The Hunger Games: 10 Reasons Why Katniss Should Have Stayed Single

Although The Hunger Games series is not even close to a romantic story, the love triangle between Katniss Everdeen, Gale Hawthorne, and Peeta Mellark was a significant subplot of every book and movie in the franchise.

In the end, Katniss wound up with Peeta. And, while some fans argued that she belonged with Gale and others believed that Peeta was the right one for her all along, there was another obvious option. Instead of settling down and choosing a partner for life, should Katniss have just stayed single?

10 She Was Too Young To Settle Down

It’s a fairly typical trope for teen movies, but the fact that so many teenagers who are the focus of YA fiction stories seem to settle down and meet the love of their lives when they’re basically still kids is weird.

Katniss was stronger and more grown-up than most people her age in some ways, but in other ways, she was even less mature than the average teenager. She should have taken some time to actually grow into herself.

9 She Wasn’t Emotionally Or Mentally Ready For Love

Putting aside the fact that Katniss was ridiculously young to make any permanent decisions in her love life, she had more on her plate than most people deal with in one lifetime. She had been through the wringer dozens of times by the time The Hunger Games series came to its end, and she needed to actually process that and cope with it.

Considering that most of the people in her life were as wounded as she was, she should have taken some time to evolve on her own before settling down.

8 She Had A Lot Of Trauma To Process

Katniss had a tough upbringing that was punctuated by the loss of her dad, a loss that forced her to essentially become the adult of the family for the sake of Prim. Then, when Prim was selected for The Hunger Games, she was thrust into a nightmarish whirlwind that resulted in Katniss becoming a political assassin, figurehead, and serial killer.

And through all of these horrific experiences, Katniss seems to actually deal with almost none of it. She really needed to heal before choosing a life partner.

7 She Loved And Lost Gale

Regardless of how Katniss would have ultimately felt about Gale or if she even loved him in a romantic sense, the reality is, Gale was arguably the most important person in Katniss’ life besides Prim.

To not only lose him, but to lose Gale because of the part he played in Prim’s death, was a crippling blow for Katniss. She needed some time to actually mourn that relationship and what that could have been for her before truly falling in love with someone else.

6 She And Peeta Only Had Horrors In Common

Obviously, Katniss and Peeta can understand each other in ways that no one else can because they have gone through so much together that no one else has. However, it’s hard to see what they have in common besides their shared traumatic experiences.

They didn’t really know each other before the Games and they seem to naturally clash in a lot of major ways. Plus, bonding over unimaginable horror doesn’t seem like the foundation for a great, healthy relationship.

5 Her Life Needed To Be More Than The Games

Clearly, Katniss Everdeen was completely and irrevocably changed by her experience in The Hunger Games, just as anyone would be. But with that said, the Games were also the worst thing she ever dealt with, and her participation in the Games led to nearly every awful thing that has ever happened to her in her life.

Ergo, it seems obvious that everything in her life revolving around her worst experience is a terrible idea, and it would have been much healthier if she had developed relationships that weren’t a part of the Games.

4 She Needed To Explore More Of The World

Katniss may have seen more of the world than most people living in Panem, but the reality is, she was extremely isolated in District 12 and then completely controlled by Snow when she finally left her tiny town. She traveled while she was acting as the Mockingjay, but she only got to see death and destruction.

Katniss really should have taken the opportunity to see more of the world and understand all that it had to offer before settling down and getting married.

3 There Were Plenty Of People Left For Her To Meet

Katniss had some obvious romantic feelings for Gale, her long-time bestie, and Peeta, the boy with the bread. However, her life experiences were so limited when she first met them, and she never really took the chance to look beyond them.

There are a lot of people out there for Katniss to discover, and it seems likely that she could have met someone who was even better suited to her personality than the two boys she met when she was a little kid.

2 She Didn’t Have The Opportunity To Develop As An Individual

Ever since she was a child, it seems like Katniss’ life was about other people. When her father died, her life revolved around sustaining her mother and sister. Then when she volunteered for The Hunger Games, it became about playing a role to survive and win. And then when she became the Mockingjay, she had to be the symbol of the resistance.

Not only has she endured more pressure than anyone could possibly endure, but Katniss constantly has to change who she is to suit everyone else. She should have taken time to herself to figure out who she wanted to be instead of who everyone wanted her to be.

1 Her Story Was Never About Romantic Love

Katniss’ feelings for Gale and Peeta were very real, regardless of the fact that they were all teenagers during the main story. However, one thing that made The Hunger Games feel different from many other young adult stories was that the driving force behind the plot was familial love, not romantic.

It’s somewhat heartwarming to know that Peeta and Katniss had their own happy family in the end, but it would have been more thematically relevant had Katniss’ story began and ended with her love for her sister and the family she was born into.