Y’all remember when will is fresh outta jail and Alana tells him to back off Hannibal, and he’s just like “you see the best in him, I…don’t” and you realize that Will was gonna say he sees in the worst in Hannibal, but it suddenly clicks for him that he doesn’t actually think that Hannibal’s crimes are the worst of him…
It's so telling, it feels like he's saying "I see him in his entirety; I don't see the best, I see him as he is."
There's no idolised view of Hannibal that I feel like we can argue Alana has - she stakes a lot of blind faith on taking Hannibal at face value partly because she doesn't want to believe he's capable of terrible things but also because if he is, that means she didn't notice. Her perception of self & others is on the line, if Hannibal - who she's known for years, who was a fellow student and a colleague for many of them - is a serial killer, that must severely impact what you think you know about others and your own ability to sus people out.
It's like when Jack gets Abigail to look at Nicholas's body and Alana says any reservations she has about Abigail don't extend to Hannibal - this idea is only reinforced throughout the season and especially season 2 when she's in a relationship w him. Bc how can you begin to wrap your head around that, that you not only don't know him, but you really don't know him.
Will doesn't have that, he knows what Hannibal is capable of and sees all aspects of him - as he sees all aspects of everyone he gets into the mind of. There's no ideal view of Hannibal to him, something to soothe his trust in others or indeed his own gauge of character - he just is as he is, and Will sees that darkness for what it is.
I do think it's interesting to view it similarly as Will realising Hannibals crimes weren't even the worst of him...maybe it was his ability to befriend Will and then cast him aside to rot. Bc really I feel that's what he's most upset about, that Hannibal had managed to do that to him. Thinking abt in Mizumono where it had only taken hearing Hannibal say "Hello?" for Will to change his mind, vs Hannibal being able to put Will through the BSHCI and court trials before missing him too much and changing his mind. Like ultimately Will hadn't been able to hurt Hannibal, but Hannibal is always able to hurt Will and then regret it. Veeerryy interesting...
