Murder husbands in the bedroom: Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham’s kinks as shown in canon
Because NBC’s Hannibal is a wonderfully disturbing, debauched and all-around crazy show with a gay director who committed to featuring morally compromised middle-aged men mostly nude whenever and wherever he could get away with it, we actually get some pretty clear canonical demonstrations of what some of Hannibal and Will’s kinks may be. I’ve complied a list of the ones shown to us in the show and the scenes that demonstrate them with some short explanations— though I think they can certainly speak for themselves as is ;)
From season two onwards, Will gets into a habit of envisioning Hannibal tied up at his mercy and suggestively spurting hot bodily fluids thanks to his violent touch prying him open. Will’s bondage vision in S2Ep9 (Shiizakana) is especially important: His envisioned version of Hannibal responds to his cruel treatment with poetic sentiments about love and one’s beloved. Will shows he is aware that Hannibal has a romantic and sexual interest in him here. The scene is very abstract, but undeniably erotic. A “rigger” is the bdsm term for the partner who assembles and controls the restraints during bondage play. Will seems into bondage, specifically in a dominant rigger role.
Will sees himself as an other, unwanted, having dark desires for a violent rush and yearning for intimacy at the same time. Teratophilia is more colloquially known as “monsterfucking” in kink circles, the push-pull thrill of danger and the desire to be specially chosen by someone are embodied in sexual fantasies involving monsters. Will envisions that he’s in Hannibal’s bedroom and Hannibal is a nightmarish, antlered monster when he’s having sex with Margot Verger, stalking over to him in the firelight and looming over him on the bed. Will finishes hard as he pictures staring up at him. Visual metaphor, sexual fantasy or both, Will clearly really enjoyed seeing Hannibal like this.
Hannibal has a bit of a fixation with necks. Snapping them, restraining them, sniffing at them, biting into them…… choking them. When he’s having sex with Alana, Hannibal chokes her from behind. Asphyxiation play is known to make sexual pleasure and orgasms feel more intense for people who enjoy it due to the restraint of air and blood flow leading to some dizziness, mental fog and more susceptibility to sensation and overstimulation. It can be very risky, your safety is in your partner’s hands. Hannibal is definitely the type to find both sexual and ironic enjoyment in people literally handing their lives to a killer.
Hannibal & katoptronophilia:
Katoptronophilia is the sexual enjoyment of watching your reflection during sex or self-pleasure. Mirrors used for this are typically set up above or beside the area used for sex acts. Hannibal has two large mirrors in his room: one over the fireplace, angled to allow a view from above of the bed, and one against the wall behind his armchairs. He has an antique devotional statue of saint left of the fireplace that faces the bed so he can presumably get a kick out of a holy figure watching over him watching himself being lustful and greedy, having sex outside of marriage, masturbating, laying with men and all that fun stuff.
Hannibal, Will & scarification:
Hannibal and Will like to show off the scars they’ve gotten thanks to each other, permanent evidence of their connection and the fact they’re the only ones special enough to each other to always survive each other. They like it so much they can’t hold back about it, Hannibal has his sleeves rolled up to show the slit wrists inflicted on him at Will’s command while teasing courtship with Alana, Will keeping his hair cut and combed to show his forehead scar while married to Molly and flashing his scarred stomach to Chiyoh like a wedding ring. “It excites him to know that you are marked in this particular way”, Bedelia tells Will about his scars from Hannibal. He can’t deny it just as he can’t deny that he aches for Hannibal— he knows it’s true and mutual.
Hannibal, Will & erotophonophilia:
Erotophonophilia is the sexual enjoyment of death risk or murder itself. Hannibal enthusiastically asked Will if he wanted to kill him and how, a lot of lip-licking and eyefucking followed Will’s affirmative answer. He brought it up with him several times after that too. Will’s fantasies of Hannibal almost always feature him fighting and defeating or having restrained him, the emotional release of killing him depicted saturated with parallels to sexual release and penetration. Hannibal seems to favor the role of victim and Will the role of perpetrator. And with their charged praise over Randall’s body and the intimacy they find participating in or assisting each other with murdering him and Dolarhyde, they both seem to enjoy observing the other’s work too.
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