History WMG / MASH

Problem is, his usual methods of sowing chaos for The Red King only work on people who take themselves too seriously, like the weaker minds in TheStand and TheDarkTower, or Frank Burns. He was forced to resort to the oft-cited temporal whammy on the medics, but it left his form in the MASH universe in a state of growing increasingly caricature-like. Like faith for those in TheStand, and like ka for those in TheDarkTower, the 4077th's sense of humor broke the Walkin' Dude's power there.

** Oh yeah, Flagg was ''clearly'' [[SarcasmMode competent at his job]]. Methinks [[MacBeth you're protesting too much]].

[[WMG:Radar is a [[XMen Mutant]].]]

[[WMG: {{MASH}} and ''TheXFiles'' are set in the same continuity, and either Bill Mulder or the CSM was Major Flagg (Ed Winter's character) from M*A*S*H]]

* When a soldier pays off a gambling debt with a piece of artillery, Hawkeye sabotages it. He claims he did it because the gun's presence was drawing North Korean fire, but sabotaging the gun doesn't change it's presence. It just keeps it from being used later to kill North Korean soldiers.

** I don't think I understand what this last point has to do with him being a Communist sympathizer? I suppose that he is associating the U.S. army with fascists? I realize this is all in good fun, but I find it odd and troubling, the implication that being critical of the U.S. military means one should be suspected of being a traitor. Isn't it interesting that, in the 70s, a popular sitcom could have a conscientious objector as its key protagonist? Would this fly today?

** Yes, many of Hawkeye's actions are not just in oposition to the politics of the war. He goes beyond the definition of an objector or protester and commits several subversive and traiterous acts.
* When a wounded female guerilla is treated at the camp, a South Korean officer known for torturing prisoners (played by {{Mako}}!) comes to the camp to take her when she is ready to travel, Hawkeye refuses to believe she could possibly be a guerrilla, even after she tries to kill a wounded US soldier (albeit found by the staff collapsed by his bed, with the unit of blood smashed on the floor) and when the officer spells it out that her life meant more to Hawkeye than it is to her, he still refuses to believe him, even attempting to evactuate her, disobeying orders from both Potter and I Corps that he was not to interfere, yet he identified a group of Koreans as guerillas in ''Welcome to Korea'' when they vanished into the woods and started firing on him, BJ and Radar.
* If someone says something bad about the United States, Hawkeye will join in on the bashing, but if you say something bad about the Chinese, like Frank did when he called them the Yellow Hoarde, Hawkeye will threaten you with bodily harm despite claiming to be a pacifist.
** Referring to China as the "Yellow Hoard" is racist. You don't have to be a supporter of China's communist government to think that's wrong.

Just like ''LifeOnMars'' and ''AshesToAshes'' provide purgatory for Coppers, so the 4077th gives a place for those army doctors and corpsmen who have seen too much to work out their issues and move on. That is why it is a mishmash of 50s-70s stuff.

* For this theory to work, it would have to explain the source of the hundreds of wounded soldiers that the 4077 treats. Researchers could be [[CompleteMonster remorseless sociopaths]] back in the day, but it seems unlikely that they'd intentionally critically wound hundreds of people just to maintain the illusion.

* Except in this loop, the people keep aging, a condition that's unknown to them. That's why they continued to refer to Radar as a kid when he was already 37 years old. This would also explain why the patients that were treated at the 4077th got older as the season wore on, too.

* It would also explain the increasing darkness and intensity of his breakdowns, from just making one up in a Season One episode to [[{{Main/Break The Cutie}} being bent and broken for good]] in the grand finale.

* For this theory to work, it would have to explain the source of the hundreds of wounded soldiers that the 4077 treats. Researchers could be [[CompleteMonster remorseless sociopaths]] back in the day, but it seems unlikely that they'd intentionally critically wound hundreds of people just to maintain the illusion.

[[WMG: Colonel Flagg is actually StephenKing's Flagg]]

With all the talented people in the unit, Klinger needed a gimmick to get attention. Compared to the doctors, nurses, and even Radar who was a gifted clerk with a kind of clairvoyance, Klinger could have faded into the background if he didn't have something to get everyone's attention, so he started wearing dresses and pretended he was trying to get out for being crazy. Any time one of his stunts came close to working, Klinger would sabotage himself. When Radar left, Klinger became the clerk and suddenly everybody needed him. With his need for attention satisfied by his job, he was able to stop wearing dresses and stopped pretended to try to get out of the Army.

* Sidney Freedman actually offered Klinger a discharge at one point, and Klinger refused it ostensibly because he would be labeled a homosexual in the discharge papers--after he had spent his entire military career trying to convince everyone he met that he was a transvestite.

This would explain how he was seemingly wise for a kid in early episodes, but then regresses in later episodes. He's also fairly good at complex problems at times, but then can't accomplish everyday tasks.

Despite being in his 30s, he thinks of himself as a 15-year-old kid. That's why he gets shy around women and can't drink alcohol.

Just like ''LifeOnMars'' and ''AshesToAshes'' provide purgatory for Coppers, so the 4077th gives a place for those army doctors and corpsmen who have seen too much to work out their issues and move on. That is why it is a mishmash of 50s-70s stuff.

* After sabotaging Frank's efforts to shoot down the enemy plane, Hawkeye and Trapper guide his AA crew to aim for the ammo dump, resulting in its destruction. They have no concept of what the lost ammo would mean to US troops in the sector.
* When a soldier pays off a gambling debt with a piece of artillery, Hawkeye sabotages it. He claims he did it because the gun's presence was drawing North Korean fire, but sabotaging the gun doesn't change it's presence. It just keeps it from being used later to kill North Korean soldiers.
* When a lone North Korean sniper shoots at the camp, Hawkeye comes up with a plan to surrender, and he and Trapper attempt to surrender the entire camp to the lone soldier.
* Hawkeye refuses to fire his weapon at the enemy even when the enemy is firing at him.

* Hawkeye helps a North Korean doctor slip into character and assume an identity as a South Korean doctor, then helps him get transferred to a South Korean unit.
* They replace Frank's weapon with various other items, including a toy pistol, possibly in an attempt to get Frank killed.
* When the doctors go to do a prisoner swap at Rainbow Bridge, Hawkeye and Trapper try to befriend the enemy and seem at-ease with the North Koreans and chastise Frank for disliking them. This gives the impression that Americans with guns are bad, but North Koreans with guns are okay.
* When Trapper's friend (an intelligence officer) visits the camp, Trapper and Hawkeye get him into conflicts with Colonel Flagg, wasting the time of two intelligence assets that could be working on the war instead of wild goose chases created by two doctors.
* Hawkeye stands by his Hippocratic oath when he doesn't want to do something, but dismisses it if it lets him do something he wanted to do, like drugging Frank so he can throw a party.
* On their second run-in with Flagg, Hawkeye and Trapper stop Flagg from taking a North Korean prisoner to Seoul by putting Klinger in a stretcher in the prisoner's place. What happens to the prisoner after that is not revealed in the episode, but knowing Hawkeye, they probably fixed him up in a South Korean uniform and got him a job in a South Korean unit.
* When Hawkeye is the pay clerk in ''Payday'', soldiers approach his table and salute him. Instead of returning the salute, Hawkeye raises his right hand in a limp attempt to wave, but this actually looks more like the Nazi indoor heil.

This theory depends on how much of the Cigarette Smoking Man's back story (as shown in "Musings of a CSM") we accept. The theory depends on the similar characteristics and back stories of X-Files characters Bill Mulder and the Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) and M*A*S*H's Colonel Flagg. Bill Mulder was an agent of the Cigarette Smoking Man who worked with the Conspiracy. If we accept CSM's early back story from "Musings," we also have the fact that both CSM and Bill Mulder knew each other when they served in the Army in the late fifties/early sixties. Earlier in his career as an MiB, Bill Mulder had hunted communists in the State Department. Flagg was a mysterious military MiB who impersonated other officers, carried out secretive and sometimes self-contradictory missions, spoke in hyperbole and threats, and was obsessed with hunting communists. He came with loads of fake [=IDs=], so we can safely guess that Flagg wasn't his real name. It was either (Bill) Mulder or the nameless CSM.

Just like LifeOnMars and AshesToAshes provide purgatory for Coppers, so the 4077th gives a place for those army doctors and corpsmen who have seen too much to work out their issues and move on. That is why it is a mishmash of 50s-70s stuff.

Just like LifeOnMars and AshesToAshes provide purgatory for Coppers, so the 4077th gives a place for those army medics who have seen too much to work out their issues and move on. That is why it is a mishmash of 50s-70s stuff.

* After destroying the anti-aircraft gun, Hawkeye and Trapper help the North Korean pilot find the ammo dump, which leads to it's destruction. They have no concept of what the lost ammo would mean to US troops in the sector.

* Hawkeye stands by his hypocratic oath when he doesn't want to do something, but dismisses it if it lets him do something he wanted to do, like drugging Frank so he can throw a party.

Problem is, his usual methods of sowing chaos for The Red King only work on people who take themselves too seriously, like the weaker minds in TheStand and TheDarkTower, or Frank Burns. He was forced to resort to the oft-cited temporal whammy on the medics, but it left his form in the MASH universe in a state of growing increasingly caricature-like. Like faith for those in TheStand, and like ka for those in TheDarkTower, the 4077th's sense of humor broke the Walkin' Dude's power there. Hawkeye and the bunch are, if you will, FunSlingers.

I think [[StrwmanHasAPoint Frank was onto something]] when he accused Hawkeye of mutiny and attempted to have him court-martialed. Examples:

I think Frank was onto something when he accused Hawkeye of mutiny and attempted to have him court-martialed. Examples:

* After destroying the anti-aircraft gun, Hawkeye and Trapper help the North Korean pilot find the ammo dump, which leads to it's destruction. They have no concept of what the lost ammo would mean to US troops.

* When a lone North Korean sniper shoots at the camp, Hawkeye comes up with a plan to surrender, then he and Trapper attempt to surrender the entire camp to the lone soldier.

* When Hawkeye is the pay clerk in ''Payday'', soldiers approach his table and salute him. Instead of returning the salute, Hawkeye raises his right hand in a limp attempt to wave, but this actually looks more like the indoor salute given by Nazis during WWII.

* That's ridiculous. Radar was just a socially awkward developmentally stunted young man who possessed unusually strong organizational talents and had almost supernatural auditory perception. That doesn't mean--holy crap, you're right. Radar had Asperger's!

* More evidence of this appears when the doctors are about to go make a swap of wounded prisoners. When Klinger finds out, he volunteers to drive the bus even though Radar was already going.

** Alternately, an aging Grandpa Pierce is telling these stories to his grandkids as wartime anecdotes, and he's long since lost track of when their events took place and which of the accounts he just made up.

** I don't think I understand what this last point has to do with him being a Communist sympathizer?

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