Thinking about in S1E4 when Abigail tells Hannibal that she knows she’ll just come to live with having killed Nick Boyle and asks him if that makes her a sociopath and Hannibal says “no, that makes you a survivor”.
I feel like that response really speaks to Hannibal’s perspective on killing people, it’s often about the threat people can pose to him. Despite the intimidating exterior and person suit he feels perpetually under threat. Him killing means he survived, and he will encourage others to kill because he wants them to survive too. That’s what he wanted for Abigail and Will, for them to be the one who survive fights.
He wants both of them as protection as well. He tells Abigail he’d feel safer if she was working for the FBI protecting his interests, of course meaning he’d want her to prevent him being investigated for the serial murder he feels naturally entitled to commit. He tells Will he’s a mongoose he wants under the house to protect him from snakes. Mongooses win most of the fights they have with cobras, they even tolerate venom in small amounts. Hannibal tried to orchestrate an attempt to fuse together three unsafe people with enough power to defend each other.
Feeling under threat is the reason a snake has venom. Feeling under threat is the reason a snake camouflages under leaves, and then will strike when something passes by. It feels under threat. It will use the same methods to acquire food.
gjh making abigail lure the girls in as opposed to just hunting them himself was a means of poisoning her relationships with other young women as much as it was keeping her close as his little girl. part of growing up means abigail makes friends and meets people who aren’t dad, and gjh punished her for growing up by making her an active participant in the murders to keep her from maturing in that particular regard. it’s interesting to note that there’s nowhere in which any of abigail’s fathers mention boys or her needing protection from them (except nick boyle but that’s different). his protective obsession is never that some boy is gonna steal his girl away, but he’s definitely punitive of her growing too close with other girls. her maturity is positioned as a threat not just to her father’s control but also to other girls
after GJH dies, other people are convinced that abigail is a predator, and marissa sees “abigail’s hunting” as a red flag she should’ve noticed. after her death, abigail confides in hannibal that when she dreams of marissa, she’s not grieving her, she’s afraid of her because marissa is going to tell abigail’s secrets. by being close to abigail, she’s punished seemingly from beyond the grave by GJH, and in a way she is. no young woman can come near abigail. only daddy can be close to her.
by making her lure them in and butcher them, gjh added a level to the horror of making her participate in her own consumption-by-proxy. he made her connect to them personally, lure them in, and strip their corpses and cut their flesh. and then she has to eat the girl that not a day prior she was sitting with and joking and making eye contact.
the “she was so pretty” “she is so pretty” exchange is the most telling of their relationship in my opinion. for him, it’s about consuming abigail by proxy, but he doesn’t intend for abigail to experience it that way, and she doesn’t. for her father, he’s not done with her and the “golden ticket” is still alive so she Is pretty. but abigail has already irrevocably failed her, and god, abigail thought she was so pretty.
she never sees the girls as the same as herself. her horror is always that these girls were separate from herself, she made them like her, and now she has to look her mother in the eye whilst eating their once-pretty flesh, all the while knowing her father is eating her in his mind.
the question abigail struggles with in her group therapy nightmare is what was so bad about herself that made her father want to kill her. from the outside, gjh is framed as a man who sublimates his murderous urges in order to protect abigail, but abigail hasn’t been spared any murderous threat. she’s been punished and blames something inherent about herself for it. and the dream confirms her worst fears: the girls also think she’s rotten and deserves the punishment.
to extend this further, hannibal’s love comes to her in the guise of acceptance but he makes it clear that although he’s like her and she can trust him, she can’t tell anyone else. her book deal with freddie is viewed as bad for her for multiple reasons, but primarily bc it’ll expose her Secrets and then people will Know about her. hannibal also kills marissa, her only remaining female friend her age, and while abigail has the strength of conviction to blame her father for it, it still haunts her.
abigail is only allowed to interact unpunished with women if they’re put in the role of “mom,” and even then that relationship comes with the caveat that they must know nothing. one of gjh’s cut lines is “don’t tell your mother,” which answers the question of how much louise knew, and it goes unsaid how dangerous it’d be if alana knew about abigail. of course, when alana does find out about abigail, abigail is implicated again by being the one to push her out the window. over and over, abigail’s relationships with everyone but her cannibal fathers are poisoned by this idea that abigail is dangerous, particularly to other women
i am in the meta mood so i am ignoring the ever growing pile of important schoolwork! send a character, idea/head-cannon, or just a general vibe and I’ll expand on it, or write some kind of headcannon/meta/mini-ficlet. send from any fandom, if I know it I’ll try do it.
*taps microphone* hello and welcome to part two of my nbc hannibal character introductions analysis !! this time we’re focusing on hannibal himself so get ready because I’ve got some thoughts and it’s about to get twisty as hell
for the purpose of this analysis, it’s important to note that the nature of hannibal’s first scene is different from the nature of will’s. as the protagonist, will’s introduction doubles as the characteristic moment/opening scene, and as such his first major appearance is packed with content and thematic detail (enough to dedicate a whole analysis to)
but as the show’s main antagonist/(unlikely) love interest, hannibal’s first scene is less so. it simply doesn’t need to be, and it’s good that it isn’t because will is never overshadowed by him. after all, this is will’s story, not hannibal’s. it’s for this reason that I’m picking apart both his first appearance and the breakfast scene, since hannibal naturally doesn’t have as complex an introduction as will himself
funnily enough, hannibal actually doesn’t appear until halfway through the episode. after will figures out the minnesota shrike is eating the missing girls, the scene suddenly cuts to hannibal eating dinner at home, alone and obscured by shadow as classical music plays and wonderfully disturbs us all — a chilling dissonance that’s deeply embedded in the anatomy of his character
it’s only a few seconds long, but the way this sequence is shot tells us everything we need to know about his character. in a scene void of dialogue, we’re first shown the reflection of a small fruit platter, as seen when the camera slowly pans over the finely polished wood of the dinner table, before swooping up to meet the actual object. maybe I’m overanalysing here (I’m a film student so humour me for a moment) but I think it’s worth noting how we’re shown the reflection before the prop itself. in film (and theatre) some props hold symbolic significance, and are referred to as “symbolic props”. the choice to have this shot look dreamlike and distorted — a series of reflections and mirrors, even before we see hannibal himself — feels deliberate to me. I mean, hannibal is the copycat killer. he’s will’s mirror. not to mention the fruit itself: the split pomegranate is the focal point of the shot
it’s a pretty common allusion. pomegranates are often likened to the devil, sin, death, etc. in some interpretations of the bible, for instance, eve is tempted by a pomegranate, not an apple, and pomegranates themselves are widely associated with hades, since persephone is doomed to stay with him in the underworld once she swallows pomegranate seeds. again, all esoteric type imagery associated with hannibal before we even seehannibal
basically, the show tells us he’s the devil before we even see his face. the show also tells us that this “evil” is mirrored everywhere else, or at least is capable of being mirrored. it exists beyond him
to add to this point, once we leave the fruit platter we’re shown the meal he’s eating, which, due to will’s earlier revelation, is implied to be human-based. the actual set up of this is interesting because the plate, and hannibal himself, are placed directly behind the pomegranate, so when the camera refocuses on its new subject a subtle link is formed between the fruit and the meat. further still, if we return to the pomegranate symbolism, particularly the biblical aspect of it, the act of cannibalism is suddenly reframed as temptation. the “forbidden fruit” or a type of secret pleasure one must resist indulging, or quite literally consuming. it’s the dazzling offer given to any poor fool who falls victim to the devil: an illusion. something horrible designed to look aesthetically beautiful in order to trick onlookers and obscure the truth
it’s the first time we see his person suit
it’s only after we see both the fruit and the (unfortunately human) meat that we finally see hannibal’s face, but this too is obscured. while this means we still don’t get a good look at him, this choice also foreshadows the fact that hannibal is not the minnesota shrike, but rather a distorted version of him: the copycat, as we later learn
the actual lighting in this scene is also worth noting, since the shadows here make hannibal’s face look like a skull. it’s not the last time lighting is used in this way (hannibal consistently looks skull-like in future scenes) but it’s particularly significant in this context since it affirms his symbolic association with death
personally this all makes me think of the devil and death cards respectively, which was likely unintentional but hey, hannibal does recreate the three of swords later in s3 by turning a man into a heart-shaped sculpture so it’s not like tarot imagery is never used in the show… but anyway <3
what I find interesting about this sequence is the fact that the main thing we learn (beyond hannibal’s link to the devil) is how hidden he is. he’s something unknown, and it’s because of this that his introduction is the inversion of will’s, since we see the truth of will (and his worldview) so clearly when we first meet him
that being said, the theory of opposition is an integral part of hannibal and will’s dynamic, something that is explicitly shown in the second half of the episode and actually further emphasises the idea that hannibal’s scenes are here to support/develop will’s character further, even if indirectly. it’s why he doesn’t appear until about halfway through the episode and again why the actual construction of his introduction is different
(side note: hannibal being “hidden” and “unknown” also recalls the show’s gothic genre, setting him up as our classic monster)
so with that in mind, let’s talk about the breakfast scene
it goes as follows: in an isolated moment hannibal brings will breakfast and they have a conversation. that’s about it. however, the reason this scene is significant, and why it’s arguably one of the most important moments in the show, is because it’s where will and hannibal’s foil dynamic is first introduced
it’s important to note that before this scene takes place, hannibal tells jack that “perception is a tool pointed at both ends” which is telling, since it’s through his manipulation of perception, and his understanding of complimentary opposites, that hannibal is able to help will find the minnesota shrike. by the time we come to the breakfast scene this has already happened, and hannibal listens as will breaks it down for him. will says the copycat kill was “practically gift wrapped” for him, likening it to negative and positive polarities (“he had to show me a negative so I could see the positive”) which is fitting because this episode is fullof polarities and full of paradoxes, down to the way these characters are introduced. still, this is all done in a way that tells us that oppositions are not necessarily separate. linking this back to part one, will and hannibal are placed on a conceptual axis between man and monster, but also empathy and psychopathy. but it’s through hannibal’s introduction, and all the scenes that follow, that we learn that opposition is necessary in order to understand the full quality of something. returning to will’s worldview: humanity is not divorced from monstrosity
what is implied, is that in order for will to understand himself he must first understand hannibal, but he can only understand hannibal if he understands himself. this is the nature of their foil dynamic, something that extends to hobbs and the copycat (both extensions of will and hannibal respectively) and so to the empath to psychopath trajectory I’ve described
hannibal even says that he and will are “just alike” (a sentiment he keeps repeating throughout the show) after will says (albeit sarcastically) that he doesn’t have any problems. there’s a triple meaning behind hannibal saying there’s “nothing about us to feel horrible about” in response to will.first is the obvious lie, which is what it appears to be on its surface, then it’s the mimicked sarcasm, implying there’s something deeply wrong with both of them, and then finally, underneath the sarcasm, is the admission that no, there’s nothing for them to be ashamed of, and this lack of remorse, felt by them both, is what ties them
this of course blurs truths and lies (another set of opposites) and brings in another paradox: that every lie they say is the truth and every truth they say is a lie. as such, in order to understand the sum of either of them, they need to be simultaneously juxtaposed and read together, and their person suits, no matter how appealing or trustworthy or innocent, is just another lie. another temptation. another illusion
