rainbowbadger answered: I am a fannibal because I dont look at the murders and violence within the series, I look at the psychology behind each character.
Oh no, I did not mean to ask "why are people fans of this show?"--it is a great show, with great characters, and I am quite enjoying it. I was specifically asking about the part of the fandom that crushes on Hannibal Lecter.
I can pretty easily understand people crushing on Dexter, and many other fictional killers, but Hannibal... not really. He is just really quite horrifying... and I mean that in terms of his psychology. What he's capable of, and how he's capable of it.
Sure, he's urbane and charming, and yes, can be fascinating on the surface... but he will kill anyone at any moment--even if he "likes" them, even if they are total bystanders, or just because he is bored... without any hesitation. He doesn't just kill out of "necessity," or out of some personal sense of vigilantism, or even some sort of strange philosophy, like the Angel killer. He just kills. (Yes, there is that claim to "eat the rude," but his murders have absolutely not been confined to that. If anything, that seems to describe a marked minority of his kills.) With people he likes, he might regret that things have turned out such that the person got in his way and needed to be disposed of, but he will not be bothered by the killing itself.
And he will torture people as he kills them, unless circumstances dictate that he get it over quickly.
Again, I understand why people find his character compelling.... the thing I don't get is how they find him crush-worthy. Is it just a total dissociation thing? But then what is there about him to focus on? His genteel mask is only a very thin veneer, and his sociopathy is basically the main part of his psychological make-up.
