By Luca Newton
Loki on Disney+ finished last week, and the ramifications of it are huge, as well as it being something truly special. I needed to write about it.
This post includes spoilers for the whole of Loki.
Third in a line of Disney+ Marvel shows, Loki manages to impress and collectively blow our minds, despite the first 2 being good as well. However, Loki's implications really mean more for the future of the MCU more than anything since Avengers Endgame itself. By not only being a spectacular show, but one that truly delivers exciting events that will mean a lot in most of the upcoming MCU movies, and beyond what we already know.
I will be reviewing this series purely on personal opinion, by going over the main factors of the series in the order in which it was shown in the show.
Loki And Mobius - TVA Partners
Loki started incredibly strong with the actions of a captured Loki from the first Avengers film but due to the events of Endgame, he manages to escape with the Tesseract. This action causes Loki to be captured and taken prisoner by a weird police coming from time doors. Completely confused and clueless, Loki goes through processing as he comes to terms with what the hell is going on. Loki meets Mobius, who he would eventually form a close friendship with. Through the course of the first 2 episodes, the show takes time to really sit down and bring in some fascinating world-building, character development for Loki, and the pure scale of the TVA compared to what else we've seen in the MCU.
What I think is brilliant about episode 1 is the incredible establishment of the TVA, and the pure scale of the TVA, and how exactly the show fits into the MCU, and what its implications are for the MCU as a whole. Episode 1 is the full package. In it, we not only get to see a brilliantly retro animated explanation of the TVA and the brief summary of previous Multiversal War, explained by Miss Minutes, we also really get to sit with Loki and Mobius and really talk out everything. Sure the first episode has little in the way of action, in fact it's almost exclusively talking and exposition and world-building, but honestly that's what I love about this show. It feels so natural and fits within the universe so well, I love the slow dialogue heavy show that this series aims to be. Additionally, I actually adored how Loki had a whole character arc within the course of a single episode that actually makes sense and works naturally, while also shocking us and putting this all into perspective. Loki not only sees his future death, he sees all the events leading up to it. He sees his character arc from The Dark World to Infinity War, and how he caused his mother to be killed indirectly. This really impacts him. To add to that, he also sees the Infinity Stones, the literal basis of the entirety of the MCU up until this point, and the TVA use them as paperweights. All of this really pushes Loki's character arc faster than what it was, because he has more perspective than he's ever had in his life. His façade which he puts up for an illusion of control over his life has been utterly shattered, and he can finally be honest. It's all splendidly acted by Tom Hiddleston. And the chemistry he has with Owen Wilson as Mobius, a loyal cog in the machine, is absolutely great.
What is then so great with the second episode, is that it continues this theme of being heavily dialogue based in the best way possible. This episode focuses on finding another variant of Loki hellbent on burning the TVA to the ground. Mobius manages to make a deal with Ravonna Renslayer to have Loki himself help find a variant of himself. What was so great about this was just the scenes where Loki and Mobius are just sitting and talking to each other. Asking about each other's pasts and aspirations, and getting to know each other. But also working together to find the variant in smart ways. This episode explores the technology of the TVA and how it works, and what it can do. We go to Pompeii and then a few decades in the future within the same episode. It manages to make itself a buddy cop time travel episode with a real payoff at the end as we finally see this variant, and Loki goes off after her.
As debuting episodes of this show, the first 2 episodes establish a strong start for the series. Establishing key concepts of the TVA in fun and creative ways that keep you intrigued and enthralled with the world-building. It also manages to fit within Loki's pre-established character thematically, while creating a completely new development and path for the character of Loki within this environment. Loki as a character is a villain because he was lied to about being adopted, and being a Ice Giant which has been told to be these inherently evil creatures. Loki feels immense envy of Thor, and a lack of control. At the end of Thor, leading into Avengers, Loki attempts to control his life through working with Thanos and attempting to rule Earth instead of Asgard on his own will and not as a result of a lie he was unaware of. Being in the TVA directly contrasts his own will, he is in a place that chooses the will of everyone, when Loki was all about making his own choices to control his life, but it turns out all he was working towards was actually controlled by a different higher power. This forces our Loki to take off his façade and truly understand his role in the world. But the thing is, the TVA aren't the good guys. In fact, the show then spends its time making this a fight for free will for Loki. True to his character, Loki wants control of his life, so in the form of essentially a dictatorship, Loki is trying to take it down and get control.
Loki And Sylvie - Learning To Love Yourself
Going into the third episode, after Loki has learned of the lack of control in his life, and almost accepted it by working for the TVA and forming a kinship with Mobius, he chases his variant into a time door and herein we see a new aspect of Loki's development in the show start to blossom. The concept of Loki learning to love himself - something he hasn't been able to.
Now before I get into the details, I need to go over people's main digression with this subplot. Firstly, the issue with Loki and Sylvie romantically involved, many claim it's "selfcest" or a case of "queerbaiting". Firstly, you will never fuck an alternate version of yourself, so selfcest isn't real, nor are there any ethics on it, and there will never will be. In the second case, they confirmed Loki is bisexual, but just because he's bi, doesn't mean he only can like guys, he also likes girls, and so the fact he doesn't instantly decide to make a statement and randomly get with a guy in this series is irrelevant. The true intention of the romance was to the physical embodiment of Loki learning to love himself in the twisted and narcissistic way that truly fit Loki and what we know of him. Was the romance rushed? Yes. But on the principle of its intentions, it certainly had a reason to be in the show and isn't nearly as scandalous as people are saying.
However, back to the main chunk of this section, episode 3 is focused on establishing Sylvie, and setting up the kind of relationship she is going to have with Loki in the show. In the start, Loki gets both him and Sylvie stuck in the far future on the Lamentis moon, which is in fact a doomsday event, and the planet it orbits is about to demolish Lamentis, and absolutely nobody makes it out alive (because there is civilisation in this planet). Many cite this episode as unnecessary filler. While I do concede it is probably the weakest episode in the season, I think it's not worthless, and is a very solid, entertaining episode that lets us as viewers breathe before things really ramp up, and relies on this idea of Loki and Sylvie having a closer relationship than a brief encounter. This episode felt like a Mandalorian episode in some way, in that its standalone and is almost a side quest, but its strength is how it sets up Loki and Sylvie's dynamic going forward. Again, my favourite part of this episode was when Loki and Sylvie are sitting down in the train, talking to each other about love and how they feel about it. There's a sense of establishing a close friendship as well as a trusting relationship between both which becomes important later. Before moving on, let me just say that the final scene of this episode was really harrowing and exhilarating. A one take action scene as Loki and Sylvie rush to the escape ship, in a panicking citadel with such a gorgeous neon aesthetic, it was absolutely incredible.
Leading into the 4th episode, after Loki and Sylvie are saved last minute by the TVA and put under arrest, the episode directs its focus on Loki putting others before himself. When he's under interrogation by Mobius, he is desperately trying to tell Mobius the truth of the TVA, and he is also desperate to know if Sylvie is safe. Episode 4 opens with a heart-breaking scene of a innocent child Sylvie doing absolutely nothing wrong, but being abruptly taken by the TVA, and then escaping. This scene establishes that the TVA aren't really the good guys here, we are already sympathising with Sylvie. The truth of the TVA is a heavy narrative beat of the episode, as Loki and Sylvie manage to convince Mobius and Hunter B23 that the TVA is a lie. In pursuit of the truth, Loki and Sylvie are united to finally meet the Time Keepers and kill them. However, in Wizard of Oz fashion, they turn out to be fake. In that moment a battle follows. In the end, Loki decides to share his feelings with Sylvie, and at that point he is ready to accept himself, and admit he loves himself. And in a literal sense, you need to love yourself before you can love someone else. However, before Loki can say anything, he is pruned.
Variants Of Plenty - The Man Behind The Curtains
The final 2 episodes centre around the concept of variants and finding out who the man behind the curtains is. This last story arc is absolutely incredibly done, and both episodes 5 and 6 fully use the potential of a Loki show and perfect it with 2 incredible episodes. The mystery of who's behind the TVA, mixed with tons of clues diehard comics fans will know who they're eluding to, as well as many other unrelated but cool references.
Episode 5 is an especially cool episode, as it takes place in the void after Loki has been pruned at the end of the last episode. There Loki meets more variants of himself. A specific group of them; Classic Loki, Young Loki, Boastful Loki and Gator Loki. Each of them are so cool and interesting. Gator Loki is hilarious just by just being there. The standout is definitely Classic Loki, played by Richard E Grant, and he is great. In the episode, Loki wants to get out of the void, but since there's this huge guard dog fog Alioth, it could indicate that the person in charge in the TVA would be down in the void. With the help of Mobius and Sylvie who are both pruned, Loki must get past Alioth. Classic Loki manages to hold off Alioth with an illusion big enough to distract him while Loki and Sylvie enchant him to get past him. Classic Loki decides his glorious purpose is to hold off Alioth and sacrifice himself to let Sylvie and Loki go on themselves. It was an incredible little arc for his character.
In the finale, as Loki and Sylvie enter the castle outside of time, past Alioth. I loved the finale because it really took the part of the show I loved and ran with it. Dialogue. People may have felt it was anti-climactic to be dialogue heavy as opposed to action heavy, but I embrace it, and prefer. When entering the castle, we get jump scared by Miss Minutes and told of He Who Remains. As they go deeper in, a door opens and we see Jonathan Majors smiling back at the camera. And GOD what an iconic moment. All the speculation paid off, Kang has arrived in the MCU. This leads to a genuinely incredible conversation between Kang and Loki and Sylvie. Jonathan Majors with his flawless performance already terrifying everyone for his future as the clear big bad. He had a sense of insanity in his portrayal as this variant is the "better" Kang, at the end of time holding off the other variants from causing damage to the multiverse, as a conqueror. Loki and Sylvie came here to kill the guy in charge, but we now know if he dies, a much more dangerous version of himself as well as many other versions will take his place and cause havoc. This alerts Loki, as he thinks it may be best to leave this variant as he is, but in a great scene, Sylvie betrays Loki by kissing him to put him off guard, and sending him away as she kills He Who Remains. I thought a line in this episode perfectly sums up Loki's character arc. "You can't trust, and I can't be trusted". It's an incredible line. However, as Sylvie kills He Who Remains, we see the timeline frantically branch out. Loki goes out into the TVA, only to see the TVA has changed with a different variant. With complete fear and horror, Loki looks at a statue of Kang the Conqueror. We leave on that shot, as we can sense the impending threat that Kang is going to be, and how he'll affect the future of the MCU. It is absolutely brilliantly shot.
This gets everyone not only excited for the second season, but it gets people excited for the rest of the MCU. All future movies have some form of connection to the multiverse, and we just know that Kang is going to be a huge deal. By the end of this, I was just absolutely giddy with excitement for the potential of the MCU, which we already know looks bright. This show manages to be its own unique, fun, dialogue heavy show I adore, while also being the perfect set-up for what will likely be the focus of the MCU for the next foreseeable phases.
Loki is a truly special show because it just has this completely insane premise, and it manages to pull it off in the best way possible, while also getting people excited for the future of the MCU, as well as a season 2, which will inevitably be great too.
Thanks for reading
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