#hannibal mecter

[masterswrd]

can u elaborate on hannibals eating disorder like,,,,, ed in the same way that pica might b considered an ed or

Absolutely yes I can!

I don’t think it’s entirely useful for me to try to disgnose him eith a specific eating disorder (maybe orthexia?), but he canonically has a restrictive, obsessive, and compulsive relationship with food and as we know: Hannibal’s childhod trauma is the reason he eats people.

Eating disorders are as much self-soothing and emotional regulation behavoirs as they are self-harming behavoirs.

He kills as a way to conquer his fears about what happened to him and take control. Before he killed people he woukd wake up screaming and was mute due to trauma. The reason Hannibal is more aggresive and impulsive during his incarceration (in all adaptations) is because his coping skills were taken away.

Hannibal’s cannibalism comes from anxiety, specifically his fear of being hurt again. As a victim during his childhood, he was completely helpless and on the brink of being cannibalized. When he encounters rude people or people who hurt him or his family his brain goes to “I have to eat them, before they can eat me.”

Sitting down at his dinner table and literally consuming something that scares him is stress releaving and an act on dominance. This is why Hannibal is so pleased that Will placed a hit on Chilton, and why he ate his raw detatched lips. Chilton enacted psychiatric abuse on him and Will, now he can’t hurt them and Will and him are safe. This is the same reason why Hannibal vows to kill Alana. Her abuse of power at the hospital, but also because she intended to kill him. He doesn’t feel safe will Alana being alive.

When Hannibal tries to eat Will in Dolce, he does it because he thinks Will had fully made up his mind and hunted him down with the intent to kill him. It’s a “him or me” mindset. The same reason Abigail Hobb’s killed with her dad. I forgot if it was Mads or Bryan who said but Hannibal didn’t want to go through with eating him. He would have, but he also desperat wanted somebody to stop him and was relieve when Mason’s men came. He didn’t want Will to die but cannibalism is a compulsion to cope with his fear of what Will might do and couldn’t bring himself to stop.

He kills Abigail in Mizomuno to hurt Will to some extent but I think it’s more for the reason being “Will is going to choose her over me and it will lead to my death or capture so I’d rather kill her than take that chance. Now I’m his only option.” It’s not entirely rational but it’s how his thought process works. The reason he never ate Miriam is probably because he never drew a weapon (maybe wasn’t even armed at all) and was never a threat to his safety, unlike Beverly who shot to kill. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Hannibal probably took responsibility for having his drawings out and not being careful.

Will helps Hannibal to cope by being a completely new source of happiness that isn’t tied to his trauma. His love of music, fashion, and italian heritage come from his dead mother who’s corpse he saw half burned in front of him. His love of art is attached to how his home that was looted for it’s art by his family’s murders, which is how he tracked them down. His love of food comes from the cook from his childhood home who was also killed and the trauma of Mischa’s death and being forced to eat her. Hannibal butcher’s his first victim in a way the cook taught him to butcher a fish (fish cheeks are an underrated part of the fish btw. idk about human cheeks though.)

Will is in the same category that Hannibal places himself and Mischa in. It’s why when Will was getting attacked by the Dragon, Hannibal jumps onto Dolarhyde’s back and bites out a chunk of his neck (and probably eats it). He’s devouring him before he could devour Will. Seeing the blood on Will’s face after biting Cordell and then the blood on his face in WoTL probably made Hannibal feel loved and safe and defended because that’s how Hannibal shows his love for himself and his sister, by consuming those who seek to do them harm.

And by the way, this was probably the first time Hannibal felt actually defended in the face of life threatening danger.

We joke about Hannibal and Will being so different but that’s why they work. He can give Hannibal a safe space to decompress and cope with what happened to him without being reminded of his trauma. I think post-fall Hannibal will be the most vunerable version of him we’d see because it would be the first time he’s acknowledging what happened. As he coped, he might be able to better fight his compulsion and anxiety that drives him to kill. By that, I mean he will be more in control of choosing him victims rather than have his traumaized way of thinking take over and having murder and cannibal be his only ways of feeling safe.

TLDR: Hannibal’s cannibalism and likely his obsessive need to only eat food he cooks is a trauma response fueled by anxiety and fear and in reality, he probably feels very little control over his obsessive thoughts to kill and eat peoole to feel safe.