It has been five years since the Hunger Games trilogy came to a close and it remains one of the popular franchises today. Even if you aren't into movies, hundreds of people still aren't tired of picking up Suzanne Collins' novels and seeing Katniss Everdeen take the world by storm.
They also like to enjoy the romantic subplot between Gale, Katniss, and Peeta as it would help relieve the tension in the darkest moments. However, #TeamGale didn't end up getting the ending they wanted after the events of the book made the friends grow apart. Keep reading to discover the 5 worst things Katniss did to Gale (& 5 he did to her).
Katniss asks him to provide for her family
Whilst this was part of the agreement between the two, it was a little unfair of Katniss to ask Gale to look out for her family as well. Similar to Katniss, Gale became the breadwinner of the Hawthorne family after his father was killed in a mining accident.
On top of his three siblings and his mother, Gale now had to find a way to feed two other people. Without Katniss's help with the hunting, it was going to be twice as hard to make sure everyone was okay. The fact that Katniss also volunteered to protect Prim didn't help to keep the pressure off of him. If anything happened to them, Katniss would have never forgiven him.
Gale withholds information
Out of all the books, Gale and Katniss' friendship suffered the most in Mockingjay as the pair clashed on numerous things. For instance, while Gale is more extreme and radical in his strategies, Katniss would prefer him to reconsider the loss of innocent lives.
There's also another clash between the two friends when Katniss finds out that Gale was hiding information from her, particularly about Peeta. When Gale says that he was trying to protect her, Katniss gets fed up and implies that he cares more about her role in the cause than her well-being. It also doesn't help his case that he is aware of the hunter's feelings for the baker.
Katniss refuses to kill Gale
In Mockingjay, Katniss defied Gale's wishes when he was captured because she didn't want to see him dead. It seems like a nice thing for her to do, especially since Gale is soon able to escape out of the Peacekeepers' grasp because of the rebellion's "distraction". However, Katniss and Gale were both unaware that this was coming.
Keeping this in mind, if Katniss didn't kill Gale then he would have endured a much worse fate under Snow. Snow knew that Gale was another weakness of Katniss' and would have used this against her. Like Peeta, Gale could have been hijacked and lost what made him 'him'. Who knows if he would have forgiven her for putting him through that?
Gale doesn't understand Katniss' trauma
While Gale and Katniss have gone through a lot of things together, there is one aspect that Gale would never understand. Katniss's trauma from the Games. As much as Gale hopes to Katniss in the aftermath of the Games, he would never be able to understand why she isn't as fuelled with hate as he is for the Capitol.
In Mockingjay, Katniss and Gale got into an argument after the coal miner didn't understand why she cared about her prep team. When Katniss tells him that they were instrumental in helping to keep her alive, Gale is not satisfied with her answer. If he cannot understand why the world isn't as black and white for Katniss, then he will never understand her journey in the Games.
Katniss' indecision over Gale
Many fans have argued that Katniss would sometimes string Peeta and Gale along, which can be partially true when it comes to some parts of Catching Fire. In this book, Gale and Katniss were seen to grow closer, with the coal miner confessing his love for her.
Katniss was also seen to pick Gale after he received a public lashing from the Peacekeepers. However, she is later torn between her feelings for Peeta when she kisses him in the 75th annual Hunger Games. If Katniss was confused over her feelings, she only had to say so. By kissing Gale, she would give him hope that they had a chance and that wasn't fair to him if she was unsure.
Pressuring Katniss over her feelings
On the other hand, Gale was in the wrong when he was seen to pressure Katniss with his feelings. In Mockingjay, Katniss was seen to get frustrated with the soldier when she overhears him talking to Peeta about who she loved most. As a result, she tried to distance herself from the pair.
Whilst it can be frustrating to not get an answer, Gale seems to forget that Katniss is no ordinary woman and has other prioritizes on her mind. How can she think about her love life when the Rebellion was relying on her to usurp Snow and the Capitol? The last thing he should be thinking about is if she felt the same way as him.
Asking Gale to kill her
If Katniss struggled to kill Gale then what made her think that Gale could do it to her? In Mockingjay, Katniss asked her long-time friend to kill her after she assassinated President Coin instead of President Snow.
Whilst Gale's wish for death was because he wanted to avoid becoming the Capitol's puppet, Katniss' is more to do with depression and not facing the consequences of her actions. Gale would have never forgiven himself, especially after he was a cause of her downward spiral.
Jealousy over Peeta
Fans couldn't help but roll their eyes at Gale whenever he got jealous over Peeta. It was something that did get old pretty quick, especially when it came to Mockingjay. Whilst Peeta was captured by the Capitol and used as a puppet, Gale grew indifferent to him. When Katniss was able to barter a pardoning for Peeta, Gale's body was described to be tense.
When Peeta appeared on a Capitol propo, he didn't even tell her because "he wanted to protect her". Even when they finally rescued Peeta from the Capitol, Gale brought up the fact that Katniss would feel wrong being with him because of her feelings for the baker. Even if she did pick Gale, he shouldn't make her feel bad for caring about her friend.
Katniss never thanks Gale for rescuing Peeta
The kindest thing Gale did for Peeta was being part of his rescue team. Whether he did it for Katniss or because he genuinely did care about Peeta's well-being is up to the reader for them to decide. However, there was irking moment that had fans scratching their heads and that was the lack of gratitude Katniss showed him.
Despite the hunters' friendship being tense throughout Mockingjay, Gale being the first person to volunteer for the rescue mission was like he was extending the olive branch. Yet, instead, the pair just ended up getting into another argument when Katniss disagrees over the radical weapons that would later have disastrous consequences for all.
Primrose's death
The most obvious of all entries had to be Gale's part in Primrose's death. In Mockingjay, fans were devastated to find out that Katniss's younger sister was killed in the bombing outside of President Snow's mansion. Katniss later finds out that this was on the orders of President Coin, with Gale and Beetee providing the idea in the first place.
As soon as Prim was killed, any hope for Katniss and Gale was gone. Katniss even says that although President Coin was the one to give the execution order, she wouldn't be able to look at or forgive Gale without being reminded about the part he played in Prim's death. As a result, the pair ended up going their separate ways.
