![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ataraxion app.
NOTE: Peeta's current in-game canon point is mid-Mockingjay, after he's brought to District 13.
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Peeta Mellark
Canon: The Hunger Games (novels)
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: The beginning of Mockingjay, between the filming of the first and second interviews and before his dramatic decline in mental and physical health.
Number: 012 or 120!
Setting: The nation of Panem, or a very messed up America established in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Led by dictatorship, it's separated into unique districts based on economic output, and is defined by brutal central control and the system of fear institutionalized by the Hunger Games. The Games require at least two tributes be culled from each district annually, and the brutal slaughter that results (Thunderdome, basically) is televised to instill hopelessness in the population and encourage submission to the Capitol's oppressive rule. (Wikipedia entry on Panem).
history.
Katniss's first distinct memory of Peeta is when he witnesses her outside in the rain, desperate for food, and throws her some burnt bread. Peeta's first memory of Katniss, however, is of her singing when they were five years old, and he's been in love with her ever since. Katniss considers Peeta to have been reasonably popular while growing up. She recalls him being surrounded by friends at school, but Peeta himself doesn't believe he's made much of an impact on anyone's life. It's hard to say if this is just his opinion or fact, but if true, it implies that although Peeta has an outwardly easy-going and social nature, he's actually fairly introverted — he's great at being there for other people, but he may not feel the need to burden them with his own feelings or problems. This may have kept him from truly letting anyone in and forming lasting connections.
Peeta enters the story fully when he's chosen at the Reaping Ceremony and becomes a participant in the 74th annual Hunger Games. He's put under guard alongside Katniss, the other tribute, and after a chance to say farewell to friends and family, the two of them are shpiped off to the Capitol to prepare for the Games. Throughout the preparations, things are tense between Peeta and Katniss. Her assumption that he's out to survive and therefore acting based on tactics and likely at her expense cause her to lash out several times. Peeta, meanwhile, adapts very quickly to putting on a good image for the audience, playing into the hype of the Games, but seems to remain genuine and honest with Katniss behind the scenes. It's revealed during training that Peeta's primary strengths are his artistic ability (camouflage) and the upper body strength he's developed during a lifetime of throwing bags of flour for the bakery.
During the live tribute interviews, Peeta confesses that he's in love with Katniss. This is news to her, and she reacts badly. Their mentor, Haymitch, has to step in and convince her that playing into the lovelorn angle is to her advantage. While Peeta's confession is certainly true, it's arguably also a deliberate effort to warm up Katniss's public image — the more the audience likes a tribute, the better their odds of receiving sponsor gifts in the arena that can be the difference between life or death. Katniss ends up grudgingly accepting the tactical angle, but she remains skeptical of Peeta's true motivations as they finally enter into the Games.
Soon after the interviews, the tributes are all shipped off to the arena and the Games begin. We don't see a great deal of Peeta during the first stage. Rather than immediately teaming up with Katniss, he ends up forming a false alliance with several other tributes in order to manipulate them and keep them off Katniss's trail. Katniss, of course, mostly just sees Peeta teaming up with the douchiest gang possible; this doesn't win him any favors, and in her mind cements the idea that he's duplicitous and her enemy. When the tributes he's with finally track Katniss down and trap her in a tree, Katniss is able to chase them off with the help of another tribute, Rue. She drops a nest of tracker jackers on their campsite, and the venomous insects mean quick death for a few. The others escape, Peeta included.
Katniss ends up getting stung by one of the insects herself and it causes intense hallucinations. During these hallucinations, Peeta finds her and warns her to run away, as the other tributes are coming back to find her. She's disoriented and confused by the favor, but when her mind eventually clears up she realizes that she may have misunderstood Peeta's endgame. In the process of giving Katniss time to escape, Peeta is stabbed in the leg with a sword by his previous ally, Cato. He manages to escape and hides via advanced camouflage. When there's an abrupt announcement that states there can be two winners instead of one, but only if they're from the same district, Katniss immediately thinks of Peeta and seeks him out as an ally. She tracks him to his hiding spot only to find him gravely ill, and then the two engage in a charming romance for the cameras — fake on her part, totally real on his. She cares for him and shows him affection in order to gain sponsor gifts that keep them both alive.
Following an announcement that medicine strong enough to save Peeta can be found at the Cornucopia, Katniss and Peeta disagree on whether or not she should risk her life for his. She ultimately sedates him using another sponsor gift, then slips out to retrieve the medicine. She makes it back after a few more devastating casualties, and the two remain in the cave together while they both mend from various injuries. Eventually the river near the cave runs dry, forcing them back towards the lake near the Cornucopia along with the remaining tributes. At this point it's just the two of them and Cato, the career tribute responsible for stabbing Peeta. There's a showdown on top of the Cornucopia before Cato is pushed off and meets a very long, very awful death at the whims of a pack of hideous muttations. After many long, traumatizing hours, Katniss manages to put an arrow through Cato and end his suffering. It's also during this fight that Peeta is injured by one of the attacking muttations, and the injury results in the amputation of his left leg at the thigh following the end of the Games.
Peeta and Katniss await their announcement as victors — what they get instead is the declaration that the previous rule has been revoked, and there can only be one victor. Katniss impulsively decides to give them the middle finger by committing suicide alongside Peeta by eating poison nightshade berries. Peeta's on board with the plan, and the two very nearly manage it before the announcer interrupts and declares them both winners. Once they're both out, Katniss discovers that her stunt with the berries has been taken as an act of rebellion. Peeta, meanwhile, discovers that Katniss faked her feelings for him in order to get sponsor rewards and save them both. He's clearly hurt by this revelation, but the two are forced to maintain the front of star-crossed lovers in order to play up the fact that the berry stunt was about love, not revolution. That said, for the next few months he and Katniss enter a very frosty relationship when off-camera, and for the most part they seem to avoid interaction.
Things escalate quickly after the two of them hit the road for the tour. President Snow is unhappy with Katniss's berry stunt, and tells her she needs to convince people it was an act of love, not rebellion. This results in Peeta and Katniss playing up their relationship for the cameras while trying to dissuade the districts from rising up, going so far as to propose marriage and flaunt it for the audience. It doesn't work. They leave a trail of unrest in their wake, and by the time they get back to District 12, it's obvious that the people of Panem have had enough — they're starting to fight back, and Katniss is their unwitting figurehead.
From Peeta's side, he's informed a bit late about Snow's threats, but as soon as he is he does his best to play along and keep Katniss safe. Following their failed efforts to dissuade rebellion among the districts, Snow punishes them by announcing that the 75th Games, a Quarter Quell, will be made up of former victors. This means Katniss and either Peeta or Haymitch; Haymitch's name is pulled, but Peeta instantly volunteers in his place, intent on going with Katniss into the arena and doing everything he can to make sure she makes it out alive. As the Games commence, the two form uneasy alliances with Finnick Odair and Mags of District 4, and later Johanna Mason (District 7) and Beetee and Wiress (District 3).
Peeta has a rough time of the Games, at one point running into a force field and dying for a few solid seconds before Finnick resuscitates him via mouth to mouth. This leaves him at a detriment as the Games continue, and when the group is attempting to outrun a poisonous fog, he becomes badly injured; Mags, old and aware of the fact that she has no chance of surviving, sacrifices herself so that Finnick can carry Peeta to safety instead of her. While scheming with their new allies, Peeta and Katniss bond, and the first real beginnings of a romantic relationship emerge between them.
A happy ending isn't in the cards, of course. Beetee comes up with a plan that involves using a conductive tree to electrocute their remaining enemies, and they all agree it's the best option. While trying to see it through, the group becomes scattered, and Katniss and Peeta are separated. Katniss ends up using the gear setup by Beetee to route the electricity of a powerful lightning strike back into the arena's systems, and as a result everything breaks down, ending the Games. It's revealed that this has been the plan from the beginning, and half of the tributes were in on a scheme to escape the arena and save Katniss.
Katniss is taken to District 13, previously assumed to have been wiped out by the Capitol. She discovers that instead, the inhabitants have gone into hiding underground, taking on a very militant culture in order to make due with what they have. While that's fairly exciting (if grim), she also finds out that District 12 has been firebombed into nothing; although her family survived, Peeta's did not. As for Peeta, the rebellion failed to get him out of the arena, and he's now a prisoner of the Capitol.
While most people simply take this at face value and consider him a traitor, Katniss struggles to make sense of it. When a following interview reveals a sudden decline in his appearance, Katniss becomes confident in the knowledge that Peeta is being tortured and used as an unwilling mouthpiece by the Capitol. The dramatic nature of the change also causes her to question when the interviews were filmed, as it's far too extreme to have taken place in the span of time between when the interviews aired. It's between these two broadcasts that Peeta will be taken, when he's firmly within the Capitol's grasp but still in control of himself and resisting their attempts to turn him against Katniss.
personality.
It'd be false to say that Peeta is arrogant or has a particularly high sense of self-worth. He's well aware of his flaws, and if anything he seems to place very little value on his own life, especially in comparison to the lives of others. That said, he’s very content with his own assessment of himself, preferring to accept it as simple fact without spending a great deal of time dwelling on it. He doesn't struggle with his insecurities in the way others might, nor does he struggle at length with his emotions — certainly not in a way that other people can easily see. The thing that tends to strike other people about him is how steady and self-assured he is, and Katniss describes him several times as a calming, grounding force.
Peeta's acceptance of and confidence in himself and his emotions is one of his primary features, and it sets him up as a strong contrast to Katniss, who is frequently overwhelmed by her feelings and sometimes openly rejects them. Peeta is far from naïve, but he still never gives up hope. He’s optimistic, but it’s not flashy or shallow — he’s optimistic in a way that’s completely rational and completely honest, never delusional. Just as he can recognize his own flaws without being overwhelmed by them, he’s able to confront the worst the world has to offer without losing sight of the good.
While Peeta is extremely kind, he's not a pushover. He makes all of his decisions with a fair amount of logic and self-assurance. His gentle nature can give the impression that he's just a big softie, but in truth he has a fairly dominant personality. This comes through in many subtle ways, as when he stubbornly pushes Haymitch into cooperation, and a few more obvious ones — he doesn't hesitate to strike Haymitch when he's angry, nor does he hesitate to yell at Haymitch and Katniss when he feels it's necessary and justified. He doesn't hold back on his criticism of the Capitol, and he navigates his relationship with Katniss steadily once he has an idea of the landscape — he's able to recognize the unfair position they're both in and approach it with a cool head, and in many ways he's the one consistently in control, fully aware of what he can and can't realistically expect from their friendship. Katniss, meanwhile, struggles to make sense of it, sometimes even finding his easy acceptance of its complexities frustrating.
For all that he’s keenly self-aware, Peeta remains fairly oblivious to the impact he has on other people. He’s quick to prioritize other people’s lives over his own. While this is in large part a matter of compassion, he also considers it common sense: if there’s more potential and more value in their lives, it’s only fair that they get to keep them. His ability to remain objective and rational in a crisis and in the face of his own intense emotions is a skill that keeps him and many others grounded, but it also contributes to his willingness to devalue his own life. It also means he's liable to be complacent with doing the best he can within the established system. His rebellion is a quiet one, focused on keeping true to himself. While this is the very thing that inspires Katniss to instigate a good handful of rebellious moments, Peeta himself is often limited to a more passive approach.
The novels are all narrated by Katniss, and as such our view of other characters’ inner workings is sometimes limited by her perspective. That said, one of the most basic traits she tends to observe in Peeta is that he’s incredibly likeable. She recalls memories of him surrounded by friends at school, noting that he never seemed to struggle with making new ones. His sense of humor is sarcastic and usually self-deprecating, meaning it's rarely at anyone else's expense, but it's lighthearted enough to dodge becoming grating self-pity. Once they’re on the road towards the Games, Peeta takes easily to the celebrity lifestyle. Haymitch states on multiple occasions that he’s never worried about putting Peeta in front of a crowd, and he almost never bothers coaching him on how to behave — he’s a natural in front of a camera.
While a great deal of his natural charm is due to the fact that Peeta’s genuinely nice, it’s important to note that Peeta is very self-aware and deliberate in his interactions. He’s capable of quickly empathizing with and understanding other people, and he’s willing to use this understanding to his advantage. In the context of people he cares about, this simply means Peeta is able to get where they’re coming from and do his best to work alongside them. In the context of the Games and the people of the Capitol, this means that Peeta is really great at playing into their expectations and manipulating their emotions. Peeta is a very skilled liar, and he seems to have no moral qualms about lying if he believes it’s for the right reason.
There are plenty of examples of Peeta lying easily and with great success. He lies in his interviews, often in order to gain sympathy and support for himself and/or Katniss; during the 74th games, Peeta manages to convince several career tributes that he’s on their side so that he can offer false advice and keep them off of Katniss’s back. Although he shows no sign of struggling with lying in these situations, there are also no examples of Peeta lying to be cruel. He’s very rarely driven by petty emotions. If he’s playing people, it’s either completely harmless or has very legitimate motivations.
Peeta’s very in-tune with his emotions, but he doesn’t often put them on display. This doesn’t mean he represses them — to the contrary, he prefers to confront his feelings head-on, and he’s developed a very efficient means of processing them and coping in private. By the time he expresses them, they’ve usually been filtered in a way that takes everything else into account, allowing him to remain both honest and remarkably diplomatic in most situations. Simply put, Peeta’s very good at seeing the forest through the trees. This includes his ability to process his heartbreak for Katniss without losing sight of the connection they share. Though he struggles with it during the down-time following the 74th Games, the second they’re thrown together again during the Victory Tours he sidelines his complex feelings in favor of strengthening their friendship.
His decision to quit acting wounded around Katniss sums up his priorities well: he puts other people above himself and he puts the big picture above himself, but he doesn't view this as in any way sad or a miserable way to live. While there's no question that Peeta grieves and struggles with the various ways he's been shafted by their situation, he does so in private (retreating to his room after the decision to get married, for example) and does not seem to waver in his commitment. While he is very good at hiding his emotions from other people, he doesn’t ignore them. He processes them willingly and fully, and if asked, odds are he’ll be very honest about them. If he’s anything else, it’s usually a matter of courtesy for the people asking or the people involved rather than an attempt to avoid sharing. The fact that he paints his memories of the 74th Games in vivid detail is a stark example of the way Peeta's natural response is acceptance rather than avoidance or suppression.
One of the few things that earns consistent anger or vindictiveness is the Capitol, and when he's not putting on a show he has very concise and unguarded criticisms of it and its people. The only other time he really loses his temper is when people underestimate him, though even then his own pride isn't the issue. When Katniss and Haymitch keep Snow's visit and threats to Katniss a secret, it leads to Peeta making a bad tactical decision that endangers the people of District 11. Peeta's understandably livid when he finds out this mistake could have been prevented. While there’s no question that Peeta’s frustrated by the running theme of Katniss and Haymitch babying him, his previous comments about it have been fairly calm; this is the first time he really lays into them for it, no doubt because of the very real consequences it’s had on the lives of others.
Peeta isn’t naïve, and he’s far from innocent. He gets the system, and most of the time he knows how to work it. He's smart and believes that if he has the right information, he can use it to guarantee better odds. When he tells Katniss he doesn’t want the Games to change him, it shows an awareness of what they're really meant to do: strip people of their identity and turn hope into fear. This awareness means he’s able to weather a great deal of trauma and still hold onto himself, but it also speaks to a level of jadedness — he's fairly good at compartmentalizing issues, using what he can in the moment and saving the rest for quiet contemplation later. This outlook is remarkably positive and efficient for survival in Panem, but it could arguably read as a somewhat callous approach elsewhere.
abilities, weaknesses and power limitations.
inventory.
Appearance:
In the books he's described as having pale, curly blond hair and blue eyes; Josh Hutcherson's bleached hair is not so pale and not so curly, and he has brown eyes, but I'll be sticking with the film PB. Otherwise he's short (going with the film's 5'6", though described in the book as medium height) with a solid, compact build. His left leg has been amputated at the thigh and he uses an advanced prosthetic, courtesy of the Capitol.
The only description we get of his leg is "metal and plastic", but the Capitol
likes cool looking shit, so using this for reference:
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Peeta Mellark
Canon: The Hunger Games (novels)
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: The beginning of Mockingjay, between the filming of the first and second interviews and before his dramatic decline in mental and physical health.
Number: 012 or 120!
Setting: The nation of Panem, or a very messed up America established in the wake of an apocalyptic event. Led by dictatorship, it's separated into unique districts based on economic output, and is defined by brutal central control and the system of fear institutionalized by the Hunger Games. The Games require at least two tributes be culled from each district annually, and the brutal slaughter that results (Thunderdome, basically) is televised to instill hopelessness in the population and encourage submission to the Capitol's oppressive rule. (Wikipedia entry on Panem).
history.
THE HUNGER GAMES
Katniss's first distinct memory of Peeta is when he witnesses her outside in the rain, desperate for food, and throws her some burnt bread. Peeta's first memory of Katniss, however, is of her singing when they were five years old, and he's been in love with her ever since. Katniss considers Peeta to have been reasonably popular while growing up. She recalls him being surrounded by friends at school, but Peeta himself doesn't believe he's made much of an impact on anyone's life. It's hard to say if this is just his opinion or fact, but if true, it implies that although Peeta has an outwardly easy-going and social nature, he's actually fairly introverted — he's great at being there for other people, but he may not feel the need to burden them with his own feelings or problems. This may have kept him from truly letting anyone in and forming lasting connections.
Peeta enters the story fully when he's chosen at the Reaping Ceremony and becomes a participant in the 74th annual Hunger Games. He's put under guard alongside Katniss, the other tribute, and after a chance to say farewell to friends and family, the two of them are shpiped off to the Capitol to prepare for the Games. Throughout the preparations, things are tense between Peeta and Katniss. Her assumption that he's out to survive and therefore acting based on tactics and likely at her expense cause her to lash out several times. Peeta, meanwhile, adapts very quickly to putting on a good image for the audience, playing into the hype of the Games, but seems to remain genuine and honest with Katniss behind the scenes. It's revealed during training that Peeta's primary strengths are his artistic ability (camouflage) and the upper body strength he's developed during a lifetime of throwing bags of flour for the bakery.
During the live tribute interviews, Peeta confesses that he's in love with Katniss. This is news to her, and she reacts badly. Their mentor, Haymitch, has to step in and convince her that playing into the lovelorn angle is to her advantage. While Peeta's confession is certainly true, it's arguably also a deliberate effort to warm up Katniss's public image — the more the audience likes a tribute, the better their odds of receiving sponsor gifts in the arena that can be the difference between life or death. Katniss ends up grudgingly accepting the tactical angle, but she remains skeptical of Peeta's true motivations as they finally enter into the Games.
Soon after the interviews, the tributes are all shipped off to the arena and the Games begin. We don't see a great deal of Peeta during the first stage. Rather than immediately teaming up with Katniss, he ends up forming a false alliance with several other tributes in order to manipulate them and keep them off Katniss's trail. Katniss, of course, mostly just sees Peeta teaming up with the douchiest gang possible; this doesn't win him any favors, and in her mind cements the idea that he's duplicitous and her enemy. When the tributes he's with finally track Katniss down and trap her in a tree, Katniss is able to chase them off with the help of another tribute, Rue. She drops a nest of tracker jackers on their campsite, and the venomous insects mean quick death for a few. The others escape, Peeta included.
Katniss ends up getting stung by one of the insects herself and it causes intense hallucinations. During these hallucinations, Peeta finds her and warns her to run away, as the other tributes are coming back to find her. She's disoriented and confused by the favor, but when her mind eventually clears up she realizes that she may have misunderstood Peeta's endgame. In the process of giving Katniss time to escape, Peeta is stabbed in the leg with a sword by his previous ally, Cato. He manages to escape and hides via advanced camouflage. When there's an abrupt announcement that states there can be two winners instead of one, but only if they're from the same district, Katniss immediately thinks of Peeta and seeks him out as an ally. She tracks him to his hiding spot only to find him gravely ill, and then the two engage in a charming romance for the cameras — fake on her part, totally real on his. She cares for him and shows him affection in order to gain sponsor gifts that keep them both alive.
Following an announcement that medicine strong enough to save Peeta can be found at the Cornucopia, Katniss and Peeta disagree on whether or not she should risk her life for his. She ultimately sedates him using another sponsor gift, then slips out to retrieve the medicine. She makes it back after a few more devastating casualties, and the two remain in the cave together while they both mend from various injuries. Eventually the river near the cave runs dry, forcing them back towards the lake near the Cornucopia along with the remaining tributes. At this point it's just the two of them and Cato, the career tribute responsible for stabbing Peeta. There's a showdown on top of the Cornucopia before Cato is pushed off and meets a very long, very awful death at the whims of a pack of hideous muttations. After many long, traumatizing hours, Katniss manages to put an arrow through Cato and end his suffering. It's also during this fight that Peeta is injured by one of the attacking muttations, and the injury results in the amputation of his left leg at the thigh following the end of the Games.
Peeta and Katniss await their announcement as victors — what they get instead is the declaration that the previous rule has been revoked, and there can only be one victor. Katniss impulsively decides to give them the middle finger by committing suicide alongside Peeta by eating poison nightshade berries. Peeta's on board with the plan, and the two very nearly manage it before the announcer interrupts and declares them both winners. Once they're both out, Katniss discovers that her stunt with the berries has been taken as an act of rebellion. Peeta, meanwhile, discovers that Katniss faked her feelings for him in order to get sponsor rewards and save them both. He's clearly hurt by this revelation, but the two are forced to maintain the front of star-crossed lovers in order to play up the fact that the berry stunt was about love, not revolution. That said, for the next few months he and Katniss enter a very frosty relationship when off-camera, and for the most part they seem to avoid interaction.
CATCHING FIRE
Things escalate quickly after the two of them hit the road for the tour. President Snow is unhappy with Katniss's berry stunt, and tells her she needs to convince people it was an act of love, not rebellion. This results in Peeta and Katniss playing up their relationship for the cameras while trying to dissuade the districts from rising up, going so far as to propose marriage and flaunt it for the audience. It doesn't work. They leave a trail of unrest in their wake, and by the time they get back to District 12, it's obvious that the people of Panem have had enough — they're starting to fight back, and Katniss is their unwitting figurehead.
From Peeta's side, he's informed a bit late about Snow's threats, but as soon as he is he does his best to play along and keep Katniss safe. Following their failed efforts to dissuade rebellion among the districts, Snow punishes them by announcing that the 75th Games, a Quarter Quell, will be made up of former victors. This means Katniss and either Peeta or Haymitch; Haymitch's name is pulled, but Peeta instantly volunteers in his place, intent on going with Katniss into the arena and doing everything he can to make sure she makes it out alive. As the Games commence, the two form uneasy alliances with Finnick Odair and Mags of District 4, and later Johanna Mason (District 7) and Beetee and Wiress (District 3).
Peeta has a rough time of the Games, at one point running into a force field and dying for a few solid seconds before Finnick resuscitates him via mouth to mouth. This leaves him at a detriment as the Games continue, and when the group is attempting to outrun a poisonous fog, he becomes badly injured; Mags, old and aware of the fact that she has no chance of surviving, sacrifices herself so that Finnick can carry Peeta to safety instead of her. While scheming with their new allies, Peeta and Katniss bond, and the first real beginnings of a romantic relationship emerge between them.
A happy ending isn't in the cards, of course. Beetee comes up with a plan that involves using a conductive tree to electrocute their remaining enemies, and they all agree it's the best option. While trying to see it through, the group becomes scattered, and Katniss and Peeta are separated. Katniss ends up using the gear setup by Beetee to route the electricity of a powerful lightning strike back into the arena's systems, and as a result everything breaks down, ending the Games. It's revealed that this has been the plan from the beginning, and half of the tributes were in on a scheme to escape the arena and save Katniss.
Katniss is taken to District 13, previously assumed to have been wiped out by the Capitol. She discovers that instead, the inhabitants have gone into hiding underground, taking on a very militant culture in order to make due with what they have. While that's fairly exciting (if grim), she also finds out that District 12 has been firebombed into nothing; although her family survived, Peeta's did not. As for Peeta, the rebellion failed to get him out of the arena, and he's now a prisoner of the Capitol.
MOCKINGJAY
While most people simply take this at face value and consider him a traitor, Katniss struggles to make sense of it. When a following interview reveals a sudden decline in his appearance, Katniss becomes confident in the knowledge that Peeta is being tortured and used as an unwilling mouthpiece by the Capitol. The dramatic nature of the change also causes her to question when the interviews were filmed, as it's far too extreme to have taken place in the span of time between when the interviews aired. It's between these two broadcasts that Peeta will be taken, when he's firmly within the Capitol's grasp but still in control of himself and resisting their attempts to turn him against Katniss.
personality.
SELFLESS/CONFIDENT
I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense?It'd be false to say that Peeta is arrogant or has a particularly high sense of self-worth. He's well aware of his flaws, and if anything he seems to place very little value on his own life, especially in comparison to the lives of others. That said, he’s very content with his own assessment of himself, preferring to accept it as simple fact without spending a great deal of time dwelling on it. He doesn't struggle with his insecurities in the way others might, nor does he struggle at length with his emotions — certainly not in a way that other people can easily see. The thing that tends to strike other people about him is how steady and self-assured he is, and Katniss describes him several times as a calming, grounding force.
Peeta's acceptance of and confidence in himself and his emotions is one of his primary features, and it sets him up as a strong contrast to Katniss, who is frequently overwhelmed by her feelings and sometimes openly rejects them. Peeta is far from naïve, but he still never gives up hope. He’s optimistic, but it’s not flashy or shallow — he’s optimistic in a way that’s completely rational and completely honest, never delusional. Just as he can recognize his own flaws without being overwhelmed by them, he’s able to confront the worst the world has to offer without losing sight of the good.
While Peeta is extremely kind, he's not a pushover. He makes all of his decisions with a fair amount of logic and self-assurance. His gentle nature can give the impression that he's just a big softie, but in truth he has a fairly dominant personality. This comes through in many subtle ways, as when he stubbornly pushes Haymitch into cooperation, and a few more obvious ones — he doesn't hesitate to strike Haymitch when he's angry, nor does he hesitate to yell at Haymitch and Katniss when he feels it's necessary and justified. He doesn't hold back on his criticism of the Capitol, and he navigates his relationship with Katniss steadily once he has an idea of the landscape — he's able to recognize the unfair position they're both in and approach it with a cool head, and in many ways he's the one consistently in control, fully aware of what he can and can't realistically expect from their friendship. Katniss, meanwhile, struggles to make sense of it, sometimes even finding his easy acceptance of its complexities frustrating.
For all that he’s keenly self-aware, Peeta remains fairly oblivious to the impact he has on other people. He’s quick to prioritize other people’s lives over his own. While this is in large part a matter of compassion, he also considers it common sense: if there’s more potential and more value in their lives, it’s only fair that they get to keep them. His ability to remain objective and rational in a crisis and in the face of his own intense emotions is a skill that keeps him and many others grounded, but it also contributes to his willingness to devalue his own life. It also means he's liable to be complacent with doing the best he can within the established system. His rebellion is a quiet one, focused on keeping true to himself. While this is the very thing that inspires Katniss to instigate a good handful of rebellious moments, Peeta himself is often limited to a more passive approach.
CHARMING/MANIPULATIVE
You're such a bad liar, Katniss. I don't know how you've survived this long.The novels are all narrated by Katniss, and as such our view of other characters’ inner workings is sometimes limited by her perspective. That said, one of the most basic traits she tends to observe in Peeta is that he’s incredibly likeable. She recalls memories of him surrounded by friends at school, noting that he never seemed to struggle with making new ones. His sense of humor is sarcastic and usually self-deprecating, meaning it's rarely at anyone else's expense, but it's lighthearted enough to dodge becoming grating self-pity. Once they’re on the road towards the Games, Peeta takes easily to the celebrity lifestyle. Haymitch states on multiple occasions that he’s never worried about putting Peeta in front of a crowd, and he almost never bothers coaching him on how to behave — he’s a natural in front of a camera.
While a great deal of his natural charm is due to the fact that Peeta’s genuinely nice, it’s important to note that Peeta is very self-aware and deliberate in his interactions. He’s capable of quickly empathizing with and understanding other people, and he’s willing to use this understanding to his advantage. In the context of people he cares about, this simply means Peeta is able to get where they’re coming from and do his best to work alongside them. In the context of the Games and the people of the Capitol, this means that Peeta is really great at playing into their expectations and manipulating their emotions. Peeta is a very skilled liar, and he seems to have no moral qualms about lying if he believes it’s for the right reason.
There are plenty of examples of Peeta lying easily and with great success. He lies in his interviews, often in order to gain sympathy and support for himself and/or Katniss; during the 74th games, Peeta manages to convince several career tributes that he’s on their side so that he can offer false advice and keep them off of Katniss’s back. Although he shows no sign of struggling with lying in these situations, there are also no examples of Peeta lying to be cruel. He’s very rarely driven by petty emotions. If he’s playing people, it’s either completely harmless or has very legitimate motivations.
EMOTIONAL/RATIONAL
No, when the time comes, I'm sure I'll kill just like everybody else. I can't go down without a fight.Peeta’s very in-tune with his emotions, but he doesn’t often put them on display. This doesn’t mean he represses them — to the contrary, he prefers to confront his feelings head-on, and he’s developed a very efficient means of processing them and coping in private. By the time he expresses them, they’ve usually been filtered in a way that takes everything else into account, allowing him to remain both honest and remarkably diplomatic in most situations. Simply put, Peeta’s very good at seeing the forest through the trees. This includes his ability to process his heartbreak for Katniss without losing sight of the connection they share. Though he struggles with it during the down-time following the 74th Games, the second they’re thrown together again during the Victory Tours he sidelines his complex feelings in favor of strengthening their friendship.
His decision to quit acting wounded around Katniss sums up his priorities well: he puts other people above himself and he puts the big picture above himself, but he doesn't view this as in any way sad or a miserable way to live. While there's no question that Peeta grieves and struggles with the various ways he's been shafted by their situation, he does so in private (retreating to his room after the decision to get married, for example) and does not seem to waver in his commitment. While he is very good at hiding his emotions from other people, he doesn’t ignore them. He processes them willingly and fully, and if asked, odds are he’ll be very honest about them. If he’s anything else, it’s usually a matter of courtesy for the people asking or the people involved rather than an attempt to avoid sharing. The fact that he paints his memories of the 74th Games in vivid detail is a stark example of the way Peeta's natural response is acceptance rather than avoidance or suppression.
One of the few things that earns consistent anger or vindictiveness is the Capitol, and when he's not putting on a show he has very concise and unguarded criticisms of it and its people. The only other time he really loses his temper is when people underestimate him, though even then his own pride isn't the issue. When Katniss and Haymitch keep Snow's visit and threats to Katniss a secret, it leads to Peeta making a bad tactical decision that endangers the people of District 11. Peeta's understandably livid when he finds out this mistake could have been prevented. While there’s no question that Peeta’s frustrated by the running theme of Katniss and Haymitch babying him, his previous comments about it have been fairly calm; this is the first time he really lays into them for it, no doubt because of the very real consequences it’s had on the lives of others.
Peeta isn’t naïve, and he’s far from innocent. He gets the system, and most of the time he knows how to work it. He's smart and believes that if he has the right information, he can use it to guarantee better odds. When he tells Katniss he doesn’t want the Games to change him, it shows an awareness of what they're really meant to do: strip people of their identity and turn hope into fear. This awareness means he’s able to weather a great deal of trauma and still hold onto himself, but it also speaks to a level of jadedness — he's fairly good at compartmentalizing issues, using what he can in the moment and saving the rest for quiet contemplation later. This outlook is remarkably positive and efficient for survival in Panem, but it could arguably read as a somewhat callous approach elsewhere.
REAL OR NOT REAL?
abilities, weaknesses and power limitations.
STRONG ➳ Though he grew up in District 12, as a member of a merchant family Peeta's health has never suffered. Due to his compact build and having worked most of his life, he has good upper body strength that gives him an advantage at hand-to-hand.
RATIONAL ➳ He's great at sizing up situations and responding calmly. He rarely panics.
ARTISTIC ➳ While this skill was mostly a bonus in the arena because it gave him a tactical advantage via camouflage, he's extremely talented when it comes to anything visual — frosting, painting, etc.
BAKER ➳ On here because it's obligatory!! And also I guess a very handy skill when you're super hungry.
EMPATHETIC ➳ He is keenly aware of his own emotions and those of the people around him. This gives him an advantage in navigating relationships, and while it can come in handy when manipulating others, he mostly uses this talent in order to keep things honest and pleasant.
WAR WOUNDS ➳ Peeta's left leg has been amputated at the thigh. It's shown throughout the 75th Games that he's still adapting to the use of his prosthetic, and if it becomes damaged, he doesn't have the skills to repair it himself.
PTSD ➳ Although he deals with it in private, he still needs to deal with it, and it could potentially surface in more obvious ways given the right pressure. He has vivid nightmares that keep him awake at odd hours.
MARTYR ➳ He frequently prioritizes the safety of others over his own. He doesn't always make rash decisions based on this, but his constant insistence on taking care of other people does sometimes get him into trouble.
HUMAN ➳ Because of his experiences in and training for the Games, Peeta is physically more capable than your average Joe, but he's still 100% vanilla human.
inventory.
➳ Suit from the 75th Hunger Games, post-games (a.k.a. well-used).Age: 17
➳ White dress suit from the Capitol.
➳ A handful of his own smaller paintings depicting scenes from the 74th Games.
➳ Paint (a few shades of orange, yellow and red).
➳ One silk parachute with nothing attached.
➳ One pair of heavy shackles.
Appearance:
In the books he's described as having pale, curly blond hair and blue eyes; Josh Hutcherson's bleached hair is not so pale and not so curly, and he has brown eyes, but I'll be sticking with the film PB. Otherwise he's short (going with the film's 5'6", though described in the book as medium height) with a solid, compact build. His left leg has been amputated at the thigh and he uses an advanced prosthetic, courtesy of the Capitol.
The only description we get of his leg is "metal and plastic", but the Capitol
likes cool looking shit, so using this for reference: