between them.
the thing with gale, though, is that prim did get reaped and katniss DID go to the games. and that changed everything for her-- not only did she make decisions pre-games!katniss, the katniss that was the same as him, the katniss gale KNEW, would never have made (such as being willing to kill herself even when she knew what that would to to prim), but it strengthened her bond, a different kind of bond, with peeta as well... she already felt a connection to him, because of the bread and the dandelion, but it was one she hadn't pursued through the years because she felt she had to repay him for his help somehow, and she didn't know how to go about it. but then the games came and that bond was sharply brought to surface, and it happened a lot more quickly and intensely than anything she had been through with gale, too.
meanwhile, nothing was really changed for gale. so where he was still holding onto his previous expectations, she was trying very hard to pretend she was as well, that nothing had changed (because katniss is very averse to change, it scares her), but deep down it had. at that point they're just not that similar anymore, not where it mattered, and that alone created strife between them where there wasn't before. the fact that the hunger games change everybody who becomes involved with them is a big theme in the books-- heck, lionsgate even used it as a tagline for the movie! so, really, it's not that he refused to understand her, it's just that he couldn't. he didn't go through any of it, so he simply couldn't know what she was feeling anymore, and that created a fundamental chasm between the two of them.
and then there was peeta. one thing we have to take into account is that gale is actually very smart-- i'm sure he knew right away that peeta was more important to katniss than she let on. but it's not that he refused to let go of her... it's that she refused to let go of him, in a sense. i'm sure, if katniss had told him straight up after she came back from the games: "listen gale, i love peeta and i want to be with him," gale would have been pissed off for a while but eventually would've let go. he's not stupid; he knows not to fight a battle that's already lost.
the problem is that katniss herself didn't understand what she was feeling at that point-- a feeling of confusion that was only exacerbated by his whipping (which she felt was her fault)-- and that kept the hope alive. if he had a fighting chance to be with the girl he loved, no matter how small it was, he would take it. and that was pretty much everything that was there in mockingjay: he knew she hadn't let go of peeta, and it hurt, but he had that hope that she might love him, too, and that if they were together she might come to learn that her feelings for peeta were more affection and friendship than romantic love. so, if she wanted to be with him, if she wanted to kiss him, he wasn't going to turn her away, because he loved her and he simply couldn't do that.
it's actually very similar to the way i imagine peeta must've felt, post-74th-games but pre-hijacking. she insisted on pushing him away, in fact katniss herself says he "knew she'd chosen gale" (i don't think he knew for sure, but he certainly feared it), and yet he would still sleep by her side, and spend that day with her on the roof, and give his life for her despite knowing that. gale's feelings were a lot like that in mockingjay, and to me it was very obvious that it hurt him. the two boys are actually very similar in my eyes when it comes to their feelings for katniss, even though in just about every other aspect of their lives they're pretty much complete opposites.
what really fractures the possibility of katniss and gale being together in the books, in my opinion, is not the intensity of gale's feelings for her, or his "refusal" to let go of her; it's everything else. the fact that katniss was changed so deeply by the games, their differences in ideology, his anger at the capitol and eagerness to fight led by that anger, and of course, later on, the fact that he may have contributed in prim's death, which was the final nail on that coffin.
so... yeah. that's kind of what i think about it, and what i generally try to transmit about gale when i characterize him for a fanfic. i think it's important to keep these things in mind when i write, because i do love gale, and while he is by no means perfect, i think many people tend to latch onto his bad side and forget about the good, and i don't think that's very fair. if there's one thing i never doubted, it's that he's a very genuine person. he did always want what was best for katniss, though he didn't necessarily have to be happy about it. so hopefully this little essay will help some of you see gale in a different light, too.
(those of you who follow my fic might find the not-so-subtle pun there. LOL).