#the umbrella academy s1

[laurrelise]

why have i never seen the painting up close before. this is like seeing an ancient artifact you’ve only heard murmurs about

[the-enbyrat]

Five and Viktor’s friendship during their childhood is not nearly talked about enough but what’s talked about even less is how Viktor must of felt when the only person who ever truly treated him as an equal just disappeared.

The only person who cared about him just upped and left, and then never came back. Like, canonically he would spend every night making peanut butter and marshmellow sandwiches hoping Five would come back for him.

Viktor was the first person Five called for when he was stuck in the apocalypse, and read his book in an apocalypse when reginald couldn’t even bother. Vik was the first person Five went to to ask for help because “he was the only one who’d listen”

I can’t imagine how alone and abandoned Viktor felt, stuck in a house with siblings who were too obsessed with their numbers to pay attention to him. The show doesn’t pay nearly enough attention to their friendship as they really should have, I wonder how much they really thought of each other when stuck in their own personal hells.

[slutfordavidbowie]

I need someone who’s never seen tua to let me explain the entire plot to them. (Plus headcanons)

[purple-crypt1d]

episode synopses here!

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1312171/episodes/?season=1

[snazzynacho]

HAVEN, chapter one

Diego Hargreeves x Fem!OC (Seasons 1-?) (First time writing for tua and Diego so bear with me)

(Originally titled “Sketchy” then “patience”)

Read on AO3

Read on Wattpad

Summary: Beth meets Diego in a sketchy alley. He is beating someone up and she happens to be nearby. She asks if he needs any help. He seems to say no, but she sticks around for some reason anyway. She ends up saving him from a night at the police station and for that he’ll forever be in debt.

Warnings: Usual tua violence 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)

Edited: 30th aug 2024

Chapter One:

The sky is pitch black. The street lights are dim, with one flickering occasionally. Beth trudges along the uneven pavement, scuffing her shoes. She should really be more careful considering they're the only pair she owns.

The night brings out all sorts of people. Criminals, creeps, the homeless, to name a few. It's a good thing Beth's all three.

Joking. She's not a creep.

She's desperate though. Being homeless is boring, to say the least. Most people ignore her when she's asking for the tiniest amount of money. Anything to get by.

A grunting noise brings her back from her thoughts. It seems to be coming from the alleyway up ahead. She hopes it's not something gross...

Beth hears another noise - a plea. Peering over the side of the brick wall into the albeit sketchy alleyway, she sees a man standing over an injured man on the ground. Another plea from the man on the ground happens before a big blow seems to knock him out. The man doesn't stop kicking him though.

"Need any help there?" her voice startles the man just as much as it startles herself. Why is she talking to a random man in an alleyway?! Especially one who’s driving his boot into another man’s stomach?

"What—?!" He quickly grabs a dagger from his pocket and aims it at Beth.

"Actually, I think you do need help. The cops are around the corner, so you might want to pack it up." For some reason, she continues. She studies the kicking man better this time, taking a couple of steps closer. She doesn’t recognise him at all and concludes that he doesn’t look like too much trouble. Only an off-brand Batman, black eye mask and all.

"Goddamnit..." The man huffs and lets the man on the ground fall to his side, knocked out. “How do you know they're coming, anyway..?"

"I have spidey senses," Beth says jokingly. "What are you doing out here in the dark, Batman? Beating up passers-by? Oh! Should I be scared?" She twists her head to get a better look. The man on the ground is bleeding from his nose, possibly from a punch.

He rolls his eyes. "Ha, ha, very funny. You wanna know what I'm actually doing? I'm tracking down a criminal."

"I think you've done more than track him down. Huh. So you really are Batman." She cocks her head to the side, looking at what he's wearing in the dim orange glow from the streetlamp. "Spandex and all." She can't help but laugh.

"Hey, it's not goddamn spandex!" He glances down at his outfit, suddenly a little self-conscious. "Uh... It's like a leatherish material. Very cool, not at all spandex. Anyway, shut up!"

"Ooh, 'Hit a nerve there," She mumbles and picks up her bag, still smiling at herself at the amusement of the situation. Beth starts to turn away before turning her head back at him, "You coming or what?"

He blinks in surprise. "Huh? Wait, where are you..?" He hesitantly walks over to her, staying a few feet back, a bit distrustful.

Sirens blare in the distance. "Away from the police. Duh." She rolls her eyes playfully.

He snorts out a laugh, glancing over his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, lead the way, then. Smartass..."

They begin to walk until a different cop car skirts up the road towards them. Its blue and red flashing lights blind the two of them momentarily.

Diego puts his hand up to block his eyes, swearing under his breath. He moves a bit closer to Beth to avoid the headlights of the police vehicle.

"Dammit..!"

"Shit. Come on!" Beth grabs his hand and darts for the next alleyway.

He stumbles after her quickly, a little startled by her sudden action. He can feel his heart thumping in his chest, due to the adrenaline of nearly getting arrested.

The both of them run through back alleys, dodging and weaving through side streets. She knows exactly where to go, and soon, they reach their destination.

They're both huffing and puffing and Beth soon starts chuckling. The entire bizarre situation and leftover adrenaline are humorous to her.

He pulls his hand away from hers, feeling a bit embarrassed by the physical touch. He leans up against a wall, trying to act casual. "Ah... That was close. You've got some good timing, don't you."

She curtseys as a joke, proud of her accomplishment.

"How the hell did you notice the cops so easily anyway?", He mutters, running by your side, "Are you some kind of clairvoyant or something? Super hearing?”

She snorts. "No. I noticed it while I was walking, a couple of blocks away. Then, I came across the sketchy alley you were in. It's not like I have a superpower or anything." She laughs and shakes her head.

"I thought you said you had your 'spidey senses'?" he smirks.

"Well, that power must be weak now, since I can't figure out your name,"

His smirk immediately falters, replaced by a mildly shocked expression. He blinks in surprise and raises an eyebrow at her but she can't figure out why.

"It's Diego,"

Diego. She likes that.

"And yours is?"

"Beth."

Diego glances away, a little awkward.

"So, Beth, what is this place?" he glances around the abandoned-looking room. The wood is all dirty and broken. There's a clump of blankets in the corner and he realises it's a small makeshift bed with a candlelit lamp beside it.

"Where I live," she shrugs her shoulders and awkwardly turns away, trying not to listen to her anxiety screaming at her that he's making fun of her, or judging her negatively.

"You... live here...?" Diego looks at her with an unreadable expression, his eyes wide. He thinks the place looks unsafe, to say the least.

"Yeah, It's not much..." Beth laughs awkwardly and places her brown bag down carefully on the floor. The heavy weight of the situation she’s lived in for the past year bares down on her. It’s easy to grow used to troublesome circumstances. Feeling comfortable in the adverse.

Diego looks down at the dirty, dusty floor, a frown forms on his face. He then looks over to the bed again, his eyes linger on it for a moment, and his eyebrows furrow. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I call it the dump,"

He smiles at your halfhearted joke, but a frown returns at the reality of it.

"Why don't you go to a shelter or something? You can't stay here, it's... it's..."

"A dump?"

He stays quiet for a moment, a little taken aback by how bluntly she speaks about the place she calls home. He has so many questions. "How long..." He pauses, looking back at her. "How long have you lived here, exactly...?"

"A few months. A year. It's all the same." She shrugs like it's no big deal. He clenches his jaw. This shouldn't be a surprise to him. There are homeless people everywhere, it just... it just didn't occur to him that she's one of them.

"A year..?" He repeats, the disbelief clear in his voice.

"It's all I have. You can stay here until those pesky cops leave,"

His expression softens, and he can't help but feel a little guilty for saying anything at all after hearing that. He can tell she's getting uncomfortable with the subject. So, he nods.

"I... Thanks," he manages to choke out, his voice low. He‘s awkward, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

"It's no problem," Beth says quietly and pulls a chair for him to sit in while she sits on her bed. In that moment she realises how reckless and naive she's been. She just met a man who beat up another man in a sketchy alleyway and took him back to her home...she could have been beaten up. Or killed. Or worse…

Diego glances at the chair, a bit conflicted. He wonders why he doesn't just leave. He's hidden from the police more times than he can count. He’ll be fine on his own. Always have, always will be.

Although he is unaware of the internal dilemma she's having, he is unsure of what to say now. The awkward tension lingering in the air is almost palpable. However, he forces himself to sit in the chair.

His hand finds his way to his mask, remembering he still has it on. He takes it off in one smooth motion, and ruffles his hair.

"...So..." He says, breaking the silence. "Why are you living alone in a... place like this? Like-" He cuts himself off, his voice lowering."How'd you end up here?”

"Oh. You know, life happens. Life doesn't turn out the way you thought it would." This is the best she can say right now, especially with the part of her who can’t believe how handsome he is, now she can see his face properly.

He pauses, eyeing her carefully as she speaks. He can sense a hint of something in her voice that he can't quite pinpoint. He chooses his next words very carefully, hesitantly speaking up. "I know life's a bitch, believe me," he says with a scoff. He shifts in the chair, glancing around the place once again. The thought of her current situation continues to bother him for some reason. "Life can be... difficult."

She nods in agreement.

He sighs and leans his head back against the chair, letting his eyes wander over the dirty, run-down space around him. They linger on her for a moment, as he quietly studies her face in the dim candlelit light.

"Hey..." He speaks up suddenly, his voice a bit quieter. "How old are you, anyway..?"

"Twenty-seven,"

He hums. "Thirty,"

"Well," she clears her throat, "I think we've established that you aren't going to kill me because you would have done it already." Beth chuckles, "Tell me about you." She chirps up, intrigued to know more about the mysterious dagger-wielding man in spandex—she means, leather.

He blinks in surprise, not expecting Beth to turn the conversation onto him. At this moment, he realises she seems to know nothing about The Umbrella Academy, that he is one of the forty-three children born spontaneously with superpowers.

Diego is unsure of what to tell her. He's so used to people knowing exactly who he is, from the Umbrella Academy. After a few seconds, he lets out a deep breath with a smile. "Me, huh?" he says, and plays with his fingers, "Uh, well, there's not much to say. I'm a pretty typical dude." He pauses, his eyes dart around as he thinks about what to say. He glances over at her. "I guess... I guess the only thing that's... that's worth mentioning is, I like knives." He doesn't seem to want to go further with his life story either, which kind of comforts Beth.

"Wow. you don't say," she teases.

He laughs and grins at her with raised eyebrows. "Oh, ha, ha. Very funny," he retorts, feigning annoyance. "Yeah, I like knives. They're practical and they're damn cool," he says, putting his hands in his pockets. "It's not some weird obsession, I promise. Just a... hobby, let's say. A very dangerous hobby." A hobby. That description should do for now...

He suddenly realises he's rambling. He never talks about himself like this. He clears his throat and leans back a little in the chair, avoiding eye contact.

His eyes travel down to his feet, focusing on the worn black leather of his boots and he can't help but think about how normal this felt, how easy Beth and him seem to talk, even though this entire situation started as anything but normal. Throughout Diego's whole life, he's used to having to keep his guard up, but now, with Beth, he feels like he can actually relax.

He glances back at Beth. Her hair, which he realises now is quite messy, swishes and sways and falls along her back as she crouches down, and begins to empty the contents of her tatty brown bag. Beth freezes, though, for a second.

Beth doesn't want him to see all the cans of food she's managed to scavenge and embarrassment washes over her. She decides to quickly take out one can for later, and secretly swap it with the sharp metal instrument she stole moments ago — one of Diego's daggers. It's nothing personal, she says to herself, as she zips the bag close, slides it aside and smiles up at him.

He, of course, is oblivious to Beth stealing from him. And she would like for it to stay that way. The dagger will come in handy for her. She's sure he has others. In fact, she can see some more on the harness he's wearing. Batman.

Diego raises an eyebrow slightly, his eyes tracking the movement of the bag out of the corner of his eye. His senses tell him something is wrong, but he can't pinpoint what exactly. He brushes it off, however, as he glances at the time on his watch instead. "Jesus," he mutters to himself. "It's already one in the morning." The adrenaline is finally wearing off, and the realisation sinks in that it's the middle of the night, he's in the dingiest part of town, and he's alone with some girl he's just met.

Diego glances over at Beth, watching as she fidgets with her fingers, seemingly lost in thought. He thinks once again how odd it is to have such a normal conversation with a near stranger. He has not opened up much to anyone in a long time. "I better get going. I haven't heard any more sirens."

Beth seems to jump from his voice, a bit startled. She clears her throat, quickly nodding in agreement.

"Yeah, probably." A brief moment of silence falls between them. "I'll see you around, I guess...?"

Diego smiles and says goodbye. She can feel her heart sink as he starts to walk away, reaching for the shabby door. She tries not to show how she feels as she plasters a smile on her face. Before he leaves though, he swiftly turns on his heel, facing Beth again. "Thank you ever so much for your hospitality," he feigns a posh accent and pretends to tip an imaginary hat he's wearing.

His lips curve up into a cheeky grin as he says this, his eyes flickering jokingly at her. She can't help smiling a little at Diego's playful action, her mood lightening immediately. He glances at her one last time, "Bye, Beth." Then he turns around and heads out the door.

After she cooks dinner, she lies down on her bed. Beth thinks she will dream of dagger-wielding Diego forever.

___________

A/N: the way she's so unbothered about him kicking somebody 💀

I have a tua blog btw! It is @nacho-hargreeves

[thehargreevesfamily]

[emlynphoenix]

It was written in the stars.

[hildegardladyofbones]

Ooh ijust finished season 1 and here are all my thoguths. Do not expect coherency I went to sleep at 3am last night

Nothing good ever happened. I cannot remember a single good thing that happened that immediately didn't go to shit. I'm usually all for angst but at one point it will get tiring.

The writing itself was quite good, but something they sort of used as a crutch is pogo. Whenever a character came to a realization and was confused, pogo always came in like "I think I can explain". After one point it was just funny. Half of the plot wouldn't have happened if after reggie's death pogo had sat everyone down and caught everyone up to speed. The fucking apocalypse wouldn't have come.

Speaking of which- I knew from episode 6 onwards that they will fail. Not even for a second did I believe these fucktarts could be competent enough to stop the fucking apocalypse. I was right. I don't think this is a bad thing tho- I was kind of tired of guaranteed happy endings anyway. This wasn't a bad ending, because technically they all survived, but it wasn't certainly successful. It was just an ending.

Another thing I loved was Ben's character. I knew quite a lot about the show before watching it so I knew there was a brother who was dead already, but I didn’t expect to see him, which was nice. Its funny to think that there were times where all 7 siblings were together and didn't realize it. I also love the trope of a character speaking to voices/beings/ghosts that others can't see. It's always so fun

The acting was also a highlight. Obviously I love klaus and his actor's acting with all my heart, but I think the best performance was five's. First of all, his actor was really young, and young actors taking on a big role is always impressive. Secondly, his role was complicated. It wasn't a 13yo boy, it was a 13yo boy with 58 years of experience. And his portrayal of five really did that justice. Five is a hardened mean old man and I really appreciate the show not shying away from treating him like one. With shows like sherlock, where the protagonist is also a kind of a shitty person, I get the feeling we're supposed to look at that like a silly quirk, not an actual flaw. Did not get that feeling here at all. In fact, all of the characters are kind of bad people and I LOOVEEE that. Seriously. I fucking love it when people are people and do shitty things.

Oh yeah and another performance I loved was Grace's. Her role was unique as well, because it's difficult to portray someone who is not human (especially when the actor herself is human), but who is made to appear and act human. You're a human pretending to be a robot pretending to be a human.

Going back to the topic of this show not being scared of bad people and bad things- I really admire this show's audacity to casually send klaus to war. I love how it was shown. Like. We see klaus open the suitcase and disappear, and later in the episode he reappears shaking and clearly distraught. Okay. He saw something he shouldn't have. And then it turns out he spent 10 months in 1968 Vietnam. And they don't move on from it. I think other shows would've sent him to war for like a day at most and then moved on from it or turn it into a joke, especially considering how we we weren't shown that he went there, just that he got back from there. Ykwim? Like usually these things that are such major events in a character's life get shown, but here they didn't show it and I think that's genius because then you get the feeling of "lol where'd he go. Oh he went to war. Oh okay he's a bit traumatised. Oh shit. Oh SHIT-" you just sort of gradually start understanding the severity of what he experienced. And the others don't question it? Fucking love that. Like "Yeah, he's our brother. Yeah he went to war for 10 months in Vietnam :/ Yeah he's a traumatised war vet :/"

I also have to mention that everyone just accepted that five's girlfriend is a mannequin.

Uhh what else fuck I forgor

Oh yeah might be a controversial opinion, but I don't mind the "incest." First of all- it's fiction. But even then it's like the most ethical version of incest out there. They're both consenting adults with literally no age gap, they're not related in any way, and imho they were barely raised as siblings. Like yes they see eachother as siblings (like the 6 of them) but their mom was a robot and dad was barely a father. They didn't have a childhood. I don't necessarily ship any of the siblings together tho. I think they hate each other too much.

Another thing I noticed is that this show *loves* it's song montages. Ther wasn't a single episode where they randomly started playing a song where the lyrics didn't even fit the situation that much while they. Fight or something. I thought that was kinda funny. Unserious. Even.

Which brings me to my next point, which is how disconnected from reality this show is, superpowers set aside. The visuals are very illustration like and they make some really interesting choices. It's set in 2019 but no one has cell phones or modern cars. Reginald is apparently from the victorian era?? And the composition of some shots is also somewhat wes anderson-like. Which is to say I loved the visuals of this show. They understand that not everything had to make sense or be explained. More often than not audiences are willing to go along with most things as long as the show itself doesn't question it. People don't ask for explanation for things you haven't pointed out need an explanation. All their previous nannies looked very 1910s but I won't question it if the show won't mention it.

Coming back to the characters I think the ones I enjoyed the least were Luther and Diego because even though I get their motivations, I just personally don't like them all that much. As people not as characters. They're very believable as emotionally stuck manchildren. One of my favourites that I haven't already mentioned are Hazel and the handler btw. Hazel is just so loveable and sympathetic and the handler would punch me in the face so of course I love her. She's a woman with light hair and a smoking habit. That's all my type is tbh.

Anyway I think that's all for now. As a number rating I'd give this season a "misery is all that remains" out of ten because happiness only exists in fanfiction I guess. Feel free to send death threats over me justifying incest or whatever. Or just tell me your own opinions. Whatever the fuck. My head hurts.

👍

[the-story-of-the-tucks]

Hi tua Tumblr!

So as most of y'all did I finished S4 and didn't like it and I'm craving more tua content.

I rly rly rly want to start an oc based rp where we would follow the events of s1 but instead of the brellies, Reginald adopted other kids (S3 style)

Would anyone be interested?

[imavikingo]

[the-enbyrat]

I just love the fact that five spent 45 years eating cockroaches, canned food and one bad twinkie, to then return to normal life and have his first meal of choice be a peanut butter marshmallow sandwich and instant coffee.

[boysborntodie]

TUA S4 proved that Netflix cancelling their shows after the first season is actually a good thing

[dasloddl]

[thehargreevesfamily]

[emlynphoenix]

This is to Grace, better known as mom. Raised The Umbrella Academy kids, named them, and yes, loved them. Diego stated that she feels things. She wouldn’t have been able to comfort the kids, or tell Diego she’s proud of him if she was simply a robot incapable of feeling. She loved her kids.

Seeing Grace in her element of working with Pogo, we see that she has always been a loving woman. She looked at Pogo as if he were her son.

The final version of Grace we see is a shell of the person we originally saw. She looked, and sounded like Grace, but she didn’t have the love that mom possessed.