#hannigram rambles

[avathefur]

More Hannibal rambles:

Will does care about Abigail, he does. But he cares for her through this idealised lens of her as a daughter, not for Abigail as she truly is. In all honesty, they don’t even interact all that much, the majority of their bonding happens in Will’s mind palace. In his head, he is able to fulfil his desires of being a mentor, teaching her how to fish like he wanted to in s1 but thought better of.

His connection to Abigail is a route in which he can escape the guilt he feels. By assuming a fatherly role, he aims to dissipate the wrong he felt for killing Garret Jacob Hobbs (later addition bc comments made me think abt it more; it’s moreso the guilt he feels for not being guilty about killing, his connection with Abigail seems to prove to him that he doesn’t need to feel this guilt. ‘It’s the ugliest thing in the world’ which we know is Will lying). And so, their connection isn’t one of genuine, natural care, but essentially manufactured affection to the idea of a child.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Will did genuinely care for Abigail. I don’t think he really knew how surface level it was. But he didn’t care for Abigail absolutely. Her own association with her father scared will, and if he knew of her crimes, he would not have felt the same way. Hell, his forgiveness to what she did is arguably a result of this idea of a family that will built up through the first (and later second) season. Will clung onto morality for the both of them, even when Abigail wasn’t innocent, and neither was Will.

Yet Will chose to ignore both of these things, covering it up with ‘family’.

Perhaps that’s why Abigail clung so hard onto Hannibal. The man who showed her affection regardless of her immorality, accepted all facets of her, unlike Will who shunned the evil in the both of them. By the end of s2, I feel Hannibal wished for them to reconnect and truly bond, now without the facade of righteousness. Having seen Will accept his own dark side (if partially a lie), Hannibal, it seems, wished for Will to see beyond the picture perfect daughter. To finally truly see Abigail. And in doing so, run away together, as a family.

[avathefur]

Thinking abt Will Graham and him being way more malicious than most ppl regard him as... like s2 he canonically kills, butchers and willingly eats a man (the fnaf type biting guy Hannibal sent) which, if u look at the original scripts, he did that without Hannibal's guidance.

Also, in the scripts it shows that Will may have been slowly leading Hannibal to kill the muralist in s2, by telling Beverly facts abt the case the he knew would be told to Hannibal, and having him kill for Will (in said scripts, the mural is also called a valentine, bc of course this gay ass show has it be a valentine)

Plus trying to have Hannibal brutally killed, and his willingness to run away with Hannibal in s2... god s2 will was something

He also doesn't hide from god for his crimes in the ortolan scene, he is very aware of his sins

In s3 he clearly takes inspiration from Hannibal when warping that one corpse that he manipulated Chiyoh into killing, literally making it into art as the deaths head hawk moth (that's a whole other rant)

In a cut s1 line he claims to have wanted to kill that one guy who was making mushrooms, only missing be he's a bad shot.

Will isn't some purely innocent bystander, he, at the very least by the end of s2, has become far closer to Hannibal than he would want to admit. He tried to escape this through his time with Molly, but even then he found himself returning to Hannibal, to this life beyond goodness.

(Script info and cut stuff is from calicolala on twitter and their bts stuff)

[asadstatue]

Just rambling but do you think Hannibal's openness to express his love for Will would change if he experienced having Will close to death and back?

Not that he's a believer in any form, but that fear of losing the dearest you have if you admit your love for them out loud to the universe... He's already grieved Mischa, losing Will would be even worse.

I'm imagining Will getting more and more desperate to hear a simple "I love you" from Hannibal after the fall even though it's clear in Hannibal's acts.