#analysis of the umbrella academy

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

The tattooing scene in the very first episode is so impactful. It changes them in such a profound way

The tattoo is what made Five accept that those are his siblings, lying there in the rubble

The tattoo is another sign for Viktor that he'll never be part of the family, that he'll never be in a picture, no newspaper, no family portrait, nothing

The tattoo is what gave Diego a fear of needles so strong he faints from seeing one

On the other hand, Klaus willingly gets more tattoos later on. I fits with his character, his freedom of self expression, but also his self-destructive tendencies. He likes his pleasure with pain as shown by the torture scene. He gets used to needles, seeks them out actively

On the other hand, Diego went in the fully other direction. He wants to live as healthy as possible, he works out, he cares about protein, his body is a temple.

Didn't expect this to turn into a Diego and Klaus comparison but eh I'm fine with that

[ccieatchildren]

I’m sure we’ve all seen by now Steve Blackman’s reasoning for Five/Lila stating:

“I felt that Five had to have a love story.”

And how it shows how this man somehow has such a deep fundamental misunderstanding about his own characters. How he helped create the first three seasons of this show and doesn’t realize that

This is Five’s love story.

Umbrella Academy the show wouldn’t exist without Five’s love. The whole plot and story is it.

He is the catalyst of all the plot lines while his family is the center of all the story beats. His love is the instigator for all the events of the show simply because he chooses to do everything possible in the hope that it will save his loves.

It’s not like this was even a subtle idea because Five literally states it himself multiple times over the series!

I just don’t understand how you can get it so wrong.

He creates the Commission in hopes of regulating the timeline so his family won’t get obliterated from existence, tattooing himself with the potential solution to rewriting the universe so they can all live happily one day.

He survives the apocalypse all on his own, when there was no real reason to, just because he believed he could get back to his family, spending 50+ years developing the math to one day do so.

He joins the Commission and murders and maims and manipulates in the desperate attempt that he might have a chance to go back and see/save his family.

He spends the first time he sees his family after over six decades not with them, but rather searching for a way to stop their deaths, sending them all through time when it doesn’t work.

He runs himself ragged stopping apocalypse after apocalypse just for them.

And when he loses all hope, accepting the kugelblitz, he is content to know he is doing so with his family.

As much as this show is about the whole family, ultimately, imo, this is Five’s story about his grueling quest to save the family he loves.

Because otherwise this show wouldn’t exist without him and the rest of the characters would just be decorations in the rubble of a world long gone.

So to say bro needed a love story— he doesn't say romance, but love story— is so durna, like what??? I guess if you really wanted him to have a romance you could do that, but there were many better options than the wife of someone he deeply loves, something he would never do.

(Not to mention all the real world implications of the romance with the actors, production really was waiting for him to be legal ಠ_ಠ)

Also I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many fans view Five somewhere under the aro/ace umbrella (pun intended).

Now, because of this misconstruction the ending of the show also suffers.

Brushing over all the mind boggling things the real ending says about abuse, its victims, and growing from it (which is actually like how did no one look at that and think hmm maybe this isn’t right for the story we’ve been telling), it also misunderstands love. It tells the audience that love isn’t worth it, in a show… about love. Not just Five’s but Hazel/Agnes, Viktor/Sissy, Allison+Claire, and more. How all your pain and suffering and tribulations for those you love are stupid and useless and cringe.

But y’know what, Mr. Blackman, I think you’re cringe for that absolute bonkers bananas ending.

And that’s why having the solution to the series being that Five should have never jumped in the first place would have been the best ending.

Making it so that the only solution to save the whole universe be that Five stay with his family, with those he loved— what he had been trying to do for the whole show— would have been the perfect conclusion to the story. It would show that all he had to do was stay, because that’s all they ever needed, that’s all he ever needed.

AND IT WOULD MAKE LOGISTICAL SENSE.

Five and Viktor are well confirmed to have been the closest ever since they were young. And Five (doesn’t matter if he’s the now Five who lived through the shows events or the young one who ran off) would most certainly be a supportive figure in Viktor’s life. He’s smart, for one, and it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to figure out what was really going on (especially with his hatred of Reginald) and help Viktor that way. But even if he doesn’t, when they grow to adults and Viktor naturally doesn’t take his pills or his power starts showing, Five’s love and care for his (closest) brother would most certainly help prevent the apocalypse. Especially since if Five and Viktor are close, as they grow older, I feel like the others would grow closer as well, maybe not the same degree, but they would be more willing and supportive of Viktor in the end (I feel like Season 1 shows us how at the end of the day the siblings do care for Viktor, but they were just too late, so this time they wouldn’t be).

Through the subway we see the timeline where he jumps still exists, so that should mean there is a way for him not to do that. His jumping (and the siblings he brings along) is what creates the paradoxes and the "need" for the Commission. So by him not jumping, problem solved.

This might come at the cost of the current versions of the characters, but I think if they can make the developmental journeys they did once, I think they can do it again, and have a happy ending.

(Also the Jennifer incident wouldn’t happen either bcs of Five or just bcs that plot line was so fluffin stupid, so yay alive Ben)

(And Diego and Luther meet Lila and Sloane respectively cuz they are also part of the marigold brood so they still do exist at the same time, so yay happy couples)

It is somewhat simple, but I think that works as well, especially for a character like Five. He spends so much time looking at all the different equations, trying to find some complex solution to everything, trying permutation after permutation (as evidenced by our and the diner Five's), when it was right in front of him. Idk, I just think it would be nice if he just decided to stay with his siblings instead of running off.

Sure it may not be completely perfect, maybe Ben still does die, or Klaus can’t meet Dave again, or characters still find themselves prey to their arrogance but I don’t think it needs to be, because real life isn’t perfect. But the bonds we make and the love we share makes it so, a major theme the Umbrella Academy isn't unfamiliar with.

And it just makes me so deeply sad that this isn’t the ending we got. That this isn’t the ending the characters got.

They deserve so much better than Blackman gave them, and it’s a disgrace that he didn’t.

[air--so--sweet]

I found out from the production designer's website and an interview he did that the basement kitchen is actually the 'kid's lounge', a space the siblings created for themselves.

And I've been obsessed with it ever since because I feel it gives us more of an idea about what the umbrellas childhoods were like.

Because, okay there's the slightly extravagant things like the pool table and foozball table, but most of it is very simple. A hifi system and a collection of cassettes and CDs (I bet Luther was only allowed have a record collection as part of his special treatment as Number One), what looks like board games and some toys in what used to be the butcher shops fridges and there's another toy next to the hifi system that looks similar to some of the ones we see in Five's room.

And in the scene where Allison and Diego fight Cha Cha we see art supplies as well.

These are just basic things most kids would grow up with but the umbrellas had to create a secret place, away from their father, to have them. It's just desperately sad.

But I also find it kind of beautiful that they worked together to make a place for themselves and I like to imagine the process of it coming together. Them scavenging furniture from the unused academy rooms. One of them finds the table in storage room, or the attic maybe, and then over the next few weeks they manage to take chairs from different rooms until they can all sit at the table together. Coming home from Griddy's one night (sneaking out became a lot easier once they had a separate entrance that their dad didn't know about) they spot an armchair and a sofa left out on the sidewalk and they don't look in too bad a condition so Five jumps back with the armchair while the others carry the sofa home (Five was still getting the hang of jumping with objects, the sofa was still a bit too big for him to manage). Grace catches them stealing food to take downstairs one day and she mentions it to Pogo (who knows about the room since it's right next to his own room, but he chooses to turn a blind eye) and suddenly there's a fridge in the room and Grace makes sure it and the cupboards are always fully stocked, even after the kids are gone (we see Five make a sandwich here when he comes back from the apocalypse). Hargreeves never interacts with Grace much and doesn't pay much attention to the food orders she makes as long as she stays in budget so some extra loaves of bread or jars of peanut butter won't catch his attention.

And Hargreeves never found out about the room because There's no reason for him to go to the basement, the only things in the basement are Pogo's room (so telling that there are 42 bedrooms in the academy but Pogo is relegated to the basement) and a utilitiy room. Viktor's cell is also in the basement but it's accessed by a separate elevator so Hargreeves wouldn't pass the kid's lounge to get to it.

You can tell how important the space was to the siblings as well because of how they use it in adulthood.

It's where they all go when Five returns and where they hangout when in the academy (we see them in the living room too but mostly for family meetings).

When Viktor comes to invite the others to his concert he comes through the butcher shop entrance.

It's where Klaus gathers his brothers when he tells them that he spoke to Reginald the night before.

And, even when he was the only one left living in the academy, Luther ate breakfast there.

It's the only part of the academy they feel is truly theirs and theirs alone. It's their safe place.

[dannibals]

always thinking about how everyone ended up where they first started in the series.

allison’s built her seemingly perfect life based on lies. she probably still lies to herself to try n comfort the mistakes she’s made

viktor is ordinary and self isolates himself because he doesn’t like and has been hurt by his siblings

diego wishes for what he thinks are the glory days of his life and tries to desperately recapture that spark while probably looking past the people that love him

ben away from his siblings. locked away, out of his control

luther having what seems like a grand fun occupation but he’s really lonely because he’s away from his loved ones (s4 promo year unknown luther comes home) (just like how s1 luther returns to earth)

five in a job that doesn’t fulfill him or bring him that much happiness. he’s alone again

klaus not having aspirations or goals so he just fixates on something to keep his mind occupied. he just wants to survive and he’s so afraid of life that he runs away and hides from it. just a mess

they’re all so lonely and isolated :(

you could say they went through a…..reset?

[donnalawliet]

I‘m currently busy rewatching S3 (still haven‘t watched S4 yet, so no spoilers please). And one quote from Five stuck out to me. After they temporarily caught the Kugelblitz, he talked to Viktor about the dilemma of killing people to save others.

That was when he said the following: “This is the price of being powerful. Sometimes you step on ants.“

In S1 however, after Viktor gets trapped by Luther in the chamber, Klaus exclaims: “This is [Viktor], our [brother]! The one who always used to cry when we stepped on ants as kids!“

What if Klaus didn‘t mean literal ants? What if he was instead talking about Viktor crying when his siblings had to kill people on their missions as kids? We see that he watched them on missions, along with Reginald.

Just something that stuck out to me.

[snowviolettwhite]

Finally finished The Umbrella Academy.

Can we talk about the fact while Five is a mentally a middle aged man, he is also biologically a thirteen year old boy?

He has physically regressed. Him physically regressing could cause him to mentally and emotionally regress too. He has the brain development and the hormones and the body of a young teenager, a thirteen year old kid.

The old version of him did not have mood swings and seemed a lot for emotionally stable. He did not throw temper tantrums like Five in his thirteen year old body.

It can seem like Five is a kid trying to fix everything and behave like an adult.

He does stupid and cute things that a kid would do, like clinging to a comfort objects or only eating sweet foods or getting drunk in the middle of a bank to the point of giggling.

I honestly thought if they were going do something with Five and Lilia it would have been, Five having a puppy crush and it would not have gone anywhere. It would have been like the troupe of the little brother having a crush on his older brother's girlfriend/wife and she loves him because he is family but sees him as her annoying little brother and her boyfriend/husband's annoying little brother. In the earlier seasons it seems like he is a kid with crush. He is flirting in a kid like way. He was pulling her pigtails, teasing her.

He does not like the way The Handler treats him in his kid body. The way he acts around her seems like a kid trying to protect and keep themselves safe from a predatory adult. There are four known reactions of fear and trying to protects yourself: fight, flight, freeze and fawn. At the beginning he is trying to impress her, fawn. Which is something children often do, they think if they make the adult happy it will keep them safe.

Overall, from a scientific point of view and character analysis point of view this is very interesting.

[whoopsies-daisies]

Ok so i noticed that in the last two seasons they really toned down fives unhinged behavior and wild facial expressions and i am not having it. The first two seasons showed an incredible range of intense emotions from five as well as the range of Aidan's acting, which seasond three and four seem to lack. It really feels like they abandoned his character in those seasons too, which many people have pointed out, but it also feels like they abandoned the wild, erratic energy from his character - and we all know that man is off the rails - in favor of making him more attractive. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but i just KNOW they were waiting for Aidan Gallagher to turn 18 so they could give him some kind of creepy barely legal sex appeal, and throw him into a romantic relationship with whoever was closest to him. It was very clear in seasons one and two that five was simultaneously a tired old man and a feral teenager. He acted both of his ages and didn't care how people saw him besides his stoic facade. In the past seasons he just feels like a slightly over mature twenty year old and not actually like an old man, because the viewers wouldn't find that as attractive. this is honestly the best explanation i could find or come up with that would describe the major shift in characterization for five. The writers clearly don't care about the characters anymore, and are just relying on shock value and sex appeal to keep their viewers hooked, which is also how we got that weird little five and lila pairing. They could have just made them grow closer as friends and family members but that wouldn't have had as much shock to it as a both characters abandoning things that were previously so dear to them with no explanation other than "they were lonely and near each other".

Let me know your opinions because I'm honestly at a loss, even here I'm not quite sure what I'm talking about. All i know is, the whole show would have been better off without season four.

[laurrelise]

does anyone else ever scroll the tua tag and just stumble upon an insane amount of like, actual porn because tua translates to “yours” in italian. and just awkwardly scroll past like

aw cute fanart. aw cute sibling headcanons. oh boobs. moving on aw cute gifset

[fivelila]

Why do I think Diego and Lila's relationship was toxic?

No, this isn't going to be a post where I want to bring up the rightness of Lila and Five's relationship and throw dirt on Diego. Not in the least. I want to discuss the real events of the story. Here we go.

Season 2

2x01

Diego has been in a psychiatric asylum for 75 days; it is not clear from the plot how long Lila has been there with him. A fateful meeting and escape together? Not exactly, since Lila is being set up by the Handler. Besides, Diego doesn't want her to have anything to do with his plan. But Lila has no respect for his wishes and joins him for the sake of her mission. Yes, she helped him during his escape, but their entire situation was built on a lie.

2x02

Diego wants to split up after the escape, but Lila doesn't want to. Later, he wants her to leave again when Lila is rude to him. But she stays. Then Five shows up and Diego agrees to leave with him and that Lila will go with them - which doesn't really make sense, he's wanted to get rid of her several times up to this point and now he's had the perfect opportunity to do so.

It's kind of weird how quickly Lila gets involved in their stuff. She's a stranger to Five, but he might think Diego knows her well and trusts her (since he wanted her to go with them). But Diego changes his attitude towards her unnaturally quickly. And I'm not really sure why. Was it just because he was attracted to her? Seems like a weak reason to me.

Their first sweet scene? If Lila wasn't pretending to be someone else. I mean, she went on to play "Lila from the asylum who doesn't understand what's going on" but it wasn't really her. We know Lila was highly intelligent and when she looked scared and confused about things that were going on, it wasn't real. In fact, in the context of things, I don't know exactly what to make of that moment. But it seems like it was a play on his emotions.

2x03

Yes, well, Lila helped Diego in this scene. But I found her medical methods a little questionable, ngl.

And their first time? Well, honestly, the most honest part for me is when Lila confides in him about her family. That was real and I think she took advantage of finally being able to talk to someone about it. But the subsequent kiss and the rest. I already wrote this in another post, but Lila definitely seemed very taken aback after the kiss, that he took advantage of her weak moment and their bonding felt like part of a plan to be able to stay on with Diego, but not for his sake, but for her mission.

I don't want to say she didn't mean to do it, yet her expressions don't look happy. And then there's the question of whether it's because of what happened before or what happened after (meeting Handler) because Lila seemed cool there.

2x04

Yes, the dance scene and the sparks fly. But also, when Lila wants to lead Diego in the dance, it makes Diego a little out of tune. A small demonstration that her open-mindedness and reversal of established roles is not something he likes. It's just that at the same time, Diego is charmed by her, and perhaps so he doesn't even notice her minor manipulations. It seems to me that Lila is testing how much Diego will be inclined to do things her way.

The rest of the episode is more Fivelila, but the moment Lila chooses to save Five and not him, it's clear she's hit him with it and doesn't understand why she did it and turned her back on him. Handler's instructions to her were still above everything else.

2x05

Diego is hurt that Lila didn't help him. And he begins to suspect that Lila is lying to him, but only after Five starts talking about it when Lila becomes suspicious (proof that Diego was kind of blind to her and needed to open his eyes). Later in the episode Five finds out the truth about her.

--

To be continued next time if you are interested...

[artistic-arteries]

Viktor Hargreeves' entire life was dictated through that rumor and that fact lives in my brain the way a monkey lives in any enclosed space

Like, "you think you're just ordinary" is such a broad order to follow! Not only does it stop him from realizing he had powers, but it also stops him from thinking there's anything even conceptually unique about him.

It stopped him from seeing himself as talented with the violin because he has an ordinary level of skill in it. He can't be into girls because that's considered abnormal in society. He can't be trans because he's just ordinary.

Every season is him breaking out of the rumor's hold, little by little. Realizing things about him that had been kept on chains for years.

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

One of my favourite movies of all time is The Truman Show.

And I absolutely love the Umbrella Academy

I think they would hate it, but not in a "this is a bad movie" way but in a "this hits way too close to home" way

There is the Christof and Reginald parallel, both used their power to do something widely regarded as unethical. For Christof it was making the move in letting Truman be adopted by a movie studio and for Reginald it was BUYING all the seven kids.

The Truman Show follows Truman as his world begins to crumble, he becomes disillusioned, figures out that the world is not what it seems and that even his closest relationships have all been lies.

This is also what Luther AND Viktor go through.

Luther did what Reginald told him to, stayed when everyone else left, went to the moon for him because he thought it was important. Deep down he thought, or at least he wished, Reginald cared about them. Why else hold the funeral at his favorite spot.

But then he finds out: Reginald never read his letters. Every time he begged for more food in them, he was dismissed. His siblings were right. Dad never loved them. Any of them. And he has no way to confront Reginald, so he tries to find a another way, that way being Klaus.

Just like Truman has no way in confronting the people who put him in this artifical world, so he threatens his wife and tries to break out.

But also Viktor is figuring out his life had been a big lie. He had powers all this time. He wasn't ordinary. Reginald intentionally suppressed his powers. Leonard told him he loved him only for it to turn out he only wanted to use Viktor for his powers.

Truman had always had a relatively simple life. Or at least, that's what he thought. He wanted more, he wanted to see the world. But everyone around him told him not to. He should give up and stay. He had a wife. He had a best friend. But turns out, they were both paid actors.

And then there's the studio staging Truman's dad's death by drowning at sea. All so Truman would be afraid of water and never want to get away that way.

Which just alligns so well with Reginald locking Klaus in a mausoleum over and over again, despite it having the complete opposite effect of making him even more afraid of the ghosts. Almost like he knows it and does it intentionally to keep him in his place.

Truman finds out his entire life has been broadcasted. His most vulnerable moments, all for everyone to see. Without his consent.

While all the Brellies minus Viktor were in the spotlight without their consent, it especially shows with Allison. She was the sole girl of the Academy, on teen magazines and let's not forget, the first time she heard about Reginald's death is by being asked by paparazzi what she would wear to the funeral

[leikeliscomet]

Thoughts on Umbrella Academy's Ending and What it Says About Abuse - SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 AHEAD

(A Mini Essay If You Will)

What makes the ending of The Umbrella Academy devastating, and I mean an absolute tragedy isn't that just the characters we love are gone, but that they genuinely don't mean anything.

Luther started as the boy that did everything right but still wasn't enough for his father. He ended up repeating the cycle by feeling like he had to take control of every situation. He eventually lived life for himself, found Sloane and put his wants and needs first for the first time in his life after being raised to think his needs never mattered.

Diego felt like he was a 2nd fiddle, almost literally, and felt like he had to prove himself to Reggie. He took his inferiority out on everyone else. He finally realised he was good enough and didn't need his father's validation anymore. He became the father his father never was. He finally realised he was good enough.

Allison felt insecure and that she had to manipulate people into getting what and who she wanted. She finally made peace without those things and people and reconnected with her daughter after losing custody all those years ago. She finally became the mother she always wanted to be. She wanted to earn things by herself and she did.

Klaus spent his whole life haunted (almost literally) by his own failures. He worked so hard to get sober and he did. After feeling like the most useless member of the team his whole childhood, he mastered his powers and realised his own strengths, after living his life thinking he had none.

Five felt held back and not pushed enough. He blamed his siblings for holding him back and thought he was better than them. After apocalypse after apocalypse he realised he couldn't do it alone. He convinced himself he preferred being alone because he was scared to be vulnerable. He finally got what he wanted. A family. A community.

Ben's life ended before it even really began, but he at least got to see his siblings grow and develop without him. Sparrow Ben lost everyone both emotionally and physically. He had everything he wanted and still lost it all. With Jennifer, for once in his life, there was something, someone, he didn't need to prove himself or win at. He found someone that accepted him for him.

Viktor was neglected his whole life and was the constant outsider. He bottled up everything inside to the point of destruction of himself and of others. He finally accepted himself fully. His skills, his transition, his relationships, his life. He finally got the confidence and closure he needed to move on and be fulfilled.

Lila was haunted from the start in a cycle of murder and manipulation. She continued that cycle because she wasn't taught anything else. She was so scared she'd be like the Handler when she became a mother, but she didn't. She loved them in ways she was never loved. She got the family she always dreamed of.

Every single character despite the abuse they suffered still got closure and peace in their own way. They all grew. They all matured. They all thrived after being told that they never would.

And the show says this doesn't matter. They don't matter. They don't deserve to exist. They're all the problem. They will always be problems. They'll never escape their trauma. They will always be nothing but the byproducts of their abuse. They'll never be anything else but that. And because of that, none of them should live. And that's fucking horrifying. Despite this mess of an ending and the rasclart messaging it sends, I'll never see these characters as inherent problems or evils. I know they're not angels either but that was never the point. As Five once said, there are no good guys and bad guys, just people living their lives. Trauma messes shit up. Things get messy and complicated. In this show, or at least season 1, they were brave enough to tackle that mess. They all had the chance. They all all had potential. And we all saw it all. Don't forget that. The characters may be gone, but that potential was there. It was real. It existed.

[air--so--sweet]

The fact Reginald didn't have Allison rumour Viktor as 'You think you're normal' or 'You think you don't have powers' but instead went with 'You think you're ordinary' is so insidious.

Because it didn't just affect Viktor's belief around his powers, it affected his whole world view. You can't excel in anything if you think you are in no way special or distinct. He had the talent to be first chair (yes his power helped but his power couldn't make bad playing appear good, he still had to play well) but he didn't believe he did and so was stuck at third chair. Even in teaching he talks himself down when Harold compliments him, saying his next student could probably teach him (but if that were the case why would that student's parents not just get another violin tutor?). It's also part of why he falls under Harold's spell, because he's ordinary and along comes this guy who seems great and thinks he's special, something Viktor literally cannot believe he is because of the rumour, so how can he not be won over by that attention?

I also believe this was completely intentional, because believing he is in no way special, coupled with being numbed by his medication ensures he will be a docile child and easily manipulated. Seeing as Reginald didn't predict the siblings would leave as adults, he had intended to control Viktor his entire life.

[nexus-my-beloved]

Alright, welcome to my ramble about why Five/Lila in s4 makes absolute complete sense and why everyone tearing it down and making derogatory remarks make me ridiculously angry when they refuse to really think about it.

UMBRELLA ACADEMY S4 SPOILERS !

One of the biggest things I'm seeing people do/say about season 4 is that adding a love interest for Five ruined it or that Five "wouldn't do that" and that it was extremely out of character. At a glance, yes, that can make sense, but if you stop to think about it for five seconds longer than it becomes increasingly apparent that it MAKES SENSE.

Another thing people keep complaining about it the fact that Five was being a homewrecker/Five was being an awful person/etc. What people are doing is they are neglecting to acknowledge the fact that the relationship was as much as Five's persistence as it was Lila's. Lila was not roped into a relationship, she was just as much into it as he was! If you are going to call out Five, remember that you need to call out Lila, too.

Now that my baseline points are out there, let me explain:

When Five was in the apocalypse the first time, he felt completely alone in a barren wasteland. He was isolated, and young, and he wanted to get back to his family to save them. While he waited, though, he grew extremely attached to the first thing he could that gave him any kind of company: Dolores. He cared about her and even loved her, to a degree, proven by how he threatened to shoot Luther in s1 for trying to drop her out a window and by how he kissed the hallucination of a human Dolores when under the influence of Jayme's hallucination venom. Whether the love was real or not, he felt that it was, and it was a result of forced proximity and a lonely person wanting affection ("we only had each other")

When Five ended up trapped in the subway, he was lonely in yet another wasteland with more dangers than before. He felt isolated from the world around him, wanted to get back home to save his family (sound familiar yet?) but this time he was years older. He and Lila spent seven years on that subway, alone, together, and as would happen with forced proximity they got close. (I've heard people argue that they would've had a good sibling dynamic and that the romance ruined it, but the parallels between Lila and Dolores here are kind of obvious, I thought.) Five got attached to Lila, cared about her, and grew to love her (again, whether it was true love or not, that didn't matter when he thought he loved her, at least). In fact, throughout the entire show, Five has never smiled like he did when he was with Lila. He was happy. He did love her.

Often, Five is the one blamed for the relationship (that I have seen; I haven't yet seen ANYONE say Lila was also at fault). The issue is, Lila was the one who was married, the one who had kids, and yet she encouraged the relationship anyway. She didn't think she would get back to Diego, after a while. They were making the best of what they had, and personally, I don't think anything is wrong with the fact they had a relationship while in the subway - neither of them thought they would get home. Lila wasn't intending to cheat, she just didn't think she'd be able to get back to them and wasn't going to spend the rest of her life miserable. Five wasn't intending to play homewrecker, he fell in love and she encouraged it - what was he supposed to do? They were together of their own free wills. I think it's alright that they were together, but if you're going to blame anyone about it, both of them deserve blame because both of them were equal parts into the relationship.

I have heard people say that the stopping to rest was out of character and that it wasn't the same Five who fought 45 years in an apocalypse to get back to his family. That's the thing, though, isn't it? Five has done nothing but work to save his family since he was thirteen years old. 45 years in an apocalypse, a hellish two-ish weeks between saving them from a falling moon, WWIII in the 60s, and trying to get them out of a hotel that was hellbent on killing them. Then, when they get out, no powers, they all go their separate ways and he is no longer right with his family. He spends six years without them, working for the CIA, because working is all he knows how to do now (it's clear he hardly has a life for himself, seeing as everyone else's life was shown but Five had nothing outside of work), and when he gets put in another apocalypse for seven years you all are mad at him for wanting to have a break? For wanting something domestic? At face value, yes, it seems out of character, and it seems slightly selfish compared to his past actions, but when you really think about it IT MAKES SENSE HE'D WANT A BREAK. His life since he was 13 has been dictated by running himself ragged for his family's sake and now he might not be able to get home (similar to how it was in his first apocalypse). He's not at fault for wanting to go somewhere that he can rest. Wanting to have some sense of domesticity with Lila isn't bad.

The entire arc made sense! Five and Lila shared an experience with the commission. Both of them had been subject to The Handler and they could bond over it. Both had been through different apocalypses/problems (Hotel Oblivion, Lila was there in the sixties, they were now in the subway together) together, and both knew what it was like to get irritated by a crazy family (both, consequently, being subject to the Hargreeves). Sure, they fought in the past, and in past seasons their relationship would have never worked, but in that subway? In the subway it made sense. In fact, the show could have gone well either with or without their relationship, but adding in the relationship added to the watcher feeling the same level of defeat as Five did at the end. Losing everything, now having to lose his life, it gives the watcher empathy after watching the breakup.

Truly, I haven't seen anyone say that Five deserved sympathy for the breakup. He did deserve it, though: he was made to fall in love with Lila, and then the moment she found out they could go home, she was running off to leave like she was ready to ignore that they ever happened. He had been in love with her, made her gifts, called her "love", said that he "aimed to please" as he tried to make her happy, held her so gently when he'd kiss her because he was sweet and tender and this was the first real love he'd gotten to have, and he wanted to do it right. Then, the moment he told her she could go home, she was ready to leave, and she looked him in the eyes and said that "it was survival", practically throwing his heart to the ground and shattering it. They'd spent seven years together and he'd grown to love her and she made it seem like she was just biding her time and never truly loved him in the first place. Imagine how he must have felt? And yet he still loved her anyway. He'd known that she had been annoyed with Diego sometimes, and because he was in love and upset after getting his heart broken it made SENSE that he'd be bitchy towards Diego. Yes, she was Diego's wife, but Five was in love with her, and he was jealous that after everything they went through Diego still got to have her. He fought Diego to get out that frustration, even if (in my heart of heart's) it wasn't really frustration at Diego, but instead just generalized feelings of hurt. He dealt with it the way he dealt with things in the past: he fought. Five was forced to be a fighter, and it was the end of the world, it's not like he'd allow himself to cry. If anything, Five fighting Diego was the MOST in character thing they could've done after that, and yet people are upset at him for fighting his brother! That final "it's over, Five" that Lila said after breaking up the fight broke his heart, you could see that, in both his face and the way he blipped to the subway, ready to leave. He was heartbroken, there didn't seem to be a way to end this apocalypse, and again, Five wanted to rest. He loved her, she hurt him, and yet he STILL held her when she broke down after sending her family and the kids away on the train. He was strong, but you could tell he was hurting.

Their relationship wouldn't have worked anywhere besides the subway but it happening there made perfect sense, it made for a good feeling of Five experiencing defeat and the idea that he could never truly be loved, by family or otherwise. (Dolores couldn't reciprocate, Lila tossed him aside the second she could go home, Reginald surely was no father figure and there's no doubt he likely didn't see Grace as much of a mother, his siblings were always upset with him for some reason or other even if he was just trying to save them and out of this whole time, I believe he's only ever been called a good brother twice. He only got told that twice after his years of suffering for his family's sake.)

So, in conclusion, the Five/Lila arc made sense, it fit well with the story, there were good implications if you bother to think about them, Lila was just as much at fault as Five, Five was NOT super out of character for being a man just wanting a break (he even said it himself, it was a break, not giving up), and I'm so sick of hearing people just talk shit about them. Thank you for coming to my ramble, if you were a hater before, I hope I changed your mind, and to everyone that agrees with me thank you.

[number-8-thewriter]

Part One: Luther

Another analysis but this time on Diego! He’s..got a lot. I’m scared to do Five tbh. Five’s analysis will be like an entire book, same with Klaus..and Viktor. Oof..😅

Okay, Diego!

In regard to his relationship with his family, the closest he seems to be with is: Luther, Five and Klaus. With Luther, it may have been because he was number 2. So he stood up to lead whenever Luther failed.

Note: (I remember reading a theory a long time ago that the numbers were based on the strongest (7) to weakest (1). So Luther was weakest when it came to his powers. The only reason he led is because Luther had been the most devoted, meanwhile Viktor was..ordinary at the time.)

So Diego was basically second in command, meaning he probably had a lot on his shoulders. He probably would’ve been number one if it weren’t for his stutter (and the fact Reginald didn’t know of his more advanced abilities, like him stopping bullet trajectory. At the time, he could only throw knives wherever he wanted).

Speaking of his stuttering, I’ve looked into it aooooo little (people with more experience can give their thoughts) and it seems like stuttering from a young age is a neurological thing from 2-5. But it could also be a result of trauma. So we have some possible causes…

1. He was just born like that. It never really went away, it only really comes out when he’s stressed.

2. He had head trauma as a child. I think the scar on his head was from Klaus trying to throw one of Diego’s daggers? But if I misremembering then maybe it came from an accident.

3. Severe emotional trauma. He experienced something that just affected him so badly he just…changed psychologically.

Probably a mixture of all three tbh. But we do know Grace was the one who helped him with speech therapy. This is probably the main reason he’s so attached to Grace. The sparrow kids make fun of him for being so attached to a robot but to him, that’s his mom. She’s the one who helped him. She understood and she never made fun of him or ostracized him. Although, we did see that Viktor as a young kid killed a lot of Nannie’s…I’m not sure if they were real humans first or if they were robots. I think the Nannie’s at first were the ones we see in the opening were the ones Viktor killed. So from this, the kids probably had their own nanny as babies. Obviously Reginald isn’t gonna be changing any diapers.

So..from this theory, Diego originally had a nanny he was attached to. His mom. Then he was possibly 7 or 8, Viktor killed her. Maybe he didn’t know it was Viktor? If he knew, that could be one reason as to why he was so standoffish with Viktor in season 1. If not then..ouch. Then Reginald built Grace and he was probably scared to loose her too. So he treated her like his real mother (which, to be fair, I would too. Her and Pogo did everything they could.)

Now we’ve got some background, let’s go into season 1:

As we know, Diego left at some point, probably after Ben died. We also know Diego deals with grief very angrily. So with Reginald mindwashing them to believe it was their fault, he blamed himself for his brother’s death and he left. He probably lived on the streets for a bit, if he didn’t steal money from Reginald first. Then at some point, he joins the police academy..and gets kicked out. Then he starts vigilantism but he needs a job, so he starts boxing (him and Luther are pretty similar when you think about it..) so he can live at the boxing ring.

Boxing is indeed a coping mechanism. It helps to unleash your anger in an acceptable way (like, sometimes people become surgeons to satiate a need to stab things..psychology!). So on top of boxing for money and a home, he’s taking his frustrations out on people. And his Vigilantism..he probably feels like he can’t do anything. Reginald implanted this idea of having to save people. He has powers, he HAS to. So he does.

At some point he also dates a detective (Eudora Patch) but they break up, probably because he was kicked out of the academy and then became a vigilante.

Then Viktor releases the book outing their entire lives. I don’t think we get to see exactly what Viktor writes but since it’s an autobiography, he probably went into vivid detail on everything. Diego probably felt outed. He doesn’t like people knowing all his stuff, he likes his privacy and he doesn’t like to be seen as vulnerable. That’s why he’s so hateful towards Viktor. Vik was the sibling that meant nothing to the family in terms of “the umbrella family.” He had no powers, he was shy, he only ever played his violin. Then as soon as he leaves, he outs the entire family and their drama. Most people probably wouldn’t feel great if their sibling wrote a book on the entire life and told the world all your private moment.

Diego and Klaus are the closest in this season. Diego tries to take care of him as best as he can but Klaus just..doesn’t care too much. Diego knows Klaus is self destructive but..he can’t really do anything. He seems to somewhat understand Klaus’ trauma in the war..

A pattern we’ll notice with Diego is that he always tries to help his siblings. Usually by talking or letting them vent. So far in the series, he’s the one who’s had heart to hearts with everyone (Luther in a deleted S4 scene, Allison in season 3, Klaus in season 1, Ben in season 2, Viktor in season 3, and Five throughout the seasons)

Season 2: Diego gets to the 60s..and the first thing he does is try to..kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Or arrest him? Whatever he’s trying, he’s trying to stop JFK from being assassinated. I think the reason he’s so keen on doing it is because he has a savior complex. And saving the president is the most savior you can get, even though I’m sure Five told him about changing the timeline too much.

This is also when he develops a relationship with Lila. Diego gets attached and defends her at all costs…until it’s reveled she’s with the commission and working with the enemy. He breaks up with her but she kidnaps him and takes him back to the commission. He was obviously pretty upset with the whole thing, so looping back to his mommy issues, he’s got abandonment issues. He doesn’t want to be alone but as soon as Lila turns out to be the bad guy, he feels betrayed and hurt again.

At the commission, he now realizes what Five’s been talking about this entire time. I think he actually wants to be apart of the commission (not apart of the corruption) to save people internationally and inter dimensionally. I mean, as soon as he came back, he immediately rubbed it all into Five’s face. Five, being the old man he is, knew most of it was bullshit and just shook his head.

In season 3, Lila basically dumps a child onto Diego. So now, Diego is caring for this boy who..is pretty similar to him tbh. So he struggles a bit but he actually ended up being pretty good. We already know in season 4, he ends up with the family life but right now this is a pretty indicator he actually wanted that life, at least somewhere deep down. When Stanley, the kid, gets lost, Diego looses it. He’s trying to find him, thinking he’ll just be somewhere in the building. In the hotel oblivion, that’s when Lila tells him that Stanley isn’t his son, just a kid she basically kidnapped for a week. Diego feels betrayed again but now this kid he bonded with (and tbh, Stanley would’ve been better off with Diego. At least Diego actually interacted with him and tried to teach him things).

Then Lila also drops the bombshell that she’s pregnant so..he’s essentially grieving the loss of one child (Stanley gets kugleblitzed) but now he has to grieve to loss of ANOTHER child because the end of the world is coming and he can’t do anything about it!…on top of that, he’s grieving the loss of his mom (Grace being a glitchy robot) and his brother (Ben, who “died” as a ghost and is now sparrow Ben, an asshole)..so he’s grieving a lot of different things and he’s probably really confused.

In season 4, we get another side of Diego. The family man. He…isn’t the biggest fan. Now, I’ve rewritten him to be a police officer but we’ll go with canon (I suppose…) so he’s a UPS driver. He hates it. He isn’t very good at the whole “normal life” thing. He misses his powers, he misses being something, he misses the excitement.

He loves his kids, obviously..I mean, the first thing he did when getting his powers back was winning a stupid carnival game to get stuffed animals. He just..again, has a savior complex. He wants to save people. Which is why when he sees Five again, he keeps asking if the CIA accepted his resume yet.

I think he might be somewhat jealous of Five? He’s showing a lot of it..like when he went to the commission and immediately rubbed it in his face. Now asking if the CIA will accept him.

This also goes into the whole..Five and Lila situation. Like..Lila, I know she said she wanted a break (oh yeah, right before Diego had to see how his brother fuckin died, great timing babe) but Five now has everything Diego wants! A good job where he gets to save people…and his wife.

That’s Diego…lots of abandonment issues, a savior complex, some roots of jealousy..he’s an interesting guy. He’s got a lot going for him but he can’t adjust to a normal life because he was never taught a normal life. He’s an almost 40 year old man, it’s hard for him to unlearn everything prior.

[ramblings-of-lola]

Something interesting about Five that I've noticed as I've been watching the show is that he acts unemotional, especially toward his siblings (threatening to kill them when he gets upset, ignoring their relationship problems, that sort of thing) but he does everything for his family and people he doesn't know. Over the almost two seasons I've watched, he does everything in his power to prevent the apocalypse from happening and his response when people tell him "who cares?" is "7 billion people are going to die". When he thinks he doesn't have a choice, he makes a deal with the Handler to kill 12 people in exchange for his family and the world's safety even though he hates killing. When that falls through, Five sees another version of himself at the risk of no longer existing to get a time machine. He may be an older man, but that 13 year old version of him that was taught to help people no matter what is still there.