Discussion - Spoilers
Hannibal, Will, and Chiyoh: An Interesting Relationship
After rewatching the Europe arc of S3, I’ve come to wonder about how Chiyoh really feels about Hannibal and the answer is honestly a complicated one. She’s loyal as she is deadly and her relationship like most relationships in the series is not a conventional one.
I recently came across this incredibly well written tumblr post by endlessly fascinated that perfectly encapsulates Chiyoh’s complicated life of commitment and desires (link will be attached). The post starts out with this bold statement:
Chiyoh was telling the truth, as people often do on Hannibal, when she told Bedelia that she wants Hannibal in a cage. She isn’t interested in killing him, and frankly, she isn’t interested in killing Will.
And follows with another banger:
Why? Because if she puts Hannibal in a cage–as Hannibal put her own prisoner in a cage–Will will be his keeper. Not in a technical, literal sense like she was the keeper of the snail-eating fellow in her dungeon (and like Chilton will be in Hannibal’s own story), but Will will be denied his closure, denied the severance from Hannibal that the two of them,”conjoined,” were seeking and which might have killed either or both of them, had the two women–Chiyoh and Bedelia–not interfered.
Chiyoh is loyal to Hannibal through her own reasons and as an extension to her servitude to Lady Murasaki. She’s protective of him emotionally and physically, but also holds a certain animosity towards him for keeping her prisoner for all these years. Will only brought these hidden feelings out of her when she took away her life purpose and forcefully brought a closure upon her life. Like I said, it’s complicated. Very much so.
It also turns out that Chiyoh and Bedelia are two sides of the same coin with what they desire with Hannibal. They desire a sense of control over him for the sake that he is a powerful entity that cannot truly be controlled. Bedelia feels power from being unscathed due to her manipulation tactics. She’s aware of Hannibal’s deep feelings for Will and uses that to her advantage to create her own escape route. Chiyoh has a possible desire for revenge against two men who both caged and freed her. There’s a certain allure to being able to be above such powerful entities. It just feels good.
In the end, Chiyoh got her answer which was that Hannibal had never lied to her about the circumstances of Mischa’s death while also getting her literal wish come true with Hannibal sent to prison. The only part of the plan that didn’t work was Will becoming his keeper. Bedelia also got her wish by escaping and becoming a best selling author on a biographical story laced in lies.
But this is Hannibal and Will we’re talking about. Things never truly go the way anyone else wants. Just how they want.
Hannibal and Will’s true love story is just starting and it’s set to defy everyone’s expectations and wishes. The idea of Will becoming Hannibal’s keeper is now on route to going out the window and Bedelia is no longer getting out of this unwounded. And we already know about Jack and Alana.
It’s just a love story that makes everyone roll their eyes and say “You two are impossible!”
Such is Hannigram.
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I understand why people don't like Chiyoh on the show because so much of her scenes and character development got cut to squeeze red dragon in 3b (hate thate the henchman hunt scene was cut) but I love her. I think she has so much potential in a s4 setting. I still can't parse why chiyoh has such strong loyalty to Hannibal, murasaki yes, but I'm pretty sure in the book Misha was dead by the time Hannibal arrived so I'm wondering if Bryan intended to tweak canon to have Chiyoh have met mischa before she died. Otherwise her fixation on her is so bizarre. Mono no aware is a fantastic fanfic that fleshes out chiyohs character
I love her too and agree about season 4 potential. Her pushing Will off the train is one of my favourite moments because it creates so much tension. Is it to protect Hannibal or because she believes they (H+W) will be stronger (unbeatable) together? Each of the three have this knotty relationship with another one of the three so the trio being all together, well, you just don’t know what is going to happen. I was on edge watching it the first time.
My interpretation is that her loyalty is to show us just how much charm (or whatever you want to call it) Hannibal has. He is on the one hand a terrible person and has engineered a situation that robs her of a lot, yet her immediate reaction to being freed is to go to him and intervene. Bedelia is frightened of Hannibal (or possibly bored if you read her that way) but Chiyoh stands up to him and I think he respects that in her, even if their moral choices are very different.
The interesting thing is I think if Will never intervened in Chiyoh’s life, she would’ve stayed with that man until his death. I feel keeping him prisoner is both a life purpose and also an excuse not to move on because it means she would have to face certain feelings. You see her have a slow mental breakdown after she kills the man and having to venture into the outside world. She’s terrified of voices and opinions other than her own. Will has made her question literally everything in less than a day. If anything it shows Will has the ability to influence people in terrifying ways just as Hannibal can. And he’ll shatter people’s lives to get what he wants. Just like a certain someone.
I interpret her loyalty and savage acts of protection as necessary acts to keep Hannibal alive so she can face him and get answers. In the end he never lied to her. He didn’t kill Mischa. He only ate her. Their narratives match, her life wasn’t a waste, and she can move on. But can she really? She has no life purpose anymore. That might leave her to keep an eye on Hannibal or return to Lady Murasaki’s side. In the end Robertus and Murasaki are equally responsible for keeping her shackled since it seems they might be responsible for keeping her abreast of Hannibal’s activities. It seems some things run in the family.
I think tweaking is indeed going to happen. The timeline already differs since Mischa’s remains are on the Lecter estate and the man who had violated and killed her is still in the estate (in the novel it was a group of Nazis who Hannibal killed one by one in revenge). Bryan is blending in originality and I seriously don’t mind it.
Chiyoh I feel didn’t have time to be fleshed out because S3 had a lot of cuts in time and budget. Bryan wanted to incorporate her more into the story, but didn’t have time. I feel like Robertus and Murasaki have a lot to tell if/when they make their appearance. And I also suspect Hannibal is hiding a lot of things from Will and the audience. It’s strange to think Mischa’s death is the only reason he can’t step foot in that estate. I think there’s other painful memories he doesn’t want to discuss. But eventually he might have to.
Link to tumblr post: https://bonearenaofmyskull.tumblr.com/post/123754571422/about-chiyoh-shooting-will/amp
Chiyoh's loyalty in the series seems a little exaggerated, but if we think about a previous context where her family is a smaller family in the Murasaki clan and served the main family for ages, it makes sense that she was raised in loyalty and servitude context.
I'm slowly writing a post-fall fanfic and I cover a lot of Chiyoh's relationship with Hannibal and Will, as she is a very mysterious character she has a lot of potential to work with. So I imagined some things about her personality since we see so little about her in the series. I see Chiyoh almost like a spirit of the night, something like that. And I like the idea that Chiyoh sees herself as less human after spending so much time wandering around the ruins of the house Lecter and living alone. So I put in my fanfict a dialogue where Hannibal says he always imagined her as a youkai and Chiyoh laughs and says he never really saw her as a woman, so he warms her and says he never understood why youkai were jealous of humans. Chiyoh talks about mortality envy, in a metaphor that she feels her obligation is eternal and Hannibal apologizes for feeling like he stole her life.
I believe Chiyoh loved Hannibal in a romantic way, but never expressed it because she knew it wouldn't be reciprocated anyway.
I think Chiyoh has a lot of personal issues. Hannibal Rising was a love letter to The Tales of Genji by Murasaki Shikubu after all. That’s where Murasaki gets her name. To serve a family descended from samurai who follow certain archaic traditions isn’t an easy life. You’re expected to be a certain way and expected to be loyal to who you serve even if it makes you miserable. Like some say, “that’s just how it’s always been done”.
Chiyoh overall wasn’t fleshed out well in S3. Bryan wanted to do more scenes with Tao but budget and time constraints caused issues. I feel Chiyoh did a noble thing to keep the man prisoner, but it left her mentally strained over the years. She told Will she’s not used to voices other than her own meaning she hasn’t had the company of another human being in possibly decades. Which means any messages sent her way are either letters or texts, not voice. It’s a very lonely existence to keep serving like that. I like to think that now that she’s free, she can go and do a bit of soul searching while still remaining loyal as Lady Murasaki’s retainer.
Personally, I’ve liked fics where Will ends up starting to see Chiyoh as a kind of a sister in law in this really weird and messed up family he’s married into. It’s kinda cute since they both care for Hannibal but in a different and competitive way. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Chiyoh had feelings for Hannibal at one point in time since he and Murasaki had a push and pull kind of relationship in Hannibal Rising but she ended up abandoning him due to her inability to accept him. I found Chiyoh to be quite similar to Bedelia too. She better watch out. Will is a jealous one…
I also like that Will sees Chiyoh as a sister in law, and I intend to do that in my fanfic too in the future. I even have a headcanon that I always like to use: If Chiyoh was the one who helped Will and Hannibal after the scene at the cliff house, it was Will who contacted Chiyoh, not Hannibal. I really like the idea that he went after her to contact her and warn her that Hannibal was going to escape from BSHCI, I think it adds a layer to their relationship and to Will's plan.
I like to think Chiyoh was unsure of what to do with her life regarding Hannibal now that she’s free, but Murasaki continued to encourage her to do what she does best. I like to think she’s been living in that cliff house periodically and has been following the Hannibal case pretty closely by. Besides, someone has to keep tabs on Hannibal for Murasaki and Robertus (if Bryan keeps him in the story) in France. I like to think the Lecters are a very particular kind of people and it makes me chuckle of what they’ll think of Will. They’re a truly unusual family…