Who do you think would have done worse if the other one had died in Korea, Hawkeye or Trapper?
This is a juicy question and I wanted to give it the proper consideration! After much pondering, I think my gut instinct was right.
I think Hawkeye would do worse while still in Korea. I think Trapper would do worse after he got home.
We see Hawkeye break down quite a few times in the course of the show. He's sensitive to the horror of it all and sometimes it overwhelms him. Losing Trapper would send him into a tailspin and Trapper is usually the one who pulls him out of it. He'd cry and drink and probably lose it for a few days. They'd probably call Sidney, as a friend as much as a psychiatrist. But Hawkeye actually knows how to cope with grief. Even when he breaks down in Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, he pulls it together pretty fast. He's also experienced. He may have lingering issues with his father's lack of communication about his mother's illness and death, but he seems to have fully processed it by the time we meet him. He's experienced with grief from a young age. Hawkeye's dad is portrayed as taciturn but emotionally intelligent and they have a warm, close relationship, so Hawkeye has at least some model for dealing with grief and he aso has support at home. I think the reality of existing in Korea without Trapper would compound the damage of Trapper's actual death. Hawkeye needs an improv partner. If BJ or someone came along I think it might take Hawkeye longer to warm up, but ultimately he'd give into his need for social support, and getting that need met would help him a lot. Either way, once he gets home the acute absence of Trapper would no longer be such a big problem and he'd process the grief and be able to move on with his life.
One of Trapper's strengths is his ability to compartmentalize to get through a crisis. Hawkeye's death would really shake him. He'd probably drink more, at least for a while, and I think he might withdraw a little bit. He'd be less friendly and outgoing and just have less fun because Hawkeye wasn't there to make him laugh. I don't think he'd make another close friend. He wouldn't be mean, but more focused on work, in survival mode. He'd probably keep going out with the nurses but I think it would become more physical and lose a lot of the playful romance because he just wouldn't have the energy. But he wouldn't have the luxury of breaking down, so he wouldn't. Until he got home and it all hit him, like how sometimes you get sick right after a period of high stress, because your body pours all its adrenaline into fighting it off until it's safe to be out of commission. I think he'd just kind of fall apart. Trapper also comes from a working class background where masculinity is a little bit restrictive and he'd be surrounded by people who weren't in Korea and didn't understand. I think Louise would try, but wouldn't really know how to help and Trapper wouldn't know how to be helped. I think he'd probably learn to deal with it eventually, but delaying the break until he got home would make him break that much harder.
Of course the only way to find out is to write both fics ;)
