Iâm sure weâve all seen by now Steve Blackmanâs reasoning for Five/Lila stating:
âI felt that Five had to have a love story.â
And how it shows how this man somehow has such a deep fundamental misunderstanding about his own characters. How he helped create the first three seasons of this show and doesnât realize that
This is Fiveâs love story.
Umbrella Academy the show wouldnât exist without Fiveâs love. The whole plot and story is it.
He is the catalyst of all the plot lines while his family is the center of all the story beats. His love is the instigator for all the events of the show simply because he chooses to do everything possible in the hope that it will save his loves.
Itâs not like this was even a subtle idea because Five literally states it himself multiple times over the series!
I just donât understand how you can get it so wrong.
He creates the Commission in hopes of regulating the timeline so his family wonât get obliterated from existence, tattooing himself with the potential solution to rewriting the universe so they can all live happily one day.
He survives the apocalypse all on his own, when there was no real reason to, just because he believed he could get back to his family, spending 50+ years developing the math to one day do so.
He joins the Commission and murders and maims and manipulates in the desperate attempt that he might have a chance to go back and see/save his family.
He spends the first time he sees his family after over six decades not with them, but rather searching for a way to stop their deaths, sending them all through time when it doesnât work.
He runs himself ragged stopping apocalypse after apocalypse just for them.
And when he loses all hope, accepting the kugelblitz, he is content to know he is doing so with his family.
As much as this show is about the whole family, ultimately, imo, this is Fiveâs story about his grueling quest to save the family he loves.
Because otherwise this show wouldnât exist without him and the rest of the characters would just be decorations in the rubble of a world long gone.
So to say bro needed a love storyâ he doesn't say romance, but love storyâ is so durna, like what??? I guess if you really wanted him to have a romance you could do that, but there were many better options than the wife of someone he deeply loves, something he would never do.
(Not to mention all the real world implications of the romance with the actors, production really was waiting for him to be legal ಠ_ಠ)
Also I donât think itâs a coincidence that many fans view Five somewhere under the aro/ace umbrella (pun intended).
Now, because of this misconstruction the ending of the show also suffers.
Brushing over all the mind boggling things the real ending says about abuse, its victims, and growing from it (which is actually like how did no one look at that and think hmm maybe this isnât right for the story weâve been telling), it also misunderstands love. It tells the audience that love isnât worth it, in a show⌠about love. Not just Fiveâs but Hazel/Agnes, Viktor/Sissy, Allison+Claire, and more. How all your pain and suffering and tribulations for those you love are stupid and useless and cringe.
But yâknow what, Mr. Blackman, I think youâre cringe for that absolute bonkers bananas ending.
And thatâs why having the solution to the series being that Five should have never jumped in the first place would have been the best ending.
Making it so that the only solution to save the whole universe be that Five stay with his family, with those he lovedâ what he had been trying to do for the whole showâ would have been the perfect conclusion to the story. It would show that all he had to do was stay, because thatâs all they ever needed, thatâs all he ever needed.
AND IT WOULD MAKE LOGISTICAL SENSE.
Five and Viktor are well confirmed to have been the closest ever since they were young. And Five (doesnât matter if heâs the now Five who lived through the shows events or the young one who ran off) would most certainly be a supportive figure in Viktorâs life. Heâs smart, for one, and it wouldnât be a stretch for him to figure out what was really going on (especially with his hatred of Reginald) and help Viktor that way. But even if he doesnât, when they grow to adults and Viktor naturally doesnât take his pills or his power starts showing, Fiveâs love and care for his (closest) brother would most certainly help prevent the apocalypse. Especially since if Five and Viktor are close, as they grow older, I feel like the others would grow closer as well, maybe not the same degree, but they would be more willing and supportive of Viktor in the end (I feel like Season 1 shows us how at the end of the day the siblings do care for Viktor, but they were just too late, so this time they wouldnât be).
Through the subway we see the timeline where he jumps still exists, so that should mean there is a way for him not to do that. His jumping (and the siblings he brings along) is what creates the paradoxes and the "need" for the Commission. So by him not jumping, problem solved.
This might come at the cost of the current versions of the characters, but I think if they can make the developmental journeys they did once, I think they can do it again, and have a happy ending.
(Also the Jennifer incident wouldnât happen either bcs of Five or just bcs that plot line was so fluffin stupid, so yay alive Ben)
(And Diego and Luther meet Lila and Sloane respectively cuz they are also part of the marigold brood so they still do exist at the same time, so yay happy couples)
It is somewhat simple, but I think that works as well, especially for a character like Five. He spends so much time looking at all the different equations, trying to find some complex solution to everything, trying permutation after permutation (as evidenced by our and the diner Five's), when it was right in front of him. Idk, I just think it would be nice if he just decided to stay with his siblings instead of running off.
Sure it may not be completely perfect, maybe Ben still does die, or Klaus canât meet Dave again, or characters still find themselves prey to their arrogance but I donât think it needs to be, because real life isnât perfect. But the bonds we make and the love we share makes it so, a major theme the Umbrella Academy isn't unfamiliar with.
And it just makes me so deeply sad that this isnât the ending we got. That this isnât the ending the characters got.
They deserve so much better than Blackman gave them, and itâs a disgrace that he didnât.
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