#idk what counts as meta

[cryptidfang]

because i'm insane i like thinking about Hannibal characters and moral philosophy and the way Will's character fits in is actually really interesting

Basically, Will is a virtue ethicist.

Virtue ethics is different from both deontology and consequentialism because it fundamentally links your actions to who you are as a person. The goal of life in virtue ethics is to live the life of a 'virtuous person', this isn't just about doing the right thing in individual situations, its about the narrative of your life, having the proper ethical instincts and following through on them on every occasion. Doing the right/wrong thing isn't just about what you did, it reflects on who you are as a person, whether you are virtuous or vicious.

This is very reminiscent of Will to me, he is very concerned with what his actions and sense of morality says about who he is, Will's view of himself as either 'good' or 'bad' is like the main conflict of the show. He doesn't really seem to care what other people think of him, or about the effects his actions have on other people, just what they mean for him and the narrative he has in his head (he kisses Alana so he can feel normal, he continues working at the FBI so he can feel like a good guy etc.). He puts a lot of effort into convincing himself that he's normal and moral and basically no effort into convincing other people of that (at least in the beginning.)

Will also does try pretty hard to cultivate his moral instincts like a virtue ethicist would. Presumably the reason he 'couldn't pull the trigger' when he was a homicide detective was because he didn't want to let himself know what killing was like because he knew it would change him and how he thought about morality. (And yeah, this did happen and we see him pretty distressed and ambivalent about how his ideas of the 'right bthing to do' are getting confused and changing a lot from how we see him at the beginning of the series.)

When Will feels guilty over his actions it centers on him and what he's 'becoming' (all those nightmares of him growing horns etc.) Contrast this with Abigail, who's nightmares center on the people she killed and show her feeling guilty about the people that were harmed, this is much less self-centered than Will tends to be, he's the main character in his guilt and anxiety.

Even with Abigail, a lot of Will's actions (buying her fishing gear, asking to go on the hike with her that she was meant to do with her mother, ignoring her murder of nicholas boyle) are more for the sake of keeping together the narrative he has in his mind about Abigail and their relationship than for her as her own person.

(Philosophy is hard to explain but I think its interesting and thats all that matters) (Basically Will Graham is insane thank you good night)

[problemswithbooks]

Another Endeavor Post

I’ve seen alot of people confused and mad with Endeavors current arc and I get that. It’s done decently imo, but I understand why some people feel it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Because of his flat characterization in his introduction it just feels like Endeavor’s being used for a roll he was originally built for. Hori wrote him for 3 strict purposes from what I can see. 

The first was to give Shoto depth. It gave him a strong motivation to fight Izuku, which in turn show cased Izuku’s heroic nature, sense he fought not to win but to help Shoto see his Quirk was his own. 

The second thing was to show corrupt Pro Heroes. Endeavor was introduced right before Stain. Even though Stain attacked Tenya’s brother, who is shown as nothing but a good Hero, the audience, having seen Enji hit his kid, and wife, do see some merit in Stain’s ideology--some Heroes aren’t heroic. Like Izuku tells Tomura, Stain had bad methods and targeted the wrong people, but he had a reason for what he did. Endeavor shows there are cracks in the system, which in turn makes the villains have some merit. 

The third is showing how striving for nothing but to be the strongest is not a worthy goal. Bakugo, essentially has the same goal as Endeavor and through the fist half of the manga we’ve seen how badly this has effected him. Endeavor is Bakugo’s bad ending. In fact Bakugo’s reaction to winning by default during the sports festival is very similar to Endeavor’s reaction to obtaining the title of #1. Both of them feel it wasn’t earned, they won by default, it doesn’t prove they were the strongest, it doesn’t satisfy them.

After being handcrafted to fulfill these story rolls it’s jarring to see Endeavor suddenly being molded to fill a completely different set of story needs. It’s unclear yet exactly why Hori is shifting his charter to be sympathetic and likable. My best bet is to make his eventual death have more impact for the audience. If, say Dabi, killed an unchanged Endeavor, readers would cheer Dabi on and not think much about it. Shoto’s character would suffer as a result. If old Endeavor died, it’s unlikely Shoto could show alot of conflicting emotion about it, without it throwing readers off. Shoto showed no affection for his father or even desire to interact with him past using him to obtain his goal of becoming a Hero. By giving Endeavor depth and tying him more emotionally to Shoto, anything that happens to Endeavor in the future will impact Shoto more. 

Basically my theory is that Endeavor was given a character arc so whatever bad thing that happens to him will leave an impact on the audience and the characters. Until the story ends I have a hard time deciding if this was bad writing on Hori’s part. Depending of where he takes it, and what sort of message he’s trying to convey, I can’t decide. Because if Hori changes how important Endeavor’s cruelty was for the overarching story, it’ll feel like he could have lessened his abuse so his change of character was easier to understand. On the other hand if nothing is done with Endeavor’s redemption then it’ll seem pointless at best or undermine the final message at worse.