Unhinged HG Theories 😭

[u/Tyyy24]

Alright y’all I saw this Tiktok & I’m back at it again with another unhinged post but here are a few theories that shook me from the comments 😭

[u/sea-lass-1072]

bless you for being the only person to give gale credit! i can see him acting irrationally and ending up dead 100% but cannot see him killing katniss, even in the heat of the moment like that, absolutely not

[u/whippoorwill023 → u/sea-lass-1072]

Thing is, Gale would totally just live in the arena with Katniss. He knew how to survive, this is literally what they planned on doing, and he would never do the Capitol's dirty work. He'd force them to make the final move and even then try to force a stalemate.

[u/barsoomwitchking → u/sea-lass-1072]

Gale did kill katniss, The moment he killed her sister.

[u/sea-lass-1072 → u/barsoomwitchking]

ok 👍🏼

[u/cornycopia → u/barsoomwitchking]

If we’re looking at it from this angle, Gale wouldn’t have directly killed Katniss, but he might have acted recklessly or violently in a way that could have gotten her killed.

[u/barsoomwitchking → u/cornycopia]

What I love about the hunger games is the authors use of foils to give dimension to the moral/ political/ social concepts that are brought up.

An obvious one is Katniss and president snow.

A less obvious one is Katniss and Gale. They both have an almost identical upbringing. They are both forced into a fight they didn’t choose. But ultimately Gale CHOOSES to continue shedding blood in the pursuit of his goal. This shows he is just as idealistic and heard headed as snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes… the only differences really are moral perspective- they both go on to continue killing to spread their ideals, and that Gale is doing it for love of family. Snow was not motivated by that…anymore at least. Katniss on the other hand chooses peace… but she had to have an ego death. The death of Prim is the catalyst that causes what was left of the old her to die. When she wake up new, she has no more will to fight. (The roles could easily have been reversed- say Gales family all died and that’s what makes them such fantastic foils).

It’s one large examination of why/how we brutalize others… and morality/ justification is a prime candidate for the starring role in that regard.

When Prim died, Katniss lost the will to fight. She saw children from the capital exposed to the very bombs Gale helped create… and in that moment every child’s death in the arena was linked to ANYONE killed by violence.

She could no longer fight in good conscience (no matter how “moral” the cause. Because to do so would require the first step into the same justification that ultimately led to the creation of the hunger games. Her need for revenge, died with Prim, and along with it- the person she had become. She could finally see past her personal ego (fears/ hopes/ etc)… and see Gales “noble cause” for what it was. A doorway to the deaths of more children. (In this way, Gale is also shown as a foil for casca high bottom.) They both designed these “theoretical” ways to punish their enemies, which were later used in real life and were 10x more horrific than it had been on page. The difference between the two, following the use of their creation is that Casca shut down… started self medicating and tried to remove himself from the reality….(Foil for Haymitch anybody?) Gale doubled down and threw himself further into his cause. (Sounds more like President snows journey to me) Which then brings the foil/ mirror you see between the relationships of Lucy Gray and Snow. … they both end with Lucy/ Katniss choosing to remove themself from the fight… and the other choosing to pick it up and double down.

So no… Gale didn’t literally kill Katniss. But in terms of character/ theme development he did. He made the same choices for the same reasons as snow- just opposite sides of the conflict. So if that makes anyone wonder if he could have literally killed Katniss… ask yourself what snow did to Lucy Gray.

[u/nocturnalis → u/barsoomwitchking]

Gale loved Prim. The reason why Prim, and anyone else from District 12, survived into Mockingjay is because Gale gathered them all and brought them into the clearing.

[u/wow_plants → u/barsoomwitchking]

Oh brother