Anonymous asked:
Some of the s3 scenes between Hannibal and Bedelia really make it look like she is in an abusive relationship with Hannibal (especially if you look at it with no context). She often looks like she can’t leave/escape because she’s scared of him. And even though he doesn’t physically hit her, he clearly has power and control over her. And he inserts himself into her personal space often in an intimidating way. For example when she tries to leave and he goes up to her with a stern expression and takes off her coat. Like ‘I don’t think so’
And it makes you think about why she went with him in the first place. Because he knows that she killed her patient and she feels like he has something he can use against her? So she has to go with him out of fear? Idk man her relationship with him is so weird it’s hard to understand it
And it makes me think about those of us who are smart enough to not deny that Hannibal and Will’s relationship IS an abusive one. Even if Will desires to be with Hannibal, and knows Hannibal accepts the darkness in him etc etc. The two aren’t mutually exclusive and Hannibal is definitely an abusive person. Don’t get me wrong, I still ship them lmao. And it’s fiction so it’s not hurting anybody real. But Hannibal definitely is an abusive person that absolutely thrives off of having complete control and influence over people.
Like Will says : “you don’t want me to have anyone in my life that’s not you”
This is clearly possessive and controlling.
He was possessive and controlling over Abigail in order to use her and get to Will.
And he kinda does the same thing to bedelia just so he has some entertainment and company.
He really is a piece of work 😅
Bedelia’s relationship with Hannibal is unhealthy and coercive, you’re right. However I think it would be wrong to undermine Bedelia’s agency and her genuine fascination with Hannibal.
I don’t think Bedelia went with Hannibal out of any fear he would expose her, since she had already been granted immunity by Jack, and Hannibal can’t very well turn her in since he’s a murderer himself. Bedelia went with Hannibal out of “lucid greed” as he said, she wanted to observe a psychopath in it’s natural environment. She had a gun with her, she could have shot him instead of going with him.
As for Bedelia being scared of him, I see that only in Antipasto, honestly. She was probably internally going “oh crap” when Antony Dimmond revealed Hannibal wanted to eat her, and she did try to leave when Dimmond was to be killed, but when Hannibal didn’t kill her along with Dimmond, she knew she had time.
By Secondo, the show again makes it clear Bedelia is there because she wants to be. Bedelia could have run away when Hannibal went to Palermo, which was about 700 miles away from Florence. But she didn’t want to because she had the situation under control. Instead of leaving, she drew attention to herself so Hannibal would be caught. She started wearing bright, visible clothes and makes sure to be caught on camera, and goes to the store and buys items Hannibal would buy. I think she didn’t escape for two reasons, one, she knew Hannibal wouldn’t eat her as yet, two, she wanted the fame from being Lydia Fell.
She tells Hannibal she’s going to get out of the situation, that she has a plan while he’s going to get caught. She mocks him about Mischa, poking at his wounds while being in an extremely vulnerable position (in the bath where Hannibal could easily strangle her). She no longer was afraid of him. And in a brilliant masterstroke, she takes advantage of Hannibal’s feelings for Will and manipulates him into eating Will like he did Mischa. If Hannibal kills Will, she gets to be Bluebeard’s bride, if Will kills Hannibal, the threat to her life is over. Either way she wins. In Dolce, she leaves after telling Hannibal that he’s not going to eat her because she is not marinated enough for his tastes.
A quote from Bryan Fuller about it:
I always wanted Bedelia to be driving her own story. So it would have been very easy for us to say Bedelia has been brainwashed and this is why she has gone off into this adventure with Hannibal Lecter. But the more interesting route for me as a storyteller is for that character who is a strong female character being in charge of her own story with her own drive, with her own curiosities about the human condition and a lot of what she’s doing is for her own edification. And that was a very important point for us to make with that storyline because I feel like we would be doing the actress and the character a disservice if we just made her a drug-induced pawn of Hannibal Lecter’s plot. So we very much did not want to tell that story even though we were looking at telling that story in a different way in this series eventually. But [Bedelia’s] absolutely in control.”
With Will, it’s true Hannibal is very controlling, but he absolutely undergoes character development! He gives up his life in Baltimore for Will and he took a lot of risks for him and Abigail. It’s true that after Mizumono he couldn’t handle Will’s influence on him, and tried to eat him like Mischa, but after that failed, he surrendered to keep Will in his life. The ball was in Will’s court and it was upto him whether they would meet again. In the Wrath of the Lamb, he allows the Dragon to shoot him, shields Will while severely injured, and allows Will to pull him off the cliff. (Bryan Fuller said he was surprised, but then accepted in that moment). So yes Hannibal is absolutely an abusive person who thrives on control, but we see him slowing give up his control over the course of three seasons, and its very riveting to see.
With Abigail I don’t have much to say, you’re right in that he controlled and was possessive over her, but he wasn’t just using her, he had genuine fondness for her. But sadly that fondness was not enough to overcome his need to punish Will.
