#tua subway system

[lokinightfury]

Umbrella academy subway code

So the way my brain works, I love a puzzle. ADORE a puzzle. So seeing that encrypted language all over the subway in season 4? It gave me an itch in my brain that needed to be solved. Playing around with it, it looked like a substition cipher, simple switch for letters and symbols. But with any TV show and props, there is a chance that someone in the prop department just threw together something random.

However. When I started looking, excluding the subway station names, there were 26 unique symbols. Which couldn't be a coincidence.

And it wasn't.

I started off by giving each symbol a letter, and then looking at frequency analysis. This got me some of the way there, (managed to get THE as a consistent correct pattern) but for less common letters the system fell apart. I was shown an image from the propstore auction (thanks @hansodax) so decided to focus on just this.

By doing the conversion to letters and then running again through a frequency analysis it was looking consistent with english. A couple of runs through a substition cipher decrypter and the word time line popped out. Just some manual clean up then needed.

Here are my translations for some of the graphics we see in the season

Prop images are from the umbrella academy auction items on prop store.

SYSTEM MAP

ATTENTION

The timeline is important for your sanity. But there is no way to game the system. All will be revealed. When the answer is obvious the solution will be achieved. Until then the timeline must be respected.

ALENOSTU

I thought this was random until the incredible @hansodax thought to translate it.... It means loneliness. I'm 90% sure this still is from the first timeline they go to. The one where original Five is alone. Holy shit!

and the lettering on the subway car itself is also random, as using the same encryption just gives nonsense. I did suspect that might be the case given that the same symbols are repeated over and over on diferrent signs. Just in case I did invert, but upside down it doesn't match the alphabet.

Other signs used appear to be multiple letters and some new symbols mashed together:

I suspect a proper language was created for the initial prop of the map, and then the symbols used to decorate other surfaces without meaning behind them. Another consideration is that there are numbers in the mixed together symbols, but these are often harder to crack.

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

ok some things i LIKED about tua 4 since we all have talked exclusively about what we hated (SPOILERS AHEAD):

idc what anyone says the baby shark bit was iconic every time it came on i jammed

klaus had a comic book storyline from hotel oblivion!! let’s go source material!!

diego and luther being himbos

allison and klaus friendship

the entire birthday party scene was hilarious and fun and so THEM ok

the road trip scene that was in the trailer such iconic sibling goofy clownery they’re fucking idiots

klaus. he was in it. any time i get to see my little freak is time well spent.

incredibly unpopular opinion but i liked the ending i think they need an end from the cycle of apocalypses and suffering like they deserve a rest they’ve earned it and it was sweet that they all went together and the “i love you guys………but you’re all such fucking assholes” and then “fuck you” and everyone laughing and crying and THEN AND THEN ALL THE CHARACTERS FROM THE VARIOUS SEASONS BEING AT THE END i was SOBBING

klaus having a podcast of himself giving himself affirmations like that’s so funny

they actually gave somewhat of a shit about each other like diego was so DAD my babies have grown up but not too much they’re still fucking toddlers

lila is so pretty and funny and hot and unhinged she means so much to me

lila and klaus friendship!! lila and allison!! bonding!!

gene and jean were SUCH classic umbrella academy characters. loved them.

viktor gets all the pussy

i cannot stress how much all of the group scenes were so fucking sibling i love them ok

NO LUTHER AND ALLISON INCEST THANK FUCK

THUNDERBOLT THE GHOST DOG <3<3<3

klaus and claire oh my god i love uncle klaus so much and he loves her so much

seeing sober klaus and how hard he tried and then the heartbreak when that went away because he’s KLAUS he’s gerard way’s trauma self insert. as much as i want klaus to be safe and content and free from all this bullshit it was just so consistent and i can appreciate that. and i cried like a little bitch it was truly devastating but it was just sooooo klaus. also getting to see him make it incredibly clear that he didn’t want his powers back—him being the ONLY ONE who didn’t want his powers back—was important to me idk. and he was LOVED like he has a family!! he is cared for!! ahhHHHHHH!! love it

claire was great and getting to see her and allison and their tumultuous relationship and their love for each other after all of these seasons of allison looking for her and just wanting to be with her daughter

klaus got dave’s dog tags <3

more flashbacks to brellie kids!!

getting answers to some series-long mysteries

the underground subway system between timelines was so fucking cool and mindfucky 100/10

klaus’s look being reminiscent of s1 sorry that was my favourite klaus look ok

their sort of evolved powers when they got them back

so many good one liners and comedic scenes

ben being a crypto bro is SO FUNNY

will add stuff as i think of it. this is incredibly out of character for me i am an eternal pessimist but i did enjoy s4 (mostly because, as an eternal pessimist, my expectations are always low) so here we are.

[ballerinarina]

𐙚LET'S TALK ABOUT... DIEGO, LILA & FIVE

Okay, firstly I need to state that I'm going to say my impressions about the season four of The Umbrella Academy, focusing on the subway plotline. My considerations are very long (I'm talkative!) and about what I watched in the episodes and what I read on social media, so, I am totally open to opinions too!!

As an hyperfocused girl, I've been thinking about the subway arc plot decision during an absurd amout of time. I watched it a few times and read a lot of opinions. Yet, I still feel a little... surprised (?) by the intense hate over it.

It's not about liking or disliking the new couple that I'm talking about. Since naturally people would prefer one ship over another, it was obviously waited that the opinions would be divided.

I just... can't understand why people hated it so much as if it was a bad plot decision. Diego and Lila are beautiful together, i agree! They have a long, real and strong love story together. But why people are acting like this new plotline erased all their relationship together? Relationships are more complex than that.

Feelings are more complex than that. Humans are.

Actually, I may say that the psychological development that happens in the subway is way more interesting because Lila and Diego love each other, as much as Five loves Diego too.

This being said, I don't mean that I think a cheating plotline is interesting because of the cheating. I actually use to dislike it a lot. However, dealing with cheating in a black-and-white way as if it's an indefendible action is not clever. Sometimes, some things I read make me realize that people are so stuck into traditional morals that their capacity of thinking and analyzing complex emotional situations is kind of... damaged.

𝐒𝐨... 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐗 𝐃𝐢𝐞𝐠𝐨 𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐗 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞?

The Umbrella Academy is known as a series with very human and complex characters. That's what makes it so good, from the beginning! That's why I think it's kind of sad to judge their relationship with a typical moral view.

Claiming that Lila didn't deserve Diego, for example is so... so sad. She was an amazing mother and wife. She tried to go back to them for six years and as soon as she could she went back! Not even thinking twice! She loves Diego, of course she does!

Loving Five doesn't make her love for Diego less strong.

I really don't think Lila X Five is just neediness, however, no way. They already spent two seasons constructing a beautiful (friend) relationship before and in this horrible context they spent a lot of time taking care of each other, being each other's support. Considering this and their communication development — jokes on season 3, kindness in the beginning of season 4 — it's not surprising or nonsense that it turned to become romantic. People and relationships change, love is built and adapted.

I don't think Lila stopped loving Diego (i mean romantically, but even if she did, she surely didn't in other ways of loving that are as beautiful as it is) but that doesn't make her love for Five false, and Five loving and having a relationship with her doesn't make him a bad brother either. That's why I emphasized that TUA is a series with complex relationships. Why do you get upset and surprised when another relationship between complicated characters is built due to the tragedies of the script?

If this didn't cause outrage before, could it cause because, this time, when things get complicated, the plot resource used questions the standard romantic drama format expected by the system?

𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭? 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫?

I guess one of the main arguments I saw was that their relationship didn't make any sense and that their scenes were extremely out of character, but I don't think it could be sustained when they both are characters who go through a lot that makes them change, alone or together. What they're claiming being out of character may simply be character development under non-ideal circumstances.

It seems like there's an strong resistance to open their minds while watching and realize that love isn't something that can only happen once and/or once at a time and under ideal situations. Diego and Lila's marriage crisis, Five and Lila developing ther friendship inbetween work cumplicity, Five looking more lost and tired in his decisions than before, the fact that it is the second time he has been trapped in space-time — which is a big trauma for him, since, from the first season (in the first apocalypse) we have been shown that, despite being introverted, arrogant and reserved, it is precisely "relating" that serves as a point of refuge for Five not to go crazy, lowering his guard and being kind...

All of this constructs very well their psychological coherency. "He wouldn't treat her like that during season 2 or 3!", "Lila would never be a domestic mother/ Five wouldn't work do CIA!". Well, we're talking about them now, not there.

One of the plot decisions to start this season was that the characters were living between what they kind-of-desired, but things still weren't fine, they still weren't getting what they wanted.

Five being free from the world-ending, but stll not being able to relax and live a simple retired life as he wanted. Klaus being sober and free of the ghosts, but insecure and anxious. Allison having Claire and Ray, but still unable to live a happy marriage and career. Viktor having his place working with something that makes him comfortable, but still unable to find love. Diego and Lila having a family and marriage and still unable to feel happy because the domestic work dynamic wasn't working...

Adulthood. Real life. None of those situations were out of character, as much as none of the psychological changes they suffered were too.

𝐀 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐦

Since I don't really see the point on why would all of the happenings between them three could be claimed as "nonsense", even less "unasked" or "unnecessary" — because it's a work of fiction and, even if it may not be what the public wants to watch, it is not something that needs to prove its usefulness, just as events (that tie together well, because coherency matters) do not need to prove their necessity in art —, so it makes me even more sad that clearly mostly of the reactions are based on conservative views of marriage.

I know this season is not perfect, and it had a lot of defects, so I'm not saying the arc is perfect. As all the other arcs, it happened in a hurry, making us the public less abl to feel the 7 years of development. Complaining about how the arc was executed is perfectly fine, actually: after all, we know that 4 episodes were cut from the original script, as were many recorded scenes (including a big part of the subway plotline).

AIDAN: "There's a lot of the relationship with Lila that we filmes but they cut it. It took weeks to film it and they used a few minutes in a montage. That wasn't right. It also made very hard for the viewers to believe when we spent weeks filming scenes to set up that scenario."

But when I bring the conservatism theme (misoginy and remnants/consequences of the monogamous religious structure), it's because, even if we have lots of other of worse defects on other parts of the season, the biggest public overreacting opinions have been undoubtly about Five and Lila.

Anyone who spends more than 2 minutes in the comments on Twitter, Tiktok or even here knows that most of the time people've been sad and angry treating them both as if they were turned into cheaters with no morals (Five as a new kind of scroundrel asshole, Lila as some kind of ungrateful whore and I've even seen people problematizing their enemies phase, or the age difference as if one of then, or even the director, were predators, which is pure nonsense) and I can't even express how it makes me deeply melancholic.

I can't see how reacting as if the situations they were put in and their actions toward it in the scripts were absurd, terrible and dumb can't be just conservative, because they were actually very well tied script decisions, used in a bold way. With an interesting and well written enemies to frenemies to friends to lovers trope, they managed to write something fun and that developed both of the characters in their early-season-conflicts-arising-from-other-seasons.

𝐒𝐨? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧, 𝐂𝐞𝐂𝐞?

I truly just... Can't understand how some people ended up having collectively such insensitive opinions about the relationship of two characters who were so... vulnerable.

Non-ironically I even saw a lot of people defending they would prefer Five to end up with a “real life Dolores” plotline (since the author felt the need of a romance) than with Lila, or that he shouldn't ever fall in love with anyone else than Dolores. It sounds so... Insane. I can't see how someone can have any kind of shipping-affection for his "sick" relationship with Dolores. It was, for me, a completely heartbroken arc.

While watching this new season, actually, it made me almost warmly happy, as a Five fan, to see him having someone to take care of him in hard times like that. Last time he didn't have it. They loved each other, they constructed this love and even if it was constructed under a refuge, extremely vulnerable situation, as much as even if it was constructed over a hopeless and trust-breaking decision towards their loved Diego, it doesn't make it less real and beautiful.

They aren't bad people. They aren't cheaters. They were desperate.

I'm happy they found love in each other. They were victims but managed to construct a beautiful relationship to survive and it doesn't make them love less Diego, as a brother or as a lover.

Of course it breaks completely my heart that Diego and Five died without making peace, but while watching not even for a moment I considered that they stopped loving each other. They're brothers, they've went through a lot.

They were doing so fine getting along together since they came back from the apocalypse.... There's no way it would "destroy" and "erase" (terms used by some fans) all the progress that's been made... I think it would be a very shallow interpretation of their relationship and a very futile interpretation of the events. Some of the public is seeing the situation as if Five slept with his wife since the beginning, not as if he had felt in love with her in a very apocaliptical and hopeless situation.

It's essential to remember that nothing said romantic happened for six years. It turned this way only after they having practically given up hope of returning home, so exhausted they were.

I really don't think that such a desperate and lonely situation would erase all the love and dedication Diego have for Five (and Five has no reasons to stop feeling it for Diego too, obviously). Diego was totally the sweetest during this season, he did his best, but Five did too... Now they fought but it doesn't mean their relationship would be forever broken. They were both stressed out, of course, it was a sensitive situation. But, i don't think it would... However with an apocalypse going on, they just didn't have enough time.

Diego was clearly open to understand Lila better, so I really doubt he wouldn't try to do the same with Five. But, again, they were both heart broken, hot headed and with no time. It's sad and it affect them, but "destroy and erase" are very heavy terms and inconsistent with the context of their relationships.

I don't know. I don't know how to conclude this analysis. I just… Am sorry. I honestly feel lucky to have been able to experience Diego, Lila and Five, but I'm so sorry that I couldn't see these three hearts find peace in their complicated loves, even during their final moments. These are three very beautiful love relationships that grew up tangled up and that, unfortunately, couldn't unfold in time to hurt less their lovers.

It felt wonderful and desolate. I hope more people can feel it like i did.

[justablognothingweirdhere]

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about the big things in s4 of TUA that pissed them off, so here’s some smaller things that I haven’t rlly seen anyone talk about:

Luther getting his ape body back with his powers even tho the marigold didn’t cause that

Everything Allison did last season being completely ignored except for her briefly saying that no one wants to see her and that little convo with Viktor and her never really apologizing

Five and Diego leaving their siblings to fist fight EACH OTHER when Ben has just turned into a huge, unkillable monster and everyone’s lives are in imminent danger

Everyone consistently saying that Diego was fat, only for him to be completely ripped when his shirt was off during the fight in the CIA office (and don’t try to tell me some bullshit abt it being cause he got his powers back)

Viktor and Reginald essentially having the same conversation of “I want to kill Ben”, “No, let me talk to him” over and over for the entirety of the last episode as if they kept forgetting that they’d already talked about this

Abigail’s reasoning for essentially causing the end of the world being because she felt she didn’t deserve to live because she created the marigold and Durango. Like, girl, go jump if you rlly wanna, but you don’t have to take everyone else with you

Five is consistently shown to be extremely intelligent, yet he can’t figure out the subway system when he’s stuck in it with nothing else to do and nowhere else to go for SEVEN YEARS!! Especially since every single other version of him did it!!

[locke-esque-monster]

In the newest installment of "plot holes that make me insane in TUA season 4".

So S4 Five and Lila and up briefly visiting Five's original apocalypse that he spent about 40 years in.

(I say about 40 years because we never really did a breakdown between Five's time in the apocalypse vs his time with the commission. Was it 40 years in the apocalypse and then some additional time at the commission? Was it 40 years total and some of that included years at the commission because he wasn't being fully honest with his siblings when he first got back? Was it 40 years and either so little time at the commission it couldn't be measured in years - like weeks or months because he was that efficient of a killer with his powers to work his way into infamy that quickly? Or even that with Five constantly time traveling it was harder to measure time at the commission? And on that note, when he traveled back he said Delores said the numbers were wrong, so does that mean the commission let him bring her with him on his trips and he abandoned her in 1963? Or did he just keep talking to her in his head? But I digress.)

Let's ignore at the moment how S4 Five should really have some trauma or intense reaction upon seeing this world he was stuck in for 40 years. And also ignore the implications of the multiverse and how it really should have split here if this is really Five's OG apocalypse, since he has no memory of this event happening. (Even though we definitely should not ignore ether of those things.)

No, let's focus on the real problem. That if the subway system exists between timelines how in the actual fuck is it right there and pre-S1 Five never investigated it.

Five who said he tried every method to get back to his family. Five who had roughly 40 years alone. Five who was eating bugs to survive. He never considered going down there for shelter? Raid for supplies, like the vending machines? Because from what we can see, the trains run through regularly, he should have seen one if he went down the subway for even a short period of time.

And that's disregarding the fact OG Five saw 2 people, one who looks like him, run in and out of the subway. By my math OG Five has been there alone around 6 years. Maybe he thinks he's hallucinating after all this time. Maybe he ruled out looking into the subway before for some reason like safety. Or maybe he missed the train down there with a very brief visit. But you truly think with the possibility of 2 people appearing there he then wouldn't go that way and (re)investigate the subway somewhere between now and the time The Handler recruited him?

Because the OG Five we know would not have left any rock unturned trying to get back to his family. And god knows the only things on his agenda for literal decades were survive and try to figure out how to get back.

It was bad enough that S4 had a total character assassination of Five at the end of the series. But it's even more frustrating they also managed to retroactively discredit the intelligence of the original version of Five we met in season 1 by accident.

[crackedrockskunta]

hope whoever wrote season is not having a good day rn

!!!TUA season 4 spoilers!!!

here is my list of unanswered questions about the show that fr were just never explained in season 4 and left gaping plot holes that fr make 0 sense.

if the marigold was never released after the universe reset, then how were the 7+Sloane born in the first place? if the entire universe was reset - the marigold then wouldn't it be another paradox because there mothers would have never gotten pregnant with them and they just kinda popped into existence?

2.speaking of Sloane, where did she go? nobody saw her after the reset even though she was right there, on the same note why wasn't Allison there at all inside the oblivian park, where did she go so quickly/ where did she appear at?

3. how did sparrow Ben know Jennifer if she was been hidden before the Jennifer incident would've taken place in the sparrow universe?

4. who is Jennifer, what is Durango, why was it inside of her and only her?

5. how did jennifer know about the cleanse and why was she put inside the big squid knowing about the cleanse in a universe where the marigold wasn't ever released to create the cleanse?

6. how did the commission founder version of 5 get out of the universe collapsing? because the commission is outside of the space time continuum but it isn't outside of the universe at least that we know of?

7. who is the phoenix academy? how and why did they not have to be destroyed in the cleanse if we can clearly see there is other people who exist in the universe with powers that are not TUA yet still exist somewhere in the world even after the reset of the universe

8. doesn't the fact that max's deli exist also prove that there are other timelines in that universe where 5 has had his powers long enough to create an interdimensional subway system and leave guides inside of them decoding it

9. why didn't 5 get paradox psychosis inside the deli?

10. if killing someone successfully gets rid of all of their marigold/ durango then why did Reginald not just kill Jennifer himself and stop the cleanse if it was something he did not want to happen?

11. what is durango? like where did it come from and how is it the opposite of the universe if it exists inside the universe?

+ like a million more that are smaller but fr what were the writers on this season?

[maibeenot]

Something I haven't really seen people talk about for TUA season 4:

Why was the subway such a huge part of the promotional material in this season??? They had a promo poster with everyone in the subway station, character posters of the main cast, all in the subway station.

And while I am aware of the other version of the character posters that do not include the subway, they were still used as the main promo material. So why??? Only two characters in the main cast ever even stepped foot into, or knew about its existence.

Initially, when the subway was introduced, I thought that this season was going to be mostly the siblings figuring out and deciphering the subway system together; similar to the ending portion of season 3.

It made perfect sense in my head since they only had 6 EPs worth of runtime. Presumably, they'd only need the subway set to look good and have a lot less characters running around which meant less actors, less shoot scheduling, more time to edit, and most importantly less funding spent!!

It could've also been a really interesting writing plot/task where you only have this set of characters. You force them all to be together in close proximity. They have to work together. No more avoiding each other or awkwardly side-stepping their issues.

Think of the potential!!!

But also, truthfully speaking, I also am upset that they didn't really use the subway for the aesthetics of it. They had such a great opportunity to play into the familiarity of a subway station, while also being unsettling to a point of being creepy.

Trains that come and go, again and again. They're all headed somewhere but also nowhere. The echoing racket of the train tracks, headlights on the train that shine into unending tunnels of void, a voice on the speaker; the only "human" element to the subway system but sounds the least human of all. Garbled words that don't make sense together and maps that are recognizably subway stations, but are completely incomprehensible.

I could go on and on about the potential of the subway as the main setting. So why was it only a vehicle for a subplot that gave me the most visceral reaction I've ever had to any media ever.

[uniasus]

Now that I'm going back and rereading the TUA fics I've rec/collected on Tumblr, I think I have a better understanding of just what bugged me about S4.

They went back to old patterns. They meaning the writers.

So much fanfic I enjoy follows the same arc - they move from a dysfunctional family to a functional one. Even if it is still rough. The Hargreeves address their hurts. They leave Reginald behind. They build the life they want, with the people they want. Their support system expands. We see them heal.

But that never really happens in the show.

I remember talking to a friend after S3 (hello @drgnrder82) about how TUA is a Heroine Journey adjacent tale, it's less about a solo person saving the world and more about building a team who can do it. Except they all tend to have separate plots that rarely integrate with the conclusion. What does the subway have to do with the Cleanse? Or Klaus's return to old patterns?

I could accept that in S1, even S2 because it was a change of pattern I found interesting, but as the seasons went on I expected the formula of the show to change. Except Netflix kept the same pattern because that's how the show had pinned its marketing - a dysfunctional family saving the world.

So of course, S4 starts six years later and they're not a family. Of course, they all go do their own thing. Of course, character growth and dynamics from early seasons are ignored to manufacture drama. Of course, support systems have eroded (removing Sissy, Sloane, Dave, Ray, and Diego/Lila were turned rocky). Of course, they were all forcibly given powers again. That's what this show is about, yeah? Family fights and powers.

But fans wanted that pattern to change. We eat it up when that stuff happens (see: The Good Place). We wanted to see them all talk it out (not just brief conversations). We wanted them all to have some sorta clap back to Reginald. (I loved that Viktor got to say his piece, but what about the others? Damn, even Netflix made him a poor little meow meow.) We wanted them in lock step for every action against Gene and Jean. We wanted family bickering, not family hate. And, I think, we would have been okay without the powers.

(Actually, yeah, I think them taking on Jean and Gene powerless but as a family would have been amazing)

[they-breasted-boobily]

Ways the plot of tua s4 could have been improved while including a lot of the same storyline:

It goes without saying that a 6 episode season was too rushed for even the shitty plot we got given, but I'll mention that these ideas would have worked better for an 8-10 episode season. Or maybe you could use them for fics or comics- I'd love to see them!

1. The careers and new lives of non-powered umbrellas: While Lila, Klaus, and Viktor had decent set-ups, the others seemed out of place. Diego's personality and desire to be a hero would have been better suited to a mall cop or traffic cop, where he feels undervalued and underutilised, rather than just beaten down as a delivery driver for jokes about peeing in a bottle. Luther only mentioned Sloane a couple of times in the entire series- with more than 6 episodes, it could have been possible to give flashbacks of him trying to get back to her, but her not recognising him and not being romantically interested. Not sure what changes could be made to his job or housing though. Allison's setup was mostly fine, but we really should have been given an explanation for why Raymond left- maybe lean into the horror of being taken from your time and timeline raising a daughter you suddenly have? Five would not work for the CIA except as a double-agent, either that or he would be retired as a fishing supplies store owner. Ben is his own whole point later in this post.

2. The marigold sake shots: I feel like this plot point added to Ben just being an asshole and scapegoat for the entire season, which could benefit from major changes. If left relatively unchanged, the fact that Klaus threw it over his shoulder could have led to greater implications if it landed on an unknown person behind them and gave them powers. This person could have been the subject of an episode or two as they were tracked down when it was necessary.

3. Ben's character: While s3 Sparrow Ben was a dick, he was not as edgy, conceited, or self-absorbed as he was in s4. I think it's fine to start his arc with him leaving prison, but making the crime as major as crypto fraud (just because you think it's funny) makes it much more difficult for him to seem likeable and relateable to Jessica or anyone else. If the crime was something more minor, or he was framed/unfairly jailed it could set up a revenge/redemption arc from the get-go. With his relationship with Jessica, it would have benefited from being more of a slow burn, or if the gradual unnatural obsession had more than 6 episodes to build up.

4. The subway romance: While I can almost understand why it was Five and Lila due to their history working together and especially using time travel together, I think if Five needed a romance (which I don't but show writers can't stand having one member of the main cast never being in a relationship), it should have been someone he met while on that 7 year subway adventure (probably an older woman) and settled with in Strawberry Tradwife timeline while Lila keeps looking for a way out for the sake of her children. Lila would find the journal a few months later and using both it and the subway map, get back to Five because she still needs his powers to get entirely out of the subway system. Could you imagine a scene with Lila trying to convince Five to leave the peaceful Strawberry Tradwife life he's always wanted after dealing with the trauma of being stuck in time twice?

5. Klaus's return to addiction: I think Klaus's arc could have definitely benefited from the season being longer. If there was a slower burn towards his addiction returning and his confrontation with Claire and if she stressed more that he didn't need to go down this path again, it could have really been impactful. The ghost sex trafficking thing was gross but if that was the only way to get him buried alive then so be it, because having him in a situation where he would have to directly face his trauma from the mausoleum and become stronger would be so good for the sendoff of his character. Maybe that could have been the point where he learned how to levitate?

6. Reginald and false memories: Why was the fact that he's literally not human and crafted this timeline so he could have as much power as possible (including a militia town) not explored at all? The plot should have revolved a lot more around at least verifying what he was saying about marigold and durango, if not about handing him a final defeat for this final season. Everything around him killing Ben led to huge plot holes (why wouldn't Klaus know the truth from Ben's ghost? Ben easily could have been spared and only Jessica shot. Why was Jessica being in a squid never explained?). While it's interesting to see the Umbrellas all give a brainwashed explanation for Ben's death, it couldn't be something as blatant as that, because Klaus would have to know even if everyone else was brainwashed. The brainwashing is an idea with promise, but it should have been something like Ben and Jessica being consumed by the giant squid together because Ben went against orders.

What other things could have been changed? I personally liked the CIA subplot, especially as it taught Diego to appreciate his family more. I also found Jean and Gene and the Cleanse conspiracy theorists to be fun new mini-villains.

[aceartistactivist]

Okay here we go!

Things I would have changed/am confused about in tua season 4

- first of all, it needed 10 episodes. Not 6. Don't even need to change the storylines- just flesh it out. Add random filler stuff. Not one of the characters got a real character arc because they didn't have enough screen time to show it!!

- speaking of, Jean and Gene got way too much screen time. Like I don't care about them I want to see the actual main characters

- no mention of Sloane????? Nothing???? What about the other sparrows? Do they exist in this timeline?

- how were they still riding in that van after puking so much in it lol 😭

- wtf is up with the only mention of Ray being a throwaway line that he walked out on Allison??? Seriously wtf??

- also, if Lila's parents are alive and living with her & Diego... Uhhh... are they not gonna address the fact that Five killed her parents in the last timeline? Like with all the scenes they had together I felt like that should have come up... I guess maybe that was something they already got past sometime in the 6 years?

- I'm so confused about Abigail. I'm just so confused. What is up with her

- STILL NO EXPLANATION FOR THE WHOLE ALIEN THING??

- also five's weird arc in s3 where he gets the tattoo? I'm still so confused about that. What was the purpose of the tattoo? Why was that whole thing a thing? I'm just lost 😭 and the "restaurant at the end of the world" scene in s4 was not exactly helpful or forthcoming either

- not a fan of how Ben's original death was just Reginald shooting him. Also the whole "reverse element of the marigold" thing seemed like a random idea turned plot device that just could have been planned/set up better. I also didn't understand the whole Jennifer thing. Why did she have the element thing in her anyway? Why was she in that container? I need explanations please

- IS REGINALD EVIL OR NOT HELP HE KEEPS GOING BACK AND FORTH

- Just so many things that could have been fleshed out

- where did the notebook five found that was "in his own handwriting" even come from? What version of himself figured out the subway system and wrote the cipher?? So many questions

- speaking of, what IS the subway system. Where did it come from. Why- just- why. I'm so confused about how it even affects the plot at all (except for the very end with the kids & family members)

- five and lila were supposedly lost in time for 6 years but they didn't change at all?? I get that actors are not going to be able to visibly age 6 years in a week but really, they couldn't have tried to make it look more believable? Changed their hair, added makeup and stuff? And then when they got back and they looked exactly the same as when they'd left and certainly didn't act like they'd spent 6 years lost in time? Like you'd think something like that would be extremely noticeable lol... I was expecting the others to be like oh my god what happened to you? And then it was just on we go business as usual. Like they could have done a lot more to make that feel realistic/believable I think

- oh, the ending... I get it, but I also think they should have gotten the lives they have "in most timelines" in the commission handbook thing, iykyk (basically if they'd all just grown up normally without the umbrella academy or anything)

- but... If Lila's family and Claire were taken to a restored timeline where the 43 children & umbrella academy never existed, wouldn't that create the same paradox that was the EXACT SAME THING that was the whole premise of season 3?? Remember the kugelblitz??? By YOUR OWN universe rules, sending those people to the restored timeline where they never existed created a kugelblitz that destroyed the real timeline and the universe for good. Congratulations.

- I was also hoping for an explanation of why their powers were slightly different but I guess it's just a plot device that doesn't really matter

- all in all, honestly, I really liked it! And I'm sad that pretty much the majority of the fandom doesn't. It could have been a lot better just by fleshing it out and giving the characters enough screentime for actual character arcs but. You know what. It's good enough for me. I'm satisfied

[air--so--sweet]

The Keepers are one of the villains in season 4 of TUA or possibly the main villains. Yet we didn't see anything from them in the teaser, except for a split second shot of Jean and Gene dancing. We did see a fair amount of Reggie and the summary does mention him running a nefarious business empire, so I think we probably get some villainy from him. But I'm questioning if he'll be as villainous as we think.

I already posted about things in the trailer that made me think that that Reginald is going to take Claire, and Lila and Diego's daughter, and I do still think the kids are key to whatever happens, but what if seeing so much Reggie and so little of The Keepers is a misdirect? And maybe their children aren't taken, maybe it's more than that, maybe they're erased. This theory is based on nothing really but thought I'd share anyway.

The Keepers believe the word they're living in is a lie and we saw in the script page shared they look for things that are proof of anomalies - Jean and Gene buy two copies of Love on Loan, one starring Allison Hargreeves and on starring soneone else. So it's not too much of a leap to think that the Keepers know that the Hargreeves are involved, specifically Allison, and are going to believe that her and her family are responsible. And, I mean, they're kind of right - Steve Blackman has said more than once that Allison killing Reginald before he finished putting together the universe and doing whatever it was he had to to allow Allison to have Claire and Ray in the same timeline, at the same time, was going to cause issues this season. I think what Reggie was doing was merging timelines and him being stopped before finishing is why there are anomalies present in this universe.

I think that the Keepers will see Claire as wrong or not meant to exist is this universe, I'm not sure how or why but they'll believe the same thing about Lila and Diego's daughter, maybe because she was conceived in another timeline? And I think they will somehow erase their children from the timeline.

I think the Umbrellas will have to go to Reginald for help to undo it. And I think that's where the subway system comes in. The subway station seems to allow either for time travel or to cross timelines - personally I'm leaning towards the latter since we see Five and Lila in what looks like the original apocalypse but that didn't happen in the timeline they're in.

The writing seen in the station and on the subway stop the come out looks alien which is why I think.the station is connected to Reggie.

But I think that whatever they try doing using the subway doesn't work. Hence, devastated Lila, in what appears to be a subway station.

I think, that failing leads to another plan by Reggie and I think that plan is why we see Allison and Diego getting strapped into a machine by him, seemingly willingly. Maybe it's something to do with their Marigold and their children also having Marigold? And they can locate their children in this or another timeline by identifying the Marigold? Just a wild guess

As I said this theory is based on literally nothing and my original theory about Reggie taking the kids makes way more sense. But I thought this theory, while kind of batshit, was fun, so I thought why not share?

[rockinlibrarian]

Post-Umbrella Academy S4 Reaction Part Two: Still Not a Show Write-up, a Fraction of a Fanfic Instead (spoilery)

I mentioned yesterday that I'd been toying with a TUA/Legion Crossover Fic idea, and that the finale of the former (particularly as it reminds me so much of the finale of the latter) has made me determined I really should do it and definitely set it post-Season 4. It's a perfect fix-it for TUA and I can actually work in a bit more fix-it for Legion, too. Anyway, it was stewing in my head all night, and this morning I woke up with IDEAS, and I ended up sitting down and writing 1,334 words-- a whole scene, a chapter basically, but it would be a chapter in the middle, which who knows when I would get to post that as a whole on AO3, and I feel like I need to post this part RIGHT NOW, even though it is essentially the MIDDLE of the story.

The basic overarching premise is that the Hargreeves end up at Summerland, the haven for troubled mutants (Marvel-style) in Legion. Summerland is co-run by a psychologist who's made it her life's work to help mutants reach their full potential, healing the traumas of living in a world that fears them, the traumas of everything being born Weird gives them.

You can, uh, see how this place might be good for the Hargreeves, right?

You don't need to know much more about Legion for this chapter-- there's some references to characters, but primarily THIS snippet is just my two favorite Hargreeves, who also did not get ANY time together this season, having a Feelings talk (AND WHOM I MANAGED TO WRITE A TENDER SCENE FOR WITHOUT IT TURNING NON-PLATONIC, BE PROUD OF ME) (yes for the uninitiated I am a pathetic Fiktor shipper, please see FAQ post to not hate me), so here, have Feelings with me!

PORTION OF A FUTURE MULTICHAPTER LEGION/TUA CROSSOVER. The working title of the Scrivener sheet for this particular chapter is "This willl NOT be Fiktor I SWEAR," but that will not be the final title. ;)

Viktor walked down to the lake, savoring the woodsy sounds and the gentle adagio behind it, when he spotted a familiar figure sitting at the edge of the dock.

Well, relatively familiar. He wasn’t used to seeing Five sit so still.

“Hey.” He sat beside him.

Five shifted slightly, as if to make room, nodded, and said, “Hey,” back, then drifted back into his odd silence.

After a minute, Viktor cleared his throat. “Beautiful here. Ever want to try fishing?”

Five sighed. “I’ve done a lot of fishing, wasn’t exactly a party.”

“Yeah, I guess not.” Viktor sat in the awkward vibes. The vibes. Who knew silence could be so loud?

“Hey.” He paused. “Five. You okay? You’ve been really quiet lately.”

“Is there something I should be saying?”

“Normally you can’t keep your mouth shut, that’s all. But ever since we came here I think the only person I’ve seen you talk to is that Dr. Loudermilk. You’re avoiding everybody, and, granted, I think I hear Diego growling every time you come near and that would put me off, but still, are you okay?”

“Heh.” Five ran his fingers into his hair and held them there, staring into the murky water at their feet. “Guess you didn’t hear about what happened, did you.”

“Um, I guess not?”

Five sighed even more deeply, and lay back on the dock. “So, Lila and I got stuck in an endless timeline-hopping subway system for nearly seven years.”

Viktor laughed before he could stop himself.

“What?”

“Only you! Only you could answer ‘what’s been with you the past few days?’ with ‘Well it’s ACTUALLY been seven years.”

Five finally cracked a smile, albeit a sad one. “Yeah, I guess I can see how that could amuse you.”

“So how old does that make you now?”

He shrugged. “Seventy? Seventy-one? And god I feel so much older than that, Vik. I should have been annihilated in that Cleanse. I should be dead. I should have died so long ago.”

“Don’t talk like that.” He left Five to pick the conversation back up. He seemed to be composing his thoughts.

After another minute, he spoke. “I… know… what Delores was. I know it was all in my head. But she was all I had, and I needed her. I needed her there, loving me, so I loved her. Now, I find myself stranded in time again, but this time with a real human being by my side? A real… friend? I—.”

He broke off, but Viktor could fill in the rest. “Oh.”

“She belongs with Diego.” Five sat back up abruptly, voice harsh. “Not me. I don’t get to be loved. I don’t get to be happy. I am…fated to wander from universe to universe, alone. I can’t even get annihilated from existence properly!”

God. Dramatic, poetic Five. He was in rough shape. Tentatively, Viktor offered, “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve never managed to keep a single relationship for more than a month. And I lived a relatively…ordinary life. I just suck at relationships.”

Five looked up at Viktor from the corner of his eye, smiled from the corner of his mouth. “Don’t we all.”

“The only time I’ve ever felt truly loved was with Sissy.” Viktor poked him. “And somebody made me put an end to that.”

“Now, come on, we were—.”

“I know, I know, we were in the wrong time, it would have wrecked the timeline. It DID wreck the timeline. But still, I’m just saying.”

“So, what, we can start a ‘The Only Person Who Ever Loved Me was an Already Married Woman’ support group?”

“I bet they have one of those here. Along with their ‘I Have Caused Not One But Multiple Apocalypses’ group.”

Five actually laughed— short, subdued, but a laugh nonetheless. “I’ve missed you, Vik.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” Viktor squeezed his knee. “Anyway, you’re not alone, and you’re not unloved. Maybe not in a romantic way. But we do love you, and you do deserve to be happy.”

Five rolled his eyes. “I spent 45 years longing for nothing more than to get back to my family, the people I loved, and when I did, what did I get? Not again, Five, stop harshing the vibe, Five, why can’t you FIX this, Five, are you sure you’re not just batshit, Five? I love my family more than life itself, but they sure don’t love me.”

“We do—!” Viktor caught himself. Tried to see it from Five’s point of view. Realized he’d barely seemed to notice he was talking to one of his family. It felt like a revelation. Melanie would be proud. Viktor gave Five a gentle, sheepish smile. “Okay, when I said I suck at relationships, I don’t just mean romantically. I love you as a feeling, I’ll have to work on loving you as a verb.”

Five echoed Viktor’s smile. “What happened to us, me and you? When we were kids I could talk to you about anything��everything. I spent decades longing to talk to you, and then—there we were in the same timeline again and yet we’ve barely spoken in thirteen years.”

Viktor ducked his head, tutting. “Well, every time you tried to talk to me I brushed you off, and then I ran away to Nova Scotia for six years. And …you, apparently, got lost in an interdimensional subway system for seven more.”

“Intertemporal, not interdimensional. Cary—Dr. Loudermilk— and I have been trying to map out the different subsets of the multiverse and it’s a lot more comple— see, you’re laughing at me!”

“Just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean I’m not listening! I promise. I’m just laughing because…you’re so YOU. I’ve missed you, too. And I do love you. As bad as I am at it.” He bit his lip. “I’m sorry. For not being who you needed me to be. Melanie says— she says I need to work on my anger issues, that I’m too prone to vengeance. That my subconscious need for payback is too liable to slip out with my powers. Like the time I attacked Allison’s voice box for Rumoring me. Payback, you know. And I— I’ve been mad at you for leaving me for so long— so this time I ran off first. Payback.”

“Yeah, but sometimes you’re right. Like how determined you were to save Ben, bring him back, save the world.”

“Only because he saved me to save the world, first. Payback, Just more positive.”

Five gazed at him, steadily, thoughtfully. “Viktor, I’m proud of you. You’ve been making progress with this stuff all along, years before we got here. I remember wishing you had the guts to stand up for yourself just enough to claim the last doughnut.”

“Thanks. And you’ve got— you’ve got a lot of shit to work through, still, and you haven’t really had the chance to make progress. But just knowing you need to is a good start. I believe in you. And I promise, from now on, I will always listen, whatever you need to work through.”

“Thanks to you, too. I guess…I guess I feel just a smidge more hopeful now.”

“So, that girl who’s always hanging around Dr. Loudermilk….”

“Who, Kerry? They’re, like, symbiotes or something.”

“She’s technically his age, right? And that’s about the same age as you?”

“Yes?”

“And yet she also looks like she’s in her twenties. Like you.”

“Uh…huh?”

“I’ve also heard that she’s been known to leave dozens of bodies in her wake.”

“So what are you…? OH. Nah. No. Stop. She’s also off her rocker.”

“Says the man who fell in love with Lila,” he teased, gently.

“Kerry has the emotional maturity of a thirteen-year-old.”

“Says the man who lost contact with all humanity at the age of thirteen!”

“Viktor!” Five laughed. “You are not helping!”

“I am SO helping! This is the first I’ve heard you laugh in days! Or maybe years, on your end!”

Five’s laughed whined to a pause, and he dropped his head on Viktor’s shoulder. “We are so fucked up.”

“Yeah.” Viktor held him, rocking slightly. “But I don’t know, this Summerland— I think here we might actually get better.”

[wicked-worms]

All plot holes and bad writing aside, I haven’t seen anyone talk about the Timeline Travelling Subway at length yet. During the trailers, promotional material and even just the first episode of TUA s4, I was really excited for the Timeline Traveling Subway. I thought that there was some real potential there for an interesting plot about reconciling the timelines that were created. I expected there to be some sort of payoff for this seemingly huge part of the show. But there was LITERALLY NO POINT TO IT. In fact the season may have been better without it.

Five somehow only being able jump to the subway and nowhere else when he gets his powers back would suggest that the subway is important. I kept waiting.

Lila and Five get on the subway to investigate (why?). Eventually they just get stuck there for SEVEN YEARS and then come back for this big emotional reunion (that added nothing to the plot but unnecessary conflict). I keep waiting (there has to be a reason for this godawful romance/affair subplot right?).

Finally! There are several Fives all in a deli! This is the big payoff. This place exist… and… and what? Five has a big revelation about the nature of the Umbrellas’ existence and it feels so underwhelming! I guarantee you the writers did not need to create a whole subway system for that.

Lila puts her family and Claire on the subway to help them escape, but if all the timelines are going back to the way they were then that shouldn’t have mattered at all, right?

A timeline-travelling subway seems so cool in theory and then most of the main characters never even see it. The revelation that all the main characters have to die is not impressive enough for this cool as hell subway. The subway deserved more.

[av-potatogun]

Grievances and spoilers for TUA under the cut

Okay, so first, Ben in the subway/train for the end teaser of season 3, they said it would be explained in the new season and that it was defo sparrow Ben, but i did not find an explanation anywhere

actual grievance preface; many of my issues would be solved if this season had more fucking episodes. the lack of depth stems directly from being only allowed a pond. a 4 hour difference loses so much already barely there depth (i still lament what they did to s3 Allison). also i miss my 45 min episodes w 22 episodes a season :(((( what happened to being able to show the amount of effort in the quality by the sheer amount of plotlines that deserved their own episode to explore.

anyway, to actual grievances. first Five and Lila. it has a weird implication that reminds me of early tua Five x reader fics where-in the only reason they get together is because theyre trapped alone together for years. You can develop a codependent relationship without it being romantic or sexual. In fact, it would make more thematic sense for the two individuals with major trust issues from the same source to become too intrinsically trusting of one another that the fact that they even developed trust is what is destroying their connections to others.

also it would arguably be more compelling for the wedge Five is driving between Lila and Diego to be completely projected by Diego instead of being an actual concern that he was right to have. Let Diego be insecure and need to process and learn from that to become a better partner, don't let him be justified in his insecurity. Diego has been built on insecurity this entire show, make him confront it.

Real quick- characters who suffered from the lack of showtime: Claire, Grace, The Twins (did they even get named in show), Lila's whole family, Abigail, Jennifer, Gene and Jean and their cult, the cultist CIA, etc. There was so much that could be done, and not enough time to flesh any of it out. Hell, even the siblings (and Lila) all suffered from the lack of showtime, they just had previous seasons to counter-balance.

Genuine plot issue for no reason other than to poke fun I think ? Luther being ape bodied upon marigold entering his system.

also bs, the marigold durango thing- 1) why would marigold at the least not be introduced by name earlier, 2) why are they catastrophic when the explanation just implies supersymmetry, or should it have been further explained that someone else had made their own element that direct counters Abigails? 3) why tf are their names marigold and durango? genuinely why, they could either be more scientific sounding names or names with meaning that imply their use. When you're gonna introduce new concepts so late in the game, make them fit seamlessly into the world you already built, make them fill in blanks, not create more.

This leads me to the ending, which I hated. it felt like a copout, to say that they could never escape the shadow of Reginald's perceptions of them and grow as people because their very existence is a mistake. This was not an ending that fit for them. I'm not saying it needed to be a happy ending, but it needed them to break Reginald's molds and ideas, not Abigail. The ending could have been sad, it could have been emotionally draining, instead I just watched eight people die mad. This ending could have fit if the effort was put into it (which calls back to the lack of time), but as it stood, seemed blotted on as a way to end.

I would have loved for them to have consequence to their existence, losing what they'd worked to get, because none of it was in the original timeline. Each of them strapped with new burdens, but they'd lost one or two of the siblings in the struggle and it drove them all apart, this time for good. I would have accepted that as my sad ass ending. Not some shit about how you can never change the circumstances of your existence and you'll always be exactly what your adopted father saw in you.

Speaking of, I do kinda hate that we cannot know more about s1 Reggie. This man had completely different aspirations from the sounds of things, and it implied he knew of Viktor's coming explosion, so what made him so different from Sparrow Reggie. And I don't mean in later life, I understand the Sparrows drugged him.

Anyway, plot hole time again; Ben arrested for crypto despite people never actually seen using modern devices. Arrest him for a better crime, give him one that earns him sympathy points with Jennifer so I believe their connection pre touch better.

I am nowhere near done complaining, it is a favorite past time of mine, however this post is very long.

[stampstamp]

Spoilers for TUA

A lot of the salt on the tag was about how it's out of character for the family-minded Five to start a romantic relationship with his brother's wife and I probably would've agreed outside the context of that episode. I didn't really see it as 'homewrecking' (as a lot of people on here called it) because by the time they got together they'd reached a stage where it seemed like it might not be possible to get back home anyway?

If I was stranded in a subway system, eating rats and almost getting killed topside every day for 6 years with my sibling's wife (who looks like Ritu Arya), I probably wouldn't be thinking 'oh we'd better not act on our feelings just in case we ever get home to our old lives 🙂 let's just make ourselves even more miserable by ignoring it' because the likelihood of dying was way more probable than the likelihood of getting home. They only made it home because of a Deus Ex machina, which suggests that they could've been stuck there for much longer.

And as far as they knew, they'd been missing presumed dead for 6+ years and that marriage was already failing when they left. They didn't know time hadn't passed or that Diego still wanted to save the marriage.

This turned out really long. I just feel like people weren't really empathising with the characters. Six years is the time between now and summer 2018 - so much can happen in that amount of time. I think the other criticisms about the ship are more reasonable. Idk how I feel about it but it bothers me that people claim it's ooc.

[hypevideocritic]

It’s Game Time

A slow pan across the quad. A cheerleader grinning to the camera. The voiceover of the school’s most famous announcer, except he’s dead now.

This is a hype video.

A post shared by Georgia Football (@georgiafootball) on Aug 30, 2018 at 4:04pm PDT

Chris sets up the drone and lets it fly over campus. Preferably at sunrise—or sunset works, too. There’s a lens flair. There’s dramatic music. The kind that the Dark Knight would’ve used if they were on a tight budget.

That dead announcer is talking about what it means to be a champion. Even if they’ve never won a championship. Or gotten so close and lost with 28 seconds left on the clock in the fourth quarter. Who’s bitter? I’m not bitter.

(Go Dawgs).

A post shared by Alabama Football (@alabamafbl) on Aug 29, 2018 at 7:17am PDT

We cut to the downtown. There’s maybe a Five Guys, but definitely a Subway. Eat Fresh. The dead guy is talking again. This time it’s about buckling down and winning. But this is more than just a game. This is a community. This is a legacy.

A post shared by Tennessee Football (@vol_football) on Aug 30, 2018 at 3:27pm PDT

Do you notice all the pauses? There are always pauses. Sports are about pauses. Moments. Winners. Defeats. 

I’m your Hype Video Critic. Each week, I’ll be reviewing hype videos across the SEC, because those are really the only ones that matter. I’ll be ranking the videos on a scale of one football to five. Because sports. Metaphors.

The Ranking System

1 = Georgia losing with 28 seconds left on the clock to Alabama in the 2012 SEC Championship

5 = Alabama putting in Tua Tagovailoa in the 2018 National Championship

Why am I doing this? For no reason, but let’s just see what happens.

This is our moment. To prove ourselves. To prove that we deserve to be treated with the same respect as a true crime documentary on Netflix.

This is a hype video.