#TUAspoilers ahead!! I've been a fan of #TheUmbrellaAcademy since 2019, and the last two episodes of Season 4 spit in the face of both real-world and in-universe narratives. Let me explain (yes this will be a long thread, 1/?):
The worst thing about #TUA s1 is the Allison/Luther romance. No hemming and hawing can change the fact that it's objectively inc*st. I felt that s2 and s3 (to an extent) made an effort to move away from that โ which I liked. But, s4 decided that healthy relationships (2/?)
were for losers, abandoning Sloane, having Ray leave Allison, and, worst of all, the Five/Lila arc (put a pin in that, we'll get to it later). On top of this, aside from one (1) line alluding to it, Allison s*xually assa*lting Luther is not addressed at all. (3/?)
Personally, I cannot forgive Allison as a character for that, and every single bad*ss moment or heartfelt scene with Claire was so unbelievably clouded by her actions in s3. Actions that were never addressed. Remember how I said there's 1 line addressing it? It's a line (4/?)
Insinuating that Luther is really traumatized by it (understandably so). But then, boom. This heinous thing was brushed under the rug like it never happened. Now, let's go back to Lila/Five. Putting aside the fact that neither character would betray Diego like that, (5/?)
No matter what way you look at it, the age difference is icky. Physically, five is probably half Lila's age. Mentally, five is probably double Lila's age. There is no version of this that feels morally OK to me. When I was watching *that scene,* I couldn't help but think (6/?)
About the fact that those two actors โ actors with a significant age difference โ had to film that scene. I am in no way blaming the actors, I feel so bad that they were instructed to do that. So, when we finally seemed to shed the inc*st (though without addressing the SA) (7/?)
The vacancy is immediately filled by an affair between someone who is 2x older than the other, no matter how you look at it. And that's not all! I understand that Klaus is inherently a tragic character, but did they need to add pr*stitution (which he clearly said no to) (8/?)
To that evergrowing list of trauma. This is ESPECIALLY upsetting given there was just one, single moment referencing Dave โ Y'know, Klaus's (relatively) healthy relationship? Oh! And add to all of this that SLOANE IS JUST GONE. Luther finds happiness, it's taken away, (9/?)
And he isn't given a chance to properly work through the trauma of HIS SISTER SA-ing HIM. I never ever thought I'd end #UmbrellaAcademy with Luther as my 2nd favorite character (s1+s2 Ben they can never make me hate you), but here we are. (10/?)
I have more to say (but that's for a different thread), and to be honest, I didn't hate all of #UmbrellaAcademyS4. But the show had distanced itself from s1's positive depictions of inc*st, only to ignore the SA involved later on, and to end focusing on a relationship (11/?)
With such a massive age difference (not to mention destroying Diego/Lila's relationship arc in the process) is just upsetting. I love The Umbrella Academy โ even post-s4, I still love it. But I also am so disappointed by how it chose to end its story. (12/12, end of ๐งต)