ofteacupsandclocks

[ofteacupsandclocks]

Okay I can’t believe I haven’t noticed this before. So in one of his fantasies Will commands the stag to strangle Hannibal.

Will uses the stag to kill Hannibal.

But the stag in the show isn’t Will or Hannibal separately, the ravenstag is their connection itself. It’s what lays bleeding but not dead on the kitchen floor when Hannibal learns about Wills betrayal and kills Abigail.

And it is what drives Will to find Hannibal.

So Will is using their connection to destroy Hannibal.

But in this scene Hannibal sees what is happening, but he doesn’t fight back. Doesn’t even try to. He is calm, peaceful. He lets Will do as he pleases.

Maybe I’m just delusional but what if even before Hannibal smelled Freddy Lounds on Will he suspected Will was not being honest? Hannibal is a genius psychiatrist, a master manipulator with decades of experience. It’s practically impossible that he didn’t find Will’s sudden change of heart at the very least a little bit suspicious.

But Hannibal is only human after all. He yearned for the connection, the understanding he knew only Will could offer him. So I think he stayed willfully blind, he let himself hope, believe, put his doubts aside until the evidence was right there, until it couldn’t possibly be ignored or swept up under the rug anymore.

And when he smells Freddy Lounds on Will he doesn’t look surprised. He doesn’t look angry. He looks hurt. There is a sort of acceptance, resignation. As if painfully proven right.

“I am not fortune’s fool, I’m yours”

[ofteacupsandclocks]

The way Hannibal sees Will, and how Will sees Hannibal.

Their perception of one another for sure, but there's this fact that they reflect each other. Two standing mirrors, face to face: Will sees his own beast within when looking at Hannibal, and Hannibal sees the light he still owns in his soul. The ability to love so intensely, and the state of being comfortably violent. Two aspects of them people mostly assume nonexistent.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

By making Hobbs a hunter and Will a fisherman they wanted us to understand from the very beginning that Will is a predator too, just like Hobbs and Hannibal but his ways are different. Hobbs hides behind a gun. Hannibal never hides from his victims, he hides from everyone else but his victims. And Will, Will plays the longer game, the waiting game, the reckoning game. And I think all of these say a lot about them.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

Throughout the series, we are constantly shown and told that Hannibal is a monster. He is inhuman, he is different, he is above, he is other, a different species.

He himself thinks so. 

And isn’t it so ironic that both times his downfall was something so painfully human. His downfall was love.

Banal and plain. So common. Something that hundreds of poets have written thousands of songs about.

Love that is so very human.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

No idea unfortunately. But if you find them let me know I’d love to tag ‘em!

“Will Graham did find religion, and she has just committed the ultimate sin. She attempted deicide in front of the Devil’s most devoted follower, his right hand. His vengeful bride.”

This quote from the fic Provoking the Lamb by nbcravenstag on ao3 goes so fucking hard

[ofteacupsandclocks]

Hannibal is the Devil.

Throughout the series, there are many instances where Hannibal is either directly compare to the devil or very strongly hinted to be the devil.

First of all is his role as the tempter, as the snake of Eden offering people the forbidden fruit. He temps those who come into his therapy to indulge in their violent sinful delights, to see their true nature, to rebel against the limitations placed on them by polite society.

Second, in a more literal sense Hannibal tempts people to consume and to enjoy consuming the most taboo, the most sinful of all meals possible - human flesh. He creates elaborate meals making others, though unwilling, but accomplices in his sin.

Next up is of course the scene where Will says that Hannibal wouldn’t want to be God.

This is a direct parallel to Satan’s role of God’s adversary, of God’s rival.

And of course the final piece is when Jack directly calls Hannibal the Devil in season 3, episode 12 as they discuss the wrath of the Lamb.

And let’s also not set aside the mystic, supernatural way he is portrayed in Will’s hallucination, with demonic black skin and white eyes and branching antlers.

And I love all of the biblical symbolism in Hannibal but especially love Hannibal as the Satanesque figure. He is definitely my favorite portrayal of the devil in media.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

“Will Graham did find religion, and she has just committed the ultimate sin. She attempted deicide in front of the Devil’s most devoted follower, his right hand. His vengeful bride.”

This quote from the fic Provoking the Lamb by nbcravenstag on ao3 goes so fucking hard

[ofteacupsandclocks]

“We don't fall in love with people because they're good people. We fall in love with people whose darkness we recognise. You can fall in love with a person for all of the right reasons, but that kind of love can still fall apart. But when you fall in love with a person because your monsters have found a home in them-- that's the kind of love that owns your skin and bones. Love, I am convinced, is found in the darkness. It is the candle in the night.”

― C. JoyBell C.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

“We don't fall in love with people because they're good people. We fall in love with people whose darkness we recognise. You can fall in love with a person for all of the right reasons, but that kind of love can still fall apart. But when you fall in love with a person because your monsters have found a home in them-- that's the kind of love that owns your skin and bones. Love, I am convinced, is found in the darkness. It is the candle in the night.”

― C. JoyBell C.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

There are a lot of different themes in Hannibal but there’s one I haven’t seen talked about a lot.

Hannibal is a wonderful metaphor for the destructive, excessive indulgence of the upper class.

Hannibal is the very pinnacle of indulgence. He is the aristocracy, the wealthy elite.

And he is hedonism personified.

He is a count. He is rich beyond belief - and unafraid to flaunt the wealth purchasing the finest things in life. He savours life - indulges in all the finest things: the finest properties, the finest clothes, the finest wines. He is a serial killer - out of pleasure, killing because he can. He is a cannibal - not out of necessity but out of his sense of superiority. He is indulgent.

The elite consumes those below them both metaphorically and physically. Countless people have been trampled under finely polished shoes. Have been worked to the bone, used and abused and then discarded both by aristocracy in the olden days and the wealthiest 1% now.

It is also interesting how Hannibal kills those he considers rude. Manners are something the elite often uses as an indicator to separate themselves from the pigs below them. Those who were uneducated in proper manners are seen as beneath them.

Additionally it is much easier to adhere to niceties and formalities and pleasantries when you do not have anything to worry about. When you have enough money and connections to make any problem simply go away. But to someone who has just finished working their second job, someone who is tired and hungry and thirsty a simple smile at a stranger may take up unbearable much effort. It is unfair, cruel to hold such a person to the same standard of “niceties” as someone who has never had to worry a day in their life.

But much like the elite in real life Hannibal accepts no excuses for such behaviour. He sentences people to death based on a minute impression they had on him. A single wrong word, a single twist of the expression a single shift in tone could be a death sentence.

Perhaps the only thing that distinguishes Hannibal from the elite, makes him more palatable and more likeable is that he just as readily consumes people from his social circle. He is equally ready to consume anyone who stands in his way regardless of self their social standing. And he follows an albeit entirely messed up yet strict not-quite-moral code. He sees Mason’s cruelty towards children and towards his sister as discourteous. He punishes a councilman who destroyed a natural habitat. So even though Hannibal does not show mercy to other people he does seem inclined to protect the weak.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

There are a lot of different themes in Hannibal but there’s one I haven’t seen talked about a lot.

Hannibal is a wonderful metaphor for the destructive, excessive indulgence of the upper class.

Hannibal is the very pinnacle of indulgence. He is the aristocracy, the wealthy elite.

And he is hedonism personified.

He is a count. He is rich beyond belief - and unafraid to flaunt the wealth purchasing the finest things in life. He savours life - indulges in all the finest things: the finest properties, the finest clothes, the finest wines. He is a serial killer - out of pleasure, killing because he can. He is a cannibal - not out of necessity but out of his sense of superiority. He is indulgent.

The elite consumes those below them both metaphorically and physically. Countless people have been trampled under finely polished shoes. Have been worked to the bone, used and abused and then discarded both by aristocracy in the olden days and the wealthiest 1% now.

It is also interesting how Hannibal kills those he considers rude. Manners are something the elite often uses as an indicator to separate themselves from the pigs below them. Those who were uneducated in proper manners are seen as beneath them.

Additionally it is much easier to adhere to niceties and formalities and pleasantries when you do not have anything to worry about. When you have enough money and connections to make any problem simply go away. But to someone who has just finished working their second job, someone who is tired and hungry and thirsty a simple smile at a stranger may take up unbearable much effort. It is unfair, cruel to hold such a person to the same standard of “niceties” as someone who has never had to worry a day in their life.

But much like the elite in real life Hannibal accepts no excuses for such behaviour. He sentences people to death based on a minute impression they had on him. A single wrong word, a single twist of the expression a single shift in tone could be a death sentence.

Perhaps the only thing that distinguishes Hannibal from the elite, makes him more palatable and more likeable is that he just as readily consumes people from his social circle. He is equally ready to consume anyone who stands in his way regardless of self their social standing. And he follows an albeit entirely messed up yet strict not-quite-moral code. He sees Mason’s cruelty towards children and towards his sister as discourteous. He punishes a councilman who destroyed a natural habitat. So even though Hannibal does not show mercy to other people he does seem inclined to protect the weak.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

I just stumbled on this clip on Insta and omg I viscerally NEED a scene of Hannibal and Will dancing tango together.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dancing With The Stars #DWTS (@dancingwiththestars)

If anyone has any fic recs with a scene like this PLEASE let me know!!

[ofteacupsandclocks]

The blood-soaked, Hannibal, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, his hair perfectly mussed in his face double wielding knives and lunging at a door in Mizumono makes me go FERAL

Like this fandom appreciates unhinged Will and soft Hannibal plenty but this is an unhinged Hannibal appreciation post.

Like look at this man:

Also the little “In the pantry”? I can’t, I just can’t. he’s so silly

[ofteacupsandclocks]

I have spent way too long on this and im still not sure im 100% happy with it but this is my character alignment chart so far.

To be honest I don’t think anyone except Beverly is really “good”. I’d say even Alana and Jack are closer to a true neutral by the end of the series.

But anyway for the characters that didn’t fit on there:

Francis Dolarhyde - chaotic evil

Bedelia Du Maurier - true neutral

Frederick Chilton - chaotic neutral

Margot Verger - true neutral

[ofteacupsandclocks]

I wanna talk about Hannibal’s white and red suit in his memory palace in season 3 episode 13.

It appeared on screen for like .5 seconds but it is my favorite outfit because it represents Hannibal so well.

White is a color representative of honesty, goodness and innocence. But also neutrality and peace. That’s the person suit Hannibal wears on the outside. It’s the image he shows the world. The good doctor, always calm and collected.

But the shirt and tie mostly obscured by the suit are a deep red. The color of blood he has spilled - the monster beneath the person suit. But also the colour of passion. Beneath the person suit Hannibal is passionate and irrational and emotional, he burns for Will, he aches for him and his passion is as all consuming as fire.

The red also reminds me of the heart Hannibal left for Will in the same chapel - the heart he usually wears hidden beneath his clean person suit, the heart he had left out in the open only for Will.

And of course the second important aspect of a white suit (especially in the context of a chapel): wedding attire. Especially combined with an earlier season 3 scene that looks as if Will is walking down the altar towards Hannibal.

And it’s also important that this white suit appears in the last episode is season 3. In the scene Hannibal and Will are lighting votive candles - candles that are lit as offerings when praying for oneself or for someone.

Now the way I see it there are two possible interpretations:

1. This is the only time Hannibal truly prays - the dragon is believed to be dead and this is his last chance to keep Will. Will is perhaps praying for the same thing - a reason to stay. A reason to choose Hannibal. Or maybe the strength to let go once and for all.

2. They are praying to each other, lighting candles as offerings to each other. Because they are gods to each other, the only gods the other will ever worship. They are praying to their gods to show them mercy, to let them go or to keep them. Maybe both, maybe neither.

And this is the episode Will finally fully yielded. The episode he chose Hannibal. The episode he and Hannibal finally unite. Their prayers, perhaps the only prayers they had ever offered were answered.

[ofteacupsandclocks]

haiii I love seeing what you have to say about hannigram or just the characters in general, you articulate words so well. I wanna ask if you can talk about hannigram and their correlation to "I can't live with you, but I can't live without you". ofc, if you don't want to you don't have to! I was just curious to see your thoughts!!!! :3

*cracks knuckles* let’s do this

So first of all:

“Can’t live with you” happens basically because Will cannot accept his inner darkness and Hannibal needs to push it. Hannibal feels a need to push Will towards his becoming, to speed up the process because he knows (or at least thinks he knows) Will wouldn’t be able to accept and love Hannibal fully unless he embraced his own inner monster.

Will on the other hand is angry at Hannibal for pushing and prodding him. For taking away his control and his free will. And the more Hannibal pushes him the more Will clings to his morals and refuses his own darkness and Hannibal. I think it’s almost an instinctive reaction of repulsion to something being forced on you.

And this “can’t live with you” is reflected throughout almost the entirety of the show.

Hannibal sending Will to prison because Will became a threat to Hannibal’s control.

Will pointing a gun at Hannibal after he got out of prison because Hannibal was taking away his agency.

Hannibal carving open Will’s head in Florence because he realised just how deeply in love he is and how out of control it makes him feel.

“Can’t live without you” is both more simple and more complicated. Neither Will nor Hannibal can live without each other. Neither of them can go back to the desperate loneliness they were drifting in before meeting the other.

The reason they need each other so so badly was best described by Hugh Dancy himself:

“Imagine you are playing chess and you are the only person in the world who plays chess, and then someone else walks in the room with a chess board.”

They both are above the rest. A different kind of human. A different breed. A different beast.

Before they met each other they were unique and utterly alone in their uniqueness. And when they finally met an equal, someone like them they could not let go. No matter how much it hurt the pain was all worth it. Worth being seen.

And this “can’t live without you” is demonstrated every time Hannibal doesn’t reach for the scalpel when talking to Will, every time Will cannot get himself to pull the trigger, every time they come back to each other no matter how much pain they have caused. “Can’t live without you” is heard in the “I forgive you” Will whispers in the catacombs of Florence and in the “my compassion for you is inconvenient” Hannibal admits on the cliff side house and in the way Hannibal gets Will out of prison when he’s lonely.