One of the joys of a role switch AU, is like - as an example - watching IDAU Will trying to provide IDAU Hannibal something that canon Will would have wanted, but that IDAU Hannibal does not necessarily want or need.

And vice versa, obviously.

You can have an alternate version of Will who has chosen, all on his own, to define himself in large part on his active ability to do harm to others. BUT having already embraced that part of himself does not mean that IDAU Will wants anyone else in his life to even know about his “true self.” He doesn’t want to be Seen or accepted or understood or any of the things canon Hannibal is after, but those are things IDAU Hannibal wants to give him because they are things both versions of Hannibal want for themselves.

Anyone remember the fic where Hannibal gets a brain injury in the fall, and he survives it but is in some ways significantly reduced intellectually?

Loses some of the languages he knows, has difficulty expressing himself in the ones he remembers, struggles to produce art?

Will takes care of him and they end up living in a little cottage?

I’d like to reread that one. It’s so much… kinder than some of the post-fall stuff I’ve done.

If D was on the mend, morally, and had given up on the idea of becoming some kind of demigod in favor of Becoming a Good Man for Reba, and wanted to get a cover up of his tattoo as a precaution against the Dragon regaining power over him, what design would he pick?

Will and Hannibal are both present and on very good terms with him, so they could potentially offer suggestions.

Main reason why I haven’t started the new Bear Mountain Road AU story is that I feel like the series was falling into this repetitive pattern of “Will reacting negatively to something, Hannibal moving to defuse the situation,” and I haven’t really been able to come up with a storyline that doesn’t rehash that.

Someone make me one of those Will Smith “look at that!” reaction memes that shows Alana and Margot being queer together, pls.

People are making me nuts on Facebook.

Random person looking for new queer content: “Is NBC HANNIBAL really queer or is it just subtext?”

Multiple people: “Subtext.”

Like Will and Hannibal are ALSO not subtext, but ffs the queer women are RIGHT over there having kaleidoscope sex scenes and raising a child together. It couldn’t be further from subtext.

Hannibal “if I push Will too far on this he’s liable to kill us both but I will continue pushing” Lecter.

SHILOH Musings (more or less spoiler free)

So here’s a Tricky Thing about Lecter* - there exists in some file the FBI has access to a record of his childhood, but it’s Definitely Fake.

*[Lecter/Graham = Novelverse characters, Hannibal/Will = NBC HANNIBAL versions of the characters]
In RED DRAGON, Graham says that Lecter’s childhood behavior was Normal, with the only exception early sadism towards animals. Graham says this as there’s no reason to doubt the validity of the claim, but it doesn’t match the novel canon on two fronts:

1.) There’s no indication that he’s untrustworthy with animals at any other point in the canon. (Well, unless he wants to eat them - Ortolans, all bets are off, you are on your own).

2.) More importantly, if there was a written record of Lecter’s childhood available, it would be a LOT more interesting that “aside from one red flag, Totally Normal.” Even if whoever was making this record knew nothing more about What Happened to Lecter other than that when he was around ten years old he wandered in from the snow, sporting an unset broken arm and very close to death from starvation, and then remained mute for years after that… all of that is obviously noteworthy.

So - whatever paperwork the US government has on him, in any case, is Fake, and Lecter must have been the one to fake it. And this has implications beyond concealing trauma or whatever else his motives might have been.

(Why would he add the bit about hurting animals as a child, when if anything the canon supports the idea that he’s outraged to the point of extreme violence at even the harassment of a pair of swans? Extremely Unclear. Maybe he’s trolling, IDK).

But here’s the thing

Like

There’s really nothing in RED DRAGON to indicate the Lecter ISN’T a native born American. Anything to the contrary doesn’t seem to exist in his papers, no one mentions an accent, nor does he ever say anything to suggest that he’s from somewhere else. Hell, occasionally he even uses terms that most people who hadn’t grown up in the American south probably wouldn’t use in conversation, like “doodlebug hole.”

So, what does this mean, on a practical level, for a universe swap fic that tries to cleave to most of the elements of the novelverse canon?

It means that I don’t think Graham has any effing clue where Lecter is even from. Whatever he’s read was, at best, a partial truth.

Happy Armpit Turkey Day to those who celebrate.

Thinking about IDAU Hannibal and Will hiding out in Belarus, and the old guy that they are social with is aware that there’s some kind of Weird Subtext going on with the relationship, and just to be sure he takes Hannibal aside and is like, “He does not beat you?”

And Hannibal is like, “No. I think he’d rather cut off his own hand than strike me.”

And then like two weeks later Will has an encephalitis-fueled hallucination that makes him think he just killed Hannibal, and then in response to that Will

[redacted].

Hannibal in “I’m going to fix you” mode but using mostly benign methods to help out in a more or less socially acceptable way.

Think novel Hannibal helping Barney with his mail order college classes or explaining to ten years old Margot that it wasn’t her fault Mason raped her.

Now there’s a fantasy.

This post is brought to you by Zombie Apocalypse AU Hannibal pulling D into an empty bedroom and informing him that he’d greatly benefit from a little sex therapy.

He’s a red dragon and only a dollar but I think I have to pass because my God is he ugly

Need more active HANNIBAL or HANNIBAL-related blogs in my feed.

Like and/or comment and if we aren’t already mutuals I will add.

Chapter One of the Hannishark sequel is now up!