If anything I think people are more upset that Harris didnโt go with your traditional Copaganda ending and instead chose the ending that would make you think.
(This is pure word vomitโshower thoughtsโthat I will not be cleaning up)
But the way he did it made people uncomfortable and upset so they donโt want to think. Like, ok cool, you donโt want Clarice and Hannibal together, and I get that and understand why you wouldnโt like that. But I think the bigger picture is that the government is a corrupt institution that is money and power hungry and you canโt just win against a bureaucrat/higher up trying to shut you up with the power of friendship and teamwork (see: criminal minds.. like twice dawg). And sometimes you have to choose yourself (and your cannibal lover) against a corrupt institution.
Now, this is a random interjection, donโt get me wrong, I donโt think this book was the best written or that there was any real plot necessarily compared to the two previous (and personally I donโt mind when a book doesnโt have a real plot, just give me something thatโs engaging and readable Yโknow) But that doesnโt mean it didnโt tell a story.
weโre soooo used to seeing the fbi chasing the big bad serial killers and killing/arresting them on tv as these good guys working for the best institutions that are easily defeated by, again, friendship and teamwork. That when youโre faced with a story about a woman whoโs clearly fucking miserable throughout the books, who got herself all the way to big (in my best Hannibal lecter) F..B..Iโฆ because of her trauma and her fatherโs โpursuit of justiceโ, and is supposed to be this pillar of moral goodness, run off with a cannibal.. uh yea that may be shocking. Even though throughout the books thereโs pieces that show that sheโs miserable and wants something more out of lifeโlike a higher lifeโ and is only there in that institution because of the death of her father. And sheโs not really this pillar of moral goodness as sheโs constantly judging and hating on everyone (as she should) and gets thrilled over the chaseโฆ
The thing that pisses me off the most is when people who donโt like the ending (which I get, to each their own) are pretty much insinuating that theyโd rather have Clariceโs stay in this place that clearly hates her and resents her. Theyโve deemed her โhard to work withโ aka woman who doesnโt take shit. She thinks for herself and doesnโt follow into the corruption. Sheโs thrown into the basement to be forgotten and made to work on cold cases, and just random shit. Sheโs smart and intelligent, but sheโs not a sheep, she actually wants to help people, save them, and they wonโt let her because she doesnโt follow what they want (the institutional corruption). So, like.. why would you want her to stay and be fucking miserable?!
Also, another thing I thought of was that most people probably werenโt expecting the jump from how she was this big shining star in the silence of the lambs and now sheโs fucked over. Which, would definitely throw people offโฆ if that wasnโt the whole fucking point. Because, and Iโm sorry, but I personally wouldโve hated it this was just another good olโ copaganda book where sheโs all of a sudden happy and the bureau loved her and she was placed in the behavioral science unitโฆ but from silence of the lambsโฆ she was fucking used. Crawford was using her the whole fucking a time.
โJack sent a trainee to me.โ
Like Crawford said, they had to say they tried. So because Crawfords too pussy to go face lecter himself, why not send that eager trainee who looks up to me? Not like sheโll get anything. And when she did, and kept going back because Lecter was intrigued by her and thought she was smart enough and could match him, that shocked Jack. But he was getting something out of it, and free labor too. Because from the beginning she was just being used by the fbi, and if lecter didnโt think she was smart enough or brave enough to face him she wouldโve just been back in class and Crawford wouldโve forgotten about her. (Cause Crawford uses people. See: Will Graham)
Also, and this is entirely my own opinion, but when Crawford says to herโbefore she goes to Gumbs house and when Crawfords on the way to what he thinks is Gumbs homeโthat no one will forget that she helped them, least of all him, that was a good feel good moment right. (Now again personally) thereโs no chance in hell anyone wouldโve seen her nameโother than maybe the footnotesโif Crawford and his team wouldโve made the arrest. A guy like him, big man in the fbi, using a trainee, no fucking way he wouldnโt take all the creditโฆ well maybe sheโd get a crumb. But if she wasnโt the one to have gotten Gumb, I truly do not think she wouldโve gotten the credit she did. Though, maybe because Krendler wouldnโt have had much against her, she actually wouldโve gone to the BSU then ๐คท
Soโฆ fuck you if you wanted her to stay in the fbi. That only used and resented her the whole time.
