#yeah i think hotch is around 35-40 in s1 :

[maschotch]

I know all CM character info tends to be wildly inconsistent but when it comes to Hotch's age specifically, given that the first age is suggested in Season 1 and the older age is first used in Season 5 (on the medical chart in Nameless Faceless), my favorite explanation is (suspension of disbelief may be required here) that the writers looked at where they were going with Foyet and at the parallels created between the two characters and decided that it worked better as a toe-to-toe showdown, two sides of the same coin sort of scenario if they bumped Hotch's age up to more closely mirror Foyet's (I believe his is given as the late 60s - I know Hotch's isn't far off to begin with and this sounds entirely like bullshit but I just like the idea that sometimes the interesting parts of the writing were more intentional).

What's also interesting to me based on their respective ages is that it's entirely possible that if Hotch went to Harvard or Yale (they're both up that way right?) then it's entirely possible that he could have met Foyet then while they were both at the same college (the couple who adopted him are mentioned as being wealthy and presumably he learnt some of his computer skills somewhere). This is not necessarily as relevant a thought, but it's an intriguing possibility.

hmm that definitely works if you focus on emphasizing the parallels between foyet and hotch. but for me personally, i like to keep hotch’s age down a bit. mostly because i still think its insane that hotch and haley have been together since high school and had their first child in their late thirties, so pushing the age higher than that 1. makes it even stranger 2. makes a pregnancy even more dangerous. i have my own take on why they waited so long to have a kid but ANYWAY tbh i kind of like there to be a little dissonance between foyet and hotch??

i love the parallels between them. i do. people who’ve dedicated their lives (or thrown away their lives) to the cause that fuels them, the creed that gives them purpose. without it, they wouldnt have lives at all. seeing what hotch couldve become if he’d taken a different road, confronted with the very real possibility that he could still go down that path.. very fun. the parallels dont stop there (im just too stupid to come up w the others rn)

but i dont think they have to line up exactly to make the story impactful. in fact, i think there’s something a little more chilling about the futility of it: they share similarities, sure, but it didnt have to be hotch. it couldve been anyone. foyet couldve chosen anyone. but he chose hotch

disturbing as it is, i very much believe foyet views this as a courting of some kind. he’d made his vows to shaunessy and committed to them until his end. it wasnt just the killings that excited foyet; it was the power, the control, the devotion. and once he was finished with shaunessy, his path intertwined with hotch once more and thats when foyet’s obsession started. he craved the intimacy of a life-long connection. there’s something more special about that than murder.

no, i think its more fun for foyet to chose hotch. their fates align because of coincidence and happenstance, not because they were destined to be at odds. they’re not the kind of soulmates that were made for each other, where someone matches you down to every groove and crevice. theyre the kind where they become molded to one another, where someone twists and breaks you until you fit them perfectly. there’s something more alluring about that to foyet. something he has to work a little harder for. hotch didnt submit to him readily like shaunessy did, but the thrill of the chase excited foyet. it was a game: how far could they go before they ruined each other?

akdhakhdk ik this was about age and i turned it into this whole other thing lmao and i write more about foyet’s infatuation with hotch in greater detail later, but all this to say i dont think its necessary for them to be the same for the story to be as tragic. its fun to think about! but i prefer there to be a little disconnect, if only to add to hotch’s suffering. torturing him with the assurance that this wasnt inevitable. they werent always meant to collide like this; he couldve made any number of different choices along the way that wouldve changed the outcome—for better or for worse