#potter mash

[marley-manson]

I’ve been going through your mash posts and a lot of what you’ve said has really resonated with me, so I’d like to get your opinion on a couple things;

You’ve made your thoughts on Potter clear, do you like how he was characterised in “Dreams”? Because looking back i think it’s the most negative portrayal of him we see on the show; BJ dreams that he gets interrupted dancing with Peg by Potter handing him surgical tools, causing her to leave him. Klinger dreams that Toledo is deserted and when he pears through a store glass he sees Potter operating on him while motioning for him to come inside. Charles is more subtle (from memory) with Potter being the one to bring in the patient. (There might’ve been something to do with Potter in Father Mulcahy's dream but I can’t remember)

Do you think this should’ve been expanded on more?? Imo it gives a feeling that some of the main cast blame Potter for being in the war/stripped from family/ect. Also I think it really shows how different Henry and Potter are, because if Henry stuck around I cannot imagine that the characters would’ve dreamt of Henry in Potters position.

Also, you’ve mentioned before how B.J. doesn’t seem to like Hawkeye that much but really wants to be liked by Hawkeye, do you think this translates into how B.J. views Hawkeye as a surgeon? Because from the get go the show established that Hawkeye is an incredible surgeon and that even characters that don’t like Hawkeye as a person admire his skills, do you think B.J. is envious of Hawkeyes skill or at least his position as Chief surgeon? Bc imo B.J. has the personality of someone who is used to being the best (e.i. Husband/provider) and so I can imagine him feeling envy of either Hawkeyes ‘ ability and/or his position as chief surgeon.

Anyways I love your writing 💚💚

Thank you so much 💖

YES! Dreams is my favourite episode for Potter, for exactly the reasons you've described. I loooove how sinister he is in BJ, Klinger, and Charles' dreams, especially - and probably most fittingly - Klinger's. (I don't think Potter was in Mulcahy's dream? Not prominently at least, he may have been one of the surgeons in the audience, I don't quite remember.) And yeah, completely agree that Henry would not have been framed like that - he never seemed any more "army" than the draftees, just someone unlucky enough to get stuck with more responsibility.

Potter's own dream is also interesting in how it combines the war with a game at his childhood home, like his identity is irrevocably tied to war, influencing his entire life. It's dark how his dream is the lightest of them all, in a way.

And yeah, I would've loved to see that explored in more episodes. My ideal like, framing of Potter is as an affable villain, or at the very least someone who can occasionally be an antagonist that the draftee characters have to work against at times, who they express some resentment towards, etc. I've mentioned this before but like, even Henry was framed as an antagonist in some episodes, and it's bizarre and disappointing to me that Potter never gets that treatment. The closest he gets is the aforementioned Dreams, and Wheelers and Dealers imo, where he's at least treated as a punchline by the narrative, if not a villain.

It's a shame to me that the show almost always feels like it's laughing with him whenever he eg foils one of Klinger's escape plans, or makes threats to make someone attend a meeting/go to the front/smile more/join a bridge game/etc. Like, in the earlier satirical seasons the fact that the CO can use his authority for petty reasons would itself be a dark joke, but in the later seasons it's just a cute character quirk.

And yeah re: BJ, I think the idea that BJ loves Hawkeye but doesn't necessarily like him all that much, or at least resents a lot of things about him and/or finds aspects of his personality uncomfortable, isn't necessarily how the writers intended us to see their relationship lol, but I'm into it and I think it's a pretty fair extrapolation from a lot of BJ's behaviour, both early and late.

And I do think it makes sense to read him as at least a little jealous of Hawkeye's surgery skills. Like for the most part I think BJ does admire his skills as a surgeon, but I can think of three episodes off the top of my head where BJ demonstrates insecurity over his career, two of which are in relation to Hawkeye (The Young and the Restless, Stars and Stripes, and Heroes).

Heroes in particular does show BJ acting very jealous of Hawkeye in terms of being a doctor, though it's the attention Hawkeye is getting for treating the famous boxer. And Stars and Stripes is BJ lording being asked to write an article over Hawkeye to a very petty degree that imo also suggests jealousy of Hawkeye, in the way he takes weird smug pride in shutting him out.

I wouldn't say jealousy over Hawkeye's surgical skills specifically is a major aspect of BJ's character, more like a little buried resentment and insecurity that rears its head every now and then, because he's the passive aggressive type and buries his negative feelings about everything until they seep out or explode in weird ways, as pretty explicitly shown and discussed in Wheelers and Dealers.

Like, he was fresh from residency when he came to Korea so it makes more sense for him to respect Hawkeye's skills as someone a little bit senior to him and not be like, all that weird about Hawkeye being better than him. But they aren't that far apart in age - I headcanon about 5 years* between them - and Hawkeye is very notably skilled even as a young surgeon just one or two years into his own career, so it's easy to see BJ being a little intimidated and resentful at times.

Thanks for the ask! This was a lot of fun to answer and I appreciate your interest in my thoughts <3 lmk if there's anything else you want to add!

*my reasoning for their ages is: BJ is 28 in Welcome to Korea, drafted directly from residency with one surgical specialty (general surgery). Hawkeye was drafted from working in a hospital and he has two specialties (chest and general), which means 2 two-year surgical residencies under his belt. Add about a year for the first three seasons and he's at least 4 years older than BJ. Then I add one more to make it two years working in Boston post-residency, because why not? I like him mid-30s.

[gawkeye-pierce]

inspired by this post

[hearteyespierce]

[packet-of-staples]

I doodled a bunch of dumb memes for funnies and also to try and get my bearings.

[thegreatsylvando]

[handledwithgloves]

in my dreams , you love me back

[c8h14o]

idk. this formatting feels wrong but back to back was crazy

thank you for coming to my ted talk

[preacherboyd]

MASH | 5x24 Post Op

[countesspetofi]

M*A*S*H S04E20, "The Novocaine Mutiny."

Weird people objecting to being called weird since the Korean War.

[mash4077confessions]

Francis and his fighting Irish spirit

[ebenelephant]

thank you so much Sherman Potter for agreeing to be the diversity hire🙏🙏 it must have been so hard to be the only heterosexual in the cast

[marley-manson]

Yes! All of what you said is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking. Your right Henry was genuinely more of a military nuisance than Potter ever was. And that’s so ridiculous. Potter is a veteran regular army fighter, the entire system he stems from is at odds with the belief systems of the quote unquote main characters that we are supposed to agree with mostly. I mean, it took the characters whole seasons to forgive Margaret for her pro army stance in the first few seasons, but Potter is totally fine? Potter is such a wasted opportunity. Having him come to blows with some of the more fervently anti military characters would not only have provided the sorely needed internal camp conflict, but it also would allow for that in depth character exploration that was wanted. Instead of just presenting potter as cartoonishly wrong the show could have presented us different and political and moral stances from two characters that we care for each, and seen that affect on their relationships. Potter does some genuinely messed up stuff, and expecting us to believe that army despisers like Klinger and Hawkeye would simply brush that under the rug because he’s a funny old grandpa is so at odds with their earlier characterisation. The show and characters used to critique Henry for just being an obedient cog in the military machine, Potter is a product and advertiser of it! Sorry I know I keep sending you manifestos I just think about this a lot

It's a good manifesto! And yeah like I love Margaret's slower character development and shift, I think it's very well done, but it does seem kind of silly next to Potter not getting critiqued at all.

Nothing much to add to this, you really hit the nail on the head imo.

[redcheekdays]

(ᴗ_ ᴗ。) ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

[francisjohnpatrickmulcahy]

M*A*S*H F*M*K!

Spin the wheel

I tried to include as many characters as I could think of and find through research, though I'm sure I'm missing a lot of recurring characters.

Please share so we can see how many and which characters were selected!

EDIT: The genie's out of the bottle now, can't put the original version back in the bottle, but I've removed Ho Jon from the wheel, if only from the original post. Apologies again, there's no excuse.

[maelarkin]

Never gonna forget showing my roommate MASH after explaining it as a Korean War drama/comedy, then watching it in silence till the end where she turns to me and says that wasn’t a K-drama

[heartandmusic]

DO NOT LET ANYONE SHAME YOU FOR BEING A POTTERHEAD IN 2024. its totally ok to tape your glasses to your head and talk about horses and paint portraits of your coworkers and perform arterial surgery in a war zone. you are VALID