#vanya meta

[navya04]

where is the lie??😭

#the umbrella academy #umbrella acedmy #vanya hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #netflix #hargreeves siblings #ellen page #tua #tua s2 #reginald hargreeves #tua pogo #tua memes #number five #diego hargreeves #luther hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #tua spoilers #tua fandom #tua netflix #tua meta #tua edit

[mykinkyyandere]

Did Five and Vanya had romantic feelings for each other?

AO3

⚠️ Just a quick warning. I'm new in this fandom and Viktor Hargreeves is confirmed. But all the discussions were already made under the name Vanya and I couldn't find a new one. So I will go with that name and use she/her pronouns but only because I will talk about a pretty past relationship when he was still Vanya. Like, imagine as if I'm writing this in 2019. At least, I feel like this and I feel like I'm too late. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, I hope I'm doing the right thing. If not, I deeply apologise.

— – -

I'm not going to talk about moral appropriateness here. I'm a dark fiction writer, so it doesn't matter whether I approve of the step-sibling relationship or not. Dark contents are different in real life and fiction. I don't support what I write. I said this many times. This is a problem that almost all dark creators experience. We are often accused of supporting toxic behaviors and relationships, but this is extremely wrong. Before accusing someone, we should do research and educate ourselves about it. In real life, I never support a step-sibling relationship and I strongly defend that it seriously damages family trust and privacy. There is no need to talk about the fictional aspect of it, I believe that everyone is free in fiction and we have no right to shame people. Real life and fictional life are different, we need to comprehend the difference. Here, I will talk about my own views on whether such an attraction actually exists.

— – -

I don't think that Five and Vanya's relationship when they were kids was romantic. Aidan is free to share his theory and opinion, but as he said, it was HIS theory. I understand his interpretation of the story and characters. You can find it on this site. A handful of children who were abused during their childhood years and only had the chance to fulfill emotional support from themselves. In a traumatic life like this, the possibility of developing romantic feelings for their step-siblings is realistic.

Almost every person I saw reacted like, "This is disgusting, it can't be!". But we musn't judge, we must be objective. I'm not one to approve of this kind of relationship in real life either, but the traumatic lives of the characters in the series strengthen the possibility of this theory, and I think it's inevitable. Although we don't support it, it's realistic and possible for children trying to survive their traumatic life to develop romantic feelings, as Aidan says. Now I'm going to talk about whether it really exists from my point of view.

Let's start with something I see as a fact. You don't have to accept as canon a theory explained by the actor who plays the character, which goes for any movie or TV show. For me, to be canon, that information has to be confirmed by the creator. Like, the author, etc. For example, an actor said that his character might secretly in love with his teacher. Until this is confirmed, it's only as much a theory as yours or mine. Everyone has the right to believe what they want and make it canon whatever theory they want. The actor sharing his own opinion can make it canon for you, especially if you're a supporter of that idea. You would be so happy and excited to hear that your favorite character's actor shares the same opinion with you, it's canon now! But this romantic relationship has never been confirmed and will likely never be canon. So you're free to believe there was a romantic relationship or there wasn't a romantic relationship.

Often (depending on what kind of person you are) you get your shit together towards someone who seems quiet/fragile/shy. You don't want to offend them, right? For example, I'm a distant person who don't use bad language. People's behavior changes drastically when they're with me. They know I'm not that kinda person they can talk with (If you're a jerk, it's different ofc. That's why I said depending on what kind of person you are.). This isn't just for me, I just gave an example over myself. Whoever you are with, the attitude and distance you take or give probably changes according their/your personality/age. This is no exception for Five and the others.

As far as I understand, Vanya isn't a sarcastic and argumentative character. She's someone who is trying to cope with her trauma by shutting herself down. There was no reason for Five to be mean or angry with her. I don't find the way he "becomes softer" or "let his guard down" with her as romantic. Five is harsh with people who try to argue or challenge him or who have that potential and who don't listen. But Vanya's understanding and listening side gives him no reason for this harshness. Sadly, Vanya's personality alone isn't enough in someone's behavior towards Vanya. How understanding or caring the other person is, is very important. The siblings' own character builds, and their resentment towards Vanya because of her book, greatly influences the way they talk to her and their behavior towards her. Because they went through something, there is something between them. This breaks the effectiveness of Vanya's character build and others may not hesitate to offend her.

But Five met Vanya after decades. He learned everything that happened in between from the book she wrote. He didn't personally experience the anger of the other siblings had towards Vanya because of that book. Probably he would be angry too if he didn't get lost and read that book when he was still with them. When talking to Vanya, remember that he was 58 years old. She wrote that book, yes. But why would he show an angry approach? Everyone's mad at her anyway, the past is past, what happened happened. He read the book all alone, probably remembering them with a kind of longing. I think he didn't need to be angry while reading the book, because he read it with sadness without his family. He missed them. SO, no, I don't think it's romantic that Five compliments her book in his interaction with Vanya. He may even be glad that she wrote the book. It became a resource that he could fill a little bit of his lost years. I mean, taking the book with him everywhere and using it as a notebook isn't because he used to have romantic feelings for Vanya, but because it's a source of his family.

And after he read how bad Vanya felt as a kid, I think he felt the sympathy of a 60-year-old man when he talked with her and his approach to her softened inevitably because of this. After all, Vanya wrote the book, reflecting how she sees others while expressing her own feelings. We know that Five is controlling, ruthless, and rational, but he's a human after all, and he must have been pretty close to Vanya. Vanya described him in her book as her sole confidant. I think for the sake of the old days and probably being the only sibling he could talk to without being annoyed, he controlled his behavior when he was with her.

Vanya told Pogo how she left the lights on and made him a sandwich in case he would come back, but I think it was purely because of her grief over the loss of her maybe the closest sibling. Making sandwiches and leaving the lights on, telling Pogo how much she miss him, doesn't mean she had feelings for him romantically. And she said those things so casually, anyway. I didn't see and get any romantic vibe. Vanya was like that because of her kind personality and her closeness with Five that the other siblings don't have and only she has. We can tell from Vanya's speech, behavior and book that they had close relationships, but I think it's wrong to interpret them as romantic.

If your own brother disappeared, you'd leave the light on for years and make sandwiches for him. Being adoptive doesn't change that. It's normal for 7 step-siblings to act different and not feel equally close to each other. One sibling doesn't care that much, but the other one thinks about him all the time. It's not an excuse to romanticise their closeness. I think it's disrespectful to make a romantic sense of any intimacy just because they're step-siblings.

As I said, it is important to remember that Five is a man nearly 60. He's being soft with her, probably for the sake of the closeness they've shared as siblings in the past. It would be insufficient to rely solely on Vanya's confessions to Pogo and her book to interpret what's between them romantically. I see no "I used to like him" effect in Vanya's behavior. I don't think it's a romantic proof for Vanya to take care of Five's wound. Of course she would be concerned about Five's wound and would like to take care of it. Of course she would say "I don't want to lose you again". Five would of course go to her to talk, of course he would treat her more kindly and perhaps a little more expressively. And all this for the reasons I mentioned above. I don't think there is any romance between them.

I talked about the series. I didn't read the comics yet. But according to my research, there is no romantic relationship in the comics either. Actually, they say they don't really interact at all, she's close to Diego instead.

⚠️ READ HERE

#five #five hargreeves #number five #vanya #vanya hargreeves #hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #the umbrella academy #umbrella academy #five and vanya #number seven #five x vanya #tua #tua meta #the umbrella academy meta #five hargreeves meta #vanya hargreeves meta

[allisoooon]

at what age did klaus turn gay?

Well, first of all, we have no confirmation that he is gay as opposed to some degree of bi. We know he mostly talks about sleeping with guys, but he has also slept with Jill, so he's either gay-with-the-rare-exception, or bi/pan. The line between the two is entirely subjective. I had a friend who identified as a 5 on the Kinsey scale, same as me, but she called herself bi and I called myself gay. Where I'm concerned, it's not totally unheard of for me to be attracted to a man, but it's not a reasonable expectation to have of me. There have been like. One or two men in my entire life who I can say I've been attracted to. So I call myself gay because calling myself bi would give people the wrong expectations. Regarding Klaus, I personally kind of think he doesn't give much of a shit about labels. He's too chaotic to be put in boxes.

Second of all, nobody turns gay. It's not a thing where you're born heterosexual by default, then something goes sideways in puberty. Before puberty, I had crushes on boys and girls both, but that was a time when there wasn't much physical distinction between boys and girls. It took puberty for me to realize something was different because I wasn't boy-crazy like my friends. There was now a difference between boys and girls, and it turned out, I was only attracted to one of those. I'd been gay all along, I just wasn't able to tell until boys became, you know, boy-like. And even then, I spent a good twenty years trying very hard to be straight and badly failing.

tl;dr Klaus did not turn gay/bi/pan. Viktor didn't turn trans, either. It's just part of who they've always been. They can't get out of it. They can't negotiate with it. All they could ever do was come to terms with it. And it sucks, until it doesn't.

#tua meta #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #blargh I need to go back and add a viktor tag to all my previous meta #but it sounds so tedious #this is my hobby #ask answered

[terrainofheartfelt]

Why do you think the writers wrote rufly into the show when Derena was the main couple in season 1? Do you think they had an idea who endgames would be? Clearly they broke rufly up so Derena could get married in Season 6

Yeahhhh, I’ve always kind of suspected that’s one reason they broke Rufus and Lily up ultimately, because they wanted to clear the way for Derena, even though they didn’t necessarily need to? But, they established in s1 that if one couple were to thrive, the other couldn’t—a rule asserted by a teenage girl with parental issues galore but okay—and they seemingly drove this summation home in s2 when rufly and derena were dating simultaneously, but, then, in s4 when they toyed around with serena and dan getting back together for more than half a season, their parents’ marriage didn’t seem to matter anymore? 

It’s hard to pin down a reason because even if the showrunners wanted a derena endgame, which – I’m not as well up on behind-the-scenes stuff as others – seems to be the case, there’s still no consistency in the storytelling. If endgame, why were their most profound romantic connections with other characters???

The more I think on it, inconsistency is the thing. The way that good good slowburn rufly got in the first two seasons percolated, ain’t know way they anticipated breaking them up at the end. S has floated on her blog and to me that the main reason they broke rufly up was to further drive home the Great Retcon and the show’s ending moral that: poor bad, rich good! Because the Rufly relationship, arguably more so than Dair, was about two people from different worlds and backgrounds coming together and building something meaningful that didn’t rely on, or give credence to, the machinations of the UES way of life. Rufly broke up because the thesis of the show changed. To prove that “rich good!” Dan could not be allowed to win over the other characters, and that Chuck had to become the hero. And Chuck couldn’t become the hero without tearing Dan to shreds. And the central pillar of who Dan is as a character is Rufus: representational of his Brooklyn roots, an upbringing not based on consolidating wealth and power and abusing women. So Rufus had to be destroyed too, to prove the new thesis of the show.

#he was banished from the world #dan was only allowed to stay in it because he became it #asks #rufly should have been endgame more than any other couple #except maybe dorota and vanya #anon #gg meta #i started my answer agreeing with you and then I kind of disproved my point? what a journey #i think ultimately it's both #but more the thesis thing than the other #*whispers* it's bad writing

[glorfindel-of-imladris]

The Case of Erestor Half-elven

It’s been a hot minute since my last fandom meta, but this one I accidentally stumbled upon gathering notes for—would you believe it—a Glorfindel meta I intended to write. Man, I’m not even going to question the process, so let’s just get right on to it!

I like to joke around that there are only six instances when Erestor was mentioned in the entire legendarium, and by this I mean in The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion (in which he does not even appear in the latter two). 

But let’s talk about the early draft of him that is often referenced in fandom. If one extends the search, in The Return of Shadow, which details the writing process of what ultimately would be The Fellowship of the Ring, Erestor does get a mention, and is described as follows:

“There were three counsellors of Elrond’s own household: Erestor his kinsman (a man of the same half-elvish folk known as the children of Lúthien), and beside him two elflords of Rivendell.” -- In the House of Elrond, The Return of Shadow 

By the final version of The Lord of the Rings, however, there is no more reference to Erestor as Half-elven. The final published version goes:

"Beside Glorfindel there were several other counsellors of Elrond's household, of whom Erestor was the chief..." -- The Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

By this final version of the story, the Half-elven trait no longer made sense for Erestor, and was replaced instead by him being Elrond's chief counsellor. 

The nature of Half-elves

Tolkien acknowledges three unions of Elves and Men:

“There were three unions of the Eldar and the Edain: Lúthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn. By the last the long-sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored.” –Appendix A, Return of the King

One of the later themes Tolkien came up with surrounding the Half-elven line (which likely did not yet exist at the early stages of the story when he was first forming the fellowship) was how they united and reunited all the houses of the Eldar and the Edain. Beren was a descendant of the three houses of the Edain—the Houses of Bëor, Haleth, and Hador—while Lúthien was the daughter of a Sinda (Teleri) and a Maia. Idril was the daughter of a Ñoldo and a Vanya. Lúthien and Beren had Dior, who then had a daughter, Elwing, who wed Eärendil, the son of Idril and Tuor. Elwing and Eärendil then had Elros and Elrond, and the line was separated for many generations when Elros chose to be counted among Men, and Elrond among Elves. The two lines were reunited with the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen.

One important detail here is that before the “Choice of the Half-elves” that was later gifted to Eärendil, Elwing, and their children, the children born out of an Elf-Man union led lives akin to Men. Dior was able to rule Doriath at age 33, and Eärendil and Elwing married at 22. These, as we know, would have been too young for Elves, given:

“Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in the body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until their fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would afterwards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.” -- Laws and Customs of the Eldar, Morgoth’s Ring

and

“The Eldar wedded for the most part in their youth and soon after their fiftieth year […] Those who would afterwards become wedded might choose one another early in youth, even as children (and indeed this happened often in days of peace); but unless they desired soon to be married and were of fitting age, the betrothal awaited the judgment of the parents of either party.” -- Laws and Customs of the Eldar, Morgoth’s Ring

After the events of the War of the Wrath, Eärendil, Elwing, and their sons Elrond and Elros, for their deeds in the war, were gifted with the choice to be counted either among the Eldar or the Edain. Eärendil, Elwing, and Elrond chose to be counted among Elves, and the choice continued on to Elrond’s children: Arwen, Elladan, and Elrohir. Elros chose to be counted among Men, but in his case, the choice no longer extended to his descendants; every descendant of Elros was mortal. 

The only thing I can conclude for why Elros’ line did not get to choose is because the Gift of Ilúvatar—that is, a death that transcends the world of Arda—trumps all other gifts. It is a blessing that followed the line of Elros—never mind that the latter Númenóreans did not all agree that this was a blessing at all.

A similar sentiment can be found in earlier versions of the Quenta Silmarillion, where Manwë said to Eärendil:

"Now all those who have the blood of mortal Men, in whatever part, great or small, are mortal, unless other doom be granted to them; but in this matter the power of doom is given to me." -- Quenta Silmarillion, The Lost Road and Other Writings

Although this was no longer included in the published Silmarillion, Christopher Tolkien still considered this in judging that Dior, son of Beren and Lúthien, would have been mortal, regardless of whether Lúthien was Elf or mortal when she begetted him.

Bonus extra: The fourth case of Elf-Man union

Despite the excerpt from Appendix A, there is another case of Elf-Man union that we know: Mithrellas and Imrazôr. This was alluded to in Return of the King when describing Prince Imrahil: 

“...and with him went the Prince of Dol Amroth in his shining mail. For he and his knights still held themselves like lords in whom the race of Númenor ran true. Men that saw them whispered saying: ‘Belike the old tales speak well; there is Elvish blood in the veins of that folk, for the people of Nimrodel dwelt in that land once long ago.’” The Siege of Gondor, Return of the King

Although it seems as though this was only a rumor among Men, in the wider History of Middle-earth, Mithrellas is indeed mentioned to have been the spouse of Imrazôr who bore him children, of whom Galador was the ancestor of the princes of Dol Amroth. Of their line, it was said:

“But though Mithrellas was of the lesser silvan race (and not of the High Elves or the Grey) it was ever held that the house and kin of the Lords of Dol Amroth were noble by blood, as they were fair of face and mind.” The Heirs of Elendil, The Peoples of Middle-earth

The princes of Dol Amroth, of course, are mortal, and this does not contradict anything that has already been established. It is easy to imagine how, in a world where Elves and Men co-exist, there could be many other undocumented cases throughout the years. But what we do know is that no other Half-elf outside of Eärendil’s line would have led a long life by choosing the path of Elves. Therefore, if there were any other Half-elves in the Council of Elrond, aside from Elrond himself, they would have been not much older than Aragorn or Boromir. 

Erestor’s age and role in Rivendell

We now return to Erestor. One of the clearest things in “The Council of Elrond” is the Elves’ reluctance to take the One Ring. Erestor is one of the most vocal about this, and this is one of my favorite themes to explore about his character in the Third Age.

Thematically, Erestor represents the fading of the Elves. He is most known for his quick suggestion to give the Ring to Tom Bombadil. This tells us:

The Elves do not want anything to do with the Ring anymore, a sentiment that would be especially potent for one who was there during the Last Alliance, in the Second Age when Sauron was at the peak of his power; and 

The time of the Elves is ending, and there is little more they can give to Middle-earth.

Granted, Legolas remained a member of the Fellowship and thus represented the Elves, but by Elven standards, Legolas was young, and did not have the weariness that someone older would have. Erestor reads to me as someone older, even older in spirit in comparison to Glorfindel. 

‘We know not for certain,’ answered Elrond sadly. ‘Some hope that the Three Rings, which Sauron has never touched, would then become free, and their rulers might heal the hurts of the world that he has wrought. But maybe when the One has gone, the Three will fail, and many fair things will fade and be forgotten. That is my belief.’ ‘Yet all the Elves are willing to endure this chance,’ said Glorfindel, ‘if by it the power of Sauron may be broken, and the fear of his dominion be taken away for ever.’ ‘Thus we return once more to the destroying of the Ring,’ said Erestor, ‘and yet we come no nearer. What strength have we for the finding of the fire in which it was made? That is the path of despair. Of folly, I would say, if the long wisdom of Elrond did not forbid me.’ -- The Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

Erestor has a weariness to him that is even notable especially beside Glorfindel's vitality, whom we know was reborn in Aman as though young again, with "the primitive innocence and grace of the Eldar" (Peoples of Middle-earth). Glorfindel, however, is a special case even among all Elves in the Third Age, while Erestor arguably would have been more representative of them, at least of the ones that remained in Middle-earth.

Another case to be made about Erestor being one of the oldest in Rivendell is by virtue of his status as chief among Elrond’s counsellors. Considering the population of Elves in Rivendell, this is no small feat. As Gandalf told Frodo:

‘Here in Rivendell there live still some of [Sauron’s] chief foes: the Elven-wise, lords of the Eldar from beyond the furthest seas. They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power. [...] Indeed there is power in Rivendell to withstand the might of Mordor, for a while: and elsewhere other powers still dwell.’ -- Many Meetings, The Fellowship of the Ring

So what is he?

The last quote about the Elf-lords of Rivendell is one of the main reasons why I say Erestor is likely of the Ñoldorin Calaquendi. This makes the most sense given his position in Elrond’s household and given the sorts of Elves that dwell there. Fortunately, this still gives us many options: he could be an Elf from Gondolin, from Nargothrond, even among one of the many houses of the Fëanoryn. 

Could he have been any other kind of Elf? Sure! I even particularly have a soft spot for Erestor being Sindarin, but again, given his position, I would guess one of the older lines. Doriath, in particular, would make sense. Given how Elves seem to be “ranked” by wisdom defined by their exposure to the Valar and the rest of the Ainur, Doriath, with Melian’s influence, would have been a special kind of place. 

Could Erestor still be Half-elven? My easiest answer would be that it’s unlikely. But! Do not despair! With fiction, really anything is possible. Erestor could be an exceptional Half-elf and that is why he is chief counsellor. He could still be a kindred of Elrond’s by some obscure line, such as an unrecorded child in the line of Beren and Lúthien, or as a popular fanon, either Eluréd or Elurín survived. Or he could just be the son of some other Elf and Man. But whatever version it is, Erestor Half-elven would not have had the choice of the Half-elves, and so likely would not have been alive beyond the lifetime of a Númenórean.

#erestor #meta #the way i accidentally churn out meta sometimes is just #i don't know #wow this took up a sunday #but! #i'm glad to have been able to lay down my notes for it #i do love erestor a lot #and i love the challenge that comes with piecing together canon for all fandom character studies #erestor's obscurity and the challenge he gives me is probably why i like this guy a lot #that and because #he stood beside glorfindel at a wedding #LMAO #let's not pretend it started as anything more than that #90's things #tolkien #the lord of the rings #the silmarillion and other histories

[jughead-is-canonically-aroace]

omg thank u for introducing me to the term kuleshov effect, that is my favorite aspect of fan edits it makes me go insane

it's so fucking cool, i was actually gonna make a video essay for a final project (before i realized that i don't know how to use a video editor + other problems befouled me) comparing two movies illustrating the connections and the contrasts i was making using the kuleshov effect, which would have pretty much just straightup been an amv using songs from one of the movies.

it's part of why a good gifset is one of my favorite kinds of fandom meta - clips from x episode paired with clips from y later episode, etc - like !!!!! you're making a connection and holding it up for me to look at directly so i can then make that connection myself purely through the juxtaposition!!!!!!!! that's so cool!!!!!!!!

like, look at this

you see what i'm saying??? the meaning comes from the interraction of the paired gifs/lines

or this one

which does like, angle or lighting comparison in addition to the contrast in emotion - shot comparison! match shots! et cetera!

like, the meaning here isn't coming from the caption, i don't see that until later, it's coming from seeing these visuals & dialogue juxtaposed and interpreting something from the decision to pair them. that's video essay

but like to get back to videos and amvs and the kuleshov effect and soviet montage in general - look at this supernatural amv. i've never seen supernatural but this is one of my favorite songs by the mountain goats, and there are lines in it that were put in a completely new perspective for me by watching this amv and seeing what shots the editor put under which lines

soviet montage is a style that developed pretty much in direct response to western/hollywood continuity editing, and specifically in response to the film birth of a nation, which was interesting to the soviet filmmakers in the way that they saw the style of filmmaking aided the film in selling the story of the KKK to the american audience

continuity editing stylistically wants to be noticed as little as possible, and guide you along the viewing of the movie, blurring the lines between your reality and the reality of the film (the idea of the suspension of disbelief) through things that mimic the real life experience of moving throug the world - shot-to-shot things like showing the exterior of the building and then the interior, keeping the camera within the same 180 degrees in a single scene so the people you're filming aren't suddenly on different sides of the camera (the viewer); and scene-to-scene things like having events occur chronologically (and if not, having a clear indication of flashback or flash forward as per filmmaking convention)

the soviet filmmakers saw this as like, some capitalist propaganda bullshit because it encouraged you to take in these ideas without necessarily thinking or critically examining them, and so it was very easy to make the KKK the heroes by just building a triumphant narrative around them, and how that narrative is shown to the viewer depends on how it's edited

and so montage editing, which is rising out of the same school of filmmaking as the kuleshov effect, is in direct response to that, to try and find a style of editing that makes the viewer pay attention to the techniques and to the fact that they're watching a film, keeps their brain engaged, and has them draw their own conclusions from what they're shown rather than being gently handed the conclusions by the film. so it's a style that is built on inviting thought and critique, and therefore a pretty natural style for expressing audiovisual critique and analysis

(amvs also have their roots in this style bc soviet filmmakers were often working with recutting american films rather than filming their own due to lack of funds for purchasing film. which is pretty cool)

if you wanna check out a cool classic example of soviet montage editing, vertov's man with a movie camera (1hr) is really fun, kind of a "day in the life" but also a display of different effects you can get by using a film camera in different ways, bit of stop motion, etc

(vertov is also a really interesting, he coined the idea of kino-eye, which is about the way that the camera looks at the world and how that's different from how a human eye looks at the world, and also, the way the world reacts or changes in response to being looked at by the camera. which is Pretty Relevant Right Now I'd Say! glares at tiktok. glares at surveilence state. anyway you might wanna check that out too it's a bit tangental to the topic but still relevant in terms of the idea of film as unique medium which can be used to express ideas differently than the written word)

#asks #film #soviet montage editing #kuleshov effect #vertov #amvs #amv #half of this is what i remember from a lecture in my film class so don't like quote me but also do know that i have a pretty good memory

[vinterisen]

turgon never thought to remarry in gondolin... because he was spiritually married to aredhel.

sorry, not sorry.

(this started as a short meta-piece of my ideas that basically turned into an outline of a fanfic. so maybe i will use this as a rough draft and return to fanfic writing after all.)

very, very rough turgon/aredhel, celegorm/aredhel, celegorm/curufin idea-based drabble

honestly, there's not enough turgon/aredhel out there

i had this fic idea, that in aredhel's closeness with celegorm during the years of the trees, while also coinciding with her having the knowledge of the true nature of celegorm's relationship with curufin, she eventually feels comfortable enough to confess and divulge her feelings about turgon to celegorm. to which celegorm responds with a large, teasing grin, and full support. he even continually prods her to 'get it over with and tell him already.'

i also do envision their relationship to be rather physically intimate, as much of the fandom does (they're wrong about many things, but they're right about this one.) but, contrary to the fandom, i imagine them as supportive stand-ins for each other's true loves. curufin obviously takes a wife at sometime during the years of the trees, since celebrimbor is presumably born around this era. meanwhile, aredhel is harboring feelings for turgon.

with celegorm and curufin, i can't imagine their relationship being anything other than a push-and-pull, inflammatory codependency, wholly reflective of the source material. i imagine celegorm would have taken great issue with curufin's marriage, all the while being a giant hypocrite by being intimate with aredhel. it would be character-fitting of curufin to marry and father a child out of pure spite in witnessing the relationship between celegorm and aredhel progress, to send the message that he didn't need celegorm.

(but, undoubtedly, the seed of this idea of finding a wife and fathering a child also comes from being so close in resemblance and craft to fëanor, who also married and sired children fairly young. curufin would want to live up to fëanor's reflection in every facet, to bring honor to his namesake, even if he wasn't truly prepared for marriage or children.)

celegorm only ever viewed the relationship with aredhel, and his other flirtatious ventures with other men and women, as simple fooling around with friends. although, whether celegorm admits it or not, curufin can see the relationship with aredhel is different—closer, more emotionally involved. many arguments are had on the matter, but eventually curufin sees there is no progress to be had, and seeks to instill within celegorm the same feelings he's experiencing, as retaliation. and curufin never takes any half measures.

thus: wife and child.

aredhel is experiencing similar grief—having to silently watch as turgon courts elenwë, his intended betrothed. she sympathizes with celegorm's plight with curufin, and feels guilt in her unintentional involvement in estranging them (though celegorm quickly hushes her), but, ultimately... she is jealous. at least celegorm and curufin got to experience the joy in reciprocation, and though they may quarrel and separate, she knows they will inevitably find their way back to each other. meanwhile she's sure turgon sees her as nothing more than his whimsical, adventurous, hotheaded little sister.

beyond the trifling (yet entirely consuming) feelings, there was also a matter of law at hand. aredhel was raised under different circumstance to her fëanorian half-cousins, in the house of king finwë and queen consort indis. her grandmother was of the vanyar, kindred uniquely reverential to the valar, and highly respectable to the laws the eldar are ordained to live under while in aman. her brother was also due to marry a vanya himself. she is well aware of the offense her feelings for her full-blooded brother would cause, and her intimate relations with her half-cousin not to go unmentioned.

there were those moments, where celegorm would lightheartedly encourage aredhel to make an advance: "go on, i say. tell him! if you're none too bold yet, rest your hand upon his, and simply assess his reaction." only to be met with a glare of frustration. "i can't! our family- we're not like yours!" celegorm's brow would crease, eyes narrowing in judgmental suspicion... until aradhel stammers, looking away meekly and finishing with, "i only mean... we don't have your same freedoms."

those days, it was not rare for the night to end with aredhel curled up in celegorm's arms, suppressing quiet sobs, gripping with the futility of it all. 'how could it possibly be,' she thinks, 'that love could be so torturous and inescapable? so all-consuming?'

eventually, after many years, aredhel is proven right. with the banishment to formenos invoked upon fëanor by the valar, fëanor's sons follow ever steadfast to their father's side. the wife of curufin, however, does not. and aredhel only smiles forlornly when celegorm comes to bid his farewells before their departure. curufin is in tow, whatever resentment that had silently built between him and aredhel now nowhere to be found. a rare display of acceptance and sympathy from the younger brother— (did celegorm tell curufin of the reasoning behind their closeness? surely he wouldn't do that to her without her consent. no one must ever know.) curufin was once her friend too, before strife had torn them apart, and it felt good to shake his hand once again.

and yet... now aredhel has no one to confide in—no outlet or relief. so she must swallow her grief and longing before it consumes her. or worse, the dam breaks and the flood takes over.

but things change quickly, far quicker than ever expected, and only a few years after fëanor's banishment, aredhel finds herself crossing deadly ice on a frozen ocean, marching with the rest of her father's host. they are poorly equipped for such a swift change in course—they had expected to cross the ocean upon ships with fëanor's host, only to be suddenly betrayed and left behind. in this poor preparation, many people succumb to the elements, and among them... the wife of her brother. elenwë.

genuinely, she grieves alongside her dearest brother and young niece—the niece with the same yellow hair as elenwë. but there is another feeling in her heart. she condemns and buries it deep beneath the surface, unwilling to confront it. however, it lingers. she longs to fill the empty place in their lives—to be a mother to young idril, and a wife to beloved turgon. just how long had she dreamt of this ideal? long before idril's birth, and long before turgon and elenwë's first meeting.

the ice sheds all concept of propriety, like the bodies they bury at sea. the need to survive trumps all, and it cannot exist without comfort. they lay with their hands intertwined, and bodies pressed tightly together, sometimes idril lie between them for warmth and familial protection. this isn't how she envisioned it. there is little joy to be gleaned in this togetherness, so desperate to simply survive they are. their noses red, and their eyelashes coated in a thin layer of frost. memories aredhel will carry for a lifetime, for all the wrong reasons.

decades later, in the completed and fortified structures of gondolin, a shining reminiscence of tirion, where her brother rules as king, aredhel finally confesses. by then, what had developed between them need not be voiced, so mutually understood and reciprocal was their togetherness. a confession, it could barely be considered.

in mithrim, the closeness they shared while on the ice was replicated, unbidden and unconscious. turgon reaching his hand to aredhel's, brushing her hair from her face. at night, unbeknownst to their family and the rest of the host, they share the same tent. uneasy though it was, for they no longer had the excuse of frostbite and survival to press themselves close. idril sometimes still slept between them, just as before, and, other times, she stay in her grandfather fingolfin's tent. before she had even realized, aredhel saw her dream of love requited take root.

during mereth aderthad, aredhel regrets not reuniting with celegorm. she had only seen him in mithrim but briefly, before the host of fëanor dispersed, and celegorm and curufin went to occupy himlad. 'i wish you could see,' she muses, her fingers trailing patterns along the top of turgon's hand, 'see my bravery, tyelcormo. you would be proud.'

and perhaps that had been the first seed planted, to grow (fester), and bring about her greatest unhappiness.

while in gondolin, tucked beneath the sheets, hidden safely in the bedchambers of the king, almost 200 years spent in the bliss of the hidden valley of tumladen, aredhel's heart begins to stir in restless longing. she speaks with turgon about their fëanorian cousins who dwell in beleriand, but never divulges the nature of the intimacy between herself and celegorm. turgon's heart had turned towards hers, his own sister, though she knows not if he would still perceive offense in such a tryst with their half-cousin. he remains yet loyal to the valar, and continues to uphold their laws and cutoms in gondolin.

'hypocrite,' she thinks, when his lips press against hers, far away from prying eyes.

at first, turgon listens to her stories and retellings of the past, a wistful smile on his face, fascinated by his sister's ever-fiery and passionately energetic nature. but before long, he grows weary and suspicious, knowing too well what these repetitive imaginings may entail. he quiets her enthused ramblings about horse riding in the forests of oromë, and takes her by the hand through the king's gardens instead.

over time, their bliss soured, and so the day came when aredhel asked to depart the hidden city of godolin. turgon's ceaseless denials only reaping further discord between them—aredhel began to distance herself from him. she no longer came to his rooms, nor sat at breakfast with him and his daughter (though close she remained to idril, in separate), nor walked with him through the gardens.

he would begrudge her no longer, foreseeing only dread in either course of action, and eventually gave her his reluctant approval to take temporary leave. he grants three lords as accompanying bodyguards to his beloved sister, and instructs them to take her only to their brother fingon.

he had half a mind to execute those lords, if he were a man of lesser honor, for daring to return to his gates bereft of his sister, claiming aredhel lost to the elements of beleriand. twice, then, he envisions an execution site, when learning they had betrayed his orders and acquiesced to aredhel's new order of seeking out the sons of fëanor—celegorm and curufin.

though grief consumed him, a king he yet remain, and he kept his sorrow and wrath close to his heart. reprieve and happiness brought to him now only by his daughter, who bore the resemblance of her mother, but the mood and countenance of her aunt. his two lost loves, represented now by his only remaining nearest kin.

for almost one hundred years, turgon persisted, and gondolin continued its prosperity in splendor. until the unthinkable happened, and a lord of his council told him of the arrival of his lost sister, passing through the gates once again, a strange young man in her company. he felt as though his heart had, at once, ceased to beat.

-

in the early morning on the day the judgment of the dark elf was set to proceed, turgon was bent in pain over his beloved sister's lifeless, cold body. she had slept seemingly in peace, her handmaiden had informed him, recovering from the minor injury of the javelin, but it was an illusion, for aredhel had silently succumb to poison in the night, unbeknownst to anyone. in anguish, he kissed those pale lips farewell—a silent promise to meet again, a silent promise for revenge—uncaring, then, who witnessed his blasphemous devotion.

the execution brought no relief. an act of justice and vengeance served, but no relief—no respite from the continuous agony aredhel had left in her absence.

turgon regarded his nephew strangely, for the young man seemed reticent to show emotion. red were the whites of maeglin's eyes in his loss, and his eyelashes stuck together with long-dried tears, but no word did he say on his grief. still, turgon looked upon him with welcoming solidarity. he saw not the resemblance of eöl on the boy, however prominent it may truly be, but rather, every little piece of aredhel reflected in his pale skin and dark hair.

'in another life,' turgon smiled to himself, 'you would have been my son.' and so, as his son, turgon took maeglin into his house, and raised him to great stature among his council.

he could have never known just how faithfully alike to his dark elf father maeglin indeed was, and what would come to pass in the years that follow. the doom eöl had passed onto his son before his death.

(turgon had never known just how long aredhel had held back her pining of turgon, and just how long maeglin had for his own thoughts of idril. thus, turgon would never come to understand how incredibly alike mother and son were.)

"the eldar wed not with kin so near," turgon repeated from the laws and customs, mechanically, devoid of emotion, as a king should. his teeth clenched, his mind filled with visions of aredhel, and their love. he did this for idril, he excused himself, for idril bore maeglin no love, and it was easier to feed the boy the laws of the valar than to sit with him and explain the fallacy of keeping an unrequited love, or to help him move past these feelings. what would his people think if turgon acknowledged it, entertained it, and gave maeglin council in this matter? it was easier to outright condemn these feelings of maeglin's, and brush them aside. these sorts of unclean emotions were evidence of the doom of mandos, after all.

('hypocrite.' turgon could almost hear her voice, distant in memory, more distant still in the memory of ósanwë.)

this was for the greater good.

#silmarillion #aredhel #turgon #celegorm

[elluendifad]

May I inquire about current fandoms and favorite past fandoms? And also in general what types of media draws you in?

hrrmmmmm well, i haven't really been In Fandom the way i used to in years. my perennial special interests are the forgotten realms DnD setting, Tolkien Legendarium (obviously, the vanya says), and to a lesser extent the elder scrolls universe. I loved and occasionally still read fic/hunt for fanart for steven universe! The way i engage with tolkien stuff is now mostly in the lense of my religion and only occasionally as fandom--i do like reading fics that approach the legendarium with different meta interpretations of the original texts or coin new neologisms for language or culture that were not fully fleshed out in the text. My earliest fandoms were Forgotten realms, then unreal tournament, then tf2. I think tf2 was Thee Most Fandom fandom i have ever engaged in, including terrible fic that was destroyed a few machines ago. I have also done some self-insert stuff for funsies with like, the different fallout games and stuff between those, or mlp gen 4. As far as media goes, it has been a long time since i have read fiction, as i primarily read for my herbalism work and spiritual work. I play a few games on repeat, but some of them (Bioshock series) aren't the kind of thing i would seek fandom for. I watch shows when i do my nails, and i love strange new worlds (star trek) and somehow, the witcher netflix, so far. i definitely dont feel... like.... qualified to do any writing for star trek fandom though.

#personal #communication

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

fic title: memento mori

Title ask game!

This is such a good title, and I couldn't decide between my ideas, so you get both of my completely opposing concepts that I adore with all my heart.

memento mori (carpe diem): absolute crack, founded in my firm conviction that accidents are universal and some unlucky elf(s) must have died in Valinor before Miriel did, even if they got booted out of Mandos pretty quick (less trauma involved in slipping off a ladder than being skewered by an orc). One such Vanya is unluckier than the rest. Maybe they ran into Morgoth on parole on a bad day and got cursed, who knows. Let's call them Entulessë. Follow their exploits as they remain unfailingly cheerful and optimistic in the face of constant death and reembodiment, firmly convinced that this time everything will be fine, and that a little spurt of bad luck isn't going to stop them for volunteering to try out the latest invention- a parachute, was it? Enjoy how they never learn and how Lord Namo becomes increasingly resigned to a familiar face beginning to play messenger between dead Exiles and their families, because what else are they going to do? Write a paper on their unique experience to broaden the knowledge in the world? What are they, a Noldo? (Namo: With how Doomed you seem to be I wouldn't put it past you.)

memento mori (iterum): Elves get reembodiment, humans get reincarnation. If Beren and Luthien don't have love strong enough to last through lifetimes, literally who does? Tooth-aching fluff and soft bittersweetness over lifetimes of falling in love and getting to know each other and living and dying all over again, from the end of the First Age to modern times. Also a little bit of meta-humor as regardless of the circumstance they're always reborn just outside the main plotline/events, and I see how many variations on Luthien's names I can force to make sense. The goal here is to make people tear up from the Emotions.

#asks #carlandrea #title ask game #honestly i think i might write both of these #they spark joy #entulesse

[forfoxessake]

March (2023)

It’s silly but I’m happy I managed to watch some recent works that I was interested in, I sometimes get trapped into watching what I think I should watch, and not what I want. I can say the same for books, although I’m still finding it difficult to truly focus for more than a few pages. 

_________

8 films

Catherine Called Birdy (2022) - directed by Lena Dunham, Bella Ramsey is a coming-of-age story, with a lovely cast and a profound reflection on what is to be a woman, and how you can find yourself among all the many things expected of our “designated roles” in society. Bella truly shines here and I want her to do more diverse roles. 

Disenchanted (2022) - I love the original film and was genuinely excited for this, the trailers looked fun, and I was disapointed by the quality delivered, it’s a good idea badly executed, and while Amy Adams is forever delightful, and especially when she is being bad, but it’s not enough to make this an enjoyable film, not even for a 10 year old. 

Glass Life (2021) a short documentary insanely full of references, I could barely keep up with it and need to watch it at least 5 times more. But I loved it. It’s a reflection on our choices in regard to our daily life, our capitalism image-obsessed life. 

Holy Spider (2022) directed by  Ali Abbasi (who also directed two great The Last of Us episodes) it’s not an easy film to watch, a real-life story about a serial killer who targeted sex workers and used a religious belief to justify his killing. It doesn’t hide anything, it hurts to watch it, but it’s necessary, it can be like many other similar crime films that make it all seem glorious. 

Happy Together (1997) directed by Wong Kar-wai  I’m slowly going through his most famous work and loving the way his movies have textured, you can feel them with our of our senses. It’s love in a non-Hollywood way, it’s real.

A Quiet Place II (2020) The first one is so refreshingly good, unfortunately, the sequel is unnecessary, more of the same but not in a good interesting/captivating way.

Inherent Vice (2014) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this was the wrong movie to start watching on a long daytime flight back home, and it took me many weeks to finish it, and I won’t pretend to understand anything that was happening here, I’m not even sure we are supposed to understand anything. 

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)  Pedro Pascal and Nicolas Cage have fun being meta. Paddington 2 is in fact the best movie ever. 

_________

4 books 

Anton Chekhov - read two of his plays, Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Garden, both really good works and now I need to watch “Drive My Car” again to better understand how they use the complexity of the play in the film's narrative. 

Victor Hugo - Toilers of The Sea - I have read Moby Dick so I didn't think I could have a hard time reading something complex about the sea, and especially something written by Victor Hugo who does it so beautifully, but I just suffered silently until there was only 20% left and everything was sewed together beautifully.

Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1) I love the Netflix series and postponed reading the books until it was all over, I wanted to focus on that, and not to confuse any divergent timelines or anything like that. Because I believe Cornwell is an exceptional historical/fantasy writer and I knew this was going to be good.

_________

 3 tv series

Landscapers (2021) it’s a true crime mini-series that does a wonderful job integrating the main character's (Olivia Colman) fantasy of old Hollywood life into the narrative, making her seem almost innocent, and childlike. We almost forget that she did kill her parents and buried their bodies in their backyards. 

Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake (2022) a shocking natural disaster that leads to the worst of humanity. I saw this alongside the last few episodes of The Last of Us, and that helped me understand what they were trying to say. 

The Last of Us (2023 -) already one of my favorite series ever, a brilliant first season, it says so much more than anyone was ever expecting. I’m not a fan of apocalypse-based fiction, and I give this a shot thinking that it sounded more than that, and I was right. There’s a lot more here than mushroom zombies, what is even more frightening is what we do as humans to survive, and how far we will go. It’s almost what we see on a smaller scale happen in Aftershock. 

_________

Music

Vide - Hanging By the Bayou Light (2020)  weirdly, this helps me focus on studying, I call it atmospheric black metal. 

Comeback Kids - Heavy Steps (2022) I love when my friends recomend me stuff that fits my mood perfectly 

Paramore - This is Why (2023) I gave this a try even though I have never really enjoyed their work, what made me listen to it was a vinyl reviewer tik toker that said this sounded almost nothing like their original work, more jazz than pop rock. 

#diary #march #happy together #a quiet place ii #holy spider #glass life #Disenchanted #Catherine Called Birdy #Bella Ramsey #Cillian Murphy #Amy Adams #Wong Kar-wai #Ali Abbasi #paul thomas anderson #Anton Chekhov #victor hugo #books #Bernard Cornwell #The Last Kingdom #tv show #tv series #journal #blogging #personal #Vide #Comeback Kids #Paramore #music

[recvordshqs]

* EXTRA, EXTRA! desde westbound mag nos complace informar que no solo hay estrellas en el firmamento, sino detrás de él, TAMARA DESCAMPS ha hecho una aparición de último momento en las oficinas de westbound tras el fallecimiento del rey midas de la música ¿cuál será su próximo movimiento? descuida, que maureen y sus secuaces le seguirán muy de cerca.

¡bienvenide a recvordshqs, VANYA! te agradecemos muchísimo el interés puesto en el proyecto, te recordamos que cuentas con veinticuatro horas para enviar la cuenta de tu personaje, de necesitar más tiempo no dudes en enviar un mensajito a la administración.

# fuera de personaje.

 SEUDÓNIMO: Vanya

ZONA HORARIA Y/O PAÍS: GMT-5

TRIGGERS: Abuso de todo tipo.

¿NOS DAS PERMISO DE QUE TU PERSONAJE PARTICIPE DE MANERA ACTIVA EN LAS INTERVENCIONES Y CAPÍTULOS?: Sí

¿ERES MAYOR DE VEINTIUNO?: Sí

# ficha de identificación.

NOMBRE Y STAGE NAME: Tamara Descamps

FACECLAIM: Jenna Ortega

EDAD, FECHA Y LUGAR DE NACIMIENTO: 23 años, 27 de septiembre en Los Ángeles, California.

PSIQUE: Sagaz, centrada y persistente. Es una mente activa que no funciona en momentos de relajación, necesita trabajar en algo todo el tiempo para mantener paz propia. No suele dar un paso que no haya calculado previamente o que no esté encaminado hacia propios objetivos. Siempre tirará a lo más alto o morirá en el intento.

FÍSICO: Tamara intenta siempre lucir impecable, sabe que como te ven, te tratan y ella está interesada en obtener el mejor trato, por lo que su apariencia es la primera cosa en la que piensa por la mañana. Es experta en hacerse destacar con atuendos muy bien construidos y casi siempre hará uso de tacones que complementen su corta estatura. Eso sí, jamás cambiaría su cabello oscuro, ni cubriría las pecas que se extienden por todo su rostro, ya que los considera sus distintivos.

PUNTOS CLAVE: —Viniendo de una numerosa familia de 7 hijos, Tamara siempre se ha visto en la necesidad de destacar o morir, pues siendo una de las de en medio, era común que sus padres le prestasen poca atención involuntariamente. —Su verdadera figura maternal fue su hermana mayor, Maisie, quien se enternecía y preocupaba por ella incluso más que sus propios padres. Todavía tienen una gran relación de hermanas y viven en el mismo apartamento que ambas intentan pagar con sus escasos sueldos. —Tamara es sumamente enamoradiza y se inclina más hacia las chicas, pero siempre guardará sus sentimientos para ella misma; de lo contrario, está segura de que una relación la distraería demasiado de conseguir sus metas. —Actualmente pasa todo el día en movimiento, cumpliendo los requerimientos y caprichos de cualquiera que solicite sus servicios como asistente personal. Es un trabajo sumamente estresante por el que le pagan muy poco, pero tiene la esperanza de que si lo hace bien, este mismo será su boleto a un puesto más grande en Westbound.

# archivo en westbound records.

POSICIÓN EN WESTBOUND: Asistente personal de talentos ahora, pero antes solía traer el café.

RELACIÓN CON DON: Modelo a seguir. Tamara se interesó durante la universidad en el negocio de la música, por lo que insistió meses en conseguir una pasantía en Westbound con tal de observar internamente el funcionamiento de la misma. Cuando le dieron la oportunidad (quizás más por hartazgo de su insistencia que otra cosa) Don tomó un pequeño papel de mentor para ella. No diría que lo trató demasiado, pero las pequeñas lecciones que aprendió de él nunca las olvidará.

REACCIÓN A SU FALLECIMIENTO: removido.

OPINIÓN DE WESTBOUND: Estaba orgullosa de formar parte de Westbound antes y está orgullosa de hacerlo ahora. Incluso si la inestabilidad puede sentirse en todos los rincones, le interesa seguir escalando de puesto con su trabajo.

#app. #fc: jenna ortega. #usuario: vanya.

[mykinkyyandere]

About TUA and dark content

AO3

I want to write a warning post because I'm sure some touchy people will try to blame me again and again and again. I posted a meta why I thought there was no romantic relationship between Five and Vanya. Of course, I said many times that we all have different opinions and those are my subjective opinions. If you're interested please read the comments as well. I'll add this to the end of my other post as a link.

This is actually not just a warning for Umbrella Academy, but a warning to all other misunderstandings. If someone sends me ignorant accusations and insults despite the all explanations and warnings I have written so far, I'll just send them the link of this warning and my other warnings. Or simply block them. I don't wanna tire my fingers anymore. I'm tired of repeating myself.

As a dark/yandere fiction writer, I have read, recommended, and continue to read fictions focused on dark romance that are not for everyone, including the step-sibling relationship. For dark content that are not for everyone, I left two links of my detailed explanations in my faq/warnings and I also wrote a general warning in there. There are always warnings on my fics.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my other post, real life and fictional life are different from each other. I never defend what I write and what I read in real life. Reading fiction about murder, torture and eating humans doesn't make you a murderer and a cannibal. It won't kill you to read fictions about death all the time. Constantly watching themed p*rn doesn't make you have sex with your "step-mom". Please note that dark fiction is the same thing.

Personally, there are dark contents such as cannibalism and torture that I absolutely hate and I never read. I haven't seen the tv series Hannibal, Fresh starring Sebastian Stan, Saw and many more movies and TV shows. I don't read fiction about these topics and it definitely makes me sick to my stomach. But I have never sent people hate, such as "how do you even love it, it's disgusting, you're disgusting, you're sick", which are sent to dark fiction writers often. No it's not disgusting, no it's not a disease. It's fiction, and what's disgusting to me might be great to someone else. This is called different people & different minds. Why would I attack someone because of a fictional universe? JUST BECAUSE I HATE? They ain't gonna eat you, my friends. Just scroll.

Now let's talk about the Umbrella Academy, which is the main subject of my warning. Just because I don't think Five and Vanya are romantically involved doesn't mean I can't write romantic fanfic between step-siblings. Just because I don't interpret Five and Vanya's situation as romantic doesn't mean that I say there shouldn't be a step-sibling relationship within the fictional universe. If you read my post carefully, I've already made that clear. And if you read my post properly, I mentioned them being step-sinlings and growing up together NOT as the ROOT reason, but as one of the POSSIBLE SIDE REASONS. "Step siblings, ughh noo!!!" I didn't say that. I know, just because of my subjective opinion, what I say is often ignored and twisted at every opportunity. I try to express myself by trying to keep the same things simple as if I'm telling a child. Seriously exhausting.

I DON'T hate the relationship between Vanya and Five. I'm NOT an anti-Vanya and Five. I'm NOT a Vanya and Five hater. I'm NOT an anti-shipper. I DIDN'T write a meta that I made up out of my ass just because I wanted Five only to myself and was jealous of Vanya. (The last one is incredibly ridiculous). Can you understand or should I lower my level a little more? I'm not jealous maybe, but some of you obviously are. Defending a fictional ship like you're defending your own relationship. I may respectfully not ship Five and Vanya for my own reasons, but there are a lot of characters I ship, including that most people hate. Such as Kylo and Rey.

Since I think that the relationship between them is in the form of sibling love, I have NATURALLY presented my reasons to support my theory. OBVIOUSLY. And I also expressed my discomfort when step-siblings are called directly romantic by the audience despite having a brotherly love for each other in TV series and movies. I want to mention this because they tend to misunderstand this A LOT.

—> "If your own brother disappeared, you'd leave the light on for years and make sandwiches for him. Being adoptive doesn't change that. It's normal for 7 step-siblings to act different and not feel equally close to each other. One sibling doesn't care that much, but the other one thinks about him all the time. It's not an excuse to romanticise their closeness. I think it's disrespectful to make a romantic sense of any intimacy just because they're step-siblings." <—

As you can see, I'm angry here. What I'm angry about is the constant imposition of romance on every relationships, and audiences wanting to constantly interpret the half-sibling relationship as romantic. Not just about TUA, but about all other series and movies. If they look at each other, they have a crush. If they take care of each other, they secretly love each other. If they bandage their wounds, they fell in love... As I said, we are free to think what we want and there are situations where I feel uncomfortable like everyone else and I have the right to talk about it.

Now that we've dealt with the important details, it's time to make my final speech. I write X reader insert fics. There are fictions that I want to include the reader in as the 8th Hargreeves sibling. After all the explanations I've made, don't throw shit please. I'm sure 99% I've already given the answer here or somewhere.

#kinkyyan casual

[allisoooon]

Things that keep me up at night: None of the siblingss asked a single question about Ben. Sure, Klaus lied to them about him being in the 60s, but no one sat him down and went like, what was he like, what did he get up to in his afterlife, why did he look like an adult at the theatre?! The only person who ever thought about him was Five when he asked Viktor if Ben's death had been "bad". If I were Ben I would have fucked off too and reincarnated as my own evil twin.

I mean, we just know what we've seen onscreen. We're not seeing their every waking moment. There's an entire scene that happens offscreen where Klaus, V, and Allison get tacos. That would have been a good time for questions about Ben, especially from the amnesiac V. But we don't see everything. It's only ten episodes.

#tua #the umbrella academy #ben hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #allison hargreeves #ask answered #tua meta

[forestdivinity]

triplets?

I’ve seen the “Five and Klaus are twins” theory and I love it. I’ve seen the “Klaus and Vanya are twins” theory and I love that too.

But what if they were triplets?

god bless their poor mother, three unexpected babies would be hell to deal with

Okay:

I love the mirroring of their arcs. All three of them were socially isolated throughout their childhood/life. Five was stranded in the apocalypse, Vanya was excluded for being ‘the ordinary; sibling, and Klaus was shunned because of his addiction issues.

Addiction issues that they all share! Klaus leans into hard drugs and alcohol, but all of them have a dependency on something, especially in season one! Vanya has her prescription, which we’re shown she uses regularly whenever her anxiety acts up and Five retreats into alcohol as well on various occasions! Not to mention his caffeine dependancy (someone get this boy a cup of coffee) and - in Klaus’s own words - his addiction to the apocalypse. 

So their trauma and trauma responses are all incredibly similar. All of them are shown to lash out when they’re stressed, anxious, or upset. They love their siblings and get frustrated by them in equal measures, all of them feeling like outsiders in their own family.

Not to mention the colour coding of their powers! All of them are glowy blue-white. And all of them struggle with their powers - yes, even Five! Boy got stuck in the apocalypse for 45 years!

Now to get into the sticky stuff

Vanya as a representation of life! In season two we see her bring back Harlan from drowning using her powers! Klaus as a representation of death - this one is pretty self explanatory. So where does that leave Five?

Five’s powers are about movement, they’re about existing and traversing time and space.

Five is the journey between life and death that all people have to overcome. He is the child and the adult at once; he exists to bridge the gap between them-

And Five is already the bridge between all his siblings! His leaving is the start of the Umbrella Academy falling apart. In season 1 it’s Reginald’s death that brings the Academy into one place but it’s Five who makes them stay! 

Not to mention in season two, none of the siblings find each other until Five appears in the timeline. He’s the drive of the story, he’s the journey, the person trying to stop the apocalypse.

Klaus is a representation of death but he can bring himself back to life? You can’t kill what’s already dead.

Vanya is a representation of life but she (repeatedly) brings about the end of it.

Just! Vanya causing the end of the world vs Klaus as a representation of death saving it - in the comics at least, something I wish they’d kept! But even in the show it’s Klaus who notices the moon coming towards them, kick-starting the plan to save them and the world.

And again it’s Five who bridges the gap.

Not to mention in the pilot script Five says that the only people he trusts are Vanya and Klaus (the floating idiot, lol).

And this moves off of Vanya a little but I love how Klaus is a doorway between two realms (life and death) and Five traverses doorways in space and time

Not to mention both Klaus + fives powers have intricate links to time (what is a ghost, but a soul misplaced in time? stuck but never moving on. What is Five but a ghost?).

This was a crack idea and now I’m??? actually having feelings?? What the hell?? Anyway please!! feel free to add to this

#tua #The Umbrella Academy #klaus hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #number five #five hargreeves #meta #tua meta #Umbrella Academy #umbrella academy meta #triplet headcanon #crack turned serious #klaus meta #vanya meta #five meta

[afriendlyirin]

Something I haven’t seen many people talking about in The Umbrella Academy is a moment in episode 8. After a day of training Vanya’s powers, Harold pushes her to keep going, but instead, she prioritizes practicing for her upcoming concert.

That was a really interesting exchange to me. You can see Harold’s frustration and confusion at the idea Vanya could care about anything else, and Vanya’s confusion at his confusion. I think that really encapsulates the theme of the series: that it’s ordinary life, doing what you love, that’s truly important, not having the best powers or being the strongest superhero. Vanya cares about her music more than she cares about her powers. (And we see that come up again in the finale -- even when she’s going nuclear, what she prioritizes is the concert.) It echoes what Hazel says in his introduction: There’s beauty in the mundane.

#the umbrella academy #umbrella academy #umbrella academy meta #meta #vanya meta #my posts #umbrella academy spoilers #tua spoilers

[dogbearinggifts]

Protect Vanya. Stop Pretending She’s Innocent.

Because she’s not. 

She’s not innocent. She’s not a sad woobie who is buffeted about by larger and larger acts of cruelty until she inevitably snaps. She’s not the only blameless victim in a family of monsters. 

She is a victim, make no mistake. Robbed of her powers, excluded from family life by her father, ignored by her siblings—terrible things were done to her, and she neither deserved them nor brought them on herself.

But she most certainly is not blameless. 

It’s common to want to downplay or ignore the flaws of a character you identify with, and Vanya is nothing if not identifiable. Who hasn’t been left out of the group? Who hasn't felt like their voice was muted, their story ignored? Her story resonates with fans, and so it makes sense that they would want to defend her. It makes sense that they would want to ignore her flaws, focus on the moments when she’s victimized and not when she victimizes others. But do you know who suffers the most when we pretend she’s completely innocent of any wrongdoing? 

Vanya. 

Pretending She’s Innocent Disregards Her Agency 

Vanya has agency, and she uses it. She makes her own choices. The results of these choices wind up pushing her further and further away from her siblings and closer to her future as the White Violin, but that does not make the choices any less hers. 

Again, not everything that happens to her is her fault, but it’s important to acknowledge that the choices her siblings make regarding how they treat her do not come out of the ether. Allison chooses to ream her out for trying to sympathize with her painful divorce and custody battle; but because she brings up Vanya’s book in her lecture, it’s safe to assume that her anger is in part a result of the things Vanya wrote. Her siblings choose to hold a meeting without her, but Vanya was the one who chose to stay at an address where she could not be reached by phone rather than at the Academy or even her apartment. Allison chooses to try and Rumor her, but this is in direct response to Vanya’s threats and screaming rage that left her with no other defense. 

Luther chooses to choke her unconscious and lock her in an anechoic chamber, but he would not have done this if Vanya had not allowed herself to lose control of her anger and nearly kill her own sister, making herself appear to be an immediate threat to everyone currently under that roof. 

I’m not trying to downplay the awfulness of her siblings’ actions toward her. I am simply pointing out that Vanya’s behavior toward her siblings is no less deplorable, and part of the cycle in which she suffers. She had a choice in all of those situations I mentioned. She didn’t have to write her autobiography. She didn’t have to jump to conclusions upon seeing her siblings gathered without her, or upon hearing Allison’s confession. Vanya made perhaps the worst choice possible in all of those situations, but you can’t deny she had a choice simply because the result makes her look selfish. 

Pretending She’s Innocent Downplays Her Trauma

I know that seems counterintuitive. Current trends in trauma talk tend to make victimhood an either/or: either you are a victim, or you are a perpetrator. This is ridiculously simplistic and so wrong I could spend quite a few words explaining how, but I’ll sum up my rebuttal instead: 

Hurting people hurt people. 

I’ve seen this notion called by many names. The chain of pain. The cycle of abuse. Generational curses. Generational sin. (I grew up in a very religious household.) Call it whatever you like, but the principle remains the same. People who are hurt by others make self-centered choices to protect themselves from being hurt in the same way again; these choices hurt others in new ways, who go on to hurt others, and so on and so forth until someone breaks the cycle. 

Vanya was hurt as a child. There’s no way around it. She was deeply hurt, and excluded, and treated as if she was unwanted. Being told by her parent that she was ordinary, being forbidden from taking part in the family photos, hearing from her parent that he doesn’t think her existence is even worth mentioning—all of that is damaging and it’s no wonder Vanya has such deep scars. 

But not all of these scars can be romanticized. It’s easy to feel sympathy for a lost little girl who plays her violin while her siblings learn to be heroes; it’s far more difficult to muster up the same pity for a young woman who flies into a screaming rage because she refused to believe the truth of her sister’s soul-searching confession. It’s easy to cheer for a wounded woman as she finds the courage to tell her story; not so much when we learn that this act of empowerment harmed six people who neither asked nor wanted to be written about. 

Vanya is selfish. She is bitter, she is vindictive, she jumps to conclusions and she lacks empathy. All of these traits are a direct result of the trauma she suffered. She is selfish because she felt as if she got far less than her siblings as she grew up, and now she feels she must cling to the things she wants before they are taken away. She is bitter because she felt she had to watch her siblings be spoiled while she suffered; she is vindictive because she felt she had to sit and take whatever ill treatment she was given and now she is overcompensating. She jumps to conclusions because she didn’t know her siblings all that well, and so the only means she had to explain their behavior was to construct narratives in her head; and she lacks empathy because being excluded from and presented with a distorted picture of family life gave her few reasons or opportunities to practice empathy. None of these personality traits are attractive, but none of them would exist without her trauma. 

Ignoring these traits might make Vanya look better, true, but it also denies some of the most insidious effects of a childhood spent on the outskirts of her own family. 

Pretending She’s Innocent Lessens Her Importance to the Story

A common refrain in this fandom is that Vanya went on a rampage because she lost control of her powers. Every negative action she committed using her powers, every thing she did that harmed someone, is chalked up to a lack of control over the powers she just recently discovered. And she did lose control—but not of her powers. 

When I vented to a friend of mine, they said that “Vanya lacks control over her powers the same way somebody with anger issues lacks control over their fists.” Her powers aren’t the problem. They’re an extension of her emotions, and that is what she lacks control over. Watch her during her rampage. She actually exhibits very fine control over her powers—fine enough to flip a car that honked at her, fine enough to kill Pogo in a very gruesome way. She also has control over when those powers activate; if she lacked control of those powers, she would have instantly shredded Pogo the moment she saw him, rather than being able to wait until after she’d bullied him into a confession. 

When Vanya’s rampage, and the resulting apocalypse, are made into a result of powers she can’t control, those powers become more important than Vanya herself. Her choices no longer matter if her powers are in control. Her trauma, her background, her motivations—none of those matter. She is simply a vehicle for her powers. She is innocent of wrongdoing, but she is no longer important to the story. 

Vanya makes choices, as I’ve demonstrated. They’re awful choices, but they drive the story and influence what her siblings do. However, the corners of the fandom that wish to absolve Vanya of all blame portray these choices not as decisions on her part, but as inevitable reactions to negative stimuli. Of course she flew into a screaming rage when Allison confessed to Rumoring her; it’s not like she could have taken a deep breath and asked a few more questions. Of course she destroyed the Academy; it’s not like she could have simply broken out of her prison and moved on with her life. None of those were choices. None of those were Vanya. Those were simply results of what others did to her. She doesn’t matter; only her powers drive the story. 

When we acknowledge that Vanya’s harmful and self-destructive actions were the results of choices she made, Vanya becomes a character. She becomes a fully realized person with motivations and flaws, virtues and vices, whose decisions drive the story to a tragic conclusion. She is integral to a story that would not exist without her to drive it. 

When we pretend that her harmful and self-destructive actions were inevitable reactions to negative stimuli—or worse: her powers taking control of her—Vanya becomes little more than a MacGuffin. She is no longer a character; she is a walking plot device that will end the world if handled improperly. She is no longer vital to the story; her powers are the important thing. At this point, we might as well replace her with a nuke or an unusually volatile houseplant. 

Pretending She’s Innocent Perpetuates Toxic Narratives

In literature, especially Western literature, there is a narrative that abuse is a sort of purifying agent. Dumbledore expresses it most explicitly, when he says Harry “needed” to be abused by his aunt and uncle in order to develop strong character; but it’s far older than that. Cinderella often falls into this trope, what with the abuse victim being sweet and kind while her spoiled stepsisters are cartoonishly horrid. (I will say, though, that one thing I appreciated about the 2015 Cinderella remake was that “Have courage and be kind” was something instilled in her by loving parents before her father ever remarried. Cinderella’s sweet nature is something that managed to survive the abuse, not a result of it.) 

It is disturbingly common in this fandom to pretend that Vanya’s only flaws are a lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. Her selfishness, her bitterness and lack of empathy are all downplayed or ignored; in some fanworks, she is even portrayed as kind and empathetic, a result of being left out as a kid and not wanting anyone to suffer the way she suffered. Not only does this deny Vanya’s canon characterization, but it plays into and perpetuates the notion that child abuse results in better children. 

I don’t think anyone in this fandom does so on purpose. I have yet to see a single fan attempt even a flimsy defense of the way Reginald treated his children, and Leonard is roundly condemned as the emotional abuser he is. This fandom is good at recognizing abuse, and it’s good at recognizing how harmful it is. Where it fails, though, is recognizing that the effects of abuse cannot and should not be romanticized. 

Vanya is a deconstruction of the broken bird, the unfavorite who was never in the limelight and always ignored. A child who grew up under the circumstances she faced would almost certainly not become kind and empathetic; they would become bitter and self-centered, resenting every moment they were not the center of attention, hating the siblings who stole their limelight. This is not pretty. It is not the sort of thing that lends itself to sweet fanart or beautiful poetry. It is not a tale of resilience and persistence; it is a tale of brokenness and perpetuation of the chain of pain. Vanya is hurting, and in her hurt, she hurts people. This is not the sort of story we like to tell ourselves, but it is the sort of story that happens far more often than we will ever care to admit. Vanya is not a romanticization of the unfavorite; she is realism. She is a result. 

Pretending otherwise does a disservice to very real people who share Vanya’s background. Child abuse does not result in better children; it results in broken adults who must learn how to function in society all over again. Depression and anxiety are not the only outcomes of abusive childhoods; adult survivors of child abuse also suffer from an inability to form and maintain relationships, poor social skills, aggression and violent behavior, and many other effects that would not lend themselves to a pretty piece of art. Child abuse is ugly, and the results are ugly. Romanticizing a character who exhibits that ugliness makes it that much more difficult for people to admit they see themselves in that ugliness, that this character’s most horrid traits remind them of their own behavior and made them realize what changes they need to make. 

The Umbrella Academy is not a tale of empowerment. It’s a tale of pain, and brokenness, and slowly but surely recovering yourself. It’s a tale of how abuse breaks children, and how that damage is turned on others. The Academy is a perfect mirror, a place where real survivors can see themselves in the characters they meet. It’s a place where it is okay to be messed up, where it’s okay to admit that the shit you went through as a kid turned you into a bully, or an addict, or a person who can’t take responsibility for anything, and where it’s okay to admit that you’ve hurt others. The Academy is where survivors can face their inner demons through the lens of fiction, where they don't have to pretend their demons made them better people. 

None of this can happen if we continue to romanticize one character’s abuse. 

#the umbrella academy #umbrella academy #tua meta #vanya meta #cw: abuse #tw: abuse #vanya hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #abuse #child abuse #flaws #fandom shenanigans #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #number seven #number one #number two #number three #number four #number five #number six #pogo #pogo hargreeves #long post #meta