#but my drafts are in a dire state rn. alex I am THINKING about you...

[annabelle--cane]

mitchell's trigger for snapping and going hogwild is learning that lucy betrayed him, he thinks "why bother with humanity if it's always against us? let's strike back." hal's trigger is tom and alex losing faith in him and believing the worst despite contrary evidence, he thinks "what's the point? no one thinks I can be better, why delay the inevitable?" it's all about power and violence when mitchell drinks blood, he does it when he's angry to lash out and reassert control by treating someone as lesser; the world hurts him and he hurts it back. it eventually gets to be about power for hal once he's on enough of a roll, but in both seasons four and five we see him relapse on bottled blood, no power assertion involved, he simply finds existing as a person deeply challenging and then with blood suddenly he can make a move on alex the way she's wanted for months.