#and it makes this absurd theory just a smidge less absurd

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

Finally watched the first episode of Loki and it was AMAZING. It’s just the first episode but about a third into it it was already getting into the meta questions of “does Loki’s story belong to Loki” and “Loki is supposed to be the villain of other heroes’ stories,” and Loki not having any of that because he refuses to fit into a box is quintessential Loki right there!!! This show GETS IT. Amazing, wonderful, fantastic; I want to go reread Agent of Asgard right this minute. Tom Hiddleston has an executive producer credit on this show and I can tell. (He gave the crew a multi-hour-long lecture on Loki continuity with a whiteboard and everything and I think that’s awesome.)

Literally my only gripe is the DB Cooper scene because aside from the whole scene just being absurd (to quote Loki), Loki says he did it “because he was young,” but it was in 1971! That’s 50 years ago.

Thor is canonically 1500 years old (might be an estimate imo, but those are his own words from Infinity War) and we know for a fact Loki is a smidge over 1000 from the Thor prologue and then Odin’s story of adopting him from the same movie. Fifty years ago for Loki is probably something like 3 weeks ago for a human being. Maybe even less!

However, he does follow it up by saying he only did it because he lost a bet to Thor, which makes a lot more sense, and it’s clearly a sequence that’s meant to be ridiculous anyway, so I’m going to just ignore the timeline issue. And given that that scene is in so many of the trailers I wonder if someone insisted on putting it in the show for trailer footage.

Random thoughts on the episode:

I’m pretty sure I called the villain of the piece in abstract speculation way before the show started, but I just want it on record that as I was watching the show, literally the first whiff we got of a villain, the scene of Mobius investigating and asking the kid who did it and the kid pointing to a picture of the devil that had very prominent horns, I immediately went, “the bad guy is an evil Loki isn’t it.” It only makes sense, because Loki’s greatest enemy has always been himself (from both a narrative perspective and from a “who has Loki gone up against in comics” perspective), but still. I’m kinda proud of myself for that immediate reaction.

In fairness, it should also go on record that the Mephisto theory memeing from WandaVision clearly got to me, because my second thought was “or it’s Mephisto.” 😂 Admittedly, based on that picture of the devil the kid pointed to, the thought wasn’t completely out of nowhere!

Speaking of villains, the Time Keepers seem MASSIVELY shady to me. Three beings deciding the fates of everyone across possibly infinite universes isn’t right. I hope this show does what Legends of Tomorrow did with the Time Masters and has them go away somehow. Would love to see Loki taking them down as the finale. Actually, now that I said it I wonder if that’s where the show is heading...

The Miss Minutes commercial that gave the background of the TVA reminded me very much of Secret Wars only a step to the left. Plot twist, the Time Keepers are actually Doctor Doom! Jk. (Now I’m thinking about that time Doom froze Loki in time and turned him into a sculpture...)

The TVA looks like a giant subway station filled with the most red tape-y police ever and I hate it. I’m pretty sure Loki does too. I’m pretty sure both of those things are on purpose, major props to whoever came up with that aesthetic. It’s basically the exact opposite of Asgard and an excellent counterpoint to anywhere Loki’s likely to have ever been.

The giant heads behind the judge (the Time Keepers I assume?) look VERY Kirby-esque and also very familiar, but I can’t figure out if they look familiar because of the Kirby style or because I’ve actually seen them in a comic. Will have to poke around and see if I can dig anything up. (My first thought is Celestials? My second is those gods the Asgardians worship whom Loki encounters in the final AoA issue. Though a quick google tells me the latter is majorly wrong. It’s been a hot minute since I read AoA.)

Mobius saying there’s no magic where the TVA is made me sad. The idea of there absolutely being magic in the universe and a place being completely without it makes me sad.

The Soul Stone being in that drawer hurt me. Sure Marvel, just rub in how pointless Gamora and Natasha’s deaths were some more, why don’t you.

I just had an epiphany- MOBIUS IS LIKE THE TVA’S VERSION OF PHIL COULSON. No I will not elaborate currently; it just feels true!

I miss Coulson. :( And his team. I know there’s all that corporate infighting between Marvel Studios and TV but the show I am by far the most salty about them refusing to acknowledge is Agents of SHIELD. Feige can say whatever he wants but I refuse to stop referring to any of the shows as MCU. He can pry them from my cold dead hands.

Getting off-topic so final thought is that all the multiverse theories about a single correct timeline (and especially all the stuff about Steve and his going back to the past 🙄) seem premature. We’re one episode into the show and the whole idea of one “correct” timeline/universe with benevolent Time Keepers watching over it seems extremely counterproductive to both actual good things- free will is important!- and to everything Loki’s story was ever likely to be about. Because Loki’s story is very much one of him asserting his free will and choice over the boxes everyone and everything else try to put him in.

...I lied, last one now: Speaking of the multiverse- I caught that Multiverse of Madness almost-namedrop in the Miss Minutes short, and I would love it if we got a surprise Loki team up in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Give me a Stephen/Wanda/Loki team up, Marvel! And a real one this time, not one where Loki and Wanda are actually demonic hallucinations. So close but yet so far, Damnation event. So close.

#long post #loki spoilers #loki series #loki 1x01 #a rare text post appears #my stuff #idk have a post it’s late and I’ve lost my filter #sorry for the lack of cut; I’m on mobile