Bruna. 28. Bisexual. Brazil. I've got a film degree.
Sometimes I post mature content, so I'll ask to only follow me if you're 18+.
This is a multifandom blog. Expect lots of Hannibal and Star Trek. Also Vampire Chronicles. Lots of movies. There will be on occasion rock bands and singers. Also books and TV shows and random stuff.
Check my About Me and the links in the navigation page to see more info.
Bedelia and Will as the “brides” of Hannibal are mirrors for each other. That much is obvious. But when it came to Hannibal, which one was altruistic and which one was opportunistic? Let’s look at the different reactions to similar situations they each have:
Bedelia feels like it isn’t safe to keep contact with Hannibal, so she stops her sessions with him and leaves. “You are dangerous.”
Will decides to go back to therapy when he knows Hannibal is dangerous. “I’d like to resume my therapy.”
Bedelia decides to cooperate with the FBI and try to help them capture Hannibal. “If you think you’re about to catch Hannibal, it’s because he wants you to think that.”
Will decides to lie to the FBI and help Hannibal. “When Hannibal tries to kill Mason Verger, I’ll arrest him. And you’ll have two witnesses.”
Bedelia decides to leave Hannibal again and claim brainwashing/drugging and never wants to see him again. “I’ve seen enough of him.”
Will decides to leave Hannibal but he goes back to him. “Did you just miss him that much?”
Bedelia keeps a distance from Hannibal when it comes to their feelings. “Our relationship is not as passionate as yours.”
Will isn’t shy about his feelings for Hannibal. “Because he was my friend, and I wanted to run away with him.”
Bedelia keeps a distance from killing as well. She kills her patient, but after that it’s all “participation” and “proxy” at best. “Technically you killed him.”
Will kills and maims again and again by participation, by proxy, by his own hands, by manipulation etc. “I felt a quiet sense of power.”
Will’s reaction to Bedelia in Season 3 is very jarring. He taunts her and seems offended by her very existence and extremely jealous. She didn’t really do anything to him so what is his negativity really about? Why doesn’t he give her the same benefit of the doubt she gave him? Again, I think it’s to highlight their different motivations when it comes to Hannibal, altruism vs opportunism. “You are here visiting an old flame” she says and maintains her own objectivity and distance from Hannibal. When Bedelia admits that her instinct is to crush a vulnerable bird, she says that she wouldn’t do it. When Will says that his instinct is to help a vulnerable bird, she basically implies that his kind of “help” isn’t really help at all, but destructive. “Extreme acts of cruelty require a high degree of empathy. The next time you have an instinct to help someone, you might consider crushing them instead. It might save you a great deal of trouble.”
When they seem to choose the same path the way they deal with it highlights their different motivations too.
Bedelia decides not to shoot Hannibal and gets with him on the plane to Italy. She starts building an alibi and doesn’t do much in the way of helping Hannibal to kill. Hannibal says she wanted a confrontation between Anthony Dimmond and himself, but they never really establish that onscreen. She doesn’t really show enjoyment of killing, at least not in front of Hannibal, to the point where he almost yells at her in annoyance.
And she seems to be trying to get him to realize he’s not making a peaceful stable life for himself in Italy by killing so recklessly. “I’ve killed hardly anybody,” he says, as if it was a topic of conversation between them and he was a bit defensive. Bedelia claims she was trying to treat Hannibal covertly when she went with him. She wanted to help him and save him in some way it seems.
Will, on the other hand, manipulates Hannibal to kill, encourages it, and shows enjoyment in killing. He smiles as he eats Randall, he smiles as he tells Hannibal to do whatever he wanted to Mason and Hannibal smiles back at him. Will isn’t interested in “saving” Hannibal except when it came to helping him escape justice. He’s interested in the “experience” they “afford” each other. The opportunity he sees in Hannibal. Until it gets to be too much for him to handle at times.
Bedelia seems to think that Will was trying to “save” Hannibal too, which is pretty laughable. I think we can safely say that Bedelia is projecting some of her own intentions and motives onto Will when it comes to Hannibal. Even if we buy that Will tricked Hannibal into giving himself up, that also isn’t “saving” him, since Hannibal is in jail as Bedelia says to Will that he did not succeed in saving him. Putting him in jail is obviously not Bedelia’s definition of “saving” Hannibal.
Her definition of saving Hannibal was trying to get him away from Will in my opinion. She was very adamant about trying to keep him from Will in Season 1 and 2 and she seems to be at least ok with him killing Will in Season 3. “I thought Mr. Graham was finally going to be the patient who cost you your life.”
Bedelia seems to think that Hannibal was leading a stable life until he met Will Graham. She wanted to get him back to that point. It didn’t so much matter to her that he was a serial killer, but that he was under the radar, successful both professionally and socially, and relatively happy. But once he got mixed up with Will his life was spun out of control. Bedelia wanted him to get back to the stable life and mentality he had before Will came into his life.
Hannibal obviously didn’t want to go back to his stable life before he met Will. He chooses Will even when Bedelia offers him her company and a chance at the life he used to have. Bedelia tries to treat both Hannibal and Will, but they’re the patients who cost her, her life in the end.
I finally finished this piece - I drew the Will portion last year, and I’ve wanted to do a full poster ever since. Bride of Frankenstein is my favourite film and of course Hannibal is just my favourite thing full stop, so this was meant to be.
