#or when margaret tries to rage quit the 4077 and henry's like lol yeah we all commit psychological warfare on each other

[mylittleredgirl]

when i hear "found family" in relation to an ensemble of fictional characters in media there's two different things that could be happening here.

often it's what i think of as forced family, which is like "i found myself in a situation with these people" but a key part of the trope is that, like most families of origin, they're stuck with each other and can't leave without taking extreme action. voyager's "found family" is a forced family. i'm watching m*a*s*h now and it seems that way too. in both cases there's an outside constraint where you literally cannot escape these people and so grow to love them as a result, often in a codependent or unhealthy way but you are closer to them than you will ever be to anyone who did not share this experience. you would sell some of them to satan for one corn chip but god help any outsider who tries to break you up or even understand the situation. sometimes you get lucky and there's a person or two in there that you would choose to spend every day with regardless of circumstance (but would you really? can you even tell for sure??). but also it's "i will never ever speak to you again as long as i live but i'm really bored so can you give me a ride to the 7-11 first."

meanwhile chosen family is more like star trek the next generation where they are placed in this group at random but there's no hostage element to it. any one of them could request a transfer at any time, but they never will because this community and group of people have become an inseparable part of their identity. in both cases they'd saddle up and risk their lives to save each other forever at any personal cost ("not to me, not if it's you") but forced family also contains the element of "i'll fucking do it but christ alive." not every ensemble fits into one or the other but i think it's fun to distinguish as a concept.

#on fandom #star trek thoughts #i was thinking about all the times when hawkeye and frank are like i would literally murder you at the slightest provocation #but then in that ep where trapper thinks he's leaving he's like are you gonna move out to get away from frank #and hawkeye's like of course not. or the time when they both trick frank into staying at the 4077 for some flimsy reason?? #or when margaret tries to rage quit the 4077 and henry's like lol yeah we all commit psychological warfare on each other #but how could you actually want to leave that?? we're a family margaret hello?? #mashblogging