#if I could just write in metaphors | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

svtskneecaps · 5 months

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lukewarm take of the evening: y'all care too much about being ""outdated"". fellas this smp moves inhumanly fast. it is ok to CHILL holy shit CHILL. y'all are like "(posts BANGER ART) super late guys sorry" friend i am hitting you with a blanket i am snapping you with my metaphorical towel WHAT DO YOU MEAN SORRY. "(posts BANGER FIC) rip this is outdated now" WHO CARES???? I LOVE YOU, OK. ohhhh woe is us as the fandom at large for having MORE HAPPY PILLS ARC CONTENT oh no how outdated!! how could you be writing speculative fiction about how forever felt during happy pills :( slash SARCASM!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY BANGER ARCS, WHAT, YOU THINK WE'RE COMPLAINING????? FOR GETTING MORE OF THE CONTENT WE LOVED????? oh no we're past the period where everyone thought green gay ninjas were like Dead Dead, my work is now outdated and noncanon :( WDYM. GIMME. A BANGER IS A BANGER IDC IF IT TAKES THREE MONTHS. you think rome was built in a day?? fuck you, baltimore, GIMME. my ass has been cooking a goddamn backflipo family fic since july when it was ALREADY outdated do you think i fear god??? "oh no, you're making an edit of slime's (attempted) egg murdering spree?? how could you, that was months ago it's irrelevant" SAID NO ONE EVER.

save your wrists kidlings ok carpal tunnel is no joke. CHILL!!!!! CHILL!!!!!!!! TAKE YOUR TIME SHEEEEEESH OK LOVE YOU <3

#qsmp #shut up vic #block game brainrot #IT IS OK TO NOT ALWAYS POST SHIT THIRTY SECONDS AFTER IT HAPPENS!!!!!!!#for god's sake we have MONTHS of lore and bangers ok???#i still have a mental image of an art i wish i could make from BOBBY'S NIGHTMARE #HE HAS BEEN GONE FOR M O N T H S and you bet your ass if i can make it I WILL BE POSTING IT #SO. MUCH. SHIT. HAS. HAPPENED. who cares if it was months ago!!!!!!#it's ok to be a few days late!!! it's ok to be a few months late!!!!! don't tell me sorry for feeding me!!!!!!#part of me still lives in I'M NOT HOLDING A FUCKING FUNERAL CHAT #part of me still lives in maxo's final song for his son!!!!#part of me still lives in the day we thought ramón was gone for good #part of me still lives in cellbit sprinting to his son only to be ripped away back to the feds just as richas turns to write a sign #part of me still lives in the flooding of the copacabana ocean #THESE ARE BANGERS. REMEMBER WHEN FIT FOUND PAC E MIKE IN PRISON. BANGER.#oh dear new work expanding on a canon moment i super liked that happened months ago how late smh SAID NO ONE EVER #TWO CAKES!!!!! TWO CAKES MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!! WE LOVE PASTRIES DON'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT IT #COME ON Y'ALL. METAPHORICAL KISSES. LOVE YOU. HAVE A GOOD WEEK.#long tags

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prince-liest · 2 months

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“Describing Alastor's body from Vox's POV would be, uh, a time, let's just put it that way”

Dear god why has it never occurred to me that Vox’s POV of your 666 series would be the most unhinged horny nonsense in existence. His inner monologue must be fucking deranged. Alastor being the narrator was probably best for all of us tbh

Hahaha, arguably the most deranged moments are when Alastor himself pulls some truly unhinged bullshit and Vox manages to be appropriately disturbed for maybe about two seconds before it all gets aggressively sublimated into, "Alastor likes me!!!!!!! :)))))"

The shit that actually comes out of his mouth is already a bunch of deranged, horny nonsense, the stuff that's inside is more of the same except unfiltered and, honestly, probably more earnest than you'd initially expect. It's a lot of very explicit fantasies of ridiculous things Alastor would NOT understand the appeal of, punctuated by "wow" and "holy shit, can't believe he's letting me" and "THE TAIL, THE TAIL" and "oh my god wouldn't it be wild if I just—" before he realizes that he can indeed just do the thing. The "Vox's One-sided Psychosexual Obsession With Alastor (Hazbin Hotel)" tag is very much still in effect for a reason, hahaha. Cannot emphasize enough how down bad this man is.

#personal #ask #anonymous #666 live on air #my writing #alastor wants to eat vox in a very literal way #vox wants to eat alastor metaphorically so that alastor can just live in his stomach forever #man maybe i WILL write the next one from vox's pov that could be fun

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uhbasicallyjustmilex · 9 months

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right, can we please take a moment to talk about the bridge sequence in bad habits because oh my god the SUBTEXT??

at the start of the video, the distance between miles and alex is really highlighted, e.g. opposing colour palettes, the kind of divided imagery above, alex standing several paces behind miles etc. they're constantly in each other's eyeline, but also constantly apart. throughout the video, they gradually get closer, and the biggest catalyst for this is miles's guitar solo at the bridge of the song, where they start off at opposite ends of the room and miles moves backwards to alex as he's playing; by the end of the solo, they're finally properly side by side for the first time.

this is then immediately followed by shots like this of the two of them together:

in the earlier stages of the video, miles's singing was just intercut with sexual imagery of either women, or him and women - now, in the build up to the song's climax (and as the sexual imagery gets more heated), his singing is intercut more vividly and more frequently with clips of him and alex; the images of women become fainter and more infrequent, outnumbered by moments of him and alex wrapped around each other, while the women remain hazy and separate from miles.

this is then followed by a full on physical altercation between them; throughout the video, alex has been this silent, imposing presence behind miles, and at the bridge of the song here, miles finally turns around and confronts him in a way that has distinctly sexual undertones - and idk, this just feels so much like a metaphor for being followed around by desire and finally grappling with it (i.e. alex is the desire that's following miles around)

we then this gorgeous shot of miles's gaze and the fantasies behind it where (unlike earlier in the video) the images interposed behind it aren’t of abstracted female bodies, but of a woman walking up the stairs to him and alex lying entangled with each other, and then some fleeting imagery that clearly shows the three of them engaged in sexual acts together.

then - and this is the part that really gets me. the undertone of lust and fantasy laced through the video is finally being played out explicitly (in the scenario we get a glimpse of between miles and alex and the woman), and then is then IMMEDIATELY followed by a sequence of imagery that is ONLY OF ALEX AND MILES. and not just only of them, but of them being increasingly close to each other; they're no longer at opposite ends of the room, they're lying on each other and their faces are pressed together and they look utterly blissed out. all the shots of proximity are of them; the intercutting imagery of women has completely disappeared at this key point of the song and it's just them. them together in a situation that has been established as explicitly sexual.

the fact that throughout the song, alex and the two of them being together is inextricably linked with the fulfilment of desire and fantasy is just - it makes me a little bit insane, actually.

because it’s only once the two of them come together that the sex behind the images of fantasy interspersing miles’s singing actually come to fruition. it’s only once they’ve touched each other that others touch them, only after they come together that the sexual images that have been chasing them come into focus and become anything other than hazy, fleeting fantasies. in a music video so explicitly about sex and desire, it’s all about them.

#i just came across this in my drafts and totally forgot i’d written it in a haze of covid induced insomnia #so if any of it doesn’t make sense #that’s why lol #but honestly this music video - there’s just SO much to unpack #all the imagery and the subtext and the metaphors #i could write an entire essay on it #(and i mean. i kind of have 😭)#milex #tlsp #the last shadow puppets #bad habits #alex turner #miles kane #lulu posts

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archiveofrasa · 3 months

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thinking about how ramy says, “this is how the empire connects us,” in regards to opium and he’s so devastatingly right

but also:

ramy and robin find their lost languages in each other (cantonese is bold and sharp like ramy; bangla is sweet and soft like robin)

ramy and robin share cultural new years (chinese in jan/feb, bengali in april)

(while i’m not sure if these nicknames existed in the late 1830s) very common bengali endearments carry the same root word, pākhi, which means bird. bird, birdie.

and you will say – didn’t the empire start all this, too? didn’t the british take ramy and robin’s preferred languages away from them? didn’t they rip them from their homes where they would celebrate their new years? didn’t robin choose this name because the british wouldn’t let him have his chinese name?

the british started it, but they didn’t expect there to be this level of intimate solidarity. they wanted to pull the oppressed apart, pit them against each other, but the similarities are copious bc ramy and robin have much more in common with each other than they will ever with the empire

they take the cruelty, mould it into smth they can share and build together

the empire couldn’t have that. so they did what they knew best: they took them away from each other

#you could also make this a metaphor for letty if you want :p #babel an arcane history #babel or the necessity of violence #babel r f kuang #ramiz rafi mirza #robin swift #writing ramy/robin fanfic got me thinking abt this piece by piece and i just think. r f kuang was so clever #having ramy be bengali was obvious enough w the opium trades but all these connections? bhai....

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autism-corner · 11 months

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Sin and blood

ll 500 words ll ft. Levi comforting you after you show up filthy and bloody on the steps of the HOL ll angst/comfort ll x reader ll Asmo's version ll Belphie's version ll

Your first mess-up was awkward. None of the brothers had expected you to ever snap. But you did, and it was only natural. Living with literal demons only made the clock tick closer to your eventual sins.

It wasn't like you hadn't 'sinned' before, according to the vague moral lines that were set by human societies. You've sneaked items past check-outs, looked upon others with hatred, and lied to those with power. None of that makes you less human.

What you did however, was demon-worthy. You returned to the House of Lamentation with shame and the remaining anger, now mostly pointed at yourself. You didn't mean to break. You didn't mean to break anything. You didn't want to harm them.

Red-faced, with blood still dripping from your fingers, clothing drenched with however many liquids, you stood in front of them. There was no sound other than the drips, slowly creating a puddle on the ground. As the puddle grew, he was the first one to move.

Levi slowly but silently walked up to you. He was never one to speak first. He took your hand, soft and tender. A reminder that nothing has changed. You held back a sob and tried to stop the wetting of your eyes. He leaned closer to you and let out a quiet whisper: "You're okay.". Slowly, he turned to face his brothers, still grasping your hand. Without saying another word, he took you to his room. You followed him, only your occasional sniffing breaking the dead air.

Upon entering his room, he hurried to empty his bathtub. Pillows and blankets were flying everywhere, but he somehow managed to never let go of your hand. Having cleared the entire tub of that what made it comfortable, he turned to you again. You stopped avoiding his eyes once you noticed his disparity. They finally met, and a slight ease began to wash over the both of you. "You should get undressed." You could hear how much he cared in those words alone. No need for an explanation, no fear. He cared for your safety, but also trusts you to take your time. "You can put your clothes in this basket. We'll get them clean.". A small smile, filled with hope.

Levi had to let go of your hand while he turned on the water and the both of you undressed. He slipped in the tub before you, allowing you to sit in between his legs. There was no need for conversation. You sat there, only focused on his hands calmingly massaging the filth out of your hair. The water slowly turned darker as he made his way down to scrub your entire body, but neither of you mind. It could've been worse. You could've been gone entirely. You could've left him, all alone. Never to touch again. Never to talk again. He'd never get to laugh or hug or get trough awkward silence with you. He would've never been grateful for all the little moments with you. Moments like now, purely with each other. There was only here and now. Nothing in the past matters. There's comfort in knowing there still is a future with you.

#idk what possesed me to write this #(i do. it was bloodlust) (i didnt mean it to get sad but thats just how it happened ig)#obey me angst #ig? i dont like angst #i do want to do a version of this with belphie or mephisto bc theyre also my little guys but we'll see #12AM writing strikes again =w=b #obey me x reader #obey me leviathan x reader #obey me leviathan #obey me #the prior violence is left for interpertation but i was imagining murder =w=b it could be in self denfense who knows #man i wish i could explain metaphors and wordplay without breaking the flow of the text i just feel so smart for adding it whenever i do.#=w=b #sillyposting #my work #x reader

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merakiui · 7 months

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i saw octavinelle in the uniforms from ado's readymade (in this video at timestamp 6:20)........... baseball octavinelle.......... orz orz orz i think,,,,,,,,, it's a good delusion.......

#meraki mumbles #baseball octavinelle hitting home runs always!!!!!#KYAAAAA AND THE EXPRESSIONS....... >w< it's too good...#but also the 'i am hungry!!!' with halloween jade and azul!!!! omg that is such a jade song #the metaphor for loving someone so much you swallow them whole but also just being so monstrously hungry for things aside from food #'i love you so much i could eat you' but with jade such a phrase could be true because he finds it morbidly romantic #what if...... a fic where jade eats you..... and not as a metaphor for sex......... >:)#basically sk jade but without the slow burn (i.e. he does eat you)#i want to ramble about yan!jade and the concept of monstrous love AAAAAAA i could write an entire paper on it #he's so *squeezes him* !!!!!!! >:(

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jestiric · 4 months

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forever thinking about the tears on the cybermen suits

doctor who costume designers i love you

#cybermen best doctor who villian im RIGHT #the trope of trying to “elevate” the human race as metaphor for eugenics and comformity #THE TRYING TO ESCAPE DEATH VIA ESCAPING HUMANITY AND IN RETURN CREATING SOMETHING HORRIBLE TROPE #the inherent horror in all their episodes #like the cybermen episodes are so disturbing even as someone whos a Seasoned Horror Enjoyer and has watched them before #fucking amazing.#AND OHMYGOD HOW THEY DEAL WITH THE LOSS OF EMOTIONS AND THEREFORE HUMANITY #and the cautionary tale of replacing people with machinary #its just. perfect.#i could go on but i wont bc i reaalllyy need to write my essay... may elaborate on this later. may not. idk.#anyways. fuckin love the cyberman thank you for coming to my ted talk #doctor who #cybermen

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evakant · 3 months

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my favourite part of yoohan is that he's hers, quite literally

#i wanted to write more but i dont have the right words for a good post lmao #orv #orv spoilers #han sooyoung #yoo joonghyuk #yoohan #anyway i imagine her biting him (on the arm; on the cheek; wherever's closest) and thinking ''mine mine mine''#and i think on the flip side it's like #wouldn't it be comforting to know someone's.... let's say responsible for you #yoo joonghyuk looks up at the constellations and looks for kim dokja #i think han sooyoung could be a north star for him too #not morally or any of the usual metaphorical ways it's used in a dynamic #just someone for him to turn back to #always.#idk what i mean i... i simply love them so much #rs: because of your story #orv.txt #fra.txt

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houseofache · 9 months

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im sorry how am i supposed to just go on about my day when vessel literally said "won't you fall for me? through a fractured existence won't you fall for me? to the rhythm of eternity, won't you fall for me?"

#i swear to god every time i get to the rhythm of eternity line i lose my mind a little #i really am just staring at a wall slackjawed by that line #idk how else to describe how catastrphically in love i am with that line #it tugs at a nerdy fascination i have with spacetime and the contours and rhythms of space #and also the metaphorical promise of eternal falling-- a perpetual state of love-- and the ways that fall for me directly contradicts #ascensionism #i could honestly write an entire essay about it #and you know what?#i will write an entire essay about it.#sleep token #writing #vessel #ii #iii #iv #sleep token band #sleep token wont you fall for me #won't you fall for me

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iamthecomet · 5 months

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Comet my dear, do you have any aethshine thoughts you would like to share? I am Thinking about them and thought, perhaps, you would like to as well. 😌

Dearest Miasma, I'm sure I can conjure up some thoughts (I am plagued with thoughts). 650ish words of Aether/Sunshine musings. Not quite ficlet, definitely not just headcanons. Some angst (of the missing their packmates variety). More smut. They just love each other a lot ok!? Transfem Sunny because I said so.

With the rest of the pack gone, the ghoul wing is eerie. Sunshine's never seen it like this. Impossibly quiet. So many doors shut, rooms sealed off. Sure if she wanted to she could open Cirrus' door, slip in. Bury her face in the the blankets and pillows and clothes left behind. She could sleep in a different empty bed every night. Drift off to the smell of her missing packmates. She doesn't though, doesn't have to. Aether's with her. Noise carries differently when they're the only two in this part of the Abbey. Like a room with all the furniture moved out. The television drones, and she can hear it down the hall. Distant mumbling. When Aether's in his room, playing guitar, humming a tune she can hear him like he's next to her. They spend a lot of time together. Neither of them talk about it, but the emptiness of their home has seeped into the chambers of their hearts too. Bittersweet and aching with each video call where Cumulus pans the phone around so Sunshine can see the Eifle Tower lit up against the sky. Or when she can hear Aether and Dew talking through the walls. Dew's voice terse as he complains about everything except what's really bothering him. Sunshine slips into Aether's room once she's sure he's off the phone. Once they've both exchanged their good nights with their pack, halfway across the world. Sometimes they talk. Curled up together on Aether's big bed. TV on some show they've seen a hundred times. Voices hushed like there is someone they might wake up. Sometimes, Aether pulls her close. Kisses the breath from her lungs. Hands sunk into her curls as he holds her where he needs her. Thumbs pressed against the base of her horns, tongue sweeping over her teeth. She's glad it's Aether. Has been since they both announced their retirement independently of each other. Grateful not to be alone and glad it's him. Steady, devoted, Aether. Who only has to look at her to understand. Who will sit with her at the piano in their empty rehersal room and sing. Who lets her tag along on his infirmary shifts when she can't sleep. Aether who has good book reccomendations and makes sure Sunshine never gets bored enough to really feel how much she misses everyone else.

Aether, who knows exactly how to touch her to shut her mind off. Who holds her with confidence, knows she won't break as he presses her down into the mattress. Slips one hand into the waistband of her leggings and another up, under he crop top to cup a small breast in his giant hand. calloused fingers dragging over a pebbling nipple. Aether feels like home when he touches her. Even when it's rough and desperate. Even when he has both of their cocks in his fist, dragging the heads together, making her vision fuzzy at the edges. Even when he's three fingers deep inside of her, scissoring her open, pressing against spots that make her feel like she's going to cave in on herself.

Pleasure bowls over her, over and over again. His teeth pressed to her pulse. Breath huffed out in sharp pants over her sweat slick skin. Pressing in as deep as he can go, making her feel the way he carves out a place inside of her, his hand pressed firm over hers on her belly so she can feel him fucking her. There is no difference between this and the times when they move slower. When Aether presses his mouth to every inch of exposed skin on her body. When she does the same, grazing teeth over the swell of his belly, the cushion of his thighs. When I love yous are whispered freely. Either way, when she cums under Aether's gaze, it feels like going home.

#comet writes #miasma ♥#ficlet #ish #Aether Ghoul #Sunshine Ghoulette #Aether/Sunshine #I could talk about them forever #but this is going to have to be good enough for now #ghost fic #ghost fanfic #ghost headcanons #nameless ghoul headcanons #ghost band fic #ghost band fanfiction #I don't know man the metaphors and flowery poetry language really just got away from me tonight

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vimbry · 4 months

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just honest to god adore those deconstructed concepts in the lyrics like "glass of milk, standing in-between extinction in the cold" as a descriptor for mammals and the function they're named for, "flammable undiagrammable sentiments pass between animal beings" to mean sparks fly during romantic chemistry, and "newborn citizenship of the micronations" referring to reproducing and new offspring, like. like! like!!!

#tmbg #the line from nanobots is oddly adorable #so is ''their names are called. they raise a paw'' from mammal actually #if I were half as articulate I could express something beyond just yelling like??? like!!! into the void to illustrate my point here lmao #I swear there's a word/concept for when a familiar observation of something is reworded to come across as an unfamiliar concept #it's interesting that linnell described some of his songwriting as being ''stripped of emotions''#because I think even in songs with this almost academic formality such as ''mammal''#there's an underlying appreciation and fascination rather than detatchment #did I post this recently I feel like I already said this not long ago #bears repeating anyway #I'm trying to think if flansburgh writes like this but I think he leans more. poetically metaphorical? little more deceptively emotional #like you Think it's heart-on-sleeve songwriting but the more you think about it they're sort of impenetrable #that Is why the tmbw interps tab spawn so much discussion lmao

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craqueluring · 1 year

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lets talk about will's journey through hannibals mind palace in s3a, the myth of theseus, the minotaur, ariadne’s thread, labyrinths, and mazes (there is a tldr at the end of this! and this gets better & more cohesive towards the end i promise lol esp after the uffizi gallery screenshot)

background on theseus: theseus sailed to crete intending to defeat the minotaur, a beast housed by the labyrinth constructed by daedalus. it was constructed so well, daedalus himself could not navigate it. ariadne was the daughter of king minos, who ordered the entrapment of the minotaur. she fell in love with theseus, and,betraying her father and her country, she gave theseus a thread to tie one end at the entrance of the labyrinth, and carry the rest with him, so he could find his way back out. theseus succeeded in killing the minotaur and returned safely.

will graham sails to italy as theseus sailed to crete, and enters the labyrinth of hannibal lecter's mind palace at the norman chapel in palermo, italy. the imagery of the many consecutive doorways and disorienting paths in the catacombs under the chapel is notably labyrinthine, and is actually what made me think of this connection in the first place.

*note the consecutive doorways/arches. this parallels the shot of will and hannibal in front of la primavera. in that shot, there are also many doorways behind them.

hannibal is simultaneously

daedalus, the maker of the labyrinth,

the minotaur, the beast at the center, and,

partly, ariadne, the one who betrays her father and her country, falls in love with theseus and allows him to navigate the labyrinth (i.e. the heart in the norman chapel is what confirms to will that he is going in the right direction). just as ariadne's love of theseus was a betrayal of her country and her father, hannibal's love of will is a betrayal of himself.

perhaps hannibal as daedalus-minotaur-ariadne represents the many contradictory parts of hannibal: the person suit containing the monster (daedalus), the monster (minotaur), and lover (ariadne).

but ariadne, the symbol of love, could also be more accurately represented by both will and hannibal: their connection, and its portrayal through will's hallucinations:

the ravenstag which leads will on the train tracks after chiyoh pushes him off

the blood puddle under the doors to the norman chapel catacombs

the fireflies that lead him to mischa's grave

& more

this thread of connection that leads will through the labyrinth of hannibal's mind is universally present throughout season 3a. it is not the physical actions of a lover that lead will through the labyrinth like ariadne did for theseus, but instead the undertanding derived from love of the labyrinth-maker himself which allows will to navigate the labyrinth.

if the entrance ("foyer") to hannibal's labyrinthine mind palace is the norman chapel, the center is his home in lithuania, as will's imagined hannibal says while he is in the lithuanian forest in secondo 3x03:

"is this where construction began?" "on my memory palace? its door at the center of my mind. and here you are, feeling for the latch."

perhaps the center of hannibal's memory palace is actually hannibal's home and what happened there. "mazes intended to be more or less impenetrable have a center containing something so valuable or so shameful as to warrant protection" (x pg. 91) — hannibal's labyrinthine mind palace was constructed outward to protect something at his origin, at the center of his mind: mischa.

will's last stop in hannibal's labyrinth, and perhaps the exit, is where he finds hannibal in front of la primavera, once again in italy. the long hall of consecutive doorways in the center of the screen, which mirrors the doorways in the catacombs during will's 'entrance' into hannibal's mind palace, gives a sense of some long journey coming to an end. he tells hannibal "i wanted to understand you before i laid eyes on you again. i needed it to be clear what i was seeing," plainly stating his reason for his journey through the labyrinth — understanding.

*note the consecutive doorways in the center, which parallel the arches in the aforementioned shot of will entering the catacombs in secondo

as explained by penelope reed doob, the purpose of a labyrinth can be to…

"…to entrap or enlighten errant mazewalkers, denying or controlling access to a center that may contain good or evil, and leaving the maze-walker with higher knowledge or in chaotic limbo" (x pg. 64)

certainly, will's journey through hannibal's labyrinth was, as doob calls it, "the labyrinth as a sign of difficult progress." as a plot device, will's journey through europe, hannibal's labyrinth, the mind palace, was a path designed to lead to will gaining higher knowledge, and the "transcendence of labyrinthine confusion" (x pg. 91)

right?

but, even after will's journey, we as the audience, will as a character, and even hannibal himself, remain confused, turned around, and unable to see any end in sight, especially after both of their failed attempts at separation.

we are still in the labyrinth.

"labyrinths, like life, involve chaos and order, destiny and free choice, terror and triumph — all held in balance, all perspective-dependent" (x pg. 252)

church labyrinths as a metaphor for life in particular emphasize a unicursal design, or there being only one true path — that of christ, who can act as a guide for humanity "to discover that the mythically multicursal and unstable labyrinth — of life, of the world, of hell — is in fact unicursal, stable, and extricable" (x pg. 133)

instead of this, nbc's hannibal purposefully emphasizes the multicursal and inextricable nature of life and the world through the use of a seemingly chaotic, and sometimes absurd, plot. there are so, so, so many paths will can (and does) follow in the labyrinth/maze of his life. but none are emphasized as the correct one. because that does not exist. everything becomes a matter of perspective, and even looking at the maze from the outside, one becomes disoriented.

thus, this gives even the viewer a sense that they are wandering through the labyrinth with will.

"The only pattern we are shown is the pattern of the labyrinth...all progress is illusory: we may think we are getting somewhere new, but really we are retreading old patterns, circling and turning and retracing our steps until suddenly we exit right where we entered, with an echoing line or repeated pattern, and not once only but time and again" (x pg. 336)

just as doob says of chaucer's the house of fame, nbc's hannibal as a whole "reconstructs, rather than transcends, the complexity of the many labyrinths in which we live and write — labyrinths we cannot, and perhaps do not even wish to, escape" (x pg 339)

the plot of hannibal has been criticized for being too absurd or chaotic, but the absurdity is the show's essence. it is a tool of emphasis to remind us of the fact that hannibal, will, bedelia, jack, abigail, alana, margot, are — everyone is — making their way through the inferno, wandering through the labyrinth, unable to see the forest for the trees, just as we are.

"there is no overview of the labyrinth, at least not in this life, and nothing is clear but the uncertainties of the ambiguous maze above whose constraints we cannot rise. believing all this, some men might despair, but…if these be labyrinths, they are enchanting ones, as full of delight as of frustration…nightmarish as it may be, is colorful, energetic, chock-full of magnificent diversity, far more beguiling than cosmic spheres. it cries out for the shaping mind and voice of the poet to give order and perspective where none exists. if that shaping is no more reliable than its material, so be it: perhaps a well-wrought poem in such a world is all the more admirable, and much more fun. the confusions and errors of the maze may be as attractive as the transcendent view. and if truth is always deferred, redefined by another twist, a fresh perspective, a different viewer, so what?" (x pg. 337)

tldr: will's journey through europe, exploring hannibal's memory palace is comparable to theseus' exploration of the labyrinth in search of the minotaur. hannibal is simultaneously daedalus (the labyrinth's creator), his person suit, the minotaur, his monster, and ariadne, a lover who allows theseus to not get lost in the labyrinth. the ravenstag and hannibal and will's psychological connection and deep understanding of e/o could also be compared to ariadne's thread. the center of a labyrinth is commonly something that is protected; hannibal says his home is at the center of his mind — hannibal's mind palace protects mischa at the center. even when will leaves the labyrinth and finds hannibal, there is not much higher knowledge gained from the journey, as would be expected. that is because we are still in the labyrinth, such is life. the absurdity and chaos of the hannibal plot, the repeating themes, plotlines, and endless parallels exacerbate this point, and emphasizes the inextricability of life, and the fact that there is no one correct path in the winding maze of life.

#i am not a classicist so dont kill me if i got anything wrong #this was fun to write though and that book i reference 400 times was fun to read #labyrinths are more interesting than i thought theyd be #i hope i made any sense #if not my excuse is i made this purposefully labyrinthine 🤯#LOL JK #ik this is basically like #‘u cant criticize hannibal for being confusing and weird bc its supposed to be thay way bc metaphors’#but u can #i just like talking about the chaos as a purposeful tool in the show rather than an accidental flaw #bc i do think it is deliberate #anyway #my first meta i finished in a WHILE #also the theseus connection is a bit weak but i thought it could be a good intro to the elements of a labyrinth as they relate to hannibal #soz if its confusing #nbc hannibal #hannibal lecter #hannibal #will graham #pluto analyzes #hannigram #hannibal meta #hannibal analysis #secondo #dolce #media analysis #parallels #hannibal parallels #labyrinth

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