Hanna Marin: Book-Dumb But Street-Smart

[Cranberry]

I honestly think that Hanna has the most sense out of all of the girls. Who's smart enough to decline drinks that are just handed to her, and to actually take evidence from a secret lair, and to hold off on directly confronting a teacher who's possibly A? That's right, it's Hanna!

[Cranberry]

Bumping this to remind people that there's no "h" on the end of Hanna's name!

[bettername2come]

I honestly think that Hanna has the most sense out of all of the girls. Who's smart enough to decline drinks that are just handed to her, and to actually take evidence from a secret lair, and to hold off on directly confronting a teacher who's possibly A? That's right, it's Hanna!

 

I love how she's quick to to protect people she cares about - threatening A when she saw Caleb's picture in the dollhouse, sending him to watch over Miranda, and of course "fool my best friend, you're dead freaking meat." She stands up for herself and the people around her, so it breaks my heart when she loses that spark and starts saying things like "I don't want to get in trouble again." Before they got out she seemed to be the most scared of all.

[cuddlingcrowley]

I feel like real reason why Hanna decided to offer herself as bait to catch new A was because she wanted to work with Caleb. I'm sorry, I just don't buy that she cares enough about Alison to be motivated to action by her getting hurt. All the "I trust Caleb" and "me and Caleb are doing this without you" felt like her main goal was to be alone with him to get him back, which if was truly her intention, it just makes her even more awful. People accused Spencer of not caring about Hanna, despite her trying to be as considerate and respectful as possible, but Hanna showed a complete lack of respect for not only Spencer's feelings but Caleb's as well. He moved on and was happy with someone else and she couldn't even let him enjoy it because she selflessly decided she doesn't like seeing him happy with someone else while she's engaged to someone else herself. Spencer's too good for Caleb.

 

 

I too suspect that Hannah had ulterior motives with this plan. It was more than a plan to smoke out A, it was a ploy to come between Spencer and Caleb.  And at this point I'm highly disappointed that Caleb didn't put her in her place when she pulled this stunt. Instead he fell right into it. Both of them need to be single as neither of them know how to act in an adult relationship.

 

 

 

I agree with both of you and I've been very vocal about how I've been feeling about Hanna this season but I need to adress the fact that I just don't buy this character development of hers as a whole.

 

To start, her character seems entirely joyless and completely devoid of the great sense of humour she used to have (Aria is kind of reminding me of old Hanna lately with some of really on point quips), especially for someone who up until recently had been living a dream life, flying all over the world, and supposedly making solid strides to her career goals. But also being in a commited relationship with a guy she might not be in love with but seems all around like a better-than-average fellow she up until the past episodes seemed to genuinely enjoy being around.

 

But then she lost her job and the wedding has stopped being just a concept and started to become a reality Hanna dreads. I get how feeling lost and unhappy in your twenties can drive people to do pretty insane things, but Hanna has been dealing with that for what? Days? Weeks? And somehow that has messed her up to her core to the point she feels it's acceptable to string along her fiance and flirt with two separate guys she has complicated histories with, one which happens to be currently dating one of her best friends?

 

Seriously, I keep thinking back on that episode Hanna had to dance with Lucas for money and giving him false hope and breaking his heart in the process. Remember how terrible she felt? Where did that girl go?

 

My biggest grievance remains that I don't even buy that she's genuinely still hung up on Caleb, I truly don't. Especially to the point she'd do something so convoluted in order to bond with him and betray Spencer in the process. Yes, they used to be good together. But most of the time I felt they were more friends than they were boyfriend and girlfriend so I don't buy they share this great love that survived years after they've crashed and burned. She comes off to me like someone hungry for drama in order to justify not wanting to marry someone "perfect" like Jordan and all around entitled and selfish as hell.

 

My one hope is the moment we had after the kiss when Hanna looked horrified and that that might have been her wake-up call but I won't hold my breath.

 

Alright, rant over.

Edited March 17, 2016 by cuddlingcrowley

[Mabinogia]

Seriously, I keep thinking back on that episode Hanna had to dance with Lucas for money and giving him false hope and breaking his heart in the process. Remember how terrible she felt? Where did that girl go?

 

That is the Hanna I loved. I don't even recognize the miserable, joyless shell she has become. I hate how stupid and predictable it was to have her tell Spencer it was okay to date Caleb only to suddenly want to drop everything to have Caleb back. And of course they had the contrived "she changed her mind at the last minute but oops, couldn't reach Caleb in time and oh what could have been if only she had been able to reach him in time". I liked it better when she chose her career over her high school boyfriend.

 

I miss Hanna and wish they had killed her off rather than character assassinated her.

[WhosThatGirl]

I miss the Hanna who used to slap bitches in bathrooms. Not this Hanna who runs around in a bathrobe dress. 

[DigitalCount]

I feel weird talking about this, because I don't think I've made it a secret about how much time it took me to warm up to Hanna. Of the four Liars, she seemed to be the one for whom most of her pain was self-inflicted and the least likely person for me to turn around on. And having her crash her boyfriend's car because she couldn't handle his religious convictions was probably one of the biggest hurdles for me. In a way, it sort of foreshadows this nonsense they wrote her into, because at her worst Hanna is incredibly possessive and short-sighted. In both situations an easy fix would have just been: break up with the person you're with. For whatever reason (Tom Marin most likely) she is incredibly reluctant to be the one to end a relationship. Heck, even Vandermarin follows this formula, because the beginning of S3 apparently involved Hanna going to see Mona because she just couldn't step away from the person causing her pain.

 

I'm not sure when exactly I started expecting more of Hanna, but eventually I did. As infuriating as the secret genius storyline was, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed in Hanna than when she decided to stomp over Spencer's heart and reclaim Caleb's affections as if she was entitled to them. I can't even pretend that she didn't know what she was doing, because she intentionally made passive-aggressive digs at Spencer while she was doing it. I would never have expected Hanna to act in that way toward her friends, and I think she's worse for having done so. And I find it appalling that her bad behavior is being justified by fans and the narrative. I have little doubt that the cardboard cutout second-string SOs will be shunted off to nowheresville, having served their purpose by being artificial obstacles to the "endgame" pairings. We're not going to see how Jordan and Liam felt about being cheated on, and if we do, it'll be some minor throwaway thing that won't matter in the grand scheme. We may get a reconciliation between Spencer and Hanna, but it'll be okay because Spencer gets Toby back! Hurrayhjsvn;jfsk;a.msja;kmklsdawharf.

[dkb]

Hanna is tied with Spencer as my favorite liar, so this season was horrible to watch. I hate that the writers are making me dislike Hanna, and bringing Caleb in between my favorites.  I just never pictured Hanna acting the way she did in 6b. She always came off as forthright and extremely blunt sometimes not passive aggressive.

Edited March 25, 2016 by dkb

[Cranberry]

I realized that Hanna was my favorite liar when Mona hit her with a car back in season one. She's been my favorite ever since (with Spencer a close second). This season pretty much undid all of that for all of the reasons you guys have mentioned. This is not the Hanna I loved.

[RachelKM]

Hanna is tied with Spencer as my favorite liar, so this season was horrible to watch. I hate that the writers are making me dislike Hanna, and bringing Caleb in between my favorites. I just never pictured Hanna acting the way she did in 6b. She always came off as forthright and extremely blunt sometimes not passive aggressive.

I completely agree. I like all the Liars (okay, Aria tries my patience around Ezra, but when the free her from that bubble, she's good), but Spencer and Hanna have always been my favorites. The only thing about this show I loved more than them was this show's avoidance of triangles between the Liars.

So, this season has been rough. I genuinely don't know if I can watch this train wreck continue to mangle the last vestiges of what I enjoyed about this show. Thrashing Hanna AND having a guy come between them is just too much for me. I may relent. I have in the past. But on this day, I cannot see it.

Edited March 27, 2016 by RachelKM