History YMMV / HannibalLecter

* MagnificentBastard: Dr. Hannibal Lecter himself is a brilliant, soft-spoken psychiatrist who it turns out is the cannibalistic "[[SerialKiller Chesapeake Ripper]]". In his [[Film/HannibalRising first chronological appearance]], Lecter, when he grows into a young man, hunts down and kills the Nazi soldiers who murdered and ate his younger sister when he was a child. In his [[Film/RedDragon next chronological appearance years later]], after being caught by FBI Agent Will Graham and renamed "Hannibal the Cannibal", Lecter reluctantly helps track a new serial killer called "The Tooth Fairy" while also trying to undermine and get revenge on Graham by making him and his family targets and [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs years after that]], Lecter helps FBI trainee Clarice Starling do the same with serial killer "Buffalo Bill", using his vast knowledge and mental skills on both occasions. Legitimately caring for Starling, Lecter promises not to go after her after taking out guards and others while escaping from prison and [[Film/{{Hannibal}} about a decade later]], Lecter avoids capture and bounty from child molester Mason Verger while also keeping Starling from harm and holding strong on his personal mantra "to eat the rude" all along.

* CompleteMonster: [[Film/{{Manhunter}} Dr. Hannibal Lecktor]]; [[Film/{{Hannibal}} Mason Verger]]; [[YMMV/HannibalRising Vladis Grutas]]; [[YMMV/{{Hannibal}} Verger, Wells, Ingram]].

* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/{{Hannibal}} Mason Verger]] & [[YMMV/HannibalRising Vladis Grutas]]. See those pages for details.

* CreatorBacklash: While Brian Cox has never regretted playing the role in ''Manhunter'', he has expressed disdain over how the character has become idolized and treated as an anti-hero by both fans and official media.

* MagnificentBastard: Hannibal Lecter himself, of course.

** Crawford as well, in the novel of ''Silence''.

** Averted by Catherine, who defies Gumb at every opportunity, and is depicted less as helpless than simply overpowered. She's almost an ActionGirl, and despite using Gumb's beloved poodle as a hostage against him, she quietly whispers to the dog that she'd never hurt it. She even keeps the dog in the end of the movie taking it with her into the ambulance. (How much of an aversion this is can be contested, though, as she's pretty clearly traumatized for life after all of this.)

** Was Chilton really just being a jerk, or was he just throwing a fit about not being as useful to the FBI in Silence Of The Lambs as he was in ''Literature/RedDragon''.

* MagnificentBastard

* JerkassWoobie: All of the serial killers, including Lecter himself. Dolarhyde was horrifically abused as a child, and Gumb has his own issues and problems; and then there is Lecter's own backstory explored in the last two books.

* CompleteMonster: [[Literature/{{Hannibal}} Mason Verger]] and [[Literature/HannibalRising Vladis Grutas]].

* {{Sequelitis}}: On both the page and the screen, ''Hannibal'' is commonly felt to be severely flawed, but not completely lacking in merit, while ''Hannibal Rising'' is regarded as being just flat-out terrible. Not really surprising when in the case of the latter, as Dino de Laurentis has claimed that he pressured Harris into writing ''Hannibal Rising'' in order to sustain the franchise. Harris himself has remained reclusive as ever on the matter.

* {{Sequelitis}}: On both the page and the screen, ''Hannibal'' is commonly felt to be severely flawed, but not completely lacking in merit, while ''Hannibal Rising'' is regarded as being just flat-out terrible. Not really surprising when you consider that Harris didn't want to write either story, and only did it to prevent someone else coming along and potentially doing an even worse job.

** Was Chilton really just being a jerk, or was he just throwing a fit about not being as useful to the FBI in Silence Of The Lambs as he was in RedDragon.

* VillainSue: Lecter devolves into this completely throughout the course of the third book, ''Hannibal''. ''Red Dragon'' and ''The Silence of the Lambs'' made a credibly realistic character of him; he was highly intelligent but by no means infallible, charismatic but still a very unsettling individual and good at taking advantage of a situation and improvising plans. By ''Hannibal'' he's a prodigy of everything, no longer reacts to pain, plans things out months in advance, and commits impossibly over-the-top murders. While ''Red Dragon'' and ''Silence of the Lambs'' demonstrate that for all of his cunning and charming behavior, he is still a sociopathic murderer, ''Hannibal'' introduced a FreudianExcuse that really came across as a kind of DracoInLeatherPants justification for the character. The two examples that send this over the edge are his [[AssPull romantic conquest]] of Clarice Starling at the end and the time when the cannibal pigs respect him too much to attack him.

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