# When did Hannibal Lector become someone the audience cheers for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221 "2015-05-17T04:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/121 "2015-05-30T13:41:36Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Yet bizarrely everyone around him seems to regard him as the more charming version played by Hopkins, apparently he is a social bon vivant although we the audience get no hint as to why he would be regarded so. They have obviously changed the characters and plot quite a bit for the television program. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/122 "2015-05-30T14:28:14Z")
> [@Archeonomist](#): > > Maybe s/he can separate life from fiction? You like to see movie bad guys get what they deserve - do you also enjoy seeing real life criminals get executed? I am satisfied to see justice meted out, in whatever manner is appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/123 "2015-05-30T15:20:25Z")
How do you decide what is appropriate? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/124 "2015-05-30T15:38:03Z")
Paul Krendler meets his just reward. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/125 "2015-05-31T04:12:47Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Cox has shown himself capable of Shatnerian performances elsewhere. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII love it! ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/126 "2015-05-31T17:43:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > They have obviously changed the characters and plot quite a bit for the television program. The TV show is more of a prequel where we see him before he was imprisoned and people found out he was a serial killer cannibal. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/127 "2015-05-31T18:24:40Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > How do you decide what is appropriate? Thatā€™s what a sentencing hearing, or its equivalent, is for. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/128 "2015-05-31T21:29:09Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > The TV show is more of a prequel where we see him before he was imprisoned and people found out he was a serial killer cannibal. I donā€™t believe that Will Graham knew him before his capture described in the novel, and they have killed one fellow already that dies much later in the novels. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/129 "2015-06-02T06:14:58Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Your point is well taken. If I saw a Star Wars movie I should expect to see Darth Vader behave as Darth Vader. But I would also prefer that at least by the end of the picture, he get his just desserts and be hauled off to some interplanetary hoosegow. > And if he triumphs in the end, and somehow I can tell that the audience cheers that, it bodes ill for the audience, to my way of thinking, because that says a great deal about THEIR values. ā˜¹ Well, he DOES triumph in the end, but only in that he turns away from the Dark Side and by killing the Emperor he destroys the Sith and saves his sonā€™s life, at the expense of his own.\* Does that count? šŸ˜‰ (The Empire won in the prequels, but that was because they were about the events that happened BEFORE the original movies.) I think people find villains (as well as real-life criminals) fascinating because they wonder WHY people would do such evil things. (For example, I own a book on the history of cannibalism.) History is bloody and ugly and disgusting. You canā€™t ignore that. And we humans tend to have a morbid curiosity about that kind of thing. I LOVE horror movies. I love being scared. I know it isnā€™t real, so itā€™s a ā€œsafe scaredā€, if that makes sense. \*And no, Iā€™m not spoiler boxing something as well-known as THAT. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221/130 "2015-06-02T15:12:12Z")
W-ell, I suppose that would count, but only with a Darth Vader type. Did you ever see \* The 7th Voyage of Sinbad? \* To me that was the scariest movie ever-- particularly near the end, when the villain told a live skeleton in a chilling voice, ā€œKill him!ā€ and it engaged Sinbad in a fencing match. I was ten years old at the time and I had nightmares about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-hannibal-lector-become-someone-the-audience-cheers-for/720221.md?page=6)