For me, since the first movie left out his fight with Cato, giving him a fight in Catching Fire just feels like balancing things out. Out of curiosity, what would you want from the character that makes him more active while also not pandering to masculine stereotypes?

It has to be that people personally prefer Gale, so they think Katniss should be with him, because the text just doesn't support it.

I've expounded on this a lot on this thread already, but I have very strong feelings about Peeta vs. Gale in terms of the ultimate impact on Katniss's mental health.

I like a lot of the movies she's been in, but usually not her performance in them. She always seemed kind of one note to me. But she fucking brought it as Johanna.

Her multiple f-bombs were standing ovation worthy.

Well, it's not supposed to be the feel-good movie of the year, is it? :-) One of the things I like about the series is the ways it points fingers at it's audience.

Interesting. My take on the survival thing is that even though Gale says it later in the book, she sort of demonstrates it earlier on. When she believes she's never going to get Peeta back from the hijacking she wants to assassinate Snow as suicide mission. There are times throughout the series when she's willing to…

Yes! This is why the Gale thing really drives me crazy. I just finished rereading Mockingjay and it completely solidified my feelings about Gale. His intellect is fueled by rage, and used to figure out how to kill the most amount of people, often in the most horrifying way possible. He's the rebels version of a…

I always thought this was clear in the books. She has feelings for Gale based on their history together, and feelings for Peeta based on their shared experience in the arena. As the series goes on almost every passage where she is with Gale focuses on guilt. She thinks she owes him because of their history and thinks…

Have you seen the marketing for the film? We're all Capitol.

I really liked Sam Claflin from Pillars of the Earth so I went in with a pro-Claflin bias, but I thought he did a great job. The sugar cube scene was very well done, almost an improvement on the books b/c you get the idea right away that this guy has some brains going on underneath the beefcake. And he was…

Even though there are people who have read the books who like Gale more (I just finished rereading them and it still blows my mind that anybody thinks Gale is superior to Peeta), you're totally right about the films getting the balance of the relationships wrong. My mother has only seen the movies and she always…

It's amazing that everyone was meh on Jena Malone and now we're all so impressed. She really was fantastic as Johanna, which I was not expecting at all.

Thank you for the heads up. A lot of the stuff I really like tends to be depressing and heart wrenching, but it's always good to know what you're getting into.

So I'm trying to figure out what to read next. I've got to start making a dent in my library, which consists of at least 200 unread books. So do I go with something new-ish that people are still talking about (options include Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, Tell the Wolves I'm Home, The Tiger's Wife, You Deserve…

Peeta's not stupid at all. But Doug Barry doesn't bother to conceal his contempt for The Hunger Games so

Jennifer Lawrence was incredible in that last shot. The way she made her eyes go from not quite comprehending to devastated to "I WILL FUCKING MAKE YOU ALL PAY" was possibly the best bit of acting in the entire film (which is generally well acted).

OMG whyyyyy? I enjoy eating friend chicken every once in a while, but the lingering smell is always disgusting.

Exactly! I'd love to think that this is where the youths are headed, and maybe it is becoming easier to have a broader approach to sexual orientation now, but I think his openness is probably still kind of rare. Still, gives me hope for the future.

Really impressed with how much he's thought through a lot of issues surrounding sexuality. Especially at his age. He seems very intelligent and conscientious. Plus, you know, really hot.