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.
Likes include: bows, arrows, and lamb stew. Also: a certain guy named Gale. Dislikes include: Haymitch Abernathy, tracker jacker stings, getting her leg hair waxed, and the family cat. Also: occasionally her mother.
Katniss' admission that she loves Peeta in the epilogue is therefore likely to be true. It is a moment of peace in which she can proclaim how she truly feels.
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. By then, they had gone through two games together.
Gale, also from District 12, is one of Katniss' closest and most trusted friends. No one understands Katniss like Gale does, as they spent many afternoons hunting together in the woods. Those are some of Katniss' favorite memories; she always felt most like herself when she was with Gale in the woods.
peeta being in love with katniss for 3 minutes and 5 seconds straight
Does Katniss ever love Gale?
Katniss didn't really have the time to consider romance when she was worried about survival. When Peeta and Gale both made their feelings clear, Katniss wasn't entirely receptive despite caring for them both. In the end, her feelings for Peeta and Gale diverged, with Peeta ultimately winning her heart.
In Catching Fire, people who have never met or barely know them think that Gale is her cousin. Gale admits to have fallen in love with Katniss in Catching Fire.
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.
Katniss's next most significant relationship at the start of the series is her friendship with Gale Hawthorne. Gale is her best friend, and he loves Katniss very much. He wants her to run away with him but Katniss is too loyal to her mother and sister to ever leave.
The protagonist of the series, Katniss is a tough young woman who has a strong urge to always protect those weaker than herself. At the start of the novel, she craves little more than a simple, safe life for herself and her loved ones.
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.
In Chapter 9, as Caesar Flickerman interviews Peeta before the Games, Peeta reveals to Caesar and all of Panem that he's in love with Katniss. Peeta's revelation sets in motion the storyline of him and Katniss as ill-fated lovers that carries on throughout the Games.
However, Peeta desperately wanted children, and approximately fifteen years after the end of the Second Rebellion, Katniss eventually agreed and she got pregnant legitimately.
Their relationship was all friends. They trusted each other, but that doesn't mean they had romantic feelings for each other. Plus, Cinna's too old for Katniss.
Character List and Analysis Gale Hawthorne. Gale, Katniss' 18-year-old hunting partner, is well-liked by many girls in the District 12. When he first meets Katniss in the woods, he believes that her name is Catnip, and so this becomes his permanent nickname for her.
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. By this point, he knows that he and Katniss will never be together.
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.
Peeta thanks Katniss for finding him and she says that he would have done the same. He talks about what Katniss should do if he doesn't make it back. She's worried that he might die, and to keep him from speaking of such things, she kisses him. It's her first kiss.
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.
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.
