Warning: pontification within.

[bktheirregular]

Thinking about the Supernatural thing led me inexorably to thinking about M*A*S*H (see my previous post). Which led me to ponder something I haven't seen much, but did see in M*A*S*H: the polar opposite of Mary Sue. Whatever you'd call that.

What the heck. Call him Frank Burns. He was pure antagonist - all his qualities were negative ones. He was an inferior surgeon, small, petty, spiteful, unfaithful - I can't for the life of me think of one single positive quality he possessed. (As opposed to Mary Sue, who doesn't have any negative qualities.)

As the series progressed, the actor playing Frank got tired of the role - figuring there wasn't much of anything that could be done with him. He had a point, I suppose.

The character who replaced Major Dr. Frank Burns, Major Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III, was certainly not an anti-Mary Sue. He was presented as egocentric, difficult, and possessing a whole lot of other negative qualities that I can't think of offhand; but he was also a brilliant surgeon, a cultured individual, with a lot of stuff on the positive side of the ledger as well.

Oh, he was an antagonist to Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt, all right; often enough, it was like oil and water. But Dr. Winchester was a more fully realized character in his own right; and one might say that his friction with Hawkeye and B.J. made them into better, more well-rounded characters as well.

Thinking of Dr. Winchester as opposed to Dr. Burns also brings to mind another cartoonish nemesis of the 4077th, Col. Flagg of the CIA. Oftentimes, Flagg would come and make trouble - once even threatening poor Radar with the "Maylasian Chest Implosion Torture", a procedure so hideous it hadn't even been invented (yet) - and often he'd lean on Frank to assist him in whatever scheme he was working on. Frank would invariably fold like a cheap camp chair.

Flagg tried to intimidate Charles Winchester into acting as his accomplice ... once. Only once.

It's not entirely clear what happened to Flagg after Charles was done with him. For that matter, it's not entirely clear Flagg lived to tell the tale.

Like I said, a much more well-rounded character.

Comments

[nycdeb.livejournal.com]

huh! I hadn't thought about M*A*S*H in ages but your dead on. And it suddenly occurs to me that even as limited as Frank was as a character, he became (or at least was revealed to be) even more so (if such a thing were possible) as Margaret's character got fleshed out. Margaret, in the beginning, is almost ludicrously one note as Frank harpy partner in crime - well, partner may be overstating it. He was more an accomplice but you know what I mean.

As Margaret evolved into a real character, Frank was left carrying the "cardboard cut out" standard on his own.

Ah, Flagg. My second favorite recuuring character. Sidney was my fav.