Peeta Mellark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
victorbychance) wrote2012-04-21 07:35 pm
victorbychance) wrote2012-04-21 07:35 pm
Entry tags:
OOC: Luceti Application
Mun
Name: Tori
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: tori-angeli
E-mail: phoenixrider at earthling dot net
AIM: mtNOSPAMangeli
Current Characters at Luceti: Archie Kennedy
Character
Name: Peeta Mellark
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: Catching Fire, in the lift tube just before the Quarter Quell begins.
Wing Color: Dandelion yellow
History: I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?
Personality:
I think Peeta Mellark can best be described by an acronym involving the letters of the alphabet, so I’ll start with that.
Just kidding.
Come to think of it, that sounds like something he’d say.
Peeta seems to have been deliberately created to be the epitome dream guy. He’s the only character in the series Katniss describes as “good.” As in, he constantly puts others before himself, to the point where it’s easy to wonder he has no self-worth, is biologically lacking in any self-preservation instincts, or if he’s simply angelically humble (I think it’s a combination of the first and last). Indeed, he seems to spend as little time as possible thinking about himself, which includes (besides two dark points) any form of self-pity or brooding. He’s good in the sense of something that permeates every thought and action. His morality is completely devoid of revenge or gossip, and his natural charisma makes him a real charmer to boot. He is kind, patient, loving, romantic, strong, solid, and dependable. On the other hand, he’s also very possibly the series’ best liar and manipulator.
So many of Peeta’s traits begin with his charisma. In the interviews the night before the Hunger Games begin, the tributes are given three minutes to make an impression. Both times, Peeta completely blows the other candidates out of the water with his easy charm and witty humor. Katniss remembers him always being surrounded by a crowd of friends at school—no one close enough to volunteer to take his place in the Games, but probably very good friends nonetheless. He has an inborn way with people, and knows exactly how to get the reaction he wants in front of a crowd. It’s no time at all before a crowd is eating out of his hand.
This innate sense of how people work is his superpower, which he uses for good. His manipulations are used to benefit Katniss in the Hunger Games—first, making her look desirable by confessing his love publicly, then causing outrage before the second Games by saying she’s going into the arena pregnant. He has a very patient way of dealing with Haymitch and the morphling woman from 6, and in the latter case gives her a sense of comfort as she dies. He pulls a particularly powerful stunt on Katniss by bringing into the second arena a locket containing pictures of her family and Gale to try to convince her to save herself instead of him. While she is deeply moved, she still refuses to budge on the issue. It’s not a literal superpower, after all. The closest we come to seeing Peeta use this power for himself is in his casual statements of flirtation to Katniss when he’s already been told she’s not ready to love him or anyone. Even then, the flirting seems to be designed to uplift rather than guilt. Haymitch hardly ever coached Peeta on how to appear in front of a crowd, since he decided he was such a natural there was no point in wasting his time.
Part of this superpower is that he is a brilliant liar. The first memory Katniss has of him is the infamous day when he throws her two loaves of bread in the rain. Upon seeing her starving, he deliberately burned a few loaves of bread, knowing his mother would probably beat him for it. Taking her blow in stride, he carried the loaves out, threw one or two to the pigs, then discreetly tossed the last two in Katniss’ direction before going back inside. Without saying a word, he lied to his mother, letting her believe him clumsy and stupid in order to give Katniss bread his mother believed was going to the pigs. His lies to the audience about a secret marriage between him and Katniss and fabricates a pregnancy to increase sympathy for her. It is highly likely that this skill for deceit is as much a part of his survival routine as hunting is for Katniss. Peeta is (presumably) the youngest son in an unstable household, and lying is probably something he learned to do to diffuse his mother’s wrath for his sake and the sake of his brothers and father.
Being a liar doesn’t make him malicious. Peeta is incredibly kind, something Katniss first suspects (aside from the bread incident) when he volunteers to clean up Haymitch on the train. Haymitch is drunk, unconscious, and covered in his own vomit, but Peeta does not hesitate or complain. When he and Katniss visit District 11 as part of their Victory Tour, he publicly donates one month of their winnings to the families of Rue and Thresh every year for the rest of their lives to honor the sacrifice of their good-hearted children. When the idea backfires and he realizes this could spell trouble for the families instead of an end to their hunger, he is mortified and furious no one warned him the situation is so delicate. In fact, it’s one of the few times we see him angry enough to break things, and a few dusty old statues see the ends of their lives. He can’t abide being the cause of someone’s suffering.
Also despite being a liar, he has a very strong sense of integrity. The night before the first Games begins, his main concern besides getting Katniss out alive is keeping himself. “I want to die as myself,” he says. He doesn't want the arena to change him, and he wishes he could find a way to show the Capitol he's more than a tribute, more than a source of entertainment. In the end, he finds a way to do that, in the aborted suicide pact he and Katniss form. His highest, most selfish concern is protecting his self-identity.
Even when dying in the first book, Peeta has an irrepressible cheer, a real humor and wit and a desire to cheer people up. Delirious with blood poisoning, he apologizes to Katniss for costing her so much trouble, but assures her not to worry as she’ll get it all back. There’s an interesting dire quality to his humor, not really gallows humor, but putting a light spin on dark situations by making them seem not quite so bad. In the second book, his heart stops when he runs into a force field. When Finnick barely manages to revive him, his first, weak words to a nigh-hysterical Katniss are to warn her of a force field up ahead. His flirtations with Katniss in the second book tend to be lightly dusted with humor. He tells her they’re supposed to be acting madly in love, so she should feel free to kiss him at any time.
Rarely, Peeta has been known to display a temper. It seems to take quite a bit to really rile him, and it almost always involves someone else being wronged. Besides the previously mentioned incident in which he feared Rue and Thresh’s families would be punished, he is furious in the third book when President Coin suggests holding a Hunger Games involving children of the Capitol. He’s irked when Katniss shoves him into an urn and causes his hands to be badly cut, but doesn’t fly into a rage the way he does when it’s someone else on the line. The key factor seems to be personal responsibility—if it’s something he can stop, he takes it more personally. He really seems to believe in his own power to change things, and compromising that power or corrupting it is very, very problematic for him.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone with such a resolutely hopeful outlook on life, he’s a resilient sort of fellow. As evidenced by the second book, he doesn’t really bottle his feelings (although it takes him years to express his crush on Katniss). When Katniss awakes from a nightmare, she screams. When Peeta awakes from a nightmare, he paints. Katniss is “treated” to an exhibit of Peeta’s renditions of scenes from the Games, so accurate that she can’t bear to look at them. This method of self-expression possibly reduces, but does not cure, a natural sense of shame over his lack of ability to control his post-traumatic symptoms. He says they don’t make the nightmares better, but they must bring him some sense of catharsis or control, or he wouldn’t do it.
His devotion to Katniss’ well-being could be said to be a control issue resulting not only from his traumatic experiences in the Games, but from an unstable family life with an abusive parent as well. He never says so straight out, but I rather believe that, while he is truly a good and selfless person, helping others above himself provides him with a sense of control he has lost thanks to many circumstances in his life. Protecting someone else as well as himself is too difficult, but if he looks out entirely for someone else and not himself, that’s easier. Maybe he’s given up on protecting himself anyway. But if he can protect Katniss in any way possible, he can control something. He can really make a difference. He can be worth something. Even his taskmaster phase of sobering Haymitch and Katniss up for the second Games was for their sake, not his, and by gum he made them do it. Peeta is at least as fiercely protective as Katniss, but Katniss has her methods and Peeta has his, and in Peeta’s case, his protectiveness only marginally includes himself. It’s possible after so many years of taking his mother’s criticism and abuse, his sense of self-worth is not what it could be, but that can’t be all of it. His goodness is a strength of his, not a result of damage, and his selflessness is part of his goodness, so low self-worth can’t possibly be the entire explanation.
Peeta is a Sensitive Guy. As said before, it’s like Suzanne Collins wanted to create the epitome of What Women Want. When Peeta and Katniss meet after saying goodbye to their families in the first book, Peeta isn’t even trying to hide the fact that he has been crying. He’s far more prone to romantic sentiments than Katniss and his sense of hope in the world can lead him to getting hurt (although he seems to think it worthwhile). He’s clearly jealous of Gale in the second book and expresses to Katniss that they’ve saved each others’ lives but he doesn’t even know her favorite color. He’s not just a horny teenager, he’s a dude who would do anything for the one he loves, including dying. In future years, he’s the one who wants kids and convinces Katniss that she wants them as well. His fury and despair in the third book over being turned into a weapon against his friends leads him to suggest self-termination far too often and easily, and Katniss has to do an awful lot of convincing to get him to stay with her instead. But as stated before, he’s also resilient. He bleeds badly when he’s cut, but he’s willing to stick it out and wait till he heals again. In the end, after everything he’s been through, he still manages to find happiness with Katniss and their children.
Katniss thinks of Peeta as a wordsmith. He has a way of arresting people when he talks, and not just because of his charisma. Peeta has the mind of an artist, and words seem to be a part of that. More immediately, he’s an actual artist, a painter and (to go with the Sensitive Guy aspect) a cake decorator. Part of how he copes with the trauma of the Games is to paint, and part of his therapy after being hijacked is decorating Annie and Finnick’s wedding cake. In the end, he, Katniss, and Haymitch make an illustrated book about the other tributes and lives lost because of President Snow. It’s as naturally a part of him as breathing, and he’s very good at it.
Katniss describes a few habits of his, like how his default easy expression gives way to intense concentration when he’s being an artist. “You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.” Touch seems to be a real love language for him, and he spends many nights sleeping with Katniss in his arms to ward off both their nightmares (his are mostly of losing her, so when he wakes up and sees her, he’s fine, but it’s harder when he’s alone).
In conclusion, I think Peeta is best summed up by the following Weezer lyrics:
Again, I’m just kidding.
Strengths:
Physical
Peeta is very strong and solidly built, capable of lifting and chucking around 100-lb bags of flour at the bakery. He’s also handy with a knife, as evidenced by him killing (according to his own brainwashed word, anyway) one of the strongest tributes in the Quarter Quell.
Mental
Peeta is extremely intelligent and able to keep his cool even when being choked to death by Cato at the end of the first book, managing to draw an X on Cato’s hand as a target for Katniss’ arrow. If he were a villain, he’d be along the lines of David Xanatos or Gul Dukat or other charismatic chessmasters, since he’s basically a good-aligned chessmaster anyway. His planted lies and manipulations (with the Career tributes in the first book, for example) prove that well enough. He has loads of charisma and is good in front of cameras. He’s diligent, taking notes while watching videos of past victors before the Quarter Quell. He’s focused, acting as a taskmaster to get Katniss and Haymitch into shape before the Quarter Quell. He’s also a fantastic liar. Katniss herself can’t always tell when he’s telling the truth. On the other hand, he can always tell when she’s lying.
Emotional
He’s resilient and tends to shy away from bottling, managing to find healthy ways to cope with his post-traumatic symptoms (as he can generally continue to lead a normal life and get on the mend without professional help, I don’t believe he necessarily has PTSD the way Katniss does, at least not at his current canon point). He’s almost incorruptibly good. Even in Mockingjay when he is systematically tortured and conditioned against Katniss, he doesn’t actually lose his innate goodness. He’s determined, even stubborn, and once he has made up his mind to help someone, even imminent death will not stop him.
Weaknesses:
Physical
Peeta is a squishy human. His formal training can be compiled into all of six days, and much of that was survival techniques more than combat. He has absolutely no stealth whatsoever and Katniss despairs of catching any game when she takes him hunting. Even when he takes off his shoes, he crashes around so badly she suggests he “keep watch” to get him out of the way. Also, as revealed in the Quarter Quell, he can’t swim and is completely reliant on Finnick to get him from the pedestal to the beach. Part of this impairment might be thanks to a prosthetic leg he has as a token of his first Games. He has more or less mastered walking on it at this point, but I imagine it would make swimming difficult even if he learned how.
Mental
Not a lot, frankly. Peeta is a guile hero. Still, he has very few survival skills and very nearly kills himself and Katniss by picking poisonous berries in the first book. He’s at a real loss when it comes to nature, although he’s excellent at camouflage thanks to his art background. Other than that, he’s completely at Katniss’ mercy when it comes to finding food in the wilderness. He’s also known to show the occasional carelessness, like when he didn’t stop to wonder if his stunt in District 11 would actually help Rue and Thresh’s families or if it would be seen as an act of rebellion.
Emotional
He’s a Sensitive Guy. He gets emotionally invested quickly and is hurt easily even though he withstands it. Finding out Katniss’ affection for him was all part of the game caused him to basically ignore her existence for months afterwards, although he eventually had the emotional maturity to choose not to be wounded and try to be friends. His sense of morality can give him a real blind spot, such as when he tried to be generous to Rue and Thresh’s families and instead nearly caused them to be killed. The event upset him badly, showing he can have a real temper when the right circumstances come along. Katniss herself is an emotional weakness for him, provoking him to lose all sense of self-preservation that does not relate to keeping her alive, and making him jealous of Gale.
Samples
First Person:
Where I grew up, you didn’t really choose for yourself what you wanted to be. You usually did what your family did, or you went and worked in the coal mines. I guess it was safer that way. Everyone was so focused on having enough and providing for their families that there wasn’t really much time to branch out. You did what you had to do.
One day, I was watching this program on television. It was this interview with a young girl, at the Capitol. A lot of the usual stuff, like what it’s like for a girl from one of the Districts to visit the Capitol, but one question made both her and me go quiet. He asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. I’ve never seen a twelve-year-old’s eyes go that wide.
I think I was about seven when I saw that, and I never forgot it. I used to wonder, if I could choose to do anything, anything I wanted, what would I choose? No limitations. Anything I wanted. And I knew almost right away, every time I asked myself, that I wanted to make beautiful things. Thing is, beautiful things don’t really sell when most of your District is poor. Most people like that don’t buy anything they don’t need. Then one day I realized, everyone needs food, don’t they? My father’s a baker. So I started decorating cakes. I got pretty good at it, too. At first I thought I might be wasting my time, but then the cakes I decorated started really selling. Mostly for special occasions.
But here, it’s different. Here, there’s no money. There’s no reason to do anything except because we want to. I could paint pictures all day here and no one would mind. Thing is, I don’t think I could if I tried. People here need things, too, things the Malnosso can’t provide. Like cake decorators. You think you don’t need one, and next thing you know, your girlfriend proposes. Or maybe you’re having a baby, or someone’s having a birthday. Maybe those robots are unbeatable, but put one in an apron and give him a spoonful of icing and he’s clueless. Besides, I’d rather be doing someone some good. Everyone should be able to smile sometimes.
So you. You could be anything here. What do you want to do when you grow up?
Third Person:
Peeta’s wings shaded the back of his neck as well as they could, but beads of sweat till glimmered there, poised to roll off. Something in his brain was vaguely aware that the sun was burning him, but the rest of him was occupied with painting along the curve of a pencil stroke. The wood of the bakery’s new sign was slightly stained with leftover coffee but unfinished, since Peeta knew the shellac would protect the both the stain and the painted design when all was through. It would be practically weatherproof. Such a luxury would have been expensive beyond belief back in District 12, even for a baker’s family.
The sign could be considered quaint, but fell short of being trite. The border was done with a fine brush in grass green; a winding vine with blue flowers. At the bottom, a pile of bread loaves. One was the sort of loaf 12 was famous for back home, hearty with nuts and raisins. Another was the seeded loaf of District 11. Accompanying them were two cheese buns, as well as an assortment of cakes, cookies, and tarts, all of which were actually offered inside the bakery. It had a provincial look to it, natural and fresh, as if even on a rainy day one could find the sun and hot bread inside this building.
The name of the bakery was in the palest of blues, with a slightly darker one shading the letters. A streak of that pale blue raced across the right side of his jaw and stopped short at his chin. He took no notice. This paint was better left to dry anyway. Afterward, it would peel right off. He couldn’t be interrupted. This was the first semi-professional artwork he’d really done, not counting all the displays of “talent” he’d done after his first Games.
It also helped him keep from thinking about all the people he hurt when he arrived here.
It hadn’t lasted long. One instant, he’d been in the lift tube to begin the Quarter Quell. The next, he’d been picking himself up in a sort of barracks, a few feet away from a platform like the one that had carried him to the Games. Confused by the lack of countdown or Cornucopia, he’d seized the largest knife he’d seen and when he stepped outside, what had he seen?
Mutts.
They looked like people. Except they had wings. Wings of many colors and patterns, some like birds, some a single solid color, some a hundred different colors. Small and useless, but still inhuman. He had looked for Katniss, looked for any of the others, but there was no one. He was surrounded by muttations in the seventy-fifth Hunger Games, and he was armed.
By the time they’d pinned him down and pried the knife from his hand, he’d wounded two people and killed a third.
People came back here, he’d been told. It didn’t change what he did. Nothing could. Daubed with paint, painted with blood, he was irreversibly stained for killing an innocent. He couldn’t even blame this one on the Capitol. This, he did all on his own.
A bead of sweat falls.
Name: Tori
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username: tori-angeli
E-mail: phoenixrider at earthling dot net
AIM: mtNOSPAMangeli
Current Characters at Luceti: Archie Kennedy
Character
Name: Peeta Mellark
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: Catching Fire, in the lift tube just before the Quarter Quell begins.
Wing Color: Dandelion yellow
History: I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?
Personality:
I think Peeta Mellark can best be described by an acronym involving the letters of the alphabet, so I’ll start with that.
Just kidding.
Come to think of it, that sounds like something he’d say.
Peeta seems to have been deliberately created to be the epitome dream guy. He’s the only character in the series Katniss describes as “good.” As in, he constantly puts others before himself, to the point where it’s easy to wonder he has no self-worth, is biologically lacking in any self-preservation instincts, or if he’s simply angelically humble (I think it’s a combination of the first and last). Indeed, he seems to spend as little time as possible thinking about himself, which includes (besides two dark points) any form of self-pity or brooding. He’s good in the sense of something that permeates every thought and action. His morality is completely devoid of revenge or gossip, and his natural charisma makes him a real charmer to boot. He is kind, patient, loving, romantic, strong, solid, and dependable. On the other hand, he’s also very possibly the series’ best liar and manipulator.
So many of Peeta’s traits begin with his charisma. In the interviews the night before the Hunger Games begin, the tributes are given three minutes to make an impression. Both times, Peeta completely blows the other candidates out of the water with his easy charm and witty humor. Katniss remembers him always being surrounded by a crowd of friends at school—no one close enough to volunteer to take his place in the Games, but probably very good friends nonetheless. He has an inborn way with people, and knows exactly how to get the reaction he wants in front of a crowd. It’s no time at all before a crowd is eating out of his hand.
This innate sense of how people work is his superpower, which he uses for good. His manipulations are used to benefit Katniss in the Hunger Games—first, making her look desirable by confessing his love publicly, then causing outrage before the second Games by saying she’s going into the arena pregnant. He has a very patient way of dealing with Haymitch and the morphling woman from 6, and in the latter case gives her a sense of comfort as she dies. He pulls a particularly powerful stunt on Katniss by bringing into the second arena a locket containing pictures of her family and Gale to try to convince her to save herself instead of him. While she is deeply moved, she still refuses to budge on the issue. It’s not a literal superpower, after all. The closest we come to seeing Peeta use this power for himself is in his casual statements of flirtation to Katniss when he’s already been told she’s not ready to love him or anyone. Even then, the flirting seems to be designed to uplift rather than guilt. Haymitch hardly ever coached Peeta on how to appear in front of a crowd, since he decided he was such a natural there was no point in wasting his time.
Part of this superpower is that he is a brilliant liar. The first memory Katniss has of him is the infamous day when he throws her two loaves of bread in the rain. Upon seeing her starving, he deliberately burned a few loaves of bread, knowing his mother would probably beat him for it. Taking her blow in stride, he carried the loaves out, threw one or two to the pigs, then discreetly tossed the last two in Katniss’ direction before going back inside. Without saying a word, he lied to his mother, letting her believe him clumsy and stupid in order to give Katniss bread his mother believed was going to the pigs. His lies to the audience about a secret marriage between him and Katniss and fabricates a pregnancy to increase sympathy for her. It is highly likely that this skill for deceit is as much a part of his survival routine as hunting is for Katniss. Peeta is (presumably) the youngest son in an unstable household, and lying is probably something he learned to do to diffuse his mother’s wrath for his sake and the sake of his brothers and father.
Being a liar doesn’t make him malicious. Peeta is incredibly kind, something Katniss first suspects (aside from the bread incident) when he volunteers to clean up Haymitch on the train. Haymitch is drunk, unconscious, and covered in his own vomit, but Peeta does not hesitate or complain. When he and Katniss visit District 11 as part of their Victory Tour, he publicly donates one month of their winnings to the families of Rue and Thresh every year for the rest of their lives to honor the sacrifice of their good-hearted children. When the idea backfires and he realizes this could spell trouble for the families instead of an end to their hunger, he is mortified and furious no one warned him the situation is so delicate. In fact, it’s one of the few times we see him angry enough to break things, and a few dusty old statues see the ends of their lives. He can’t abide being the cause of someone’s suffering.
Also despite being a liar, he has a very strong sense of integrity. The night before the first Games begins, his main concern besides getting Katniss out alive is keeping himself. “I want to die as myself,” he says. He doesn't want the arena to change him, and he wishes he could find a way to show the Capitol he's more than a tribute, more than a source of entertainment. In the end, he finds a way to do that, in the aborted suicide pact he and Katniss form. His highest, most selfish concern is protecting his self-identity.
Even when dying in the first book, Peeta has an irrepressible cheer, a real humor and wit and a desire to cheer people up. Delirious with blood poisoning, he apologizes to Katniss for costing her so much trouble, but assures her not to worry as she’ll get it all back. There’s an interesting dire quality to his humor, not really gallows humor, but putting a light spin on dark situations by making them seem not quite so bad. In the second book, his heart stops when he runs into a force field. When Finnick barely manages to revive him, his first, weak words to a nigh-hysterical Katniss are to warn her of a force field up ahead. His flirtations with Katniss in the second book tend to be lightly dusted with humor. He tells her they’re supposed to be acting madly in love, so she should feel free to kiss him at any time.
Rarely, Peeta has been known to display a temper. It seems to take quite a bit to really rile him, and it almost always involves someone else being wronged. Besides the previously mentioned incident in which he feared Rue and Thresh’s families would be punished, he is furious in the third book when President Coin suggests holding a Hunger Games involving children of the Capitol. He’s irked when Katniss shoves him into an urn and causes his hands to be badly cut, but doesn’t fly into a rage the way he does when it’s someone else on the line. The key factor seems to be personal responsibility—if it’s something he can stop, he takes it more personally. He really seems to believe in his own power to change things, and compromising that power or corrupting it is very, very problematic for him.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone with such a resolutely hopeful outlook on life, he’s a resilient sort of fellow. As evidenced by the second book, he doesn’t really bottle his feelings (although it takes him years to express his crush on Katniss). When Katniss awakes from a nightmare, she screams. When Peeta awakes from a nightmare, he paints. Katniss is “treated” to an exhibit of Peeta’s renditions of scenes from the Games, so accurate that she can’t bear to look at them. This method of self-expression possibly reduces, but does not cure, a natural sense of shame over his lack of ability to control his post-traumatic symptoms. He says they don’t make the nightmares better, but they must bring him some sense of catharsis or control, or he wouldn’t do it.
His devotion to Katniss’ well-being could be said to be a control issue resulting not only from his traumatic experiences in the Games, but from an unstable family life with an abusive parent as well. He never says so straight out, but I rather believe that, while he is truly a good and selfless person, helping others above himself provides him with a sense of control he has lost thanks to many circumstances in his life. Protecting someone else as well as himself is too difficult, but if he looks out entirely for someone else and not himself, that’s easier. Maybe he’s given up on protecting himself anyway. But if he can protect Katniss in any way possible, he can control something. He can really make a difference. He can be worth something. Even his taskmaster phase of sobering Haymitch and Katniss up for the second Games was for their sake, not his, and by gum he made them do it. Peeta is at least as fiercely protective as Katniss, but Katniss has her methods and Peeta has his, and in Peeta’s case, his protectiveness only marginally includes himself. It’s possible after so many years of taking his mother’s criticism and abuse, his sense of self-worth is not what it could be, but that can’t be all of it. His goodness is a strength of his, not a result of damage, and his selflessness is part of his goodness, so low self-worth can’t possibly be the entire explanation.
Peeta is a Sensitive Guy. As said before, it’s like Suzanne Collins wanted to create the epitome of What Women Want. When Peeta and Katniss meet after saying goodbye to their families in the first book, Peeta isn’t even trying to hide the fact that he has been crying. He’s far more prone to romantic sentiments than Katniss and his sense of hope in the world can lead him to getting hurt (although he seems to think it worthwhile). He’s clearly jealous of Gale in the second book and expresses to Katniss that they’ve saved each others’ lives but he doesn’t even know her favorite color. He’s not just a horny teenager, he’s a dude who would do anything for the one he loves, including dying. In future years, he’s the one who wants kids and convinces Katniss that she wants them as well. His fury and despair in the third book over being turned into a weapon against his friends leads him to suggest self-termination far too often and easily, and Katniss has to do an awful lot of convincing to get him to stay with her instead. But as stated before, he’s also resilient. He bleeds badly when he’s cut, but he’s willing to stick it out and wait till he heals again. In the end, after everything he’s been through, he still manages to find happiness with Katniss and their children.
Katniss thinks of Peeta as a wordsmith. He has a way of arresting people when he talks, and not just because of his charisma. Peeta has the mind of an artist, and words seem to be a part of that. More immediately, he’s an actual artist, a painter and (to go with the Sensitive Guy aspect) a cake decorator. Part of how he copes with the trauma of the Games is to paint, and part of his therapy after being hijacked is decorating Annie and Finnick’s wedding cake. In the end, he, Katniss, and Haymitch make an illustrated book about the other tributes and lives lost because of President Snow. It’s as naturally a part of him as breathing, and he’s very good at it.
Katniss describes a few habits of his, like how his default easy expression gives way to intense concentration when he’s being an artist. “You’re a painter. You’re a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces.” Touch seems to be a real love language for him, and he spends many nights sleeping with Katniss in his arms to ward off both their nightmares (his are mostly of losing her, so when he wakes up and sees her, he’s fine, but it’s harder when he’s alone).
In conclusion, I think Peeta is best summed up by the following Weezer lyrics:
Again, I’m just kidding.
Strengths:
Physical
Peeta is very strong and solidly built, capable of lifting and chucking around 100-lb bags of flour at the bakery. He’s also handy with a knife, as evidenced by him killing (according to his own brainwashed word, anyway) one of the strongest tributes in the Quarter Quell.
Mental
Peeta is extremely intelligent and able to keep his cool even when being choked to death by Cato at the end of the first book, managing to draw an X on Cato’s hand as a target for Katniss’ arrow. If he were a villain, he’d be along the lines of David Xanatos or Gul Dukat or other charismatic chessmasters, since he’s basically a good-aligned chessmaster anyway. His planted lies and manipulations (with the Career tributes in the first book, for example) prove that well enough. He has loads of charisma and is good in front of cameras. He’s diligent, taking notes while watching videos of past victors before the Quarter Quell. He’s focused, acting as a taskmaster to get Katniss and Haymitch into shape before the Quarter Quell. He’s also a fantastic liar. Katniss herself can’t always tell when he’s telling the truth. On the other hand, he can always tell when she’s lying.
Emotional
He’s resilient and tends to shy away from bottling, managing to find healthy ways to cope with his post-traumatic symptoms (as he can generally continue to lead a normal life and get on the mend without professional help, I don’t believe he necessarily has PTSD the way Katniss does, at least not at his current canon point). He’s almost incorruptibly good. Even in Mockingjay when he is systematically tortured and conditioned against Katniss, he doesn’t actually lose his innate goodness. He’s determined, even stubborn, and once he has made up his mind to help someone, even imminent death will not stop him.
Weaknesses:
Physical
Peeta is a squishy human. His formal training can be compiled into all of six days, and much of that was survival techniques more than combat. He has absolutely no stealth whatsoever and Katniss despairs of catching any game when she takes him hunting. Even when he takes off his shoes, he crashes around so badly she suggests he “keep watch” to get him out of the way. Also, as revealed in the Quarter Quell, he can’t swim and is completely reliant on Finnick to get him from the pedestal to the beach. Part of this impairment might be thanks to a prosthetic leg he has as a token of his first Games. He has more or less mastered walking on it at this point, but I imagine it would make swimming difficult even if he learned how.
Mental
Not a lot, frankly. Peeta is a guile hero. Still, he has very few survival skills and very nearly kills himself and Katniss by picking poisonous berries in the first book. He’s at a real loss when it comes to nature, although he’s excellent at camouflage thanks to his art background. Other than that, he’s completely at Katniss’ mercy when it comes to finding food in the wilderness. He’s also known to show the occasional carelessness, like when he didn’t stop to wonder if his stunt in District 11 would actually help Rue and Thresh’s families or if it would be seen as an act of rebellion.
Emotional
He’s a Sensitive Guy. He gets emotionally invested quickly and is hurt easily even though he withstands it. Finding out Katniss’ affection for him was all part of the game caused him to basically ignore her existence for months afterwards, although he eventually had the emotional maturity to choose not to be wounded and try to be friends. His sense of morality can give him a real blind spot, such as when he tried to be generous to Rue and Thresh’s families and instead nearly caused them to be killed. The event upset him badly, showing he can have a real temper when the right circumstances come along. Katniss herself is an emotional weakness for him, provoking him to lose all sense of self-preservation that does not relate to keeping her alive, and making him jealous of Gale.
Samples
First Person:
Where I grew up, you didn’t really choose for yourself what you wanted to be. You usually did what your family did, or you went and worked in the coal mines. I guess it was safer that way. Everyone was so focused on having enough and providing for their families that there wasn’t really much time to branch out. You did what you had to do.
One day, I was watching this program on television. It was this interview with a young girl, at the Capitol. A lot of the usual stuff, like what it’s like for a girl from one of the Districts to visit the Capitol, but one question made both her and me go quiet. He asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. I’ve never seen a twelve-year-old’s eyes go that wide.
I think I was about seven when I saw that, and I never forgot it. I used to wonder, if I could choose to do anything, anything I wanted, what would I choose? No limitations. Anything I wanted. And I knew almost right away, every time I asked myself, that I wanted to make beautiful things. Thing is, beautiful things don’t really sell when most of your District is poor. Most people like that don’t buy anything they don’t need. Then one day I realized, everyone needs food, don’t they? My father’s a baker. So I started decorating cakes. I got pretty good at it, too. At first I thought I might be wasting my time, but then the cakes I decorated started really selling. Mostly for special occasions.
But here, it’s different. Here, there’s no money. There’s no reason to do anything except because we want to. I could paint pictures all day here and no one would mind. Thing is, I don’t think I could if I tried. People here need things, too, things the Malnosso can’t provide. Like cake decorators. You think you don’t need one, and next thing you know, your girlfriend proposes. Or maybe you’re having a baby, or someone’s having a birthday. Maybe those robots are unbeatable, but put one in an apron and give him a spoonful of icing and he’s clueless. Besides, I’d rather be doing someone some good. Everyone should be able to smile sometimes.
So you. You could be anything here. What do you want to do when you grow up?
Third Person:
Peeta’s wings shaded the back of his neck as well as they could, but beads of sweat till glimmered there, poised to roll off. Something in his brain was vaguely aware that the sun was burning him, but the rest of him was occupied with painting along the curve of a pencil stroke. The wood of the bakery’s new sign was slightly stained with leftover coffee but unfinished, since Peeta knew the shellac would protect the both the stain and the painted design when all was through. It would be practically weatherproof. Such a luxury would have been expensive beyond belief back in District 12, even for a baker’s family.
The sign could be considered quaint, but fell short of being trite. The border was done with a fine brush in grass green; a winding vine with blue flowers. At the bottom, a pile of bread loaves. One was the sort of loaf 12 was famous for back home, hearty with nuts and raisins. Another was the seeded loaf of District 11. Accompanying them were two cheese buns, as well as an assortment of cakes, cookies, and tarts, all of which were actually offered inside the bakery. It had a provincial look to it, natural and fresh, as if even on a rainy day one could find the sun and hot bread inside this building.
The name of the bakery was in the palest of blues, with a slightly darker one shading the letters. A streak of that pale blue raced across the right side of his jaw and stopped short at his chin. He took no notice. This paint was better left to dry anyway. Afterward, it would peel right off. He couldn’t be interrupted. This was the first semi-professional artwork he’d really done, not counting all the displays of “talent” he’d done after his first Games.
It also helped him keep from thinking about all the people he hurt when he arrived here.
It hadn’t lasted long. One instant, he’d been in the lift tube to begin the Quarter Quell. The next, he’d been picking himself up in a sort of barracks, a few feet away from a platform like the one that had carried him to the Games. Confused by the lack of countdown or Cornucopia, he’d seized the largest knife he’d seen and when he stepped outside, what had he seen?
Mutts.
They looked like people. Except they had wings. Wings of many colors and patterns, some like birds, some a single solid color, some a hundred different colors. Small and useless, but still inhuman. He had looked for Katniss, looked for any of the others, but there was no one. He was surrounded by muttations in the seventy-fifth Hunger Games, and he was armed.
By the time they’d pinned him down and pried the knife from his hand, he’d wounded two people and killed a third.
People came back here, he’d been told. It didn’t change what he did. Nothing could. Daubed with paint, painted with blood, he was irreversibly stained for killing an innocent. He couldn’t even blame this one on the Capitol. This, he did all on his own.
A bead of sweat falls.