#dolarhyde kills freddy for calling him gay

[phoenixkaptain]

Although on the topic of Red Dragon and the things they changed between the book and the tv show, I think it’s really, really funny how they recontextualize all of Dr. Bloom’s lines in regards to Will. Because it was Alan Bloom, in the book, but Alana said a lot of the same lines, nearly word for word! And when Alana said it, most of it could be interpreted in a romantic sense.

When Alan said it, it was just weird that he didn’t like to be in the same room as Will if ut was just the two of them. Will is his friend. He is Will’s friend. They’re pretty comfortable around each other. If Will is ever alone with him, Alan will die. And like, Will is aware of this, so-

They also changed Freddy Lounds from a guy into a girl, which is funny because honestly, you could read both Freddy’s interactions with Will the exact same way. As in, they’re both honestly amazed that Will says the shit he does. And both of them leave the audience craving to see them set on fire, but only one of them delivers.

Will is, perhaps, the most different character of all. Which makes sense. I think the idea is that Will in the show is younger, he’s uncomfortable with himself and others, he’s especially uncomfortable around people with pushy personalities because they tend to use him.

Will in the novel, on the other hand, is my dear beloved. He is exhausted. Jack Crawford comes in and says “one more time, Will, please” and Will says “no, fuck off.” Crawford weasels him into it, but Will is having none of anyone’s shit for approximately the entire time. Will calls Dolarhyde gay to piss him off (this leads to Freddy Lounds being set on fire). Dolarhyde sends him a literal voice recording of Freddy Lounds telling Will that the Red Dragon is going to kill him-

“”Reach behind you, Will Graham… and feel for the small… knobs on the top of your pelvis. Feel your spine between them… that is the precise spot… where the Dragon will snap your spine.””

-and his response is-

“Graham kepts his hands on the railing. Damn if I feel. Did the Dragon not know the nomenclature of the iliac spine, or did he choose not to use it?”

Which is very funny to me because it reads to me as Will going “pssh, amateur.”

(Will has a few moments of being very uncaring about threats against his own person. This is why it’s more effective when Dolarhyde goes after his family.)

Crawford is both different and similar in many ways. In the novel, he is a lot more clear with how he’s pushing Will. He knows that he’s pushing him to the limits, he knows he’s basically holding Will over a cliff with nothing to catch him, but he thinks it’ll ultimately be fine. Even if Will does break, if he catches the Dragon first, it will have been worth it.

It’s difficult to explain Hannibal in this book. Of all the portrayals, I feel this one is… the funniest? Like, he is a little bit obsessed. He wants Will to hang out with him. He wants Will to commit murder. He thinks Will is fascinating. Will refuses to give a serial killer (one who stabbed Will in the side) his phone number or address and Hannibal sends a fucking murderer after him. Hannibal’s actions directly lead to Will being stabbed in the face, and he sends a letter (that Will doesn’t read, but Crawford does) that ends with the lines: “I wish you a speedy convalescence and hope you won’t be too ugly. I think of you often.”

I’ve said this many, many times in the past, but there’s a reason NBC Hannibal portrays Hannibal as in love with Will. I want to use Silence of the Lambs as an example. He talks very casually with Clarice for a little while, then abruptly: “How is Will Graham?”

For this one, I think I’ll just take a picture, because it amuses me.

Of course, Hannibal also brings up Alan and Frederick Chilton (I forgot to mention earlier, Freddy C.’s been here the whole goddamn time and had the gall to try and explain Hannibal Lecter to the man who caught Hannibal Lecter), but him bringing up Will has always been funny to me. His last letter to Will says “I hope you aren’t too ugly.” It’s been a few years now, and his question is basically: “Is Will ugly?” It is…

I mean, I understand on a cannibalistic-serial-killer-from-the-80s level that Hannibal wants Will to look a certain way because he likes the way Will looks. Not on a queer level at all, it’s probably moreso because he wants Will to fit his aesthetics. Like I said, he wants to spend time with Will, and part of that requires Will’s appearance to fit. It totally makes sense in a horror novel that a character would be creepily obsessed with appearance, and Hannibal’s insistence on Will was probably discomfiting to a lot of the readers at the time.

But on the other hand, Hannibal’s obsession with Will in the modern day is really funny. Like, he just needs to know. Tell the man what he wants to know, Starling. You know Will Graham, everyone knows Will Graham, come on, tell me. It’s incredibly amusing, especially the jump in their conversation from classical paintings to Will’s appearance.

Now, the correlation could be a few things. Hannibal could be implying that Will mocked him in some way and that his punishment would be the scarring of his face. But, that would make Hannibal have a bit of a god-complex, and that’s boring. Another option is that he found Will to be reminiscent of a man in a painting. Specifically, the man in the painting they’re talking about, which is a painting Hannibal did on the wall of his cell with crayons and magic marker (yes, that is what he said he used), which makes it kind of funny because wouldn’t that be like Hannibal painting Will on the wall? If the painting reminds him of Will, then he only painted it because he knew Chilton would get the wrong idea if he painted Will. Which, maybe he did paint Will! It’s not like Clarice knows what Will looks like, and Hannibal wouldn’t just tell her.

Anyway, as I’ve said countless times, Hannibal in the books is only a bit less obsessed with Will Graham than he is in the show. Why is he obsessed with Will? The show’s idea that Hannibal was in love with Will and didn’t realize it is a very clean answer. Even if one doesn’t believe that Hannibal Lecter has the capability to love, which I would argue against since it’s disputed in the books and the tv show, his obsession with Will, an obsession akin to love, that he himself doesn’t realize until it’s too late… that’s fun.

Why is Hannibal obsessed with Will in the books? I don’t know. Will thinks it’s because Hannibal wants him to be just like Hannibal, but I don’t know if I would be so hung up on a guy for multiple years who just will not come visit or commit murder. If the books ever off an alternative, I’ve not seen it.

But, I think Hannibal wants to kill Will. I think he is a bit upset that Will saw through him and turned him in, but he’s also fascinated that Will saw through him. Will is fascinating to him. Will is afraid of himself, and that’s fascinating too. Hannibal wants to kill Will, not out of hatred, but out of a sort of grudging respect. He wants to be the reason Will Graham dies. He wants to be there as Will Graham dies. Even when he sent a serial killer after Will, Hannibal didn’t doubt that Will would live. And he wants Will to live, until he can wrap his hands around Will’s throat and watch the life drain away.

All this to say, I still have more thoughts on the Hannibal tetralogy than I previously thought.

[rebuildingchilton]

freddie: lesbian ❤️ it’s why she enjoys ruining men’s lives so much. also why she clocked the ‘murder husbands’ before any of the expert behavioural analysts in the FBI

chilton: gay misogynist (different than normal gay)

alana: bi. lost touch with her homophobic family in her 20’s

margot: a canonical lesbian ❤️

jack: straight. i’m sorry king :(

bella: straight :/ what a waste

will: bi but due to his talent for self-denial and self-deception was only 15% aware of this pre-hannibal

hannibal: bi

zeller: i have NO clue????

price: gay. looks mild-mannered but once gave a homophobic bully a concussion in high school

abigail: lesbian ❤️

dolarhyde: bisexual + homophobic + violently misogynistic = he truly believes he is a heterosexual. died believing he was the pinnacle of Hetero Manliness

matt brown: gay. did you see those swim goggles

gideon: straight. he killed his wife for calling him ‘metrosexual’

bedelia: bi but doesn’t use the term bi. low key homophobic. like homophobic in a high class way. she’s fine with socializing with gays but definitely votes red every election without fail. comes from an American Royalty super rich super republican family. she fucked a lot of girls at whatever ivy league uni she attended. she was briefly straight-married in her 30’s and has a daughter as a result. hasn’t spoken to her ex in 15 years and hasn’t seen in her adult daughter in person for 4 years. terrible mother. in case it isn’t clear bedelia is my favourite character

reba: straight but i won’t hold that against her

[readingraebow]

Red Dragon Section Two

Chapters 11-21

1. What does Francis think of Hannibal? How does he contact him? He is mildly obsessed with Hannibal and has clippings of all the articles about Hannibal. He thinks Hannibal is like him and is misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. Which means Hannibal might be the one person who could truly understand him. He wants to start a correspondence with Hannibal so he buys toilet paper that easily dissolves (in case Hannibal has to quickly swallow it) and writes him a letter. There's no indication of how this message was actually delivered and when it's found, the part that explains how Hannibal is to answer is scratched out but it's figured out that Hannibal is probably to answer through a classified ad in The Tattler.

2. What is the meaning of the cut Will found in the bark of the tree outside the house? It's a Chinese character that means "You hit it" or "You hit it on the head" which is an expression that is sometimes used in gambling. It's considered a positive or lucky symbol. The character also appears on a Mah-Jongg tile (which is actually what I thought when I saw it, haha). It's the symbol of the Red Dragon.

3. What’s Will’s plan to catch the Tooth Fairy? He wants to use Lecter as bait. Once they figure out how to identify messages from Lecter in the Tattler, they plan to include their own message. Will proposes they move Lecter to a secure facility but fake his escape and then send a message to the Tooth Fairy saying he's escaped and planning a rendezvous. Then they can grab the Tooth Fairy. Will says that it might be a long shot and Lecter might not be a draw for the Tooth Fairy but it's at least worth a shot. There's always a chance that the Tooth Fairy might want to kill Lecter as a way to "consume" him and be better than him as a part of his own Becoming.

4. What does the code say? It gives Will's home address in Florida and says to "Save yourself. Kill them all." Of course, as soon as Crawford hears this, he makes arrangements to get Will's wife and step-son out of there and to safety. He doubts the Tooth Fairy will have even seen the message yet and, if he has, he at least won't have had time to make a move yet.

5. What happens during the phone call in Chapter 16? So they do everything right and Will gets the "Pilgrim" to keep talking. They don't really get information since the "Pilgrim" just keeps asking for information that he will verify, if it's right. Which Will is supposed to be playing it cool, because he gets a lot of fake calls so how does he know this one is real? Well, they manage to trace the call and it's coming from a Chicago phone booth. So the Chicago police show up to arrest the guy.... and it's Freddy Lounds. So that goes great. Not.

6. What did Will say about the Tooth Fairy in the interview with Freddy? How did they make sure that the Tooth Fairy could find Will, if he wanted? He says basically the opposite of what Bloom said about the Tooth Fairy: the Tooth Fairy is ugly, impotent with the opposite sex and the killer sexually molested his male victims. Will also says that the Tooth Fairy is the laughingstock of his acquaintances and comes from an incestuous home. He made sure to emphasize that the Tooth Fairy isn't as smart as Hannibal Lecter. And Lounds photographed Will in his "temporary apartment" where he's staying during the investigation. They made sure you could see part of the Capital Building out the window and an obscured but still readable sign for the hotel across the street so the Tooth Fairy could definitely find Will if he wants to.

7. Where does Freddy wake up and why is he there? What is he shown and what does he promise to do? Freddy wakes up in Dolarhyde's home. Dolarhyde drove up to Chicago and kidnapped Freddy and brought him back to his house. He glued him to a wheelchair and shows him slides of his victims. He says it's for atonement because Freddy wrote so many lies about him. He shows him only the female victims that were raped: alive and well before, then waiting and then after. He does this to show that he's Definitely Not Gay and then he shows a slide of Freddy and the lies in the Tattler. So basically saying that he's going to kill Freddy. Freddy immediately throws Will under the bus and says he only wrote those things because he was interviewing Will. He says that he'll write anything Dolarhyde wants and set the record straight. Basically he just promises everything he thinks Dolarhyde wants to hear.

8. What happens to Freddy in the last chapter of this section? Dolarhyde takes him back to Chicago and pulls the wheelchair out of the back of the van. He'd given Freddy a thermos for the drive and Dolarhyde pulls the quilt off of Freddy and opens the thermos. It's actually full of gasoline which he pours all over Freddy. Then he sets him on fire and pushes the wheelchair down the hill where it stops in front of the Tattler office.

  Section Two Reading Journal

Okay so. I think I figured out what this is reminding me of? It kind of reminds me of the James Bond books? It’s just very similar to that writing style and very male oriented. Though I think I remember not loving Casino Royale and I’m really enjoying this book.

But, anyway, okay so very fascinated with all the Dolarhyde things in this section. Also the end??? I definitely remember that from the movie. (That’s actually where my mind always jumps first in connection with Philip Seymour Hoffman... oops) But also Dolarhyde biting off Freddy’s lips?? Um???? Okay???? And that definitely reminded me of the part in Misery where Annie just totally nonchalantly cuts off one of Paul’s thumbs??

And I know that this book is technically about Dolarhyde and Will trying to catch him. But I wish there was more Hannibal in this book. Because technically this is supposed to be the first book about him and he’s barely in it??? That’s honestly why I prefer Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, both the show and the movie, though. Because Hannibal is the one who really fascinates me. And I almost wish this book had been about Will catching Hannibal, not will catching Dolarhyde. That’s the real story I want to read.

Anyway, I am still enjoying this book quite a lot and I can’t wait to continue!

[fatal-fic]

Hannigram, forced m/m relationships, and abuse

I had some thoughts about the post making the rounds in Hannigram-land, but I honestly don't want to feed the trolls with reblogs. You can read it here. Fair warning: in this discussion, you will find heteronormativity, homophobia, and discussion of  abusive relationships. I will be incorporating my own personal experience with these topics as well.

I’m so tired of Tumblr taking literally any two guy relationship & turning into some gay fetish. ANY guy relationship. Even those that aren’t even platonic, or abusive relationships there is ALWAYS some group of assholes here that turn into what is a fetishized gay romance... Hannibal & Will was forced, was insanely abusive & murderous.

I'm so tired of Hollywood feeding me stories about any man and any woman, and expecting me to care about their romance. It seems like fifteen minutes of screen time is all one needs to make it obvious that they're made for each other and should be together forever.

Slash and yaoi fandom was the first place that gave me an alternative, and I will love them forever for  that. I grew up deep in the South and never knowingly met a queer person until my friends and I started coming out to each other. The only queer people I could think of were Ellen, Ru Paul, and Elton John—and this is during that dark period between Ellen losing her sitcom and becoming the household name she is today. For years, I only heard about her in terms of her “deviant” sexuality.

I discovered slash fandom around the time I hit puberty, and seeing positive examples of queer relationships allowed me to speculate on my own sexuality. Slash fandom allowed me a glimpse into a world where queer sexuality was not just normalized but celebrated.

(Cut because this shit got long.)

Think of how radical that was for someone who had never met a queer couple in real life, had never seen a Pride parade or lived near a gay club. Better yet, for someone who lived near a military base under Don't Ask, Don't Tell—even if I had known queer adults, they could never have talked about it.

Beyond my own experience, let's also consider how actual queer relationships have been treated in film and literature. So many times, obvious queer relationships have been written off as close friendships. Hollywood has a long history of coding queer characters with subtle references meant to evade heterosexual viewers, a wink and nod approach to representation. I won't go into detail because other authors have discussed this topic with more skill than I can approach. Consider watching The Celluloid Closet for an introduction.

In some ways, slash fandom is allowing queer audiences to take back what was theirs all along. And if there are a lot of heterosexuals along for the ride, the more the merrier. Straight women and men have their own reasons for loving slash, and it's not just “fetishization.”

Now, on to Hannigram. Others have already established that Hannigram isn't a “forced” queer romance but a canon one. Note the element of queer erasure: “Just because Will asked if Hannibal is in love with him and tried to kill everyone who could possibly compete with him and then they embraced on a cliff while looking deeply into each other's eyes, lips inches apart, and went over the edge... doesn't mean it's gay.” And that's without going into Hannibal leaving his broken heart for Will to find, or the gratuitous references to Achilles and Patroclus.

Once we've gotten past that and acknowledge that yes, everyone up to Bryan “I have Hannigram snails on my laptop” Fuller acknowledges it's queer, the next argument is, “but it's abusive!”

And an abusive relationship should bother me. Story-time: once upon a time, I thought I met the love of my life. She wined me, dined me, told me sweet things about myself, and promised to keep me safe. Then she proceeded to manipulate, gaslight, and eventually physically attack me. We were together for about two years. I do not remember that time with any fondness. All I feel is disgust and a sense of unreality. Some genuinely nice things happened during those two years, but really, anything good was drowned out by her disregard for my autonomy as a person.

In short: I hate abusive relationships, but I love Hannigram. That doesn't feel like a contradiction.

The world of Hannibal is a very dark place. Monsters like Mason Verger walk among us, destroying with impunity, and even sweet girls like Abigail Hobbs have dark secrets. Nearly every character exploits, manipulates, or murders someone else. Including Will Graham. He pets Frederick Chilton like a prized dog, knowing what will very likely happen to him when Francis Dolarhyde sees. He sympathizes with serial killers more than their victims, often defending their work and their motivations to his colleagues. He plays Hannibal like a fiddle, and he could have gotten through Mizumono intact if not for the slightest hint of Freddie's perfume on his skin. He knew exactly how risky that game was.

Hannibal is a dark place, and I think as viewers it taps into an aspect of psychology known as l'appel du vide, “the call of the void” that makes us want to jump when faced with a cliff. Darker fiction lets us jump without being hurt, lets us explore those sinister corners of our consciousness in a safe, fictional environment.

Will's relationship with Hannibal is strange and complicated. Hannibal does some monstrous things: gaslighting, framing him for murder, eviscerating him, killing his friends, and nearly killing him, repeatedly. If Will were a real person, I would tell him to head for the hills. But Will is a fictional character, and an incredibly fucked up one. When he sees Hannibal “Dolce,” he seems incredibly happy. And also ready to stab Hannibal, because for them, loving and stabbing are pretty much the same thing.

I think that's what sets Hannigram apart from a plain abusive relationship for me: Will has the same murderous potential under his skin. Hannibal is trying to set it free, and also fucking up along the way because he has no idea what to do with these emotions Will has engendered.

It's not healthy. Bryan Fuller has not written us a how-to manual for relationships. But it is in many ways beautiful, and dangerous, and possibly the best Hannibal or Will is capable of.