#character mash

[shootingstarrfish]

psychic kiddies having lunch!

[hellspawnmotel]

whatever *tezuka-styles your deltarune cast*

[tawnysoup]

SIFFRIN FLAT NOSE TRUTHERS WE WIN!!!!! WE HAVE WON!!!!!!

[jessicawwcaww]

Father mulcahy kind of the character of all time. He’s a priest. He boxes. He’s cute as a button. He’s in with the black market. He’s in with the black market to get goods for orphans. He regularly fleeces his unit playing poker. For the orphans. His sister the Sister plays basketball. He tends bar so people will confess to him. He got drunk to preach about temperance. He says jocularity. Southern Baptist services are too forceful for him. He’s threatened violence on multiple occasions. Lesbians want him

[crustaceousfaggot]

Hawkeye you can't just say that

[wasyago]

on a lunch break

[dr3am-operator]

did you know that i love her?

margaret houlihan ⋆ girlfriend is better

[nanakorobiyaokii]

i am so inlove with sakura's character song. ➳♥♥♥

[radarsmenagerie]

i want what they have

[high-voltage-rat]

I think it's fascinating that the quotes:

"Have you forgotten sir, we were at war? A fight with an alien race for the very survival of our species. I feel I must remind you that it is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable."

"When you spend every day fighting a war, you to demonize your attackers. To you, they're evil, they're subhuman. Because if they weren't, what would that make you? What I'm trying to say... is I've been afraid to see you for what you really are. You're our brothers. Our sisters. And the things we've done to one another are unforgivable."

"These guys want to use us, take us away from our families, and send us all over the dad-gum galaxy just to test if their agents are ready for the big fight? Well... guess I'm interested in showin' em exactly what a big fight is all about! So I'm not ordering you to go. I ain't even asking. You do what you gotta do, Private."

came from the same series whose standard fare is lines like:

"What in the hell are you two doing?" / "We're being executed by our own men, sir." / "Cut it out."

"I only drink the blood of my enemies, and the occasional strawberry yoohoo."

"You always said I could sleep when I’m dead, Sarge, and guess what? I am dead. This purgatory is about to become purga-snore-y, yawn!"

...and both categories manage to be a poignant statement about the nature of war and what it does to the people in it.

[t00thpasteface]

the every-season squad!!

[tiredandoptimistic]

Genuinely one of my favorite details in MASH is how every character manages to display their unique identity through clothes, despite the uniform. They've all got a couple personal garments of civilian clothing mixed in with their preferred ways of modifying their fatigues, and that's so cool.

Hawkeye wears his undershirt untucked and his overshirt unbuttoned, plus he removed his epaulettes (Trapper is more or less the same). Radar has his overshirt unbuttoned but still tucks in his undershirt, and he wears that iconic hat that's definitely not standard regulation. Henry has his fishing gear or college sweater, and only pulls out the proper uniform shirt and hat if big brass are coming to camp. Frank and Charles both button and tuck in their shirts, but Frank usually wears his hat while Charles does not. Potter buttons his shirt, but never tucks it in. Margaret starts out dressing pretty uniform standard, but by the later seasons she usually replaces her shirt with a sweater or sweatshirt of some kind. Klinger, of course, has a variety of iconic fits.

BJ is definitely the most dramatic example, and it feels very intentional that by the later seasons the only part of his uniform he wears are the pants. He's got his iconic pink henley, plus an army shirt he made into a vest or a pair of red suspenders. He never even wears combat boots, it's converse all the way for him! To top it all off, he's got overlong hair and a goofy mustache; that man is showing disrespect for army regulations in every aspect of his physical appearance. It's very similar to Klinger, in my opinion; except BJ skipped right past the veneer of trying to prove he's crazy to "this is what I want to wear and I won't let this fuckass institution police how I'll present myself"

There's just so much character in how all of them choose to express themselves, despite living in a situation intent on stripping them of their individual humanity! I could do individual character analysis for all of their outfits, even though they're supposedly wearing the same thing.

[marley-manson]

The more I think about it the more I adore Hawkeye laughing when Radar walks in on the flu shot in Carry on Hawkeye.

It's just such a delightful reaction. A lesser show might frame it as an embarrassing moment, maybe as comeuppance for his flirting, or just for humour. Hawkeye can make role reversal sex jokes but he wouldn't want anyone actually thinking it's something he does, that would actually be humiliating.

But no when Radar walks in and thinks he's interrupting some kind of sexual moment it's played like his dream punchline, the best possible thing that could've happened in that moment. Zero shame, zero embarrassment, nothing but appreciation for the comic timing. It's so much fun lol, god I love this episode.

[tigersfaith]

season 2 episode 21: crisis

[doctaaaaaaaar]

Why everyone should watch Mashle. ooooo you wanna watch it so baddddd OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

thanks Melon for showing me this masterpiece

And these are for my rarepair that apparently no one else ships

and to close off:

[lizzy-bonnet]

MASH has so many modes of masculinity. Hawkeye, massive ego, womanizer, very self-consciously non-violent, masking pain through humour. Winchester, whose masculinity is SO, SO bound up in class and wealth. Klinger, serving absolute cunt for several seasons before pivoting to practically being regular army. Hunnicutt, soft masculine but at the same time so route one that some of his biggest crises come when his wife cleans out the gutters by herself and works as a waitress, honestly the guy might as well have been on The Waltons for how traditionally he sees his role in his family.

But Frank such a fascinating study. He's performing masculinity so aggressively but also so poorly that it folds back on itself to become a parody. He doesn't really like his wife, but he isn't brave enough to leave her. He's threatened by his side piece and constantly tries to diminish her. He uses his firearm as a prop to make him feel big. He's the least "manly" character in the cast but he wants manliness more than anyone else. His trauma is hidden in throwaway lines. He's desperately lonely and unable to connect with others because he can't stop being such a wanker. He's petty, he's jealous, he's humourless, he's sour. Margaret eventually dumps him for someone who she thinks can give her the life she wants, and goes on her own journey of character development and when she leaves him behind he spirals instead of trying to find his own identity.

I kind of hate how undignified his ending is but at the same time, once he no longer has Margaret to cling to, what's left for him? Honestly I find him so tragic, he's such a sad little trainwreck. The narrative is often cruel to him, sure, but I also think the masculinity of the period (and still today) was really cruel to someone like Frank who doesn't have a strongly defined sense of himself the way the other men in MASH do. When I used to catch episodes in syndication he was hateable, but streaming half a season in one go just makes me feel sad for him.