Hi, I'm ash(lyn)! I'm a tomboy that loves sports and physical activity as well as the arts.fandoms I'm balls deep in include total drama, Hannibal, and warrior cats fandoms I'm less involved in include TAWOG, camp Cretaceous, clone high, and the osc
"With all my knowledge and intrusion I could never entirely predict you. I can feed the caterpillar, I can whisper through the chrysalis, but what hatches follows its own nature and is beyond me."- Hannibal Lecter in front of a dead fucking horse
OK, I'm sure I'm far from being the first person to think about this/it's obvious to most people, but I'm on another Hannibal rewatch and was thinking about Hannibal as the devil. They make that imagery pretty obvious, but this time around, I noticed how he actually offers favors in exchange for souls.
Like Paradise Lost Satan, he is unimpressed with humans and does not know why God thinks they're so special. He sees them as animals to be humiliated. He devours their souls by eating them. He sees them as weak. He finds it easy to set them up in a tight situation and offer them the darker path. He sets Abigail up to kill in what would have been self-defense and offers his help to hide the body. She agrees, her soul belongs to him. The same happened with Bedelia. He helps Margo and Alana and makes it clear he will be coming for Alana's soul. Bedelia cuts him to the chase to have a sense of control and keep her own soul.
I can't decide if Jack Crawford is another victim, or maybe he is God? He's kind of a shitty father figure to Will and essentially offers up Will's soul to the darkness as a test.
But of course Will is special. He is even emphasized as a Jesus figure (they literally put a halo over him in the angels episode). Hannibal thinks he understands all humans and he is bored with them, but Will actually sees him without even meaning to (who's whose therapist amiright?) Hannibal plays his little games on Will to see what he will do, to see if he can get his soul. However, Will doesn't react the way others do. He is set up to kill Abigail's father, and it destroys him. He wants to make ammends and raise Abigail. Hannibal uses this to his advantage to essentially trap Will in a relationship with him. He sets Will up, but even when all the evidence is against Will and he is in prison, he does not offer up his soul in exchange for Hannibal's "help." Hannibal realizes he doesn't want to be rid of Will. He doesn't want to just consume him anymore. He wants an equal who understands him, a companion. By the 3rd season, Hannibal realizes that if he wants Will's soul, he'll have to give his own back in return.
I mean, I could see why you would think this, but it really isn't. Proships are genuinely disgusting so I would prefer that you don't say this, because although Hannibal and wills relationship is really unhealthy, it's worked into the narrative. It's like enjoying dark media without supporting the acts in it.