When Katniss comes home to District 12, Gale immediately confesses his love for Katniss, and she realizes she might have feelings for him, too — but she can't explore them, because she has to continue her fake relationship with Peeta or else her entire family, including “cousin Gale,” will be killed.
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.
Katniss Fell in Love With Peeta During the Quarter Quell
However, it wasn't until Mockingjay -- when Peeta got kidnapped by the Capitol -- Katniss realized how much she cared about him and that she couldn't live without him.
When Gale is most in pain is when Katniss kisses him, and this is true again as we see her answer Gale's pain with a kiss. She wants to give Gale what he wants, but she can't yet completely commit to him, as she must think of her family and Peeta and being the Mockingjay for the revolution.
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 is jealous of Peeta and the relationship he has with Katniss, and he wants Katniss to decide between them, though he doesn't press Katniss during her recovery in District 13. Gale is an excellent hunter and excels at setting snares and traps.
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.
He Didn't Save Peeta's Family But some people believe Gale may have had more malicious reasons for not helping them. However, Peeta's family wasn't great. His parents were abusive, or at least distant. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had his family survived, but no one missed them much.
Katniss realizes she couldn't be a cold calculating person who would do anything to achieve her goals and that's who Gale was. He would do anything to take the Capital down. The final driving wedge is when Katniss realized that it was most likely Gale's bombs that killed Prim and Gale couldn't deny it.
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.
During The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the three-fingered salute is still used as a gesture of goodbye, but also comes to represent the anger and grief people feel toward the Capitol at taking their children to be killed.
At the end of Mockingjay, Gale relocates to District 2 and begins working in the district's government. He helps train replacements for the Capitol's Peacekeepers.
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.
Finnick's death gave even more weight to Katniss's mission to kill Snow, since he was directly responsible for the death of one of her friends - making it all the more poignant when she chooses to kill President Coin (Julianne Moore) instead of getting to personally kill Snow herself.
He didn't volunteer because he loved her. Katniss threw away her own life to protect Prim. She is the only person Prim can truly depend on in their family. With Katniss gone, the only person left who is capable and willing to care for her family is Gale.
Even though he goes through a lot, he remains tender, considerate, and loving. While Gale isn't a bad person, he lacks Peeta's easygoing and softhearted personality, which ultimately is what Katniss admires the most about Peeta.
Katniss feels betrayed, most of all by Haymitch, who used her and Peeta. Eventually she wakes to find Gale there. He's badly injured and tells her the Capitol bombed District 12 after the Games. He got Prim and Katniss's mother out in time, but the District 12 is gone.
According to the star behind Effie, Elizabeth Banks, she and Haymitch's Woody Harrelson improvised the scene. Considering she's been adamant about the characters having some romantic connection, it only makes sense that they'd share a goodbye kiss. It's very on-brand for Effie, as well.
Katniss here's this and understands that even though she may not love Peeta (then) that it's one less person who has to die. (At least that's what I have always thought.) Katniss realizes that if she pretends to be in love with Peeta people will want the capitol to let them survive.
What does Katniss realize about her relationship with Gale?
She understands that Gale is more than a friend to her but can't admit that she has romantic feelings toward him. She recalls their time in the woods, how she is a better hunter when he is there with her because she trusts him. They depend upon one another to survive and to provide for their families.
Protagonist Katniss Everdeen has two suitors: Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne. Some people prefer strong, hot-headed Gale, while others prefer kind, charismatic Peeta. When one closely examines both options, however, it becomes obvious that Peeta is the superior love interest.
