LOKI (Spoilers Possible!)

[Crazedwraith]

Also, this episode apparently confirmed my theory that the “Sacred Timeline” is a bunch of timelines that they have been keeping from deviating too hard.

This seems to be the case given Classic Thor's story. He didn't cause an event because he wasn't making waves, for all intents and purposes he was dead. It's when he wanted to come back and would impact things that he got pruned.

[Batman]

So USS Eldridge but I seriously doubt that whatever alternate timeline she's from, the US Navy would've painted her name in a place that in her native environment would be below the waterline

[LadyTevar]

So USS Eldridge but I seriously doubt that whatever alternate timeline she's from, the US Navy would've painted her name in a place that in her native environment would be below the waterline

Was that a Loki on her? The first sailor to get culled?

Oh my, oh my... this one was a lot of fun. I'm guessing Alligator-Loki and Frog-Thor are from similar if not the same timelines. Have to admit, that 'gator was one bad hombre and not afraid of a fight.

Kid-Loki... why's he in charge? He did what NO OTHER LOKI HAD DONE (that we know of). Yeah, that's a big enough reason to cull his ass right there.

Highly interesting that our Loki is doing actual conjurations amongst the illusions, Sylvie is focused on Enchanting, but Classic Loki was the master of Illusions. Yeah, it drained him dry, but he recreated all of Asgard!
Which makes me wonder -- Did 'our' Loki learn Enchantment that quick, or was it the two of them joining together? Was it the connection between them (physical and if not mental then at least like minded)? Is it something he could do because he's "Enlightened"?

So many questions. And I'm thinking we're going to find Judge Ravonna Renslayer is just a Variant, while they find the Original Renslayer in that castle the Goliath helpfully revealed.

[Broomstick]

I really enjoyed this last episode, the action, the craziness, the meta-references, all the Lokis, all the Lokis in a free-for-all brawl, Gator!Loki (ate the wrong neighbor's cat? THAT's Nexus event? Would love something on that noodle event), Mobius, magic, and, oh yeah, there was some bits at that distant TVA place.

I'm just going to point out that while many Lokis seemed to learn nothing SOME do and they are capable of character development - Classic Loki, Loki 1130, Sylvie, possibly Kid Loki...

[FireNexus]

This seems to be the case given Classic Thor's story. He didn't cause an event because he wasn't making waves, for all intents and purposes he was dead. It's when he wanted to come back and would impact things that he got pruned.

To be fair, we only know that Main Timeline Loki died during Infinity War instead of doing what classic Loki did because the TVA told us. If they can’t detect deviations from the plan that don’t result in major changes on the scale of the universe (or, based on the apparent focus of the TVA, at least the universe as it relates to the history of Earth up to at least 100 years in the future in particular) they wouldn’t detect it.

Möbius might not have shown it to Loki regardless, because it wouldn’t help get Loki on his side to get Sylvie.

[Elheru Aran]

Minor note: apparently Frog-Thor (Throg? Who, incidentally, wields Frogjolnir. No joke.) had a much longer scene that was deleted... and Chris Hemsworth even recorded dialogue for it.

I rather hope they show us those deleted scenes at some point. If they're anything like the rest of the show has been, they're gold.

Frankly, I've enjoyed this show *much* more than the other MCU TV shows on D+. It's completely embraced the sheer insanity of the comic-book universe in a fashion where they can actually logically have all the crazy shit that's happened historically... it's just another Variant that's been scrubbed, so that's why we don't see the silly shit in the movies or whatever. That, and well, Hiddleston is a hell of an actor who fits the character beautifully.

[Eframepilot]

So very nice episode but not the wtf quotient and impact of last week. Still I figure I can’t have noticed even a small fraction of the references there only the obvious stuff like the Thanos Copter and the Thor Frog in a jar.

Nice character work I thought and a good example of how self-destructive an unenlightened loki is. They pulled a fast one by putting the President Loki in the trailer, the only one also played by Hiddleston.

The shot of everyone’s blue eyes made me wonder if Mobius is another loki variant, it would explain why he was so willing to give loki a chance.

Every time I see ‘and Tara Strong as Miss Minute’ I suspect there’s much more to her than meets the eye but with one episode left it seems unlikely to come to anything.

Still, pretty good and I still have no idea where it’s ending up.

Miss Minutes came up with the lie about the timeship on her own. I think she's the real boss of the TVA and is running it on behalf of her creator, i.e. whoever is in the castle. She may have gone completely rogue, though, and the master of the castle may enlist Loki and Sylvie to shut her down once he determines that they can be trusted.

[Broomstick]

The shot of everyone’s blue eyes made me wonder if Mobius is another loki variant, it would explain why he was so willing to give loki a chance.

Nope, no chance Mobius is another Loki - wrong personality. There is just no way in hell any Loki could be the dutiful corporate drone Mobius was for ages.

[Crazedwraith]

Frankly, I've enjoyed this show *much* more than the other MCU TV shows on D+. It's completely embraced the sheer insanity of the comic-book universe in a fashion where they can actually logically have all the crazy shit that's happened historically... it's just another Variant that's been scrubbed, so that's why we don't see the silly shit in the movies or whatever. That, and well, Hiddleston is a hell of an actor who fits the character beautifully.

According to TVtropes trivia page, it was written relatively free of executive meddling to make it fit in with the rest of phase 4 and just allowed to concentrate only on making a good show, which I imagine is a luxury that WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier did not get.

I think it's a slicker, tighter story and better production than the other two shows but for me, I don't give a shit about the Loki character the same way I cared about Wanda or Sam finally getting a spotlight.

[FireNexus]

Nope, no chance Mobius is another Loki - wrong personality. There is just no way in hell any Loki could be the dutiful corporate drone Mobius was for ages.

That Mobius could feasibly be an illusion or glamour, though.

[Elheru Aran]

I think it's a slicker, tighter story and better production than the other two shows but for me, I don't give a shit about the Loki character the same way I cared about Wanda or Sam finally getting a spotlight.

Well, I feel like that also plays a part in making the show work. Loki is a side character in the greater MCU, and vitally, his story in the greater MCU is (probably) over. That character isn't going anywhere anymore (in the movies. Probably. No guarantees on what happens in Thor: Love and Thunder), so the stakes are much lower. Wanda and Sam have futures in the MCU, and we're aware of that to some degree at least, so that makes what happens in the shows seem to matter a little bit more.

But Loki doesn't matter. Outside of possibly appearing in a brief cameo or whatever in Thor: Love and Thunder (wouldn't surprise me), they can do anything with him. That's why the show works better, to me-- it's much more free. It's not burdened by knowledge that it may be influential towards future films. So the TVA is likely to be an one-off bad guy, despite the cosmic scale of its work-- so what? Loki can literally hit the reset button and erase the TVA! Or Mobius, considering he's the one working towards destroying it now...

Shit, I bet the big bad at the end is a future-variant of Mobius, somehow, and he's manipulated Loki into setting up the destruction of the TVA. Something like that.

[Crazedwraith]

That's basically what I said and meant in the part of my post you didn't quote.

[wautd]

If this show manages to keep it up, it'll dethrone Wandavision* as my favorite Marvel series

*which I found excellent, except for the cliché-isch finale

[Broomstick]

OK, so now we know how the Multiverse of Madness happens - and it's all Lokis' fault.

[LadyTevar]

OK, so now we know how the Multiverse of Madness happens - and it's all Lokis' fault.

Did you REALLY think it would be otherwise? After all, what's the One Thing about Norse Mythology? Something bad happens -- Loki Did It.

[Broomstick]

Meh, my reading of Norse mythology is that Loki is a catalyst - he causes things to happen, but they aren't always bad. Among the more positive things attributed to him are fishing nets and getting most of the walls of Asgard rebuilt for no effort on the part of the Aesir (he wound up having to give birth to Sleipnir, but that's another bonus I suppose) although they did have to finish that one tiny bit on their own. And there was that time Thor had to dress in drag as a "bride" of a Jotun and Loki was instrumental for making that work. Loki also instigated the creation of the magical ship Skidbladnir, Odin's spear Gungnir, the magical boar Gullinbursti, the magical arm-ring Draupnir that every ninth night dropped eight gold rings of weight equal to itself, and Thor's hammer Mjollnir. He really is essential to the mythos.

When the Christians showed up they cast him in the role of the Devil, but he wasn't that, not really. Not in the original mythos.

In the Marvel universe(s), however, he's more more uniformly sinister.

[LadyTevar]

Either way... It wasn't so much Loki as it was Sylvie. Going to be very interesting to see where it goes from here.

But let's break it down. Castle at the end of the Universe -- Very Kintsugi with all those gold-filled cracks.
The Last One Standing. "Some have called me Conqueror..." Nice way of dropping the hints without saying the NAME.
Miss Minutes was in on it the entire time, and she gave Ravonna the marching orders to whatever last-minute plan he had.

So, the Timeline is branching crazily. Loki is now no longer recognized by Mobius or Hunter-13. The statues are different, so this isn't Loki's TVA.

Season Two is going to be VERY INTERESTING. I wonder if it'll take place during or after Dr Strange & Multiverse?

[Lost Soal]

His plan seemed designed to fail. He supposedly laid all the steps to bring Loki and Sylvie to him in order to take over the TVA, even though it should have been obvious that they would never have both agreed to do it. Almost as if what he really wanted was to be killed and released.

[LadyTevar]

And TOTALLY MISSED THE FACT THAT JONATHAN MAJORS WAS CAST AS "KANG THE CONQUEROR" IN THE NEW ANTMAN MOVIE!

So, there's a real Easter Egg for you -- here's his FIRST APPEARANCE AS KANG, in LOKI!

[Crazedwraith]

His plan seemed designed to fail. He supposedly laid all the steps to bring Loki and Sylvie to him in order to take over the TVA, even though it should have been obvious that they would never have both agreed to do it. Almost as if what he really wanted was to be killed and released.

Especially since his explanation of the whole thing was basically what the TVA already said with just a few more details on the badness that preceeded the TVa basically.

I knew Loki season 2 had been greenlit. I didn't realise ti was part of the plan all along. Kind of peeved about the non-ending tbh.

[FireNexus]

His plan seemed designed to fail. He supposedly laid all the steps to bring Loki and Sylvie to him in order to take over the TVA, even though it should have been obvious that they would never have both agreed to do it. Almost as if what he really wanted was to be killed and released.

Or he’s seen this go a million wrong ways and he’s close to out of ideas. Or he has done this a bunch of times and he keeps trying to change just enough to make it work. Or he’s just a not a very good Kang apart from figuring out Alioth.

[FireNexus]

His plan seemed designed to fail. He supposedly laid all the steps to bring Loki and Sylvie to him in order to take over the TVA, even though it should have been obvious that they would never have both agreed to do it. Almost as if what he really wanted was to be killed and released.

Or he’s seen this go a million wrong ways and he’s close to out of ideas. Or he has done this a bunch of times and he keeps trying to change just enough to make it work. Or he’s just a not a very good Kang apart from figuring out Alioth.

[FireNexus]

I think that there is more to the “flea on the dragon” bit than we realize. Maybe Immortus’ plan was never to have Loki and Sylvie take over, but to put Loki in a position to end this once and for all.

Whatever his plan, I’m willing to believe it either involved his death or at least anticipated that happening but it still succeeding. I see a lot of “he was insane”. He didn’t seem insane to me. He seemed super sane, just a little loopy from all that TIME.

[FireNexus]

And TOTALLY MISSED THE FACT THAT JONATHAN MAJORS WAS CAST AS "KANG THE CONQUEROR" IN THE NEW ANTMAN MOVIE!

So, there's a real Easter Egg for you -- here's his FIRST APPEARANCE AS KANG, in LOKI!

He’s probably more Immortus than Kang, here. But I’m splitting hairs.

[Gandalf]

Binged it all today.

Easily the best series so far. Also, a special shoutout to the design of the TVA. It was a beautiful, bureaucratic, dystopian monstrosity, and I hope to see more of it.