idk guys but I think the only reason Will felt so entirely betrayed by Hannibal in the end of the first season/ beginning of the second was because Hannibal showed him he could be entirely vulnerable. Which means the only way Will actually was able to forgive him was when he realized Hannibal didnât want him like that, he just wanted to point out that was Willâs reality. Which also means that scene in Mizumono where Hannibal says âdid you really think you could change me like I changed you?â not only means that literally, but also âdid you really think you could make me as vulnerable as I made you?â and it makes Willâs response of âI already did.â and Hannibalâs realization that heâs right that much more insane.Â
Likeâok think about it:
Will doesnât do friendships/ trust/ dependency in the first season. The only people heâs relatively close to are Alana and Jack (and later Beverly), and both of those are because 1. he works for Jack and in a sense is forced to rely on him in a way, and 2. Alana is constantly fighting to keep herself in a position where Will can rely on herâbut he doesnât give her any slack. (Beverly represents a friendship where she doesnât ask anything of him aside from companionshipâsheâs the only healthy friendship he has and itâs not a coincidence that sheâs the only one that believes he was framed.)
Hannibal comes in and Will immediately rejects him butâit doesnât last.Â
When Will hears something in his chimney Alana is the first to appear but Will goes to Hannibal. Later on when Willâs got Abel Gideon but he sees Garrett Jacob Hobbes he takes him to Hannibal. When heâs beginning to be terrified of his mental state crumbling he tells Hannibal. When he admits he enjoyed killing GJH itâs to Hannibal.Â
In this first season Will genuinely trusts Hannibal and allows himself to genuinely rely on him, which makes his betrayal that much more painful. In the beginning of the second season Will believes that his entire relationship with Hannibal was fabricated as part of Hannibalâs plan to ruin Will and that none of it was real, he thinks Hannibalâs plan overall was to prey on Willâs vulnerability and then rub it in his face with the trial where all the people he thought of as friends turn against him and take the responsibility off of him because they assume they broke himâthat he is broken.Â
And instead of crumbling Will starts plotting revenge, he tries doing the same thing Hannibal didâforging a âgenuineâ relationship only to dash it against the rocks in Mizumono. Will plotting with Jack wasnât about actually catching the Chesapeake Ripperâit was about using Hannibalâs tactic against him. Will molds himself into something irresistible to Hannibal and then when heâs got Hannibal trailing along behind him he drops the trapdoor.Â
The only problem is that the same thing happened to Will that happened to Hannibal: they actually do like one another.Â
Hannibal meant for his relationship with Will to all be fabricatedâbut it wasnât. Will meant for his relationship with Hannibal to be fabricatedâbut it wasnât. Theyâre both just too stubborn to quit their plans so they go all the way through with them. They keep forming an actual relationship from false pretenses and then shattering it. In the third season is the only time theyâre on equal footingâboth tired of lies and fighting.Â
When Hannibal got as close as he did for the lie in the first season he discovered Willâs intrigue and saw the potential for a real equal. When Will got close to Hannibal in the second season he saw thatâs what Hannibal reallyâactuallyâwanted out of him. In the first season Will is so genuine itâs painful and in the second Hannibal is so genuine itâs painful. The finales of seasons 1 and 2 are tragic because they both find they donât actually want this outcome anymore but theyâve already committed. Will seeâs Hannibalâs heartbreak in Mizumono and tells him âSee? This is what it felt likeâthis is what you did to me.â Â
âDid you really think you could change me the way I changed you?âÂ