Loki Appreciation 2020

[Raye]

huh, so Loki made an unexpected appearance today:



Apaprently from Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices , but I haven't read the issue, jsut saw this on Tumblr, so don't know the context, or 'what comes next' is.

*ok, so checked it out, and he was only in the one story, so it's something to do with Echo specifically. Not a ton to it. basically "Captain Marvel" approaches Echo to help defeat a swamp god on some planet, because the people there have sworn a vow of non-violence. They go there, but Carol was actually Loki, and he leaves, but he revealed that to her at the last second for some reason. The leader of the aliens doesn't seem to know what Loki's part is., but says she is grateful for the assistance. After a little talk she tells Echo she can see her future, but when she tries, she says all she can see is fire. Next day Echo beats up the god that's troubling them, and then the page above.

Like all the stories, they're just little one off things, but I mean, it seems to be teasing something in the future involving both Loki and Echo.... and fire. Seems like Loki was testing Echo by having her save this group of aliens, and he wanted her to know that, even if he posed as Carol to get her to the planet. Echo also has a troubled past and is trying to do better now (not as troubled as Loki, sure, but still) so maybe he's targeting people who have turned face specifically? forming a team? Still, no clue what this possibly fiery thing he's preparing for could be. Or why it was teased here. Is it just because Echo will be involved in something with Avengers or Thor or something, so they added this tease, or is it something this writer (Rebecca Roanhorse) is doing? dunno. And there have been teases like this with Loki that have not panned out before. Marvel sometimes seems to put these teases out there, and then decides whether or not to follow through later. But, still, something to watch for i guess.

*edit 2: oh, right, this is probably the fiery thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4fETEZxuww Yeah, neither Loki or Echo is shown but it does seem like EVERYONE is trying on the Phoenix for the story. So, yeah,might have been teasing an upcoming Avengers story, so we might see Loki return to the pages of Avengers again.

[Karabaja]

Well, he appears to be good(ish) here, which is a good thing. Even if he did have use his own shady approach, which is good again, because he wouldn't be Loki without it.

[Raye]

yeah, his actions helped that village, i mean he could have just done it himself, but he did seem to also want to test Echo for some reason, so kinda killed 2 birds with one stone. And I am guessing he went with impersonating Captain Marvel because if he had appeared as himself, she wouldn't had gone along with the plan. But the question of why he wanted to test Echo remains, though given where this showed up, if it will ever be addressed is a bit questionable, but it could be in the Avengers Phoenix thing, give the 'fire' thing. But I don't really get how Loki could be responsible for the Phoenix thing.

On that note, solicits were released yesterday, but I saw no mention of Loki anywhere. But as expected, Blake is targeting Jane Foster in Thor, and I presume Loki will remain involved in that story, given how it started. It'd just be nice to see that acknowledged in the solicits is all.

[Raye]

Preview for next issue of Thor came out: https://weirdsciencemarvelcomics.com...or-10-preview/

and Loki is not in it, but it should make us feel a little better about Loki getting beaten last issue, since it looks as though Blake has carved a bloody path on his way to the armoury, judging by the bodies on the floor. Sure, they're nobodies, but they are still Asgardian, to his 'human'. And I suspect one of the 3 at the end there, Bill, Sif or Volstagg, will bite it, as his first big name victim... I mean, just like Loki i last issue, they can't succeed here, or Blake's rampage story stops, and it is far too soon for that. And I think he kiiiinda needs a kill here rather than another temporary incapacitation. Which kinda sucks cus they are all cool characters, but Blake is being set up in a way where the story will feel like it falls short unless he does have a victim or two... or 6. It's not that I particularly want to see any established characters die, but it would be like having a slasher horror movie where no one died. It doesn't work. Sure some kinds of horror can work with no death, psychological, haunting, etc, but he is being set up so far as an archetypal slasher villain, this is specifically a slasher story, from what we've seen so far. He can't be going through the story just leaving every character he encounters merely wounded. Though of course they have to walk a fine line between story needs, and not decimating the cast of characters for future stories, so some, maybe even most, will escape with a flesh wound, I'm just saying, I am 99.9% sure not all of them will and I think he needs a kill early on to make the stakes clear. I think Sif is the least likely, since I think there's a lot more to tell with her in Heimdall's old role, and she seems to be the voice of reason in the book. But Bill was brought into the story for a reason, and dying could be that reason, and Volstagg is the least formidable fighter of the 3, plus Marvel has been setting up Hildegarde to take his place in the Warriors 3 for a while now. so...

On that note, I did make the Warriors 3 (including Hidegarde) in the Sims: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300578029 with eventual plans of Volstagg running a restaurant. So I hope he doesn't die. Also, Fandral promptly seduced the Grim Reaper when, literally AS I was completing a date with him (cus of course) while scoping out the future restaurant, one of the restaurant staff up and died.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300585600
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300586914
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300587775
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300589210
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300590538

So now Fandral has a bit of a thing with Grim.

Also, for some bizarre reason, Thor continues to CONSTANTLY get nekkid autonomously. I think at least one of these is Loki daring him, because 'dare to steak' is one of the high level 'mischief' dialogue options, and of course Loki has Mischief maxed, but I don't think that can explain all the times he just up and decides to get naked in public. It's quite weird, no one else does this.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300593521

Oh, right, and I made Dr Strange, Zelma, Bats, and put them in the Sanctum Sanctorum. I know Zelma should technically be on her own, but I got the Sanctum off the gallery, and it is LAVISH, so the bills are super high, I motherloded my way into buying it, cus it was like 700k, it would take ages to raise that without cheating, but didn't want to cheat to pay the bills, so the two of them working together is kinda essential right now. Strange is of course in the medical field, while Zelma is in education.

Here they are hanging with Loki and Thor shortly before the streaking incident:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300596249
Having a duel with Loki: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300599566
Strange lost: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300600355
Stange with Bats after i got him all killed and added back to the family as a ghost https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300601691
They had a costume party to get all introduced to the right people, Thor was a bit extra: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300605559
Bats, as before, they did not have a Bassett Hound option so i played with the sliders on a Beagle, and used their paint option to make him look a bit more wrinkly:
Before, with just the sliders: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300609384
After paint job: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=2300608144

but of course, after he was ghostified, none of that mattered. but it was still fun to try out that feature. Most people just use that to paint silly patterns onto the animals, but can totally be used more subtly to good effect.

huh, don't seem to have any overall pics of The Sanctum. Was a really nice build though, it's in the gallery: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/th...B53A1D585935D7
I was missing some of the DLC, so i had to make some substitutions for furniture and paint, but still, really nice.

[Raye]

So, Loki was sadly not in today's issue of Thor... however, Dimension Blood makes a comeback. I won't post the picture here because spoilers, but you can find it in this post i made on Tumblr: https://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/636...a-of-dimension I hope there is something to that, that it's not just a cute easteregg, that it will tie onto his Dr Strange run with Loki. As i said on my post, Loki should in theory be there, even if he wasn't shown on panel this issue, and he knows about this dimension, he fought in it before, and probably more importantly, knows how to travel between it and Midgard/Asgard without the Bifrost. I don't think he has the power to transport EVERYONE, but he could get a few key people out. But.... they all got beat up pretty bad. Like i said above, don't feel bad about Loki losing to Blake, so did everyone else. at the same time.

Also posted a big ramble of my thoughts on how things will go: https://rayegunn.tumblr.com/post/636...or-mega-ramble I was a bit off about the ax to the face, but... there was blood, and a lot of characters are in rough shape. And I do fell good about the broad strokes. Most of it is stuff discussed here before, just, all in one place.

[rpmaluki]

Vote Loki made it onto the show.

[Raye]

niiiice!

I see they dead on copied the costume from Vote Loki, like to the last detail, which is cool, even tho the events don't seem to be the same.

The TVA tho, seems to be a bit different from the comics, still got the kinda office vibe but more Brutalist meets Art Deco in design. I am guessing this is in part to differentiate it from Umbrella Academy, since Umbrella Academy kinda sorta ripped off Marvel's TVA, but the Umbrella Academy made it to the screen first, so people would think it was the other way around. Also the field agents are dressed different but i was expecting that, the comics outfits are pretty doofy. I see a lot of the more outlandish speculation floating around on Youtube and stuff about Owen Wilson's role was waaaay off tho.

I like that they made him DB Cooper. that's fun, and a really good real life event for a time traveler to be, since they never did find him, and he coincidentally bore a strong resemblance to Tom Hiddleston which makes it work well. Curious to see what other real life events they stick him into. Fingers crossed for Bjorn Ironsides sacking of Pisa, tho that would be a long time in the past.

Good to see Roxxon making a proper entrance to the MCU, (tho i thik there have been like some minor eastereggs before this, and I know it was in Cloak and Dagger, but I don't think that counts as MCU) i hope the rumors about Dario Agger in the next Thor are true, and this could tie in to that if it is.

i want to know what the letters on the elevator buttons mean. They are not floor numbers, they're weird numbers and letters: IUL, GYE, FE3, 2WE, LK3, 3FG, 2W1, CET, FHF, XN1, GV2, TSL, U77, GE3 any ideas? I mean I am guessing they refer to timelines, but... are they referring to specific ones we may have seen in the comics or movies? but the universes in the MU have typically only been numbers before, no letters.


Not related to Loki specifically, but one thing i definitely wasn't expecting was the Black Widow cameo. Seems to be set in the place she died, so... huh.

[Karabaja]

Oooh, I love it. My kid is going to be thrilled hopefully this will take her mind off Minecraft.

[Raye]

btw, Loki also had a blink and miss it appearance in the What If trailer:




He appears to be addressing the UN with some Asgardian soldiers, so, i guess it's What If Loki ruled Asgard? (but like, openly this time)

[rpmaluki]

btw, Loki also had a blink and miss it appearance in the What If trailer:




He appears to be addressing the UN with some Asgardian soldiers, so, i guess it's What If Loki ruled Asgard? (but like, openly this time)

I knew I saw those gold horns in that trailer. Him addressing the UN is certainly unexpected but then it's a What if story. Hopefully it's more than a cameo appearance.

[rpmaluki]

niiiice!

I see they dead on copied the costume from Vote Loki, like to the last detail, which is cool, even tho the events don't seem to be the same.

The TVA tho, seems to be a bit different from the comics, still got the kinda office vibe but more Brutalist meets Art Deco in design. I am guessing this is in part to differentiate it from Umbrella Academy, since Umbrella Academy kinda sorta ripped off Marvel's TVA, but the Umbrella Academy made it to the screen first, so people would think it was the other way around. Also the field agents are dressed different but i was expecting that, the comics outfits are pretty doofy. I see a lot of the more outlandish speculation floating around on Youtube and stuff about Owen Wilson's role was waaaay off tho.

I like that they made him DB Cooper. that's fun, and a really good real life event for a time traveler to be, since they never did find him, and he coincidentally bore a strong resemblance to Tom Hiddleston which makes it work well. Curious to see what other real life events they stick him into. Fingers crossed for Bjorn Ironsides sacking of Pisa, tho that would be a long time in the past.

Good to see Roxxon making a proper entrance to the MCU, (tho i thik there have been like some minor eastereggs before this, and I know it was in Cloak and Dagger, but I don't think that counts as MCU) i hope the rumors about Dario Agger in the next Thor are true, and this could tie in to that if it is.

i want to know what the letters on the elevator buttons mean. They are not floor numbers, they're weird numbers and letters: IUL, GYE, FE3, 2WE, LK3, 3FG, 2W1, CET, FHF, XN1, GV2, TSL, U77, GE3 any ideas? I mean I am guessing they refer to timelines, but... are they referring to specific ones we may have seen in the comics or movies? but the universes in the MU have typically only been numbers before, no letters.


Not related to Loki specifically, but one thing i definitely wasn't expecting was the Black Widow cameo. Seems to be set in the place she died, so... huh.

I said the following elsewhere but could this be a repurposed Agent of Adgard but with the TVA instead of Frigga?

[Karabaja]

It does have that air to me. He's definitely dealing with some shady $#&t on the behalf of TVA there.

[Raye]

I would have preferred if they had done the preceding work with JIM beforehand first, just because JIM was just... really good, and I would like to see it adapted, they had a perfect setup for it, and it played a huge part in his motivation in AoA... but at the same time, looks like we didn't get it, but I could definitely see that still working here. Them making him pay for his crimes against the timeline by doing work for them, kinda like the deal he struck with Freyja to erase his assorted crimes. They do seem to go over his greatest hits so far, and the way he turns his face away, he seems ashamed by some of the things he did, so there could still be some guilt at work, even without Kid Loki. Though this version of the character has not undergone the character development he did in post-Avengers movies, if what has been said about him being under control of the Mind stone during Avengers is true, and they (finally) make that clear here, then that could give him instant guilt as soon as he broke free of it, especially since from what I understand, he wasn't exactly a puppet, in the way like Hawkeye was, it was more that Thanos cranked up all his negative emotions up to 11, so it was still him, just... feeling more rage, etc. Not about everything, he was acting on his own during Thor, but still. And since we are dealing with time travel and alternate timelines, the shadowy figure in the hood could be him from the future where he went mega bad, kinda like King Loki.

Oh, and had another look at it, and just wanted to mention a couple other things I noticed. the TVA seems like it may have some kind of connection with the Living Tribunal in the MCU? (tho technically, the TVA should be the same across all universes, but... well, clearly there are differences) That's the only thing I can think of with the sculptures that are shown a couple times of three figures, and 3 faces in particular. It is a motif that is repeated twice in this trailer alone, so i don't think it is some kind of coincidence. Also, in the DB Cooper scene he says 'brother, Heimdall, you'd better be ready' so I'm hoping we get to see him interact with Thor! Even if it is an alternate universe version. The teleportation effect after he jumps from the plane definitely looked like the Bifrost, so I guess Heimdall was, indeed, ready.

[dr4conianlaw]

Kind of an interesting shot here!

Screen Shot 2020-12-11 at 6.19.40 PM.jpg

Something chaotic, one obvious office Loki in the back, a throne with an L above it behind the action, and... hard to tell, but that kinda looks like the AOA coat on that figure close to the camera, huh?

Also there's a bathtub in the middle of the room.

[Raye]

yeah hat scene is weird.

Here, i went through it while in fullscreen to grab some clearer images: https://imgur.com/a/bsMHfP6


The clip there only lasts literally a single second, but there is a lot to unpack in that one second. But it does seem to be from the same scene as the Vote Loki homage, based on the background surroundings, which completely match, that red and white striped walls/ceiling are very distinctive. But on first watch, because of the red and white stripes, i took it as sort of maybe a trashed campaign office or something, but on closer examination, no, it's not that at all. I mean it may have been at one time, but this place was trashed a LONG time ago. Yes, there is a random bathtub there but have a close look:



beyond that weirdass bathtub, there are vines and roots coming through the roof, other assorted bits of junk, there is a throne flanked by plastic candy canes, so it appears it was once one of those mall Santa thrones, and a glowing L above it. Though he's wearing the same outfit as in Vote Loki, clearly events are very different. This is a post-apocalyptic nest. I think this is tied to the timeline shown elsewhere in the trailer that showed New York in ruins. And the Loki of that timeline, the one in the Vote Loki outfit, just kinda declared himself ruler of the ruins, possibly using a mall as his palace. Whether he caused this destruction or not is unclear, but I think there is a good chance it's his fault. He may have won the election in that timeline, since there does seem to have been an actual election since they ahve campaign buttons with his name on them, and.... it went poorly afterward. I suspect TVA Loki will be encountering a lot of alt Lokis behaving badly, and be forced to consider if that's really what he wants out of life with the second chance he's being given. Note that the Loki in the picture is in the TVA outfit, the brown pants and tan shirt, narrow tie, so that is TVA Agent Loki, and he seems to be encountering the shenanigans of himself in another timeline. Whether the figure being beaten down by the dude with the hammer is yet another Loki in Agent of Asgard outfit is harder to say. Looking at it in a few different frames, there are some differences, mainly that he seems to have a hard bracer on at least one arm, but it is a long green coat, and he does seem to be wearing some kind of headdress. hard to say from so few frames where most of them are blurry. but why there would be two alternate Lokis in that same scene is confusing to me, since we know the Vote Loki one is also in that scene, as mentioned.