☆DIZZIE☆

Just another part of the freak show - Peeta Mellark

The girl with the arrows, Glimmer I hear someone call her— ugh, the names the people in District 1 give their children are so ridiculous.. - Katniss Everdeen

The reserved girl who doesn’t even smile in town with either of her friends is laughing and kissing the boy. The charming guy is making fun of her scowl and saying he doesn’t mind if she sees him naked. He also airs out some of his family’s dirty laundry. They make a suicide pact. The girl has always tried for a stoic face but now she’s cried hysterically over the boy. They’re volunteering to die for each other. They’ve kissed for at least ten minutes on national television twice.

An interpretation I’ve seen of this passage that really reduces both Katniss and Peeta’s characters down is using it as evidence that Peeta is solely hope while Katniss is solely fire. That Peeta doesn’t have fire of his own, that Katniss can’t be a source of hope. That Peeta came in and fixed Katniss.

Peeta has been shown to have inner worlds and an intensity of his own. He’s the one who heatedly said on the roof that he didn’t have much he was allowed to care about except his own identity. He’s the one who told Katniss to make sure everyone saw the berries. He’s the one who made a pointed comment about rebellion during the Victory Tour, and he’s been shown to be angry countless times. A boy who is a whiz with fire has to carry some heat and fire within himself.

Likewise, Katniss has this perseverance to her that is hopeful. This stubborn need to keep those close to her protected and loved. There were a lot of embellishments surrounding her actions through the series, but the core part of her that inspired a nation was her ability to care and protect. Volunteering for Prim, the flowers for Rue, the medicine and berries for Peeta. These are actions that inspire hope.

How can we look at a girl who was having the worst time of her life, who was even planning her own death in Mockingjay, yet still found the time to give Johanna pine needles, and not see her as a beacon of hope?

And Peeta needs that hope. This is a boy who grew up in an abusive household where his mother clearly doesn’t think highly of him. It doesn’t seem like protection of him is a big priority. We see how this impacts him when he tells Katniss he doesn’t have a shot at winning the Games. To which Katniss tells him that’s not a way to think. How would he not find hope in a girl that protected her little sister and family fiercely? The same girl who he gets to know and see just how caring she is to the point of remembering all his little details and always choosing him and encouraging him?

like why is every joke either a tyler tree/aiden ceiling joke or it's all 2021 humor

like yall its okay to be funny and make new jokes

Often it gets lumped into a cause and effect with the sentence before it. It took me five, ten, fifteen years to agree, but Peeta wanted them so badly. We read it as if she’s saying that Peeta wanting them was the reason she agreed.

Except that’s not how it’s written. It’s It took me five, ten, fifteen years to agree. Full stop. New thought. But Peeta wanted them so badly.

She’s presenting two separate perspectives on having children. Two potentially contrasting perspectives. It’s not I needed convincing, but Peeta wore me down. It’s I was hesitant, Peeta was certain. She’s showing the difference in the way they each see the world. Where she saw everything that could go wrong, Peeta saw the good. And where else do we see this?

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.”

It’s just a page before the epilogue for us as the readers but for her it’s almost 20 years later, yet the sentiment still remains. So what if “but Peeta wanted them so badly” isn’t just “he convinced me”? At least not in the negative way it’s sometimes taken.