#image bank ben laughing at klaus

[ded-and-gonne]

How Justin is genuinely laughing in the last one.

SHEEHALLOWEEN 2022 🔮 Day Five: Free Space

[dogbearinggifts]

Since Vanya was always kept out of everything and people were made to believe that Reginald only adopted six children, how easily could people have believed the contents of Vanya's book? Do you think the popularity or people's general opinion of Reginald and the siblings were significantly affected by it? If so, how dramatic do you think was the change in the public's perception? What do people possibly think about Reginald and the siblings now? Thank you very much!

Since Vanya was always kept out of everything and people were made to believe that Reginald only adopted six children, how easily could people have believed the contents of Vanya's book?

You know, I’ve thought on the flashbacks a bit more after reading this ask, and I’ve realized that Reginald doesn’t deny her existence so much as he fails or refuses to acknowledge it. He snubs her by omission in the bank flashback, but he makes no effort to keep her out of sight while they’re standing on that rooftop. He forbids her to join the family photo, but he doesn’t lock her away while it’s taken so the photographer can’t see her. And when all of the kids were infants, we see seven nannies pushing seven carriages—so the existence of seven Hargreeves children would still be within living memory. I think it’s highly likely that at some point after they began superhero work, this discrepancy was brought up. Maybe the tween magazine correspondent who wrote that “Getting Real with The Umbrella Academy” piece we see framed on Reginald’s wall asked them “Say, don’t you have another sister? Whatever happened to her?” to which they responded that she didn’t have any powers. Since the world was enamored with the young superheroes and what they did, I think this correspondent would’ve had little interest in asking further questions about this mysterious seventh sibling. Prior to the publication of Vanya’s book, I think there would have been interviews and other documentation confirming the existence of a seventh Hargreeves child, but the press probably didn’t take much interest in this fact until her book was released.

Do you think the popularity or people's general opinion of Reginald and the siblings were significantly affected by it? If so, how dramatic do you think was the change in the public's perception?

I think that would differ, by and large, from reader to reader. The best real-world example I can think of is the movie The Social Network, about Zuckerberg and all the drama surrounding the creation of Facebook. Some people who saw that movie took it as a fairly accurate account of the shady rise of Facebook and Zuckerberg; others took it with a grain of salt; some believed it was mostly embellished; some conceded that it was true to the spirit if not to all the facts; the real people whose lives it dramatized were angry over how they were portrayed; and some people just didn’t think it was an enjoyable movie to watch. (I’m in the last group. The How It Should Have Ended version was a much better movie.)

When it comes to Vanya’s book, I think public opinion would’ve been similarly divided. Some would’ve believed everything Vanya wrote, while others would’ve found parts (or most) of it unbelievable. I think there would’ve been some readers who were big fans of Vanya’s siblings and dismissed her book as a morally dubious ploy to profit off their fame; but I think there also would’ve been other readers who had always had their suspicions about the eccentric billionaire who bought seven kids and trained them to kill. Some readers might not have believed her claims of constant bullying from her siblings, but they might have believed the parts about the child abuse. We know her book was a bestseller for a time, but I don’t think there was any general public consensus on what to think of the contents.

If allegations of child abuse were ever brought to Reginald, I think he would’ve laughed them off, or pointed out that many of his children had gone on to great success and independence. Some would have taken this as an admission of guilt; some would have taken it as a sign that Vanya exaggerated her claims. Allison probably would have been interviewed about the more explosive things Vanya wrote about her family, but her publicist probably would have instructed her to keep her responses as diplomatic as possible. I don’t think she would have refused to comment at all—she would have wanted to refute some of Vanya’s most damaging claims—but rather than a categorical denial, she might have said something like, “There are two sides to every story—and in this case, there are seven. Vanya told her side, and I’d like to be given a chance to tell mine, when I’m ready.” Rumors would have flown every which way, but a response like that probably would have convinced her fans, at least, that Vanya had exaggerated some of her claims.

I think the most significant impact her book had was in sparking a debate. I think it would have raised questions in those who maybe hadn’t asked any before, and emboldened those who had already been questioning the wisdom of sending six young teenagers out to fight dangerous adult criminals. And those who were true believers in the Academy—maybe those who’d had a loved one saved by those kids, or who thought the basic idea of superheroes was good—probably would have dug in their heels and pointed to the angry reactions of her siblings as proof she exaggerated most, if not all, of her claims. I do think that, by and large, the public sympathized with what the kids had gone through in their childhoods, and I think they were probably horrified that no one ever said anything. Vanya probably hoped public sympathy would rest with her and her alone, but it likely extended to all her siblings and made Reginald the main object of disgust. Rather than focusing on Vanya’s exclusion from family life, as she intended, I’d be willing to bet a fair percentage of readers zeroed in on the claims of abuse and experimentation—in part because readers would have been more familiar with her siblings, and in part because “Dad would lead one of my siblings to the basement/lab/wherever the hell he conducted those experiments and they’d emerge hours later, completely broken” elicits a more visceral reaction than “I watched their missions from a distance, wishing I could be a part of it.”

What do people possibly think about Reginald and the siblings now?

Allison’s career apparently didn’t suffer too much after the book was published, but I’m sure there were at least some questions raised as to how she got to be where she was. Her public image probably took a hit, even if her bank account did not, because—well, it’s Hollywood. If producers think star power will help them sell tickets, they’ll keep casting that star regardless of whatever scandal is brewing. There are exceptions, of course, but by and large Hollywood is pretty amoral. The public might trust her less, and after the Rumor scandal it seems a good number of people saw her as the villain of Patrick and Claire’s story, but if Sgt. Cheddar’s reaction upon seeing her is any indication, people still enjoy her movies and have few qualms about seeing them.

I think that the initial reaction was sympathy for the siblings. The public would have read about all the horrible things Reginald put those kids through, and I think people would have pitied them. But over time, as more and more people read and discussed her book, and as more and more gossip rags published listicles of “The Most Messed-Up Things In Vanya Hargreeves’ Autobiography,” I think people would have paid more attention to the awful things she wrote about them. The negative press probably would have started with the tabloids, since they’re always out for a bit of good gossip and a tell-all book about the Umbrella Academy would have been red meat for them; but I think it also would have spread to book clubs, to groups of friends, and so on. We see that over time, interest in her book waned (her readings go from packed houses to one or two people over the course of the montage) because she’d spilled everything she had and left no room for a sequel. As interest waned, I think discussion would have tapered off, and whatever opinion people had formed of the Academy and Vanya’s view of it would have been what they held onto.

But I think the most devastating effects of her book were seen on a smaller scale. Patrick might have decided to watch Allison more closely after reading about her power abuse, leading to him seeing her Rumor Claire and subsequently to scandal and divorce. Eudora might have read about Diego taunting Vanya and started to see his jabs toward her in a more sinister light, leading in part to their bitter breakup. Luther probably felt as if he were at risk, if Vanya went into detail on his powers and weaknesses—not to mention the depression he likely fell into after reading that Vanya unequivocally blamed him for Ben’s death. After seeing his addiction, powers, and rotten childhood put on display for the entire world, Klaus might have ramped up his drug use to cope with the devastating impact that had on his mental health. Ben probably ranted for hours, if not days, at seeing his death discussed so publicly. And as Five read and reread that book over the years, it probably eroded his trust in the family he tried so hard to get back to—because if Vanya would make their private suffering so public, what else would his siblings do?

[neuronary]

[image description: ten gifs of Luther Hargreeves, with lyrics to ‘Only Son’ by Shakey Graves overlayed in grey handwriting font.

gif one: A young Luther Hargreeves from the chest up, standing under an umbrella at his brother’s funeral. His jaw is clenched and there are tears in his eyes. It is snowing. The text reads ‘I used to be an only son’.

gif two: Luther, an adult now, stands in his father’s office, in the centre of the frame. The back of Reginald’s head is visible in the foreground, blurry. Luther is wearing a mission jumpsuit and speaking to Reginald. The text reads ‘My heart was but a stranger’.

gif three: The Umbrella Academy stands outside a bank after their first public mission, in number order. Luther waves to the crowd. Diego stands stiffly with one hand on the knife strapped to his chest. Allison stands, only slightly less stiffly, posing for the cameras and smiling. Klaus and Five laugh. Klaus has an elbow on Five’s shoulder. Ben stands to Five’s other side, covered in blood. He looks nervously off to the side, clearly uncomfortable. The text reads ‘It wallowed in the races won’.

gif four: A young Luther leaps past his father down a narrow hallway as Reginald claps his hands impatiently. He is wearing the same mission suit as in the second gif, in preparation for an upcoming mission. He is grinning excitedly. The text reads ‘And craved the petty dangers’.

gif five: Luther, an adult again, stands on the surface of the moon, alone, staring up at the stars. He is wearing a space suit and sporting a really ugly beard. The camera angle changes to show his back and the stars he is looking at. The text reads ‘When it sat alone and pined and pondered’.

gif six: An adult Luther stares at a framed cross-stitch of an umbrella academy domino mask and a pair of knives, arranged like a skull and crossbones. The camera angle pans in so that his reflection in the glass pane of the picture frame aligns with the domino mask in such a way that he seems to be wearing it. The text reads ‘Oh, the chosen roads it had to wander’.

gif seven: An adult Luther is seen from above, lying on a hospital bed. He is unconscious and his bare chest is badly burnt. Grace applies defibrillators unsuccessfully as Reginald observes. The text reads ‘I used to be an only son’.

gif eight: A close shot of an adult Luther’s shoulder and face in profile as he leans against the side of a boxing ring. He turns towards the wall looking tired and frustrated. He is wearing a plain white vest. The text reads ‘My heart was but a gambler’.

gif nine: An adult Luther sits alone in a room, silhouetted against a bright window and surrounded by unopened packets of his moon research. He is wearing a large overcoat. He slumps, heartbroken and defeated, and looks around at the remnants of his time on the moon. The text reads ‘Heavy as a loaded gun’.

gif ten: An adult Luther stands against a backdrop of the bar in his childhood home, unfamiliar in its sixties form. He looks lost and confused. The text reads ‘And it howled above the weather’.

/end image description]

Luther Hargreeves + Only Son by Shakey Graves