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crisisoninfintefandoms:

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copperore
replied to your post “Despite all his polish and dignity – not to mention the money and…”

I think it’s because he reads as queer. My 2 cents in a very generalized fashion.

I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. 

he’s also polite, soft spoken, and doesn’t do a lot of the posturing that’s socially expected of American men especially when they first meet each other. I’m sure he’s never tried to outsqueeze someone in a handshake in his life. 

Hannibal is deferential. He opens doors for people, he steps back to let other people pass, he pulls chairs out, he yields the right of way. There are a lot of people who see that behavior and read it as “pushover” rather than “I just controlled what you did and when” 

Not that I think you’re wrong about people reading him queer, but I think it’s all tied together. 

Oh yeah, for sure – this is all part of it and it’s intermeshed with him being perceived as queer in really complicated ways.

Y’know, I’ve sometimes wondered about the difference between “meta” Hannibal and “in verse” Hannibal.  In most shows I wouldn’t bother, but nbcHannibal has such a distinct style and works on so many multiple levels, it makes me think about shit like that.  

Like, we, the audience, see Hannibal through the lens of a camera–a camera that is often perfectly, expertly oriented to make Hannibal appear imposing, with lighting that perfectly highlights his strengths. 

He’s usually shot from a low angle, making him appear larger, or with a lens that focuses him and makes the background fade and appear smaller.  The people who meet him “in universe”…don’t get that, presumably  There’s no lens, no special lighting.  He’s not going to be seen from a “low angle” unless the person he’s talking to is significantly shorter than him, and even then it won’t be quite the same thing.

This might be way too meta, even for this show, but, basically, it’s possible that we’re not even seeing what the in universe characters are seeing when it comes to Hannibal.  Maybe, to them, he usually just looks like this

This makes a ton of sense!

People who have only had short encounters with him – who don’t know him well enough to have started to catch glimpses behind the veil, who he has allowed to see behind the veil – are seeing a somewhat socially awkward older man, deferential and quiet.

Of course shitty people think that they can get away with pushing him around – and shit, probably the vast majority of them are essentially right, though they would be horrified to realize the risk they’d taken: look at the size of his Rolodex compared to his actual body count.

Even when you get past that layer, what you get is a warm, slightly chatty older man who is still deferential and a little awkward, who radiates concern for the people around him, and who seems genuinely interested in the people around him and their well-being.

People who know him in the context of his dinner parties see a slightly different side, of course, and Will/Jack/Bedelia/etc are privy to a larger picture, but.

Very well put, and I’m reminded that in one of the audio commentaries Bryan mentioned that from (season 2) Alana’s perspective, Hannibal is basically Frasier Crane.  So, with that in mind, even the dinner parties kinda make sense.  He’s smart and theatrical, dresses well, loves making a good impression, but that doesn’t necessarily contradict all the elements you described, and there’s certainly nothing threatening in that persona.

Yes, exactly!

His fastidiousness and accent help build that perception, too, so that when he’s inevitably a bit off in some of his reactions, he’s just “a little eccentric” and “not from around here” rather than an alien in a human costume actively thinking about eating your brain right now. 

He’s actually in a group (older immigrants with money) who are a prime target of scam artists and other criminals because they’re seen as easy to take advantage of and unlikely to know where to turn for help or want to involve the police.

(Older immigrant with money is also a popular persona of con artists. There’s a line in Night Watch by Terry Pratchett: “I find, personally, that it never pays to be from somewhere close at hand. It makes life so much easier.“ Hannibal has been “foreign” everywhere he’s lived since he was a teenager and I think he uses it well).