#and then picks up in the second season

[transgenderdoctorwhomst-old]

So I've spent the past like, two weeks, trying to dissect with my partner what exactly is making 13's first season so... uninteresting and even just bad to us. And today I've finally figured it out!

Obviously just my opinions, disclaimer I've only watched up to the end of Spyfall, this is not intended as hate but rather criticism, and you are completely free to disagree or just ignore the whole post..

I'm going to put this under a cut in order to not take up the whole dash. Topics: The Doctor's autism, and the dynamics between 13 and her companions. So, let's start!

The failure to characterize 13 consistently with past incarnations, especially in regards to the Doctor's naturally rebellious nature and extremely visible autism.

As someone who's autistic, the very very consistent autistic traits in the Doctor are always extremely obvious. And for an incarnation written with that in mind, you'd think that it would be consistent, right?

But here's where something major about the Doctor is missing: so far, as of the end of Spyfall part 2, I have rarely seen 13 engage extensively with her special interests. The only examples I can think of are when she meets Rosa Parks, visits Kerblam!, and when she meets the Solitract.

The Doctor has a strong tendency to get so caught up in their special interests that they basically will not shut up about it when it comes up, often rambling without fully checking if someone is actually listening. I... feel like I rarely see 13 do it that much? Sure, she's happy to explain things when she's asked, and she clearly has special interests, the sheer prevalence it should have in how she engages with the world is just... not really there.

The lack of it makes it feel like her character is missing something major, and was hard to put together that it was this specifically that was bothering me. I can think of a million examples of each Doctor respectively engaging with their special interests near constantly, but it feels like it's hardly there for 13 in comparison.

As for her rebellious nature, 13 has so far been remarkably passive about capitalistic crimes. I'm sure we all remember her and Kerblam!. And the spiders in the hotel. You would expect the Doctor to challenge the systems that caused those respective problems, encourage the people in those systems to fix it, but she just sort of... doesn't.

She doesn't care the warehouse employees have to save up miniscule wages just to see their family once a year, that they're tracked and constantly under threat of losing what little income they have, that even though society has progressed so this can all be automated, the powers that be are not adapting with that to provide basic necessities to the public, and instead are telling everyone they're lucky if they get to be indentured to Kerblam!. The Doctor stops a man from committing terrorism (because all protesters of these systems are also serial killer terrorists, clearly), and then doesn't stop to deal with the root cause. She just tells him he's wrong, is satisfied the company will hire more humans (put more people in the meat grinder), and leaves.

The spiders episode is a whole thing, focusing more on the side effects of the actual problem, which is capitalist businessmen cutting corners for profit and ignoring regulations, and getting away with it. The message of the episode at the end comes out as "you shouldn't actively kill any living thing for any reason", citing trapping the spiders in a room to die as more humane. But I would strongly disagree.

The humane thing to do for those spiders, who were mutated, suffering, and having a negative impact on both the local spiders and humans, would have been to swiftly kill them. The Doctor cares more about not feeling bad about killing the spiders than the system that made this happen in the first place, or ending their suffering, which feels wildly out of character.

2. The companions don't feel like they have a lot going on, and lack the kind of strange connection past companions have.

So, Graham Ryan and Yaz are all kind of just boring. I see the dynamics and relationships they're supposed to have with each other, but none of it feels compelling. I don't feel any connection to them.

At first, I thought that it was because Chibnall introduced three companions in the first episode. It's definitely a contribution, since having to introduce four major characters compared to one or two isn't the easiest thing to do. But it's possible.

Torchwood introduces six characters to us at the start: five members of Torchwood 3, and Gwen. Every single character feels distinctive, they have clashing personalities that also bounce of each other. The introduction feels great, and you can immediately watch their characters develop and change over the course of the first season.

The Doctor and the Fam? I literally cannot tell you distinctive personality traits about each of them besides basic vibes. It took until Spyfall for them to start feeling distinct. I can't tell you major flaws, major anything. I can barely describe their respective relationships to the Doctor, besides "weird friend with the time machine we know nothing about."

The single thing portrayed as a flaw in the Doctor is that she doesn't like talking about herself unprompted. They don't know a lot about her, but in her defence, they barely ask.

Past companions in New Who always have some strange relationship with the Doctor. Rose is having a situationship with him after he blew up her workplace, and has complex feelings about how travelling with him affects her life at home. Martha is having this weird situation where he's using her to fill the gap left by Rose, while trying to keep his distance, and Martha is just trying to figure out how the fuck to get him to look at her as her own person. Donna decided she wanted more in life, and by god was she going to grab the Doctor and take it, assigning herself his new best friend.

Amy met the Doctor as a child, obsessed over him for 14 years, ran away with him before her wedding, and then dragged Rory along, and ended up with the weirdest family dynamics possible. Rory isn't sure how to feel about the Doctor, and the two of them for some reason take turns being the "mature" one. Clara is overly dedicated to him and deeply enjoys the power trip that comes along with having time travel.

I can't speak about Bill or Nardole, because I haven't actually met them, but I know there's some kind of dynamic going on there.

The point is, every individual has some kind of distinctive and very strange relationship with the Doctor, from the very start. Friends, but something else. Romantically interested in each other, but dancing around that boundary. The 13th Doctor has absolutely nothing strange or compelling with hers so far.

Like, I could think of at least some with what we have! 13 decides Graham is her grandson, because Ryan and Yaz have a grandparent figure, but Graham doesn't, and then extends that to Ryan with deciding to be a great-great-grandparent figure to him.

At least in her first season, she doesn't seem opposed at all to a relationship with Yaz. The Doctor is notoriously weird about relationships. If Yaz panicked and told her mom that she was dating the Doctor, the Doctor could just roll with it and now Apparently They're Dating ???. It could be so fun! But there just... isn't anything!

Maybe it gets better in her second season onwards, but these kinds of things should be established fairly quickly. Like, at least halfway through the first series. I genuinely hoped her first season would be better on a rewatch, because I watched it while it was airing, and dropped the show after because I was just so not into it. I shouldn't have to be doing this much work to make it interesting to me! I shouldn't be enjoying early Moffat Who more than this!

Anyways if you read all this, I am very happy to hear thoughts and counterpoints, just please don't send me hate anons :)

[dilfmobius]

i took a break from suits because the only reason i was there in the first place was for how absolutely batshit insane harvey specter is when it comes to mike ross and once mike went to prison i kinda went okay i think the shows run its course for me byeeee

anyway i just started s6 and i'm happy to see harvey specter is still batshit insane for mike ross

[cozylittleartblog]

if star wars was pitched for the first time in today's entertainment industry it would be turned down. and so would any other thing that's currently a "big IP". where do idiot executives think the IPs come from to begin with???

[vanmarkus]

everything aside it was such a ballsy move to end the season on so many different open storylines before getting a confirmation of a renewal... like. it has to pay off or else

[this-is-a-name-dont-worry]

btw. rambling.

with how it ends with peri doing a meta comment hoping they'll get a season 2. i think it's safe to assume the writers want a season 2. and with that in mind, it makes what happened with Dev something more similar to sequel bait than actual end of his character. i mean Peri's introduction was even through Dev, without him he'd be just. there. which would be a shame just in terms of writing. especially when the writer also clearly likes Peri since our man is the one having the final line of the season. in the same way I'm pretty sure the writers care a lot about Dev too, I mean, even in this finale at his darkest hour you had constant reminders of how he's just. desperate for his father's attention. So yeah.

Dev not remembering is likely not his intended final ending, just the logical one for this finale that also pushes you to want to see more. Hazel's friends and brother remembering is an opening for new situations in a second season (Hazel may get pushed to make wishes by them, even if sometimes involuntarily; Hazel may make more wishes directly involving them, allowing for newer stories that couldn't be carried by just Hazel Cosmo and Wanda); Dev forgetting is the bait to make you want a second season

[her-soliloquies]

‘No no no no no why whyyy Jayce don't do it talk to him first don't please don't at least pick up the cog you monster Oh Isha not you too no dammit NO’

My honest reaction to act II

[al-luviec]

Thinking about how the entire reason Zane went along with Wu was to try to find out more about his past. Thinkinggg about how he reached his true potential after finding his father's workshop. A big chunk of his character arc in s2 focused on how badly having no family left affected him. Then he found out how father was alive and he was sooo happy... and then his father died. And then Zane died too.

[luna-the-cretar]

I need to point something out about the Krew’s conversation with Torbek in episode 19.

Kremy—a man who likes to keep up appearances and appear larger than life, who relies on his silver tongue to spin his words into lies and half-truths—let himself appear as vulnerable to Torbek as Torbek was after the fight.

Because Kremy took off his coat and his tie (Richie made a point to both say that and make the motions as he was describing what Kremy was doing), before getting on Torbek’s level and seeing if there was anything on Torbek’s person that could explain what just happened, before noticing everything else that was off.

Kremy taking off his coat and tie is actually kinda significant, considering that shortly after, he (eventually) agrees to tell Torbek the truth about what happened, and even willingly spoke up to fill in what Gricko was missing in his explanation. Kremy was, metaphorically, letting his walls down and letting Torbek see him in a way that I imagine even Frost and Gricko rarely see (maybe outside of sleeping or bathing).

I mean, of course, Kremy immediately puts his walls back up the following day, and then acts like he is somehow above Torbek for the remainder of the season (which I hope he cuts it out early S2), but…it’s a step. It’s a step in the right direction for Kremy’s arc, and I can’t believe I didn’t even take too much of a notice in this—or anything the gator did—until I started rewatching the series and genuinely started looking into Kremy’s character more.

And of course Kremy’s whole interaction with Torbek this episode isn’t the only significant one, and i promise I’m not ignoring the others (in fact, I’m actually quite interested in the way Frost handled the combat, as well as the way he separated himself from Torbek afterwards, and it will be making me pay extra close attention to Frost for the next few episodes), I just…don’t hear a lot about Kremy in particular this episode.

[festering-bacteria]

More doodles! I’m extremely ill abt jfkonfucius atm, thye make me lose my mind

ALSSSOOO omg these four images together rlly show how inconsistent my style is 😭 Confucius looks different in ALL of them

[fluffypotatey]

*puts on my Professor glasses* Macky really knows EXACTLY how to talk to Wukong, let's dissect it! M: Looks like things are going smoothly. W: I say, you've been here the whole time, haven't you? M: FFM is your home, but it's also mine. W: Did you find anything? M: Still nothing, however. Now the Jade Emperor is no longer present. The Celestial Realm already gives me an unsettling feeling. M: Wukong...that kid. W: I understand. M: You have to go and talk to him. W: I know! But...he still isn't ready. M: I see. You're the one who isn't ready, yet. How did you even become a teacher! M: He has to be. We all have to be realistic. W: He's just a kid. We can't let him... M: Who says he's just a kid! Why is it him? When you chose him, did you know? W: I didn't know, I really didn't know! I just followed...a feeling. M: Are you not the least bit worried?! This child has all of your special powers, and he always runs into trouble. Have you never questioned this before? Not a single person knows where he came from. Is it not strange?! M: We still have no clue as to whoever let out Azure Lion. All your old foes returned in one swoop. Are you not even a little- W: Then what about you? You also suddenly came back. M: Argh- M: I say, someone must be manipulating us behind our backs. Especially Xiaotian. But they still haven't succeeded. W: Then tell me. What about you? M: Tell me do you want my help or not?! / W: Not long ago you were still against me! / M: I see, you're just a- / W: ...after I assume you'll teach me how to train my own disciples? ~ Xiaotian Interupts ~ M: Look. That kid has made you his idol. You're his one true hero, but you... W: But I what? M: He has to understand, he doesn't need to carry these burdens. You have to do better. You can really tell whose the chatty one in this relationship XD Wukong might be a lil annoyed, but he's tolerant. And Macky is a little playful turd as always. Where Wukong gets gloomy and concerned, Mac swaps between teasing and serious in a blink. Then things get a lot more strained and tense, but unlike their previous fights, it never escalates into violence. Never a growl, never a raised fist. They're right at the edge, and they drop it. I'm very much interested in the psychology of arguments and when it comes to people latching onto (1) thing a person says and relating it slightly off topic to avoid talking about that other thing, like Wukong is doing here. It's so cool seeing how physical they are in trying to visibly control their emotions around each other, and how they keep trying to hold themselves back from tearing in further, always pausing and halting, and switching to another thing. They're TRYING. Ugh. I think Mac was trying to give a comforting smile at the end, but it's kinda warped by the whole ~ everything else. ~ Anyhow, I like how this starts with Wukong establishing, or rather cementing to Macaque that he believes MK is a kid. And while Macaque argues against that, he did also say before that Wukong should talk to him. And they have their squabble, with Mac pushing Wukong's buttons to get him to say something, BUT the fact this gets resolved with he needs to understand he doesn't need to carry these burdens. YOU HAVE TO DO BETTER. Like of all things Mac could have chosen. He's playing right into what Wukong himself believes, that will overwrite the "MK isn't ready" thing. Because let's face it. Mac is right when he says Wukong also isn't ready for that talk yet. He's so down throughout all this, Wukong probably feels himself that he needs to be better. AND by appealing to the fact MK is a kid, without explicitly stating that, just a statement that cannot be denied, BUT is a subject that undoubtedly, even Wukong cannot avoid. Because he wants better for MK. For him to not walk down the same path as him. Macaque has basically nudged Wukong into having that talk he wanted with MK by reframing it differently from what Wukong wasn't ready for. Thoughts? Critique?

*squishes you* anon…anon, you’re telling me..that this was the actual dialogue between SWK and Macky in 5x01. that what i just read is the translated version of the Mandarin dub. correct?

ok ok cool. i’m cool. gucci. feeling fantastic lemme just

WHAT THE FUCK LMK

ok so i ranted in the tags but realized i forgot to say more things (also i was worried i’d exceed the tag limit bc that is a real thing what do you know!)

so, anon, you said Macky knows how to talk to Wukong and yeah agreed but for me it’s for of the sense of “Macky knows how to get his words under Wukong’s skin”

he knows how to let his words sink in and fester in Wukong’s mind, making him reconsider things or another to help speed up certain decisions or choices Wukong is hesitating on. and ain’t it fascinating how despite how long it’s been since either character have talked or interacted with each other, they still know the ins and outs of their behavior and thoughts.

Macky knows Wukong needs to talk to MK but is holding back. Macky after one answer from Wukong realizes that it’s Wukong who isn’t ready for that conversation and switches tactics to try and breach that mental block

Wukong, in a need to avoid the conversation, brings up the questions surrounding Macky’s reason for even being alive again because that is information neither have talked about and oh hey! Macky is avoiding that conversation too! and it’s an important one to have so he pushes for it, but Macky knows it’s being pushed to avoid their original discussion and is annoyed bc “classic Wukong, never wanting to delve too deep into topics where he’ll need to be vulnerable for” (especially when said vulnerability is with his newly re-allied ex friend Macaroni himself)

god i love them

[lochlot-moved]

ur dad ain’t got no nose no more

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Aang being a shitty dad is fine, but it's the way tlok makes Aang a shitty I have a problem with. You're telling me a guy who's entire culture was whipped out and whole family was massacred wasn't overjoyed at the possibility of sharing his culture with his entire family?

Would Aang have given more attention to Tenzin? Probably, them being the only airbenders would have almost certainly fostered a complex dynamic between the two— even to the extent that it would damage the father/son relationship. I think it's also worth pointing out that Aang was raised in a culture without the nuclear family dynamic we see him participarting in with Katara and their kids, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Aang would fall short of the expectations and responibilities being a typical father figure brings especially when he himself never experienced that dynamic. Especially, especially compounded with the task of rebuilding a struggling world and maintaining peace.

However, do I think he would neglect to show his kids his culture? Their culture? No. Certainly not the extent he did, and especially not when we see how excited he is to share it with his friends in the show. Why wouldn't he be excited to share it with his kids? With all his kids? How the writers of The Legend of Korra make him a bad dad is a complex series of failures not the least of which stem from racism, the unwillingness to even attempt an understanding of multicultural families, TLOK originally being a 12 episode miniseries that then got greenlit for another season and was suddenly taxed with building upon a world that was never intended to exist beyond its original scope, and a fundamental misunderstanding of Aang as a character.

tldr:

[alexiethymia]

[book spoilers]

Lockwood’s idea of a grand gesture is to be more of a fool than usual, more death-defying than usual, to make sure that Lockwood & Co. was always on front page news because if Lucy was the best then Lockwood & Co. could be nothing less than THE best agency to deserve her, to get her to return. And no, he doesn’t stop there. He may not have asked you to return on bended knee like you wanted Lucy, but like any proper gentleman caller he couldn’t come to your door empty-handed. He brings THE case, that one case that Lucy could never refuse coming from Fittes herself. I bet he spent all those four months searching for that one case. Because see the plan was always for her to return and Lockwood has always been an end-justifies-the-means kind of guy. And the way he gets her on board speaks a lot about his own character and how well he knows Lucy.

Lockwood has always been slightly manipulative and he uses the full force of that skill during that reunion with Lucy. Every move was calculated. From his suit he wears like armor, each one carefully chosen. An old coat that reminds them of a case they worked on together, an immaculate new suit (Really? Just to hire her again?), and to top it all of, a tie which Lucy specifically gave him. He catches her off guard, he doesn’t give her time to get her bearings. He knows asking her outright to return wouldn’t work. Even if he did beg, that already failed when he ended up so angry that he left Lucy behind in that cafe (the fact that Lockwood who prides himself on being a gentleman could leave a girl, and Lucy of all people, shows that his emotions were completely haywire that day). In other words, Lucy’s stubbornness proved stronger than his own. So he had to change tactics. He had to make sure that her returning would be all her idea, that she would return all on her own.

Because see, he didn’t need a case to see her. He could have visited at any time after they didn’t have closure when Lucy snuck away in the dawn to leave. He could have normalized ties between them and remained friends even as Lucy was now a freelance agent. But he didn’t. He made sure they didn’t have closure. He didn’t even acknowledge her leaving because to do otherwise would make it final. On Lucy’s end I think she wouldn’t have minded if they could be friends and talk casually together again. She wanted it. But that’s not what Lockwood wanted. He wouldn’t have been satisfied unless Lucy was back home with them. Like a jilted lover, he needed a grand gesture to draw her back in.

So he does everything. He lies. “I wouldn’t ask you again to return.” “It’s just a one-off.” “One night, two max.” But and even though Lucy couldn’t fully see through him, what they really meant, she did pick up on signs of him fraying and unraveling. The uncertain smile that was simultaneously just for her and was shades paler than his usual gigawatt smile, the slight bitterness that she was willing to work with other agencies but not his, that studied nonchalance as if he wasn’t keeping track of her progress and whereabouts the same way Lucy tried not to follow news of Lockwood and Co., the deflection, deflection, deflection.

He doesn’t answer properly regarding Holly because he still thinks she might have had something to do with Lucy leaving.

“George didn’t like it.” This is his mixing up of I and we tendency again but way worse. For him to use George to say that she was missed was egregious because couldn’t he just say that he missed her? Or even we missed you, we didn’t like it [the idea of replacing you]. It wouldn’t be so strange. He is as much her friend as George. Unless her leaving cut him more deeply. And we know he represses that sh*t. So he doesn’t even include himself in the equation anymore maybe because he thought it would make Lucy uncomfortable because not even him losing control of his emotions, being exposed and raw could get her to stay. Or at least that’s what he tells himself when in reality he’s fortified his barriers once again. He made himself open for Lucy, all the anger he’d kept tightly locked inside, and still - she left. So he can’t even talk to Lucy anymore without using someone or something as a conduit, projecting himself because he can’t expose himself to that sort of vulnerability again until he accomplishes his goal. So yeah there’s plenty of bitterness on his part, but what trumps that, always trumps it and his pride (because I’m sure part of him expected that Lucy would come back earlier on her own so he was just waiting and when that didn’t happen because see in a contest of wills Lucy’s would always trump his own, he’s weak when it comes to her, he’s the one who comes to her instead) - is that base desire for her to just come back.

[bloodgulchblog]

While I sympathize with being frustrated that your favorite character wasn't the center of a story, I must point out that he had three fucking seasons where his character arc was at the core of the show, that was probably the best of it, and maybe it's fine somebody else got one that wasn't even particularly good.

[somekindofhannibalcannibal]

i will be reviewing and assigning a numerical rating all of the books in thomas harris' "hannibal lecter" series just to get my thoughts out there. this is a once in a lifetime event you can't miss it

red dragon: the first and best to do it. easily my favorite of the quartet. i’m sure everyone knows by now that despite often being advertised as the first ever appearance of iconic character hannibal lecter he doesn’t actually appear all that much in this one, and i don’t know if it’s my unavoidable pop cultural knowledge that makes his presence feel greater than it is here, but i definitely get why harris felt the urge to bring him back. at the same time it’s really interesting to see how his characterization noticeably differs from later installments, and how harris was probably seeing him as more of a mundane serial killer figure than the force of personality he would become. but speaking of the more prominent characters; i think the book version of will graham is a much more compelling protagonist than he’s given credit for. i feel like a lot of people think the show made him interesting but imo he’s already plenty interesting here. i really really love that he’s a protagonist in a crime thriller procedural novel who experienced a significant trauma related to his job some time back and is being called back for one more case…and while most stories in this genre would have him get over his past issues and heroically face down the killer at the climax, this book really emphasizes how much the act of killing another person will fuck you up. yes, even if you absolutely have to do it. the fact that it ends so bittersweetly (and that description is an optimistic interpretation) instead of a standard “the day is saved, hooray” really makes this book stand out. book will is just so much more compelling to me than the standard main character type in this kind of story even today, and while i of course am into his show counterpart’s arc of trying to reconcile his own urges towards darkness, i think the book version’s relationship with violence and what the book says about the act of killing is so important to the themes. if more crime thriller procedural novels were like this i would probably read a lot more of them. the amount of page time devoted to the killer’s point of view also feels unique - it’s a level of depth and humanization that villains in these kinds of stories rarely get, to the point that francis dolarhyde is arguably the novel’s second protagonist. some of his backstory is a little cliche at this point, like most of his issues being traced back to a single abusive parental figure, but a lot more interesting than the usual page-long motive rant you get at the end of these things. it’s clear this was written at a time when criminal psychology was really heating up in the popular consciousness and people would have been interested in exploring the subject in fiction. harris really knocked it out of the park with this one and i’d urge everyone who’s only seen the show and/or movies to read it. i give it 5 out of 5 dragons 🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲

the silence of the lambs: unfortunately, despite having a lot of the same strengths as its predecessor, you can’t recommend this book without a ton of caveats. for all its good points - and there are indeed many - the transphobia at the center of the novel’s plot just looms over everything else and it’s impossible to talk about it without discussing how that affects things. part of the problem may be that in contrast to the first book, we get next to nothing from the killer’s point of view and it really feels like harris found this character too much of an insane freak to be worth sympathizing with. but it’s also because this book devotes more time to its actual protagonist’s backstory and characterization, and those parts are great - clarice starling is a very well-done character who is shaped by her background much more than will (who we know comparatively very little about), so we get to delve into her story more, which enhances the narrative as we get to know her. i really like her singular focus on saving lives and her sense of identification with the victims, whether found dead or going missing, and how the book goes into detail on how her background informs that. we also get an increased role for hannibal, who really establishes his personality as we know it in his pov scenes. it’s not surprising audiences found his dynamic with clarice so intriguing; it’s definitely the most interesting to me in this context, full of ambiguities and unspoken admiration for each other that never goes beyond the separation of the prison walls. it ends a lot more straightforwardly happy than red dragon, but with a new, younger protagonist who’s already been through a lot, it feels a little more earned than it could have. (i still don't buy her romance with pilcher, though. the movie made the right choice in leaving that out and having her be unimpressed with his attempts at flirting over a murder investigation.) it’s just…the transphobia. possibly made worse by the novel’s multiple attempts to justify or excuse this portrayal, which just make the book even more uncomfortable to read. (also honestly sucks how many people to this day believe those excuses and will insist “it’s okay because the author said the character isn’t REALLY trans!” whenever they discuss the book or film. you can like something and acknowledge that it’s “problematic”, i thought we’ve been over this.) aside from that it’s mostly good. i give it 4 out of 5 screaming lambs 🐑🐑🐑🐑

hannibal: this one’s complicated. i definitely get why people think it should never have been written in the first place, and why they think hannibal as a character doesn’t work outside of his original context as a side character influencing things from inside a cell, and i’m also not sure i buy harris’ claims in the author’s note that he just felt like he had to revisit these characters one last time, no other reason…but i don’t think the book is totally awful. it’s more of a mixed bag than anything. don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty i didn’t like at all - most people focus on the ending, which i agree doesn’t work or feel properly built up to. i might have been more accepting of it if it didn’t feel so much like it was rushing to a conclusion after spending so much of the rest of its length (i think this is the longest book in the series?) on other things. but there’s other problems too. my biggest beef with it is how relatively little clarice really gets to do over the course of it, despite being such an iconic active protagonist in the previous book. the inciting incident of her storyline is another case of the book getting really uncomfortable to read in ways the author probably didn’t intend - i know this series has always been “copaganda” on some level in how it portrays the fbi as basically good and necessary and heroic, but this takes it to another level by showing clarice becoming disillusioned with the fbi because…well, they’re actually prosecuting her for an action that the media is portraying as another instance of racist police brutality, for SOME reason. i’ve ranted about this before but it’s not good and leaves a bad taste in your mouth for the rest of the novel. we’re a long way from “killing someone, even if you have to do it…is the ugliest thing in the world”, and i don’t like it much. this is also the point at which hannibal is pretty much a mary sue in the purest definition - he’s good at everything, never gets caught, smarter and more capable than almost everyone around him, and basically everything he does is justified somehow. it gets pretty ridiculous by the end.

that said…there’s also a surprising amount that i liked in this one. the sequences with hannibal in florence are probably the best in the book, and whenever we’re in hannibal’s pov the narration really indulges in lush descriptions and poetic prose that’s actually very lovely to read. whatever his real motives for writing this, i do think harris enjoyed the process. on the other side of the pond, mason verger is an absurdly over-the-top villain for us to hate and feel no remorse when he’s inevitably killed, but there’s something kind of fun about the almost campy excesses this book gets up to in its more lurid moments. i also really like margot as a character, even if the narration gets kind of weird about her sometimes, and although she's obviously written by a cishet man in 1999 i do think harris might have been sincerely trying to offer some better representation of queer characters this time around. (i also like show margot as her own character, but…we really should have been harder on the show for making her so acceptably, conventionally feminine. ah well) when i was first reading the books i went looking for older posts about them from people who weren’t focused on the show, trying to gauge if this one was worth reading at all. one account i looked through really didn’t like how clarice was written in it (and they were pretty much the only one talking at all about the ~problematic parts at the beginning of the book, and not just discoursing about the ending), but they did like the rest of it and suggested that this book might have been better if clarice wasn’t in it at all and hannibal was the only recurring character. and honestly…i kind of agree. leave clarice alone if this is what you’re going to do with her. hannibal is already the protagonist of this book and the italy plot with pazzi + the plot with the vergers is plenty of story for the rest. margot is the secondary protagonist in my heart. my thoughts on this book could be their own post at this point but yeah, mixed feelings. not sure i'd recommend it freely but i wouldn't write it off as just bad. i give it 3.5 out of 5 brutal moray eels 🐍🐍🐍.5 (there’s no eel emoji)

hannibal rising: the last and least. yeah this one’s not good. it’s rumored this was only written because dino de laurentiis threatened to have someone else do it and if that’s true…you can tell. it’s the shortest book in the series and harris was clearly trying to get the minimum requirement written to get this over with and be free of hannibal lecter forever. at least that’s how it felt. anyway i didn’t totally hate this one - i actually thought the first half of the book was pretty good for what it was, expanding on an already kind of dumb backstory detail established in the previous book but also creating what felt like a pretty believable portrait of a young hannibal, growing up in a house of nobility, preternaturally intelligent from a young age, having his life torn out from under him by an intense traumatic experience, and rebuilding himself years later into a cunning and dangerous man. however the book really falls apart when it gets to the revenge plot portion of the story, which is just not interesting or enjoyable to read about at all. it’s just him tracking down and killing a group of generic interchangeable bad guys who lack any redeeming qualities or even the entertaining aspects of a mason verger. where this book really fails is as the start of darkness for its main character that it’s billed as. it just doesn’t feel like a villain origin story when every person the villain kills is an irredeemable monster; when exactly does this righteous vengeance-fueled kid become The hannibal lecter, who casually murders anyone who bothers or bores him? lady murasaki’s “what is left in you to love?” line falls flat when he hasn’t even killed any innocent people yet. i’m not even going to touch on the weird pseudo-romance plot between him and his aunt. honestly the book could stand to be a little weirder. it’s like. i hate to say this but it’s like one of those live-action disney movies that purport to tell the story of one of their classic villains but are really just about au versions of those villains who are actually good. 

well whatever. at least it’s still well-written on the level of its prose, even if it was under duress, and even though most people believe this book shouldn’t exist because hannibal is one of those characters who shouldn’t have any backstory (it does ruin the impact of the “nothing happened to me, i happened” line when there’s a whole book reducing him to a series of influences), it does give us at least something to go on when writing about his past for fanfic purposes. would be interested to see how the show would have handled this. i give it 2.5 out of 5 horses pulling chains to squish a man against a tree (extra half point for legit memorable imagery that inspired one of the show's best dream sequences) 🐎🐎.5

stay tuned for when i review the movie adaptations in similar fashion. 

[ladyimaginarium]