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I see Hannibal the show as so much more about how Will changes Hannibal than about how Hannibal changes Will that it almost functions as a bait and switch. Like you think the show’s gonna be about how Hannibal seduces/manipulates Will into the gay murder lifestyle, but surprise it’s actually about how Hannibal is so fucked up by love he sacrifices every single thing he values in life just for the chance that Will will visit him in prison, then lets Will kill him. Like from day one Hannibal is changed bc suddenly he wants to be seen and known, but man it goes exponentially downhill from there for him.

I mean look at it like this: by the end of season 3 Will hasn’t killed or tried to kill anyone except in defense of self or others (maybe not immediate defense, eg in the case of manipulating Hannibal into killing Mason or like 4 of the times he tried to kill Hannibal, but still to protect people) and he feels so awful about enjoying taking out Dolarhyde (again in defense) that he tries to kill himself, while Hannibal has completely thrown his life away, both figuratively by going to prison indefinitely and literally by letting Dolarhyde shoot him and then letting Will pull him off a cliff.



And of course Will was talking about how he liked killing Hobbs by episode 2 so it’s not like Hannibal implanted sadism in him, he just brought it to the surface a little by non-judgementally encouraging Will to talk about it, and also being a big enough dick for Will to enjoy trying to kill several times.



Plus, despite Will wallowing and pining in early season 3, he does successfully walk away and make a family with Molly, and would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for that meddling head of the FBI.



Meanwhile falling in love with Will uprooted Hannibal’s entire life and ended with falling off a cliff in Will’s arms. His attempt to walk away and start a new idyllic life was futile and doomed from the start because of his own self-sabotage lol.



Basically Hannibal came away from his collision with Will ten times more fucked up and willing to betray his core values than Will did imo.