#tldr he looooves to have fun and chasing hater is tons of fun so his inability to catch him comes both from the prospect of losing his one

[narfin-frood]

So how does it work with Wander both enjoying the challenge of catching Hater (just calling him that for now since you didn’t fully decide on a new name yet), and wanting him to join the hivemind thing? Is he like canon Hater where his hubris and maybe even stupidity prevent him from catching him, or is he one of those toying villains who purposefully lets him go so they can keep playing cat and mouse next episode? Is his excitement for something to do more underlying (almost repressed?), or is he more outward with it, and if it’s the latter how does that mix with his belief that assimilating everyone is what’s best?

I hope this makes sense gneojdkdkd your AU is so intriguing and I LOVE your designs

THIS DOES MAKE SENSE okokso

i think wander is reperessing himself All the time. Like he looks down at the smiling faces of all his followers and he's like Wow. Boy am i sure glad that i'm helping these people. he sees all the situations he found them in, how terribly they needed a hand, a safe place, a shoulder to cry on, and he reminds himself a million times a day that This is Right and This is Helping and if he gets up, even for a second, everything he's worked up to, all the good he's imparted, will come crumbling down around him, so he stays there. It's not rational, really, and a lot of the people he helped in a time of grief would gladly hang around him and befriend each other without the help of the hivemind, but it's really hard to undo however many hundreds of years of damage and boredom and constant bargaining with yourself.

and hater being so.... comfortable with himself, just cruising around, having a swell time despite it all, despite all the things he's heard about hater's kingdom and the fire he's come under and yadda yadda yadda, he's somehow... coping just fine without wander. he's got it. he's chilling. he even seems to leave a positive impact wherever he travels.

not only does wander want to uncover whatever it is that's really bothering hater, whatever he can to justify how badly he wants to fix what ails him and keep him forever, he's also SOOOOO jealous. He does not want to admit how jealous he is. he wishes it was him traveling around, seeing sights, having a gay ol time. so all of this culminates into the clumsy overexcitement to catch hater that we see from hater in the show, just... joyous, as opposed to im-going-to-kill-you-ous

also THNAKYOUUUU its soinsane to see how many people like this au it makes me so happy