Hannibal blog, often Dead Dove

In addition, Will is the only one who notices.

Hannibal's childlike wonder with the world, his anxious attachments, his mood swings, his possessiveness over the few people he lets himself be attached to, his need for everything to be exactly how he molded it, his jealousy at being sidelined by the few people he loves...

...and most of all his stubborn idea that everybody should be kind, polite and considering to each other, and if they aren't, the scared starved child in Hannibal will see to it that those Rude People can't hurt him anymore. He desperatly wants to keep on his rose colored glasses while the world keeps yanking them away. In order to get them back, he has to defeat and quite literally put down the people who keep ruining his illusion of a world where he is loved. He needs that illusion so much that he modelled his whole life to adhere to it, starting with a higher education, a respectable job, nice clothes, nice food for guests, etc, in hope that those things and atteibutes will make people love him.

Will understood this to be true both in Hannibal and in the Ripper, way before he knew they cohabitated in the same body. He understood that they both need to eliminate everything that threatens to break them, and it's a lot of things/ people, considering how fragile Hannibal and the Ripper are.

A lot of things/people have the audacity to hurt him, and once they do, Hannibal needs to assure himself that they'll never hurt him again, while also assuring himself that he was always superior to them (he does this by eating them) so to convince himself that they never really hurt him.

This way, he can keep convincing himself that the soldiers that ate Misha did not actually hurt him, since they are inferior to him —they are, since he hunted them down and consumed them; this demostrates their inferiority— and what's inferior to him can't really hurt him. ("Nothing [traumatic] happened to me")

The problem to this reasoning is that upon further scrutiny it crubles fast. And to keep it steady and straight, Hannibal needs to reassure himself of his invulnerability more and more often, with more show of force and superiority each time.

He's one of those pitiful things born in hospitals who miracolously survive their damned conditions and will forever be more vulnerable to the outside world; their only hope to not be shattered upon contact with others is to annihilate those others.

I feel like Chiyoh could have done anything with her freedom after everything that happened and she did probably do something in the three years that were given to her. Go back to Japan or even France where she grew up even. But it would have felt empty. She gave up her planned life when she chose to be devoted to Hannibal and Mischa. And she chooses still after seeing everything, because to her, it’s the right thing to do.

but i wonder what hannibal really meant was her climbing over the walls of his boundary, his person suit. she was the first person who did, in my opinion. she was the first person who saw him, and what he actually was, a monster in a gentleman's clothing. she was the first person who put together the fact that he was the "man on the phone".

Abigail was perceptive and had her own secrets to keep. He kept on pushing it with her to see how much she would come to seek him after he showed subtle hints of willing to help her. And then he did.

But I don’t find it that unusual and here’s why. When it came to patients, Hannibal always had a variety of people who came into his office who wanted to “change”. Will was by all means at that time, a patient. Not yet a friend or even someone he considered kin.

Abigail was.

Hannibal has been creating surrogate Mischas from the age of 16 starting with Chiyoh and onwards, even before he became a doctor. Young girls who could potentially fill in for what Mischa was supposed to become in his ideal image. Someone who could love him without fearing him and be his sister/daughter.

He was already working on Abigail before he even began working on Will. He probably saved her with the intent to make her his own.

It's literally only incest on paper. There is no blood relation as she is only related by marriage. And while there is maybe a slight power imbalance from her being his caretaker at the time, there really isn't ever an impression of it and it's definitely not due to family ties as he probably only barely remembers her from childhood.

The worst part is his age. He is (presumably) a teenager and she is a full adult. Obviously that's a problem. But again, it's never seen as that being a power imbalance bc Hannibal is the one to comes onto her and she just goes with it.

Also in the books, it’s clear that Hannibal is attracted to her starting at least from 13-14, likely earlier, and that Murasaki is very much aware of this years before she actually starts engaging with Hannibal romantically.

I think the book’s portrayal was interesting, even if I would have liked to see a more obviously messed-up version of it, where Murasaki actually does engage with Hannibal romantically before he turns eighteen. (In my opinion, she does actually subtly encourage Hannibal’s “fascination” with here before that point, but it’s nothing obvious or explicit.)