If there’s one thing the After fandom will never agree on, it’s this: Who is truly the right partner for Hardin Scott? The tortured, emotionally complex bad-boy-poet of YA romance has loved two women in ways that shaped him forever — Tessa Young, the storm he couldn’t escape, and Natalie, the “what-if” that nearly rewrote his path.
So now we throw the grenade into the fandom bunker:
Tessa or Natalie — who do YOU want as Hardin’s forever person?
Let’s break it down like a shipping court case.
Tessa Young: The One Who Was Never a Phase
Tessa wasn’t just Hardin’s love story — she was his character development arc in human form. The woman who didn’t just enter his life, but detonated every emotional barrier he owned. She challenged him, called out his worst impulses, and forced him to confront the fact that love wasn’t a weakness — losing her would be.
Their relationship wasn’t perfect. It was volatile, bruising, cinematic emotional damage — but fans defend it because it felt earned, real, transformative, and unrepeatable. Tessa didn’t fix Hardin gently. She made him fight for better, even when he failed mid-battle.
To many fans, the equation is simple:
No Tessa = No Hardin we recognize today.
Natalie: The Future He Could’ve Had If Tessa Didn’t Exist
Natalie is the wildcard of this debate. She represents something the franchise rarely gives: peaceful love without emotional shrapnel. She saw Hardin for who he was beyond the anger. She connected with the gentler parts of him — the writer, the thinker, the wounded boy behind the bark.
But here’s the twist:
Natalie didn’t change Hardin. She just showed us that someone else could love him without bleeding out in the process.
She is the timeline fans fantasize about but can’t rewrite. The love that could’ve been healthy, stable, poetic, domestic — if Hardin’s heart didn’t already belong to the woman who rearranged it permanently.
To others, Natalie is the answer:
Love that doesn’t require survival mode.
So Who’s Endgame?
This is why the fandom splits like tectonic plates:
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Team Tessa: “He grew because of her. That love was the point.”
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Team Natalie: “He deserves love that doesn’t hurt like a lesson.”
Tessa is the storm that changed the man.
Natalie is the calm that could love the man who survived the storm.
But After Forever fans know this franchise doesn’t choose comfort over consequence. It chooses impact over innocence.
So again:
