[sevnmewnitestospare]

Tw: Mention of suicide

For all that Hannibal manipulates him I feel he's extremely emotionally dependent on will. He loses much of his smaller interests when away from will, still functioning but clearly much less content.

I do believe that if will died Hannibal would kill himself. I don't think he'd personally end his own life, but would spiral by killing more often and escalating, until he ultimately dies in an alternation with law enforcement.

His connection with Will became something he was incredibly invested in, finally finding some form of limited understanding that held potential for a form of honest acceptance.

I do think in the later seasons he views himself and Will as equals, despite the fact that he has destroyed Will's life and forced a desperate evolution from him.

[sevnmewnitestospare]

So weird trying to think about Hannibal.

He has a weird social antisocialness, I think? He's distant from almost everybody, but he still takes some form of pleasure from engaging socially. I think it's very interesting that he's so obsessed with Will because I feel like his "person suit" allows people to sort him into a role where he supports/has power over them. It's different from how Will reflects "perfectly" but I think it's part of where Hannibal's desire to have a more honest and open relationship in his manipulation of Will comes from.

He's possessive of his social standing, and he's socially "above" most people he interacts with. He seems curious about a select group of people while also being disgusted with most of society. I don't know if he views himself as a god, but he views himself as above most of humanity, not considering the consumption of them as cannibalism in the same way he would consider the consumption of Mischa or Will.

Random train of though I want to maybe expand on later

[sevnmewnitestospare]

I really want to understand how exactly he wants to connect with Will.

It's based in a desire to be seen fully for who he is, and to be accepted and understood for it. I come back to how he seems to "slot" into people's lives. He reflects their desires through his actions and "person suit", offering up different pieces of his personality and any of his many interests, creating an image that allows them to lean on him and in turn give him power over them.

It feels like his mindset in how he manipulates both Randall and Will is nurturing, fostering reliance upon himself while fostering delusion and disconnection from reality in the pursuit of some "metamorphosis", but in different ways.

I do believe that part of his interest in Randall was "wind him up, watch him go", but I believe it was similarly in a desire for connection. Hannibal believes himself separate from the bulk of humanity, to the level of being completely different species, and I think he saw some form of that reflected in Randall's disconnect from humanity. Hannibal fostered the idea of becoming something more than human, or embracing his "true" self, and in theory, allowing him to see more of who Hannibal is.

I think he ultimately found the connection lacking, eventually seeing Randall only as an instrument in Will's own metamorphosis, but he did (in my opinion) attempt connecting with someone past his measured social mask.

[sevnmewnitestospare]

Ok so expanding on my thoughts in the tags, what I think Hannibal's endgame with Will is/was.

Starting with the thought that his youth created this distance from humanity and that is the stem of his desire for understanding.

I said he doesn't want will to be a clone of himself and instead wants someone who knows him as well as he knows himself, but I think he actually lacks the ability to give the same understanding to Will. Hannibal is extremely separate from almost everybody, and most of his social interactions are built on using people's flaws against them. While I said he takes pleasure from engaging socially, he doesn't have a healthy understanding of social connections or other people. Every way he engages with people is manipulative, being the taker in every relationship.

He abuses and manipulates Will, hiding his illness while distorting Will's life around him, all to force Will to recede from other connections and inward to Hannibal. He forces Will into situations where the option is to defer to Hannibal, to accept his world view and, again, understand him, punishing Will when he chooses his morals or his other connections over Hannibal's interests. He cannot actually accept Will for who he is without carving him into a compassionate mirror.

Will however, CAN understand Hannibal in the way he desires. He understands Hannibal better than almost anyone, seeing through much of his social pretense and focusing on what Hannibal actually wants. His understanding of Hannibal evolves with time, getting to a point where he can empathize with Hannibal's interests and personality, accepting parts shared with him and seeking further knowledge.

[sevnmewnitestospare]

So weird trying to think about Hannibal.

He has a weird social antisocialness, I think? He's distant from almost everybody, but he still takes some form of pleasure from engaging socially. I think it's very interesting that he's so obsessed with Will because I feel like his "person suit" allows people to sort him into a role where he supports/has power over them. It's different from how Will reflects "perfectly" but I think it's part of where Hannibal's desire to have a more honest and open relationship in his manipulation of Will comes from.

He's possessive of his social standing, and he's socially "above" most people he interacts with. He seems curious about a select group of people while also being disgusted with most of society. I don't know if he views himself as a god, but he views himself as above most of humanity, not considering the consumption of them as cannibalism in the same way he would consider the consumption of Mischa or Will.

Random train of though I want to maybe expand on later

[sevnmewnitestospare]

I really want to understand how exactly he wants to connect with Will.

It's based in a desire to be seen fully for who he is, and to be accepted and understood for it. I come back to how he seems to "slot" into people's lives. He reflects their desires through his actions and "person suit", offering up different pieces of his personality and any of his many interests, creating an image that allows them to lean on him and in turn give him power over them.

It feels like his mindset in how he manipulates both Randall and Will is nurturing, fostering reliance upon himself while fostering delusion and disconnection from reality in the pursuit of some "metamorphosis", but in different ways.

I do believe that part of his interest in Randall was "wind him up, watch him go", but I believe it was similarly in a desire for connection. Hannibal believes himself separate from the bulk of humanity, to the level of being completely different species, and I think he saw some form of that reflected in Randall's disconnect from humanity. Hannibal fostered the idea of becoming something more than human, or embracing his "true" self, and in theory, allowing him to see more of who Hannibal is.

I think he ultimately found the connection lacking, eventually seeing Randall only as an instrument in Will's own metamorphosis, but he did (in my opinion) attempt connecting with someone past his measured social mask.

[sevnmewnitestospare]

So weird trying to think about Hannibal.

He has a weird social antisocialness, I think? He's distant from almost everybody, but he still takes some form of pleasure from engaging socially. I think it's very interesting that he's so obsessed with Will because I feel like his "person suit" allows people to sort him into a role where he supports/has power over them. It's different from how Will reflects "perfectly" but I think it's part of where Hannibal's desire to have a more honest and open relationship in his manipulation of Will comes from.

He's possessive of his social standing, and he's socially "above" most people he interacts with. He seems curious about a select group of people while also being disgusted with most of society. I don't know if he views himself as a god, but he views himself as above most of humanity, not considering the consumption of them as cannibalism in the same way he would consider the consumption of Mischa or Will.

Random train of though I want to maybe expand on later