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 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.
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 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.
As Haymitch explains, Peeta does want to marry Katniss, but he wishes she wanted to marry him out of love, not just necessity. Peeta also gets angry because he feels like Katniss and Haymitch are constantly manipulating him.
Hunger Games: Why Katniss Ends Up With Peeta, Not Gale
Did Katniss love Gale or Peeta?
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.
It took time for Peeta to break out of that conditioning, and even when the possibility existed that Peeta could be a danger to Katniss, the two of them still elected to be together and build a future in a post-Hunger-Games world. Their love for one another is evident.
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.
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 the arena, Peeta loves Katniss for the same reasons we love Katniss, multiplied by a lifetime of silent longing. Yet he's really only known her for a month. He's 16 years old and very much caught up in his crush. He loves an image of Katniss, and he's imagined this role for himself as epic lover.
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.
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.
This interaction was so surprising to fans because it's not in the books at all. While, throughout the series, there's some chemistry between the two, nothing ever comes of the tension in Suzanne Collins' novels. Beyond the kiss, nothing happened between the two in the movies either.
Prim was among the medics who arrived to treat the victims. Unfortunately, a second batch of bombs were set off, with Prim being killed in the explosions. Gale was not the one to drop the bombs from the hovercraft, but he was one of the key figures to devise the strategy of double bombings.
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.
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.
She is upset she will be forced to be with Peeta the rest of her life, but that is not what troubles her the most. In District 12, one of the few freedoms people have is the decision of when and whom to marry, or if to marry at all. Before the Games, Katniss had never wanted to get married — to Gale, Peeta, or anyone.
'Peeta & Katniss Kiss In The Arena' Scene | Hunger Games - YouTube. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and an injured Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) share a tender moment and a kiss, as Gale (Liam Hemsworth) watches from District 12.
Katniss has just learned that Peeta has romantic feelings for her, and initially she feels she is being used. She becomes angry with Peeta as a result, going so far as to shove him over an urn of flowers.
While the Hunger Games film never talked about it, the Catching Fire novel explained why she could only communicate through hand gestures. Katniss briefly mentioned that a previous stroke could have caused Mags' garbled speech. However, post-traumatic stress disorder could have also caused her speech incapacity.
Katniss cannot tell Gale she loves him because it will make everything much more complicated in her life. She is struggling as it is with her feelings for Peeta and Gale, and with all her worries of just keeping her family alive, love for him is the last thing she can think about right now.
Peeta is captured by the Capitol and is tortured physically, emotionally, and mentally. His feelings and memories are distorted with hallucinogenic tracker jacker venom, in a mind-control technique known as "Hijacking."
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.
Peeta used the dyes to paint a picture of Rue after Katniss covered her with flowers when she died. He says he wants to hold them accountable for killing Rue, and Effie tells him that that kind of thinking is forbidden. Katniss then tells the team she hung a dummy of Seneca Crane.
