#also is there even a name for the sylvie/valkyrie ship?

[lokiinmediasideblog]

It's just me or Loki stans tend not to care about female character's much? One thing I've noticed about Loki-centric blogs is that some of them have side blorbos, but always male blorbos. They only care about female characters when they have some canon connection to Loki so they can talk about him through talking about her, and only when the connection in question is platonic (Verity, Frigga...). When Loki has a canonically romantic/sexual connection with a woman (Amora, Sylvie, Lorelei, etc) they either demonize her or erase the romantic factor to make them into ~mean queer besties~ like he's her gay bff. There's a difference between disliking het (valid) and erasing the canon dynamic of his relationships with women because the thought of their canon bi fave liking icky women makes them uncomfortable. Face it, Loki fandom: your fave likes boobs and coochie, stop pretending otherwise. You don't have to personally ship het to recognize that some women canonically turn him on and/or matter to him romantically.

I don't think it's unique to Loki stans. It's a misogyny problem that is both based on the biases within fandom and those of the writers. The Loki fandom is far from being the only one that targets a woman love interest so viciously (*cough* ST fandom, I've also heard other Marvel ships are like that too). And I definitely do get annoyed when Loki's bisexuality gets erased because they don't deem the female characters worthy. And yea, they'll always try to make it platonic with women characters. The "these two characters with little shared background that kissed are siblings" shit is so fucking annoying. It's fine if it's not your cup of tea,but pretending they have "sibling energy" is weird.

Writing biases:

S2 gave very little exploration to the female characters. And most Marvel female characters have little depth. Like just look at the Thor movies, we don't know much about Sif (personality is the woman warrior), Frigga(personality is mom), and Jane is just there as love interest for Thor. Valkyrie's interesting but her name isn't given in Ragnarok, and I heard she got sidelined in TLAT, the movie I refuse to watch. Sylvie had decent focus in S1 but was sidelined in S2 and relegated to product placement.

Speaking of the source material, I am not joking when I say many of the female character's characterizations in the comics before maybe the 2010s were nothing but "wanting to fuck Thor." Also, BW was a prime example of Whedon's "empowering" brand of sexualized strong female character and took forever to get her movie after getting unceremoniously fridged.

Granted, I have not kept up-to-date with Marvel movies because I am only interested in Loki and I find a lot of characters annoying, in case the shitty writing conventions for female characters have improved.

Fandom biases:

Fandom can't stomach anything other than saccharine sweetness as a personality for women, especially when they interact with a popular male character. It has been shown that in real life, women are more likely to be seen as rude or bitches for more tame behavior than men.

People claiming that Mobius was "compassionate" for blaming Loki for his mother's death and locking him in a time loop where he's beaten repeatedly, while Sylvie calling him a "clown" was "abusive".

This is interesting and one of the many examples against "abusive women are given a pass" because the "victim" in question is the same Tumblr sexyman, but the woman's non-abusive behavior that makes sense in-context is scrutinized ridiculously and Loki was not hurt physically by it, while Mobius "gave him therapy".

No one can even argue it's because Loki is the Tumblr fandom fave rather than pure fucking misogyny because actual harm to Loki gets passed as being for his own good by a rather vocal portion of fans when it's a man doing it. You'd think the fandom would have lost their shit over one of the OG Tumblr Sexymen being mistreated. But nah. (And yes, I forgave Mobius for risking his skin for Loki in S2, lol. He more than made up for it.).

Also, Sylvie RIGHTFULLY called Mobius out for putting his head in the dirt like a fucking ostrich, and the fandom threw a fit and babied him.

#anon asks #mcu!loki fandom #mcu!loki #mcu!sylvie #marvel critical #loki series critical #mcu critical #hot takes #fandom misogyny #fandom wank

[latent-thoughts]

I honestly agree with you on everything after ragnarok is not canon. Although I love Thor ragnarok, it’s an entertaining movie and ive seen it more times then I should, thinking about it now I’ve never seen Thor ragnarok as canon. it’s just been a movie that’s really shitty but entertaining, and funny when you don’t have context about the characters.

I just hate that it’s so disrespectful to the actual characters. AND what’s even worse, is that I did not even consider the movie disrespectful to the characters until I was on tumblr and found threads of old posts/things you’ve reblogged on why it is.

And everything after it, has come tumbling after.

People need to realise there’s a difference between entertaining cinema, vs actual good Quality cinema. Especially with something like marvel because it’s all “connected”. Marvel is choosing quantity over quality and it’s clearly showing.

Yup. Marvel-Disney has become the 'Five Minute Crafts' of movie making. They're pumping out multiple shows and movies annually, but there's hardly any substance to them anymore. Nothing actually connects in this so-called cinematic universe, but the promos and interviews will try to fool you into believing it.

There's no cohesive story, only easter eggs abound. They're mostly meaningless, because most of them have their roots in different storylines in the comics, not the movies. Like, wtf was Thanoscopter doing in the Loki series? Or why was Sylvie wearing the broken crown (which was originally worn by AoA Loki for very specific reasons)?

Moreover, every new entity boasts of bringing in a drastic change into the multiverse or having a powerful character like no other before them. Yet, all of this is forgotten in the next entity they release. Rinse repeat.

The problem with Ragnarok was that it wanted to be funnier and bigger than GOTG--a movie that somewhat broke the mold for MCU movies at that time. It constituted an unlikely team of antiheroes who became heroic, and it had a more zany kind of humour to it.

What Ragnarok didn't note was that GOTG had heart. It had zany humour, yes, but it also had plenty of poignant moments. It didn't make a joke out of everything, most certainly not the characters. Every character was handled carefully, their trauma and loss acknowledged despite their negative actions.

Ragnarok failed supremely at this. Bruce turned into a parody of anxiety attacks and 'useless' nerdiness (7 PhDs but can't fly a ship, haha). Loki--a character of a subjugated race, taken from his people, raised to hate his own race, a clear victim of Asgard's imperialistic and colonial agenda, was made fun of for simply existing. His trauma was ignored, his relationship to Thor was twisted to make Thor into a victim, and instead, his main oppressor, Odin, was glorified despite his war crimes and invasions. What more, the fact that Thor left Loki to die on Sakaar was glossed over and made into a joke. Valkyrie (she still doesn't have a name, even post l&t) was introduced as a slave trader (does anyone find it sus that a woman of colour was shown as a slave trader?) and this part of her life was never acknowledged again, not even by Bruce, even though she traded the hulk to the GM.

Thor...sigh, where do I even begin? Gone was the considerate and thoughtful Thor we had seen in TDW, the Thor who acknowledged his father's bad decisions and tried to counter them by putting his own life on the line. Gone was the Thor who held his dying brother in his arms and cried. Granted, canon Thor had his issues to overcome, but he was never crass and inconsiderate like Ragnarok Thor. Ragnarok not only uprooted Thor from his growing self awareness and growth, it uprooted him wholly from Asgard. Killed off his friends and killed off his home. And made a joke about it all.

There's so much more to say about that trash movie and it's confused purpose, but all in all, it put the first nail into the whole franchise' coffin. L&T is only a continuation of that, based in the same theme of ridicule and distasteful humour.

What rankles is that it could've been a great movie, had Chris and Taika taken their heads out of their respective asses for a bit to think it over. But they were too busy making toilet level jokes and jerking around the sets, ignoring the script (which btw had Thor admitting to his mistakes to Loki) and just improvising everything with their bs logic. Taika didn't even do his research on the characters.

And that's something he's proud of. A theme that has continued with the creators in other Marvel entities too.

I just feel very sad about it. Because phase 1 (even 2) Marvel was something if quality. Now, the characters these phases had established are either (unfairly) dead or completely unrecognisable. I no longer have any sense of anticipation for their new stuff. I don't even want to watch new movies or shows.*

Anyhow, thanks for visiting my askbox. ♥️

*Moon Knight is the only exception, and you'd note the show had no prominent easter eggs or even mentions of other characters from the MCU. Mayhe there's something to be said about that.

#anon ask #ask #ask box #mcu #Ragnarok #mcu loki #mcu thor #thor: love and thunder #thor: ragnarok

[maryse127]

The fandom for the questions is Marvel!!

Thanks for asking! This took forever because I was busy playing unhealthy amounts of Kingdom Hearts. Also had to think on this a lot cause I haven't really engaged with Marvel in a while and my mind is in full on Kingdom Hearts mode. Also Tumblr is making everything way harder than it should when it comes to copy pasteing shit on mobile. Anyways:

Favorite Character: Too many to choose from honestly. Not really 1 that stands out to me above all others.

Least Favorite Character: Sylvie I think. Never vibed with her for some reason. Even before the whole Sylki drama.

5 Favorite Ships (canon or non-canon): I am actually not much of a shipper when it comes to Marvel but in no particular order Makkari × Druig, Natasha × Clint, Steve × Bucky, Loki × Mobius (you didnt specify exactly what part of Marvel so I am gonna say Tobey Maguire Peter Parker × Henry Osborn, like they were so gay for eachother in those movies)

Character I find most attractive: Loki in Thor Ragnarok

Character I would marry: Maybe cheating here and definitely spoilers but Andrew Garfield Spiderman. (Wait you said Marvel not specificly mcu so it counts anyway)

Character I would be best friends with: MJ, Peter and Ned.

A random thought: I hope Doctor Strange in Multiverse of Madness isn't too fucked up and/or scary. I had a weird dream after seeing one of the trailers and have not been vibing with the movie ever since but I still wanna see it and my brother is very excited about it.

An unpopular opinion: Marvel movies are fun actually and I dont really get why they get so much hate on tumblr lately

My canon otp: Makkari × Druig

My non-canon otp: Natasha x Clint (I am still full of salt about this after all these years)

Most badass character: Wanda

Most epic villain: forgot his name and not sure I would call him a villain but Shang-Chi's father was really cool (and tragic, I feel bad for him). Also Arishem (the celestial in the Eternals) like he isnt a villain in the sense that he is a traditional bad guy but the characters opposed him thus I count him here. Just truly awesome design. So big and otherworldly. Loved that in the Eternals.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Loki x Sylvie my beloathed. Also Thor × Loki, like that is just straight up incest, I don't care he's adopted they are brothers and that ship is fucked up

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): A lot of them really.

Favorite friendship: Nat and Clint or Peter, Ned and MJ. Also Shang-Chi and Akwafina (forgot her characters name)

Character I most identify with: eh none really, maybe one of Peter, Ned and MJ cause they are like the kinda alternative/ nerd group at their school which is what I was part of in high school as well

Character I wish I could be: Valkyrie or Nat but like without the trauma. Just the good looks and cool skills. Or maybe MJ, she's cool

#long post

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References

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This article contains Loki episode 5 spoilers.

Marvel’s Loki episode 5 is a big one. Yes, we know…last week felt like that. And the one before it, too. But this one really IS, with the entire episode taking place (as DoG’s Kayti Burt put it) on top of a literal “trash pile of MCU and Marvel Comics Easter eggs.”

With that in mind, let’s have some fun with all the incredible Marvel references they managed to sneak into Loki episode 5.

Journey Into Mystery

You probably already know this, but Journey Into Mystery was the book that first introduced the Marvel Comics version of Thor, with Loki following shortly after. The title eventually was just renamed Thor since the Asgardians had become the primary focus of the book for years by that point. However, Journey Into Mystery was revived a few years back, with its primary focus being on the adventures of Kid Loki this time around.

Thanos Copter

The Lokis pass a helicopter with “THANOS” on the side. This is a reference to Spidey Super Stories #39 from 1979. The all-ages comic featured a story of Spider-Man and the Cat (Hellcat) taking on Thanos, who was on the hunt for the Cosmic Cube. He flew around New York City in his own helicopter with his name on the side. The reference comes up as a joke here and there, including an issue of Deadpool. Even Thanos’ giant two-sided blade weapon from Avengers: Endgame has been considered by many to be a sly reference to the Thanos Copter.

Ecto-Cooler

While the Lokis are all drinking wine, Kid Loki is shown drinking Hi-C Ecto Cooler. The Slimer-based citrus drink was a tie-in to The Real Ghostbusters cartoon of the 1980s and lasted into 2001 due to its popularity. Afterwards, it became a fondly-remembered relic to time. Ecto Cooler made a brief return in 2016 to coincide with the Ghostbusters reboot. Sadly, there’s no news of it coming back for the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie.

Speaking of Kid Loki…

Kid Loki

Kid Loki seems to be wielding a flaming sword, which looks an awful lot like Laevateinn, the sword he wielded in the Loki: Agent of Asgard comics.

Polybius

In the background of the Lokis’ lair, we see a Polybius arcade machine. Polybius is a long-running urban legend. Supposedly, back in 1981, an arcade machine was set up in Portland, Oregon, watched over by various men in black. The game was so addicting that it caused fights to break out and horrible side-effects to its players. We wrote more about the decades-old mystery of Polybius right here.

Pretty sure there’s an old Williams Space Pinball machine in there, too but that’s not as wild as Polybius.

The Void

Fittingly, the realm where all the pruned victims end up is called the Void. In the comics, the Void is a dark, inexplicable, and possibly biblical entity that acts as the evil side to the Sentry. During the storyline Siege, the Void murdered Loki, which facilitated his rebirth as Kid Loki.

Alioth

Alioth first appeared in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1, the same 1993 comic that also introduced Ravonna Renslayer to the world…and one that features Kang as its central villain. Hmmmm…

Oh, and Alioth was co-created by Mobius M. Mobius inspiration/model Mark Gruenwald, who gets another shout later in the episode.

Vote Loki

The “politician Loki” who we see leading (inasumuch as they can/want to be led) the loose coalition of Variant Lokis is modeled almost exactly on the version of Loki from Marvel’s Vote Loki story by Christopher Hastings, Langdon Foss, and Paul McCaffery. In it, Loki ends up running for President, with his ridiculous campaign built on the “honest” deception of openly lying to the American people inadvertently aided by a credulous news media. It’s a good read and you should check it out.

This episode also engages in the old MCU/Star Wars tradition of someone getting a hand cut off…in this case it’s our pal, “Vote Loki.”

Frog Thor

A frog resembling Thor is shown in a jar labeled “T365.” Wouldn’t you know it, Thor #365 is the issue where Loki transforms Thor into a frog. Yes, it was a whole thing. Walt Simonson’s run on the Thor comics is really spectacular.

“Frog Thor” also got a mention in Thor: Ragnarok, during the “play within the movie” seen as “Loki” apologized to “Thor” for turning him into a frog.

You know, there’s even an independent wrestler with a Thor Frog gimmick. Life is beautiful sometimes.

Classic Loki

So it appears that Classic Loki is basically what would have happened if “our” Loki survived the opening of Avengers: Infinity War, which he did by allowing Thanos to kill a duplicate while he disguised himself as some debris. Classic Loki went into hiding and developed a taste for brighter greens and yellows, and aged into Richard E. Grant, before he was pruned by the TVA and found himself here in the Void.

Classic Loki’s line about “the god of outcasts” comes from 2019’s Loki #5, by Daniel Kibblesmith and Andy McDonald:

“I am Loki. God of outcasts. They see themselves in me. And I in them. All of us, alone together. It’s why my stories always end with someone trying to put me in a box. And begin with my spectacular escape.”

Later in the episode, Classic Loki and Kid Loki literally “exit stage right,” in what feels like a very deliberately “stagey” moment that plays on the Shakespearean overtones of all of this.

The Living Tribunal

On the ground in the Void there’s a large severed head…and it’s that of The Living Tribunal, a cosmic entity created by Stan Lee and Marie Severin back in 1967. The presence of a Living Tribunal (even one who is dead at this present time), whose entire purpose for being is predicated on the existence of a multiverse, means that the TVA is trying very hard to cut all ties and any evidence of the fact that the multiverse is already out there.

U.S.S. Eldridge

The USS Eldridge was a real Cannon-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy in use from 1943 to 1992. It was supposedly sold for scrap after it was decommissioned but Loki posits that perhaps it was an unwanted Variant in the Sacred Timeline. Perhaps this is because the ship was rumored to be subjected to the “Philadelphia Experiment” that was supposed to render it invisible to the human eye. The story is sadly probably a hoax.

There’s a not exactly great 1984 movie called The Philadelphia Experiment which adds time travel to the equation, making this little callback even more Loki appropriate.

Is That Stan Lee?

At about 9:38 there’s a mural in the TVA headquarters. On the right there’s a guy in prescription shades, with a familiar moustache and salt-and-pepper hair. We’re not saying that’s Stan Lee, but…

The Castle

Yes, we know, that ominous castle sure looks like Doctor Doom’s  home of Doomstadt, but…it’s probably not (or is it?). More likely, this is Castle Limbo, home of Kang the Conqueror (or…is it?).

We unpacked these possibilities some more here.

The Music

The “heroic Loki” theme at the end sounds like it’s about to break into Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Speaking of, the regular Loki theme is very similar to the part of the Delfonics “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)” that was sampled for Missy Elliott’s “Sock It To Me.” The original (also sampled for the Fugees’ “Ready or Not” and Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”) was about the inevitability of love, and Missy’s song was about sneaking into somebody’s house to get your back blown out, so basically the same thing. Could have some bearing on Loki and Sylvie’s story.

The music that plays during the “Loki brawl” is this show’s equivalent of Scooby-Doo chase music. That’s a good thing, by the way.

Pixar, is that you?

Was that the Pizza Planet truck? Mobius’s ride, a station wagon with a slice of pizza on top, immediately brought to mind the popular Pixar easter egg/elaborate timeline mcguffin that has appeared in every Pixar movie to date. Also, very nice touch having Lightning McQueen himself drive it.

An even nicer touch is the license plate on the car Mobius is driving: GRN W1D. As in “Gruenwald.” As in (say it with us, kids!) Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel writer and editor who Mobius is based on.

Ant-Man

At one point on the ground in the Void we can spot a gigantic Yellowjacket helmet. Yellowjacket is the codename for several size-shifting superheroes in the Marvel Comics, but is best known to MCU fans as Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross from the first Ant-Man flick. 

Guardians of the Galaxy

There’s lots of crashed spacecraft, one of which kind of looks like the Dark Aster (Ronan the Accuser’s ship in Guardians of the Galaxy), and there may be a Helicarrier hanging around. There’s also a flying saucer that vaguely resembles the ship from John Carpenter’s The Thing, and a pirate ship that if Doctor Doom were actually the villain of this show (he isn’t…or…is he?) would make us think of that character’s very first appearance in Fantastic Four comics, where he sent Ben Grimm back in time to become Blackbeard. No, really.

Miscellaneous Time Variants

The fate of the Lokis is reminiscent of What If? #12, otherwise known as What If the X-Men Had Stayed in Asgard? At the end of the story, after tasting defeat yet again, Loki begged Those Who Sit Above in Shadow to allow him to rule Asgard. They agreed by sending him far into the future at the end of time. As reality started to break down, Loki went out laughing in the face of oblivion.

The bus ad at the beginning is for Calum Ross, who is an editor on the show. 

The shot of all the Lokis walking as the camera swoops overhead is very much reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

Loki and Sylvie are cold in The Void. But wait a minute, aren’t they both Frost Giants? Why then would Loki conjure a green blanket? Unless he wants a convenient excuse to cuddle up with his Variant…

Loki is drinking “RoxxiWine” pinot noir…out of a box…which is a nice touch.

Is that weird, very large plant in the bowling alley hideout supposed to be a Variant Yggdrasil? Or wait…what if that’s Plant Loki?!? He’s green, isn’t he?

Next to Alligator Loki’s kiddie pool there’s a copy of The Mystery and Lore of Monsters, a 1930 book by Charles J.S. Thompson.

The tower we all keep thinking is Avengers Tower is in fact Qeng Tower, the headquarters of Qeng Enterprises, the company that Tony Stark (mistakenly) sold the old Avengers tower to in the comics.

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Spot anything we missed? (Probably, right?) Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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