So, if you know me decently well, you'll be aware of my love affair with NBC Hannibal. You could call it my guilty pleasure. Sometimes it causes me to make subtle cannibal jokes.
Most of the time the fandom (known as Fannibals!) are some of the most lovely and polite people I've ever seen throughout the world of all fandoms. I see so much love for the show and its people, and it makes me feel ever so happy. They have a good healthy respect for the showrunner, Bryan Fuller, too.
Until, of course, they get pissed off.
Especially when they get pissed off about something really dumb.
Now, another little factoid about me - I'm a feminist. Once upon a time after that one person went and killed several women because he couldn't get a date, I literally started screaming and crying in the middle of the cafeteria as I ranted about it. I was horrified. Absolutely horrified. I'm very passionate about it, and also red lipstick. Sorry.
And then, I'm also an avid supporter of proper treatment of ALL genders and ALL sexualities. I could go so in depth with that, but I think I'll keep that for another rant.
You're probably wondering what this all has to do with one another, right?
Well, well, well, here we go. I'm going to explain to you a plot device in Hannibal that has a good portion of the Fannibals
still fuming. It has to do with misogny and showrunners, something that has plagued me for an awfully long time now.
In order to prevent spoilers should any of you watch the show, I'll be using different names for all of the chracters. But you'll probably be able to figure it out. Yep. Yep.
Once upon a time, a new character was introduced on the show! Alice was a character who was in one of the books, but you wouldn't have recognized it. In the books, she had a very masculine look and had taken many steroids - and she was also a lesbian. But now, in the show, she was tiny and feminine and had sparkly eyes and such. Everyone was surprised, and also confused. Where was the lesbian we were promised?
Bryan Fuller (who I may mention, is a gay man) assured us that Alice was indeed part of the LGBT community, and the unrest was settled for a little while. We wondered how her story would end up unfolding...
Soon, another character from the books was introduced - Andrew, Alice's brother, who was also the heir to a great fortune. Also, a sadist. Also, someone who has absolutely no feeling for how he hurts anyone. Also, someone who laughs at pain and makes martinis from tears.
Needless to say, Alice needs to get rid of Andrew. He's absolutely horrible, yeah? But she also needs to do something in order to gain the upper hand. So what she ends up doing is something kind of insane...
She goes to one of the main (male) characters and gets herself pregnant so that she will have an heir.
And then...
Then the Fannibals went insane.
Alice is supposed to be a lesbian! Alice shouldn't be having sex with a man! Alice should never be doing something like that! This is so misogynistic, ask a real lesbian if they'd do that, etc. etc. etc.
Yes, they have good points, but I can guarantee that they didn't do one thing.
Oh, yes.
Let me tell you about Alice in the books again. As you may remember, she's taken steroids. But she's also gotten herself a partner. In other words, she is physically incapable of having a child. But she still wants to have an heir, just like in the show. So what she needs to do is get genetic material from Andrew so that she could have her partner have a child who could still be a genetic heir.
She would've done it herself, had she not been physically incapable to.
Then, let's go back to the show now that's cleared up. Basically, she needs to keep her pregnancy a secret from Andrew. He would've stopped her no matter what - so basically, getting sperm from a sperm bank wouldn't have worked. He would've found out. And then, of course, he would've stopped Alice.
Alice needed to do it more secretively. And that would require sleeping with a man. So she went to someone she trusted.
In case you're wondering, Andrew does find up. And he makes it so that Alice can never have children again.
Basically, I was sobbing my eyes out. Yep.
Do you see? Do you see now?
Do you understand why I'm irritated with the fandom?
Yes, it was not ideal. It was not ideal at all. But, you know what? I have this feeling Alice is going to get a partner in season three. And I have a feeling it's going to end up going along with the events of the books to a certain degree.
Or maybe I'm just being silly.
Either way, this was one hell of a rant.
- Rain
