#and got thinking about how peeta could be so dangerous and evil if he chose to be

[fictionadventurer]

I usually think of Gale as "playing by the Capitol's rules" and Peeta as "refusing to play the game", but it's not quite as simple as that. Gale and Peeta are both extremely skilled in different parts of the Game.

Gale is good at the violence part of the Capitol's game. He subverts society's rules by living as a semi-outlaw, illegally poaching to save his family, getting more and more active in fighting against oppression. Yet his violent outlook warps who he is at his core, because it warps his vision of the world into a game of "us versus them" that is actually the bedrock of the worldview that led to their oppressive society in the first place.

Peeta is good at the media spectacle at the heart of the Hunger Games. He can manipulate an entire nation with a story and a smile--a dangerous level of power. But though he's good at putting on the mask, he does so as a way to protect who he is at his core, and to stay loyal to his beliefs. He's able to subvert the system of lies into a tool for presenting the truth in ways that change people's hearts and minds.

Of the two of them, Peeta's probably the more dangerous. He could be the next President Snow if he wanted to be--manipulating the truth to warp hearts and minds and shape society in a way that best serves him. Yet Peeta doesn't play the game for personal gain. He doesn't use his skills to benefit himself. He's always acting out of love for Katniss, and eventually, for the good of all Panem, wanting to save everyone from the lies they're living under, instead of punishing some of them for their role in oppression. Gale works to save others, but only his people--everyone else "deserves" destruction, or is acceptable collateral damage. While Peeta could play the game and keep himself, Gale played the game in a way that warped even his good intentions to bad ends.

You wouldn't think that the honest hometown boy would wind up being less moral than the cunning media manipulator. Yet that's how it plays out, which suggests that it's not just playing the game that matters, but who the players are and how they choose to play.

[fictionadventurer]

"but i saw the 'if it weren't for the baby' gifset again#and got thinking about how peeta could be so dangerous and evil if he chose to be"

Just think if his feelings for Katniss weren't genuine love but more selfish desire like say Gaston. All of his actions could be TERRIFYING from a character motivated like that. Fortunately, he's not.

The version of Peeta that acts like that is canonically Coriolanus Snow! We've seen what happens when someone with Peeta's manipulation skills confuses possession with love and acts accordingly. He winds up betraying his love and becoming an evil dictator!

Which is just one reason I will never understand people who view Peeta as the boring love interest. Gale is the safe and familiar hometown boyfriend. Peeta is the mysterious stranger she barely knows who can shift masks with such skill that it takes most of the book for her to figure out which part of him is real. He wraps the Capitol audiences around his finger with barely any effort. He establishes a camaraderie with the host of the Hunger Games who's been sending kids to their death for decades. If Peeta wasn't good at his core, he'd be terrifying, which is why it's such a relief that he is good and that Katniss can trust him to act out of unselfish love.