#i wonder if she could've been saved from Hannibal.

[sheepcreature]

AGH.

[mizumonohomo]

reread Red Dragon this past summer and 10/10 great decision

Will is such a compelling character, you can see why this book got so many adaptations (2 movies and one show). even though the book just covers the tooth fairy/red dragon murders, you can see Will's past in so many ways. How much he struggles with his empathy and his insight into people's heads. His empathy and care for the victims AND killers is really what separates him from typical gruff'n'tuff true crime protagonists. The weight that working in his field has/had on him. He is a sympathetic character, yet people in the book as well as readers can definitely see how he could be threatening, scary to know socially. How much he struggles to contain himself and be 'normal', even though he is being asked to use the darkest parts of his mind. And though Hannibal plays a much smaller role in this book than the others (and he played a larger role in the following books BECAUSE he was so interesting to people) you still see hints of a shared past and familiarity between Hannibal and Will.

Even separated from the context of the NBC hannibal show, it makes you wonder what exactly happened between them, how well did they know each other? Even if your interpretation isn't romantic, its interesting no matter how you slice it. Does Hannibal's insight into Will stem purely from his ability to analyze people and not from having an 'intimate' relationship/friendship/work colleagues in the past? How much did Will actually know Hannibal, did they ever see each other socially outside work or anything even approaching friendship? Like yes, obviously I adore the nbc hannibal obsessive gothic romance between them, but even without the context of a falling out between them it surprises me that Will in never mentioned in the following books (beyond one single reference from jack crawford anyway). It would've been very veryyyyy interesting to have seen Clarice Starling and Will Graham interact at all, like even a single letter exchanged.

I could easily see Clarice being intrigued by Jack's descriptions of Will, enough to send a polite inquiry for help/insight into Hannibal or the Buffalo Bill Case. Whether Will would just chuck that letter into the trash or actually help is up for interpretation, but still! I could see a correspondence between Will and Clarice so easily. They actually have somewhat similar backgrounds (and a great disinterest in discussing their past) though their reasons for joining the FBI are somewhat different, they both care very much about the victims in their cases. Will begrudgingly taking on a mentorship role with Clarice because shes's persistent and courageous enough to pursue help from a guy who is a world champion at shutting people out and he just cant help himself from wanting to help save people from danger despite his own best interests. Will's advice would probably have been more helpful than Crawford or Hannibal.

And just imagine Hannibal's reaction in Silence of the Lambs if Clarice dropped the fact that she had spoken to Will 'dont text me dont call me dont write me letters dont even fucking look at me' Graham. Like "oh. he. responds to YOUR letters hm? well did you know Will is scarred and ugly and afraid of his own mind?.........did he....mention me?". Clarice could've easily leveraged help from Hannibal by making it competitive between him and Will. "Ah yes, that is a fascinating insight Dr. Lecter, Will Graham said something similar when he and I spoke." just playing them off each other and she WOULD'VE too lol i love her

And how would book!Will have reacted to Hannibal's escape from prison/subsequent life on the lam? I guess people's most common interpretation is Will being like "never fucking call me again" after Red Dragon is all said and done, even that case was one he was pushed out of 'retirement' to work on by Jack. And maybe Will just did not want to engage with Any Of It at all after that. But I find it hard to believe Hannibal didn't send him even one semi-taunting letter like the : "i have no plans to call on you, the world is more interesting with you in it" letter he sent Clarice. Or that Will wasn't tapped for info/help by ANY law enforcement agencies as the guy who caught Hannibal way back when. I mean at the very least freddie lounds would've OH wait he did actually die in the books lmaooo 🤣

Anyways as a book Red Dragon is a great read, a tense murder mystery worth flipping through. The movies are great adaptations of the book, not many important details are cut out. NBC Hannibal is still my favorite interpretation of the Red Dragon book, though obviously the show takes from the whole series not just the first book. I'm still sad we never got to see Clarice in the show as she's one of my favorite fictional characters but any role she'd have played in the show would be soooo diminished from her role in the books as her story/dialogue was portioned out to other characters on NBC Hannibal (Will and Miriam mostly but also, Abigail and Bedilia to some degree) so perhaps its for the best 😐