[ SECRET POST #4871 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4871 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #697.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[philstar22]

But then why go to Hannibal for that? Honest question. If you are looking for something that specifically isn't actually these characters, why look to these characters for that? It isn't actually them anymore when you've got the fluffy, sweet stuff. The names are there, but it isn't the characters from the show. Why not read a ship that actually was fluffy in canon?

Not saying you can't enjoy what you enjoy. You are free to like whatever you want. I'm just genuinely curious because this is something I don't understand.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT - Because ships that are already fluffy in canon ARE already fluffy in canon and thus I don't need an extra dose of that.

If I want in-character Hannigram where everything is torturous and grim and doomed to unhappy endings for both of them, I'll simply rewatch the show. Fanfiction is my realm of self-indulgence and what I want is to read AUs where the universe and its inhabitants were tweaked just enough so I can get the satisfaction of a happy ending.

[tabaqui]

This.

[philstar22]

Okay, cool. I don't mind AUs, but to me if the characters are too OOC I'm no longer reading those characters that I'm in that fandom to read. If I'm reading Hannibal fics, I want to read Hannibal characters. That's the part that doesn't really make sense to me. But I get the desire for escape and fluffy happy endings. Self-indulgence is exactly what fic should be. Enjoy what you enjoy.

[(Anonymous)]

DA - Yeah, I can relate to AYRT's thing about wanting stuff from fic that you don't get in canon. But I definitely have a limit to how much you can tweak the characterizations before they stop feeling like the characters at all. With Hannibal, making Hannibal himself not a monster would definitely be way too much of a departure from the canon character, for me. To me, that's not a tweak of his character, that's changing the single most fundamental thing about his character. He is malignant by nature; he either destroys or he corrupts; it's just his nature.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I agree!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm engaged in different fandoms, but the characters have monstrous sides. I'm fascinated by all the ways writers engage with that. Some go past my preferences in one direction and make them very fluffy, and some go past in the other and make them very monstrous; in that case I can't identify with the characters or enjoy the relationships they're exploring any more, but in both cases I'm very curious what the writer is getting out of it.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT, but:

The point of well-written Hannigram fluff, for me, is that two people who have so much wrong with them and their relationship can still find small pockets of happiness. All of the really good fluff that I've read doesn't ignore their personalities or the fundamental antagonism and unease between them: it takes those things, and allows them to be happy even though those things are present.

To me, that's more comforting than fluff about fluffy canons, because... that's how life is. Nothing is ever fully, 100% great. When we, as people find happiness, its always in spite of something. Usually something less monstrous than what Will and Hannibal live "in spite" of, but that just makes it better. If these people, who deserve misery and death, can be happy even just for a little while, then surely there's a chance for the rest of us.

(I don't actually seek out fluff for fluffy canons, because... why would I need it expanded upon via fanfiction that it's possible for fundamentally good people with fundamentally good lives to be happy? I already know that.)

And for me, according to me reading of the show-- which maybe the secret poster would think is "wrong," but I don't really care-- I don't find it unbelievable that pockets of happiness (at least long enough to describe in 5k words or so) could happen and be IC. I'm rewatching the show right now, actually, and something I notice way more the second time is how much, despite everything, these two people just genuinely enjoy each others' company. They spend time with each other when they have no "conniving" reason to do so, they make each other smile even when they're being horrible to each other. In the context of the show, those pockets of joy and friendship only last a few seconds, because that's the pace with which a fast-paced TV episode needs to move. But there's no reason, in the context of fanfic, that we can't zoom in on the friendship and love and joy between them and spend more time on it while still having it happen in the context of a relationship defined, in a general sense, by struggle and antagonism.

[philstar22]

That makes sense. I get that. I was thinking more of the completely OOC fluffy stuff. What I don't get is wanting to read OOC stuff because to me at that point you aren't reading the characters from that fandom anymore even though their names are in the fic. If I'm reading Hannibal fic I want to actually read Hannibal characters.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, for sure. And as I said to the person below, maybe the fic that OP is talking about is the kind of fic I would just write off as "author does not have firm grasp on characterization" and stop reading a few paragraphs in.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

This and the above reply are interesting responses (since I don't usually read fluff for canons with darker themes, myself) but OP didn't say anything about disliking fic that focuses on lighter elements of the Hannibal/Will relationship, so IDK if OP would necessarily disagree with your reading of the show. I had honestly assumed the secret was more about OOC than fluff, when I read it.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah. Maybe? I mean, I guess my answer to that would be that fanfiction that portrays the characters as not just a different side of the people they are onscreen, but fundamentally different people, is... what I would probably just classify as "bad," and not read past a paragraph of. I stop reading pretty quickly if I don't get the feeling that the author has a firm grasp on personality and motivation, so it's possible I just flat-out ignore a higher volume of any fandom's output than some people who are willing to keep going through slight OOC-ness.

Which, honestly, there IS a ton of fic in Hannibal fandom that I would just classify as "bad," but not more so than any other fandom that I've been in. Actually, probably a little bit less, since people who make it through the show tend to be the kind of people who at least have the desire to grapple with complex relationships, even if maybe they don't have the writing skills for it yet.

[(Anonymous)]

To be honest, that sounds like 'why go to a non-gay canon for slash? can't you ship two male characters who are canonically gay? By making them gay you're making them ooc'. We alter canon to see our fav characters in new situations - something the canon potentially could give us but didn't. Yeah, we could search for that specific dynamic with other characters, but the point is having these exact characters in this exact dynamic.