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craqueluring · 1 year

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Hi!!! <33333 Love your blog as someone who sometimes has difficulty grasping metaphors in hannibal because they all talk so weirdly and english is not my first language and sometimes im genuinely dumb </33 anyway i wanted to ask you what do you think was going inside hannibals when he took mason verger to will’s house, abondoning will even though he was unconcious in enemy grounds, and fed his dogs mason’s face?? Like what is he thinking “hi honey welcome home hope you like my surprise you wanted to punish him right tee hee <3” and will just gets turned on by this? LIKE WHATS GOING ON?😭😭😭😭😭 its one of my fav scenes and i dont even get… like the meaning of it, or their motivations, or what it worked as a metaphor? Like if could you maybe share your opinions on that scene or maybe an analysis would be nice? want to hear your thoughs 🥰 thank you so muchh hope u have a nice day!!

(there is a tldr at the end of this!)

okay first of all thank you for all your kind words they absolutely made my day <3333333 i so appreciate people asking me for my thoughts on specific scenes like u dont even know. and LOL yes that scene is really weird and when i first saw this i had to talk it through with my friend bc i was like…. yeah wait what WAS he thinking? LMAO but here is my best answer:

this whole episode is basically will taunting hannibal (telling mason hannibal wants to kill him, putting a "snare around [his] neck", asking hannibal if hannibal can tell what will's intention are, telling hannibal he did this because he was "curious what would happen," etc). i could even go so far as to say hes giving hannibal a taste of his own medicine. i find the decision to make a hannibal lecter-esque scene of will preparing his homemade dog food (which ive always assumed was randall tier's remains) directly before he gets picked up by mason a curious parallel, maybe even making a point that will is starting to act like hannibal? or just foreshadowing that will's dogs are gonna be fed some weird shit later lol, or both.

anyways, the scene of mason being high on whatever hannibal gave him, and cutting his face off and feeding it to the dogs before getting his neck broken, is directly taken from the actual book. i think theres a few different things that are significant about hannibal deciding to do this specifically in will's house, though:

first is theatricality, obviously. hannibal loves shock value.

second, it could be a symbol of hannibal's unending and pervasive presence in will's life and mind — this is the first time we've seen will and hannibal in will's own home at the same time. hannibal’s presence in will’s life extends to will’s home. i think the only other time we see them together in will's home is when hannibal saves will from the verger estate, and will rejects hannibal.

third, alana has always said that will's dogs represent the best of will. by hannibal making mason feed his face to will's dogs, this could be like hannibal "tainting" the best parts of will. soaking into every corner of his mind, his life, his soul. also to my point, hannibal says that he "broadened [will's dogs] palates, as [he] broadened [will's]." — there is no corner of will's life that hannibal doesn't touch.

however, just as that scene could be representative of hannibal having a very large amount of power over will's life, the rest of the episode could be representative of will having just as much power over hannibal. hannibal was quite literally helpless in that straitjacket, a direct result of will's actions (unless hannibal is a magician too and knows how to escape one… which i honestly wouldn't be surprised by). and only escaped because will cut him free. similar to how will was helpless in prison, and only got out because hannibal let him go. will can be a puppet master just like hannibal. they are in equilibrium, to a point. before, will was always on the short end, being manipulated by hannibal, being in prison, etc, but in this half of the season we see them (almost) being equals. as hannibals says earlier in the episode, they understand each others minds, and so hannibal has "the capacity to deceive [will], just as [will] has the capacity to deceive [hannibal]."

as for their motivations:

multiple times in this episode, hannibal is trying to gauge how willing will would be to kill with hannibal. "would you join me at the table?" when talking about eating mason verger, and killing him being a "savage pleasure [they] can share." each time, will avoids the obvious propositions. hannibal taking mason to will's house could also be him trying to gauge how will would react when they are in the same room with a potential victim (if will would share the 'savage pleasure' with him?). at this point, i dont think that had ever happened before. will killed randall tier alone, lied about killing freddie alone, shot hobbs alone. they've never been together in this situation. and aren’t in this situation again until the dragon fight. hannibal probably brought mason to will's house knowing this would happen, and so he could really gauge how will feels about killing together, or at least in hannibal's presence.

not to mention will obviously wants mason dead. will likes doing bad things to bad people because it makes him feel good. thats why he makes that face in 2x07 when he has a gun to hannibal's head in hannibal's kitchen, and why he makes that same face when he has a knife to hannibal's throat earlier in this episode. i could maybe go so far as to call him a sadist. he likes having that feeling of power, as he tells abigail in 1x12.

i think this is why he looks "turned on" (lol) as you said. he enjoys seeing bad people in vulnerable positions, especially when he holds the power. i think hannibal knows this, too. maybe this was some kind of gift from hannibal? maybe he didn't want to kill mason without will present; giving will the chance to kill the man he knows will hates so much. but also because hannibal, of course, was curious what will would do.

but now will is curious what hannibal will do as well, so he tells hannibal to "do what [he] thinks is best for [mason]," and hannibal obliges easily. he doesn't choose murder or mercy for mason, though, and breaks his neck and leaves him alive in that terrible state. will looks… pleased? by this, i think. (again, sadist). he and hannibal smile at each other as hannibal walks to mason to break his neck. hannibal seems pleased as well at will's reaction and the outcome of the situation.

as i said before, they are, in a way, equals for the first time in this part of the season (which is also symbolized by them being happy little cannibals together at the end of 2x10). this episode is partly them getting to fuck with each other and will reciprocating the fuckery that hannibal was disproportionately doing to will before this point, to be crass. will is, as alana says in 2x06 "playing a game, and he's not scared. not anymore." hannibal bringing mason to will’s house was part of the game they’re playing with each other.

TLDR: hannibal taking mason to will's house could be for theatricality, a symbol of hannibal's presence in will's life (even invading his home), and tainting the "best parts of will" (his dogs). as for hannibal's more personal motivations, hannibal is gauging how will would act while they are in the same room with a potential victim (first time this ever happens, and last until dolarhyde), and possibly be a gift from hannibal because he knows will wants mason dead? as for will's feelings in this moment, he was definitely feeling good because a "bad thing" was being done to a "bad person" and he likes being in that position of power. will putting hannibal in the position (straitjacket in the verger estate) where will has that power over hannibal is will fucking with hannibal, and yet again lets himself get so close to killing hannibal, because he enjoys the feeling. hannibal reciprocates this fuckery by bringing mason to will's house. they are both orchestrating these situations because they are both curious about what will happen, and they are doing this as equals.

edit: not the first time theyve been together with a potential victim, i forgot about clark ingram, but it is the first time theyve been together with a potential victim which ended up harmed/dead by either of their hands! unless im forgetting someone else lol

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oraclebabsday · 5 months

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um hello!! im very new to comics, but of the characters I’ve seen so far, I really like Barbara and I was just wondering if you had any comic recommendations on where to start..? its very confusing trying to get into it all, but I’d like to be able to hold a conversation about someone I find interesting with my boyfriend so I can hear him info dump on me more cus he’s deep into dc so :)

Hi!!! That is so sweet omg 😭 Welcome to the weird wonderful world of comics!!! and also i’m so sorry for what I’m abt to throw at you lmao

Since you’ve sent this ask into an Oracle-centric blog, I’m gonna keep this rec list Oracle!Babs-centric (& also encourage my fellow mods to add on if they also have some recs!) I actually don’t have a whole lot of recs for Batgirl!Babs anyways, but I’ll be tagging my gen dc blog at the end in case you’d like to talk abt those or any other characters!

Also before I get Into the recs, I wanna give you some words of encouragement: there’s no right or wrong way to read! You’re also likely gonna have some well a lot of confusion at the beginning, esp bc there will be Events™️ that have ramifications™️ and you’re not always given full context of what’s come before or what’s happening concurrently with what you’re reading. I’ve been doing this for awhile and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that the more that you read & explore, the more fun you’ll have & the more things will usually start to make sense! But it’s all gotta start somewhere first! :D and you’ve def chosen a great character to be your launching point!

Im gonna be hopping around a bit in my recs here but I’ll try to keep it mostly in chronological order. That said, first up:

Suicide Squad (1987) - she appeared semi-regularly starting in #23! This was also her debut as Oracle! I really enjoyed the overall run & would normally highly recommend it, but also want to warn that it’s a pretty heavy read in terms of content itself (canon-typical violence ofc esp for a SuiSq comic, discussions of suicide ideation, period typical stereotyping/‘subversion’ of said stereotypes, but that’s a deeper discussion for a different blog) For that reason, I don’t necessarily recommend it for a first-time reader, esp if you’re wanting to solely focus on Babs. Team books usually aren’t super great when you’re reading for an individual character, in my experience, esp in a case like this where the character isn’t always necessarily part of the team or appears sporadically enough to disrupt the flow of following a storyline.

Birds of Prey (1999) - This team book breaks that prev rule tho, bc Babs is the leader & is in Damn near every issue of this run 😂 There’s several smaller team-ups before the main ‘99 run (BoP:Manhunt, BoP:Wolves, etc), which are also good as a prelude before the main run itself. This will be the longest thing that will give you a LOT to parse through & ymmv with a lot of it. (Dixon & Simone are the most prominent writers for it & without getting Into It they each have their Issues™️ & Crimes™️) It also crosses over with a few events/references others. Imo it’s a good window into what comics are like overall, esp when you get into a longer run with multiple writers at the helm. But it has an added bonus of keeping a pretty small cast at its forefront (for about half the run, it’s solely Babs n Dinah!) It also has a follow-up run in 2010 which is broken up by-

Oracle: The Cure - (technically a 3-issue mini-series but!!!) this one’s a culmination of Oracle & Calculator’s (it’s not rivalry? That can’t be the right word… Uhhh, nemesis-sitch?) from BoP & leads right into bringing Babs back to Gotham in Steph’s Batgirl run as well as the next BoP run I mentioned just a sec ago. It’s what I like to call connective (t)issues lol. Ymmv I think depending on if you’ve read BoP ‘99/TT ‘03 beforehand, but I hadn’t read a lot of TT before reading it at the time, and I enjoyed it a lot!

A couple individual issues I wanna suggest:

Batman Chronicles #5 - Oracle: Year One!!!!! Cannot rec this one enough!!! In lieu of reading Killing Joke (which really only serves Bruce, Joker, Jim Gordon’s characters) read this!!! LICHERALLY her origin in coming into her own as Oracle!!! This one is THE place to start, actually, before you read anything start here 😂

Batman: Gotham Knights #6 - okay, this one is admittedly a self-indulgent rec. Without spoiling the plot, it’s CLASSIC soap-opera level shit. The TENSION at play & the layers of Bruce & Babs dynamic, the messiness of the batfam!!! 👌 *chefs kiss* GK as a run in general too was a LOT of fun for me & Babs is a pretty prominent player in much of it, but this issue rlly takes the cake for me ngl

And to tie it all together for an extra couple of Important Event recs that you’ll run into esp if you pick up BoP first:

Batman: No Man’s Land - okay, this event was a Behemoth. It’s a LOT to read, but it is REALLY good imo as a launching point for where Bat-comics were at the start of the millennium. Babs takes the narrative role SO many times throughout & she rlly comes into her own by becoming a linchpin for the info system she builds for the batfam. Again, I don’t wanna discourage you when I say it’s a Long read, bc it’s well worth it imo, but also 100% okay to skip when you’re just starting out! It’s a big time sink!

Batman: Officer Down - okay put away the meme forJUST A SEC, our old friend Jim Gordon’s been shot & it’s up to Batma- oh wait bruce sulks by Jim’s bedside while Babs rallies the troops and GETS SHIT DONE to find who shot her dad? INTERESTING 🧐 In all seriousness tho, & compared to NML, this is a much easier bite-sized event that can give you a taste of what Event/crossoverComics™️ are generally like 👍

Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive - okay so, take that same energy of the batfam having to Put In The Work to help Bruce out & flip it around bc now Bruce is the Main Suspect. The drama, the Intrigue™️. Pretty much everyone in the fam gets a moment to shine & this is def peak of how Babs fits into the fam during this era. This one runs a bit on the longer side & babs is again, more of a support role here, but god damn I loved it a lot!

I feel like I’m obligated to at least Mention Batman: War Games, mostly to note that it finally shakes the foundation of Oracle being the batfam’s main support (her CLOCKTOWER gets nerfed in this event 😭) If you read all of BoP and skip over this event & then are confused abt why Babs is suddenly being ejected from Gotham, just remember that her clocktower gets blown up, Steph dies, Bruce n Babs have a falling out & that’s basically why Babs starts flying around the country & settles in Metropolis for a bit instead of going back to Gotham. I reread this event at least once a year bc it gave me brainworms, I can not in good conscience recommend it to anyone bc no one understands her (War Games) like i do 💕 Godspeed if you decide to read it o7

Other recs/mentions:

Batgirl (2000) - okay if you end up reading NML, you’ll be introduced to Cass in it, & this run picks up with her. Babs is in it a LOT at the beginning as supporting cast to Cass (up to War Games ofc, but I won’t say much more abt that lol) I’m ngl, when I was trying to get more into comics, this run was what HOOKED me

Batgirl (2009) - so in a similar vein, Babs also features as a support for Steph too in her batgirl run. It’s… different from Cass’ run, but I also rlly love this one too. And also am forever bitter that the Batgirls run didn’t realize their potential BUT WE’RE NOT GETTING INTO THAT HERE.

Gonna mention Batman: Gotham Knights one more time bc again, while Babs isn’t a main focus, I think it’s rlly good at tying the batfam together during that era & giving a reader glimpses into other characters/dynamics. I think I got more out of it after I had read a few other runs from this time period (namely Robin, Azrael & some prominent stuff with Huntress), but can also see it as a potential launching point for new readers too 👍 if you wanna get more into the batfam/Batman but are intimidated by the Big Runs, this can potentially be a good bridge!

Gonna rapid fire mention that Babs as Oracle has a lot of appearances in Robin (93), Nightwing (96), JLA (96), Azrael (95) and obvsly Batman/Detective Comics from the 90s into 00s. I’ve read a few of these runs, and ymmv depending on how attached you may get to certain characters. But that’s what comics is all about! Getting attached and exploring other characters n teams n stuff!

A Gen note that I wanna end on: I wasn’t exaggerating when I said earlier abt how the more you read the more you’ll have fun. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve read something from a 90s/00s comic & was essentially jumpscared by a sudden Oracle cameo that I wasn’t expecting! She pops up in so many things throughout the universe at the time!!! She was THE info broker for all the supers!!! It makes me so insane that DC threw that all away to magi-cure her and demote her back to batgirl when she had grown so much 😭

anyways I hope you have fun!!! And again if you’re ever looking for other recs my more Gen dc blog is @dyketectivecomics! If my fellow mods or anyone else have some recs to add or to dispute haha, I’ll be tagging this so others can see/rb/reply to add their recs too 👍

Okay! \o/ that’s all I got for now! Happy reading anon!!!!

#barbara gordon #oracle #oracle day #birds of prey #reading rec #~randy #added a cut bc length 👍 and to add a warning that this isn’t just a list #I wanted to include some commentary bc having a reading list is good sometimes #but also having a Guide™️ is what I’m ultimately aiming for when I’m curating my lists now in 2024 #esp bc I’m gonna be revamping the duke list soon but THATS a convo for the duke blog 😂#okay enough tag rambles. I hope this helps anon! sorry it took a Hot Sec!#you sent this right as the holidays were swinging at me full force 😭

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