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air--so--sweet · 9 months ago

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Y'know, I started writing about how I thought the time they tried to make Five badass at the expense of characterisation or motivation was actually the boardroom scene in season 2. Because the killing is unnecessarily gory and inefficient and and uses excessive force, all of which in contrast to what we've seen of Five before. Also he seems to take pleasure in the killing, something Five did not do in the past. Being an assasin was always a means to an end for him, something he had to do, not something he enjoyed. But rewatching the scene I actually think I'm wrong about it not making sense for his character.

Adding a cut here because oh my god even by my standards this post is LONG.

One thing I had been thinking is that in season 1 he uses a butter knife as a weapon in Griddys and there's literally cutlery visible on the table with the cake behind him before he attacks the board, why would he chose an axe over that? Especially as no one in the boardroom seems to have any combat skills. But then I realised he does actually consider the cutlery, we see him look back at it before he chooses the axe. And it made me think a bit more about where Five is in that moment.

He stressed, and panicked and he's flat out of options, having had to make a deal with The Handler of all people. He blames himself for his family ending up in the '60s and he's, once again, up against an apocalypse that his family causes and he doesn't know how to stop it. And, while a lot of the pain and hardship the commission caused him was actually caused by The Handler, he can't take it out on her in the moment, so the board becomes his outlet for that anger, hurt and frustration (and to be fair, they're not exactly blameless either). He could absolutely kill them efficiently and easily and with minimal force and some cutlery, could even set the scene up to look like they somehow all killed or attacked each other, so there's no one looking for an outsider to whose responsible (as he did in Griddy's in season 1). But Five doesn't care anymore about doing the job like the efficient assasin he is, or about covering his tracks or not arousing any suspicion. He's tired and he's angry and he just wants to get it done. And if he can cause pain to The Commission, who have caused him so much pain, well then fuck he's going to, and he's going to relish it.

And then in season 3, when he's tired and burnt out and he doesn't have that adrenaline running through him any more (and he knows that The Handler had tricked him and had never had any intention of helping him get back home) he...regret isn't the right word, but he doesn't seem to feel good about having killed the board and he recognises and admits that there's no way to justify it.

'Dont do the math, that equation does not exist. There's no save Five Harlans for every two Claires formula. People like us, we will never save enough lives to make up for the ones that we take.'

Well...this is in no way the post I set out to write but it's an interesting one nonetheless. I guess basically I unintentionally ended up echoing SoSo on that Five was already badass. And to see him leading with a gun and working for the CIA seems off and doesn't at all feed into a badass image. It never even occurred to me that was maybe what the writers were going for.

I will say, working for the CIA does make sense to me if it's to be taken as a sign of the plot of Five feeling lost and adrift...but honestly I don't think it is intended as that.

I think it would have been cool to have him working for the CIA becasue he doesn't know what to do with his life. As much as he loathed The Commission he knew who he was and what was expected of him within that organisation, similar to how he hated Reginald but again, he knew his role and what was expected of him as a member of The Umbrella Academy. So, as much as he would hate to admit it, he chooses the CIA because he finds comfort in the familiarity and he knows how to be a good agent. Have him ordered to investigate The Keepers, and have him identify with them and join them and basically become a double agent. Have him be the keeper who infiltrates the CIA, have him be the one recruiting other agents (if we have to have The Keepers within the CIA but I really don't think we do). Have Five be so lost that, instead of trying to stop the apocalypse and preserve this timeline, where finally all his family are safe, he tries to bring about the cleanse.

And then have him grapple with what that means when he realises that it will cause suffering for abd uktimately kill Ben, that it means betraying and hurting his family. Have him realise he's ignored the advice he gave to Viktor about the dangers of making decisions alone when you're so powerful. Have him realise that he's become so lost and broken that he's become the villain.

And maybe, even have him recognise all of that and still stay on that path because everything else he's tried hasn't worked. This timeline has all of his family and all of them are safe but none of them are happy so this can't be what he fought all those years for, can it? No this timeline is a perversion of what the universe should be, moulded in his fathers image. He has to destroy it to get back to the real timeline. That must be the answer. Because he's an old man who is tired and traumatised. Whose own hubris as a child separated him from his family. A family that, without him there fell apart. A family that bullied and isolated and tortured Viktor, Five's closest friend and main ally in the family, to the point he would eventually cause the apocalypse, because Five wasn't there. And no matter what he's done since getting back to them it's made everything worse. An alternate version of him told him not to save the world. And so he takes it one step further - he's going to destroy it.

Like that would have been a fascinating arc and would be a huge betrayal of his family with actual motivations not just because the writers thiught simething should happen. If you're still obsessed with giving him a romance then I dunno, have him kiss Derek or something (Steve Blackman said he didn't care if Five's romance was worth ' a girl or a boy' after all). I still do not think he needed a romance (and honestly liked the theory that he was aroace), but I also think they could have given him a romantic subplot and made it part of an interesting story rather than the entire story.

This post has been such a ramble and every time I thought it was over I found myself writing more. If anyone reads this far I hope you liked it? Or it at least makes sense.

Last one about TUA season 4, for now.

(I talked about this in the tags of one of my RBs before but I wanted to elaborate)

I don't like how they keep trying to make Five a badass.

I find it especially frustrating as doing this constantly, bogs down any form of character development we could've had from Five.

For whatever reason, the writers seem to be allergic to acknowledging Five's biggest character flaw, his arrogance. Five always has to be right. He always has to be capable of everything and never needs any help. Despite the fact that Diego also has a very similar flaw (and is punished for it consistently), Five's seems to go completely untouched.

(A part of me thinks that the reason why they punish Diego so much more is because he comes off as the hot-headed impulsive one. While that's true, it certainly doesn't negate Five's ability to make mistakes or be incompetent)

Instead, they keep trying to invent a new flaw for Five in that; he is obsessed with the apocalypse. In reality, he's not obsessed with the apocalypse. He's obsessed with keeping his family safe. It just so happens that their most immediate threat (in his eyes) tends to be the apocalypse. (I really don't understand what they're trying to get at with this, especially considering the fact that he already has an extremely apparent flaw)

While this isn't an issue I take with season 4 specifically, it has definitely amplified this issue like crazy. Five's arrogance is vaguely addressed by his siblings in season 1, but it never seems to get him in trouble? Or at least he doesn't seem to have learned from it (except for the time-travelling thing from when he was 13, and when he bled out also in season 1)

Season 1 (and 2) handled it the best out of the four. Five never seems to ask for or accept help unless backed into a corner (telling Viktor about the apocalypse, asking Klaus to help him get the prosthetic eye). Or if he is literally incoherent or unconscious (him passing out from blood loss, him being drunk and telling Diego and Luther about what's happening).

And outside of that, Five's arrogance still had brutal consequences within this season (him not noticing Viktor's declining mental state because he was so sure about the apocalypse (but this was partially because this man tunnel-visions like crazy)).

(there are probably more instances of this with s1 & 2, i just can't think of them off the top of my head so tag them if you'd like)

Season 4 is extra mean with this. From the 'Five getting to work for the CIA at 19' to 'Five randomly figuring out what's causing the end of the world with a bunch of other Five's' while he was off moping.

And when he does make mistakes, it's not because he's actually not capable of everything and anything.

Noooo, Ben really really sneakily stole the marigold and spiked the sake. Five couldn't have possibly noticed. (and none of the other siblings for that matter)

Noooo, it's because Luther is actually super smart in figuring out that Five's boss is a Keeper (no shade to Luther btw, I like him. They just don't treat this moment as Five being a complete dumbass).

Oh no! Five (and Lila) can't figure out a way back from the metro! Never mind, another Five managed it.

Five being a homewrecker? That's him being an asshole, not incompetent so it doesn't count (lighthearted).

Five's arrogance one of his defining flaws, yet it's not really challenged. The fact that he gets away with a lot of bullshit is simply because he can! When he doesn't face failure, he doesn't find growth. He doesn't learn to stop being self-destructive just because he thinks he can do anything. He doesn't learn to reach out.

This stunt in growth is obviously not only present in Five but also everyone else. I just find his to be particularly grating since he's my favorite.

Feel free to add your thoughts to this, not just about Five's fucked up character growth but everyone else's too!

(I'll make long a ass post/video essay going into detail about all of them one of these days)

I'd love to read them :)

#the umbrella academy #tua #Five Hargreeves #analysis #the umbrella academy season 4 spoilers #A big old ramble #started making it had a breakdown bon appetit

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