Stan

2012 dash

Three seasons in, we have a pretty reasonable idea of what Reginald did to each of the children. Klaus and Ben were terrified of their powers and hated using them. Viktor was unaware of his, because Reginald kept him medicated and subdued. Diego was constantly being undermined and made to feel inferior to Luther, while Luther was both bolstered as a leader but also kept small and docile by Reginald through constant criticism. Allison used her powers to get away with things, using them indiscriminately to get what she wanted, and she remained content with that for a pretty long time, being the last one to leave the Academy, save for Luther. And Five was an arrogant child striving to push his power to new heights - he was not afraid of it, he relished what he could do and wanted to do more.

It seems like Five, different from the other children apart maybe from Allison, was not stifled in developing his powers, but instead was pushed by Reginald to develop both his powers and his mind, as he did need a substantial understanding of maths and physics to be able to apply them. Indications for this are littered throughout the seasons. Luther saying Five always thought himself better than them. The implication that Five would use his teleportation powers as much as possible as a kid. Reginald giving him five stars on his performance report. "Five cheated!" "He adapted." Reginald being fascinated first and foremost by Five's powers at the tiki bar. The implication that things got even worse in the household once Five had gotten lost.

The implication is very much there that Reginald treated Five differently, did not quite nip him in the bud like he did with most of his siblings, and once that had backfired spectacularly on him, he tightened the grip on the siblings that were left, making them even more miserable than they already were, a situation that spiraled further with Ben's death.

Reginald not keeping quite as tight a lid on Five led to Five being less afraid of him, more willing to openly rebel and defy him, a trait that keeps up all the way through the show. Letting Five's natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge develop what I assume to be reasonably uninhibited also meant that Five did not adhere to Reginald's authority as strongly, because he had an inherent trust in his own abilities that the other children did not have. And it went wrong for both Five and Reginald, with Five overestimating his own abilities and their long-term consequences and Reginald overestimating how obedient Five would be to him, and so Five got lost, never to come back in Reginald's lifetime.

For all intents and purposes, Five should have been Reginald's golden child. He is very powerful - which I think is the key reason of why Reginald treated him the way he did, someone who can control time and space can be useful in many different ways - and he had an inherent drive to explore and better his powers. But he never was, because Reginald could never really figure out how to fully control him. His influence is still stark, but Five is inherently unpredictable and adverse to authority. He genuinely rattles Reginald in every season at least once, and it's all because Reginald raised, as he so nicely put it, "an arrogant son of a bitch".

Then Five’s face as he watches them walk away from him when he’s only been around them for about 3 weeks:

I've seen people say that she didn't have as bad a childhood compared to them so she has no excuse, and she is completely unjustified in her anger (her words and actions aren't okay, they aren't meant to be and we arent meant to think that, but her anger justified and it makes sense why she's in this state of mind), she is self-absorbed in her pain since the others also lost stuff and "got over theirs". Fuck, I've even seen people bring back around her childhood rumor to Viktor, once again blaming her. I swear I've even see people straight up fucking lie and say she was terrible to Viktor, as if she wasn't in his side for two seasons. As if she didn't choose Viktor over the world, a world including her daughter.

And its just incredibly disturbing to me, because I know deep inside they would never react that way if Viktor had said something or done something cruel to her. And before anyone can say "there is no way you could know that", I literally do. Because I saw it. There was never this reaction when Viktor threatened and screamed at Allison, and then, accidentally, but nonetheless, slitting Allison's throat and literally almost killing her. In fact I saw and still see people undermine the gravity of that situation and moment.