manipulative radar is everything to me. there are quite a few times when he takes advantage of the fact people see him as small and innocent and whatever to get what he wants, like when he sells the whole camp shoes they dont need apparently just using wet puppy dog eyes. my favorite example is in "love and marriage" when he and piercintyre are trying to reunite a korean family with henry's permission and radar goes all angelic "aw gee it sure would be swell if we could get this Korean mommy and daddy with their baby all together 😊😊😊" and henry tells him to cut it out.... seeing past the #facade

hear me out on this: radar/henry and margaret/frank similarities. not because their characters are much alike, but because it's interesting that the same ways the mash writers conveyed an intimate and romantic relationship between margaret and frank were also used in writing radar and henry's relationship.

beyond the obvious that frank and henry both leave the show and force marg/radar to move on, there's that running bit about margaret showing attraction to men who evoke images of her father (ex: in "the gun" she is pleased when frank owns a revolver like her dad, in "big mac" she gets excited thinking about macarthur because he's "practically family" and served with her father, you could even make a case for her drunkenly telling henry he reminds her of her father and getting pretty close to him) and radar confesses to henry that he reminds him of his father in the s3 episode that Shan't Be Named. there are multiple instances when margaret speaks on frank's behalf (which of course invites snark from piercintyre) and radar does the same for henry (as we all know). in "ceasefire" radar and margaret are both troubled by the thought of never again seeing henry and frank respectively (which you could also compare with the nurses who want to make plans with hawkeye after the war) and i remember at least one time when marg and frank finish each other's sentences in the privacy of marg's tent. now of course not everything is the same but i think it's interesting that of the three main duos of the first few seasons (hawk + trap, marg + frank, and henry + radar) one was explicitly romantic, one is shipped by basically the entire mash fandom, and the other... is hendar... (wipes the lenses on my shipping goggles)

sorry if that's a little out there lol but i'm gonna end this ask by saying how cute i think it is that henry is always aware of radar's presence: in "the army-navy game" he comes stumbling out of the hospital yelling radar's name for apparently no reason, in "i hate a mystery" when he's startled awake he immediately goes "sign what, radar?", in "check-up" the first we see of him at trapper's party he's going "where's radar? anybody seen radar?", etc. it's something you don't really see the other characters do for each other (consider the episodes where one person's missing the whole time and nobody remarks on it) and it's really sweet to me. they're just attached at the hip <3

-📡🎣

anon i'm so sorry i know it's been like half a year but i was scrolling through my inbox and found out i never replied to this one. i am unworthy 😞

you're so right about manipulative radar and i never thought about those parallels but that's really interesting, and the "three main duos" thing... yeah. like i know they're intended to have a father/son dynamic but their relationship immediately stood out to me as something else, even more on rewatch tbh (because then sherman potter comes in and it turns out it IS possible for radar to have a non-charged father/son (or grandpa/son) thing with his superior officer lmao, it was just his chemistry with henry). the way they give each other health checks is simply not platonic somehow

i think people lean away from the ship because supposedly the writers intended them to be like father and son (which would apparently make it impossible for them to have a relationship? i sort of feel like love is a little more complicated than that) but i think there's a lot of leeway on the matter. for example, you can interpret henry's prioritizing radar above even his favorite nurse/fling in "henry please come home" as him being paternal... or you can interpret it as a sign that henry was more attracted to him than his favorite nurse. i personally think that henry shows some discomfort with the idea of being a paternal figure to radar; in one episode (s3e22) he even worries out loud to a nurse about "look[ing] old enough to be his father". i think the writers sort of locked down the idea of henry being a parental figure near the end of season 3, around when they started making radar more innocent/less "worldly" and mature, but like.... they already made them hug naked and radar spy on him changing (s1e19) i don't think you can come back from that LOL

they're such an old married couple! there's even a scene at the end of the episode where marg wants a transfer in which henry makes a comment to radar (in reference to the surgeons) about "the children" getting along again... henry i know what you are. make that nineteen year old your spouse you won't regret it

loooove radar being sly and manipulative. he had that middle-aged man on a string and they both knew it.

i think the reason they're both really good for each other is that radar wants stability and someone he can rely on (his ability to predict henry, his adherence to routine, his fluctuating sense of self based on how insecure he feels about being a man, etc.) , while henry wants a partner who can excite/surprise him (think of all the affairs he's had and how bored he is with his practice back home vs radar always at his side being sneaky and unpredictable). they're very compatible in that way. that's just how i see it though :)

let me know what you think!

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(yayyyy i'm so glad you came back anon!!)

yes these are all excellent points, i agree it doesn't seem intended from the writers' side but it is very very easy to interpret it this way. and their relationship has paternal elements for sure but that doesn't make henry his literal father lol and like you say, love and relationships can be more complicated than that. i don't think it's an either/or situation (like in the post that started this, henry can love him like a son in some ways and love him differently in other ways and also call radar that while they get off on the complicated power dynamics 😌)

i was also just thinking about the episode where henry is on trial and they both reach down and bonk their heads together and then just. keep. their foreheads pressed together. while they slowly look at each other. and keep eye contact. like WHAT. and then they do it AGAIN. and same thing happens AGAIN. IN PUBLIC. WHAT. like come on!! what was that!!

ohhh i like your thoughts on their compatibility. and it's also so clear that while radar is sneaky and manipulative, he also has a ton of respect and admiration for henry 🥹 and he definitely knows when to turn on the sad wet puppy eyes to get what he wants lol