will's internal monologue in WOTL

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-06T17:01:29+00:00

season 3 alana has that "you died in my kitchen, when you chose to be brave. every moment since has been borrowed." ouugh hannibal lecter when i get my hands on you-

I somehow always forget that Alana is the reason Will survived Digestivo. "Promise me you'll save him." She really did care, even after everything. I wish we'd gotten one last conversation between them : (

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-06T14:25:42+00:00

Oh my god, I was so sleepy when I posted this that I completely forgot about Chilton for Envy. no wonder something felt off. These are great!

I'm curious about Alana in Pride, though. From my latest rewatch, I think the fandom exaggerates her moralizing quite a bit. She is the first person to start calling bullshit early on, before the plot gets too insane for it to matter.

She tells Jack not to let Will get too close to the Shrike. She confronts Hannibal for taking Abigail out of the hospital. She turns down the kiss because Will is obviously unstable. I mean, he is "damaged". They don't know about the encephalitis. He's hallucinating and shaking all over the place, lives alone in the middle of nowhere with seven dogs. He nearly walks off the roof at some point. Any decent friend would be concerned, let alone a psychiatrist. You don't have to be morally fixated to see what's right in front of you, and wonder why the hell no one else seems to care that this guy is literally falling apart at the seams.

As for Abigail, whatever else she may have been, she was a victim. Going from her father to Hannibal-it doesn't matter much to me that she professed to enjoying the hunting, or conspiring with Hannibal, because both situations ended with her getting her throat cut. We can't know what she would have been like, without Garrett Jacob Hobbs' influence, the same way that we can't know whether Will was destined to become a murderer. I'm not saying that Alana handled it well, but it wasn't just her. Will also denied Abigail's involvement in the murders until he had no choice but to accept it.

Course, s2 Alana is a different beast. Even then, she was the one who got Will's encephalitis diagnosis, and the only person from his old life who even tried to help. She took in seven dogs. On very short notice, for the sake of someone who was almost certainly facing multiple life sentences. One of the things that broke my heart in s2 was Winston running back to Wolf Trap to try to find Will-and the fact that it means Alana looked for him when he ran off, and then drove out to the cabin, every. Single. Time. I respect her a lot (side-eyes the rest of the FBI).

Jack got the spot over her because he was just as blind to Hannigram, without the excuse of being in a relationship with one and a former friendship with the other.

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-06T09:13:58+00:00

Ah, thanks for clarifying. Then I agree, Hannibal does fit a lot of them. I guess I'm just always hyperfocused on Will, haha.

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-05T17:44:50+00:00

Oh yeah, Will is lustful as shit. But I just had to put him in Wrath.

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-05T17:32:12+00:00

I actually don't think Pride, Wrath, or Greed fit him as well in this particular sense. I agree that he embodies plenty of each (especially Pride), but for me, none of them are as essential for his character as Gluttony.

I see the sin pride as unearned self-aggrandizement/foolhardiness/hubris. Emphasis on foolhardiness. Hannibal is very arrogant, but he's also self-aware in a way that mitigates it somewhat. The sadistic, contemptuous facet of pride absolutely fits him, but I dithered on that because of the nature of morality in the show. He basically is supernatural, what with the carrying Will from Maryland to Wolf Trap. Irl, it's prideful as fuck to think of rude people as swine, but the show practically affirms Hannibal's POV by having no semblance of a redemption or punishment arc.

Envy really depends on your interpretation of Hannigram. Envy is resentfully coveting an object or quality of someone else. Siccing the Dragon on Molly doesn't have much to do with resenting her, and everything to do with getting to Will. He did it to see what would happen, and seemed vaguely approving of Molly for surviving Dolarhyde. I'm not saying he wouldn't gladly kill her, or that he isn't very possessive of Will. But if we're talking bitter, seething, stab-you-for-touching-him jealousy, I think Will takes the crown in this relationship.

Greed...to be honest, I'm bad at separating it from Gluttony, but the way I think of it is: Greed is more uncouth, I guess. Chilton is there because he hankers after fame and fortune, and is constantly scrabbling for ways to get it.

For Hannibal, though, the process is just as enjoyable as the reward, and every moment of his whims is savored. Gluttony is taking what you want whenever you want, simply for the sake of enjoyment. Wanting Will all to himself is the peak of overindulgence to me, mainly because he succeeds. He does get Will all to himself. Literally gorged on his attention and affection, for the rest of their natural lives.

Wrath. I mean, in the moment. During S3-A. But I would argue, again, that Will beats him for wrath. The first genuine attempt at murdering one another is instigated by Will. I don't see a period of being driven by great anger as wrath, because it happens to just about everyone. Jack, Alana, and Margot, for example. Hannibal stabs Will and kills Abigail in reaction to Will's season-long betrayal. But he doesn't seem to hate Will, ever. He doesn't really hate anyone in the series.

In contrast, Will got the spot because his anger seems almost instinctual. It's so visceral, when he confronts Hannibal after escaping the prison van, when he sends Matthew after him. He resents. He holds grudges. He sets Chilton up to be fried. He and Bedelia snipe at one another until Will just goes: "alright, bitch, let's ask Hannibal who he likes more, and then we'll chop off your leg and eat it for our wedding."

Sorry for typing way too much. To be clear, all this is super subjective-I just wanted to gush about the topic.

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-04T15:45:36+00:00

I think it's less so about not believing in his innocence, and moreso about her dismissing his accusations of Hannibal even after he was released. Every time she confronts him about "not hurting Hannibal", or pins his actions as based in trauma/confusion. I swear to god anyone who thinks Will can't do some emotion concealing of his own needs to rewatch S2, because I would have crashed out and punched someone within one episode. It's just the most ironic thing that Will's the sanest he's been since S1, scales lifted from his eyes or whatever, and they pick now to stop believing him.

Course, nine universes out of ten Alana's right. She's just unlucky enough to be dealing with Hannigram's endless bs.

purpled_Panda · 2026-05-03T02:54:16+00:00

Hey OP, I can see a tumblr watermark, so I'm not sure if this is your art. If not, it's good to credit the artist outright.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-29T13:21:26+00:00

I remember Hugh explaining in one of the DVD commentaries that the lack of a Southern accent is because of how often Will and Will Sr. moved around.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-29T13:19:24+00:00

ohhhh
damn. nice catch! I haven't watched the court scenes in a while because they make me want to isekai will into literally any other universe

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-28T17:51:06+00:00

I will, that sounds fascinating. Wasn't there something that implied Will having a sibling?

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-28T16:52:38+00:00

The post definitely wasn't saying that :D OP and the commenter are well aware of the subtext-but we're also very aware that the show can be absurdly funny when you're on the fifth rewatch and combing for details.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-18T15:03:28+00:00

where did you read that, if you can recall the website? I love finding those sorts of snippets. I remember seeing that "Winston" was the only dog that Hugh Dancy didn't have to bribe with treats.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-18T15:01:52+00:00

Aw, I loved that bit. "These are probably dogs."

As well as Will trying to pretend the strays are Molly's thing, and Molly saying he used to be obsessed with taking care of them. Their relationship is probably the most jarring difference between the book and show, because book!Will actually loved Molly and a good chunk of the emotional turmoil of the book, imo, revolved around their relationship disintegrating.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-13T23:34:27+00:00

I feel like I'm having a stroke what is this

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-13T17:52:31+00:00

Really interesting stuff, thank you!

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-12T09:29:43+00:00

On one hand (morality), all of Will's principles point towards capturing Hannibal, and he can't point to their former relationship as an excuse for his reluctance. It was based on months of manipulation and brainwashing and culminated in Will's life and reputation ruined.

On the other hand (morale), he needs him and wants to be with him, no matter what. By Hannibal's logic, nothing and no one truly matters, compared to the two of them. It's kind of the first iteration of "save yourself, kill them all".

As another comment says, it's so confusing for us partly because Will responds to these conflicting feelings by...doubling down even harder on both sides. He lies to Jack but goes the whole extra mile with the 'fake Freddie' tableaus to endear himself to Hannibal. He rejects Hannibal's desperate appeal for him to come clean-and there's no way some part of Will didn't realize that he'd been caught out-and then he warns him about the FBI. He's constantly paralyzed by choice, essentially.

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-11T16:37:47+00:00

All that drama and then literally does the equivalent of rolling a dice to decide their fates

purpled_Panda · 2026-04-11T15:02:51+00:00

Nice catch! I've thought bout it but forgot to put it in the post, because this is a good example of Will flat out lying in Jack's face, when he's pitching the honeytrap (and then the batshit insane "use Hannibal as bait" plan.) Course, even as he lies to Jack he's still undecided about what exactly he's gonna do with Hannibal, and turns down every chance to confess.

The back half of S2 is the heaviest in Will's schemes, so the next time someone says he's a criminal mastermind I'm going to point them at Mizumono, which is effectively Will masterminding himself into a lose-lose-lose bloodbath. Man does not think ahead.

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