#arbitrarily breaking up that long ass list into paragraphs to save your eyes

[marley-manson]

Hannibal and will!

Thank you!

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

Ship It

What made you ship it?

Funnily enough, I actually didn't ship it while watching the show the first time until literally the season 3 finale. See, I believed that Hannibal was manipulating Will the whole time and it was basically a horror story about poor Will being brainwashed into wanting to murder people and all that, and while I enjoyed the homoeroticism a lot and even read some fic, it's just not the kind of thing I'm really into, I find moustache twirling villailn/woobie victim boring as ship material.

The moment that made me go 'wait a second... wait just one fucking second, I've been wrong the whole time, this is actually a perfect ship for me' was Will's sip of wine while looking down at Hannibal bleeding out after he let Dolarhyde shoot him.

I was expecting throughout the entirety of the Red Dragon arc that Hannibal was somehow playing a long manipulative game and he’d reveal it in the finale, so I guess when it turned out that nope, he had no plan he was just going wherever the fuck Will took him up to and including his death, it made me reconsider everything.

So the day after the finale aired I marathoned the whole show again in like three days with eyes wide open and saw everything in a new light and really fell head over heels for the show.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

Hannibal's super intense feelings. The parallel between him and Franklyn. Hannibal trying to eat Will's brain to get over him, failing, and going to the opposite extreme and spending 3 years in jail right after because the brain eating was like, a last-ditch attempt to save himself from his own feelings. Will falling in love over the course of season 2 not despite wanting to kill Hannibal but because of it, as illustrated through very sexually suggestive murder fantasies.

Will asserting his own agency at the end of season 1. Hannibal's smile in the last shot of season 1 not because he "won" or anything but because Will knows who he is now. Will pulling a gun on Hannibal. Their murdery "with my hands" dirty talk. The ortorlan blowjob scene, instant classic. Hannibal letting Dolarhyde shoot him not to save Will or anything, but just because that's how Will wanted them to die. The fact that Dolarhyde only kills families so it was basically Hannibal accepting a marriage proposal when you think about it. Will changing his mind and killing Dolarhyde with Hannibal instead. "I gave you a child, if you recall."

The fucking tearfully smug look on Hannibal's face when he kills Abigail. Will fantasizing about killing Jack and running away with Hannibal. Bedelia's exasperation with Hannibal's pining and her manipulating him because of it in season 3. Everything about Sorbet, Tome Wan, and Digestivo, aka the three best episodes of anything ever. Man I could go on forever but I gotta stop.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think the most likely scenario is Hannibal and Will killing other serial killers, but I think if it came down to it Hannibal is more likely to give up murder than Will is to take up murder. Hannibal already functionally gave up murder not even for a relationship, but just in the hopes of seeing Will again and like, not being forgotten, when he turned himself in in Digestivo. Also I think if they do start killing killers it'd 100% be Will's idea, not Hannibal's. Hannibal is not rocking that boat now that he's finally in it by trying to manipulate or force Will into murder again lol. At best I could see him handing Will a newspaper detailing a new serial killer with a hopeful expression lol.