(I reget asking this but) does anybody besides me feel like Peeta should have died in the first book?

If Peeta had died, there would be no trilogy. The Careers - Cato, really - turned on Peeta for returning to "save" Katniss after the tracker jacker attack. Well, they were never "for him" to turn on him, either. They had Katniss treed, but she wasn't dead. Even how it may have appeared, Katniss could have possibly escaped, maybe. I would also say they were playing on Peeta's confession. So if Katniss was not dead yet, there could still be room to use Peeta against her and for them. And, like Cato says, he was pretty good with a knife. So maybe he wasn't so useless, and he was strong.

Katniss was smart and assisted Peeta. They also had the medicine to help. Katniss fed him and tried to get his fever down. It wasn't long after Katniss found Peeta that the Games were soon to end. But Peeta didn't get off the hook, either. He lost a leg. And like others have said, it is up to the author to decide who lives and dies. Characters who die are fated to die, and the ones who live are fated for that. I don't know if she planned a three-part series, but keeping Peeta alive worked.

If he had died then the other books wouldn't have been as good nor the movie.i think the reason he didn't die is cuz Suzanne Collins had the idea to make a trio of lovers katniss, peeta and gale without peeta (the 3 book especially) would have been totally predictable and not as good .... Plus PEETA IS AWESOME AND HOT !!

I think it would have been a cool and interesting plot twist :)
As much as I do love the movie, and the books, if she had killed him off I think it would have had an interesting effect on the books, only I would rather have him killed in Catching Fire....

i think cato should have won

Logically, yes, but it is a book after all....

Oh yea since i like gale i think that peeta should of just died he aint nothing but meat wasted

I get your reasoning but its not up to us weather or not a character dies in a book or not unless you are the one writing the book.

Oh, the fangirls attacking this...

Logically, yeah, you'e right, especially with the blood poisoning. But, being me, gotta contradict this.

1) They needed him up until they found Katniss in the tree (and then, not soon after, the tracker jacker scene happens).

2) I would guess that they were hype after finding Katniss and having her trapped in the tree. theoretically, if you knew you would soon be able to off your greatest competition in a fight to the death, you may not be focusing on the nameless extra in the background (namely, Peeta). Cato would have probably killed him the next day, but then there was the tracker jacker nest... etc.

3) ... creative license. .3.

Now I wonder how the books would have progressed had Peeta not been there... unlike the fangirls here, I think Suzanne would have made them inteesting, with or without Peeta.

Thank you for putting your opinion out there, and taking a break from the "OMG Petta's soooooooooo hawt!!!11!!one!1" . Glad someone's not afraid to do that.

Good day to you, and don't forget to be awesome.

No, I don't think he should have died in the first book. First of all, he didn't have blood poisoning right away. And it's difficult to tell, because the chapters are so long, but Katniss got him medication for the poisoning almost right after she found him. Your 1 & 2 is pretty much the same thing. They kept Peeta around because they wanted him to find Katniss. Don't forget that Peeta is a fantastic speaker/liar so he can convince people pretty much anything. Cato did turn on Peeta once Katniss dropped the nest on him. He didn't turn on him right after finding Katniss probably because he wasn't positive if they were going to get her, or because he was just focused on Katniss not him. Since they never viewed Peeta as a concern, they didn't care when he died. It would be like how it was in the Quell; there were certain people they knew would make it till the end, and ones that would get killed eventually. Katniss wasn’t concerned with people she didn’t think would win because she knew it was only a matter of time before they were taken out. Cato just misjudged Peeta’s survival skills.