6 Reasons Peeta Sucks Less In Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Cinema Blend

Let’s have a serious conversation for a second. You know who sucked in the first Hunger Games movie? Sucked. Sucked. Suuucked with two more u’s than necessary. Peeta Mellark. Whether brooding about Katniss’ lack of love for him or limping around the playing field like an injured bunny rabbit, he was a complete and total buzzkill during round one. He may as well have contorted himself into the fetal position and wrapped his skinny little body around Katniss’ neck like an ill-fitting turtleneck or an outlandishly sized necklace. He was dead weight with only some painting talent to fall back on. Even worse, his general vibe came off as way more helpless little brother than believable love interest, which didn’t exactly help the whole Team Gale vs Team Peeta plotline.

Fortunately, that whole pathetic vibe was almost completely washed away by director Francis Lawrence in Catching Fire . Gone is the overly nice pushover, replaced by a competent human being who can actually carry his own weight and contribute in some discernable way beyond just being physically present. Sure, Peeta still has some notable limitations and a penchant for getting injured, but a cake decorator can’t ever completely change his frosting. On the whole, it’s forward progress, and we’ll take it. Not really sucking is exponentially better than full-on sucking any day of the week.

Here are six ways Peeta sucks less in Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Obviously Contains Spoilers)…

He Can Actually Fight

Have you ever seen little children fight? More often than not, they lead with their faces and lose all ability to throw punches after being struck once. They have no endurance, no will power and no discernable skills whatsoever. That was Peeta during round one. In theory, he should have been able to offer something given he got a pretty good score from the judges, but instead, he flopped around like an injured fish and eventually got pretty creative with hiding spots. Good for him, I guess.

This time around, he actually, you know, helps the team to stay alive. He chokes out a guy in the water in hand to hand combat. He leads a few expeditions into the wilderness, one of which does not go well, and he doesn’t cower in the face of trouble. Yes, he’s still not Sylvester Stallone. At one point, he needs to be given mouth-to-mouth in order to start breathing again, but it’s still a giant leap in the right direction. He’s gone from a man I wouldn’t want on a hunting trip to one I’d let take a shift guarding the tent from bears. He certainly wouldn’t be able to stop them, but he could be trusted to alert other people before getting eaten.