This Has Been Rattling Around In My Mind Like A Marle In An Empty Soda Can, So I Remember The "two Bumbling

The concept of transformation and Will as Hannibal's muse, explored through La Primavera

I. Hannibal's Simonetta

So I remembered briefly seeing this reddit post a few years ago (pre-joining the fandom) about Simonetta and Hannibal. I remembered it just now and although I don't remember much of what it actually said, it got me thinking.

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In the scene above, Hannibala and Will are admiring a painting in the Uffizi Gallery in Italy. Hung up behind Will is a painting of a woman called Simonetta Vespucci, called Portrait of a young woman. It was created by Sandro Botticelli, an Italian painter who lived in Florence during the late 15th century. On the other side, hung up behind Hannibal, is another is a painting done by Botticelli.

The story goes that Botticelli was in love with Simonetta, a noblewoman, who was wed to another noble. Botticelli couldn't be with her, but he was still so infatuated with her that he painted her portrait multiple times (Portrait of a Young Woman, La Bella Simonetta) and incorporated her likeness into many of his famous works (The birth of Venus, La Primavera).

Simonetta had an important place in Botticelli's life. She couldn't be with him, but she still influenced him, and influenced his art - much like Will did with Hannibal, although in a slightly different way. Will is not yet "his", yet right from the beginning Hannibal starts to tailor his tableaus with Will in mind as a clear influence. Marissa Schurr, to show him what he was missing. The copycat kills and the judge from the courthouse, to free him from prison. Anthony Dimmond at the end, displayed as the broken heart Hannibal had torn out of his chest in an offer to Will.

All of them, in some way, were dedicated to Will. Will is incorporated into Hannibal's work - he is the art that which their deaths have been elevated to. Will, as seen through the scene's shot composition, is sitting on the side of Simonetta's portrait. He is the Simonetta to Hannibal's Botticelli.

II. Arriva La Primavera

The actual painting that Will and Hannibal admire in the scene above is called La Primavera, also painted by Botticelli. The rightmost side of the painting depicts Chloris, a nymph, and Zephyrus, the god of the west wind. Zephyrus is seen coming onto Chloris, who has flowers streaming from her mouth. They appear in the writing of Orvid's Metamorphoses, where it's said that Zephyrus, seeing her potential, fell in love with Chloris and won her heart. He then kidnaps and marries her, where he transforms her into Flora, the goddess of flowers. Flowers begin to stream out of her mouth, signifying the coming of spring and her transformation into a god.

Much like Zephyrus, Hannibal sees the potential of Will and comes onto him pretty intensely, starting with his psychoanalysis in Apéritif ("I imagine what you see and learn touches everything else in your mind,") where the script describes the scene as "Hannival has just described Will Graham to a letter..."

As the story progresses, we see Will undergoing transformation by Hannibal's hand, who we know wants to see him Become. Will descends into darkness, where his hands that grasp at the frayed edges of normalcy begin to slip. They start to slip at the very first instances of meeting Hannibal, where he states that he liked killing Hobbs in their first therapy session. Over time, we see him start to grow more comfortable with his darkness to the point where in Shiizakana he admits regret to not taking a life ("I regret what I did in the stables... Allowing you to stop me was a mistake.")

His transformation culminates in the acceptance of his dark nature, first by telling Hannibal "I don't know if I can save myself, and maybe that's fine," and then killing Dolarhyde with him, which he calls beautiful.

Hannibal transformed him into someone beautiful, someone he sees akin to a god. He transforms will into his Flora.

way bro rkgk✏️

some tomura hcs that i’ve posted to my tiktok and think deserve to be posted here too

he hyperfixated on heroes, researching and looking into their strategies in fights and what their strengths and weaknesses were. probably frequented hero rankings and started arguments in comments

when he was younger he was super into dogs because of mon. it was his idea to get mon-chan so he did a lot of research and went on spiels daily about different dog breeds to his mum and hana

whenever kurogiri would show a little interest in one of his games he would ramble ENDLESSLY. talking about what game is was, what characters were his fav and why, strategies to win and possible cheats or shortcuts he had read about or figured out himself. he would infodump so much about whatever game he was playing, and kurogiri would always listen.

tomura struggled when the others first joined the league. he didn’t know how to talk to them at all. he’d miss hints from others or little social queues that they thought were obvious. but tomura would also notice tiny details that even they didn’t know. like little habits they picked up when in conversations or meetings.

tomuras scratching isn’t always because of the “need to destroy” like afo had tried to make him believe. he used it as a way to stim when he would think up strategies and solutions as well as just keep his hands busy.

he has a really bad attention span. he has to have multiple things going at once to keep his mind busy because otherwise he’ll cycle through 3 different activities and that annoys him.

tomura is a chronic snacker and as much as kurogiri tried to give him a routine to keep his nutrition up tomura just couldn’t stick to it.

he’s also chronically nauseous. from either lack of food or eating too much at once or from being nervous about something he always feels a little sick

he’s also always sleepy.

he doesn’t like eye contact. unless he’s the one initiating it. afo had tried to train it into him that eye contact was a good tool to have, so he’d always force tomura to maintain eye contact during whatever afo dragged him into whether it be lectures or monologues afo would always try make sure tomuras eye contact was consistent. when afo was locked away however tomura dropped the habit super quick. he hates holding eye contact and usually only does it if 1. it’s someone he tolerated talking to (like spinner) or 2. he’s using it as a way to gain leverage in a situation.

t4t? oh no i think you misunderstood me. i said tnt. we’re going to explode you. with a bomb

someone’s probably already made this but i make a point not to visit most of the tags for this fandom (for various reasons) so

interpreting this as canon

Not sure if requests are still open but if they are...cardinal harpy Hunter?

okay i think i went a little crazy with this one

Shortie

political boy is shigaraki

this is so dustbunny to me because i headcanon rumi as a little bit illiterate in japanese because her parents spoke to her in english as a kid so she would get into arguments with her peers and teachers in elementary about what a certain word was