#Hannibal tells it to Abigail in the script. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pesky--dust · 11 months

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I love Chiyoh, but I feel like in a lot of fanfics she is portrayed as horribly cold, emotionless and she doesn't like Will and would do everything to protect Hannibal from him. We don't know much about her, practically as much as nothing, but I'll allow myself an amateur analysis of her person.

(I spent too much time to read scripts of episodes with her). In inverted commas I placed dialogues and italicized the descriptions from the script. I also added screenshots of scripts, if I felt the need to. In bold letters I wrote the titles of the episodes I discussed and the summary of the whole post, because it turned out to be much longer than I expected.

Secondo:

We meet Chiyoh in Secondo when Will went to Lithuania to better understand Hannibal. She is an excellent shooter and has a very good intuition — being watched by Will while hunting, she realizes that something has changed on the property (Something is off in this place she knows so well.).

When she finally meets Will, who tells her he's Hannibal's friend, Chiyoh dips [shotgun’s barrel] slightly, either in hesitation or relief., but when he tells, he is looking for him, she raises the barrel again. She is apparently surprised that Will knows about Mischa, which shows the fragment of the script:

Chiyoh also asks Will how he knows Hannibal and when she hears his answer, she comes to the right conclusion:

Then Chiyoh asks Will to tell his story. We don't know exactly what Will told her, but he must have said something that made her react that way:

Finally she comments his story with: “Hannibal took someone from you, are you here to take someone from him?”, so I guess it's safe to assume Will told her about Abigail, but probably without details about complicated relationship between him, Abigail and Hannibal.

She tells she can understand Hannibal, because he is doing what has been done to Mischa. So she rather knows about killing and cannibalism, however I guess she has no idea about the fact that Hannibal ate his own sister, but about that a little bit later. In my opinion she sees Hannibal's actions as a coping mechanism to deal with what has happened to Mischa (and it wouldn't be wrong, people deal with trauma in different ways).

As I mentioned before, Chiyoh has perfect intuition and realizes that Will is similar to Hannibal (“You're nakama. Aren't you alike?”) and that he thought about killing and eating her (“You've given that some thought.”). Here is a script of that moment:

Will tells her also infamous: “I've never known myself as well as I know myself when I'm with him.” and Chiyoh’s reaction is: She considers that, recognizing the feeling.

Choyoh tells Will her story — she didn’t let Hannibal take the life of Misha's killer, so he left the prisoner's life in her hands. There is a dialog:

Not only Hannibal is curious if Chiyoh would kill the prisoner — Will is also curious, so he frees the prisoner. Prisoner, overwhelmed by the freedom he regained after twenty-five years (Outside for the first time in twenty-five years, the man shivers with terror.), returns to his cell and attacks Chiyoh, when he gains an opportunity to do so. Feeling life slipping away, Chiyoh drives a pheasant bone into the man's neck, eventually killing him, which results with: She does what she has always resisted and deliberately kills the caged man. He slumps and falls off her. She lies still for a moment, then lets out a SCREAM.

She knows Will is responsible for that and tells him that, but the shock of what she did caused also dialogue, in which she begins to wonder if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to his sister:

She decides to help Will to find Hannibal, because she had no reason to stay in Lithuania after killing that man.

Contorno:

On the train, Chiyoh tells Will how she came to meet Hannibal, how they played together as children and Hannibal was, “charming the way a cub is charming, a small cub that grows up to be like one of the big cats.”, with Will commenting, “One you can't play with later.”.

Will talks to her about the prisoner she killed. He asks if she sees herself killing that man, to which Chiyoh responds she does not see herself, but him:

When they are getting ready to bed, they are also talking and the dialogue I'm pasting in the next paragraph, makes me think that Chiyoh, despite living twenty-five years in solitude, can read people like Hannibal like an open book. Will says that violence can be used to control behavior, and Chiyoh notices that Hannibal is affecting Will and wonders if Will is also affecting Hannibal. She also realizes that Will wants to kill Hannibal because he fears otherwise he will become like Hannibal, so she comments with the words, “There are means of influence other than violence.”.

Later she repeats words, “There are means of influence other than violence.”, followed by:

(I really wanted to use that fragment of the script)

Dolce:

In this episode, Chiyoh introduces herself to Bedelia as Hannibal's family. She also tells Bedelia that they are like birds and that Hannibal puts them in cages, wondering what they will do.

When Bedelia asks her what she wants, Chiyoh answers, “I want to cage him.”. Bedelia tells her that she thought that the biggest Hannibal's mistake was Will Graham but maybe it's Chiyoh.

The next time we see Chiyoh, she shoots Will. While treating Will's gunshot wound, Hannibal tells Will that Chiyoh has always been protective of him and is delighted that she, not Will, killed the prisoner.

Later Chiyoh gets into the elevator where Jack is. Realizing that Jack is going to the same floor as she and that the man is watching her suspiciously, Chiyoh tells him, she has mistook the floor and leaves.

Digestivo:

This is the last episode where Chiyoh appears. It is also the episode in which Chiyoh meets Jack Crawford. After Hannibal and Will got kidnapped and Jack is about to be killed, Chiyoh rescues him by killing corrupted police officers, because she thinks she should have done it (“I ought to. I should. Therefore, I must.”).

At the same time, she apparently realizes that Jack must know both Hannibal and Will. She understands that when she's talking about Hannibal, she apparently must also talk about Will (“You're sitting at Hannibal's table. You know him. You know Will.”).

Jack sees that Chiyoh can be violent, when the situation demands it and being asked, to where Hannibal and Will were taken, he tells her, he will tell her that information if she take his IV away, so she does so. He tells her where to find them and assures her he won't interfere.

To save Hannibal, Chiyoh travels to the United States, to Maryland. There, on the Muskrat Farm, when Hannibal carries Will half-conscious in his arms and is followed by Mason Verger's employees, Chiyoh kills them to keep Hannibal safe.

Next time when we see Chiyoh, she is on the porch of Will's house, where she finally meets Hannibal again. Hannibal asks, if she will go home, if she can go home, to which Chiyoh replies, “No more than you can.”, which is followed by the dialogue:

Much of this dialogue did not end in the episode, but despite everything, Chiyoh has changed her mind and does not want to see Hannibal in the cage anymore. The words “I see the best of you and the worst with steady hands and a slow heart.” I understand as the fact that Chiyoh knows Hannibal, she knows his good and bad traits; she's not afraid of him, but she knows she should be careful and not put her gun down.

I come back also to the topic of her knowledge about Hannibal's actions. As I wrote, she rather didn't know about the fact that Hannibal ate Mischa and it's pretty clear in that moment. She asks him about it and is actually relieved he only ate and didn't kill his sister.

Hannibal’s words “The most stable elements, Chiyoh, appear in the middle of the periodic table, roughly between iron and silver. Between iron and silver. I think that is appropriate for you.” mean to me that even though she killed a man, she's still the same Chiyoh he knew, since she is violent only when situation demands is and she's still going to protect him. Despite what she did, she didn't betray herself, as he did after Misha's death — she's better than him.

The last time we see her is when Hannibal surrenders. She's pointing a rifle at the officers and Hannibal, ready to fire if the FBI wants to kill Hannibal on the spot. Eventually she goes into the woods. It's the last moment we see her, the last moment we hear about her.

Summary (tl;dr)

All in all, Chiyoh is an excellent shooter. She also has great intuition, because — even though she barely met Will Graham — she practically immediately realizes how similar he is to Hannibal. She knows Will and Hannibal must be close if Will knows about Mischa. She also knows Hannibal took away someone close to Will. However, she says she accepts Hannibal because he does what has been done to Mischa, his sister, whom he loved above all else. She sees herself as Hannibal's family, but cries, realizing that maybe Will knows more about Hannibal than she does, because she asks him if Hannibal lied to her about what happened to Mischa.

She had a strict rule not to take a human life, but she's forced to do so in order not to die herself. She wants to protect Hannibal, because he's probably the only family she has.

Her words that there are other means of influence other than violence and her kissing Will, I understand that seeing how identical he and Hannibal are and that Hannibal influences Will's behavior and Will influences Hannibal's behavior, Chiyoh wants to convince Will that he doesn't have to kill Hannibal because violence is not the only means of influencing people's behavior — it can be also love. In my opinion, that's why Chiyoh doesn't kill Will when he pulls out a knife to hurt Hannibal. She shoots him to simply disable him, to give him a chance to reconsider his decision to take Hannibal's life.

She also realizes that apparently when talking about Hannibal, she must also be talking about Will, because in a conversation with Jack, she points out that Jack knows both Hannibal and Will.

At first, she wanted to put Hannibal in a cage, but: 1) after hearing from Bedelia that she thought Hannibal's biggest mistake was Will Graham, and yet maybe his biggest mistake was rather Chiyoh; 2) and after the massacre at the Verger farm; Chiyoh changed her mind.

I think it might have something to do with Jack's words, “I know them. They are identically different, Hannibal and Will.”, and with Bedelia's statement that she thought Will was Hannibal's the biggest mistake, and with the massacre at the Verger farm itself, as everyone Chiyoh has met tells her about closeness between Hannibal and Will; she also saw Hannibal rescuing and carrying Will, taking care of him at his home.

She realizes that all of this can't be the result of violence. I think she sees that both Hannibal and Will are beasts, but they can control each other to a certain extent. She promises Hannibal that she will continue to protect him, but not in a cage, as some beasts are better not be caged. However, seeing that Hannibal decides to let himself be locked in a cage, she allows it, because it’s his decision.

I believe that after these events, Chiyoh remained in the United States to keep her hand on the pulse in case Hannibal needed her. Given that Chiyoh herself said she can’t go back home for the same reason Hannibal can’t (bad memories) and that, according to Bryan Fuller, she was the one who took care of the house on the cliff, I think that theory makes sense.

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deerabigailhobbs · 16 days

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Ever since I found your blog my mind has been plagued with thoughts of adamgail-siblings (in the best way). Sooooooo, what if Garret Jacob Hobbs was so freaked that he started killing at the thought of his daughter moving away was because he's already had a child leave. He's a perfectionist so maybe his family becoming imperfect was what brought him to such extremes?

We know that Abigail is 17 at the start of the show and that the killings started 8 months ago, meaning that she was probably 16 or just 17. So say that older brother Adam left around the same age; Hobbs would see his daughter reach the age that he had one child leave never to return, and panic starting the spree. In the original script Adam gets a call from his mother stating that his father isn't angry anymore. Something happened to make Adam leave, maybe this was his father's anger at some supposed imperfection in his son, or it was a build up of things that caused Adam to leave - and that was what caused his father's anger.

But whatever it was he left, knowing that he would leave his sister in a mess, or maybe he thought it would be better for her with him gone. Either way he gets put in the trap, at the time his parents are still alive, but there's a good chance that 7 out of 8 girls have gone missing already. He tells Lawrence that he wants to spend more time with his family, maybe just spend time with a family that he might not have seen in years, does he consider them all his family anymore? His relationship with his father certainly isn't good.

Abigail is left without her brother from a young age, and when she reaches the age he was when he left and her father snaps- does she resent him for leaving, or for not taking her with him? Is she glad that he left and won't get dragged into this? What would happen if he showed up again, would his father pull him aside as soon as possible and make it so he could never leave them again? Otherwise it could end in another fight and trigger Hobbs killing his whole family without a phone call from Hannibal. Of course things could just go the same way as canon with just the addition of another corpse, Abigail regaining her brother just to lose him just as fast.

If Adam gets out of that bathroom does he head home and meet a horrible fate at the hands of his father, or is he barely finished with recovery when he gets a call from the FBI? Telling him that his father killed his mother, and tried to kill his sister, and was then shot dead by an agent. Could he bring himself to become his sister's guardian after the ordeal he just went through, and would she accept it? When he shows up, do they know who he is? Do they think of him as Adam 'Hobbs' who had changed his name to Stanheight in order to distant himself from his family? Or have they heard about the Jigsaw Killer and know of Adam Stanheight who turned out to also be Abigail's older brother? How do things go down from there? At least Abigail will have someone to rely on and stay by her side, preventing her from killing [INSERT NAME OF GUY WHO'S SISTER GOT KILLED], and preventing Hannibal from getting his claws into her. Or will Hannibal try and pull something to get him out of the way...

First of all, it truly warms my heart when someone says they like my Adamgail siblings AU. I truly didn't expect much of a reaction to it but to know others have fallen in love with their dynamic makes me so so happy :D

Secondly, connecting the dots between Adam's mother saying his father isn't angry anymore and Garret Jacobs... Genius. Jaw dropped. I never even thought of that and I love it.

Adam going through his trap around the same time that Abigail was almost killed is great too. Just imagine going through the most traumatic experience of your life and finding out the sibling, the one person you could trust the most, was hurt and here to see you. Their interactions would be so interesting. Familiar strangers to one another.

And boy, would Adam change the way Abigail's life went post throat slashed. He'd literally be stuck to her side like glue. I can definitely imagine him not being fond of Hannibal and especially Will. I would think Hannibal would try and plan a way to kill him, though I'm not entirely sure how.

I think an interesting way to view it would be that Adam shows up after Abigail kills Nick Boyle. Perhaps he hears about it through the news at a later date and rushes to Minnesota before he can even wave Lawrence goodbye. In that way she's indebted to Hannibal, but she now has someone in her corner, who truly has her best interests at heart. And once Abigail starts to lean into the company of her brother more, that's when Hannibal decides Adam has gotta go.

Or, even if he doesn't show up at all. If, in Mizumono, Abigail doesn't walk towards Hannibal because she knows she has a brother out there, perhaps still has his number stored away in a coat pocket. Abigail followed Hannibal's orders because she had no other option, but with Adam she does. She walks up to Hannibal, appearing docile, then grabs the knife and stabs him sloppily in the neck, just enough time for her to bolt from the house and to a payphone far from the house. That's when she calls Adam, praying that he hadn't changed his phone number all those years, and when he does answer, she's so relieved to hear his voice and asks if he can come get her. And without a second thought he's already asking her where she while rummaging for his car keys.

So many scenarios, I love them <3

#this was such a wonderful read i love longer asks <3 #especially when they're about my favourite non canon dont even exist in the same universe siblings :]#abigail hobbs #adam faulkner stanheight #adam stanheight #adamgail siblings #hannibal #hannibal nbc #nbc hannibal #saw #saw franchise #saw 2004 #asks

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kuroshika · 1 year

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[ primavera, 03×02 - long analysis, script annotation, and character discussion below the cut ] || [ tags :: @lesbian-hannibal @shatteredlesbian @craqueluring ] || [ why are my scripts slowly losing quality :( ]

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the main-focus of this episode is the aftermath of mizumono { 02×13 }. it starts with will's nightmare of the ravenstag that we can now safely assume is how will's mind perceives the ripper — as he says, he can feel the ripper, but he can't put a face to the name. the ravenstag, which follows hannibal's (or the ripper's, if you want to get technical) kills, appears to will in his empathic vision, which is of antony dimmond and hannibal's broken heart. will was, partly, half a victim to the ripper, which might be why he sees the stag — and why he doesn't see hannibal, because though he knows the two are one and the same, subconsciously, he denies the connection.

as he later says to chiyoh, the ripper left him with a smile — a cut so precise, a gutting so clean, that it was easily repaired. hannibal didn't mean for will to die in that kitchen, just to bleed beside the body of their daughter. to watch his blood pool with hers as she embraces death - his punishment, to blur with abigail and carry her with him. abigail's voice, who we now know is really dead, pulls him out of it.

this is still part of his vision. he starts off by telling her he feels closer to hannibal here — not here, in the church, with the ripper's tableau to him in front of him, but here in his mind palace as he surveys the murder. in this scene in particular, he's defending himself to the memory of abigail - telling her that he feels close to him, despite what he'd done; telling her that he wouldn't know where he'd be without him. but that's the thing — she's only the memory will has of her. his subconscious. he's defending his feelings for hannibal to himself; here in his mind palace, it's the surface of will's mental curtains trying to appeal to the shadow beyond them.

abigail asks what will believes the tableau is about, what he believes hannibal is trying to tell them. he says it's his broken heart — his way of showing remorse for what he'd done, of showing how will's betrayal had affected him as well. the skepticism from abigail is a mirror of will's - but now, will knows better. hannibal knows him intimately, and will can recognize that, and he voices that to abigail. she tells him that hannibal misses them, but will, as portraying his surface level, doesn't agree.

instead, he tells abigail that hannibal has always had multiple motives for something — one of which always being his amusement. he's saying that maybe one of the factors is that hannibal misses them, and maybe a few more might be that he wanted to lure will in, or that he wanted to toy with will — that he was playing with him. it's something he can believe, both parts of him.

this is where i remind you that the abigail will is talking to you doesn't exist. she's nothing but a memory, a projection of himself that he's trying to appeal to.

he asks her if she still wants to leave with hannibal - which is a clue that he's talking to himself, because he knows abigail can't. he's asking himself if he honestly still wishes to run away with hannibal, and of course he does. trying to assuage that thought, to keep it out of mind, he tells abigail that hannibal took her from him. it took me a while to understand what he meant, if we're going off my idea that abigail is will trying to bargain with himself, but i may have an idea.

i think what abigail represents, like i said, is the shadow beyond the curtain. will's rare gift — he gave it to hannibal, and in mizumono, hannibal cut ties with him. he gave that rare gift back. he gave will the feeling of autonomy, of being in control of the shadow beyond his curtains — and by luring him to italy and taking up space in his mind palace again, he is taking will's gift once again and taking away his sense of normalcy. he's taking away will's comfort in his own skin, pushing him into his becoming.

will is beginning to feel guilty for what he'd done — the surface of the curtain is ruffling, just for a moment in sync with the shadow beyond it. he aches for what could have been, what should have been — what he could have had with them. he's looking for comfort in himself.

i think it's really interesting when will says hannibal made a place only for abigail — "a place was made for you, abigail. the only place i could make for you." if we're still going by my idea that abigail is will's shadow, this means that hannibal had made a place only for what lived behind the curtains; he'd been sure of tearing them down and disposing of them, and taking only the will behind the curtains into their new life.

this is where will begins to bleed into the shadow beyond the curtains. his resignation to the fact that hannibal had built only one place for him, his ache to run away with him regardless, has pushed him through the curtains to embrace himself.

the cut opens, and blood pours out. the image of her is dying — the divide between the surface and the shadow is disappearing, blurring into each other, and will doesn't try and stop it this time.

this is his becoming.

and, of course, who else is there to watch his becoming than hannibal? he's embraced the shadow, pulled those curtains aside and let the light in. his focus becomes less on himself and more on the man who drove him to it.

hannibal, projected by will's mind, allowing him to watch as his final push sends will off the (proverbial) cliff.

once will has mentally put abigail to rest, we're sent to a series of flashbacks. it shows will clinging to life and abigail succumbing to death; finalizing will's punishment from hannibal and setting the pace for the entanglement of will and abigail.

abigail's preparation and will's hospital visit are smashed together in intercut flashbacks, showing the differences between them.

will's is quick, rushed and rabid; a desperate bid to save a life. abigail's is slow, thorough — which is a mirror of their injuries, even; abigail's throat cut in a quick motion and will's abdomen gutted in slow, precise drags. she is taken apart while will is put back together — another mirror of the treatment they endured from hannibal, with abigail being made a place in the world and will's curtains being taken down.

their operations are performed in near reverse of each other, with will being sewn up and returned to normal, and abigail being deconstructed and laid to rest.

they finish on the same note — which, oddly, is the pluck of a cello string, which seems reminiscent of tobias and his methods of killing. maybe i'm reading too far into it, but ending abigail's life with a cut throat the way tobias played the orchestrator's vocal chords like a cello — while tobias was meant to be a mirror of will, and abigail was his daughter? i'll probably have to do a deeper analysis of that.

and then will comes to his senses in the church.

what makes me further believe that the conversation with subconscious-abigail was will's becoming is how will responds here. the lines between he and hannibal have blurred — he doesn't know where he ends and hannibal begins. he's stepped into the ripper's mindset for this tableau, and he can't step out, because that's where he's meant to be.

he even looks, again, in the murals for hannibal. even after the betrayal from both men, the urge to be seen by him — no matter the reason, but especially as he's profiling — is still there.

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craqueluring · 1 year

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hi i LOVE ur acc and i was wondering if u had any ideas on this cause i cant seem to like. figure it out? in mizumono hannibal's like "do you think you could change me? the way ive changed you," and wills like "i already did." and i was like WOAHSJDGF. but like also how? i get the general feeling that he changed to view himself capable of love and realized he did actually want understanding and acceptance?? but i feel like theres a shift in his mindset based on his actions im not getting?? or rather how will changed him? like what of wills actions led to it? if that makes sense?

OMG hi!! i think this is the first ask ive gotten of someone asking me about what i think of a specific scene in hannibal and i am SO excited about it, so thank you!!!!! and also for saying you love my account, it means so much <3 thank u thank u thank u

okay but YES i have many ideas about this, I'm gonna go back to a couple lines before this, though, and go line by line and explain how i personally interpret this scene and topic!! sorry this is so long i got excited <3

warning: i make a lot of assumptions about hannibal's past which i am not 100% sure about, because the show makes his past very very vague. i am mainly going off just what the show implies and tells us, not the books.

also, there is a TLDR at the end of this!

hannibal says, almost exasperatedly, "my freedom, then. you would take that from me. confine me to a prison cell" and then looks at abigail. she looks down, almost guiltily, and i feel like in this moment everyone is remembering how hannibal took /will's/ freedom from him and confined /him/ to a prison cell (using abigail's fake death). and he is acting like it is somehow unfair that will would do the same to him.

but hannibal /is/ right in that he and will took or were going to take each other's freedoms for entirely different reasons. hannibal confined will to a prison cell because he was trying to change will for what he genuinely thought was the better. this is evident by hannibal saying "i have always had huge faith in you, will" and "i think you are more in control now than you have ever been" and the rebirth themed episode directly after will gets out of prison. will's imprisonment was to change him. this change was not only will being more "in control," but more in tune and intimate with his "urges," and generally more intimate and less afraid of the parts of his mind he had been trying to suppress.

after hannibal says "...confine me to a prison cell," and looks back at will, he looks thoughful for a moment. that is when he says "do you believe you could change me, the way i have changed you?" because he is asking will if he believes that he could change hannibal by imprisoning him (which was his "plan" with jack for most of s2b), just as hannibal changed will by imprisoning him.

will replies with "i already did," the script says after that, "hannibal studies will a moment, realizing he's right." will did not need to imprison hannibal in order to change him. by just making hannibal feel this kind of love, devotion, and trust, he had already changed hannibal drastically. i dont believe hannibal had felt what he felt for will since mischa 30-40 years ago. to really put it in perspective, hannibal had gone through his entire life probably completely alone, letting nobody close to him like he let will be close to him. he never let himself be seen, and never let himself trust enough to experience anything like this (presumably).

will's changing hannibal is also shown physically by the entire scene in mizumono happening at that moment. hannibal massacred everybody in his own house. this is not the way he kills. his kills are not impulsively reactionary or born of emotions as intense and volatile as he was feeling in response to will's betrayal. will himself says hannibal's kills are like "pests he's swatted," born of annoyance at best. this killing and violence resulting from a situation of genuine, deep hurt is entirely new for hannibal. like i said, hannibal had not let himself truly be seen by anyone other than will in a very long time, and he trusted will in a way he didnt even trust bedelia in season 3. when hannibal found out will's betrayal of him, he was heartbroken. heartbreak is not something hannibal is supposed to open himself up to. he is supposed to be in complete control of his emotions and actions. but he wasn't, and he did open himself up to this heartbreak. so, this cocktail of emotions is completely and entirely foreign to hannibal (other than mischa), and he unleashes it all in the mizumono massacre. what hannibal does for will makes him act in ways he does not and has not acted before, generally.

semi-TLDR: so, will changed hannibal because he was the first person hannibal loved and trusted in this very vulnerable way since mischa. because of this, he was the first person capable of betraying hannibal in such a deep-cutting way. will caused hannibal to let himself experience love and trust again. and also heartbreak and betrayal. these volatile emotions are all behind hannibal's mizumono massacre, which is absolutely uncharacteristic of him (at least, up until this point). in this way, will changed hannibal.

as for the consequences of this change in hannibal: hannibal is grappling with this realization/coming to terms/figuring out how to deal with his love of will (and will's betrayal) during mizumono and post-mizumono. he doesn't know what to do with this change in himself. s3a is literally just hannibal trying to figure out how to deal with his uncontrollable obsession with/love of will and what to do with it. and also how to deal with will's consistent rejection of him (mizumono betrayal, the knife in the uffizi gallery, and the digestivo rejection). secondo is where he concludes that the only way he can forgive will for making him feel this way (and for his influence of hannibal to betryal himself) is to eat him, as he did the same to his sister. when they're back at will's house after the brain eating is interrupted, and after the consequent muskrat farm massacre, hannibal is regretting something (either the brain eating, killing abigail, or opening himself up to wills "influence" at all. or all three.), and starts writing theoretical formulas to turn back time in a notebook. after will's final rejection in digestivo, hannibal turns himself in. hannibal is All Over The Place after he starts loving will and lets himself be heartbroken by will: he kills abigail, runs off to europe, tries to kill will and eat his brain, then regrets it and tries to convince will to let it go, and then puts himself in prison after will rejects him. i'm not going to go into the reason for the prison thing because this is already getting too long, lol.

hannibal is known for being able to control his emotions and calculate his actions very carefully. hannibal literally says "you cannot control with respect to whom you fall in love." and bedelia says "what your sister [and now will] made you feel was beyond your conscious ability to control or predict." hannibal is used to being able to control and predict his emotions. the appearance of his uncontrollable and unpredictable love and forgiveness of will is in direct conflict with what hannibal is used to, and this is the change in hannibal that will caused.

full-TLDR: will changed hannibal because he was the first person hannibal felt love and trust for in this very vulnerable way since mischa. because of this, will was also the first person capable of betraying hannibal in such a deep-cutting way. will caused hannibal to let himself experience love and trust again. and also heartbreak and betrayal. these volatile emotions are all behind hannibal's mizumono massacre, which is absolutely uncharacteristic of him (at least, up until this point). after hannibal runs off to europe, he doesn't know what to do with this change in himself. the entirety of s3a is largely hannibal trying to figure this out, and he concludes by putting himself in prison.

of course there are many different ways to interpret this very complex scene & topic, so those are just my thoughts (which are admittedly a little shakey still, lol) i hope that kinda answered your question, or you at least got something out of this! :]

#im so nervous about posting this #ive suddenly lost so much confidence in my analysis/thoughts abt hannibal lately idk #but seriously it means a lot that anon liked my thoughts enough to ask me abt something :] so i tried #nbc hannibal #hannibal lecter #hannibal #will graham #pluto analyzes #pluto answers #hannigram #mine #hannibal meta #hannibal analysis #mizumono

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bloodaria · 1 year

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will naming his bait as abigail + how it ties into his “blurring” with hannibal and eventual transformation

“name the bait on your hook after somebody you cherish. if the person you name it after cherished you, you will catch the fish".

i’ve seen this look abigail gives will here

when he says he named the bait after her interpreted as her not cherishing him, but i don’t think that’s it. i think the reason that abigail’s face falls here is because people using her as bait has negative connotations for her. who else used her as bait a lure? that’s right, garret jacob hobbs.

we see in season 1 that will takes pains not to cross boundaries with abigail; he thinks better of his gift of fly tying gear to her because it might remind her of her father.

but now in his daydreams he’s fishing with her and even using her as a lure. what changed?

will’s isolation, alienation from others and slow deterioration of his morals causing him to become like hannibal, that’s what changed. hannibal has no problem being another GJH or leveraging abigail’s relationship with GJH to further his bond with her; in Œuf he feeds her eggs and sausages, the breakfast she shared with her parents, and even gives her priscobilyn tea so that she hallucinates him and alana as her parents (the script tells us that it was actually will that was supposed to be at the breakfast-for-dinner, which makes more sense).

EDIT: i think there’s also instances where hannibal uses abigail as bait. in potage when set up the scene for nicholas boyle to go after her, and when he lets her distract beverly in takiawase when she goes down to the basement (bryan fuller confirmed that beverly saw abigail in the basement). there’s also mizumono where he sends abigail to disarm alana knowing alana won’t shoot at her, which echoes GJH making abigail befriend the girls to get them into a false sense of security.

in season 3, we see that will uses hannibal as bait to catch dolarhyde, and of course he catches the fish, because he and hannibal cherish each other. and in season 2, will names abigail as his bait, but he doesn’t actually use her as bait to catch hannibal in a way that was literal with hannibal and dolarhyde in season 3. so this might be a bit convoluted, but bear with me here - i think the way this is supposed to work is that will using abigail as bait = will acting like garret jacob hobbs which in turn = will acting like hannibal. in order to catch hannibal, will has to beat him at his own game, which means acting like him, which means manipulating, killing and cannibalizing.

this idea makes sense with what will tells jack in su-zakana. he heavily implies he will act as bait to catch hannibal. this means will is also the bait. so how can abigail and will both simultaneously being the bait be reconciled?

the way this can work is if we take it that abigail is not the bait in a literal sense; what is important here is what naming abigail as his bait means for will. it means that will is willing to turn into hannibal to catch hannibal. and will acting hannibalesque is the “live bait” that “moves and excites” hannibal to action, the one thing that he wants, despite everything he knows. (also emphasis on live bait - that can’t be abigail because will thinks she’s dead).

EDIT: more relevant scenes from trou normand. if feeling like garret jacob hobbs makes will feel like a killer, then the fishing scenes in his mind palace with abigail take on even more meaning.

we see other signs of the blurring between will and hannibal, the courtroom scene in hassun where they both dress up at the same time,

and as this post points out, the dream sequence just before this where we see will in a suit (reminiscent of hannibal’s attire) electrocuting the old will.

but for will the transformation is a painful one - his old self goes through the process of electrocution, he tears himself free and screams when he's reborn in ko no mono, and it also doesn't fully take place – the suit is ill fitting, and the ravenstag gives birth to someone who's recognisable as will, just with antlers, not the stagman’s twin. you can’t force a transformation, will has to grow into it in his own time. which he eventually does.

[on a sidenote - this is why i disagree that hannibal never wanted will to be like him. he did, the character development hannibal has to go through is accepting will is not like him and loving and wanting him anyway. we see glimpses of that when he is willing to run away with will even while having his “imago” or ideal of him shattered when he learnt he didn’t kill freddie lounds.]

EDIT: something i forgot to mention is how will gets found out by hannibal because he went to visit freddie, which he was only able to do because he didn’t kill her...and not killing her means that he didn’t turn into hannibal. will failing to catch hannibal is directly connected to him being unable to do what he set out to do with his luring expedition. and i’ve changed my mind to say that abigail not cherishing him back might have played a part in hannibal wriggling away. will and abigail were never especially close, except in will’s mind.

#hannibal #nbc hannibal #hannibal meta #will graham #hannibal lecter #abigail hobbs

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wastrelwoods · 1 year

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i feel like i have seen. a lot of really especially dull stupid shit takes about alana bloom recently and it is making me really bummed out bc like. are we not all completely burned out on basic ass old dusty fandomy misogyny yet. lets all do alana bloom headcanons or meta or something lets say something beautiful and true about her. even about traits of hers that are flaws. song that reminds you of her. animal you associate with her. i’m thinking about her sitting in her parked car having a well deserved breakdown at the end of season 1. i’m thinking abt how she tells will and hannibal both not to try to replace abigail’s parents without revealing that she ALSO is struggling with the urge to be abigail’s caretaker and this cut moment from the script

which u may remember as an exchange WILL instead has with her much later and she says No

#alana bloom a good and normal ass character appreciation society

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k-s-morgan · 2 years

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Do you think Will wanted to be a father in the show?

I answered a similar question in the past, so I hoped you don't mind me copying that answer with some modifications!

I think it’s an interesting and complicated subject. In S1, Will explicitly states that he doesn’t relate to the concept of family.

Will: There’s something so foreign about family. Like an ill-fitting suit. Never connected to the concept.

Hannibal: You created a family for yourself.

Will: I created a pack of strays.

Hannibal tells him he was talking about Abigail and Will’s smile dies. He didn’t see it coming. So until this point, Will expressed no desire to be a father that we know of.

During S1, he grows attached to the idea of Abigail, but in this scenario, Abigail still comes together with Hannibal. So Will seems to like the thought of having a family with these two specific people, even if he’s not ready to accept them yet (he certainly has problems with who Abigail really is - he wants to see her as a victim only when she’s not). He mourns Abigail deeply, but the fact remains, he didn’t really know her. We can say that Will likes the idea of family at this stage, but he thinks of it more in imaginary terms rather than realistic ones.

Will is shocked and disturbed to find out Margot is pregnant, but he gets used to the idea. Everything below is taken from the script directly.

Will: I’ve been so preoccupied with taking a life, I’m having trouble wrapping my head around making one.

Hannibal: What sort of father would you be?

Will reflects on that, imagining a different life.

Will: I would be a good father.

Hannibal smiles warmly. He imagines Will would.

Hannibal: How quickly we form attachments to something that does not yet exist.

Will: I’m not attached. I’m only anticipating attachment.

So again, Will doesn’t mind being a father, but he doesn’t feel like one either yet. It's a possibility he only begins to truly anticipate, and he doesn't seem overly devastated after he loses it: his conflict stems from his hurt and bitter feelings toward Hannibal first and foremost. He easily makes a deal with Mason, who was actually directly responsible for the death of this unborn child, and he gets over what he sees as Hannibal's ploy in the next episode, choosing to save him and cover for him.

In S3, Hannibal says the following after learning Will has married Molly and is a step-father to Walter.

Hannibal: How did you choose yours? Readymade wife and child to serve your needs. A stepson or daughter – (off his look) – a stepson absolves you of any biological blame. You know better than to breed. Can’t pass on those terrible traits you fear the most.

Also:

Hannibal: Like you, Will, [Francis] needs a family to escape what’s inside him.

And he’s right to an extent. Will certainly doesn’t relate to Walter - they act like strangers, particularly when Molly isn’t around. It’s very telling that Will didn’t go fishing with them at the beginning, after all the dreams where he teaches Abigail to fish. This isn’t a family for him, and while he has given himself a chance to have one, it failed. He didn't form genuine attachment.

So I’d say Will first grew interested in the idea of a family in S1, after Hannibal and Abigail. He kept considering it for years, he tried implementing it in S3, and now it’s over. He isn’t prepared to be a father, and after Walter, he’s probably no longer interested in it. He tried, it didn’t work out.

But who knows, he might want to become one in the future, together with Hannibal, a person he truly loves and finally feels confident about.

#hannibal #hannigram #will graham #fatherhood

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gothicheroinegraham-moved · 3 years

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St. William of Perth // Will Graham

#will graham #Abigail Hobbs #nbc hannibal #hannibal #Molly Graham #parallels #I am v much on my bullshit #👻#script #also RIP that the best way to show Will’s past was his quote about his balls #besties I just want the quote abt him stealing a watermelon #also tugging on the bars of my cage can u tell that I was raised catholic

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hamlettheedane · 2 years

Text

Hannibal season 4 spec script (it’s a podcast)

Will: (taps microphone) is this thing on

Hannibal: I think so? Does it matter

Will: mmm probably not. Okay hi and welcome to. Um. Whatever this is

Hannibal: it’s our podcast will.

Will: mmhmm. We’re here live in [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and let me tell you, it is a gorgeous day out.

Hannibal: it’s always lovely in [REDACTED] [REDACTED] this time of year.

Will: isn’t it? Oh look it’s our first caller

Hannibal: it’s jack Crawford. Do not pick that up

Will: we will not be picking up because it is in fact jack Crawford but ummmm hi jack

Hannibal: hello jack

Will: we’re both doing fine thanks for asking

Hannibal: I’m sure that’s what he was calling about. We’re doing terrific

will: hannibals joints are giving him a bit of a tough time nowadays. There’s a lot of Vaseline around the house. But other than that, doing spectacular

Hannibal: okay new topic. Will have you also felt the universal shift recently that can only be chalked up to the final dying breath of the entity formerly known as god?

Will: sure, why not. Oh look we have another caller

Abigail: hey

Hannibal: oh hi Abigail. Where in the world are you

Abigail: oh I’m just in [REDACTED] [REDACTED] for the week.

Will: oh I hear it’s great there

Abigail: it’s not bad, can’t complain

Will: how does it feel being a two time survivor of near death despite the best efforts of not one but two seasoned serial murderers

Abigail: well maybe it would feel better if both of those people weren’t my dad

Hannibal: we have fun here. Abigail we were just about to talk about fall recipes. Do you have any favorite fall recipes

Abigail: I’m vegan nowadays

Hannibal: oh for the love of

Will: and that’s about all the time we have for guest callers. Bye Abigail

Abigail: ok bye

Will: she’s a good kid

Hannibal: oh she’s great. We love her.

Will: we do. Uhmmm. Not much to report here. Just kind of. Hanging out

[a dog barks in the background]

Hannibal: will can you please get pepper under control I think he’s getting into the…. Cooler

Will: which cooler? Oh shit that cooler. Oh that’s no good. Pepper—

[there’s a scuffling sound. A bit of a struggle.]

Will: oh fuck great now there’s blood everywhere

[the sound cuts out]

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darling-i-read-it · 3 years

Text

The Wrath of the Lamb

3x13

Hannibal Lecter x reader x Will Graham

Hannibal Re-Write Series Masterlist

Word Count: 4.7k (this is officially the longest thing i’ve ever posted, i beat my own record three times with this series lmao)

Warnings: spoilers for hannibal, murder, guns, pregnancy, burning, canniablism, death, gore probably more idk

Author’s Note: My very favorite thing about this rewrite is watching the show and seeing how those writers and creators took pieces of the original source material to create their own show and I took both the novels and the show and just did this. I am very very proud of this. I am so happy I decided to do it. I was going to make a substantial change to the ending but I honestly am hoping that one day, season 4 will happen and maybe I’ll stil be writing. Thank you all SO MUCH for getting this far. I am so happy we got to share this together and that this show is as good as it is. I hope I did it justice because this show is so complex. I hope that you all enjoy and thank you again.

I used some direct quotes from the script so some things may seem familiar

Official Episode Summary: Will orchestrates a plot involving Hannibal in hope of slaying Francis Dolarhyde; Bedelia is concerned for Will and the lives of those close to him.

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director

Tag List (is always open!) : @llperfectsymmetryll @ericacactus @vlightning95 @sweetgoodangel

(not my gif)

You looked in the small window of Reba’s hospital room. You were standing outside of it beside your husband, your hand tight around your upper arm. You were almost cradling yourself in a way. This reminded you of when you had come to visit Abigail, when she was still in the hospital. As your eyes went from the window to Will you were once again thrown to the reality of now. If it had been Abigail in that room you would have looked to see a shaking, sweating puppy dog Will Graham who was so unsure of the world around him. This Will was so different. His hair was done, his shirt ironed. You had ironed it.

He met your eyes and you gave him a small nod. He opened the door and you let him go inside. You did not follow him. He had enough empathy to give Reba and he understood where she was standing. You and him understood. You had all loved a monster.

Will grabbed your arm gently. You and him stood in front of Hannibal’s cage. You had no doubt that Hannibal saw you somewhere else. But nonetheless, you allowed yourself to ease in his presence. A thing Will was once again learning to do.

“Ding-dong, the Dragon’s dead,” Will said. Hannibal raised an eyebrow. He looked between the two of you and his smile faded.

“Pity. I had such plans,” he promised. You believed that. “Are congratulations in order?” Will approached the other man, just against the glass wall.

“I didn’t kill him. Neither did Y/N. Suicide.”

“I would have liked to kill him as well,” you muttered. Hannibal seemed disappointed at that.

“Then he wasn’t as strong as the Dragon after all,” Hannibal whispered.

“He was trying to stop,” Will argued. You weren’t sure why Will was arguing for Francis. You hated that he was. He had hurt you. Francis had scared you. You didn’t mention it but you could feel that Hannibal caught the emotion

“I was rooting for you, Will. I figured you would adore killing the man who attacked your family, it’s such a shame. You came all this way and didn’t even get to kill anybody. Only consolation is Dr. Chilton.” Hannibal paused for affect. “Congratulations for the job you did on him. I admired it enormously. Did you do it together? Was the idea hatched in the duo?” You straightened your back.

“No,” Will said simply.

“What a cunning couple you are,” Hannibal said anyway.

“Are you accusing us of something?” you questioned.

“Does the enemy inside you agree with the accusation? Even a little bit?” Hannibal questioned.

“We came back to stop the Dragon. He’s stopped,” Will stated.

“Your family was on his itinerary Will. You’re safe now, all three of you. You can go home again. If there’s any point?” Hannibal suggested. You gave him a look.

“I like my life,” Will said but he did not sound convincing.

“It won't’ be the same. You’ll see it’s not the same,” Hannibal promised. You stepped closer to the glass.

“I want it to be the same. Together, we will make it the same,” you promised.

“Mutual assurances you try to exchange in the dark and in the day will pass through some refraction, making them miss their mark. When life becomes maddeningly polite…” Hannibal thought about his words and made you both think about them as well. “...think about me. Think about me, don’t worry about me.”

Will was ready to leave. You could feel it.

“You turned yourself in so I would always know where you are. You’d only do that if we, together, rejected you.” Will put his hand on the nape of your back. “Good-bye Hannibal.” Will started to lead you out.

“Will…” He turned. “Was it good to see me?”

“Good? No.”

Will walked out and you followed him. He kept going but you stopped as the doors behind you shut. Your mind reeled and he could see it.

“I need my own goodbye,” you whispered. He gave you a long look. He knew that this was what you needed. He knew it was. Still though, he didn’t want it. He wanted to protest.

“I’m going back to the motel. Meet me there?” You nodded. He walked down the hall. You could feel his tenseness but ignored it as you walked back into the room with Hannibal. He was clearly surprised to see you.

“Was that not good-bye?” he questioned. You shrugged.

“That was Will’s good-bye. Not mine.”

You walked in front of the glass and sat down. Hannibal did the same. You were arguably one of the only people he would sit down like that for.

“I take for granted, on occasion, that you enjoyed my company,” you told him. You played with the hem of your pants. “I recognize, to a fault, that you would eat me if let out. You would eat my husband. You would eat my baby. But still…” You smiled, reminiscently. “I loved you.”

He was pleased to hear this. He was so pleased.

“You never would have left him. Not even if I killed him in the kitchen,” he suggested. You thought about that for a moment. You thought back to that terrible day and felt it again.

“I suppose you’re right.”

“When you came in to interview for the secretary position I had already picked someone. I didn’t want to be rude, so I let you in.” He stopped. That was the end of his story.

“Why would you let me work for you?”

“Because I liked you. And as it turns out, we would have met eventually. Through Will.” You nodded.

“But it would have been different.”

“Yes. Yes it would have.” You pressed your hand against the glass. He looked at it and he did not put his hand on yours.

“Will is right. I turned myself in so you and he would always know where I am. Because you rejected me.” Your hand fell off the glass slowly.

“I deserved that.”

You stood up and took a deep breath.

“Good-bye Hannibal.”

You walked up to the hotel room and started to grab the key from your purse. You struggled for a moment but eventually found it. You slid it into the lock and unlocked it, walking inside. Your mind hung over Hannibal still when you were grabbed. You had just been able to see Francis coming at you enough to push him off, hitting his head. He ran out of the door and you followed him but eventually he went too far and you had to stop. You turned back to the room and ran back, your hand on your stomach as you breathed hard from adrenaline.

Will sat in the chair, tied down. You rushed to him, locking the door behind you.

You started to untie him.

“Who was that?” you asked.

“The Red Dragon,” he breathed. You scoffed.

“Not dead then.”

“Clearly.” You got him out quickly.

“Are you alright?” you questioned. He nodded, rubbing his wrists.

“Yeah. He didn’t hurt me much.”

“What did he want?”

You stared at each other. He didn’t need to tell you. You knew.

Will, you and Jack Crawford stood in the hall leading to the morgue.

“The obvious thing is to try to get him to come to us. Bait him with something he wants more than us,” Will said. Jack gave him a look.

“He’d be an idiot to go for it,” Jack muttered.

“I know. Want to hear what the best bait would be?” you asked. Jack stared at you. You stared back at him.

“Not from you.”

“Hannibal would be the best bait,” Will said so that you didn’t have to. Jack shook his head.

“Why in God’s name would anybody want to meet Hannibal Lecter?”

“To kill him, Jack. The Dragon could absorb him that way, engulf him, become more than he is,” Will explained. It gave you a moment of just realizing that was how he used to speak about killers he didn’t know.

“You sound pretty sure Will.”

“I’m not sure. Who’s sure? I’m not even sure Hannibal would draw the Dragon. I say it’s the best shot,” Will explained.

“Set up how?” Jack asked.

“I would be hell to do, I know that. We’d take Hannibal into federal custody,” Will said. You gave him a look.

“Because Y/N and Alana would never sit still for what you’re about to suggest?” You gave Jack a bitter role.

“We fake an escape.” Will stared at you for a moment and Zeller called his name. “One moment.” He disappeared in the morgue that left you and Jack alone, annoyingly.

“You’ll have both their lives in your hands,” you whispered.

“Since when do you care about if Hannibal gets hurt under my care?” he questioned.

“Since now.”

Bedelia did not look happy. You did not expect her to be happy either. You respected her bit of unhappiness.

“We assign a moment to decision, to dignify the process as a timely result of rational and conscious thought. Yet what you propose is so thoughtless, I find it difficult to imagine that moment exists,” Bedelia said bitterly. You stood behind Will, walking around the room slowly. Will sat down across from her.

“Decisions are made of kneaded feelings. They’re more often a lump than a sum.” Bedelia stood up, walked to where she kept the drinks and poured herself one. She offered one to you that she then realized you couldn’t drink.

“However you think you’re going to manipulate this situation to your advantage, think again,” Bedelia said.

“There is no advantage. It’s all degrees of disadvantage,” you argued. Bedelia fixed on you and Will with a piercing stare.

“‘Who holds the Devil, let him hold him well. He will hardly be caught a second time’.”

“I don’t intend Hannibal to be caught a second time.” A flicker of alarm played in her eyes.

“Can’t live with him. Can’t live without him. Is that what this is?” she asked, bitterly.

“I guess this is my Becoming,” Will suggested.

“I just tag along,” you whispered.

“Because you have two crazy men in absolute love with you,” she told you. Will stood up, straightening his jacket. He was done here.

“I’d pack my bags if I were you Bedelia. Meat’s back on the menu.”

Alana looked annoyed. She sat in Jack’s office, a place you hated to the ends of the Earth. You messed with your hair a bit, leaning against the wall.

“Hannibal has tentatively agreed to the deal, as proposed,” Alana said.

“What will make him less tentative?”

“He wants Will and Y/N to ask him.” She turned to him. “He wants you to say ‘please’.” You gave a bitter smile. So very like him.

“I’ll say ‘pretty please’,” Will said. He was preparing to speak to you. He knew what he had to bring up would not blow over right.

“We will have a stampede when people think Lecter is out,” Jack explained.

“Let them stampede. Authenticity. And let them think I helped Hannibal escape,” Will muttered.

“Authenticity?”

“Someone has to be close. When the Dragon comes.” He turned to you. “And just one person.” For a moment, the other three people in that room let that sink in. It was a surprise even to Jack Crawford that Will would even suggest that he go somewhere without you.

“Sorry?”

“You can’t come,” he repeated.

“No I heard you, I was letting you change your sentence.”

“I don’t think you need to be there. You don’t.” You clenched your fist and looked away from him. You understood where he was coming from. There was no reason for you to be there. You would only be in the way and you had a child. It would be stupid.

But still.

Every piece of you wanted to be there with Will and Hannibal. You were always there with them. They were your boys.

You shook your head slowly.

“What do you suggest I do?” you asked. Will thought about that for a moment.

“Whatever you want.” You couldn’t look at him. He pulled a pocket knife out of his jacket pocket and handed it to you. You took it slowly but still looked away from him. “For if you need it.” You weren’t sure what that meant and you didn’t want to ask.

You and Will walked into the room with Hannibal again. You had hoped to never have to see it again. He did not look surprised to see you this time.

“I thought you said your good-byes.”

“We’ve had one last good-bye between us.” Hannibal was tied up in a straight jacket. You hadn’t been this close to him for a while. You wanted to touch him but you held yourself back.

“You didn’t just say good-bye, though, did you? That little extra bit at the end for you Will. It felt very final for both of you. I believe it’s called a ‘mic drop’. You dropped the mic, but here you are having to come back and pick it back up again,” Hannibal explained. There were nurses in there with you that stopped any kind of intimacy feeling you may have.

“I knew you would keep running if I kept chasing you. I knew you wanted me to know exactly where I could find you. When we needed you,” Will said.

“And you did,” Hannibal commented.

“I need you, Hannibal,” you said. Will finished it off.

“Please.”

Will stared at Hannibal in his cage. Even as Francis drove by, he stared at Hannibal. His mind became blurry. But still, he saw the outline of Hannibal’s face in the fog that was his mind as it crashed. People died. People were killed.

Hannibal was let out.

Will did not panic. He figured this would happen. He knew this would happen.

When his mind regained his moment, he got up and stepped out of the broken car. Hannibal crossed to the police car as he took off his straight jacket. He opened the door and pulled the dead driver from the vehicle.

“What are you doing?” Will called.

“You know Will, you worry too much. You’d be so much more comfortable if you relaxed with yourself. Are you coming? He’s not going to kill us here. What he wants to do requires something a little more private.” Hannibal behind the wheel was an interesting scene. The side window was smashed, blood splashed across the inside of the windshield. Hannibal pulled up alongside Will, opened the passenger door and shoved a dead police officer out of the vehicle. He leaned over the seat.

“Going my way?” Will looked through the car door and then looked back down the road.

“You know it can’t just be the two of us,” Will said.

“It never was and never will be, just the two of us.”

You sat in Jack’s office. Will’s pocket knife was in your hand tightly. You were getting a play by play that way which was the only reason you were truly there. You sat in a chair, head in one of your hands as you heard the voices go out and static. You looked up and Jack looked at you.

“What is that? What happened?”

“Hold on.” He dialed a number.

There was an excruciatingly long moment in silence. You held your breath, biting your finger gently as you waited. Someone spoke on the other line. You couldn’t make out what they were saying.

Then he hung up and looked at you. You stared back at him and waited.

“They were intercepted. We don’t know yet if there are any survivors.” You stared at him and he waited for that backlash. He was ready for it. But there was no anger that went over your face, instead it was just a small laugh. You shook your head and that laugh fell.

He saw that face and he recognized the look in your eyes.

“Do you remember the first judge of Will’s trial?” you asked quietly.

“What?”

“Do you. Remember. The first judge. In my husband's murder trial?” you asked again, louder this time.

“Yeah. Hannibal killed him.” You widened your eyes and shook your head slowly.

“No. I did.”

He had no time to react. You opened the pocket knife and leaned across the desk, slashing his throat.

You reached the motel room quickly after that. You pulled in at the same time you saw a car pull into the parking lot behind you. You got out of your car, hands still stained in Jack Crawford’s blood. The car slowed down beside you. You looked into it and the window rolled down, revealing Will in the passenger seat, Hannibal in the driver's seat.

You let out an audible sigh of relief.

“Jack told me you were dead,” you said as you rushed to the window.

“Get in the back,” Will said gently. He went to grab your hand but stopped when he saw the blood. Hannibal noticed it at the same time. You did not address it, instead you got in the back of the car with them.

Hannibal pulled out of the parking lot and away.

“The blood isn’t...the b-” Will started but you cut him off.

“No. I slit Jack Crawford’s throat,” you stated. Hannibal, pleasantly surprised, laughed. Will turned around to look at you. He didn’t look exactly surprised at you. More surprised at his lack of shock.

“About time,” Hannibal said.

“Is he dead?” Will asked. You shrugged.

“I left before figuring that out.”

You were so happy to be back beside the both of them. You just let out another sigh of relief.

You got out of the car and admired the scenery. It was such a Hannibal place, you weren’t even surprised. The sun setting, the cliff, the way the house stood on the Earth. So serendipitous.

“The bluff is eroding. There was more land when I was here with Abigail. More land still when I was here with Miriam Lass,” Hannibal said. Will looked over the view and down the cliff a bit. Water, crashing. Gorgeous.

“Now you’re here with us,” Will said.

“And the bluff is still eroding. You and I are suspended over the roiling Atlaninic. Soon all of this will be lost to sea,” Hannibal explained. You walked over to where Will lingered by the cliff. Hannibal walked away from you to find the key to the home.

“This isn’t the right place for us to be,” he whispered.

“Yes it is,” you countered.

“Running from the law with a child?”

“Sounds like something we would do and do well.” He looked over at you away from the view.

“Let’s get your hands cleaned.”

The sun set completely. The moon showed through the glass walls. You stared through the view and Will stood beside you, watching you watch your new life. He put his hand on your shoulder and you leaned into him as Hannibal walked into the room. Hannibal pulled a wine bottle from the rack and poured two glasses of wine.

“I apologize that I cannot offer you any wine Y/N,” he said. You turned to him. Will’s hand dropped.

“No worries. I never liked it anyway,” you lied. Will took a glass.

“You’re playing games with yourself in the dark of the moon,” Hannibal said, moving toward the window as well. “Wasn’t surprising that I heard from the Great Red Dragon. Was it surprising when you both heard from him?”

“Yes and no,” Will said.

“Surprised me. I just wanted to sleep in my own bed,” you whispered. Hannibal smiled gently but that quickly fell off his features.

“You intend to watch him kill me?” Hannibal questioned. You shook your head but Will spoke first.

“I intend to watch him change you.” Hannibal took that in, a sad smile on his face as he fingered the corkscrew. He saw it in his hands and wondered if he should kill you. Kill Will. Get it over with. Instead, he uses the tip to cut the seal on the wine bottle.

“My compassion for you both is inconvenient,” Hannibal stated.

“If you’re partial to beef products, it’s inconvenient to be compassionate toward a cow,” Will muttered.

“Save yourself, kill them all?” Hannibal asked.

“I don’t know if we can save ourselves. And maybe that’s just fine,” you said.

“No greater love hath man than to lay down his life for a friend’,” Hannibal recited. Will looked out the window and sensed the danger.

“He’s watching us now,” Will whispered. He looked at you and you looked back at him. You were staring at each other the second that the glass wall shattered, impaling Hannibal in the stomach. You turned quickly, moving toward Will subconsciously. Hannibal’s wine bottle dropped from his hand and a large red stain on his sweater blossomed with blood. Glass shards fell through the air and beyond them, the patio is just the black knight. In the darkness came Francis Dolarhyde.

Hannibal slid down to his knee. Blood pumping from the gunshot wound in his abdomen. Will grabbed you but Francis raised his gun to the two of you.

“Don’t run. I’ll catch you.” Hannibal glanced down at his belly wound.

“Hello, Francis,” he said.

“Hello, Dr. Lecter,” he echoed. Francis pulled a tripod from his bag and tossed it to you before pointing the gun at your head. Will took the tripod from your hands and began to set it up.

“I’m so happy you chose life, Francis. Suicide is the enemy.”

“I had one rag of pride that Reba McClane gave me. It told me that suicide was a sorry end,” Francis explained.

“You were seized by a fantasy life with the brilliance and freshness and immediacy of childhood. It took you a step beyond alone.” Francis pulled out a 16-mm camera from his bag and handed it to you who fixed it on the tripod, still at gunpoint.

“I’m going to film your death, Dr. Lecter, as dying, you meld with the strength of the Dragon.”

“It’s a glorious and rather discomfiting idea,” Hannibal muttered. You back away from the camera and he reached for the gun that was in his waistband. You wanted to reach for Will’s knife he had given you but hesitated.

“Watching the film will be wonderful, but not as wonderful as the act itself.”

Before you even knew what was happening, a knife slammed in Will’s face. You screamed. Francis shot you in the stomach. You stumbled back and then moved forward again. Will fell through the broken wall you attacked Francis. You had enough strength to get him outside.

Francis lifted Will off the ground and Will stabbed him with the knife that was once in his cheek. As you found your own knife, Francis started to again fight Will. As you moved you saw Will rag-doll across the stones. Will’s blood spattered across the thick drops to the stone. He got to his hands and knees. You went to stab Francis again but he got to you first, slashing your side. It stunned you enough that you fell back on the stones beside your husband.

Will pulled his gun out and Francis immediately disarmed him, tossing the gun over the bluff. You wanted to scream but nothing came out. Just as Francis went to slash him again Hannibal came out of the darkness. He tried to snap Franics neck but the man's neck was too strong and he swatted Hannibal away.

The two of them staggered across the patio. You tried to get up and Will did as well. He tossed Hannibal off but you and Will were up again.

You started to use your knives on his legs, hoping to disarm him. Hannibal grabbed a hatchet that he found off to the side. He slammed it into Francis achilles tendon and then his knee.

You, Will and Hannibal all stood now. Exhausted but equal. Francis bleeded from his wounds, leg destroyed. Hannibal staggered up to him and bit out Francis throat. He arched his back and blood fell all around him.

Eventually he fell and let out one last breath as he stared at Will in front of him.

Dead.

Will started to finally feel his wounds, as did you and Hannibal. He looked down at his hands which were drenched in red.

“It really does look black in the moonlight,” he whispered. You didn’t know what he was talking about but you didn’t ask. You stumbled to Hannibal who caught you. In his other arm, Will stood. The three of you embraced, not quite hugging, not not hugging.

You caught your breath together. The night was still otherwise.

“See,” Hannibal breathed. You did not look up at him. Will’s head was against his chest. You were buried in his neck. You grabbed Will’s hand and he held it for dear life. “This is all I ever wanted for you,” he choked. “For all of us.”

Hannibal sounded broken.

You felt broken.

Will looked broken.

You closed your eyes, brushing back the tears that you didn’t know were there.

“It’s beautiful,” you whispered. And you weren’t lying. Will stared at you and he genuinely felt that it was beautiful. He felt what you did. A single tear cut through the blood on his face and fell.

You held onto him and Hannibal tightly.

These were your boys. These were the people you had risked it all for. And you did not regret it for even a moment.

Hannibal let out a shaky breath and you felt the Earth underneath you move. You felt the ground and then you did not.

Where you once stood was drenched in blood. It was illuminated by the moon. If someone was to stand there, despite there no longer being a living person standing there, they would feel the emotions that had left. That place was no longer still. It was breathing.

The sea underneath it was breathing. It had engulfed three people who loved each other more than anyone had loved anyone.

The waves crashed against the rocks, the only noise left in the dark of the night.

#hannibal lecter x reader #will graham x reader #hannibal lecter x reader x will graham #will graham x reader x hannibal lecter #will graham imagines #hannibal lecter imagines #hannibal imagines

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suchawrathfullamb · 7 months

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Micro Expressions on Hannibal Part I - The Softening of Will Graham

I'm obsessed with observing actor's subtle expressions and Hugh Dancy is such a god on this specific art.

This is absolutely heartbreaking because in this point, Will still trusts Hannibal. You can see a tiny expression here that hints at a "huh, you really do care about me", or even "you seem to care about me...I wonder why". It's fond, but coy, it's Will being surprised at the gesture, yet trying to hide how pleased he is with it.

Which just adds to the aftermath of Hannibal's betrayal in Will's mind. And we never got to see their relationship develop to a point past violence (towards each other), meaning, we only saw them consummating the relationship through the Dragon fight, but we didn't get to watch it develop after that, and so their relationship, as beautiful and passionate as it was, never passed the point of "okay, I won't actually try to hurt you again" which could only come from experience. They'd have to spend time together after the fall, building that trust, healing the wounds they've inflicted upon one another, and we never saw this. Which makes this even more sad. Because Will would probably be so paranoid about his health and body around Hannibal. On edge. As he should be, unfortunately, considering that H literally considered killing him up to the last episode (in the WOTL script we see that H considered killing Will with the bottle opener, hence the line about the inconvenience of compassion).

Will seems to be touch/care starved, at least in Season 1, which could mean his whole life or most of it up to the turning point of prison, betrayal etc, because he probably learned to hide it better. Maybe he thought his subtle yet noticeable display of vulnerability (leaning into Alana's touch, melting into her embrace, his face when Hannibal touches his forehead for a fever, kissing Alana to ground himself, the paternal relationship with Jack, pushing his glasses scene) made him an easy prey. As if his need for care and affection and the willingness to receive it whenever it is presented was the reason he was so willing to let Hannibal in so easily (considering how reserved and kept to himself he was).

This of course, could be reaching. But the way his expressions towards H change from s1 to s2 is absolutely insane. It's natural, obviously, but it's interesting to observe and try to understand what that coy, fond expression actually meant, since he gave that to no one else but H.

He began their interactions by being rude and standoffish yet quickly became more malleable. No, not just after Abigail and the baby trap, but even laughing in a genuine way with H in that breakfast scene. He saw Hannibal way before he directly communicated and showed that. "How do you see me?" suddenly caring about H's perception of him, or even suddenly telling Hannibal, without him asking, about the copycat (in the first episode), just blurting it out to someone he barely knew. At that point perhaps it was more of a subconscious pull/trust that he (almost) blindly followed.

So this scene. This little face he makes after "you made me chicken soup" is that "huh, maybe I'm right, my "heart" feels close to you maybe you feel the same too". Which just makes everything that happened so much worse.

Please watch it in slow motion and zoom in, otherwise it's probably too subtle to notice right away.

#sorry to ruin your day #hannigram #hannibal lecter #hugh dancy #nbc hannibal #murder husbands #hannibal #will graham #gif credit is linked in the gif

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pesky--dust · 11 months

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I feel like it's harder for me to express my thoughts lately, but I've been thinking a lot about Beverly Katz and I cannot stand being alone with my thoughts anymore, so I’m sorry.

When Will was in Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Beverly was one of the few people who visited him there. She needed his help at work, but at the same time, we know that even before, without any hidden motives, she genuinely cared about his life. We also know she's the oldest child in the family. It is very common for the oldest children to feel responsible for their younger siblings.

I believe she feels the same sense of responsibility towards Will, like if he is her younger brother, which is why she tries to be there for him when he needs comfort.

Beverly is in a few episodes, but I won’t write about every single of them. I'm going to focus on the things that support my thesis about her perceiving Will as her younger sibling.

In Amuse Bouche she asks him about his well-being, tries to joke with him (he had just killed a man, to protect an innocent person and himself!), teaches him how to hold a gun properly.

In Coquilles she again shows concern about his condition and I have the impression that in this dialogue she speaks to him like to a child she doesn’t want to frighten:

In Buffet froid there is a lot of interactions between them. First, when panicked Will races out into the hallway, she stares at him and asks with a hint of concern “Will?”. When Will tries to reassure himself he didn’t kill Beth LeBeau, he calls Beverly and when she hears he called her, because he is not entirely sure what he saw was real, the script says “That admission almost breaks her heart, but it doesn't show.”. She tells him that he is the subject of a lot of speculation at the bureau, since people speculating that Jack pushed him right up to the edge and now he is pushing himself over. Later in the same episode she checks Will for evidence that would tell he killed Dr. Sutcliffe and reassures him that there's nothing that would indicate he is the person responsible for killing Dr. Sutcliffe.

When Will is arrested for evidence suggesting he killed Abigail Hobbs, Beverly is unable to maintain complete professionalism and talks to him while collecting evidence from his body. She tells him she didn't want to find anything on him, but since Will always says he's interpreting evidence, he should do it now. She is angry, disappointed and she says, “You should have recused yourself from any investigation. (...) However far over the edge you were leaning, I was hoping that you wouldn’t fall.”

As I have written already — when Will is in Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Beverly is one of the few people who visits him there. They make a deal — he helps her with work, she tries to prove he is innocent and she is going to check Hannibal Lecter. We know how it ends for her — Hannibal kills her and Will is needed to resolve this case. Here is a piece of the script from this scene:

Later Will tries to kill Hannibal Lecter by proxy, because he is mad about everything Hannibal caused in his life; he knew about Will’s encephalitis, framed him for his crimes, killed Abigail Hobbs and Beverly, Will's only friend.

However it turns out Will has to change tactic and he ends up falling in love with Hannibal, they are known as murder husbands! On the one hand, I imagine that because of that Beverly has to turn in her grave because she died trying to prove that Hannibal was guilty of crimes Will was accused of, and on the other hand, Will and Beverly really liked each other, and in my opinion, Beverly felt like his older sister, so I feel torn because I think she would, to some extent, enjoy Will's happiness anyway. One way or another, man, this whole situation is sick, especially if you look at it from Beverly's perspective.

#hannibal #hannibal nbc #nbc hannibal #beverly katz #beverly katz my beloved #poor beverly #will graham #beverly katz and will graham's relationship #hannigram #murder husbands #hannibal analysis #hannibal meta #at least i guess it's meta/analysis #hannibal script

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afreakingdork · 3 years

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Review: Hannibal

This show has been a rollercoaster and not in a good way. I’ll come right out and say it: I hate this show. I came into it totally fresh; I had heard people liked it and knew absolutely zero about it. I haven’t even seen Silence of the Lambs. I’m fresh off Death Stranding so I was getting really curious about Mads Mikkelsen and I can totally see the influence. Some of the scenes where Mads is slicked up with inky black liquid look straight out of the game. The story however is a total mess. Now, whether this is because Bryan Fuller’s intentions were dashed (the whole 5 seasons thing) or if there was something else at play. I can’t be sure, but what I do know is that even if you can’t fulfil your vision, that doesn’t mean you just do whatever and throw caution to the wind. You’re still telling a narrative and if you go rogue then everyone will know it.

So let’s start back with season 1. Probably the most classic of the show. I started by, of course, watching the pilot. Instead of reshooting the first episode, Hannibal decides to go straight from it’s pilot to the show. Which in and of itself isn’t a problem, except there are quite a few inconsistencies that just aren’t addressed. Will’s classroom and the design of Hannbal’s office are notable examples. Also, they flat out say Will has Asperger's which the show ultimately sweeps under the rug for whatever reason. The story plays out pretty cleanly in season 1. Now, I wanted to quit watching after the first few episodes because it was too high art. The imagery didn’t make much sense and this wasn’t really my type of show. Seeing Will fall for Hannibal’s tricks and getting placed in jail in season 2 really started to peak my interest and I proclaimed that it finally had my attention. Unfortunately, half way through season 2, Will is released from jail and the show completely spins wildly out of control from that point on. After Will works with another serial killer to get Hannibal killed while in jail, he is suddenly befriending Hannibal once he gets out. We learn that he has a big plan to try to ensnare Hannibal, but it all feels empty and even as a viewer, I simply know that it is just a shit plan. All reason goes out the window as the show tries to tell me that careful Hannibal who tortured Will and put him in jail through season 1 and most of 2 is now just spilling his guts to his protégé. Also, the show wants me to believe that Will is considering running away with big H because he is just as enamored, as if I didn’t see this man struggle with every fiber of his tortured soul to not become Garrett Jacob Hobbs.

All of this leads up to the blood match of the century at Hannibal’s house where the plan, duh, goes awry. This is where the worst season of all, season 3, certified fresh 98% on Rotten Tomatoes comes in like a flaming pile of garbage on a train. We whisk away to Europe and don’t give a fuck about following up on all our bloodied main characters we’ve grown to care about in two seasons. Suddenly the few ‘smart’ characters who speak in riddles multiplies to the point where not a single character isn’t speaking in code when talking to one another. Alana even gets this fucking insane line where she says bone marrow got in her blood stream so now she thinks differently. It’s insane. The only saving grace is Jack and that’s only because he’s the only consistent character throughout the show. He has a clean narrative and understandable motives. He’s the only character the script didn’t treat like an amorphous blob that changes on it’s whim as if it were Zeus having a bad hair day. After Hannibal is captured, the show dips down to a slow descent to it’s ending. It once again tries to make me question Will’s loyalty while simultaneously giving me no plot to support any major changes and just telling me that he’s changed right before he does. It’s totally asinine. I had pretty much shut completely down by the last 3 episodes. I think it’s borderline hilarious that the show honestly wants me to think that baiting the Dragon with Hannibal is the ONLY viable option to catch him. They don’t even consider any other possibilities. It’s just lazy. Let the whole show go over the cliff for all I care.

And all of this isn’t even getting in to how atrociously this show treats women. Alana Bloom starts as being the only person in Will’s corner who they force to be his love interest in one of the most un-sexually charged scenarios I’ve ever seen. They then, completely against character, make her Hannibal’s love interest for what I thought was an alibi, but I guess was genuine and again, not set up in the slightest. As previously mentioned, she does a 180 due to some bone marrow and is then a lesbian for another grotesque sex sequence that they just seem to love making her star in for pseudo prime time pornography. I mean, I guess I’m happy she ends up married with a kid? Beverly Katz is separated and pinned up like a museum display because she just happened to be smart. Every character hates Freddie Lounds and the show obviously wants you to hate her too, but when you think about it, why? What has she done other than be a strong independent woman who is chasing a career in the gruesome and trying to tell what she believes is the truth when other’s sweep the severity under the rug. The show hates her so much that if you start to break it down and remove her character from the show, the plot literally doesn’t change. She exists to be a punching bag. The only saving grace about Bella is the fact that her passing doesn’t push Jack’s story along at all, but her choice of passing was not only taken away by a man, it was then decided on a date not of her choosing by another. She has not a single bit of autonomy, even while being presented as a strong woman. Abigail Hobbs seems interesting enough, but in reality she’s nothing more than a way for Will and Hannibal to process their emotions and surrogate dad feelings onto. She is then “killed” off and, surprise, brought back only to be killed off again, only to BE BROUGHT BACK to find out she was a dead figment of Will’s fucked up imagination. Margot Verger is one of the most appalling examples of how this show treats women in the fact that she is not only sexually and physically abused, but she is also sterilized. Then, in season 2, when you think she finally can exact her revenge on her brother since he is rendered invalid, you find in season 3 that she did none of that, continued to let him torture her until someone else come’s down like a savior angel, Hannibal, and gives her the way she absolutely could have done herself to give her an out. The show literally wants me to believe that both Margot and Alana could not have considered the path to freedom without Hannibal’s help. They want you to believe these are not capable women because the show doesn’t believe women are. Unless it’s plot necessary, but only for that long. Du Maurier was smart enough to leave before Hannibal went to kill her in season 2, but for some reason in season 3 she comes back willingly to let him take her and torture her. Then she, I GUESS, cooks her leg up for him to visit as one of the final scenes of the show!?!!? Chiyoh was locked up for 20 years, supposedly, because she couldn’t leave behind the man who killed Hannibal’s sister, and when she is finally free, her whole character revolves around her being a good shot and wanting to help Hannibal because ??????? It makes absolutely no sense. Then, season 3 went ahead and went we need a woman who is blind to the fact that her partner is a serial killer, might as well make her blind for real. It’s repulsive, disgusting, and I don’t know why anyone enjoys this drivel.

Verdict:

P.S. my favorite character is Chilton. He’s one of the two consistent characters (hey, Jack!) and the fact that he just keeps getting brutally mutilated, but can’t stay away from serial killers is downright pathological. He also shined so brightly in the scene just before he gets shot through the mouth in the interrogation room. I never would have guessed I’d be rooting for him. I was actually worried when the Dragon caught him, but there’s no squashing that cockroach of a man!

#hannibal #review #me #show review #shows

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bedeliainwonderland · 4 years

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I understand disliking a character..but you realize anything that happens to bedelia in context of the show is driven by hannibal, right? the man you ship her with? the stinger, her fear, all that necessitates her self preservation is instigated by hannibal. the show frequently did a disservice to its female chars, but hannibal was the tool they used to do it. denying that and then shipping him w/ your fav only to turn it around on another char seems...hypocritical.

Ahh yes, some good ol’ anon hate, I missed that. Honestly, perfect timing, I am having the worst of times and getting to talk about my favs literally saved my day. So thanks!

First of all, Bedelia and Hannibal are a canon ship, whether you like it or not, so let’s get that out of the way (as opposite to certain other ship but that is a whole other thing). I merely fill in the blanks of what the show failed to provide because, for some inexplicable reason, the show named “Hannibal” was centered on a character named Will and every other character (especially the female characters) served only to further his “man pain”. But I digress, that is surely not why you chose to hide behind that grey square.

I don’t know whether you follow me or just saw that one reblog (which ironically weren’t even my words but I stand fully behind everything said), but I have already spoken about this extensively. Every day, really. I find it hard to understand how something is hypocritical when it is based on canon information. I am not denying anything. So here we go, under the cut, because I have a LOT to say:

The stinger- oh god, you all know how much I hate it. First of all, there is no proof that Hannibal is involved, we don’t know who is involved, that is kinda the point of a cliff hanger. We don’t even know if it’s real. But it’s absolutely pointless and makes no sense! It was quite literally Fuller wanting to do something “shocking” to finish off the series without any regard to continuity or characterisation. It was supposed to be shocking and look aesthetically pleasing, that’s it, no logic. It is as if he looked at the character list and thought “hmm, which female character is yet to be hurt? Oh right, Bedelia!” The so called “punishing Bedelia” as the fandom loved so very much is mere misogyny. Why can’t a female character do something morally questionable or even plain evil and get away with it? Because Will didn’t that is why. If she were a man, no one would scream for “she has it coming”, no, he would be uwu baby.

Having Hannibal involved in that would be completely out of character and contradictory to all their previous interactions/ their relationship. So let’s expand, shall we?

When we first see Bedelia and Hannibal, it is mentioned that she has been his psychiatrist for 7 years. 7 YEARS, let that sink in. No one, NO ONE, has been in Hannibal’s life for such a long time. It is clear she means a lot to him. If she didn’t, he had plenty of chances to kill her. It is established she is a loner, so it would so easy for Hannibal to dispose of her and claim “she left to UK” or something, like he did with his secretary. But he didn’t because he cares for her and she is important to him. He literally says he feels protective of her. Every session, you can see how much he needs her approval and how he hangs on her every word. How hurt he was when she said she wasn’t his friend (and yet he did nothing). How enamoured he is with her. When he comes to bring her dinner in Savoureaux, the dish included roses! Such a romantic.

Hannibal knew Bedelia was similar to him that is why he set up the whole Neil incident; he wanted to make sure she is. Do note that Bedelia wasn’t ever in danger, since Hannibal was there to step in if needed. But here is what I’ve found interesting; Bedelia killed someone, proving Hannibal’s hunch right, but she refused to fully acknowledge that part of herself. And Hannibal let her withdraw, doing nothing (as in not killing her, as I’m sure he had done many times with unsuccessful “candidates”) merely securing her continuous therapy. Because she was more than just another experiment to him.

And Bedelia isn’t so innocent in other aspects as well. She knows, yet she purposely evades the truth while talking to the FBI (“Will could use friends like Hannibal” ha!) under the cover of patient/ doctor confidentiality and even warns Hannibal directly (“they are starting to see your pattern). I have had my fair share of “Bedelia doesn’t care for Hannibal” posts and nothing could be further from the truth. If she hadn’t cared, she would not have done any of that.

But then of course, Hannibal’s game goes one step too far and he gives her the written permission to discuss him with the FBI. This is bad for Bedelia because it puts her under the scrutiny as well and that is not where she wants to be. Bedelia’s self-preservation always comes first (both Bedelia and Hannibal are egocentric by nature). Yet, she still comes to say goodbye to him and he lets her go! The script described Hannibal’s reaction to her words as “imperceivable wound”. “But he then went to kill her!” I hear you say? *Thor’s gif* Did he though? If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it then and there. No, he went to check if she were really gone (again, script) and whether she betrayed him. That was his only concern (betrayal is a big thing with Hannibal), but she didn’t. She even left him a memento. It said it was a memento of friendship, I think it was a “see you later” card.

This is getting super long, so let’s quickly skip to Florence. Bedelia left with Hannibal, knowing exactly who he was. Unlike other (all of them, actually) characters, she did not reject him/ was scared of him. “You let them see you/ I let them see enough” exchange says it all. She is not surprised by him or shocked by what he is; she is merely stating the facts. She has long accepted him in full. They lived together in Florence, openly behind the so called veil, as fake husband and wife, but the wedding rings remained intact even at home (showing how important it was to them, not just a front), displaying a ridiculous amount of domesticity and intimacy. This deserves a whole separate post but I am trying to be brief(er). “But she was scared!” you might shout again, except that she wasn’t. Even if Antipasto purposely played with the ambiguity of her situation for suspense purposes, the following episodes made it clear she was exactly where she wanted to be, from the very start, on her own terms as Hannibal’s equal. We were obviously misled by the promos, they promised us a Bedelia and Hannibal show and what we got was, well, you know… And that is yet another post altogether.

Now to the glorious farewell, boy, do I love to talk about that. Bedelia packs Hannibal’s bags and tells him to leave, and he does! What more, he promises to tell her story. HER STORY. Now, that is a major thing, because Hannibal has never ever done that for anyone. He always turns other people’s stories into his own, manipulating and adjusting accordingly. But with Bedelia, he simply agrees to do it, on her own terms. Not only that, he is visibly impressed and enamoured by her. Again, if he wanted to kill her, he could have just killed her then. He was going to get caught anyway, what is one more murder? All this “he waited until he could eat her” story makes no sense at all, since as it was already mentioned, he knew her for almost a decade, plenty of time to eat her if he wanted to. He lets her go because he wants to. Because he cares for her.

The point I have made several times is that Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal treats as, well, a person! Everyone else is beneath him, meat only if you will, but not her. Even the ever so special (apparently) Will and Abigail aren’t treated as “people”. Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal respects; that is what makes her so special. Not love (even though he obviously loves her), because respect is rarer for Hannibal than love. Sure, he “loves” Will, the same way you love your favourite book. You want to have it and you don’t want anyone else to have it, but you don’t expect the book to return your feelings. Bedelia is Hannibal’s only equal.

The Red Dragon arc was a mess of epic proportions so I don’t even want to get into that. But I do appreciate the acknowledgement of Bedelia’s darker side and now she has become comfortable with it since Florence. Let’s make a few notes so it doesn’t look as if I am purposely omitting things: Hannibal’s letters to Bedelia? Clearly a part of his “telling her story” and helping her cover, plus he was not able to send her proper letters, so that is his way of telling her he thinks of her. Sessions with Will? You can’t really take everything she told him at face value, she is obfuscating after all. Why would she be honest with Will? She wouldn’t be, she was just continuing what Hannibal has started with much better results (slightly too good actually, as proven by Will’s stupid plan). Bedelia wasn’t afraid Hannibal would come after her, because she had no reasons to be. NONE. She was protected by him.

So there you have it, the great many reasons why I am so unapologetic in my shipping. Because it is all there. Thank you for reminding me why I love these two so much! Have a great day, maybe next time you can message me off anon.

(And thanks to all who got to the end of this almost dissertation, this is my testament, I love you all fellow bedannibal fans!)

#bedannibal #bedelia du maurier #hannibal lecter #anonymous #asks #anon hate is great sometimes #reference for future anons

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