Had a response all typed out in response to someone arguing that Katniss chose Peeta because he was safe, and she was too traumatized and autistic to have romantic feelings. Rather than be an ass and blow up some stranger’s post, I’ll just comment here. And as I’ve said before when this suggestion was made, while we want to see ourselves in a character, the plain text does not support this argument.
The safe choice was Gale. Period. They had shared interests, shared backgrounds. Their families knew each other. She’d been hunting with him for 5 years. He was predictable. A marriage to him, at least before she became a victor, would have been a logical, obvious choice. But to read these books and still come away with the feeling that she wasn’t attracted to Peeta makes no sense. Who keeps tabs on someone you don’t talk to? Who takes notice of how someone’s hair falls in waves over his forehead, and the details of his eyelashes? I met my ex-husband in 2005 and I couldn’t tell you a thing about his lashes to this day. She calls him shiny. She calls him beautiful. She dreams about him. She keeps momentos from him. She describes the time in the cave as a happy time even as they were on the verge of death. She tells him she needs him and MAKES HIM STOP TALKING SO SHE CAN KEEP KISSING HIM. She is devastated when she believes he no longer loves her. Like, what?
The aroace implications are in the same category as Everthorne to me when it comes to these books. It is contraindicated by the text and the author herself. I have no opinion about her being autistic because that does not obviate the possibility that Katniss would be romantically attracted to someone even if she finds social interactions difficult. I find that take limiting and not borne out by what I see in real life as a disability rights lawyer. She loves that boy, in every sense of the word.
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