Oh, I don't blame Maria at all--well, not very much, anyway. She was overly stubborn IMO, but "hardheaded" isn't exactly a foreign concept to her. There was someone else up-thread who felt this was out of character for her, but I didn't and don't agree. I, to a degree, blame Hana, as I think she knew more than she was saying, and if she had said it, the incident with Maria never would have happened.it would be easy for Maria to think that she was safe
It had to happen for the story, of course--it gets Maria 100% onboard the "free all elves" train, which is obviously where this story is heading. But I think that in-story, Hana could and should have prevented it.