Friday, July 22, 2011

YA Crush Tourney: Peeta vs Patch (Match #15) goes to Patch!







And the winner is..... PATCH!


As most of you know, yesterday our voting polls crashed for a 3rd time. Because of this, we are having a rematch for one of the matches from yesterday. To prevent this from happening again, polls will only be open for 24 hours. We, of course did not want to do this, but we see no other way if we want to keep this fair and prevent rematches. The polls will open at 8am today and close at 10am on Saturday morning 24 hours later.

Before we get started, it's the same rules as usual. We've tried as much as possible to keep everything spoiler free, but to really show the best qualities of a character sometimes spoilers are necessary, so BEWARE!!! Also, feel free to write comments in the comments section about either character, but we will not tolerate rudeness. The moment it crosses over from logical argument to rudeness, your comment will be deleted and your vote cancelled. With all that said, let the voting begin!

Peeta (Seed 3)
The amazing Peeta is from the series Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Peeta is being rep'd by the marvelous, Alice. Alice has a daily teen fiction newsletter and a site, www.alicemarvel.com. You can also follow her on twitter @alicemarvels.

Personality









Peeta is any girl’s wishlist for a crush come to life: he’s self-sacrificing, sweet, whipsmart, creative, eloquent, and incredibly passionate. He’s got a natural, self-deprecating sense of humor that makes him pretty much impossible not to love.

Passionate Peeta
The quality that gets the ladies SWOONING is his passion. He is the ultimate romantic hero. Since they were children, he has tirelessly adored Katniss, even when she doesn’t deserve it. When he heard her sing in school, he said even the birds’ singing outside stopped, and so did his heart.
Before he was old enough to be willing to kill and even die for Katniss in the Hunger Games, he took a horrible beating from his witch of a mother just to give a hungry Katniss bread when she needed it most. He may not have taught her how to hunt, but he gave her hope when she was almost ready to give up, and that made her strong enough to start fending for herself.
Peeta has a naturally sweet, honest disposition when it comes to love. It was such a change of pace to read about him - he’s not from the Edward Cullen “get away from me, I hate you! wait, nevermind I can’t live without you!” school of romance. He’s been utterly guileless and honest about his feelings for Katniss from the start, even a bit wounded when she doesn’t return them. It’s hard not to melt a bit when he declares himself to her again and again.
“Having an eye for beauty isn’t the same thing as a weakness. Except possibly when it comes to you.”
“My nightmares are usually about losing you,” he says. “I’m okay once I realize you’re here.”
“If you die and I live, there’s no life for me at all back in District 12. You’re my whole life. I would never be happy again.”

Selfless in Love
Peeta has the ability to love someone completely, in the BEST possible way. He always only ever wants Katniss to be alive, safe and happy. When he finds out she’d been faking their relationship for the camera at the end of the first Games, he doesn’t have a typical, “oh yeah, well I was faking too!” face-saving response, or try to make her pay. He gives her space, and continues to love her, to support her, to help her through her nightmares, and to plot any and every way imaginable he can keep her alive every time they are threatened. He doesn’t think of her as an object to be possessed; he really, truly wants her to be alive and happy, even if that means she ends up with Gale.
“As badly as I have hurt him, he won’t expose me in front of the cameras. Won’t condemn me with a halfhearted kiss. He’s still looking out for me. Just as he did in the arena. Somehow the thought makes me want to cry.”
In the arena of the Quarter Quell, Peeta tries to convince Katniss to let him protect her, to let HER be the one to survive.
“Peeta pulls the chain with the gold disk from around his neck. He holds it in the moonlight so I can clearly see the mockingjay. Then his thumb slides along a catch I didn’t notice before and the disk pops open. It’s not solid, as I had thought, but a locket. And within the locket are photos. On the right side, my mother and Prim, laughing. And on the left, Gale. Actually smiling.
There is nothing in the world that could break me faster at this moment than these three faces. After what I heard this afternoon…..it is the perfect weapon.
“Your family needs you, Katniss,” Peeta says.
My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Gale. But Peeta’s intention is clear. That Gale really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I’ll marry him. So Peeta’s giving me his life and Gale at the same time. To let me know I shouldn’t ever have doubts about it. Everything. That’s what Peeta wants me to take from him.”
He may offer her Gale if it’s Peeta’s life vs. hers, but when they’re both safe, Peeta is a fighter in love, making her choice incredibly difficult.

Clever and Convincing
Peeta is persuasive, charismatic and charming, never more so than when it counts – when their lives depend on it in the Games and the Quarter Quell. At the televised interviews, he is sometimes so cunning, even Katniss doesn’t know what he’s up to, but he has Caesar Flickerman and the Capitolites eating out of his hand. He formulates and flawlessly executes the “star-crossed lovers from District 12” routine, wisely realizing it is the only hope to keep them alive.
I'm coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home. Peeta hesitates, then gives an unconvincing shake of his head.

“Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what’s her name?” says Caesar.

Peeta sighs. "Well, there is this one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I was alive until the reaping."

Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.

“She have another fellow?" asks Caesar.

“I don’t know, but a lot of boys like her," says Peeta.

“So, here’s what you do. You win, you go home. She can’t turn you down then, eh?" says Caesar encouragingly.

“I don’t think it’s going to work out. Winning...won’t help in my case," says Peeta.

“Why ever not?" says Caesar, mystified.

Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. "Because...because...she came here with me." 
Later he does the same thing before the Quarter Quell, except the buzz words have turned from crush to married and pregnant. Masterfully played, Peeta.
Unfailingly Moral and Honorable
He has strong principles and a strong sense of self, and always expresses himself in a very heartfelt way (probably why he can charm the bejeezus out of a crowd).
“Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games”
Peeta has such strong morals he’d rather die than let the Capitol make him into a monster.
"I don't know how to say it exactly. Only...I want to die as myself. Does that make any sense? I don't want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster that I'm not."
He can’t help but express compassion, and he hates killing and only does so when he absolutely has to so he can guarantee Katniss’s safety. To the Capitol’s dismay, Peeta’s compassionate overtures help to highlight the injustice of the Games. Like when he offered to share his winnings from the Games with the families of Rue and Thresh, as thanks for keeping Katniss alive and out of respect for their bravery in the Games:
“It can in no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we’d like for each of the tributes’ families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives.”
In the rebellion and in the war, you certainly need Gale types who angrily want to charge and attack the Capitol, but you REALLY need intelligent people with a strong set of principles, who won’t lose their damn minds and become blinded by rage. You need someone who can win the war of words, and change public opinion. If a Peeta-type was sent instead where so often in the Rebellion a Gale-type was sent, bloodshed may have been avoided.

Bold and Courageous
Peeta is always brave with words, but he’s brave with his body as well. He is far more ill-prepared for the Games than Katniss – he did not grow up slinging arrows or throwing knives – but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight, OR stop trying to protect Katniss (a hilarious conceit when you think of their backgrounds).
Aligning himself with the Careers, facing Cato so Katniss can  escape, holding up the suicide berries and defying the Capitol, volunteering for the Quarter Quell (with the added weakness of an artificial leg too!) so he can protect Katniss, and risking his life over and over again to do so requires tremendous bravery. Even when he’s in the clutches of the Capitol, being used as a televised puppet, he manages to send Katniss a warning message about the impending District 13 attack.
“And you….in Thirteen…” He inhales sharply, as if fighting for air; his eyes look insane. “Dead by morning!”
Off camera, Snow orders, “End it!” Beetee throws the whole thing into chaos by flashing a still shot of me standing in front of the hospital in three-second intervals. But between the images, we are privy to the real-life action being played out on set. Peeta’s attempt to keep speaking. The camera knocked down to record the white tiled floor. The scuffle of boots. The impact of the blow that’s inseparable from Peeta’s cry of pain. And his blood as it splatters the tiles.”
When it comes to the woman he loves, he has nothing but bravery.

Peeta is pretty much the perfect guy. Probably why Haymitch says this to Katniss:
You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know.”
Ok, NONE of us deserve him, but that doesn’t mean a girl can’t dream, right? And lucky for Katniss, he is head over freaking heels for her.
Looks
While Peeta’s personality is his hottest feature, don’t let that distract from the fact that he is still physically can’t-walk-past-him-without-doing a-double-take HOT. He’s got medium height, stocky build, with ashy blonde wavy hair that falls over his forehead, and striking blue eyes – um, yes please!  Katniss is always using words like “shine” and “sunlight” when describing blonde, blue-eyed Peeta, and they fit – he is absolutely radiant in both personality and looks.
Given that Peeta scored an 8 in his session with the Gamemakers, we can assume he did something to physically impress them, and Katniss certainly took SOME notice of the boy before the Reaping:
“What about you? I’ve seen you in the market. You can lift hundred pound bags of flour,” I snap at him. “Tell him that. That’s not nothing.”
“Yes, and I’m sure the arena will be full of bags of flour for me to chuck at people.” 
Peeta, you can throw me around like a bag of flour any day.
Talents
Peeta Silvertongue
This guy takes words and makes them into weapons. His words inspire sympathy, horror for his and Katniss’s situation, and also incite by turns, rebellion. Katniss may be the Mockingjay, but Peeta’s words MADE her the Mockingjay. He made her loveable in Panem’s eyes, valuable, and made their actions seem even braver and like more of a banner to get behind.
“There is that quality of goodness that’s hard to overlook, but still...and then I think of it, what Peeta can do so much better than the rest of us. He can use words. He obliterated the rest of the field at both interviews. And maybe it’s because of that underlying goodness that he can move a crowd- no, a country- to his side with the turn of a simple sentence.”
The Boy With the Bread
Peeta is a skilled baker’s son, and he learned his trade well. Yup, that’s right, if you’re Peeta’s lady, you can happily overdose on frosted cupcakes, pies, danishes, cookies, muffins….you name it, he’ll bake it. For a gal who has been on the verge of starving most her life, there are no more appealing words than “here, have a cupcake.”
The Artiste
He makes beautiful artwork with frosting and camouflage, and is described by several people as being very talented at his newfound hobby of painting. If this weren’t, you know, the most violent dystopic government ever, you’d probably catch him in an art gallery, or on Ace of Cakes, or even as the lead singer of some band. I love a creative and artsy guy – it usually translates to ALL areas of life.
Special Attributes
Nice guys finish first
No Peeta is not the bad boy (except when the Capitol invades his mind – but again, his true colors shine through in the end).
He’s not going to ride around on a motorcycle or shoot an arrow through a squirrel’s eye from a mile away. But he also won’t cheat on you, abandon you when you’re in a bad spot, or play mind games with you.
He’s the guy who’s going to treat you RIGHT. You can have really good conversations with Peeta, laugh with him, and feel really, REALLY good with him. He’ll hold you when you have nightmares, comfort you when you’re sad, and cheer you up with a joke. He’s the guy I hope every girl has an opportunity to find someday. Sure I love reading about badace paranormal sex gods, but give me a gorgeous, sweet, loving, hilarious, artistic, intelligent guy any day! He’ll still make you swoon and fan yourself with his looks and sweet nothings, but he’ll be your best friend too.

Real or not real: Peeta has godlike mental strength
His sense of self and resolve are strong, like, epically strong. How much strength must it have taken to overcome his Capitol brainwashing. You’ve seen how they can turn normal teenagers into bloodthirsty muttations – it stands to reason that the Capitol mad scientists certainly know their way around some tracker jacker brainwashing. What they did to Peeta to make him fear/hate Katniss would have ended any feelings of love and attachment for any normal person. But Peeta knows his love for Katniss is real – realer than anything he’d ever known, so he fights his way back to her.
The final “Real or not real” is one of the biggest victories against the Capitol in the entire series in my opinion.
"You love me. Real or not real?" "Real." 

What makes your guy better than his competitor?

Patch is the kind of guy you date when you’re working something out of your system – like when you want a guy who is hot, rides a motorcycle, shoots pool, hangs out with seedy characters, and plays all kinds of whacked out mind games. Those guys are good for a few steamy makeout sessions, but as a boyfriend? Eh.







Peeta has the scorching hot looks to match Patch but you will barely have time to ogle him because he’ll be making you laugh within seconds. He’ll tell you how he feels about you, and you can BELIEVE it. And steamy makeout sessions? Peeta knows how to make a girl melt with his kiss – Katniss was supposed to be faking but she just couldn’t seem to get over her lip locks with Peeta. The guy has a persuasive mouth in more ways than one!

The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind.

Anything you’d like to add?

If you vote for Peeta, he’ll give you a cupcake! Oh, and this...















Patch Cipriano (Seed 19)

Our beautiful fallen angel, Patch Cipriano, is represented by Momo over at 
Books Over Boys. You can also go follow her tweets on twitter @booksoverboys.  Patch is from Becca Fitzpatrick's series Hush Hush.  You can find out more info about these books here.

Personality:

Patch. Patch Cipriano. Oh gosh! How to describe this hunky piece of smoldering sexiness! Patch is the ultimate bad boy! He's got that "I don't give a crap" vibe going on and it makes you curious about him and why he just doesn't care. He's carefree and tough and sarcastic and witty and uber sexy!

He has that really hard and guarded facade about him but as you read more about him, he has his soft side and he's the sweetest thing in the world! He totally has that dangerous 'thing' on lockdown!

He's such a total flirt and he's not like the brooding type either, like I said, he just doesn't give a crap! But that's exactly why he's crush-worthy!

Overall, Patch is that whole package, you know, the one where he's the ultimate sexy, dangerous, hot bad boy! What more could you ask for? ;)

Looks:


Whew! Don't get me started on his looks! EEE! I'm a mess right now; let's see if I can get through this.

First of all, raise your hands (Yes, both arms please!) or...say I if you love a man who can work the whole "sexy in all black" thing? I know, right?! Patch also has that thing down to the core! He's got that black t-shirt, black pants, black boots, black hair, and of course, the mysterious black eyes down to a T! Woot!

Patch is described as a mint scented “dark-Levi’s, dark-Henley, dark boots kind of guy”. He has dark hair and his dark eyes. See? What did I say about working that "sexy all in black" thing? LOL, workin' it, this Patch!


Talents:
Oh gawh! Patch will leave you breathless and always wanting for more! He'll kiss you here and there and right when you're about to faint, you know, from being breathless and all that, he pulls away and you find yourself chasin' after him, wanting more!







He's an angel, a fallen angel at that! He fell for love! (Ha, had to giggle at that line!) ZOMG, like that is the cutest and most adorable thing EVER. He is crazzzzzy about Nora and he hearts her unconditionally and he proves so in the book. Just read it and if you have, you know what I'm talking about!

Patch is very charismaticand the stuff he says will linger forever in your mind long after he's already said them!

One of his most famous lines: "You can call me Patch. I mean it, call me." *jaw-drop* EEEE, squealing like a little school girl over here!










Special Attributes:


Patch and his lines! He has the power to just say things that will leave you dumbfounded and blushing straight down to the core! For example:







WAIT!*brakes!* SOME, MORE LIKE ONE, OF THE QUOTES FOUND BELOW COULD BE A BIT SPOILERY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

“Say ‘Provoking’ again. Your mouth looks provocative when you do.”

"You possess other people's...bodies."
He accepted that statement with a nod.
"Do you want to possess my body?"
"I want to do a lot of things to your body, but that's not one of them."

"I get my very own guardian angel? What, exactly, is your job description?"
"Guard your body." His smile tipped higher. "I take my job seriously, which means I'm going to need to get acquainted with the subject matter on a personal level."

"You should go," I breathed. "You should definitely go."
"Go here?" His mouth was on my shoulder. "Or here?" It moved up my neck."






















Ohmygosh, right?! What did I tell you? ;) Ah!

What makes Patch better than Peeta?

First of all, scroll back up to the top and take in his looks again; one more time. Now ask me again. ;) | There really wasn't any point in that; just to make your thoughts a little fuzzy, lol!







Patch is just Patch and there's no one else like him. He's the kind of guy that you (ITALICIZE this next word) wish you would be able to meet in real life. He's got that whole paranormal edge to him, that thing that you just can't put a finger on. He's dark and mysterious - he's like a walking question mark - makes you (ITALICIZE this next word) want to know him. He's the fun that you look for in life; the liveliness, the spark, that interesting (ITALICIZE this next word) thing that we all want to escape too and just forget about "real-life."






















Patch melts you with his words and not just his strengths; he's everything I mentioned ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ above and more! He's got that type of attitude where if you were to meet him in real life, you wouldn't believe...him. The way he is about life, in general. This Patch...he's somethin' alright.

Anything else you'd like to say about your guy?


P-DOT-S → Here's a song, in my opinion, that couldn't describe Patch any better! Click play and listen to it while you consider who to vote for! ;)














________________________________________________________

Did ya finish listening to it? Have you heard of it already? What do you think? SO Patch, right?! AH! Patch a.k.a Trouble! <3

P-DOT-DOUBLE S → If you vote for Patch, he'll give you a big one of these:















And lastly:






Like Nike says, JUST DO IT!
C'mon Patch's Army, don't let him down!
















*VOTING IS NOW CLOSED*
Check the Tournament tab at the top for info on future matches!