The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Hannibal Rising (2007) Hannibal (2013-2015)

NBC Hannibal (2013-2015):

Hannibal Rising | 3.06 Dolce | 3.07 Digestivo

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Everyone always gives Hannibal hell for refusing to acknowledge that his trauma had any impact on him, especially since he's a skilled psychiatrist, but imagine if he did admit that to himself. Then what? Then, all illusions of being self-made disappear. He won't be the serial killer who chooses to kill out of curiosity and appreciation for the art of death. He'd just be a product of his trauma. Everything that he assumed control of, even the ritual of eating his victims that he'd carefully cultivated, all of that would just be a byproduct of that winter. He would be completely at the mercy of that memory, his whole life dictated and warped by that incident. And he would lose himself. Better to believe this was all his design. Better to dismiss that winter and say that it was determined to happen from the beginning. It would have happened anyway. The teacup would've shattered anyway. He had made it shatter. This was his design.

So in love with how NBC Hannibal clearly references the Hannibal films but instead of taking them as an inspiration for Hannibal’s character, the parallels between the movies and the series always depict Will instead.

Like this scene. This is a visual reference to Hannibal Rising (2007), where Hannibal kills one of the men that ate his sister.

In the show it’s WILL taking Hannibal’s place.

After this scene in Hannibal Rising, Hannibal continues to eat the man’s cheeks.

Sounds familiar?

Also, Will’s whole prison setup is a mirror of the setup in Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Hannibal in SOTL vs Will at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2:

They could have done the obvious, which is link the tv show Hannibal to the movie Hannibals (which, to be fair, they did in S3b; Hannibal’s prison chic minimalism was very much inspired by Manhunter (1986)). But I find it so interesting that they chose to visually mirror Hannibal’s development in Will’s storyline!! They’re the same. Will is following in Hannibal’s footsteps, he’s tracing it back to where it all began to become him. Ugh

Hi my name is Count Doctor Hannibal Lecter VIII M.D. im a cannibal (that’s how I got my name) and I have shiny brown hair with gold streaks and silver tips that reaches my mid-neck and maroon eyes that reflect red pinpoints like limpid blood and a lot of people tell me I look like Sandro Botticelli (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Lady Murasaki but I wish I was because she’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a cannibal but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale golden skin. I’m also a doctor, and I own a psychiatric practice in Baltimore where I help my patients (I’m forty-seven). I’m an aristocrat (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly brown. I love Garrison Bespoke and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a brown plaid suit with a matching silk pocket square and a blue paisley tie, blue socks and brown oxfords. I was wearing pink lipstick, beige foundation, gold highlighter and concealer on my eyebrows. I was walking outside the BSHCI. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of fbi agents stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

Hannibal grabbed a boar spear from the wall and Grutas, with his sure instinct turned his gun on the little girl. "Drop it or I'll shoot her. Do you understand me?" The looters swarmed Hannibal and Mischa then. - Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

This is inaccurate because Hannibal was wearing a coat in that scene but I forgot until I reread it to quote it. Quote is from the chapter after their parents were killed

"Eyes are distracting.You see too much, you don't see enough." is such a perfect way to describe Will and Hannibal's relationship in season one.

"You see too much"- Will realizes Hannibal was someone as broken and lonely as him. And Hannibal sees Will for who he really is since the first time he meets him. He sees Will as the "mongoose" since episode one. Will keeps returning to Hannibal's office or house exactly because he finally "saw" someone just like himself.

"You don't see enough" - Even if their friendship was deep and they understood and saw each other for who they were, it took Will a while to realize Hannibal was the Ripper. He was not able to see enough.

And the irony is that Hannibal is one of the only people Will comfortably make eye contact with. "Eyes are distracting." They indeed were, he was so distracted that he didn't see Hannibal hiding in plain sight. The paradox is amazing.

hannibal being 23 in hannibal rising is crazy to me. he should’ve been in the club

🍓Hannibal🍓 (bookish)

It hasn't been a year, I'm finally posting it!! I will be glad of your activity🥺

(canvas, oil)

I can’t stop thinking about how Will Graham truly didn’t have someone who talked or cared for him just for the sake of it (in season 1 and at the start of season 2) but rather because of what he had to offer:

Jack “borrowed” his imagination, at the expense of Will’s mental health. Yes, Will’s imagination saved lives, but it still cost him greatly. Even in season 3, he emotionally manipulates Will to help him because his deteriorating mental health “serves a greater purpose”

Alana didn’t date him because her professional curiosity towards him was greater than her romantic interest in him.

Hannibal in the first season found him fascinating due to his empathy disorder and then later let his encephalitis get worse so that he could study and observe the psychological effects it has on the human brain. And of course, he later used it to frame Will for his murders.

Beverly, too only came to see Will in jail because she needed help to solve the murders.

So, it makes sense why Will would find so much of himself in Hannibal, and form a close and complicated relationship with him, because after season 1, Hannibal was really the only person who understood him, accepted him, and loved him for who he was, and not his unique empathy disorder.

Done ↑

I'm still looking for references to the life of Lithuanian nobles in the 16th century, so this drawing will take a long time to create🥲

Reference to Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

This one's especially for you, @bigbonkus 🫡

In Digestivo, we get to see deeper into Hannibal's character than ever before. Because when Mason stabs Hannibal and tortures him with his knife, when he hangs him up like a pig, Hannibal doesn't flinch. He doesn't show pain. I've seen many people brush this off as "He's a serial killer, he's desensitized not only to other people's pain but his own", or "He's a psychopath". But I think we forget. He's had to do this his whole life. Numb himself to the pain. He had to, when he was on the verge of death in the snow, his sister dead and his life and childhood destroyed. He had to, when he was older, and his own mind revealed horrors to him that no eight-year-old should have experienced. He had to, when memories came back to haunt him. He had to, to survive. He's mastered the art of dissociating from his emotions and from physical pain, because he needed to.