lets talk hannibal (but mostly will graham)
so some viewers and enjoyers of the hannibal tv show still think that Will only lost it because of hannibals influence. because hannibal alienated him from others, pushed him to break the wall around his mind, whatever reason, some people think it was only or at least mostly because of hannibal.
that said, heres where those loveable fuckos are wrong. will graham was very early on established to be unstable- he's autistic and an empath so that alone is hard on him, not to mention all the shit hes seen for crime scenes and his own nightmares (also established to have happened long before hannibal or Garret Hobbs ever came into play). so yes, unstable, but still very clearly feeling- he's not a psychopath, not a sociopath, not even criminally crazy or insane, he's just unstable. but unstable is dangerous in his line of work
so lets focus on the empath part for a second. he's able to observe, consider, and get into the minds of the killers- 'he hires Will Graham to catch psychopaths because he can think like them'. and he can, and he said as much- he can think like them, get in their head, figure out their design and every last flaw in it to catch them. will graham may not be a legal psychopath, but he can put his mind into the headspace of one, think and feel and look like one (consider the conversation about the minnesota shrike between jack and will- 'a feeling psychopath'. we establish early that it is unusual, but they can never and will never rule out the possibility of a psychopath or sociopath being driven by love, still feeling things)
so far, just in early episode 1, we've established a few things- the first is that will graham is emotionally and mentally unstable, so deeply that a licensed psychiatrist suggests highly that they just let him be and teach. second thing we've established is that will graham is not a psychopath or sociopath, but he THINKS like one, gets in their heads, understands them. being able to think through someone so deeply that you can basically see through their eyes is hard enough, but even harder if you cant align with their instabilities and etc. and the third thing we've established is that in this show (and irl, but we focus on the show), is that they can and never will rule out the possibility of a psychopath showing and experiencing true feeling.
now lets talk about some MORE that went down in episode one. the 'copycat' kill, with the girl mounted in the field on the antlers. will took one close look at her and realized that no, this isnt garret hobbs, who tucked elice nichols into bed and never wastes any part of the women because he wants to keep them inside, near him, safe- no, this was someone else, and he though this girl was pig and wanted to humiliate her. One fucking look. he had probably already been thinking about the shrike kills and realized, or almost realized, the connection between the shrike having a daughter and the girls he killed, whatever. but he takes one look at this girl, a kill that is very objectively so close to the others it could, in fact, be garret jacob hobbs, and he realizes no, thats not the shrike, this girl was a pig and her killer wanted it known.
and then, later, when he's giving the lecture and jack and hannibal walk in, he says that this kill was the shrikes kills but elevated to art. ART, which he is shown now and later to have such a delicate care for. he finds this kill beautiful and artistic, and this is before he has much of hannibals influence or hannibal even makes hints about alienating will from jack or alana. this is still pre-hannibal will graham, looking at a vicious murder and calling it art.
and hannibal himself never broke will. he broke his trust, at some points, and did everything to get it back and show will he could trust him, he wouldnt hurt him. he loved will so clearly and deeply the entire time, he would never break him. he loved him so deeply that the only thing he ever wanted was for will to be his full, true, no-walls self with hannibal. he would never break will, he just wanted will to be his full self- he pushed will, yes, but never to hurt him or his mind, just pushed him to take the walls down, to stop pushing down the urges that were eating at him because thats what was destroying will, not hannibal.
so in conclusion, will was an unstable phsycotic empath well before hannibal, and hannibal only ever wanted him to stop fighting the urges and take down his walls, he was NOT the reason will snapped and not responsible for dark!Will
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