History YMMV / TheUmbrellaAcademy2019

** Viktor's hair at the early season 3, before coming out, is clearly a wig because it's too dark to be considered natural and doesn't seem to match well with Creator/ElliotPage 's head features post-transition.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Allison:
*** She is either a nurturing CoolBigSis who is learning from her mistakes or a judgmental AlphaBitch and a spoiled brat who thinks she’s better than her siblings. Even in-universe, Viktor during a FreakOut accuses her of [[spoiler:ruining his life by Rumoring him into forgetting his powers under their father's orders. Allison tries to explain she was only four and didn't know any better, but Viktor retorts that Allison was afraid of what he could do, as he has memories of causing mayhem with his powers and lacking control. It is strange that afterward Allison doesn't blame Viktor for slitting her throat, so perhaps Allison ''was'' scared as a kid and repressed the memory out of guilt]].
*** As of season 3, Allison's TookALevelInJerkass behavior. It's undeniable she has become a ''horrible'' person, but is she just lashing out after all the pain she's gone through in the last year, or is this the "real" Allison who has given up pretending to be nice because of how little reward it's given her? Allison's powers have always been shown to affect her ability to empathize with others and induce an ItsAllAboutMe mindset, and per the backstory, she had abused her first husband and child with her powers and only seemed like a good person because of her HeelRealization and attempt to atone. However, with how she's acting now, it calls into attention if her previous NiceGirl behaviour was genuine and she really understood/recognised the harm she'd caused, or had she merely been behaving because she knew that was what she needed to do in order to have a relationship with Claire.
** Is Pogo a caring fatherly figure, which the family is in desperate need of, and couldn’t be blamed for Reginald’s abuse as he was pretty much stuck in a terrible situation, since, well, he’s a talking chimp and what could he do? Or does he deserve flak for not only doing nothing to stop the children’s abuse, but also saying Reginald Hargreeves was a “good man”? [[TakeAThirdOption Or is it possible to hold him accountable for the wrongs he committed against the children while also acknowledging he was in a difficult position, being close to and manipulated by Sir Reginald himself?]] It says something that his last act was to [[spoiler:buy time for the other siblings to escape by telling Viktor that his father had his reasons for medicating him. Absolutely the wrong thing to say at the time because Viktor kills him, but may have also been on purpose so he wouldn't hurt the others and direct blame away from his siblings]].
*** This gets even more complicated in Season 3, when [[spoiler:Pogo from the alternate timeline stands up to Reginald [[EveryoneHasStandards over his treatment of the Sparrows]] and walks away altogether, but not before giving the Sparrows a way to keep Reginald in check]]. Does this imply that Pogo [[spoiler:from the original timeline]] had it in him all along, could have of truly made a difference, and was therefore a willing accomplice after all? Or does [[spoiler:alternate]] Pogo have more of a spine [[spoiler:as a consequence of [[ForWantOfANail Grace walking away from Reginald and taking young Pogo with her]], which is a consequence of Diego time-travelling to the 1960s]]?
** Viktor:
*** Some corners of the fandom see Viktor as a blameless victim of an abusive father and uncaring siblings who only ever wanted love and affection, only attacked when pushed too far, and [[spoiler:would not have gone on a rampage if Luther hadn't locked him up]]. However, others point out that he [[spoiler:committed two brutal acts of violence well before Luther even knew he had powers]]. There is also some debate over his book: Do his siblings hate it for being a [[BrutalHonesty brutally honest]] look at the deplorable way they treated Viktor, or do they hate it because Viktor is an UnreliableNarrator and portrayed them in a way that was neither fair nor accurate?
*** Also there's the issue of [[spoiler:child-Viktor killing his nannies. Was it a red flag of similar behavior as an adult, or a case of him being ObliviouslyEvil since Reginald treated the deaths more like temper tantrums? We don't know if Reginald ever talked to Viktor about what murder was since it's highly possible he tried and Viktor was too powerful to listen]].
*** What set [[spoiler:Viktor off in the first timeline? Was it just Harold, since he was manipulating him to turn against his siblings? Withdrawal from his meds and rage about learning the truth? Or is he perpetually doomed to end the world, no matter who or what sets it off as the Handler says? Luther only locked up Viktor in the current timeline because he very nearly killed Allison, but he didn't seem to be locked up in the first timeline. How did he become angry enough to murder his siblings]]? There are many options, since Viktor is seen flying off the handle when he believes his siblings have excluded him; whether it was a large trigger or a small one blown out of proportion remains to be seen.
*** Also, consider Viktor's flashbacks/hallucinations during his [[spoiler: rampage down the hallway.]] Ben is politely reminding him that he needs to have a power in order to go on missions, and it's obvious that he opened Diego's and Allison's bedroom doors without knocking, which of course would frustrate most people.
*** There is also the question of [[spoiler:whether Viktor, as the White Violin, actually '''intended''' to cause the apocalypse. In the timeline we do see, his accumulated energy is unleashed at the moon seemingly by accident when Allison fires a gun right next to his head and stuns him. Was this the intended result, or was Viktor initially gathering power simply to prove his overwhelming superiority to his brothers and sister? If it's the latter, was he doomed to cause an apocalypse regardless, due to overestimating the amount of energy he could safely control?]]
** Is Diego a good, kind man with a deep caring side (shown by his love for Grace, Eudora, Lila, Stan [[spoiler:and his and Lila's unborn child]]) who's right to get on Luther's case and tries to be a good leader? Or does he just pick fights with Luther and hit his emotional sore spots out of misdirected blame for how Reginald pitted the two against each other? These of course aren't mutually exclusive truths.
** Does God hate Klaus personally or does she hate his power's unnatural link to death? Which could possibly be breaking some universal laws. In Season 2 when we see Klaus kept Ben from heaven as a teen this point makes more sense.
** There is much debate as to whether Luther was just too brainwashed to see things clearly but does love his siblings and wants to save the world, or a straight up awful man who ONLY cares about himself, their [[AbusiveParents abusive father]], and Allison, and also outright causes Viktor to go off the deep end and end the world. Some fans, however, point to the BadFuture in which Luther is apparently ambushed and killed by Viktor prior to the apocalypse as evidence that, while Luther did have a hand in him snapping in one timeline, Viktor is ultimately responsible for his own actions.
** Grace's decision to [[spoiler:stay in the mansion when Viktor brings it down. Her programming kicking in since she was built to withstand Viktor's tantrums as a child and was ordered to never leave the mansion? A case of IWillOnlySlowYouDown since she's made to be a housewife and not for sprinting out of self-preservation? Or FaceDeathWithDignity as atonement for her complicity in Viktor's abuse]]?
** Reginald:
*** While NO ONE claims that Reginald Hargreeves wasn’t a horrible parent, and [[GreaterScopeVillain the root of most of the conflicts in this series]], was he a ManipulativeBastard who didn’t care about his children at all, or did he care for his children, but have horrendous communication skills, and prioritized the apocalypse over them? There were a few [[PetTheDog Pet the Dog]] that could prove the latter, and the flashback in episode ten shows he is at least capable of love. [[spoiler:Him originating from some sort of mysterious future or alien world also raises a lot of questions as to his motives for being a SinkOrSwimMentor.]]
*** Season 2 either clarifies things or muddles the issue even further, depending on your perspective, with the revelation that [[spoiler:he's [[HughMann an alien pretending to be human]]]], which may indicate less that that he [[LackOfEmpathy cares nothing for other people's emotions]] and more that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality he might literally be incapable of understanding them.]]
*** On a further note, regarding Sir Reginald's decision to [[spoiler:[[KickTheSonOfABitch murder all the other members of Majestic 12]]]]: Was he [[HeKnowsTooMuch tying up loose ends]] that he [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness didn't need any more]] and because they knew [[spoiler:he was an alien?]] Or was he genuinely angered that [[spoiler:they assassinated JFK]] and punishing them appropriately?
** [[spoiler:Did Sparrow Ben and Klaus have a drunken hook-up after Luther and Sloane's wedding? They were last seen being remarkably affectionate with each other that night, they wake up next to each other mostly naked, and Klaus says Ben "opened [his] kimono" to him. When Five later speaks to Luther about the events of that night and remarks that everyone was hooking up, Luther confusedly asks if Ben slept with someone. And then there's a brief shot of Klaus and Ben riding down an elevator together ... with Klaus's arm around Ben, which Ben shakes off before anyone can see.]]

** "Fastest He in the West" An extremely wholesome meme in that when Elliott Page came out, his name and pronouns were change in the credits almost immediately and the fandom at large made the change just as quickly. This line was mentioned repeatedly by fans when pointing out all of the sites and wikis that corrected Elliott's name within the day.

** Is Pogo a caring fatherly figure, which the family is in desperate need of, and couldn’t be blamed for Reginald’s abuse as he was pretty much stuck in a terrible situation, since, well, he’s a talking chimp and what could he do? Or does he deserve flak for not only doing nothing to stop the children’s abuse, but also saying Reginald Hargreeves was a “good man”? [[TakeAThirdOption Or is it possible to hold him accountable for the wrongs he committed against the children while also acknowledging he was in a difficult position, being close to and manipulated by Sir Reginald himself?]] It says something that his last act was to [[spoiler:buy time for the other siblings to escape by telling Viktor that her father had his reasons for medicating him. Absolutely the wrong thing to say at the time because he kills him, but may have also been on purpose so he wouldn't hurt the others and direct blame away from his siblings]].

** There is much debate as to whether Luther was just too brainwashed to see things clearly but does love his siblings and wants to save the world, or a straight up awful man who ONLY cares about himself, their [[AbusiveParents abusive father]], and Allison, and also outright causes Viktor to go off the deep end and end the world. Some fans, however, point to the BadFuture in which Luther is apparently ambushed and killed by Viktor prior to the apocalypse as evidence that, while Luther did have a hand in her snapping in one timeline, Viktor is ultimately responsible for his own actions.

** 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 [[TrappedInThePast 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", [[FreezeFrameBonus 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 [[spoiler: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 her reasoning for causing the apocalypse back then was justified upon learning about it.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: 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 [[spoiler: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, [[spoiler: you're basically cheering for Viktor as Luther sets her powers off, causing the apocalypse.]]

** With TheReveal that [[spoiler: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]]He was the same age as the Umbrella kids and Five was still around.[[/note]] Which, in a lot of countries[[note]]Other than the US, which is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_infancy the only country in the world]] that doesn't have a minimum age of criminal responsibility for all crimes and in all states, and a rather low age (11) for federal crimes. He'd also be convicted in the UK, Australia, Canada, and maybe in France, but not in most of the rest of Europe.[[/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 FreudianExcuse for his [[spoiler: sociopathy]] in adulthood.[[note]]In the real world, antisocial personality disorder is often caused by severe abuse during the development window at the beginning of puberty, when the kid should develop a sense of empathy and remorse. Or at least, it's kind of telling that violent criminals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder in prison always turn out to have a history of childhood abuse. And about 20 years after the scandinavian countries outlawed all violence against children -- even parental beatings for so-called 'discipline' -- they found that their rates of violent crime committed by young adults dropped considerably. Of course that doesn't mean that abuse victims automatically become abusers -- it's just a small percentage that do. But there really seems to be some truth to the old idea of a 'cycle of violence'.[[/note]]

** Diego beating the tar out of [[spoiler:Hazel, a hitman who only recently underwent a HeelFaceTurn. 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 [[spoiler:Diego later beats Cha-Cha to a pulp and only doesn't kill her out of respect to Patch's memory]].

** 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 [[BirdsOfAFeather equally Adorkable Sloane]], with whom he pops his cherry and is endearingly upbeat after.

*** As of season 3, Allison's TookALevelInJerkass behaviour. It's undeniable she has became a ''horrible'' person, but is she just lashing out after all the pain she's gone through in the last year, or is this the "real" Allison who has given up pretending to be nice because of how little reward it's given her? Allison's powers have always been shown to affect her ability to empathise with others and induce an ItsAllAboutMe mindset, and per the backstory she had abused her first husband and child with her powers and only seemed like a good person because of her HeelRealization and attempt to atone. However, with how she's acting now, it calls into attention if her previous NiceGirl behaviour was genuine and she really understood/recognised the harm she'd caused, or had she merely been behaving because she knew that was what she needed to do in order to have a relationship with Claire.

** Fans who dislike Viktor for, among other things, being UnintentionallyUnsympathetic throughout Season 1, nearly killing his brothers, and causing the world to end twice, took a perverse glee when Allison gives him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech telling him it's a danger and only causes trouble for everyone around him.

** Fans who dislike Viktor for, among other things, being UnintentionallyUnsympathetic throughout Season 1, nearly killing his brothers, and causing the world to end twice, took a perverse glee when Allison gives him a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech saying all the horrible things and trouble he's caused without getting punished for it.

** Diego beating the tar out of [[spoiler:Hazel, a hitman who only recently underwent a HeelFaceTurn. 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 [[spoiler:Diego later beats Cha-Cha to a pulp and only doesn't kill her out of respect to Patch's memory]].

** Although it's supposed to be a depressing moment, [[spoiler:after being a KarmaHoudini throughout Season 3 and the subsequent revelation that she's also TheDragon to Reginald, it's hard not to find satisfaction in seeing Allison break down in tears alone in the corridors of the Hotel Obsidian.]]

* AcceptableTargets: Racists and bigots. In Season 2, while trapped in the past, we see the racism and bigotry from the POV of Black and queer people, and it's not pretty. In Season 3, this is even invoked, where Diego, seeing Allison is hurting and angry, takes her to a bar frequented by Neo-Nazis, ostensibly because they're people who the two could beat the crap out of to vent their anger without feeling any guilt about hurting (that said, the ambient music is bizarrely ominous instead of more action-y or dramatic, implying unprovoked violence is going off the deep end).

* NauseaFuel: When Luther's [[spoiler: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.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: 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, 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.

** Some found Lila to be this in Season 3 [[spoiler: 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 SecretTestOfCharacter, 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 of been raised to be sociopathic by The Hander, that FreudianExcuse 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 EasilyForgiven by him due to being his baby mama.]]

-->'''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 want 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.

** 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, [[MasterOfIllusion Jayme]] uses her SuperSpit on Diego and when it looks like they are going to fight each other, Marcus starts dancing with the titular theme song of ''Film/{{Footloose}}'' playing, and after the Umbrella Academy gives him brief confused looks, the two groups does a huge DanceOff, only to reveal that the entire thing was just Diego hallucinating before the two academies fight each other for real. Diego doesn't bring it up, and Jayme doesn't even use it as an distraction to fight him.

** Viktor's hair at the early season 3, before coming out, is clearly a wig because it's too dark to be considered natural and doesn't seem to match well with Creator/ElliotPage 's new head features.

** 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.

** 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 and less with Klaus.

* IdiotPlot: Season 1 features a DysfunctionalFamily trying to stop the apocalypse and reconcile. [[spoiler:They fail because one of them ''causes'' the apocalypse after going off the deep end, and everyone else's actions unwittingly convince them to go down that path]]. The villains trying to foil them in the meantime are unnecessarily destructive and are [[spoiler:called out by their Superior for being so inefficient. Hazel's the only sensible one at the end who realizes the Handler means to leave them to die, kills her and his partner before they can retaliate, and time-travels to save himself and the woman he loves]].

-->'''Tom Hopper:''' The fact that they went through that, y'know, in a way does kind of bring closure to it, because I think it sort of says that it shouldn't really be, y'know, it's not right. And it felt wrong as it happened, on multiple levels. But that's not really want they both want. It's something that's like a weird sort of security blanket they have which comes out in a weird abusive manner.

* RomanticPlotTumor: The season 1 relationship between Allison and Luther is rather disliked due to the NotBloodSiblings 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 ShipSinking it with a very dark NearRapeExperience.
-->'''[[https://decider.com/2022/06/26/umbrella-academy-season-3-episode-5-tom-hopper-emmy-raver-lampman-interview/ Tom Hopper interview]]:''' The fact that they went through that, y'know, in a way does kind of bring closure to it, because I think it sort of says that it shouldn't really be, y'know, it's not right. And it felt wrong as it happened, on multiple levels. But that's not really want they both want. It's something that's like a weird sort of security blanket they have which comes out in a weird abusive manner.

-->'''[[https://decider.com/2022/06/26/umbrella-academy-season-3-episode-5-tom-hopper-emmy-raver-lampman-interview/ Tom Hopper interview]]:''' The fact that they went through that, y'know, in a way does kind of bring closure to it [their relationship], because I think it sort of says that it shouldn't really be, y'know, it's not right. And it felt wrong as it happened, on multiple levels. But that's not really want they both want. It's something that's like a weird sort of security blanket they have which comes out in a weird abusive manner.

* RomanticPlotTumor: The relationship between Allison and Luther is rather disliked due to the NotBloodSiblings aspect and is often regarded as the weakest part of the series itself. The series acknowledges this after largely scrapping the plot in Season 2.
--> Viktor: Aren't we all brothers and sisters?
--> Allison: Well, technically--
--> Klaus: "Technically?" If you have to use the word technically, you're already in trouble.