Because Bryan Fuller wants us to fully appreciate how terrible we are for getting sucked into Sad Cannibal's worldview. I think that cognitive dissonance might be my favorite part of this show.
I'm not even gonna try to parse the Who Knows/Believes What When and Why (if I wanted to think that hard I wouldn't have dropped out of grad school), but I did find the scene with Will watching Hannibal on the stand to be fascinating, because it felt to me as if Will was, to some extent, realizing (feeling?) his complicity in some of this. Much as he kept Abigail's secret, and supported her even though he's LAW ENFORCEMENT DAMMIT even if he technically isn't but you know what I mean, if he thinks Hannibal had something to do with the death of the bailiff, but is willing to sit quietly and let the case against him be undermined by false testimony, I think that says a lot about Will. It reaches back to the Darkness Within motif we've been seeing with him (and which Hannibal sees in spades; he may be a psycho but he's not an idiot) - how far is Will able to justify this sort of thing and still be the person he is...was...is. The 'I felt the killer was walking out (of the courtroom) with me' may also have relevance - whether or not it'
( ... )
I'm not trying to say it's his fault per se, or that he should have leapt out of his seat (and you're absolutely right, he couldn't have stopped Hannibal from saying whatever he liked, he doesn't even really have control over his own defense). I just think he's involved in a web of activity, not all of it savory (so to speak), which is pretty complicated, and he's making some choices which may be drawing him in, rather than entirely freeing him.
I'm sure. But just because it's happening around him doesn't mean he's complicit. Exhibit A, in my opinion: having horrible, unwanted admirers. He really shouldn't be blamed for that.
This episode was just et up with "You just said that! Those words came out of your mouth! Chilton is probably recording those words!" If this is how, uh, intimate Hannibal gets with people who are preeetty sure he's a fancy cannibal and can't do jack about it, then I am legit terrified of what he must envision for a friendship in the wild with a fully-actuated murder wizard buddy.
I knoooooow. I kept thinking last season that he wanted Will to be his murder friend partly so Will could empath for him what it felt like to be both killer and victim if they went murdering together. I feel like it'd be a pretty deep, dark, messed-up dynamic, in other words.
It'd be like the end of the book Hannibal, except with a Clarice who's clearly, textually aware of how incredibly fucked up this all is. It would be much better than the actual book, is what I'm saying.
It's kind of like he wants Will to embrace his inner murder wizard and then let Hannibal into his mind completely so Hannibal can straight-up feel the other-people emotions that he is inflicting.
It's like Hannibal's able to compartmentalize a ton of different feelings and motives simultaneously, and he just chooses to follow the ones that he finds most interesting at that moment.
This, so much. It's almost like he's somewhere in between total empath and total psychopath- he feels things, but they don't really inform his actions. Your description makes him seem like a demented (more than normal) cat.
Your hate of Chilton gives me life. That scene in the courtroom was so spectacularly awful and amazing. Freddie's too- she was being so gloriously melodramatic.
I also love that Hannibal's like "Will is...[sic] my friend" and Will's like THE HELL YOU ARE.
Am also thoroughly confused as to what Hannibal has/hasn't done, and why, but I'm sure it will become clear soon. I'm also wondering if all this hemming and hawing and maybe Will isn't a murderer is just drawing things out until he's all MADE YOU LOOK, Will's totally a murderer, etc.
I'm saying that partly out of knowledge of what happens in "Takiawase," admittedly. Because I just cannot explain how the hell he acts towards the Crawfords over these two episodes any other way. It seems consistent, it just--seems totally alien to me, as I guess it should.
Your hate of Chilton gives me life. That scene in the courtroom was so spectacularly awful and amazing.
Oh my God, he can't come up on the podcast without me being like "AHHHHHHHH EAT HIIIIIIIIIM FFFFFFFFFF."
Will's like THE HELL YOU ARE.
I actually have a really hard time reading Will's expression there (which is why I included the gifs). Like, I definitely don't think he was requiting the friend-love, but I can't tell to what degree he was like "GET OUT" and to what degree he was just like "Well, this is a thing that's happening, somehow."
I actually have a really hard time reading Will's expression there (which is why I included the gifs). Like, I definitely don't think he was requiting the friend-love, but I can't tell to what degree he was like "GET OUT" and to what degree he was just like "Well, this is a thing that's happening, somehow."...I may have been projecting, just a tad. Plus I feel like whatever facial expression we see in the courtroom from Will isn't what he's actually feeling. He's probably trying to game Hannibal, after all, and Hannibal's not going to bite (omg what) if he sees utter contemptuous disgust on Will's face whenever Hannibal speaks
( ... )
I cut a huge tangent out of the "Sakizuke" recap to that effect--I'd go beyond "sympathetic" and say "pathetic," even. Hapless and confused and struggling to gain control over life, a lot of the time. Not Tobias Budge or Lawrence Wells, for example, but most of the others. I don't think anyone would actually think Eldon Stammets was cool and want to be him, you know? And that's how I think the show is really different from a lot of others, yeah.
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Zeller was hilarious this episode. Also, why didn't you idiots think to take a stool sample? CARELESS, YOU GUYS. SO CARELESS.
I - I thought I might have something to say but I have to go back to sobbing in a corner now. EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED BY THIS SHOW, OH GOD.
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This, so much. It's almost like he's somewhere in between total empath and total psychopath- he feels things, but they don't really inform his actions. Your description makes him seem like a demented (more than normal) cat.
Your hate of Chilton gives me life. That scene in the courtroom was so spectacularly awful and amazing. Freddie's too- she was being so gloriously melodramatic.
I also love that Hannibal's like "Will is...[sic] my friend" and Will's like THE HELL YOU ARE.
Am also thoroughly confused as to what Hannibal has/hasn't done, and why, but I'm sure it will become clear soon. I'm also wondering if all this hemming and hawing and maybe Will isn't a murderer is just drawing things out until he's all MADE YOU LOOK, Will's totally a murderer, etc.
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Your hate of Chilton gives me life. That scene in the courtroom was so spectacularly awful and amazing.
Oh my God, he can't come up on the podcast without me being like "AHHHHHHHH EAT HIIIIIIIIIM FFFFFFFFFF."
Will's like THE HELL YOU ARE.
I actually have a really hard time reading Will's expression there (which is why I included the gifs). Like, I definitely don't think he was requiting the friend-love, but I can't tell to what degree he was like "GET OUT" and to what degree he was just like "Well, this is a thing that's happening, somehow."
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