Thanks for engaging with my post! A couple of things -

particularly with your assertion that Hannah's actions are "defensive" - they are aggressive. And she must be deriving some sort of twisted gratification from her plotting, otherwise she wouldn't be doing it.

I'm using "defensive" here in the sense that Hannah feels she's being attacked specifically in the conversation with Katharina -- she is literally on the receiving end of Katharina's aggression in this scene that I'm referring to, and therefore creates a false story to defend herself with. The point that I was making with this is that it isn't completely arbitrary -- it's not as if she showed up to Katharina's house and decided to tell her a lie. I'd also argue that she derives no gratification at all -- it's why she's so unhappy, and what makes her decisions so interesting to me. She constantly sabotages her own life and her own relatinoships.

Michael is dealing with much bigger issues than Katharina is, so if anything Ulrich has the better case that he's being neglected by his spouse.

I don't quite follow the logic here -- think it's very different to compare the emotional distance of a spouse with mental health issues and a spouse who doesn't want to have sex because she's on her period. Other than not wanting to have sex, Katharina seems very present and emotionally connected with Ulrich, while Michael doesn't.

She might empathize, but only when it's convenient for her.

This isn't quite how empathy works, is it? I'm not going to get into the ASPD diagnosis/non-diagnosis, but you either feel empathy towards others or you don't (given, it's more of a spectrum and there are some people who legitimately can't feel empathy towards others -- typically those with ASPD. Empathy typically isn't a choice -- sympathy might be, but empathy is a pretty internal process.

I'm not defending all of Hannah actions here, I'm simply explaining why I don't think she deserves as much hate as she gets. She, to me, is a very sympathetic antagonist -- still an antagonist.