Hannibal Twitter Wars

On 6 October 2020, Twitter user and fanartist enercarlate posted a NSFW Hannigram fanart of Hannibal giving a blowjob to WillJust bros bein bros NSFW art by enecarlate, accessed 24 October 2020. The tweet has since been deleted but is archived here. The same day, Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller liked the tweet and responded with "!!!"!!! tweet from Bryan Fuller, posted on 6 October 2020, accessed 24 October 2020. It wasn't new for Fuller to interact with fandom and with fanworks in particular"Bryan re-posted some explicit fanart several times, got a book with it for himself, Mads, and Hugh, got a shirt with kissing Hannigram, etc." - comment by Reddit user K_S_Morgan, accessed 24 October 2020, but his short response resulted in a controversy big enough to be noticed by The Mary Sue, who posted a dedicated article about it called Hannibal’s Bryan Fuller Is Done With Your Anti-Ship BS on 13 October 2020.
The artist who posted the original art replied to Bryan's tweet with an enthusiastic "I FEEL SIMULTANEOUSLY BLESSED AND HORRIFIED"enecarlate's tweet in response to Bryan Fuller, accessed 24 October 2020. A multitude of other Hannibal fans of Twitter began responding, with both positive and negative reactions. In general, the Rainbow Meaties, or Hannibal "pro-shippers," were in favor of Bryan's tweet, while the Meat Knives, or Hannibal "anti-shippers," were not.
==Positive responses to the initial tweet==
==Negative responses to the initial tweet==
===Bryan Fuller's replies to fan tweets===
Some fans found Bryan's responses hilarious, responding with memes and gifs of enjoyment. Others insisted Bryan shouldn't argue with minors tweet by @jojochalamet, accessed 24 October 2020.
==Comments on the controversy itself==
===Responses on Twitter===
Some fans left comments in the thread on the fandom response itself
===Responses on other platforms===
On 8 October 2020, Reddit user jacksstyles posted to the HannibalTV subreddit asking other users What do you think about Bryan Fuller’s controversy?. A lot of the users in the replies kept reminding everybody that Bryan interacted with NSFW fanart in the past, as well as showing it to other people"Bryan had a picture of Will Graham having his penis eaten by Hannibal on his phone that he showed to anyone who would look at it, according to Hugh Dancy. This was in 2017 so it’s unlikely that this is an issue with anyone but the new fans on Twitter. Heck, Bryan ships Madancy too. He’s just like that." - Reddit comment by user Cockwombles, accessed 24 October 2020. Some commenters dismissed the controversy as something being caused by new fans only now coming into the fandomReddit comment by user Pirouette1209, accessed 24 October 2020, in some cases implying the assumed young age of the new fans means they shouldn't be watching the show in the first placeReddit comment by user zoelion, accessed 24 October 2020.
In the comment section to The Mary Sue article on the subject responses touched on many aspects. Some commenters criticized equating actors with their characters, others laughed at the fact the arguments were about gay sex and not the fact the character eats humans. One commenter criticized Bryan Fuller saying "i think he should try to be more professional on his public account. he's thrown a tantrum cause some kids said they didnt want to see porn on their tl. like.. okay.. no one's upset at you for enjoying some smutty ship art, just be more mindful next time."comment by CaesBriar, accessed 24 October 2020. Other commenters didn't react well to that.
Some readers were very confused about pedophila being a part of the conversation/controversy. Comments also appeared drawing similarities between the Hannibal Twitter controversy discussed and the Strikethrough wankcomment by user T.B.A., accessed 24 October 2020comment by user notemily, accessed 24 October 2020.
On October 21st, 2020 on Fanlore, a user by the name of AbigailHobbs attempted to document this fandom occurrence with an article called The Hannibal Twitter Takedown of 2020. Subsequently, the article was spread through Twitter a few days later by actualadultJD, who was mentioned in the article.Some anti created a Fanlore page about the Hannibal wank... Twitter, Oct 23, 2020 (Accessed 10/24/2020) (Archived 10/24/2020) Many users were displeased with the article's contents, both on and off of Twitter. ActualadultJD said on their CuriousCat: "The words that best describe this article are “heavily biased,” “unscholarly,” “unprofessional,” and “poorly written.”Some anti created a Fanlore page about the Hannibal wank... Curious Cat, Oct 23, 2020. (Accessed 10/24/2020) Some fans on Twitter picked the article's arguments apart and most saw it as biased misinformation, or as an attack on the "Rainbow Meaties." Twitter, Oct 23, 2020. (Accessed 10/24/2020)Whoever wrote that fanlore article... Twitter, Oct 23, 2020. (Accessed 10/24/2020) Twitter user c_shinn encouraged the Hannibal fandom to continue reporting the article to Fanlore Policy & Admin. Ultimately, the article was deemed a piece of personal meta and the page was blanked and protected so that it could not be edited. Discussion of the article and its contents remain on its talk page, and the meta itself was re-posted by the author on her Tumblr.hi so i wrote this a little over a week ago, Tumblr. Oct 23, 2020. (Accessed 12/5/2020) (Archived 12/5/2020)
==References==
Category:Hannibal
Category:Twitter
Category:Scandals
Category:2020 Twitter
Category:2020 Events
Category:Social Media Feature-Wank Wednesday