#im watching hannibal again

[cowboycannibalism]

fellas is it gay to ask your patient, who you once framed for murder, to run away with you before you get caught by the fbi?

[knockknockitsnickels]

For Equality (#Women), here's a Princess tierlist (already did a voices one). I was hesitant to make one bc all of the princesses are different facets of my beautiful wife whom I adore, but I also love to yap so let's do it. Full disclosure I like all of them a lot for different reasons so these rankings are based almost entirely on vibes. For the sake of brevity I'm gonna be counting unique chapter 3s alongside their respective chapter 2s and counting the shared chapter 3s separately. I know that makes no sense but c'mon there's like 22 of these ladies

EDIT: I completely missed Razor!!! 😭 I'm sorry babygirl. Updated to add her.

Spectre/Princess and the Dragon: Spectre my beloved. My most anticipated route after playing the demo, and she met all of my expectations. The themes of forgiveness in her route are wonderful, I love how reluctant she is to hurt you, even when you deliberately antagonize her. Princess and the Dragon was also great - getting to see from her perspective feels so fitting I'm surprised it wasn't in the original game, and the moment of quiet you get just chatting with her was a delight.

Nightmare/Moment of Clarity: One of the most tragic characters in the game. I adore the way Shifty's description of her completely recontextualizes the route, taking Nightmare from a quirked up lil villain to just a sad person trying to find a connection after being rejected. Another wrinkle is that no matter what route you take - whether you get Wraith, M.O.C, or set Nightmare free - there's not really a way to give her the connection she wants. I got M.O.C for the first time via choosing to stay with Nightmare, not wanting to release her after she admitted to wanting to destroy the world, but recognizing she just wanted a friend. After the vision she shows us, I felt bad for what I chose - I wanted to apologize to her, but there were no options left.

Prisoner/Cage: First princess I ever got, hence subject to first-princess bias. I've already talked a lot about how much I love her in another post so I won't repeat myself, but she truly is the 3rd best Princess in the game.

Fury: My babygirl It's really hard to write about why I love this girl so much. I've talked about it a bit before, but there's a special kind of horror in how you destroy Fury's original sense of identity (whether you got there via Adversary or Tower), and how upset she is by what she becomes. I think she also ties in really well with the overarching themes of the game. Her insistence that you are not your body and her desperation for you to understand her (in one route destroying herself in the process) remind me a lot of what Shifty has to say in the final fight.

Adversary/Eye of the Needle: My lovely wife whom I adore, my bestest friend. Adversary is such a fun and underrated character, her respect and genuine care for the player is so good AND she's hot. Eye of the Needle is also extremely underrated, her dialogue during the Shifting Mound fight - especially the variation when you free her - honestly gets me a lil emotional.

Wraith: A star, she's done nothing wrong, she is a girlboss and she is slaying. I've already written a bit about how tragic her route is & how I think she's one of the best shared chapter 3s in how she changes depending on the context, so instead i will say: banger design.

Witch/Thorn: Yeah im basic. Thorn was something I was hoping for basically as soon as I realized I couldn't get through the game without hurting the Princess, and it really met my expectations. Witch is a fascinating character - she's so desperate for revenge she'll end up destroying herself in the process, yet despite reveling in how awful she believes the two of you are, her chapter 3s show there's a part of her which wants to reconcile with you.

Damsel/Happily Ever After: Damsel on her own I found to be a pretty funny route - Smitten's dialogue, her happily agreeing to end the world, & Narrator suffering throughout the whole route makes it a lot of fun. Honestly even the more unsettling moments like the deconstructed Damsel are kind of funny - like OK I think it's fascinating thematically (we're trying to help her by asking what she wants but in questioning the only desire she knows we strip her personhood away), but also her turning into an anime doodle is hilarious I'm sorry. Despite that, there is this underlying, deeply uncomfortable horror to the whole route which comes to the surface in HEA and Burned Grey (we'll get to her). HEA is genuinely the most tense I've ever felt playing this game lmao. I think she adds a lot to Damsel - she gives her another dimension of personhood, and whether you choose to pursue it or not, I think the route feels incomplete without it.

Razor: Hilarious, showstopping, spectacular. Her route is a lot more lighthearted than the others, which helps her stand out and can be a nice break on some of the rougher playthroughs. It's hilarious that she was originally going to be a bit more sinister - I'm glad BTG made the best decision anyone has ever made and changed her to her current version. There's also some interesting stuff going on with her thematically, esp in how she parallels Stranger she stole Stranger's ch 3 that's why she's the only route with 4 chapters and how she kind of flips the script on the player and so the slain becomes the slayer. Also, I just love the concept behind her design - her exploding into the perfect woman a knife monster is something I will never forget. She probably has some of the same problems with linearity as some of the routes I talk about later (you're always going to see almost the exact same 4 chapters, after all) but there's enough variation in dialogue and outcome to make me always happy visiting my dear friend Razor.

Stranger: I love her but she's probably one of the routes I replay the least, just because it always plays out the same. Either way, I love the lil peak behind the curtain her chapter gives us, and I love getting to reunite with her & having a real conversation for the first time if you get her as the heart princess.

Tower/Apotheosis: God forbid women do anything. Pristine cut really did wonders for her - honestly in hindsight I think part of the response to her might have had to do with how brief both of her Ch 3s could be. Getting a chance to see (both via Apotheosis & Fury) how much she clings to to her divinity adds a lot to her character.

Wild: Wild really hits different after all of the tension in Beast & Witch. I'm not sure how intentional this was, but I like how both of the no-knife princesses (Beast & Witch) have ch 3s where there's an option to reconcile. I'm guessing the devs knew players would probably eventually be forced to backstab the princess & wanted to give them a chance to make things right? Either way, I love she. The dissonance between the peaceful atmosphere of this route & her desperation to stay together makes this one of the most anxiety-inducing routes in the game.

Drowned Grey: Extremely cool design, extremely cool environment, I love the whole "widow/bride" thing the two greys have going on, unfortunately her route is extremely short & linear. I think part of my trouble with the greys is I don't entirely understand how anyone would get them naturally lol. You stabbed the prisoner? Jail for you. Jail for 100 years.

Burned Grey: My thoughts on her are basically identical to my thoughts on the Drowned Grey but she's lower because I think Drowned Grey looks cooler. Sorry bestie.

Beast/Den: She's one of the most horrifying princesses to me, which is probably part of why I try to avoid getting her route, lol. The themes of dehumanization & the way she's reduced to a base instinct of wanting to consume you just so she can be "whole" again freaks me out. Also the part where she rips you in half & is like "lol oops" is so funny. Legend.

[starofhisheart]

It's his omegan pheremones

[sncwonthebeach]

absolutely in love with how many elements from the TSOTL novel, "Clarice" adapted and explored. Like.. you'd have no idea what "How does it feel to be so beautiful?" meant UNLESS you read the novel.

[bedrotboy]

i think one of the reasons i love mizumono is bc of will graham's evident shock/disbelief at the thought that hannibal couldn't leave without him. that hannibal wanted him *so* bad, that he would not do what was best for his self preservation, to leave..because he couldn't live without Will.

It feels to me like this moment of realizing how enmeshed they are. Will isn't acting much out of self-preservation either at this point; he has pointed a gun at Hannibal many times and has not killed him

I don't think Will truly internalized how much Hannibal felt attached to him

Which brings me to the real reason I love it: Did Will even think of himself as someone possible to feel attached to? Is this confession, by a man covered in his friend's blood, the first time Will has been told that he was a necessary part of someone else's life, other than his dogs?

No one else really treats him that way--he is a tool, a "professional curiosity". He's something they see value in, and only in his exterior self, not his true self.

How much of the reason he hides his true self is fear of something he wants to view as morally abhorrent, and how much is fear of truly never being able to be loved?

is there fear of embracing the monster and *being* loved? is the unfamiliarity of being honest to himself and being recognized and being loved a pain he isn't ready for?

The absolute heartbreak of realizing he just betrayed the one person who saw him for who he was, and wanted him

I think that's why he moans and leans into being gutted. The connection is worth it, and also, this form of connection is what he thinks he deserves

He only starts objecting when Hannibal hurts Abigail--she deserves better than that, and he is also in extreme pain losing someone he feels attached to, someone he feels responsible for. Someone whose survival means Will does not need to be wanted or loved or real to who he is, Will can be needed and benefit others.

That's the way to hurt Will, through hurting the ones he loves

Eliminating them is a necessary step, though, to getting him to embrace who he is. As long as he feels he can maintain his façade and still be useful to others, he will be somewhat tethered to the realm of "everyone else", of following their morals.

Of never being wanted, always the stranger, but always being needed--always the sacrifice.

"Did you think you could change me, the way I changed you?"

"I already did"

I think in being gutted he does gain some like....satisfaction in finding out how deeply Hannibal is capable of feeling. How Will made him feel that way.

I feel like by gutting the one he loves, Hannibal finally slices through the veil, through his person suit. He betrays the intensity of love he has for Will by demonstrating the intensity of pain.

"I let you see me. Know me."

"I gave you a rare gift, but you didn't want it."

"Didn't I?"

That's why it has always felt like this intensely loving moment to me--the pain and devastating sense of betrayal wouldn't exist without that love. And Will is finally the person able to force Hannibal to show those feelings.

He's not a tool, or an oddity to Hannibal. Will is so much more than that. Hannibal wants to believe he just finds Will "intriguing", but it's not true. He is head over heels in love, and heartbroken, for this man. For what he sees exists deeply in the core of who this man is--not just for who he pretends to be.

I love them so much.

[kissme-withyour-cherrylipstick]

Hannibal 1x02 Amuse-Bouche

[clowndotorg]

we talk a lot (rightfully so) about how obsessed with will hannibal is. but i really don't think we're spending nearly enough time on how utterly and painfully will is in love with hannibal, like, the whole time.

[dani474]

TRYING TO FIND GIFS OF SHOWS I LIKE

Hannibal (2013) [NBC]

House (2004) [FOX]

Stargate Atlantis (2004) [SYFY]

Dead Boy Detectives (2024) [NETFLIX]

Killing Eve (2018) [BBC]

Teen Wolf (2011) [MTV]

Sherlock (2010) [BBC]

Ghost Whisperer (2005) [CBS]

Our Flag Means Death (2022) [HBO]

Gilmore Girls (2000) [The WB/The CW]

[toontownportraits]

i don't get a choice in the matter / why would i? it's only the death of me

[cowboycannibalism]

my brain chemistry was changed forever when Will told Hannibal, "You and I have begun to blur."

[b0n3d0g]

its very funny having a regular non-hyperfixated driven interest like yeah i like this thing but it does not consume me, what a novel idea

[gildeddlily]

why do queer-coded shows always end with break ups and feelings of longing and loss and pain?

[zer0expektation]

I just finished reading Red Dragon and what the fuck

I need to come down from the high of finishing a book before I can say a word ab it, but all I can say will probably be about how it's adapted differently between Manhunter, Red Dragon, and Hannibal nbc

[gothamcityneedsme]

i cant get over the trump hannibal lector lore like HELP me i cannot get over this

[feisaru]

So would Jedidiah be considered a Faust kin or...?

[volumniafox]

Ok we all know hannibal is hannibal but what the fuck is up with his neurologist buddy who just agrees to gaslight will lmao