#hannibal critical

[charred-angel-ribs]

I'm nearing the end of my third (3rd) full watch through of Hannibal, and I love the show so dearly. I love going on about the writing and symbolism and the acting and every little bit that makes it so good as a show.

But I feel like it's only fair to talk about the flaws as well, so, I gotta say it: I don't like Molly's character.

I think she could have been a good character, but for some reason she just doesn't feel well written. Her character feels very shallow (not like a shallow personality, but shallow as in not developed). Like a filler character for the sake of pushing a narrative, rather than an actual person involved in the story.

We don't really get to know much about Molly, but from what we do see of her, she comes across as an NPC almost. As if she's saying what she does just for the sake of it.

She gets Will to go back to working with Jack, which implies she either is completely unaware of how bad things were and what happened, or that she knows but doesn't care/understand properly. Now, either of these are viable options for a character, but the way it's done just seems to lack any sort of reasoning or feeling.

When she talks about it, both with Jack and Will, her dialogue feels like it's written just for the sake of pushing a narrative. It doesn't feel like there's any sort of drive or emotion behind what she's saying. She objects a little with "You're gonna take him either way" to Jack, but the way it's done just sounds like she's saying it for the sake of "Oh but I didn't want him to, I tried to convince Jack otherwise".

It doesn't feel reasonable for her character. From what we see, Molly and Will seem to have a healthy relationship, and they do seem to actually care about eachother (though even that isn't written very well), so it doesn't make sense that she wouldn't care - in fact, I would argue she would care a lot. But she doesn't seem to?

Not just with Will going back, but about the consequences too. After Molly and Walter's incident with Dolarhyde, it shows Molly in a hospital bed talking to Will. She barely seems phased by it. The most emotion we see her express over the matter is "My son almost died. I almost died." said very calmly, then proceeded by a sigh and "Man, I got mad there for a second."

Like, I'm sorry? What do you mean "I got mad there a second"? She should be way more shaken up by that. Like she just said, she and her son not only almost died, but were almost killed. By the guy Will's after, because the man who manipulated him for so long decided to sick him on Will's family as a way of further manipulating him now that he's back.

Yes, she does call Hannibal out with "I knew it was him," but that's it. She deserves to get angry, she should get angry. Or scared, or annoyed, or upset, something. The fact that she's so calm about it all makes it feel very superficial, like they just had her there to push things along and that's it.

And alongside Molly's character's poor writing, Will's line of "I'm just about tired of you crazy sons of bitches." feels wildly out of character, not only for Will but for the whole show. Will is not, at any point in the show (to my memory and knowledge), known to make any sort of ableist remarks or use any sort of ableist language - in fact, I don't think anyone does. The closest it gets is when Chilton uses outdated terms to refer to Gideon (if I remember correctly).

The whole show is very respectful (in my opinion) of neurodivergent and mentally ill people, especially considering it's a large part of its horror aspect. I view Hannibal as proof that you can have media whose horror aspect is neurodivergence/mentall illness, without it being ableist. In fact, at the beginning of the show, we see Will talking to Jack about how he doesn't like that Jack made a museum about serial killers and named it the "Evil Minds Museum". A lot of mental illnesses are villainised and considered "evil", and Will was outwardly objecting to that.

So for Will to just walk into Hannibal's room and say that feels like a curveball and a half. It doesn't feel natural. Will has never been known to say things like that, and whenever he and Hannibal communicate, it's never that aggressively blunt; there's always some layer of poeticism and subtext to carry the words forward. But even so, Will doesn't really talk like that with anybody??

I don't know, maybe I'm just missing something, or misinterpreting something. This is just how it came across for me. I'd love to hear someone else's thoughts on this. /lh /gen

[artemis-pendragon]

Canon gay confessions alignment chart

[undead-knick-knack]

Would somebody smite his ass already please 🙏

[punkeropercyjackson]

'Violence is romantic actually🤪I'm sooooo problematic'I can tell you're white

[autism-rizz-tournament]

Autism Rizz Tournament

Rizz: Originally short for "Charisma", Rizz (for this tournament, at least) refers to the appeal, charm or general "ability to pull" a character has, either romantically and/or sexually. (The character doesn't necessarily need to be attracted to anyone to have rizz. If they can make others fall for them, it counts)

How to vote

Propaganda

Essek Thelyss (Critical Role)

Only time he can understand people is when he’s doing espionage. Young prodigy and the topmost expert in his field in the world. It’s his job to be likable but he doesn’t know how do do it in his personal life. Everyone loves him anyway. Has never had an average social interaction ever.

Boyfriends with Caleb Widogast, they use studying and showing off their magic wizard talents to flirt with each other.

Will Graham (Hannibal)

He managed to lock away a serial killer that had been active for decades because the serial killer was so down bad for him due to autistic rizz

Attracts another killer using autistic rizz to kill the original serial killer he cannot stop pulling even in prison

A serial killer falls in love with him due to how dope his autism is.

He has/had multiple people want to tap that ass.

[bonearenaofmyskull]

Feel free to answer this whenever you want; I just had to write it down because I've been seeing this analysis in the "Hannibal meta" tags for some time. I came across an analysis, or rather multiple analyses, that blatantly dismiss the Hannigram hug. Despite being a big romance fan and interpreting it romantically, the analyses mostly argued it was a tactic for Will to push them both into the sea. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Additionally, I vaguely recall a post suggesting that Will's 'it's beautiful' remark is actually distracting and disturbing, but I don't recall the details. The gist of the analysis was to not interpret the embrace and the words as romantic but rather as a rejection. Whenever you're free, could you help me understand this? Thank you; you're the best. ❤️

Okay, I'm laughing a little at this because I think...I think...I just might be the originator of the interpretation that Will used the embrace as a tool to throw the both of them off the cliff:

I almost hate to suggest this, but it’s possible the reason Will pulled Hannibal into his arms at the end of “The Wrath of the Lamb” was because he knew that the gesture would be overwhelming to Hannibal because Hannibal is in love with him. With that touch, Hannibal wouldn’t be able to think ahead to what must be coming next. (All that business about touch making us who we are and putting hands on shoulders for authenticity.) Which doesn’t mean that Will wasn’t authentically feeling the moment, but just that he knew exactly why it would work. (x)

I can't find any posts in the hannibal meta tag that you're referring to, either about the embrace or the "It's beautiful" line, and it could be either that I'm just not going back far enough (that tag is way busier than I expected it to be) or that one or the other of us are blocking each other.

So I'm not sure I understand the logic of what you're responding to, but I would say that with both points and with analyses about Hannibal in general, the biggest and most frequent mistake that I see people make is their inability or unwillingness to manage nuance. This is especially problematic in a show that is primarily concerned on the character front with duality and transformation. Hardlining a strongly polarized opinion almost never serves people well.

Both (the romantic and the tactic) can exist, but more importantly...my take on this is not just that both can exist but that neither can exist without the other.

Obviously the tactic couldn't work--it couldn't exist--unless it was overwhelmingly romantic for Hannibal. But it has to be for Will as well because it is only in its authenticity that the gesture has power over Hannibal.

And if it wasn't authentic for Will, then there would have been no need for Will to go over the cliff. The same is true for the "It's beautiful" statement: if he doesn't mean it, then there's no reason for him to die alongside this man who helped him see that beauty. My conclusion from the above post had been:

I don’t think he planned for suicide specifically or that he knew exactly what he expected to happen between himself, Francis and Hannibal (in the sense that I doubt he’d have leaped to his death if Hannibal and Francis had somehow managed to kill each other without involving him), but I think finally accepting his and Hannibal’s relationship as one that’s in love helped ready him to take that dive off the cliff. When the moment comes, when he’s finally killed with Hannibal and is awash in the beauty of that moment, it doesn’t surprise him to the point of inaction. He’s able to draw Hannibal gently into his arms and guide them both into the abyss. The beauty, the love–they simply make his path more clear.

Perhaps less easy to see from the point of view of looking at the finale in isolation is that the romance couldn't exist without the tactic either. More specifically, their interest in loving each other stems from Will's ability to match Hannibal's cleverness, manipulation, and opportunism with his own. That has been the point of the show from the start, from "You and I are just alike" to "I see myself in Will" to "I don't expect you to feel self-loathing or regret or shame. You knew what you were doing and you made your own decisions, decisions that were under your control.... You found a way to hurt me. I wonder how many more people are going to get hurt by what you do" to "Did you think you could change me, the way I've changed you? --I already did."

All of this is their "zero sum game." It is a cornerstone of their relationship that they each respond to the other's manipulation with manipulation, even when it's blatantly transparent. And that push over the cliff was blatantly transparent. Hannibal didn't fight it, he submitted to it as a kind of weird trust fall that started with the catch and ended with a death. Of a very particular sort.

Is this a rejection? I mean, yeah, sure, by one of way of looking at it. Will is taking their fate in his hands and sentencing them to death, which is definitely not sending the message that he's okay with their mountain of sin and iniquity.

But it's also a marriage, in a Shakespearean kind of way ("All...now marry in an instant"), and also in a Christian way: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."

I chose that quote because of its direct use of "the Lamb" which the the show instructs us through its title is the lens through which we should view Will's "wrath." Hannibal has already been established in the wife/mother (the woman clothed with the sun) role in the ritual by the Red Dragon, which puts Will in the husband/child role, similar to the dichotomy involving the Christ-child. The show has positioned Will as Christ for at least two seasons at this point, tbf, and in placing Will as Christ, then his sacrifice is by definition born of love. Christ takes human sin on himself to be washed clean through his death for those who believe and submit themselves unto him. For Hannibal this becomes a very literal baptism in the "roiling Atlantic" where "Soon, all of this will be lost to the sea."

So the question then left at the end of the series is not, "Does Will reject Hannibal?" No--he takes Hannibal's sins on himself, as Christ bore humanity's sins on the cross. That has been the story.

The real question is, "How deep and real does Hannibal's baptism go?"

If one views the finale as the definitive end of the show instead of a stepping stone to seasons we'll never get to know (I prefer thinking of it as a stepping stone, to be clear), then I'd say probably the stronger interpretation because of the Biblical undertones and Hannibal's ultimate submission is that dark!Will doesn't win, BUT that Hannigram totally does. And them going to visit some old Testament comeuppance on Bedelia doesn't contradict that.

They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?' Revelation 6:16, 17

WELL, NOT BEDELIA

[flock-of-cassowaries]

[ “I was euphoric when I killed Freddie Lounds.” ]

Ah yes. The face of euphoria. That’s definitely it, right there.

[secret-sageent]

Elias what are you doing in Hannibal????

[soullessseraphim]

I just had an idea. let's all just turn ourselves into courtiers and see how funky shit gets

Lore dump about him

[phasmid42]

hello all, if you like transsexualism (and transsexuals) and/or horror movies please consider watching this silly thing i made i think the tumblr crowd would like it a lot ok bye.

[undead-knick-knack]

Please, I just wanna make ginger maple cookies 😭

[denkies]

Some of yall do not know the difference between "media that glorifies Bad Thing" and "media that portrays Bad Thing and the audience has to use critical thinking skills" and its actually concerning

[decidedly-not-heterosexual]

What do you think about Will makes him Hannibal/ bluebeard's last wife? And how did that line make Will realise that Hannibal is in love with him?

Hi Anon! So, my familiarity with Bluebeard comes from two adaptations (Catherine Breillat's 2009 film Bluebeard and Angela Carter's short story The Bloody Chamber). The film especially seems to match the most common portrayal of the Bluebeard story. Though, like all fairytale/folk tales, there are variations.

In gist: Bluebeard is a rich nobleman. All of his wives have gone missing. His young wife is aware of these disappearances, yet still chooses to marry him and leave her family. Bluebeard gives his wife a key to a chamber and tells her not to open the chamber. He goes on a trip. The wife opens the chamber and sees the corpses of his former lovers. Bluebeard comes back earlier, having given his wife the key as a test of loyalty. Betrayed, he prepares to kill his wife. His wife stalls so that her sister has time to come and kill Bluebeard.

In terms of connections to Hannibal:

Will goes back to Hannibal in S3 while knowing that Hannibal is a killer. Will even orchestrates Hannibal's escape from prison. This parallels Bluebeard's last wife marrying Bluebeard while very likely knowing he's a killer. She knows that, even if she's "special," her fate could be the same as the other wives.

In Breillat's film, Bluebeard truly does love his last wife. Yet he still gives her the key to test her loyalty. This puts the wife in an impossible position. She has to know what lies beyond the chamber door. This parallels Hannibal's tests of Will throughout the show. Because Hannibal loves Will, he wants Will to love the entirety of his monstrous self.

Take Hannibal's wrath in Mizumono. Will has to betray Hannibal because of who he is: someone desperately trying to hold onto their "goodness" by catching killers, rather than being one. Similarly, Bluebeard's wife, as a curious child, has to open the chamber door.

Will betrays Hannibal by setting up a sting. Even though he backtracks, Hannibal doesn't care--the betrayal is still there.

Hannibal says "I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?" and kills Abigail, an innocent. This parallel's Bluebeard's wrath when his wife betrays him and he plans to kill the wife, who is also innocent.

There are some interesting differences here. Hannibal kills someone else rather than Will. Unlike Bluebeard, Hannibal is willing to set up another test after Will betrays him.

Will stalls. He does love Hannibal. But Will can't let go of who he is--or who he wants to be. (I think Will's desire to not be a killer is as much a part of his character as him enjoying killing). Rather than becoming a fully-fledged killer, Will chooses to kill Hannibal. This parallels how the wife's sister kills Bluebeard.

In Hannibal, Will is the beloved and the killer. There is no external "sister" to sweep in and save him. He chooses to kill the monster, who he loves, also killing himself in the process.

Will himself is somewhat of a monster, having embraced his "becoming" and being a murder. So, along with being a victim of Hannibal's, he's also complicit in Hannibal's evil, and can't stand to betray his strongly-held values.

As another parallel, maybe Bluebeard's wife was suicidal, choosing to marry him when all his wives have disappeared...

So yeah. The monster (Hannibal/Bluebeard) cherishes their beloved (Will/Bluebeard's wife). But the monster has an evil that is too great. The monster asks their beloved an impossible task, which requires being complicit in the monster's evil, and requires the beloved going against their own nature. The beloved can't stomach the task. Then the monster has to kill their beloved. But the monster ends up being killed by their beloved.

PS: When I made that post I actually didn't remember that Bedelia has a quote mentioning Bluebeard's wife and wanting to be the last wife😭 Lmao. There's a whole other analysis as to how Bluebeard applies to Bedelia. As such, I'm not sure if that line made Will realize Hannibal was in love with him. PPS: Sorry for the late reply! I knew it would take me a while to type out my thoughts on this and I didn't have the spoons until now. I really appreciate the question!!

[isthatacalzone]

is this anything