Gale Hawthorne is Katniss Everdeen's best friend and hunting partner. In order to not cast suspicion on Katniss and Peeta Mellark's highly publicized strategic romance, Gale is presented as Katniss's cousin. He bears a resemblance to Katniss, which makes their cover believable.
Gale's character in The Hunger Games films lacked the depth and backstory he had in the books, leading to important character moments being overlooked. Gale's role as a Capitol puppet, pretending to be Katniss' cousin, was cut from the films to focus more on the love triangle dynamic between the characters.
Why do people think that Gale is Katniss's cousin?
When asked about her friends, everyone directed the camera crews to Gale. However, the Capitol people thought that Gale was "too handsome and too male" to be Katniss' best friend without jeopardizing Katniss' on-screen romance with Peeta. Therefore, Gale is presented in the interviews as Katniss' cousin.
Katniss's focus on survival and her family's safety prevented her from fully considering romance, but her feelings for Peeta and Gale diverged in the end. Katniss ultimately chose Peeta because he understood her trauma and she didn't want to lose him, proving her love for him.
In the end, Katniss and Gale grew apart, as many childhood friends and young loves do. She needed something different in her life, and with Gale's link to Primrose's death, Katniss found a reason to cut ties. If Katniss ever wanted to find comfort again, she knew she had to return to Peeta for the long term.
Katniss and Gale - It Takes me Back to when We Started
Did Katniss ever forgive Gale?
Although she will never know for sure, Katniss does recognize that she cannot be with Gale. She will never be able to forgive him for his idea — the parachute bombs — that killed Prim.
Gale was responsible for creating weapons that would trigger a second wave of bombs to target first responders and combat healers. This invention potentially ended up killing Prim, but even if he wasn't directly responsible, Katniss found this tactic so abhorrent that she lost her affection for him.
Gale does not marry anyone in The Hunger Games. He and Katniss talk about running away together and starting a new life in the wilderness, but they never officially marry.
It's only implied that they get it on via snuggling and other affectionate acts in close quarters — but if you have read the book, they really imply that they took their relationship to the next level.
At what point did Katniss fall in love with Peeta?
Katniss Fell in Love With Peeta During the Quarter Quell
Losing Peeta made her see what she had failed to see. However, the series' frightening antagonist, President Snow, remained unconvinced of Kantiss' feelings in Catching Fire. But that also seemed to imply Katniss fell in love with Peeta during their second games.
The woods are now ruined. Katniss decides that the Capitol views her and Gale's weekly hunting trips — and the one time that Gale unexpectedly kissed her, which Snow knows about — as flaunting her defiance in front of the entire district.
Katniss has a conflicted relationship with her mother. Following her father's death, her mother fell into deep depression and now rarely speaks. As a result, Katniss has a difficult time feeling love and affection for her mother, even as she recognizes that her mother is a kind and intelligent woman.
While Peeta's paintings are vivid and beautifully done, Katniss hates them because he has painted various scenes from the Hunger Games. They are very lifelike and bring up painful memories for Katniss, who finds out that Peeta has also been having nightmares since the Games.
Prim is the youngest of the Everdeen family; her sister is Katniss. Her father, Mr. Everdeen, died in a mine explosion four years before, leaving her mother, sister, and herself alone.
Prim is Katniss' younger sister who was selected in the reaping for the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, but Katniss volunteered to serve as tribute instead. She works with her mother as a healer in District 12 to care for and cure the starving, sick, and wounded. Katniss is determined to protect Prim throughout the novel.
Essentially, Katniss was afraid that if she was to kill President Snow, then the whole revolution fails, and the rivalry would still continue. Therefore, Katniss had to sacrifice by killing Coin in order to end war, and knew that Coin couldn't do anything better than Snow to save the Panem.
Did Peeta actually love Katniss before The Hunger Games?
Ever since he was five years old, Peeta had a huge crush on Katniss Everdeen. On the first day of school, Peeta's father pointed her out, saying that he wanted to marry her mother but ultimately didn't as she married a coal miner.
Finnick Odair is the youngest winner in history, winning at just 14 years old. District 2 has the most overall winners, producing "Career Tributes" and having the highest number of victors among all districts. Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes!
He only uses Katniss because the Capitol is brutally oppressive and he realizes that, with Katniss's help, the rebels have a real chance of bringing it down. This sort of cynical pragmatism largely defines Haymitch, and it stems from a combination of realism and a rebellious spirit.
Deceased. Primrose Everdeen - Blown up by President Coin's parachute bombs. Messalla - Melted in an unknown pod that trapped him before burning the flesh off him.
Before the Capitol battle, Gale had explained to Katniss his series of bombs designed to feed off human compassion: a small bomb would go off, and then when medical aid rushed in, a second bomb would go off, killing those people as well. Incidentally, it's this exact type of bomb that took Prim's life.
The double bomb that kills Katniss Everdeen's sister, Primrose, was designed by two rebels: Beetee and Gale, Katniss's lifelong friend. Previously, Gale had explained that the double bombs are designed to appeal to mankind's weakness for compassion.
