Loki on Disney+ (SPOILER discussion)

Topic

Loki starts tomorrow: unusually for a Marvel series on Disney+, new episodes are premiering on Wednesdays rather than Fridays.

Discuss with spoilers for broadcast episodes here.

Replies

Jon wrote:

saga wrote:

Lots of Kang related teases but if Wandavision taught me nothing else (and it didn’t) it’s that Marvel won’t debut a major new villain in a TV show.

But then again the plan is to debut him in Ant-man 3 right?? Maybe it wouldn’t so bad to debut him here after all… =P

FWIW, I don’t think they’ll show him or even the actor, but like a HUGE hint of him, like a statue or something really obvious without necessarily using the actor… but who knows…

Or they could go for the twist and have Jonathan Majors appear as Immortus or Rama-Tut.

Oh yeah, they sure are diving deep into the 90’s back stories with the TV shows… and that’s cool, we’ve gotten enough post-2000 stuff in the movies already.

And yes, IF they use the character, wether it be Majors or someone else, I would expect Immortus, rather than Kang himself… it’s a good way of having Kang but not having Kang, right? Rama-tut would be a little bit out of left field, tbh, but then again, they did show the pyramids and the sphinx this last ep, so, maybe that was a hint =P

But if you read wikipedia:

“At some point in his personal timeline, Kang became weary of battle due to frustration and the loss of his son Marcus and consort Ravonna in several timelines. He was approached by the alien Time-Keepers — time travelers from the end of the universe, the last living creatures in existence — to become their agent, preserving timelines rather than conquering them in exchange for immortality. He accepted and reinvented himself again, this time as Immortus, the lord of the other-dimensional realm of Limbo”

That pretty much fits what they’re doing in the show to a T.

That said, it’s possible they’ll just do a cliffhanger bullshit, or something that will disapoint everyone, so I don’t expect nothing too major, but IF they do something, Immortus would make the most sense.

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Hank Cannon, Todd

I thought episode 5 was the best one yet, and gave me a lot of the kind of stuff I was hoping for since the show started. Especially Richard E Grant, he was lots of fun and I liked that he got his big moment at the end – the first time the show has really thrilled me.

It still feels padded and drawn-out, but at least this one was fun to watch.

Some of the actors are pretty terrible though – the child-Loki actor was poor and I think Marvel must have a policy of hiring female antagonists with regional accents who can’t act.

Plus I don’t care about the love story at all – it just feels like Loki having a really elaborate wank.

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Rocket, lorcan_nagle

But are you secretly rooting for him to get that wank?

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Bruce, Rocket, njerry, Todd, lorcan_nagle, Dave

I don’t get that argument… even the show is kinda wrong about it when they say “they’re the same”… fuck no they’re not, beyond the gender difference they obviously lived a VERY different life and are VERY different people… so I don’t see a problem with them hooking up in that regard.

saga wrote:

But are you secretly rooting for him to get that wank?

He kind of has to, as it’s been set up since the start so it will feel like a letdown if nothing comes of it.

It’s Chekhov’s wank.

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Rocket, njerry, Todd, lorcan_nagle

So long as it builds to an explosive climax…

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

And doesn’t just feel tossed together.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Dave wrote:

It’s Chekhov’s wank.

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Rocket, Todd, lorcan_nagle

[Al-x]

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.

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Rocket, lorcan_nagle, Todd

I didn’t know this episode was the last one until Disney+ has “season finale” up on its front screen this morning. It felt like the series had more to deal with. Having a second series on the way sort of mitigates the fact that this was a decent but slightly underwhelming finale. It continues the series’ rather languid pace – which I’ve not been bothered by generally – but doesn’t give much if any closure.

I did really like the version of Immortus it gave us though, ditching the po-faced big-hattedness while keeping that same weariness, ends-justifying-the-means pragmatism. I guess Kang’s going to be more of a Thanos level big threat rather than simply the villain in Ant-Man 3, which is interesting. I’ve not seen Majors in anything before, but I think he’s got the potential to be a great Kang. Or many great Kangs, I guess.

The end result of the series had slightly been given away by the fact there’s a Dr Strange movie on the way called “Multiverse of Madness” though, so Sylvie’s choice wasn’t a huge surprise. I did like Sylvie though. And I don’t know if it’s just because I’m in Doctor Who withdrawal and looking for something to fill that void wherever I can, but I think Sophia Di Martino would make a decent Doctor.

Oh and Richard E Grant was great in the previous episode. I’m going to have to rewatch that episode, because I don’t think I spotted all the easter eggs, but I did really like the Polybius arcade machine in the den. And the Vote Loki element – which popped up in promo stuff a bit – being misdirection was amusing.

I thought the finale was a bit of a bore. It was cool to see Kang, or a version of him at least. But the episode was just three people in a room giving dire warnings about something we already know is coming in Spider-Man and Doctor Strange 2. It just didn’t really hold my attention. and I’d be curious if this was always going to be six episodes or not. The ending felt really abrupt and more unfinished than I was expecting going off of Wandavision and Falcon/Wknter Soldier.

[Al-x]

So…

I felt like we reached the final boss fight of a video game.

Funny how the boss is always cordial, sometimes a little funny. We have seen this before: The God in Stargate, The architect in the Matrix, even the Wizard of Oz, and so on.

Again the concept of is it free will or playing out a script?

All in all, it was a very entertaining series like the others. Great performances in the finale by the One Who Remains, and the two remaining Lokis

The guy never identified himself as Kang though, so I guess it is left open ended.

I await others to view it and read their postings before I post more.

Oh… and I got dibs on Ravonna. 😂

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Reaction to the finale:

“They’d better have a post credits to explain this bullshit.”

Five minutes later…

“Fuck sake.”

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Uncle Retrospective

Loki Renewed for Season 2 at Disney+

Al-x wrote:

Again the concept of is it free will or playing out a script?

Which is always tough in a scripted television series.

“Let’s explore free will in a form where everything anyone does or says is precisely determined.”

It’s like books and movies that have the existence of God or some higher power as a central element of the story. Of course there is a higher design to that – it’s the author’s design.

I’m looking at you, Shyamalan!

Well I’m glad they didn’t pussyfoot around it, and even brought Majors in… major props for that… I do wish he would’ve said his name or which version of him it was, BUT, 1) it’s fair to assume that was Immortus because of the lore and because it fits… 2) I guess they want to have the Kang name be a bigger reveal somewhere else… and 3) I’m sure if he’d said he was Nathaniel Richards it would’ve started a shit storm of theories in social media (which one could argue, would be a good thing, but whatever).

But yeah, they’re definetly setting up Kang to be the next Thanos, and as it should be, ’cause it would suck to see Kang being wasted like soooooo many MCU villains… plus they just basically gave Thanos himself a way of popping back up whenever they want… well Thanos and pretty much anyone else who’s died.

I liked this show a lot more than the others… probably because it’s been the most “marvel cosmic” since GotG1, and as everyone knows, I’m a gigantic fan of the cosmic stuff in the Marvel Universe, so yeah, I’ll get as much as I can from that, thanks.

If only they had panned back from the Loki and Sylvie kiss to reveal that Kang-ish had been eaten by Alligator Loki. Missed opportunity to liven up what felt less like a season finale and more like a snapshot of the MCU writers’ room trying to break down the story behind Phase 4.

Loki as the narcissistic, untrustworthy, charming agent of chaos and constant source of irritation to Thor was tremendous fun. He got decidedly less interesting as this show went on. I’m not sure he works as a genuine, lovesick good guy, much less one who does little more than stumble into scenes where various people explain things to him like he was five.

 

[Al-x]

So now there is a multiverse. Now there is way to “legitimately” shoehorn in the X-men, FF, Magneto, etc…

Should be fun!

PS – … and as it turns out, a black man was behind it all.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Al-x.

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Andrew

I’m surprised by the lukewarm reaction here as I thought this final episode was pretty great, and single-handedly has me feeling more optimistic about the next few MCU movies.

That’s pretty much entirely due to the casting of Kang. Majors was electric and he alone elevated this last episode massively – he blew everyone else off the screen and has me really excited to see more of him in the MCU.

It feels like they finally have a new Loki in terms of another ultra-charismatic villain character, so if he’s the new Thanos-level uber-villain then I’m definitely on board with that.

If you’d have told me a few weeks ago that this show could blow you away with a finale that’s mostly three people in a room talking, I wouldn’t have believed you. But this final episode really rescued the series and gave me fresh hope for the Strange and Spidey movies (and presumably the new What If? series grows directly out of this too).

This series wasn’t fantastic overall – it has suffered from being stretched out and padded – but it’s by far the best MCU series of the Disney+ efforts so far.

If you basically chop out all the fluff in the middle and trim a lot of the more circuitous dialogue then I think you have a very solid story, and one that paves the way for more to come.

Just one complaint: no jetski. I guess they have to save something for season two.

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Rocket, Todd

A nagging question though: did the final events of this episode just change the history of the TVA, or the entire MCU?

Presumably, now, a branching multiverse has always existed for the MCU, so we can assume that there’s just always been one and we’ve always been watching a continuity that grows out of Sylvie’s final decision here.

Although how you then pluck an Avengers-era variant Loki out of that multiverse and get him into a pre-change TVA is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Maybe it’s just that Austin Powers thing of not thinking about this stuff too hard and trying to enjoy it.

I thought Loki had been sent to a different universe, one in which the TVA had not yet encountered him and in which He Who Must Not Be Named Kang made it clear he was in control rather than hiding behind the Timekeepers gimmick.

Might be wrong. Time travel stories never really make sense.

saga wrote:

I thought Loki had been sent to a different universe, one in which the TVA had not yet encountered him and in which He Who Must Not Be Named Kang made it clear he was in control rather than hiding behind the Timekeepers gimmick.

But I think that’s now our universe – or every universe. There’s only one TVA across the whole multiverse, right? It’s not like every universe has one or that wouldn’t make sense.

I took the final scene to be like a darker version of Marty McFly coming back and finding that his present has been altered as a result of his actions in the past. (Even if the past in this case is technically the far future, as the impact of killing not-Kang echoes backwards through time.)

There’s a certain BTTF thematic link between Marty’s mother wanting to sleep with him and Loki wanting to get with his lady variant, I suppose.

For a while I thought the TVA was just protecting this one universe from the rest of the multiverse finding it and ruining it for everyone. For a show with this much exposition it really could have made things clearer.

I mean, the whole point of the TVA as stated (and as set out by not-Kang) is to prevent a multiverse from even existing, right? We see them freak out when it looks like that might happen earlier in the series with Sylvie’s attack.

I think the multiverse only really comes into being in the final few minutes of this episode. (Which wrecks Avengers: Endgame even more, but anyway.)

Because there’s now a multitude of Hawkeyes and they all have better haircuts?

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Todd

saga wrote:

Because there’s now a multitude of Hawkeyes and they all have better haircuts?

No, they all have the same mohawk haircut.

saga wrote:

Might be wrong. Time travel stories never really make sense.

And Marvel is pretty shit at them too…

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Todd

saga wrote:

Because there’s now a multitude of Hawkeyes and they all have better haircuts?

Crisis on Infinite Nerfs

One thing that doesn’t work is this Weds release.  I’m just now used to Friday = new streaming release day

I’m the rare person that found the actor playing the big bad to be pretty poor. Needlessly hammy; I cringed. The finale was… not great. I liked the season overall but the final ep might be the worst one. Of the three shows so far, I can’t say any is well and truly better or best. They’re all fine; I don’t regret watching but I’ll probably never rewatch.

I enjoyed Loki more than the other two series but it was still B- for for me.

The pacing of the finale could have been better, especially with the exposition dumps from Immortus.

As I said before, I think these series are doing a lot of “baton passing”. While this is not inherently bad, I believe it is impacting the storytelling. To me, Marvel has not found the right balance between telling a coherent, well-paced story with a beginning, middle, and end and checking off boxes for the greater arc of the MCU.

Of the three series so far, Loki is the one I would consider watching again but that is not a guarantee that I will.

Todd wrote:

As I said before, I think these series are doing a lot of “baton passing”. While this is not inherently bad, I believe it is impacting the storytelling.

I think there’s some truth in that. And I think it’s a tricky balance for them.

I think they want to tease future MCU developments so the TV audiences feel like they’re watching an important part of the overall picture. But at the same time, they also want people to be able to watch and understand the MCU movies without necessarily having seen the TV shows. So the TV stories can’t be too significant or the movie audience is left out.

So the TV stories need to feel meaningful enough to watch but they also need to have stories that are so simple and inconsequential that they can be summed up in a line or two of dialogue in the next movie to get non-TV audiences up to speed.

So nothing in a Disney+ show is ever going to be truly essential to the MCU. It’s all going to be side-stories and C-listers.

To be honest I’d rather watch a good story about a D-lister than an inconsequential one about an A-lister, but for most people a no-name hero is probably a harder sell. It’s why I think stuff like She-Hulk and Moon Knight have a better shot than the movie characters who have moved to TV.

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Ben, Andrew, Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Everything here… The implications and possibilities:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/here-s-what-the-loki-finale-means-for-future-marvel-movies/ar-AAMbTny?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Dave wrote:

So nothing in a Disney+ show is ever going to be truly essential to the MCU. It’s all going to be side-stories and C-listers.

I don’t think that quite true. Feige has said things will lead in and out of each other. You got a new Captain America out of one of the series. Loki essentially laid the foundation for Phase 4. I think they will try to keep all of the projects as accessible as possible but they know linking movies to the TV series and vice versa will drive subscriptions to Disney+.

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Martin Smith

Todd wrote:

I don’t think that quite true. Feige has said things will lead in and out of each other. You got a new Captain America out of one of the series.

And in the films it will go from Cap handing Sam the shield at the end of Endgame to Sam being Cap in the new one, and people who didn’t watch the TV show will feel like they didn’t miss a thing.

That’s what I mean about the shows having to try and make you feel like you’re getting a story without actually really advancing anything.

At the start of Wandavision, Scarlet Witch was a bereaved woman going a little crazy on her own as she mourned her husband’s death. By the end, she became a… bereaved woman going a little crazy on her own as she mourned her husband’s death.

In Loki, he started the series as a variant version of Loki exiled to some weird new dimension trying to work out who was behind the TVA and what was going on. By the end, he became a… variant version of Loki exiled to some weird new dimension trying to work out who is now behind the TVA and what’s going on.

These movie characters will have TV shows where stuff happens to them, and people may enjoy that journey. But nothing that happens is going to be anything that can’t be summed up in a line or two of dialogue when the next movie comes along.

Todd wrote:

Loki essentially laid the foundation for Phase 4.

I don’t know, having a Disney+ series all about the multiverse and branching timelines felt a bit belt and braces after Endgame was all about the multiverse and branching timelines.

One things for sure, when Kang does show up in the movies you’re not going to need to have seen Loki season one episode six to understand it.

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Ben

Todd wrote:

. I think they will try to keep all of the projects as accessible as possible but they know linking movies to the TV series and vice versa will drive subscriptions to Disney+.

I don’t agree with the vice versa part. Yes, they can get people interested in the MCU tv shows by playing up the links to the movies. But they’re never going to expand the audience for the movies by playing up the links to the TV shows.

People aren’t being convinced to see Dr Strange 2 by what happened in Wandavision.

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Ben

It can happen. My wife is considerably less interested in the MCU than I am but Wandavision held her interest, she got to know Wanda, came to root for her to get her shit together and now there’s actual interest from her in seeing what happens next to the character. A lot more than there would be in just hearing about another Dr Strange movie turning up.

Purely anecdotal but it all helps Disney to keep cranking the Marvel money wheel.

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Andrew, Todd

Yeah honestly I’m a little bit (very little, but still) more excited about phase 4 now that I know that they’re buidling up to Kang, and that Kang’s not just gonna be a disposable villain in Antman 3… or well, that’s what I’m hoping at least.

I’m guessing he does die at the end of Ant Man 3 but then another one turns up to replace him in the post credits.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

Todd wrote:

As I said before, I think these series are doing a lot of “baton passing”. While this is not inherently bad, I believe it is impacting the storytelling.

I think there’s some truth in that. And I think it’s a tricky balance for them.

I think they want to tease future MCU developments so the TV audiences feel like they’re watching an important part of the overall picture. But at the same time, they also want people to be able to watch and understand the MCU movies without necessarily having seen the TV shows. So the TV stories can’t be too significant or the movie audience is left out.

So the TV stories need to feel meaningful enough to watch but they also need to have stories that are so simple and inconsequential that they can be summed up in a line or two of dialogue in the next movie to get non-TV audiences up to speed.

So nothing in a Disney+ show is ever going to be truly essential to the MCU. It’s all going to be side-stories and C-listers.

To be honest I’d rather watch a good story about a D-lister than an inconsequential one about an A-lister, but for most people a no-name hero is probably a harder sell. It’s why I think stuff like She-Hulk and Moon Knight have a better shot than the movie characters who have moved to TV.

There’s one big difference now though – streaming.  And all the films will end up Disney+.

So I can see why they would want to set up these mini flows of content – Wandavision to Strange 2, Loki to Ant-Man 3, CA&WS to Cap 4, because it’ll all be available.

Of the three series to date CA&WS has been the best one for me, Wandavision was partially successful, Loki just fell flat.  But later pieces can always boost these up.

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Uncle Retrospective

I’m going to go with “really, really good drugs”.

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Todd, Dave

Since I am not obligated to watch all the movies and shows being churned out by Marvel, I, as well as others will pick and choose like this picture:

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Todd, Andrew

saga wrote:

I’m going to go with “really, really good drugs”.

[Al-x]

On a side note: In the Dr. Who stories where the Doctor met his/her previous incarnations, they always managed to combine their ideas/intelligence and know how.

I am surprised the two Loki’s never combined their powers or ideas in the series.

Oh well…

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Al-x wrote:

I am surprised the two Loki’s never combined their powers or ideas in the series.

Did you watch the series? The end of the penultimate episode is a gigantic moment of exactly that.

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Martin Smith, Rocket, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Dave wrote:

Did you watch the series? The end of the penultimate episode is a gigantic moment of exactly that.

I did but I expected more… They fought and argued too much. The classic Loki stole that episode in the end imho.

As for the last episode, the beginning felt like a final boss fight in a video game.

Al-x wrote:

In the Dr. Who stories where the Doctor met his/her previous incarnations, they always managed to combine their ideas/intelligence and know how.

the Doctor is a well meaning, kind, responsible person

Loki is an untrusting, untrustworthy scoundrel

It is easy why one would trust other versions of himself and one wouldn’t

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Todd

Rocket wrote:

the Doctor is a well meaning, kind, responsible person

Loki is an untrusting, untrustworthy scoundrel

It is easy why one would trust other versions of himself and one wouldn’t

Fair point.

Also:

Al-x wrote:

I did but I expected more… They fought and argued too much

You’ve seen a multi-Doctor episode, right?

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Ben, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Marvel made the finales of ‘Loki’ and ‘WandaVision’ sync up perfectly, and we almost missed it

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Al-x

[Al-x]

Don’t judge me 😂. pic.twitter.com/wEbnJajPFk

— SOUL KANG (@SoulKingLives) July 17, 2021

pic.twitter.com/CYVFvv6vGe

— Joyia JUJU Echols (@blackspaceshipp) July 15, 2021

#Loki is a show about a #Karen making a scene and complaining to the manager of a black owned business about his black employees and you can't tell me otherwise.#Sylvie#LokiWednesdays #HunterB15 #Renslayer pic.twitter.com/xG9QN6DKll

— Martin Luther Kang the Conqueror Jr #StopAsianHate (@UpToTASK) July 15, 2021

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Al-x.

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lorcan_nagle, Rocket, Todd, JRCarter

[Al-x]

The variants of the variants:

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Al-x.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Al-x.

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Dave, Todd

Soooo, watched the second half of the season in one go yesterday and here are some thoughts:

– I agree that the kid who played Kid Loki was terrible.
– This bunch of episodes was overall very strong, and a lot of fun to watch in one go.
– The show went to some really great places; loved those Loki variants and the jokes that went with them. The alligator was awesome, and so was Richard E. Grant. President Loki was great, too. At the same time, it feels like when those moments really work, it show how much of the show doesn’t quite gel in the right way.
– Also, it’s interesting to note how good the big visual effects are (probably due to that new system they’re using for Mandalorian and these shows) and how comparatively bad some of the practical stuff is – I am talking mainly about the fights here. Some of them are fairly good, but they are way behind what they did on a show like Warrior, or even Agents of Shield (not as bad as the ones in Discovery though).I think the same goes for the overall direction and editing – it’s all competent enough, but it always feels like it would need to be a bit better to give the show better pacing and impact.
– Sylvie’s decision in the end was neat because it really was consistent with all the character-building they’d done with her. Completely fine with it.

I didn’t expect the season to end so open-endedly, but I’m fine with it really. Loved Kang, am very interested to see what happens next.

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Todd, Dave

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Uncle Retrospective, lorcan_nagle, Todd, Dave

Luke Wilson Says He ‘Never Got the Plot’ of Brother Owen’s ‘Loki’

Here we go:

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Todd

Is that fan art?

Yeah…

Off of Facebook

That’s a pretty good idea for the mask.

I found this to be an interesting take on the female Loki:

I Loved Seeing Loki Avoid the Trope of Portraying Romantically Inexperienced Characters as Lacking

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Todd

I enjoyed episode 1. When Loki jumped through time and everyone knew him again I was a bit worried they were going to just zoom past the cliffhanger but it became the crux of the episode and they did a lot of fun stuff with it. The whole sequence with OB in the repair room was funny as hell.

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Todd, Ben

It definitely felt like they swerved the original intention of the cliffhanger, but did so well. And I loved OB. A really fun character, with some smart time travel bits.

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Todd, Ben, lorcan_nagle

That was good. The first series was odd, Loki was oddly passive but it had an OK finale, which needed following through on – which I felt this did. It got the new story started while paying off s1.  Fun stuff.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

I thought it was fine. Some fun time-travel stuff with Kee Huy Quan, but it didn’t feel like a show about Loki in any way. The lead character in this episode could have been basically anyone.

Not a fan of the McDonald’s advertisement post-credits scene either.

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lorcan_nagle

I thought it was great. Some very funny dialogue, a very nice time-travel plot, neat new characters…
The contrast to the Ahsoka finale that we watched just before this probably helped, as well.

paul f wrote:

I thought it was fine. Some fun time-travel stuff with Kee Huy Quan, but it didn’t feel like a show about Loki in any way. The lead character in this episode could have been basically anyone.

Well, the episode took off running with a plot that had him constantly dis- and re-appearing. There wasn’t really a lot of room for character stuff. I am sure he will be more Loki-ish in coming episodes.

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Ben

Ye I liked it too… def. better than everything since… well since Loki S1 I reckon. Hope it manages to saty that way, but yeah, their track record is shit, so I’m not holding my breath.

Loki season 2 episode 1 was okay. Some fun stuff here and there. I actually enjoyed the first season of Loki more than Wandavision. Maybe its because it’s a villain trying to find redemption in being a hero rather than a hero slowly becoming a villain. I don’t know. It’s weird. Though, there was a scene in the first season that seemed really cynical to me. It was when Loki finds infinity stones inside the desk drawer of that one TVA employee and he says that they find one of those all the time and they use it for paper weight which I took to mean that no matter how hard they fought and died to save the world, it was still insignificant to the greater universe.

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lorcan_nagle

Another decent episode, McDonalds product placement aside, though this definitely feels much more a show about the TVA in which Loki appears than a show about Loki, and I don’t care that much about the TVA. I do like the supporting cast getting more to do though.

Sylvie was fun last season, I hope she’s not stuck being this depressed all season.

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lorcan_nagle

So this one is always on Thursday?

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lorcan_nagle

Ben wrote:

So this one is always on Thursday?

Thursday night in the US, 2AM UK time.

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Ben, lorcan_nagle

I feel like we missed an episode in between 1 and this one. Like there’s very little setup for “Brad” being the guy they go after and there’s no buildup to the mass bombing of the timelines. It’s a good episode in and of itself, that scene between Loki and Mobius in the cafeteria was a fantastic double-header.

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Ben, Sean Robinson, Martin Smith

Yeah, I felt the same about there being a missing bridge between last episode and this.

Zaniac is a deep cut.

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lorcan_nagle, Sean Robinson

Fun episode.  It does start oddly but then it takes an interesting turn where we get what happened later in the episode.

The whole mass bombing of the timelines, of how a graphic display dehumanises the horror to make it easier makes for one hell of a real world parallel with what has gone this last week.

No idea where it’s going but interested to find out.

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lorcan_nagle

paul f wrote:

Another decent episode, McDonalds product placement aside, though this definitely feels much more a show about the TVA in which Loki appears than a show about Loki, and I don’t care that much about the TVA.

That was already the case in the first season, thought, wasn’t it?

But they did address your complain from last week; Loki definitely did a lot of Loki stuff in this episode. The shadow magic thing was probably more Loki-ish than anything he did in the first season, either.

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lorcan_nagle

Add us to the “have we skipped an episode?” and “wait, who’s Brad?” gang. Was nice to see Loki do some Loki-ing. Continue to love the aethstetic of the show.

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lorcan_nagle

I don’t know what’s happening with all the Jonathan Majors stuff in real life, but I’m all for recasting at this point. The performance in this latest episode was bloody excruciating for me.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Ben

I’m not sure I’ve seen a show that’s so well made and beautiful to look at, that’s so… Boring.
I just don’t care about any of this, I think I’ll just do here. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

When they said whoever went to the loom needed to be really fast, I thought for sure they’d hop into the timestream and get a variant of a super-speedster – Quicksilver or Makkari or even the Whizzer. But nope, just hoping Victor ran quick enough. Interesting ending but I’m not really sure where any of it is going.

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Todd, Ben

There’s something rather darkly hilarious about Disney trying to maintain its family friendly image, in an episode that has a sequence of squashing an entire group of people to death, with an AI looking on and getting off on it.

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Todd

All I can say is that this series is holding my interest more than Secret Invasion and that had Samuel Jackson.

Interesting idea to get (and mold from childhood) a variant for this very reason.
(The actor Jonathan Majors has his legal issues from some fight with his then girlfriend and he just might be cleared
to stay as the character for more MCU)

Ravona is seriously p*ssed off and I don’t blame her. As for the AI clock with feelings…

I like the set design of the TVA with the 50s and 60s early space station design.
A huge center of “timelords” who are “above it all” maintaining timelines. Why don’t we see Gallifrey on this level?

“Turn it Off”

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Todd

Yeah the shows not really hitting for me. I wouldn’t say I’m hate watching it but I’m not particularly interested in where it’s going, but I will finish the last two episodes.

It’s a shame because apart from the finale I really enjoyed the first season. But here Loki seems to have lost his charm, Sylvie is barely a character and just comes off as a bit whiney, and we’ve now seen Kang die 3 times and i don’t give a toss about any of them..And this is their new Thanos?🤨.

And what does this ending mean?..Well it’ll either be reset by the finale or just set up for the Kang Dynasty that’s probably 3 years away at this point….I’m hoping for a strong ending but the previous Disney+ shows have left me sceptical.

I don’t care at all about any of this over-complicated Time Bureau mythology so all of the talk about the loom, etc does nothing for me. That wouldn’t be an issue if I cared about Victor, but I don’t at all and will be happy if we never see him again.

Like most of these Disney+ shows, I don’t know how they can satisfactorily wrap this up in two episodes, though part of that is that I have trouble identifying the individual characters’ goals, beyond the collective “stop everything falling apart.” I liked these characters in the first season, when I could generally tell you why they were doing what they were doing at any particular moment, which I can’t do at all this season.

Is it just two more episodes? I assumed it was an eight episode season.

Martin Smith wrote:

Is it just two more episodes? I assumed it was an eight episode season.

No, six episodes, same as the first season.

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Martin Smith

The question I had was:

If Ravona ended up at the castle and saw the corpse on the chair, then who was in Quantumania?

The answer I got was apparently after he was stabbed to death, all the timelines came to life again and the Quantumania villain
was a very high end variant.

That satisfied me and I’m not going to overthink it. 🤣

Al-x wrote:

The question I had was:

If Ravona ended up at the castle and saw the corpse on the chair, then who was in Quantumania?

The answer I got was apparently after he was stabbed to death, all the timelines came to life again and the Quantumania villain
was a very high end variant.

That satisfied me and I’m not going to overthink it. 🤣

Yeah, the Conquerer in Quantumania was a variant, same as Victor Timely.

[Al-x]

So one of the higher end variants will (in the Phase number whatever) become the huge threat.
I’m surprised none of them (now that they “exist”) have taken over the TVA yet.

Interesting concept in seeing your variants from other realities. You can see your potential and what you are really capable of.

Bring back “Sliders”. It was the US answer to Dr Who… 🤣

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Al-x.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

Interesting concept in seeing your variants from other realities. You can see your potential and what you are really capable of.

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

They must have a hell of a finale lined up if they can afford a filler episode like that..The scene in the record store was really well done though.

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Todd

I did really like that. Ok it makes no real sense that Loki’s time-slipping happened to come back. And that it now means he can leap back into his own body at an earlier point rather than physically time-travelling. But ignoring that it was a nice episode, getting to see the “real” versions of the TVA crew.

[Al-x]

I want to see what the Alcatraz guy is going to do. He snuck something in his pocket.
I don’t recommend pausing and taking a screenshot of Loki when he .. you know. 🤣

I hope the finale gives us a payoff that makes up for some things.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Al-x.

[Al-x]

Al-x wrote:

I want to see what the Alcatraz guy is going to do. He snuck something in his pocket.
I don’t recommend pausing and taking a screenshot of Loki when he .. you know. 🤣

I hope the finale gives us a payoff that makes up for some things.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Al-x.

For those who don’t know (I didn’t), the Alcatraz scenes were based on a real escape attempt; Casey is Frank Morris; the directors played the other two escapees, the Anglin Brothers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_1962_Alcatraz_escape_attempt#Frank_Morris

I would have liked this episode more if there were more episodes and it wasn’t leading into the finale.

This season feels like a waste of Wunmi Mosaku’s time. Pretty much every scene she’s been in would have worked just fine without her there.

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Martin Smith

Oh, come on. All that timey wimey stuff going on and the big cliffhanger is Loki saying “it’s about Who”?

No need to be a tease, Disney.

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Ben

Well that was a great end to the series, and possibly the show. It’s a really good example of how you can use CGI as a good tool for storytelling – the way Loki’s drab suit evaporated and his classic look reappeared was exceptional, and it was clear what was happening as he grasped branches and walked through the rift and sat on the throne.

That said, the road to this point meandered and looped around itself and was full of stuff that was pretty to watch and had good character moments, some of which paid off here. But a lot of it feels in retrospect like killing time.

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Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

the road to this point meandered and looped around itself and was full of stuff that was pretty to watch and had good character moments, some of which paid off here. But a lot of it feels in retrospect like killing time.

I assume you’re talking about all Disney+ MCU shows here.

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Todd, lorcan_nagle

Dave wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

the road to this point meandered and looped around itself and was full of stuff that was pretty to watch and had good character moments, some of which paid off here. But a lot of it feels in retrospect like killing time.

I assume you’re talking about all Disney+ MCU shows here.

No, Secret Invasion wasn’t pretty to watch and only had bad character moments.

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Martin Smith, Todd, Sean Robinson, Dave

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Dave wrote:

lorcan_nagle wrote:

the road to this point meandered and looped around itself and was full of stuff that was pretty to watch and had good character moments, some of which paid off here. But a lot of it feels in retrospect like killing time.

I assume you’re talking about all Disney+ MCU shows here.

No, Secret Invasion wasn’t pretty to watch and only had bad character moments.

You are being too kind to Secret Invasion.

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Al-x, lorcan_nagle