#arguably abigail was his first victim but...

[tethered-heartstrings]

I listened to the audio at the end of aperitif and counted nine gunshot sounds, which means Will shot Hobbs once for every girl he victimized; 8 dead with Abigail as his ninth.

[flock-of-cassowaries]

So my hot take on NBC Hannibal is that is is a remarkably and relentlessly cynical story, in that every. single. character. abuses the power vested in the virtue of their profession.

Like, all the cops, all the doctors, all the psychiatrists.

Almost all the murderers, too - the bee lady is killing clients, as is the mushroom man, and the social worker; Randall Tier and Mason Verger are using the tools / items available to them from their jobs to commit murder; and Tobias Bunch and Garrett Jacob Hobbs are transforming parts of their victims into materials they use / sell at work.

The only characters I can think of who are not show to be ludicrously unethical at their jobs are:

1. The pharmacist-colleague of the Mushroom Man whom Jack inexplicably screams at;

2. Will’s long-suffering s2 defence lawyer;

3. Georgia Mädchen and Abigail Hobbs (no jobs, Literally Minors™️);

4. The child-kidnapper from Oëuf (no job); and

5. The Angel-Maker (deus diablus ex brain-tumor).

…but of the law-enforcement / law-enforcement-adjacent characters, we have:

- Hannibal

- Jack (routinely flouts rules and does things that endanger his subordinates and which are probably illegal; which, points for verisimilitude, I guess)

- Zeller (leaks info to Freddie Lounds)

- Beverley (a bit more of a stretch, but I’m fairly certain showing an accused serial killer / mental patient confidential information on other crimes isn’t okay; and she definitely broke into a suspect’s house without a warrant)

- Chilton (the most unethical psychiatrist since the CIA stopped funding the Montreal Experiments)

- Alanna (starts out straight and narrow, but becomes willing to take on the role of her ex’s keeper - incredibly unethical for a psychiatrist, especially with a patient being held in custody)

- Will (again, starts out reasonably ethical, but then slides into such ends-justify-the-means nonsense as [1] defiling corpses; [2] traumatizing museum staff with defiled corpses; [3] knowingly eating human flesh; [4] warning a serial killer of his imminent apprehension; [5] attempting to use various serial killers as tools to kill and/or bait other serial killers; and [6] attempting to extrajudicially execute a serial killer [via cliff]. )

And like, technically, you could just read it as “Hannibal’s influence corrupts those around him”; that certainly seems to be the case with Alanna and Will.

(And arguably, that is how we’re supposed to read Jack, but… as the self-appointed president of the Jack Crawford Hate Committee - fuck Jack.)

I think Hannibal would certainly find it flattering to read it that way. It would appeal very much to his narcissism.

It’s also quite possible that was the writing team’s authorial intent, too.

But that is absolutely not how people work.

Hannibal would’ve encountered people who were just stubbornly immovable in their refusal to endanger patients / subordinates / whatever.

And people who just found him creepy.

People who got a bad vibe the first time they met him, and just refused to ever reassess their first impression - not particularly fair, in most cases, but there definitely are people who operate that way.

And sure, perhaps Hannibal would have just killed some of them, but… we never see that happen. It’s just everyone in Toronto Baltimore, in every profession, is apparently either just as laughably crooked as the real RCMP, or as corruptible as soft cheese on a hot day.

Tangential postscript:

This inspired me to read the Wikipedia article on “Controversies surrounding the RCMP”, and while I will not get into the horrifying details, this sentence made me laugh out loud:

“A subsequent public inquiry concluded that the RCMP was at fault, showing a lack of professionalism…”

Which like… yeah. Technically true.

Sort of like saying that Andrew Tate lacks a firm grasp of intersectional feminism.

But not incorrect, per se.

[theoraclephobetor]

Abigail is such a fascinating character to be placed between Will and Hannibal. She's so good at seeming unstable enough to avoid suspicion, but she still has micro-tells when she's trying to lie.

Long before she pulls the "you be the man on the phone" line with Hannibal, you can see her eyes flick over to him as she tells Will that she didn't recognize the voice of the person who called.

But she seems genuinely shocked and distressed when she realizes that her father had been feeding his victims to his family. And she's utterly horrified when she finds the girls' hair in the pillow.

Abigail is such an interesting mix of manipulation, survival skills, guilt, and high-key anxiety after she kills Nicholas Boyle. But she is still one of the smartest people in the room at all times. Unlike the analytic Will or the ruthlessly pragmatic Hannibal, Abigail has such a high degree of emotional intelligence that she can stay in the good graces of two serial killers. She can call out the fact that Hannibal is happy she killed Nicholas Boyle, that he called the house, that he has something to hide and reeks of danger, but she's also smart enough (or traumatized enough) to know not to press the issue.

There's a lot made of Abigail's constant victimization (by Hobbs, by Hannibal, by Jack, by Freddie Lounds, and arguably by Will), but this girl knows damn well how to survive. The first time I watched Hannibal, Abigail seemed like a set decoration. I didn't know how to look at her back then, because she spent so much time making herself subservient to the whims of the people around her. It's possible that only Alana was honestly trying to know her, while everyone else was casting her as a paper doll in their own emotional dramas.

At every point in the series, Abigail is fighting for a piece of stable ground. She had stability with her father, before Will tracked him down, and she finds it again with Hannibal, before Will betrays him (and Abigail - she would have been part of their new life as well).

But that's the thing - Abigail exists past season 1 because she is a figure in the life the Hannibal wants with Will. She has bent to the will of the people around her time and time again, and in the end, she becomes no more than a piece of set dressing for an imaginary life that Hannibal has been preparing for Will. For all that she has been fighting for stability, she doesn't know enough to ensure that her stability is not tethered to the decisions of someone else. She's smart and traumatized and naive enough to think that Hannibal is her only way out.

(that's the trick though - Hannibal makes himself the only way out. He does this for Abigail, for Will, for Margot Verger, for Bedelia du Maurier, and for anyone else he thinks he can get away with. Whether he truly wants connection with these people or just dominion over their lives is fodder for another post.

But I'm a romantic when it comes to Hannibal's feelings for Abigail - I think he truly cares for her in the only ways he knows how. I think he sees her as a surrogate daughter, and I think he shares more with her than he does with anyone else in the first 2 seasons. Unfortunately, he doesn't want a daughter. He wants a partner, and he wants that partner to be Will.

And once again, Abigail's world collapses.)

[ghostdrinkssoup]

thinking about abigail’s character again and I think the way point of view is handled in nbc hannibal is really interesting when you’re trying to understand her character, since a lot of what we see is filtered through either will’s misplaced attachment to her or hannibal’s projections. it’s hard to see abigail’s true self and/or nature because half of what we see is unreliable. like, will refuses to think she was the bait and so we, the audience, also believe this to be true, even though when it’s revealed she actually was the bait it makes all the sense in the world. but it’s still shocking to us because our perception of her is warped as a consequence of being in will’s pov most of the time. not only that, but the nature of this reveal is arguably softened later on when will dreams he’s teaching abigail how to fish in s2a, and literally names his bait after her because of how much he “cherishes” her

all of this is to say in a show that’s all about identity and revealing (and understanding) the self, and the grotesque connection between will and hannibal, who are understood by no one but each other, abigail’s character is super interesting as a means to explore the layers of how people falsely perceive us. she’s complex because she’s not the innocent person will (or alana for that matter) perceives her to be, but she’s also not the ruthless murderer that hannibal (or again, jack) hopes she is. she’s just a traumatised kid who was raised by a psychopathic cannibal. not only that, but she’s the unwilling victim of both her surrogate father’s projections. first will, who projects his need for comfort, family, and acceptance onto her, as well as the hope that his morality is still intact, all factors which are complicated when he confuses his sense of self with the identity of garret jacob hobbs. and evidently by murdering him, and leaving abigail orphaned, feelings of shame and guilt also influence the nature of his projections. but then you have hannibal, who projects his attachment to mischa onto her, as well as his grief. and like will, this is all complicated by his own human need for comfort, family, and acceptance

but if you peel all that away, and get to the core of it, the key similarity between will and hannibal’s projections is a want for acceptance, and then forgiveness, which, as we see in s3, is synonymous to love. essentially, these are two characters who are undoubtedly monstrous, yet retain their humanity due to that universal longing to love and be loved, in whatever twisted form they are capable

I mean, the whole concept of the murder family is so sad because I think it reveals how damaged both will and hannibal are, beyond the show’s literal gothic horror. cannibalism, bloodshed, manipulation, playing the devil, grotesque thoughts and fantasies concerning murder, etc are all obvious reasons why these characters are fucked up mentally, but that’s also a consequence of the genre. to me, the true horror of the show is very much embedded in the psychological, and how will and hannibal are so lonely and isolated that they would wish to have this family circle “in some other world” because they thought they’d found someone who also understood them, someone they could nurture and take care of. but, as we know, this is all an illusion. will repeatedly says he thinks he’d make a good father, but he’s self-destructive and so is hannibal, and so it’s no wonder abigail dies the way that she does. she never had a chance with them. if anything, if she represents the self we project onto others, a fantasy standing in the way of the truth of our natures, which is shaped by human frailty, then her death is also the death of these idealistic delusions. it’s why in s3a, when will is still desperately trying to hold onto her, she’s nothing more than a ghost. and it’s why when he finally accepts this he goes to hannibal’s childhood estate, because, as he tells him when they reunite in the gallery, “I wanted to understand you, before I laid eyes on you again. I needed it to be clear, what I was seeing”

[hannibals-hoe]

Hannibal Commentary

This is a episode by episode rating and discussion of the best show I’ve ever seen.

⚠️Spoilers Ahead⚠️

Season 1

Episode 1, “Apéritif”

Alrighty let’s get into this.

Opening scene- we are confronted with a typical true crime tv series type of landscape- police sirens, officers, dead bodies. The show starts off with a weird sense of familiarity. Then, we are focused on Will. He is immediately thrust in as the main character, despite the show’s title. If you look closely at his expression, you notice how uncomfortable and disturbed he is to be at that crime scene. And as his eyes close, the color gradient shifts as he does- from a casual investigator, into the mind of a killer. As he traces his steps backwards and finally stops outside the home, you can see the look in eyes change. This is vital to the rest of the show so I’m going to call this the “Will Graham Murder Eyes.” He closes his eyes for a moment- but when he opens them again- you can see the lifelessness of a killer’s eyes. The very first words we hear of the show are Will describing the crime itself- a relatively non violent and casual one considering the rest of series. This is why when I recommend Hannibal to someone I always say to get past the first episode because it’s way to basic for the show as a whole.

Anyways, once Will concludes his findings, we cut to his classroom. When Will converses with Jack, we notice his tendency to not make eye contact, as described later on. This is such masterful acting on Hugh Dancy’s part. When Jack asks Will for help, we can see Will’s reluctance. It’s clear he’s uncomfortable with his inner and outer thoughts even so early in the show.

The second time we see Will go into his “this is my design” phase, he is clearly more violent as we see him strangle Elise Nichols. The viewer is almost left with a feeling that Will is actually the one responsible, which is what will happen with those around Will later in the season. At least, that’s what I first interpreted during my first watch. You’re like, “wait, Will didn’t actually kill these people right?” But as the show goes on everything makes more sense about Will’s little mind trick.

Next, we see the sweetest part of Will’s character- his love for strays. One cannot help but smile watching Will care for Winston and his other dogs. It is such a stark contrast to what we have seen so far of Will’s character. And then, we watch him struggle to sleep with his nightmares. When he uses a towel as a blanket, we know that this is not new for him- that he has nightmares regularly. The first episode expertly characterizes Will in a way no other show I’ve seen has done before.

Then, in the bathroom scene with Jack, Will is describing the way this killer (Garret Jacob Hobbs) kills- he says, “he kills these girls quickly and-“ he pauses. This pause, I believe, is him stopping himself from straight up saying “with mercy” instead, he adds, “to his thinking, with mercy.” Will, once again, is fearful of his own dark thoughts and how those thoughts will be viewed by others, specifically Jack.

Then, we see Will at the autopsy table, and a beautiful yet disturbing image of Elise being impaled on antlers is seen. The antlers will become a running symbol in the show, later an elk, then the Wendigo. At this point, I do believe the symbol was not planned, but, I could give the creators the credit of intending for them the sign for evil- in this case, the evil of Garret Jacob Hobbs. When Will concludes that this killer is eating his victims, we cut to our first shot of Hannibal.

We don’t need to see explicit human organs being cooked yet- we know it’s cannibalism. The shot of Hannibal himself is quite stunning- barely any light surrounding his features, he appears almost like a skull in the darkness. We visually know he is supposed to be the villain. But as the episode goes on, it’s quite easy to forget that Hannibal really is a serial killer and cannibal.

Next, we are put in Hannibal’s office with Franklyn. When he places his dirty tissue on Hannibal’s table, we can see Hannibal’s visible resentment. He is once again characterized as the villain. Jack then enters the equation, asking about Hannibal’s secretary, who we never see, though I believe it is quite likely Hannibal killed her, as he only describes her having “romantic whims” and “followed her heart to the United Kingdom.” As Jack walks around Hannibal’s office, he looks through some of his drawings. If you look closely, beneath the art Jack is viewing, there is a distinctly visible drawing of “the wound man” I only noticed this after my fourth or fifth rewatch. It made me so angry because if Jack had seen that, we know Hannibal would have killed him right then and there. While Jack is looking, Hannibal does seem to wonder if Jack will notice the sketch. Hannibal picks up the scalpel, ready to defend himself, but when he is confident Jack is not investigating him, he places it on his desk, arranging it “just so.” Mads doing that was such great acting because we immediately know the Hannibal is a perfectionist, which works out to his advantage during his many murders, as he leaves no usable evidence.

And now, we go to Hannibal and Will’s first meeting. Instantly, Hannibal is able to notice Will’s lack of eye contact. As Will describes why he does this, Hannibal’s expression changes, he looks Will up and down, and gives a small smile. Right here- I believe with all of my being that Hannibal started to fall for Will right there. Will’s kind of sad, dark humor instantly is able to draw Hannibal in. However Will is not able to reciprocate these feelings just yet- he feels attacked by Hannibal’s accurate analysis.

Our next crime scene is more graphic than the first two by a good margin. This is the first of Hannibal’s murder scenes. As we cut between the crime scene and Hannibal’s cooking, we are confronted with the very obvious disgust of Hannibal being a cannibal.

One of my favorite shots is the next, with Will in the shower, (hehehe duh) then the stag. This symbol could be interpreted as either Will’s evil growing within him, or Hannibal- lurking in the shadows. In this case, I lean towards the latter, as the next shot is of Hannibal himself, bringing breakfast for Will. (As the show goes on this symbol will vary in meanings but don’t worry I’ll explain it as best I can.) Already, Hannibal has a want to help Will, by making sure he has a good meal. He could have very easily just traveled with Will to the construction site without food, but in a way, he could have wanted to self-congratulate himself by obviously providing Will with the evidence that could convict him. To me- Hannibal’s motive for bringing Will breakfast is a mix of him showing his nature of self-congratulation (described by Bedelia later in season 2) and wanted to provide for Will’s well-being in the only way he knows how. The next few lines are some fabulous foreshadowing. Will’s initial wish is for their relationship to be strictly professional- however we very well know this is going to change. Already, Hannibal objects to this statement, he is hoping they will become at the very least “friendly.” Next, Hannibal establishes the symbolism of the teacup, saying that is how Jack sees him. Will laughs out loud at that, and that is one of the only times we see Will have a strong expression of happiness. Yes, later on Hannibal becomes an object of resentment for Will, but I think this interaction is a strong indication of what life would be like for Will and Hannibal post-fall.

Now we head to the construction site and the discovery of Garret Jacob Hobbs. Hannibal is visibly impressed by Will’s ability to find Hobbs, and his admiration grows.

Hannibal then calls the Hobbs’ residence, warning that “they know.” It’s such a subtle yet powerful move in Hannibal’s part. I think the real reason Hannibal makes that call is to test Will. Hannibal knew Hobbs would react violently, and he wondered if Will would use violence back. He wanted to test Will’s potential and what he perceived Will to be- a troubled FBI teacher who has dark impulses he is deathly afraid of. Arguably, everything Hannibal does for Will from this point forward is to take away his fears. Will fears his own darkness and Hannibal wants him to finally find peace and beauty in that darkness.

Anyways, back to the show. There is a brief shot of Will, covered in blood, with the pendulum of his mind swinging back and forth. This tiny time jump serves the purpose of both suspense shock. We are left to wonder what Will has done- we can assume it was brutal, but was it evil? I’ll get into that later. So, Hannibal and Will arrive at the Hobbs’ home, and Will is confronted with a nightmare. Contradictory is Hannibal’s reaction to the scene. Even when Hobbs’ wife is bleeding out on the front porch, Hannibal is shown with a non caring and relaxed demeanor. Will makes his way inside and begins his journey to a troubling self-discovery. He shoots Hobbs 10 times, his fear for Abigail evident but more powerful is his hatred for Hobbs. When Hobbs’ falls, he utters that famous line, “see?” I think the completion of that sentence would be, “see, it feels good to kill.” Will is going to struggle with this the entire series and only with Hannibal’s help Will he be able to agree with it.

Will struggles to save Abigail, and Hannibal appears, less focused on Abigail and more on Will. Nonetheless, he uses his big, strong hands (sorry) to save Abigail’s life. As he does so he looks up at Will, perhaps thinking, “Ok, he does have that darkness inside him.” Once the scene clears, Will is back outside covered in blood. I will again bring attention to his expression. His “Murder Eyes” are back. He is reveling in the power that killing Hobbs made him feel. I would not say this is dissimilar to how he feels after killing Randal Tier in season 2 and Dolarhyde in season 3. He’s like an addict from then on- he would deny it, but killing Hobbs was a high he would chase for the length of the series.

The last scene of the episode is in Abigail’s hospital room. Will goes in to see Hannibal, sitting next to her bed and gently holding her hand, sleeping. It’s easily the most humanizing shot of Hannibal. Will takes a seat himself, watching Hannibal with what could almost be described as a loving gaze. In that moment, he completely trusts Hannibal with her well being, as Hannibal’s hands saved her life. In a very subtle movement, Will looks down at his own hands, sitting half open in his lap. It’s quite possible he is thinking that his hands had done something quite opposite to what Hannibal’s have- they have killed.

Wow that was a ride if you read all of that thank you so much. I’ll check for typos one of these days. Stay tuned for next episode ok I’m outttt.

[randomfactsandinfo-blog]

Bridget Bishop: The First Victim of the Salem Witch Trials

The Salem Witch Trials took place from February 1692 and May 1693 in Salem Town, Massachusetts, which is now called “Danvers,” because hanging innocent people is bad for real estate. The Court of Oyer and Terminer (translated to “to hear and decide”) tried and executed 20 people in total, 14 being women and 6 being men. All of them died by hanging, except for one, which was pressed with rocks. 5 people died in prison, including two infants.

The trials started when a multitude of people were accused of witchcraft by a group of teen girls, including Elizabeth Hubbard and Abigail Williams; the latter of which was a 11 year old niece of the Reverend Samuel Parris.

The first to be tried and convicted was Bridget Bishop, who was 59 or 60 at the time of her death. She was the subject of much gossip among the wives of the town, for she was the antithesis of what a Puritan woman should be, which certainly did not help her case. She married three times, and had gone to court for fighting with them in public. She was very outspoken and opinionated. Divorce was a huge no-no in Puritan society, and so was openly disagreeing with a man. Like, ever. She was kind of promiscuous by Puritan standards. She had male company late at night, was a heavy drinker, and even owned her own tavern. She played shuffleboard, a game which was forbidden. She was accused of corrupting the children, which is honestly goals. She dressed differently than every other woman in the village, wearing read tunic. Over a decade before the trials, in 1680, she had been charged and cleared of witchcraft.

A warrant was issued for Bishop’s arrest on April 18, 1692, accused of bewitching Abigail Williams, Ann Putnam Jr., Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Elizabeth Hubbard, whom she never met or even heard of before—she had the most accusers than any other victim of the trials. The girls claimed that a phantom of Bishop would punch, choke, and bite them, and one stated that Bishop threatened to drown her if she did not sign her name in the Devil’s Book. During the trial, she would look at one of her accusers and they’d have a fit, and only her touch would revive them. She was also accused of murdering her second husband, Thomas Oliver, with witchcraft. Samuel Shattuck claimed that Bishop hexed his child, and hit him with a shovel. John and William Bly testified that they found witch dolls (also known as poppets) in her house, and poisoning their cat after a disagreement. If you thought your in-laws blew, her brother-in-law said she stayed up all night talking with satan. They even accused her of having a third nipple.

She was hanged on June 10 at Gallows Hill, her last words being, “You will keep silent.” Not even one year after her death, her husband remarried Elizabeth Cash. What a dick.

It is arguable that Mrs. Bridget Bishop not only died of hanging, but was a victim of the times, theocracy and sexism.

[recentanimenews]

King of Eden, Vol. 1

Is it too soon to enjoy a pandemic-themed manga? That question was foremost in my mind as I read King of Eden, a new medical thriller that pits a group of globe-trotting scientists against terrorists who are trying to weaponize a virus that turns its victims into—wait for it—zombies. I’m happy to report that King of Eden didn’t remind me of the COVID crisis, but it did something arguably worse: it bored me with a first volume that’s so dense with exposition that it reads like a textbook.

The dullness of the story is all the more surprising for a series written by Takashi Nagasaki, Naoki Urasawa’s collaborator on such entertaining pot-boilers as Monster, Master Keaton, and 20th Century Boys. All of Nagasaki’s worst tendencies are on full display in King of Eden: there are solemn monologues about the Old Testament, pointless flashbacks to the main characters’ childhoods, and an interminable lecture on the ancient Scythians that’s mainly notable for name-checking Herodotus. Though the first volume introduces a dizzying number of characters, Nagasaki barely fleshes any of them out. Even the leads—Rua Itsuki and Teze Yoo—feel more like a collection of traits and skills than actual people, with one person helpfully telling Dr. Itsuki, “You hold a black belt in Tae Kwon Do… and you’re proficient in the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga,” before rattling off the degrees she’s received from universities in Korea, Germany, and Israel.

None of this would matter, of course, if King of Eden were entertaining, but Nagasaki is so intent on laying the story’s foundation that he overwhelms the reader with information, all delivered in an earnest, dull tone that saps the narrative of urgency. Itsuki and Yoo cross paths with MI-6 agents, WHO officials, IRA terrorists, crazy archaeologists, and Interpol officers, all of whom are introduced in the same clumsy fashion. I found myself taking copious notes just to keep track of all the plot threads and characters; by the end of volume one, I’d created a chart that looked like the sort of pin board a CSI villain might have in his basement.

Had Nagasaki placed more trust in artist SangCheol Lee (a.k.a. Ignito), however, King of Eden might have been a brisker, more imaginative entry in the zombie canon. The first chapter is an excellent example of how to draw the reader into a story. Lee places us in the center of the action, as two Andulusian police officers stumble across a gruesome scene that’s so weird and terrifying that neither can fully comprehend what they’re seeing. Over the next 50 or so pages, Lee skillfully cross-cuts between two spaces at the local precinct—an interrogation room and the morgue—allowing us to glimpse what’s unfolding in each location. The building is rendered in a grimy, oppressive color scheme of browns, sickly greens, and grays that capture its institutional nature and contribute to our sense that something deeply unnatural is about to happen.

Alas, all of that cinematic flair disappears the minute characters begin talking; the next two chapters consist primarily of information dumps with an occasional fist-fight or zombie sighting to goose the proceedings. By the time Nagasaki and Lee introduce a vampire arms dealer near the end of volume one, it barely registers as a major plot development. And that, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with King of Eden: the plot is so intricate and, frankly, silly that, that I just couldn’t muster the enthusiasm for another 10, 15, or 100 chapters.

Yen Press provided a review copy of volume one.

KING OF EDEN, VOL. 1 • STORY BY TAKASHI NAGASAKI • ART BY IGNITO • TRANSLATED BY CALEB COOK • LETTERING BY ABIGAIL BLACKMAN • RATED OLDER TEEN (16+) • 384 pp.

By: Katherine Dacey

[writinginsin]

It’s also possible that in Hannibal’s mind, his killing takes away the ugly in society, by killing the ‘rude’, while creating (arguably) art from their corpses, an irony that seems to fit with his peculiar joi de vivre: his victims are made to serve the only thing they are good for in life, as food for their ‘betters’. A chilling concept, though when we replace ‘rude people’ with, ‘fascists’ I don’t think we’d get quite as many arguments beyond sanitary objections (white supremacism can spread, after all, and it rots the brain).

While Hannibal claims rudeness in general to be anethema to his beliefs, ugliness as a moral concept would perhaps be more accurate. If we look at the people he kills, it’s the people who make society uglier, those who treat others unfairly, mostly he kills those who would fall under the catagory of ‘fiends’; people who fall somewhere on the scale of evil. (The insurance man is clearly meant to remind us of the mechanisation of the medical world and, as a bonus, the cold clinical efficiency will immediately remind Europeans of the Nazis). You see, I propose that Hannibal didn’t kill that man because he was rude, or because he was acting in bad taste but because the man was coded as homophobic (blood-borne ‘diseases’), and so were the Nazis. His rhetoric tastes of eugenics; he treats Hannibal with the same disdain that women are treated with by doctors, or faced by homosexual men during the height of the AIDS crisis. Re-watch the scene, it’s hard to come alway from it feeling that Hannibal’s reasons to kill are purely based on ‘taste’. It looks as if he has a moral code of his own, and deviates from it only when his own life is in danger.

It’s an interesting thought experiment, trying to climb into his mind, and I agree that it’s not pure aestheticism that drives him. In fact, I’d say there’s a case to be made for Hannibal seeing his murders as removing ugliness from the world while giving it back something beautiful (art, food, food as art). I think it’s really Will who confronts Hannibal with the inherent ugliness in murder, that’s the start of Hannibal’s interest, I think. They’re opposite sides of the same force. In their own (incredibly messed up) ways they’re both trying to improve the world, it’s just with varying degrees of disassociation.

One of the things I enjoy about the show is the level of storytelling. I mean, their inherent duality is shown perfectly in that their first dramatic act together is to save/murder Garret Jacob Hobbs and his family. Abigail being so central to their story, being reborn within the collision that creates their new dynamic, therefore makes perfect sense. There’s so many of those gems in there, it’s beautifully crafted.

Hmmm, I must think on this some more.

Why Hannibal was obsessed with art I mean he was a psychopath and psychopaths usually don’t have much feelings and he was a serial killer but why does he have an obsession for art

I think this is a really interesting question; my initial reaction is to say “idk I mean why is anyone interested in anything” but I love talking about Hannibal’s neurodivergence and there absolutely is more to say here than just that

First of all I really feel like the read of Hannibal as a psychopath is very flawed. Certainly a read of him as someone who doesn’t have much in the way of feelings is blatantly incorrect: he experiences a relatively full spectrum of deep emotions, he just doesn’t feel them in the same ways and at the same times as a neurotypical person might.

And even a classic “psychopath” has the capacity to become fixated on something—arguably that’s one of the hallmarks of a psychopath, arbitrary obsession.

It’s of course also common among autistic people, adhd people, and OCD people, as well as people with a variety of other personality disorders: irrational fixation and obsession and having something be a priority that most people would not prioritize to such an extent if at all

We can’t really “diagnose” Hannibal with any of these things since he’s a fictional character; no diagnosis is assigned to his character in canon without being fairly significantly refuted, so it’s not really possible to say “he cares So Much about aesthetic beauty bc he has x neurodivergence”, but I think it’s very fair to state that he does not have a neurotypical brain, and that he does not care about beauty in a neurotypical way

He cares about art because he likes things that are pretty, and he likes creating things that are pretty and seeing other people create things that are pretty. He cares about this more than most people would consider rational or reasonable. I don’t necessarily have answers for why, of all things, that’s what his lil traumatized brain got stuck on, but it is

I feel like it might have been a reaction to just, the overwhelming ugliness of his family’s deaths and his subsequent struggle to survive. I can speculate that his experience as an orphan in soviet Lithuania was probably filled with ugliness and largely devoid of beauty in any form—perhaps there was a piece of lovely artwork he had access to during that time that became a refuge for him of sorts, perhaps the refuge was simply his own drawings.

Perhaps it was something that came later, after he’d come to live with Robert and Murasaki and was freed from some of that dark unpleasantness—maybe he latched onto the beauty of their home, of art his aunt showed him. Maybe it was just that for a time art was his only way of expressing what he was feeling, because no words could ever come close to it

We don’t know, and we can’t know, because all we really know about the childhood of Hannibal in NBC Hannibal is that it wasn’t exactly the same as the childhood described in Hannibal Rising. We know it was bad, so bad he literally cannot bear to go home, but that’s really all we know concretely, and that makes speculation on it difficult. If I gave you an answer it would be entirely headcanon and not meta and that’s not what I’m trying to do here

I do think it probably was something that developed early, probably as a coping mechanism, and that he’s founded his entire worldview on it as the traumatized often do