#plain and simple they should have been showing gideon a bit every episode

[flythesail]

Still disappointing it took until the second to last episode for me to feel like oh this season finally knows what it's doing

[littlethingwithfeathers]

#BeyondTheFlowerCrown

Hi!

I’m Birdie, and I’m a Fannibal!

I’m from the southern United States, and I’ve lived here all my life. I have a career as a stage manager, and my current contract is with a local ballet company, but I do freelance work on the side for local theatre companies and for the city symphony orchestra. Aside from making rehearsal schedules and chasing various artists with sticks, my passions include music (I’m a trained clarinetist and singer), travel, food (cooking and eating), video games, knitting/crocheting, and spoiling my useless cats. When I’m not flail-crying about how everything is beautiful in Hannibal, I can be found squeeing about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Agents of SHIELD, Newsroom, and Game of Thrones.

I have been a Fannibal in one form or another for most of my life. My mom and I used to watch murder mysteries together, and one of her all time favorite movies was Silence of the Lambs. We watched it together when I was about 13, and I devoured the books shortly thereafter. I even considered a career with the FBI for a short time. Clarice Starling was my hero.

I’ll be honest... Hannibal the TV show was a tough sell for me and I didn’t begin watching until well into the third season. My objection at the outset was that (judging by the ads I was seeing) the show looked to be a bog-standard crime thriller, featuring Hannibal Lecter at his prime. And to me, part of the gravity of Hannibal Lecter was that much of what he did was only whispered and hinted at. Especially in the beginning. I didn’t want to see that ruined by him swanning about covered in blood.

In short... I vastly underestimated Bryan Fuller. 

It still took a long time for the show to grow on me... it wasn’t really until about the second or third episode of the Red Dragon arc that I went... “Wait... I need to see this again.” and promptly fell in love. I have written so much fanfic it’s ridiculous. And not just for Hannigram. There’s Hannigail, Murder!Family, Marlana, and even the very rare Will/Beverly (or as I like to call it... Katz and Dogs). 

You can find me under the handle “hesterbyrde” on AO3 or just click here!

Under the cut are my answers for the questionnaire!

1. Favorite episode: 1x07 - Sorbet. The Ambulance scene. Plain and simple.

2. Favorite season: Either 1 or 3... it’s a tough call. I love the wind-up on Season 1, but Fuller’s recreation of Francis Dolarhyde’s story was absolutely breathtaking. 

3. Favorite quote:

“Words are living things. They have personality, point of view, agenda.“

4. Favorite quote from your favorite episode:

“Before we begin, you must all be warned. Nothing here is vegetarian. Bon appetit.”

5. Favorite Character: Hannibal. Though honestly it’s really tough to choose...

6. Favorite moment from your favorite character: God there are so many... and the micro-expressions from Mads are just overwhelming. I’ll have to go with either the Ambulance Scene from Sorbet. It’s just stunning.

7. Favorite quote from your favorite character:

“I was curious what would happen.” and every other iteration of that line.

or

“With all my knowledge and intuition I could never entirely predict you. I can feed the caterpillar, I can whisper through the chrysalis, but what hatches follows its own nature and is beyond me.”

8. Scariest episode: 1x10 - Buffet Froid. I find Georgia Madchen to be very creepy... it’s my weird thing about scary eyes. Plus there’s the jumpscare in the start of the episode.

9. Favorite heartwarming moment: Will finding Winston.

10: Saddest moment: The “Last Supper” scene in Mizumono. I actually cry when I watch that... Though Will ordering Hannibal to leave after he rescues him from Muskrat Farm is up there too.

11. Your OTP: Hannigram.

12. Favorite OTP moment: “It’s Beautiful.”

13. Favorite duo/trio (not OTP): Hannigail and Beverly/Will.

14. Favorite duo/trio (not OTP) moment: When Hannibal is helping Abigail to stage her murder.

And nearly any interaction with Will and Bev. They’re such an amazing pair onscreen.

15. Favorite meal/food in Hannibal: Abel Gideon’s leg.

16. Favorite drink in Hannibal: Alana’s cabernet barrel aged beer. I don’t give a shit who’s blood is also in there.

17. Favorite outfit of your favorite character:

I mean that suit is ridiculous and no one should look that fucking good in it.

18. Favorite outfit not from your favorite character:

I want to steal the clothes from most of the female characters in this show, but especially Alana.

19. Most outrageous outfit: Any of the suits Hannibal wears in Florence. Or that powder blue suit with the yellow tie. He looked like an Easter egg. A very sexy Easter egg. Jesus Christ.

20. Favorite non-main character killer: The Mushroom Man. Eldon Stammets. I thought he was criminally under-explained.

21. Favorite symbolism in Hannibal: Oooh... the ravenstag. Hands down. 

22. Favorite gag reel moment: (So to answer this question I actually went back and rewatched them and now I’m dying.)

Okay I have to give it to one of these:

“Shut up, Bitch” exchange over dinner where Kacey Rohl nearly loses her shit.

“I forgot how to tie a tie.” so precious.

“Can you try to give me the line again and actually mean it?” Hugh’s face is precious as he breaks character.

The one right at the beginning of the Season 3 gag reel where Hugh and Mads are goofing off and then they just melt into character. (I’d also like to point out that in seasons 1 and 2 Hugh generally goofed off with his American accent. But in season 3 he’ll drop it between takes. Which I think is interesting and cool.)

Gillian Anderson forgetting her line after Mads kisses her. (I mean... she represents all of us in that moment, as does Hugh when he forgets his line after Mads rounds the corner.)

23: Favorite murder tableau: The judge in season 2.

24: Most unlikely murder tableau: Tree Man. I mean really... there’s magical realism and then there’s things that are just loony. I still love it though.

25. Most thoughtful quote/episode:

“Typhoid and swans. It all comes from the same place.”

26. Favorite song from Hannibal: I love Will’s theme.

27. Which would you be (FBI, serial killer, psychiatrist, victim.): FBI. I very nearly went for it when I was younger.

28. What dish would you want Hannibal to turn you into? Something with pasta. Maybe ravioli. I would make a tasty ravioli.

29. Which would you prefer to be from the production crew? Someone’s personal assistant. I like doing work like that. Writing could also be fun, but I’ve never worked on a collaborative project like that before.

30. What is to be your becoming?

I don’t know, honestly. I’m... I’ve learned not to be a big picture person about my own life. That’s not to say I don’t have goals or anything, but I’ve learned to keep them within the purview of whatever the next project is that I’m working on. I work. I finish. Then I look up and see where I want to go next. It works like gravity. And it hasn’t failed me yet. My becoming is a slow thing I guess. Lots of pieces. Lots of bits of road that will eventually lead me to what I’m supposed to be.

[tomeandflickcorner]

OUAT Episode Analysis- Mother’s Little Helper

Wow.  Did A&E really write this one?  I’m impressed.  Why couldn’t they have written like this when they made that awful Wish World two-parter? They even pulled off an impressive plot twist that actually surprised me.  Well done, you two.  Now let’s see if you can keep this up.

So we start off with Emma learning how Gideon abducted Killian and left him stranded in another realm, and is now preventing him from getting back.  And she is LIVID.  She even resorts to using the Force Choke Hold on Gideon.  That’s how far she’s been pushed, people.  Because it’s obvious that’s classified as Dark Magic, something Emma hasn’t used since she was freed from the Dark One’s essence.  But Gideon is all ‘please, you don’t scare me,’ and tells Emma that if she wants Killian back, she really has no other choice but to help him.

The next day, Emma and Snow, who has once again remembered Emma is her daughter, storm into Gold’s shop to let them know what they think of Gideon’s behavior, and are pretty much ‘control your kid, or we’ll control him for you.’ Belle, however, beseeches Emma to give Gideon a chance, stating her belief that there is good in him.  I’m of two minds when it comes to this scene. Yes, Belle is completely in character here, and I fully acknowledge this is her son they’re talking about here. But it is a bit problematic that Belle is essentially saying that Gideon shouldn’t be blamed for his actions because he grew up under the Black Fairy’s abuse.  You know, considering she’s talking to Emma.  It’s not as if Emma’s childhood was all glitz and glamour, after all. Granted her foster families never actively tortured her, but I’ve seen the cigarette burn on her hand.  And I noticed what looked to be a scar above her breast during the Captain Swan movie.   There’s enough evidence to suggest she was physically abused at some point.  I can understand how being tortured as a child can mess you up a bit, but that doesn’t give you permission to run around plotting to kill people.

Regardless, Emma agrees to give Gideon a fair chance and meets with him at the Storybrooke clock tower.  However, she tells him that if he wants her help, she needs some collateral.  Because she hasn’t forgotten that he did try to kill her a few days ago, so she has a right to be cautious around him.  As such, she has him hand over the Ruby Hilt Sword and the spell that’s keeping Killian away.  They end up going to the Sorcerer’s Mansion and begin a ritual that I think was meant to open up a portal to the Black Fairy’s realm so they could overthrow her. Or lift the enchantment keeping Killian away.    It was one of those two options.  But they’re disrupted by the appearance of a giant spider that proceeds to attack Emma and Gideon, with Gideon claiming the spider was sent by the Black Fairy, who figured out what they were doing and was seeking to stop them.

Now this is when the episode really starts throwing you for loops.  While they’re dodging the spider, Gideon actually apologizes to Emma for his actions.  Which is quite a novel concept.  Imagine a villain we just met who apologizes right off the back.  (In contrast, has Regina ever actually apologized to Snow, Charming and Emma for casting the Dark Curse and separating them?  No to mention the rest of Storybrooke, who were just innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.  And has Rumple apologized to the Nevengers for the stuff he’s pulled on them?)  But right when Emma is trying to find a way out, Gideon pulls a fast one on her, revealing that this was all a trick and he was the one who summoned the spider, with the intention of letting the spider kill Emma.  So, Gideon teleports away, leaving Emma at the mercy of the giant spider. Despite her best efforts at fighting off the spider, Emma, who somehow forgot she could just teleport herself away like Gideon did, ends up cocooned by the spider.  When she loses consciousness because of the spider silk obstructing her airways, Gideon begins a different ritual that would enable the Black Fairy to enter Storybrooke.  Just when the portal to the Dark Realm opens up, however, Gold suddenly arrives at the Sorcerer’s Mansion and drives the spider off, freeing Emma from the cocoon in the process.  (And I think this marks the first time I was actually glad to see Gold doing something on the screen.  Congrats, Rumpy Rumps.  You’ve earned another gold star today.)

Thus begins the second PTA meeting with Emma, Snow, Belle and Gold.  Emma announces that Gideon has just used up his last chance, and the next time they meet, she will show him no mercy.  However, Gold insists that Emma isn’t being fair and whatnot.  In any event, it’s clear that lines are being drawn in the sand over this issue.  

Now, once again, I understand that Gold is concerned for Gideon and doesn’t want to see him die.  But regardless, I still wanted to Gibbs Slap him for accusing Emma and Snow for only seeing things in black and white and acting like Emma is being unreasonable for no longer willing to be lenient with Gideon.  After all, she gave him a chance and offered to help him.  But he responded by double-crossing her.  Emma has every right to want to defend herself against the person who is seeking to kill her.  And, at present, she is completely unaware of the plot twist that’s revealed in the episode flashback.

This episode also shows us how Gideon got to this point.  After the Black Fairy abducted him from Shady Blue’s care, she brought Baby Gideon to her realm, where she keeps stolen children as slaves and mine workers, forcing them to mine for dark fairy dust.  But instead of placing Baby Gideon into the mines, she decides to keep him as a pet of some sort.  During this segment, we also see that moment that Gideon referred to a few episodes ago, when the Black Fairy ‘tested’ Gideon with the opportunity to protect a friend of his.  Seeing this moment was as upsetting as I anticipated it to be, and it shows how nasty and sinister the Black Fairy is.  But I still say Gideon shouldn’t be so hard on himself for this moment.  Again, he was only a kid.  There was nothing he could have done, even if he had tried to interfere.  No child should be made to feel guilty for not standing up to their abuser.  That would be victim blaming, plain and simple.

However, we see that moment ended up breaking Young Gideon, as we then cut to him when he’s full grown.  At this point, he’s become the Black Fairy’s minion flunky, doing her bidding without question.  One day, the Black Fairy summons him to announce he has just turned 28 years old.  She then tells him that someone in the mines has stolen her vault key and tasks him with finding out who is responsible.  When Gideon goes down to the mines to punish the guilty one, he has an unexpected reunion with his childhood friend, the one he couldn’t save as a boy.  The friend in question is revealed to be called Roderick. Thing was, when I saw the episode, I thought they called him Mordred, as in Mordred of Camelot lore.  But I apparently heard wrong.   Anyway, Roderick beseeches Gideon to look inside himself and reacquaint himself with who he used to be before the Black Fairy instilled her programming into him. In the end, Gideon decides to help Roderick, who tells Gideon he heard tales of a brave hero called the Savior, explaining he planned to break into the Black Fairy’s vault in order to obtain a crystal ball that could be used to contact the Savior and ask for her help in saving them.  Because Roderick has found out that the Black Fairy’s reasons for mining dark fairy dust is because she’s planning to cast a terrible curse.  It turns out that the Black Fairy was the one who actually patented the Dark Curse.  But she never managed to perfect it.  Which is what she’s trying to do now with the dark fairy dust.  So if she success, she’ll be able to manufacture a Dark Curse that would make Regina’s curse look like child’s play.  Which is obviously a holocaust of bad.

Unfortunately, when Gideon helps Roderick break into the vault to contact the Savior with the crystal ball, the Black Fairy appears, revealing this was just another trick, and she had set Gideon up to test his loyalty to her.  To punish Gideon for his defiance, she proceeds to turn Roderick into a beetle, killing him before Gideon’s eyes.  To add salt to the wound, she then takes possession of Gideon’s heart, turning him into her Heart Controlled slave.

To this, I applaud A&E. Because I did not see this coming. At all.  And this reveal does complicate matters a bit.  It means that Gideon really isn’t acting on his own accord after all, and there might still be a chance to save him.  Although, this doesn’t mean I find fault with Emma for the ‘no mercy’ stance she’s currently taking with Gideon.  Because she doesn’t know about the Heart Control yet.  With the limited information she has to work with, she is not at fault with not being willing to give Gideon another chance.  Once she does find out about the Heart Control, she’s obviously going to realize that the rules have changed and she’s going to do what she can to free him from the Black Fairy’s control.  But until she discovers that missing piece of the puzzle, she’s only going to know that Gideon is the guy who is actively trying to kill her, kidnapped her True Love, and betrayed her when she offered him her help.  So of course she’s not going to give him another chance.

And to make matters even worse, the ritual Gideon performed to bring the Black Fairy into Storybrooke turned out to be successful.  Even though Gold stopped the spider from killing Emma, she lost consciousness just long enough for it to count, and the Black Fairy was able to slip through the cracks. So, the way things are shaping up, this is going to be quite an epic conclusion to this story arc, which I’m now dubbing the Black Fairy arc. 

 All I can say, is that I’m now wanting to see them find a way to de-age Gideon back to an infant when this is all over, complete with a mind wipe so he won’t remember anything that happened to him after Belle sent him away out of concern for her child’s safety.  Kind of like what they did with August back in S2.  If anyone should get a fresh start, it’s this guy.  Plus, Belle deserves the chance to raise her child in peace.

Meanwhile, in Subplot B, Regina is back in her vault, working on trying to figure out how to break Snowing’s sleeping curse, which she really should have been doing in the last episode, but we’re not going to discuss that can of worms.  Although, it did strike me as a bit irksome that she was talking about cleaning up the messes Evil Queen left and made no mention how she STILL hasn’t returned those hearts to their rightful owners.  Why bother bringing up the fact that she still has her heart collection if they’re not going to bother resolving that issue?  

Anyway, Henry is all ‘you can do it, Regina!  If you can’t do it, no one can!’  Which, again, is odd since Emma was the one who effectively cleaned up after Regina in S1 when she broke the original Dark Curse.  Out of nowhere, Henry suddenly goes into a weird trance-like state and ends up writing out a series of strange symbols that Regina can’t identify.  Wondering what it all means, they end up deciding to question Author Isaac, who has been residing in the psychiatric ward since the end of the Author arc.  Which kind of makes sense, as they sadly can’t ask Merlin and the Apprentice anymore.  Unfortunately, imprisonment hasn’t fixed Author Isaac’s tendency to be annoying, and he says he refuses to talk unless he’s given a car and allowed to leave Storybrooke.  (I guess Regina got rid of the town line barrier spell off screen?)  He also includes tickets to Hamilton among his list of demands, which is a slight anachronism, as that musical premiered in 2015 and the show’s timeline is still in in the late 2013 to early 2014 range. I know Adam tweeted something about how in this version of reality, Hamilton premiered earlier than it did in our world, but that just sounds like a made-up excuse to cover up their slip-up.

Regina eventually agrees to release Author Isaac and give him a car.  Which is something else that bothers me.  I realize everyone else had their hands full with the whole Gideon thing at the moment, and that Regina was concerned with what was going on with Henry, but releasing Author Isaac really wasn’t Regina’s decision to make.  At the very least, she should have discussed things with the rest of the Nevengers with everyone voting on the matter.  I’m just saying, the last time Regina made a decision without getting everyone else’s input first, it was when she decided it was perfectly okay to give Hades a chance and trust him with Zelena and Baby Robyn.  And look how well that turned out.

Regardless, Author Isaac takes his chance to drive away.  But before he does, he informs Regina and Henry that the reason for Henry’s trance was because the story within Henry’s book is nearing the end. Obviously, this means something climatic is about to happen, but it doesn’t quite explain what those weird symbols meant.  Or why anyone should be seriously concerned.  If you remember, there were probably hundreds of blank Storybooks in the Sorcerer’s Mansion.  Even if Henry’s Storybook is about to reach its conclusion, so what?  It just means you start a new story.  Because nothing ever really ends.  

And of course, we get the subplot with Killian, who is just as eager to get back to Emma as she is at getting him home.  He ends up approaching Blackbeard at a tavern somewhere, once again offering to trade the Jolly Roger for another magic bean.  Because Blackbeard managed to get his hands on another magic bean.  Where exactly does he keep finding these magic beans, anyway?  I thought they were supposed to be rare.  Apart from that, it’s interesting that Blackbeard knows that Killian made the original trade for Emma.  Which means that Killian was completely forthright with why he wanted a magic bean the last time. Meaning he didn’t give a bat’s behind if Blackbeard mocked him for losing his head over a woman.  Killian, this is why we love you.  

Getting back to the story, the two pirates begin to play a game of cards, agreeing that the winner gets the spoils.  Ultimately, Blackbeard wins the game, but that’s when Killian proves his craftiness, telling Blackbeard that the Jolly Roger is back in Storybrooke.  And if he wants to get it, he has to use his magic bean to bring them there.  In other words, Killian knew going into that card game that he was going to be returning to Storybrooke either way.  Blackbeard is not pleased by this turn of events, accusing Killian of being deceitful. And Killian is like ‘look who’s talking.  It wasn’t as if that was a fair card game.  No proper deck has 6 aces.’  So Blackbeard has no choice but to use the magic bean to open a portal to Storybrooke. But, because of the blocking spell Gideon set up, the portal doesn’t bring the two men to Storybrooke. Instead, they wind up in a completely different realm, which Killian soon identifies as Neverland (which has apparently stopped being a jungle island in Pan’s absence) when a horde of Lost Boys suddenly appear.

Now, this right here raises a few questions.  As Killian and Blackbeard are trying to get away from the Lost Boy horde, Killian explains that they didn’t bring all the Lost Boys with them when they left Neverland back in S3, and that they allowed the most savage ones to stay behind.  But if that was the case, it once again brings up the question of why they brought Felix back with them.  Felix was Pan’s right hand man/lapdog.  So he was therefore the worst of all the Lost Boys.  Why didn’t they leave him on the island, too? Granted the plot demanded Felix to be in Storybrooke, but from a logic standpoint, it made no sense.

Plot hole aside, Killian and Blackbeard, while running for their lives, come across a conveniently placed rowboat.  But Blackbeard uses an underhanded tactic to commandeer the rowboat for himself, leaving Killian stranded on the island at the mercy of the rampaging Lost Boys.  Question is, where does Blackbeard think he’s going? He’s in a completely different realm, so it’s not like he can just row his way back to the Enchanted Forest. Also, does Neverland even have another landmass apart from the main island? As far as we know, the rest of that world consists of nothing but endless ocean.  So I don’t know where Blackbeard thinks he’s gonna end up. That is, if he can even get past the Neverland mermaids.  Because as memory serves, they weren’t the friendliest bunch.  And I doubt a rowboat is going to offer him much in the way of protection if they plan on attacking him.  Blackbeard’s pretty much a dead man rowing here, I must say.

So, all in all, this was a good solid episode.  And it actually is helping me restore a bit of faith in A&E.  The only thing that bugged me with the episode is how they left Killian’s subplot off with him still running from the Lost Boys.  I know he’s going to make it out alright, so it’s not like it was much of a cliffhanger.   But that just felt like a strange place to place the bookmark.

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