Thinking about how Hannibal has weaponised everything he has ever learned. Art? He recreates art through corpses as il mostro. Surgery? He uses it to butcher. Culinary skills? He cooks people-meat to his liking. Psychiatry? He learns his clients’ most vulnerable problems and uses it to manipulate them into murderers. It’s in his nature; as though handing him book would turn it into a bludgeoning stone. Everything Hannibal Lecter experiences becomes a blunt instrument to his merciless gaiety.
Are there Hannigram fics where Hannigram dance? Please do recommend
The contrast between “person-veil” Hannibal who shouts, “HE HAS A GUN, JAAACKK!!!” In a panicked, wobbly voice when Matthew Brown has him cornered vs. “Nothing-left-to-hide” bare skin Hannibal taking Mason’s knife in his thigh like a champ and later talking shit immediately after getting shot by Dolarhyde whilst laying stylishly on the floor (instead of collapsing in shock like a normal person) is so sinister and delicious I really don’t know how to explain it. My man is a psychopath for real??? He’s playing games??? That condescending “You’ve got everything figured out” to Mason right after Cordell tells Hannibal how he was going to cook him. Hannibal Lecter is so unabashedly unafraid of literally any person in that show it’s not even funny…
I headcanon Will eating pretty healthily. I mean, his arms??? Anyway, I noticed in his kitchen a basket of fresh fruits (the bananas were yellow! DESPITE him being sick!) and a fluffy loaf of bread. Despite it being an encephalitis-induced fever dream, he seemed pretty confident with that fish on his chopping board. He looks like he takes proper care of himself. I mean, if I lived in the middle of nowhere with 7 dogs all of whom are dependent on me, I’d also take care of myself. Plus, Will comes off to me as a person who’s self-dependent not because “I will walk to the hospital when I get a heart attack shut up I’m masculine”, rather he’s just a very put-together person with various perfected life skills who is able to maintain his privacy because he’s mastered self-reliance.
Kind of like a casual mirror to Hannibal himself. Hannibal likes to hide his talents for nefarious reasons, meanwhile Will is quiet because it’s none of anybody’s business what he does.
“I would have liked to show you Florence, Will”
Hannibal wanting to show his favourite city to his favourite person ok romeo feed him the brain flavouring soup already
I really like how Will never feels safe with Hannibal. He’s not comfortable, he doesn’t trust him. But he still gravitates towards him, acknowledging with absolute clarity the risk this may pose to him. Ultimately, Will just likes Hannibal. He likes talking to him, he understands the rules Hannibal works with, he rebels against him, he fights him, he admires him and he is very, very, very fond of him. Hannibal is a piece of him. And he’s a piece of Hannibal. I really like how the unhealthy nature of their relationship co-exists with a stark, clear intelligence and affection, like oil and water. They both have power in their interactions, after s1. They both influence each other and they both love each other. They’re a binary star, simply no one else compares.
I like to think of Will’s imagination as a magician’s hat. No one knows what he will pull out next, including himself. He fears what he ‘might’ be capable of.
Will can conjure up rationales from looking at the evidence at crime scenes, and these ideas are his in the way that he is capable of thinking them. He is capable of thinking that a musician’s neck and torso can be splayed apart to build an instrument — so that he can create a novel sound. “Had to open you up to get a decent sound out of you.” This is not an idea that people’s minds typically flirt with.
Yes he is interpreting from the images and facts available to him. But the fact remains that his mind can even *go* there. I think this is what Will is scared of — he doesn’t know where his mind will go next.
Still, Will is the one holding the hat. He is in control of himself and he prides himself in knowing what is “him” and what is “other”. So when he were sleep-walking, hallucinating, losing time, he doesn’t *know* what his mind’s doing while he’s unaware. He is driven crazy with fear, which only makes him more susceptible to Hannibal’s manipulations. Hannibal reiterates that Will doesn’t know who he is. Will is not sure if he’s still holding the hat, or has the hat toppled down and something monstrous creeped out?
I really like this tug of war inside his mind, portrayed by palpable music that makes one feel lonely. His rage when he finds out what Hannibal did to him is heartbreaking and righteous. Hannibal broke down a man, pulled meat from bone and said “I was curious to see what you would do.” He’s really such a bastard.
What’s with the assumption that Will had a shitty childhood? Of course no one said he didn’t, but no one said he did. I like that it’s up to our interpretation but I’d also like to see childhood stories that aren’t sob stories or clichès. Like, idk, perhaps the kids loved him because he could make up fantastical stories for them in the playground. We always see his imagination going 1 way, we don’t talk about how magical his world could be when it goes the other way. Surely, he didn’t grow up profiling murderers.
Maybe his aversion for people started after he joined the police force and being around crime all day. He grew socially fatigued. Adulthood brought the realisation that people suck. The world isn’t rainbows and sunshine. But dogs are great!
Remember when Hannibal took the witness stand for the murders HE committed? If men have one thing it’s audacity
I think what it means for Will to be “just like Hannibal” isn’t particularly that he has to become a mini Hannibal, rather it’s more blatant and perverted in that, Hannibal wants Will to kill and eat a human being, just like him.
This is basically like the rest of us sharing our favourite show/book with our friend hoping desperately that they’ll be into it too. Excluding the existential philosophical rants and psychic driving and framing them for the murders YOU committed, of course.
Beverly is the wingman bestie in fic, in the show, I found her to be quite skeptical, pragmatic, and guarded. Pair that with how incredibly private Will is, in my mind, these 2 were always “almost friends”. She pointedly never opens up even as she lends Will her shoulder (though she does offer him the potential of friendship!!!!), and Will’s problems are the kind only Hannibal Lecter can accept the burden of. I mean, Will was saying “I’m fine” to everyone while simultaneously telling Hannibal how he felt like he was killing these victims whose murders he was investigating. The points at which they intersect, I think, are: 1. They actually like each other 2. They both get tunnel vision when they’re looking for the truth (the killer) and 3. They find each other capable and are good colleagues.
I really like how aspects of their personality kind of cockblock their friendship, yet their natural compatibility allows them to have this great vibe of acceptance. I’m really not sure Beverly would have ever been able to digest the fact that Will feels drawn to someone like Hannibal like Alana did. That would have gotten real ugly.
Fem-sapphic Hannigram and it’s Will with pixie hair because she can’t be bothered to take care of her curls and Hannibal with shiny, sandalwood-scented, blow dried waves any day of the week. Will in jail with her hair grown in every single direction, resisting gravity, looking like a puppy and Hannibal, entertained, pursing her lips so she doesn’t smile each time she visits. Will wears red lipstick once in her trap-Hannibal-salmon-shirt era during a session and Hannibal is very, very pleased and amused, and quite curious. Will trying on Hannibal’s high heels then complaining about scraped ankles. Will who steals a pair of Hannibal’s gold and pearl earrings to keep with her as a memento. Hannibal who allows Will to button her shirt which opens in the back. Hannibal who steals Will’s red lipstick and wears it in Florence while Will is recuperating in the hospital from her gutting after Mizumono.
Fem-sapphic Hannigram and it’s Will with pixie hair because she can’t be bothered to take care of her curls and Hannibal with shiny, sandalwood-scented, blow dried waves any day of the week. Will in jail with her hair grown in every single direction, resisting gravity, looking like a puppy and Hannibal, entertained, pursing her lips so she doesn’t smile each time she visits. Will wears red lipstick once in her trap-Hannibal-salmon-shirt era during a session and Hannibal is very, very pleased and amused, and quite curious. Will trying on Hannibal’s high heels then complaining about scraped ankles. Will who steals a pair of Hannibal’s gold and pearl earrings to keep with her as a memento. Hannibal who allows Will to button her shirt which opens in the back. Hannibal who steals Will’s red lipstick and wears it in Florence while Will is recuperating in the hospital from her gutting after Mizumono.
GUYS!!
While his general mistrust in people isn’t healthy, Will was right to not trust Hannibal. But then in Hannibal’s manipulations, Will ends up trusting him so much, and it eventually leads to his ruin. It isn’t Will’s fault for trusting someone, not at all! It just seems terribly funny in hindsight. He’s shaking in Chilton’s chair telling him how Hannibal drugged him to induce seizures and it’s all so Frankenstein’s monster-esque. It’s sooooo horrible to have that be done to you by a medical professional you entrusted your body to. Will never asked for this to happen to him, but it did.
Personally, just like Bryan and Mads have said, I don’t think nbc’s Hannibal “became” what he is because he was traumatised by Mischa’s death. He was born that way. Re: when Will tells Jack his opinion on the Chesapeake Ripper - he thinks the Ripper is one of those unfortunate things born in hospitals, dressed like other babies even though he was born sick and dying - but he doesn’t die. He resists death. He walks out of the hospital looking like any other typical baby. Yet he has a unique sickness within - seized and still festering. And then with Bedelia, in Florence, he tells her how Mischa momentarily “influenced” him to abandon his nature and love someone - love her. Like how Will “influences” Hannibal to love him. I don’t like the concept of Hannibal having trauma - I believe he is incapable of such human injuries, and I think it takes away from what makes him truly frightening - his deep empathy and his ability to act despite it. His power and control. Associating ptsd with Hannibal just makes him so banal to me, and the opposite of this is what makes me feel charmed by his character.
I LOVE how Will isn’t picky with whatever Hannibal feeds him, the meat being human not withstanding. He eats the protein scramble and thanks him, he eats the Silkie chicken soup. He eats the fish dish that has the tail going into the mouth. He eats the Ortolan, of course, he is trying to catch Hannibal in this case. My point being!! Will doesn’t eat any of these foods like he’s on Man vs. Wild and he is starving with no other choice. Most of these dishes are clearly foreign to him, complicated by the way Hannibal describes them, but Will always accepts them graciously, simply, and with respect, and he thanks Hannibal. There is a certain humility in him when it comes to being offered food; Will respects the act itself. That someone put in the effort and made him something, so he will accept it kindly. He isn’t difficult about it. At least with Hannibal - we haven’t seen anyone else make him things. It could also just be that he can read how prideful and poised Hannibal is and understands the gravity of an act of service from him. But I just really adore it.
Hannibal eating Beverly’s kidneys paired with a cracker (graham cracker?) shaped like Will’s mask - photos of which Freddie Lounds took and assumedly released that afternoon - is so disturbing. That contended little smile after a bite? He is a fucking sadist in the truest form.
I adore how Hannibal was all “You thought you could change me *baby crying noises*” in Mizumono and then once he properly digested the concept that Will had, in fact, influenced him to change, he tried to eat his brain because Will wouldn’t let Hannibal have him any other way. And then when that failed and Will refused Hannibal entirely in that, he no longer “hated” Hannibal or felt angry at him, rather he decided to be indifferent, Hannibal rolled over, kneeled and surrendered. How pathetic can this man get. Is Mr. Lion here in the room with us??? (I mean, of course, yes, he made everyone dance to his tune even in prison and his bet ultimately paid off like he had anticipated, but I love the stages of sad, loser lover his Romeo ass goes through.)
I like how Will complains to both Hannibal and Jack about Hannibal’s pointless polite veneer and expresses his veiled disdain for Hannibal’s rationalisations for killing, re: free range rude, yet he STILL follows Hannibal. He is STILL enamoured. My man is just so Silly!
The contrast of Hannibal who lives with extreme self-centered joy and exuberance against Will Graham whose only happiness comes from fishing which he does once in the entire show with Jack (as they plot Hannibal’s downfall, btw) is so unnecessarily delicious. Of course the man-eater is the child on christmas morning while the man appointed to catch him has dark circles and obtains leech-like trauma just from looking at one crime scene of his.
“You know Will, you worry too much” YEAH and you are not helping. Stop rubbing it in😭
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind but it’s me purging my brain of my favourite shows and books so that I can re-experience them for the very first time.
Even when he’s feeding Gideon his own leg, Hannibal is so charming it’s hard for me to be completely horrified. It makes so much sense that he’s been able to manipulate so many people, intelligent people, because he’s just so charismatic.
Good Omens-flavoured Hannibal, but Will’s the demon defying wrong conventions and is faced with prejudice while Hannibal’s the good angel pretending to believe in the ineffable plan for shits and giggles
Crowley regarding Aziraphale: Angel (affectionate)
Will regarding Hannibal: Angel (derogatory)
Character development is Hannibal momentarily debating murdering Will when he discovers that it was Abigail who killed Nick Boyle vs. him surrendering pathetically when Will rejects him in season 3. Man said, I’m on my knees, here with my boombox. Will, won’t you please marry me? I’m in JAIL if you want to find me ;’)