#fivela my beloved

[therulerofallpotatos]

Im having emotions. Im unblocking the tua tags.

Edit: lol look what I found in my drafts from the other day

[jsealand]

Trying to organize my season 4 Umbrella Academy thoughts (easier said than done with my audhd brain) and this is what I’ve got:

There were actually moments I enjoyed, but I think the things I didn’t like far outweighed the ones I did. Other people have covered those things pretty extensively—dropped storylines that don’t make sense to have been dropped (it’s kind of tradition in this show to drop some things, but there are others that at least need to be addressed if they aren’t going to be shown), characters acting entirely out of character (and not in a ‘people are complex and full of contradictions’ kind of way, but in a ‘the writers/creators wanted to force a storyline and it really shows, and also they straight up told us so’ kind of way), etc—so I won’t go into those.

(Here there be SPOILERS)

What I do want to explore my feelings on is the ending. It bothered me in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on until I saw someone point out that it basically says ‘you were born wrong and the world is better off without you’, which is going to resonate in a familiar bad way with a lot of fans in a lot of marginalized groups.

I understand that because of the way the story began, the ‘born wrong’ part is true in a literal sense, in that dozens of people were forced to give birth, suddenly and violently, with no way to consent to any part of the process. Not the fault of the kids in any way, EDIT: but not really an acceptable way to end the series, either. [Actually, I take this back, because on further reflection it would mean arguing that children born from tragic or violent circumstances just shouldn’t exist. I can argue that we need to work toward a world in which those circumstances don’t happen anymore, but I won’t accept that people who already exist because of it should cease to exist. Fuck that noise. Move forward and work with the present, don’t try to change the past. And I get how with a time travel show that seems contradictory, but it isn’t: they already exist, therefore they deserve to *have existed*]

The ‘world is better off without you part’ is complete and utter bs—better off without marigold, yes, but not our beloved misfits—but I can’t think of a feasible way to have them in the world without their traumatic marigold births (it’s always bothered me in shows/movies when a character visits another timeline and sees their kids as someone else’s biological kids—NOT how it works—so I don’t think we could see them walking around in that park after having been born normally and living normal lives).

So, I understand why we got the basic plot of the ending. I don’t like that it’s the answer, but I understand it. What I absolutely *hate* is that we don’t have any positive resolutions for the Hargreeves. I think that’s the one thing the vast majority of fans could agree that we wanted from the ending and we really didn’t get it. (I’m sure there are people out there making arguments about how they at least went out together or the flowers popping up was a nice homage or something, but that’s not enough of a payoff of watching them go through hell for three and a somethingth seasons.)

Hence, my idea for what could have salvaged at least some of our feelings for season 4 (but not the fivela: that can rot in the rubbish heap of forced and unnecessary plotlines from which it sprung): we have the park scene and see our fan favorites enjoying their normal, peaceful lives—with the addition of some that were snubbed for whatever reason—and then we zoom out to see that this is being watched on the tv in Klaus’s afterlife (recognizable somehow, but maybe a little cozier and prettier) and there are the siblings all hanging out together, happily sharing pizza and squabbling cheerfully, and as we slowly zoom out further we see other people—Dave, standing behind a couch, hands Klaus a soda or something; Sloane leans over Luther’s shoulder and kisses his cheek; the other Sparrows are playing Twister or something else physical but fun; Grace and Pogo are laughing together as they… play chess, maybe? And even Reggie and Abigail are there, off to the side, smiling (Abigail benevolently, Reggie wistfully because he hasn’t quite earned a spot in the crowd yet—but we’ve seen glimpses of his ability to, so I think he’ll get there someday, especially with Abigail’s guidance). We continue to zoom out and we see all the people who might have been, but never were, and they’re together and happy. (The precedent was set in s3, after all, with Klaus’s mom having watched him all his life, despite not having even been his mom in that particular timeline.) And maybe we zoom back in to just our Hargreeves, and a teenage girl in a striped dress is sitting on a bike and looking at Klaus with annoyed resignation, but when he waves her over and offers her some pizza, she pauses for a moment, looks around at the others who are also offering—a soda, a spot on a couch, some chips, etc—and then smiles a tiny, barely-there, reluctant smile, and joins them for lunch.

[therulerofallpotatos]

2 professional agents bouncing off each others' improv is my shit

Alright onto season 4 episode 2 of the umbrella academy