#in convoluted hannibal show logic

[oldwitchsleep]

i may not like bedelia but god do i respect her

#this is how i interpret this anyway?? #like in my head bedelia makes these purchases because she knows/assumes somebody will be looking #in convoluted hannibal show logic #yes she's buying them for hannibal but she's doing in such a way that leads directly back to him #idk if it's true or anything or even if this makes sense but #hannibal #bedelia du maurier #alana bloom

[breha]

The performances are excellent, the dialogue finely tuned, the story ludicrously and knowingly convoluted, but for all its traditional virtues, Hannibal is never exclusively “about” characterization or plot. It’s a dream show, or a nightmare show, one in which nothing that happens can be taken literally or judged by the standards of what could plausibly happen in life. A character appears in a place where he logically couldn’t be. People impulsively say, “Let’s go to Minnesota” and just go, from Baltimore, on a moment’s notice, and seem to arrive minutes later. A law enforcement agent pieces together a theory based partly on a gut feeling plus fragments of hallucinations and nightmares, with a certitude that Twin Peaks’ Dale Cooper would have admired. A serial-killing classical music teacher fights a serial-killing psychiatrist to the death in the psychiatrist’s office, and not only do the cops not probe the circumstances too deeply, but the incident appears not to make the local news. (There doesn’t seem to be any news on Hannibal.) Another serial killer announces the conclusion of a decades-long killing spree by building a totem pole of human body parts on a beach. The FBI agents peruse it as if it’s opening night at a sculpture gallery. You watch the madness with rapt pleasure, never thinking, “Oh, that’s ridiculous and dumb, that could never happen,” because you know what dreams feel like, and that you’re watching one.

Matt Zoller Seitz, On Hannibal: It’s All A Dream, and It Hurts

#hannibal #'you don't so much watch hannibal as give yourself over to it'

[willgrahambf]

Character Parallels in Sorbet +Fromage

 i’ve watched sorbet + fromage like three times in the past month and its got me thinking about how everything in these episodes lead back to hannibal falling head over heels for will, and what’s most interesting to me is all of the character parallels. before fromage, hannibal is paralleled with franklyn through frankyn’s interest in hannibal versus hannibal attempting to (and failing) to make a connection with bedelia as his own psychiatrist. a psychiatrist for them is someone who they think can understand them because they have “intimate knowledge” of them, but this is a factual understanding -- not an emotional one. sorbet sees a shift for hannibal because he realizes there’s someone else who can offer what he wants. after will misses his appointment and hannibal goes to find him, they discuss the chesapeake ripper. here, will demonstrates to hannibal that he understands him very clearly as he describes the chespeake ripper’s logic when killing. hannibal even attempts to throw off will’s profile (”their reward for their cruelty?”) which will readily discards without hesitation (“he doesn’t have a problem with cruelty. the reward is for undignified behavior”). by fromage, there are more parallels between tobias and hannibal than hannibal and franklyn. tobias’ murder of the trombonist is referred to as a serenade, specifically created in order to woo hannibal. 

this bit of dialogue didn’t make into the episode, but i think its interesting because it’s very similar to what will says about the copycat killer. “he will never kill like this again.” hannibal’s display of cassie boyle’s body was specifically for will (”i think i can help good will see his face”, “that crime scene was practically gift-wrapped”). a serenade, if you will. both tobias and hannibal changed the way they killed in order to attract the person they’re interested in. 

on will’s side of things, he’s attempting to woo alana, searching for his own sort of connection as a solution to his loneliness. in this regard, will is most like hannibal as a parallel with alana as will’s bedelia. after will kisses alana, her “professional curiosity” is cited as what stands between them. hannibal tells him, “she would feel an obligation to her field of study to observe you, and you would resent her for it.” bedelia’s main motivation for continuing to see hannibal is her own sort of professional curiosity although it is a bit more morbid and convoluted -- and i think hannibal resents her for this. in fromage, he tells her, “you’ve helped me understand what i want in a friendship and what i don’t.” not exactly the nicest thing to say to someone who he insists is his friend. bedelia’s professional curiosity allows her to show interest in him, but ultimately she is wary of stepping too close just as alana is wary of being intimate with will. 

i think it’s interesting then that hannibal sends will after tobias after this conversation about kissing alana. he could have just as easily tracked tobias down again to kill him in order to remove the threat of tobias revealing his knowledge of him, but he chooses to send will after him instead. if you think about it, it was actually more risky to send will because there’s the chance that tobias would reveal what he knows about hannibal. hannibal himself says that tobias is reckless. sending will after tobias isn’t so much about removing the threat of him as it is about proving will’s “worthiness” to hannibal -- and at the same time proving his own worthiness to will in return. since tobias claimed he would kill anyone sent to investigate him, sending will after tobias was a test to see whether will survived or not. in a way, it was a test to see if will could survive hannibal if we are to follow the parallel of tobias = hannibal. after tobias comes to hannibal’s office and hannibal kills him, he also could have easily gotten rid of the bodies. no one knew that tobias was there or suspected hannibal’s involvement in the situation. instead, hannibal leaves the bodies, calls the fbi, and admits to killing tobias to will. he allows himself to be seen as tobias allowed himself to be seen to hannibal. when they see each other again, will has proven once more that he is capable -- and worthy -- of understanding AND surviving hannibal, and hannibal has ingratiated himself to will. admitting to killing tobias is hannibal saying to will “yes, i understand you too, we have both killed someone in self-defense.” he even uses this later when arguing to will that they should cover up abigail’s murder of nicolas boyle. hannibal’s loneliness has found a cure. a man who once needed no one and nothing admits “i appreciate the company.” 

#i feel like this is word vomit and way too long but whatever #txt :my thoughts are not often tasty: #hannibal meta #hannibal #nbc hannibal #hannigram

[skyhopedango]

season snapshot - Winter 2020

Because it’s Sunday night and I should be sleeping already but I’m not sleepy yet.

Carry-overs:

Babylon: Oh hey, this ended a while ago and I kinda forgot to write about it. Not that there’s a lot to write about, it was like Kado - started out well, took a sharp turn halfway, and ended as an enormous, steaming pile of shit. Except, unlike Kado which started out really well this was kind of shaky from the start, and in any case I'd already been prepared for a disappointment. I’m now certain that Nozaki Mado has joined Okada Mari on the list of writers whose works I’ll never give another chance.

It’s a shame, really, because despite its flaws the show did start out on the right foot, raised some interesting issues worth discussing, and if you started digging there were some interesting themes buried deep under the bullshit. But the writing handled all of them in the worst possible way, took them in the stupidest possible direction, and drew the worst possible conclusions. 

Mairimashita Iruma-kun: Fortunately Iruma-kun is still going strong, well, as strong as a drawn-out adaptation like this one can be. But I don’t even mind, because it’s just so damn cute. I really hope there’s going to be a second season - recently it topped a “favorite NHK anime” poll, so there’s a good chance for that to happen!

Eizouken ni wa te wo dasu na: I... well, I appreciate this? I don’t even know. I really enjoy the visuals, I enjoy how it’s about anime production, I like how enthusiastic it is... but on the other hand, I just don’t find it particularly engaging, it’s not making me enthusiastic. It’s not even that I can’t connect with it on some level, I’ve worked on the fringes of the film industry, I know and have met creators and industry people who are uber nerdy about their fields, I’ve been involved in certain aspects of production. (Hell, I am uber nerdy about my field of work, too.) But I tend to have this problem with shows about The Anime Industry, that somehow they never seem to map onto my own experience with anime/animation, they’re never about the things that make me enthusiastic about animation. So I end up feeling like an outsider - just watching people geeking out over stuff they’re clearly terribly enthusiastic about, and learning about anime production and whatnot, and while I intellectually appreciate it, as a viewer I’m just kind of disconnected from it all. But well, at least the girls in Eizouken are not Cute Anime Girls, which gives it a huge edge over the likes of Shirobako which really grated on me.

Housekishou Richard-shi: Eh. I’ll readily accept that the novel is much better, but as for the anime, this is as far as I go. Seigi is one of those very few anime characters who genuinely annoy me (mainly because I’m supposed to find him endearing), Richard is, like... there... The gem shtick still feels like it could be literally anything else and nothing of significance would change, the stories are simplistic and their logic is more often than not shaky, and the relationship between Seigi and Richard, which I assume is supposed to be highlight of the show, is just terribly uninteresting. Really, I’m a simple person, I don’t need much to enjoy a shippy dynamic... but not like this, when it feels like mediocre fanfic. So there’s that. In a weaker season I’d probably keep up with the show, but as things are, I think I’ll just let this one go and read/rewatch Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori instead. That has pretty much everything this one is missing, plus stupidly delicious-looking food.

(But seriously guys, go watch Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori, it’s criminally under-appreciated! Or, if you’re more into live-action, the adaptation of Tokyo Midnight Diner is surprisingly decent.)

Pet: Weirdly enough I’m finding this one pretty engaging! Mainly because at this point I just want to know wtf is going on. It’s fairly convoluted in that these guys seem to be unable to do anything without mindfucking someone, and I also have a feeling that the story itself is not going to be all that interesting or deep. But I like how in every episode we see new layers peeled away from the main characters, and I find its handling of trust and letting others in and being manipulated and whatnot pretty nice.

ID:Invaded: For a show that I found kind of bland at first this one has sure grown on me! The actual id investigations are not all that interesting, but the show is turning out to be a pretty decent mystery (a bit Hannibal-esque what with the “manipulating people with certain tendencies into becoming murderers” aspect). It’s not as smart as it tries to be, but now I’m invested in seeing how things develop, how the characters, especially Hondoumachi, end up, etc. That said, if the inevitable Huge Twist is that Johnnie John Walker is actually the boss, they’re not doing a very good job of hiding it.

Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga: Not much to say about this one, it’s still stupid, I still love it. :D

Jibaku shounen Hanako-kun: Probably my favorite show this season! I’m really enjoying this one, except maybe the romance - I’m not really into that part, but hopefully it’s not going to get too much focus. Otherwise it’s a pretty damn solid show, lots of fun, gimme more.

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #id:invaded #eizouken ni wa te wo dasu na #housekishou richard shi no nazo kantei #housekishou richard-shi no nazo kantei #mairimashita! iruma-kun #pet anime #mairuma #babylon #anime #winter anime 2020