The fact that the show showed us that Hannibal only displays his endearingly strange instinctual behaviors of scenting and rubbing cheeks with his lovers…… And that he repeatedly does those same things with Will
Might be imagining things, but have you noticed how he first leans into the embrace, his face onto Will's shoulder?
I mean, he could've pulled Will closer first, without moving an inch. An act of power and having control over Will in his hands. But HE LEANED FIRST.
Maybe, only maybe, he NEEDED this embrace for comfort. It wasn't a terrifying gesture, it was meant for HIM, not Will. The embrace he imagined he'd get from Will, if they had run away together. The one that could've been a fresh start but it turned into a farewell.
what i love about this scene is hannibal didn't have to stay still and wait for bev to see him. he could have easily come up behind beverly in the dark and killed her. it would have probably been easier that way, because he can see in the dark very well and she cant and he would have had the element of suprise. so that means he stood there and waited for her to see him, literally just to play with his food and enjoy her fear when she figured out he was there the whole time.
What makes Hannigram so tragic is how fundamentally incomplete they are as individuals—Hannibal is the void, and Will is fractured beyond repair. Together, they form a twisted kind of wholeness, but one that’s forever imperfect. Fuller often describes their bond as one of “mutual transformation,” but that transformation doesn’t mean happiness. It’s about endless cycles of creation and destruction, about the fact that Hannibal can only ever love in pieces—pieces of Will that he takes, alters, and breaks. They can’t be together in any peaceful sense because, deep down, they’ll always break each other. It’s the cruelest form of love, built on the inevitability of suffering.
Okaaaay time to explore the parallels between Francis Dolarhyde/Reba McClane and Hannibal/Will!
In TWOTL, we see Will & Reba talk about what happened with Francis Dolarhyde.
"W: In the end, he couldn't kill you, and couldn't watch you die.
R: I drew a freak.
W: You didn't draw a freak. You drew a man, with a freak on his back. There is nothing wrong with you.
R: I know there's nothing wrong with me. In making friends I try to be wary of people who foster dependency and feed on it. I've been with a few. The blind attract them.
W: Not just the blind."
See? "In the end, he couldn't kill you, and couldn't watch you die", and that's true about Hannibal & Will.
The dialogue between Reba & Will reflects how Will used to see himself/his relationship with Hannibal. It reminds us that Will used to be wary, too. Better to be alone than in bad company. Before knowing Hannibal, Will was alone most of the time, and ofc you can choose to be alone because you enjoy it, but I don't think the way Will isolated was entirely joyful. He did it to protect himself. Because he knows that the very way he sees the world can attract people who are dangerous to him, can attract people who "foster codependency". He's seen it before, his "uniqueness" makes him vulnerable.
And for a moment, Will genuinely believed Hannibal was a freak. Once he accepted his true nature, accepted to adapt, evolve, become, once he gave in to his real self, he was able to be at peace with who he is ("There's nothing wrong with you") and with who Hannibal is ("You drew a man, with a freak on his back."). He humanizes Francis, in the same way he humanizes Hannibal.
Also, side note, but the "Not just the blind." line could be a way to refer to Will's empathy. He does see, he sees a lot, he sees too much. And that, too, attracts dangerous people.
In a way, Will and Reba are very much alike, because they were both able to see beyond what's visible, to get to know the person they love. Reba's blindness allowed her to see past Francis' physical appearance which he was insecure about, making him feel seen in a way he craved, feel loved for who he was, just like Will's empathy allowed him to see the art in Hannibal's murders, allowed him to sneak a peek behind the person suit and access who Hannibal truly was.
Later, Will & Francis talk:
"F: I would like to share.
W: You shared with Reba.
F: I shared with Reba a little, in a way she could survive.
W: You didn't change her.
F: I choose not to change her."
And this resonates with Hannigram, too. Francis chose to only share a little, "in a way she could survive". Hannigram didn't. They both let themselves be seen, be known. They both changed the other, and got changed by the other, whether they wanted to or not. "I chose not to change her," said Francis, and I'm not sure neither Will nor Hannibal could have chosen not to change each other. They belong to each other so deeply that they actually don't want to trick the monster inside themselves to let the other survive.
They will change each other so thoroughly, that whatever will come out of their mutual transformation, isn't Will & Hannibal, as separate beings, anymore. They are one. They've consumed each other to the point that survival doesn't matter. They embrace their own nature and each other's nature so entirely, that being together surpasses the mere fact of being alive. Being loved is being changed, and they got changed in the most complete way.
something something the idea of Will Graham being "the bottom" is disagreeable to me because Will is constantly being invaded, assaulted, overwhelmed by sensations and emotions and people-- so out of control all the time-- that the idea of him willingly losing his control over this borderline-sacred part of his body; receiving during sex, goes against his instinct, goes against his defensive nature
something something Will Graham would only bottom with someone he loves and trusts, completely, and it would be frightening to him; this would be his first time doing so (previously shown to be mostly hetero, used to being the penetrator during sex, prickly/thorny emotional guard, etc)
something something having the ability to choose, to fight, to be "violent" or to be the "strong one" (or to be perceived as) is something Will loves, is shown to love-- this is said to be his "nature"-- and all of these are things seen by society as the behaviour of the sexual 'top'. (He wants control. He needs control. Will Graham is the orderly one out of Hannigram, there was an excellent analysis about order v disorder for them I can link here somewhere, if I remember....)
something something Will Graham has not had a positive relationship with sex in any form previously, one can assume, and so if in a situation with someone like Hannibal whom he cares for and presumably would *want* to have sex with, he would go for the position he is most comfortable with-- and the position he can enjoy most readily, whilst still feeling SAFE ; esp. around Hannibal, who has *invaded* and *controlled* so much of his life-- why would Will let him control *this*?
something something Hannibal is getting his ass destroyed , not the other way around (until some day 7+ years in the future when they're all settled and domestic and married with dogs, and Wil is absolutely going to cry during it, and it's gonna be the most vanilla gentle thing you've ever seen because Hannibal and Will have hurt each other enough. )
Hannibal parallels of episodes number 7: Sobet, Yakimono, Digestivo
I've been thinking about these particular parallels for a very long time (but had trouble making these gifs, lol).
Hear me out:
In episode seven of the first season, Hannibal is formal when he invites Will to his office in, he greets him with “good evening”. In the same episode, Will tells Hannibal that he has a date with the Chesapeake Ripper, it's a joke of course — his task is to solve the case of the ripper, to catch him.
In the second season, Hannibal acts more casually towards Will, saying “hello” to him. Will is now aware that Hannibal is the Chesapeake Ripper. He no longer jokes about his date with the said criminal, but he tells Hannibal that he has to deal with him and his feelings about him and so, he thinks it's best if he does that directly. With this scene, Will's courtship with Hannibal officially begins.
However in the last season, in the seventh episode, Will no longer wants to think about Hannibal, he says so to hurt Hannibal, he refuses Hannibal being seen by him (and from Mizumono we know how badly Hannibal wants it). Hannibal no longer says “good evening” or “hello”, and Will also does not say greetings, but says his goodbyes.
This evolution from “good evening” to “hello” to “goodbye” and so the evolution of Will's feeling makes me feel so unwell.
My Take on the Evolution of Will and Hannibal’s Relationship
So, after a fairly interesting conversation with @ofdvorakanddastardlyschemes on the nature of friendship and social cues within friendship, I decided to write my take on Will and Hannibal’s relationship using ven diagrams and fancy psychological language (disclaimer: while I have my bachelor’s in psychology, anyone worth their salt can tell you that that means exactly diddly squat without at least a master’s or doctorate degree, so please take this with just a grain of salt) .
Without further adieu, here is my diagram:
Here is it’s meaning:
—”The Dance” : this describes the conversations that take place in every ongoing and developing relationship, be it friendship or something more. Essentially, Person A gives a little of information about themselves in a coversation that is at first at a lower level of intimacy. Then Person B in the conversation reciprocates with a piece of information about themselves at roughly the same level of intimacy, ususally connecting it to something that is mutually shared between Person A and themselves. Then later Person B is the one to initiate sharing a bit of information, with Person A repeating as explained above previously. And so goes “the dance”, with every subsequent interaction bringing the two closer together. *Note—obviously not every relationship or friendship progresses to this level of intimacy in this diagram; I am merely describing an overall process with the trajectory in this diagram being specific to Will and Hannibal’s relationship.
The Dots: These are Hannibal and Will gradually moving closer together in their relationship over the 3 seasons.
—Friendship: I have come to understand that there are a couple key defining attriibutes of a friendship:
1) Friendships tend to be characterized by a focus on mutually shared interests and experiences—essentially things outside of the people drawing them together
2) The intimacy in friendships tends to be due to the shared experiences involving outside interests and activities
—Relationship (Romantic): Several key attributes defining this kind of relationship in being different to friendship in my opinion ( besides some of the obvious) are:
1) Romantic relationships are characterized by a focus on the other person instead of outside interests and activities
2) The intimacy present in these types of relationships tend to be furthured and developed by shared experiences brought on by the desire to experience them with the other person, not necessarily for the experiences themselves —essentially things within the people drawing them together, not things outside.
On to how this applies to Will and Hannibal…
Season 1: In this season Will and Hannibal’s friendship is focused around shared interests and experiences of assisting the FBI with crime scenes and co-parenting Abigail—a mutually shared traumatic experience. The conversations while in depth and revealing of both of themselves mostly revolve around helping Will through his mental health issues so he could assist Jack Crawford. Their relationship, as shown in the diagram, is still very much in friendship territory.
Season 2: Moving into Season 2, the focus of their relationship shifts from being a friendship centered outside of themselves primarily to a relationship (though not quite romantic at beginning of the season) centered on eachother as people. With Abigail no longer there, Will has no real outside ties to a friendship any longer with Hannibal except a shared history of being wronged and seeking a reckoning for it. He also has seen Hannibal and they mutually share a darkness within themselves, though Will is in denial of this and won’t yet accept it. So begins a romantic relationship rather than a friendship.
Season 3: This season becomes all about eachother—-their ties to one another based simply on who they are on the inside, no outside focus drawing them together. The Dragon becomes an outside excuse for everyone else—he is their front for a reason to speak and continue their relationship when in reality it is only themselves that continue to draw them closer.
Anyway, this is my take on the two. God I love this pair—they have so many interesting aspects. Thanks for reading! :)
