I’m not going to find you. I’m not going to look for you. I don’t want to know where you are or what you do. I don’t want to think about you anymore.

I can abide the thought of Hannibal tortured, not necessarily to death. I’d say he has it coming, wouldn’t you? Or maybe you wouldn’t.

Your experience of Hannibal’s attention is so profoundly harmful, yet so irresistible, it undermines your ability to think rationally.

Strange seeing you here in front of me. Been staring at afterimages of you in places you haven’t been in years.

When the moment comes, will you do what needs to be done?
Oh, yes.

Do you see an actual sexual attraction between Will and Hannibal?

I think there’s a sexual attraction for Hannibal to Will. I think of Hannibal in two ways, one as a man and one as the devil. And so, when we were breaking stories, both things had to be true. Like, this had to be true for the devil. And this had to be true if Hannibal was just a man, in order for things to proceed narratively. And we took licenses — like, “How did Hannibal get in there?” Well, if he’s the devil, he turned to smoke and seeped under the door! And if he’s a man, maybe he picked a lock [laughs].

What was fascinating as the storytelling evolved and the actors inhabited their roles more fully, there became a fluidity and authenticity to the attraction that on Will Graham’s side was sort of puzzling but a slippery slope that he could slide down. And for Hannibal’s side it was, here’s this man who can understand me in a way that no other human being can, and therefore I don’t feel as lonely, and it’s very easy to eroticize those feelings from a sexually fluid point of view.

So, I would say, from Hannibal’s perspective, there is a physical attraction as well as an intellectual attraction and emotional attraction, because Will Graham in many ways, for the devil, represents the beauty of corruptibility of the pure spirit. And I think that was part of the attraction for Hannibal, is to transform Will, to inform Will’s own becoming into a higher-level being than just a plain, old man. And for Will, I think there was this attraction to somebody who also saw him in a way that no one else saw. Whether that could ultimately become willingly sexual became much grayer territory than I originally thought it was going to be. — Bryan Fuller (October 30, 2020) (x)

I met a man much like myself. Same hobbies, same worldviews, but I’m not interested in being his friend. I’m curious about him, and that got me curious about friendship.

Hannibal - Season Two

➵ Mizumono (Season Finale)

I wanted to run away with him.

I’ve learned that withdrawal can be a strategy to avoid pain. I have a deep vein of cripple’s anger in me. While I can’t get rid of it, I’ve made it work for me. It’s fueled my independence.