angst-fairygodmother · 4 years ago
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On Her Father’s Wings (The Umbrella Academy S2 Fic)
CHAPTER ONE: NEW SIDEKICK What if there was one more thing left in Five’s care at Hazel’s untimely passing? Something more precious than a briefcase, more useful than a tape, and infinitely more infuriating. A smart-mouthed girl determined to pick up where her father left off and help save the world, whether the Hargreeves like it or not.
Word Count: 2300 Rating: T for canon typical language, violence
Cross-posted to AO3: here
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Piper Rofa tapped her hands on the steering wheel in time with the radio, waiting impatiently at the mouth of a Dallas alleyway. She had seen the figure matching her target’s description rather unconventionally enter the building at the end of the alley and was just hoping that he’d come back out the same way. She had maneuvered her vehicle so that he would be blocked trying to exit and would have to stop and talk to her, but she also knew from intel that he had ways around conventional means of movement that might make things more complicated.
Still, she jolted up in her seat from where she had slumped while she waited when she saw him appear in the alleyway once more, shoulders hunched and face scowling, as he moved closer to her car, she rolled her head from one side to the other, psyching herself up.
“You must be Five Hargreeves? Please collect your belongings and come with me,” she called in an obviously overdramatic attempt to be sinister, before popping open the door of her ‘Daytona Blue’ Stingray invitingly.
He stopped short, glaring at her.
“I don’t have any belongings. And I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me who you are and what you want,” the apparently pubescent boy replied with all the authority of an aged general.
“What about the briefcase?” she pointed out as if it was obvious. And then a sudden horror dawned on her, face falling. “Shit! Am I early? He’s going to be so mad if I’m early.”
“Wait…briefcase? You’re with Hazel?”
“Duh? Didn’t he mention that?”
“No. In fact, he said he was alone. He said he was done with the Commission and their crap, just keeping a promise to his dead wife.”
A shadow passed over her face. “Yeah, well I’m not Commission, so that part was true. He likes to pretend I’m not working with him, as if that will maaaagically make me stop being involved. Total denial of reality.”
She bit her lip before plastering a slightly fake grin back on her face. “Anyway, if you know he’s here, he must have given you the briefcase, yeah? Where is it?”
“Some very unhappy Scandinavians with very large guns destroyed it.”
She rolled her eyes. “If those things are so important to the Commission, I don’t get why they’re not made smaller and less conspicuous. Or at least bulletproof.”
“I’ve been saying that for years.” He shrugged, the expression on his face almost pulling into the tiniest of smiles before growing serious. “I’m sorry, but Hazel…they killed him.”
“What?” she scoffed incredulously, only to sober when she realized he wasn’t joking. “No. That’s not possible.” She shook her head vehemently. “Da was among the best the Commission ever had. He wouldn’t have gotten caught with his metaphorical pants down by some mercs in the 60s.”
Five stared at her in unrepentant shock and disbelief. “Hazel was your father?”
“Yep. Piper Rofa, at your service,” she said, offering a mocking salute, trying to hide her trembling.
He sighed. “Shit.”
She watched a hundred minute emotions dance across his eyes as she fixed him with a narrowed gaze, even as her eyes welled with tears that threatened to spill.
“Awfully convenient that you survived and he didn’t. What did you do to him?”
“Nothing! I…we had no warning, there was no time…he…I couldn’t save him.”
She growled in frustration, torn between blaming him simply for surviving and trusting him as her father had assured her she could.
“Look, we look like idiots and are drawing attention arguing through an open car door. And time’s a wasting. Get in the car, and I’ll drive you to the sanitarium. We can have a more detailed conversation about what the fuck happened later.”
“I could just teleport there.”
“You could, but the fact that you haven’t yet tells me I’ve sparked your curiosity enough that you’re not going to just disappear and potentially lose track of me.” She smirked and raised an eyebrow, challenging him to prove her wrong.
He flopped into her passenger seat, slamming the door behind him.
“Hey, hey. Take it easy on my baby, she didn’t do anything wrong,” the girl scolded, turning the key and swinging cleanly out into the street, laughing as Five rolled his eyes.
“How did you know I was going to Holbrook Sanitarium?” he asked.
“Well you’re looking for your siblings right? The one in the sanitarium is the easiest to track down since he’s not going anywhere.”
He nodded, seeming surprised at her deductive skills.
“Also you’re still holding a newspaper article about him.”
He looked down at his hands, as if surprised to find the paper clutched there. “Hm.”
The pair were silent for a while as she guided the car smoothly and swiftly through the downtown Dallas traffic.
“You’re worried about them,” she observed, not looking over at her passenger.
“What?” Five asked, startled out of his thoughts.
“Your siblings. You’re worried about them, and about whether you’re going to be able to find them and save them all in time.”
“Of course I am,” he snapped. “They’re my family and the world is going to end in ten days. And it’s my fault they ended up stuck here in the 60s in the first place, scattered and alone. I have no idea how I’m going to find any of the others besides Diego, or if they’re even okay, or how we’re going to stop the apocalypse. It’s all down to me, again.” He waved his hands agitatedly while he spoke, and she let him.
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re not on your own, then.”
He scoffed. “Diego’s not exactly my first choice of sidekick.”
“I wasn’t talking about him,” she rolled her eyes. “Did you think I was just here to be a quick substitute to a taxi?”
“Why would you help me?”
“Because you’re trying to save the world, which you know, is a place I live.” She shrugged. He watched her knuckles whiten as her grip tightened on the wheel almost imperceptibly. “And because you’re trying to save your family.”
He fell silent, catching the obvious implication of her tone. The air in the car seemed to grow heavy as once again neither of them knew what to say. Finally she pulled into the lot and turned the engine off.
“So I’ll just wait here for you to go get your brother and we’ll…figure out a plan from there, yeah?” she asked, an almost hopeful lilt to her voice.
He found himself surprising them both by nodding.
“Sure,” he said almost dismissively, exiting the car, being careful to shut the door gently, which brought a small smile to her lips.
~
“Shouldn’t there be two of you?” Piper asked as Five returned to the car.
“That was a total waste of time,” he grumbled, largely ignoring the question. “He’s right where he belongs. And I’m right back where I started from with no useful leads.”
She raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Well that weird guy with the satellites told you how to find one of them. Do you think he might know more?”
“How did you know where to wait for me?” He turned sideways to study her more carefully. “Why did you wait at that alleyway?”
“Commerce and Knox? Well that’s your protocol when tracking a target isn’t it? Start at a fixed point and work your way outward. The only fixed point you have is where you dropped out of the sky. So I waited there.”
“But how did you know that I arrived at Commerce and Knox?”
She shrugged. “It’s what Dad said. That you…” her eyes widened as something dawned on her. “That you all landed there.”
“So he knew that would be a convergence point…” Five muttered, clearly thinking rather than talking to her. “Did he say anything else?”
“Yeah, that I should stay out of it and stay away from you because apparently you’re ‘dangerous’ and ‘get people killed’,” she threw air quotes around the words in more a violent manner than Five was used to but she didn’t give him a chance to interrupt, shouting now, as tears welled in her eyes again. “Well look who’s talking now Da?”
She paused for breath before finally looking back at him. “What was my point again? Oh yeah, your siblings. I don’t really have anything to go on, other than knowing where they first arrived but if you have any more information like dates or hell, telling me what they look like, I can help you track them down.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are you done?”
“What? Oh, yeah, sorry. I just…needed to get that out?” She smiled sheepishly and he shrugged.
“Whatever. Elliot had photographs, we might be able to make something out from them.”
She nodded, starting the engine. “So you’re really leaving your brother in there?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
~
“You can just drop me off,” Five said as Piper guided her car back into the spot it had previously been parked. “I’ll handle things alone from here.”
“Uh, no?” she said incredulously as she tucked the keys in the pocket of her dress.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?”
She circled the car to stand in front of the man, poking her finger into his chest. “My Dad thought you were worth dying for. His last act was to save your life so you could save the world. I’m not letting you out of my sight until you make his sacrifice worth it.”
Her lower lip trembled and she brushed angrily at the tears forming the corners of her eyes. “So sorry, Old Timer, you’re stuck with me.”
Five felt his heart clench. She was right, he knew she was. But he didn’t know how to work with a partner after so long. And more than that, he felt like he owed it to Hazel – did she have to use the same nickname as her father did? Did she do it on purpose to make him feel more guilty? – to keep his child safe. He stared at the fire in her eyes, melding with the tears she seemed to now be pretending to weren’t falling. He sighed, and turned, headed for Elliot’s loft and assuming she was following close behind.
~
“Elliot,” she said, smiling sweetly and hoping to charm (rather than threaten as Five seemed to have picked as his go-to method) more answers out of the odd man. “You said that the big guy came and went most often. Elaborate.”
“Well…uh…he…” Elliot swallowed nervously, fiddling with his hands. “He came back every couple weeks for a-about three months? He’s stand around calling for Allison, or asking people…for an hour or-or-or so. Then he leaves again.”
“Is there ever anyone with him? Does he walk or drive?”
“I-I-I…I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” Five growled, leaning menacingly closer and making Elliot shrink with a muffled whimper. “Answer the question or I’ll kill you.”
Piper rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Are the threats helping?” she asked sweetly. “Here’s a hint: the answer is no.”
Five glared at her which only made her smile all the brighter, obviously trying to get a rise out of him.
“The last few times, he came in a big black car…”
“License plate number?” she asked, fairly certain that a paranoid conspiracy nut like him would have that sort of information.
The man scrambled up to rifle through a pile of papers on the table. Eventually, he found what he was looking for and rattled off a string of letters and numbers. It was all she could do not to smile smugly over at Five or make some quip about honey versus vinegar.
“Great. Well Elliot, you’ve been such a doll. I just need one more favor. Can I use your phone?”
He gestured to it as if to say ‘be my guest.’ She smiled, and plucking the paper out of his hand and sauntered over to it, dialing a number.
“Hi, I am so sorry to be a bother, but I just wanted to report…well I think I saw someone breaking into a car. It’s a big black one…” she paused, listening to the voice on the other end of the line. “Mhm. Well I know the license plate number is…” she hesitated, faking uncertainty before she read off the sequence.
“Oh honey, you must be mistaken,” the woman on the other end said. “That’s Jack Ruby’s car. No one in this town is dumb enough to mess with that. Especially not parked outside his place.”
“Oh, of course. My mistake. So sorry again to bother you. You have a lovely day.” She hung up before turning back to the two men.
“I know where to find your brother,” she smiled. “But it’s going to be a challenge getting to see him. This time of day, he’ll be at the Carousel Club.”
“That’s a…burlesque club. No kids or women allowed, except, you know, the dancers,” Elliot proffered hesitantly.
“Well, we’ll just have to break a few rules,” Five said with a smirk.
“We?” Piper asked, a little startled that he wanted her to tag along.
Five paused. “I meant I. It’ll be easier if just one of us goes.” He explained, his gut twisting when she stuck her lip out in a pout.
“Oh yeah, of course. I’ll just…see what I can figure out about the rest of your siblings here I guess…?”
He nodded before disappearing in a flash.
“Do you want some coffee? Or I could make food?” Elliot suggested with a nervous smile.
Piper laughed. “That’s sweet, Elliot, but I’m not actually getting left behind.” She kissed his cheek flirtatiously before bouncing cheerfully out the door. “See you later.”
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busysavingtheuniverse · 3 years ago
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may i ask you to elaborate on tua season 2?
hell yeah dude
for an easy answer @deer-time's tua salt tag is a really good starting place (though they've moved most tua-related stuff to their sideblog @salty-coffee)
but if you don't want to go through that basically, in no particular order:
it felt they were just shoving in scenes for the music and the soundtrack just wasn't as memorable as season one
the time skip ensured that we missed out on most of their development. i have a lot of beef with the time skip
i cannot stress enough how much the handler should've died in season one lol
WHY WOULD NONE OF THEM KNOW WHERE KLAUS WAS HE WAS LITERALLY A CULT LEADER
luther, at the very least, should've seen vanya's ads in the newspaper. diego allison and klaus i can understand because one was in an asylum (i have my beef with that don't worry lol), the other wouldn't read white newspapers, and the third was traveling
vanya's amnesia plot felt like it was just there to smooth her over? she got no meaningful interactions with the siblings because she didn't know them and the conflict they set up at the end of season one ('we need to fix her') never went anywhere. we love wlw representation but was vanya really ready for romance after all the shit that went down? she needs time to process and grow not forget everything and latch onto the first woman that takes her in. we got no exploration of her trauma. also why can she just automatically control her powers now? no trauma recovery narrative for vanya i guess. she spends the entire season as essentially a side character with no real agency in the plot? also where did the new powers come from hello
speaking of the romance literally none of it was executed well. why did raymond assume his WIFE was a government plant before at least hearing her out? vissy was written so shallowly it's not even funny. liego happened way too quickly and diego forgot about eudora too fast. klave was okay i guess lol idc abt them
why did diego and lila face no racism? why were they in an integrated asylum in the south? why did they actually show diego being helped genuinely instead of them just making his situation worse? i don't think therapy was that genuinely developed. diego felt like a completely different character
why would luther, known goody-two-shoes, work for the mob? also why would he not ask jack ruby to look up his siblings' names for him before? he went back to the alley so he at least had the thought that they landed in the same spot at different times right. also he was way too dumbed down and made into comic relief for the benefit of the luther haters
klaus was literally made irrelevant? he had nothing to do, his relapse was treated as a JOKE, his addiction wasn't explored, and he was basically just comic relief like luther
allison's plotline felt it was just there to get her out of the way, she totally forgot about claire, her trauma was ignored for the second season in a row, etc. she wasn't even mad at vanya like this woman slit your throat and incinerated your daughter i don't CARE that you treated her badly i think that's a pretty good basis for some friction? (screw the amnesia plot obviously)
five and ben were left pretty intact specifically because ben's personality isn't there and five didn't get a time skip
why did they forget that drugs suppress powers when vanya was with the fbi
very sexy of tua to introduce the concept of an evil corporation that's essentially the root of all their problems in season one and then redeem it but just giving it new management? and have five of all people look into the faces of herb and DOT, WHO LEFT HIM IN THE APOCALYPSE AND DIDN'T PUSH FOR HIM TO GET EXTRACTED, and say 'yeah guys totally! :)'
also he should've eaten carmichael i don't make the rules
NONE OF THE SIBLING BONDING FELT REAL BECAUSE WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE THEIR DEVELOPMENT. NOTHING VANYA DID FELT REAL BECAUSE OF THE AMNESIA
the swedes were legitimately not necessary. screw the swedes all my homies hate the swedes. why did they stay all the way until the finale
where did the five+allison jfk plot go that was so good
why did lila automatically know how to control their powers
elliott wasn't necessary either they should've just made their home base hazel and agnes's house with no unnecessary fridging please. that's where they could've gotten a briefcase too
the atmosphere felt completely different? season one was dark and slow and had the vibes of a gothic horror, almost? it was watching a train wreck in action, seeing all these plot threads inevitably combine for one hell of a finale. there was nothing like that in season two. aside from the obvious atmosphere change, it didn't feel like there was any direction to where the story was going? the only two highlights of the finale i care about are diego deflecting the bullets and five rewinding time. that's IT. and compared to season one's finale, it's utterly disappointing
idk it just felt like a popcorn flick/marvel movie and those are fine! those have their place! but the entire draw of tua was the darker themes and focus on childhood trauma/abuse, and they just completely failed to follow up. those have their place, and it was not here
all in all the writing just felt weaker
there's more in the 'tua salt' and 'tua s2 salt' tags
anyway tua is a ten-episode-long miniseries
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hella-broken-umbrella · 4 years ago
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Tua season 2 spoilers!!
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CAN I JUST SAY
OH MY FUCKING GODD
That was amazing the ending!!! Imaculate!
Sooo impressed! List of my favorite things go:
Ben got so much amazing screen time wow
Vanya got a girlfriend and an amazing healthy relationship
Harlen is a gift I love him
Hazel and Agnes at the beginning made me cry
THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Klaus's cult??? Lol
The klaus and allison scenes!
Also speaking of allison her getting thrown into the 60s and going right into creating a life for herself was a power move
Her husband was so good and her being apart of the rights group made me v happy
The representation is so good in this show wow
Lila was a wonderfully developed character and I did not expect her to be the handlers daughter but it happened and i love the plot twist so good
Hargreeves is still an ass but I must say I have gained more respect for him
Same with luther I like luther much more then I did the first season cause CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Diego's hair was very pretty
Also him learning how to control bullets and not just knifes
Let's hope for more development on that part in the future
Klaus being able to float because of ghosts holding him was amazing and a great way to add that part from the comics while still keeping to what they said before about wanting to keep it somewhat more realistic
I have also gained more love for the whole family as if that was possible
Them coming together yess
I was happy when that bitch husband died I hated him
He reminded me of Leonard
I really liked the swedes
They went well in the story and gave off similar but at the same time opposite vibes of hazel and cha cha
Their love for one another was sad but nice
I still dont know wich is wich tho since I only know their names from articles and stuff I've read
They are always put together so idk
Diago going to the commission and having to watch that stupid video
Them all deciding to go with vanya to help sissy made me cry also
Ben also made me cry I love him so much
Klaus general chaotic energy always fills me with joy
His moments with dave made me so sad
I just want them all to be happy
Five in general I love him
Going and seeing his younger but older self was exquisite
They dont trust each other and I wouldn't eather is I met myself
The sibling bonding
Have I mentioned CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
The ending with the fricken sparrow academy wow I did not see that coming but I probably should have
All the plot twists in this show make my days
I cant predict half of them like usual and I both despise it and absolutely love it
I am so hopeful to meet some more power children in the third season wwo
I'm running out of words to describe how good this is but I am dying right now
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tv-music · 3 years ago
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Umbrella Academy Review 1.08
I Heard A Rumour
We begin the episode joining Alison on her drive to find Vanya and warn her about her murderous boyfriend. During the long and lonely drive Alison finds herself thinking about the past, the fact that she used her power on her daughter is not new information, but as we heard the various things she’s used her power to get it's no wonder she doesn’t know if anything in her life is real - ‘I heard a rumour that you loved me’ - really Alison? 
As she’s looking for Vanya she comes across the crime scene from the night before and lies to the cop about some research she's doing for a movie in order to tag along on his investigation. They visit the hospital and speak with the surviving thug, and yep shocker, Leonard set the whole thing up. Later in the episode it’s revealed that the last survivor has left the hospital but no one seems to know where he is. Alison is told to stay put by the cop but after finding out her sister is no longer at the hospital either she leaves to find her
Leonard and Vanya are checking out of the hospital when Vanya hears that 2 of the 3 men she involved in the incident the night before have died, that's pretty big news to take in and Leonard didn’t even flinch - seriously Vanya you’re still not wary of this guy? Back at the cabin, Leonards reading through Reginald’s journal and we’re treated to a flashback of Vanya’s training, it seems as though Vanya never really managed to control it. During her next practice in the forest, Vanya finally realises what it is that fuels her power and taps into it, this time on purpose. Later in the day Vanya has a moment of panic and decides to practice her violin as Leonard is out
Back at the academy Klaus is still sober and shares his conversation with their Dad with his siblings, he killed himself to bring them back together (Klaus’s delivery of that line made what should have been a serious scene quite funny) His brothers aren’t convinced at first until Pogo finally tells them the truth about that night. Five finally asks the question that I’ve been wondering, just how did their Dad know about the apocalypse, of course they don’t really have the answer to it or the time to wonder about it too much, they only have a couple days at best after all
Diego’s still in jail after his arrest but as it turns out not everyone is convinced of his guilt and he finds his way out. He gets back to the house and wastes no time in telling Five and Klaus that their sister is in trouble, they go to find Luther who is still feeling sorry for himself and drowning his sorrows - seriously what part of worlds going to end in 2 days does he not understand? He doesn’t want to help at all, that is of course until they tell him Alison’s gone after a convicted killer by herself and then he’s literally running out the door to help
Cha Cha’s broken free and determined to make good on her threat to Hazel, she heads straight for Agnes’s diner and blows it up - Hazel should be afraid cus she means business
Alison makes it back to the cabin and finds Vanya alone there, Vanya reveals to her that she does have a power and Alison tells her the truth about Leonard and tries to get her to leave. Look, I know it’s been a rough week for Vanya, her Dad’s death, reuniting with her siblings, meeting Leonard and discovering she has a power which she then uses which inadvertently causes the death of 2 people, but seriously why is she arguing with Alison about who Leonard really is? They’ve known each other for 5 or 6 days at most, what possible reason would Alison have for making this up?
There's a series of flashbacks in this episode, showing Vanya’s training up to and including the events that led to Reginald making her and everyone else think she was ‘ordinary’ but the final of these flashbacks is revealed to us and to Vanya by Alison. Alison explains that she was brought to the chamber Vanya was being kept in as she was ‘sick’ and her father asked her to rumor her into thinking she was just ordinary - this explains why Vanya has no memory of having a power in the first place. 
I’m sorry but Vanya’s reaction to this is just ridiculous, I get it, like I said before she’s had a bad week but blaming Alison for something their Dad made them do when they were 4 is completely unfair - no Vanya, Alison didn’t do this to you, your Dad did, Alison was a child who was manipulated by an adult, even you must be able to see that. 
This revelation led to an increasingly volatile argument between the sisters as Vanya’s emotions raged and she lost control of her powers, trying the only thing she knew Alison attempted to rumour her, but before she could get the words out, Vanya lashed out and slit her throat. There was instant regret, as this action brought Vanya back to herself and she desperately tried to stop the bleeding, before Leonard arrived and dragged her away from her sister, leaving Alison bleeding out on the floor alone. If that doesn’t wake Vanya up to who he really is then nothing will. 
It’s not clear how long it’s been between Vanya leaving and the brothers arriving, but when they do Luther rushes to Alison who seems to be still alive - I’ve said before that I don’t feel any real fear when it comes to main characters being in dangerous situations (the exception being GOT and any viewer of that show will understand why) and to be honest, I’m not too worried about Alison. This is a show about people with supernatural abilities and therefore I’m sure there will be some way to save her life, the fact that she was still alive when the episode ended supports this. The moment itself however was shocking and made me physically gasp - it was a truly holy shit moment. I’m not sure what I was expecting in the moment Vanya learned the truth or how she would react but I sure as hell didn’t think she would turn on her sister in such a vicious way - it really did seem like something else had taken over Vanya in those moments, like it wasn’t really her, and if her Dad had seen her turn like that too when she was younger I hate to say it but maybe he did what he thought was best at the time. I still disagree with his actions, hiding her powers from her and treating her so awfully throughout their childhood, but I can see the reasoning behind it
Extra Thoughts
I really enjoyed the animation at of the Umbrella Academy during Alison’s bedtime story to her daughter 
Was it just me or did Reginald look genuinely afraid of Vanya at one point during her training? - I noted this down while watching the training scene and now I’ve seen the episodes ending it makes a lot of sense
I’m sure I’ve said this before but the music choices in this show are incredible - that whole department deserves a raise 
It was nice to see an episode revolving around the women of the academy but I did miss Five and Klaus not having as much to do this episode
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nobody-wants-ice-cream · 4 years ago
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Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 8, I Heard a Rumor.
This episode is particularly brutal. Warnings include child abuse, domestic abuse, suicide, rape, gore, and manipulation. Keep yourself safe.
We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals
Run Boy Run
Extra Ordinary
Man on the Moon
Number Five
The Day That Wasn’t
The Day That Was
Disclaimer: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!
I would also like to add that normally you wouldn’t watch a show this way. I am purposefully looking for mistakes, easter eggs, and other things that we’re not supposed to notice. I am watching not with the goal of entertainment, but for analysis. So most of the things that I sin, I am seeing for the first time.
Also, no I can’t do better. I am in no way qualified to give this level of criticism about anything. I am not taking this seriously. At all. 
I Heard a Rumor
Stormy Weather by Etta James. I adore this song. When I first watched the show I was so happy when this song came on.-1
I am also taking a sin off for the Emmy Raver-Lampman version -1
It looks like Allison genuinely adores her daughter. And Claire’s bedroom? I would want to have that room now and I am at least ten years older than her. -1
Speaking of, how old is Claire? Sin until we have answers. +1
The animations for the story of The Umbrella Academy defeating the robbers at the museum. -2
“While your Uncle Klaus got a little distracted.” What did Klaus do on missions again? +1
Allison carefully censors the mission so she is still telling the truth but doesn’t actually say that Diego used knives or that Ben used the horror to (presumably, we don’t know how much control Ben had) kill four people. Good job. See Reggie, this is how you don’t traumatise your kid with violence. -1
“Their leader.” Looks suspiciously like a villain from the comics. -1
“I wanna hear the one about the Eiffel tower.” Me too, Claire. Especially since the magazine clips we see suggest Five was there this time. -1
Mind control. ON A CHILD. This is what bothers me the most about Allison as a character and I am glad that she is moving past it. However, in no universe can I let this go. Depending on how Allison used it, Claire’s emotional control could be fucked for life. +40
Patrick behaves like a rational human being and doesn’t blow up at Allison for this in front of their child. He also divorces her in order to keep said child safe. Good. -1
“I heard a rumor you love me.” Who did she say this to? It doesn’t matter who, it’s still disturbing, but oh dear God who did she say this to? I think this is the second most fucked up thing we hear Allison say after the rumoring Claire scene. +10
Allison is going 120 kmh, or 75 mph, in the rain. If you have ever driven a car in the rain then you know exactly why I am sinning this. For those who don’t know, google hydroplaning. Allison could have died here very, very easily. +3
Title screen on a billboard! I forgot how cool the episode 8 title screen was. -1
Allison doesn’t bring her proof with her when going to confront Vanya, who has been shown to be irrational when it comes to Leonard. +1
Bird jumpscare. +1
“They want me to come back tomorrow be fitted for a prosthetic eye”. Leonard places emphasis on the words “prosthetic eye” to remind the viewers that Leonard is bad news. Good acting choice. -1
Leonard’s clothes look freshly bloody when the blood should be several hours old and therefore a more rusty brown color than a bright red. I think. I don’t know if that’s how it works with such large amounts of blood. +1
Luther’s bed is now magically big enough to fit both him and the rave girl. +1
Luther’s reaction to the rave girl. Rewatch this scene to get such a laugh at Luther’s face. -1
How out of it was Luther vs the rave girl? Consent issues on both sides. +3
Luther treated the rave girl to some wine? Or cranberry juice? How thoughtful. -1
I really, really hope they were safe though. There is no evidence to imply they were safe. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you’re too young to be watching TUA). +1
Klaus is such a little shit. “Wakey wakey! Eggs and bakey!” while ringing the bell. Peak sibling culture is doing this sort of thing while knowing that the other sibling is NOT going to appreciate it. Also, Klaus deserves his revenge after last night. -1
The little wave the rave girl gives Klaus. -1
Go back and watch this scene. Holy shit this is so underrated. This is the funniest thing ever. -1
“He popped his cherry! Now you’re gonna have to marry her” -4
Klaus doesn’t remember his first time. Consent issues. +3
“No dilly-dallying, alright?” I love Klaus. -1
Klaus makes french press coffee for Luther and Ben. Klaus is a good brother. -1
I would kill to see Ben’s reaction to Luther and the rave girl. +1
Five snatches Luther’s coffee and not Ben’s, ya know, the guy who can’t drink the coffee. And is invisible. Five is a dick to Luther or Five wanted to be a little shit to Luther after having to hear him and the rave girl. Either way, +1
He steals the coffee and he complains about it. +1
Ben! -1
“This is a bad idea” no shit. +1
The awkward pauses where Ben is presumably speaking don’t make sense here. +1
The camera trickery used to make Luther look like a giant compared to Five. -1
Five knows where the aspirin is “top shelf next to the crackers” because he was also hungover. I think. I can’t remember if FIve stopped back at the house, but presumably he and Luther had to go there to get the car. -1
Luther still isn’t getting up to get the aspirin even though he can listen just fine while getting it. +1
Ben adding to the dramatic tension of the scene in a uniquely humorous way that only this show can pull off. -2
Luther doesn’t believe Klaus about Reggie’s suicide. What reason would Klaus have to lie about this, Luther? +1
Five believes him right away. -1
Convenient Pogo backing up Klaus is convenient. +1
This has nothing to do with this very dramatic and important scene, but the mismatched chairs, while cute, don’t appear in any other scene. +1
Five calls Reggie a “sick bastard” under his breath. That’s one way to describe him. -1
Pogo kept this secret for a long time. Not telling the kids was a strange choice and I’m not sure why Pogo made it. On one hand, he would be respecting the wishes of his creator and friend but on the other he would be helping these people come to terms with their father’s death. Pogo’s character motivations are strange and I don’t understand them. +1
Luther said it best, “there’s always choice.” +1
Random thought I had, where was Harold’s grandmother when he was being abused and then going to jail because he killed his abuser? +1
Leonard says some nice things in this scene. If we didn’t know how manipulative he was I would give him credit for this line. +1
Agnes looks adorable out of the Griddy’s uniform. Costume/hair people, you did good. -1
Agnes keeps saying things like “we aren’t in a rush” and talking about seeing three years worth of stops to remind us that there is no time. Hazel looks heartbroken by it. -1
Allison abandons her vehicle. Do not take driving advice from The Umbrella Academy, ever! +1
Allison sees a random scarf from several cars away and immediately connects it with Vanya. Does she also have super sight? +1
The first time we see Allison get recognized by a random stranger for her acting is eight episodes in. +1
Cheddar (the cop Allison is talking to) is so enamored by Allison that he stops doing his job correctly. +1
“Jackpine cove” who named these towns? +1
Allison and Five have the same little shrug when they finish telling terrible lies. -1
Allison is a terrible liar. +1
Diego is still in jail. They’re talking about transferring him upstate. This is really bad news. +1
“Did she use that word? Contentious?” The definitions of contentious all say the word argument. Beeman says that Diego and Patch had an argumentative relationship. This matters to Diego. Why? +1
This conversation was written by someone who doesn’t understand the connotation of the word contentious. +1
Beeman encourages Diego to escape and go on the run. Are all the cops incompitent on this show? You have Patch, who hasn’t pinned Diego for obstruction of justice despite the show implying that Diego has touched evidence he wasn’t supposed to many times, Cheddar, who is so distracted by Allison freakin’ Hargreeves that he forgets that taking her along to a murder case is unethical at best, and Beeman who straight up encourages Diego to escape from jail. That last one is definitely illegal. +10
The parallel between Five and Leonard reading something they aren’t supposed to have in the bathroom. Both the apocalypse file and the journal are red, too. This means something but I don’t have the analysis skills to really go into it. If anyone wants to take a crack at it, go ahead. Sin removed because I know this is smart even if I can’t figure out why.-1
Vanya’s training implies that Reggie has been training these kids hard since they were at least four years old. +7
Current Sin Count: 73
Reggie doesn’t praise Vanya for breaking the glass, he just demands that she does it again. Say it with me now, Reggie is a dick. +1
Leonard straight up uses the word extraordinary. Sigh. +1
The description for how Vanya’s powers work (concentrate on a constant sound until that’s all you can hear and then use an emotional connection to target) is surprisingly good. This is the best description of somebody’s powers we’ve ever gotten in this show. -1
Klaus is attempting to get the yarn on the needle and failing miserably. This is one of the simpler, if tedious, things we do in knitting. Therefore, it is completely understandable how a beginner can’t make heads or tails of it. -1
Five is still injured. The old man walk gives it away. +1
Five treats Klaus like a second in command. I want more of this duo. -1
“So how’d the crazy bastard actually know to kill himself a week before the end of the world?” We would all like to know the answer to that question. Five would be excellent at cinema sins. +1
“Don’t answer, that was purely rhetorical.” Nice cop out, show. +1
Reggie used The Apocalypse to make his kids do the dishes. Checks out. +1
Five and Klaus bond over hating doing the dishes and the person making them do the dishes. Sibling culture. -1
“Where have you been?” “Jail. Long story.” The looks on Klaus and Five’s faces! -2
Vanya breaks the monocle. Good job, kid. However, if you know the comics then you know why I am mildly concerned about this. -1
“That will conclude your training for the time being.” Meaning the next 25 years. Reggie, you suck. +1
Now Vanya’s powers are a bit more vague and imply that she has super hearing. +1
Leonard’s training routine actually includes some praise, which is a step up from Reggie. However, a step up from Reggie is still someplace in hell, so it’s still a sin. +1
It’s also a sin because it’s uncontrolled and Vanya is afraid of it, yet Leonard keeps pushing her. +1
Leonard uses the kind of language Reggie would use to describe Vanya’s powers. Checks out because he read Reggie’s book and is using his ideas to train Vanya. +1
Helen Cho’s missing person poster reminds the viewer that Leonard is bad news. +1
Vanya plays for the St. Pluvium Chamber Orchestra. First of all, no they have a conductor. +1
Second of all, “Pluvium” means of or relating to rain. The Umbrella Academy fights against the leader of the rain orchestra in episode 10. Who came up with that pun? That is absolutely hilarious. -1
Based on a post by @seven-valid-libras I think Griddy’s is across the street from this bar? I am not 100% sure. If it is then that’s a sin off because Agnes definitely has a bunch of drunk people coming in for doughnuts every now and then. I lowkey want to write this fic. -1
“Maybe they’ll brood each other to death” Is this a reference to the fact that Luther and Diego were both too emo for umbrellas in episode 1? -1
I feel so bad for Luther right now. Reggie really fucked with his head. +1
After hearing that Vanya’s boyfriend is a convicted murderer, Luther is more concerned for Allison than he is for Vanya. +1
Diego’s face when Luther says “you should have led with that!” [the fact that Allison went after a convicted murderer alone] -1
Luther is right. Diego should have led with that. +1
Luther breaks the door in his rush to get out of the bar. Checks out. -1
Mary J. Blige. -1
The shop is closing because Agnes is leaving? Who owns Griddy’s? +1
And if the shop is closing, then why leave doughnuts on the shelf? Are they gifts for the other waitresses who are now out of a job? +1
Agnes keeps a flamingo (presumably, scented) candle in a bakery. +1
Cha Cha was way too close to that explosion to not get some scratches at the very least. +1
Sergeant Cheddar is letting Allison stay in the room while he interrogates Mr. Luntz (the man that survived Vanya’s powers). +1
What kind of person allows themselves to be hired by some guy in order to beat him up in front of his girlfriend? Who does that? Are there people like that who exist in real life? +1
Allison doesn’t get pissed off when Luntz says that they started to hurt the girl (Vanya) too. +1
Sgt. Cheddar finally gets pissed off with Allison after she starts leading Luntz. This took way too long. +1
“What I really need to do is practice,” said every musician ever. Including me. As I’m typing this I’m putting off practicing. Vanya is calling me out. I deserve it. +1
Also, Vanya just got first chair and so far she still hasn’t learned the solo the day before the concert. That is such a mood. -1
The cracks in Leonard’s personality are finally starting to show. If Harold was smart he would let Vanya do this without attempting to manipulate her into more practice. +1
Vanya left her violin propped up in the middle of a sofa. That is a broken violin waiting to happen. +1
Where is her rosin? Don’t tell me she reuses the same rosin and doesn’t clean her instrument. Please. +2
Leonard doesn’t tell Vanya where he will be going. He just sort of leaves without a note. This would be fine if this universe had cell phones, but it doesn’t. Leonard is a dick. +1
Agnes would like to spend her (Hazel tells her it’s hypothetical but we know it’s not) last two days on Earth with Hazel. That is so sweet. But also, they met less than a week ago. +1
This is the turning point that makes Hazel an active character that wants to stop the apocalypse. Finally some character motivation that makes sense! Whoop! -1
They Call Me a Fool by Damon is another one of my favorites from the soundtrack. What can I say, I’m a sucker for jazz. -1
There is a parallel between Five leaving Vanya’s apartment and Leonard leaving her at the cabin. Her brother (whom I assume she loves) and the man she is infatuated with both leave her at some point without warning. The people who Vanya loves keep leaving her. +2
Vanya puts her violin down on a chair and lets the bow fall. Bows are expensive. +1
“I made a secret place just for you. None of your siblings get to play there.” Of course Reggie is framing it this way. He’s scared of her. +1
The further away from Pogo the camera is, the less real he looks. +1
Reggie and Pogo locked Vanya in this cage. +1
Vanya’s violin bow fell down but in the next shot it’s propped on the chair. +1
Sgt. Cheddar tells Allison to stay put but has no way to verify that she actually will. Also, if he’s such a fan then shouldn’t he know that she used to be a superhero? +1
Allison kept her proof about Leonard/Harold in the car again. +1
“I love you. And I wanna be here for you as your sister.” -1
“I love him.” Vanya you met him less than a week ago. +2
If there was ever a wrong time to bring up the fact that you took Vanya’s powers away and left her with a horribly low self esteem due to the poorly worded “I heard a rumor that you think you’re just ordinary”, it would be now! Now is the wrong time to bring this up! +10
Reggie used Allison to make Vanya powerless. Reggie is a dick. An absolute bastard. A complete scumbag. Etc. +20
Reggie has also been drugging Vanya since she was FOUR YEARS OLD. +50
Insert Reggie insults here. Feel free to come up with your own in the tags. Fuck this guy repeatedly with a rusty chainsaw. +20
Vanya is not in the right state of mind to understand that Reggie is the one that made Allison rumor her. +1
The final fight between Allison and Vanya is heartbreaking. Emmy Raver-Lampman and Ellen Page are excellent actresses. -5
Vanya’s skin keeps getting paler and paler. Foreshadowing. -1
This is the only time Allison attempts to use her powers in the show. To save her life. I would say that it is pretty justified. -1
Violin bows are not sharp enough to cut human flesh. Is this another part of Vanya’s power? +1
Gore warning! This is super fucked. Not gonna lie, I gag a little every time I see this.+4
Vanya is freaking out and then Leonard walks in. Vanya’s mental state is completely out the window at this point. +4
Leonard manhandles Vanya into letting her sister die (as far as they know) on the floor of the cabin. +10
Allison has definitely lost enough blood to kill her, yet she survives this. +1
Leonard went out to kill Luntz. +10
Nobody in the car (Five driving, Klaus shotgun, Luther and Diego in the back) is wearing a seatbelt. +1
Also, of these four people, Five is the most qualified to drive right now? Diego is sitting right there! And we saw Klaus drive the ice cream truck! Luther would have some trouble driving because he’s so large. But really?? +2
“Can you go any faster?” “Ask me again and I’ll burn you with the cigarette lighter.” The comic relief doesn’t really land here because the scene before was so dramatic and the music is still playing. To change the mood, the song would also have to change. +2
Independently, that is a pretty funny Grandpa Five line. -1
Including Ben in the scene where they find Allison bleeding out on the floor is a subtle reminder to the audience that if Allison was dead, Klaus would be able to see her ghost. The lack of a ghost means she is still alive. +1
Also, this scene has all the original members of The Umbrella Academy in it. Look how far they’ve come from the bank robbery. +6
No one is checking for a pulse right now. They’re just assuming that Allison is dead. +10
Overall Review: It goes without saying that this episode is fucking brutal. When I first watched it I had to stop and go do something else for a while because of the rumor reveal and the throat thing. That was really, really concerning. Props to Emmy Raver-Lampman. She fucking killed it this episode. If anyone was wondering if she was a good actress (ya know because of all the “come look at this” lines she kept getting) then this episode made it very clear that she can act and she does it very, very well. 
So, Vanya’s sanity is out the window, Allison is down for the count, and no one cares about the apocalypse right now. That last one is understandable because of Allison’s situation, but damn it really isn’t looking good for the Hargreeves siblings. 
Also, I want to talk about something. This is the last episode in which Allison and Vanya are both capable of speech. And in the eight hours we have known these two women, they have had multiple conversations. All of them have been about a man. Their brothers, their father, Patrick, or Leonard/Harold. Seriously, the two women in this show that are main characters never have a conversation that isn’t about a man. There is no excuse. With the fridging and this, you have to wonder if the writers on this show hate women or something? I don’t normally add sins post analysis, but I think I will make an exception for this one. +100
Total: 283
Sentence: Serious gore. 
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marjaystuff · 3 years ago
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Elise Cooper Interviews Christina Baker Kline
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline brings to life five women in nineteenth century Australia.  All faced similar hardships struggling for redemption and freedom in this new society. They were mistreated and taken from a culture they knew. These women were all brought to their new lives against their will but showed strength and courage.
Evangeline, orphaned after her Vicar father died, found a job as a Governess.  But the stepson living in the manor seduces her and shows her affection by giving her a family heirloom ring.  The maid, Agnes, finds it and accuses her of stealing it.  To make matters worse, she pushes Agnes and is now also accused of attempted murder.  Found guilty she is sentenced to fourteen years in an Australian prison.
Olive, also a prisoner, befriends Evangeline. Accused of stealing, she received a sentence of seven years and transport to the Australian prison.  She was street wise and knew what was needed to survive.
Hazel, a sixteen-year-old, was accused of stealing a silver spoon and sentenced to seven years in the Australian prison. She is a skilled midwife and herbalist, bartering her skills for goods and favors.
All three women are transported to Australia on the ship, Medea.  They must struggle with sea sickness, avoiding sailor’s advances, and the harshness of the journey.  Evangeline also must deal with being pregnant, the father being the stepson.  She knows she will give birth to her baby while at sea.
Mathinna, the Aboriginal native, an orphaned daughter of the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land the setting for the Australian prison. She is used by the Governor’s wife as an experiment in civilization, trying to make her into a “lady.” Her life intersects with Hazel’s about two-thirds of the way through the book.  Although Mathinna is not a convict, she like the other women is a prisoner with no control over their life.
Caleb Dunne is the doctor on the ship.  Because of a misdiagnosis of a prominent woman, he decided to escape and signed up for the ship.  Shy and feeling out of place he first forges a friendship with Evangeline, both enjoying the discussion of books.  But later he and Hazel become friendly after he realizes her worth as a mid-wife.  Their relationship becomes stronger as the story progresses.
The story fascinatingly allows the reader to follow the lives of these women in 19th Century Australia as they forge a new life with new opportunities.  People will have their eyes open to pieces of history that are still pertinent today. It is obvious the author did her research and intertwined it into a riveting novel. Readers’ take a journey with these women and root for them as they gain strength and resilience.
Elise Cooper:  How did you get the idea for the story?
Christina Baker Kline: I was inspired by a small article I read in a newspaper about criminal ships.  The point of the article is how convicts then had it harder than today.  I thought how parts of my life intersected with this story. I had a life-changing six-week Rotary fellowship to Australia. I taught in women’s prisons.  I also wrote a book with my mother about the second wave of the women’s movement.  A lot of the issues in this book are relevant today including the needed reform of the criminal justice system and the role of women in society.  I think it is a hopeful story.
EC:  Why the map in the front of the book?
CBK: I wanted to show the route from London to Van Diemen’s Land, renamed Tasmania.  It is from the mid 19th Century.  I hope readers get a sense of the wide-open places including the placement of the ports, an understanding of the geography. This is the setting where the convict women stayed.  
EC: Why the Lowreenne Tribe?
CBK: I went to Australia and Tasmania before Covid.  I learned when I arrived about the Aboriginal people who were essentially being pushed into open air concentration camps.  By the late 1860s there was no full-blooded Aboriginal people left in Tasmania, out of thousands.  I felt it would be irresponsible if I did not address it.  Mathinna was a real person who died tragically at the age of seventeen.  Everything I described in the novel actually happened to her.
EC:  How would you describe Evangeline?
CBK:  She was the perfect person to lead the reader into the story, in some ways a stand-in for the reader.  Evangeline was naïve and emersed herself in books.  The convict world was a shock for her.  She was inquisitive, thoughtful, brave, and very lonely.  She did not know how to survive as a convict because she was not tough so depended on Olive and Hazel.
EC:  How about Hazel?
CBK: She had this “superpower” of healing; a knowledge learned as a mid-wife.  Hazel knew how to balance things really well.  She was savvy, caring, and angry at being abandoned.  I think she goes through a change in the novel.  At first, she was a mistrusting teenager, betrayed by her mother.  As the story unfolds, she begins to trust more people and comes to love the baby, Ruby.
EC:  How would you describe Olive?
CBK: Funny, irreverent, a comic relief, and does what it takes to get by in prison.  
EC:  What about the relationship between Dr. Dunne and Hazel?
CBK: He is called the “hot doctor.” As with Hazel, he also changes over time.  He went on the convict ship because he needed work.  At first, he befriends Evangeline who is more like him.  Yet, over time Hazel and he realize they share an interest in medicine.  He comes to respect her.  All the class restrictions fall by the wayside.
EC:  How would you describe the doctor?
CBK:  A complex character.  At times he could appear to be a jerk because he was dismissive, a snob, but overall caring.
EC:  What was the role of the Quakers?
CBK:  They believed the convicts were worthy of redemption.  Elizabeth Fry was a real person who helped them.  She was very judgmental because she thought they were sinners.  She gave them a sense of dignity and treated them as human beings but was never 100% accepting.  
EC: There are similarities with today’s topics?
CBK:  Most of these women sent to Australia committed crimes of poverty.  They stole to feed themselves and their family since there was no social safety net.  These women fell through the cracks.  The criminal justice system was brutal then. Back then the poor had no rights and were considered expendable.  Legal counsel was only for the rich and the poor had no recourse. Evangeline was an example of someone without allies, resources, and representation.
EC:  Why did the British courts sentence these women to prisons in Australia?
CBK:  The goal of the British government was to populate Australia. It had a ratio of nine men to every woman.  They were sent there under flimsy pretenses. Today, 20% of Australian descendants come from convicts.  The Australian personality was forged within their convict past: irreverent, willing to take changes, and never took themselves very seriously.  When out of prison, these women had opportunities they would never have had in Britain.
EC:  Why the drowning scene?
CBK:  I wanted to show how no life is sacred.  I read books on drowning.  Sebastian Junger who wrote the non-fiction book, The Perfect Storm describes in detail how someone drowns.  This was very helpful to me with those scenes in the book.
EC:  A powerful quote, “People we love live inside us, even after they’re gone.” Please explain.
CBK: In my novels I often talk about this. In Orphan Train the book begins with the line, “I believe in ghosts.  They are the ones who haunt us.  They are the ones that left us behind.” With both quotes I thought about the tree metaphor. I love the idea of years that pass, giving us a core of strength.  The convict women were alone and had to draw on what they had internally.  Even though they lost someone they still had a piece of them in their memories.
EC:  What about your next projects?
CBK:  My next book, probably out in 2023 will be set in the Civil War era in North Carolina.  This novel has been optioned for a TV series by Bruna Papandrea.  I will be an executive producer.
THANK YOU!!
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263adder · 4 years ago
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TUA S2 First Impressions
All right, I’m three episodes in. Will likely watch another three tonight. I already have plot predictions and I’m interested to see how many will turn out to be right so I’m writing them down. I wrote each one after seeing that episode so things progress as I learn more. Spoilers for the first three episodes, obviously!
E1
My word this is a lot of new characters!
Lila is so far the only promising one (and the only one whose name I currently remember) though I’m guessing she’s going to turn out evil, all interesting but mysterious characters usually turn out to be evil.
Solid music choices.
Agnes deserves better than a 5 second montage. They didn’t even play the Hazel & Agnes score from S1 which - find it on the soundtrack, it is delightful! But given his appearance I’m guessing the Commission will return in some form.
I’ve seen too many ‘save Kennedy from assassination’ plots, so I know this ain’t gonna end well!
E2
Ah Carmichael! I’m here for this! And the Handler is alive!
Okay, Luther’s boss seems like a good character too. Not sure how that’ll pan out though, given he’s based on a real person. The other newbies still seem a little flat but early days.
I’ve changed my mind about Lila. I think she’ll be evil but redeem herself so she’s not too much of a Leonard 2.0.
The Swedes (I think that’s what they’re being called in promos) seem weird but in a cool way. Not as interesting as Hazel and Cha Cha but still neat. They don’t strike me as the main villains though, just henchmen. 
So Diego is going to have another character crisis after meeting Reginald? What is he up to - the mannequins in the home make me think of nuclear bomb tests. Interesting. Baby Pogo is very cute.
Have I mentioned yet how much I dislike amnesia plots? Why did they do this to my joint favourite character? They just stint actual character development. Also, did the people who ran her over ever you know, take her to a hospital! I was expecting after catching up to the “present” she’d be in a hospital. Are they evil? Are they like the really evil people and Lila and Carmichael are red herrings? Or do they work for the Commission? Did they run her over on purpose and move her into a house in the middle of nowhere for a ploy? Would that be too predictable? Hmm, onto episode 3. 
E3
I like Allison’s story line but honestly it’s been 3 episodes, how hasn’t she mentioned her daughter yet? Please, talk about Clare (am I spelling that right, or is it Claire?). Either way, she’s found Klaus now, how has she not mentioned she misses her daughter? She talked about her throughout S1! 
Klaus meeting Dave feels like the start to a Back to the Future film and he’s going to make himself disappear by meddling in his own past too much. Honestly there has to be some kind of ramification for changing the timeline so much. Same with Allison’s plot. Does it all get undone at the end?
Loving Five protecting Vanya from the knowledge that she caused the apocalypse. He does care about them all deep, deep down. But I guess she’ll find out it was her eventually and maybe run away from her family and back to the other family (I have got to look up their surname but I’m scared of spoilers)?
I’m liking Allison’s husband more now (that scene with Luther was hilarious), but the people who hit Vanya with a car? (There’s too many side characters, it’s going to take at least 2 more episodes before I get all these names down) “Hey you found your missing family, that’s great! But when are you coming back to work?” Give them a moment! I’m convinced they’re the bad guys now, why don’t they want her to discover her real identity? 
Does Lila have powers? Is she one of the other children? That would be so cool - I really want to see more of them! Of everything, I hope this prediction is true.
Looking forward to episode 4. Don’t spoil for me, I want to see how much I get right. It’s like reading a murder mystery, I’m trying to guess who the end of season main bad person is and which one of these side characters is going to die (I’m guessing Allison’s husband? Raymond? You know, I had a distant relative in my family whose name began with R and I would always cycle through every name beginning with an R until I would finally remember it was Raymond, and I seem to be having the same problem here. Why am I so bad at names?).
Until tomorrow!
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tickle-fic-chick · 4 years ago
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(Spoilers Below The Cut)
So I spent the day binging the second season of Umbrella Academy...
It’s so good, you guys! Here are just a few of my thoughts on it.
When Hazel told Klaus that Agnes died from cancer I started tearing up. Can no couple in this show get a happy ending? Oh, and to make matters worse, they KILL HAZEL not even a minute later! I’m gonna miss my lovable, donut-eating assassin! Maybe an alternative version from another timeline will appear in later seasons?
That scene with Allision, Klaus, and Vanya in the hair salon was amazing! It was nice to see them finally bonding, even if they did so by teasing each other and getting drunk.
This season turned Luther from a problematic yet sympathetic daddy’s boy into someone who takes accountability for his actions and actually tries to do better. My heart was breaking for him when Reginald said all those terrible things about him and wouldn’t even acknowledge what he had done to Luther in the future.
Oh, and while we are on the topic of Luther, is apology to Vanya and overall behavior this season was great. It’s so good to see him actually learning from his mistakes and standing by his sister even after knowing what she was capable of.
Ooooh, Diego is such a dumbass but my heart still hurts for him. This season really put a spotlight on how big of a hero complex he has thanks to Reginald. Even after months of (forced) therapy he hadn’t even began to open up. However, I think now he is finally ready to start healing.
Allision’s new relationship kind of rubbed me the wrong way at first. Like, she got remarried? What about her husband and daughter? They aren’t mentioned all that much this season, which I found strange for someone so dedicated to her family.
Regardless, her ongoing story line about the civil rights movement felt really fresh and relevant, especially with everything going on in the world at the moment. The plot kinda gets dropped as the season goes on and I was a little disappointed by that. However, the later half of the season was already juggling so many plot lines that I can see why it drifted into the background.
Klaus starting a cult is so in-character for him and I loved every second of it. I also enjoyed his ongoing bickering with Ben, from Ben lying during the card game and making Klaus lose his necklace to their ridiculous fight on the side of the road.
Vanya’s relationship with Sissy was one of the highlights of the season for me. Vanya deserved someone so much better than Leonard and she finally got it. While I wasn’t happy that Sissy stayed behind in the past, I understood her reasoning. She couldn’t put her son in any more danger and being around Vanya would do that.
I swear, Ben is the cutest person in the world. When he possessed Klaus just to confess his feelings to the girl he liked...aaaaaah! Oh, and when she suggested they have sex? Ben looked about ready to hit the floor. I was dying through the whole scene, it was so funny and sweet!
Ben’s sacrifice had me tearing up, ya’ll. The fact that he stayed for Klaus, even when he could have went on to Heaven, was super touching. I hope he can finally find peace now.
Okay, the SPARROW ACADEMY?! They did not have to leave us on that cliff hanger! It will likely take at least another year to get the next season, especially with he ongoing pandemic. Looks like another long wait...
Overall, I enjoyed this season a lot! I’d say it’s on the same level as the first season, which is pretty good considering how most shows dip in quality after the first season. Let’s just hope the show keeps this quality into the next season.
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tomeandflickcorner · 4 years ago
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Umbrella Academy Rewatch 1x08
1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07
The race is now on, as Allison attempts to find Vanya, in order to warn her that her boyfriend, Leonard, is actually Harold Jenkins, a convicted murderer who is believed to be the man who will bring about the apocalypse. 
As Allison drives out to the cabin that had belonged to Harold Jenkins’ grandmother in the hopes that she can find Vanya there, she remembers an event that had happened a year ago. She had been putting her daughter, Claire to bed and had just finished telling her a bedtime story about some of the exploits of herself and her brothers when they were still involved with their superhero stuff with the Umbrella Academy.  Particularly a time when they stopped a bank robbery.  When the story is over, Claire kept insisting on hearing another story, but Allison insisted it was time for her to go to sleep.  When Claire started to get demanding, Allison ended up using her power on her, by saying ‘I heard a rumor that you’re really tired, and what to go to sleep.’  This ended up getting Claire to back down and go to bed without a fuss.  Unfortunately, Allison’s now-ex-husband, Patrick, had witnessed this, and is clearly not happy.
Okay, so... is this the incident that resulted in the courts stripping Allison of her custody to her daughter, mandating that she had to take court-ordered therapy sessions before she could get visitation rights?  If so, that’s really stupid.  It’s possible I’m just not getting it, but why exactly was this such a big deal?  I don’t get if.  It’s not as if she was using her powers to force Claire to get her beer while she sat in front of the TV all day instead of taking care of her kid, or anything neglectful like that.  She was getting her kid to go to sleep.  I think we can all agree that kids that age need a consistent sleep schedule.  I’m fairly certain any mother in the land would have done the same thing if they were in Allison’s shoes.  Was there more to this story?  Was their some sort of concern that Allison using her power on Claire would have caused her permanent brain damage?  Was it a case of X-Men-esque paranoia?  I believe, in the X-Men comics, a lot of people feared the mutants on principle simply because they had out-of-the-ordinary abilities and therefore persecuted the mutants.  Did the courts have similar prejudice against Allison going on?  I don’t understand!
Regardless, this incident has ended up being traumatic to Allison, as she’s now sworn off using her powers ever again. And this is driven home when we hear Allison’s memories of other times she used her power on others.  Some seem pretty innocent.  Case in point one moment when she used her power to get someone (probably Claire) to like broccoli.  Eating vegetables is important, after all.  But with others, I can see why Allison is feeling like she was abusing her powers.  For instance, there were apparently times she used her power to force someone to be her friend, land an acting role, or even got someone to love her.  Yeah, I can agree those examples are pretty bad.  Eventually, Allison makes it to the cabin,  But when she gets there, nobody is home.  Which makes sense, since Vanya and Harold/Leonard are still at the hospital following the incident the night before.  
Speaking of which, we then switch over to them.  Harold/Leonard wakes up Vanya, who had been sleeping in the chair next to his hospital bed.  Vanya is surprised to see he’s already dressed, and even more so when Harold/Leonard announces he’s leaving.  After all, he probably still needs to be observed one more time before being officially discharged.  But Harold/Leonard states that’s not necessary, as the hospital just wants him to come back tomorrow so he can be fitted with a prosthetic eye.  Vanya, upon being reminded that he lost an eye, starts to apologize, but he waves her apology off.  They then head off.  But on the way, they’re stopped by a nurse, reminding Harold/Leonard that the doctor hadn’t discharged him yet.  Vanya is momentarily confused by this, as that statement has contradicted what he’d told her, but Harold/Leonard insists that he’s ready to leave, so he simply signs the voluntary discharge papers.  Before they leave, Vanya asks about the three other men that had attacked them, who were also brought into the hospital after being injured by Vanya’s power explosion. The nurse informs her that two of the men were DOA, but the third man was still alive, though in critical condition.
Back at the Umbrella Academy mansion, Luther wakes up with a massive hangover from his night of drinking at the rave.  He is shocked to find that a naked woman is lying in bed next to him, indicating that he brought someone back from the rave for sex.  Klaus then swings by Luther’s room and proceeds to simply be a typical brother, good-naturally teasing the flustered Luther for it, especially when he realizes this was Luther’s first time with a woman.  Klaus then gets serious, telling Luther that they’re having a family meeting downstairs.  
When Luther makes it down to the kitchen, Klaus pours him a cup of coffee, which Number 5 (who is clearly feeling better) promptly steals.  Ghost Ben is also there, but of course, only Klaus is aware of that.  While Klaus voices his awareness that Diego and Allison are absent, he nevertheless begins the meeting, informing his brothers that he managed to make contact with Reginald last night.  Luther is confused, reminding Klaus that he claimed he hadn’t been able to conjure up anyone in years.  Klaus admits this is true, but states that he’s now completely sober.  He goes on to inform Luther and Number 5 that Reginald wasn’t murdered but that he committed suicide in order to trick them into getting together again.  Luther, however, refuses to believe it, accusing Klaus of playing games again.  Until Pogo enters the room and confirms Klaus’ statement, also admitting he and Grace had assisted with the suicide, with Grace’s programming being altered so she wouldn’t be able to administer first aid on that fateful night.  Reginald had believed that, if the Hargreeves Siblings had banded together to try and solve the murder mystery, it might inspire them to want to be a team again, so they could save the world. Luther is incensed over this bombshell, especially since he was still feeling hurt over the revelation that his mission on the moon had been meaningless all along.  He berates Pogo for not saying anything sooner, despite watching him search for answers.  Pogo is visibly remorseful, but tells Luther that he had only been honoring Reginald’s dying wishes and that he had no choice.  This isn’t good enough for Luther, though, and he storms off, telling Pogo that there’s always a choice.  Number 5 also teleports off to think, leaving Klaus alone with Ghost Ben.
Sometime later, Vanya and Harold/Leonard return to the cabin.  Harold/Leonard attempts to reassure Vanya that what happened to the three toughs wasn’t her fault, and that she had acted in self-defense. Vanya is still shaken up, though, stating that she shouldn’t be able to do something like that.  It’s clear that, while she is starting to accept the fact that she does have powers, she’s upset that she can’t control them, with them only exploding out of her when she’s not trying to use them.  Harold/Leonard consoles her, stating he’ll help her learn to control it.
While all this is going on, we also get the subplot with Hazel and Agnes.  They did indeed run away together, but are now stuck in a traffic jam. Hazel grows morose when he sees that Agnes’ road trip has three years worth of sights in store, with her happily stating they have time to see them all.  After all, she doesn't realize the apocalypse is supposed to happen in just two days.
In a curious coincidence, Allison is also stuck in the same traffic jam.  Why she didn’t stick around at the cabin is anyone’s guess.  She ends up driving past the same restaurant where Vanya’s powers went haywire, seeing the police are there investigating the incident.  As Allison glances over at the crime scene, she notices Vanya’s scarf hanging from the restaurant's sign, making her realize that Vanya had been there.  So she gets out of the car and ducks under the police tape to investigate.  Allison is immediately stopped by a cop, Sergeant Cheddar, who is investigating the scene.  She tries to question him about what happened, but he insists that she simply read about it in the paper tomorrow.  Although, Sergeant Cheddar’s tune completely changes when he recognizes her.  It turns out Sergeant Cheddar and his wife are huge fans of Allison’s movies.  (Remember, Allison is a big movie star.)  Taking advantage of this fact, Allison tells him that she’s actually going to portray a cop in her next movie and is looking to do some research on law enforcement.  She asks if she can shadow him for the day, as it could help her develop her character if she could witness him in action for the day.  Sergeant Cheddar, being a huge Allison Hargeeves fanboy, agrees to this almost instantly.
Meanwhile, Diego is still in his jail cell.  He is visited by Detective Beeman, who informs him that they’re transferring him to upstate that afternoon.  He also states that he does believe in Diego’s innocence, knowing that he wasn’t the one who murdered Detective Patch.  However, that’s not enough to get the suspicion against him thrown out, since Diego was placed at the scene of the murder, and people on the force had witnessed the two arguing on more than one occasion.  Detective Beeman then reaches out to shake Diego’s hand, wishing him luck.  After they shake hands, Detective Beeman walks off, leaving Diego alone with the key he stealthily slipped him.
Back at the cabin, Vanya is practicing her violin, getting ready for her big concert.  As she’s practicing, Harold/Leonard secretly consults Reginald’s journal, which includes Reginald’s notes on Vanya’s powers.  The notes reveal that sound can help activate Vanya’s abilities.  This is further illustrated in a flashback, where Reginald, during a training session, managed to get Vanya to shatter a wine glass simply with the sound of a tuning fork.  Taking advice from this, Harold/Leonard takes Vanya deeper into the woods and instructs her to try and recreate the scene last night.  Vanya then thinks back, remembering the men laughing, the sound of them kicking Harold/Leonard and the rumbling of the car engine and a dog barking nearby.  Instantly, Vanya realizes that it was the sound of the car engine that did it, as that sound ended resonating in her mind to the point where it was the only thing she could hear before her power unleashed itself.  She finds the whole thing terrifying, but Harold/Leonard insists that its extraordinary.  He then convinces Vanya to try and tap into her powers again, getting her to focus on the sounds of nature around them.  Such as the wind chimes hanging from the cabin nearby, a squirrel in a nearby tree and the water rushing along a creek.  Harold/Leonard tells Vanya to focus on one sound in particular, with Vanya zeroing in on the sound of the water in the creak.  This results in Vanya’s power manifesting again. Harold/Leonard is ecstatic, but he sees Vanya is starting to panic, so he calms her down, informing her that her ability is tied to her emotions.  Vanya is confused how he knows this, as she doesn’t know about Reginald’s journal.  Harold/Leonard is able to cover up his slip up by claiming he made a lucky guess, going on to ‘theorize’ that Vanya can convert the sounds around her into energy when she is feeling strong emotions.  Vanya accepts this explanation and kisses him.  Though she has to push him out of the way when a tree branch falls towards them,
Of course we also get a reminder of how dangerous Vanya’s power can be.  In another flashback to her training sessions with Reginald, Young Vanya not only shattered all of the wine glasses, she also ended up cracking Reginald’s monocle.  Which also apparently left a cut along his cheek.  Reginald seemed almost fearful of the raw power she possessed, as he announced their training sessions were over for the time being.
We then cut back to the Umbrella Academy mansion.  Klaus is in his room knitting something when Number 5 walks in, trying to wrap his head around things.  He starts to discuss with Klaus his confusion about something that he can’t figure out.  He only learned about the approaching apocalypse by travelling to the future.  But Reginald, who can’t travel in time, clearly knew enough about it to know to kill himself a week before it happened.  Number 5′s musings are interrupted when Diego rushes in, having just escaped from jail with the key he got from Detective Beeman.  He informs them that Allison may be in danger, as he knows she went off to track down Harold/Leonard alone.  They search for Luther, locating him at a bar, still drowning his sorrows.  Diego tries to offer him some comfort, telling him that their father lied to all of them.  But Luther just wants to be miserable, stating he’s done with all if it- with Reginald, his brother and the whole family.  He states that if if the others want to save the world, they’re welcome to try, but he’s going to stay put and keep feeling sorry for himself.  Until Diego tells him that Allison headed off on her own to find Vanya, as Vanya’s boyfriend is a convicted murderer.  The knowledge that Allison was in danger pushes Luther into action, with him telling Diego he should have led with that detail.
Elsewhere, we see that Cha-Cha has managed to get free from her handcuffs.  She heads right over to Griddy’s Donuts, but finds the place is closed, with a sign from Agnes on the door informing customers that she’d decided to close the doughnut shop.  Angered, Cha-Cha breaks in to search for clues on where Agnes and Hazel were going.  In doing so, she finds a brochure for some bird sanctuary.  And then, for good measure, she blows up the building by turning on the gas burners and leaving a lit candle behind.
We then cut back to Allison and Sergeant Cheddar.  The latter is questioning Mr. Luntz, the guy who survived the incident with Vanya’s powers the night before.  Mr. Luntz reveals that it was all a setup. Turns out, Harold/Leonard had actually paid them to pick a fight with him, saying he wanted to impress his girlfriend.  But they had gotten drunk and got a bit carried away.  Allison cuts in, asking Mr. Luntz about the description of the guy who paid him, also showing him the picture of Vanya on the back of her copy of Vanya’s autobiography and asking if that was the girlfriend.  Instantly, Sergeant Cheddar realizes that Allison had lied to him and confronts her over it.  Allison apologizes for lying but explains that it was the only way she could get answers, and that she’s trying to find her sister, who might be in trouble.  While Sergeant Cheddar still isn’t happy, he seems to understand Allison’s reasons.  But before they could question Mr. Luntz further, the nurse stepped in, stating they’d have to come back later so they could run more tests on the injured man.
Returning to the cabin, Vanya announces that her concert is tomorrow, and she wants to practice her violin a bit more.  Upon hearing this, Harold/Leonard gets a bit petulant. He tries to coax Vanya to practice mastering her powers some more, as they already had a breakthrough and Vanya mastering her powers is important.  Vanya counters this by stating her music is also important.  Harold/Leonard instantly backs down, but he doesn’t seem to happy as Vanya steps out to practice her violin.  While she’s occupied, he quietly steps out.  So, when Vanya is done with her practice session and comes back inside, she finds that Harold/Leonard is gone.  Immediately, she starts to panic, searching the cabin for him frantically.  In her panic, she has a flashback to a point in her past, most likely after Reginald started to grow fearful of the magnitude of Vanya’s powers.  One evening, Reginald had brought Young Vanya down to a chamber deep beneath the mansion and placed her into a soundproof cell, telling her she needed to stay in a controlled environment.  Once she was sealed in, he left her down there for an undetermined amount of time.  To try and settle her nerves after that flashback, Vanya starts to practice her violin, simply focusing on the sound of the violin.
Meanwhile, Hazel and Agnes have arrived at the bird sanctuary.  Hazel, still mulling things over, asks Agnes what she would do if she knew she only had two days left to live.  Agnes replies she’d choose to be anywhere Hazel was.  Which is just too sweet!  I can’t with these two!  Anyway, Agnes notices that Hazel seems distracted about something and she asks him what’s going on.  Hazel tells her he can’t really explain at the moment, but there’s something he has to take care of before he can join her.  He tells her to go enjoy the bird sanctuary and that he’ll come back for her as soon as he can.  So, after sharing a kiss, Hazel drives off, with Agnes watching him go.  Of course, Hazel may have made the wrong call in leaving Agnes alone, as we see Cha-Cha is already on her way to the bird sanctuary.
Back at the hospital, Allison and Sergeant Cheddar are waiting to question Mr. Luntz some more, but the nurse comes out to inform them that he’s gone missing.  She had taken him out to for x-rays, but he disappeared.  Sergeant Cheddar states he’ll call it in, in case anyone spots him.  Allison then asks the nurse if she’d seen Vanya and the nurse confirms she had been there that morning.  Allison realizes that Vanya and Harold/Leonard had been there when she’d stopped by the cabin earlier and decides to try going back.  Sergeant Cheddar instructs her to not go anywhere, as Harold/Leonard might be dangerous, and they have a missing person to boot.  But Allison chooses to not listen to his instructions and heads off anyway.  
She arrives back at the cabin while Vanya is still playing her violin.  And Allison immediately notices the lights and rocking chairs out on the porch. are swinging from side to side, as they’re being manipulated by Vanya’s powers.  Allison quickly heads inside and finds Vanya, who is surprised to see her sister.  Allison is equally surprised when Vanya tells her of her newly discovered powers, but she pushes her amazement aside to focus on the more important task of getting Vanya to safety.  She tries to break the news to Vanya about who her boyfriend really is, telling her that Leonard Peabody doesn’t exist and that he’s really Harold Jenkins, who murdered his father when he was 13 and spent 12 years in jail as a result.  Vanya, of course, doesn’t believe her.  Allison tells her that the proof is all in the police file, which is waiting in the car, also telling her of the whole murder shrine of the mangled and defaced Umbrella Academy memorabilia they found in Harold/Leonard’s house.  She goes on to try and reassure her sister, saying that she can understand how it must be a lot for her to take in, but that she loves her and wants to be there for her sister.
Understandably, Vanya has an emotional breakdown.  She’d fallen in love with Harold/Leonard and can’t believe any of this stuff about him could be true.  Not to mention the revelation that she’s had this power all her life and never even knew it.  At that moment, Allison remembers an old childhood memory of hers.  One that never really made sense to her, but now that she’s learned of Vanya’s powers, she’s able to look at it again with fresh understanding.  It turns out that, while Vanya was being kept in that soundproof room when they were all 4-years-old, Reginald had told the other Hargreeves Siblings that Vanya was sick and had to be isolated.  But then he brought Allison down there and instructed her to tell Vanya ‘I heard a rumor you think you’re just ordinary,‘  (It was at this time that Reginald also started putting Vanya on that medication, which we now can see was meant to nullify her powers.)
So obviously, Reginald had been so fearful of Vanya’s raw abilities, he chose to simply keep them hidden from everyone rather than continue to train her to control them, and had even manipulated Young Allison to assist him in his goal.  And it kind of makes sense how nobody remembered that Vanya used to have powers when they were very young.  After all this all went down when they were 4. Not many people can have clear memories of their life that far back.  Anyway, When Vanya learns of this, she is understandably furious.  But in her anger, she ends up blaming Allison, accusing her of knowing she had powers the whole time and choosing to keep them a secret because she didn’t want Vanya outranking her.  Vanya continues her rant, declaring she plans on staying with Leonard, who was the only one who ever really loved her.  As Vanya’s rage builds, the light fixtures around the house start to go haywire and eventually explode, and Allison’s attempts to calm her down only enrage her further.  In sheer desperation, Allison elects to use her powers to calm Vanya down. But before she can complete her statement, Vanya lashes out with her bowstring, which ends up slicing through Allison’s throat.  
The moment this happens, Vanya’s rage vanishes, being replaced by horror over what she’d just done.  She dashes forward to catch Allison as she falls to the ground, clutching her heavily bleeding throat.   As Vanya cries out her apologies for hurting her sister, Harold/Leonard returns to the cabin.  He takes one look at the scene before him and seems to figure out what just happened.  So he grabs Vanya and physically drags her away, telling her that they have to get out of there, during a deaf ear to Vanya’s cries and sheer reluctance to leave Allison bleeding on the floor.  In the end, however, Harold/Leonard manages to drag her away and he drives them away from the cabin, driving right past the body of Mr. Luntz, who he must have killed to keep him from blabbing.  By the time, Luther, Diego, Klaus, Number 5 and Ghost Ben make it to the cabin, Allison has lost consciousness and appears dead.  And so the episode ends on that cliffhanger.
Final Observations/Questions:
Is Allison going to live?
What’s going to happen to Vanya?  Will she get away from Harold/Leonard?
While I do understand Vanya’s fury, it wasn’t fair of her to blame Allison for what happened.  Allison was just as much a victim as Vanya had been.  Thy were toddlers at the time.  Of course they wouldn’t question what Reginald was telling them.  And I believe Allison was telling the truth when she said she didn’t understand what happened that night until now.  And the fact that they all forgot that Vanya had powers at the age of four is also believable, since they were still very little back then.
What exactly did Reginald do to get Pogo to go along with everything he did.  It was clear from his facial expressions that he wasn’t happy with what he was doing to Vanya, but he still went along with it.  So what kind of psychological hold did Reginald have on him?
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queenofangrymoths · 5 years ago
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Book Log of 2019
I kept a record of how many books I read in 2019. I liked most of them so I would recommend you give any of them or read.
So on with the list! If it has an X next to it then it means I didn’t finish reading it. 
#1: Warcross by Marie Lu.
#2: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.
#3: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.
#4: Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova.
#5: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Roshani Chokshi, Alyssa Wong, Lori M. Lee, Sona Charaipotra, Aliette De Bodard, E. C. Myres, Aisha Saeed, Preeti Chhibber, Renée Ahdieh, Rahul Kanakia, Melissa De La Cruz, Elsie Chapman, Shveta Thakrar, Cindy Pon, and Julie Kagawa.
#6: The 57 Bus by Daska Slater
#7: The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White.
#8: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
9#: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver.
10# The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
11# A Study In Charlotte by Arthur Doyle
12# Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli
13# The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
14# Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
15# The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
16# Carry On by Rainbow Rowel
17# Teen Trailblazers, 30 fearless girls who changed the world before they were 20 by Jennifer Calvert
18# Evermore by Sara Holland
19# The White Stag by Kara Barbieri
20# One Dark Throne by Kendra’s Blake
21# Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
22# A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
23# King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo X
24# Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
25# The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
26# Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
27# Mythology by Edith Hamilton
28# Percy Jackson Greek Gods by Rick Riordan 
29# Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus
30# The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
31# Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
32# Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt De La Peña
33# The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux
34# Roseblood by A.G Howard X
35# Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J Maas
36# Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
37# Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown
38# Through The Woods by Emily Caroll
39# The Wicked Deep by Shes Ernshaw
40# Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
41# Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
42# Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward
43# Modern Herstory: Stories Of Women and non binary people rewriting history by Blair Imani
44# White Rabbits by Caleb Roehrig
45# To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Adapted by Fred Fordham
46# Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan
47# Ever The Hunted by Erin Summeril
48# Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
49# Lost Souls, Be At Peace by Maggie Thrash
50# Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash
51# The Giver by Lois Lowry adapted by P.Craig Russell
52# My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand. Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
53# What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera X
54# An Assassin’s Guide to Love & Treason by Virginia Boecker
55# The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas adapted by Nokman Poon and Crystal S. Chan
56# The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R Tolkien
57# What is someone I know is gay? By Eric Marcus X
58# Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig
59# The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien
60# The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien X
61# The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien
62# Lafayette by Nathan Hale
63# Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
64# We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
65# The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson
66# Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
67# Norton Volume Of English Literature
68# Beowulf by Unknown
69# The General Prologue by Chaucer
70# 20/20 by Linda Brewer
71# Always in Spanish by Agosim
72# The First Day by Edward P. Jones
73# Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff
74# Writing Fiction by Burroway
75# Murderers by Leonard Michaels
76# Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases by Lars Gustaffson
77# Cathedral by Raymond Carver
78# A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley
79# Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov
80# The Lives of the Dead by Tim O’Brien
81# Head, Heart by Lydia Davis
82# Richard Cody by Edwin Arlington Robinson
83# “Out- Out-“ by Robert Frost
84# The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy
85# I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth
86# Poem by Frank O’Hara
87# On being brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley
88# On her loving two equally by Aphra Behn
89# Because you asked about the line between Prose and Poetry by Howard Nemerov
90# Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish
91# Ars Poetica? By Czeslaw Milosz
92# Ars Poetica #100: I believe by Elizabeth Alexander
93# Poetry by Marianne Moode
94# “Poetry makes nothing happen”? By Julia Alvarez
95# Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins
96# In Memory Of W.B. Yates by W. H. Auden
97# The kind of man I am at the DMV by Stacey Waite
98# The Changeling by Judith Oritez Carer
99# Going to war by Richard Lovelace
100# To the Ladies by Mary, Lady Chudleigh
101# Exchanging Hats by Elizabeth Bishop
102# History Of Ireland Volume 1 by Lecky X
103# A Modern History of Ireland by E. Norman X
104# The Tempest by William Shakespeare
105# Gender by Lisa Wade & Myra Marx Ferree
106# Trifles by Susan Glaspell
107# The Shroud by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
108# King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison
109# Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin
110# Fences by August Wilson
111# Where are you going, where have you been? By Joyce Carol Oates
112# Daddy by Sylvia Plath
113# What is our life? By Walter Raleigh
114# May I compare thee to a midsummer day? By William Shakespeare
115# The love song of J. Alfred Prufruock by T. S. Eliot
116# À unr passante by Charles Baudelaire
117# In a station of the metro by Ezra Pound
118# The Fog by Carl Sandburg
119# The Yellow Fog by T.S. Eliot
120# On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats
121# the Road Not Taken by Robert Frisr
122# Paradise Lost  Book 1 & 10 by John Milton X
123# The Victory Lap by George Saunders
124# The Tempest by William Shakespeare
125# The Vanity Of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson
126# Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
127# When to Her Lute Corinna Sings by Thomas Campion
128# Sir Patrick Spens by Anonymous
129# Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall
130# A Prayer, Living and Dying by Augustus Montague Toplady
131# Homage to the Empress of the Blues by Robert Hayden
132# The Times They Are A-Changin’ *
133# Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005!by Linda Pastan
134# Hip Hop by Mos Deff
135# Elvis in the Inner City by Jose B. Gonzalez
136# Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost*
137# Terza Roma by Richard Wilbur
138# Stanza from The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats
139# Stanza from His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
140# Stanza from Sound and Sense by Alexander’s Pope
141# Stanza from The Word Plum by Helen Chasin
142# Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
143# Myth by Natasha Trethewey
144# Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop
145# Sestina: Like by A.E. Stallings
146# l)a by E.E Cummings
147# Buffalo Bill by E.E Cummings
148# Easter Wings by George Herbert
149# Women by May Swenson
150# Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair by Franceso Petrarch
151# My lady’s presence makes the roses red by Henry Constance
152# My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare
153# Not marble, nor the gilded monuments by William Shakespeare
154# Let me no to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare
155# When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton
156# Nuns Fret Not by William Wordsworth
157# The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth
158# Do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
159# In an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti
160# What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay
161# Women have loved before as I love now by Edna St. Vincent Millay
162# I, being born a woman and distressed by Edna St. Vincent Millay
163# I will put Chaos in fourteen lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay
164# First Fight. Then Fiddle by Gwendolyn Brooks
165# In the Park by Gwen Harwood
166# Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley by June Jordan
167# Sonnet by Billy Collins
168# Dim Lights by Harryette Mullen
169# Redefininy Realmess by Janet Mock
170# Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood
171# The House Of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges
172# Death Fuge by Michael Hamburger
173# Clifford’s Place by Jamel Bickerly
174# We are seven by William Wordsworth
175# Lines written in early spring by William Wordsworth
176# Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth
177# The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth
178# Lines by William Wordsworth
179# Recitatif by Toni Morrison
180# Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer
181# The Management Of Grief by Bharati Mukherjee
182# Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
183# Jesus Saves by David Sedaris
184# Disabled by Wilfred Owen
185# My Father’s Garden by David Wagoner
186# Practicing by Marie Howe
187# O my pa-pa by Bob Hicok
189# Mr. T- by Terrance Hayes
190# Late Aubade by James Richardson
191# Carp Poem by Terrance Hayes
192# Pilgrimage by Natasha Trethewey
193# Tu Do Street by Yuaef Lomunyakaa
194# Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
195# Elena by Pat Mora
196# Gentle Communion by Pat Mora
197# Mothers & Daughters by Pat Mora
198# La Migra by Pat Mora
199# Ode to Adobe by Pat Mora
200# Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy
201# The Silken Tent by Robert Frost
202# Metaphors by Sylvia Plath
203# The Vine by James Thomsen
204# Questions by May Swenson
205# A Just Man by Attila József
206# the norton anthology of world literature
207# Pan’s Labyrinth by Gullernio de Toro and Cornelia Funke Xw
208# The prince and the dressmaker by Jen Wang
209# Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath
210# The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
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angst-fairygodmother · 4 years ago
Text
On Her Father’s Wings (The Umbrella Academy S2 Fic)
CHAPTER 2: FATHERS
What if there was one more thing left in Five’s care at Hazel’s untimely passing? Something more precious than a briefcase, more useful than a tape, and infinitely more infuriating. A smart-mouthed girl determined to pick up where her father left off and help save the world, whether the Hargreeves like it or not.
Word Count: 5230 Rating: T for canon-typical violence, swearing
Warning: this chapter contains major spoilers for both S2:E2 (The Frankel Footage) and plot twists later in the season. Read at your own risk.
Cross-posted to AO3: here Previous Chapter: New Sidekick
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“So that went well…” Piper drawled, leaning back against her elbows on the edge of the bar.
Five startled, causing her to snicker.
“How did you get in here?” he asked, sounding less surprised or impressed than she’d hoped and not even bothering to look up from his drink.
“Fun fact, they’ll let anybody in when you’re dressed like a cigarette girl,” she said wryly. “So what are you going to do now? Besides mope into a whiskey?”
I don’t know,” he admitted with a sigh. “I’ve struck out with both siblings I’ve been able to find.”
“So far. But you all landed in the same place, and Elliot said they all went back to the alley looking for the rest of you, so odds are these two aren’t the only ones that stuck around Dallas. Just have to keep looking.”
“And what if I say no?”
“Then I’ll kick your scrawny ass and do it myself.”
He looked up at her finally, surprised by her determination, only to quickly look away again, blushing from her sequined and very revealing outfit.
“Do you want me to stick around, keep an eye on this brother and see if he leads us to the rest?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
“No need. He said he thought we were all dead.”
“Cheerful. Could he be lying? I mean he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see you from where I was standing. Maybe he thinks he’s protecting them?”
“Protecting them? From me?”
She shrugged. “Anything’s possible. I mean you are a time-travelling assassin. And I don’t know what family Christmases are like at your house.”
Five sighed in exasperation. “Stay if you want. I’m going back to Elliot’s. He’s still, unfortunately, my best lead.”
He continued to sip his drink. She rolled her eyes, not liking the feeling of being dismissed. Still, she decided, she may as well spy on his brother and Jack Ruby while she had the opportunity.
Just as she was about to walk away, Five finished his drink, muttering about how their father should have left Luther on the moon as they both watched the larger man “escort out” a drunk. Then he stood, the pocket of his jacket catching on the back of the chair and tearing away to reveal a bulky yellow box. He took it out, staring at it, puzzled.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked her almost absently, voice sounding like his mind was far away.
“No idea,” she answered, eyes fixed on the label, on handwriting as familiar to her as her own. “It was in your pocket. Why would I know about it?”
“I think Hazel put it there. When he saw those goons get off the bus.”
“Well, it’s probably important then. You should go figure out what it is. I’m going to stick around here and see if I can’t find out a little more about your brother problem.”
Five frowned, glaring as she turned the tables, dismissing him for once, but she was already walking away, a cheerful smile plastered on her face as she held out her cigarette tray in question to one of the other club patrons.
Not long afterward, Piper watched as Luther exited through a back door, and followed, keeping far enough back that he wouldn’t notice, or at least she hoped not. He seemed to freeze, staring as he watched a mystery woman climbed into a car near the payphone out front. Piper couldn’t see his face, but she didn’t really need to to recognize the shock written across his entire body. The woman stared back for just a moment, confusion on her expression evident.
“Vanya,” she heard Luther whisper as the woman shut the car door and drove away.
Luther turned, watching her go, and Piper caught a glimpse of his distress before she ducked back inside to avoid getting caught tailing him. Back inside, she leaned against the wall, biting the nail of her thumb as she debated sticking around to see what other events unfolded for the night and reporting back to Five that she had at least some idea of where another sibling was.
Her decision was made for her though, when an unnervingly large arm pressed across her, pinning her to the wall by her shoulders.
“Who the hell are you?” Luther asked, face mere inches from hers and twisted into a scowl.
“Relax, there’s no need for violence here,” she said, trying to placate him.
“Why are you following me?”
“I’m not. I mean I was. Sort of. I mean it was more general surveillance than ‘following.’ Although it did…also involve following…”
“Shut up and answer my questions.”
“Um, which of those would you like me to do? Because I can’t simultaneously shut up and…speak, which I need to do to answer your questions.” She tilted her head questioningly to one side and put on her most charming smile.
He pressed his arm harder across her collarbones, shaking her, the pressure making it momentarily harder to breathe until she adjusted to it.
“Quit playing games. Who. Are. You?”
“My name is Piper Rofa. I’m with your brother, Five. A fact that he’s not super thrilled with because of his whole grouchy loner thing, but I’m not about to let that stop me. I stayed behind to keep an eye on you in case there was more you knew or something, even though he’s willing to write you off as a lost cause. Because I’m not about to let the world end based on the fact that your asshole family can’t get their shit together.”
His hold on her slackened, though the arm was still large enough that even slight pressure kept her in place. “I don’t know anything. Until Five showed up, I thought everyone was dead.”
“So that wasn’t your sister in the car?”
“It…was. But tonight was the first time I’d seen her since…”
“Since she blew up the moon and tried to kill you all? Or was that the other sister?”
“No…that was Vanya. How do you know so much about us?”
“It’s a long story. One I’ll happily tell to all of you once you’re rounded up in the same room but I really don’t want to have to keep going over.”
“I’m done with that life.” By now he had released her completely, but she remained rooted in that spot anyway.
“But they’re still your family. Don’t you want to see them?”
“Are they?” his voice was soft, pained. “All I’ve ever done is push them away and hurt them. It’s better for everyone if I just…don’t go back.”
“Bullshit. Family’s hard, but also family’s family. Whatever you’ve fucked up, they still love you. Or at least, the one I’ve met does. You should have seen his face…”
He stared at her, mouth open in shock, face twisted in uncertainty. “How…how many of them are together right now?”
“None. But we can make it at least three, possibly four if you give me that address, and you come with me back to our makeshift base of operations. We still haven’t found Allison or Klaus?” she hesitated, unsure she had the names right. “And the other brother is locked up in an asylum which Five for some reason decided not to spring him from, but that’s…fixable.”
“I’m not going to give you this address. I don’t even know if Vanya actually lives there, but if she does…I don’t know you, no matter what you claim. And I need to talk to her first. Alone.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Fine, suit yourself. Just, when you’re done, both of you should come to Morty’s Television and Radio.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“I guess that’s all I can ask,” she shrugged. “Now unless you’re planning any other secret sibling reunions or interesting events, I should probably be off.”
She gave him a wink and wave as she sauntered away.
~
“I can’t tail a car on foot!” she shouted in frustration as Five raged. “And what else was I supposed to do? Fight your brother for the wallet? He could snap me in half like a toothpick!”
“You incompetent…useless…” his face was rapidly reddening. “What is the point of you if you can’t even do a simple task?”
“Hey!” she glared, folding her arms over her chest. “At least we can confirm that she’s still in Dallas. And that she’s either a very good actress or didn’t recognize your brother. Neither of which we’d have without me sticking around, which you called a waste of time. Besides, Luther all but said he was going after her, so we can tail him there.”
“Don’t bother. Let’s just focus on this tape from your father and hope it’s more helpful than you are.”
She bit back the first retort that came to mind, sticking her tongue out petulantly. “Do you have the magic power of film development now too?”
His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth angrily. “No. I don’t have the power to develop the film. But I’m sure I will find someone who can.”
“Some stranger? When there could be signs, clues, or references to the apocalypse? Great plan. Definitely won’t lead to panic or getting arrested as a terrorist or anything. Especially if you drag them out of bed to do it.”
He sighed angrily. “What would you suggest then?”
“Wait until morning, see where these came from,” she gestured to the photos around the loft. “Until then, do some more research through all this junk to see if we can find where the last two siblings are?”
She watched him struggle with himself, not wanting to admit that she was right.
“Now pass me that box,” she gestured to a large cardboard box overflowing with sheets of paper and newspaper clippings, clearly things that Elliot thought were important but hadn’t gotten around to sorting into his desk or “conspiracy wall.”
~
Hours later, Elliot shuffled out of his bedroom, setting up a pot of coffee before noticing that the two time-travelers were there, each wrapped in their own heads and oblivious to the world.
“Do…do you like eggs?” he asked them, stammering out an offer for breakfast, cutting through their thoughts. “Or cereal?”
Piper looked up, smiling politely as she accepted and Five waved him off, muttering about “just needing coffee.”
As the girl and Elliot ate, Five looked around again, eyes falling to focus on some of the strange images on the walls.
“Elliot, did you develop these photos yourself?” he asked, leaning in to look closer at one of them.
“Of course. Can’t exactly drop that stuff off at the neighborhood Fotomat,” Elliot stood, walking across the partition with his bowl of cereal. “Government has eyes everywhere.”
Piper rolled her eyes, half listening as they discussed the lack of darkroom and Five asked him to develop the footage her father had slipped him.
As Elliot began listing supplies and excuses for why they were difficult to get, she rose, moving to lean in the doorway, arms folded.
“Elliot,” Five said, face taught with frustration.
“It’s like five, maybe six hours.”
“Would it go any faster with a sweet ride?” she asked, spinning her keychain, complete with neon orange rabbit’s foot, around on her finger.
Elliot’s eyes lit up at the prospect and Five became distracted by the call over the radio.
“The hell is a code 3-15?”
“Fugitives on the run,” Piper and Elliot said at the same time, glancing at each other in surprise before focusing back in on the rest of the call.
“Oh, Diego,” Five sighed, pressing his lips together and turning his eyes toward the ceiling as if to ask God ‘why?’
“Who’s Diego?” Elliot asked and Piper gave him a puzzled look.
Hadn’t they talked about it the day before, when he’d shown Five the mugshot? Or was the at least 30 hour day starting to mess with her memory? She shook it off, surreptitiously pinching the flesh of her own upper arm, the quick, sharp pain waking her up some.
“Imagine Batman, then aim lower,” Five explained before turning away from the radio.
She snorted at the description, which just about matched up to what her father had told her.
“You get started on that film,” he told Elliot. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Actually, it’s probably faster for you to go alone,” she pointed out with a shrug. “I mean you can just pop to him and sort things out without…awkward introductions or sidetracking. Plus, I can get the supplies, help Elliot here; we’ll know what’s on that tape a lot sooner.”
Five hesitated. She flashed him a reassuring smile.
“I promise,” she said. “We’ll play nice. I mean, I can only hope the feeling’s mutual but I like Elliot, and this is something actually useful I can do. Now go teleport after your crazy-escapee brother.” She waved her hands in a shooing motion and Five rolled his eyes, heading for the door.
“Alright, Elliot,” she said, turning back to the man and planting her hands on her hips in an exaggerated, almost-superhero pose. “Hope you’ve got a shopping list and some cash because I have neither. But I’ll drive.”
~
Several hours later, she sighed, brushing hair out of her face as she bent to the task Elliot had given her, focused intently as they neared the finish line. Suddenly, something heavy clumsily smashed into the side of her head and she staggered away from it, dropping her tools and turning, shifting instinctively into a defensive stance to face her attacker.
“Elliot?! What the hell are you doing?” she shouted, watching the nervous little man drop the lamp he had swung moments earlier.
“I saw the footage!” he shouted. “I know what you are!”
Her head throbbed from the blow.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, frowning. “What exactly did you see?”
“I saw enough! And I won’t let you get away with it!”
She sighed, uncoiling her fists and trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. Holding up her hands, palms flat and facing him, she locked eyes with Elliot.
“Calm down Elliot, please,” she said, voice trembling almost imperceptibly. “I don’t know what you think is going on, but I promise there’s an explanation.”
“I’m not going to let you warp my mind!” he shouted. “You’re some sort of demon or alien or…or Russian spy!”
“What?”
Rather than responding, Elliot charged at her and swung a wild haymaker, so unexpected (and surprisingly quick) that it caught her off-guard. Striking on the same side he had already hit her, it drove her to her knees, vision swimming. The last thing she noticed as the world fell away were hands on her wrists and her only thought was that she had failed.
~
When Piper woke up next, she was somewhere completely dark. She could feel that her wrists and ankles had been bound together, trapping her in a hunched over position. Luckily, her captor (Elliot she suspected) made the mistake of putting the ropes in front of her, and probably didn’t know about her training in escape artistry. Gritting her jaw against the waves of pain and nausea that her movements triggered, she set to work, among other things discovering that she was in the darkroom closet.
Outside, she could hear shouting, and then, worryingly, the blast of a gunshot. Elliot wouldn’t actually shoot Five…she hoped. Though she also didn’t expect him to knock her out cold and tie her up, so maybe she didn’t know the nutter as well as she thought. And even if he wouldn’t really shoot Five, she couldn’t say the same in reverse if Elliot threatened him.
Finally, she felt the ropes go slack and stood.
“Where is she Elliot?” she heard Five ask through gritted teeth.
Her hand stilled momentarily on the doorknob, curious to hear where this would go.
“The one you left here to kill me when I found out the truth?” she heard Elliot snap. “I took care of her. Bet you weren’t expecting that.”
She rolled her eyes. So dramatic.
“I swear, if you hurt her…”
“Who are you talking about Five?” she heard another voice ask. “Is Allison here? …or Vanya?”
So that must be Diego then. Before things could go any further, she decided to make her grand entrance.
“Christ,” she said loudly as strode casually out of the converted closet, shaking the remaining ropes off her wrist. “That was uncalled for.”
Elliot stared. Diego and the mysterious woman with him stared. Five pointedly avoided looking at her, but she thought she might have caught a flash of relief cross his face.
“Seriously,” she smiled at Elliot who she now noticed was pinned down by the one she assumed was Diego. “That was an impressive punch from such a wimpy-looking guy,” her face fell into disappointment and she held out the rope, “but it was super unnecessary.”
“He managed to take you out with one punch?” Five asked, tone somewhere between mockery and incredulity.
“I mean, there was the element of surprise. And I think a lamp?”
“I had to do it! You people are dangerous! I know!” Elliot shouted, trying and failing to struggle as the strange woman tied his legs together.
Piper rolled her eyes. “You don’t know shit, Conspiracy Brain. Which would have been obvious if you let me explain instead of giving me a migraine. Now you had better have aspirin somewhere or I am going to be very annoyed.”
“Who the hell is this girl Five?” his brother asked.
“I like her,” the woman chimed in, earning her a glare from both Hargreeves and a smirk from Piper.
“My name is Piper Rofa, it’s really nice to meet you,” she called as she rooted through the bathroom medicine cabinet. “Do you want to explain the rest, Old Timer, or shall I?”
“Rofa…why does that name sound familiar?” Diego muttered.
Piper caught sight of Lila’s eyes, narrowed and studying her shrewdly. Something about her calculating look put the younger girl’s nerves on edge and she looked back with the same faux-casual inspection.
“Let’s just watch the film, see what’s got Elliot all worked up, and we can do introductions later,” Five said, brushing aside Diego’s curiosity.
They tied Elliot more securely, to one of the dental chairs he had inexplicably laying around. Lila dug out an old bottle of sickly green nail polish and began doing her fingernails and the captive man’s toes. Piper couldn’t help but chuckle from where she sat with her boots resting up on the corner of the kitchen table; the other woman was really doing a bang-up job of playing the loon.
They all sat in silence as the tape began. And then, realizing what it was, Diego leaned forward with a new intensity of focus.
‘He really is obsessed with JFK,’ she found herself thinking. ‘Professional interest or crush?’
“How do you have this?” Diego asked his brother.
“Hazel died to get me this footage,” Five explained, eyes flickering to his brother, and then to Piper who tried to hide her distress behind a blank mask, before turning back to the projector screen. “It must be the key to stopping doomsday.”
“It had better be,” Piper muttered.
“Hazel?” Diego said with an accusatory frown.
Piper stiffened, swinging her legs down to the floor. She did not want to deal with a confrontation right now when her headache was finally going away, but she wasn’t going to stand for anyone disparaging her father’s memory either.
“Long story,” Five said dismissively, still focused ahead of him.
“What’s doomsday?” Lila asked, looking pathetically up at Five from her seat.
“Longer story.”
“What exactly did he say to you?” Piper’s eyes flickered to Five’s face, equally curious for his answer as his brother was.
“Well he was killed before he could explain. But whatever he wanted us to see, it’s on this film.”
Her teeth found the middle knuckle of her thumb, biting down on it gently while she wracked her brain for something her father might have told her that could help, feeling useless. How could she claim to have known him, to be his protégé or fill his shoes if she didn’t even know what he died for?
Four sets of eyes flickered determinedly over the screen as chaos unfolded, only Lila looking away, confusion and fear on her face as she instead watched the watchers. Suddenly, Five muttered something under his breath and moved to rewind the tape, shifting the projector around to change the focus. Whatever he saw, Diego noticed the second time around, hesitantly unfolding himself from the countertop, mouth hanging open as he approached the screen in shock to get a better look. Elliot meanwhile, was thrashing about and struggling in his chair as if he still thought he could get away. It was distracting, and for a brief moment, Piper considered the lamp and returning the favor just to get him to calm down.
“This can’t be,” Five said, his focus fixed.
“Okay are you going to fill me in now?” Lila snapped. “What the hell is this shit we’re watching?”
“No that’s impossible,” Diego’s statement might have been a denial but his face seemed to say that whatever the realization the two Hargreeves had come to, it was as plain as the hair on their heads now.
“Clearly it’s not.” At least Five had the decency to sound awed at the new information.
Information Piper still didn’t understand.
“What…what is it?” Elliot asked from around the makeshift gag in his mouth.
The two remained transfixed on the grainy image in the center of the room.
“I gotta say I’m with Lila and Elliot on this one. You two might recognize the mystery blur, but the rest of the team’s,” she gestured around, “in the dark.”
“Dad…” they both said softly.
“Oh shit.”
To call what followed a discussion would have been giving far too much credit to the participants, and vastly underplaying the childishness of their sniping at each other.
“No, you’re jumping to conclusions,” Five said, pacing back and forth.
“What the hell else is he doing standing on the grassy knoll, holding an open black umbrella, on a sunny day, in Dallas, the exact same moment the president gets shot?” Diego shouted, gesticulating wildly at the screen.
“It doesn’t look good, I admit,” Five snapped back.
“I mean your father clearly had a thing for umbrellas, given the academy, tattoos, etc. so that could be nothing,” Piper drawled, inspecting her nails as the brothers went around and around in circles, physically and metaphorically. “Or it’s for shade, and maybe he’s there to watch or meet the president, like everyone else in Dallas? He’s not a supervillain, right?”
“You think it’s a coincidence? No. He’s the signalman for the whole goddamn thing.” Diego turned to face her, eyes ablaze. “And what would you know anyway? Who the hell are you?”
“I told you. Piper Rofa. I’m…a friend.”
“Bullshit.” From seemingly nowhere, he had drawn a knife, pointing it at her threateningly. “I saw your face while we were watching the footage. You know something.”
“I wish I did! I wish I could answer your questions or villain monologue or whatever it is you’re looking for. But I don’t know jack, except that the world is ending. It might be connected to Kennedy, it might not.” She shrugged, slapping her hands back down to her sides. “My father is dead, and he told me that The Umbrella Academy were the best chance at saving the world. So get your stupid knife out of my face, and figure it the hell out.”
“Who…?” Diego looked momentarily taken aback. “Who’s your father? How does he know about us?”
“Piper, don’t,” Five cautioned. “Now is not a good time to be bringing that up.”
She sighed, turning away from both of them and folding her arms around herself. “Hazel,” she admitted softly, almost apologetically.
She thought she heard Lila gasp and frowned at that, but there wasn’t time to address it as Diego seized her shoulder and slammed her into the nearby doorframe.
“Your father killed my…friend,” he hissed through clenched teeth, knife pressed to her throat and face in hers.
She rolled her eyes, undaunted. “Oh cry me river. Good people die all the time. Besides, that’s in the past…or the future? And I’m not him. Nor will killing me do anything, other than make a mess of this lovely apartment and delay what’s important. So can we focus back on your dad, who you apparently think is just as bad or worse than mine?”
He growled, pressing the blade harder into her neck, enough that she felt a thin trickle of blood, clearly not taking kindly to her opinion on the matter.
“Easy Diego,” Five interrupted, placing a hand on his brother’s arm and drawing him away.
Piper rubbed at her neck and shoulder where the majority of Diego’s weight had been, adding them to her growing catalogue of bruises to expect.
“Seriously,” Five sighed in exasperation.
“No, it makes sense,” Diego insisted, shifting instantly back to the topic of Reginald Hargreeves and JFK as if there had been no interruption at all. “This is what Hazel was obviously trying to tell you.”
His eyes flickered over to Piper and she shrugged. Lila stood up, offering to help her with the wound and hesitantly she accepted, both women leaving the brothers to argue.
“We have to stop dad from killing the president,” Diego declared dramatically.
Piper rolled her eyes and caught Lila doing the same. She frowned. There was something about this woman…something that set her teeth on edge but felt very familiar.
“Do I know you?” she asked.
“No. I don’t think we’ve met,” Lila answered with a smile that seemed to waver uncertainly. “But I can tell we’re gonna be good friends.”
Piper bit her lip, wanting to say more when Five’s voice cut through again.
“Dad’s clearly in Dallas, right? Let’s just go talk to him. Maybe he can help us fix the timeline.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Piper muttered, brushing aside the rest of Lila’s first aid to return to the main room in case she had to referee between them.
“Dallas is a big place,” Diego pointed out. “We need to find him first.”
“Gee, if only we had some magical, old-timey way of finding people and their addresses.”
Piper tossed the October 1963 phone book at Five, “Or should I pull another fast one on the 911 operator?”
He dropped in on the table. “Let’s start simple, his name.”
Before he could, Diego had already opened the book and bent over it, scanning for ‘Hargreeves’ with increasing frustration. When they didn’t find it, Five suggested looking for his company instead.
“D.S. Umbrella Manufacturing Co.”
“Yeah, I know the name,” Diego shot his brother a look.
“Seriously, more umbrellas? I think it’s time to consider it was a fetish,” Piper joked, drawing a laugh from Lila and a disgusted shudder from Diego.
When they found what they were looking for, the two almost immediately turned to go, rolling up the screen and heading for the front stairs down into the showroom.
“He okay to leave here like that?” Diego asked quietly.
“Yeah, he’s fine. What about the girl?” Five answered.
Both men looked behind them to find Elliot, still tied and gagged, and Piper flipping aimlessly through a magazine, once again leaning back in a chair and resting her feet on the table, making it all to obvious  that she was eavesdropping. There was no sign of Lila.
“Shit,” Diego muttered, turning back.
Five sighed. Piper pointed over her shoulder to the darkroom closet Lila had scurried off to as soon as their backs were turned. He sat down across from her while Diego went to check on the other girl.
“Are you coming with us?” he asked, eyebrow raised.
“No. I think I’m going to stay here. We still need to find the rest of your family as fast as possible, and I have a few ideas. Plus something’s not quite sitting right with me that I want to follow up on. And I don’t think your brother likes me much.”
Five chuckled. “Diego doesn’t like many people.”
“He likes Lila a hell of a lot. You sure that’s not going to be a problem?”
“No, I’m not. But it’s one we can deal with later.”
She sighed, fidgeting with her hands on the table. “You wanna take my car?”
His expression softened, understanding the gesture of trust it was meant to be.
“No, I don’t want to draw attention.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a very flashy car, Piper.” The tone of his voice sounded almost like a scolding father, or like her mother’s not-quite-disapproval when she’d cut the picture out of a magazine and pinned it to her corkboard at fifteen. It made her smile sadly, rubbing at the sting of loss she hadn’t let herself feel completely yet.
Diego emerged from the cupboard, Lila following behind a few moments later.
“You three play nice now,” Five said, faux-sternly. Diego turned to him, surprised, but his face was blank, showing no sign that he might have just made a joke. “We’ll be back soon.”
~
Piper waited until Five and Diego had been gone for some time, and until Lila had finished painting Elliot’s nails, in case things went south – it would be rude to leave him with only two thirds of a mani-pedi after all.
“We need to talk,” she said sternly, setting aside the article she had been reading and sitting up to face the other woman, arms folded across her chest.
“About what?” Lila’s tone was the epitome of innocence and Piper found herself impressed. She was one hell of an actress.
“You’re Commission right?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lila frowned in confusion.
Piper scoffed. “Oh please. My father was a Field Agent til he met Mom and settled down. But you knew that.” She cocked her head to one side in question, inviting Lila to deny it again. “He taught me how to spot another agent, in case they ever decided to use us to force him into un-retirement or something.”
Lila tensed, body movements subtle but still there, noticeable to a trained eye like Piper’s as she got ready to attack.
“You can relax,” Piper sighed, waving a hand in the air dismissively. “You don’t get in my way, I won’t get in yours. Or rat you out.”
“And what if our missions are incompatible?” Lila’s eyebrow quirked, finally dropping her ‘scared little crazy girl’ act completely.
“Still no reason to bring extra parties in. If it comes to that, we settle things the old fashion way, and may the best woman win.”
The two women locked eyes, sizing each other up, baiting each other. The air practically crackled with electricity. Elliot, still bound and gagged and distinctly uncomfortable, tried to mumble something as his eyes flicked frantically from one to the other. Surprisingly, Lila broke the stare first.
“Yeah sure, I’ll agree to that, at least for now.”
“Excellent,” Piper smiled wryly. “Like you said, I can tell we’re gonna be good friends.”
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umbrellaacademysucks · 6 years ago
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women of colour in the umbrella academy do not exist for themselves.
patch dies for Man Pain to advance diego's plot.
unnamed (or possibly named and i don't remember) violinist woman is a bitch and then killed for being mean to vanya.
cha-cha gets no plot of her own really and in the latter half exists to be an obstacle for hazel and agnes' relationship.
and allison, my fave. it may seem like this is where my argument runs into a wall but i've argued before that out of all the hargreeves, she's the one with the least of a complete story. like her thing is overcoming her manipulative nature but she's given up her power by the start of the story.
really she has two main functions within the story:
-she motivates luther to help out his family because she's in danger and becomes his excuse to enact violence on vanya.
-she's the siblings who is most consistent in reaching out to vanya (not like five who does it once at the start and is more or less done with her after that) and then is the one to realise that its the family's treatment of vanya and disregarding her that causes the mess they're in
allison's story revolves around her siblings despite the fact that she is the one with the most substantial connections outside of her family, she's the only one who made a family outside of the hargreeves and yet they're brought up maybe every few episodes and we're supposed to see her as selfish for wanting to return to her daughter when the apocalypse happens.
i hope in the second season they do better with having women of colour be characters in their own right and not just objects to keep the plot going.
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amuseoffyre · 6 years ago
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What are your thoughts on the umbrella academy? Vanya looks to be an amalgamation if sailors Saturn, Neptune and uranus
Alas, this analogy passes me by because I have never once seen Sailor Moon in any incarnation.
However, regarding academy, I have thoughts.
I love a well-built storyline, especially one that throws you straight in the deep end, when you see the kids coming back together and all you know is that they are pretty much all estranged but now, they’re back together because their dad is dead. It gives such delicious teasers about all the different factions and fall-outs that slowly build up through the series. Every dynamic makes so much sense once you see it all in context.
Also, I love the fact they manage to portray accurate sibling dynamics, which vary between brother/sister, sister/sister and brother/brother. Of course there are going to be difference and of course, that’s going to affect how one sibling sees another (ie. Allison versus Luther’s approach to Vanya in the final episode)
I’m so intrigued/bemused by the father fella. I was half asleep when I watched the finale at 5am, so Imma have to rewatch and make my brain understand some stuff a bit better. The backstory, the implication, there was a lot there that went unsaid and I didn’t have the braincells to compute. I have a weekend. I will make use of it.
Now, characters:
Klaus - I. love. him. From the moment he crashed in, his wryness and brokeness and snark made me go “yes. This one”. And then when you find out about why there’s the brokeness, I wanted to punch the old man in the teeth. That scene in the crypt was… yeah. No. Klaus is my precious baby and I love him. (I also love the fact that he plays Cha-cha and Hazel so smoothly, despite being in mad withdrawal, having been tortured into bits, and still manages to do it with a smirk. And the fact some of his ghost people high-fived in the background)
Vanya - Vanya is the postergirl for the damage emotional abuse can do to a kid. Assuming you’re ordinary in a world where everyone is ordinary is fine. Being telepathically forced to believe you’re ordinary - when you’re not - in a narrow world where everyone you know is extraordinary is Not Good.
I was a bit iffy about how quickly she fell in with ‘Leonard’, but when you’ve been as horribly neglected and socially isolated as she was for her whole childhood, it makes sense she would cling to the one person who actively sought her out and told her she was special. I am a bit… eh…. about the little voice telling her to unleash hell, though. I get bored of people who have that as an explanation for why they’ve killed a bunch of people. They used it for every frigging villain in the old Spiderman films and I am Done with it.
Five - amazing. I love him. I love that he was a stubborn little git when he accidentally screwed up his life and that only intensified with age. Also, the love story with Dolores was sweet but so sad. The kid playing old-man Five is brilliant and I can’t wait to see where they go with him.
Allison - oh sweetheart. So many things done with the best of intentions and all going horribly, horribly wrong. No one raised in that environment was ever going to be run-of-the-mill parent material and then when you find out that she’d been instructed to use her powers on family members before, like it was totally normal, no wonder she screwed up so badly with her daughter. And the fact she forgave Vanya immediately and wanted to protect her and keep her safe says everything about her.
Diego - he took a little while to grow on me, but when it hit me, it hit hard. I do find it interesting that he was the one always snarling about their dad being a monster when no one else would really say it and now, I wonder if it was less about what their father was doing to him and more what he was doing to everyone else in the family, because Diego pretends not to care, but I honestly think he cares more than anyone in the whole academy. The way he looked after Grace and Klaus especially made me so happy. Oh and the way he kept on showing up around the detective the same way Catra does in She-Ra. “Hey Eudora” :D :D :D
Ben - I know we don’t have much of him yet, but what we have, I absolutely adore. The fact he’s literally the angel on Klaus’s shoulder - an eye-rolling, snarking angel - is a delight, despite the fact he’s there because he ded.
Luther - Out of all of the characters, this fella frustrates me so much. I understand his obsession with “I’m number one”, which is so childish - and understandably so - compared to the rest of the gang, since he’s the only one who never really grew up into a mostly-functional adult. It’s the fact that he keeps making bloody stupid calls, especially when anyone else tries to take point or have ideas.
Oh and his behaviour towards Vanya is… ARGLE. Find out your sister was tortured and emotionally manipulated by your father for fear of her powers? Why, now she’s older and knows about those powers again and is sobbing and scared in your arms, why don’t you do exactly the same thing your father did instead of HELPING her and stop all your other siblings from helping her too? Well done, dumbass. You helped trigger the apocalypse.
I get that he was reacting emotionally because of what had happened to Allison, but he literally learned your father and the chimp lied about huge elements of their lives multiple times in the past week and now, he listens to what they say?
Apart from them, I adored Hazel and Agnes. They were so frigging sweet. And Cha-cha was awesome, but completely terrifying in a kind of terminator way.
Otherwise, I have a bunch alternate universes rolling around in my head, where one thing changed and the ripples it would have. Here are a few:
Leonard/Harold is not a frigging moron. Instead of lying to her about the book and her powers and things, he is open and honest with her from the word go, unlike everyon else in her life. “My dad hurt me so I made him stop” would ring a lot of bells for someone raised in the Umbrella Academy. He lies about where he got the book, of course, because stalking her brother would be awkward. But he could just say that a junkie was trying to sell stuff and the book seemed important, so he looked her up as the author of the book about the academy, in case it was important. And so, she trusts him completely and he gently, gently, gently manipulates her into turning on her family.
Allison breaking her hold on Vanya much earlier by telling her about the room and what happened in it
Luther actually trusting his siblings over the father who turned him part-primate and when Vanya comes to be forgiveness and ask for help, he helps her
Klaus accidentally bringing David back from Vietnam with him and the awkwardness of trying to explain to everyone that woops, I stumbled into the Vietnam war and found love
In conclusion, me likey :)
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angelicamerlinbarnes · 3 years ago
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TUA DISNEY AUs: Snow White (Pt. VII)
(please understand that by AU, I mean they share an incredibly small amount of things in common with the original source material which I barely remember BUT the “story” takes place in the setting of the film) (not to be misleading or anything :p)
(BEWARE: abuse?, curses (like the magicky kind not the R-rated movie kind), attempted murder, etc.)
(If you can handle watching Umbrella Academy, this will be fine for you.)
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(Snow White) Lila hates her mother. Like, hates her. But as much as she’s fantasized about killing her, she can’t. Not quite yet. Because Lila doesn’t want her throne unless she can have Eudora by her side - and Eudora thinks killing people is wrong. Ugh, such a prude.
(Prince Florian) Eudora visits Lila every day in the garden. Their love affair is torrid and exciting, and Eudora has half a mind to ask Lila to run away with her. But she would, and the people here would be left desolate under the queen’s rule. Eudora can’t have that.
(Evil Queen) The Handler just wants her bitch of a daughter to die. Lila can’t be the purest evil on the earth, that’s the Handler! She’s the most evil! And the most beautiful, if she may say so herself. But no matter. She’ll just curse Lila away somehow - after all, she did that to the seven royal children of her late husband Reginald (ugh) and his beautiful wife Grace (even ugh-er), and nobody’s even noticed they’re gone. (Okay, fine, yes, it’s because of memory magic.) So sending Lila off with the same sort of goodbye really shouldn’t be too hard.
(Seven Dwarves) The Hargreeves are known as the “children of all” in legend. Luther, the strongest of all; Diego, the bravest of all; Allison, the cleverest of all; Klaus, the fairest of all; Five, the coldest of all; Ben, the kindest of all; and Vanya, the calmest of all. They were known to be extraordinarily talented when they were royal, and have not lost those powers, but have been cursed to live in the woods alone, banished by the Handler. She cursed them to lose their most precious traits: Luther is suddenly weak and frail, Diego is scared of goddamn everything, Allison is dumb as a post, Klaus is the ugliest damn thing you’ve ever seen, Five is so easily hurt by words none of them speak around him, Ben is cruel and vicious, and Vanya panics almost once every hour. They live in misery, but at least they live together.
(Huntsman) Hazel let the Hargreeves siblings go. He lets Lila go too. He’s got a wife waiting for him in the woods - a lovely baker named Agnes. She helps take care of the Hargreeves children with a little help from Hazel and Cha-Cha, Hazel’s partner.
The day Lila shows up, cursed to always tell the truth since she’s always been such a good liar, the Hargreeves start to find themselves in perilous situations. Cha-Cha keeps trying to kill Five and Klaus for some dumb reason. Diego fights constantly with Lila and Eudora, who’s come to the woods to try and break Lila’s curse and banishment. Vanya injures herself outside one day and is taken in by a herbalist Sissy, who’s exceedingly kind and yet terrified of the beast Carl who lives in the cave nearby and comes for Sissy’s son Harlan every night. Allison meets Ray, the chief leader of the wood nymphs, and becomes torn between him and Luther. Finally, Ben is struck down as a martyr in the kingdom’s revolution, but his curse breaks with his death and he is once again the kind brother they all knew before (with the help of Klaus’ powers, of course).
In the end, Vanya stays in the woods with Sissy, and Luther and Allison stay in the woods with Ray. Lila realizes she doesn’t want to be queen and marries Eudora in an extravagant wedding made for a princess, then books it with her new wife to be a pirate near the newly discovered isles. Diego becomes king in her place and finally marries Klaus, who takes great delight out of arranging all the parties and balls as “queen”. Five holes up in the castle and learns all kinds of magic, both light and dark, in the pursuit of knowledge and protecting his siblings. Ben wanders the castle with Klaus and goes down to the dungeons once a week to make fun of the Handler in her rusty shackles and dirty night dress. Life is good.
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tv-music · 3 years ago
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Umbrella Academy 1.03 Review
Extra Ordinary
Another episode of The Umbrella Academy, another brilliant hour (give or take) of television!
The episode opens with an extract from Vanya's book being read out over a montage of her writing and promoting the book to limited success. Vanya is then seen rushing to the orchestra practice, arriving late to be told that no one noticed she was missing. Clearly being ‘ordinary’ is the story of her life. 
She then tries to speak with the ‘first chair’ (I didn’t catch her name) to be told that no amount of practicing is going to help and that maybe she just isn’t special, again the story of her life. It’s only episode 3 and it’s been hammered into us that Vanya is not special -  still not buying it she clearly has a power and with the plot of the apocalypse and the timescale I would put money on the fact that these two things are related
Luther and Alison are rewatching the tapes that show their Mum taking their Dad’s monocle, which clearly means she had something to do with his death despite the fact that she is a robot who seems incapable of independent thoughts and feelings (The two really do not hold my attention at the minute). Why are they spending their time speaking to a robot rather than the only other living being that resides in the home - Pogo surely knows what happened.
We got a bit more background on Alison this episode, she lost her marriage and custody of her daughter as she used her powers on her. I guess in some ways this is understandable, we have all at some point wished we could get another person, adult or child, to just stop - but ultimately what she did was wrong 
Hazel and Cha Cha receive a notice telling them to hurry up with their mission to find and kill Five - someone wants him dead real bad
Speaking of Five, he is seen treating his own wounds then leaving the house, using a route hoping to avoid his siblings, which doesn’t work as he runs into Klaus and (unbeknownst to him) Ben. I love the interactions with Klaus and Five, they always make me smile. Five is now stalking the eye guy, it’s his only lead after all. He’s not alone on his stakeout, he has Delores with him. As weird as it is that he’s talking to a mannequin and answering her as though she is talking to him, berating him over his drinking, it’s also understandable. He was alone for a long time with only a piece of plastic for company - poor Five
Vanya visits Leonard at his shop, this guy is creepy. He’s only just met Vanya and he has ‘stayed up all night’ making a woodwork version of her playing the violin - I’m sure some people will disagree with me but that kind of shit is just weird, getting Joe Goldberg vibes with that level of dedication/obsession.
Hazel visits the doughnut shop again and there are clear vibes flying around between him and Agnes - seems this killer has a heart - can’t imagine that’s going to go down well with his partner in crime. Their visit gets them the information they need, Five’s tattoo, now tracking him down will be easy
Family meeting time. Five has refused to join, he has much more important things to focus on that if their robot Mum killed their emotionless Dad. Diego finally tells them that he got rid of the monocle after finding it on their Mum. Luther's reaction is as you would expect - turn her off and, shock, Alison agrees with him - seriously ICK. Diego, Vanya and Klaus vote no (Ben votes yes but seen as though the only one who can hear him is Klaus they don’t know this) and they agree that they should wait for Five to make their final decision. 
We see some more of their childhood, with Mum being loving and supportive to all 7 children, but more specifically, helping Diego overcome his stutter. I always enjoy seeing bits of their childhood, but we really didn’t need this to understand Diego’s attachment to her. It’s been clear since the first episode that she was his love and support system growing up. When he turned her off it was a very sad moment, it packed a much bigger punch than if it had been Luther who had done it. 
Hazel and Cha Cha turn up at the academy looking for FIve, who isn’t home, and all hell breaks loose. 3 members of The Umbrella Academy fight together for the first time in god knows how long and it’s clear why they failed to stop the apocalypse in the future Five saw, they are clearly out of practice and are not working as a team. Hazel and Cha Cha may have not got what they came for but they didn’t leave empty handed - poor Klaus 
Extra Thoughts
It was only watching this episode that I noticed the lack of technology in the show
We finally saw what was underneath Luther’s coat and holy shit, he doesn’t look completely human, and from the looks on his siblings faces, he hasn’t always been that way 
I understand that Alison doesn’t want to use her power after losing her daughter but this situation was a bit different, that fight would have gone a different way if she had just ‘rumoured her’
We haven’t seen that much of Ben, which given that he can only speak with Klaus, is understandable, but I defo want to see more of him. 
They all only got back in touch with each other 2 days earlier, Vanya must really have no one else in her life if the first person she goes to after being pushed out by her siblings again is Leonard and this makes me sad, no one should be that lonely 
I said this in the review but i'm going to say it again - there's something not right with Leonard
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ashleygren · 5 years ago
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More AUs (kinda)
I covered 11 of my Aus in the previous list so that leaves 32 left. Today I'm gonna talk about the square group. The square group is Aus I thought of where not much would really change from whatever it was based upon. Theres only 4 of them so I'm actually going to write which characters the bois would have been. Note: I likely will never try to actually write these ones because they would be way better drawn and I have no drawing talent or patience (I put all my patience into writing)
DC Comics au-
Vanoss/Black Canary
Delirious/Harley Quinn
Nogla/Green Lantern
Wildcat/Green Arrow
Miniladd/Lex Luther
Basically/Sinestro
407/Ares
Cartoonz/Flash
Ohm/Batman
Gorillaphent/Gorilla Grodd
Squirrel/Poison Ivy
Lui Calibre/Two Face
Terroriser/Wonder Woman
Moo/The Riddler
Panda/Superman
Pairings-
H2ovancat: I remember reading a comic where Harley and canary bonded over canary being pregnant and Harley telling her about her secret daughter and she later became close friends with green arrow too, so I wanted the three of them together.
Moohm: in the arkham games the riddler totally has a man crush on batman, a smooth talking ohm with a flustered and pining moo seemed to fit so well together.
Marvel Au-
Vanoss/Doctor Strange
Delirious/Scarlet witch
Nogla/Ant man
Miniladd/Wasp
Wildcat/Hulk
Terroriser/Winter Soldier
Moo/Captain America
Basically/Black Widow
407/Hawkeye
Panda/Thor
Cartoonz/Iron Man
Ohm/Quicksilver
Squirrel/Spiderman
Gorillaphent/War Machine
Bryce/Vision
Lui Calibre/Falcon
Pairings- none
Note: this list was made awhile ago so most of them I don't agree with anymore (but not all I still agree with cartoonz, vanoss, ohm, moo, terroriser, and 407).
Deadpool Au-
Vanoss/Yukio
Delirious/Deadpool
Nogla/Juggernaut
Wildcat/Vanessa
Miniladd/Weasel
Basically/Domino
407/Dopinder
Cartoonz/Ajax
Ohm/Blind Al
Gorillaphent/Angel
Squirrel/Russel
Terroriser/nega sonic teenage warhead
Moo/Cable
Panda/Colosus
Pairings-
Terrornoss: it seemed really cute especially with how agressive terroriser is to his friends.
H2ocat: the scene that kept popping into my head is that one from the first movie where they go to vanessa's work and he recognizes her and her was but with delirious and wildcat (instead wildcat being a bouncer with tight jeans).
Gorillatoonz: thier friendship is awesome and they seemed to fit these 2 quite well
Note: I think the only 2 choices that still trip me up is nogla, squirrel, and ohm they just don't seem to fit anywhere.
Umbrella Academy Au-
Vanoss/Allison
Delirious/Agnes
Nogla/Klaus
Miniladd/Patch
Wildcat/Ben
Terroriser/Five
Moo/Hazel
Basically/Diego
407/Cha-Cha
Panda/Vanya
Ohm/Luther
Squirrel/Handler
Gorillaphent/Dot
Lui Calibre or Cartoonz/Peabody
Pairings-
H2oMoo: delirious would make teddy bear themed sweets and Moo would be eating them after torturing a man for 13 hours :)
BasicallyIdoMini: slightly antagonistic with sexual tension and genuine feelings sign me up.
Notes: this au almost became a story I wanted to write but it felt more like a daydream so sadly it won't happen (maybe someday someone else will make a cool UA au). I wasn't going to put vanoss and ohm (Allison and Luther) together because thier relationship in the show weirds me out and makes me uncomfortable (I do like that other characters in the show also look creeped out and uncomfortable when they see them interact). Panda as Vanya makes too much sense to me and that hurts, I think hes a really great guy that's talented and smart and loves the people around him so I hate it whenever he or someone else calls him average or dumb He and vanya deserve the world.
Thats all my daydream Aus. We've crossed four more aus from the list now only 28 left.
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