Thoughts on The (Umbrella-verse) Hargreeves (1/2)

So with the latest updates of this series, I'm back again. And with the reminder that it's a big fandom actually, and that there's an abundant amount of fanon. So I'm gonna put my thoughts on here, about what I genuinely think about the canon-characters presented on screen. Based on my subjective opinion.

First part is about the Hargreeves that aren't the siblings:

Reginald Hargreeves

I. Hate. Him. Sure, he's intelligent and incredibly ambiguous, I would be fascinated with on a normal day. But I'm attached to his family more and he's a horrid parent, an ineffectual leader, and one fucked-up mad scientist who got dubious to completely inadequate results. He is unethical and wanted to create soldiers instead of functioning sentient people. Then deciding over the years to be a Father??? Letting the children think that he's one??? (Most likely deciding it's the most practical avenue-) but not adjusting to that role accordingly and with aplomb like he did with the other roles he chose for himself (because it'd naturally contradict w each other).

Sure, I believe he holds affection for his children. Because he does. He acknowledges the names they identified themselves as even if it's just in writing and not out loud (the bar is in hell), and there was a softness present when he interacted with Klaus in the afterlife. But he's staunchly unapologetic and it's not enough.

A General, a Scientist, a Father, and the most consistent Disappointment of this Family. In Multiple Timelines.

Pogo

Mixed feelings. On one hand, I understand his position. There are so many Luther-parallels for a reason (and it's so, so uncomfortable). It's just, he went beyond what Luther could've tolerated because Reginald is the only home he knows and believes would accept him in the end. On the other, he's the only one besides Reginald and the siblings with enough agency to change things but didn't.

He's in line with Reginald in the self-fulfilling prophecy trope. They believe they were saving the world, but they were also the catalysts on why it needed saving in the first place.

Good Girl God on a Bike though, but the Battered something Syndrome is real with this one.

Claire Hargreeves

-In desperate need to be in the narrative more. But I love what she symbolizes. A future to go home to and a path to break the cycle of dysfunction.

Will always love the fact that she knows she had (edited ^_^) SIX uncles. She proves that Allison, no matter how estranged, truly cares for her siblings pre-canon. All of them.

Grace Hargreeves

It is. Team. Robo-Mom. All The Freakin Way. I love her so much. She's so tragic and the most wholesome parental figure the children have hands down. Among all the Hargreeves, she has the least amount of agency to work with and it's brilliantly shown and it's freakin gut-wrenching.

She's literally the only one that has absolutely no choice on what's going on around her. Even though her entire programming is to be the Caretaker, A Nanny turned Mother because she can evolve and (gfdi I'm crying) and Reginald undoubtedly took away her choices to care for her children properly because He is a Great Alien Man who knows better, the prick.

She has been tampered with and framed in a m*rder-s*icide driving a wedge between her and her children (common tactic of Reginald it seems: isolation and conflict) and helpless to correct them on anything.

But the moment that she wasn't helpless. The moment Pogo fixed and brought her to normal, despite the fact that he ordered her to never reveal anything. The moment that she was given enough of a leeway to make a decision that will affect others. She chose her children. And I believe if given all the choices in the world, she always will.

After all her main programming is to care.