The Potato Is Always Better

Ahoy, Anon! Great question. I agree with you that it is more him being vulnerable with his feelings than intentionally manipulative. I'm not against leniency for the traumatized 19-year-old. He is communicating that he feels "like the man in the Hanging Tree. Still waiting for an answer." Her life has been a wreck the past year, and because they were so close, so has his. Not even counting the bombing. Before the 74th, he had become aware of his crush on her, was probably waiting for the right time to confess his feelings. And suddenly, she had to publically be with Peeta, and even in private, her feelings are as unclear to him as they are to herself, full of mixed signals. I don't blame him for wanting some clarity.

Context matters a lot in this scene. It is in Katniss's mansion kitchen, and he opens the conversation with, "This is where you kissed me," referring to the table where he had been lying for treatment after the whipping, zonked out on morphling. I'm not calling Gale the smoothest or most tactful person, just an honest one. Katniss did kiss him there, when he was in pain, when she thought he was unconscious and wouldn't remember. In that scene, he's about to start crying, and she explicitly does kiss him "to keep [the tears] from spilling over." He saw her kiss Peeta in the arena when he was in pain, too. The pattern he points out does exist, from his perspective. At most, the "Don't worry, Katniss. It'll pass," was a little passive aggressive.

In that kiss, he pulled away first. And that kiss can't stand alone, because I think the entire thing, especially Gale's abrasiveness, needs to be looked at in combination with their kisses in District 2. There, she's grieving Peeta and choosing Gale, kissing Gale "to make up for all the kisses I've withheld, because it doesn't matter anymore..." That part, to me, sounds like Katniss finding some freedom in kissing Gale, kissing someone and not having to worry about any strategy or performance. But then, "...and because I'm so desperately lonely I can't stand it," creates some doubt. Is kissing Gale her authentic expression of romantic freedom, or is she kissing him because he's available? It can be both ("and")! It can be complicated! But Katniss doesn't sound sure in her narration, and Gale can tell she's unsure. That's when he pulls back, stops her, and asks what's going on in her head. Because she doesn't know, he no longer wants to kiss her, doesn't want to kiss someone whose motivations are uncertain. Nothing wrong with that. I love him for that.

Between this and the grandma marriage AU , I'm convinced my relatives are just straight up weird.

This is my mom's cousin, who met his wife over the phone. He was in the military and accidentally answered a phone call intended for his friend. He supposedly immediately fell in love with this woman's voice, and the friend (who was her cousin) helped them elope. The whole thing was super scandalous. Her brothers almost killed him (or duelled him, Anthony Bridgerton style) but then all worked out fine.

Now I'm saying supposedly, because none of us in the family thinks his wife has a voice you'd fall in love with? Not to mention the incredibly thick regional accent. No shade to her; she's a lovely woman, but it's just not very plausible that she'd enchant him with her voice?

They probably just met face-to-face somewhere and came up with this story to avoid their families being upset. Fast forward 25 years and 2 kids, I think they are just too deep in this lie to come clean.

incorrect response: write the rest of the story to be as twisty, shocking and counter to expectations as possible, regardless of whether this is a logical or satisfying way for the plot to go

correct response:

(you’re not stupid. I posted this thinking it would amuse a handful of mutuals who all knew the context and that would be about it, so I didn’t think about providing any other explanation. I had no idea it would spread this far.)

I’ll start from the very beginning just to be thorough. so this is Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, a show which had a big focus on mystery, conspiracies, codes and ciphers, etc. the whole plot is kicked off by one of the main characters finding a mysterious old journal in the woods, which detailed all kinds of weird and supernatural things, but then ended abruptly with the author saying they had to hide the journal because they were being watched. the central driving mystery of the show, therefore, was the question of who wrote the journal and what happened to them.

now, the thing about Gravity Falls is that, while it must be said that the writers weren’t always quite as sure of their plans as we tend to like to think they are, it is very much a fair play mystery, with legitimate clues to what was going on. but the writers were caught off guard by how quickly the show attracted a dedicated audience, including a lot of people outside the primary presumed demographic, who started solving the clues faster than expected. so some of the fans were able to correctly guess who the author was before it was revealed in the show, and the theory started spreading. this put the writers in something of a panic, because this was THE mystery that the whole story revolved around, with ¾ of the show building up to the dramatic reveal in the middle of season 2. they wanted it to be a mystery that could be figured out, sure, but they weren’t prepared for people to solve it so far in advance of when it was planned to be revealed, which would have really taken away from the big moment. they weren’t going to change the main story itself, but having been caught unaware by how much attention the fans were paying, they wanted to up the ante and make the mystery more complex to solve going forward–but first they needed to buy some time and throw the fandom off the scent for a little longer.

hence, Alex’s plan as described above. they whipped up a fake shot that appears to give away the identity of the author as being another character in the show, put it on a screen in the studio as if it was a real animation frame, took a picture of it, and ‘leaked’ it online. it was initially decided to be a hoax (albeit, I think, presumed to be a hoax originating from outside the production team), until Alex posted this tweet:

…before quickly deleting it (though not so quickly that it didn’t get seen, of course).

it worked well enough to distract most people for a while, and wasn’t revealed as a hoax until a year later, when an episode aired that definitively proved that the supposed screenshot could never have happened, at which point Alex owned up to the whole thing as seen in the tweet above. by then the episode with the real reveal wasn’t far off, and while people did still work it out ahead of time, it was more of an “OH MY GOD I KNEW IT!” moment than a “booooooring, we’ve known that for ages” moment, which of course was what the writers wanted all along.

personally I find this a fascinating approach to dealing with the problem of spoilers, because it doesn’t affect the story itself at all; if you watch Gravity Falls today–or if you were watching it when it aired without any significant contact with the fandom–you’d never know about it. ultimately, the problem the writers were facing wasn’t that some people might guess the answer to the mystery–they never wanted to make it completely impossible to predict–so much as it was that they hadn’t designed the story to stand up to so many people working on the puzzle together, which resulted in a sort of total output of puzzle-solving ability that far outstripped the capability of any one solo human being. so their solution is something that’s very much targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show.

plus, it’s very in keeping with the overall tone of the show.

don’t:

change the ending

do:

sweetheart in the trilogy is not meant to be a term of endearment.

Sweetheart is a sarcastic, condescending, and mocking word used to undermine and tease Katniss. It is not a word of endearment:

By the end of the session, I am no one at all.

Haymitch started drinking somewhere around witty, and a nasty edge has crept into his voice.

"I give up, sweetheart. Just answer the questions and try not to let the audience see how openly you despise them." (THG)

And if that’s not enough, what about arguably the meanest scene in the whole trilogy:

Haymitch belches, filling the air with white liquor fumes. "What is it, sweetheart? More boy trouble?" I don't know why, but this hurts me in a way Haymitch rarely can. It must show on my face, because even in his drunken state, he tries to take it back. "Okay, not funny." (Mockingjay)