I like your post about the Hunger Games and agree with most of it, but I still think the love triangle was unnecessary and people are right to criticize it. Collins could have very easily written Gale as the best friend and Peeta as her main love (based on endgame choices) or vice versa I don't even care since I'm not a big shipper of either. But she did introduce the unnecessary drama that overall did not add much to the plot, and it only took away focus. So I think I understand that crit.
Once upon a time, I might have agreed with you. These are good books, important books, and we donât need to defile this war epic by shoving in teenage-hormone love-triangle dramatics. Then I reread the series, and I was astonished at how, for the most part, the love story is inextricably intertwined with the action-adventure elements. You canât take out the love-triangle elements without creating a very different book with a very different message. That love-triangle, far from defiling the war story, elevates it into something better.
It starts almost immediately in the first book. We see how Katniss has a deep friendship with Gale, something that could turn into romance, except that she doesnât dare to go down that path. Thereâs no place for marriage, and definitely not for new children, in their broken world. She only has energy for day-to-day survival. And once Katniss goes into the Hunger Games, romance is definitely off the table. She needs to harden her heart and make no human connections with the people around her if she wants to have even the slimmest chance of making it back home to her family. In a lesser book, sheâd be rightâthereâd be no goopy romance to distract us from the hard-bitten survival epic that the Hunger Games is supposed to be.
But then Peeta declares his love for her. Suddenly, sheâs part of an epic romance on national television. She wants nothing to do with this strategyâlove makes you look weak. (And doesnât that sound a lot like people who criticize the YA love triangle?) But Haymitch counters that it makes her desirable to the audience, and suddenly the thing that had seemed so burdensome becomes necessary to her survival. She needs to play the gameâand once theyâre in the arena, she needs to figure out if it is a game to Peeta. Peeta has already shown himself capable of manipulating the emotions of all of Panemâis it possible that heâs manipulating her?
This is the real brilliance of the first bookâs romance. It doesnât distract from the main conflictâit is the main conflict. Like so many other teenage girls, Katniss asks herself, âDoes this teenage boy like me?â, but in this case the answer is literally a matter of life and death. If he loves her, she can trust him to help her survive. If he doesnât, he could kill her at any time.
By the time she finds out that his love is real, she has to fake romantic feelings toward him to draw in sponsors. Now sheâs manipulating his emotions to survive, and she canât hope to untangle whatâs real and whatâs fake in this manufactured mess of a reality show. But Peetaâs influence has shown her that love isnât pointless in the Hunger Gamesâitâs the only way for them to truly fight back. She chooses love for Peetaâwhether romantic or notâover her own life, and thatâs the only reason that, for the first time in history, two victors manage to beat the Capitol at their own game. Katniss won not by being the best warrior, but by showing love. The love story wasnât a distractionâit was the solution.
Itâs only in Catching Fire that she has to deal with the consequences of that. She was willing to die for Peeta, but sheâs not sure she wants to live with him, especially since their relationship started under such unreal circumstances. Sheâd much rather leave the Gamesâand Peetaâbehind and return to the life she knew before. That life included Gale, and Katniss is, for the first time, willing to consider him as a romantic partner. If her romance with Peeta was fake, is it possible that she could have real romance with her best friend?
This is the point where the love triangle comes into full swing, and Iâll admit this is the book where itâs integrated most clumsily. It seems like Katniss is taking some unnecessary risks in pursuing a relationship with Gale, and the plot sometimes comes to a screeching halt so Katniss can think about her emotions. But even if the plot integration isnât as smooth as it was in the first book, the thematic relevance of the love triangle is still spot-on. Katniss has to think about what she wantsâcling to her old life or dive into this new post-Hunger Games world? Does love have a place in this world at war? And when we think about the question in that way, the sloppy integration of the love story into the main action plot is kind of the point. Katniss may be instigating a war, but sheâs still a teenage girl. She still has emotions, but sheâs being forced to hide or fake so many of them that she doesnât know who she is, what she wants, or who she wants to be. How can she discover her identity, hold onto her humanity, in the middle of a war? Â
Mockingjay is where we get the answer to those questions. With Peeta imprisoned in the Capitol and the war underway, Katniss is saved from having to make an immediate decision about her romance. She echoes every romance-hating fanâs thoughts when she says:
The very notion that Iâm devoting any thought to who I want presented as my lover, given our current circumstances, is demeaning.
Thereâs a war going on! Thereâs no time for love triangles! But itâs only when sheâs not being forced to pursue romance with Peeta that she can really evaluate her relationship with Galeâand sheâs finding that itâs not as strong as she thought. When she needs advice, she gets it from Prim, not Gale. When she needs someone who understands the trauma of killing, she goes to Finnick or Johanna. Now that Katniss and Gale donât have the shared bond of having to care for their familiesâwho are kept safe and fed by District 13âtheyâre finding that they donât have much else in common. Katniss is mistrustful of Coin, while Gale is part of her inner circle. Katniss kills only when she has to during the war, while Gale treats weapon design as a fun challenge. This exploration of their relationship isnât a distraction from the main plot. Theyâre what make the main plot mean something. This is the lens through which Katniss considers her views on violence, on war, on life, on what the point of their fight is. She and Gale literally have arguments about utilitarian principles! Itâs only by exploring and then severing this leg of the love triangle that Katniss finds out who she is and what she really believes.
Collins couldnât explore these issues in the same way if either Gale or Peeta wasnât presented as a romantic interest. The nature of eros is desire, and the whole point of the Peeta vs. Gale question is Katniss figuring out what she wants out of life. She needs to be drawn to both of them, in the same kind of relationship, if the question and answer are to mean anything. Does Katniss want her old life, with Gale as the most important person, with his anger driving her to fight for survival by any means necessary? Or does she want a new life with Peeta, where they live for something beyond mere survival? Which man, which philosophy, does she want to devote her life to? If Peeta was the love interest and Gale was only the best friend, she could have both in her life. But you canât resolve the trilogyâs central question by having Katniss compromise. Choosing one side means she canât choose the otherâand the only relationship that requires such an exclusive choice is a love triangle. Far from distracting from the main plot, the love triangle is what elevates it, takes it beyond a war story where the only question is how the characters will survive, and makes it into a story that tells us how the characters are going to live.
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