Base-Breaking Character: You guessed it–Hardin. Depending on who you ask, he’s either a misunderstood, lonely young man with a troubled past or an abusive, womanising sociopath whose interest in Tessa is purely sexual.
Broken Base: Tessa and Hardin's relationship. Half the fandom loves it for being interesting and realistic, while the other half hates it and finds it abusive.
Critical Dissonance: While the novels and films have strong followings and are very profitable, critics slammed both for their derivative plots, wooden dialogue, underdeveloped characters and romanticisation of abusive relationships.
Death of the Author: The fanfic/novels and the films were intended to be a tale of love triumphing over hardship, and how Tessa and Hardin must both persevere in overcoming their issues to save their relationship. A lot of readers have instead pointed out that the story comes off as a textbook example of the cycle of abuse, and how it could easily be used as a cautionary tale against toxic and dysfunctional relationships. Anna Todd stated she wrote Hardin the way she did because she felt it made him more "realistic", to which some readers would say he comes off as a disturbingly realistic portrayal of an abusive partner.
Designated Hero: Both the books and the movies try their damndest to make us root for the smug, sanctimonious, dithering adulterer that is Tessa, and the lying, manipulative, short-temperedjerk that is Hardin. For a lot of audiences, it doesn't work, and they both come off as supremely selfish and dysfunctional people who cause most of their own problems.
Designated Love Interest: Hardin and Tessa are intentionally written to have a turbulent relationship, but it's to the point they barely seem to like each other at all. Hardin is frequently cruel to Tessa, including insulting everything about her, picking petty fights with her, and constantly accusing her of abandoning him while simultaneously pushing her away. Heck, in the same sentence he asks her to move in with him, he also calls her an annoying control freak. Tessa admits that Hardin often makes her feel angry, upset and worthless, and she's rarely happy in his presence, yet she claims to love Hardin warts and all. They don't even have much in common (they both read classic English literature, but Hardin tends to sneer at Tessa's opinions on the books) and the main reasons Tessa is drawn to Hardin is that he's a good-looking 'bad boy' who is willing to have sex with her, and thus more 'exciting' than her nice but dull high school boyfriend. Hardin initially only got with Tessa as part of a bet to take her virginity but claims he truly fell for her, yet the only reasons he gives for liking her beyond sex is that she helps him cope with his trauma (while giving her almost nothing in return), which sounds more like therapy than love. Throughout the series they constantly break up and reconcile, and can't seem to go a single day without fighting. They're so dysfunctional that the author stated she wasn't even sure if she wanted them to stay together.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Hardin's prone to mood swings, irrational jealousy, and violent behavior... but he's never been diagnosed with anything in-universe. Some reviewers, however, believe he may have both untreated PTSD and a personality disorder.
Die for Our Ship: Noah is subjected to this by Tessa x Hardin shippers.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common criticism is that every installment in the series basically follows the same plot: Tessa and Hardin fall out, reconcile and have sex, then one of them (usually Hardin) does something to upset the other, they break-up, Hardin does something extremely dangerous and destructive, they reconcile, rinse and repeat. The constant cycle of them breaking up and getting back together not only feels repetitive, for many audiences it starts to stretch credibility that they would even continue the relationship because of how miserable they are together, which isn't always fun for the audience either. Tessa lampshades the unhealthy relationship cycle at several points in the first book alone, but the plot inevitably gets her back together with Hardin.
Narm: The rename from "Harry" to "Hardin" caused some giggles, as it sounds like an Accidental Innuendo. Nevermind that "Harry" is a perfectly acceptable name, since one wouldn't associate it with Harry Styles unless they're familiar with the story's origin.
Nightmare Fuel: When he's not being a whiny petulant twerp, Hardin can be a terrifyingly toxic person, especially when drunk. The fact that, on two separate occasions, he's resorted to property damage and outright violence really does not send a good implication for anyone who'd try to date him.
Realism-Induced Horror: Some readers find the story particularly disturbing on account of how realistic Hardin and Tessa's relationship comes off, and not in a good way. It's noted that while there are lots of other popular romance books that arguably romanticize abusive behavior released around the same time, such as The Twilight Saga, Fifty Shades of Grey and 365 Days, these other books tend to have fantastical or exaggerated elements that make them less realistic (e.g., girl romances a sparkly vampire, college student dates a billionaire into BDSM, woman gets kidnapped by a mafia don who wants her to love him), whereas After is a largely grounded story with a mundane setting and characters, centered around a dysfunctional romance that comes off as highly plausible. Some readers have even stated they couldn't finish the series or outright avoided it because Hardin and Tessa's romance reminds them of their own abusive relationship and/or abuse people close to them went through.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The series is a romantic drama focusing on the trials and tribulations of Tessa and Hardin's relationship, while also dealing with issues like Hardin's childhood trauma and the resulting behavioral problems. However, many readers have a hard time caring what happens because almost all the characters are insufferable jerks who constantly make each other miserable, including the Official Couple themselves. Hardin is supposed to be a flawed person, but he's so awful to the people around him (especially Tessa, his supposed true love) and lacking in redeeming qualities that he comes off as deeply unsympathetic. Tessa is better than Hardin (not that this is difficult) but still comes off as highly judgemental and naive to the point of foolishness, and if readers aren't exasperated by her they're often pitying her for being used as Hardin's emotional punching bag. Considering that every book in the series generally follows the same formula, it's unsurprising lots of readers get emotionally burnt out.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: We're supposed to view Noah as an annoying tattletale who's holding Tessa back, and not feel bad for him when she starts cheating on him. However, he's a much kinder and stable person than Hardin and has been there for Tessa ever since her dad left her. While him telling Tessa's mom about Tessa drinking at a party may be a bit overbearing, it's understandable considering the fact that: Tessa hasn't drank before, she's at a party full of strangers who could take advantage of her, and her father's an alcoholic and Tessa could (and does) end up developing an addiction.
We're supposed to sympathize with Tessa as a naive young woman who is trying to figure out who she is and what she wants from life, making mistakes along the way. The problem is that Tessa tends to be extremely judgemental - including frequently slut-shaming the women around her - cheats on her loving and sweet boyfriend with a man who takes pleasure in emotionally abusing her, and has a Holier Than Thou complex that makes her unbearable to many readers.
We're expected to sympathize with Hardin despite his Jerkass tendencies and extreme mood swings due to his Dark and Troubled Past but he only starts a relationship with Tessa just to make her fall for him and then leave her (it's much worse in the book, where he starts a competition with Zed to see who could take her virginity first with the bloodied sheets from their first night as proof) which makes him highly unlikable to a majority of readers and viewers. Not to mention him acting possessive over Tessa before and after they break up, getting mad when she begins hanging out with Trevor and questioning if they had sex or not when it's not his business. No wonder Tessa's mom threatened to cut her daughter off upon seeing him. His Freudian Excuse doesn't even make much sense; the root of his trauma is seeing his mother gang-raped (which was in-directly his alcoholic father's fault), which you'd think would make him more sensitive to stuff like men being abusive towards or taking advantage of women. Instead, it's the opposite, with Hardin coming off as misogynistic in his poor treatment of women. From his viewpoints in the series alone, its shown that Hardin's immediate thought when even slightly angered by almost anyone is to consider enacting violence on them, causing the reader to view him more as a straight asshole rather than the deeply troubled bad boy which was probably intended.
Although Tessa's mother Carol makes some good points in not wanting her daughter to date Hardin, she doesn't come across all that well either. It would seem that we're supposed to see her as a Jerkass Woobie whose controlling attitude with her daughter is caused by her having been abandoned by Tessa's alcoholic father (especially in the movies, where Carol's personality and behavior is softened from the books). However, this hardly accounts for how nasty Carol gets with Tessa herself when she finds out about Hardin, accusing her of throwing away her future for a boy and claiming Hardin would only break her heart note Assumptions that, regardless of your views on Tessa and/or Hardin, she had no room to be making due to having zero insight about the state of their relationship, calling her own daughter "a whore" and cutting her off financially when Tessa refuses to let her mother dictate her life anymore. Even when the first movie ends with Carol apologizing to Tessa, the next movie sees her go right back to being toxic, not informing Tessa about her father wanting to reconnect with her and ranting about Hardin again when Tessa rightfully condemns her for hiding this from her. This seemingly proves that Carol hasn't learned anything and still sees nothing wrong with controlling her daughter's life with no regard for what Tessa herself may want.
Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Many people questioned why Tessa would take Harry/Hardin back, as the ending of After implies she does and the sequel confirms. She broke up with him after finding out he'd lied to her for the entirety of their relationship: he initially only dated her to get her into bed on a dare and even after developing feelings for Tessa he kept this from her. He also spent a lot of their relationship being a controlling, condescending jerk to her. After they break up Tessa's life seems to greatly improve; she becomes more mature and responsible, including focusing on her studies, working on getting her dream internship, ditching toxic friends, and reconciling with her mother and ex-boyfriend. The only apparent pro to her staying with Hardin is regular sex, which doesn't really outweigh all the cons.
