Why I think Blutch and Chesterfield love each other
Hello to everyone who could be reading this! I wanted to exercise myself and do a text analysis, but since it's juste an exercise I thought: ''why not have some fun?'' and here we are. (Also, this fandom really need more content).
So, I don't know if anyone will read this thing but it doesn't really matter. I'm not a professional in analysis, so don't take this too seriously…and last thing, I'm not even an English speaker (I'm french, so yeah) so I'm sorry if there's any mistakes. But I wanted to exercise my English as well as my… analytic mind? Does that make any sense?
Just for a reminder: ''Les tuniques bleues'' is a serie of albums about the Civil War in the United States, who opposed the North and the South of the country. The sergeant Chesterfield and the corporal Blutch are soldiers of the North, and the main characters of the story.
I read those albums some years ago, and even at this time (when I was younger) I thought Blutch and Chesterfield were kinda in love. In a strange way, yes, but I liked their relationship really much. Now that I'm older and that I'm re-reading some of the albums, I think that their relationship can be pretty confusing.
Are they friends? Rivals? Or something different than that?
To find an answer, we need to take a look closer on the characters and their personalities (which are very different).
Let's begin with Blutch, my favorite character he's so cool I love him. He's independant, clever and doesn't let anyone take him down (but he's also really resentful and distrustful.)
He had a difficult life before joining the army, as we learn in Vertes Années : he's an orphan (plus his parents left him behind), never had a real parental figure except an alcoholic who had good intentions but never succeed to take care of him (or himself). His life was hard at the orphanage, and still was after he escaped. And by what we saw, he never had any close friend in his life.
Okay, now with Chesterfield. He's brave, obedient and loyal, but temperamental and idealist. He had a pretty good childhood with his two loving parents, and a father who was a soldier. He joined the army to escape a marriage with Charlotte, the daughter of his employer (as we learn in Blue rétro). But he enjoys being a soldier, and he's very loyal towards the army (and often submissive towards his superiors). He's ready to sacrifice himself to accomplish his mission, even ready to kill if it follows his orders.
(I could talk about these two forever, but we're not in a character analysis so let's move on to the heart of the subject).
Blutch and Chesterfield are in a relationship of hate/love, not one after the other but simultaneously. They can insult or hit the other and one second after that kiss each other.
First, they're not rivals. For the simple reason that there is literally no point for them to be rivals. Rivality is being in competition with someone for something, but you can be friend with you rival (like in Pokémon. This is the first example that came to my mind don't judge me). But in our case, they have no reason to be rivals. No same motivation, no same love interest, no unique thing the two of them want.
So, are they friends, or enemies, or lovers? I would say enemies in the beginning. Let me explain myself (I'm literally writing right now so no one's going to interrupt me but…anyway).
In Blue Retro, when the story of their encounter is told, Blutch joins the army because of Chesterfield. That's why he hates him first. As I said, he's really resentful and wants to take revenge on the sergeant. And desert.
But as the time passes, Blutch and Chesterfield literally do nothing without the other. They still fight, but are inseparable. They save each other, are immensely sad when they think the other is dead (as we see Chesterfield cry in Requiem pour un bleu, and Blutch be sick in La rose de Bantry) and kiss the other frequently (yeah, they do that. So heterosexual.)
Blutch still hates the war and want to desert. But does he really want to desert? I mean, we know he's really smart and resourceful. My opinion is that if he really wanted to desert, he would have done it a long time ago. He tries to desert only when Chesterfield can catch him and literally take him back.
In Vertes Années for example, Blutch had the perfect occasion to escape, Chesterfield couldn't catch him. But he didn't: he came back to the army. But why? He hates the army. He doesn't want to fight and despise his superiors. So why? Because he wants to stay with Chesterfield. Even if their relationship is really difficult, the sergeant is literally the only person he has. His only friend, the only person who cares for him (we can see that in many albums like Vertes Années, Baby Blue, or En avant l'amnésique). And Blutch cares for Chesterfield too (as we see in La rose de Bantry, or Bull Run). But Blutch is too proud to accept this. He keeps trying to put the Sergeant away, no let him see his feelings (we can see that in Vertes années), not even admitting that he's his friend most of the times (like in Des bleus et du blues). I think that his life badly damaged his trust, and he's afraid of being letting down by the sergeant. He doesn't want to show that he cares for him, because of pride and maybe fear, so he acts like he truly hates him. That's so sad.
Blutch always try to desert, and the sergeant always takes him back to the army. Why not let him go? Because he doesn't want Blutch to be killed (I think he said it in Vertes Années, and we clearly see it in Les Bleus de la balle), and also he wants to make him a hero, I guess but that will never happen sorry Cornelius. That, I think everybody get it.
Chesterfield doesn't really tries to hide that he likes Blutch (maybe because he doesn't have trust issues like the corporal). They fight generally because of Blutch's sarcasm and the sergeant's bad temper.
He tries to tell Blutch that he have him, that he's not alone anymore, generally to comfort him (he did it in Baby blue and Indien mon frère). But Blutch always react badly, and Chesterfield gets angry (like in Indien mon frère), which is comprehensible. Chesterfield likes Blutch really much and wants to show it to him, but Blutch don't let him. So the sergeant is offended and they fight. Back to the starting point.
So, they care for each other and like each other. But they are stupid Blutch can't admit it and keep Chesterfield away, who gets angry. That's how their relationship works.
But there is one time in L'oreille de Lincoln where Blutch asks ironically ''You can't live without me, can't you?'' and Chesterfield answers ''No I can't'' and kisses him on the head (very seriously). Blutch was a little upset back then, because he was forced to help someone he despised. And Chesterfield did that to… Calm him down? I don't really know, but it was sweet well done you idiot.
Now, what about their relationship with women?
We all know that Chesterfield loves Amelie Appletown, even if she's not interested, and sometimes nasty to him (except in Des Bleus et du Blues ? I don't know why, she seems nicer here.) But be realistic: she's the daughter of a colonel, who will never let her marry a sergeant. And the colonel hates Chesterfield, as a reminder.
So, he's into Amelie. But does he know her? They never talked one to one. They have nothing in common and they barely see each other. Is this a real love story? In my opinion, the sergeant think of Amelie like the perfect woman: he's idealist, he doesn't really know who's Amelie but he loves what he thinks she is. The ''perfect woman''. But isn't everyone think about the perfect woman/man for them? He idealizes Amelie, maybe he knows he will never have her. This would deserve a character analysis.
Blutch doesn't have a current love interest in the series. He's pretty suspicious towards women, and don't think they are fragile little creatures like the sergeant. In the Nancy Harts, a woman seems to have a little crush on him (even if it was for a ruse at the beginning, she seems to still like him in the end). He's nice with her but doesn't seem to have a crush? I don't know, he's just like ''ok, I guess she's cute'' but he doesn't talk to her or think about her again. Apart from that, he has no interest in any woman they meet.
So they basically have no relationship with women. Amelie and Chesterfield does not have a relationship for me: they meet sometimes and the sergeant fantasm on her, that's it.
Now, let's see their contact with other men. Blutch seems pretty friendly with the other soldiers if they are not his superiors (we can see that in Les Bleus et du blues, for example). His comportement change when he's with the other soldiers, it's clearly not the same when he's with Chesterfield. It must be because his relationship with Chesterfield is different and much stronger than his relations with the other soldiers. Why does he needs to act like he hates the sergeant, but he never do that with the others? Because he isn't afraid of his friendship with the soldiers, it doesn't matter if they let him down. Of course it wouldn't be pleasant, but they're not close enough for that to bother him. Blutch doesn't want to show his feelings towards the sergeant (romantic or not) because that would make him vulnerable. And this is clearly the last thing he wants.
There isn't much to say about Chesterfield on this point because he doesn't have many relation with other men, except Plume d'Argent and George Appletown I guess. The thing to see is that his relationship with Blutch is unique too, because he never act with anyone else like that. They are really special for each other.
We get to my point: why I think Blutch and Chesterfield love each other. Maybe I've taken all of that too far and the authors never thought about all of that, but this is for fun so let's go.
We know now that they care for each other, they are inseparable, they don't have any other relationship with anyone like theirs and they don't want to be apart.
Conclusion: They love each other. Maybe not romantically, but they clearly care deeply for each other. The whole problem of their relationship is Blutch's lack of trust and Chesterfield's stupidity. If after the war they stick together, and I'm sure they'll stick together, they will have time to work on that without the stress and the tension of the war.
So yeah, if both of those idiots survive the war then maybe they will stop their bullsh** and accept that they love each other.
I hope you liked this analysis! If you don't agree with me or want to add something, please do it. I always like to discuss about those things (but don't insult me please I'm not ready for that).
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