Loki Appreciation 2021

[Raye]

Right? Loki's role-less! Cates has done plenty of setup to have Loki pick up a role of some kind and there's just not much left, most roles have been claimed. The Champion role remains pretty much because Thor was refusing to give it up until now.

On the one hand, no role at all means Loki is free of fate, which is good for him, but.... I don't think that would make the best story.

[Yoruno]

As for the show, you said you didn't like the kiss scene. The thing is that Sylvie kisses him partly to distract him from what she's doing. She's getting hold of Kang's remote and is still sure that Loki wants to do the same thing. Trust issues, you see.
I'm really impressed and happy to see your theory work!

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

(spoil) I thought it was a decent finale that spend 3/4 of its run time on an info dump. So it might run people the wrong way.

I didn't like how the Ravonna/Mobius confrontation ended. I just saw it as too vague so I would've liked a stronger tease for where Ravonna ends up.

Kang felt too jokey but I'm hoping there's another variant with a dryer sense of humor. I'm just glad he wasn't a new Loki variant.

Loki's arc in the show is to go from a self absorbed ******* to someone who can form connections with others. He even becomes someone who tried to look at the bigger picture. His fight with Sylvie is over that. She wanted to put her desire for revenge over the greater good. He wanted to find a better way or atleast a middle ground.

So I hereby dub this variant as “Heroic Loki".

The finale had its problems but it does succeed at being a season finale of a tv show. It had an arc and answered the questions it set out. I duh it and I'm looking forward to season 2 when it drops.

A large part of season 2 is gonna be Loki working at this new version of the TVA. He's gonna try and find Sylvie as well as who the new Kang Variant is/what he wants etc. In the new TVA, there is a statue of a pharaoh. He looks like the he who remains variant and is a reference to Pharaoh Rama Tut. Who was one of Kang's alternate identities in the comics.

Because Mobius doesn't remember him he could try a different approach. He could try and blend in even building a false identity for himself while he investigates. Which would inevitably blow up in his face but what fun it will be.

Loki is going to pop up in Doctor Strange 2: Multiverse of Madness. So we might see a tease of this status quo. He would work with Doctor Strange and Wanda as part of the TVA. They might even form a mini team like they did in Ragnarok. Meet the Muskiteers of the Multiverse . (spoil)

[CosmiComic]

I'll say I'm not huge on the Loki X Loki romance myself. It seems weird.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'll say I'm not huge on the Loki X Loki romance myself. It seems weird.

It is but he's a villian with a ton of baggage. I'd be surprised if his tastes were normal.

[2G4MCU]

Theory = is Sylvie (variant Loki) actually the first Transgender hero / character of the MCU ?
We don’t know much about the origin of Sylvie.
We are shown her as a young child girl playing with toys and making up stories of heroic adventures of a Valkyrie when a team of TVA minutemen led by a younger Ravonna Renslayer (then a simple hunter and not yet promoted to Judge) bark in and capture her.
We don’t really see any reason any valid reason for that young girl actions to be considered a Nexus event by the TVA. When asked about it years later by Sylvie, Renslayer claimls she does not remember it, which does not sound too convincing..
My theory is that this Loki variant was actually born with a male sex but feels that their gender identity is different. Basically he is transgender (maybe MtF or Transfeminine)…
Maybe the childhood scene we witness is the first time that Loki variant actually the first time he switches to a female form (first transition) and that transformation is the Nexus Event..
That physical switch may have been triggered by his psychical identification with a heroic Valkyrie.. We are told in the movie Thor 3 Ragnarok that the Valkyries disappeared long before the death of Thor and Loki (massacred by Hela) but they remain heroic figures of legend, and Thor confides that when he was a child he wanted to be a Valkyrie and wastold they only recruited women, so he went on to become a more « classical » warrior raised to be a future king. The child Loki may have had the same childhood fantasy, but his emerging shapeshifting powers actually turn him into the girl we see…
When they confide a little in episode 3 on Lamentis, Sylvie tells Loki she was born a girl. But this could be a lie (she could have a history of rejection due to her gender switch).. or she just mean that she really feels her identity is female from birth (regardless of her sexual appearance as a newborn)…
If the Nexus Event is as we are led to believe that she is a female Loki (apparently the only one the other Loki variants we see are aware of), it does not make sense the TVA only capture her at the moment we see they do, and not just after her birth.. It does however make sense that the Minutemen of Ravonna intervene when the TVA detects the sex change (which diverts that Loki variant from the predestined path assigned to him in the Sacred Timeline).
Another thing Sylvie mentions to Loki is that she was made aware that she was adopted in her young age. If this is true, she may have been told about it just before the change (or may have gotten the revelation of it by an early émergence of her enchantment powers), and the resulting trauma might have helped in the transformation…

[Prof. Aegis]

I see the kiss two ways. One Loki, finally is allowing someone in and to get close and feel something deeper. Yes, it's a variant of himself, but that's because he feels he can relate to her and to where's she's been on some levels. So he feels a connection with her. He has a chance to allow himself share and be free and feels a deeper bond with her. So a kiss was a way for him to show how he's opening up. Would it be a romantic relationship to last, probably not (not the follow-up events withstanding), just because the two of them are too similar, but I could see a long lasting bond of sometype.

The second is as Yoruno states. Sylvie was using that moment not for passion and love, but as a distraction to get what she wants. Typical Loki in that way. She's been on her own for so long, she does not trust anyone unless they go along with her actions. And even then, she only trust them so far.

The kiss was just okay for me. I didn't see it as truly romantic, but a sign of growth for one and distraction for the other. So Loki, has grown through this journey. Grown in powers and strength. Grown in compassion, empathy and a purpose greater than himself. Sylvie on the other hand stayed on her path. Wanting more, but not believing in it...just belief in her mission for revenge/payback.

I've seen some people on different social media boards complaining that Loki wasn't the main character and he was a side character in his own story. But I've also noticed that many of those people complaining also wanted direct action from Loki every scene. Anytime Loki wasn't the focus they didn't like it. Well, then you have a very limiting story and not a lot of depth nor a lot of chances for the main character to grow. I see Loki having grown as a character much more in this series than through his movie appearances due to his interaction with others and his observations of their actions and beliefs. Kind of how real life works.

Yes, I would have loved to see more action from Loki at the end, yes I would have liked to see Loki in a new outfit befiting who he is...AOA style would be cool! But knowing he'll probably appear in Dr. Strange, and will be back for a second season, there's probably a bigger chance to see that then.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

The TVA business casual look is growing on me. But something more like his Agent if Asgard look would be more welcome.

[CosmiComic]

It is but he's a villian with a ton of baggage. I'd be surprised if his tastes were normal.

True, but it doesn't help him look less self-involved. I'm n9t sure why Marvel went in this direction

[Raye]

My problem is less with Sylvie's intention, I do agree there was probably ulterior motives going on from her perspective, and more with Loki's reaction. Regardless of what she was doing there, i think he felt something there beyond platonic. Before that, the dialogue was clearly putting him into Thor's usual spot with himself, he finally understood what Thor felt about him, because he was feeling it towards her, and then... that. And I dunno, beyond the whole 'variant of himself' aspect and yeah, it made him look self involved, i just wasn't feeling any chemistry there, not romantic chemistry at least.

I did like and understand that the moment showed that he had learned to trust, and she had not, and that's why they were different. I just think they could have gotten that across without mucking things up with romantic feelings. He can still feel close to her, and still feel disappointed in her not being able to learn to trust and grow, without it being romantic. I mean we got all that between Thor and Loki all this time. It wasn't like a 'ugh, hate it' thing where i think it spoiled the entire show or something, just... i think it was completely unnecessary, and just didn't really work for me, and turned my reaction to that moment into an eyeroll from me.

But though i didn't like that particular subplot, at least not where it ended up, I don't think it stopped being Loki's show, i think Sylvie needed a fair bit of focus to make her lack of growth right at the end there feel impactful.

And we had the discussion a few pages back here that the nexus event for Sylvie may have been that she was born male and then changed, and it would make sense given that every other Loki we've seen has been presenting as male, but... i doubt we will get any concrete answers there, unless they bring her back next season, which is a bit uncertain.

btw. the code is (spoil) with no er. I agree tho, it feels like it should be (spoiler)

[MaximoffTrash]

Does anyone else feel like "He who remains" is not really Kang? But another version of him just like Immortus.
And the "worse versions of him" refer to the likes of Kang?

[Alpha]

Does anyone else feel like "He who remains" is not really Kang? But another version of him just like Immortus.
And the "worse versions of him" refer to the likes of Kang?

I thought that was obvious. He literally dies this episode. But I have to say that I didn't really like the first 3 minutes of him talking. He was acting so weird for no clear reason. He behaved like a jester. And I laughed when Loli said that he was "terrifying" because I didn't feel that at all.

[Raye]

Well, the way I see it, they're all kinda Kang, even if they go by different names. Like Sylvie is a Loki even though she goes by the name Sylvie. But yeah he's not really the Kang we'd be more familiar with in like conqueror mode, but his backstory sounded similar, he's played by the same actor, so I mean, still a variant of the same guy.

And I kinda liked how weird he was acting. I think he's just kinda gone loopy in all this time he's spent as He Who Remains, he's not all there. Which makes the fact that the TVA was following his every whim all the more disturbing.

Anyway, sking the truly important questions:

https://collider.com/loki-episode-6-...obius-jet-ski/

hehehe

tho seriously, it did leave quite a few loose ends. Not just Mobius riding a Jet Ski, though clearly that's an important one, but like, Sylvie's Nexus Event, where Renslayer went, and one I was really hoping would be answered by the end of the season, B-15's name. Like Sylvie restored at least one memory to her, so i presume she remembered her name.... what was it?

[Iron Maiden]

I thought that was obvious. He literally dies this episode. But I have to say that I didn't really like the first 3 minutes of him talking. He was acting so weird for no clear reason. He behaved like a jester. And I laughed when Loli said that he was "terrifying" because I didn't feel that at all.

I have to agree. I was disappointed in that version of Kang. He was too jovial and "folksy". Plus he was defeated far too easily.

Does anyone else feel like "He who remains" is not really Kang? But another version of him just like Immortus.
And the "worse versions of him" refer to the likes of Kang?

I hope this is the case and we will see a version of Kang in season 2 that is the "Kang Prime" or whatever. I want to see that blue helmet

[rpmaluki]

I have to agree. I was disappointed in that version of Kang. He was too jovial and "folksy". Plus he was defeated far too easily.



I hope this is the case and we will see a version of Kang in season 2 that is the "Kang Prime" or whatever. I want to see that blue helmet

Can we honestly say that since it seemed like he sort of expected it and wasn't all to bothered to try and stop it since his real intention was to quit running things, either through retirement or suicide by either/both Lokis?