The stag being a projection of the trauma Hannibal’s violence inflicts upon Will; then Will growing antlers when he decides to kill Hannibal from prison, somehow becoming part of it, it growing out of him; and dreaming about being birthed from its stomach as he plays tango with the devil, ripping himself out of his own trauma and screaming his first cry after overcoming it, regaining agency but rebirthed as a consequence; then it collapsing on the floor and dying alongside it fresh out of mizumono because there is nothing left anymore for Will and he genuinely anticipates death. He sees it for the last time after being gently kissed and thrown off a moving train, betrayed again and being told that violence isn’t the only way of persuasion. On the other side of the love coin, Hannibal, to Will, is a wound that never heals. What makes Will truly amazing is that he keeps going back for more and apparently can’t stop himself until he has to throw them both off a cliff.
Hannigram’s first kiss post-fall (what if we’re fugitives but also チュする because we’re bored)
The fact that Will is exposed to Hannibal’s atrocities i.e provoking Mason to kill Margot and Will’s fetus, making Mason eat his own face, finding Alana discarded in a pool of glass at Hannibal’s doorstep , murdering Abigail, finding Anthony’s heavily mutilated body, and of course, he can’t help but want to eradicate him and tries to stab him, but he also can’t help but be seduced by Hannibal’s ideology. To him it’s like hunting a lion or a wild carnivore. You would be insane to justify murdering it for it’s innate violence, but it has to be done for his own safety and sanity. To survive Hannibal, Will has to kill him. At the same time, his heart accepts him naturally. That is his character struggle. He has tamed Hannibal and is tamed by him. The thing he loves most threatens everything else he holds dear, including himself, so he tries to die with him.
I love it so much that Will perceives Hannibal as something humanoid but obviously non-human re: wendigo. It’s really cool because he’s so imaginative and gives horror shape within his mind. Bedelia interprets him the same way re: person suit and I love her human veil analogy, but it pales in comparison to a thing lurking in your mind like an animal naturally at place in a jungle, like it was born there and no where else it belongs, which is super creepy considering Hannibal and Will are individuals and testifies to the violent and abnormal effect Hannibal has on Will.
Popular actor Will Graham and obsessive fan Hannibal Lecter. The ripper seems to go on a rampage whenever Will Graham is in a new movie or play or short film; bodies that are clearly loving homages. It’s so contradictory to his past violence which seemed self-centered. “Do you feel guilty when you go to work?” Will is asked this question during a press conference. He answers, “No, because I didn’t murder those people.” But privately, he’s losing his mind to encephalitis, and he thinks that all of the Ripper’s crimes now feel like his. His many character personas are merging together and he feels like he doesn’t know who he is anymore.
What kind of magic spell was Will using on Hannibal that he was willing to leave everything behind and elope with him in a matter of maybe 2 months? He went from “hehehe 😈 I’m hiding in plain sight catch me if you can!” to “Will? 🥺🥺 I smelled Freddie Lounds on you BUT I will forgive you 🥺🥺🥺🥺 please let me forgive you pls confess 💔💔💔🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 leave a note, let’s run away together 🥺🥺🥺 I bought plane tickets🥺🥺🥺”
It makes me giddy how we never question why Hannibal doesn’t continue eating Will’s brain in Digestivo because we just naturally understand through previous storytelling that Hannibal’s motivation in eating Will is inherently different than his other cannibalism acts. With his other victims, he chases them like the grim reaper; stubbornly possessive over their demise because it’s amusing and it’s fun. But we know he loves Will; that it makes sense that won’t eat him. It’s so easy because the story convinces us that Hannibal is not having fun, he’s in fact quite miserable, he’s struggling in limbo trying to overcome his internal crises, and that the lighthouse that keeps drawing away his attention is Will Graham. He has this hot thing in his hand he can’t drop because he’s starving. There’s a strife here for all the characters and it makes complete sense that he’s not going through with a decision because he’s lost and confused about what to do.
I like to imagine Hannibal can actually make a disgustingly delicious hamburger like the chef from the movie Menu; just that he won’t because it doesn’t suit the occasion and it’s too rich in flavour. One day post fall he makes Will a hamburger and Will’s like ?????? Are you sick????? And Hannibal’s like, shrug* We’re all sore from travelling, it’s appropriate time for a burger. And Will eats it and it’s the best fucking thing he’s eaten in decades.
I love how Miriam Lass proactively searches for the Chesapeake Ripper but Will passively waited for him to happen. There’s simply not much evidence that’s useful to Will’s methods versus Miriam who’s more like a cop sniffing around for the next clue. Something bright and dog-like about Miriam versus something sedative and anchored about Will Graham.
Something so carnal about Hannibal amputating Miriam and auto cannibalising Gideon with a devilish smile, and then surrendering himself to the feds because he’s desperate for Will Graham’s regard.
Exes Hannigram where Hannibal tries to murder whoever Will dates and Will tries to murder Hannibal when he does the same
I think if Hannibal found out Chiyou and Will kissed, he’d actually kill himself
We don’t discuss enough how Will clung to his job harder the sicker he got for a sense of stability that was deliberately not being provided by Hannibal. Jack is the next sturdiest person he knows and he clings to him and the routine of his job, even though Hannibal insists it was the sole reason for his ‘mental breakdown’, all the while convincing Jack that Will was no longer trustworthy. That’s really so tragic; he was pressed between a rock and a hard place with so much desperation and no way to escape. Hannibal is like a snake slowly crushing you to death.
Hannigram each having a natural talent: Will with his eidetic memory and hyperphantasia, Hannibal with his perfect pitch and hyperosmia. I headcanon them on the run playing games here and there and getting weirdly competitive when either of them excel at what they can do naturally.
It tickles me to imagine Hannibal training himself for years in order to draw from memory meanwhile Will does it as easily as breathing. His default mode is vividly imagining literally anything he’s ever seen, and Hannibal’s like, that’s cool :D (he’s a sore loser).
Hannibal got lucky because encephalitis and PTSD have overlapping symptoms; imagine if Will had like jaundice or something, “Will your eyeballs are yellow because you’re stressed out” and they go to a hepatologist and he’s like “oh hell yeah your liver’s looking great and you definitely don’t have bile in your bloodstream” and Will’s going fucking insane
