I used to think Hannibal didn’t care about Abigail, but between Will and Hannibal, I think Hannibal was the one who looked at Abagail for who she was and loved that broken creature, as Hannibal is prone to admire and give himself to horrible things.

In s3e9, when she asks how he would have killed her, he tells her that he would have slit her throat just like her father had. Abigail feels a bit of possession and incredulity and tells him “You aren’t my father.” And he asks her, “You accepted your father, would it be so difficult to accept me?” I think this is how Abigail fits into the world as Hannibal perceives it; a girl obsessed over by her own father who slits her throat in their own kitchen. Her father felt that no one can have her besides him, not even herself. Abigail is gifted this perverse thing by her father. Hannibal will gift her the same. But this doesn’t paint the whole picture. The beauty of it comes from Abigail’s own suffering and her trials for survival. There is something fatalistic about her doom; and I think Hannibal loves things fixed in fate. When Hannibal himself is responsible for such beautiful tragedies, it just establishes his power. Nothing happened, after all; Hannibal happened. He treasured her the way he believed she was meant to be treasured.