History YMMV / RedDragon

* MagnificentBastard: If ''anyone'' can be considered one, it's Lecter. He only appears in one chapter as well but his presence is felt throughout the entire book as he still manages to fuck with Will's and Crawford's minds.
** [[AdaptationExpansion The film version]] actually has him ''dial out of his cell'' using a very odd trick in order to put a hit on Graham's family. While it doesn't work, it's ''very'' effective as ParanoiaFuel.
** Despite being incarcerated Lecter is still able [[spoiler:get total revenge on Will. Thanks to Lecter's actions Will's marriage is permanently fractured, his face is disfigured and he becomes an alcoholic beach bum.]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Will using his empathetic insight backed up by detective analysis to gain [[spoiler: the crucial brain-wave: the Red Dragon prepared for his murders by watching the same home films Will is currently watching]].

** [[spoiler: Ralph Mandy, too]]. He was annoying for pestering Reba, but his end was horrible.

* BrokenBase: ''Manhunter'' (1986) vs ''Red Dragon'' (2002); which is better?

* MindGameShip

** Also Francis as a little boy.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the book, Graham says that Lecter: ''"... had the first and worst sign [of sociopathy] - sadism to animals as a child."'' This runs contrary to his WickedCultured and AffablyEvil characterization in the subsequent books, and feels rather beneath the Hannibal Lecter we eventually get to know. When Literature/HannibalRising was released and allowed readers to witness Hannibal's childhood and StartOfDarkness, such uncouth behavior was noticeably absent.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The plot hinges on Dolarhyde's employment at a film processing facility. He discovers his victims via the home movies they send in for processing and uses the home movies to learn the layouts of the home and any obstacles in his way. Nowadays his job is obsolete. The movie ''Red Dragon'' pushed him slightly ahead of his literary counterpart. In the book he processes film for use in projectors, in the movie he processes film into videotapes.

* AlasPoorScrappy: Freddy Lounds is a (intentionally) completely unlikable character, but he certainly didn't deserve [[spoiler: to be set on fire by Dolarhyde]].

** Related to the two above posts, Dolarhyde is watching a video of the next family he intends to murder. Reba sides up to him and is quite pleased to find that he has an erection. Is it from her ministrations--or the thought of ''killing these people''?!

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the book, Graham says that Lecter: ''"... had the first and worst sign [of sociopathy] - sadism to animals as a child."'' This runs contrary to his WickedCultured characterization in the subsequent books, and feels rather beneath the Hannibal Lecter we eventually get to know. When Literature/HannibalRising was released and allowed readers to witness Hannibal's childhood and StartOfDarkness, such uncouth behavior was noticeably absent.

* TheWoobie: Reba [=McClane=], particularly as played by EmilyWatson.

* InkStainAdaptation: In the novel Graham and Lecter only met the night Graham arrested Lecter and they share an intense mutual hatred. Thanks to the 2002 movie and ''especially'' the television series that backstory is all but forgotten in favor of them being close personal friends and professional colleagues.

* TheWoobie: Reba [=McClane=], particularly as played by EmilyWatson.

** The [[Series/Hannibal TV series]] is set in the 2010s, so naturally it updates his job description for the decade.

* HarsherInHindsight: Watching Lound's in the 2002 version dying becomes a lot harsher when his actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman died.

** In the book there's there's Dolarhyde's introduction in which he enjoys a home movie of one of his killings [[ADateWithRosiePalms just a little too much]].