eaten_by_bears (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eaten_by_bears) wrote2014-05-25 01:54 am
eaten_by_bears) wrote2014-05-25 01:54 am
So I'm into Hannibal now
And I have a lot to say about it.
Okay, so Hannibal clearly has a lot of shit going on in his brain. The finale kind of clarified some of it for me.
He wants people to see him and love him for who he is. Okay, everyone does. But he knows that he’s kind of out there, and he kills for fun. He’s afraid to reveal too much of himself. That’s why he makes it such an obstacle course, that’s why he crushes so hard on the empath who can take anyone’s point of view at all.
He’s afraid of being rejected or left. When he’s emotionally invested in someone, he needs to be in complete control. He wants the intimacy of another person, their different personality, their choices, etc. but he’s afraid that that means they’ll leave him or hurt him. So he plays a lot of mind games, and it doesn’t make for very satisfying relationships. And he’s scared but kind of relieved when Will gets up to his level and he’s not the only one in the game anymore. That means Will’s there by choice. He really wants him. (also, he gets to have a playmate at his crazypants murder game)
This control extends to control over life and death. If he isn’t sure of someone, he kills them before they leave. Or before they can die unexpectedly and leave him that way, like Mommy and Daddy and li’l Mischa.
He has a real fatherly streak. Nurturing is important to him. He wants to love and encourage people and watch them grow into who they are, like he didn’t get to do with Mischa. If it didn’t involve so much murder, it’d be really sweet. He’s not just brainwashing people into clones of him. Like he says to Will, he can feed the caterpillar, but he doesn’t control what comes out of the cocoon. This is one area where he’s honestly pleased to be surprised, to see who these other people are when they’re not being held back.
That’s part of why he feeds people to other people. (another part is a morbid sense of humor and another nother part is that he gets off on having people very close and still managing to trick them) Hunting is something important to him. He feels passionate about it, and it’s part of who he is. He wants to use this part of him, this special skill, to take care of people, to offer them something and nourish them in a very primal way. It’s a way to be accepted. It extends to his less creepy pursuits too, like cooking and brewing craft beer.
So, yeah. A lot of his more self-sabotaging behaviors are because he’s afraid of getting close to someone and then losing them. And he’s spent his whole life trying to fill a Mischa-shaped gap. He also has a compulsion to break the people close to him. Sending Will to the asylum wasn't just about turning him into a killer. He wanted to break the teacup and have it come back together. He wanted to see that Will was strong enough to endure through anything. I did wonder why Hannibal seemed so upset about Will being locked up after he'd spent so much trouble to get him there, but this makes sense to me. He didn't really want Will to go away. And definitely not to stop being his friend. Just to shatter and somehow still be okay.
Okay, so Hannibal clearly has a lot of shit going on in his brain. The finale kind of clarified some of it for me.
He wants people to see him and love him for who he is. Okay, everyone does. But he knows that he’s kind of out there, and he kills for fun. He’s afraid to reveal too much of himself. That’s why he makes it such an obstacle course, that’s why he crushes so hard on the empath who can take anyone’s point of view at all.
He’s afraid of being rejected or left. When he’s emotionally invested in someone, he needs to be in complete control. He wants the intimacy of another person, their different personality, their choices, etc. but he’s afraid that that means they’ll leave him or hurt him. So he plays a lot of mind games, and it doesn’t make for very satisfying relationships. And he’s scared but kind of relieved when Will gets up to his level and he’s not the only one in the game anymore. That means Will’s there by choice. He really wants him. (also, he gets to have a playmate at his crazypants murder game)
This control extends to control over life and death. If he isn’t sure of someone, he kills them before they leave. Or before they can die unexpectedly and leave him that way, like Mommy and Daddy and li’l Mischa.
He has a real fatherly streak. Nurturing is important to him. He wants to love and encourage people and watch them grow into who they are, like he didn’t get to do with Mischa. If it didn’t involve so much murder, it’d be really sweet. He’s not just brainwashing people into clones of him. Like he says to Will, he can feed the caterpillar, but he doesn’t control what comes out of the cocoon. This is one area where he’s honestly pleased to be surprised, to see who these other people are when they’re not being held back.
That’s part of why he feeds people to other people. (another part is a morbid sense of humor and another nother part is that he gets off on having people very close and still managing to trick them) Hunting is something important to him. He feels passionate about it, and it’s part of who he is. He wants to use this part of him, this special skill, to take care of people, to offer them something and nourish them in a very primal way. It’s a way to be accepted. It extends to his less creepy pursuits too, like cooking and brewing craft beer.
So, yeah. A lot of his more self-sabotaging behaviors are because he’s afraid of getting close to someone and then losing them. And he’s spent his whole life trying to fill a Mischa-shaped gap. He also has a compulsion to break the people close to him. Sending Will to the asylum wasn't just about turning him into a killer. He wanted to break the teacup and have it come back together. He wanted to see that Will was strong enough to endure through anything. I did wonder why Hannibal seemed so upset about Will being locked up after he'd spent so much trouble to get him there, but this makes sense to me. He didn't really want Will to go away. And definitely not to stop being his friend. Just to shatter and somehow still be okay.