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Welcome to Anime Club's Hannibal A.S.L.A.N. (Agnes Scott League of Assorted Nerds) talk.
Thank you for coming! This is our second A.S.L.A.N event, though it's formatted differently from
the first one. For those of you who attended our Doctor Who Event, you'll know that that
event was more of a trivia night with prizes. Tonight however I'll be presenting on Hannibal
and explaining the components of the portrayal of neurodivergent and mentally ill characters.
There will be some trivia at the end and you can help yourself to the delicious snacks
in the back. We have a cheese plate, grape juice, and jelly doughnuts. 'Cause they sort
of look like organs and have red stuff in them. [laughing, audience commentary] First
you should all know what Hannibal is. I'm going to play a video that summarizes all
of season 1 and then try to break it down into more cohesive sections that addresses
the details that I want to highlight. The short explanation is that Hannibal is about Hannibal Lecter
before people are aware that he is a serial killing cannibal and is still a practicing
psychiatrist. The main character however is Will Graham, an FBI consultant and teacher
at the FBI academy in Missisippi. Will Graham, in the book Red Dragon, written by Thomas
Harris, is the one who captures Hannibal and is responsible for putting him in prison.
The events of Red Dragon will take place in season 4 of NBC Hannibal. Season 1, 2 and
3 are entirely fresh material and implied by the text in the Hannibal book series. Season
1 was the deconstruction of Will's positive relationship with Hannibal and explaining
what the nervous breakdown was that happened as a result of the Hobbs case. Season 2 is
building Will Graham back up from the ground and restructuring his relationships with those
around him. Many, if not most, of these relationships will never be the same again, especially his
relationship with Hannibal Lecter. Which was genuinely kind of like this. [audience commentary]
However what stands out most about season 1 is that the breaking down of Will Graham
is entirely reliant on the fact that Will is neurodivergent and is highly misunderstood
by those around him. Hannibal Lecter could not have framed Will as expertly as he did
while also discrediting anything that Will says to the contrary, had it not been for
the fact that Will is not neurotypical, while everyone around him was, except for some of
the serial killers Will profiled. [audience member coughing] But how do we know that Will
is neurodivergent? There is more than one way to tell. One way is that neurodivergent
viewers, like me, hyper-identify with Will Graham. What does neurodivergent mean? It
means that the brain processes information and sensory input in ways that it doesn't
ordinarily in most other people. Most people are neurotypical, hence the word, and they
are able to interact with and function with others in a way that makes sense to the general
public. Neurodivergent individuals, however, have difficulty navigating a world made for
neurotypical people. Their behavior can seem strange or bizarre or make you wonder if something
is wrong. The other way to tell that Will Graham is neurodivergent is that he comes
right out and says that he is. His exact phrase is closer to autistic than narcissistic personality
disorder. Some members of the Hannibal audience don't believe that this means that he's autistic,
and there are other conditions that do fall into the neurodivergent category that are
not forms of autism. The argument is unfortunately mostly used to say that he is neurotypical
which . . . no. [audience commentary] However the show doesn't really go right out and tell
us what he has. Ultimately, it doesn't have to. Because of how well NBC Hannibal shows
that he is neurodivergent. There are some television shows with neurodivergent characters
- the many Sherlock Holmes adaptations, Big *** Theory - but the writers of these shows
often seem incapable of telling the difference between an autistic character and a really
intelligent ***. [laughing] Will Graham, on the other hand, earnestly is portrayed
as neurodivergent from the beginning to the end and this portrayal never wavers. Communication
is difficult for Will. Sometimes he phrases things in ways that sound incredibly morbid
and potentially threatening to those around him when he honestly doesn't mean any harm
and doesn't realize his true meaning has been lost. The phrase ''You shouldn't threaten
someone who thinks about killing people for a living'' springs to mind. [audience commentary:
''Good advice.''] This morbid way of thinking and interpreting the world is what makes him
a great asset to Jack Crawford. He can't be overly shaken by disturbing thoughts and concepts
and is able to sift through it to get to the motivations of the serial killers he profiled
and can accurately determine why a killer has done something and can extrapolate to
where they would be and why in order for the FBI to catch them. It's not so much the events
than the thoughts that went into the *** that cause Will stress and grief, it's more
of an overlay of these emotional triggers and empathy with the victims. The show describes
this as Will being ''pure empathy'' and refers to his condition as an ''empathy disorder.''
Though there is some arguments within the fandom on whether or not that is an actual
thing. This phrasing is used by Jack Crawford, who is neurotypical, and Hannibal Lecter,
who probably is not neurotypical but might not also be human. He's definitely evil. So
that phrase might not be entirely accurate. But Will does feel great amounts of empathy
for many characters who would not ordinarily receive empathy or even sympathy from others.
It makes it easier for him to understand and connect with those who have undergone significant
abuse and trauma either from others or their mental conditions, in addition to the types
of people who become serial killers. Many of these abuse victims are also unlikeable
people who don't really do good or nice things. Abigail Hobbs comes to mind. [audience commentary]
Jack Crawford finds Will most useful when he is hunting psychopaths, though Will is
conscious of the fact that not all quote-on-quote psychopaths are actually psychopaths. Some
of the killers Will profiles do fall into the psychopath category, but others like Garrett
Jacob Hobbs and Georgia Madchen do not. Will is always the first one to make this distinction
between them and other killers and often struggles to convince those around him of this distinction.
In fact, it is because of their emotional connections to others than make them so significant,
especially Garrett Jacob Hobbs because his murders and subsequent death knocks over the
first domino in the plot. In fact, there are only two individuals with Anti-Social Personality
Disorder who are key to the plot and they are Abel Gideon and Hannibal Lecter. And Dr.
Lecter might not actually have Anti-Social Personality Disorder but is the Devil himself.
Yeah, Jack's not very nice. Okay. [happy clapping] That was fun to make. [audience commentary
on how nice Hugh Dancy's beard is] A contributing factor to Will's portrayal of being so genuinely
neurodivergent in how Will processes information is because they cast Hugh Dancy in the role!
Hugh Dancy has played characters with Asperger's Syndrome in the past, a condition that has
now been re-identified as actually being a form of autism instead of just being related
to autism. His role in the 2009 film ''Adam'' was his first introduction to Asperger's and
he did a lot of research for the role. Bryan Fuller has also gone on record as saying that
Will is very neurotic in the books and that it was something that they wanted to retain
in the TV Show, something the film adaptation of Red Dragon with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal
Lecter doesn't care to do. Though Anthony Hopkins is wonderful, the Will Graham not
so much. [audience commentary: ''He doesn't even get a name.''] I don't remember [his
name], shush. So Dancy seems to be specifically chosen by Bryan Fuller because of his experience
with playing neurodivergent characters. Hugh Dancy was the very first person to be cast
for the TV show, and he was the entire reason that Mads Mikkelsen agreed to accept the role
as Hannibal Lecter. Because they were in a movie together about King Arthur in 2004.
They were minor characters, but they became best friends because everything's wonderful
and happy. [audience commentary: ''and blood, lots of blood.''] Okay, inversely, Mads Mikkelsen,
who plays Hannibal Lecter, has been very clear in many interviews that Hannibal is not a
psychopath. Bryan Fuller has not said anything to contradict this. So, Hannibal Lecter, for
all intents and purposes, is EVIL. [audience commentary: evil laughter.] He is the Devil,
and he manipulates the human traits that lend themselves to evil-doing to work in his favor.
Will Graham is interesting to him, and many of Hannibal's actions toward Will imply a
genuine form of attraction to him. [audience commentary: *starts singing ''He's my best
friend, best of all best friends*] though not specifically ***. Probably romantic,
if you refer to many of Mads Mikkelsen's other interviews. [audience commentary: quoting
the show, ''Did you just sniff me?''] If you read the original scripts before they started
cutting certain line out, it honestly reads like a romantic comedy that happens to have
cannibals in it. I am not making this up! This is true! Okay, Bryan Fuller is gay, and
he has huge crushes on Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen, even though he has a boyfriend,
so that's why Hugh Dancy is always walking around in his boxers in the show, and why
Mads Mikkelsen has a shirtless swimming scene in season 2. There is a reason these two keep
walking around half-naked. [laughing and audience commentary] And in the finished product, Hannibal
purposefully frames himself, Will Graham, and the orphan via double *** Abigail Hobbs
into a makeshift family and intentionally mirroring Abigail's former family unit, placing
Will in the ''unaware that my husband is a serial killing cannibal'' wifely position.
[audience commentary: laughing] This is on purpose! [audience commentary: ''so I thought
you almost said double orphan'' and more laughing] Abigail is
definitely suffering from some kind of PTSD or other trauma related condition. She is
able to mask it very well with her ability to manipulate how most people see her, but
she is a very damanged young woman as a result of living in constant fear of her father,
Garrett Jacob Hobbs from the first episode, giving into the urge to kill her. Then there's
the guilt of having tricked all of her father's victims into being her friends so that her
father could have a way to find out where they lived, amongst other things, in order
to find them, abduct them, and kill them. [audience commentary] ON TOP OF THAT is the
horrific realization that Garrett Jacob Hobbs was feeding the meat from these girls to her
and her mother the entire time after her father's killed by Will Graham in episode one. [audience
commentary] Abigail Hobbs is going through some tough *** and makes the mistake of trusting
Hannibal Lecter out of all of her new companions. [audience commentary] NBC Hannibal so far
has two young women killers who have great potential for being sympathetic to viewers.
Many people do hate Abigail Hobbs, though I personally view her as a very strong, very
intelligent, very hurt young woman. Kacey Rohl is amazing! The other one is Georgia
Madchen. Georgia Madchen has had Cotard's Syndrome since she was nine years old. Cotard's
Syndrome is also known as Walking Dead Syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome. This is a mental
condition where the person believes themselves to be to already be dead. She also had many,
many physical conditions as a result of *** poor treatment in the mental hospital she
was placed in at an early age and an inability to look after herself after she escaped. Her
skin would literally slide off if she touched something or if someone touched her. It left
her DNA all over her *** victim. Due to the many conditions she was suffering from,
for she was suffering, not dealing, she was actually unable to recognize faces as she
could before. To her, one's face looked like a terrifying mask. What was in reality a gruesome
*** was, in Georgia's mind, self-defense. Will Graham is the ONLY PERSON in the ENTIRE
FBI who is able to feel something for her other than 'oh, psychopathic killer again,
let's put her in prison or put her out of her misery, sooner rather than later.' Will
is able to reach out to her and make her feel safe. Okay, the rest of the video doesn't
matter unless you're watching the entire season. Okay. Yes? [audience question: ''In the opening
of that video, was there any prior explanation as to why she was under his bed? Did he know
before his dogs?''] In the beginning of the episode, it shows how she kills her friend.
She was hiding under her bed, then grabbed her ankle, and drug her under. From Georgia's
POV, she was hiding from a monster, but from her friend's perspective, she was trying to
figure out who the intruder was and the wet footprints led back into the bedroom after
she had come back from investigating dripping in the attic. So it's kind of like a small
child hiding under the bed. [audience commentary: But when she was under Will's bed, did he
know that she was there before his dogs started freaking out?] No, he didn't. He woke up and
noticed the dogs were concerned about something, and because he had analyzed the crime scene
from the beginning of the episode and had interactions with Georgia throughout the episode
up until this point, he assumed that she was the one under the bed. [audience commentary]
He's been getting inside of her head throughout the episode, then thus felt like he understood
her, which he did. [audience commentary] It was entirely because of Will that Georgia
was able to get the medical treatment and proper diagnoses that she needed. Hannibal's
*** of Georgia is something that makes me very angry because it is just not fair.
She was a sweet girl, damn it! Georgia's death and Abigail's death are two of the murders
Hannibal frames Will for. The last most significant character who falls into either a neurodivergent
category or a mentally ill category is Abel Gideon. Oh Abel Gideon. The show is very clear
that he is considered to be a psychopath by pretty much everyone. He shows no remorse,
no empathy. He is rather . . . gross when making *** advances towards Alana Bloom,
but despite having murdered his wife, daughter and a hospital nurse, he is still a victim,
like Georgia and Abigail and Will. His psychologist, who isn't even a psychologist in the book
series - the TV show up-ranked him - is Frederick Chilton, and he is a manipulative, scummy
***. [audience laughter and commentary] He wanted his hospital to become famous, so
he manipulated Gideon into thinking that he was the Chesapeake Ripper. The Chesapeake
Ripper is what Hannibal Lecter is known as before they are able to attach an actual name
to his murders. Chilton then sets up a scenario where Gideon can reveal that he is the Ripper.
That is how he kills the mental hospital nurse. He is left alone for 'procedure' with the
nurse and he kills her 'cause there's no one to stop him. It's all Chilton's fault. The
FBI comes in to either prove or disprove Gideon's claim that he is the Chesapeake Ripper. Gideon
claiming to be the Ripper makes Hannibal very angry, as you can imagine, because that's
identity theft. [audience laughing] At least five people die as a result of this charade.
While Gideon and Hannibal were the ones to kill them, Chilton is mostly responsible,
though Jack Crawford, journalist Freddie Lounds, and even the darling Alana Bloom are responsible
as well. Only Will is the one to voice that it is a bad idea to announce this to the general
public in a bid to flush the Ripper out. Jack's intention is to use this as an opportunity
to catch the Ripper. Five people die as a result of Jack Crawford's orders. Gideon eventually
has to come to terms with the fact that he is not the Chesapeake Ripper. This results
in an identity crisis that results in four more murders, Chilton getting his bowels removed
and arranged in his arms as though Chilton's body was a fruit basket, and an attempt on
Alana Bloom's life. [audience question: so doe this mean that Jack is responsible for
the Ripper murders?] Yes. [audience commentary: Jack the Ripper?] [laughing] [audience commentary:
''Jack and your mustache-beard.''] This video is the most gruesome one in the entire powerpoint,
so if y'all wanna look away, do so now. [audience commentary] Gideon does learn that Hannibal
Lecter is the Chesapeake Ripper through this, and learns that Will Graham really isn't feeling
well because of the encephalitis he contracted probably from the cannibalism that he didn't
realize was cannibalism because Hannibal lied about what it was. [audience commentary] Gideon
is the first one who is not Hannibal and not dead by the end of the season that knows that
Will Graham has something medically wrong with him that is affecting his vision and
hearing, making him hallucinate and have seizures when he is not schizophrenic and does not ordinarily have seizures. Hannibal's
an ***. Gideon does get shot by Will before the season ends, but he has survived the gunshot
wound and will be in season 2. I am incredibly excited for further interaction between Gideon
and Will, considering what Gideon now knows and that regardless of any Anti-Social Personality
Disorder diagnoses, Abel Gideon cared more about Will's physical health than Hannibal
Lecter did and now he has something in common with Will: ***, manipulative, abusive psychiatrists.
Yay! [audience commentary and strange noises] The theme with NBC Hannibal is definitely
that the neurodivergent and mentally ill and the psychologically abused and traumatized
know far more about what it going on in their backyard than any of the neurotypical characters.
And that is going to hurt everyone 'cause no one believes the neurodivergent characters.
Because neurotypical people can sometimes be ***. Especially Jack Crawford. [audience
commentary] Alana Bloom is gorgeous. The disregarding of these characters who don't think like you
do is going to lead to death and pain and the realization that you have been eating
human meat every single time you had dinner at Hannibal Lecter's house. Unless you're
Freddie Lounds who is an effing vegetarian. [audience commentary: ''which is a good idea'']
Unless you watch the episode about the guy who used mushrooms on - mushrooms growing
on coma patients. [audience commentary] Coma patients were made into a garden. For mushrooms.
[audience commentary] Regular mushrooms. Season 1 ends with Will Graham being framed for ***
and imprisoned. Hannibal Lecter won this round. But in season 2, there will be a reckoning
and Will Graham will put Hannibal Lecter away. Abigail and Georgia are dead, and who knows
about Abel Gideon, but Will knows that he is not imagining things. He knows he is not
out of touch with reality. He sees Hannibal for what he is and he will do whatever it
takes to protect others from Hannibal. In interviews, it has been said that clearing
his name comes second to keeping Hannibal from hurting anyone else. And I am particularly
excited to see how he's going to do that. [not relevant stuff] Here's the season 2 trailer.