The motive behind Hannibal eating people is inconsistent, right? He says to eat the rude, but he also eats people who he feels possessive over, like Bedelia, he wants to eat Alana, likewise, and in his desperation, he wanted to eat Will. This is his expression of self. Love is expressed through consumption, contempt is expressed through consumption. He needs an excuse to kill and eat someone; this is who he is specifically — this is how he ticks. But the most fascinating aspect about Hannibal is that he can stop at any time. He can say, “I will never eat anyone from this day onwards” and he can keep that promise. Because what is extraordinary about Hannibal, what is unique about him — is his self-control. He is, at any moment, faithful to who he thinks he is. If he thinks he wants to kill, he will. If he thinks he wants to nurture, he does. He is only truthful and loyal to himself. And his motives, they are riddled with entropy, and he enjoys the volatility that circumstances cause.
This isn’t all a spiel to say that he is going to abandon himself for the sake of another — in fact, what I’m saying is the exact opposite — and therefore it is what makes his interactions with Will so exhilarating. What he wants has changed in his association with Will, yet his ego still triumps in their every interaction because it is still something he wants. Perhaps his love is selfless, in that he is sacrificing aspects of his life, rather, compromising (but Hannibal doesn’t compromise, so it is a sacrifice), to elevate Will — to purify Will, because he has gradually come to love Will and doesn’t want him to suffer with indecision not for the sake of objective aesthetic, or to validate his philosophy of life and death and beauty, but it’s that he cannot sever himself from Will anymore and therefore has ended up (softly) needing Will to be okay with his inherent cruelty. He has to bring out his beloved’s true potential. This is love. (edit: also, decidedly, for objective aesthetic. Perhaps Hannibal is triumphed in Will’s becoming, even if it means that Hannibal dies, and this, to him, isn’t entirely unacceptable, as well as it is egotistical)
Hannibal is, in essence, playing the game for entirely different stakes. He is someone who enjoys life so much that one simply cannot defeat him. Cannot Kill him. Cannot make him feel the defeat in death. I think Will realises this more than anybody, and that in itself should make him feel defeated.
Does Hannibal like or dislike Will’s doggy friends? I like to think he’s indifferent.
Ugh hannigram Hades and Persephone let’s go… I’ll just write it wait
Will’s awkward flirting with Alana was so cute, he should try that with Hannibal some time and see what happens
Context: Teenaged Hannigram in a private school somewhere, and Will has skipped class after feigning stomach pains, a healing injury from last week where he beat up a classmate for misconduct. This is his first day back after suspension after that, and he has decided to idle away in the infirmary, lying on an empty bed. Hannibal Lecter joins him then, someone Will has always only glanced at from afar; curious but not willing to become friendly with a guy that smug and suspicious.
Imagine you meet this genius, surly, beautiful man, and you kind of indirectly ruined his life in the first week by putting him in a situation where he was forced to take a life leaving the victim’s daughter an orphan. Now you’re like, hey, this guy thinks like no one else, and he’s properly traumatized, let’s mess with him a bit. Voila! He’s in your office for therapy. You gleefully rub your hands, sit down, and he tells you he has 7 dogs. 7 dogs? 7 dogs. Why do you have 7 dogs? Turns out he resques them. 7? Ok.
Whenever I see gifs/pics of the episode “dolce” a tiny voice in my head always goes “…and gabbana”
Want to read Symbasis so bad but I know nothing about 332 bce europe and can’t put anything into context
When Hannibal gets shot by Dolarhyde, he has the same expression on his face as that of a parent in a backyard birthday party for their 5 year old and gets run over by a child with cake in their hands, ruining their $$$$ dry cleaned dress. Like, SIGH, I’m tired from work and I have to socialize with the boring parents of my son’s classmates, and UGH, (rolling eyes skyward)
I like to think Hannibal perfected his persona in his mid-late 20s. So if Will met the child version of Hannibal he’d get the ick but not know why. Like something is off about this kid; there is evil motivating his intelligence or is he evil because he’s intelligent—? And Will would have a hard time digesting such an entity as he’d simultaneously be drawn to him both out of kindness and fear.
The thing about Hannigram is that Will cannot trust Hannibal; in fact no one can trust Hannibal. But the best part is that Hannibal cannot trust Will either and that’s just so. Fun.
It’s so nice how in aperitif, Will gives Hannibal these quick up-down up-down looks while Hannibal gives Will lingering looks. Both are assessing, but in different shades.
You know, the thing about how Hannibal is told from Will’s perspective is so interesting because we get insight into Will’s thoughts more intimately than anybody else. Jack says “You make jumps you can’t explain” and Will responds “The evidence explains” and then we see him in Elise Nichols’ house and he’s facing the mantle contemplating something. He then asks about the cat, and draws the conclusion that since the cat wasn’t erratic with hunger, someone must have fed it — most likely Elise. This makes sense. We aren’t necessarily in his point of view here but to us, this makes sense and we’re still “with” him. Then we move into the scene in the forensics lab where Will visualises Elise being impaled and hung upon antlers. It is an extension of his dream, of him probably going through all the different patterns by which Elise could have gotten those exact penetration wounds — but then he still has to question why. Why was she hung on antlers if she was? An offering? A sacrifice? Was she bled? Why? Her liver has been taken and sewn back in. Why? She has liver cancer. He bled her like an animal + nothing of the victims has been ever found + he put the organs back because he couldn’t “use” them = “Yeah, he’s eating them.” But the sassy science team only hears “Yeah, he’s eating them.” And we go back to Jack saying “You make jumps you can’t explain” and Will, “The evidence explains” and it’s just Will being so incredibly intuitive and sharp and so damn good at his job it’s insane.
I love how the entire episode of s1e3 is just Abigail putting all of her best acting skills on display, Mr. Untrustworthy-of-everybody-until-proven-innocent Will Graham exclusively being trustworthy of her and buying it at a discounted discount, and in the background, there’s Hannibal giving her the side-eye at every dramatic exhalation of “Oh my god, my dad was crazy? I had no idea!”
JACK NAGGING AT WILL about his suspicions of Abigail being an accomplice (he’s right btw!) and Will refusing to meet his eyes and instead demurely turning his cheek to face Hannibal for support, going “Well she SAID she didn’t do it…” Has the same energy as a dog owner trying to get an unidentified object from their dog’s stubborn mouth. Like, “Come on Will, listen to me, spit it out!” And Will the dog feigning frustrating ignorance in retaliation.
The thread flowing through “Ouef” is so nice. Starting out, Will confessess that he likes to leave the lights on in his house in the dark and look at it from afar so that it resembles a boat, and that this image comforts him. We then accompany Hannibal as he snoops around Will’s home. There is a spotlight shone on Hannibal finishing tying Will’s incomplete fishing lure. In the therapy session following this, Will tells Hannibal that his father was a fisherman/mechanic of boat mortors and he spent his childhood moving from one body of water to the next. They were poor. Will was forced to adjust to changing environments. Next, Hannibal and Jack are eating dinner. Hannibal tells Jack that Will finds this case to be specifically trying due to the nature of it involving kids, and that Will finds comfort in the “simpler days in the boatyard with dad” and that these memories anchor him as an adult (re: home filled with fishing gear). That this childhood memory is tainted is difficult for Will’s sensibilities to carry. “He needs an anchor, Jack.” Next scene, Will discovers another family gone, this time the child is found with them, and he compulsively buys a present for Abigail. What is the present? Fishing lure kit. We go back to Will’s “anchor”, the memories of learning fishing from dad and his desperation to hold onto them amidst such terrible violence corroding his innocence in his present life.
He realises how wildly inappropriate it is for him to approach Abigail in this way and holds himself back, of course, to the visible disappointment of Hannibal who is maneuvering a connection between himself, Will, and Abigail so as to baby trap Will throughout the episode. So much about Will can be discovered upon observation and it is scary to know that Hannibal is so keen as to immediately be able understand it and try to take advantage of it.
The writing really treated Will’s mental space so neatly because the average person dealing with mental illness is intelligent, empathetic, and ambitious. But there is a constant heavy burden of what it inside you; that you are going crazy and that it all feels like a fever dream. The world is going at a normal pace but you’re burning up all your engines and are on the threat of running empty even though there are things still needing to be done. Mental health disorders often come with anticipation of bad things happening and it’s very difficult to reconcile with these fears. Will is manipulated into believing he is something he is not — losing control of himself and his actions. He is losing time, he is unable to think properly, he is hallucinating; the lines are blurring and that is insanely scary. He is in overdrive. And it is handled with such delicacy and care for his humanity.
I like to imagine that Chilton is the modern day’s Sigmund Frued.
Hannibal is empathetic; he understands the pain of his victims and steals their organs pre-mortem, perhaps because he wants them to hurt or maybe he is indifferent to their pain. He is very specific about it though, it is his M.O. so I lean towards the former. But when he tries to eat Will’s brain, he has him high as a kite. There is nothing to gain from Will’s pain; he just wants Will so badly that he is going insane. He doesn’t hate him, Will is not his victim. Will is someone he must consume somehow. There is no other way.
AAAAA ok so in s1e6 Sorbet, Will is reconstructing the crime scene in the hotel room. He enters the room and abruptly, the ravenstag appears and steps into the bathroom in front of him. Will looks slightly startled — this is because his encephalitis is gaining speed and the barriers in his mind are crumbling. It’s so creepy and cool. He is associating one thing with another irrelevant thing from the past and it’s such a great visual way to express that Will is gently losing his mind.
