#i use *manic* very much on purpose with hawkeye because thats how he gets when the mood takes him

[variousqueerthings]

on Hawkeye and Charles and “Going Too Far”

So I remember back in... I want to say season 2 or 3... Hawkeye and Trapper recorded Margaret and Frank without their knowing and broadcast it over the camp -- I can’t remember the exact context, but it was deeply personal (and I believe sexual too), and Margaret was humiliated

and I think that’s the first time we get a clear, canon indication (and not just personal feelings) that sometimes Hawkeye goes too far. We even get the “I was too busy going too far” line

I feel like right now Hawkeye is going... very far. And it’s not necessarily something the show itself is doing (I think) to foreshadow a careening off the cliff type of thing, though I do choose to read it in that direction, because eventually he will, I’m sure....

first we had the episode where he crashes the peace-talks, still wearing his bloodied surgery clothes, as an impulsive reaction to finding out that he won’t be allowed to go home when he thought he would. and he very much doesn’t face any punishment for that (not in the moral sense, but I was really wondering how the military would react to that... interesting that it was treated as a non-issue, and I’ll get back to that in a bit)

and now we’ve had the episode in which Charles goes non-verbal (Charles goes non-verbal!!!!!) because he’s feeling... very very similar feelings to Hawkeye’s in above-mentioned episode. He’s watching his life slip away from him, the life he wanted to lead, in favour of something he never consented to do, in a place he never consented to be in

and when BJ and Hawkeye needle him, because they both -- but honestly I think especially Hawkeye and BJ follows his lead (because when Hawkeye wasn’t there BJ and Charles briefly found some common ground....) -- have a tendency to mark people down as “Good and therefore their feelings are worth respecting” or “Bad and therefore their feelings are not worth respecting”

so when Charles does something that is entirely within his right and totally inoffensive -- goes non-verbal, because he’s done with everything -- they take it as a personal challenge from someone they don’t quite see as Good/A Person, rather than as an expression of someone wishing to have his boundaries respected

and they absolutely go too far. messing with Charles like they do is probably the worst thing either of them has done on the show so far (I think... I’d need to watch back to the first three seasons, because some of the stuff against Margaret was quite nasty -- although the animosity there had a different, deeper flavour to the general “we just don’t get on” happening with Charles, it was still rooted in sexism a lot of the time)

I think the episode places the right with Charles, but it doesn’t quite respect the weight his feelings either -- he’s angry and the episode says “that’s fair, and now you got your own back, the end (until next time),” but if we’re doing some deeper analysis into how it might actually feel for him, I think you can easily read some deep loneliness (he’s disliked by everyone, even though he often does try), alienation (for all some of his stuff is snobbishness, he genuinely doesn’t have much of anything in common with most people here and he gets shut out when he tries to bond with what he’s got to bond with... awkwardly enough maybe he actually does have a lot in common with Hawkeye, but neither of them are ready for that acknowledgement), and overwhelm in a situation he’s completely unequipped for -- and a lot of all of that is so autistic coded, it may as well just be canon (NON VERBAL!???)

and then he’s not even allowed the decency of being left alone

I wonder how this dynamic will continue, because I’m 99% sure that they’ll be friends eventually, and also that this won’t be referred to again, but there definitely is some work that Hawkeye and BJ need to do to meet Charles halfway, because taking away Charles’ “Charles-ness” in order for him to be friends with them would flatten his character... so I’m interested in how that will happen

Charles isn’t Frank Burns. When Hawkeye and BJ mess with him the tone is much nastier, because Charles -- while he’s not always a saint and did a couple of things in season 6 (although I think only early on) -- isn’t actually someone who has any power over them in return, nor does he -- these days -- tend to abuse what power he has. At worst he’s standoffish and cares overly much about rich-people “propriety,” but it’s not actually anything that can do anything to anyone here

also I think this is very in-character for Hawkeye, in the sense that it’s got precedence -- indulging (and not being given any reason to consider the repercussions of) his unhealthier manic impulsiveness, in both of these episodes, is something we’ve seen happen before

and it not being recognised as unhealthy behaviour/in the second example bullying (in the same way as Charles isn’t being recognised on his own terms either) because of the exact opposite (but same) reason to Charles -- “oh that’s just Hawkeye, he’s like that sometimes and then you reel him in again and laugh about it.” Again, not necessarily what the show is intending, but hey, he’s recently been told that he won’t be able to go home, it fits very nicely with how one might expect him to act out

and unfortunately Charles feels like he’s in the crossfires of Hawkeye’s own issues -- makes you wonder who the antagonist is (well, neither of them, but it’s complicated)

#im watching MASH #charles winchester #hawkeye pierce #bj hunnicutt #MASH #we skipped the double-episode and will go back to it because it didn't fit with how we were watching today #dare I say it.... bj is a jock (I think that's actually been a thing from the start but I'm feeling it more in s6+7 than in 4+5) #anyway bj is a jock and that's why I read him as so willing to go along with anything Really Really Stupid #but maybe also.... especially Hawkeye's stupid #i use *manic* very much on purpose with hawkeye because thats how he gets when the mood takes him #and im always thinking about the manic-depressive 'joke' #hawkeye and being fae and being a trickster and being puck and being neurodivergent.... should write something about that