Hi 👋 I’m contributing to the Hannigram Bloodlust zine as an author!!
Hi 👋 I’m contributing to the Hannigram Bloodlust zine as an author!!
If Will came to Hannibal for therapy after being abused by another person, Hannibal would have coached him to kill that person as part of his therapy. The reality is that Hannibal is the perpetrator of violence in Will’s life, and so if he was loyal to his ideals, he must guide Will to kill him. But he doesn’t want to die—and there lies the conundrum. On the one hand, he’s urging Margot to kill Mason. It’s good for recovery. He must urge Will to kill Hannibal himself, but he doesn’t do it fully. Instead he understands Will’s desire to kill him and asks him to draw from it. Imagine doing it. How will you do it—with your hands? Close your eyes and imagine righting a wrong. Come on, do it. Do it do it do it. Now hone that thought, sharpen its teeth. Push it into someone else’s guts. And it’s seduction right? He’s essentially playing with a blade, pressing it into his thumb just so it breaks skin but doesn’t draw blood. Hannibal’s mind is flexible, plastic, and I think this is such a good instance of showcasing his fluidity and selfishness and spontaneity. I really think he wouldn’t have minded if Will came to kill him. He’d still adore him. But because it was betrayal instead, he reacts so badly in Mizumono.
No—it is so interesting. Will has remained consistent all his life until season 1 episode 1. He used to work in homicide; he was compelled to quit because he couldn’t kill someone. Couldn’t live with the consequences of being haunted by a ghost. Couldn’t pass the FBI screening test and chose to become a lecturer instead. Contributing to his field in this way. In Aperitif, Hannibal inadvertently corners Will into killing Hobbs. Well, Will could have chosen not to. Maybe there was no choice. Maybe that is how entropy works (and I love thinking about Hannibal like this instead of in terms of good or evil)—and… And we get our main character Will Graham who changes in episode 1. We meet a man and are forced to witness his life’s metamorphosis together with him, and that is the beginning of the story. This is where we start. That is SUCH good writing. Such a fascinating idea. Executed so well. I really do love it.
Mizumono carnage starting in Hannibal’s kitchen (the stomach of the house—most hungry; furniture most resembling a morgue or a lab; with cooking knives and secreted away human meat) and spills into the pantry, then the dining room where the food is served (Will and Abigail bleeding into the floor) before he walks outside and lets the rain “wash away” the immediate past to rebuild his persona—is so poetic given who Hannibal is (a cannibal). His true self begins in the kitchen and ends when he leaves his home. A rebirth, almost. Then he cocoons himself again.
I love how macabre Hannibal (the show) is. Hannibal kills Anthony and we’re like wow, that’s horrible, and he’s in the train with an origami heart in his hands which is compared than to Anthony’s body that’s been mutilated into a heart, and we’re once again like, hey, that’s horrible. But Hannibal himself isn’t celebrating his “art installation” nor is he reminiscing about Anthony—he’s actually in his feels thinking about Will. Like he’s such a selfish self-centered bastard. I bet he forgot about Anthony the moment he was done with him. He is currently deep in his own pathos with his head full of Will Graham Will Graham Will Graham. What is the value of a life to him? Certainly the audience and him are misaligned. I love that difference between us. He’s so funny.
I really liked the nycc’s panel! The Boston panel was hard to watch for me so I was bracing myself against this hostess but she did so well. It’s hard to come up with new questions sifting through 3 seasons after nearly a decade’s time, and keeping that in mind, I think the questions were good. In contrast I thought the questions at the Boston panel were very out of touch, especially the fan questions. This time around, I enjoyed it a lot!
This is Hannibal’s vibe to me: if Will declared he’d catch Hannibal, season 1’s Hannibal would slyly smile and think, “As if.”
Season 3’s Hannibal, though, wearing a leather jacket and frayed bangs and leaning over to catch Will’s attention, smiles happily and goes, “Catch me then.”
Can’t believe Will lets his psychiatrist friends have a look at his living room that has a bed in it. He’s like “fuck you” and I love that. Never once is he self-conscious about it. In fact he is so audaciously comfortable he breaks up with Hannibal while lounging on it and trap him. No he really looked at all of Hannibal’s ostentatiousness and said “can you drive 2 hours to my farmhouse and feed my dogs, btw, my bedroom is my living room as well and I don’t care how that comes across to you. Just feed them. Tnx.”
The contrast between how dangerous Hannibal is and how demure Will is in comparison to him drives me insane. Hannibal cut open Pazzi’s stomach and hanged him by his own intestines. Hannibal didn’t have to do any of that; that’s just his nature. He’s playfully cruel. But he doesn’t physically assault Will ever. If he wanted to kill Will, he could do it in spectacular fashion. He just doesn’t want to. He’s cruel in other ways, harms Will in other ways. But once he develops affection for Will, his cruelty has a kind edge.