Working out Hanna Gitleman's biography
Hanna's biography bugs me. It really does. 'Cause she's Israeli, and it shouldn't be hard to make her bio work, but they messed it up five different ways in the comic.
But let's start from the beginning.
There's no age set for her, but there's data to make a crude estimate. The show's taking place in October-November 2005, and it seems that Hanna was recruited by Mr. Bennet no more than two or three years before that. Let's say two years - so she was recruited to the Company somewhere in 2003.
The comic has her as a lt. in the Mosad at the time of her encounter with Bennet. Well, either she was in the Mosad or she was a lt. in active service. (Of course, she could've been a discharged lt. now in the Mosad as a civilian.) Of she was a lt. in active service, her age in 2003 would be 22-24; if she was already in the Mosad, she could be anything between 22 and 28. Based on her overall behaviour, my guess is that her age at the time was far closer to twenty than to thirty. So, i'm going for a young lt., 22-23 of age.
This would make her birth year 1980 or 1981, which would make her 8-9yr in 1989. Why does 1989 matter? Because on that year, Hanna boarded a bus with her mother and her (apparently) maternal grandmother, but the bus was abducted by a terrorist and both the mother and the grandmother were killed; Hanna was injured and hospitalized at the time of the funerals. Based on the way she appears in the comic, my guess was that she was about 8-10 then. So the two estimates match, and that's good.
So she was born in 1980 or 1981, which means she was drafted in 1998 or 1999. This is good. Unil 1994 and the Alice Miller appeal, women weren't allowed in combat units in the IDF. (If we ignore the first decade of Israel or so.) By 1998, Hannah would have several combat unit opened to her - though not the paratroopers, which she comic says she wanted to go to. Paratroopers are still off-limits for women, to the best of my knowledge. So, whichever combat unit Hannah wanted to go to, she wouldn't be able to - because she's a single child. Her dad would have to sign, you see: if her dad doesn't sign a form saying he's cool with his daughter in a combat unit, she doesn't even get to test for one, period. (Of course, the sequence with her hitting the officer would have to go. Sorry, even the relatively lax IDF doesn't take this kind of bullshit. This would land her in military prison.)
Also - I forgot about this - judging by the way her family is dressed, and by the schoolyard scene, my guess is that Hanna's family is religious. Not very religious, as neither Hannah nor her mother avoided draft, but religious enough for silly long-sleeved skirts and over-the-elbow shirts and living in J-m. Her being religious also accounts for that ridiculous name - there's no way that a secular girl born in 1980-1981 would be called "Hanna", but it's possible (if not the likeliest) for a girl in a religious family.
So. Born in 1981 to a religious family in J-m. Mother and maternal grandmother murdered in a terror attack in 1989. Hanna, an only child, drafted to the IDF in 1999 and directed to the Intel Corps. Commission as an officer, probably got her ensign ranks in 2001, and her lt. ranks in 2002. Between then and 2005, she's be recruited by the Company, lost in the Serengeti, and she'll go undercover somewhere in the US, living in a remote mountainous area.
This timeline makes her very young, I know. For one thing, this is intentional as her behaviour in the comic suggests a young, immature person. For another, this schedule is flexible. 1983 is the absolutely latest possible birthyear, very unlike; 1982 is the latest likely birthyear. The earliest likely birthyear is 1979, and the earliest possible would be about 1976; both these options have her commissioning in the IDF and then recruited by the Mosad upon her discharge. I really don't dig the older-Hanna options 'cause she doesn't like it - I wouldn't give her a day older than 22 when recrutied by Mr. Bennet, and 21 would make better sense but it makes the timetable tighter.
So there. A biography that makes sense and a timeline as a bonus. The only detail I didn't work out is what her mom did in the army - i'll have to do a bit more research to come up with something good for that. Anyone have any idea for something cool a woman could've done in 1967?
ETA: Hanna being religious opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities. Her being ex-religious would explain a lot, for example.
It really bugs me. She's so naive, so immature, when Bennet approaches her. Also - a girl with her background, leave Israel and join a foreign intelligence agency just like that? Hello, that's treason by the book! And she's in the intelligence corps, do you have any idea the indoctarination they would've given her there?
But. Girl's parents were religious folks. Her whole family was pretty religious. Eight-years-old Hanna would be pretty innocent, like most girls that age. Then, bang, mother and grandmother murdered before her eyes alongside other people, Hanna severely injured. Yeah, i'd say there's a decent chance that the trust issues Hanna's had after that weren't just with people - they were with God, too.
But she'll keep the Mitzvot. She'll keep up the pretence. Maybe her dad will notice something, maybe not. And then she'll get drafted, and she'll wear pants, and she'd live at a hostel near base - because I know what base she'd serve at and I know exactly where long-distance people there sleep - and she'll go secular. But it'll keep eating up at her - it eats up at a lot of people who Chozrim BeShe'ela, "return to the question". (Hebrew for going secular. Going religous is "return to the answer".)
And then we have her. Twenty-one or twenty-two years old, estranged from most of her family, carrying the whole left by the loss of the faith she was brought up to. Yeah, suddenly the desperate-to-believe behaviour we see from her in the comic makes more sense.
ETA II: huh. According to my current timeline, Bennet would've recruited her sometime between 2001 and 2003, with 2002 being the most likely year. The 2001/2 period was awfully tense in Israel: the 2000 Intifadeh started near the end of that year, and the period between autumn '00 and autumn '02 was very tense in Israel - terror attacks on your right and left, and the huge, painful Chomat Magen operation in spring 2002. This has to be taken into account when considering Hanna's life at the time, but that's way complex and i'm not going to do it now.
ETA III: nostariel informs me that Hannah's canon age at 2005 is 28, and acaciaonnastik suggests Asperger's as the background for Hanna's behaviour. Let's see how these work out.
Her birth year is, apparently, 1997. This means she'd be drafted in 1995 or 1996. Let's go for 1996. This means that if she didn't commision, either as a petty officer or an officer proper, she'd be discharged in 1998 and if she did commission she'd be discharged in 1999 or 2000.
Asperger's, or even a borderline condition, and IDF/Mosad: both the IDF and the Intelligence Community are intolerant of social maladjustment. In truth, a person with even borderline Asperger's won't make it into either a combat unit, an intelligence unit or the Mosad. Period. For the purpose of Hanna's bio, though, she made it into Intelligence, but Officer's School and the Mosad both have to go. It's still possible that she commision as a petty officer (נגדת).
Then we have the two big time blanks: how long she'd been with the Company, and how long between the Serengeti mission and 2005. This is really open for interpretation. These two period together can cover anything from five to seven years, depending on when she was discharged from service.
Oh, and Asperger's and religiousness: they're not exclusive in any way. If at all, the Asperger's might make her life harder. The style of the drawing definitely suggests a religious background from her, but this is the "Heroes" team we're speaking of here - the guys who made her mother a pilot in 1967 - so that doesn't have to mean anything unless someone wants it to.
But let's start from the beginning.
There's no age set for her, but there's data to make a crude estimate. The show's taking place in October-November 2005, and it seems that Hanna was recruited by Mr. Bennet no more than two or three years before that. Let's say two years - so she was recruited to the Company somewhere in 2003.
The comic has her as a lt. in the Mosad at the time of her encounter with Bennet. Well, either she was in the Mosad or she was a lt. in active service. (Of course, she could've been a discharged lt. now in the Mosad as a civilian.) Of she was a lt. in active service, her age in 2003 would be 22-24; if she was already in the Mosad, she could be anything between 22 and 28. Based on her overall behaviour, my guess is that her age at the time was far closer to twenty than to thirty. So, i'm going for a young lt., 22-23 of age.
This would make her birth year 1980 or 1981, which would make her 8-9yr in 1989. Why does 1989 matter? Because on that year, Hanna boarded a bus with her mother and her (apparently) maternal grandmother, but the bus was abducted by a terrorist and both the mother and the grandmother were killed; Hanna was injured and hospitalized at the time of the funerals. Based on the way she appears in the comic, my guess was that she was about 8-10 then. So the two estimates match, and that's good.
So she was born in 1980 or 1981, which means she was drafted in 1998 or 1999. This is good. Unil 1994 and the Alice Miller appeal, women weren't allowed in combat units in the IDF. (If we ignore the first decade of Israel or so.) By 1998, Hannah would have several combat unit opened to her - though not the paratroopers, which she comic says she wanted to go to. Paratroopers are still off-limits for women, to the best of my knowledge. So, whichever combat unit Hannah wanted to go to, she wouldn't be able to - because she's a single child. Her dad would have to sign, you see: if her dad doesn't sign a form saying he's cool with his daughter in a combat unit, she doesn't even get to test for one, period. (Of course, the sequence with her hitting the officer would have to go. Sorry, even the relatively lax IDF doesn't take this kind of bullshit. This would land her in military prison.)
Also - I forgot about this - judging by the way her family is dressed, and by the schoolyard scene, my guess is that Hanna's family is religious. Not very religious, as neither Hannah nor her mother avoided draft, but religious enough for silly long-sleeved skirts and over-the-elbow shirts and living in J-m. Her being religious also accounts for that ridiculous name - there's no way that a secular girl born in 1980-1981 would be called "Hanna", but it's possible (if not the likeliest) for a girl in a religious family.
So. Born in 1981 to a religious family in J-m. Mother and maternal grandmother murdered in a terror attack in 1989. Hanna, an only child, drafted to the IDF in 1999 and directed to the Intel Corps. Commission as an officer, probably got her ensign ranks in 2001, and her lt. ranks in 2002. Between then and 2005, she's be recruited by the Company, lost in the Serengeti, and she'll go undercover somewhere in the US, living in a remote mountainous area.
This timeline makes her very young, I know. For one thing, this is intentional as her behaviour in the comic suggests a young, immature person. For another, this schedule is flexible. 1983 is the absolutely latest possible birthyear, very unlike; 1982 is the latest likely birthyear. The earliest likely birthyear is 1979, and the earliest possible would be about 1976; both these options have her commissioning in the IDF and then recruited by the Mosad upon her discharge. I really don't dig the older-Hanna options 'cause she doesn't like it - I wouldn't give her a day older than 22 when recrutied by Mr. Bennet, and 21 would make better sense but it makes the timetable tighter.
So there. A biography that makes sense and a timeline as a bonus. The only detail I didn't work out is what her mom did in the army - i'll have to do a bit more research to come up with something good for that. Anyone have any idea for something cool a woman could've done in 1967?
ETA: Hanna being religious opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities. Her being ex-religious would explain a lot, for example.
It really bugs me. She's so naive, so immature, when Bennet approaches her. Also - a girl with her background, leave Israel and join a foreign intelligence agency just like that? Hello, that's treason by the book! And she's in the intelligence corps, do you have any idea the indoctarination they would've given her there?
But. Girl's parents were religious folks. Her whole family was pretty religious. Eight-years-old Hanna would be pretty innocent, like most girls that age. Then, bang, mother and grandmother murdered before her eyes alongside other people, Hanna severely injured. Yeah, i'd say there's a decent chance that the trust issues Hanna's had after that weren't just with people - they were with God, too.
But she'll keep the Mitzvot. She'll keep up the pretence. Maybe her dad will notice something, maybe not. And then she'll get drafted, and she'll wear pants, and she'd live at a hostel near base - because I know what base she'd serve at and I know exactly where long-distance people there sleep - and she'll go secular. But it'll keep eating up at her - it eats up at a lot of people who Chozrim BeShe'ela, "return to the question". (Hebrew for going secular. Going religous is "return to the answer".)
And then we have her. Twenty-one or twenty-two years old, estranged from most of her family, carrying the whole left by the loss of the faith she was brought up to. Yeah, suddenly the desperate-to-believe behaviour we see from her in the comic makes more sense.
ETA II: huh. According to my current timeline, Bennet would've recruited her sometime between 2001 and 2003, with 2002 being the most likely year. The 2001/2 period was awfully tense in Israel: the 2000 Intifadeh started near the end of that year, and the period between autumn '00 and autumn '02 was very tense in Israel - terror attacks on your right and left, and the huge, painful Chomat Magen operation in spring 2002. This has to be taken into account when considering Hanna's life at the time, but that's way complex and i'm not going to do it now.
ETA III: nostariel informs me that Hannah's canon age at 2005 is 28, and acaciaonnastik suggests Asperger's as the background for Hanna's behaviour. Let's see how these work out.
Her birth year is, apparently, 1997. This means she'd be drafted in 1995 or 1996. Let's go for 1996. This means that if she didn't commision, either as a petty officer or an officer proper, she'd be discharged in 1998 and if she did commission she'd be discharged in 1999 or 2000.
Asperger's, or even a borderline condition, and IDF/Mosad: both the IDF and the Intelligence Community are intolerant of social maladjustment. In truth, a person with even borderline Asperger's won't make it into either a combat unit, an intelligence unit or the Mosad. Period. For the purpose of Hanna's bio, though, she made it into Intelligence, but Officer's School and the Mosad both have to go. It's still possible that she commision as a petty officer (נגדת).
Then we have the two big time blanks: how long she'd been with the Company, and how long between the Serengeti mission and 2005. This is really open for interpretation. These two period together can cover anything from five to seven years, depending on when she was discharged from service.
Oh, and Asperger's and religiousness: they're not exclusive in any way. If at all, the Asperger's might make her life harder. The style of the drawing definitely suggests a religious background from her, but this is the "Heroes" team we're speaking of here - the guys who made her mother a pilot in 1967 - so that doesn't have to mean anything unless someone wants it to.