will you ever write rotten meat again? it was my favorite thing because I've always had the same fantasy but no one writes about it
You know, I’m not sure :/. It was very expository and takes a lot of effort to structure that whole idea into a cohesive plot, and because not that many people were interested, it seemed like a lot of trouble. I’m glad it offered you something, I still answer questions about it on @offspringofmadness 🤍
after seeing that reblog on my post saying that shaming can be good because it creates social harmony, I truly give up on this fandom/website/sharing online. we are truly on another wavelength and there’s no point being here—we are speaking an entire different language.
*if shaming facilitated social harmony, this incredibly shaming world, wouldn’t be the way it is. the delusion here is alarming, but sure, go on shaming people to “help control behavior and create social harmony”, that’s certainly working really well! we certainly don’t have people engaging in criminal and atrocious behavior that no one will ever know about to help victims specifically because of shame and the taboo shame creates. yeah, no, it’s all good in world thanks to shaming. it has definitely helped control behavior…
after seeing that reblog on my post saying that shaming can be good because it creates social harmony, I truly give up on this fandom/website/sharing online. we are truly on another wavelength and there’s no point being here—we are speaking an entire different language.
*if shaming facilitated social harmony, this incredibly shaming world, wouldn’t be the way it is. the delusion here is alarming, but sure, go on shaming people to “help control behavior and create social harmony”, that’s certainly working really well! we certainly don’t have people engaging in criminal and atrocious behavior that no one will ever know about to help victims specifically because of shame and the taboo shame creates. yeah, no, it’s all good in world thanks to shaming. it has definitely helped control behavior…
Ah yes, censorship. Because that has ever brought anything but more secrecy and danger to a variety of minorities and people considered “sick” by the common phobe. Of course.
Yea. I think we’ve been through it before? Last time I checked, shaming people for stuff literally led to idk. Raises in suicide rates, discrimination, murder—
But. Uh. Not like shaming/censorship makes stuff go underground. Of course it doesn’t. For the sake of harmony everybody will just agree to stop being whatever it is that they are. Becasue someone told them to. Isn’t that how stuff works? No? Oh well.
Mhm.
exactly. shaming actually prevents even perpetrators to seek help (if they fall on the category of those who have tendencies but are aware that they shouldn’t engage and want to fight it), so they end up engaging in things in a way they think is indirect such as online content of those things. which means they are still perpetuating it but in a way that is less risky and more secretive. shaming helps literally no one, especially because most of it is just religious indoctrination around purity and misogyny.
I really wanna know wtf was Hannibal actually doing as a psychiatrist!! They really were just having conversations. What advice did he actually give Will ? He was only analyzing him. And to think that will was never prescribed anything for his nightmares or time loss is a bit wild to me.
as I’ve said before, I would’ve personally prescribed lithium…at the very least. he could’ve benefited from it!
How do you imagine Will's wedding to Molly? Honestly I have always wondered how her family took him. I doubt they were particularly happy about Molly marrying him (considering Freddie's articles and all that)
Thanks in advance and enjoy your summer <3
Ah, what a cool question, never seen anyone talk about Molly’s family. I always say that, my take, is that Molly is neglectful and selfish as a mother and I don’t see her as this poor little girl who deserved better as the rest of the fandom’s, pardon me but, superficial perception (as in they just look at things for what they look like and roll with it without much questioning).
I made a post about that already, probably tagged as “molly”, I wrote a long ass thing here but deleted because I don’t have the patience to deal with the generalized annoying people in this fandom that misunderstand everything. So definitely check my post on molly if you want an elaboration on my take. Essentially a quick google search of Will’s name would send any responsible parent a huge sign of danger and most would rather go for precaution than “compassion”. Which wasn’t either. Molly had a savior complex and was grieving too. She used Will just as much as he used her. No one is naive, both are adults .
Molly strikes me as someone with an abrasive, extroverted, unstable, “cool” mom, and as either a middle child or older child of two other girls. Deppressed, quiet, alcoholic father who was neither here nor there.
Her escaping skills + omitted lines from the script tells us she learned how to survive for some reason.
I think she has no close family. It’s why she married Will, even with the huge and obvious risks. She’s just tossed in the world with her kid. The father’s family probably tossed both after the guy died, or else they’d be somewhat against their grandson living with someone like Will. They probably don’t care enough.
Will probably met Molly’s sister, and the mother. Mom loved him, with all of her dangling jewelry and red lipstick and boho clothes and van life lol. The sister was probably like “he’s…nice…but Mol…come on, the guy’s all over the news linked to some pretty weird stuff”.
Wedding was either city hall or an extremely simple ceremony in their cabin or some farm with like. The sister, Wally, them and the officiant.
That was some deep pattern recognition analysis based in relatively vague stuff hahaha.
No amount of professional curiosity would realistically compel someone to abandon their entire life, risk their safety, and willingly entangle themselves in criminal acts…all to remain close to a notorious killer. Just as Will’s decision to seek out Hannibal defies logic without acknowledging the pull of passion, Bedelia’s actions can’t be explained solely through rational motivations.
She herself gestures toward this deeper undercurrent when she asks Chiyoh, “How does he inspire such devotion?” It’s not a rhetorical question, it’s personal. And when she speaks to Will about Hannibal being in love with him, her voice trembles with emotion. She doesn’t emphasize you in “do you ache for him?”, she emphasizes ache, her eyes glistening, as if to suggest that she knows that ache intimately.
The implication is subtle but powerful: perhaps she does ache for Hannibal. Perhaps that ache defines her just as much as it defines Will. And within that moment lies an unspoken comparison: is Will truly more worthy of Hannibal’s love than she is?
Interestingly, Bedelia also carries much of Clarice Starling’s original narrative arc, which further supports the idea that she shares a complex, possibly romantic, attachment to Hannibal. Yet, unlike Will, Bedelia seems less inclined to name it love, perhaps because love, for her, is too human a word for what she feels.
Agreed. Why would her eyes be glistening with tears talking about Hannibal’s love for Will? That makes no sense. She was tearing up because she was, in some way, hurt. And the bitterness in her voice when she says, “If I am to be Bluebeard’s wife, I would have preferred to be the last.”
Not only does she know Hannibal has chosen Will over her, but she knows that makes her a dead woman.
The thing I realized about Bedelia as a character over time is that she’s actually a very sad character. She isolates herself from others by choice, yet seems lonely all the same. She has a need to be seen as someone or something special and it is a very specific kind of special. Even though she wasn’t the chosen one in Hannibal’s life, she keeps that lie alive not only to absolve herself of any wrongdoing and consequences, but because if she stops, she will stop being relevant and fade into obscurity. To the public and what more, Hannibal’s life narrative. And she just can’t have that.
You see her jealousy towards others who know a part of Hannibal she doesn’t know. She asks Chiyoh “Were you there?” very intently when she asks about his younger days before he became a beast. She even goes as far as to call her his “biggest mistake” as if she herself isn’t. She doesn’t want Hannibal to have anyone in his life except her, but she’s also smart enough to know she’s already lost. The next best thing she can do is hurt others, because she feels hurt. Crush them so she can feel just a little bit better and superior.
Especially Agree with that last bit. She said it herself, she’s inclined to crush the bird like she wished she could crush her own perceived weakness.
Same for Will and pretty much 99% of humans haha. We try to control the inner self by exerting control outside, especially in others who freely express what we repress or feel ashamed of.
Will says his instinct is to help the wounded animal, because by saving others he might believe himself capable of being saved
In all honesty I wholeheartedly believe that what Will couldn’t really get over and forgive was himself, and his choices that led to Mizumono. I think he grieved that mistake so profoundly that it took a permanent piece of his heart. Because at the end of the day it doesn’t matter that he was justified in his actions or whatever else. What matters is that he betrayed himself. And that betrayal led to a lot of destruction and suffering.
maybe yours isn’t sophisticated enough to know that Will’s is. but Hannibal essentially told him his family was the next on the Dragon’s list and he :) let :) them :) die :)
Will and Molly’s marriage is essentially an allegory for a lavender marriage. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a gay man marrying into a straight relationship to hide his homosexuality. And for those of you who have never watched Fellow Travelers, I highly recommend watching it.
Although lavender marriages and their dynamics differ for each couple, the most important aspect of it can keep going isn’t about whether or not the spouse cheats or even the hidden lies. It’s if they have respect for each other and that’s something Will and Molly don’t have. Molly and Will avoid conflict of any kind and don’t bring up things that irk the other. Marriages like that are unhealthy in the long run, because it means the couple is unwilling or unable to deal with conflict if and when it occurs. While Molly is committed to lies to not upset Will, Will doesn’t bring up her dead husband and keeps mum about his own past. They have a mutual unspoken pact to ignore the worst in each other to keep enjoying the best.
Will specifically is adverse to any conflicts in this marriage that the second Molly made him upset with her “criminal minds” comment, the next dream he had about was killing her. That doesn’t necessarily mean he had the urge to kill her for that comment, but it means his violent nature wanted to destroy anything or anyone who was unacceptable to it. He also expected Molly and Wally to continue to play house with him after he planned to go home as if they weren’t traumatized by almost being killed even after he admitted to Bedelia that he had already lost them.
But all of this could have continued to keep going for a little bit longer if Will took Hannibal’s advice and turned Jack away. Or could it? He was already secretly reading TattleCrime articles about the Tooth Fairy before all that happened like a teenager hiding a porno magazine and don’t even get me started on the letter. Will was never fully committed to a life that didn’t include carnage or Hannibal. If he was, he would’ve turned Jack away at the door or even burned the letter from Hannibal before even reading it. He moved away and started a new life, but he himself was always there.
actually, on that avoiding conflict thing, a tiny moment that always stuck out to me was Molly showing a small sign of frustration in the hospital then quickly saying “woah I got mad there” like it was a sin like woah the super chill cool wife who is always okay and never complains suddenly made a tiny comment after she and her child were literally almost killed. like…?? lol that really shows a lot about her and their dynamic.
That too. Anger is a natural response to trauma. Plus notice how their language changes. Will calls Molly “Your mom” when he speaks to Wally and Molly says “My son” and not “our son” when she talks about how she and Wally almost died. A parent’s priority is first and foremost to their child and she has that instinct in danger. Will doesn’t. You saw what happened with Abigail.
It was also a red flag that she kept a secret about the dogs getting poisoned. Dogs are family. When they get sick or hurt, everyone should know and be informed. But instead, she kept committing to lying about it and even encouraged her son to lie. What’s the worst that can happen? An expensive vet bill? Some dogs having diarrhea for a few days? Or was she afraid of Will doing something else because of a supposed mistake. It’s like she was walking on egg shells.
NOT healthy.
actually, I think the worst thing about the dogs was that it really shows how little they were communicating because that was common knowledge, actually Will was the one to ask the authorities to send a warning to warn them if there was anything wrong with pets matter of fact, as Molly and Wally are walking out of the vet they literally close up on a paper on the mural of that vet clinic with that FBI warning lol
and you would think that as a normal couple, they were talking every single day at least to catch up, but they were not because he didn’t even mention that to her especially because they have dogs. It’s just very very unlikely that Will didn’t even consider that his family was a target when you think about the fact that Will is extremely perceptive and intelligent, and he can predict behavior and then you consider the obviousness of the situation such as Hannibal being involved.
I feel like it’s silly to even write this because it’s so obvious that his family was a potential target that it feels ridiculous to even make this argument. people who think that will genuinely didn’t know it’s just silly at this point 
Fr, Hannibal even said it. “I’m not letting them die, Will. You are.”
This is a man that deduced cannibalism from a removed and replaced liver. That figured out that several murders with vastly different MOs were all the work of the same person with his brain melting in his skull. Hannibal was literally dropping hints long before he sent Dolarhyde after them and Will was actively ignoring them.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it against, Will was tired of playing house with his ready made family and wanted to be rid of them in a way that absolved him of both responsibility and guilt.
Will loves to manipulate the situation so that others end up doing what he can’t do himself but wants to. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Will the main puppeteer of the show…Because he fools even the audience into thinking he’s innocent, or that Hannibal is a bigger manipulator.
tarot lessons but relate it to nbc hannibal because that’s all your brain can process:
the fool: hannibal trusting will in season two can certainly be a representation of the fool. it is an exciting, marvelous feeling, to jump right in, blindly, trusting only your heart, but it has risks. but the fool is a card that tells us about intuition, too. so don’t be fooled by the fool, it might be impulsive and too optimistic but the truth always comes to him. he will eventually see things clearly. yet, even so, if the fool remains in this same state, he goes right back to hannibal in the ufizi gallery…open, trusting. the fool always manages to find the truth behind the illusion, yet it might still choose the illusion, not because it enjoys it, but because the fool believes the illusion to be a truth. the fool is a fool not because he’s stupid. he’s a fool because he refuses to look (as in the card, his eyes are looking up instead of ahead, towards his path). there’s an arrogance disguised as optimism in the fool. it cautions about lack of discernment or planning ahead.
spiritually it is the seeker taking his first step towards the abyss, convinced the journey will be rainbows and butterflies, but mostly convinced that who he truly is, is the ego.
hannibal as the fool is hannibal realizing that love changed him, and he is not who he thought he was. fortune’s fool? no, yours.
Hey Milk, first I want to say I'm so happy you are back. Love your takes on our favourite gay cannibals.
My question(s) would be your opinion the "He (Hannibal) defies categorisation" and "because it's easier they call him a monster" statements. It was by Alan, I think, in the show and Miriam said something similar in the flashback.
Also are there any things that could be pointing at a diagnosis and things that really defy categorisation?
And what of the things he does are just for show and keeping up appearance and which are "real". What I mean is how much of his for example "Oh I am the big bad scary cannibal" act he did in BSHCI was his real personality and behaviours and how much was just show? To maybe keep everyone away from his real self.
Hope you have fun and enjoy being back and don't get any hate for stating your opinion. Please keep up with your analysis, they make my day.
-🍄
Really cool question! I think they claim he defies categorization because they witness a lot of contradictions in his character. Not the typical anything, and labeling him as a psychopath would narrow it too much. It would exclude the vast potential of Hannibal Lecter. But mostly, they don’t understand him.
Are there things that could point to a diagnosis? Sure. Hannibal fits traits from several diagnoses without cleanly aligning with any single one. He shows strong features of narcissistic personality disorder like grandiosity, superiority, aesthetic perfectionism, and high-functioning psychopathy, including charm, manipulation, shallow affect, and lack of remorse. While he partially meets criteria for antisocial personality disorder, his killings are too deliberate and ritualistic to be impulsive or purely self-serving.
Sadistic personality traits are obviously evident in his enjoyment of psychological and physical domination, often enacted through refined, symbolic violence. He also displays obsessive-compulsive personality traits through meticulous control over his environment, though not driven by anxiety. Schizoid tendencies (emotional detachment and isolation) surface beneath his social performances, and his cannibalism may express a paraphilic symbolic intimacy rather than literal hunger. But yes, Hannibal is less a textbook diagnosis and more a mythic archetype: judge, predator, and trickster cloaked in civility, for whom violence is an art form and intimacy an act of consumption.
Regarding how much his prison behavior was true, I believe Hannibal was coping with the ache in the only way he knew: denial, disguising as calming acceptance and “unbothereness”.
He was most likely dying inside but not even he would open up that door in his mind palace. I think he was holding on for dear life to keep that door from bursting out. By the end, he seemed to be close to snapping, probably why Will released him, he feels Hannibal intimately and Will looked close to snapping too so they had to find a way out asap.
I swear I wanted to write something funny about how they are eyefucking BUT FFS. Hannibal looks like he’s grieving Will over again I don’t know if this face is more heartbreaking or how he looked in Mizumono.
That’s the most Will we’ve seen of Will, imo. Look at how he has a little smile. He loves their game, even if he insists he only tolerates it. He delights in their wickedness, which is precisely why none of us will ever fully understand him. Because look at him…No one will ever understand why or how could anyone find amusement or joy in something like this. Not the philosophy behind it, or the symbolism, or whatever vague, abstract concept—the literal experience.
Are you back fr?? I see you occasionally here but not as much as before, do you plan to come back fully? Miss your metas and essays
I do not, I actually plan the opposite. I gave myself some time to test the waters here, but unfortunately it seems tumblr is getting progressively worse. We can’t even disable comments, if that was possible maybe I would still share my essays. It’s not the case so I will be keeping them to myself, as I’ve always been. I have +240 of unpublished essays/metas/analysis so it could’ve been really fun, but unfortunately because it is usually more irritating than fun, I choose to just keep it to myself and close friends who are also fans. It’s sweet that some of you like the posts here, and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed and found personal meaning in them. For me it was just a place to put everything, but fandom interaction is quite hellish so it’s just not worth it.
I encourage you to screenshot the posts you like to keep because eventually this blog will get deleted (although not immediately).
I hop in sometimes to answer asks or to add unto posts I feel really called to but I have been slowly retreating again and plan to keep it that way.
I don’t think sex holds the same meaning for Will and Hannibal as it does for most people…which is why the ace vs. non-ace discourse in the fandom often feels misplaced. I don’t see them as traditionally sexual, I don’t think they experience or approach sex the way society defines it. For them, it’s just another way to collapse distance. I genuinely believe they perceive it as something like carving a wound into each other’s flesh and crawling inside…less about desire in the conventional sense and more about a desperate, feral need to dissolve the boundary between self and other.
Hello! I just wanted to say thank you. That may seem odd, but I think like 2-3ish months ago or so, I came across your posts and analyses, and I honestly love them so much. I mostly want to say thank you (and @suchawrathfullamb) for that one post y'all made on May 27th about people who shame those who write and/or consume taboo content. I will be honest, I was one of those people. And what you said about projection, was and is so true, at least for me.
I struggle with OCD, including moral OCD. My obsessions are often extremely, extremely dark and disturbing, so much so that I haven't said a single one of them (besides my more tame ones) to anyone, including those who are there to help me. Whenever I get one of these intrusive thoughts, I feel terrible, and that if I don't comply with my compulsions, then they'll become true, that I'll become a horrible, disgusting and vile person. When I saw others delving into more dead dove content, even those with OCD themselves and especially them, I always thought they were disgusting. I thought they were horrible people. I don't know how I didn't realize I was projecting there.
Your post was like a slap in the face lol, in the best way. It forced me to come to terms with my feelings. It made me uncomfortable, and then it made me question why I was so uncomfortable.
It's odd to me that I was so averse towards dead dove content/taboo works, despite dabbling into it myself. I never really fully jumped in; I only really read more gorey and violence filled fics and yandere tropes. I didn't publicly shame others for what they consumed or engaged in, but I always internally shamed them, which was also just a way of shaming myself too even though I didn't realize it, I suppose.
Anyways, again thank you and suchawrathfullamb for calling people out. It was a major wake-up call, and I don't know how long it would have taken me to come to terms with my feelings (or if ever). I still struggle with them, but I'm just glad I was able to see things in a different light. Also, I'm sorry people are so shitty on here and just everywhere in general. I hope you enjoy your time away from here and remember to take care of yourself! I wasn't here long, but I'm glad I stumbled across your blog. :D
P.S. Sorry for the shit you get from some ace people. Just know not all ace people are like that. I'm ace myself, and I personally believe Hannibal and Will were or would get it jiggy with one another LMAO.
P.S.S. I know you recently said you will be deleting your blog. This is why I decided to finally say thank you. I wanted to do it before you left. Are you comfortable with me archiving your blog on the WayBackMachine, or would you prefer for your followers to just screenshot your posts and keep them? I'll do whatever makes you feel most comfortable. :)
This is so important, thank you so much for sharing this. You have no idea how brave and self aware you are for facing this. Most people will remain on the side of shame and shaming. You give me hope in humanity. You truly, truly do. And on archiving, I’d rather you save the blog privately for yourself <3.
Oh, and about ace people, it’s not the reason I decided to slowly retreat…It’s people in general lol. I’m finding it hard to consume on social media, everything feels frustrating and exhausting to me. Lots of crazy opinions and behavior that are just sad. Anyway, tysm for sharing this, it means a lot, specially as someone in the psych field who fights for shame healing specifically!
Hi milk, I'm back with a new Hannibal question related to his trauma.
Do you think that Hannibal learned so many languages because of his mutism in his youth. Also do you think it was, conscious or unconscious.
Like a coping mechanism to overcome or overcompensate his loss of speech he is learning as many languages as possible.
Because Hannibal speaks Lithuanian, English, Italian, French. And Russian would make sense because in the soviet union Russian was mandatory in schools and I think Spanish would also make sense. And Latin and greek in form of read and translation.
-🍄
Ps: I really loved your last answer<3
Interesting question. I think it might be more related to his fear of being limited. Because we are always assuming from others what is most active inside of us, and Hannibal is constantly scheming, double playing and manipulating, I think he fears being at the end of the same acts. Well, I don’t think, by his reaction in Mizumono I think we all know he doesn’t know how to even handle being the victim of his own games. There’s also the fact that he was taught some of those languages, so he didn’t have much choice, but in terms of the ones he decided to learn, I would think it’s linked to his fear of not being able to understand something, as well as a fear of not being capable of taking care of himself/having autonomy. He lives a risky life and he had many preparations for the necessity of a escape…Speaking many languages facilitates the process a whole lot since he would be geographically limited otherwise.
Hannibal Lecter x Clarice Starling quotes used in NBC Hannibal 1/?
He looked up and saw her [Clarice] and his breath stopped in his throat. His hands stopped too, still spread above the keyboard. Harpsichord notes do not carry, and in the sudden quiet of the drawing room, they both heard him take his next breath.
“If I saw you every day, forever, I’d remember this time.” His dark eyes held her whole.
- Hannibal by Thomas Harris
This essentially meaning that seeing Will, to him, was such an intense experience, that he would always hold on to that moment…That moment when he saw him after missing him, craving him, being starved by his absence…This makes me a little wild ngl.
Milk what do you interpret Will's line "I've never known myself as well as I know myself when I'm with him"?
Contrast. He knows what he is by witnessing what he is not. At that point Will was still fighting his nature, remember that he did try to kill Hannibal/rejected him again. It’s comfortable for Will to be with Hannibal because he can always compare his own darkness to Hannibal’s and at that point, Hannibal’s seemed darker. Will does that all the time, actually: define himself by association (whether better or worse than what he thinks he is).
As much as I love Hannigram I think Margot and Alana are really overlooked by the fandom.
Endgame healthy lesbian relationship with a beautiful happy ending. One of them helped the other kill her abuser. Two beautiful femmes. A gorgeous kaleidoscope sex scene. No homophobic treatment from other characters. Truly god tier ship and yet I never hear about them in the fandom spaces
You don’t hear about them in the fandom spaces because either the acting, the writing or/and the directing did this relationship a disservice. We don’t care about them because the show didn’t care about developing their bond. They showed no chemistry whatsoever, they behaved like strangers who fucked, had no actual romantic moments or ANY moments that endeared them to us. It was lazy, random and most of the audience felt ???? about the relationship. Yada yada, they suck and it’s a shame because they had so much potential.
Their scenes were so dry and flat, the relationship sort of fell out of nowhere, no development, and there’s no excuse related to the timeline, they just lazily tried to fix Alana by making her a lesbian. Could’ve been great, instead it was just random and meh. But then again, it was written by a cis male who wrote all women in that show as empty vessels for the male characters plots.
Besides Mason, who do you think was the worse character? xx
I’m guessing you mean in terms of personality, since you mentioned Mason. If I’m being honest, I think Mason is a lazy excuse for a villain. They made him the perpetrator of the most vile act, and that was it. He served the sole purpose of making Hannibal look like the lesser evil, and I think that’s just lazy writing. Your question proves it, “besides Mason”, it’s always “besides Mason.”
He’s the default pick for worst character, and to me, that just highlights how poor the narrative is in this regard.
You’re not writing compelling villains when you make the choice that obvious. You’re not elevating your main villain; you’re simply tossing in someone worse to automatically make him look better by comparison.
Anyway…yes, still. Because that’s how the show intended it. Mason is the worst. But besides him, I’d say Jack Crawford or Alana Bloom. As Will himself puts it: I prefer sins of omission to outright lies. Even in real life, I’d rather deal with a bad person who doesn’t hide behind morals than someone so entrenched in their righteous ego that they manipulate everyone and everything just to preserve their image of moral superiority.
Those are the most dangerous people. You can’t trust what you see or hear from them. Alana and Jack aren’t “vile” like Hannibal, or Mason, or that social worker guy, but at least those people are obvious in their vileness. Alana and Jack disturb me more because they present themselves as heroes while hiding behind a mask of virtue.
But sure, in terms of sheer disgustingness, the social worker probably wins that one.
i don’t understand when people talk about “cannibalism as a metaphor for love” in reference to nbc hannibal because like. in the context of the show it’s cannibalism as a metaphor for nom nom nom i so hungry
Then you don’t understand the core of the show. Hannibal himself states that he doesn’t not see what he does as cannibalism, as this requires him and his victims to be equals. It is love when it comes to Mischa, or Will, because he does see them as equals, and consumes them to assimilate them into him.
At the very core of Will’s heart, he’s a rescuer. And in the deepest recesses of Hannibal’s, he is quietly, desperately, begging to be rescued.
Hannibal might’ve fooled most with his devil-may-care charm and the way he moved through life like it was a lavish buffet of indulgence. But for a man of his status, wealth, and control to give all of that up, to be locked away indefinitely, with no guarantee of release, and a real possibility of dying in prison, it really pronounces his desperation. Especially when he himself rejected the insanity plea designed to save his life. That’s not a man who clings to survival. That’s a man who no longer sees a reason to live.
When Will pointed a gun at him after getting out of prison, Hannibal didn’t resist. He was more than capable of defending himself, we’ve seen it. And he made his home easily accessible, which is strange considering who and what he was. But it’s in those very details that we glimpse Hannibal’s disregard for his own life. A loneliness so cavernous it creates an absence inside him, a constant echo that reminds him he doesn’t matter.
His “person suit” didn’t just conceal his crimes, it also curated admiration. He didn’t have real friends or lovers, but he had colleagues, peers, the occasional dates. People who admired his mind, his refinement. People like Alana, who reflected back to him a version of himself that was “loved”, or at least respected. That mattered. Hannibal will keep you alive if you show him you care. Or at least, he’ll let you live longer. He cannot help but respond to displays of care.
Will never understood how Bedelia survived him. But she saw him, and she chose not to shoot. More than that, she left with him, when he was most vulnerable. She stayed. She bathed him as he mourned that gaping wound in his chest. No wonder he spared her.
Will is always trying to save someone…Francis, Abigail, every stray dog, and ultimately, Hannibal. He can’t crush the wounded bird. He has to try and help it. And across their entire relationship, there’s this silent scream that bleeds out of Hannibal: Am I worth saving? Say yes, and I’ll leave this life behind.
Hannibal wants to be accepted for who he is, or rather, who he imagines himself to be. But deeper than that, he craves a love vast enough to naturally heal what’s broken in him. It’s not about becoming “good” or “redeemed” in any moral sense. It’s about the redemption of his soul. Of his hollow, ravenous heart.
No wonder he threw his life away for Will.
Like a fallen angel with shattered wings, cast from heaven’s gate, Hannibal falls into a world where love must be earned through performance. And so he wears the mask: cultured, brilliant, gracious, feeding on affection like a single grain of rice: enough to survive, never enough to feel full.
He drifts through circles of counterfeit care, clinging to these delicate illusions of connection. Until he glimpses the possibility of being loved not for the mask, but for the monstrous self beneath it. Not in Will, not yet, but in Tobias, in Bedelia, in all the others he lured close like moths to a flame. And yet, none stirred his heart. They admired him. They feared him. They saw the elegance of his darkness, and perhaps even loved it…but none were his equal. Their love rang hollow, because he did not believe they were worthy to offer it.
Their affection could never redeem him.
Only the love of a man who sees straight through his soul, because it mirrors his own. Only a man whose instincts match his, yet who still chooses tenderness over cruelty. Only a man like Will. Not those drawn to him for thrill or danger or the reflection of their own vanity, but the lamb-hearted creature who wandered too close to the wolf’s den. Will alone was pure enough to cleanse him. Not through goodness, not through morality, but through recognition.
And as Hannibal silently begs, am I worth saving?, Will remains blind to the nature of his own grace. He cannot fathom how someone like him could inspire devotion from something like Hannibal. His own fractured worth keeps him from seeing the most radiant truth: that a creature called monster could love him like an angel.
In the end, Will did not save Hannibal. He loved him back.
He washed his sins away in blood, and chose to descend with him into hell.
I think the reason I’m not into murder family is because I don’t project much into Abigail so I can see the character in a more objective way and. That poor girl did not see those men as daddies, specially Will, and she wanted nothing more than to survive. The show loved playing into an erotization of her relationship with Hannibal (all that touching, grabbing, hugging from behind…super fucking weird when you consider she’s some nineteen year old girl and he’s literally some old dude lol) but unlike some fans I don’t pretend that didn’t happen and put on a pure-love front with it lol
Had Mads been an unattractive person those fans would’ve reacted much differently haha. I’m not into murder family, either. But probably because I see myself in Abigail and I can see just how forced and uncomfortable and absolutely dreadful that reality would be.
The relationship between Hannibal and Abigail is inappropriate…no matter how it’s rationalized through manipulation, trauma bonding, survival instincts, or the aesthetics of found family. At the end of the day, Abigail is a teenager. Hannibal is an adult man, a murderer, a stranger to her when they first meet, and someone who remains largely unknowable throughout. Their bond is not grounded in time, mutual development, or safety. It’s grounded in violence, coercion, and projection.
Much of the fandom’s framing of their dynamic as “sweet,” “cute,” or father-daughter-esque slides into the territory of aestheticized kink whether intentionally or not (which is fine when you don’t pretend otherwise and get offended by those who are open and shameless about it). It’s one thing to believe in a world where paternal closeness and physical affection are not automatically sexual, yes, in an ideal reality, a man hugging a girl doesn’t have to carry weight. But this isn’t that ideal. This is Hannibal Lecter. The context matters. The characters matter. And he is not a neutral, healthy father figure.
The insistence on reading Hannibal as someone capable of manipulation, murder, mutilation, and ritualistic orchestration of trauma…but somehow too morally pure or psychologically stainless to ever harbor even a trace of inappropriate desire is delusional. He is not sanctified. He’s a sadist with a long, complex history of obsession, incestuous undertones, and boundary violation. His relationship with Mischa, or more accurately, with the imago of Mischa, is clearly entangled with eroticism, loss, and fantasy. His backstory includes a sexual relationship with his aunt. These are not footnotes, they are central to his pathology.
To then take that same man and say, “Yes, but with Abigail, it was pure,” is a selective fantasy. It flattens the entire narrative into something safe, digestible, and disingenuous. No, he may not rape her, because, frankly, Hannibal doesn’t find that type of violence aesthetically pleasing, but that doesn’t mean his feelings toward her are clean. The suggestion that Hannibal is somehow immune to unconscious, boundary-blurring attraction toward the girl he positions as his “daughter,” who also happens to be a stand-in for his sister and a bond to Will, is simply not supported by canon. His obsessions are never neutral. They are possessive, totalizing, and always contaminated by desire, whether intellectual, emotional, or erotic.
This isn’t a moral judgment. It’s a recognition of pattern and character integrity. The discomfort should be there. It was written to be. To sanitize that for the sake of a soft, aesthetic father-daughter fantasy is to deliberately misread the story and neuter its psychological complexity.
And because most here lack nuance: if you do it for fun, for fanfiction etc, this is obviously not about you. It’s about those who do this, yet shame those who do it without pretending it’s something pure.
