#it feels like Hawkeye et al. are punching DOWN.

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

The thing about Charles that most enrages me, vis-à-vis his plotlines and development, is that his crimes and his punishments are mostly entirely disconnected. He gets comeuppances all the time, but only occasionally are they a consequence of him being Bad, as opposed to just being annoying—or, sometimes, just being an easy target. And then sometimes he does or says something utterly heinous and the narrative gives him nothing but a slap on the wrist. Hawkeye and BJ (and sometimes the entire camp!) will torment him for minor, petty things, like destroying his French horn because he was bad at playing it. But the things he said to Margaret in the supply room in Mail Call Three were so vile that the scene is usually cut from syndicated airings. And what does he get for it? She jabs him with an elbow and pushes him out of the room and then nothing bad happens to him for the entire rest of the episode. 

I have a whole half-written essay on the utterly nonsensical way Charles’ bigotry is portrayed on the show—the way it had to be portrayed, really, in order to make the character function—but this is the single worst result of that whole mess, to me. Because this mismatch between actions and consequences affects all the other characters, too. If Hawkeye, and by extension the narrative itself, gets angrier at Charles for snoring than for yelling about keeping his family’s bloodline pure (not to mention being racist against Max—you know, Hawkeye’s supposed fucking friend?), then that says something about both the protagonist and the show. Something extremely unflattering, to put it lightly.

#but then again everyone is racist to Max in late seasons so I guess we're not supposed to care :)))))))))))))))) #Charles Emerson Winchester III #MASH #MASH TV #Disclaimers: Obviously I neither need nor expect a didactic 1-to-1 karmic correspondence from these plots. #But it's so annoying that late seasons are called preachy when they seem to mostly lack any moral backbone at all #at least on every issue except feminism. (Thank you Ms. Alan ''Honorary Woman'' Alda!! <3) #Also not to say there was said karmic correspondence with Frank either exactly; but it wasn't important that there be one #because Frank was constantly awful so he was constantly dunked on. A strawman punching bag to hit as much as you like. #Charles gets punched all the time but it never feels like our hero Super-Hawkeye standing up to a bully. Even though it SHOULD. #Sometimes in spite of Charles' myriad privileges #it feels like Hawkeye et al. are punching DOWN. #Which they are NOT! And YET! #Starky's Original Posts #Starky's text posts #unlike those other posts which were filthy woobification THIS post is hashtag Charles Critical #so it can go in the main tag