I can't imagine Will being affectionate with Hannibal in a way that isn't a heat of the moment thing like in the finale. Hannibal maimed him through affection...What is your view on this?
It’s true Will would tread cautiously around Hannibal’s affection, for it has been woven with pain. Hannibal has bound love and suffering so tightly together that unraveling them would demand immense effort from both of them. It is unlikely, perhaps even impossible, for two men like them to sever that bond completely.
But they are not creatures of purity, nor do they seek it. Violence is not a specter looming over them but a current running through their very being, a force as intimate as a lover’s touch. They have long since intertwined pleasure and pain, finding eroticism where others only see fear. To strip them of this, to force them into some redemption arc of salvation and purification, would be to deny the essence of their existence, to betray their story.
The truest path for them is not to resist but to surrender. To embrace pain and pleasure without hesitation, to wield fear not as a weapon against themselves but as an instrument of heightened sensation. They are the holy profane, sacred in their impurity.
And yes, Hannibal maimed Will, but I believe he would say “I was only trying to reach you,” and Will knows.