"But Lokius isn't even canon! Stop making everything gay!"
...
The Loki series isn't just about romantic relationships and shouldn't be seen as so. However, there is a lot of subtext. Maybe this ship is not canon, but it was intended to be seen as so by the fans.
If Lokius isn't canon, then why were the last two shots of the series showing Mobius and Loki?
If Lokius isn't canon, why would there be so much touching and scenes so physically close to one another? (believe me I know they're friends. that just offers a solid base for something more)
If Lokius isn't canon, why is there an OFFICIAL track named like that?
Why is said track played or incorporated in different scenes of the series? like
-the first McDonalds meeting with Sylvie,
-the back-in-time conversation with Kang
- the ASCENSION to the throne?
Why is the Sylvie and Loki kiss never mentioned, by the producers, in the series per se, or even in the season 1 recap?
Why is Mobius the only one looking at Loki when he leaves down to the temporal loom?
And the other way around, why did Loki only make eye contact with Mobius in that scene?
Why is Mobius the only one to notice there is something wrong when Loki is still trying to fix the Loom?
Why did Mobius/Don on the original timeline, mention he's single, trust a complete stranger, invite him for a drink, AND offer to sell him a quite personal jet-ski?
Why did Loki, the LITERAL GOD OF MISCHIEF stutter and fix his hair and coat for no one else but Mobius (who by the way is just a jetski salesman on that timeline)?
Why is the timeslipping Loki had to go through directed to Mobius twice, him being the the only one he doesn't need a TemPad to "recruit"?
Why would Loki bring up Thor and Jane if it wasn't to mirror him and Mobius? (because, as he already was talking to Sylvie, he certainly wasn't implying it's about her. They were arguing, AND Mobius was implied in the conversation. Loki defended him in front of Sylvie, in case you forgot.)
Why would Mobius's voice be the one to echo back to Loki on his throne? let time pass time pass time pass
Why the RAINBOW?
WHY DID LOKI LOOK AT MOBIUS RIGHT BEFORE THE FAMOUS LINE "IT'S ABOUT WHO"? (important mention: Sylvie was behind him when he said that. why didn't he just turn around when saying it? nope, they know what they're doing)
Why is the shot cut to Mobi after Loki's "it was more about what I wanted" line?
Why the shot where 7 characters could've been showed (Mobius, Loki, Sylvie, B-15, Casey, O.B., Victor Timely) there are only 2: Mobius and Loki?
Why is Mobius the only one to tell Loki he can be someone good, and the first one Loki actually believes despite his tendency to do the other way around in the past?
Why does Mobius finally find insight, and reinvent his whole life at the TVA because Loki helped him do so? (they're not even the first Loki variant he faced, but something clicked this time)
Why does the bloody sleeve, representing Loki being hurt by Sylvie just because he "wore his heart on his sleeve" disappear on episode 2? (because he finally understands who he needs to be next to)
Why did Mobius risk his life on the first episode?
Why did Loki go to past Mobius for the final advice, not to the present one, not to Sylvie?
Why did Loki ultimately sacrifice his life for the ones he loves?
And why is Mobius left alone, with the door locked, after Loki leaves in the Loom's radiation?
Why would there be so much endearing looks, and smiles at each other, if not for a conscious acting choice?
Why why why why why if it isn't canon?
Nothing is for nothing. Especially in television, where everything counts from the light to the angles and the way the lines are spoken.
We don't need to see two characters kiss to know they are made for one another. In fact, I think implied canon is so much better for now, because it leaves free interpretation for the fans, and nothing to strike on for the haters.
Of course, that doesn't change the fact that the ending is still tragic, although it holds its sweet from bittersweet. But remember: there aren't tragedies without love.
Captain America: Civil War (2016) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.
That's how I wished it happened. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym. An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to... clear traumatic memories. Huh. It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport... or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but... Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it.
I love the intricate detail of Miles' journey and how it's displayed to us, the viewers.
At the end of ITSV, he is so empowered by Spider-Man, that he of all people got the spider bite, so he believes that anyone could wear the mask.
At the end of ATSV, after he's been told that he's inherently wrong and not supposed to exist, this is how he sees himself. And then he (and we) literally sees himself as the villain.
But it's still in service of the original theme, if the idea that anyone can be Spider-Man. Just because Miles is different from all the other Spider-Men in the Web of Life and Destiny multiverse does not mean he's wrong. You don't have to be conventional to be a force for good, because anyone can and should wear the mask.
I will never get over the care and detail put into Miles' story. Cause, nah, imma do my own thing.
"I never dreamed of being an actor because you cannot dream with what you can't see. There weren't brown actors on TV or in movies, and the few you did see where only there to r*pe, steal, kill; or serve the table or open doors for people. There's nothing wrong with being a person who serves tables or opens doors, but in the fiction, as those characters were told, they were never given any power nor influence. They didn't even have a sense of dramatic purpose more than just being incidental characters. And the ones that did have dramatic weight to them were just assailants and murderers. So I never thought I could be an actor, a brown one nonetheless and without a pretty last name."
Something I think is a bit of an issue is the myth that the "great" films from the past are all boring, unrelatable and incomprehensible. That some black and white foreign film from Sweden can only be a really slow, dour experience. I'll admit that I was guilty of that thought at one point too.
The reality is that lots of these great films are actually broadly enjoyable. The reason they're considered great isn't because of elitism, some snobby ideal that they're hard to watch and therefore better, but because they're just extremely well made and stylized films. The black and white Swedish film? That describes a number of Ingmar Bergman films like The Seventh Seal. And The Seventh Seal is hilarious, even now. I honestly thought it was going to just be really serious and depressing but it's a life riot (when not being serious and depressing). There's a scene where a man is trading insults with his wife's lover, but he's not very smart so another man is whispering insults to him to use. It's about a knight that plays chess with death for a chance at living, but death is a cheating bastard that delivers one liners before he kills someone.
I know that a lot of people really only watch whatever is popular and recent, and that's fine, but I don't want people to miss out on truly great films because they think they'd be hard to watch. I did a showing of a silent film at work (One Week by Buster Keaton) and everyone was enthralled by the stunt work on display. It's over 100 years old and it still holds up because there's no expiration date on quality.
If you are looking to engage with older films though, skip Tarkovsky for now. Stalker and Solaris are two incredible films (Stalker is probably top ten for me), but those are absolutely the cliche of some slow, hard to follow "true art is incomprehensible" film. Terrence Malick as well. Excellent filmmaker, but watching The Tree of Life is work. Kurosawa and Hitchcock are some of my favorite directors and every movie they make is straightforward and thrilling. High and Low is the most incredible police procedural I've seen in my life, and Psycho is still a tense, thrilling experience.
To be clear there is absolutely nothing wrong with liking the most popular stuff. I used to watch every marvel movie that came out, and I still think Wandavision is excellent. I have fond memories of going to watch Captain America with friends. I loved the Barbie movie and that's in the top 15 highest grossing films of all time. I just think that there's a lot of great films to explore if you're willing to try.