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doktorfreud · 6 years

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All the times Will broke Hannibal’s heart

Throughout the whole storyline, Will Graham constantly and consistently manages, somehow, to break the good Doctor’s heart over and over again.

How does one accomplish the near-impossible endeavour of causing heartbreak to someone so in-control as Hannibal, and, above all, WHY does Will feel the urge to do so? I’ll delve into that later on.

In the words of Bart to Lisa Simpson, let us first pinpoint the exact moments when Hannibal’s heart rips in half:

Faces of a cannibal’s pain

“Extreme acts of cruelty require a high level of empathy”, Bedelia tells Will.

And what Will has, is “pure empathy”, according to Hannibal.

Now let’s combine these two notions together, and…

…yes, hide us from the wrath of the lamb.

Because when empaths strike, they rarely miss their mark. And that’s because they can really see the person in front of them, their deepest fears, their weaknesses. When Will wants to lash out at Hannibal, severely wound him, his empathy shows him exactly which strings to pull. He sharpens his arrow, aims for the victim’s heart… and ends up wounding him emotionally almost as much as Hannibal wounds him physically.

One may argue that Will’s only defence against Hannibal’s shenanigans is his REJECTION of him. Over and over, throughout the entire story arc running through the show, Will tries to rid himself of Hannibal - to no avail.

Why? Because to really excise Dr. Lecter from his life, Will would have to cut out part of himself, since - as Will himself noted - by the end, the two men have started to blur into one another.

But it’s not only self-defence. There are much deeper, darker forces at work in Will’s being.

“You delight in wickedness, and then berate yourself for the delight”, a distraught Hannibal reproaches Will, after the latter’s “I'm not gonna miss you” monologue. There’s a kernel of truth, there.

Each and every time Will shoots his bow at Hannibal, one can sense the quiver of delight running down his spine as he’s emotionally crushing him… that primordial instinct that Bedelia described so well, when talking about her own instinct of crushing the wounded bird.

But Hannibal is no wounded bird. Where does Will’s delight stem from, then?

Will may be a good fisherman, but it’s his budding thirst for hunting, which - ironically - Hannibal nurtures, that drives him. His pleasure is taking down, one arrow at a time, a big, confident, beautiful animal, the powerful stag that has been stalking him, ever since his fateful encounter with the man of his life: Hannibal. In wounding him with his carefully-chosen words, Will asserts his power over Dr. Lecter.

There’s more.

Will also wants to take him down, because - in Cathy’s words about Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (there’s a great meme about that: https://doktorfreud.tumblr.com/post/171500261493/right-now-picturing-will-in-a-pettycoat-running) - Hannibal’s more himself than he his: Hannibal lives true to his nature. Will, at least not until the very end, cannot, his morals standing in the way of his becoming.

Of course, each time Will drives his knife through Hannibal’s heart, he has a very specific, story-related reason for doing so - but his underlying drive can ultimately be sought in his yearning to be like Hannibal, nay… to BE HIM.

>> Next post: Will’s TOP STABS at Hannibal’s heart ❤

#hannibal #hannigram #fannibals #nbc hannibal #nbchannibal #heartbreak #bryan fuller #tv show #hugh dancy #mads mikkelsen #otp #murder husbands

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doktorfreud · 6 years

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A tale of a fragile little teacup that DID come together again

ADAPT. EVOLVE. BECOME.

Fannibals all around the world know these words by heart – because they are, indeed, at the very core of the show. One may go as far as to state that they may sum up the entire meaning of Hannibal.

These words resonated with me at a particularly rough time in my life. Everything I had so painstakingly built was crumbling around me, and all I could do was just watch in horror as, one by one, my endeavours toppled down.

Indeed, everything about Hannibal called out to me: at the time, I was dealing with terrifying, dark forces at work inside my mind, wandering the world in a sleep-walking nightmare, just like Will Graham, gradually losing my grip on myself and reality (but, alas, with no metaphorical stag to keep me company!).

I woke up (unfortunately, I still do) in the middle of the night, my heart racing, an unshakeable feeling of panic and dread gripping my guts. I could really relate to Will - the crippling empathy, the instability, the feeling of losing control over my life.

Bryan Fuller’s at once gothic and baroque world became a refuge for me, a safe haven where – at the end of the day – I could free my demons and let them out to play.

The power of imaginary worlds to bring solace in times of hardship is well-known: books, movies, theatre plays, TV shows are able to set in motion an escapist dynamic that provides our minds with some much-needed respite. Moreover, these works of art can often trigger something that goes well beyond mere escapism: telling the tales of characters facing and overcoming seemingly impossible adversities, they show us how we too can overcome the troubles afflicting our own lives.

It seems almost ridiculous to say, but where everything else seemed to be failing, a TV series “showed me the way” – or, at least, it helped me come to terms with what was happening to me. Like the books it was inspired by, throughout its three seasons, Hannibal deals with transformation, and how it can be a difficult, painful, albeit necessary part of life.

By the time I had finished watching the show, just like Will, I felt that the scales had fallen from my eyes and was ready to embrace what I had become… nay, what, indeed, I always had been. Because, as Hannibal tells Abigail:

This is how Hannibal affected me from a personal standpoint.

I wanted to put this out there to make whoever will chance upon this blog understand just how much this show means to me, and why I felt the need to analyse it frame by frame – okay, because of the reasons stated above, and because I’m a film and TV show buff and, well, also a real nerd! 😄

And this show – like all Fannibals well know – is brimming with rich symbolism, complex and fascinating themes and terrifyingly beautiful imagery.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing it. ❤

P.S.

A special thanks must go to my friend C., who ushered me into the world of Hannibal. She had been bugging me for years about the show, gushing about how great it was, and attempting to persuade me to watch it in every way: I shamefully have to admit that, on my first viewing years ago, I didn’t go past the “mushroom episode” (Amuse-Bouche). Probably I wasn’t ready for it – there is indeed a time and a place for everything. And that time and place was apparently last summer, while I was crashing at her house: since then, I have re-watched the whole thing three times, and I am myself “spreading the word”, introducing friends, family and colleagues to the wonderful, horrific, dark, soul-shattering world of Hannibal. It’s beautiful.

#Hannibal #hannigram #fannibals #will graham #tv show #bryan fuller

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