The Umbrella Academy (2019) / YMMV

YMMV tropes with their own pages:

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A-C

Abandon Shipping:
- Diego and Klaus were quite a popular couple after the Season 1 premiere, however over time several people left the Ship after Diego and Lila became an Official Couple and Diego began to interact less with Klaus.
- While it was never quite a popular romance, the few shippers of Luther and Allison eventually left the couple after they both married their respective love interests and Allison deliberately raped Luther.
Adorkable:
- Although Luther puts on the front of a strong, confident leader while conducting official Academy business, there are moments when he lets his guard down. The crab-dance shuffle he does to "I Think We're Alone Now" and his awkwardness when Diego asks if he's ever slept with anyone are particularly good examples. Season 3 showcases this extensively when he meets the equally Adorkable Sloane.
- Agnes. She's a bird-watching enthusiast, so seeing rare species of birds is enough to get her excited. She also becomes a lot shyer whenever her Love Interest Hazel is around, and she has stated that one of her goals in life is to go on a road trip and visit a ton of bird sanctuaries along the way.
Angst? What Angst?: In Season 2, Diego appears to be completely over Eudora's death despite 1)her passing away just a couple of months from his perspective and 2)they had a long history together and he still loved her despite them being broken up.
Ass Pull: The Handler surviving being shot in the head by Hazel minutes before the end of the world.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Viktor Hargreeves is a polarizing character to say the least, due to his extreme actions. One side considers him unsympathetic due to his (if inadvertently) causing the apocalypse twice over, nearly killing Allison and writing a tell-all book that ruined his siblings' reputations, and point out that despite being excluded he still managed to build the closest thing any of them have to normal life all by himself. The other side points out that his more extreme actions were done in the heat of the moment, and considering all he'd been through — finding out Reginald lied to him about his powers and being manipulated by Harold Jenkins — and on top of Reginald's general abuse of all of them, he also went out of his way to reinforce the idea that Viktor was ordinary compared to his extraordinary siblings, and Viktor clearly feels regret for all of his negative actions afterwards.
- Luther Hargreeves. Some fans believe him to be the reason for the apocalypse, claiming that if he hadn't locked Viktor away, he wouldn't have snapped. Others point to the Bad Future where Five got stuck, where Viktor apparently ambushed his siblings and Luther died fighting without ever locking him away, as evidence that Viktor could have caused the apocalypse without his influence. Some fans believe his defenses of Reginald and his clear status as the parental favorite point to a childhood relatively free from abuse; while others point to his self-blame upon discovering Reginald sent him to the Moon for no reason as evidence that he was abused and is simply in denial. Some fans find him self-important, self-righteous, and unable to admit he is wrong; others find his social awkwardness charming and believe that, aside from locking Viktor away he generally treats his siblings well.
- Allison Hargreeves quickly became this after Season 3. While some fans understand her pain and her wish to be reunited with Claire, her Took a Level in Jerkass behavior and fall into villainy has left it hard to defend her. Some enjoy her fall into villainy, while others have grown quick to despise her after she sexually assaults Luther using her powers, nearly chokes Viktor with her powers and then tells him that the rest of the siblings should've left him in the basement, killing Harlan, and betraying her siblings by making a deal with Reginald that ultimately ended with her getting Karma Houdini.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- At one point during Season 2, Five asks a woman to break a dollar for him, she does and he goes to buy a candy bar from a nearby vending machine. When the candy bar he wanted gets stuck, Five loses his mind and starting hitting the vending machine until the glass breaks. This scene has no relevance to the plot whatsoever and stands out all the more because it happens while he's in the middle of an important mission.An AMA with showrunner Steve Blackman explained that it was a callback to Season 1 as that candy is the one the Handler offers to Five, but it still comes across as a non-sequitur due to how it results in nothing besides Five getting tackled by the same woman.
- At the beginning of season 3, when the Umbrella Academy meets the Sparrow Academy that replaces them due to their meddling with time in Season 2, Jayme uses her Super Spit on Diego and when it looks like they are going to fight each other, Marcus starts dancing with the titular theme song of Footloose playing, and after the Umbrella Academy gives him brief confused looks, the two groups does a huge Dance-Off, only to reveal that the entire thing was just Diego hallucinating before the two academies fight each other for real. Diego never brings it up, and the hallucination isn't even used as a distraction.
Broken Base: About shipping the siblings. While one part of the fandom likes to ship the siblings, other fans firmly reject this on account of incest. The former points out that their abusive and unorthodox childhood prevented them from forming real sibling bonds and that they're Not Blood Siblings while the latter points out that adoptive relationships are valid, no matter how dysfunctional, and shipping the siblings together undermines the platonic bonds they share with others in their family.
Captain Obvious Reveal:
- Number Five being the one that killed Lila's parents is treated like a huge shocking revelation, but a lack of other possible options mean that there's really only one culprit that makes sense. In this case, the obfuscation over the killer's identity actually serves to make it more obvious that the culprit is exactly who everyone would expect it to be. Some people were even expecting this to turn out to be a double bluff, but...nope.
- In Season 3, Lila tells Diego something shocking: they have a son, Stanley, who is played by the white Javon Walton. Fans couldn't believe that two brown characters (Diego is Mexican, and Lila is Indian) could produce a white kid. ^note. It's hardly surprising when it turns out that Stanley is indeed not their biological child, and Lila just wanted to test how good of a father Diego would be. If Stanley really is their biological child, it would've caused a Questionable Casting reaction.
Cargo Ship: Number Five and Delores the mannequin.
Catharsis Factor:
- With The Reveal that Harold had an abusive single father and Reginald broke his spirit and belief he could be special, some fans find it cathartic to see him murder his father, only for him to get sent to prison. And considering he's working to help Viktor reclaim what he lost as a child to cause chaos, while it is an extremely stupid thing to do some fans also want it to happen. For international viewers, it helps his case that he was only 13 years old at the time.^note Which, in a lot of countries^note would be considered too young to be held legally responsible for any crimes, no matter how violent. So, for this international, non-anglophone audience, it's self-evident that he desperately needed therapy and decent adult guidance, not a prison sentence that would just result in even more abuse and bad company. Therefore, the character looks even more like a Woobie in their eyes, at least at this point in the series, and he has a pretty good Freudian Excuse for his sociopathy in adulthood.^note
- Diego beating the tar out of Hazel, a hitman who only recently underwent a Heel–Face Turn. He still did kill at least two dozen people and helped torture Klaus, also framing Diego inadvertently for Patch's murder. So yeah, Hazel deserved it. It becomes even more cathartic when Diego later beats Cha-Cha to a pulp and only doesn't kill her out of respect to Patch's memory.
- After spending the entire season as a preening, horrifically cheery Manipulative Bastard, it's immensely satisfying to see Hazel put one between the Handler's eyes. Right in the middle of another taunting speech, no less.
- It's technically the wrong thing to do, but Allison Rumors the diner manager who burned her with coffee and makes him suffer the same punishment, while he's terrified. It's satisfying and scary at the same time.
- Sissy's negligent, abusive, homophobic husband Carl being hit by the bullet after he tries to take the gun away from Sissy and it ricochets thanks to Harlan being Touched by Vorlons. Safe to say that no one will miss him.
- Not unlike the previous season finale, it is incredibly satisfying to see The Handler finally get what's coming to her at the hands of the remaining Swede. Twice!
Common Knowledge:
- Despite its widespread status as a meme, Luther rarely actually says “Dad sent me to the Moon,” nor does he bring up his time there as often as some fans claim. Most of his early mentions of the Moon are neutral or positive and only come when others ask him about the Moon or it is otherwise relevant to the conversation.
  - That said, when the team starts trying to make a plan to stop the apocalypse he immediately jumps to the conclusion that the moon must be involved because he was sent to the moon (which seems extremely egocentric and as we find out was just a wild goose chase). The fact that this scene happens twice, first in "The day that wasn't" and then again in "The day that was" might be partially to blame for the infamous quote as the second time he says it the audience already knows his conclusion is wrong. The fandom's annoyance with Luther in general as a Base-Breaking Character likely also contributes.
- Viktor is often spoken of as shy and timid, rarely raising his voice, but after his emotion-dampening medication wears off, he raises his voice in anger and subjects his siblings to multiple outbursts, and as shown during his nanny killing spree, he's no shrinking violet.
- Viktor is also frequently characterized by fans as a Broken Bird who only ever wanted love and affection from a family that refused to provide it. However, when he hallucinates a childhood version of himself that reminds him of everything his father and siblings withheld from him, he never mentions love, affection, or approval. He does go on at some length about how he was "never in the limelight, never the center of attention".
  - To be fair, this was his big night to exhibit a talent he’s worked on all his life, at a level he was afraid he’d never achieve. And his family had more important things to do. I mean, it’s true given the very special circumstance of the end of the world, but geez. Can you really blame him for specifically resenting that situation in the moment?
- Many fans are under the impression that Viktor's lack of control over his powers is what caused the apocalypse. However, he demonstrates very fine control over his powers during his rampage and also during the murder of his nannies; those powers are activated by his emotions, which are what he lacks control over.
  - He was put on medication when he was very young. If he started taking it around the same time Allison Rumored him, he’s had his emotions artificially suppressed since he was four years old. He never went through the maturation process we all undergo as we grow up to get to know ourselves and regulate our reactions to people. He quite literally has the emotional maturity of a toddler.
- It’s quite common for fans to assign Leonard the lion’s share of blame for starting the apocalypse, since he was at the Academy when the world ended. However, his manipulations of Viktor are limited to getting rid of his medication, and subtly pushing him to think more negatively of his siblings in hopes he will lash out against them on his own, while fans often portray him as a man who could order him to do most anything and have him obey without question. The influence of well-tuned emotional manipulation on a man whose emotions controlled his powers can't be ignored, but he was never his master. Even the suggestion that he wants to end the world at all is unfounded based on his actions and motives.
- Klaus is quite often referenced in fanworks as being gay, despite Word of God and several subtle hints establishing him as pan. Not as prevalent as it used to be as season 2 makes his pansexuality more apparent.
Complete Monster: The Handler is a high-ranking member of the Commission tasked with keeping the timeline preserved. Planning to allow an apocalypse to happen in 2019 because of her stubborn refusal to believe in changing fate, the Handler sends agents Hazel and Cha-Cha to kill Five and his siblings for attempting to prevent Armageddon. Supposedly killed by Hazel, the Handler finds herself demoted by newly appointed Commission director AJ Carmichael. Seeking revenge against Carmichael and the Hargreeves, the Handler once again tries to prevent the Hargreeves from stopping another apocalypse, sending the Swedes out to kill them; when they start slacking, the Handler has one of them killed, pinning the blame on Diego. Sending Five to kill the young Lila's parents, the Handler adopts and raises Lila to act as her superpowered weapon. Using Five to assassinate Carmichael and the entire board of directors to take their place, the Handler uses her new position as Commission head to impose harsher rules and make those against her "vanish". Once she finds the Hargreeves' location, she kills the one who informed her of their location; allows hundreds of Commission agents to seemingly die by Viktor’s hand; manipulates Lila into attacking the Hargreeves; and tries to kidnap the young, super powered Harlan to be raised as her newest weapon.
Crack Ship: Viktor/First Chair Helen have a decent following, despite having two scenes together, only speaking in one, and both times Helen acts like she’s better than Viktor, which the guy does not need.
- Klaus/One of the Swedes from Season 2 has been gaining traction despite the series itself pointing out that Klaus never once interacted with any of them.
Crosses the Line Twice:
- Two brothers mourning the death of their youngest sibling? Not funny. Two out three Swedish assassin triplets who disguise themselves as milkmen, mourning the death of their youngest brother by giving a Viking Funeral to his foot, (which was all that was left of him after he was blown up by a landmine), complete with a Swedish-language cover of "Hello" by Adele?So silly it's hard not to laugh.
- Reginald decides to once again test Klaus' abilities in season 3 to see what kind of limit they have, which normally could be framed as a horrific revisiting of his traumatic childhood, if it wasn't for the fact that Klaus becomes incredibly blasé as Reginald about his repeated death as well and just starts casually dancing on the road every time before he gets run over by cars.

D-H

Diagnosed by the Audience:
- Off his meds, Viktor gets angry easily and has trouble calming down from anxiety attacks and flashbacks. It's unclear if Reginald giving them to him as a child actually helped him or was seen as an "easy solution" without a formal diagnosis.
- It's never outright stated what Harlen has, but it can be inferred he is autistic. He is silent all the time, expresses his emotions in unorthodox ways, and has trouble connecting to people. While making a case for bringing Harlan and Sissy to the present, Viktor notes that medical professionals in the 60s can't correctly diagnose him as medical professionals in the 21st century could. As they get older, he does begin to speak, but is stilted and unexpressive, has bad reading on people, and has hyper-sensory issues related to sound exacerbated by his still-apparent powers and uses self-made ASMR tapes to calm themselves.
Don't Shoot the Message: The scene between Allison and Luther in Season 3 in which she rumors him into wanting to have sex with her, leading to the two of them kissing until she breaks it off because he becomes too rough. People tend to agree that this casts her in a dark, villainous light, but viewers are unimpressed with how the show handled the aftermath of the incident. Allison committing sexual assault and attempting rape could have been a reprehensible example of her darkening personality, but the incident is barely mentioned afterwards. Luther only confronts her about it once, she gives a half-assed apology later, Luther doesn't tell anyone else about it—not even Sloane, despite the two of them pulling away from their respective families—and no one else ever finds out about it. Meanwhile, her other actions such as provoking the Sparrows, fighting racists in bars, and murdering Harlan are discussed far more often and with far more weight. Likewise, the assault could have been explored through Luther's trauma and growing isolation from the Umbrellas, but he just brushes it off and even later tells Viktor to make nice with Allison because he's angry at her for killing Harlan. And on top of the way the show handled it, some people think that sexual assault is far too heavy of a topic for a show as (relatively) light-hearted and silly as The Umbrella Academy to cover at all.
Draco in Leather Pants:
- Cha-Cha and Hazel, despite being ruthless assassins who kidnap and torture Klaus and kill Detective Patch, have a fairly sizable fanbase. The Handler does as well.
  - In particular Hazel's character arc as a tired Hitman looking to retire, find love and leave his past behind as well as his adorkable Pet the Dog moments with Agnes have endeared him to a sizable portion of the audience.
- Although not completely characterized as a villain, fans tend to gloss over Viktor’s unlikable traits and blame his most harmful actions on others, choosing instead to portray him as an innocent victim who either never did anything wrong, or whose actions are always justified and never disproportionate. In some cases, the wrongs his siblings inflict upon him are exaggerated and made out to be intentional, rather than the result of Poor Communication Kills or simple misjudgment. The fact Luther was acting upon limited information and some pretty damning circumstantial evidence when he locked Viktor up is ignored wholesale, and Luther is given the Ron the Death Eater treatment.
- Klaus also tends to get this treatment. Despite being a hero, he is incredibly selfish, self-centered, and will do anything for drugs during Season 1, including stealing and selling information on Five to Hazel and Cha-cha. The fans tend to ignore this, claiming he has the most traumatic childhood out of all of them and shifting a lot of blame on the other siblings for not trusting him when he is canonically proven to be untrustworthy.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Despite dying halfway through, many fans agree that Eudora Patch was a badass and a strong female character.
- Grace, the kids' mother, is quite a popular side character.
- Ben has only a handful of lines and a few scattered appearances throughout Season 1, but he quickly became popular enough for the fans to request more of him in Season 2 — which led to him being upgraded to series regular.
- Dave appears in only a few extended flashbacks, but remains one of the most popular side characters in the fandom.
- Herb, the diminuitive and endearingly nerdy bespectacled Commission analyst was well-liked enough to get upgraded to a much larger role in Season 2.
- Raymond Chestnut, Allison's husband in the '60s, quickly got a lot of love for his Badass Pacifist protesting for racial equality, plus his snazzy fashion sense, aided by Yusuf Gatewood having picked up some big cred among genre fans after the likes of The Originals and Good Omens.
- The three Swedish assassins are a big hit with the fanbase despite (or perhaps because of) rarely speaking and emoting even less. Their popularity took a massive jump after the oldest brother killed the Handler.
- Marcus, the leader of the Sparrow Academy, is only in one episode but might be the best-liked member of his team besides Sloane (who is a main character) due to being a refreshingly pragmatic Mr. Fanservice who can beat Luther in a fight despite being noticeably less brawny than he is.
- The rest of the Sparrows also count, with exception of Ben and Sloane due to them being main characters. Special mention goes to Jayme and Alphonso, as well as Christopher, who's unique nature as a floating psychokinetic cube is Freaky Is Cool personified.
Fandom-Specific Plot: Due to being the fan favorite, fics where Klaus is the one who ends the world as a result of mistreatment are common. Normally he'll have his powers from the comics, suppressed from drug abuse finally resurfacing.
Fan Nickname:
- Season 2 has gotten fans to start saying Himbo Luther and Himbo Diego due to the both of them having some very ditsy moments.
- After Klaus referred to himself as being sexy trash, Fans ran away with it and made that his nickname.
- In order to distinguish the Ben from the classic timeline and the new timeline Ben, the latter has been dubbed "Emo Ben" due to his edgy haircut, scars, pitiful mustache, and bad attitude.
Fanon:
- Many fans also theorize Five is asexual and that Diego and Allison are bi. Less popular, but still prevalent among his fandom, is the theory that Luther is asexual or demisexual.
- Five is often characterized as dropping Precision F Strikes by fans but he never actually says it in the show; he instead uses "shit" quite a lot. He does get the second season's Precision F-Strike^note, cementing this as a canon trait.
- Despite them barely interacting during Season 1 after the first episode, many fans share the headcanon that Five and Viktor were best friends as kids before Five's disappearance (primarily because Five is nicer to him than any of the other siblings and says that he's "the only one [he] can trust", still frames of Viktor's autobiography contain positive things written about Five, and when Viktor hallucinates his siblings as children pushing him away and telling him he can’t come on missions after he breaks out of the bunker and becomes the White Violin, Five is the only sibling who is absent). Also, back in the first episode, he and Pogo reminisce about the past and both talk about how much he misses Five and as a child would always be expecting to see him return, a fondness he never shows for his other siblings. Season 2 definitely fed the fire, adding several scenes where Five treats Viktor more gently than his other siblings, either by being unable to admit that he's the big bad they were fighting against in Season 1 or by his pre-series self implying that Viktor's reasoning for causing the apocalypse back then was justified upon learning about it.
- Klaus is very often referenced in fanfiction as either being or having been a prostitute (possibly stemming from the scene where he says he only slept with a guy for a place to stay). At the very least, people seem to have the idea that he's sold sex for drugs or money, regardless of whether he considered himself a career sex worker. Or that he was sexually harassed (usually as a minor) especially due to the comment about not remembering his first time
- A lot of fanwork depicts Ben as being able to float as part of being a ghost but he, along with all other ghosts in the show proper, appears to only be able to walk.
- Klaus is apparently a cat person, according to fanfiction writers. To a lesser extent, so is the rest of the family. People probably assume he's a cat person due to him having witch-like powers
  - In the comics Klaus actually had a cat as a child named Oswald.
- Many like to imagine Five as getting a proper name like the rest, and furthermore be named after one of the members of My Chemical Romance besides Gerard; either Mikey, Ray or Frank.
- Ben is always depicted as despising his memorial statue in fanworks, likely stemming from his actor saying in a tweet that there is B-Roll of Ben picking up the head of the statue and bemoaning that it doesn't even look like him before tossing it away.
- Some fans believe Luther has a knack for growing plants, and some fanworks show him talking to the plant he tended to on the Moon.
- A lot of fans theorize that Klaus is somehow immortal. The rave scene is what started the theory but the real catalyst for the adage to his powers is because of all of the comparisons that could be made to the immortal Nathan Young, Robert Sheehan's most well known role before Klaus with whom he shares many similarities. It's very easy to find fanfiction where Klaus wakes up from dying in the apocalypse or bounces back from death in another manner, as well as fanworks where Reginald discovered Klaus' ability to bounce back much earlier in his life and took those experiments to their logical conclusion.
  - Season 3 moves this from Fanon to Canon
- Due to Diego's Big Brother Instinct toward Klaus and because they seemingly were the only surviving siblings to remain in contact prior to their father's funeral, a lot of fanfiction depicts Diego rescuing Klaus from a drug house or him talking Klaus into going to rehab. There are also a number of fanworks showing Diego intervening in or preventing Klaus' attempts at suicide, despite there never being any canon indications of the latter having such ideations.
- Although Klaus’s Affectionate Nickname for Ben is "Benarino" during the second and third seasons, some post-first-season fanfics depict Klaus calling him "Bentacles" due to Ben's power, usually to the latter's chagrin.
Genius Bonus: Dave's favorite book being Dune is quite ironic as its author Frank Herbert was a virulent homophobe, who after Dave's death would disown his son for being gay.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- The debate on whether or not to shut down Grace in case she's malfunctioning becomes this when despite Pogo rebuilding her wiring, she dies again by refusing to leave the mansion when Viktor brings it down. It's especially heartwrenching when Diego, who shut her down the first time, tries to run back to save her and Klaus has to drag him away because otherwise Diego would have died.
- Everyone keeps mocking Diego for wanting to save President John F. Kennedy even though it seems they have bigger priorities at hand. Then it actually happens, and the Umbrella Academy mourns despite the fact that Kennedy inadvertently caused doomsday. Diego needs a few minutes to process his failure because he went after who he thought was Reginald, only to end up in the wrong direction. No one comforts him, but they all look guilty for the mocking. Even Reginald is furious, telling the Magnificent Seven the plan was to spare the President.
- Viktor's experiences with homophobia already hit hard due to their connection with Elliot Page's own life, and got even more uncomfortable now that we know they were still in the closet for being transgender at the time.
- Ben being dead is bad enough, when we see he Used to Be a Sweet Kid and Viktor in his memoirs said he was The Heart of the team. At the end of Season 2, Reginald made Ben into Number One at the Sparrow Academy, and looks like he went through Break the Cutie and lost his heart tendencies. Reginald is the worst.
- Viktor references "Diego's taunts" in his memoir. One might assume this is an exaggeration as are many of his accounts, and that as a kid Diego might have been more of a prankster than a bully. Klaus snarkily reminds Diego of saying that licking a 9-volt battery would give Klaus pubic hair when they were eight, and it is likely that Diego had talked Ben into reprogramming Allison's Teddy Ruxpin. However, the flashback of Ben's funeral confirms it, as Diego lashes out at Viktor when he was only trying to comfort the other siblings.
Heartwarming in Hindsight:
- In the second episode, the siblings debate if Grace was programmed to love them or if she learned since their father wasn't exactly the caring type. It turns out the latter case is true since she was built to be the kids' nanny, not their mother, but they all grew up calling her "Mom". It especially becomes this when in the alternate timeline, she told Diego the truth about Reginald's death.
- Viktor and Diego have a rocky relationship initially, with Diego telling him condescendingly he doesn't know what it's like to go on a mission without powers. At the same time, he and Klaus are the first to protest when Luther locked up Viktor in a soundproof room. In Season 2, following a flashback where Diego lashed out at Viktor during Ben's funeral, the two comfort each other as adults when Diego lets Lila go with a briefcase so she can have a choice with what to do with her life, and Sissy tearfully turns down going with Viktor to 2019 because she's worried it will hurt Harlan.
- Earlier in Season 2, Five responds to Diego's hero complex distracting him from the second apocalypse with 'This is why you don't have any friends.' Later on, through Diego investigating the Commission, looking for ways to stop the apocalypse he quickly bonds with Herb, to the point of making up a handshake despite only spending a few hours together. Herb also allows the Hargreeves to return to 2019, no strings attached.
- Vanya being a Gender-Blender Name became all the more meaningful and resonant after Elliot Page came out as transgender and his character decided to go by Viktor.
He Really Can Act:
- Aidan Gallagher, a 15-year-old best known for his role in a Nickelodeon sitcom, surprised and impressed audiences with his excellent performance giving the role weight, melancholy, and quiet rage not usually seen in a performer so young. Through his nuanced facial expressions and deft use of body language, he's somehow totally believable as a 58-year-old trapped in a 13-year-old's body. He also managed to successfully convince the audience that he was in love with a mannequin, and treat his older cast mates like annoying children.
- Sean Sullivan, who plays the older Five, also warrants mention. In the first season, he only appeared occasionally in non-speaking flashbacks, but in the second season, his role is expanded and he matches the younger Five's speech patterns and mannerisms exactly.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- A massive one for certain fans of Game of Thrones. Luther's actor starred as Dickon Tarly in the later seasons of the show. In Season 7, a lot of mileage was taken out of the scene where he suited up for battle, with many viewers noting his armor looked way too wide in comparison to his head, leading to a series of edits◊ giving him a tiny head and massive body. Then comes Luther's appearance in this series... yeah.
- Elliott (the conspiracy theorist) shares a name with Elliot Page and looks similar to how he looks now, especially in his Vogue shoot.
- Klaus's Season One line about Luther marrying the girl who took his virginity is very funny considering that he does almost instantly marry the next girl he hooks up with, Sloane.
Ho Yay: Diego and Klaus are shipped by fans a lot due to Diego really being the only person besides Ben and Allison who consistently shows concern for Klaus. This, matched with admittedly cute bonding moments in Episode Six, where Diego literally ties him up. Additionally, Klaus is the only family member to whom Diego displays any sibling affection throughout the first season. Even in universe, Kenny’s mom just assumes they’re a couple in the first season finale.

I-R

Informed Wrongness: Five and Allison both savage Viktor for covering up how Harlan accidentally killed their mothers thirty years ago, and Viktor accepts this. But when the truth comes out, it just makes things worse. In fact, Allison responds to it by immediately murdering a de-powered Harlan in cold blood. It doesn't even help the group emotionally, since Five is just mad that Harlan changed the timeline, Allison was already spiralling hopelessly into depression, and nobody else seems to care.
Jerkass Woobie: All the main characters. Every last one of them. See here
Just Here for Godzilla: Some have expressed interest in the show because Elliot Page stars in it.
Love to Hate:
- Reginald Hargreeves. He's not winning any awards for being a good parent, and not even Luther has many good things to say about him. Yet the man is entertaining onscreen, with his British Stuffiness. It's even more pronounced by the end of Season 3, where he turns into a full-blown supervillain who was hell-bent on sacrificing his children to reshape the world in his image, a much-needed reprieve for the heavily realistic darkness of the season.
- The Handler, The Big Bad for Season 2 and major villain for Season 1. She's both extremely fun on her own and one of the biggest adversaries for the siblings.
Magnificent Bastard: Hazel is the more laid back yet pragmatic of the Commission assassins sent after Five. Ruthless in conducting murder and torture on countless innocents yet empathetic enough to let witnesses escape, he and Cha-Cha go up against the Hargreeves to ensure the apocalypse, destroying Fives' one lead to uncovering the mysterious culprit and kidnapping Klaus in their raid on the Umbrella Academy. However, despite his synergy with his partner, Hazel decides to quit upon falling in love with Agnes, outsmarting Cha-Cha's subsequent efforts to kill him and giving aid to the Hargreeves in preventing the apocalypse before escaping with Agnes to safety. Living out a happy life with her, Hazel promises to help Five undo another apocalypse, bringing him far enough into the past and giving him the starting lead needed to save the world.
Memetic Loser: The Umbrella Academy itself (in a tongue-in-cheek way) due to being such dysfunctional fuck-ups that they actually caused The End of the World as We Know It at least thrice. A common in-joke in the fandom is how their lack of brain cells or that all their brain cells died with Ben, who occasionally loans one (or half of one) to Klaus.
Memetic Mutation:
- Because of who wrote the comic, making references to My Chemical Romance is bound to show up in any comments section related to the show.
- "Luther be like": Luther has received many comparisons to some funny pictures of a teddy bear with a large upper body and small legs, being used in several pictures to represent Luther. To a lesser degree, he is also compared to an image of Joey from Friends, where he uses several layers of sweaters to appear larger.
- "DAD SENT ME TO THE MOON": Some fans who see Luther as The Scrappy use this as a way to make fun of Luther constantly bringing up his time on the moon on any discussion, believing it to have some unknown importance in the apocalypse. (Exaggerating this to a great degree, as he only brings it up a few times and was right to blame Reginald for abandoning him.)
- A minor one: More than one fan has noticed that Luther can be easily cropped out of the Season 2 promo poster and they much prefer it that way.
- "What's Allison going to be obsessed with in Season 3?": As listed above, many fans exaggerated Luther being obsessed with the moon in Season 1, Season 2 Diego is legitimately obsessed with saving JFK and makes it his mission so fans have started joking that each season, the sibling with the corresponding number will gain an obsession that they will never shut up about.
  - "Come on Klaus' season!" The meme/theory above ended up coming true with Allison being obsessed with regaining the family she has lost and Steve Blackman revealing that the pattern is intentional. That confirmation has gotten many fans excited and now trying to guess what Klaus' obsession in season 4 will be.
- "The Commission needs to hire better assassins" or similar sentiments, after two straight seasons ended with one member of that season's assassin team having a Heel–Face Turn and shooting the Handler.
- The scene Five and Viktor driving past each other quickly became popular to use as a reaction image.
- The S2 promo image with Ben with the keys and Klaus in front of a broken car became a popular meme template.
- In Archive of Our Own the tag "No betas we die like ben" is popular among the fandom.
- Five screaming "I'M THE DADDY HERE!" at Luther quickly became a meme due to utterly bizarre it sounds out of context.
- "Fastest He in the West"^Explanation
Memetic Molester: The Handler, most commonly with Five, due to No Sense of Personal Space coupled with creepy levels of tension. Five’s actor, Aiden Gallagher, said that they were hinting that the two of them engaged in a relationship when Five was working as an assassin for the commission, but all the comments being directed at Five’s physically 13 year old body can be uncomfortable to watch.
Misaimed Fandom:
- Viktor's violent rampage in the final episode is intended to be both disturbing and tragic, showing the worst possible outcome of repressed trauma quite literally exploding to the surface. The characters who die are not Asshole Victims by any stretch, but rather likable and misguided people who made costly mistakes. However, some fans have latched onto this deconstruction of a revenge fantasy as a validation of these fantasies, painting Viktor as purely good and those they murder in cold blood as completely evil.
- Viktor is meant to be a Deconstruction of the Broken Bird, particularly in the way he remains focused on childhood wounds well into adulthood despite having ten years to process his trauma and therapy to help him come to terms. Some fans, however, ignore the harm his fixation on the past does to him and others, taking his bitterness as a sign that he genuinely had it worse than his siblings and believing he has a right to treat others badly because he was so badly hurt. Although his arc is meant as a warning, some fans still see him as the blameless victim and his most reprehensible actions as the fault of others. It certainly doesn't help that people in real life often hold onto childhood wounds, and even if they don't, they are heavily shaped by them, meaning they likely will empathize with Viktor.
- Diego often makes sarcastic remarks about his siblings, often to their faces. While their reactions make it clear that his comments are not meant in good humor, some fans ignore the pain he causes and see him as a lovable Deadpan Snarker, rather than a verbal abuser. He does get better about it as time goes on and devolves into one, but telling Allison that he hopes her "movie turns out better than her marriage" crosses the line a bit.
Moral Event Horizon: Allison in season 3 when she attempts to Rumor Luther into sleeping with her, despite him being in love with Sloane, which almost leads to Luther being raped by Allison. Though she stops herself, she only does so because he's rougher with her than she expected rather than out of any sense of wrongdoing. It's also such a remarkably evil thing to do to someone who had just been trying to help her, but it's this which sees her descent from a hurting Broken Bird into a vindictive and cruel jerk who then goes on to murder Harlan and verbally, emotionally, and even physically abuse Viktor. Luther himself at least forgives her when she apologises, but her apology was in-itself insincere and just an attempt at emotional manipulation, which adds to the clear fact she's slipped hard into villain territory.
Narm:
- Viktor's autobiography, Extra Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven which notably was not a popular book in-universe (being slashed to 50% while the author was still trying to promote it to mostly empty rooms). Some viewers have found the excerpts suffer from melodramatic prose that seems like it's trying too hard to make Viktor's story as tragic as possible. While it's understandable he would want to gain the sympathy of his audience, the fact it focuses on his exclusion from family life and apparently only makes a few passing mentions to his siblings being experimented on has not left these viewers with a positive impression of the book. Possibly an Intended Audience Reaction, as both the comics and Netflix series acknowledge Viktor’s tendency to focus on his own trauma rather than empathize with his siblings, and the siblings in question also don't seem to be too happy about their portrayal when reading it.
- Luther standing in a fighting ring repeatedly telling his opponent to hit him and he wants to feel all the pain, because he found out Allison had gotten married, is pretty narmalicious.
Nausea Fuel:
- If you have hemophobia, the scenes where the Umbrellas' mothers' heads explode is difficult to watch.
- When Luther's ghost defeats the last Hotel Oblivion guardian, his oni mask falls off to reveal his face is riddled with holes with cockroaches crawling in and out. Even if you don't have trypophobia and/or katsaridaphobia, that's uncomfortable to look at.
Never Live It Down: Luther gets this a lot, by being basically reduced by some fans to a big guy constantly screaming about the time he spent on the moon. When used pejoratively, it's often to say that he was the target of much less mental abuse than his siblings Viktor and Klaus, two fan-favorites, and suffered much less than other characters such as Ben or Five, but still trying to be the center of attention — although this view has little basis in canon.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Dave who, within ten months of showtime and one episode of screen time, welcomed Klaus to the Army, offered a few words of comfort, and told him he'd adjust. His love and kindness gave Klaus a reason to sober up, mature, and become a more responsible person. It's no wonder that Klaus misses him and kisses a photo of Dave in a veterans bar.
- Patrick only has a few seconds of screen time, compared to how often Allison talks to him on the phone. Most of the time, Allison and the other Hargreeves paint him as a Jerkass until Allison admits that he divorced her to protect their daughter from Allison's powers. When we actually see him, he has a look of quiet Papa Wolf anger and horror upon witnessing Allison use her powers on their daughter to force her to go to bed. Then he walks away, as a Heel Realization Allison tries to say I Can Explain. His screen time confirms that he loves Claire and truly wants to protect her.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Luther wasn't particularly well-liked in Season 1, largely due to him being the sibling most in thrall to his abusive father, his poor treatment of Viktor, twice assaulting Klaus in a drunken rage when the latter was trying to comfort him, behaving as an inept and self-important leader and his incestuous relationship with Allison. He undergoes a massive character arc in Season 2, giving a heartfelt apology for his treatment of Viktor, becoming done with defending their father early on in the season, acknowledges how he overestimated his own importance, and learns to get over Allison once she gets remarried. He also gets some genuinely hilarious scenes. The turn around the fans had was massive. Season 3 continued in this direction, where his awkward earnestness is emphasized, he continues to showcase that he's learned his lesson from Season 1, and he gets some truly heartwarming scenes with his siblings.
Romantic Plot Tumor: The season 1 relationship between Allison and Luther is rather disliked due to the Not Blood Siblings aspect and is often regarded as the weakest part of the series. The series acknowledges this, largely scrapping the plot in season 2, and then in season 3 Ship Sinking it with a very dark Near-Rape Experience. In an interview, Tom Hopper said:
Tom Hopper: The fact that they went through that—in a way does kind of bring closure to it, because I think it says... that it shouldn't really be, y'know? It's not right. And it felt wrong as it happened—on multiple levels. That's not really what they both want. It's like a weird sort of security blanket they have, which comes out in a weird, abusive manner, from both sides.
Ron the Death Eater: Luther received this a lot due to locking Viktor away in an attempt to stop him from causing the apocalypse. This is despite the fact that he clearly isn't enjoying having to do this and did that in a desperate attempt to save everyone else and he still loves Viktor regardless, and is is chewed out to hell and back by his family for it. His sense of self-importance is also exaggerated in fandom, despite the fact that he went through the same abuse as the rest of the siblings and losing four years of your life to a worthless mission is certainly worth getting upset over.
Rooting for the Empire:
- While Harold is the one to cause the apocalypse, thanks to his move to awaken Viktor's repressed powers (which is considered extremely stupid considering it leads directly to his death and the apocalypse), some fans are known to have been rooting for him after they learned how Reginald humiliated him for wanting to be special and trying to run away from home.
- As Misaimed Fandom above describes, Viktor's rampage that destroys the Umbrella Academy was intended to be seen as horrifying. Instead, Too Bleak, Stopped Caring describes below, many if not most fans sided with Viktor in his rampage throughout the house, seeing them as a broken person who's rightfully lashing at those who hurt them. Not helping matters at all is that the protagonists having the chance to calm them down but instead making things worse. TWICE.

S-W

Signature Scene: Viktor, Allison, Luther, Diego and Klaus dancing in various different rooms of the house to the sound of "I Think We're Alone Now".
Signature Song: Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now", which is used on the most well known scene of the show. To a lesser degree, "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants, as it was the first, most notable example of the show's tendency to put cheerful or seemingly-unfitting songs over fight scenes.
Special Effects Failure:
- Luther's rubber muscles visibly crinkle around his neck in a few shots. When people paw at his muscles, they're visibly softer than actual muscle would be. Also, when Allison clutches at his sleeve outside of Viktor's cell, her hands sink into the sleeve, revealing that it's primarily empty, and it makes the line of the shoulderpad visible. There's also the fact that we only ever see his bare torso. In the comics, he has the entire body of a gorilla. Here, his bare legs and feet are never shown but they're shaped like a human's, leaving it ambiguous how far the mutation goes. This one is at least understandable production-wise, since it's the difference between a prosthetic torso and having to render his entire body in CGI. Season 2 made massive improvements to the suit, in both avoiding visible lines and making it easier for the actor to move, but his shirts, now tailored to his body, still give it away a bit by bending and puffing in unrealistic places.
- The characters' tattoos — especially Klaus's arm piece he got in Vietnam — all look freshly painted on, whereas real tattoos lightly fade into the skin once fully healed.
- Klaus' longer hair at the beginning of Season 2 is very obviously extensions before he cuts it. It's made even more obvious because of the extension's being straight with Robert Sheehan's naturally curly hair piled on top of it. Weirdly enough, Klaus' hair seems like it's supposed to be natural straight and goes back to being straight after it gets cut.
- For whatever reason, they dubbed Robert Sheehan's voice over his younger self in a flashback at the ending of Season 2. It is incredibly jarring, especially considering they didn't do this for any of the other younger selves. It's also easy to see that the young actor is lip syncing.
- During the first episode of Season 3, and the first few minutes of the second, a post-transition Elliot Page wears a wig as pre-transition Viktor. The problem is, it's too dark to be considered natural and doesn't seem to match well with Page's post-transition head features.
Strangled by the Red String: While their romance is one of the highlights of Season 3, many fans find Luther and Sloane's romance too rushed. The two have love at first sight, after exchanging a few words they have sex the next day and after just a few days they already organize a wedding and get married. Even for a fictional series like this, the development of the couple was considered too unrealistic and melodramatic.
Strawman Has a Point: It was a front to hide that he was rummaging through Viktor's apartment to steal his meds, but Harold has a point when he calls out Allison for the fact that Viktor showed up injured and on his doorstep, asking for help. If it were anyone else making the point, they may have misconstrued it as Viktor caught in a Domestic Abuse situation with his family.
Take That, Scrappy!
- Fans who dislike Viktor for, among other things, being Unintentionally Unsympathetic throughout Season 1, nearly killing his siblings and causing the world to end twice, took a perverse glee when Allison gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech telling him it's a danger and only causes trouble for everyone around him, listing all the mistakes for which he had not received any punishment.
- Although it's supposed to be a depressing moment, after being a Karma Houdini throughout Season 3 and the subsequent revelation that she's also The Dragon to Reginald, it's hard not to find satisfaction in seeing Allison break down in tears alone in the corridors of the Hotel Obsidian.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Eudora Patch. A no-nonsense, by-the-book but good-natured detective that serves as Foil to Diego and his views on justice and heroism. Many fans were disappointed that she died by the end of episode 04 and only served as motivation for Diego to get involved in the main plot. It gets worse in S2, where she's not even mentioned and Diego gets a romantic plot with Lila.
- Carmichael. Comic books fans were ecstatic after seeing him in the official trailer as seemingly the new Big Bad only to be revealed that he's just a minor character in the show and the Handler once again the main villain.
- Many die-hard Klaus fans felt this way about him in Season 2. A lot of people were anticipating for growth in Klaus's powers, possibly gaining his comic book abilities. His powers were largely pushed to aside in favor of Ben's possession, possible PTSD from fighting in a war was largely forgotten, and fails to have any Big Damn Hero moments. In addition, his growth over the course of Season 1 (where he started facing his demons because he finally started caring about someone) is almost retconned, with him being more narcissistic and meaner than he ever was in Season 1.
- The Sparrow Academy. They were teased in the end of Season 2 and throughout the wait between seasons as major antagonistic forces, have interesting designs that hint at a deeper backstory^note and are generally cool characters thanks to their actors' portrayals, but aside from Ben and Sloane, they're barely characterized, their relationships between each other are very simple and not explored, and most of them unceremoniously die over the course of Season 3 without really exploring the two academies' connections.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Some fans have complained about Klaus and Viktor’s lack of interaction during the first season. The only indication of a relationship is when Klaus gets mad about Viktor being locked up, which everyone was. Fans who draw similarities between them — of which there are a lot, considering their queerness, lack of respect from their other siblings, confinement as children, and suppression of their powers via drugs, as well as a shared telekinetic ability in the comics — have found this lack of conversation frustrating.
- In the opening of Season 2, we see all the siblings (minus Five) fighting against USSR soldiers at their full potential. You would think that we would see them developing their abilities throughout the season, right? Unfortunately, only Viktor and Diego display these abilities during the final fight in the season finale.
- While their romance was never a favorite aspect of the series, even in the Season 2 finale it was shown that Luther still had feelings for Allison despite the fact that she was engaged to another man. However Luther's feelings for Allison are quickly forgotten after he meets Sloane at the start of Season 3 and we never see Luther reflect on his previous crush on Allison.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Despite Season 1 having a comedic slant, some audience members feel this. Most of the cast is dysfunctional, or plotting murder, and Reginald Hargreeves was so emotionally abusive that it wasn't funny. The most sympathetic character, Grace and Pogo, are revealed to be pawns in Reginald's schemes and complicit in his abuse of the children. Grace at least had the excuse that she was a robot, but Pogo solemnly observes and only reveals truths when it's too late to fix the wrongs. By the time the season finale begins, you're basically cheering for Viktor as Luther sets his powers off, causing the apocalypse.
- Luckily, this is averted in Season 2.
- Possibly played straight, however, in season 3, where on the one side, in the face of Oblivion, a good portion of the cast are content to give up and accept the end of the universe, despite this being their fault and their responsibility to fix it. The other half, meanwhile, want to save the universe, but for purely selfish reasons, and abuse and mistreat the others over this, which further convinces them not to help out of spite. Allison, previously one of the most moral members of the family, falls down the slippery slope and becomes one of the cruelest characters on the show.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
- Luther is supposed to be sympathetic in the reasoning for his various actions throughout Season 1, but some fans find his stubbornness unsympathetic and his reasoning flawed. While spending years of your life completely alone for absolutely no reason is a pretty horrible thing, these fans tend to sour on him in "The Day that Was", especially considering that he came off a lot better in the last episode (before the timeline changed). In this episode, a drunk and emotionally unstable Luther briefly chokes Klaus and is later too high and drunk to notice when Klaus dies and is soon resurrected. In the penultimate episode, he also locks Viktor up. It doesn't help that Five has him outclassed with his 40 years spent alone, and he doesn't share some of Luther's worst traits. Thankfully this gets turned around for seasons 2 and with Luther easily becoming of the most sympathetic and likeable siblings.
- Allison is trying to be a Cool Big Sis to Viktor after they haven't talked for ten years and is worried when he takes up with a suspicious man. However, some fans find it difficult to sympathize with her following the reveal that she Rumored her daughter, who was two, for having normal childhood tantrums. For a time, it seems she blamed others for the problems this caused rather than taking responsibility. She also lashed out at Viktor following an argument with her ex-husband over the fact she missed a mandatory therapy session to attend their father’s funeral, although she apologizes later. It's also grating that her attempts to build connections with Viktor often come across as simply yelling "I'm your sister!" over and over rather than showing any real sign of understanding or commonality. Blindly relying on sisterhood rings especially hollow given her distinctly non-sisterly relationship with Luther.
- Despite his widespread popularity, some fans argue that Viktor's focus on his childhood exclusion makes him come across as whiny and self-absorbed, considering he brings it up at several highly inappropriate moments and becomes passive aggressive when his siblings try to reason with him. He shows no remorse for writing a book that put his siblings' personal demons on full display and most likely did heavy damage to their reputations. His constant cutting remarks toward Allison also make him seem like a bit of a bully, as Allison is, at that point, the only sibling actively trying to befriend him and treat him like part of the family. Also, his nearly killing Allison is regarded by some fans as unforgivable.
- Ben towards Klaus at times. While it is fair that he be fed up with Klaus at this point, his frustrations sometimes come up at inappropriate times, such as him telling Klaus that 'the real torture' was watching him throw his life away when his brother is actually being tortured. And while he does have a point about Klaus trying to talk to Dave, he never seems to sympathize after it ends in Klaus getting punched by the love of his life out of homophobia and it only annoyed by Klaus' coping mechanism, which was breaking sobriety. Then there's Ben breaking the rules Klaus set for when he's possessed, which has... implications.
- Allison during season 3. She's far from the only character through the series to lose a loved one, yet she spends all of season 3 blaming other people for her loss and acts violently psychotic without comeuppance or acknowledgment of any kind. Among other things, she sexually assaults Luther with her mind-control power, she murders an innocent disabled man purely out of vengeance, and then she gloats to Viktor (whom was a surrogate parental-figure of sorts to the victim) about it whilst torturing him in front of their family. No one in the family seems to catch on to her murderous, psychopathic behaviour, and in fact they give Viktor more grief over the above events via everyone being upset about him trying to save Harlan's life, Five threatening to kill Viktor if he gets out of line, and even Luther pushing Viktor to try to make up with Allison. She appears to get everything she wants by the end, with no acknowledgment of the fact that she's a self-admitted remorseless murderer, sexual assaulter, and would-be rapist.
- Some found Lila to be this in Season 3 after the revelation that Stanley isn't actually her and Diego's kid but just the son of a friend whom she took from his own time and dumped onto Diego before running away. While it was according to her a Secret Test of Character, since she is actually pregnant with Diego's child, some still found Lila's behavior cruel and irresponsibly insane since she's essentially still abandoning a child with someone who is a stranger to him. Viewers felt Lila should already know, having got to know and love Diego that he would be a good father and while she may have been raised to be sociopathic by The Hander, that Freudian Excuse for her actions wears thin when it's shown she is capable making good choices and not acting like an overgrown child. Worse still, Stanley gets killed by Kugelblitz which never would've of happened in the first place if she didn't orchestrate this cruel scheme of fooling Diego into thinking he had a son and while Lila does regret it and get rightfully chewed out by Diego, she's still ultimately Easily Forgiven by him due to being his baby mama.
Unpopular Popular Character:
- Klaus, who to his siblings is a nuisance who can’t take things seriously at worst and an Annoying Younger Sibling at best, is essentially worshiped by the fans, declaring he be deserving of all the hugs. God knows how many Klaus fanfics there are.
- Viktor, who has earned the ire of his siblings with an autobiography spilling their most painful secrets, painting himself as the constant victim of their cruelty, and casting them as the villains of his story, has quite a sizable and vocal fanbase, some of whom go out of their way to absolve him of all responsibility for his more harmful and self-centered actions.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Pogo is very convincing as an enhanced chimpanzee that speaks and wears human clothing. While similar effects have been seen before in the likes of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it is impressive for a TV series production. Helps that the same company who did said film were also involved in this show.
Wangst:
- While Viktor is still a tragic character and was mind-raped as a child thanks to Allison not realizing what she was doing, a portion of the fanbase see that some of his Angst concerning his childhood and siblings are quite querulous and that while he's a victim, he fails to realize that his siblings are equally victims of their father.
- Allison:
  - Before her Character Development, Allison has moments of this about Patrick not letting her see her daughter. She's angry about it, even though Patrick from what we hear has Claire's best interests at heart, and blames him and the courts for not understanding she had a family emergency and couldn't meet her mandatory counseling. Considering she was Rumoring her daughter, who was two, Allison caused her own problems on this one. It does get better, however, when she asks Luther to tell Claire "Your mother loves you" before they go to stop Viktor.
  - In season 3, Allison falls back into this. While there's no question she suffered, having spent a year experiencing Jim Crow-era Texas as a black woman, having to say goodbye to her husband, and finding out that the timeline changes erased her daughter from existence, it's hard to tolerate her bitterness when contrasted by how much the others have also suffered, particularly when she starts taking it out on them. Her attempting to rape Luther and her treatment of Viktor, never mind what she does to Harlan, definitely make it difficult to see her angst as anything but selfish.

YMMV / The Umbrella Academy (2019)

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