Hannibal: Open Thread
November 24, 2015 3:52 PM - Subscribe

For chatter that doesn't obviously belong in any of the other threads.
posted by tel3path to Cannibal Club (15 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
So yeah, I was thinking about how the Hannibal Rising book made it nearly explicit that Hannibal was dedicating himself to aesthetics so completely because human love had let him down. Humans may say, " what is left in you to love?" but, as long as he's got an edible animal and some edible fungi available, Hannibal can conjure an aesthetic experience for himself out of nowhere.

Well, after the events of S2, goodness knows Hannibal's aesthetic sense took some damage. (WTF even was that shirt he was wearing at the piano - you know the one. The double-breasted suits. Just all of it. You can see at a glance, he was not a well man.)

And now he's spent this time in jail drinking stale Coke and day-old Kraft dinner or whatever, while he awaits his prince with unshakable faith. I have to think that, as discombobulated as Hannibal is throughout S3, by S4 he's going to be utterly in pieces emotionally, like a boat motor that Will has dismantled and laid out on his living room floor. He will hardly know who he is any more, all he's going to know is that WILL. IS ALL HE'S EVER WANTED. IS ALL THAT MATTERS.

Will is going to be able to make HIM wear flannel, and maybe even make him eat McDonald's [1] purely out of sadism, just to see how far he can take it. That would be my wish for S4. Hannibal in flannibal, who eats McDonald's and is grateful.




[1] I say this on the assumption, which is not likely shared in the wider fandom, that Will himself would not normally have touched McDonald's unless nothing else was available.
posted by tel3path at 4:06 PM on November 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yay, a Hannibal thread I can load on my phone! So far at least.
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:28 PM on November 24, 2015


Do you have Opera Coast? Because it is FAAAAAAAST.
posted by tel3path at 4:33 PM on November 24, 2015


Hannibal thread I can load on my phone! So far at least.

We need to take our time, but eventually the teacup will shatter, the browser will crash, and all will be right with the world.
posted by sparkletone at 10:28 PM on November 24, 2015


I just saw Morgen und Abend at the Royal Opera House and it was like Gertrude Stein showed up at my deathbed and sang me the weather report in lullaby format in German for 90 minutes.

Sat there mentally fitting those little curly paper shoes on the composer and stirring the mint sauce.
posted by tel3path at 2:32 PM on November 25, 2015


I'm just thinking about S4, about how the "reversal" thing and the brainwashing could come into play... the first half of S3 would have sown the seeds for Will to mentally regress and brainwash Hannibal like Hannibal did to Clarice.

I mean, some version of that that's actually possible. So far, with their "brainwashing", they actually have stuck pretty strictly to what can really be done in the actual world. For all what they say about the show not being realistic.

I feel like Hannibal already did make some progress when he graduated past Alana (unknowing, little Mischa) to Will (older Mischa who figured out who her big brother really was). The next thing would be for Hannibal to get over himself a bit, somehow, which process he had already begun with his self-sacrificing(?) actions at the very end of WotL and with admitting that Will wasn't just some butterfly he could trap in his mind palace and be satisfied, like he was with Abigail, nor could he cope by eating his feelings this time.
posted by tel3path at 1:37 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh hey, "Love Crime" was finally officially released on iTunes, Amazon, etc. the other day.
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:49 PM on December 8, 2015 [1 favorite]


The similarity between Hannibal and Humbert Humbert is pretty striking - elucipher, when she still had those posts up, used to post about Lolita too. I thought this thread on the blue raises some parallels.

Especially the stuff about the silencing of the victim (Dolores). When we enter season 3, fully immersed in Hannibal's point of view, the victims are completely inconsequential: Dr Fell gets one line "Bonsoir", Mrs. Fell gets one line "Bonsoir" and her face registers almost comically minimal dismay as she sees that the man who cooked dinner in her kitchen is not her husband. This is a complete inversion of the opening of the pilot episode where Will shows us the horror of the victims' experience even while he's speaking from the killer's point of view.

Also the remarks about how older [white?] men should get what they want because their really, really wanting it is justification enough. Like when Hannibal testified in court and thought that would get Will out simply because he said he wanted it. And then when exonerating evidence was brought to the judge and the [older, white, male] judge waved it off.
posted by tel3path at 9:32 AM on December 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I just had this thought, about that time in Ko No Mono where Alana says "I feel empty, like I've given blood" and Hannibal says "you've given so much more than that".

Well... That's the same episode where Margot gets pregnant.

I don't know what the motivation would be and I don't see how it's feasible but, remember how puffy and bloated Alana was looking at that time, and how she went back to her usual size by Mizumono?

On a whim, I looked up "egg donation" "water retention" and it turns out that water retention is indeed a side effect of donating eggs.

Looking at this description of the process of donating eggs, it really seems a bit much even for Hannibal to sneak by even Alana unnoticed. It's done under general anaesthesia, wipes you out for a day, and messes with your cycle and your birth control methods.

Though... he does have an operating theatre in his basement, we know that. So... idk... maybe?
posted by tel3path at 4:30 PM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was just contemplating, in the light of the Vanity Fair article on the blue, about how Hannibal was a legit surgeon...

And I'm remembering how in Red Dragon, Graham says Hannibal's not petty and exploitative in small things as psychopaths typically are. Yet, in Hannibal Rising, he takes the money entrusted to him by a condemned prisoner to say Masses for his soul, and spends it on dinner. That seems petty and exploitative in small things, if you ask me, though he may have eventually outgrown that. As he progressed to being exploitative in medium and then large things.
posted by tel3path at 2:17 AM on January 8, 2016


Finally saw The Force Awakens. Who, ah, who can forget that our Overlord came up through Star Wars fandom?

This remark by Greg Nog encapsulates my deepest desires for the future episode/series of BOTH verses.
posted by tel3path at 3:18 PM on January 31, 2016


Hey, y'all. It's many years later and I'm 2/3 of my way through a rewatch and you guys I just love it so muh-huh-huch [sobs]

I was too late for the Metafilter Fannibal heyday, but one of the reasons I joined (the other was the emotional labor thread) was reading back and finding the Hannibal threads and realizing that y'all are my kind of people.

Anyway. Hi. I once again want to accost people on the street and tell them about murder husbands. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:24 PM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]


There is a small but devoted cadre of local Fannibals in our shared city - if you want, I will ping you next time we do a rewatch party. (Might be a little while, as we’re currently doing an Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch series. But I’m sure we will cycle back to Hannibal; we always do.)
posted by Stacey at 6:47 PM on February 5, 2019


Oh yes please do. Though I'm not sure the sobbing mess that I am, having just finished Mizumono just now, is fit for public consumption. (Srsly my heart rate right now would probably make my Fitbit explode were it not on its charger currently.)
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:13 PM on February 5, 2019


Oh, no, Mizumono, the Most Feelings Hour!

Recently I changed my phone ringtone and while scrolling the options I was reminded that for a while I had Bloodfest as my ringtone. So I could, I guess, just have a LOT OF MIZUMONO FEELINGS every time pizza delivery happened? I don't know. I make bad life choices sometimes. Right now it's a Stardew Valley song which is considerably cheerier but not nearly as dear to my heart.
posted by Stacey at 7:53 AM on February 6, 2019


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