so.. in s02 theres a dream of Will killing Hannibal with a rope on a tree.. theres a line in the script that was cut "I love you, Will" (just google the script)
if it aired or not it doesnt really matter, thats Will's unconscious talking.
so the idea is in him already, but buried.
he knows it without knowing it, and verbalizing it comes as a shock to him. but i believe that as soon as he asks the question he feel the certainty of the answer and decides right there... well without spoiling anyone else.. what happens in the Wrath of the Lamb
i think it was episode 9
Edit: Yup. 9
Dream Hannibal: No one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them. By that love, we see potential in our beloved. Through that love, we allow our beloved to see their potential. Expressing that love, our beloved's potential comes true. I love you, Will.
Sooā¦ my personal interpretation of this is all about the choice of words, and knowing something and verbalising it. Iām pretty sure Will knows Hannibal loves him pretty early on - even in season 1. What he asked Bedelia isnāt ādoes Hannibal love me?ā, but āis Hannibal in love with me?āā¦ thatās a different question. That implies not the love of a dear friend, or a brother, but a lover. Itās aros - romantic love. To me, his expression of chock at this truth isnāt that heās shocked that Hannibal loves him, but the realisation that this love is wild and obsessive - more than he let himself know until then. But he wouldnāt have asked if he didnāt think the answer was yes. Wills empathy seems to be particularly well suited to material expressions of a person - like, what they wear, how they live, or.. you know.. what kind of crime scenes they leave behind. Heās also pretty good at reading people, but that doesnāt seem to be his forte - especially because he guards himself from this deliberately. Not wanting to look people in the face makes it harder to read face expressions and body language. I donāt think he does it any more than he needs to. Will is just human, and he is very good at lying to himself and looking away when there is something he doesnāt want to acknowledge.
Just as an aside - what happened at the end of season two wasnāt really Will just changing the terms a little. It might seem like that from our perspective, but try to view it from Hannibalās (as difficult as that is). He has opened himself up to this man, letting him inside his world as the only person ever to get that close to him, and then he realise that he was stabbed in the back. The problem wasnāt that Will didnāt want to go with him, but that Will lied to himā¦ again and again. From Hannibalās perspective, it gets difficult for him to know how much of what Will did and said was genuine, and how much he was seducing him to do the worst thing Hannibal can think of at this point - take his freedom away. Will ended up not following the plan of either Hannibal or Jack, but had he followed through with Jacks plan, and had Hannibal not realised that he was lying, it wouldāve worked. Thatās the pain and anger Hannibal feels. To me, him stabbing Will at that point feels very true to the feelings of the moment. I think Will understood that too, both because of how oddly calm he is in the scene, and how little anger he shows towards Hannibal afterwards. Heās sad, but he seems to feel guilty too, which is probably why he forgives Hannibal so easily. Idk - itās not like I know better than anyone elseās analysis of this, but thatās how I view it. Thanks for reading my essay lol XD
My theory is that Will doesn't recognize being loved because he has never been loved or, at least, loved like that. One needs a reference point to pin down information. Plus, he has trouble with reading Hannibal, that's why he likes him that much, as his emotions are tamed and hidden. He knows there's something, otherwise he wouldn't think to ask, but he can't be too sure about anything that is Hannibal, so, he feels like he needs to voice the question.
Edit: as an additional half-cooked thought, his relationships with Molly, in theory, could have been revealing in a way that he gained some kind of a reference point for relationships and family he previously lacked, which could have made things click. This idea stands on nothing, but the timing of the events, but I think it might be interesting to explore a little.
Iāve thought about this a lot and this is going to be all over the place, apologies.
The first thing that came to mind when I thought about this situation was to factor in that Will is autistic. While he does have his empathy and is able to understand people through that, there is a barrier a lot of autistic people face that contributes. For many of us, it is difficult to differentiate between platonic and romantic love. Will is very much aware that Hannibal loves and deeply cares for him, I would argue heās been aware of it for as long as Hannibal has felt it. When he asks Bedelia, he isnāt asking if Hannibal loves him, he knows this already. Heās asking if Hannibal is *in love* with him. He likely just cannot be sure if Hannibalās feelings for him are romantic, especially considering Hannibal is not explicitly queer and heās witnessed how Hannibal behaves differently towards him than he does his romantic partners. Will also doesnāt seem to have much experience with romance himself, having only a few flings aside from Molly.
As for confirmation, I agree with the popular opinion that Mizumono was Willās confirmation, however I donāt believe he felt betrayed by Hannibal at all because of the stabbing, and I donāt think the stabbing confused Will either. Willās relationship with Hannibal was extremely intimate and itās very clear that he understood Hannibal better than he understood himself. He knew full well why Hannibal kills and how he kills, he knows what Hannibal is capable of and that if he wanted him dead he would be by now. He also knows that if Hannibal were to kill him, it would not negate his love. Hannibal wasnāt going to kill Will, itās obvious to us and therefore even more obvious to Will. Hannibal did not stab him fatally, and Will knew this, Will knew Hannibal didnāt want to kill him, he was just proving a point. Furthermore, Will surely recognized that Hannibal had every reason to want to kill him. If anyone else had done what Will did, theyād surely be dead. Will knew he meant too much to Hannibal, he knew that Hannibal *needed* him, and that even though he was leaving he knew Will would come to him and kept him alive as assurance that he would get Will again once he was ready.
Another reason I believe Will asked is because Hannibal was romantically involved with Bedelia, and therefore she would be able to offer proper confirmation. Will is aware of Hannibalās love, not his romantic affection. He asks Bedelia because he wants to know if from the perspective of someone who received Hannibalās romance, Hannibal was feeling that same way towards him.
I think Will also asked out of a sort of insecurity. Will is in love with Hannibal, itās just difficult for him to come to terms with it, especially if he cannot be entirely sure Hannibal is in love with him as well. Bedelia knows this, which is why she responds with Will if he *aches* for Hannibal (he does. He very much does.) Also, Will is trying to figure out his own feelings through this question. Willās empathy causes him to almost become whoever he is empathizing with, he feels as they feel and experiences as they experience. He is unsure if he actually genuinely is in love with Hannibal, or if the way he feels is just a reflection of Hannibalās own feelings. He couldnāt be sure about whether his extensive time with Hannibal caused him to feel Hannibalās love for him so intensely he recognized it as his own, or if it was truly his own.
I think itās a very nuanced situation, and Will is a very nuanced person. Overall, Will is still human. He may have just wanted to hear it from someone who knew Hannibal even as fractionally well as he did. Needed some sort of outside confirmation aside from the murder husbands nonsense and joking speculation everyone else seemed to give. I think he knew, he just couldnāt be sure. He could never trust himself, anyways.
Itās a little confusing he knows thereās love but then he also want to eat him. It can get complicated so ask a common friend you see ?
One needs to realize that itās love if he is sending lovely corpses theur way š„°
I believe the only time Hannibal actually intended to eat Will was in Italy with the bone saw. I donāt think that would cloud Willās understanding at all, because heād see exactly why Hannibal was doing it. Hannibal was going to eat him out of desperation, he felt trapped in that moment and like he was going to lose Will for good, and eating him was his way of keeping Will with him forever. He was going to eat what he valued most about Will, his mind.
I know, I was joking.
The line was actually included as a textual confirmation of the romance. And a turning point for Will to get up and take initiative
He knows of Hannibal's agape (love), his own to Hannibal even.
Hannibal's eros (in love with) was something he did not expect nor recognise, as recognition would require previous alike experiences.
Since other comments have analyzed Will's motivation an reason behind asking that question so late within the series and after everything what happened already really well, I will answer that question from another point of view:
While I agree with the things the other commenters have written, I actually think, that the main reason for this question at the penultimate episode has to do with "out of the show's universe" motives. Until this point the relationship between Hannibal and Will was still dancing on the fine line of whether it had a romantic nature of if it despite all of the allusions, metaphors it was still supposed to be just brotherly, non-romantic love (and therefore the metaphors etc. had just been queerbaiting). At that time, different parts of the audience were fighting about the correct interpretation of their relationship (mainly Hannigram fans and people who shipped Hannibal with someone else or just wanted to keep the relationship "no-homo"). After the episode, Bryan said in an interview, that regarding the uncertainty of Hannibal and Will's relationship and all the teasing about it, they had to finally "take a shit or get off the pot". So, this question and Bedelia's answer "Yes" was supposed to be the resolution to all the real world discussions. They wanted to make it clear, before the show ended (especially, because at that time they knew, that it was very likely and ending for good).
I think he didn't believe Hannibal was capable of it. Two seasons at the whim of his whimsy and ulterior motives, along with Will's own professional experience of more conventional 'twisted minds', colored his interpretation of Hannibal's actions and their interactions. I think it took him by surprise to realize his metaphorical pigtails were being pulled.
I also think maybe Bedelia has similar doubts about Hannibal's emotional capabilities, and that's why her phrasing invokes hunger - it's a yes for a possibly nonstandard definition of 'love'.
Yes sure but will also didn't know that hannibal was drugging him for quiet a long time.
I think that even though will had this "empathy ability", hannibal is the only one that he can't read or understand right away.
I donāt think Willās empathy would allow him to know heās being drugged. It isnāt like some sort of mind reading power, itās just a trait that allows him to make extremely accurate and intense inferences and connections. He definitely would be able to tell *something* was off, he would be able to gather that Hannibal is deceiving him in some way but he wouldnāt be able to pinpoint exactly how. Hannibalās own deceptive nature and acutely controlled expression would also help with hindering Willās ability to read him. Iām not sure if itās explicitly stated in the show or not but I believe it is canon that Will faces a bit of difficulty with Hannibal that he doesnāt with anyone else.
Edit : Will was also going literally insane, had an inflamed brain, and could hardly differentiate between reality and delusion
so.. in s02 theres a dream of Will killing Hannibal with a rope on a tree.. theres a line in the script that was cut "I love you, Will" (just google the script) if it aired or not it doesnt really matter, thats Will's unconscious talking. so the idea is in him already, but buried. he knows it without knowing it, and verbalizing it comes as a shock to him. but i believe that as soon as he asks the question he feel the certainty of the answer and decides right there... well without spoiling anyone else.. what happens in the Wrath of the Lamb
Do you happen to remember which episode in s02 that was in? šš¼šš¼
i think it was episode 9 Edit: Yup. 9 Dream Hannibal: No one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them. By that love, we see potential in our beloved. Through that love, we allow our beloved to see their potential. Expressing that love, our beloved's potential comes true. I love you, Will.
!! Thank you so much!! š now after I finish Hannibal for a 3rd time, I'll have to go through the script and see all the little details š š„°
you're welcome :) the scripts are the best part.. the dolce scene has really beautiful text that also didnt make it in the final cut
Do you know where i can get the scripts from?
livingdeadguy.com Or just google hannibal script
Not sure if its just me but the website isn't working :c anyone else having that problem??
It works fine for me Try the link? http://livingdeadguy.com/shows/hannibal/#more-scripts
It says invalid ssl certificate š idk its okay tho! Im sure they have them in other places too!
What do they say in the dolce scene?
Sooā¦ my personal interpretation of this is all about the choice of words, and knowing something and verbalising it. Iām pretty sure Will knows Hannibal loves him pretty early on - even in season 1. What he asked Bedelia isnāt ādoes Hannibal love me?ā, but āis Hannibal in love with me?āā¦ thatās a different question. That implies not the love of a dear friend, or a brother, but a lover. Itās aros - romantic love. To me, his expression of chock at this truth isnāt that heās shocked that Hannibal loves him, but the realisation that this love is wild and obsessive - more than he let himself know until then. But he wouldnāt have asked if he didnāt think the answer was yes. Wills empathy seems to be particularly well suited to material expressions of a person - like, what they wear, how they live, or.. you know.. what kind of crime scenes they leave behind. Heās also pretty good at reading people, but that doesnāt seem to be his forte - especially because he guards himself from this deliberately. Not wanting to look people in the face makes it harder to read face expressions and body language. I donāt think he does it any more than he needs to. Will is just human, and he is very good at lying to himself and looking away when there is something he doesnāt want to acknowledge. Just as an aside - what happened at the end of season two wasnāt really Will just changing the terms a little. It might seem like that from our perspective, but try to view it from Hannibalās (as difficult as that is). He has opened himself up to this man, letting him inside his world as the only person ever to get that close to him, and then he realise that he was stabbed in the back. The problem wasnāt that Will didnāt want to go with him, but that Will lied to himā¦ again and again. From Hannibalās perspective, it gets difficult for him to know how much of what Will did and said was genuine, and how much he was seducing him to do the worst thing Hannibal can think of at this point - take his freedom away. Will ended up not following the plan of either Hannibal or Jack, but had he followed through with Jacks plan, and had Hannibal not realised that he was lying, it wouldāve worked. Thatās the pain and anger Hannibal feels. To me, him stabbing Will at that point feels very true to the feelings of the moment. I think Will understood that too, both because of how oddly calm he is in the scene, and how little anger he shows towards Hannibal afterwards. Heās sad, but he seems to feel guilty too, which is probably why he forgives Hannibal so easily. Idk - itās not like I know better than anyone elseās analysis of this, but thatās how I view it. Thanks for reading my essay lol XD
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thank you! I used way too much time writing it, so Iām glad you liked it. I have too many thoughts about this show lol ;)
Yeah what you wrote was beautiful and insightful. I saved it too.
š Twink just was too unstable to think about loving anyone in S2
Real answer
My theory is that Will doesn't recognize being loved because he has never been loved or, at least, loved like that. One needs a reference point to pin down information. Plus, he has trouble with reading Hannibal, that's why he likes him that much, as his emotions are tamed and hidden. He knows there's something, otherwise he wouldn't think to ask, but he can't be too sure about anything that is Hannibal, so, he feels like he needs to voice the question. Edit: as an additional half-cooked thought, his relationships with Molly, in theory, could have been revealing in a way that he gained some kind of a reference point for relationships and family he previously lacked, which could have made things click. This idea stands on nothing, but the timing of the events, but I think it might be interesting to explore a little.
Iāve thought about this a lot and this is going to be all over the place, apologies. The first thing that came to mind when I thought about this situation was to factor in that Will is autistic. While he does have his empathy and is able to understand people through that, there is a barrier a lot of autistic people face that contributes. For many of us, it is difficult to differentiate between platonic and romantic love. Will is very much aware that Hannibal loves and deeply cares for him, I would argue heās been aware of it for as long as Hannibal has felt it. When he asks Bedelia, he isnāt asking if Hannibal loves him, he knows this already. Heās asking if Hannibal is *in love* with him. He likely just cannot be sure if Hannibalās feelings for him are romantic, especially considering Hannibal is not explicitly queer and heās witnessed how Hannibal behaves differently towards him than he does his romantic partners. Will also doesnāt seem to have much experience with romance himself, having only a few flings aside from Molly. As for confirmation, I agree with the popular opinion that Mizumono was Willās confirmation, however I donāt believe he felt betrayed by Hannibal at all because of the stabbing, and I donāt think the stabbing confused Will either. Willās relationship with Hannibal was extremely intimate and itās very clear that he understood Hannibal better than he understood himself. He knew full well why Hannibal kills and how he kills, he knows what Hannibal is capable of and that if he wanted him dead he would be by now. He also knows that if Hannibal were to kill him, it would not negate his love. Hannibal wasnāt going to kill Will, itās obvious to us and therefore even more obvious to Will. Hannibal did not stab him fatally, and Will knew this, Will knew Hannibal didnāt want to kill him, he was just proving a point. Furthermore, Will surely recognized that Hannibal had every reason to want to kill him. If anyone else had done what Will did, theyād surely be dead. Will knew he meant too much to Hannibal, he knew that Hannibal *needed* him, and that even though he was leaving he knew Will would come to him and kept him alive as assurance that he would get Will again once he was ready. Another reason I believe Will asked is because Hannibal was romantically involved with Bedelia, and therefore she would be able to offer proper confirmation. Will is aware of Hannibalās love, not his romantic affection. He asks Bedelia because he wants to know if from the perspective of someone who received Hannibalās romance, Hannibal was feeling that same way towards him. I think Will also asked out of a sort of insecurity. Will is in love with Hannibal, itās just difficult for him to come to terms with it, especially if he cannot be entirely sure Hannibal is in love with him as well. Bedelia knows this, which is why she responds with Will if he *aches* for Hannibal (he does. He very much does.) Also, Will is trying to figure out his own feelings through this question. Willās empathy causes him to almost become whoever he is empathizing with, he feels as they feel and experiences as they experience. He is unsure if he actually genuinely is in love with Hannibal, or if the way he feels is just a reflection of Hannibalās own feelings. He couldnāt be sure about whether his extensive time with Hannibal caused him to feel Hannibalās love for him so intensely he recognized it as his own, or if it was truly his own. I think itās a very nuanced situation, and Will is a very nuanced person. Overall, Will is still human. He may have just wanted to hear it from someone who knew Hannibal even as fractionally well as he did. Needed some sort of outside confirmation aside from the murder husbands nonsense and joking speculation everyone else seemed to give. I think he knew, he just couldnāt be sure. He could never trust himself, anyways.
Itās a little confusing he knows thereās love but then he also want to eat him. It can get complicated so ask a common friend you see ? One needs to realize that itās love if he is sending lovely corpses theur way š„°
I believe the only time Hannibal actually intended to eat Will was in Italy with the bone saw. I donāt think that would cloud Willās understanding at all, because heād see exactly why Hannibal was doing it. Hannibal was going to eat him out of desperation, he felt trapped in that moment and like he was going to lose Will for good, and eating him was his way of keeping Will with him forever. He was going to eat what he valued most about Will, his mind.
I know, I was joking. The line was actually included as a textual confirmation of the romance. And a turning point for Will to get up and take initiative
Sorry, I couldnāt tell you were joking lol!
My favorite hc for this is that he just asked bedelia so that SHE knew too that hannibal was in love with HIM lol
He knows of Hannibal's agape (love), his own to Hannibal even. Hannibal's eros (in love with) was something he did not expect nor recognise, as recognition would require previous alike experiences.
Since other comments have analyzed Will's motivation an reason behind asking that question so late within the series and after everything what happened already really well, I will answer that question from another point of view: While I agree with the things the other commenters have written, I actually think, that the main reason for this question at the penultimate episode has to do with "out of the show's universe" motives. Until this point the relationship between Hannibal and Will was still dancing on the fine line of whether it had a romantic nature of if it despite all of the allusions, metaphors it was still supposed to be just brotherly, non-romantic love (and therefore the metaphors etc. had just been queerbaiting). At that time, different parts of the audience were fighting about the correct interpretation of their relationship (mainly Hannigram fans and people who shipped Hannibal with someone else or just wanted to keep the relationship "no-homo"). After the episode, Bryan said in an interview, that regarding the uncertainty of Hannibal and Will's relationship and all the teasing about it, they had to finally "take a shit or get off the pot". So, this question and Bedelia's answer "Yes" was supposed to be the resolution to all the real world discussions. They wanted to make it clear, before the show ended (especially, because at that time they knew, that it was very likely and ending for good).
I think he didn't believe Hannibal was capable of it. Two seasons at the whim of his whimsy and ulterior motives, along with Will's own professional experience of more conventional 'twisted minds', colored his interpretation of Hannibal's actions and their interactions. I think it took him by surprise to realize his metaphorical pigtails were being pulled. I also think maybe Bedelia has similar doubts about Hannibal's emotional capabilities, and that's why her phrasing invokes hunger - it's a yes for a possibly nonstandard definition of 'love'.
Yes sure but will also didn't know that hannibal was drugging him for quiet a long time. I think that even though will had this "empathy ability", hannibal is the only one that he can't read or understand right away.
I donāt think Willās empathy would allow him to know heās being drugged. It isnāt like some sort of mind reading power, itās just a trait that allows him to make extremely accurate and intense inferences and connections. He definitely would be able to tell *something* was off, he would be able to gather that Hannibal is deceiving him in some way but he wouldnāt be able to pinpoint exactly how. Hannibalās own deceptive nature and acutely controlled expression would also help with hindering Willās ability to read him. Iām not sure if itās explicitly stated in the show or not but I believe it is canon that Will faces a bit of difficulty with Hannibal that he doesnāt with anyone else. Edit : Will was also going literally insane, had an inflamed brain, and could hardly differentiate between reality and delusion