I'm sorry but one of THE funniest things in the entirety of mr robot is that scene where price is like Nyeeeh....today's my birthday...hhh i never told anyone.....but i'm telling you....do you want to celebrate with me......... and Angela just goes No and leaves

The wrath of the lamb 비하인드 씬 (10 / ?)

Will Graham + Blood

Hands are how we touch the world. They’re tactile. Sensual.

Would you not say that Will was a victim of grooming by Hannibal (in regards to Will choosing Hannibal over other healthier people in his life)?

I'd also say the blame is partly to Jack as well (in regards to his corruption), as Will actively didn't want to do profiling for the FBI as he knew how it affected him and otherwise destabilized him, and yet Jack manipulated him into it by forcing rank as well as guilt tripping him (that being said I understand Jack's choice too as he justified involving Will in order to save lives which is a noble thing in a way, to put the lives of the many over one person).

Hannibal puts through Will through psychological torture and isolates Will so he feels there is no one else he can turn to or talk about. People often argue that Hannibal was justified in bringing the worst out of Will by saying since Will always had those capabilities inside him, but Will in season 1 had made the choice to avoid anything that would bring that out in order to try to be good. I think the idea that just because someone has the potential to be bad, doesn't mean they are, especially if they're aware of their tendencies and try to avoid them. Like, by the time Hannibal was done with Will, he'd made Will feel isolated, no one understood him but Hannibal, and that he was a monster, and for Will, he didn't ever recover from the psychological damage Hannibal inflicted - which yeah, abuse can really fuck you up for years of your life, even if you're away from the abuser.

What's your counter to these points? I think the topic of Will's downfall and how much blame is owed to his own choices versus being a victim of abuse is such an interesting topic that I'm glad you're open to discuss because I think there are so many angles on it.

Btw I love your acc and have been really enjoying your big deep dives into Will's characterisation :). At the end of the day I think Hannibal is a gothic romance as well as deep dive into the psyche of people. Are people born a certain way and is who they become an inescapable extension of that? Or do they have a choice? How much does influence of others change a person. Pretty standard dark ship stuff.

hello, i'm happy to hear you're enjoying my thoughts :) analyzing this show is so fun for me because it is so rich and asks questions that are so thought provoking. if there were easy answers to those questions, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. when it comes will's corruption arc, i think reaching for either extreme of "will was just an innocent victim of hannibal" or "will was absolutely evil and hannibal only released him from his inhibitions" is a mistake. first of all, either of these extremes are in direct contradiction to the hannibal universe's take on "good" and "bad" people (they don’t exist), and they also ignore the shows theme of "change," and how they both change each other. let me start off by saying that i absolutely believe that hannibal's abuse of will damaged/changed him. that was hannibal's intention. hannibal's view of doing harm and enacting "necessary suffering" on people is really important. i've talked about this before, but hannibal believes that suffering can "good" for people in the sense that they have a choice of what they do with what has happened to them like how he chose to process mischa being killed by making killing and cannibalism things that are under his control and his own moral discretion. in a way, hannibal accepts that mischa being killed was "necessary suffering" for him. this is why he believes that what he did to will was what was best for him. he saw that will was not in control of his own life and that he was suffocating under the weight of social expectations and morals. later in s2 when will threatens hannibal, hannibal says "i think you are more in control than you have ever been" because he sees will processing the trauma of what happened to him into action. so, yes, i don't think what hannibal did to will can be understated in terms of effect, however, when it comes to will's nature, i don't think he was working with nothing. early in s1, hannibal's meddling is curious more than anything. i don't really think that hannibal genuinely started drugging will and purposefully psychically driving him until he noticed the encephalitis which is in episode 5: coquilles because the point of the drugging was to induce seizures and blackouts related to the encephalitis. so before coquilles, hannibal's meddling consists of placing the call to gjh, killing cassie boyle, and also setting up abigail to kill nick boyle. he's also working on the father figure angle with will and abigail, but in terms of murder and will, he hasn't done anything but present will with opportunities and an understanding ear. will admits in episode 2 that he enjoyed killing gjh, that doing bad things to bad people makes him feel good. when he shot eldon stammets, he admits that he might've been aiming to kill. i don't really think there's enough evidence to say that this was all hannibal or the illness which he was just barely being to show symptoms of. from the beginning, will is wary about people looking inside his head because as jack says, someone like will knows exactly what is up there and he doesn't want anyone to see it -- and this is a feeling that will has had for many years before hannibal and the encephalitis. we can conjecture all day over whether will would've ever fully enjoyed killing without hannibal, but i think it's safe to say that there's a good chance he would've killed in the line of duty if he had to even without hannibal and likely would've had the same moral conundrum. but the fact of the matter, is that hannibal did come into his life and he did what he did to him, and i think what’s more interesting to understand will’s character is through how he reacts. it’s like what hannibal tells jack at the mural crime scene: “we are built from a dna blueprint and born into a world of scenario and circumstance that we don’t control.” what you are born with does control some things, but what happens to us has just as much power to shape who we become. as i said, for hannibal it’s about what you do with bad things that happen to you. to an extent, i don’t think he’s entirely wrong. of course, he’s wrong that choosing to become a murder in response to trauma is a good way to take back your life, BUT how you respond to things that happen to you does reflect something about you. will chose to retaliate to what happened in s1 by trying to kill hannibal in a very calculating manner. that’s not what everyone would have done. when he got out of prison, he walks right back into hannibal’s world. yes, to catch him, but he willingly eats human flesh to do it, and he beats randall tier to death and enjoys it. he even tells himself in his head during the recreation of the scene, “you forced me to kill you” to which his vision of randall says, “i didn’t force you to enjoy it.” i think these lines are about hannibal too. he forced will into the fight with randall by sending randall after him, but he didn’t make will enjoy it. you just can’t convince me that no matter how sympathetic or encouraging hannibal was of will’s feelings that he is responsible for will enjoying killing someone. murder is serious business! what would it take for you to enjoy killing someone? hannibal may’ve led will to believe that his murderous desires were the only part of him that mattered, but he did not create them.  for comparison, miriam lass endured quite the same extent of abuse as will, if not more, and while she took a shot at chilton whom she believed to be the ripper, there’s a striking delineation between miriam’s revenge and will’s. i think there has to be something different about will to even make the story compelling, don’t you? if will just responded to being abused by staying with in the confines of the law or breaking down mentally or striking out irrationally or any other thing that would be expected or reasonable, where would the story be? hannibal has manipulated plenty of people. he’s played games with dozens of patients. will’s character is so compelling because he’s torn between these dark desires and what is socially acceptable. i wouldn’t call any of this “justification” for what hannibal did. there’s no justification for what hannibal did outside of his own reasoning because he’s a manipulative serial killer. also, i don’t agree with trying to assign a moral compass to fictional characters or storylines so i’m not going to stand here and say that hannibal had a right to do what he did because will was destined to become a killer. neither of those things are true. but i’m not going to say will is just some poor innocent little baby that is helpless and needs to be saved from big bad hannibal.  as for it being hannibal’s fault that will eventually chooses him, i don’t think that’s entirely true. by s3b when he chooses hannibal, he’s lived without him for 3 years. he walked away from hannibal so we know he has the willpower to do it. he said “i don’t want to think about you anymore.” he went on with his life. he tells hannibal that he enjoyed his life there, and i believe him. he had the option that whole time to embrace people who cared about him and the parts of himself that we would call “good.” but at the end of the day, hannibal does understand him and he understands hannibal. that’s not just because hannibal drugged him and framed him. it’s because of everything i just said above. also, in another ask about will and twotl, i said that will’s choice is both selfless and selfish. if hannibal had been calling the shots, they would’ve ridden off together into the sunset instead of will pulling them off the cliff. when it comes to jack, i agree that he has his flaws, one of them being relentlessly pursuing justice above everything else, however, whenever we talk about any “role” he may’ve had in will’s corruption arc, we have to remember that hannibal was also manipulating jack from day one. he manipulated will to not trust him. jack put will’s mental health in hannibal’s hands and trusted hannibal to tell him if anything was wrong. i genuinely don’t think that jack would’ve kept will in the field if he’d known about will’s blackouts and encephalitis, do you? he’s angry when he learns that hannibal didn’t tell him about these things earlier. hannibal’s ability to implicate everyone around him while remaining above suspicion is one of his most insidious talents and it isn’t something that’s just contained within the show. there’s been great meta written about hannibal gaining the audience’s complicity in what he does as well, and so many people fall for it by placing such great blame on jack when he was also a victim of hannibal’s manipulation. i’m not saying jack is perfect. everyone on the show has their flaws. any good character does. but i do believe that undue blame is put on jack by many people. well, i hope this answers your question. hopefully i didn’t go overboard though knowing me i probably did <3

Lalo Salamanca + failing at winking

“He’s telling Hannibal that he has nowhere to run anymore because he sees himself for who he is and he can no longer deny it.” I love this line. Do you think Will secretly resents Hannibal for being the only person who understands him or does he accept it?

I think it thrills and scares Will. From the start, he was drawn to Hannibal exactly because of this understanding: he’s used to people not liking and not accepting him, and that’s why he’s hostile to Hannibal at first. 

Will’s first conversation with Hannibal speaks volumes about who he is because Hannibal senses it seconds after meeting him.

Hannibal: Do you have trouble with taste?

Will: My thoughts are often not tasty.

Hannibal: Nor mine. No effective barriers.

Will: I make forts.

This exchange has Will confess that his thoughts are often dark and that he dislikes it. To hold this darkness at bay, he literally builds forts around it, not letting it spread to other parts of his mind.

Hannibal: Your values and decency are present yet shocked at your associations, appalled at your dreams. No forts in the bone arena of your skull for things you love.

Hannibal almost directly calls Will out on his struggle with his inner darkness. He’s saying that he sees it, that he knows it’s there, in Will, in his mind, and Will is very disturbed by this — because Hannibal is right. The script even explicitly backs it up:

Hannibal has just described Will Graham to a letter.

Will is immediately wary and hostile, and he ends the conversation with snappy,

Will: Please don’t psychoanalyze me. You won’t like me when I’m psychoanalyzed.

Will assumes that Hannibal is a typical psychiatrist who wants to dissect him, so he says that once it happens, Hannibal won’t like what he finds (darkness and ugliness Will carries inside).

His hostility to Hannibal lasts up until the moment when Hannibal acknowledges him as a predator and shows approval of it. Hannibal tries to subtly tell him that it’s all right to be who he is, hinting that they are the same.

Hannibal: You and I are just alike. Problem free. Nothing about us to feel horrible about.

He’s obviously talking about their darkness, but Will doesn’t react, so Hannibal continues. He tells him that Jack views him as a fragile tea cup, and Will genuinely laughs, amused by this (which is also very telling). Then Hannibal says:

Hannibal: [I see you as the] mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by.

Will grows quiet after this, and then his interactions with Hannibal become much more relaxed. Will takes him to search the property and even bothers to explain how they reached their conclusions and what they are about to do. Him grumbling, “What are you smiling at?” shows a much higher level of familiarity they now share. Something in Hannibal’s words made Will open up a bit, and everything indicates that it’s the acknowledgement of his predatory nature that played its part in it.

After Will killed Hobbs, Jack becomes worried about him. He makes Will go visit Hannibal for one-time evaluation. Will is naturally not fond of the idea, but he and Hannibal have a pretty personal talk. Hannibal ends it with an even more explicit hint at Will’s own darkness:

Hannibal: And Will… the mirrors in your mind can reflect the best of yourself, not the worst of someone else.

Hannibal is talking about Will’s personal brand of violence again. He’s trying to tell him that it’s fine to be a murderer in every way he can, that Will’s darkness might be the best part of him. He also gives him a fake official approval to work in the field, showing that Will can trust him. But their obligatory session ends and Will leaves — only to return after he tries to kill Stammets and misses. 

This is another big step. The way Hannibal speaks and encourages him made Will go back to him on his own volition, and his reliance on Hannibal grows set in stone after their next conversation.  

Will: I liked killing Hobbs.

Hannibal is pleased to receive the confirmation of what he sensed in Will. Seeing that Will is terrified about his own confession, he comforts him.

Hannibal: Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time, and are we not created in his image?

Every sane person would have run for the hills after hearing this. Hannibal literally justifies the fact that Will liked murder by drawing a parallel with God. That’s such a narcissistic, serial killer thing to do, and yet Will welcomes it with open arms. He’s happy to find someone who doesn’t think he’s a monster — he’s relieved to be able to finally discuss his darkest impulses freely. This is the reason why Will started coming back to see Hannibal on a constant basis, to Jack’s surprise.

The resentment comes later, when Will learns that Hannibal is a killer who set him up. This tarnished the closeness between them in his mind. It’s also an unpleasant reminder that he’s not normal, after all, because the only person to understand and accept him is a murderer. Will is afraid of what it says about him; he’s afraid of what it means that he wants to be with Hannibal regardless of everything and that he misses his company.

But he works through these fears and faces another conflict: that of what he actually means to Hannibal. (Spoiler - he means everything.)   

Hannibal 2.09 Shiizakana

Hannibal 3x09 - “And the Woman Clothed with the Sun”

Will Graham’s forehead scar my beloved

insane men covered in blood. you agree. reblog.

The marketing for Better Call Saul is just great. Just amazing.

Also screw you Betsy! Delusional *****! 😤

2x10 || 3x01