pécheur [n.] sinner
smtree: Bones, why would hannibal go through the trouble of surrendering when he was about to eat wills heart? And why would will now of all times admit that hannibal is bad for him when he was half way through Europe to try to kill him? What changed for both of them? I don't get it can you please provide your useful meta? The short answer is because he couldn’t bear the thought of Will living on without him, not thinking about him, not looking for him, not finding him.
Not caring about what happened to him.
He spent the whole first six episodes learning that his life was hollow without Will in it. If he ate Will, Will would be a part of him forever, much like Mischa was. But now that he’d promised to save Will–someone saved Will Graham, can you believe it? And it was Hannibal, who we’ve been telling to SIT DOWN this whole time!–and he did it, the option of eating Will was taken off the table. That could not be his resolution. Hannibal doesn’t want a resolution any other way; he wants the two of them to be in each other’s orbit for the rest of their lives. He’s no less obsessed with Will now than he ever was, and he can’t bear to let Will go. He will cage himself, to make Will his keeper.
As for Will, he has been through literal torture for this entire season–enduring Abigail’s death firsthand, getting gutted, alienated from everyone (including Hannibal), getting almost killed over and over–and by most people, slowly–and being the person that Hannibal wanted him to be (and that he never wanted to be). He wanted to know Hannibal before he saw him next, he wanted to see him with clear eyes–and now he has.
For Will, the difference between the past and the future was before Hannibal and after Hannibal. For Hannibal, there is no difference–it’s a blur. Will has seen Hannibal reaching back in time, wanting to reverse everything and so playing out these dark and painful moments in his life into perpetuity. But Will has that full understanding. He doesn’t need to seek it anymore. Hannibal hoped to catch Will up in it again, in real life or in his mind–in some way, he must be a part of Will’s life. But Will doesn’t want to live like that, trying to make the teacup come back together. He’d finally reached the point where he just wants it to stop.
And he missed his dogs.
I can’t say enough how important that line was, and the shot of their empty beds in his little house. Will’s dogs were always “the best part of Will” as Alana put it in season two–they were presented to us as the lightest part of him, the best and most pure and good.
Hannibal took it on himself to corrupt the dogs in both seasons, feeding them people and then Mason Verger, just as he corrupted Will. He asked Will to leave them in “Mizumono,” and Will eventually did leave them to search for Hannibal.
There in Will’s house, when Hannibal was present, the dogs were not. Where Hannibal is, the best and purest parts of Will must leave.
In the end, after all the suffering and darkness and pain and fear, Will just wanted them back. He missed them.
He missed himself.
I’ve noticed that a lot of the time when people talk about Will and his dogs, it’s always in terms of loneliness and adorability.
But what always strikes me about Will and his dogs is how much fucking patience he must have.
Have you ever actually tried sleeping in the same room as one dog, let alone several? It’s a bloody nightmare!
They fidget and fart, if they’ve got jowls (which a couple of Will’s dogs do) they do that weird flappy-clappy-saliva thing with their mouths, they dream/growl/whine and scratch (which usually involves the sound of a leg banging repeatedly against the nearest bit of furniture), and if one of them shifts suddenly or accidentally bumps something you can fucking guarantee one of the others will be startled by it and bark.
To sleep in the same room as seven(?) dogs you’d either have to A) sleep like the dead or B) have the patience of a saint.
And that’s just the sleeping arrangements.
When I think about how difficult it must be to train several different dogs, all of them different breeds, temperaments, and ages (and more than a couple of which probably have behavioural problems, given their runaway/stray status), it beggars belief. Some of them might be bad with people, or other animals. If there were farms with livestock nearby he’d have to watch them like a hawk whenever they go out, even if they’re good as gold, because you never see him using leads.
To be the pack-boss in that scenario you can’t just be nice with them, you’ve got be stern as well, you’ve got to be authoritative.
And then you’ve got the pack dynamic he’s got to keep control of, too, making sure the big ones don’t take against any of the little ones because if seven dogs decide to fight in an enclosed space it’s going to be a fucking bloodbath in there.
And dogs are so bloody jealous! Even if they’re naturally easy-going or pick up on Will’s chilled vibe, (which- pff, he’s got terrier mixes), if he had just one dog up on his lap or gave just one dog a treat, at least one of the others would take offence and kick off.
Will would have to be actively shutting that down; his dogs can’t be lap-dogs because it would just cause too much drama since he can’t be pampering them all, all the time and all at once. When you’ve got that many dogs, they can’t be for cuddling: they’re a pack, not a collection of soft toys.
And all the different sizes mean each dog has a different daily-exercise need so some of them are going to be knackered long before the other ones drop for the night. There’ll probably be one or two that just never get quite enough work in a day and so prowl round and round the house every night, still wired; the house wouldn’t be still or empty feeling, it’d be full of movement and noise, all the time.
Which can be its own head-ache… but maybe Will likes that false sense of being in a crowd or a unit without any of the unwelcome scrutiny he gets from humans.
Dogs are so attuned to the boss, when there’s no one else around to latch onto; they’d be leaping up on a hair-trigger whenever Will made a move, thinking ‘oh is He going out? is He giving us food?’ It drives me mad when mine do it, and I wonder how Will Graham would feel about it, if he’s not annoyed. Would there be a little bit of ego in there, liking the fact that he’s the boss and all the animals defer to him? Or do the dogs feel like satellites moving in his orbit and he doesn’t even notice?
I’m surprised Will keeps his rods and tackle in the same room as the dogs too, because I know from experience that bored cooped-up pooches and nice interesting-smelling fishing hooks which snag so easily on questing noses are a recipe for disaster.
*my god, I’ll never forget the night my terrier (the ironically-named Rip) got his nose caught on a fishing hook from a rod left in the bathroom, panicked, and basically plastered the ceiling and four walls with his own blood… jesus that was messy…*
And I haven’t even started on the toilet arrangements or the dirt or the doghair or the problem of bitches coming into season with dogs in the house (he’d just have to get them spayed, no two ways about it), or the fact that Will would constantly be watching the clock thinking ‘right, how many hours have they been in, I’ve got to be back by such-and-such a time to feed them and give them a good run.’ It’s an unremitting responsibility.
So, to me, Will’s pack doesn’t say sad or cuddly or lonely; to me, it says self-discipline and efficiency. It’s as impressive as all Hannibal’s magic ridiculous ‘cooked a five course meal composed a piece for Harpsichord killed a few people and kept a psychiatric practise running without missing any sleep or getting a hair out of place’ delivry.
The fact that Will holds down a gruelling life-saving job (which makes him unwell), and keeps that many dogs who’re all healthy and happy, and fishes and fixes engines?
Its not sweet, goddamnit, it’s fucking manly as hell.
#will graham#meta: hannibal#hannibal nbc#DOGES#GODDAMNIT#I guess I’m just saying I’d like to see more of ‘pack-alpha will being a boss with his dogs’ in fic#instead of the sad lonely animal-cuddler#a pack is SUCH a different animal to a lapdog#give me manly Will wading in with his sleeves rolled up to physically separate two massive dogs while they’re fighting#give me Will at a crime-scene silencing a hostile growling Alsation by giving it The Look#give me Will saving his dogs by holding them up at head-height when a crazy stray appears out of nowhere during a walk#or defending them from angry momma cows when they accidentally get too close to a calf#MANLY DOG-WHISPERER WILL#NOT CUDDLY#I NEED IT
Thank you for every word of this.
Make Me Choose: anon asked:
Hannibal with foodor Abigail with her hunting knife“Just like we talked about. Start at the sternum. Keep the blade pointed up. Damage the organs, you ruin the meat.”
I hate to be that asshole who writes at the bottom of a perfectly lovely post instead of putting my thoughts into the tags, but I have too many feelings for the tags so bear with me I’m sorry.
THESE GIFS JUST GIVE ME SO MANY FEELINGS? Because there’s so much about Abigail that can’t be pinned down. You can never tell what is performance and what is truth (if they really exist as separate categories; sometimes I think there are two contradictory truths that are somehow both still true, but I digress, you see why I couldn’t fit this in the tags???). And I love that ambiguity about her.
But I also like that there are moments that aren’t ambiguous, and that scene where she’s cutting open that pillow, there is no performance there. This is one of the very few times in the series that we see Abigail alone. She’s not putting on that shock and horror for anyone. She’s not pretending to discover the pillows were stuffed with the hair of these girls that she spoke to, got to know, that she tricked in order to survive. Her horror is 100% unfeigned.
And that pillow is just… everything about the Hobbs family in a nutshell, isn’t it? Crafted into something pretty on the outside, down-to-earth and homey, but it’s a lie. Inside is something sick, abhorrent, disgusting, creepy, and deeply misogynistic.
And Abigail is cutting through that surface, angrily, in tears, revealing her family for what it always really was. And she’s also dealing with knowing that that rotten core isn’t just unique to her family, because this is right after she found Marissa’s body, so when Nick Boyle shows up (and she believes he was responsible), he’s just this stand-in for her father and the kind of men who would admire him.
TL;DR I have so many Abigail feelings I’m not OK.
HANNIBAL LECTER MEME: 1/13 moments
Have you ever been a father?TAGGED AS: You know why I’m dying; you know why this kills me; because there’s a sad remembrance sort of smile on his face; it’s grim almost sardonic but almost fond; Lecter’s life centers around self punishment; Mischa is to him as Bruce Wayne’s parents are to him; his creator and maker; the paragon centerpiece of his damage; and he’s twisted her into an unrecognizable figure; the way Bruce has with his own dad and mom; into punitive examples demanding a certain asset of him; and here his heart is laid so bare; and when he says her name I get chills; he loved her so; HE LOVED HER; AND HE WAS A GREAT BIG BROTHER; FUCK WILL GRAHAM AND WAHHHHH HIS ABIGAIL FEELINGS; ABIGAIL WASN’T YOUR FUCKING SISTER; YOU ACCIDENTALLY AUTO CANNIBALIZED; AND THEN DEALT WITH THE FEELING YOU DAMNED HER; BECAUSE YOU WERE SMALL AND WEAK AND A CHILD; Hannibal’s feelings for Mischa twist my heart into unrecognizable shapes; and he loves her shade so in death; as much as he loved her self in life;
Can we please talk about how Hannibals fingers clench the back of Wills head with such a force that not only shows the deep emotional bond that Hannibal thought they had, but proves the love and passion Hannibal had for this man and who clearly meant the world to him,
but Will was obviouly too frightened to return the same feelingsand in the end got stabbed as a brutal reminder to never toy with Hannibals emotions.A deep emotional bond, love and passion, yes. But it also shows Hannibal’s limitations, not Will’s.
Will is, ultimately, a good man. He’s done some awful things, he’s broken, but he’s an inherently good man. Hannibal did everything (in)humanly possible to remake Will in his own image, to nurture within Will a radiant killer. His equal. Hannibal took everything he could from Will in order to foster Will’s reliance on him and him alone. He wanted Will’s love and passion on very specific terms.
Will, though, transcended that. This good man loved Hannibal regardless. Hannibal murdered Abigail. Hannibal engineered the death of Will’s unborn child. Framed Will and, worse, made him doubt both his own innocence and his own sanity. Yet Will not only couldn’t kill Hannibal, when it came to it, he warned Hannibal so he could get away.
And…With Alana laying dying in the rain. With Jack laying dying in the pantry. With Hannibal’s knife in his gut, Will loved him still. He never lifted a finger to defend himself and he never broke eye contact.
Will didn’t fail Hannibal.
Everything Hannibal wanted was there for the taking, if only Hannibal had had the comprehension of love that would have enabled him to see it. Will didn’t have to be like him in order to love him. Will loved him anyway.
Sooner or later, Hannibal is going to realise that he could have had it all, that everything Will did came from a place of love. And that he, literally, cut Will free of him in that kitchen. Hannibal wasn’t able to transcend his own nature, wasn’t capable of loving Will as Will loved him. I hope regret and remorse gut Hannibal Lecter in his turn.
thanks foR STABBING ME IN THE HEART
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
Can we please talk about how Hannibals fingers clench the back of Wills head with such a force that not only shows the deep emotional bond that Hannibal thought they had, but proves the love and passion Hannibal had for this man and who clearly meant the world to him, but Will was obviouly too frightened to return the same feelings and in the end got stabbed as a brutal reminder to never toy with Hannibals emotions.
NO WE CAN’T
I just reblogged this, and it reminded me of one of the reasons that I find the finale so tragic is because they were all so close to getting what they wanted. For Will and Jack, it was because of capricious fate getting in the way, but Hannibal made the same mistake he’s made all along, which was that he misjudged Will.
Will’s plan would have succeeded if Hannibal hadn’t gotten a whiff of Freddie Lounds.
Jack’s plan would have succeeded if Kade Purnell hadn’t gotten in his way.
But Hannibal…Hannibal’s plan would have succeeded if he had, for the first time in his life, not held anything back with Will and actually put all his cards on the table. For all that he knew just how important Abigail had been in Will’s life, and for however long he’d been romantically planning to give her back to Will as a gift, when the moment of crisis came—which, for Hannibal, was when he gave Will the chance to come clean over dinner—he never seemed to perceive or accept that this would be the point over which Will would hang up, and that if he had given Will a real chance to decide, maybe Will would have changed his mind. But Hannibal seemed only willing to forgive Will if Will was willing to forgive him for the worst of his trespasses, to accept him even with that very personal wrong against Will and against Abigail. Hannibal still accepts no boundaries from anyone else: he wants Will to give him everything, unstintingly, without accepting that Will might have boundaries and expectations of his own.
Will may have ravaged his life and heart, but Hannibal really did defeat himself.
# ok but… do people not understand that hannibal stabbing will is symbolical of his killing his current persona again? # he did it all before many times. he kills who he is and starts anew. only this time it doesn’t work # he knew help was coming for will abigail and the rest. he had to get away to survive # will lives and so does the part of himself hannibal tried to kill through him. he couldn’t kill him this time # his baptism through blood fails because who will is and how deep he changed it is too strong # hannibal likes the himself will brings out. will wanted to save that part of him by making sure he ran before jack came # will wasn’t ready to go with him. he couldn’t let go. but he couldn’t bring down hannibal either # so hannibal does it for him: tries to kill what they have so they can both be free. only they never will again # what they have is too strong and it lives no matter how much it bleeds. (via samiferist)
- this moment was so pure and beautiful. the clearest example of full eye contact for the characters, a theme played with throughout their entire companionship. It’s a moment of full expression of who they are. this was the moment they both first saw each other honestly. it was the first time will could look upon hannibal without a mask, in his most raw and vulnerable form. there is a reverence in will’s expression and hannibal’s caress is not so much an act of softness but a tell towards his true affection for the other man. a glimpse into his sorrow. he finds the innocence and acknowledgement of himself in will’s expression and it breaks his heart. for only a moment their connection is electric and sensitive. the game is over. they are bare and they still see their other half. they still see their perfect match. for a moment they are completely and utterly in love. a moment hannibal knows - like all other connections he will ever forge - he has to destroy. we cannot have each other.