When: Ending

The performance of Vidal in the ending scene agrees strongly with his character. After shooting Ofelia, his character movement is him stumbling out of the labyrinth carrying his son because he has been drugged with sleeping medication. However, when he see’s the rebels (including Mercedes) his character movement changes, he lifts his chin up as a gesture, stands up straight and strongly walks towards them. This could be because Vidal values his dignity and pride, and although clearly defeated, is attempting to cling on to as much pride and dignity that he has left. His facial expression also shows this because it shows both knowing defeat and sternness. This sense of being strong even when clearly he has been defeated probably came from his father and the toxic masculinity that was passed down to him, he felt he needed to ‘die like man’ and act like a man his whole life, effecting him negatively.

Before this, along with the cinematography Vidal’s performance shows that he has been drugged with sleeping medication through his movement as he stumbles, walks much slower than Ofelia despite being taller and therefore probably faster, and has to stop to lean against things such as walls from time to time. This links him to the paleman who was also slower than Ofelia, and although powerful was slow and therefore not necessarily a threat. However, Vidal is a threat because he has a gun.

When Vidal is about to shot Ofelia, he again uses his right hand. He uses his right hand to hold the gun when he shoots. This links him to fascism because of right wing politics which contrasts him to Ofelia, who is often associated with the left throughout the film. Fascism links back into to the Spanish civil war, which the film was set shortly after. As Del Toro wanted to explore the effect that war had on children (which is a theme) the use of the right hand was probably intentional from that perspective as well, as fascism (symbols) hurt and killed her. However, because Vidal is holding the gun in his right hand it means he’s holding his baby son in his left. This could hint to show that the baby well be set on a better track and with less obeying with no question of morality, this would make sense as Mercedes is left with the baby. It could also show that Vidal doesn’t care for the baby, and instead just cared about passing down his family name.