Warning: Hannibal graphicness ahead
One of the things that happen in the new episode. (Thanks, angelblack3!)
The ravenstag has never been strictly Hannibal. It’s also specifically for Will. It’s his guide.
It’s the part of Hannibal that belongs to Will. The Hannibal in his mind. The parts of Hannibal that live in the places in Will’s mind no one else can go. (Where Will invited it, because he needed to know Hannibal right down to the roots and so he let it into the most sacred parts of his mind and soul.)
The ravenstag is an embodiment of their relationship, or a cross-section of both of them. Or the place where their minds meet, or if you really want to screw up your head, then you could think of it as their child.
The stag is Hannibal. He’s always had the deer imagery and the antlers, ever since that stag statue in his office in the first couple of episodes. And stags are
psychopomps and shapeshifters. They live on the boundary of life and the afterlife, or maybe the real world and fairy, and lead (sometimes lure) souls back and forth across the borders.
Meanwhile, ravens are tricksters. Thieves. Liars. And also psychoomps and shapeshifters! Remember when ravens picked at the first of Hannibal’s kills that Will saw? And when ravens were all around while Will imagined killing the Wendigo? Ravens eat the eyes of corpses–the eyes that show the last thing the dead person ever saw. And the dead man says to Will, “See me.”
SO. The ravenstag died in a puddle of blood in Hannibal’s kitchen, along with whatever was between them. And then it’s reborn from the body of Hannibal’s victim, which was killed and offered up just for Will.
One can well wonder just how conflicted Will is, at this point, and how far under Hannibal’s spell he is.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1C3YfCB