my reasons for loving BJ both are and aren’t shallow – yes I enjoy how the way he’s written (intentionally or not) and especially how he’s acted as a fluid, shifting, somewhat trickstery character, means he can contain many reads and complexities
but I am also simply pleased to see large, hairy boobs and I think that should be enough
thinking about pegs letter in poa again and her telling bj about erin calling radar daddy and how theres been theories about how peg didn’t think it was a big deal or how she did it just to fuck with him but i see it being neither of those. i think she told him that bc he’d think it was funny. we know what kind of person bj was when he came to korea, he was a jokester and a Well Adjusted Person. a normal guy who could take a joke and quip back one of his own. nothing was a big deal for him bc nothing had ever been a big deal ever. peg probably wrote it thinking he’d get a good laugh and tell his buddies. but instead it sends bj into a spiral, he starts second guessing things he’s never even considered before. it shows just how different a person he is, how much he’s changed since he’s been there that personal things mean so incredibly much that something so small causes him to breakdown. he doesn’t see things the way he used to simply bc he’s a different person and after that there’s no way he can go home and be the same as when he left.
Oh like you know mash is a play? What next? Is there an interview from 1995 where Mike Farrell talks about BJ showing up in Maine and fucking Hawkeye till he shuts the fuck up? No really what’s next
Dear Mike I feel like I can call you mike because you and me are so alike. I’d like to meet you one day, it would be great to have a discussion about queer subtext in mash. I know I can’t perceive the truth about bj as fast as you but I think you’d be impressed with my speed. I love your mustache, you act well. Did you have a good relationship with your father? Me neither. These are all things we can talk about and more. I know you have not been getting my handwritten stories about bj going to maine because I know you would write back if you did. I hope you write back this time, and we can become good friends. I am sure our relationship would be a real homerun!