#it is romantic it is!

[milkfordragons]

So did he ache for Hannibal, after all?

This iconic line originates from Dante’s La Vita Nuova:

"He woke her then, and trembling and obedient, she ate that burning heart out of his hand. Weeping, I saw him then depart from me. Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for her? Find nourishment in the very sight of her? I think so. But would she see through the bars of his plight, and ache for him?"

Bedelia paraphrases this passage in the show, but its origins trace back to the Hannibal novel and film, where Hannibal himself quotes it in reference to Clarice. The show repurposes this to textualize his love for Will, drawing a direct parallel between his relationship with Will and his relationship with Clarice in the books.

Hannibal explicitly recites the original Dante passage in the first episode of season three:

"Allegro mi sembrava Amor tenendo meo core in mano, e ne le braccia avea madonna involta in un drappo dormendo. Poi la svegliava, e d’esto core ardendo lei paventosa umilmente pascea: appresso gir lo ne vedea piangendo."

Roughly translated:

"He seemed happy, but carrying my heart in his hand; on his arm I saw my lady wrapped in a veil, sleeping. He woke her, and trembling, she humbly and fearfully ate the burning heart. Then Love departed, weeping."

In the poem, the he is *Amor* (Love) personified, holding Dante’s heart in one hand and Beatrice, veiled and sleeping, in the other. Love wakes Beatrice, and she consumes Dante’s burning heart before Love departs in sorrow.

This perfectly mirrors Hannibal’s situation: he fell in love with Will at first sight, and when he "awoke" Will to his own darkness, Will metaphorically consumed his heart. The episode reinforces this imagery when Hannibal murders a man that looks like Will and transforms his body into a visual representation of his own shattered heart.

The rest of the season hinges on the question in Bedelia’s line: Can Will see through the bars of Hannibal’s plight?

"Plight" refers to a miserable, inescapable condition...an interesting choice of words to remove from the adaptation, especially since Bedelia, who is delivering the line, would never openly admit to Will that Hannibal is suffering.

But why include "ache"? Why not simply ask if Will was in love?

Because in the poem, the heart is consumed, Love weeps, and what remains is hunger. "Ache" here means to feel intense desire for, aligning with the show’s (and the line) recurring themes of hunger and nourishment. Bedelia is not asking if Will loves Hannibal in a traditional sense, she is asking if he craves him.

When Will is sailing toward Hannibal, the script describes his expression as "almost hungry." Later, when he and Jack track Hannibal across Europe, he stands in a way that creates an optical illusion for the camera, and the script refers to this effect as him standing in a “starvation cage.”

So, does Will ache for Hannibal?

Yes. Canon explicitly confirms it. And to ache, to crave, is visceral, carnal. It cannot be downplayed as something else. Will craves Hannibal so intensely that, after three years of "starvation," he barely resists finding an excuse to see him the moment he rejoins Jack’s team. And I think his face says it all:

[frontmansdefender]

fuck yeah !!!!!!!!!

[velartis]

Franz Kafka, 1912

[mollybeenoel]

Source: poeticalphotos

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

[sugarsaltreading]

earlier this week Twitter user ppuccin0 tweeted about a fashion article that advised against tops with large floral patterns, saying the wearer was in danger of looking like a "ロマンティックおばさん," or a "romantic auntie." the tweet went viral with many agreeing that a "romantic auntie" sounded like a very nice thing to aspire to be, and some even posted illustrations or photos tagged with the trend

illustration by Toyota Yuu (author of Cherry Magic)

illustration by 141shkw/Sora Midori (author of Beautiful Curse)

photos by Takinami Yukari (author of Motokare Mania and Watashi-tachi wa Mutsuu Ren'ai ga Shitai or "We Want A Painless Romance")

illustration by m:m (mangaka of Matataki no End Roll)

illustration by ooinuai (mangaka of Onikui Kitan)

illustration by ma2 (mangaka of The Reason We Fall In Love)

BONUS:

[soul-from-another-era]

Unconditional love isn't a free pass to hurt me.

[catkora]

Oklahoma is attempting to pass a bill that would ban explicit romance novels. Authors, narrators, and sellers could all face fines of up to $100,000 and up to 10 years in jail for each instance.

If you live in OK, call your representative and tell them this bill should not be allowed to pass.

This is likely a test case. Republicans will try to pass it in OK and if it passes other states will likely try to pass similar laws.

In the meantime, get physical copies of books you like. Download those pdfs. Archive your AO3 stories and keep them on a physical hard drive. (Storing those files in the cloud could be problematic in the future as the company managing the cloud service can see what your files are)

[bezsenn-osc]

[bader1986]

[landsccape]

[poetryforall]

[wedarkacademia]

[natureell]

[letsbelonelytogetherr]

— Nitya Prakash