Gale And Katniss Are Proof That You Can Grow Up In The Same Circumstances And Still Learn To See The

Gale and Katniss are proof that you can grow up in the same circumstances and still learn to see the world in a different way.

Growing up in famine, abuse, violence, poverty and under control of a corrupt government gave them similar circumstances to grow up in: being the oldest sibling, their fathers dying in the mine, becoming the providers of the house at an early age, losing almost everything to said government. While Katniss developed a sense of empathy for everyone affected by this government (whether they were more privileged than her, or not), Gale developed a sense of hatred and thirst for vengeance because the people that weren’t his people had privileges that no one should have, while his family and his friends were being starved, or killed.

That’s why from an early age (pre-teen to full blown teenage years) he had always been thinking with the mindset of a hunter, only he wasn’t only hunting in the forest for prey and food, he was hunting in the real world and he was hunting his enemies, perpetrators and by-standers who did nothing to stop them, they all fit in the same category for him: the enemy. He grew up thinking of ways in which he could kill them if he could, that’s why earlier in the books he tells Katniss he would kill the Capitol citizens if he could, they were nothing to him.

When Gale sees the Capitol bomb and fire his district and kill his people, then gets evacuated to district 13 and has the opportunity to do something, to be of value and design strategies that can help kill said enemy, he does it. No second thought.

The thing is, both Katniss and Gale were right in certain aspects, especially in those they couldn’t agree on, and for me is easy to see from the perspective of both.

In war it should be common rule to offer the possibility of surrender first, but when your enemy doesn’t surrender and you see your own army lose more and more members, you attack - most of the time these are “last resort” attacks that end in lots of human life lost, but when you still give them a last chance to surrender like they did with the train in 2, it still shows a little glimpse of hope and empathy, that not everything has to be lost to war, and this is the part Gale didn’t understand, because if he paid too much thought to it, the lines would get blurred in his head, it was easier to see in black and white.

Personally, I’m in a grey zone when it comes to both of their thinking, and that’s why as a world with increasing and escalating issues we’ve created mechanisms like humanitarian law, war law, international human rights, etc, etc, we need to draw the lines, this is the playbook Katniss was referring to. What’s too much in war? A bullet to the head? Burying people in a mountain just for the sake of killing them? Where’s the line? Hijacking and manipulating people, stripping them of their consciousness and identity? Sending children into an arena to murder each other? Human trafficking? Sex trafficking? You see where I’m going? This is not about Gale, it’s about war.

Look at history, look around you. What do you see? What do you make of it? And please, use critical thinking. Is it acceptable to kill group B if they’ve killed people from group A? Do people from group B deserve a second chance, although their victims didn’t? Your opinion and reasoning depends a lot on the morals you have, and your own experience with war and abuse, which, if you’ve been lucky enough not to have a first hand experience with it, you should also take it into consideration before saying something. Just think, consider, see beyond yourself, see from different points of you, keep the definition of good and evil close to your hand and take note where they start to get blurry. What do you see?

Jason: feral boy in his element, tearing through the battlefield, ripping monsters apart with his bare hands.

Percy: I could take him.

Annabeth: Yeah in a fight.

Percy: Oh, yeah.. Yeah...watches Jason rip a monsters neck with his teeth That's what I meant...

Annabeth:...your drooling.

like gale's character is such a fascinating lens to view the entire revolution through. the capitol hates you. the capitol wants you dead. you put your name in for reaping fifty times so your siblings only have to put their name in once for the extra ratios. you sneak out with your best friend to hunt.

you hate the capitol, but life is fine enough. you put your name in another twenty times so your best friend's family can eat. you take care of her little sister. you think you love her. you don't know that for sure. is it just convenience? who knows. but you care for her little sister and she cares for your siblings. between the two of you, you're both up for slaughter thousands of times of over.

you're so lucky. you're so so lucky. you're turning eighteen. your best friend turns eighteen next year. you're almost free. her little sister gets reaped. a one in a million chance - she was only in there ONCE. it's a no brainer your best friend volunteers to save her sister. you understand - you would too if you could volunteer in her place. you hate the capitol and wish to see it fall in your life time. your friend is gone and you have one task: keep her sister safe.

she comes back alive. so does the person she left with. they have a bond you cannot hope to understand - and you accept that. you swallow your pride, put your cards on the table, and leave it. you know you have no chance. you take care of her family anyway. you think it's fine now, it can't get worse. then the capitol sends you bug infested food. then they prevent you from hunting. the leash is tightened, and you hate the capitol. you can't even offer yourself up for reaping anymore, and your siblings are in danger. the water is rushing in, and you're drowning, and you're angry.

the capitol has earmarked you for destruction, all because your best friend lived and was clever enough to bring the other tribute home. when the quarter quell comes, they take your best friend for the second time. the bombs come. and you have one task: keep her sister safe. the only way to guarantee that is to fight back. so you take up arms, and you fight.

she comes back. he does not. you do not celebrate, because she is in pain. but at least you can show her that her sister is safe. you're twisted up in guilt because there's nothing you can do for her. all you can do is fight, and hope it'll save everyone.

then the one person you were tasked to keep safe dies. and you don't know what happened. all you know is that the sum of the war meant no one was safe. so you do the only thing you can do for her sanity after the war: you leave. you leave, because you don't like who you've become anymore than she does. war and revolution has ruined you, changed you, warped you.

and worst part is: it didn't keep anyone safe, least of all you.

been thinking about jetko lately…. the atla renaissance failed them. they should have been the MOMENT, not fucking zukka. the mutual trauma over the FN left unhealed, the mutual anger and frustration at injustice (albeit the execution tends to be different), jet seeing an outcast within zuko and wanting him to join his group, the budding friendship, the misplaced betrayal after jet found out zuko was a firebender, the direct link fire has to both of their traumas, the homoerotic sword fight, the parallels they share when it comes to their relationship with katara (the trust she places in both of them, their betrayal, the forgiveness, yet one is saved and another is doomed to be forgotten). oh my DAYS, y’all spat in they FACES !!!

Y'all are so gross about Gale, it's really telling.

Like, this is a kid who has been forced to be an adult and seen his whole community be brutalized and literally blown into bits and what, he's expected to be real level-headed and reasonable and compassionate?

"Oh, but Peeta didn't do this. Katniss didn't do that."

Have y'all ever heard of different trauma responses? Katniss flees. Peeta fawns. Gale fights.

I'm sorry Gale isn't a perfect victim. Systematic oppression and brutality doesn't create perfect victims. It only traumatizes people. It makes them justifiably angry. It makes them want justice. (And you know, Gale is a fucking kid.)

So Gale's anger and hatred makes you uncomfortable? Makes you feel icky? Good. Sit in it. Reflect on it. And realize that the people you should be directing your outrage towards are the people doing the brutalization and oppression, not the victims.

(Yes, I know Gale is a fictional character. I also know that the way some of y'all see him is the same way you see people fighting back against oppression.)

🔥 gale?

the takes couldn't get hotter with gale honestly.

the fandom villainizing gale has to be one of the most extreme examples of character hatred and considerably racism that i have ever seen.

people like to dehumanize gale, an impoverished boy of color from the poorest part of the most penurious district who had been heavily oppressed alongside his people by the capitol, and watched the people around him fall to squalor and starvation. when his home is then BOMBED and turned to ashes by that same oppressor, he goes out of his way to save 900+ victims out of the 1000 population count.

in dealing with the war that followed, gale then weaponizes his passion, anger and hurt that had followed him and the district for years, seeking justice and having that very thing backfire after a weapon he helped to develop, not create, not put out himself, but simply curate ideas and thoughts — ended up killing one of the people he had sworn to protect for the entire trilogy, primrose everdeen, (his best friend's sister and the most cherished person within her life.) despite knowing that gale is not responsible for her death, but rather helped to again, create the weaponry that led to it, was something that she distanced herself from him for and moved away from him for.

and yet, YET people will come to the defense of coriolanus / president snow, a WHITE elderly man and excuse his dictatorship, the trafficking of HIS victors, the abuse he put his victors, civilians AND the districts through, and the indoctrination and full corruption of the very centre of panem. he gets a pass because he's attractive in the movies and acts a certain way in the books, but then people are quick to tear down gale (a victim OF snow's reign and who was opressed BY him?) and compare them as if any of that is within the same vein.

yes, snow is extremist and gale has traits of extremism, but one is a fully fledged 80 year old dictator with generations of blood on his hands and the other is an 18-20 year old poc who is a victim of his circumstances and tries to fight back from the systemic exploitation and abuse that he and his people suffer through BECAUSE of snow. they are not comparable in any way and the "prim reaper" jokes are foul and disgusting and have never been funny.

yes, gale has a lot of issues personality wise that make him dislikable, and treats katniss with a lot of dismissal and can often have an uncomfortable relationship with her, but that doesn't mean you get to treat him sub-human for his other characteristics in which are justified.

send 🔥 for more hot takes!