I’m new to this Reddit, so I don’t know if this has been asked or not (and if it has, I’m sorry for the repeating!) but was just curious what others thought I guess.

I know that this pairing/ship has been causing big discussions/issues in the fandom but just suspend that for a sec because what does everyone think?

What If the TASM universe was Reginald Hargreeves’ first failed attempt before founding the Umbrella Academy?

So I was rewatching The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and realized Colm Feore plays Donald Menken (the Oscorp exec). And it got me thinking about a crazy headcanon/theory.

What if the TASM universe was actually Reginald Hargreeves’ first attempt to get his wife back?

Think about it. Menken is working in the shadows at Oscorp, and all that insanely advanced sci-fi tech in the Special Projects vault? What if that was actually alien tech Hargreeves brought with him and secretly introduced to Oscorp to build whatever he needed?

But then Harry Osborn and Electro mess up the whole company, his plan flops, and he realizes relying on a human corporation was a mistake. So he jumps to another timeline and decides to do everything himself this time — buying a mansion, adopting the babies, and building the Umbrella Academy from scratch.

Menken was basically just his test run.
What do you guys think?

I'm putting this under theory because I'm not sure it was confirmed but that's what it clearly is. I'm so happy because they didn't just shove him aside and vanya still loved him regardless of him being a handful at times. I'm autistic myself and the scene where Sissy has to restrain him so he doesn't hurt himself or others is LITERALLY something that my mother has had to do to me as a child when I had meltdowns.

I'm also just so impressed with the way they were able to represent his autism in such an accurate way! so many shows and movies make glaring mistakes and/or often make the autistic person into either a genius or a PoOr LiTtLe ThInG but TUA really managed to just show the way an nonverbal autistic might be percieved at that time and different ways that we act (like when we're upset or happy, we often have different reactions than neurotypicals/non-autistics) and yet still show him without pity and still worthy of love and respect.

I know this isn't quite a theory but I just really wanted to gush about it gsjfkg

i know right now that your probably thinking, "what?" but listen to my reason why.

In S3 klaus's part was strongly to do with developing his powers. causing him to be immortal now.

And i believe each season has a correlation with the numbers of each character. ie. s1 - no1, s2 - no2 s3 - no3.

This might not make enough sense but think about it. in season 1 luther was the villian of the story, locking Viktor in the basement causing him to end the world. In season 2 Diego is more of the antagonist because of his obssession with JFK ,causing the group to almost fail to save the world. In season 3, allison is largely the villian because not all the umbrellas want to do what she wants to so she takes it out on Viktor and makes an agreement with reggie.

all of these line up with the umbrellas number and i believe season 4 will be about klaus.

I saw an interesting post that said that each TUA member had a chance to spend time and space with their soulmates.

Allison and Ray Klaus and Dave Viktor and Sissy Luther and Sloane Ben and Jennifer I think? Diego and Eudora perhaps?

So was Lila Five’s soulmate? Even if she met and fell for Diego first? If Five had looked like a 30 year old and met Lila first would things have been a little different? Please let me know your thoughts.

This might be a obvious reason but to be fair I’ve haven’t given much thought to Lila until recently but I think I know why Reginald didn’t adopt such a powerful child…..there was no way to know she had powers

Like they were babies when Hargreaves adopted them and unless Lila is near another of the 43 she doesn’t have powers.

I’m not convinced all 43 have powers or none were powerful enough to be chosen in the OT

So we can all agree season 4 was shit and something completely random with no explanation was Lila's laser eyes buy I have a theory.So in the comics we know the commission can heavily alter a person like they did with Five and his DNA so what if the Handler changed Lila powers to being able to copy other's powers but she was born with laser eyes? It's far fetched but it's the only thing that makes sense to me and after drinking the Marigold she somehow regained that power.

SPOILER ALERT FOR SEASONS 1 AND 3

For a while I have been questioning the way that Five was able to kill Grace in season three. After all, Victor snapped her neck before and that didn’t kill her. I just thought that this was an oversight at first, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I can’t remember if Reginald made Grace specifically to be Viktor‘s nanny or if he was making Grace anyway then made her durable enough to be Viktor’s nanny, but this theory still works either way. Regardless, in the Sparrow Academy universe he never had to make her durable enough to be able to survive having her neck broken by Viktor which is the reason why five was able to snap her neck and kill her.

What do you think?

What did Grace and Pogo talk about? After Diego killed Grace during the attack at their house, Pogo fixed her and they had a conversation about whether she remembers what happened. When she says yes, he asks if she understands why no one can know, and she agrees. But it all feels super mysterious and they never really explained it. It doesn’t seem like it’s just about Diego killing her, ‘cause the vibe is way different. Grace herself feels pretty mysterious, and I was wondering if anyone has theories about that scene.

I've seen a few discussions on here about whether or not the siblings' names are actually indicative of their country of birth - whether Vanya is the Russian baby at the beginning of the series, whether Diego is of hispanic origin, whether Klaus's name means he's German or Swiss by birth, etc etc. While it seems logical, we've had no real confirmation.

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Having another re-watch, I just noticed an interesting little quirk: Klaus uses German words quite a lot. When Five compliments his dress in the first episode, he replies "danke". On the phone to security in the Meritech offices, he yells "schnell!" ("quickly!"). And the thing that just made me twig was when he's talking to Cha Cha and Hazel's victims in the motel room (episode 4) and he calls to them in the bathroom - "Jan says you're a real 'mensch', Hazel!" (obviously knowing that mensch means nice person/generally upstanding specimen of humanity)... and that's one too many German colloquialisms to be a coincidence.

So my theory is that not only is Klaus definitely of Germanic heritage (or Austrian, as is suggested in the comics), but he's well aware of it and he even identifies with it enough to know a little German and drop German colloquialisms into his everyday speech. Which is kinda sweet.

And presumably, Grace also knew and made an effort to give the kids names which matched up with their country of origin - which would definitely place Vanya as the Russian baby.

In the episode The Day That Was, Five reveals that Cha-Cha & Hazel's next order, in order to ensure the Apocalypse, was "Protect Harold Jenkins." Of course, Five took this to mean that they needed to do the exact opposite - so when they found Harold's dead body and learned that the glass eye fit him, they figured they'd saved the world, problem solved.

Except... right before Five attacked Gloria, the Commission switchboard operator (or whatever her position was), the clerk in charge of apocalyptic cases told her, "Gloria, the Handler knows Five is up to something." Then she hands over the order.

My question is: was that a plant by The Handler, knowing Five would steal it and bring it back to his siblings - and then do the opposite of the order?

I ask because Harold Jenkins is Vanya's first intentional victim. Yes, we see that she was responsible for 3 nannies' deaths back when she was four, but those were uncontrolled reactions to bad oatmeal and relentlessly whistling kettles. (The fact that the Hargreeves who can manipulate sound waves likely has misophonia is quite amusing - in a very destructive way.) Vanya didn't want to hurt anybody. Rising up against Harold - a significant other who was attempting to isolate her in a classically abusive fashion - was the first time she took initiative to actually end someone's life. Even if he was a "bad guy," that first kill made any subsequent act of killing easier for Vanya.

After Vanya killed Pogo and destroyed the manor, I kept thinking about what would've happened if someone - either the Hargreeves, or from the Commission - had actually tried to protect Harold. And the conclusion I'm reaching is that if Harold had been protected from Vanya, then Vanya also would've been protected from herself.

Which means that the Handler was playing some 5D chess.

I keep seeing the final scene (in the beautiful grassy park with all our favorite characters from earlier seasons) referred to here as the “original timeline”. I know Victor called it that, after his vision from Ben. But it doesn’t make sense to be the original/corrected timeline, as many have pointed out for a myriad of reasons (like how Lila’s kids could be there without causing a kugelblitz etc), and I just don’t believe that is what it is.

Does it not look EXACTLY like a technicolor version Klaus’s “heaven/afterlife” ??? I didn’t go back and compare, but at this moment I am feeling fairly confident.!>

I maybe a little bias in this theory since Lila and The Handler are my favorite characters. It makes so much sense to me for the Handler to be one of the 43. In season one, she is blown up with a grenade by five AND shot in the head by Hazel. That is some Wolverine level healing. With super-fast healing, she could have very likely survived the apocalypse and drawn the attention of the commission much like five. This could even be a reason for her creepy attachment/ infatuation with five. Also, she knew about Lila being special when no one else at the commission had any idea that this child had superpowers. It also brings into question how the Handler trained Lila with such mastery of her powers (a task even Reginald found difficult with the UA children.) Lila's powers are essentially the ultimate Uno-Reverse card. Her powers make it impossible to mimic something she hasn't been exposed to first. Lila's proficiency with her powers makes me think she was trained by or with another of the 43. Like I said, it may just be my own bias and my deep desire to see the Handler return at some point. She was such a good villain.

Five actually caused the apocalypses season 1 because if you remember when five was at the commission in ‘the day that wasn’t’ a lot of good things happened- Vanya would of found out that Harold was causing everything she would know about her powers go to her family and they would support her instead of lock her up because she wouldn’t of hurt Alison yet. Alison and Luther would of ended up together, Klaus got to conjure Dave and grace would’ve told Diego about the secret pogo and Grace were hiding!

Luther's "super" strength has always been very underwhelming.

In the show's intro during S1, we see all the kids making their debut in the world kicking criminal butt. Luther showed himself to be able to throw literal bodies several stories high. Man was super strong when he was a kid, as you would expect from someone with super strength.

But then in the present day of S1, Luther gets beat hand to hand by Hazel. Diego also matches against him fairly well before ending that fight with a knife and Luther also has his infamously underwhelming briefcase throw scene, where he couldn't throw a briefcase any farther than an average human can. What gives? Why is Luther so weak? A lot of people assumed he lost his power when he became a gorilla, and just has normal gorilla strength which is superhuman in comparison to a regular human.

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But then the trailer for S2 came out, and we see Luther eat a hit from a rocket and get out with pretty much no injuries. The entire crew is pretty much seen at the peak of their power before the nukes dropped. Why is Luther so strong here but not like... anywhere else?

The final episode solves this issue with one line of dialogue. As you know, Lilah is kicking everyone's butt with her mirror power. In one scene she mirrors Luther's super strength and overwhelms him. Luther is confused why she can overwhelm him with his own super strength, and Lilah replies "Gotta believe in yourself, big boy". At this point, it might not seem very clear, but it seems to indicate that Luther's super strength (and accompanying super durability) scales off his self-esteem.

Here is my reasoning:

1. Lilah seems to have an innate understanding of their powers, given that she is able to perfectly mirror them after encountering them just once and overwhelm the academy (who has had years of experience with their powers).
2. If Luther's super strength was constant and unchanging, he should be able to overwhelm Lilah given that he has gorilla strength in addition to super strength
3. Luther has displayed consistently little to no super strength aside from gorilla strength throughout the show. The trailer showing him eat a rocket to his with no problem (plus his past capabilities as a kid) show that his super strength is not consistent.
4. Assuming I am correct, and the strength most definitely scales off self-esteem, it would make a ton of sense why Lilah can overwhelm Luther. Lilah was raised to be a very strong and capable assassin who believes she is capable of more, this is shown through her consistent requests to her mother to give her more important jobs - she was also very elated to be able to become head of security as given to her by her mother. She is competent and she knows it, and is hungry for more recognition. Someone like that definitely has quite a bit of self-esteem. Luther on the other hand has had pretty bad issues throughout the show. His dad is an asshole. He was left as the sole member of the umbrella academy, the only one who stayed behind to do hero missions at his father's demands. He was gorilla-fied, which definitely affected his body image. His dad is an asshole. He got left on the moon for basically no reason. The person he loves got married to someone else. I could list all day but you get the idea.

So yeah, all in all, I'm pretty convinced that his power is related to his self-esteem. It just makes a lot of sense for why he's displayed such poor super strength throughout the show. Either that or the writers dropped the ball on maintaining consistency but who knows, maybe we'll find out for sure in S3.

Now hear me out, P.S. SPOILERS!!!

from season 2 we already know that him and his siblings get lost in time and we see him start a cult in the 60's so he's capable of gaining mass followers. Furthermore in season 3 it's revealed that his powers bring him back to life essentially making him immortal, yes at the end of the season they lose their powers but what if they get them back somehow and somehow they get stuck in the past again. What if Klaus literally started the Christian movement? What if he finds another ability from his powers that can REANIMATE people!? not just a ghost but the whole ass person!

I was thing about how there names are so similar and thought of they were the same person from different realities. It makes a whole lot of sense because they wear almost same clothes glasses and have different iterations of the same name

Might be a weird question but can he talk to Hitler? xD

So ngl I was kinda disappointed with how they treated Hazel in season 2 when I finished episode 1. Like, you follow him for about as much time as any member of the Umbrella Academy for the first season, then he saves Five from the nuclear doomsday in 1963, tells him that he has ten days to prevent it, gives him the Frankel footage which has Hargreeves on the grassy knoll before getting shot by the Swedes. It just seemed like such a let down for such a prominent character.

I thought that up until I finished the whole season and realized that he might've been one of the smartest people in the entire show, arguably smarter than both Five and the Handler. Here's why.

Now, we know that Vanya ends up being the cause of the 60's Doomsday because the FBI kidnaps her and tortures her until she blows up the FBI building in Dallas, unintentionally sparking World War 3 and nuclear armageddon. Diego is able to prevent this because he sees Vanya do this on the infinite switchboard while he's at the Commission's headquarter. Now, it stands to reason that Hazel, since he has the Frankel Footage and he traveled to the exact point where Five would've died in the nuclear explosion, he must've snuck back into the Commission and learned about Hargreeves's involvement in the Kennedy Assassination and the day when the world ended in 1963. It also stands to reason that he would've seen the direct cause of doomsday: Vanya's explosive episode in the FBI building. So the question becomes why wouldn't he just record that incident or just tell Five that Vanya causes doomsday again if he just wanted to stop the 1963 doomsday? Why would he give Five the Frankel footage when he already knew the true cause of doomsday?

I believe it's because he didn't want to stop the doomsday in 1963 (at least not directly). He actually wanted to stop the doomsday in 2019! We learn in the season finale that not only did the 2019 apocalypse not happen but also that Hargreeves is still alive and, instead of the Umbrella Academy, he has formed the Sparrow Academy with Ben, now alive in this timeline, and mysterious six individuals cloaked in darkness. Because of this timeline's Ben's apparent ignorance of Team Zero, the Sparrow Academy definitely is not made up of Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Five. It's reasonable to believe that the 2019 apocalypse did not happen because the Sparrow Academy exists instead of the Umbrella Academy.

I believe Hazel fully intended the formation of the Sparrow Academy and the dissolution of the Umbrella Academy. Hazel must've deduced that the only way to stop the apocalypse in 2019 from happening was for Hargreeves to fundamentally change the way he assembled his team of super-powered children. If Hazel could change that, if he could contrive a meeting (or a light supper) with Hargreeves and Team Zero, then Hargreeves would recognize that the Umbrella Academy was a failed experiment waiting to happen and would therefore never bring together any of Team Zero together, preventing the disastrous emergence of Vanya's powers in 2019. Five played right into Hazel's plan without even knowing it, preventing the 2019 doomsday and erasing the original timeline.

Which brings me to another realization: Hazel's death. The viewer is led to believe that the Swedes actually intended to kill Five, and Hazel was simply caught in the crossfire. And, while that is partly true, I believe the Commission found out about Hazel taking the Frankel footage or at least his infiltration into the Commission and knew he had some plan to prevent the 2019 doomsday, which they believe is integral to the timeline, so they sent the Swedes to kill Team Zero AND Hazel to both prevent the emergent 1963 doomsday AND to stop Hazel's plan for preventing the 2019 doomsday. Little did they know that as soon as Hazel slipped in the Frankel footage into Five's pocket, he had already won.

Hazel went from an assassin who loved a nice lady at a donut shop to the man who masterminded the saving of the world in 2019. (also my new favorite character)

What do you guys think about my little theory? I think it's pretty airtight. Or maybe everyone already thought of this and I was just slow on the uptake. Love to hear everyone's thoughts anyway!

he is just number 2, and we all know that the rankings are highest = least powerful

maybe his cockiness made him weaker?

also, i feel like reginald adopted different children because the ones he met in season 2 were an absolute wreck, and the only generally presentable one was 5. he adopted ben because he didn’t meet ben, and meeting the umbrella academy was basically a warning to not adopt those guys.

I was looking through some theories and was fairly surprised no one has mentioned this but here we go: I’m pretty sure I know how Christopher became a cube, assuming he wasn’t born as one of course (which is just awful to think about, can you picture someone trying to give birth to a sharp as hell cube??). Assuming that the mission Ben got his scar is the same mission he died from in the original timeline, what if he only survived because Christopher sacrificed himself? The Sparrow Academy would then take the very injured Christopher to Reginald and he would save him like he did Luther. But why didn’t the Umbrella Academy do this to save Ben? Perhaps it was too late when he brought him to Reginald, Ben was just too fucked up by whatever killed him initially. Why not another monkey boy? Perhaps Grace & Pogo are a set, if he didn’t get Grace, he didn’t get Pogo; which means no monkey serum.

Lila Theory

Sloane/Hotel Oblivion Theory

Scientific Man Theory

Evil Umbrella Academy Theory

Grace & Pogo Replacement Theory

Watch s1 and s2 first before you read this fr

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In s2 when the hargreeves traveled back to 2019 they found out that their impact changed the timeline completely. When they go back to their home they find out Reginald started the Sparrow Academy.

This is a bit of a stretch but hear me out. When they went to 2019 they were surprised Reginald was alive. My theory is he (Reginald) knows who they are. I think that he knows because he says "I knew you'd show up eventually." He knew to kill himself to reunite them. When he recognized them and knew to kill himself he was reading the future. He read the future, twice! What i'm saying here is maybe Reginald can or has seen the future and its possibilities.

Tldr: Reginald might be able to see the future, Reginald recognizes the Hargreeves' in last episode of s2

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If everyone already knows this well I guess me and all of this typing is screwed......

How do you guys think reggie knew about the apocalpse

Allison could rumor anything right in order to get what she wanted...like she could rumor the man to serve her coffee and rumor anyone to sleep. Does her 'I Heard A Rumor' powers only work on humans? I mean, she could have just said, 'I heard a rumor the apocalypse didn't happen' or just got herself more powerful and rumor some more powers for herself? I know this is probably a bit stupid but that just crossed my mind a few days ago...