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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

9 Comments

  1. mx_mond
    March 8, 2018 @ 6:11 pm

    “Will simply isn’t capable of extended happiness in the world of the maddeningly polite”

    This is a question that, to me at least, is not definitively answered within the series. Partly because we see very little of his life with Molly for instance. His ventures into the world of cannibalistic ubermensch and artisanal murderers definitely do not make him happy – it seems that every time they’re a compulsion, or maybe an obligation. Is scratching a scab until it bleeds happiness?

    The phrase “maddeningly polite” is interesting, as it’s usually the rude that Hannibal looks down on.

    “I find I prefer a level of ambiguity here as to whether this was actually Will’s conscious intention in “Dolce” or whether he’s just seized upon it as a retort to Hannibal in the moment”

    My impression when I was watching the series was that this is an improvised jab, and that in Dolce Will was simply done with Hannibal and didn’t care about him anymore. But maybe I was projecting onto Will something that I wished was true.

    “An even moderately decent farmer is compassionate toward the livestock they tend, seeking to give it a blissful and untroubled life that is in many ways the very definition of “idyllic””

    To quote the spectre occasionally haunting this series, “No one loves cattle more than Burger King”.

    And speaking of Moffat, it’s worth noting that in 2015 he and Fuller seemed to simultaneously arrive at the idea of female characters finding their own female companions and getting out of the narrative.

    “A time lag is both more likely and less interesting”

    For me, as someone who wished desperately that Will would leave Hannibal, or, worst case scenario, died bringing him down, the implications of that last scene essentially broke the series. Although I suppose as long as there is the prospect of season 4, there is hope.

    Reply

    • Przemek
      March 9, 2018 @ 12:29 pm

      I agree with mx_mond about Will’s happiness. He never seemed particularly happy in the nightmarish world of Hannibal. To be fair, he didn’t really seem that happy with Molly either but I still read Hannibal’s “maddeningly polite” line as him projecting what he wishes was true onto Will. I think Will was the happiest alone, with his dogs and his fishing. Just like he was at the beginning.

      Hannibal’s view of Will always seemed skewed to me. It reminded me of how a toxic, possesive person might see their partner: as an extension of their own pathologies. Someone just as broken as themselves, with whom the toxic person can bond and blend together in a “us against the world” fashion. Hannibal tends to take other people’s natural capacity for cruelty and self-destruction, foster it carefully through manipulation and then act as if he enabled them to become their true selves. Thank God Will saw through that eventually.

      Reply

  2. Doctor Memory
    March 8, 2018 @ 8:55 pm

    ” the nature of what’s happened to Bedelia is immensely confounding”

    I took this to be an offering: Bedelia amputating and preparing her own leg to Hannibal’s standards in advance of his arrival, hoping to be eaten but yet live. As plans for engaging with Hannibal go, it at least has the advantage of audacity.

    Reply

    • Simon
      March 8, 2018 @ 11:06 pm

      I tend to agree with this reading, which makes even stranger (if I am remembering the scene correctly) that the table is set for three.

      Reply

      • Doctor Memory
        March 9, 2018 @ 7:05 pm

        I assumed she was expecting Will to be joining them.

        Reply

    • Przemek
      March 9, 2018 @ 12:02 pm

      Yeah, I think I remember getting that impression as well.

      Reply

  3. Dylan
    March 9, 2018 @ 2:03 pm

    I’m going to miss this series. Both the actual series and these pieces of analysis. They remind me of those videos where you watch someone eating a meal silently. It’s obviously something you enjoyed immensely and felt no obligation to make to anyone else’s taste except your own.

    Well done, Phil. Hope the whatever’s next is just as strange and satisfying.

    Reply

  4. Przemek
    March 13, 2018 @ 9:21 am

    Thank you for this series. It was a pleasure to read.

    Reply

  5. Lambda
    March 13, 2018 @ 10:40 am

    Funnily enough, just a few days after seeing the top part of this essay about an unseen cadaver, I watch the final episode of Devilman Crybaby, and it has a scene where the editing conceals the fact that its main character isn’t actually just stoically listening to another character talking, but is actually missing the lower half of his body. (Helped by it being animation, so random movement isn’t necessarily expected where it’s unnecessary.)

    Reply

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