#I think you've earned it

[nerdynikki94]

There are too many reasons for why Hannibal is such a captivating series: the artistic visuals, sound design, phenomenal acting, dialogue, character development, beautifully executed split season arcs, etc.

I could literally spend like 3 hours just praising the storytelling of the cinematography and sound design in Hannibal S3b (don't even get me started on the painfully purposeful dialogue - word choice is so thorough and deliberate, especially regarding Will). This arc is truly masterful in the way it conveys intention, intimacy, and barriers, not just in relation to Hannibal with Will, but all the characters.

In S3E8, we are instantly introduced to the way Hannibal exists within his memory palace. We first see him interact with Alana, sitting with a glass of wine in his old office. It's important to note that she's first shown there, before we transition to reality, the transparent partition separating the space between them. He brings people into that room in his memory palace to retain that old sense of composure and control.

Also, notice the way we see Hannibal interact with Frederick. There is no place in his memory palace for Chilton. In this entire arc, these two are always shown in cuts of untouched reality. Hannibal doesn't respect or hold any esteem for him. He talks to Chilton without investment, and thus, he is not worthy of the honor of Hannibal's confidence. His control in this instance is cold and completely removed.

That shifts entirely in the last scene of that episode when Will goes to see him. The music changes, a haunting few notes, incredibly reminiscent to some opening notes blended in Love Crime. We see him strut straight into Hannibal's foyer, the Norman Chapel in Palermo; Will knows where to find Hannibal; it's just as much his memory palace, as it is Hannibal's.

Will is the only one to do this throughout S3b. All other characters shown in Hannibal's memory palace, are simply there at the start of the scene, they never walk into it. Hannibal has to be the one to extend the invitation, but not with Will. For him, Hannibal has an open door policy.

In S3E9, we continue their meeting. Hannibal & Will's angles are so specific in this scene, but also, throughout this setting. When they talk between the partition, you are often seeing the other's reflection in each one shot. They are equals, both of them caged and free in their own personal ways. Their presences are fused together, fractured reflections of one another. The distance isn't absolute, because they are still so close, as if no time has passed.

Then, later, we see Alana going through Hannibal's cell. It's intentional that the camera shows her milling about in a way where we can see the holes in the glass between them, at first. We are meant to be aware of the wall ever between them, until Alana steps closer. In threatening him, showing Hannibal the true power of her position, she gets to safely encroach on his space. Suddenly, the glass wall is gone. And then, when she steps away, the angle changes so we can yet again be reminded that the wall is still there, it always was, but the threat was real. It's the closest thing we see to Hannibal being rattled by his captivity.

Then, we see Jack visit Hannibal. Hannibal's reflection is seen in most of Jack's one shots, but his face is always obscured. He's a dark looming shadow, always lingering over Jack's shoulder like a threat. (Hannibal will manifest as a reflection in this way for Alana and Frederick as well throughout this arc; just like her and Will say, as if everybody feels like he walks out with them.)

Jack's reflection is shown only once in Hannibal's shots during this meeting. When Hannibal is telling Jack that Bella once said his face was all scars, if you knew how to look, we can just barely make out a reflection of half of Jack's face beside Hannibal. I find this brief moment to be really interesting in re-watches, once you ruminate on the notion that is introduced later in S3E12.

In this story, Hannibal is the Devil, and Jack is God. So, we see God's gnarled half-reflection beside the smug devil, a reminder that in more than one way, Jack too, is responsible for Hannibal's actions. More than once in this series, we see God's lapse of judgment allow the devil to get away. Hannibal is Jack's greatest regret, proof of just how blind he can be.

Briefly, jumping ahead on that point. (The God, Devil, the Lamb & the Great Red Dragon speech is also so important as well. A scene where we see Jack's reflection in Hannibal's shots, a forced distance, expression removed, saying with certainty that he'll be standing at the end. Then, Hannibal approaches, asking him if his conscience is clear, and his reflection lands on Jack, but doesn't meld. Jack's face is not overtaken, instead it overtakes what we see, as Jack says his conscience is as clear as Hannibal's. God has made his own choices. He may be blinded, but he's never truly influenced.) AAAGGGHH! Visual Poetry!

Even in S3E10, when Dolarhyde calls Hannibal. We see Dolarhyde physically enter his old office. There's a sense of counterfeit there, Dolarhyde's desperation to be seen by Hannibal. Yet, Hannibal allows him into that room of his memory palace, not as an equal, but as a patient.

Later in that episode, we get one of the best shots in the season, which occurs when we see Hannibal & Will talking about TGRD and the question of his sanity, Will takes a step forward and this is where we see his reflection meld into Hannibal. The contrast is there, but so is the connection. Just like Jack says to Chiyoh in S3E7: Hannibal & Will are identically different. They have changed each other.

I could keep going. This show is fucking ridiculous. It's so incredibly well-made, thoughtful and fucking efficient. Yes, there's loads of flowery language and overcomplicated arguments, but that all really falls into Bryan's stylistic choices: Pretentious Art Film. But in the same vein, that is how it's able to convey so much, even when doing so little; it's efficient because, even in silence, there is so much storytelling being done.

[parachutingkitten]

But Nya’s whole vision is so blatantly reverse engineered though. Like, no shot the writers sat down and said "I think something that Nya’s really been dreading in the back of her mind is the possibility that Jay will have amnesia about her-" like, no. Sorry. You had the Jay amnesia plot first, and then established Nya’s fear of it second because of the angst potential. You don't get to pretend you wrote a plot that organically makes nya confront her fears.

And I know this because even though Jay falls to pieces without Nya, she in no way shape or form struggles to exist without him. Nya's fears have always centered around autonomy and choice. If you understand her character, you're gonna play with that angle.

[daily-hanamura]

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

alright, just going to throw this out there for anyone else who, like me, has been waiting 10,000 years for it to go on sale:

Guild Wars: Eye of the North is currently $4.99 on Steam. I repeat, Guild Wars: Eye of the North is currently $4.99 on Steam.

[ruvviks]

PLEASE DO NOT TAG AS YOUR OWN OC.

Sebastian has been searching for himself ever since he has freed himself from the shackles of Arasaka. Stripped from his identity and only just now rediscovering his own agency in life, he struggles with seeing his own worth— too used to existing solely for a purpose, and too used to relying on others' perception of him to define this purpose in the first place. He wants nothing more than to get back to himself; if there even is a self to get back to at all. SEBASTIAN VIDAL || BELONGS TO @MOJAVES.

mahmoud darwish, i didn't apologize to the well // 'out of control', by ruslan isinev // salt in the wound; boygenius // vardges petrosyan, a shirt made of fire // by liam wong // this is love; air traffic controller // bilal al-shams, sacrifice // 'the dying gladiator', by pierre julien // flesh and bone; black math // by hel7l7 // romance; fontaines d.c. // 'the invisible man smokes', rick castro // little words; the happy fits // georges bataille, the dead man // by matthew grant anson // deep water; american authors // kay redfield jamison, an unquiet mind: a memoir of moods and madness

[shannonsketches]

lays on the floor do you guys ever think about how in ResF Bulma falls for Vegeta's fake-out with Freeza and both she and Yamcha are worried about Vegeta's villain fake-out strategy in Champa and Beerus' mini tournament and how it's only been a couple of years since the Buu saga and how Vegeta straight up stopped using that strategy after that tournament

[imminent-danger-came]

MK: "No way! I may not understand your irrational love of noodles, or working hard, or being angry all the time—but you are always there when I need you, so it's time for me to return the favor! Because Pigsy's Noodles, are noodles worth fighting for!"

(2x04 Sweet'n Sour)

-

Subodhi: "Zhu Bajie was a stubborn one too." Pigsy: "Oh! So you think we're the same just cause we're pigs huh, bet you think I'm just a disgusting little monster too." Subodhi: "Zhu Bajie had his vices, however, like all the companions he grew up. He struggled the most, but he worked hard, not unlike yourself. Although he didn't start out this way, in time he became a deeply caring and protective creature, and a powerful ally—one of the best in fact. The heart you have in abundance, the power? Why, you've barely scratched the surface of your potential! And that's saying something."

(4x09 Roast of the Monkie Kids)

-

Gettin' emotional over my favorite hard working Pig man.

[swagging-back-to]

finally went and got my GED diploma a year after i graduated :)))))

[moinsbienquekaworu]

I have a post in my brain and I'm not going to make it. But. Know that I am vibrating more than a human should. Blorbos are being spun in my brain faster than in a centrifuge

[triangle-dog]

I finally (after 5 attempts in 6 months) have managed to register Nova with the AKC without being interrupted and having the form time out - and I can't even apply for her trick titles with the Canine Partners number they just gave me!?

To some extent, I would understand if she were purebred, but do you really think I'm going to fake a 100% "All American Dog"??? (I don't even like that name...)

Come on, they would let me apply for the trick titles if I applied for the CP number with them :( My motivation is limited and your website is aversive. Just let me do everything at once

Anyway, hopefully she'll officially have her CGC in the next however many business days

[exsqueezememacaroni]

Mike Patton micro-movements that drive me batty: the eyebrow raise and smile and "ok?" (and the sweaty baby hairs on the back of his neck)

X

[july-19th-club]

honestly the first hunger games movie was really quite good and even the later ones were not THAT awful bad. just watched the scene where she drops the wasps on the careers and i do think it takes some doing to make a nearly two-minute sequence of somebody sawing at a tree branch deadly nerve-wracking

[aeide-thea]

so i went to reblog some fanart earlier and started to tag it #oh this is. incredible actually, and then paused and thought, @‍self why the 'actually.' what is that adverb conveying. and i contemplated it for a bit, and finally concluded: well, shit. it's reflexive deprecation.

the thing is, deprecation is my starting position pretty much always, and that's a problem in itself, but mostly my problem; but when you're talking abt somebody else's work, and you start backing defensively away from imagined negativity before anyone's even actually voiced any? you may think you're playing bodyguard, but in reality you're the vanguard of the assault, opening a wedge for enemy forces to strike.

i was talking a couple of weeks ago abt seeing ppl tag that kristin sue lucas name-multiplied-by-one post with tags like 'this is art To Me' vel sim., and honestly i think it's a similar sort of reflex—i think exposure to the tumblr vernacular often leads people (very much including me!) to produce turns of phrase like this, that ultimately serve to convey roughly

'i, a clever girlblogger,¹ am, yeah, engaging with this frivolous hai pollai²-coded material; but my relationship to it, unlike that of most she-ple, is Intellectual and Analytical and Examined! and to make that clear, i'll be dropping in these little verbal particles from time to time, in order to distinguish my own, elevated examination of the subject from the state of risible naivete³ i'm implicitly ascribing to the other, more ordinary audience members i'm conjuring up only to instantly put down—but like, it's fine, i'm a free-and-easy girlblogger(TM), so you can't think i'd ever deliberately propagate establishmentarian prejudices! never mind the effect my rhetoric might subconsciously be having, on me or on anyone else…'

and i think this framing is worth squinting at, and worth attempting to excise from one's speech and from one's mindset, because when you get right down to it? it's just yet another insidious manifestation of respectability politics, that's gotten people to adopt it via the cuckoo-chick strategy of positioning itself as cutesy tumblr idiolect.

and like, circling back around to that fanart i mentioned at the outset: yeah, the tag did feel weirdly prosodically truncated to me without that 'actually'! but this way, if the artist ends up seeing my discussion of their work in their notes, they won't be getting slapped in the face with a wet dead fish first, so like. what's more important, you know?

⸻ ¹ ""(gender neutral)"" ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi in the feminine, if i haven't totally fumbled my declensions… ³ phrasing nicked from a comment of @‍proudheron's.

[flustersluts]

‘M at a month now… still Dunno how long I’m g’na last… really really tempted to give up now.. buuuttttt also- kinda wanna see how long I can go…

-bubblegum 💕

Congratulations on one month! 🎉🎉 you must feel sooooo pent up and needy now though you poor thing!!! I bet you wanna cum so so bad... but it'd be a shame to give up now!! there's only one thing for it 😔😔

[watermelinoe]

i wish i didn't need so much external validation that i'm not worthless but my desire to perform well has been ingrained in me since early childhood

[hikeyzz]

i'm too tired to get around to kms tonight maybe tomorrow