Clearly, you allowed your unclean desires for the character of Starling to interfere with really reading the novel both textually and sub-textually. As I’ve noted before, the theme of all the novels, except Rising which doesn’t actually exist, is metamorphosis into a true self as midwifed by Dr. Lecter. The Tooth Fairy was trying to become The Red Dragon. Buffalo Bill was trying to become a woman. Lecter did not mind rape and brainwash Starling. He helped her through the difficult process of metamorphosis (which TF and BB had both failed) into her true self. You, sirrah, would have kept her as a well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste because that Starling appeals to you. Hannibal, heroically, aids her in putting all that behind her. Remember, other than her idealized memories of her father, her life up to the point of what you call “mind rape and brainwashing” had little in it that was good. She was not a happy woman until the end of the novel.
Untrue. Jodie Foster is beautiful; she isn’t hot. I appreciate her aesthetically.
As my great-grandmother said just before she shot the solipsist for whose murder she was hanged: “Yeah, you talk a good game, sonny, but I’m not buying it. It is NOT turtles all the way down.”
Oh, Starling was NOT a hustling little rube, Scumpup! She was a hero worthy to be a champion of Athena.
I have made note of your libelous statements and will be passing them on to God. What happens next is up to Her.
I have notified Tchernobog that you went crying to mommy. He said not to worry about it.
Rhymers also do not weep. While Pallas understands sorrow, having grieved mightily over the tragic but entirely necessary destruction of Troy, she expects and requires that her adult acolytes petition her rationally, not lachrymosely.
None of them would ever kill someone, despite what those ridiculous comics said. Actually, I can’t think of a cartoon I watch where they would kill people. Maybe a few people in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but not heroes.
I haven’t watched the first episode of Leverage yet but it’s waiting for me and so the chars are on my mind so:
Immediately Trust: Eliot, Hardison and surprising to me but instinctively Parker
Probably suspicious:Nathan, Sophie
Distrust: At this point no one. For a gang of crooks they’ve done a hell of a job of going not quite straight but definitely moral.
I’d not necessarily trust Parker; she has poor impulse control. I’d be most inclined to trust Eliot, because more than any of the others, his deal is that he wants to atone for an outright murderous and evil past. He’s the one most conscious of his own capacity for evil and most diligent about controlling it. If he decides that someone needs killing, he’s probably right.
Trust:
Spenser
Hawk, if he’s working for Spenser
Jules Winnfield
Distrust:
Hawk, if he’s not working for Spenser
Vincent Vega
Trust: The Doctor.
Distrust: The Doctor.
In the Vorkosigan Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold
Immediately trust: Miles Vorkosigan, Ekaterin, and any and all of the Quaddies.
Probably suspicious: Any Cetagandan and Mark.
Distrust: Any Jacksonian besides Mark.
Non-Bujold characters: Immediately trust: Don and Charlie Eppes
Probably suspicious: Neal Caffrey and Mozz
Distrust: Captain Jack Harkness
I was going to say you could probably trust Hawk, but I’m not sure. Both he and Spenser are willing to lie to bad guys.
If you’re in the Spenser-Susan ellipse (I phrase it that way because though the people in it interact more with the former, almost all of them like Susan more than Spenser and would choose her over him), you can trust Hawk to do exactly what he says he’ll do. If he finds it necessary to betray you because of a conflict between you and Spenser/Susan, he’s going to tell you first, not backshoot you.
Then again, the same is true of Mal, who I think we all agree does not get a free pass.
Immediate Trust:
John Connor (as no less an authority than Kyle Reese explains, “You trust him. He has a strength”).
Suspicious:
Kyle Reese (I mean, dude showing up with a shot gun and telling me I need to come with him if I want to live? That’s craziness! But he’s pretty hot, so chances are I’m going along with him regardless)
Instant distrust:
The snotty psychiatrist from Terminator 1 and 2, Dr. Silberman.
I’m with Malthus here - that was the trio I was going to post (with the caveat that I’m not sure Flashy meets Skald’s heroic requirement).
My additional trio:
Immediate trust: The Hon. Galahad Threepwood. His methods may be questionable, but a Sound Egg with impeccable judgment for rotters, an ability to outwit interfering aunts, and a decided preference for helping the young folks.
Needing explanation: Jeeves. Sound judgment and first rate intellect, with the First Law of protecting Bertie, but his methods could be ruthless, even towards Bertie (one thinks of the unnecessary 18 mile bicycle ride in the dark, and the macabre Nichols-Jackson-Nixon joke). Plus, his Zeroth Law was his own self-interest, as the horrible episode of the girls’ school assembly showed - one could say he was acting in Bertie’s best interest, but the driving force was maintaining his own situation.
Immediate Distrust: The Hon. Frederick Threepwood. Heart in the right place and all that, but mentally negligible and lacking sound judgment.
Go ask the residents of Nargothrond how wrong his strategy was. Oh wait, for some reason they’re not home. Just some graffiti saying “Glaurung was here”.
Okay, then, how about judgment from the companion that knows Turin best?
“Hail Gurthang! No lord or loyalty dost thou know, save the hand that wieldeth thee. From no blood wilt thou shrink. Wilt thou therefore take Túrin Turambar, wilt thou slay me swiftly?”
And from the blade rang a cold voice in answer: “Yes, I will drink thy blood gladly, that so I may forget the blood of Beleg my master, and the blood of Brandir slain unjustly. I will slay thee swiftly.”
I’m just not extending the benefit of the doubt to anyone holding a bloodthirsty sentient sword forged from a meteorite; at least not until he buries it hilt deep in Morgoth’s chest in the Last Battle.
Doubtful–
Doc Savage
I respect the guy, but that secret upstate hospital of his creeps me out.
Captain America immediately comes to mind as “most trustworthy”.
What about Snarf? I’d be suspicious of him/it 
Which number?
Thank you for the image of Lisa Douglas, in her long frilly negligee, and Arnold holding a rifle in his snout, preparing to kill someone. I lol-ed.