#abigail hobbs imagine

[deerabigailhobbs]

Nobody ever talks about the real tragedy in Hannibal, which is Abigail dying in such an ugly ass outfit

[multifandom--mess]

personally i think abigail in mizumono should have gutted both hannibal and will, took hannibal's money and escaped to europe. she can finally live in peace with no fucked up cannibal dads to worry about. would have been so girlboss of her and left everyone shook 😭😭

[softieekayy]

Kiss kiss

Hannibal lecter is not a simple man in any terms. No, he is refined and meticulous. Not one moment of his day goes unplanned, until it comes to his beautiful and loving wife. Now, Hannibal is head over heals for his woman and anything that she wants she gets with a simple kiss as his reward and that’s all he truly asks for.

“Hannibal! My love!” She calls out as soon as she walked through the door. Hannibal knew that she was coming. He heard her soft footsteps and the vague smell of her lotus perfume lingered in the air. Hannibal peaked his head up from his desk and there she was, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, with her hair down and eyes bright and dark red lips stretched into a smile.

He got up, and greeted her with a soft kiss on her cheek, one she returned before she dragged him to sit with her on the chairs he had designated for patients. Even in his office moments with her felt intimate and homey. It was in this moment that Hannibal realized home wasn’t a place but rather a person and his home was sat right in front of him, babbling on about how she doesn’t get paid enough to deal with some of her students. Hannibal smiled. He was fond of her stories and students. Sure, they have his lover a headache but she loved them so much!

“How are you? How was your day, darling?” Hannibal asked getting up to grab some wine for the two of them. She smiled, a bright, old Hollywood smile. It was Hannibal’s favourite thing to look at in the whole world.

“It was so fun Hans!” She exclaimed loudly before telling him what she taught her students and the discussion they had about the novel they were currently reading in class. His wife was a good teacher and Hannibal knew that one day she’d also make an amazing mother. Hannibal handed her the glass of wine, one that she took gratefully. Her heels and jacket king discarded on the other chair.

“How was your day?” She asked, putting a hand on his chest and caressing him with so much love Hannibal thought he’d cry. He took his wife’s and placed a loving kiss on it, letting it linger for a while.

“My day was okay, my love. Will came by earlier and we chatted. Abigail also dropped by, talking about her classes at school. Then I had a few patients and that’s about all.” Hannibal told her, watching the way her eyes gleamed at the mention of Abigail. She loved the younger so much, like her own daughter. She also loved Will too, he was her brother in name.

“How is Will? I missed him so much! I need to go visit him again, I have some treats for the doggies.” She spoke, lost in thought. Hannibal grinned at her thoughtfulness. She always put others before herself. That made Hannibal frown, how did he, a selfish man, end up with a woman like her? A woman so wonderful?

“Are you alright?” She asked, coming closer to touch his face, Hannibal smiled before nodding. He bent down to kiss his beautiful lover before walking over to his desk and picking up his coat.

“Are you ready to leave?” Hannibal’s questioned snapped her out of concentration. She stood up tall and nodded while smiling.

Hannibal and wife made their way to the exit. Hannibal leading the way. She smiled up gratefully at him, always the gentleman. Despite being younger than him, Hannibal’s wife was the only one that could keep up with him. Even if she knew about the crimes that he’d committed, she’s always be right by his side. No matter what. It didn’t matter to her even if the world around them was burning down. All she ever wanted was for him to be okay. Just always okay.

“I love you.” She kissed his cheek as she entered the car. Hannibal smiled bashfully before entering the car after her. She was his light and fresh air that kept him alive. For her he’d do anything.

Tagging my babes: @shawty-writes-a-little @chchchcheni @jake-g-lockley

[akemiluvr]

Just finished season 2 of Hannibal and I'm actually shattered inside. I'm so stunned I think I've died. I think I must've hallucinated that entire episode and maybe when I wake up everything will be better.

[cedarbranch]

i think abigail would favor a rifle as her weapon of choice (points i'll elaborate on later) and i also think she and will would both spend a fair amount of time outside the house they share, just wandering around in the woods, mostly solitary but sometimes together... anyway wouldn't it be hilarious if hannibal and will both came with her one time and she showed off how good she's gotten at target practice but she's like... kind of disconcertingly good..... and hannibal just gives her an Assessing Look and is like "you're starting to remind me quite a bit of someone else" and abigail goes :) you mean chiyoh? and will is like [buffering screen] and abigail's just like haha yeah she's been teaching me to shoot straighter lol. and chiyoh has just been out there with her the entire time.

[rulesofdisorder]

i always have so many feelings about Will and Abigail and their relationship because, honestly, there really is no relationship. most of their “relationship” is imagined by Will. for the most part Abigail didn’t even like hanging out with Will and Will just hardcore empathized with Abigail’s dad, who literally killed girls who looked like her and then tried to kill her, so i really don’t think she appreciated that empathy. Will even says when he’s talking to her hallucination in season 3 that “the last time I saw you, before the last time I saw you, you were terrified of me.” but Will still loves her so much. the issue is that he never actually got to know her and everything he “loved” was made up on his part, like when he imagined going fishing with her or just sitting together. that’s not something she ever actually did or maybe even wanted to do. the person that Abigail actually bonded and had a relationship with was Hannibal, who then killed her to get back at Will. but before that, if you’d have asked her which of the two she loved and enjoyed hanging out with more she probably would have said Hannibal. and it’s proven in the ‘mizumono’ flashback in season 3 when she doesn’t even think twice about leaving Will behind when they got the phone call. which just really sucks because yes Hannibal cared about her and loved her to an extent but not enough to spare her. and Will loved her so fucking much but he never truly knew her. it just hurts all around man

[lesbian-space-fish]

Not a predator, not prey, but a secret third thing

[quietwingsinthesky]

I think Jack Kline & Abigail Hobbs should be besties

[wormswurld]

hannigram dad imgaine ft. abigail's first prom 🌟

i can't stop thinking about how great of a father hannibal would be to abigail. imagine it's abigail's first prom and hannibal is so excited to see her all dressed up, constantly talking to will about going shopping with her during pillow talk before bed. i know that hannibal would insistttt on braiding her hair 😭 (reminding him of his sister mischa) while also adding a cute green bow to match her dress they got the day before. and will would be waiting downstairs with the dogs, closing his eyes because he promised abigail he wanted it to be a surprise. and just imagine how will's face would light up, immediately standing up to tell her how beautiful she looks. "give me a spin!" he would say jokingly, getting a grin out of hannibal. then her date would come and pick her up, getting slightly spooked by how serious & dressed up hannibal is as will is trying to restrain all the excited barking dogs from running out the door, attacking abigail's date. then hannibal would give abigail a kiss on her forehead wishing her a goodnight & safe travels, proudly watching him and will's daughter walk with her prom date all happily-ever-after the end *sparkle emoji* 🤗

[pesky--dust]

EDIT: I just realized that he would probably kill her instead of Antony Dimmond and now I kinda wish it happened. Like— it would be so persuasive and metaphorical at the same time.

I know that I'm late to that party, but this gets me.

I mean— wouldn't he simply kill her in “Mizumono” or at all? If at all, then all the possibilities what to do with Abigail in the third season! If he would kill her anyway, then yup, “Mizumono” was the most powerful choice for doing so.

[tayasui-mono]

Two things. It is absolutely monumental that Will killed Hobbs because of how Will's mind works. Will is able to put himself in other people's shoes; he imagines their thoughts processes—and I figure—through juxtapositioning his own life experiences over other people's. That is how empathy works. I take the thing A that happened to me and apply it to thing B happening to you, and understand where you're coming from. Will differs from other folks in that he's extremely intelligent (a genius, really), knowledgeable, and sentimental. He goes into a crime scene and imagines the screams still echoing around the walls. That's crazy (including medically). He puts himself in another man's perspective, and extrapolates. AND he's usually right, because he doesn't pull shit out of thin air. He's ALWAYS following the breadcrumbs of evidence.

Yet Will has been able to remain on the other side of the yellow tape so far because he has never killed. Because if he kills, and knew what that would FEEL like, understood how it CHANGES the killer before and after killing, then he gets TOO close to the perpetrator. He will relieve his trauma over and over and over again everytime he does his job. He will feel how it felt to kill all his life until he is dead. It will bleed into his daily life (no effective barriers), and it will ruin him. Every thought he has will be coloured by trauma.

So the fact that Hannibal makes him kill by proxy is monumental. In episode 1, Will, our main character, is already reborn. The second thing: Abigail Hobbs. Will clings to her survival because if she is able to survive Hobbs, then Will can survive Hobbs. They can overcome him together. It is desperate and shows how helpless this entire thing has made him. And then! Hannibal kills Abigail, knowing what her life means to Will. It's morbidly poetic. Hannibal has changed Will and Will has changed Hannibal, and Hannibal is letting Will know that there is no going back anymore for either of them. All they can do is look forward, and live as the people they've changed into. This also connects to the Uffizi gallery scene later on and that's just chefs kiss.

[sonofcelluloid]

Agnus - Konstantin Korobov / Art by Cécile Berrubé / Antigonick - Anne Carson / O’ this longing, I want to be complete / k.c cramm / Ansiktet (1957) / Death’s-head hawkmoth / The Heiress (1949) / Sophokles, Elektra - (tr. by Anne Carson)

Hannibal S4 AU: Jack Crawford gets assigned a trainee to assist him in a case. And this time, he isn't going to lose one of his people.

Especially since every time he looks at her, she reminds him of someone else.

It's just a shame that the two men that she has to interview also see someone they lost.

Or, Hannibal S4 AU: in which Kacey Rohl plays Clarice Starling for narrative reasons.

Read Spoon Feed by harleygirl2648 on ao3 or @somebodyhelpthenotdeadfreds on tumblr!!!

This takes place 10 years after the events of the show and 2 years after Will and Hannibal have been recaptured and placed in adjoining lover's cells in the BSHCI. This arrangement is contingent on Will's agreement to consult on cases from captivity, but no agents have made any headway with him concerning the Buffalo Bill murders until a certain Clarice Starling enters the scene, who unbeknownst to her, shares a striking resemblance to Abigail Hobbs.

This creates all manner of lover's quarrels between the Murder Husbands that are truly a constant delight, this author has such a phenomenal feel for the voices of these characters.

Will and Hannibal are bitches to everyone in this fic, including each other, it's fantastic. They are also sickeningly in love and sooo insane and making it everyone's problem. Hannibal Lecter embodies the jealous evil stepmom archetype and Clarice is not having it. It's hands down my favorite post-fall/Silence of the Lambs imagining of all time, and I cannot stress enough how invested you will become in all the characters, especially newcomers that are often overlooked in fandom.

Clarice is the heart and soul of this fic and you will fall in love with this interpretation and cheer her on every time she rips Hannigram a new one amidst their constant antics. Please read and enjoy!!!

I also must thank @ganem-ouchie and @iconsumethesoulsofthedamned for their beautiful art that sent me alll the way down another Spoon Feed rabbit hole.

[not-psychotic]

imagine the old man you wanna fuck calling himself your father. because it happened to abigail hobbs

[arkashas]

Will Graham’s Death and Rebirth: S1 Edition

in hannibal, death and life are two sides of the same coin, and death leads to new life. now let’s see how that factors into will graham’s own journey, in season 1.

i wrote this post after i thought long and hard about how it was strange that we don’t have a “death and rebirth” for will in season 1, when we do for all the other seasons, and turns out i was wrong and it does also happen in season 1 (you might want to read my post on the other times to clarify some of the ideas expressed here).

anyway, let’s start (warning: veeeery long).

hannibal: do you feel alive, will?

will: i feel like i’m fading.

and

will: i feel like I’m seeing a ghost.

hannibal: regarding this killer or yourself?

will: both.

and

hannibal: have you considered cotard’s syndrome?

hannibal: it’s a rare delusional disorder in which a person believes he or she is dead.

will: are you talking about the killer or me?

the idea of will being dead, or feeling like he is dead, is brought up from buffet froid onwards, which suggests his worrying mental state. why does will believe he’s fading from reality/becoming a ghost/dead though? a conversation in roti gives further insights:

will: i don’t know how to gauge who I am anymore.

will: i don’t feel like myself.

will: i feel like I have been gradually becoming different for a while.

will: i just feel like somebody else.

hannibal: what do you feel like?

will: i feel crazy.

hannibal: and that is what you fear most.

will: i fear not knowing who i am.

will believing he’s dead goes hand in hand with him believing he’s going insane and that he’s becoming garret jacob hobbs, given that hobbs is also dead. will becomes subsumed by hobbs’ identity in the first season, owing to the encephalitis and hannibal’s manipulations.

i’m going to list some dialogue which shows will being more and more entrenched in hobbs’ identity.

oeuf:

will: i got so close to him. sometimes, i felt like we were doing the same things at different times of the day. like i was eating or showering or sleeping at the same time he was.

hannibal: even after he was dead?

will: even after he was dead.

hannibal: like you were becoming him.

trou normand:

hannibal: i’m your friend, will. i don’t care about the lives you save, i care about your life. and your life is separating from reality.

roti:

jack: you’ve got to keep things in perspective. you’re got to keep yourself in perspective.

will: well, myself is a little hazy at the moment.

roti:

gideon: i don’t know if i will ever be myself again.

gideon: i don’t know if i've got any self left over.

gideon: i spent so long thinking i was him, it’s gotten really hard to remember who i was when i wasn’t him.

will: who are you now?

gideon (who has turned into garret jacob hobbs in will’s imagination): now i’m you. 

releves:

jack: this dissociative personality state you say he goes into…whose personality is it?

hannibal: he said he got so close to garret jacob hobbs and what he had done that he felt he was becoming him.

jack: and now he has hobb’s daughter.

hannibal: who hobbs intended to kill.

will’s descent into madness culminates into him hallucinating he’s killed abigail by slamming her into the wall of antlers in hobbs’ cabin. with this, will’s greatest fear has become reality - he’s become garret jacob hobbs and killed his daughter just like hobbs would have done. there is no more will graham, he is dead.

now i’m going to further narrate what happens to will and parallel the events with georgia madchen’s own arc along the way, because it’s talking about georgia which first allows will to give voice to his own fears of feeling like he’s dead, and so i believe that comparing their experiences will also show how will is brought back from the dead.

after the hallucination and arriving back at his house, will calls hannibal and tells him what he remembers:

will: i don’t remember going to bed last night. but i must have.

will: i hallucinated that i killed her. but it wasn’t real. i know it wasn’t real.

vs.

will: you know what you did, georgia.

georgia: but i don’t remember it. it feels more like a horrible dream where i killed my friend.

both will and georgia kill someone close to them in a dreamlike haze, abigail for will, beth lebouf for georgia. only, in will’s case it was a hallucination, while georgia killed her friend in reality.

will is taken to jail after he throws up the ear, but escapes from the prison van after learning that he’s also accused of the copy cat murders, not believing he could have murdered them all, and goes to hannibal’s office.

in roti, jack talks to will after sutcliffe’s body is discovered, asking why georgia followed him to sutcliffe’s office.

will’s answer:

i don’t know. i have a habit of collecting strays. i told her, tried to tell her the night i saw her, i tried to tell her she was alive. maybe she heard me. maybe that hadn’t occurred to her in a while.

and

will: it’s 1:17 AM. we're in greenwood, delaware. my name is will graham. and you're alive. if you can hear me, you're alive.

vs.

hannibal: i imagine abel gideon would want to find the chesapeake ripper to gauge who he is. and who he isn’t.

hannibal: will. you have me as your gauge.

(abel gideon is another character who can be paralleled to will with re: the loss of identity and medical abuse)

and

hannibal: i’d like you to draw a clock face. numbered. large hand indicating the hour, small hand the minute.

will: why?

hannibal: an exercise. i want you to remember the present moment. the now. often as you can, think of where you are and when. think of who you are.

will: it’s 7:16 PM. i’m in baltimore, maryland. my name is will graham.

hannibal: a simple reminder. a handle to reality for you to hold onto, and know you’re alive.

just like georgia goes to will because he’s the one source of surety and stability in her life, the one giving her a handle on reality, will goes to hannibal for the same reason when he is framed for murder.

will then goes back to hobbs’ kitchen with hannibal to see if he really did kill abigail, just like georgia goes back to beth lebeau’s house to see if she really did kill beth lebeau.

will: if she did kill beth lebeau, she might not even know she did it.

beverly: then why did she come back?

will: to convince herself she didn't.

vs.

hannibal: if we're to prove you didn't commit these murders, perhaps we should consider how you could have.

hannibal: and then disprove that.

and

 will: then take me to minnesota. i want to see where abigail died.

to make things simpler, i’m going to list all of the dialogue that occurs when they arrive at the hobbs’ kitchen, and cherry pick some parts for further analysis.

hannibal: it’s as if abigail was supposed to die in this kitchen.

will: her throat was cut. she lost great gouts of blood and there’s an unmistakable arterial spray.

hannibal: they haven’t found her body.

will: just the one piece.

hannibal: if you were in garret jacob hobbs’ frame of mind when you killed her, they may never find her.

will: cause i honored every part of her?

hannibal: perhaps you didn’t come here looking for a killer. perhaps you came here to find yourself. you killed a man in this very room.

will: i stared at hobbs and the space opposite me assumed the shape of a man filled with dark and swarming flies. and then i scattered them.

hannibal: at a time when other men fear their isolation, yours has become understandable to you. you are alone because you are unique.

will: i’m as alone as you are.

hannibal: if you followed the urges you kept down for so long, cultivated them as the inspirations they are, you would have become someone other than yourself.

will: you’re not alone. we are here together.

vs.

hannibal: you are alone because you are unique.

though these might seem like different scenes (will says georgia is not alone, hannibal says will is alone) ultimately they’re one and the same. hannibal telling will he’s alone makes will realise hannibal is as alone he is, which later makes him realise he’s not alone because they’re together in their alone-ness.

dialogue from tome-wan to support this:

will: you're right. we are just alike. you're as alone as i am. and we're both alone without each other.

will says hannibal is as alone as he is, and then goes on to say they’re both alone without each other, i.e. being with each other makes them not alone.

dialogue from savoureux continued:

will: i know who i am. i’m not so sure i know who you are anymore. but i am certain one of us killed abigail.

hannibal: whoever that was killed the others.

hannibal: are you a killer, will? you. right now. this man, standing in front of me. is this who you really are?

will: i am who i’ve always been. the scales have just fallen from my eyes. i can see you now.

hannibal: what do you see?

will: you called here that morning. abigail knew. you kept her secrets until she found out some of yours.

hannibal: you said it felt good to kill garret jacob hobbs, will. would it feel good to kill me now?

will: garret jacob hobbs was a murderer. are you a murderer, dr. lecter?

hannibal: what reason would I have?

will: you have no traceable motive, which is why you were so hard to see. you were just curious what i would do. someone like me. someone who thinks how i think. wind him up and watch him go. apparently, dr. lecter, this is how i go.

will begins to realise hannibal is the one who killed abigail, and turns on him, raising his gun and steadying it at him. there’s a final parallel of georgia’s arc with will’s, and it’s how they’re both brought back from the dead.

how is georgia brought back from the dead? by someone seeing her and by her thinking of who she is/realising who she is. which also is what happens with will.

 will: i see you, georgia.

 will: think of who you are.

and

georgia: am i alive?

vs.

hannibal: perhaps you came here to find yourself. you killed a man in this very room.

and

will: i know who i am.

and

hannibal: are you a killer, will? right now. this man in front of me. is this who you really are?

and

will: i am who i’ve always been. the scales have just fallen from my eyes.

and

hannibal: you said it felt good to kill garret jacob hobbs, will. would it feel good to kill me now?

i subscribe to the idea that, from releves onwards at least, hannibal actually wanted will to figure out he was the copy cat killer (too long to get into it right now, but suffice to say hannibal didn’t need to frame will for all the killings, abigail was enough and will was complying with his arrest. i believe hannibal had a change of heart and didn’t want will to believe he’s become hobbs and framed will for the copy cat murders as well to make will doubt that he killed at all, and so that will would continue profiling the copy cat killer, which would lead to him seeing hannibal. hannibal misdirecting will is a test, which will passes.)

hannibal follows “perhaps you came here to find yourself” with “you killed a man in this very room”. hannibal wants will to find himself through his killing of garret jacob hobbs, not his apparent killing of the copy cat victims. hannibal wants will to find himself through his preferred choice of kills - murderers. hannibal also doesn’t attempt to talk will down or make him hand him the gun, instead he goads him into killing him, because he is so very close to making will accept that he’s a killer.

notice how will doesn’t deny that he’s a killer, and answers hannibal’s question of whether it would feel good to kill him with, “are you a murderer?” it would feel good to kill hannibal if he killed abigail, because to will, doing bad things to bad people feels good.

most see this scene as hannibal finally taking the mask off and being seen for who he is, but the seeing goes both ways. hannibal sees will for who he is as well, someone who kills for righteous reasons, not a killer who’s subliminally acting out hobbs or any other killer’s wishes (even if hannibal did actually want will to believe he killed the copy cat victims and miscalculated on will’s tenacity and strength of character, it still holds true that in this moment he’s seeing will as a righteous killer). will is also affirmed of his identity, he didn’t get lost inside anyone’s head, he didn’t kill anybody because of his illness, he’s not garret jacob hobbs, he knows who he is. will, feeling betrayed and furious, brings the gun up to shoot hannibal, who is saved by jack at the last minute. this is will’s rebirth, or at least a return from the dead, a throwback to georgia being brought back from the dead by will.

and consider will’s last words before he blacks out, a fitting addendum to all that just went down:

see? you see?

EDIT : to add to all this, i was informed by someone’s tags on one of my posts that “the scales have fallen from my eyes” is a biblical reference. “And immediately there fell from his eye as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.” (Acts 9:18)  

baptism is seen as a kind of rebirth in the christian faith, which adds further support to the idea that will was born anew after being freed from garret jacpb hobbs ghost. further, hannibal is will’s own personal “god”, and this is the start of will’s initiation into hannibal’s doctrine and set of beliefs.

BONUSES

THE MOTIF OF FIRE

throughout the show, fire is transformative in nature. in ko no mono, as will says, “fire destroys and it creates. it is mythical”.

as will comments when he and the science team discuss her after she is seemingly burnt in the wheelchair, “freddie won’t rise from the ashes, but her killer will”. freddie’s death would have triggered will’s rebirth into a killer, had it have happened, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s in this episode that will’s “coffin birth” happens, when he emerges from the ravenstag’s womb into a half-formed manifestation of the man stag. half-formed, because will didn’t actually kill freddie, and so didn’t actually transform into the stagman, or hannibal’s monstrous alter ego.

in mizumono, hannibal burns his patient files, and we see will’s files and the disfigured clock amongst the flames. as hannibal says, “i’m dismantling who i am and rebuilding it brick by brick”. the burning of the files symbolises the death of hannibal and will’s previous lives as therapist and patient, and the start of their new lives as equals and partners.

we also have the repeated imagery of the burning wheelchair in season 3, this time with frederick chilton. setting up chilton is the start of will’s rebirth in the S3b arc, the climax of which is his slaying of dolarhyde together with hannibal.

finally, francis dolarhyde also gets a cameo, in the number of the beast is 666, he kidnaps reba to tell her who he is and burns down the house they’re in, and though he’s unable to kill her, he emerges from the ashes with the dragon fully taking over and with all traces of humanity gone with the severing of his relationship with reba. reba is also changed, from an innocent to a survivor.

in season 1, we see this fire symbolism as well. in coquilles, will hallucinates his head burning in the gaze of the angel maker, as the angel maker tells him he can give him the majesty of his becoming. will’s head burning is a stand-in for the encephalitis, and the angel maker a stand-in for hannibal, as hannibal is utilising the encephalitis as a tool to bring about will’s becoming.

in buffet froid, dr. sutcliffe also tells hannibal that he set will’s mind on fire by letting will’s encephalitis go unchecked. will is reforged in the flames of his illness into a brighter, clearer version of himself.

georgia’s painful death by immolation in season 1 also represents a rising killer - the copy cat killer. it’s with georgia’s death that will begins putting the pieces together and starts connecting the copy cat murders.

SEEING AND BEING SEEN

the concept of “seeing” is a repeated motif in the show.

we’ve already covered how for will and georgia, that being seen is what brings them back to life, but I’d like to further explore the concept in support of the theory.

in roti, will goes to hannibal’s office with gideon in tow (who he’s hallucinating as hobbs), and tries to confirm that what he’s seeing is real.

will: who do you see?

hannibal: i don’t see anyone.

will panics and finally sobs, “what is happening to me?” after pleading with hannibal not to lie to him. the language used here is very important, it’s hannibal saying he doesn’t see, which leads will to believe he’s going crazy, and will believing he’s crazy, as we already know, makes him believe he’s garret jacob hobbs, which further makes him believe he’s dead, or non-existent.

hobbs/gideon even disappears from his seat at the table after hannibal says he doesn’t see anyone. why? because now will believes he’s hobbs, which is further evidenced when he tracks down gideon outside alana’s house and sees hobbs in place of gideon, telling him, “now i’m you” (i just want to point out the brilliancy here. as soon as will believes he’s hobbs, hobbs disappears, or will disappears because will believing he’s hobbs makes him disappear from reality).

hannibal: there’s no one there will. we’re alone. you came here alone.

after hannibal says he doesn’t see anyone, he also says will is alone. i don’t think i need to explain the connotations here.

this might also be why will repeating his name and the time to himself like hannibal told him to to help him get a grip on reality didn’t help at all, because one’s existence cannot be asserted by oneself, we need other people to make sense of our place in the world.

in sakizuke, as will re-enacts the making of the eyeball mural, he lays out the muralist’s thought process:

i made you pliable. molded you. set and sealed you where you lay. this is my design. a dead eye of vision and consciousness. i am fixed and unseeing ... unless someone else sees me.

will says the eye at the centre of the mural is a “dead eye” which is “fixed and unseeing” up until someone else sees it.

will then says the muralist being there is “not my design”, meaning it was not the muralist’s intention to be in the centre of his masterpiece at all.

and in a flashback, we’re shown what happened. it was hannibal who interfered:

hannibal: when your great eye looked to the heavens, what did it see?

muralist: nothing.

hannibal: not anymore.

muralist: there is no god.

hannibal: certainly not with that attitude. god gave you purpose. not only to create art, but to become it.

muralist: why are you doing this to me?

hannibal: your eye will now see god reflected back. it will see you. if god is looking down at you, don't you want to be looking back at him?

previously, jack had said the muralist must have had an existential crisis. hannibal sewing the muralist into his own mural was him fixing that for him, so that the muralist can be affirmed of his existence and purpose in the world by seeing god and being seen in return.

the eyeball mural is also supposed to represent will and hannibal’s relationship, which is why in will’s visualisation of the scene he’s in the place of the muralist and hannibal in the place of god - as will says, “a challenge of equals”. and think of what it means to be seen by god - that doesn’t imply a normal, ordinary state of being seen, god is omniscient, he sees all of you. just like hannibal sees all of will, the good and the bad.

in secondo, when will meets the prisoner, chiyoh forbids will to even look at him, saying he lost that privilege with his act of killing mischa. chiyoh further goes on to say that he’s only allowed “the sound of water. it’s what the unborn hear”. we’re given the sense that no one looking at the prisoner, no one seeing him, renders him into a state of non-existence, to an embryonic state.

(with re: chiyoh saying the sound of water is what the unborn hear, this also relates back to will, in roti, an episode leading up to will’s rebirth, there’s a lot of water imagery - will dreaming about glaciers crashing down and flooding the beach where the  totem pole was, imagining his bed being submerged in water, telling jack, “i feel like i’m fluid, like i’m spilling”, hallucinating the morgue filling up with water, etc)

after chiyoh kills the prisoner, will makes him into the firefly tableau. just like with randall tier, this is will’s empathy granting his gift of being seen to the prisoner after his death. the prisoner lived a dark, confined existence, so with his new wings and the lights reflecting off of him and surrounding him, will, as much as he is able, sets him free after his death, giving him what he couldn’t have in life. the firefly is also the final stage of transformation from the pupal form, and therefore also represents the prisoner’s rebirth, after being “unborn” for all those years.

i’m sure i missed some more examples, but we’re shown, over and over again, that a major theme of the show, or the major theme, is that being seen and understood for who you are is what gives meaning to your existence.

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

It's really sad to think about how little control Will had over Abigail's fate when you really stop to think about it.

When we see him in the beginning of season 1 figuring out who GJH is, he's aware of Abigail. He doesn't know her, and he doesn't exactly care about her yet (in more than a "I hope this girl is still alive and I have to save as many lives as possible" kind of way). There's this idea that Abigail is the "golden ticket" and yes she's in danger, but it's not immediate danger. At least not until Hannibal steps in and warns GJH of their impending arrival.

Will is relatively calm when he shows up at the Hobbs' house, until Mrs. Hobbs comes stumbling out the front door covered in blood. That's when he realizes the girl he doesn't know, Abigail, is in danger, if she isn't already dead. And he arrives in the kitchen a little too late. And if Hannibal hadn't come with Will, if Hannibal had not been curious to see what would happen, there would have been nothing for Will to do to save Abigail's life. Will could beg Hannibal to save her life, but Hannibal did not have to. He chose to do so to sate his own curiosity and save appearances.

Then Will develops encephalitis, and Hannibal is in control of that too. He knows, and he keeps Will in the dark, and it makes Will a danger to himself and others, to Abigail. He's suddenly not well enough to decipher what is real and what's not for the most part, what are his actions and what are actions taken against him. And Hannibal decides for Will, and for Abigail, that it is time for Abigail to go into hiding, and the only way to do that is by faking her death at Will's expense.

And Hannibal is still keeping Will in the dark in season 2. Will cries to him about missing Abigail, about regretting his actions, about regretting Hannibal's actions as he knows them. But it's over, right? It's done with. When Will betrays Hannibal, he has no idea that he is endangering Abigail. As much as Will probably knew that night in Hannibal's kitchen would likely end in blood, he had no way of knowing it would end with Abigail's blood. Once again, Abigail's fate was in Hannibal's hands, not Will's.

Even after Abigail is dead, she is not gone. She stays with Will, in his mind, for months, and even as she is a figment of Will's own imagination, her actions and words are still under Hannibal's influence, because the part of Will that made that afterimage of Abigail, the part that said "He wanted us to live", still caters to Hannibal's beliefs and best interests which don't always necessarily align with Will's.

Abigail as Will knew her was in death, as she was in life, inexplicably chained to Hannibal. And as much as Will always wanted to know her and care for her, as much as he was compared to Abigail's own biological father, he was the weak link in their little family.

[cedarbranch]

i think that part of abigail's Becoming would be shedding her instinct to obey and embracing some of her new dads' most annoying traits: Fuck Around And Find Out energy + Hostile Levels Of Honesty!

i'm rly interested in the apparent contradictions of her personality/the self she puts on to protect herself from men who want to harm her... like. after her dad is dead and she's freed of that need to present herself as harmless she's pretty abrasive sometimes!! she says it like it is! but at the same time, she's so quick to comply with hannibal, even when she knows he's abt to kill her, and she adopts a version of herself around him that isn't what she had with her father but isn't dissimilar in function... abigail hobbs the war that you are. the paradox of trust and love and hiding and pretending.

anyway, i think it'd take a long while for her to figure out a new sense of self around will and hannibal. will, because she knows what he wants in a father-daughter relationship and she'll try to be that even if it isn't real (and even while actively resenting him for it). hannibal, because she needs to protect herself from him. still, with enough coaxing from hannibal and weird family fights and probably tag-team murder, i think she'd come out of it with clarity and an Attitude.

in particular i think she'd be brutally, overly honest in a way that hannibal would find delightfully similar to will -- except will doesn't ever act that way toward abigail, while abigail often does toward will. i imagine him being pretty rattled by that on Several different levels lmao but that's another post. and alongside it, i think there's a feeling of morbid fascination about her character, something that hannibal could very easily tease out of her -- and with will and hannibal as her closest companions, that would probably manifest as her being really Curious What Would Happen if she took certain risks. specifically with hannibal. how much can she get away with around him? he doesn't react like a normal person -- what amuses him, what pisses him off? at what point do either of those emotions become dangerous for her? how skillfully can she dance on that line of danger? she'd be like this with will too but in a really different way i think (also another post).

tl;dr she ends up with a habit of poking the bear. she provokes hannibal a lot. sometimes he ignores it, sometimes he doesn't. will dislikes it, but hannibal understands that sometimes she needs to be reminded that she's scared of him in order to trust him. a father is a man who will kill you out of love, not one who pretends he won't. if she isn't feeling threatened in their current situation, she'll invent a threat for herself -- the teasing makes her feel normal, and the potential consequences of it feel like home.