#just watched mizumono for the first time

[thatonechoaticdumbass]

I just watched Mizumono for the first time and now I’m emotionally destroyed 🥲

ok but seriously tho THE ACTING, THE CONFLICT ON BOTH SIDES!!!! IT WAS LITERALLY THE MOST WELL DONE AND HEARTBREAKING THING I HAVE EVER WATCHED IN MY LIFE!!!

[lucentel]

mizumono

realism / color study

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

if anyone needs me i will be rewatching trigun 98 and tristamp over and over until my brain explodes

[saint-fagula]

i’m fine <- is not fine

[slippyteas]

just watched mizumono for the first time, what the fuck

[coffee-in-rain]

Expanding on my last post to add a few more things about Mizumono and Digestivo:

Imagine young, mute Hannibal in the orphanage watching as other children get adopted—but no adults ever approach him or seem to want to get to know him because the other kids (and staff) are wary of him and warn the prospective adopters that he’s difficult—that sometimes he has violent outbursts, wets the bed, has night terrors, and can’t speak. His first experience of rejection.

Only, this present rejection from Will in Mizumono feels ten times more agonizing because he’s overcome those past struggles and society finally views him as normal and an acceptable, highly-respected presence. But even after overcoming all that—it isn’t enough—because Will doesn’t want him or the life he planned for them to have. A life he never imagined he would be able to have.

That’s why each of Will’s future rejections cut so deep. Hannibal turns himself in because he couldn’t handle the thought of Will losing him—of Will not knowing where he would be. Because he’s been lost before—stumbling through the snow, cold and starving—after losing everything that mattered to him. He’s known what it’s like to have no one care about his whereabouts—and nothing would sting more than having to live with the knowledge that Will didn’t give a rat’s ass about where he ended up. His reputation and freedom mean nothing in comparison to his need for Will. He kneels in the snow just as he had decades prior—waiting for a savior to come and find him—because it’s the only thing he knows to do.

For three years he waits in the BSHCI for Will, his savior, to hopefully come and find him.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Rewatching season 2 had me really struck by the sheer amount of time Will spends performing for other people, and how few fully authentic interactions he has. In fact, I’d say one of the biggest through lines between the first and second halves of the season is Will learning how to wear masks, and then actively deploying that for the purpose of catching Hannibal.

(And how fitting is it that the promo for season 2 had Will wearing the iconic hockey mask? Not just a franchise in-joke, but a reflection of the fact that he “becomes” Hannibal in this season, begins to symbolically merge with him, to the point in which his own goals become clouded to him.)

It's a natural extension of season 1's establishment of his empathic abilities, where he begins to more actively use his ability to read other people and discern their motivations as a tool, or weapon. Simply telling the truth about his innocence doesn’t serve him - so he adapts a façade very quickly, in his faked tears for Hannibal and Alana. All of his interactions with others while in prison - Chilton, Lounds, Matthew Brown, etc. - are very deliberately engineered, and lean into what Will knows (or thinks) each person wants to hear - all setting the stage for him doing the same thing to Hannibal. Every word, everything about his intonation, is so precise - something that specifically struck me in this stretch of episodes was when he talks to Gideon and very carefully leans forward as he’s trying to drive his point home:

(And the body language, interestingly enough, is not just persuasive, but also mirrors the way Gideon sometimes leans/dangles his arms out of the cage when talking to others - and it reminds me of Will also mirroring Hannibal’s body language during the “not now that I finally find you interesting” scene, when he bites his lip in the way Hannibal so often does.)

It really highlights how so much of how he interacts with others during this entire stretch of the plot is a very carefully crafted performance, with so many of Will’s actual feelings and motivations subsumed into his manipulations. I remember watching the DVD commentary on Su-zakana, and they talk about how Will’s visible surliness with Hannibal was meant to stem from the fact that he didn’t want to be too friendly with Hannibal right away, because it would look suspicious. And I think that gets at something that’s present with how both Will and Hannibal manipulate others - they’re not necessarily lying about their feelings, just consciously using genuine feelings or motivations as a method of influencing others. With Hannibal, he frequently does feel genuine affection for others, and his care for them stems from that, but it’s also often used to put them at ease, serve his own ends. Will, for his part, is genuinely angry with Hannibal, but actively uses those feelings to fashion an aura of standoffishness. And of course, Hannibal has a genuine pull for him, and he deliberately leans into and cultivates that enjoyment for the sake of entrapping Hannibal. …Which of course leads to a situation where he has to put on a show for Jack as well, in which he downplays how deep into it he’s getting.

So it’s entirely fitting that the opening of Mizumono features the two halves of Will’s face - the front he’s presenting to Hannibal, and the front he’s presenting to Jack - merging, mask-like, in the middle of the screen.

They’re both the real him, and they’re both masks - and he gets so subsumed into his performances for others, the modulation and accentuation and sublimation of his feelings that they require, that he gets lost to himself (and is also terribly lonely and isolated). No wonder he’s confused and unmoored in early season 3.

[ohgollythatsuh]

just watched mizumono for the first time in my life and i feel changed so. abigail Hobbs webweave

[miikathebushynosefish]

just watched mizumono for the first time ever and wtf. i'm crying and my heart has been gutted..😔 hannibal really took will's betrayal straight to his heart... i'm not okay.

[deerainy]

unpopular opinion it's 4am and ill regret it idc but when I first watched mizumono I didn't cry because Abigail died, I knew she would die, I expected it, I cried because I felt bad for Hannibal.. I also cried because I felt bad for Will. I equally felt for them, don't ask me to pick a side because they're both the archers and the preys, they're both hurting each other, loving it and hating it at the same time and that's who they are. (PLS LISTEN TO WHO WE ARE BY HOZIER TO GET IT EVEN MORE) Hannibal trusted Will, and Will betrayed him. Will wasn't ready and his own internal battle which is already painful resulted in him losing someone he loved. I need to add also that Abigail saw Hannibal as a father figure more than she saw Will as one. It was one sided. Will's desire to save Abigail and be her father led to her end. If Hannibal hadn't killed her, he might have and don't say 'Will would never kill Abigail'... Will as much as a killer as Hannibal is. No matter how hard he would have tried to save her, she was going to die and there was no other outcome possible. Will saving Abigail was like Hannibal giving Alana a choice to leave or stay except he didn't even have time to give Abigail the choice and she lived on borrowed time just like Alana.. Idk if that makes any sense I'm too tired for this and I'll probably wake up and read this and be like girl wtf was I on I want to add more but I van no longer type

[arkashas]

i thought about why the firefly man will created in secondo had his hands clasped together in prayer, and it led me to a new realisation of where exactly i’d seen something like that before -

the angels from coquilles. in coquilles, the angel maker thought he could sense evil in people and would kill and turn those people into angels, purifying them in the process.

the prisoner killed mischa and will delivered justice for that crime through chiyoh, and elevated him in the process, just like what the angel maker did to his victims (will would come to be known as the “lamb of god” who takes away your sins in the red dragon arc). another reason why the angel maker created the angels was so they’d watch over him, because he didn’t want to die in his sleep. though will doesn’t sleep under the firefly man, he spiritually died in mizumono and references to him being dead are brought up more than a few times in the first few episodes of season 3. and consider this scene just before will creates the firefly man -

jack is in the norman chapel along with pazzi. jack tells pazzi, who asks him if he’s a believer, “aren’t we all? belief comes with imagination. we also imagine the possibility that we all live on after death. will graham died. he was dead. i was dead. we didn’t imagine that”. before he says this though, he lights a votive candle. votive candles are used as divine offerings to god, and combined with jack’s words about imagining the possibility of life after death, we can see will creating the firefly man as an answer to jack’s prayer, since with this tableau, he literally created life after death.

how did will create life after death? when they first meet, chiyoh tells will the prisoner is only allowed the sound of water like what the unborn hear. the firefly is the last stage of metamorphosis from the pupal form, so the prisoner goes from the unborn stage to the mature adult stage because of will turning him into the firefly. we also see the prisoner eating snails, which as hannibal tells bedelia in contorno, is the fuel which the firefly larvae use to transform themselves into delicate creatures of such beauty.

something chiyoh also says is that will is not allowed to look at the prisoner or speak to him, saying he’s cast aside the social graces afforded to human beings by killing mischa. since chiyoh says that the prisoner is unborn directly after saying this, there is a direct link between the prisoner not being looked at, or “seen”, and his being unborn.

“belief comes with imagination”, and what is will known for? his imagination, his empathy. it’s will’s empathy which allows for the possibility of life after death. will grants his gift of being seen to the prisoner through his empathy and gives him a rebirth, just like he did with randall tier who wanted to be seen and who had his becoming when he was turned into a beast and displayed in the museum. the prisoner lived his whole life in a dark, damp prison, so with his wings and with the lights reflecting off of him and around him, will sets him free and gives him what he couldn’t have in life in death.

not only is the prisoner reborn, will is as well. will has just created the imago, the flying insect which is the final stage of transformation which he and hannibal discussed in mizumono. and think of the journey will undergoes to get to this point, it occurs entirely through water -

“he’s only allowed the sound of water. it’s what the unborn hear”.

we also see hannibal’s kitchen being flooded with blood in primavera, and a close up of will’s guts in aperitivo, which is compared to a womb in the script, while hannibal embraces him and then stabs him.

will sinks in this bloody water in primavera, and walks on its surface to get to lecter castle in secondo (walking backwards because he’s going backwards in time like when he lets the pendulum swing and recreates a crime scene - he’s recreating mischa’s crime scene, going back to when the teacup first shattered so that he can understand hannibal).

what about jack and his belief that he’s dead though? it’s in aperitivo that jack lets go of bella and puts her to sleep permanently. bella had told him before that he’s not going to go into the ground with her, so we can see this as jack beginning to accept that he belongs to the land of the living. in contorno, he tells hannibal that after he’s gone, he’ll feel alive, before pushing him out a window. coming back to the angel maker, the angel maker had cancer and would make angels to watch over him so that he doesn’t die of cancer in his sleep. bella directly compares hannibal to a cancer within jack, saying he can cut out what’s killing him. was jack as successful as the angel maker or bella in cutting out his cancer (read: not successful not all)? the evidence suggests so, since in the red dragon arc he’s again back to his old ways and back to his old dynamic with will and hannibal, making use of them to solve cases in an effort to save lives.

[craqueluring]

the first scene is deleted and was supposed to be directly before the second scene. in both, will uses the "i'm just pointing out the snare around your neck. what you do about it is entirely up to you" line. there are SO many deleted scenes that would've made will's tendency/capacity for manipulation so much more obvious, and this is one of them

now this gets me thinking.. what was will's plan? yes, he sets up and agrees to the whole 'kidnap and kill hannibal with mason' plan, but then at some point he decides to cut hannibal free of the straitjacket.

if he didn't get knocked out by carlo, what would he have done? was he planning to use the knife to kill mason and carlo and whoever else showed up with hannibal? would he have just stood back and watched hannibal do it? would he have joined in the killing and hid behind the excuse of self defense when questioned? would he have shared the savage pleasure of problem solving hunting mason with hannibal?

he made mason think he was his man in the room while he (kinda) made hannibal believe he was his as well. when the time came, he betrayed mason and freed hannibal. this, in some way, parallels and foreshadows will's betrayal of jack and choosing of hannibal in mizumono (with the 'they know' phone call). at the last moment, when will is forced to choose a side, will will always choose hannibal.

[morose-marble]

Good god, I think this is the best episode of television I have seen since Mizumono aired in 2014. The pacing is perfect, the writing is stellar, it's tight as a drum and deliciously disturbing and tragic.

The argument scene is just a fucking brilliant show of writing and acting talent and I have rewatched it countless times today.

Assad Zaman and Jacob Anderson in particular, the actors you are!!! The devastating delivery of each vicious and cruel jab is somehow so incredibly grounded despite the heightened context, I'm so obsessed.

The fact that it was one of the first scenes they shot for season 2? And yet, they managed to effortlessly construct this strained, messy, decades-long relationship and display it as convincingly as they do?? Magical. I Need them to have emmys now. Like, yesterday.

Watching Hotel Portofino is the coughing baby to iwtv's hydrogen bomb when it comes to Assad Zaman getting to flex his acting muscles, what a powerhouse.

[dyke-will-graham]

My list of songs so Hannigram coded it’s insane and the lyrics that make them so:

Salt in the Wound- Boygenius

‘You put salt in the wound, and a kiss on my cheek. You butter me up and you sit down to eat’

‘Neck full of mockingbirds all calling your name…I’m gnashing my teeth like a child of Cain’

I’m Your Man- Mitski

‘You’re an Angel, I’m a dog. Or you’re a dog and I’m you’re man. You believe me like a God, I destroy you like I am.’

‘I’m sorry I’m the one you love, no one will ever love me like you again so when you leave me I should die. I deserve it don’t I?’

Famous Last Words (an Ode to Eaters) - Ethel Cain

‘Look at me baby, dead in my eyes. It’s the end of our holiday, but it isn’t goodbye. Carry me with you all of the time.’

‘Eat of me baby, skin to the bone. Body on body until I’m all gone. But I’m with you inside.’

It Will Come Back- Hozier

All I’m gonna say is first verse is Hannibal POV, second is Will POV talking to eachother I could write a damn essay on this song and Hannigram

Shrike- Hozier

‘The words hung above, but never would form. Like a cry at the final breathe that is drawn. Remember me love, when I am reborn as the Shrike to your sharp and glorious thorn.’

‘Had no idea on the ground i was founded, oh that goodness is gone with you now. Then I met you, my virtues uncounted. My goodness is goin with you now.’

‘Back to the hedgerow where the bodies are mounted’

Abbey- Mitski

‘I am hungry, I have been hungry, I was born hungry, what do I need?’

Butchered Tongue- Hozier

This one I think is Will when he married Molly and settling into his new life but still looking for Hannibal in everything.

UPDATE:

Talk- Hozier

Once again getting into the Greek mythology themes and Hannigram parallels. Orpheus and Eurydice as Will and Hannibal haunts me.

‘I’d be the immediate in Eurydice, imagine being loved by me.”

Paralleled with the scenes of Hannibal and Wills seperate “I forgive you”.

Me and My Husband - Mitski

‘At least in this lifetime we’re sticking together.’

This is a little cracky, but this song reminds me of the way Hannibal and Will are chasing potentials and scenarios where they can stay together. Teacups and all that and yes the world is on fire but Hannibal and Will are together so it’s okay.

Breezeblocks- alt-j

Enough said.

NFWMB - Hozier

‘Give your heart and soul to charity. Because the rest of you, the best of you Honey belongs to me.’

The possessiveness of Hannibal and Will over eachother is insane, we know this. And I think people forget that Will is just as bad as Hannibal about it. (Just see any interaction between Bedelia and Will for evidence)

Salvatore- Lana Del Rey

“The summers wild and I’ve been waiting for you all this time. I adore you can’t you see you were meant for me?”

“Catch me if you can…dying at the hand of a foreign man, happily.”

Once More to See You- Mitski

“But with everybody watching us, our every move. We do have reputations, we keep it secret, won’t let them have it.”

“If you would let me give you pinky promise kisses then I wouldn’t have to scream your name.”

Televangelism- Ethel Cain

No lyrics in this one, just piano and the sound of me crying softly. This song is EVERYTHING the Primavera scene was in Dolce. Please listen. The slow build, the melodic flutter of a heartbeat the rise and ascension when they see each other and smile at one another, the acceptance of fate, the knowledge of love. “You and I have begun to blur.”

anything - Adrienne Lenker

“I don’t wanna be the owner of your fantasy I just wanna be a part of your family.”

Savior Complex- Phoebe Bridgers

“Drift off on the floor, I drag you to the shore. Sweating through the sheets you’re gonna drown in your sleep for sure. Wake up and start a fire in our one room apartment but I’m too tired to have a pissing contest, all the bad dreams that you hide show me yours I’ll show you mine.”

“Baby you’re a Vampire, you want blood and I promised I’m a good liar with a savior complex.”

Pre-Mizumono to Post-Fall Hannigram can be found everywhere in this song.

OKAY OKAY THATS IT IF YOU STAYED THIS LONG THANKS IF YOU WANT MORE HANNIGRAM LISTEN TO MY PLAYLIST ITS CHALK FULL OF ANGST

[shelfperson]

rewatching hannibal all the way through for the first time in a while and. oh my god. it is so FUCKING funny and menacing watching Hannibal bumble around like a normie. like season 3 hannibal’s batshit bitchy cruelty is so cemented in my mind as Hannibal, and that is his real personality, that his person suit is just really throwing me.

christ this show is good, my gay ass is NOT PREPARED to reexperience mizumono after like a year or two cold turkey but i do need to see madz mikkelson covered in blood as soon as humanly possible. His fruity psychiatrist enclosure needs more enrichment.

[castielsbees]

uh i just watched mizumono for the first time,

holy FUCKING SHIT.

i was eyes wide, jaw dropped, hand over my mouth the entirety of the last 20 ish minutes

that was probably the best season finale of anything ever i'm blown away. flabbergasted, if you will.

i'm so so ill i don't even know what to do with myself currently