History Headscratchers / Hannibal

** [[TruthInTelevision It's unfair but not entirely unrealistic]]; Clarice was in charge of the raid, so the success or failure of the operation, even if not really her fault, would still likely be something she would have to accept responsibility for, and one might argue that it was a failure of judgement on her part that she did not remove Fulton from participating in the raid after he demonstrated disrespect towards her during the briefing. Misogyny could also have easily played a part; historically women, especially in male dominated fields such as the FBI, face greater scrutiny for their performance on the job than their male counterparts might, and its easy to imagine that Clarice's superiors might blame the failure of the raid and Fulton's mistakes on Clarice lacking "leadership skills" and her failing to inspire the cooperation of the men under her, and it may have been reported to her superiors that Clarice was "antagonistic" to Fulton in the briefing, which would be counted against her as a woman more harshly than if she were a man (note the scene following the raid, where Clarice is interrogated by Krendler. He is clearly aggressive in his questing towards her, but when Clarice replies in an even tempered but frank manner, SHE is the one accused of being "combative". It's still a common sterotype that "assertiveness" is seen as more appropriate coming from a Man than a Woman).

* Since the show is updated to the modern day, it is a bit of a stretch that Lecter was able to fly out of the country by a commercial plane, enter Europe and remain hidden for months, completely above suspicion, while making ZERO effort whatsoever to conceal he or Bedelia's identity, especially given not just the scale of his crimes, but the incredibly violent scene he left behind, with a dead body and three mortally wounded people in his house. Will had called EMT before he went indoors, so help was moments behind. The alarm about Lecter would have been raised incredibly quickly. His passports frozen, is identity plastered across the news, his image sent to airports, docks, the borders, anywhere he could leave the country. International airports, especially European ones would be alerted he may be travelling to them, Interpol would be made aware. Once Hannibal was named as a suspect and the chance he returned to Europe raised, background checks would have been done that revealed he was suspected for the Il Monstro cases and contact would have been made between the US and European authorities. Even if Hannibal could escape the US and into Europe, perhaps by roundabout means (but not so roundabout he avoided business class), Florence isn't detached from the modern world. People would have heard about the Hannibal Lecter case. He still moves in the same circles of academic and socialites, surely some of them heard the story of a European Socialite in the US who murdered dozens? The first half of season 3 really only make sense if you believe Florence to be completely shielded from any form of modern technology, from computers, cell phones, even just televisions.

*** You can't tell during an autopsy if an injury was inflicted using cunning. You might be able to surmise someone may have been struck by surprise, based on a lack of defensive wounds or other injuries, but given that Tobias was both badly beaten, and had badly beaten Lecter, there would be no way to guess which of his injuries could have bee inflicted in a direct assault or a sneak attack of any kind. Lecter could say Tobias arrived with the injury, or he could claim he was trying to use the ladder between he and Tobias, and Tobias just reached through the space and grabbed him. So Lecter just grabbed his arm ad pushed. 'It was instinct, I wasn't thinking about it, I didn't even hear it break!'. Lecter IS a large, strong, physically fit man, which he doesn't hide or keep concealed, if anything dresses to emphasis, so it's a mystery how this mild mannered doctor might be strong enough to break another mans arm.

** I genuinely believe Hannibal was just being possessive of a future victim he really really wanted to murder. As you say when the scene opens Hannibal is firing Franklin as a patient (and is likely expecting Will to have killed or caught Tobias). In that moment he is almost certainly setting Franklin up as a future victim and meal, firing him now to create distance so that in years if he kills and eats him, the connection wont be as clear. When Tobias arrives and the plan changes, Hannibal could still, for a second, be hoping to retain a kill he thinks he's earned, and maybe thinking he'll kill Tobias, make it look like HE killed Franklin as his last victim, while getting them both out of his hair.

** [[TruthInTelevision It's unfair but not entirely unrealistic]]; Clarice was in charge of the raid, so the success or failure of the operation, even if not really her fault, would still likely be something she would have to accept responsibility for, and one might argue that it was a failure of judgement on her part that she did not remove Fulton from participating in the raid after he demonstrated disrespect towards her during the briefing. Misogyny could also have easily played a part; historically women, especially in male dominated fields such as the FBI, face greater scrutiny for their performance on the job than their male counterparts might, and its easy to imagine that Clarice's superiors might blame the failure of the raid and Fulton's mistakes on Clarice lacking "leadership skills" and her failing to inspire the cooperation of the men under her, and it may have been reported to her superiors that Clarice was "antagonistic" to Fulton in the briefing, which would be counted against her as a woman more harshly than if she were a man (note the scene following the raid, where Clarice is interrogated by Krendler. He is clearly aggressive in his questing towards her, but when Clarice replies in an even tempered but frank manner, SHE is the one accused of being "combative". It's still a common sterotype that "assertiveness" is seen as more appropriate coming from a Man than a Woman.)

** [[AllThereInTheManual The book explains]] that because the pigs do not smell fear on Lecter, they don't recognize him as prey. Since Lecter reaches the unconscious Clarice before the pigs get to her, they don't have a chance to attack her, either.

* A question about the film of ''Literature/{{Hannibal}}''. Maybe it was just RuleOfDrama, but Hannibal had already proven himself quite handy at picking a handcuff lock. Why in the hell did he need to [[spoiler: cut off his hand?]]

** [[TruthInTelevision It's unfair but not entirely unrealistic]]; Clarice was in charge of the raid, so the success or failure of the operation, even if not really her fault, would still likely be something she would have to accept responsibility for, and one might argue that it was a failure of judgement on her part that she did not remove Fulton from participating in the raid after he demonstrated disrespect towards her during the briefing. Misogyny could also have easily played a part; historically women, especially in male dominated fields such as the FBI, face greater scrutiny for their performance on the job than their male counterparts might, and its easy to imagine that Clarice's superiors might blame the failure of the raid and Fulton's mistakes on Clarice lacking "leadership" skills and her failing to inspire the cooperation of the men under her, and it may have been reported to her superiors that Clarice was "antagonistic" to Fulton in the briefing, which would be counted against her as a woman more harshly than if she were a man (note the scene following the raid, where Clarice is interrogated by Krendler. He is clearly aggressive in his questing towards her, but when Clarice replies in an even tempered but frank manner, SHE is the one accused of being "combative". It's still a common sterotype that "assertiveness" is seen as more appropriate coming from a Man than a Woman.)