I think it’s really important to note, that Hanzo hit his breaking point after the death of Genji. It stems from the focus point of being raised into an environment that you are trained to kill at a young age, taught ideals and a certain way of life. You are groomed to become the head of a purpose that should have never been placed onto a child but it was. The understanding of this is important because, Hanzo had a huge lack of freedom, even if it seemed like he did growing up.
you have to keep in mind that the way he was raised was controlled from the moment he could walk and talk, yes he was a prodigy but the they used that for the purposes of the clan. he was given freedom in controlled settings, and it was always made to be that he didn’t stray off the purposes that his father gave him and the elders had given him ( after the death of his father)/
Post his fight with Genji, you lose that purpose. you lose that drive. there’s nothing left that they want because he’s become what they want. the problem with this is, it also snaps the chains that held onto hanzo. i say this because with the death pf genji, he is no longer striving to meet their demands or meet a task they want. there is nothing left, which leads to a huge breakdown of hanzo.
Because he begins to realize this was not what he wanted. That there is a huge amount of guilt that follows in the wake of Genji’s death, and a taste in his mouth that leaves him struggling with the objective of living. Hanzo a month after his brother’s death, becomes desensitized. He loses the purpose of living, and those bitter emotions, those nasty emotions begin to surface.
It would be a bullshitted lie, if someone said Hanzo wasn’t struggling with a heavy-set depression after the death of Genji. And I’m saying this, but at the same time, despite being numb to the core, he forces himself to do things, while realizing at the same time, the ideals that the elders have, are no longer the ones he is holding with his hands. that over time, he is less and less inclined to agree with what they want, and the tips of freedom he should have had as a child emerge because they are no longer breathing down his back when he is working.
which leads me to say, hanzo murders some of them in the wake of him leaving the shimada clan as a whole, and it’s not a pretty thing either. it’s one of those things that is a slow burnt rage that isn’t quite placed, combined with a grief that could have been avoided. hanzo struggles a lot mentally with surviving after genji’s death. he is not the best person, and his conversations often are to the point and not long.
on the topic of the dragons short, which takes place years later.
hanzo still is a mess. he goes back to that place to try to make amends with himself, to try to kill to guilt, to try to kill the feelings that he has. it should be said, he hasn’t done a lot of right in his life, but when we see him there, we see someone that is haunted by his past, that has not learned to let go.
and the fact of the matter is, he was ready to die, he was ready for it. but the moment, genji chooses not to and calls him brother, and how he reacts, says a lot. there is also something deep lasting in this short because of the fact, he finds out genji is alive, and while it doesn’t change what he’s done, genji has forgiven him which is a start of a healing process for hanzo as a whole.
but let me tell you, it takes a long time for him to figure out what makes him happy, and a purpose to why he wants to live, and not just survive