#9 worlds study mcu loki

[xenocorner]

Here's the concept for one of my Strange AUs :D This has been sitting on my WIPs for months now, and today I finally decided to get it out :']

Info dump of this AU ahead for anyone interested, because I need to get it out of my system orz close ups below too

In this a AU, Stephen is raised in Asgard after his home planet (not Earth) is destroyed during a terrible war. Here, Donna is his older sister instead, and she was one of the soldiers who fought and died in said war (the sword he carries was hers).

He was taken in by the Asgardian army when he was around 6, and was raised collectively by them as part of the ranks. He is trained as a swordsman and excels at it.

He meets both Thor and Loki at that young age, and he develops a very close friendship with Loki, both of them growing up together and getting in all kinds of trouble (although Stephen was usually the one to get them out of it). But not all is fun and games with this two, as Stephen also becomes the person Loki confides the most in and viceversa. As they grow, this often leads to Odin sending Stephen to look for Loki whenever the god disappears after a family fight.

He becomes one of the best swordsmen in the 9 realms, and takes command of the Asgardian army when his mentor, the Ancient One (a commander in this AU) dies in battle.

During a battle in which he was perhaps too careless and cocky, he is gravely injured and his hands are irreparably damaged, leaving him unable to wield a sword.

Stephen has incredibly deep self worth issues, and since he isn't Asgardian by birth and also feels incredible debt to Asgard for taking him in when he was all alone, he is always trying to prove himself of his worth to be called Asgardian. So when he is left useless as a swordsman, he goes into a really dark place. This leads him to study magic instead, trying to still be of use to the throne and able to protect Asgard. He pulls through, and with a similar journey of the MCU Stephen, becomes one of the most proficient sorcerers of Asgard. That along with his previously good reputation with Odin grants him the position of Head Sorcerer in the court.

Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of distancing himself from Loki, being too focused on proving himself since the loss of his hand function. Of course, the god is resentful of this. They go through some shit to salvage the friendship and maybe even make it evolve into something more, but I won't go into that now as this lore dump rambling is already way too long lmao.

Also, he may or may not be part of a race that uses music as magic to affect the world around them too, but that's just deeper lore stuff 👀

Close ups to the head shots because I just adore how much softer and elegant he looks with the wavy hair, tiara thing and earring orz I want to do a better render of him like this so bad-

Plus the full body on its own too :] I would've loved to polish it more but I've got more stuff to do and just needed to get it out of my WIPs already o(-(

[beheworthy]

I understand that you appreciated enough things about Love & Thunder (as in Jane's scenes, Thorjane, etc) to consider it canon, but what are your thoughts on the Thor2 deleted break up? I can't help but prefer them breaking up because of the long distance, or Jane being so overwhelmed that she "couldn't imagine a life with him" after everything, than what we got in canon. Maybe my opinion would change if I watched the movie, not sure, but I'm interested in your take on it.

*takes a deep breath* Buckle up.

1. I appreciate you saying whether I'd consider anything canon or not. Buddy, my acceptance is irrelevant. Anything Marvel puts out IS canon, regardless of how we feel about it. That's the whole entire reason I can't let this shit go. Because he's CANONICALLY drilled into the ground by Marvel with nowhere to go. And it depresses me.

2. I hate both break-up scenes because I simply don't want my OTP separated. Period. But if I have to validate any one, I'd go with Thor4 because at least its idea was understandable, the issue was its failed execution. The Thor2 breakup makes no sense and regresses their characters. The two reasons you present that the movie presents:

a) Breaking up because of long distance is such a bastardization of their magical relationship that transcends realms that I just cannot. He's not a coworker or a one-night stand she tried to have a relationship with and decided it wasn't working out. He's the Prince of the paradise in the clouds that's advanced to her realm by a millennium. He's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as far as boyfriends go lol. And his mother died to protect her. Why? Because she had all but accepted her as her daughter-in-law.

You don't just break up with THAT because of long distance, that's unbelievably simplistic.

b) Jane being overwhelmed that she "couldn't imagine a life with him" is also against her character because she is such a zero self-preservation inquisitive soul that was so fascinated by Asgard's advanced technology, she would be at home on Asgard. She would want to be with him and explore his magical world she's studied about her whole life.

And ok, she was so overwhelmed that she would dump him. For what? To return to her boring 9 to 5 life and do theories of the phenomenons she could do practicals of on Asgard. That makes no sense with Jane's character.

Or she was so scared by the challenges of a life with him (even tho she was ready to die saving him a scene ago) that she just quit? That's not the Jane I know either. She takes challenges head-on and is not a quitter.

The ONLY reason she would break up with him is for him - like I said in my theory that Odin made her do it.

3. Even from a story-telling perspective, it was a terrible choice because it resets every character to their factory settings, rendering the development of Thor1 and 2 completely pointless. Jane becomes a meaningless person forgotten going forward. Thor and Odin are chilling in Asgard with nothing to do and Loki and Frigga are dead with their sacrifices for Thor and Jane amounting to a big fat 0. Why dedicate two whole movies to their romance only to break up because of freakin long distance?

You can't have the event of Ragnarok with Thor in Asgard. You can't have him on Midgard for Avengers movies. What is the point of this then?

-

Not to elongate an already long answer, but I always thought the plan was to make her the Queen of Asgard, the perfect foil for King Thor. Her love and quest for knowledge + kindness to help shirtless strangers combined with Thor's sense of justice and protection of his people would make them the PERFECT rulers. Do you know what I'd give for this to be Thor's final ending in the MCU?

Like, I thought she was written to be so fascinated with the stars beyond because that where she belongs. That's where she'll rule. That if anyone from Midgard in the MCU was meant to leave it and stay on Asgard their whole life, it's Jane because she's so far ahead of her time.

But I was Boo Boo the Fool. Her entire purpose in life was to die for him. Because Marvel's all about feminism.

[textsfromthetva]

I don't think I've ever seen you post about any of the other projects Loki's been in. How do you feel about his movies? Which one(s) are your favorite?

First off, I'm sorry for letting this sit in my inbox collecting dust for three weeks, considering the fact that it's actually a great question and it caused me to really reflect on my thoughts about Loki in the MCU. Unfortunately, none of those thoughts got to a point where they were worthy of publication on the esteemed tumblr dot com, as I doubted they would pass the savage peer review of much more dedicated fans. They still won't.

Honestly, I'm scared, anon. People probably won't agree. But since you asked so nicely:

Thor - solid tragic backstory established with a certain flair. Loki is by far the most interesting thing about the whole movie. Not that I actually dislike it as a whole, I just don't think it's anything special in the context of the MCU. It's a fish out of water comedy interrupted regularly by a heartbreaking tale of loss of identity, self-hatred, and daddy issues. Which is a... choice? I guess? Kenneth Branagh's love of Shakespearean tragedy really shines through, is all I'm saying. Tom really established his brilliance right out of the gate, so that brings it to a solid 8/10 on my Loki-scale.

The Avengers - now... look. This movie has a lot of flaws. But I love it. I was in my mid-20s okay, I was exposed to it at a weird time in my life and I was obsessed. I watched it three times in cinemas, including once in New York City, while I was there on a study trip with uni. I probably watched it half a dozen times after that. And Loki was so much fun in this! Just the perfect villain for that movie. He was the Moment. I'm not even gonna get into the tragedy of the mind stone's influence fucking with him, Thor not realizing, lack of acknowledgement of the fact that he literally tried to commit suicide two movies ago, or the many implications of past torture by Thanos, I just like watching him be flamboyantly evil and smack people with his cane. The other stuff gives the story depth that I'm not actually sure it actually deserves. Still, 10/10

Thor: The Dark World - we can all agree that this movie is, uh, kinda meh. At least in my opinion. However, I think it's very important in terms of Loki's character development and the development of his relationship with Thor. For that reason alone, I admit to having watched it more than once. Also, he's such a little dramatic bitch in this, it's what we all deserve. 7/10.

Thor: Ragnarok - this is where some people will start throwing rocks at me. I really, really like this movie. I love Taika Waititi, I love his whimsical humour, I love how goddamn silly and lighthearted this thing is compared to The Dark World (and Avengers: Age of Ultron). Fuck grimdark angst, we have bright colours and fun. It just means the few emotional whammies hit all the harder too. I've heard people confidently call this movie a character assassination, in regards to Loki, and I really can't express in words how little I care. He is now Jeff Goldblum's trophy twink. No explanation needed. Let the guy be chaotic for once, he's earned it! 100/10.

Avengers: Infinity War - nope. Dont' wanna talk about it. -10000/10

Loki - well. I'll refer you to this edit of mine:

This show is a general mess on so many fronts, but I still feel such fondness for it. And judging from the number of viewers it got, the world will watch just about anything if it has Loki in it, which, you know, valid. And would I be running a whole damn blog about it if I actively disliked it? No, I would not. 9/10.

There we go. Based on my personal rating, Thor: Ragnarok wins. The trophy twink can't lose.

[magnusmodig]

— on the nine realms ; a general study of asgard .

aka vi's world-building reference .

The following details are what I consider to be canon for the Nine Realms. This is primarily based on what we know from the MCU, some minor spinoffs (the thor video game comes to mind), concept art + screenplays and some inspirations pulled from the marvel comics (no particular runs just in general)

It's what I'll be referencing when Thor speaks of the Nine Realms, specific planets within them, and Asgard.

THE NINE REALMS (general.)

The following are all the known realms under Asgardian Protection (pulled from the MCU.) Technically there are 10 realms but only 9 if you don't count Asgard.

Asgard || A flat planet also known as 'the realm eternal' . Home of the Asgardians . Asgard resides in its own pocket dimension in deep space and can only be accessed by wormholes. The center of Yggdrasil .

Vanaheim || Sister planet to Asgard . Where the Vanir (sister species) live . Also where skraelings, some breeds of trolls, and mire giants live . (hc : frigga's homeland.) Where hogun is from.

Alfheim || Home of the Light Elves . Highly magically inclined . To the north live the Falligrians and Falligar the Behemoth .

Svartalflheim/Harudheen || Home of the Dark Elves . Once prosperous, Svartalfheim and its surrounding planets have been completely corrupted by Dark Matter . The Dark Elves (and all other life) are now extinct, with a barren land destroyed by war and the Aether (reality stone) .

Muspelheim || Realm of fire. Where Surtur lives. Various Infernir live here . (Infernir also known as Fire Demons and Fire Giants.) Home to The Infernal Forge and a material called "Scabrite" . Scabrite makes up all Muspelheim's armor and weapons . It can absorb incredible amounts of heat .

Niflheim || A realm of the mists and cold . Helheim exists within the depths of Niflheim . Notoriously, Niflheim's legends say that the spirits of the dishonorable dead and the damned travel the dense fogs there . Hela was banished to Helheim, sealed in the Cave of Ages .

Jotunheim || Realm of the Frost Giants and eternal ice and snow . Led by King Laufey . A portion of Jotunheim was destroyed by Loki during the events of "Thor" (2011) .

Nidavellir || A small planet built around a neutron star . Where King Eitri and the dwarves live. The birthplace of urdu metal and its enchanted objects and weapons, including the Infinity Gauntlet, Gungnir, Mjolnir and Stormbreaker .

Midgard || A realm surrounded by its own solar system with 8 other planets. The main inhabitants of Midgard reside on Earth . Home of the Avengers and Jane Foster. A known host of a wellspring of the 'water of sights' that is connected to the Nornns.

Nornheim/Urðarbrunnr || Presumably: a realm connected to the nornns/water of sights, that is inhabited by other beings beyond the nornns , such as rock trolls. (it's implied the nornns themselves are kept to the waters and are semi-supernatural beings.) Filled with forests , swamps , and large mountains .

ASGARD (overview.)

A flat planet with a top side and a bottom side. Topside features various biomes including but not limited to: forests, mountains and cliffs, deep mines and cave systems, jungles, beaches, and small deserts. The bottom plane of Asgard is host to large crystal structures. (hc: mined and utilized as energy sources and magic storage for spells, weapons, and various other mechanisms throughout Asgard.)

Has day and night cycles, an atmosphere, and various weather patterns. Yearly consists of two (and a half) seasons. Its primary two are summer and spring. (Summer has warm days and evenings/nights that result in easily-melting flingsnö , or a light and powdery falling snow.) Spring (Asgard's longest season), is most hallmarked by its near-perpetual twilight hours. Asgard also exhibits some signs of the beginning of fall, which presumably a farmer's season of rest, but Asgard itself does not experience cold snaps or winters.

Asgard boasts a vast series of waterfalls, rivers, and fjords, though all ultimately lead to, and end in, the Sea of Space. The central city is built around and above these waterways.

The Bifrost spans from the Palace of Valskjalf to Himinbjorg, the Bifrost's observatory. This bridge spans the broad length of the Sea of Space, and reveals the cosmos of space the farther out towards the observatory one travels.

Asgard has 1 sun (that orbits around Asgard perpendicularly), 2 (stationary) moons that can be seen during the day.

Asgard's main colors are red and gold. Its main symbol is the celtic triquetra (sometimes also referred to as the trinity knot.)

Asgard uses all forms of viking art styles, but its main three consist of: Jellinge Style, Mammen Style, and especially Urnes Style .

ASGARD (places.)

Locations in Asgard (based on the 1960s comics - present comics. Not comic or mcu accurate obvsly but i'm taking liberties and referencing what I can within reason.)

Valaskjalf - (hc'd) name of the city of Asgard. It houses the Royal Palace of Valaskjalf where Thor + co live. The palace gardens are run by the Queen of Asgard (currently: Frigga) and are called Fólkvangr. Within the great city of Valaskjalf is the Hall of Science, within which is a great ash tree representing Yggdrasil, and acting as an observatory of the Nine Realms.

Himinbjorg - Heimdall's observatory, which can only work upon use of Hofund, an uru-made sword wielded by Heimdall.

The Sea of Space - the name of the sea that stretches from the Asgardian fjords and out into the void of space (also synonymous with "the void of Yggdrasil".)

Gundershelm - the mining region of Asgard. From here can be found the descent into the crystal caves beneath Asgard, known as the Glade of Crystals. A series of waterfalls and great fjord surrounds this place. The crystals begin to form even outside of the mouth of the mining caves descending down. Hence the name 'glade' of crystals, as the fjord looks something like an open patch in a field of snow from above and afar. Therein also lies the Amethyst Cavern and Boulder Road (which is said to span all the way past Varinheim into Skornheim. The trek can be dangerous due to how long it is, and its intense heat.) One of the more popular mines, the "Mines of Andvari" also is here in Gundershelm.

Varinheim - the mountainous area of Asgard, where the asgardian wolves dwell, amongst other hazardous beasts. Varinheim is where the Trials of Virtue (an Asgardian 'coming of age' trial) is held. It is often filled with mists from the snowy peaks far overhead, and the more uncommonly traveled lands are referred to by commoners as the 'land of the lost'. Hreidmar's Hol is deep within the land of the lost, which is a mysterious valley Asgardians dare not pass into for long. Here there is a strange old man called Hardol who is an ancient healer.

Ringsfjord - a merchant town nestled in one of Valakjalf's fjords. It's a place where the finest smithies and weapons makers make their shops, as well as magical enchanters. Legends have it that four enchanter brothers named Brona, Enrakt, Forsung and Magnir lived in Ringsjford, and that Brona was one of the first Asgardians to discover the rifts between realms. (One of which was named 'Brona's Barrier'.) But Brona's discoveries had long since been lost to time, especially after the creation of the Bifrost (until Loki, an equally adept sorcerer, was able to rediscover the passageways between realms for himself). Their forge is called "Forge of the Sons of Ivaldi" and boasts some of the finest asgardian-made weapons in the city.

Skornheim - another old and magic-rife land that's filled to the brim with danger. Including but not limited to; dense swamp-woods, quicksand, spiny plants (called 'nightmare plants'). The most important point of interest here is Skornheim's Stronghold which is a surviving ruin from the first battles against Surtur.

Gymirsgard - west of Skornheim. To reach Gymirsgard, one would have to traverse through the dense forest/swamps and brave the threat of unusually large water-dragons the likes of the fabled Jormangundir.

[ao3-elle1991]

I posted 789 times in 2022

23 posts created (3%)

766 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@saintlopezlov3r

@ghostly-lee

@petite-madame

@elkleggs

@boomdafunk

I tagged 788 of my posts in 2022

#marvel - 758 posts

#mcu - 758 posts

#avengers - 558 posts

#bucky barnes - 283 posts

#winter soldier - 283 posts

#captain america - 263 posts

#steve rogers - 253 posts

#stucky - 154 posts

#loki - 125 posts

#loki laufeyson - 121 posts

Longest Tag: 46 characters

#steve and bucky try the extreme yoga challenge

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

6 notes - Posted September 23, 2022

#4

Pass the happy! When you receive this list 5 things that make you happy and send this to 10 of the last people in your notifications 😙✨

Ooh this is cute!

OK, 5 things that make me happy:

My friends 🤗

My mum 👩

Writing ✍

Travelling 🌍

Cats 😻

Tagging the last 10 people in my notifications, feel free to join in and share what makes you happy! @callmekayyyyy @frickss75 @debinthewind @theslightlyevilpooka @asexualyeeter @astro-reblogs @randomhottieactors @agoldenplum @ruinerofcheese @daniellerivers70

6 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

#3

*DEMENTED HAPPY SCREECHING NOISES!!*

Have I just finished plot-planning a sequel to Fearless? Yes!

Is the plot plan 36k words long? Yes!

Will I finally starting writing and publishing this beast of a story in the coming weeks? YES! 🥳

9 notes - Posted July 29, 2022

#2

Let Me Go

Coming to terms with death is difficult, particularly when that death is your own.

When Natasha Romanoff sacrificed herself on Vormir to help bring back half the Universe, she did not expect to survive.

But whilst her physical body perished, her soul awakened in a place that different cultures have named the Soul World, the Afterlife, or Heaven.

This is not the end of her story; it is a new beginning.

AO3 warnings: Major Character Death

Characters: Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Laura Barton, Cooper Barton, Lila Barton, Nathaniel Pietro Barton, Wanda Maximoff, Phil Coulson, Original Characters

Tags: Grief/Mourning, Healing, Afterlife, Magic, Love, Friendship, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study

Chapter 1: Whatever It Takes

24 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

1 million words celebration! 🎉

With the publication of chapter 2 of Let Me Go last Friday, I've now written over 1 million words of fanfiction on AO3!

What started in 2016 as a way to cope with heartbreak and grief has turned into a beautiful hobby that I absolutely adore and has led to:

1,004,115 words

27 stories

303,286 readers

A huge, huge thank you to all of you who have been a part of this journey with me! Friends, collab partners, readers, commenters -�� you have all made this so much fun and I can't wait to keep creating and sharing my imaginary worlds with you ❤

Big love in particular to @chiyume, @call-me-kayyyyy, @callmekayyyyy, @wickedromanoff, @lignadm, @schatten-wolfsdrache, @nicholasbholmes, @ahufflepuffnannywriter, @shalandrial, @thewickedverkaiking, @nonexistenz, @ruinerofcheese, @withinmeloveresides1, @velvetjinx, @thelittleblackfox, @bethofaus, @darkestspiritofthemoon, @beaarthurpendragon, @cryo-bucky

25 notes - Posted August 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mckiwi]

“Nobody asked me about my writing” meme

I was tagged by @aelaer (thank you btw)

1. What are you currently working on?

I’ve kinda been flipping between “Oblivescence” and “Heat of the Moment”. When I get tired of one I’ll switch to the other.

2. Summarize your current project.

Currently at about 3k words for “Heat of the Moment,” it’s just a simple oneshot I’m nearly finished with. Basically Loki seeks out Stephen and Thor for assistance because there’s mysterious murders happening in Jotunheim. Unfortunately they can’t use magic and daggers for all their problems. “Oblivescence” on the other hand is at about 7.3k words. A multi chapter fic that’s being a pain in the butt cause I’ve run into a plotting problem. Essentially Stephen in the fic is struggling to deal with all the memories from Dormammu and the time loops, so he starts to use a spell to get rid of his memories. You can imagine how well that turned out.

3. Summarize your current project poorly.

In one project Stephen is solving other peoples problems, in the other he’s creating his own.

4. Describe your favorite character or characters.

Stephen Strange, a boy born in Nebraska (a fact that gets featured in “Oblivescence”) and rose to fame in New York. He’s a family man at heart despite no longer having blood relatives to turn to anymore. For this reason, particularly the death of his younger sister, he made a career for himself in neurosurgery. He enjoys trivia, music, music trivia, reading, studying, pop-culture, helping people, and annoying his friends. He feels most comfortable in situations where there’s a high success rate and/or he’s in control. He’s a broken man but he always pieces himself together again. Loss and pain are two things he knows well. The loss of his family, the loss of Christine, the loss of his hands, and the loss of his inner peace are all things that have made him who he is today. He’s an incredibly deep character but there’s a summary.

5. Post a line from your current project without any context.

From “Oblivescence”: He didn't like sleeping in the dark, never had. Part of him wanted to put some of those plastic glowing stars on the ceiling like he had in his childhood bedroom.

From “Heat of the Moment”: Stephen looks up from where he had been absent-mindedly stepping in Thor's larger footsteps in the snow, only to face the opening of a cave.

6. How do you get through writers block?

I start reading the fic I’m working on, cause I’ll eventually either get in the momentum of the fic and start writing for it, or I answer some asks on @askthesorcerersupreme so I can get in the “writing for magic” mindset without having to stick to a plot.

7. Would you want to live in the world of your current work?

Imma have to pass on that. The world we live in is crazy enough, no need to add alien invasions to that.

8. Briefly discuss your outlining process, if you outline.

Almost all of my fic ideas start out as just a basic idea, then I have to develop an actual fic out of it. “The Raven” started out as just Oh wouldn’t it be cool if Stephen collected the infinity stones in Infinity War? But then I had to break it up in sections. How does he get each stone? Why does he want the stones? What gets in the way of him achieving his goal? And eventually all those points are lined together into an outline I can write something about. So I suppose I use a sort of “divide and conquer” technique to make an outline.

9. What is the aesthetic of your current project?

“Oblivescence” gives of AU vibes but also Fix-It cause apparently the mcu refuses to even acknowledge Stephen’s trauma and backstory. Overall… oddly I’d say a vintage aesthetic idk it just fits. “Heat of the Moment” gives modern. A fun little fic with cool tones.

10. What song sums up your current work the best?

“Heat of the Moment” is literally named after “Heat of the Moment” by Asia. “Oblivescence” was actually a bit inspired by the song “Won’t Remember” by Tors. You look so much like him / The man that you were and It hurts just to miss you / When I’m there by your side are the two verses that inspired the way Stephen still has his same personality, just without knowing why he is the way he is. He has problems trusting people. Does he know why? Nope. But he knows that he does.

I’m tagging: @atypical-snowman @hithertoundreamtof23 @harpywritesfic @doctorwhitefox @webtrinsic1122 @rosewrites (and anyone else who wants to join)

[9worldstales]

MCU Loki Ep 6 “For All Time. Always.” intensive analysis

So that’s the end of the series and of my analysis of each episode. No, actually it’s not as there will be a second series. So basically this episode too follows the same trend the other episodes followed, it ends on a cliff-hanger.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with cliff-hangers but if you abuse of them, it reveal you don’t believe your series can hook viewers even without cliff-hangers.

Whatever, let’s go.

This time, instead than a music, the ‘MARVEL STUDIOS’ writing has in the background quotes from the Marvel movies which is interesting because it kind of hints to the time passing.

It continues showing a beautiful view of spaces which seems to be creating and destroying in which we get other quotes which are historically famous.

Then we move to where Sylvie and Loki are.

Title and then first (poorly done) dialogue as they face the door of a place which has weird cracking, shining lines as if that reality was about to break apart.

Sylvie all of sudden asks Loki if he’s going to tell her not to kick the door, but since she has Mary Sue powers he’s not going to do so because:

Loki: It never made a difference.

In itself is a terrible premise for your relationship guys and the prove you don’t have one. If you don’t listen to each other, that’s not a good basis to found a relation and the fact that Loki doesn’t even care to be heard but would let her do what she wants is equally not promising.

Please, mark Sylvie’s words here:

Sylvie: Well, if you think it's a bad idea, I prefer you to speak your mind.

This would be a good sentence. A good basis for a relation as she asks for his input, she tells him she wants to hear it but he has none. Okay, whatever, it could work if it wasn’t that Sylvie is hesitating. Loki worries and she tells him she needs a moment, he worries more, tries to speak his mind about it and she tells him:

Sylvie: Loki, shut up. I was pruned before you even existed. I have been waiting for this moment my entire life. I just need a second to get my head straight, okay?

So… she has asked for Loki’s input, she has told him to speak his mind but when he does she tells him shut up. Because she actually didn’t want him to speak his mind. She wanted him to be the one who would stall her because she needed a minute and now she’s angry and rude because he’s not giving her what she wants. Loki still remains compliant because… Mary Sue.

Since Sylvie clearly doesn’t want to enter, the doors decide to open on their own so as to force them to enter.

I’ll be honest, the place is cool but I’ve no idea why ‘He Who Remains’ would have built to himself a place like that in a location like that. Whatever, let’s not make questions which obviously won’t get answers.

Miss Minute appears abruptly to welcome them to ‘The Citadel at the End of Time’ and tells them ‘He Who Remains’ is impressed, ‘He Who Remains’ being the one who created all and controls all, in short, at the end, it is only ‘He Who Remains’. According to Miss Minute he’s willing to offer them a deal, adjusting the timeline to place them back into the timeline in a way that won't disrupt things while the TVA keeps doing its work. Loki will get to win the battle of New York, get the Infinity Stone and the Throne of Asgard… because it’s not like he wanted the love and acceptance of his family and feel like he belonged, no, the TVA and this series don’t care about this part of the whole Loki problem.

You know, many blame Waldron for messing up Loki’s character in this series and is real, he messed it up big time, but I wonder if he did it on purpose or because he was requested to do so.

Because I can’t believe someone who sat down and hear a Tom Hiddleston’s lecture about “Loki” has no idea all this came from pain and not from ambition to rule, so Miss Minute offering him a throne POST “THE AVENGERS” instead than his father’s love, his family’s acceptance, a way to pack up things with his brother, maybe even the chance to be Odin’s legitimate child feels dumb and a mere attempt at remarking how Loki is actually solely moved by ambition.

And it’s not like they couldn’t do it because she then tells Sylvie she can give a lifetime of happy memories and the chance to live with Loki. So they can redo what happened to Loki… and they don’t offer it to him? As if what happened in the Vault in “Thor” was something he wanted to keep? As if his attempted suicide at the end of “Thor” was something he enjoyed?

She could offer him everything and she says so:

Miss Minutes: It's crazy, but he could make it work. All of it. Everything. Exactly the way you've always wanted. And you can have it all, together.

…and satisfying Loki’s greed for a throne was what she chose to go because this series desperately wants to characterize him as solely longing for a throne.

Sylvie doesn’t believe her, saying it’s just fiction.

Loki’s statement could have been a little more profound, as he says they’ll write their own destiny, meaning he doesn’t want the help of ‘He Who Remains’, but it could have been deeper if Miss Minute has offered him to change his past and he has just worried about the future, it could have meant he would let go of the past, and worry about what he could improve in the future.

Instead Miss Minute offered the past to Sylvie and the future to Loki, whom, we know in this series was set on the start on being in charge of his fate so it was unlikely he would have accepted. Pity, it’s a wasted chance.

She leaves them, this meeting changing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except that we now know we’re in ‘The Citadel at the End of Time’ and the final enemy is supposed to be called ‘He Who Remains’ and we move to Renslayer who’s downloading files.

On a side note I like how she sees the sign Mobius’ glass left and pause for a moment.

Then Renslayer discovers the files Miss Minute has downloaded for her aren’t the ones she asked for, but she’s told ‘He Who Remains’ thinks they’ll be more useful to her. As a good little soldier without will, Renslayer doesn’t even argue on this.

We won’t see Miss Minute again in the series.

Overall she has been useless. This last episode tried to paint her as a bit more malicious but she’s basically a Clippy cartoon, as an AI she doesn’t have at all the character of Jarvis (from “Iron Man”) or Karen (from “Spider-Man: Homecoming”). Miss Minute is entirely forgettable, overall useless, just a kid cartoon to draw kids’ interest.

It would have been scarier if Renslayer had downloaded the files by herself and discovered somehow she had downloaded a different file but whatever, let’s move on.

Loki and Sylvie walk for a corridor as the camera rotates, drawing on the suspension but not really doing anything relevant. They get in a hall and Loki, seeing the dust, wonders if ‘He Who Remains’ is actually still alive. Again this won’t mean anything because the guy is alive and why there’s dust is left unexplained.

Sure, they might want to save the answer for the second series but considering how this series went I’m not even sure about it.

A door opens and ‘He Who Remains’ appears and it turns out the big bad is the actor who’s meant to play the part of Kang the conqueror.

Kudos to Jonathan Majors as he managed to make ‘He Who Remains’ very charismatic, which is relevant as he’s also meant to play Kang The Conqueror in incoming movies and if it had come out as boring it would have been a huge problems for those movies.

Anyway, ‘He Who Remains’ is absolutely calm, comfortable, in control and amused. He eats an apple, commonly viewed as the fruit of temptation and knowledge as he talks with them and doesn’t play the role of ‘action boy’ like the other 3 female POC were.

He invites them to follow him to his office, which they do although they keep on pointing their swords at him. Loki realizes he’s just a man and Sylvie tries to kill him but he warps himself away from her blow so she misses. She tries again and fails again so they remain alone in the lift. The doors open and ‘He Who Remains’ is outside, waiting for them.

Now… I guess Sylvie attempting to kill the guy at random foreshadows the fact that’s she’ll try to do so afterward as well… but this is sort of signalling she’s losing her Mary Sue powers because she’s starting to look dumb. She’s not even sure he’s the real big bad and not a side kick and yet she’s trying to murder him in one blow.

She has already tried it with the Time-Keepers and it didn’t work out well, why she’s trying again?

Once they’re in his office he offers them… tea? And tells them to sit down while they’re all nervous and with their swords out. They sit because… the plot says so?

I mean no one would sit while at the same time still being so wary he keeps on pointing his sword to a guy.

But back to Renslayer we go. She’s collecting documents and complaining she said she didn’t want to be disturbed when she hear the door being knocked.

The one knocking though, is Mobius, with a Time Stick.

Renslayer expresses her admiration for him coming back from the Void… when it actually was Sylvie who gave him the means to do so. Not that Mobius mentions it because for him it was a piece of cake coming back. With the Tempad Sylvie gave him and that he didn’t left her.

Renslayer: If anyone was ever gonna make it back from The Void, I suppose it was gonna be you. Mobius: Oh, well, you know, one man's Void is another man's piece of cake.

Whatever. Renslayer asks him if he’s gonna prune her and he acts all moralist with her.

Mobius: I like that idea. But, you know, my standards might be a little bit higher in that area than yours. You know, with close personal friends.

So what? He’s gonna close her on a time-loop in which she gets beaten over and over until she admits she was bad for betraying him as he has done with his other friend, Loki? Or Loki got that even though he hadn’t betrayed him because he wasn’t a close personal friend?

Renslayer tells him he couldn’t get in the way of her little cult’s mission. Mobius complains the Time-Keepers are fake and they’re Variants so there’s no mission because for Mobius all this is very personal.

Pruning Variants was fine only as long as whoever was in charge didn’t lie to him. Once he did, there’s no mission.

Renslayer at least is more coherent. She doesn’t care about the lies, she has decided the TVA is her life and so she’ll continue serving it as the brainwashed cult member she is.

Renslayer: It can't have been for nothing.

Mobius instead goes back to his beliefs when he perceives himself to be wronged

Mobius: It's exactly the same thing. Because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous. Existence is chaos. Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it. And I'm just lucky that the chaos I emerged into gave me all this... My own glorious purpose. Cause the TVA is my life. And it's real because I believe it's real.

Because there’s no point in thinking too hard at things when they’re murdering others but when they’re lying to you… of course you’ve to care.

Anyway when Renslayer tries to call for D-90 helps Mobius tells her it won’t work and shows her the Franklin D. Roosevelt High School pen Renslayer had in her office which we saw in Episode 2. So, to 2018, Fremont, Ohio, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School we go. B-15 is hiding there, chased by U-92. She shows herself to him and then gets into an office which has plenty of Franklin D. Roosevelt High School pens. As they’re inside they’re interrupted by Renslayer, only it’s not judge Renslayer but principal Renslayer, the Renslayer who can live in the Sacred Timeline. Apparently this is done to persuade U-92 that Renslayer is a Variant, same as them. Now what, is B-15, going to lead all the hunters to know Principal Renslayer? As a plan it seems a little slow but of course the series just asks us to assume it worked and each hunter now believed B-15 that they’re all Variants.

And how could they track the original Renslayer?

Because Renslayer COINCIDENTALLY had a pen with written over the name of the school in which she worked among all her trophies and stuff and everything else and Mobius, who supposedly knows her by centuries, never saw it before and COINCIDENTALLY noticed it only, what, the day before because Renslayer COINCIDENTALLY gave it to him to sign a document and COINCIDENTALLY he remembered the name and COINCIDENTALLY he assumed if she had it, it’s not because another analyst gave it to her but because it’s tied to her true identity and COINCIDENTALLY this was all true. What an awesome series of plot contrivances in a poor attempt to explain how they did find out which was Renslayer’s school when they could have just searched in the computer for a Ravonna Renslayer in the Sacred Timeline. Back to the Lokis we go with ‘He Who Remains’ fully aware Sylvie is the main character, the one who make a journey filled with pain while Loki was just ‘a flea on the back of a dragon’.

Because yeah, this confirms that, despite the title being “Loki”, this has never been Loki’s story. He just happened to be there, a bystander. This is Sylvie’s story. But Loki managing to ‘hang on’… well, ‘He Who Remains’ guesses it counts for something. Yeah, that the series used Loki’s popularity to lead people to view it thinking it would be about him when it’s all about Sylvie. I’m sorry for Sophia Di Martino, it’s not her fault but if someone says me I’m watching a series about Tom Hiddleston’s Loki I want it to be about Tom Hiddleston’s Loki not about anyone else, not even my favourite actor or the best actor in the world. I feel cheated and this doesn’t please me at all. Loki tells him he lost while Sylvie tries again to kill him and again he phases out of her way. He tells them they can’t kill him because he knows what they’ll do and shows them in fact he has a document on which is printed what they’ll do. On it we can see that Loki is the Variant L. 1130 while Sylvie is L. 1190. Loki tries to wave it away as a parlour trick.

‘He Who Remains’ points out to how he has programmed already his TemPad to make sure he’ll avoid all of Sylvie’s blows. I’m not even sure how this works, before they used Time Twisters to loop the Variants, now they actually use the TemPad to… teleport in another place without even opening a timedoor?

The Tempad is the great applied Phlebotinum of this story. It can do everything and the Mary Sue can even make it work without knowing how.

‘He Who Remains’ also informs them he knows whatever happened between them.

Oh, good moment to point this out, remember that big fact about Sylvie and Loki touching each other and this breaking the timeline and we never learnt why but Mobius said it was because two variants of the same person fell in love?

Well, we’ll never get confirmation if it’s true or not and it’ll never happen again. The best we can assume from a Watsonian perspective is it was ‘He Who Remains’ who caused the timeline to branch to save them… from a Doylist perspective it was just another plot contrivance created ad hoc to get them out of a potentially fatal situation.

‘He Who Remains’ insists whatever they did was because he paved the way for them. So what, he controlled their minds? Everyone else’s? He told Classic Loki to die so they could have the time to beat Alioth? Or he would have stopped Alioth? Just because he knows, he didn’t pave the way, at best he predicted it.

Then we get this bit:

‘He Who Remains’: Oh, come on. You know you can't get to the end until you've been changed by the journey. This stuff, it needs to happen. To get us all in the right mindset to finish the quest.

So what’s this? The author talking to us through ‘He Who Remains’, telling us we had to go through 6 episodes so that the reason why Kang the Conqueror will appear wouldn’t feel like a random plot contrivance? And he lead us through all this journey a plot contrivance after the other?

So basically this series could have been avoided by just having ‘He Who Remains’ shoot himself but no, we needed to go through 6 episodes to have Sylvie kill him and refuse to take his place so that his Variants can come? Or even better we could have avoided all this by just having Kang coming but no, too easy, better waste 6 episode setting up that Kang was coming because no one was interested in a series about Loki but in a story about how Sylvie, the supposedly perfect Mary Sue female viewers were supposed to identify with because all female viewers want is not a compelling female representation but a Mary Sue, actually is a dumb woman moved by revenge that opens the Pandora Box and starts it all?

I… I don’t even know how Sylvie moved from Mary Sue to Pandora from an episode to the other.

Do those characters have a character or are they merely puppets?

Loki asks him if this means he manipulated them and ‘He Who Remains’ uses his words to imply he’s the great manipulator.

Loki? In this series? Manipulator? He couldn’t talk his way with an old woman!

You can’t destroy a character and then speak as if his abilities are still there!

Loki WAS a manipulator in the movies! You destroyed him so don’t come here and tell me he still is! It’s no more believable!

But that’s not the point, the point is that ‘He Who Remains’ wants to say that Sylvie isn’t any more capable to trust anyone… so the series had Sylvie say she can’t fall asleep near someone she can’t trust in Episode 3 and then showed her sleeping in front of Loki short after, and then she pruned herself to go save him and trusted him to help her enchant Alioth and he never betrayed her, and he never betrayed anyone in this series really and a Loki even died to help them and just because ‘He Who Remains’ says she can’t trust anyone she doesn’t?

When actually it’s not that she was betrayed by people as far as we know, her story isn’t one of lies and betrayal as her parents were honest with her, her story is merely of a fascist organization wearing very obvious uniforms hunting her?

She shouldn’t have trusting issues with normal people, she should just hate the TVA and yet she trusted Mobius and even gave him the Tempad, her only way out of the place and told Loki Mobius cared about him and now, out of nowhere, she has trusting issues?

It’s Loki the one with trusting issues, not her! He’s the one who was lied all his life, he’s the one who wasn’t believed when he told Mobius the truth, he’s the one who saw Boastful Loki blackmail them.

Does this story knows what’s going on with its characters?

We switch to Mobius and Renslayer.

Mobius wants to tell to the people of the TVA the truth. Renslayer shows him that just because she knows the truth it doesn’t change a damn thing to her and in a way she’s right… or better, she makes more sense than him.

Renslayer: But what if it's a necessary one? Someone created the Time-Keepers. They created this whole place. They gave us all purpose. I have to believe they had a reason.

Mobius was a blind believer before. He was sure the TVA was necessary. So what does it changes if the Time-Keepers weren’t in that room, if they aren’t three but one guy who calls himself ‘He Who Remains’. The mission, the goal, is the same and maybe he lied for self protection so if someone were to try to decapitate him, he would decapitate a puppet.

And which difference it makes if Mobius knows he’s a Variant who got lucky enough to be spared? He, B-15 and all the others didn’t care about the Variants they killed and all they complained and whined was they were lied at, without realizing they had it better than the other Variants who were hunted and killed.

But Mobius goes…

Mobius: No, because I've seen the horror waiting for people when they get pruned and there's nothing necessary about that.

…so okay, if they just died and ended up becoming nothing it was okay for you? It’s because you’ve seen the Void all of sudden you decided pruning people isn’t good?

I mean, I found right from the start the TVA a fascist organization employing torture and police brutality to murder people they saw of a different ‘racial’ group (Variants as handled as if they were a different race from them) with dehumanizing methods, stripping them of their rights and enjoying belittling and hurting them.

Yeah, occasionally Mobius showed some sense of moral but he was an active perpetrator who stuck Loki in a time loop so he could be beaten to Mobius’ heart content until he were to mindlessly obey to Mobius who called himself his friends but basically forced him to cooperate right from the start and continuously belittled him.

And when Loki confronted him more than once Mobius was absolutely fine with what the TVA was doing because, as Renslayer will remind him, without the TVA there should be chaos and free will is bad. But now, now that the TVA lied to him and even pruned him… oh, Mobius saw the light, HE would never again send people to such a horrid place.

Only he escaped from the Void, knowing for all the others who were in the Void, there was no way to come back without a TemPad but who cares?

I mean, it’s great Mobius grew a conscience and decided that sending people in the Void isn’t the right thing to do… but the story should have PROVED he was thinking so in the past episode already instead in the past episode he didn’t show any care about the Variants he forced to end up there, most of which died.

He was all ‘All that time, I really believed we were the good guys’ and ‘Well, I guess when you think the ends justify the means, there's not much you won't do. By the way, you did some annihilating too’ and ‘I too did what I had to do’ and didn’t care at all to save the people that ended there. The TVA kept on pruning, innocent people kept on being sent there and he gave them no way out.

And now he preaches to Renslayer they shouldn’t send people there because he seen the place and he thinks they shouldn’t send people there? How was instead right leaving them there?

They had then an absurd discussion about how, if the TVA weren’t to exist people would have free will.

It’s not that people didn’t have the free will if the TVA existed. No one knew if they were following the sacred timeline or not, so it’s not like whose who followed it were coerced into doing so. They did so of their own free will.

The people they killed didn’t go against the sacred timeline deliberately, it was never a matter of choosing if to obey or not.

One of the biggest problems of the TVA was they processed people for breaking rules people didn’t know existed, and not because they had been lazy but because the TVA didn’t have the authority to impose those rules and didn’t even inform people they were imposing them.

Anyway Renslayer, who’s big about enslavement, says only one person should have free will, the one in charge. Great, Renslayer, so if that person decides to kill everyone and then commit suicide you will agree with it, won’t you?

Because this won’t be chaotic.

So Mobius, not having anything to counter, complains she babbled about them being friends and then sent him to die and wants to know why she changed.

I honestly love this bit but I fear I love it not for the author’s intention.

Renslayer: Nothing, Mobius. I didn't change. Mobius: You didn't change? You betrayed me. Renslayer: No, no. You betrayed me! I looked out for you, hung my neck out for you, and you suffer a crisis of faith and turn to those Variants? Eons of friendship. And you threw it all away on a couple of Lokis. No, Mobius. I didn't betray you.

Mobius sees the world through his personal, selfish lenses. He changed his mind so Renslayer should have too and should have supported him and given him what he demanded. What Renslayer wanted, what she felt, how she didn’t care if the TVA lied to them and was her job to cover up the lie, didn’t matter to him.

Up till that moment he always did what he wanted and she covered up for him. The moment she said ‘no, I won’t cover up for you anymore’ he goes ‘you betrayed me’. His relationship with her is not one of friendship and in the same way he can’t be friend with Loki because the moment Loki did something that displeased him he stopped listening to him and punished him by having him beaten.

Owen Wilson is really good at portraying Mobius but Mobius, as a character, is a spoiled child who’s used to have things his way and throws a tantrum if they don’t go as he wants.

This is the only one time though that the series dares to call him out and since it’s Renslayer doing so, I fear it’ll go unnoticed.

Mobius, in fact, has again nothing to counter except they can’t take away people’s free will. HIS OWN specifically, I might add because until he wasn’t involved he was perfectly fine with taking it away.

Loki: It's an illusion. It's a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control. Now, you all parade about as if you're the divine arbiters of power in the universe. Mobius: We are. [Ep 1]

Loki: So everything is written. Past, present, future. There's no such thing as free will. Mobius: Well, I mean, you know, it's an oversimplification... [Ep 2]

And he also was fine with avoiding chaos.

Loki: Ah, I see. So, when they're finished, what happens then? Mobius: So are we. No more nexus events. Just order. And we meet in peace at the end of time. Nice, right? [Ep 2]

But the most ironic thing is that Mobius in Ep 1 tried to criticize Loki for doing and believing exactly what the TVA is doing and he never seemed to realize it.

Whatever, Renslayer opens up a timedoor telling his she’ll do what she’ll need to do.

Mobius tries to tempt her with an offering:

Mobius: Wait, stop. Look, maybe we can build this into something better together.

And I’d like to know what’s this something better he means. They’ll control people’s will only a bit? Just to make sure only the good guys win? Or what? They’ll simply forbid time travels?

Which would be the TVA purpose if they don’t catch people who go against the sacred timeline and prune them? What are they going to do? Become a private police? Spies? History archivists? What?

So Mobius tries to use the big gun to stop her, the time stick.

Renslayer warns him he’s no danger to her even with that because she’s an action girl and he’s not.

Mobius has his own heroic scene in which he attacks her and he’s sent flying the next second. He tells her to prune him and she doesn’t. Renslayer couldn’t even watch when he got pruned the first time, she can’t do the job herself.

She’s more of his friend than he is Loki’s friend as she didn’t even close him in a time loop in which he gets hurt but leaves him there.

Mobius asks her again where she’s going to go and she says:

Renslayer: In search of free will.

And I’m WHAT IS THIS SUPPOSED TO MEAN? Unless she means she’s going to search for the person in charge, or for power, she just claimed only one person can have free will, the one in charge so is she searching for the TVA boss or for a way to become that herself?

And anyway that’s the last way we see Renslayer so she won’t have the chance to tell us why Sylvie was pruned because it actually wasn’t relevant, it was an excuse to give her a sad back-story.

Depressing.

Back to the Lokis, ‘He Who Remains’ goes on with his propaganda.

‘He Who Remains’: I understand your moral objections to what the TVA does. And my methods are deceptive. But the mission, it never was. Without the me, without the TVA... everything burns.

Loki asks him what he is afraid of which turns out to be him so Sylvie asks him who he is.

Before focusing on his reply I want to point out how the dialogue between the three of them tends to be structured.

Loki says something, ‘He Who Remains’ answers, then Sylvie says something, ‘He Who Remains’ answers then we go back to Loki. Sylvie and Loki take turns in making questions with ‘He Who Remains’ which is not how a discussion goes in the real world. Sometimes someone makes two questions in a row, sometimes another person add a question to the question done, this sort of order is something you get only in a script that tries to balance the screen time of the characters.

Anyway, ‘He Who Remains’ pulls out his whole back-story and yes, he has a back-story and it’s better than Sylvie’s. Which isn’t surprising as he, or better one of his Variants, is meant to be Kang the Conqueror, the next big bad for the movies.

He even hints it in the list of names he says he had.

‘He Who Remains’: Oh, I've been dubbed many names by many people. A ruler, a CONQUEROR. ( Snickers ) ‘He Who Remains’, a jerk.

A conqueror. Kang, the conqueror.

He then proceeds to explain his back-story, confirming what I suspected. Part of the TVA back-story was true, eons ago there were various timelines they came in contact and then decided ‘why not to destroy each other because the bright lure of freedom diminished their life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity as they were made to be ruled and…’ okay, he didn’t put it quite in this way but this was, as Miss Minute said, almost the end of everything.

And, apparently, the ones who started the mess were all his Variants. Because having so many Loki Variants might be troublesome but having Kang Variants is apparently apocalyptic.

But then ‘He Who Remains’ reveals that the truth diverges from ‘dogma’ (so yeah he too sees the TVA as a cult). The first Variant of himself and with this I guess he means himself found Alioth, weaponized it and used it to end the Multiversal War. Once their timeline was isolated he just used the TVA to kill the branching timelines. He’s not the devil he’s the one who kept them safe…

…though he’s conveniently skipping he kept them safe until he decided to prune them. But he tells them his Variants are worse than him which really doesn’t promise anything good.

I would say this doesn’t explain at all how he knew what Loki and Sylvie would have done when facing him because the TVA usually knows what’s going on in the sacred timeline by excluding all the other possibilities. If you’re pruned if you’ll go forward, right or back, you can only survive by going left, hence you’ll go left.

There though there’s no one which can prune Loki and Sylvie for saying something different from what’s in the script.

I was thinking the TVA would employ some sort of prophet/prophetess to explain this but no, why explain things? Much better to leave them unexplained and without sense.

Still, he who comes last makes an interesting observation which I was hoping would be discussed in episode 3 but I got no luck.

‘He Who Remains’: You may hate the dictator, but something... ( Exhales deeply ) ...far worse is gonna fill that void if you depose of him.

When there a Void of power, problems always come. The bigger the place, the worse. Because that’s how human works and what history teaches us.

So Loki’s idea that Earth is at war with itself because it’s not united under a single ruler isn’t completely out of a Void (even if it discounts rebellions and attempts at stealing power and assumes he’s capable of ruling a huge planet with lot of people he knows little about and views as inferior). Complete chaos, anarchy, total lack of authority aren’t working ways to handle things. But the TVA sits at the opposite extreme, it’s just too controlling, too trampling of people’s will to be okay.

The TVA is a bad solution, it doesn’t really work, it just seems so because it murders whoever who doesn’t agree. How many lives preserved? And how many more it killed? Did it murder 1.000 for each 10 it saved? More? 100.000 for each 10 it saved? Even more than that? There are whole cities in the Void, how many times did they rest New York? Asgard? The whole Earth? Some other world?

The idea ‘He Who Remains’ went through any scenario makes me wonder again ‘how?’ did he have a time stone like Doctor Strange in “Avengers: Infinity War”? Explanation please?

Loki goes moralistic as well since at this point everyone is going moralistic:

Loki: So you just... continue to prune innocent timelines?

‘He Who Remains’ surprises them telling them he wouldn’t be the one to prune innocent timelines…

‘He Who Remains’: You two would. There are two options! One... you kill me and destroy all this, so you don't just have one devil, you have an infinite amount. Or... you two. You two run the thing.

Basically ‘He Who Remains’ is offering them a choice between complete chaos and complete order, telling them he’ll pass the ball to them.

Loki doesn’t believe he would give up being in control but ‘He Who Remains’ insists he’s just old… which makes sense but… then what about all this being already written and predetermined?

If everything was already written it’s not like he’s giving this up willingly, he’s merely following the script, a script that has to be followed and so whatever his motivation is, is pointless.

I also don’t quite get why he chose Loki and Sylvie, why they were perfect. They even have contrasting ideas, for crying out loud, but since we aren’t explained anything we are just supposed to accept this logic or lack thereof as valid.

‘He Who Remains’: I've gone through a lot of scenarios... trying to find the right person to take this spot. It turns out that person came in two. But it's definitely you two. So, no more lies. You kill me and the Sacred Timeline is completely exposed. Multiversal War. Or you take over and return to the TVA as its benevolent rulers. Tell the workforce who they are and why they do what they do.

Was that actually the purpose? To see Sylvie, that represent chaos and wants to murder him, fight with Loki which represent order and a benevolent ruler?

Sylvie’s turn to go moralistic.

Sylvie: You treated real people's lives like some kind of game.

‘He Who Remains’ shrugs off her words.

‘He Who Remains’: It's not personal, it's practical. Sylvie: It was personal to me.

That’s the real problem with Sylvie. She’s not worried about everyone he played with, she’s worried about what was done TO HER. It was personal TO HER. Who cares about the others. For her revenge she’s willing to sacrifice everyone.

‘He Who Remains’ turns the blame on her.

‘He Who Remains’: Grow up! Grow up, Sylvie! Murderer! Hypocrite! We're all villains here. We've all done horrible, terrible, horrific things. But now, we, you... have a chance to do them for a good reason.

She has to grow up, she’s a murderer and a hypocrite, we’re all bad… but now we can do something for a good reason… and this is messed up, actually.

Let’s try to put some order in this.

Sylvie was hunted by people, lot of people, who wanted to kill her. Yes, she could keep on escaping and never trying to kill them back or doing so when it was the only way for her to escape. It’s a valid possibility if your sense of moral is against killing.

But also deciding to prioritize your life and murdering whoever is attempting to that is a valid choice if you have no problems dirtying your hands and hope in a more normal life.

So okay, she’s a murderer, a murderer that killed for a very personal reason... but there’s a problem here. It’s ‘He Who Remains’ who’s a hypocrite because HE was the same as Sylvie, not the other way around. He has killed countless Variants and condemned her to such a life for a very personal reason, his own survival. It’s practical FOR HIM, to condemn Sylvie and the others, the others do not agree.

If there’s some growing up, they both have to do it as this is survival of the fittest and there’s no noble and good reason like he’s trying to sell them. The TVA saves a really small minority to condemn a huge majority. Keeping the TVA active to save such a small minority because they belong to said minority is not a ‘good reason’. It’s the same old, a selfish reason.

Still, credit when it’s due, this part is interestingly philosophical. However the series contained so many things that don’t make sense I honestly don’t know if it’s interesting on purpose or by coincidence (this show was big on coincidences as well).

And I don’t see why he has to point at Loki when he says they’ve all done horrible, terrible, horrific things when he could actually point at himself, instead, through all the discussion he has tried to put Sylvie against Loki, to make her doubt him… while Loki just lets him. In fact Sylvie looks at Loki as if one would look to someone guilty of something terrible.

Then he informs them they have passed the threshold, the point in which he doesn’t know anymore what will happen.

And I’m again, why could he know things before and now can’t anymore? Explanation please?

Meanwhile the timeline on which that place seems to rest starts to branch.

Loki is confused, apparently he didn’t expect ‘He Who Remains’ to let them decide their fate freely.

‘He Who Remains’ points out that, whatever they chose, things wouldn’t change for him.

‘He Who Remains’: Yes! Yes! Yes! What's the worst that can happen? You either... take over and my life's work continues or you plunge a blade in my chest and an infinite amount of me... start another Multiversal War. And I just... end up right back here anyways. Reincarnation, baby.

Oh, so there’s also reincarnation in the MCU? Are the Variants reincarnations or people who diverged from their chosen path? I’m beyond confuse.

Sylvie says it’s another lie, another manipulation and ‘He Who Remains’ denies it.

I mean… when Loki says manipulation ‘He Who Remains’ goes all ‘Interesting, that your head would go to that. Sylvie, you think you can trust this guy?’ when Sylvie says so he’s ‘Oh. No lie. No manipulation.’

I’ll say he’s trying to manipulate Loki and Sylvie to fight. That’s why there are two of them, to make them fight.

In fact Sylvie goes for the kill without even asking Loki what he thinks about her and he stops her. He asks her to talk about it, but she’s not interested, she just wants to kill ‘He Who Remains’ and that’s why I find them a terrible couple and I don’t get why Loki should love her beyond her being a Mary Sue.

She’s not really interested in Loki’s opinion, in what he wants, in hearing him out. She wants to do what she has always wanted to do, kill the person behind the TVA, not for the other Variants who can fall victims to them but for herself, for her revenge.

It’s not that she doesn’t believe in ‘He Who Remains’, it’s she doesn’t care if he’s telling the truth or not, she just wants to kill him. Loki is not saying they shouldn’t kill him, he’s saying they should think at it, but she’s in a rush to do it. And, at this point, she doesn’t want to believe in Loki’s either.

Loki: Sylvie, the universe is in the balance, everything we know to be true. Everything. I know the TVA has hurt us both. But what if by taking him out, we risk unleashing something even worse? All I'm suggesting is we just take a minute to think about it. I promise you from my heart this isn't about a throne. Sylvie: What was I thinking trusting you? Has this whole thing been a con?

And this hurts Loki because… she’s like everyone else. She doesn’t trust him, she never did.

Loki: Really? That's what you think of me... after all this time? Sure. Why not? Evil Loki's master plan comes together. Well, you never trusted me, did you? What was the point? Can't you see? This is bigger than our experience.

And at this point Sylvie says something very childish.

Sylvie: Why aren't we seeing this the same way?

Or better ‘Why aren’t you seeing this the same way as me?’ because if the problem was ‘we see this differently’ we could talk about why this is it, but if the point is ‘you see this differently’ you are the problem and you should change your way or you’re in my way. And again this proves they’re a terrible couple because being together is also about finding compromises.

Loki’s reply actually seems to miss the point:

Loki: Because you can't trust... and I can't be trusted.

It’s not about what they can’t do, it’s about what Sylvie wants and what he wants. She wants ‘He Who Remains’ dead. He wants her safe and a new life for himself, one in which he won’t have to lie and backstab. He liked her because

Loki: But that's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me.

…but he was slightly wrong. She’s trying to take down the TVA yes, but not for pure reasons, but just because she has a grudge toward them. It doesn’t really matter to Sylvie it’s a Fascist organization or what it does to other Variants, she’s just hurt and wants retaliation.

And in this she’s similar to him. He was hurt by his family and wanted the throne not out of ambition but because he was taught that who gets the throne is the one worthy and loved. Getting the throne was his way to soothe his hurt. Sylvie comes from a different back-story, she was taught killing the enemy is the way to solve the problem and that’s why she wants to destroy the TVA, because the TVA taught her destroying something is the way you deal with problems.

They had a different nurture phase, so they came out different.

But as he believes he’s flawed, he sees the problem as a nature’s problem.

She can’t trust. He can’t be trusted. That’s their nature. And it’s not. As Sylvie said when they met

Loki Variant (Sylvie): This isn't about you. [Ep 2]

It’s about her pain. And in a way their fight might parallel the one between him and Thor… and he’s even better than Thor in his efforts to reach her.

When he says they should think about it, he wants to talk with her about it. He’s not saying she has to do what he says, he wanna them think at this together. He’s stalling? Possibly, but he’s showing himself open to discussion which is something.

So, while Sylvie shows she has magically leant Loki’s magic and now can use him to push him away because she’s awesome like that (and note that it’s true Loki magically learnt enchantment, but she explained him how it worked, he never explained her how his magic worked), Loki tries reasoning with her without invalidating her point even though her words about not being able to trust him had hurt him:

Loki: Maybe he's lying! Maybe he's not. The cost of getting this wrong is too great.

When she accuses him of something, he insists that’s not that:

Sylvie: Fine. Do it. Kill me. Take your throne. Loki: No.

But what’s more he proves her he doesn’t aim to hurt her by giving her the chance to kill him. He exposes his throat and let his blade fall. He completely drops the aggressive stance and tries to reason with her from an unthreatening position, giving her all the power so that she doesn’t feel attacked.

He tells her he understands her and it’s true if this is meant to parallel his fight with Thor during which all he could think was that destroying Jotunheim would fix everything. It probably would have worked better if he had explained her why he knows but whatever. He tries to show her he prioritizes her, that he doesn’t want to hurt her, where Thor’s main worry was to protect the Frost Giants. Loki protects ‘He Who Remains’, but make clear he does so to protect Sylvie.

Loki: I've been where you are. I've felt what you feel. Don't ask me how I know. All I know... is I don't wanna hurt you. I don't want a throne. I just... ( Sighs ) I just want you to be okay.

Try to think at how would have been “Thor” if Thor had tried stopping Loki by pointing out how his brother wasn’t the sort who’ll commit genocide, how he would feel bad if he were to do so, how he understood Loki was in pain and wanted him to be okay and destroying Jotunheim wasn’t the way.

It’s interesting in both scenes Loki had to remark it wasn’t about him wanting the throne, it’s always about love. In “Thor” he wanted Odin’s love, in “Loki” he wanted to protect Sylvie whom he loved.

Credits when it’s due, in “Thor”, Thor told Loki he didn’t want to fight him, but he did so by a position of power, he was in a situation in which he could defend himself and the whole ‘I will not fight you, Brother!’ to Loki who had no idea Thor had changed might have felt like Thor looking down on him, looking at someone who wasn’t worth fighting against.

Thor too tried to stop Loki… but the script simply wanted him to be more concerned with protecting Jane and Jotunheim than his brother. Loki instead prioritizes Sylvie. Sadly it’s not enough because she too, like him, is too damaged.

She’s touched by his words… but they aren’t enough. She drops her sword and kisses him… but this is not enough for her. She doesn’t love him enough she’ll gave up on her revenge.

So she steals ‘He Who Remains’ timepad, opens a timedoor and tosses Loki through it. The Timedoor, differently from episode 2, closes quickly so Loki can’t go back.

‘He Who Remains’ meanwhile has enjoyed the show as if it were an amusing, incredible movie. As Sylvie throws away the furniture that divides them and asks him if he’s gonna beg for his life he laughs and says he could do but will never do it. He’s not scared, which is a huge warning sign that killing him out of revenge isn’t the solution, it’s what he wants.

She kills him anyway and he smiles telling her he’ll see her soon then dies laughing.

Sylvie remains alone there and falls sit as she savours how revenge actually doesn’t taste that sweet as they say.

Meanwhile the timeline outside keeps branching madly.

It’s a beautiful view, I’ll have to say this episode has very nice visuals.

Back at the TVA Mobius and B-15 see the timeline branch as well on a screen and I’m confused because the TVA wasn’t meant to be capable to see the timeline past the void but all of sudden they can… or it’s pre Void and the timeline started branching there too? Who knows?

No one at the TVA is doing anything they’re just watching the scene and I don’t know what’s going on.

So everyone has peacefully accept the TVA lied to them and they had to stop working for it but remained at his place?

Renslayer was the only one who believes they had to trust in the system and wanted to fight for it?

That’s impossible to believe honestly, the TVA should be chaos and confusion at this point, with people attempting to cope with the truth and arguing about what to do.

Mobius and B-15 decide that there’s no turning back and, apparently, since they had turned against the TVA, she show is trying to promote them as two good guys/heroes/whatever.

I’m ALL for redeeming characters, really, I’m glad they had changed their ways but it was just done in a very unconvincingly way, EXPECIALLY FOR B-15 who has never showed care for the Variants and was all about pruning them and belittling them with joy, but also for Mobius who was ruined by Ep 4 and had poor dialogues also in episode 5.

Loki is in the TVA room in which Sylvie has tossed him. He’s clearly distraught and sat there for a while until he decides to leave and run out, probably searching for ‘his great friend’ Mobius.

He finds him talking with B-15 about how the timeline is branching and tells him what had happened.

Loki: It's done, Mobius. We made a terrible mistake. We freed the Timeline. We found him beyond the storm. A Citadel at the End of Time. He's terrifying. He planned everything. He's seen everything. He knows everything. It's complicated. Okay? But someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they're all set on war. We need to prepare.

He’s so upside down he realizes Mobius doesn’t know what he’s talking about when Mobius asks him if he’s another analyst (probably because Loki is dressed like one).

At this point Loki realizes Mobius doesn’t know him and neither does B-15 who calls for the boots. As he looks around he sees the TVA has changed, there’s no more a statue of the three time-keepers but one of ‘He Who Remains’, or, more likely, of Kang the conqueror.

The episode ends like this and Loki will do better say he was just talking of a nightmare he had or fake temporal insanity if he doesn’t want to be pruned by this new Kang.

Or is it Sylvie who has taken control?

We don’t know, we’re meant to find out in the next series.

So, to sum it up… the initial discussion between Loki and Sylvie was poor and apparently aimed to set up the idea that despite episode 3, 4 & 5 wanted us to believe they were meant to be a couple, the things couldn’t work, thanks for making us waste 3 episodes over this, the meeting with Miss Minute was something that was better to cut, actually let’s cut Miss Minute from the series.

The Renslayer subplot is merely a teaser for the next season. In the Comics she falls for Kang and she basically left in search of him so this might tell us something about future developments.

The whole plan to reveal the truth to the TVA was poorly done, they could have cut the ‘Loki and Sylvie met Miss Minute’ scene and focus more on ‘the TVA discovers the truth’.

I actually liked Mobius and Renslayer’s meeting but, I fear, not for the reasons the author wanted.

There’s tons of things unexplained and confusing in this episode, like the dust in the place, at this point I might even wonder if ‘He Who Remains’ was really there or Sylvie killed an hologram.

Jonathan Majors did a great work with ‘He Who Remains’… on the opposite side Tom Hiddleston’s Loki hardly had a role except for the last bit in which he tried to stop Sylvie.

Even though it was Loki, Sylvie and ‘He Who Remains’ in that room, it felt more like it was a dialogue between Sylvie and ‘He Who Remains’ and Loki had decided to be there solely to support Sylvie instead than for his own reasons and I mean, supporting Sylvie can be a personal reason but he has just… put her in a position of power. It wasn’t as if he was there WITH her, but he was there FOR her and she fundamentally didn’t need nor wanted HIM, she just wanted someone who agreed with her and told her what she wanted right from the start.

In an interesting note this episode remarked again they ARE different people and he’s not an extension of Sylvie who would nods his head when she felt they should nod their head. And Sylvie chooses revenge versus love in a very total way because she’s not even willing to talk over it where, although Loki turned it down, Loki always talked with Thor when they had a fight, he tried to explain himself. Sylvie doesn’t.

Through their fight she just accuses him. She tells him he gets in her way because he wants the throne because he wants to con her, because he wants to kill her. Ultimately when he tells her he only wants her to be okay, she tells him she’s not him, so either she doesn’t want herself to be okay or she doesn’t return the feeling, she doesn’t want him to be okay and that’s all she gives as explanation for her actions.

She doesn’t try to explain how she feels or how the TVA hurt her. She just expects him to understand by osmosis I guess, or because he’s a Loki like her.

It’s an interesting scene, all their fight is worth discussing but also… disregard previous character developments.

He supposed love story with Loki never existed, not even as a teenager experience, the idea of losing him was nothing compared to her wish to murder ‘He Who Remains’. All that incensing about Sylvie being the special, superior female Loki Variant kind of crumbled down in this episode.

Fundamentally she gave up her brain and her love for her wish of revenge and she has played like a pawn in the game ‘He Who Remains’ set for her. He goaded her into not trusting Loki and killing him and she let the guy manipulate her.

The series continued to give her no solid back-story to speak of, her past was just very sad and that’s it, but also skipped on Loki’s back-story entirely with the result they both don’t feel very deep if we just watch the series.

Still I think that the confrontation had a lot of potential but was meant to be set up better.

As for all the things the series left unexplained… I can’t really say I approve. People should want to watch a second season because they enjoyed the first, not because it’s a requirement to understand the first, never mention I’m pretty sure they don’t really aim to explain all that remained unexplained.

We don’t see any more Kid Loki nor anyone explains us the existence of Alligator Loki which are both two huge wastes as they too had a lot of potential. And what about Throg in a jar? He also gets forgotten.

All the points about Loki being a narcissist or not, falling for Sylvie out of narcissism or not remains unexplored. They didn’t dig in a single one of his past family issues and traumas.

The TVA kind of discovered the truth and… that was it because then when Loki is back everything is rewinded.

To sum it up, the “Loki” series had A LOT OF POTENTIAL, but it wasted most of it.

It did a poor use of its awesome actors due to a poor script which turned them OOC or gave them senseless dialogue, it has potentially strong thematic (fascist organization, police abuse, discrimination, passively collaborating with what’s wrong) which didn’t explore at all in a meaningful way, inserted a bisexual character, or two if Sylvie too was bisexual… and then let the whole notion drop as it was completely irrelevant for the plot.

It was set up as a mystery or a crime story which was intriguing… but then failed to deliver as everything happened not following a plan but thanks to plot contrivances happening one after the other.

It could have explored parallel realities, Variants of the same people… but reduced them to a joke that’s mostly uncharacterized.

It could have been all a joke at this point, the “Looney tunes” humour was fun… but no, it wanted to be serious to waste more than half of an episode in “Looney tunes” humour that wasn’t relevant to the plot. And I could go on and on, because there’s plenty of promising bits that… go nowhere.

I mean we didn’t need Loki and Sylvie’s relation to be romantic, if it had been familiar, if Loki were to see her as a long lost twin sister and that was it, someone with whom he wanted to build the sibling relation he failed to have with Thor, it could have worked but no, we needed the romance that… goes nowhere. 3 episodes spent to set up a romance that wasn’t needed and goes nowhere.

And it’s not even a lie, it’s not that Sylvie is manipulating Loki… it’s just that when all is said and done, whatever she felt for him didn’t matter because she wanted to murder ‘He Who Remains’ right then and he told her to wait.

The worse feeling though is maybe that I fear that what I find interesting in some parts wasn’t what the author wanted me to find interesting.

I mean, where I see police brutality and abuse and a wonderful opportunity to discuss of these things… the author seems to see just a funny moment to beat Loki up and humble him and force him to reflect on his bad behaviour. So… I don’t know.

Ultimately the show failed to deliver a Loki story. Loki has a lot of screen time and Tom Hiddleston is great but… he’s not the Loki we knew as, except for a couple of moments in ep 1 & 2, he acts dumb and slow witted, he can’t manipulate anyone but what’s worse he can’t even persuade people when he’s telling the truth and yeah, they gave him back his magic powers but he uses them poorly and lost his fighting abilities.

There was no exploration of his trauma, of what made him ‘Loki’. When asked what makes a Loki a Loki, Loki says ‘independence, authority, style’ but what I wanted to know was what made him HIMSELF, his experiences his trauma, and see him unpack those.

Instead the series only had him say ‘I’m bad, I’m weak, I’m a narcissist’, they didn’t care at all about nurture, they tried to blame all on nature, over and over, especially with the horde of Lokis who’re all backstabbing and longing for power, except the ones who aren’t but we don’t talk about them.

Whatever, I’m done. I’m just sad for how it went and I needed to vent because I really, really hope this series would be awesome, the other series promised well and this series has the potential… but it failed to use it.

[swtki]

Surprise Pregnancy - Marvel

Summary: Head cannons for how the MCU boys would react to an unplanned pregnancy.

Warnings: mentions of sex, mostly fluff, all characters are pro choice, swearing, slight angst, mentions of cigarettes, mention of breeding kink.

A/N: this is gonna be like the one I did for the HP boys.

Steve Rogers

Okay lets be honest I think that man wears a condom AND pulls out bc he will take NO RISKS.

Until after you’re married, of course.

Then its a sometimes condom sometimes morning after pill type beat.

Its not that he doesn’t want a kid, he just wants to wait until someone isn’t trying to kill him every day.

Steve, who usually has pink cheeks and relaxed eyes, went cold and clammy when you mentioned a late period.

Home tests weren’t really around for him, so he’s used to hearing about cycles and the science of that.

Man gets out a full calendar to get to the bottom of this.

“Okay so if you got your last one here, and then the next one here, your cycle will last about 29 days. Meaning you should have gotten it here but its now two weeks past that point-“

He probably has one of the girls take you to the doctor to get a test.

But he is happy asf when he gets your call.

honestly Steve is from a generation where they gave a kid a Marlboro and called it childcare.

Within 9 months he has tried to give you: Coffee, deli meat, the cheese you can’t eat, sushi, any type of soda to ever walk this fucking planet (plus Thor trying to give you soda from those bougie planets) 

He will not buy a book. Don’t even try to ask him.

Although the apartment is small, its much better than the tower.

Steve is waiting outside during delivery. Support from the hall!

He want’s to name your kid after his dead relative with an old persons name 💀

“We are not naming our child Edna.”

“Is Ashley much better??”

The way this man is so incapable of holding a child in a way that doesn’t make you feel like he’s gonna drop it.

Lowkey afraid of babies tbh

Parenting styles clash of course.

“No I didn’t plug the ‘ wall socket protectors ‘ in. Back in my day-“

Bucky prob the Godfather.

Overall: Fun dad.

Bucky Barnes

He has a breeding kink but like….forgets that breeding produces a human.

Tbh I don’t think Bucky wants kids

Like they aren’t in the plan.

He wants to be the cool uncle.

Also his kids would physically be older than him at some point and thats kinda weird.

Anyways, he’s pretty shocked when you pop up with not one, but four positive tests.

man literally got up and went to another room, he couldn’t deal

ceo of needing to sleep on it

ceo of leaving his gf alone

He comes back all business

“Do you…y’know…want a….y’know?”

Man would pull it out himself if you asked him to I know that bionic arm could come in handy 👀

after many many many hours of talking, you decide the study should be the new nursery.

Oh boy is redecoration a fun time

“I love you, Bucky, but we cannot have world war II memorabilia in our baby’s nursery.”

not too happy about hanging it up in the living room bc he kinda wants to keep his age private yet he will not say “these were my great grandfathers”

Probably carried around a sack of flour so he could learn how to hold a baby

RIP the first two sacks, they were dropped.

refuses to go to classes

will let you hold his metal arm in delivery tho

Steve’s the Godfather ofc

Bucky kind of treats the baby like another adult but…weaker.

He’s so weird around the baby

He adores it tho

Like falls asleep with them on his chest

slightly scary though because he can toss and turn so its good until panic sets in.

over all: fun but chaotic dad.



Loki Laufeyson

Honestly I can’t imagine Loki stays in the courting stage very long.

He’s probably married you, bedded you, and moved you in all within seven months.

And three months after that you’re pregnant with his (first) child.

He of course has wanted this practically since day 1

So when you show him the test sticks he was like 😃 what

then you had to explain what a midguardian pregnancy test was

he was ecstatic lol

Nursery done in a day

Theres gold.

Like

decorative gold

in a babies room.

He extra like that ig

He refuses to let you do anything. Need to stand up? He’s helping you do so.

Need water? conjured that bitch

the way he will not hesitate

He was in the room during delivery, his hand being crushed by yours

Agreeing on a modern name, still with roots to Nordic culture.

Loki wants more almost immediately

He keeps an eye on his baby all the time

and lets you sleep while he casts himself in the nursery to take care of the crying child.

He’s scared for Thor.

Like he knows Thor and your kid might get into some bullshit and he doesn’t want that.

uncle tingz

overall: Protective af

Thor Oddinson

Oh this is a wild ride, strap in.

Bro I know I said Bucky had a breeding kink but didn’t actually want a kid then?

Ok well Thor has a breeding kink and he means it.

You’re both prepared for a kid, so if it happens so be it.

He literally opened a window and screamed “A NEW HEIR IS FORMING!” when he found out.

Weirdo.

Still you weren’t exactly sure the two of you should be parents.

For one, the dining room was covered in smashed mugs.

But he loved you and you loved him, so you decided to keep it.

Complete opposite of Loki

Even when you’re struggling to get out of bed bc you’re so big hes like 👁👁 what

Anyways, he does help when he can.

He wants the kid to be a kid, like a normal non-king kid.

So the nursery is pretty modest.

Many earth tones, a lot of traditional norse decor.

He named the baby after his Mother, Frigga

The kingdom was so happy at the new addition to the royal home.

He prob started teaching her to fight as soon as she could walk.

He’s a very protective father

Loki and Frigga prank the hell out of him, teaching her magic and spells.

Overall: Proud parent

Peter Parker

Out of all of them this was probably the most unplanned.

You two are only starting your first year of university, still living in separate dorms.

Your period is like three weeks late.

You’re hoping its just stress.

Then the nausea kicks in.

So you do what any person in denial would do, you go to the campus clinic for an antibiotic or antiviral.

“Are you aware you’re with child?” bruh moment

Not sure what to do, you avoid your boyfriend for a whole week.

He corners you like “🥺 what happen”

so you break down and start rambling

“IwenttotheclinicandtheytoldmeI’mpregnantand nowIhavetodecideifIwanttokeepitornotandifyouleaveIdon’tknowwhatI’lldo.”

hes just like 😅 oh god

Hes supportive, even saying he’ll go to the ab*rtion clinic with you if that’s what you choose.

He doesn’t want anything to hurt you, so he takes over your course work for the time being.

Over the next two weeks you reach a conclusion; You’d like to keep it.

Peter is supportive of course, he always wanted to be a dad some day.

May is kinda disappointed ngl

But she is also supportive, even agreeing to lend a hand so you two can stay in school.

Luckily, you live in a time where parenting and school are able to be done at the same time.

You urge Peter to stay in normal classes so he can stay on track for his masters

You switch to an online program, spending more time at home.

Btw you moved into May’s for a bit

Because although she’d never been pregnant herself, she could take care of you.

Peter really did come over every weekend.

sort of off topic but if the spider bite changed his DNA, would his kid have powers?

Anyways, he was there during delivery and he fell in love with your kid as soon as they were born.

He decided to transfer to NYU so he could stay close

Shitty apartment down the hall from May = new home

overall: king shit

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[lokiondisneyplus]

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"  

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.  

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."  

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.  

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.  

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.  

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

[negative-speedforce]

Top 15 Fics I’ve Ever Read

#1: The Golden One by AnonymusBosch https://archiveofourown.org/works/30698279 Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, F/F, 14k Words Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Seven, Canon Divergence, Introspective Why I like it: Character study on individuality starring some of my favorite lesbians. #2: Where Truth Resides by Barakis https://archiveofourown.org/works/35861035 Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, F/F, 313k Words Arcane, Caitlyn/Vi, Hurt/Comfort, Jinx Gets Therapy Why I like it: Jinx gets psychiatric help, Vi is the best big sister ever, Soft!Sevika #3: I Don't Want You To Be At Peace (I Want You To Fight) by Sealure https://archiveofourown.org/works/25535599 Rating/Category/Word Count: General Audiences, Gen, 4k Words Star Wars, Ahsoka & Anakin (gen), Hurt/Comfort, Everybody Lives AU Why I like it: The pain! The angst! The happy reward! #4: Inbound Flight: For Home and Song by QueenieWithABeenie https://archiveofourown.org/works/28493898 Rating/Category/Word Count: Mature, Multi, 58k Words Star Wars- Chiss Ascendancy, Multiship, Angst, Canon Divergence, Part 3 of a series. Why I like it: This is a very angsty, very plotty fic with dynamic story arcs and characters who are perfectly in character.  #5: DAISIES by potboiler: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28134648 Rating/Category/Word Count: General Audiences, Gen, 7k Words She-Ra (2018), Shadow Weaver Character Study, Angst, Alternate Universe Why I like it: It’s a dark, gritty deep dive into the mind a of a former villain who now lives with total paralysis. #6: Too Good To Be True (Can't Take My Eyes Off off You) by  Themadwomanwhoisunfortunatelylackingabox https://archiveofourown.org/works/7892560 Rating/Category/Word Count: Not Rated (Teen-ish?), M/M, 53k Words The Flash (2014), Eobard/Barry, Alternate Universe, Hurt No Comfort Why I like it: Oooh, boy. This is an intense fic. Takes place pre-canon, in a college AU with the Barry from the original timeline, before Nora got killed. #7: KOTYATA! by witchwood_hull https://archiveofourown.org/works/28182867 Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, M/M, 79k Words MCU, Steve/Bucky, Semi Canon Compliant, Kitten Rescue AU Why I like it: Fluff, both literal (because kittens) and metaphorical. Also angst. #8: Dark And Bright Meet In Her Aspect by imaginary_golux  https://archiveofourown.org/works/6370615 Rating/Category/Word Count: Explicit, F/F, 11k Words Star Wars, Phasma/Rey, Dark!Rey AU, Sith Shenanigans Why I like it: THERE IS SO MUCH PLOT HERE I LOVE IT *screech* #9: Coma by Aelwyn https://archiveofourown.org/works/23330827 Rating/Category/Word Count: General Audiences, F/M, 33k Words The Flash (2014), Iris/Barry, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence Why I like it: In this fic, it turns out Barry dreamed up his Flash adventures (or did he?) while comatose.

#10: Dear Teacher, With Love by fancyh https://archiveofourown.org/works/17137298 Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, M/M, 61k Words MCU, Steve/Bucky, Teacher AU, but not an actual AU Why I like it: After leaving HYDRA, Bucky infiltrates a high school. Shenanigans ensue. Hilarious, fluffy, and angsty.

#11: Alura | The Alura Trilogy, Book 1 by JoyeEverett715 https://archiveofourown.org/works/37640872  Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, Gen, 55k Words She-Ra (2018), Pre-Canon, Shadow Weaver’s Backstory, Drama Why I like it: This fic expands on the backstory given in Light Spinner and tells a story of its own, which gives an in-depth view of Etheria’s world.

#12: Loki of Nowhere by theicesculpture  https://archiveofourown.org/works/11882577 Rating/Category/Word Count: Mature, M/M, 326k MCU, Loki/Tony, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Space Quest, Angst Why I like it: One of my OTPs on a spaceship trying to steal the Infinity Stones before Thanos can? Heck yes! 

#13: everyone wake up new jinx album just dropped by Drindrak https://archiveofourown.org/works/35740111 Rating/Category/Word Count: Teen, Gen, 6k Arcane, Jinx & Silco (gen), Social Media/Twitter format, Crack Treated Seriously Why I like it: Jinx makes music instead of explosions and gets mental help. Silco is a good dad. #14: Captivated by leftennant https://archiveofourown.org/works/2245620 Rating/Category/Word Count: Explcit, F/M, 166k MCU, Loki/Darcy Lewis, Smut, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort Why I like it: It’s a very plotty fic, where Darcy ends up accidentally transported to Asgard during the events of Thor 1. Very gratifying read. #15: Project Compass by DistantStorm https://archiveofourown.org/works/23487166 Rating/Category/Word Count: Mature, M/M, 132k Star Wars-Thrawn, Eli Vanto/Thrawn, Angst, Spy Shenanigans, Post-Canon Why I like it: This is a really thrilling one, with kinda a Cap-The Winter Soldier style spy vibe. Space battles, not knowing who to trust, deadly poisons... what’s not to love?

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

A Farewell to Arm by Antarctica_or_bust https://archiveofourown.org/works/17425310 MCU, Stucky, Teen+, Crackfic, 5+1 things

Charlie Lock by seapigeon https://archiveofourown.org/works/10173128 MCU, Stucky, Mature (HEED TAGS), Angst AU It's a Lovely Day in Piltover by hellgodsrus, Taylor_Centauri https://archiveofourown.org/works/36321841 Arcane, LightCannon, Explicit, Chaos, Hurt/Comfort Long Way Home by DistantStorm https://archiveofourown.org/works/30064995 Star Wars- Thrawn, Mature, Thranto, Mind Control, Post Canon  If They Haven't Learned Your Name by silentwalrus https://archiveofourown.org/works/6329503 MCU, Steve/Bucky, Mature, Crack Treated Seriously, Recovery, UFOs

[thesaltofcarthage]

Loki takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

from Entertainment Weekly

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

By Chancellor Agard May 20, 2021 

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"  

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.  

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."  

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.  

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.  

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.  

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

Additional reporting by Jessica Derschowitz

[aks3raao1]

Okay, so I saw a weird dream—

1. First it was raining and mom announced that my book order had arrived. I went to see and it was Stormbringer's fan translated version. I was happy and went to reading it and fell asleep half way (yes in the dream)

2. Then the POV shifted over to 16!Chuuya who was. Well. Being Chuuya and talking to his friends and everything and then Verlaine came for some reason and they all ran. POV shifted to 16!Dazai who knew exactly what was going on but was being Dazai just for the sake of it. They planned to blow up some building or sth to save the world.

3. Dazai and Chuuya were bickering at the hideout when I woke up from that and the scene abruptly shifted to the MCU. (The Soukuko scenes might have been the SANEST part of the entire dream...)

4. There Peter Parker, Loki, Thanos and Agatha Harkness were fighting some weirdass plant-tentacle monster who ate their powers and defeated Thanos for whatever reason and tried to eat them. Then Loki seduced the monster by showing it his dick and the monster calmed down for a blowjob. (Idfk anymore)

5. Either way, then the scene shifted over to a gym and Peter Parker was like. They are hiding the monster because they can't bear to kill it. But someone always needs to sexually arouse it so that it chills out (society and metaphors be like:) and turned to me and I was like, "Wtf no" and then it was somehow my fault for not having sex with a tentacle plant.

6. I went away, leaving them to deal with it when the scene shifted back to some hotel where my friends and I had discovered a secret passage. I was mocking a friend in a way I would never do irl which led to a fight and we both fell down the hidden passage which was set into the floor.

7. We fell two floors down and then had to figure out our back back since we obviously couldn't climb back up that way and passed through a lot of passages and stairs and she asked me why I hated her and I had shrugged at first and just before we entered where we had fallen from, I giggled and said that I actually loved her a lot. She gave me an inscrutable look and disappeared inside and I followed.

8. Anyways, then the scene shifted back to school and we were supposed to be giving a Maths exam the next day. As usual, I tried to study but couldn't concentrate because of my family's nonsense and came back to school on the Maths exam day, terrified.

9. However the teacher came to call us for the exams and some of the students went but it was apparent that it wasn't for the actual Maths exam apparently and was some trap, so I stayed back to talk to someone else (was it Nagito? Was it Dazai? Was it some actual friend? God knows) and while we were thinking, I kept panicking about the exam and decided to atleast see where they had gone and confirm that we weren't actually having it with my own two eyes.

10. I went to the room, took a deep breath and opened the door. Then I abruptly woke up.

Jesus....

..........this is some weirdass dream and I feel sincerely sorry for you-

[asterdeer]

fanfic writer 20 questions

tagged by @please-dont-pet-the-okapi, thank you!!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

9, atm

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

58,636

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

four - the magnus archives, adventures in odyssey, supernatural, and the mcu

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

"will your system be all right" is the winner by far with 91 kudos, while "Perhaps I Had A Wicked Childhood," "Steadfast In the Broken Binding," "the devil gave me a crooked start," and "I Am Not the Only Traveler" are roughly the same (35-25). which is kind of surprising to me, because "system" is a non-ship character study for a very minor character, but then the others are for tiny fandoms or rarepairs or BOTH so i guess "system" is the only one that had a chance in general

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try! i failed pretty badly in the beginning but i do try to at least thank people now

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

"Wicked Childhood" for sure, and i have thought about giving it a fix-it followup because, post-loki s1, i really need some happy endings for that particular loki

7) Do you write crossovers?

i love crossover fic - currently i have one ongoing ("Steadfast In the Broken Binding", tma characters set in the world of the binding by bridget collins) but i have at least one other percolating

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope!

9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

not that i would ever post lmao

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

i wish !! but no

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope, past bad experiences with sharing stories means i am a solo writer always now

13) What’s your all-time favourite ship?

this is very hard to narrow down unless it means "favorite ship to write," in which case that's almost definitely steveloki! they are the perfect blend of "it's not like pulling teeth to get them to communicate in-character" and "they clash enough that it's fun to write the dialogue" (my reoccurring problems with jonmichael and richason respectively). and i really like where i've gotten wrt writing in their voices. they're just very fun to put in situations.

14) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

at this point "Broken Binding" feels like a lost cause but i haven't given up on it yet, especially since i have a vague ending in mind. it's just that i ended the last chapter in the smack middle of my burnout and it still gives me a stomachache thinking about being in that particular headspace. there's another jonmichael one-shot i'm working on that i doubt i'll finish just bc of how weird and self-indulgent it is and how embarrassed i would end up being if i posted it.

15) What are your writing strengths?

i love dialogue so much. and body language. i'm a pretty visual person so i think i can write with good specificity, because i need to visualize everything in my mind before i can write it.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

pacing, emotional authenticity, being impatient to get to what i want to write so bridge sections are weak and/or rushed, tendency to over-describe, can't write kissing/romantic scenes, either over- or under-emotionalize during denouements/climaxes, as much as i like dialogue mine can be pretty cringey..... it goes on but there's that

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

i will not do it until i have minored in the target language for at least four calendar years and maybe lived in the area for a year minimum

18) What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

adventures in odyssey - 2017 babey, i'm a fanfic newborn

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

i think "system" is probably the most holistic product - it's not fantastically written but it's solid and it does what i wanted it to do, i have a lot of affection for it as both a good fic and the fic that got me writing in fandoms larger than aio - but "Perhaps I Had a Wicked Childhood" is the biggest swing i've ever made, stylistically and narratively and structurally and emotionally, and while there are some scenes that still make me want to stab my eyes out for posting publicly, i just..................it's definitely that one. it's the opposite of perfect but it's so much fun.

20) Who do you tag?

@biromantic-nerd and @andromachequynh if you want to, i'd love to hear ur fanfic thoughts <3

[undertheinfluencerd]

https://ift.tt/2X2MXow #

After making her screen debut in 1989, Sandra Oh has enjoyed a remarkable career in both film and television. Although the versatile talent and 12-time Emmy nominated actress is best known for her iconic roles as Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy and Eve Polastri on Killing Eve, Oh has also worked with some of the finest movie directors, including Alexander Payne, Steven Soderbergh, Mina Shum, John Cameron Mitchell, and more.

RELATED: Killing Eve – 10 Best Quotes From The Show

As fans continue to enjoy Oh’s new hit Netflix sitcom The Chair, it’s worth recollecting her best movie moments for those who want to see more of the talented actress on the big screen.

10 Defendor (2009): 6.8

Peter Stebbings’ dark offbeat superhero comedy Defendor stars Oh as Dr. Ellen Park, a psychiatrist who gives hilarious facial and verbal reactions to the outlandish story relayed to her by Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), an ordinary man moonlighting as a vigilante crime fighter.

Cut from the same genre-bucking, irreverent cloth as James Gunn’s Super, once Arthur confesses his secret life to Dr. Park, she convinces the judge to go easy on him and allow him to continue his heroic activity. When tragedy strikes, Oh shows how much heartfelt pathos she can portray by attending a touching ceremony for her patient.

9 Under The Tuscan Sun (2003): 6.8

Written and directed by the late Audrey Wells, Under the Tuscan Sun is a delightfully uplifting rom-com about Frances (Diane Lane), a writer who ups and leaves her life in San Francisco to live in Tuscany after discovering her husband’s infidelity. Oh plays Patti, Frances’ best friend who encourages her to travel to Italy.

RELATED: Sandra Oh – 10 Best Roles, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

In addition to the gorgeous locations, breezy tone, and rich cinematography, Oh adds complexity to the story as Patti, a lesbian expecting a child even after her lover Grace (Kate Walsh) has left her. It’s Patti’s visit to Tuscany when she’s nine months pregnant that helps Frances find the courage to pursue true love despite the painful past.

8 Double Happiness (1994): 7.0

Oh made her feature film debut in Mina Shum’s must-see coming-of-age tale Double Happiness, in which she plays the lead role of Chinese-Canadian Jade Li. The intensely personal semiautobiographical drama shows how divided Jade is between her traditional Chinese upbringing and her modern Canadian lifestyle.

With a natural performance by Oh matched with the authentic, well-observed writing of Shum, the movie is a universally relatable tale of a person grappling with their own identity while trying to appease the expectations of loved ones. In her first film performance, Oh won the Genie Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, proving what a titanic talent she has been from the start.

7 Rabbit Hole (2010): 7.0

John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole is a bruising account of a family dealing with the death of a young child at the hands of a teenage driver. Nicole Kidman gives a memorable and towering performance as Becca, a mournful mother who begins to find solace by interacting with Jason (Miles Teller), the driver who accidentally took her son’s life.

Although she has a smaller supporting role, Oh plays Gabby, a fellow grieving parent who helps Howie (Aaron Eckhart) deal with his loss at the group therapy sessions he and Becca attend. With profound empathy for Howie, she becomes instrumental in his healing process.

6 Meditation Park (2017): 7.1

Twenty-three years after working with Mina Shum for the first time, Oh reunited with the filmmaker for the sweet-natured drama Meditation Park in 2017. The story concerns Maria Wang (Pei-Pei Cheng), an aging woman in the throes of an existential crisis upon suspecting her husband’s infidelity. Oh plays Maria’s daughter Ava, a mother of two who encourages Maria to reconcile with her estranged brother ahead of his wedding and break free from her husband’s hold.

RELATED: Asian-American Movies to Watch If You Loved Crazy Rich Asians

As another trenchant glimpse at the immigrant experience and a statement about the importance of women finding their own voice, Shum’s film is tender, touching, and triumphant.

5 Hard Candy (2005): 7.1

David Slade’s Hard Candy is a deeply unnerving glimpse at a predatory pedophile (Patrick Wilson) getting his just deserts when a teenager (Elliot Page) tricks, traps, and tortures him in his apartment. Oh plays the man’s neighbor, Judy Tokuda, admitting she only took the role due to her working relationship with Page, a fellow Canadian she worked with on Wilby Wonderful the year prior.

With most of the action set inside the inescapable apartment, the visceral terror of the violence that Hayley (Page) exacts on Jeff (Wilson) is met by the suffocating sense of claustrophobia, making for a really upsetting experience. However, the hugely satisfying conclusion helps atone for the squeamish and uncomfortable moments of carnage.

4 Last Night (1998): 7.2

The most unheralded of Oh’s top films happens to be Last Night, a mordant pitch-black comedy about the impending apocalypse and the rag-tag band of Canadians with differing views on how to react. With the end of the world set to strike at midnight, Sandra (Oh) tries to make it out of her stranded position in Toronto and reunite with her husband, Duncan (David Cronenberg). One bad thing after another ensues.

Weird, wild, and ultimately winning, Last Night boasts writer/director Don McKellar’s signature brand of dark humor and anarchic energy. As such, the film has become an unforgettable cult classic among those who’ve seen it.

3 Raya And The Last Dragon (2021): 7.4

With great respect and honor for the rich historical traditions of Southeast Asia, Raya and the Last Dragon is one of Disney’s most beloved recent animated movies. Sandra Oh lends her voice to the commanding role of Virana, the Fang chieftess and mother of Raya’s main rival, Namaari (Gemma Chan).

RELATED: Raya And The Last Dragon – What The Voice Actors Look Like In Real Life

With a moving story, spellbinding animation, and characters never before seen, Raya and the Last Dragon continue to soar in the hearts and minds of viewers.

2 Sideways (2004): 7.5

Directed by her then-husband Alexander Payne, Oh demonstrated her hilarious comedic chops in the indie darling Sideways, a character study of a failing writer at an existential crossroads. The boozy road trip follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), an uptight novelist, and his lecherous pal Jack (Thomas Hayden Church), as they hit Santa Barbara wine country on a tasting tour.

Praised for its excellent performances and light tonal touch between comedy and drama, Oh gives a standout turn as Stephanie, a cool sommelier who has a steamy love affair with Jack (whom she does not know has a fiancee). When she finds out, she goes absolutely ballistic in one of the movie’s funniest moments. The story is so sharply penned that it won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.

1 The Red Violin (1998): 7.6

Despite playing a bit role as Madame Ming in the fifth and final chapter of The Red Violin, the ambitious epic ranks among Sandra Oh’s most well-received movie to date. The film traces a famed 17th-century Violin from its creation in Italy to its auction in modern-day Montreal, and all that the instrument endured in creating some of the most beautiful music the world has ever heard.

Praised for its sumptuous set decorations and costume designs, Oscar-winning original music, intelligent story, and a throwback style of filmmaking that calls to mind the grand epics of the past, the resonance of The Red Violin is still felt today.

NEXT: Steven Spielberg’s 10 Best Historical Epics

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The post Sandra Oh’s 10 Best Movies, Ranked (According To IMDb) appeared first on undertheinfluencerd.net.

#entertainment, screenrant #tumblr #aesthetic #like #love #tumblrgirl #follow #instagram #photography #instagood #likeforlikes #s #likes #art #cute #o #girl #followforfollowback #a #tumblrboy #grunge #fashion #photooftheday #tiktok #l #photo #sad #k #frases #f #bhfyp

[shortqueershakespeare]

bro... you just know imma have to ask for all the questions....

I hope you’re proud of my dedication (also thank you for doing this every time lol)

london: when you visit a city, do you take in the tourist points or the more unknown places?

I like to do both, but more unknown places are fun to either discover myself or be shown by someone who loves the city.

paris: where did you last fall in love?

In a bedroom in Cambridge I think.

berlin: do you find history or geography to be more interesting?

History, I love learning about history, but I didn’t study either at school - I now do some history.

amsterdam: would you drink in a room full of strangers?

That’s just freshers week in a nutshell so yes I did.

prague: rivers or forests?

Forests with lakes, although rivers really make me think of home - in my home city my grandma lives next to a river, as does my dad, at uni I live near a river and in Vienna I commute across the river which I love.

vienna: do you enjoy classic literature?

Yes, definitely, I actually read a lot of classics as a kid but I’ve been slacking lately.

barcelona: beaches or cities?

Cities

madrid: who did you last attend a party with?

I’m assuming it would’ve been with uni friends, or many a zoom party.

budapest: if you could do anything and not have to face the consequences, what would you do?

ooh shit that’s such a good question, right now it’d probably be punch/get rid of our incompetent government.

rome: ancient rome or ancient greece?

oooh i think i’d go with ancient greece although i can speak some latin so i’d maybe fare better in rome.

copenhagen: how many languages can you speak?

5, to varying degrees, english and german are my best, russian is prob still my worst because i haven’t practised in forever.

dublin: where was the last castle you visited?

Old Sarum 

stockholm: angst or fluff?

Fluff babyyyy

lisbon: if you had the chance to become a prince/princess, would you?

Hmmm I don’t think so, although the British monarchy have so much monarchy, maybe just to do good with that money.

athens: favourite greek myth?

Off the top of my head, Eurydice and Orpheus.

milan: what matters more: fashion or comfort?

Comfortttt

munich: why did you kiss the last person you did?

I’d broken up with someone not long before and he kissed me and took me by surprise, it was very sweet.

helsinki: when did you last visit a friend’s house?

Start of October I think, we don’t have bubbles in Austria but we made one with him so he wouldn’t be on his own.

reykjavik: do people usually have trouble pronouncing your name when you first meet?

Nope, they often spell it wrong though

florence: how did you discover your favourite artist’s work?

I really like Allie Brosh’s comics and books, my sister introduced me to her.

edinburgh: would you visit a dog park without a dog?

Probably yeah

oslo: what’s more important: work or love?

Love

venice: why did you last fall in love?

He provided me support when I really really needed it and made me feel valued.

glasgow: where were you going during your latest bus journey?

To work

liverpool: do you follow any sports?

I follow league one of British football for AFC wimbledon. I follow tennis sometimes too.

cologne: why did you last visit your grandparents?

To give my mum a break from looking after grandma.

moscow: would you rather perform in a circus or an opera?

Oh hell, probably an opera.

naples: if you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go and for how long?

Hmmm I’m gonna give a few answers - if there wasn’t the teeny problem of bigotry and safety I would love love love to go to Russia for like a month.

I also really want to go to Italy and Spain and the Scandinavian countries, so I’d like to do like a month or two of interrailing (which was my plan for March but obvs I can’t do that)

favourite

1 - season?

autumn

2 - classic film?

Men in black?? idk

3 - nostalgia-inducing possession?

my teddy bear - he’s called brownie and my sister got him for me when I was really little

4 - shade of green?

the dark bits of malachite

5 - gemstone?

amethyst

6 - hour of the night?

4-5am

7 - quote?

“The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to.” - We Were Liars (E. Lockhart)

8 - type of dream?

dreams about being in love

9 - happy song?

Candlelight - Relient K

10 - sad song?

Tobacco In My Sheets - Lauren Aquilina

11 - character from a book?

Ohh I really don’t know I’ll go with Andy Skampt from the Carls.

12 - creative medium?

Pen and paper for writing

13 - memory?

belly laughs around the table with my family 

14 - aspect of a person’s face?

smile or eyes

15 - decade before the 2020s?

2010s

16 - band?

Stornoway

17 - animated film/tv show?

moana

18 - constellation?

cassopeia

19 - poem?

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver.

20 - album?

right now its Songs for the Drunk and Broken Hearted by Passenger

21 - ending in fictional media?

The ending to Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

22 - shade of blue?

maybe baby blue because its on the trans flag

23 - part of being alive?

love

24 - holiday?

last time I came to Vienna actually

25 - kind of candy?

flying saucers are a classic

26 - person you know?

I’m real homesick so my sister at the moment

27 - musical movie?

Rent

28 - superhero?

Spiderman

29 - book longer than 500 pages?

I think North Child is longer than 500 pages?

30 - book shorter than 300 pages?

We Were Liars

 marvel character asks

iron man: first superhero you ever liked?

spiderman

spiderman: do you believe in hometown pride?

not really 

black widow: would you rather be a secret agent for the heroes or the villains?

heroes

hulk: which approach to conflict do you prefer: analytical or physical?

analytical

thor: what’s your favourite kind of weather?

snow

captain america: how patriotic are you?

fuck not at all

black panther: what’s your favourite sci-fi movie?

the one i immediately thought of was I am Number Four.

ant-man: how tall are you?

something above 5′3″ but i genuinely don’t know

bucky barnes: do you have any hidden talents?

nope

captain marvel: on what topic do you and your parents most disagree?

how tidy my room should be kept

hawkeye: if you had to fight, what would be your weapon of choice?

something i can use at close quarters, maybe a knife

doctor strange: what’s an occurrence of everyday magic you’ve experienced?

Honestly some places and weather and animals are so magical

peter quill: is there anyone that underestimates you?

probably my flatmate

falcon: tell us your feelings on the armed forces.

oof that’s a rough one. My dad was in the army and definitely has ptsd from it. I don’t support the army at all but I do recognise that a lot of working class kids have few alternatives and are funnelled into that system.

gamora: if family and success were mutually exclusive, which would you choose?

family every time

nebula: do you believe a person can truly change?

yes

wanda: if you could have any superpower, what would you choose and why?

shapeshifting

deadpool: tell an offensive joke you feel bad for finding funny.

eh no thanks, i don’t really wanna put that energy out there rn

loki: greatest thing you’ve done on april fool’s day?

i mean probably something annoying to my sister when i was younger

venom: what non-mcu marvel character would you love to see in the mcu?

oh god i have no idea

nick fury: how do other people perceive you?

i hope as empathetic

thanos: do you believe in necessary sacrifices? give an example.

yes and no, not in terms of economy and shit, i don’t think people should ever be sacrificed for economic gain, but in terms of personal life i’ve sacrificed friendships to transition, and i’d do it again.

rocket: favourite non-domesticated animal?

tigerrrr

drax: would you rather fight with fists or knives?

fists

groot: how annoying were you five years ago?

i think i was growing out of my super annoying phase

[9worldstales]

MCU Loki Ep 4 “Nexus Event” intensive analysis

Okay, new episode which is, thankfully, kind of better than the previous. But let’s start with order.

So we’ll start with Asgard, only we aren’t told it’s Asgard nor in which year we are. I hope the fact we aren’t told the year is meaningful, because otherwise it’s just lazy.

We see a child Sylvie playing with toy dragon and toy Valkyrie when Renslayer, at the time a young hunter and other hunters get there to capture her. We don’t know what little Sylvie did wrong. As far as we know she had no magic so, unless she actually did have magic and her adult version didn’t know, it’s not like she was a male Loki who shapeshift into a female so this can be her Nexus event.

She’s just a child playing.

Whatever, Renslayer and the others didn’t care she’s a child, they decide she’s the Variant they were hunting, grabs her and take her away.

At the TVA Renslayer holds her for her arm in what should be an uncomfortable grip for poor Sylvie and doesn’t even look at her or tries to reassure her in any way.

I remember, when we saw all this being done to Loki, wondering if the series would dig into police brutality. Sylvie sees a man getting dragged in, she’s scare she asks for someone to help the man, no one cares. She goes through the same routine Loki went through at the TVA. Mercifully we don’t see her being left naked but we see her being forced to wear the TVA prison uniform for Variants.

For all the people who though what Loki went through was funny and the TVA was justified in doing it, now I want you to look well at what they’re doing at this poor child. It’s the same thing. Is it still funny? Do they still lokk like the good guys.

She’s scared and, as far as she know, she did nothing wrong and, despite her young age, no one is showing her any sympathy.

She’s guilty of the same crime Loki committed, ‘crimes against the Sacred Timeline’. She’s handled the same. If you justified or excused or agreed with what was done to Loki for ‘crimes against the Sacred Timeline’, you were agreeing to what is happening to her now.

Being stripped of her rights, handled like an object for a crime she had no intention or idea she had committed because it was made up by some unknown authority.

Once in front of the judge Sylvie manages to escape to Renslayer’s grip and steal her tempad.

Now, I can excuse the escaping and also the stealing. Maybe Renslayer is inexperienced and maybe she didn’t expect dangers from such a young child but how did she figured she has to steal the tempad and how to use it?

Up till now how Renslayer has used the Tempad for was to recognize her as the Variant they were searching for. She shouldn’t know it’s the Tempad which opens the Timedoors or how to work it. Sure, we can assume it’s really easy to use it but it  still makes no sense she knows she has to use it to open the timedoors.

Whatever, Renslayer remains frozen on the spot when little Sylvie escapes and I can wonder if she felt a bit of sympathy for her… only the scene is kinda weird because she looked angry and ready to strike when the Sylvie stomped on her feet so this sudden sympathy when she’s about to escape is out of place. They just stare at each other, NO ONE making an attempt to grab Sylvie before Sylvie escape through the timedoor which, differently from how it had done with Loki in Episode 2, immediately close behind her.

The scene switches to Renslayer who has her eyes closed as if this was her memory.

She then opens them and enter through a golden door, supposedly going to see the Time-Keepers.

We get a glimpse to the Time-Keepers and then the title.

In the next scene the door opens and Renslayer marches out of it, Mobius confirming she went to see the Time-Keepers. He asks her how she feels and she says she’s not well because she had to meet the Time-Keepers in a bad situation and it’s stressing enough to meet them when everything goes well so this is really terrible.

Now… I don’t know. Later in the episode it’ll turn out the Time-Keepers are fake so… didn’t she know? Is she pretending to be stressed for Mobius’ benefit?

She says the Time-Keepers are blaming her for the situation and for how Sylvie and Loki escaped. She doesn’t mention Loki tried to stop Sylvie from meeting the Time-Keepers.

In short although Loki tried to stop Sylvie and used the Tempad to escape only when Renslayer tried to kill them both,  through the whole episode they’ll handle him as if he tried to escape with her or worse help her to kill the Time-Keepers.

Renslayers remarks how

The Time-Keepers are all that stand between us and full-scale calamity.

…basically fuelling their own Time-Keepers cult.

Mobius though is more interested in talking with C-20 but Renslayer, with a tragic performance, tells him she’s dead because when she was enchanted this scrambled her mind and basically she began to decline till death. Tissues anyone?

Even Mobius feels a slight scent of b*llsh*t at this story since C-20 seemed fine when he brought her back to the TVA but since he trusts Renslayer he swallows it.

Poor C-20 clearly either got pruned or reset, somehow they didn’t decide to make the smart thing and re-brainwash her, but just preferred to kill her off.

Renslayer persuades Mobius to keep C-20’s death a secret so as not to create panic.

By the way, NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE BOMBED TIMELINE AND NO ONE WILL TALK ABOUT IT LATER ON. It felt like the bombed timeline was merely something they did in Ep 2 to distract TVA and the viewers so that Sylvie could sneak in but nothing serious since it gets dropped so easily which is beyond disappointing. I mean, in Ep 2 it seemed to be such a huge problem and now… it’s nothing. All solved, all forgotten, just some extra work done in a short time.

Apparently, resetting the timeline in god knows how many points did nothing.

Really, that feel more like a dropped plot point or a plot hole than anything else.

For all that’s worth I find the acting between Mobius and Renslayer good. Every actor is working really hard in this series and I feel bad if it were to get lost into plot contrivances and plot holes.

Back to the story Renslayer pressures Mobius into tracking Sylvie and Loki.

The scene switches back to Lamentis. A lot more meteorites are falling but none of them close to Loki and Sylvie.

Sylvie is sit on a stone. Loki reaches her and apologizes. Because this episode wants him to be a narcissist but he again shows empathy to her.

Sylvie opens up to him, talking with him about her life.

Now is what Loki said about love being a dagger is something that’s not profound and pompous what about this that Sylvie says?

The universe wants to break free, so it manifests chaos. Like me being born the Goddess of Mischief.

It’s completely her speculation and gives her a sense of grandiosity. SHE’S IN A MISSION FOR THE UNIVERSE! THE UNIVERSE WANTS IT!

Don’t take me wrong, the TVA is keeping everyone prisoner but the universe didn’t create the Loki so as they could become its saviours.

We continue with Sylvie story. We’re supposed to swallow not only she figured the Tempad could open timedoor and how it worked but also how to recharge it and how to escape the TVA despite their many attempts to get her. Sylvie, who was already amazing for teaching herself how to enchant people, is set up to be even more amazing as she’s basically teaching herself everything and escaping from the TVA by centuries from when she was a young kid.

Who’s Tony Stark compared to her?

If this were to be a fanfic we would call her a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu.

She’s simply so awesome it doesn’t seem realistic for no reason at all especially compared to the other Loki Variant with her.

As Waldron is not a young girl writing for free I fear nobody will dare tell him he created a Mary Sue and people will only praise him for the oh so competent Sylvie.

And mind you, we need characters like Sylvie, who’re very competent.

Characters who’re sex fluid and bisexual and with a woman body and can still be strong and competent and above others… but the whole thing feels forced because she’s too good without a logic behind it, from figuring out it’s the Tempad that opens time door without never seeing it to do, to successfully escaping the TVA for so long.

When Loki managed to steal the Time Twister and use it, he has seen it being used previously more than once so it made sense he could use it and he had, to figure out how it worked, all the time Mobius spent discussing with B-15.

It made him smart to realize he could use it and he used it in a clever way but it wasn’t unbelievable because he had a grasp of how it worked, of what it could do.

Sylvie only saw it being used to identify her yet she guessed it was the thing that opened the Timedoors and how to make it work despite the Tempad having more than one function in basically a moment.

Then, although she apparently keeps on causing Nexus events everywhere she goes, she always manages to be one step ahead the TVA, escaping their grasp and, in all this, she also managed to recharge the Tempad using amazing power sources where Loki supposedly has no idea how it’s done. She fed herself, she learnt how to fight, she got herself a sword, she learn enchantment without having any basis whatsoever…

She’s the ‘superior Loki’ in a way, but why she should be superior to all the other Loki is absolutely random.

Anyway she says she grew up among ‘ends of the worlds’ and she will die in one of them, all while the scenery around them didn’t seem apocalyptic but romantic.

And mind you, the visual is really pretty but I feel the romance is misplaced, unnecessary.

And I’m still not sold in how they’re representing the moon.

Meanwhile Mobius is searching for them or better for a Nexus event that will lead him to them.

B-15, who hates variants, suggests they’re gone planning their next massacre… which isn’t true but if it were… can you blame them when you were the one who wanted to kill them in the first place and humiliated and belittled them? Should they have thanked you for your mistreatment?

She then asks about C-20 and Mobius says he has none so, worriedly, B-15 tries to urge him to… do something.

We go back to Loki and Sylvie and to the moon conveniently crumbling above them and yet not hitting them with them perfectly calm and enjoying the show.

Sylvie starts getting depressed.

Sylvie: Not long now. Do you think that what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we're destined to lose?

So okay, she feels she has lost but this is kind of a big leap. I mean, if the fact Loki was destined to lose is what made him Loki… then Thanos is Loki and Obadiah Stane is Loki and Red Skull is Loki and Killmongrel is Loki and so on.

Loki counters with something… interesting.

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don’t die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You’re amazing!

Okay… so he knows he died in the sacred timeline. What’s his basis for saying they don’t die? The fact he survived to the wormhole? When he specifically wanted to die? Or that he survived through Thanos? Is the series ever going to touch that or we should pretend it never happened and Loki had a nice holiday with him?

Or a Time Charge hit the timeline in that point and erased that year Loki spent with Thanos?

Whatever, Loki is now busy admiring Sylvie for her efforts and being supportive… but it seems Marvel doesn’t want to count this as him being empathic and supportive with another being because she’s Loki… only episode 3 and the beginning of episode 4 went to great lengths to establish she’s not and hey, technically episode 3 is right in this.

I’ll point it out here and not later on because it’s probably important to discuss it immediately as it’ll come up later on a lot.

The identity of a person is made up by nature and nurture. Part of you is what you physically are, your genetic code that decide if you’re black or white, male or female or something else, human or a horse, tall or short, healthy or sick.

What you are will dictate part of what you will experience so it has a huge impact on you as it will decide part of your skills and part of your weaknesses.

Then, of course, there’s nurture.

Let’s pick twins. It’s worth to mention not all the identical twins share EXACTLY the same DNA because recent studies have proved mutation occurs in around the 15% of identical twins.

It’s also worth to mention that nurture begins really early. Even if we assume the two managed to keep the same genetic code, during development in the womb one twin might not receive the same amount of nutrients and this might affect his development.

And nurture will continue to affect them as they can even experience similar things (same parents, same house, same school) but there will be always differences that will end up affecting them.

Each twin is his own person, they’re not the same.

So now, Loki and Sylvie.

They’re clearly genetically not the same. What’s more we’ll see at the end there’s even a black Loki so basically this series doesn’t require the same genetic code for a Loki to be a Loki. So nature isn’t relevant here.

What about nurture?

We just learnt Sylvie’s story is completely different from Loki.

As a result her powers are different from his own. Her skillsets, her reactions, her temper is different from his own. She has different goals and different wants. As Sophia Di Martino said, she’s Sylvie, not Loki.

She’s as different from him as another person could be.

To me she even looked more like Thor than Loki.

So really, how’s self admiration when she’s actually not him? The only way for it to be self admiration would be if Loki isn’t admiring her for her own accomplishment, but just because he was told she’s him. But in this case he wouldn’t have been babbling for ours about who’s the lesser Loki.

If all Lokis are made equal in his eyes and worth his admiration because Loki then there’s no point to discuss who among them is better.

In short it’s a damn mess.

Anyway Sylvie touches Loki and he’s kind of surprised, in fact he looks at his arm.

In “Thor” the touch of a Frost Giant could turn Loki into his original look but we know Sylvie has touched Loki already when she tried to enchant him and that’s not the problem.

I wish the trick were she has enchanted him but later Mobius will say the problem is that they had started swooning on each other which opens a huge can of worms but we’ll discuss them later.

So now back to Mobius we go and to the timeline which begins to branch, signalling problems on Lamentis 1.

We return to Loki who raises his eyes from his arm and he and Sylvie look at each other for a moment before returning to pay attention to the show of meteorites falling closer. They turn again to look at each other, holding hands this time and smiling.

Back to Mobius we go and to how the branching timeline seems to go on a perpendicular line rather quickly. It impresses Mobius as it’s apparently an unheard event.

Back to Loki and Sylvie we go and to how two TimeDoor open in front of them.

We don’t know if they jumped through them to survive or if the TVA came out, grabbed them and dragged them through and it doesn’t matter.

In the next scene we see that both Sylvie and Loki are collared, held by guard as they struggle and escorted through the corridors of the TVA, Mobius leading them.

They’re then parted and when this happens they look at each other.

As they walk Mobius begins to talk with Loki. Evidently Mobius has no idea that Loki had been trying to stop Sylvie when they were at the TVA and works on the assumption they were accomplices. Maybe. It’s not really clear on which assumption Mobius is working.

Loki accuses him to have betrayed him and Mobius counters it’s Loki who betrayed him.

Actually they’re both wrong, Mobius more than Loki.

For a betrayal to happen, there needs to be a break of trust.

Now, in regard to Loki, trusting Mobius was a mistake. Mobius picked him up from the trial because he needed him for a use and was never honest with him.

Meeting the Time-Keepers? Mobius can’t met them himself, how could he help Loki meeting them?

But whatever, Loki apparently trusted him so I take he feels betrayed by how Mobius had him arrested when he actually didn’t betray Mobius. He tried stopping Sylvie, he tried capturing her, he ended on Lamentis 1 because Renslayer tried to kill them both, he didn’t cause the timeline to branch on purpose, for most of his permanence on Lamentis 1 he wanted to leave the planet and stick to his own plan to bring Sylvie back to the TVA.

So Mobius arresting him clearly feels an act of betrayal to Loki. He doesn’t know Renslayer didn’t report he tried to stop Sylvie and the fact Mobius didn’t trust him to do what he was supposed to but handled him like a criminal likely hurt.

But, as I said before, for all Mobius can say, he’s not his friend, he’s not someone who would trust and support him, Mobius cares about the TVA.

And Mobius feel betrayed because he thinks Loki plotted against the TVA with Sylvie.

This is wrong for two reasons, the first and most obvious being that Loki didn’t plot with her, the second being that, although Loki seemed to have missed it, he was working with Mobius under coercion. The TVA wanted to prune him, Mobius saved him but in exchange Loki had to make himself useful. This was made clear in episode 2 as well. Mobius said if using Loki didn’t work he would delete him himself and he made Loki sure this was his last chance (before being deleted) and that he had to work to make himself useful while Mobius went and have lunch.

You aren’t entitled to expect genuine loyalty from someone when you tell them ‘if you don’t give me what I want I’ll kill you’. I hope no one has forgotten this little talk from episode 2:

Mobius: This is the final step. Your last chance.

Loki: Oh, and what does my desperate last chance require?

Mobius: Work.

Loki: Work?

Mobius: I need you to go over each and every one of the Variant's case files, and then, give me your... How do I put it? Your unique Loki perspective. And who knows? Maybe there's something that we missed.

Loki: Well, you're idiots. I suspect you probably missed a lot.

Mobius: That's why I'm lucky I got ya for a little bit longer. Let me park ya at this desk. And don't be afraid to really lean into this work. Here's a good trick for you. Pretend your life depends on it. I'm gonna get a snack.

Mobius made really clear if Loki didn’t give him what he wants he’s a dead man.

For some weird reasons Loki decided to still be loyal to him (okay, so he wanted to get to the Time-Keepers and might suffer of Stockholm syndrome), but the most logical thing, as many had pointed out, was escape from the TVA first chance he were to get as Sylvie has been doing.

Now… to be honest there are situations in which you could ask this from another.

If Mobius had told Loki ‘Sorry, I know this is unfair and I want to help you but I can’t do more or I’ll get killed too. So I’ll protect you but I’ve to ask you to protect me as well by putting up with this.’

This though would have required Mobius to prioritize Loki’s survival and consider the fact he needed Loki to catch the Variant as an excuse to keep Loki alive.

That’s not the case, Mobius made clear although he has sympathy for Loki, he prioritizes catching the Variant. He didn’t suffer any repercussion when things went wrong.

He’s absolutely safe, his only risk comes from the Variant but this was the same even prior to Loki getting involved.

Mobius is using Loki and, in exchange for using him, he let him enjoy the benefit of being alive, albeit belittled by others around him. As I said talking about Episode 2, they don’t have an equal partnership.

I hate how Mobius says this:

Mobius: You know, it occurred to me that you're not really the God of Mischief.

Loki: Oh, here it comes. The folksy, dopey insult from the folksy dope. What am I? The God of Self-Sabotage, yeah? The God of Back-Stabbing?

Mobius: Just kind of an asshole and a bad friend.

The worst part is that Mobius seems to genuinely believe he’s a good friend to Loki, opposed to Loki who’s a bad friend. He didn’t even listen to his reasons or asked him what had happened. When Loki tries to tell him something ‘the TVA is lying to you’, he merely assumes Loki is lying. Mobius has no idea what a friend is. He’s angry in the way a pet owner is angry when his dog peed on the carpet, he doesn’t view Loki as equal, which is the basis for being friends.

His idea to deal with Loki now isn’t to listen to him, it’s to punish him by having him being beaten and belittled, as well as tossed hurtful words about Loki’s worst fear, being left alone. He doesn’t even dirty his hands with doing it himself, he just traps Loki in a timeloop in which Sif slaps him, kick him in the groins and punches him telling him he is a ‘conniving, craven, pathetic worm’ and that she ‘hope you know you deserve to be alone and you always will be’, all this because Loki cut her hair.

Now, this is based on something the Loki of the myth did, and that Marvel also had Loki do more than once in the comics, either with Sif or with other characters. In the original version and in the Marvel version Loki didn’t just cut some locks from Sif’s hair as he did here, but basically turned her bald.

It doesn’t matter, yes he was an *ssh*le and yes, I think Sif had all the rights to be angry and call him names and beat him.

BACK THEN.

Loki hurt her, she hurt him back, they are even. That’s the end.

Even Sif knows as she doesn’t remain there to beat him further until all his bones are broken.

Of course this is not going to work because beating someone and calling him names doesn’t magically turn that person into a better person, that’s why many countries abolished corporal punishment and considered it an useless torture.

But this doesn’t mean it’s okay for Mobius to take that moment and traps Loki into a time loop so he can get beaten and humiliated to Mobius’ heart content until he says he’s bad, bad, bad, which in real life is equally useless because we know if you start beating a person and won’t stop until he says what you want him to say, people in the long run will say everything to make the beating stop, they even confess crimes they didn’t commit.

That’s why, in many states, if you arrest someone you can’t beat him until he confess and any confession obtained by beating him is null and void.

And I particularly loathe the framing of all this for more than one reason but let’s start digging with the first ones.

“Thor” side material established that Sif is a better fighter than Loki but sadly the idea a girl can’t hit as hard as a man rules so Sif beating Loki doesn’t feel as bad as, let’s say, Cull Obsidian punching him over and over. Some see as fun that a male can be beaten by a girl and hit on the crotch, a rightful demeaning which excuses what’s being done because she’s just a girl and if Loki can’t defend himself it’s his fault… which is a rather disgusting mindsetting.

The fact Sif was, ‘supposedly’ Loki’s friend is clearly chosen to draw a comparison with Mobius… which doesn’t really work really well because we never truly saw Sif and Loki being friends.

In “Thor” she was fast in thinking he was plotting the downfall of Asgard. If the idea is their relation turned sour because Loki cut her hair… well, this is up to speculation because we never saw it being friendly.

And anyway, even Sif knew when to stop while Mobius evidently doesn’t as he continues to let him be beaten, again without even doing the job himself, framing it as if it was all Loki’s fault.

If he had to beat Loki into submission I would have honestly preferred him to just take a whip and beat him, this framing in which he ‘remains innocent’ while his dog gets punished for peeing on the carpet honestly disgust him. But okay, if the series were to use it to make a point about ‘police brutality’ I would have been fine with it. Mobius wants a confession, wants to force Loki to comply and beat him. The viewers will be shown how wrong is this and the message will be that you shouldn’t do it.

It would be great if Mobius were playing the part of the Bernardo Gui of the TVA.

Bernardo Gui: Brother Salvatore... these torments will cause me as much pain as you. You can end it before we even begin. Open the gates of your heart, search the depths of your soul. [Name of the Rose]

Too bad that’s not the case.

The scene switches to Renslayer’s office.

This is how Mobius defines what he’s doing to Loki:

Mobius: He's softening in the Time Cell, but while he marinates, I thought maybe I'd interview the other Variant.

Please, don’t tell me you never heard this sort of excuses in movies that included police brutality. Or outright torture to make you confess you were an heretic or guilty of a murder.

He’s not being beaten into compliance, he’s softening. We’re making him better, we’re making him willing. We’re absolutely not making anything bad in having him being beaten over and over. Because if you beat someone over and over you’ll always have a honest confession, won’t you?

Bernardo Gui: Since the verdict of the Inquisition has been disputed by Brother William... we are obliged to extract the prisoner's confession to murder. Take him to the forge and show him the instruments.

Remigio Da Varagine: I'll confess anything you want, but don't torture me. I can't go through a night like Salvatore!

Bernardo Gui: Very well. Why did you kill them?

Remigio Da Varagine: Why? I don't know why.

Bernardo Gui: Because you were inspired by the devil?

Remigio Da Varagine: Yes... that's it. I was inspired by the devil. [Name of the Rose]

But I’m running ahead.

Mobius would like to talk with the other Variant, aka Sylvie. Would he also torture her psychologically or physically or it would look bad on him to abuse of a woman? We don’t know as Renslayer, rather cheerfully, refuses to let him speak with her. Nobosy should speak with her.

Mobius tries in another way:

Mobius: I mean, if there's a mastermind here, I don't think it's Loki.

The problem I have with this sentence is that it’s not said because geez, it makes no sense Loki willingly escaped with a variant into an apocalypse with no means to leave it, all to create a branch that would allow the TVA to detect them and capture them.

It’s not even said because Loki is his friend and wouldn’t do it.

Or any other logical reason why Loki wouldn’t have done it.

The implication here seems to be just that Loki doesn’t seem smart enough to be the mastermind of all this fiasco, because this is a fiasco, mind you, as they were captured and if they weren’t they would be dead.

Renslayer’s reply isn’t what Mobius wants.

Renslayer: Good. Then he should be the easiest to break. Work your Loki and figure out what caused that spike. Time-Keepers are watching, Mobius.

She at least calls things with their name as she says Mobius is supposed to break Loki. To break him to get the truth. She has figured Mobius is having him beaten and she’s okay with breaking him. Because a regime beat people into compliance.

Then she put pressures on Mobius by telling him the Time-Keepers are watching which reminds me of how, in the past, people used to say to scare others ‘Remember: God is always watching you!’ and it wasn’t meant to be encouraging, as he’s watching you to protect you, no, he’s watching you because if you mess up he’s ready to punish you.

Welcome to the Time-Keepers cult everyone.

Mobius leaves.

We move to B-15 who’s asking to another hunter Sylvie has beaten if she’s Okay because Sylvie is the superior Loki and of course she has managed to beat one of the hunters guarding her.

Mobius joins B-15 and saying the hunter hurt comments:

Mobius: They don't go gently, do they?

WHY SHOULD THEY?

Are you going gently with Loki? You’re having him beaten over and over and my guess is you’re not doing the same with Sylvie because the show thinks it would look bad if they were shown beating a woman over and over.

Anyway B-15 is right when she calls Loki his ‘Variant pet’, as I said that’s how Mobius sees Loki, as a pet who peed on the carpet.

Mobius goes on:

Mobius: You know, we brought in Kree, Titans, vampires. Why is it the two orphan demigods are such a pain in the ass?

I hate this question honestly because it implies two orphan demigods should just go down quietly, that they aren’t as terrible as Kree, Titans, vampires. Why are they opposing to the TVA, why don’t let themselves just be erased. Or reprogrammed as you let the TVA do to you, Mobius.

You know, there’s people that’s not thrilled with the idea you can kill or submit them.

But Hunter B-15 despite looking down on the Variants, is worried so she asks if Loki said anything to him.

Mobius replies Loki told him the TVA is lying him. Oh, think the audacity! The TVA which is so honest. The agency he can believe it’s real because he believes it’s real.

Mobius: Odin, God of the Heavens. Asgard, mystical realm, beyond the stars. Frost Giants. Listen to yourself...

Loki: It's not the same. It's completely different. No. It's not the same.

Mobius: It's exactly the same thing. Because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous. Existence is chaos. Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it. And I'm just lucky that the chaos I emerged into gave me all this... My own glorious purpose.

Mobius: Cause the TVA is my life. And it's real because I believe it's real.

Such a solid base. And Loki tells him they’re lying. No, really? His little personal cult, lying TO HIM?

Of course B-15 fears differently but she had an experience Mobius couldn’t share.

We go back to Loki who now is on the ground and is begging Sif to hit him no more. And a side of me facepalm.

Okay, as said before Sif was established to be stronger than him but he knows she’s coming. He could goddamn prepare and put up a fight instead than just stay there and get beaten which, I guess, is painful.

I’ll assume he can’t use his magic so I’ll forgive him for not using that but he could just take a flower vase, hit and crash it against Sif’s head when she enters.

Never mentioning that if he kept on getting punched and beaten, since HE doesn’t rewind, by now he should have a quite bruised check. Again, since Mobius wanted him beaten it would have made more sense if he just had whipped him but no, we needed to get this thing that supposedly tame the beating down so we don’t feel disgusted if we don’t think at it too hard.

Anyway Loki has enough and gives Sif what she wanted to hear.

Loki: Please, please, no more. Please, I beg you. I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am. I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not. Uh... I crave attention... because I'm... I'm a... I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone.

So let’s talk of all that’s wrong with this.

First of all Loki was coerced in saying this. It means goddamn nothing.

Second if this is meant to be the truth and someone doesn’t point out a little louder how the TVA is a fascist organization that deploy torture and anyway it’s bad to coerce people into saying the truth this way, it basically encourages to beat people to get them to be honest. Which is disgusting.

Third, it makes a HUGE deal of something that it’s relatively minor. I mean, Mobius wanted him to say he’s a horrible person? For cutting Sif’s hair?!? This is his worst crime, something Loki need to regret?

The TVA in Ep 1 was all about pinning on him the blame for the attack on New York but Sif’s hair, oh, cutting Sif’s hair is obviously worse. Only no, because it meant to happen in the Sacred Timeline so the TVA would have punished him hadn’t he done it.

So you can read this in two ways.

Either Mobius’ logic is dumb or the episode’s logic is dumb. If the story is trying to paint Mobius as an idiot and an hypocrite or he’s just trying to confuse Loki so that he’ll say everything and the opposite of everything and it doesn’t matter if it make sense or not fine, I’m cool, but if I’m supposed to run with this instead and think Mobius’ amazingly therapeutic way to get Loki to realize his faults and think at his behaviour and realize what he is, is to have Sif beat him into submission they’ll do better to think it twice.

Now… this part ‘I crave attention... because I'm... I'm a... I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... It's because I'm scared of being alone’ doesn’t make sense.

You don’t become a Narcissist because you’re scared of being alone. If you’re a Narcissist you crave attention and are scared to be alone but fears of loneliness doesn’t turn people into narcissists.

Now… is Loki a Narcissist? It’s kind of ridicule Loki would self diagnose it to himself, especially without any competence in psychology which on Asgard doesn’t seem to exist or they would know adopting a child and not telling him he’s adopted ends up badly in 99,9% of the cases. He’s probably using the term loosely but whatever, let’s run with it.

@lucianalight wrote an awesome essay (whose reading I recommend along with the others of the same series) explaining why he isn’t and Cinematherapy who can count on a real therapist, did a video explaining why he is. So who’s right?

Both and neither.

Let’s start with Cinematherapy as they employ a professional.

If you watch the video (recorded prior to the series) you realize they make a HUGE canon mistake right at the start. They assume Loki’s magical powers come from Loki being a Frost Giant.

That’s not bad will from their part, this is actually based on how they’ve watched the movies… and nothing else so they skipped all the additional side material and cut scenes. They didn’t watch the cut scene in “Thor: The Dark World” saying how Loki learnt magic from his mother nor read it in a side material publication or interview. They have no idea Loki’s sceptre was influencing him in “The Avengers” because that’s only written on Marvel’s web and not present in the movies and don’t seem to consider Loki in the year between “Thor” and “The Avengers” had to go through something terrible that could involve Thanos and torture or even death since that was only mentioned in interviews and in pretty vague terms. They consider “Thor: Ragnarok” part of the canon without considering how Taika Waititi deliberately, for his own admission, retconned it.

So their analysis uses the 5 movies and considers Loki in ‘perfect’ psychological state through the 5 of them. And it makes sense Cinematherapy analysis are meant to talk to casual viewers not to fans who knows everything about the movies.

@lucianalight instead considers all the side material included the cut scenes and the interview and discard “Thor: Ragnarok”. As a fan who well knows the story and the authors’ intentions she has access to a completely different set of information that Cinematherapy didn’t use in their analysis.

The result is that Cinematherapy and @lucianalight fundamentally looked at two different stories, albeit rooted on the same movies, and since they analyzed different material, they came up with contrasting analysis in which neither is wrong because they’re basically analyzing two different Variants of Loki.

But what’s the Variant we should look at to understand if the Loki of “Loki” is a Narcissist or not?

The real problem with diagnosing a character of fictional works is that said character is well… fictional. He can’t have a personality disorder, said disorder needs to be scripted into him by the writers… who often know very little of psychology, which is why I prefer to use trope to analyze characters than the effective mental disorders.

But with Loki we’ve a huge problem, because, in addition to the writers not being experienced about disorders, we’re talking about writerS, plural.

There’s more people writing Loki, and each of them can’t agree on how to interpret him.

So we have:

“Thor” in which Loki hardly presents traits of Narcissism.

“The Avengers” in which he presents them.

“Thor: The Dark World” in which he alternates presenting them, depending on the scene being written by Whedon or Don Payne (who also worked on “Thor”) and Robert Rodat.

“Thor: Ragnarok” in which he presents traits of Narcissism.

“Avengers: Infinity War” in which he doesn’t present them, if you read the interview, he’s just saying whatever comes to his mind to try to get a chance to kill Thanos and save his brother aware he can easily get killed… or in which he presents them if you don’t read the interviews and believes he’s persuaded he will come on the top.

If you mix the movies together and take them as they are without checking the additional material, the ones in which he presents traits of Narcissisms ends up colouring the view of the ones in which he doesn’t.

If you consider only “Thor” and “Thor: The Dark World” (the Don Payne and Robert Rodat part) which tried to keep the same continuity as the same scriptwriter was involved in both of them, he doesn’t.

I’ll be honest though, I think Marvel wants to slap that disorder on him.

They’ve discovered it’s oh so funny to have Loki feel so high and mighty and then be humbled down by having the Hulk smash him or Thor tossing him out of a spaceship or electrocuting him or Sif kicking him in his groins.

However I think Marvel is trying to milk their cow too much.

The scenes in which Loki is humbled work wonderfully in “The Avengers” because Loki genuinely felt high and mighty to the viewers to the point we didn’t expect him to be defeated, so seeing him being humbled down by the Hulk, by Hawkeye’s arrow, by Coulson shooting at him, were all powerful moves.

You didn’t expect them, Loki was a real threat in the movie and you’re as surprised as him when he gets defeated.

I mean when Hawkeye throws his arrow and Loki grabs it with no effort, it pushes you to think ‘oh, he’s too strong’ only for it to explode in his face.

You don’t get the same feeling in this series.

Loki is not strong nor particularly competent or bright. His words aren’t profound nor persuasive. His confidence seems baseless, his humbling down becomes expected, here, against Sif, he basically did NOTHING, except being beaten up. His verbal efforts to stop her were pathetic.

You aren’t surprised by Sif beating him, by Sif not being persuaded by his first weak attempts at stopping her verbally, his words aren’t convincing, his attempts at stopping her physically, inexistent.

It gets boring for the viewer as well as it ultimately gets ‘boring’ for Loki who, at a certain point says:

Loki: I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. "You. You conniving, craven, pathetic worm. You did this." Right?

He’s no more affected, it had become routine and it is for us too.

It’s a fail a wasted scene.

Overall I think Waldron doesn’t think highly of Loki. He views him as a Narcissist who thinks highly about himself but in truth is nothing special. A comic relief, an agent of chaos. At the same time… I’m not sure he knows what a Narcissist is, or that he’s thinking at the Narcissistic personality disorder because this Loki shows empathy. In this episode he showed he is not envious of Sylvie and his arrogant behaviour is a cover to cover up his weakness.

So honestly… whatever, I don’t care. No, okay, I do.

I’m sad because I see a lot of people working hard in this series, from the actors to Kate Herron who really love Loki and wanted this job but for me the plot of a story and the characterization of the characters are important and only Sergio Leone can pull out a masterpiece with a man with no name and a poor script.

Mind you, this episode is better than the previous in terms of plot but… overall is weak. I really, really hope the series will improve in Ep 5 and 6 because episode 3 & 4 just weren’t that great.

I really want Loki to have a great series but wanting it and getting it aren’t necessarily the same things.

Anyway back to the plot.

Although after Loki’s confession Sif doesn’t beat him and help him to get up this is what she tells him.

Sif: You are alone and you always will be.

Basically yeah, Loki’s confession meant nothing because he can’t change anything. He can’t get attention or company, not even behaving better. This is Sif’s message in the end. He’s pathetic and this time she doesn’t beat him up because it feels like beating a pathetic person.

Now, I’m not saying she should have forgiven him. Not this Sif. But the overall situation is warped. Although she didn’t mean to, she technically beat him nonstop, he had way more than enough, and if Sif hadn’t been trapped into a timeloop she would have known.

This Sif was used as a toy to do a job Mobius didn’t want to do personally.

It’s overall a sick situation and, since this Sif didn’t know she had been abusing Loki for only God knows how long, although she helps him to stand she rightfully doesn’t feel they’re even.

And though Loki had gotten a break from being beaten, it’s clear his admission ultimately did nothing good to him psychologically. If he’s alone and will always be as such… why should he care he hurts others? Why shouldn’t he take a bit of fun where he can?

And all this is psychological manipulation of course because then Mobius appears like a balm.

LOKI: There's not many people that can sneak up on me. (turns to see NATASHA STANDING THERE)

NATASHA: But you figured I'd come.

LOKI: After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.

Now… I have not the slightest idea of what Mobius is planning to do here. He doesn’t trust Loki, he doesn’t really want the truth, whatever that can be, he wants a truth of his liking and this is not negotiable.

Loki tells him that he’ll give him info only if he’ll let him out of the place and stop beating him and he decides this means Loki previously wasn’t telling the truth because he’s not being submissive enough.

Mobius makes clear he wants to hear about the plan between Loki and the Variant and that he wants Loki to give him the answers he wants, not the truth. Which is stupid because instead he needs the truth.

When Loki tells him the truth, that he wasn’t partner with Sylvie, he’s dismissive of his answer.

Mobius: Yeah, I guess you don't do partners. Unless, of course, it benefits you, and you intend to betray them at some point.

Loki insists on not having a partnership with Sylvie.

Loki: It was a means to an end, Mobius. Welcome to the real world. Down there, we're awful to get what we want.

Mobius: Now I gotta have a prince tell me how the real world works?

I hate this mentality that has started to develop into Marvel movies as if royalty lived a fairy tale life and could have no idea of the real world, especially the part in which ‘we're awful to get what we want’ because it’s dumb. Royalty has an history of being awful to get what they want that’s as long as the start of civilization. If Mobius doesn’t know, maybe he is the one who has no idea how the real world work, how many wars had been declared because a king wanted the land of his neighbour or something else. How they could accuse people of betrayal or of imaginary crimes to get rid of them.

Laufey is a king and moved war to Earth. Odin is a king and drowned civilizations in blood.

T’Chaka is a king and abandoned his nephew so as to cover an unwanted truth.

The Supreme Intelligence of the Kree Empire took advantage of Carol Danvers, altering her memories.

And that’s just the Marvel universe. So really Mobius, are you sure that all royalty is the equivalent of Disney princesses who sings are lovely and have talking pets?

And then Mobius does a really STUPID question.

Mobius: Why don't you just tell me what caused the nexus event on Lamentis?

So the series has gone to a great length to establish people doesn’t know they cause a nexus event. They can’t see the sacred timeline they move at random and SLAM, sometimes they end up doing something they didn’t know they weren’t planned to do and it results in a nexus event. BUT THEY DIDN’T KNOW IT BEFOREHAND! SO HOW IS LOKI SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!?

But anyway they clearly weren’t supposed to be there so everything they do can create a disturbance if it’s not erased by the apocalypse. For example if they sent a missile to destroy the neighbour planet before Lamentis 1 was destroyed they clearly would affect the Sacred Timeline because the neighbouring planet wasn’t meant to get blasted away.

But still… they found them there, waiting for destruction with no means to escape and with no idea the TVA would have appeared because they broke the sacred timeline.

It’s kind of a giant warning sign they’ve no idea what they’ve done.

So Mobius demanding to know feels as if they had dumbed down Mobius as well.

Loki wants to play stubborn and he has good reasons since he fears for his life.

Loki: Let me say this again. I'm not going to tell you just so you can turn around immediately afterwards and prune me.

In reply Mobius decides Loki needs to be tortured by Sif some more.

So Loki does what Remigio Da Varagine did when Bernardo Gui promised to torture him, he tells Mobius what he believes Mobius wants to hear, that of course they were accomplices and of course they had a plan and he was in charge of it.

Only Mobius has decided that Sylvie is the better Loki so he doesn’t believe Loki is in control and, to test him, he tells him Sylvie was pruned.

This hits Loki as he has grown feelings for Sylvie. He tries to play it as he doesn’t care but Mobius guesses he’s affected.

On a sidenote the series painting Loki oh so transparent affects negatively Thor as well as Thor never seems to realize it when Loki is affected, which leads to the implication Thor is either dumb or doesn’t care or… he’s written by someone else who thinks Loki is better at masking his feelings.

Mind you, in the movies Loki has moments in which is feelings are on display for everyone to see but also moments in which they’re guarded. Here they simply are not. In the series his feelings are constantly on display as if he somehow has lost the ability to guard them even if he tries to.

Anyway Mobius decides that Loki caring for the variant means he got a crush on her. I wish I could say he’s wrong but this is what Waldron has to say on the topic:

“That was one of the cruxes of my pitch [for the series], that there was going to be a love story. We went back and forth for a little bit about, like do we really want to have this guy fall in love with another version of himself? Is that too crazy? But in a series that, to me, is ultimately about self-love, self-reflection, and forgiving yourself, it just felt right that that would be Loki's first real love story. The look that they share, that moment, [it started as] a blossoming friendship. Then for the first time, they both feel that twinge of, ‘Oh, could this be something more? What is this I'm feeling?’ These are two beings of pure chaos that are the same person falling in love with one another. That's a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA.” [Loki Writer Explains Episode 4's Sylvie Love Story Reveal]

Why there needs to be a love story? A romantic love story? Self-love is different from self-cest. Learning to appreciate yourself doesn’t mean you suddenly wants to date yourself.

Besides, if the whole point was having Loki fall for himself, then let Sylvie be him!

Sylvie is so different from him she could very well be a different person... and it’s actually worth to ponder a bit on this.

As I said before Sylvie is genetically different from Loki. By logic this would mean more than Loki, she’s Loki’s fraternal twin from a parallel dimension. Only, if the TVA prunes whatever diverges by the sacred timeline this means she should have been pruned at birth because the sacred timeline has a male Loki. But no, she gets the time to grow up till… the Asgardian equivalent of 10 years old?

And only because back then she has somehow made something that didn’t fit with the timeline?

What was that, she was told she was adopted and, since her parents this time did things properly she felt loved instead than the monster parents tell their children at night and was about to grow up as a psychologically healthy girl?

Anyway, back to the problem, we’ll see at the end that, among the other Loki there’s also another Loki who clearly doesn’t have the same genetic code of Loki. No, I’m not talking of the Loki played by Deobia Oparei, Loki’s skin colour was supposed to be blue, it’s of course worth questioning why Odin went for black instead than white this time (does he come with an Asgard where everyone is a person of colour?) but it can be just the result of Odin’s magic. What I’m talking about is the Loki alligator.

Because normally who give birth to alligators aren’t frost giants but alligators… that or Asgard was populated by alligators. Or, that Loki was magically turned into an alligator but somehow I doubt it.

So anyway, if Loki might not share the same genetic code with his variants and not being pruned at birth… this works for Laufey too. This works for everyone.

Basically all the Variants could be completely different people who happen to share the same name.

In a way we know about the TVA work as much as we knew before episode 1. Sometimes they accuse someone deciding he broke the timeline… but sometime they don’t care if such break is done. Why? Because the Time-Keepers say so.

Great, whatever, I really don’t see the need of Loki falling in love for a version of himself who couldn’t be more different from himself than Sylvie is. At this point he could have fallen in love for anyone, even B-15.

Couldn’t they put in the show Verity Willis instead than Mobius and Sylvie?

The genuine friendship and appreciation they have in the comic which is also part of what saved Loki in the end was much better than the ‘friendship’ he has with Mobius or the abrupt crush for Sylvie.

And mind you, I like Sylvie as a character. I just don’t like what the series is doing with her.

Mobius too is well done as a character… but he’s the farthest thing from a friend for Loki.

Back to the story Mobius is having the time of his life because Loki is in pain for Sylvie’s supposed death since he has fallen for her.

Because friends obviously love it when you’re in pain when you believe your crush is dead.

Then he goes and say:

Mobius: No wonder you have no clue what caused the nexus event on Lamentis. Both of you are swooning over each other.

Wait so he knew Loki has no clue about what caused the Nexus event? And despite this he tortured Loki? And now he claims Loki has no clue because he and Sylvie were swooning over each other? Because that’s always what happened when a Nexus event happens, isn’t it? People swoon on someone else and don’t realize they’re causing a Nexus event. Loki was probably swooning on the Tesseract and Sylvie on her Valkyrie doll, right? The logic here is big.

Mobius: It's the apocalypse. Two Variants of the same being, especially you, forming this kind of sick, twisted romantic relationship. That's pure chaos. That could break reality. It's breaking my reality right now. What a incredible seismic narcissist. You fell for yourself.

Yeah, the sacred timeline is something that can bear people being turned into slaves, Jewish people being gassed into concentration camps, children being abused, terrorism, the destruction of Pompeii, New York being attacked by the Chitauri, Lamentis 1 getting destroyed, Bucky being turned into a slave of Hydra, Asgard being destroyed, Peter losing his parents, Thanos purging half of the universe, Tony Stark having to die when they could have just wiped away the Thanos that went into the future but God forbid two Loki were to commit selfcest. What are lives lost compared to selfcest?

Much, much better to wipe away half of all the living things than that.

Because…

“These are two beings of pure chaos that are the same person falling in love with one another. That's a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA.” [Loki Writer Explains Episode 4's Sylvie Love Story Reveal]

Ah, okay, great, it’s just because they’re two beings of pure chaos. If it had been Captain America falling for a Variant of himself the timeline would have clapped at him. No really, I still hope you take back this somehow and say it was all to mislead us because for me it’s not a problem of selfcest. It’s a HUGE problem of something called LOGIC. What’s this “Alice in the wonderland”? Mobius continues being a good, supportive friend by mocking Loki when she tells him the Variant’s name was Sylvie. Really Loki, with friends like this you were better with Thanos calling himself your dad. Finally anyway Loki manages to have Mobius tell him Sylvie is still alive, which gives him some relief, then Mobius goes on.

Mobius: And was infiltrating the TVA, was that always sort of the grand plan?

Wait, is he implying that when Loki produced his first Nexus event he did it so he could infiltrate in the TVA? Because of course he would know that they wouldn’t prune him but Mobius would come to his rescue? What had Mobius been drinking? Then when Loki tells Mobius maybe the Time-Keepers need to be overthrown Mobius goes:

Mobius: I ought to box your ears.

Because of course, violence is the solution and Loki should only be grateful to the Time-Keepers who kidnapped him and want to terminate him, shouldn’t he? Mobius is simply terrible here… which I don’t like because in a while I’ll be supposed to feel sad for him.

Loki now tries to tell Mobius the truth… only Mobius doesn’t want to listen, he claims Loki already told him 50 lies in the past 10 minutes without even considering he called for them as he tortured Loki to get what he wanted to hear, not the truth and anyway, if Loki isn’t trustworthy why they’re having that discussion?

Plus he belittles everything Loki says by basically downplaying Sylvie. She’s his girlfriend, his female self. She’s not her own. And of course in addition to downplaying Sylvie he has to insult Loki’s feelings because that’s what friends are for.

Mobius: Whatever you want to call her. What, your female self that you have some demented crush on...

Honestly, if Mobius had had a crush on Loki I would have waved this as him being jealous and bitter Loki found someone else but he does not. He took possession of Loki, looked down on him as some sort of pet, tried to manipulate him into obedience and babbled of a friendship that clearly didn’t exist and that had no reason to exist even if he hadn’t acted as a jerk because they barely know each other.

Friendship is something earned over time, not something others own you because you save them from death provided they’ll work for you.

What in the world is the TVA idea of friendship?

Anyway Loki informs him they’re all Variants and all the truth connected to it.

For a moment it seems to work, Mobius seems to be affected.

But this isn’t a truth Mobius wanted to hear because it ruins the basis of the TVA and the TVA is…

Mobius: Cause the TVA is my life. And it's real because I believe it's real.

So Mobius goes and call all of that a lie and since he hadn’t been a jerk enough he felt the need to play Odin’s role and remind Loki of his path in the sacred timeline.

Mobius: You two, what a pair! Gosh! Unbelievable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds.

What a friend, huh? Honestly I think he went for that line deliberately, because he has seen Loki’s life in the sacred timeline and saw Odin tossing a similar line to him and knows it hurt him.

Odin: Do you not truly feel the gravity of your crimes? Wherever you go there is war, ruin and death.

It’s also probably worth to mention this Loki hadn’t caused any of the ends of the worlds he’s been in.

Then he does what everyone expected, he decided he didn’t need Loki anymore and could get rid of him.

Mobius: Well, I'm gonna have to close this case now, 'cause I don't need you anymore. Yeah, or as you might say, our interests are no longer aligned.

Honestly I don’t like the idea of Loki falling for Sylvie but with people like Mobius around him… why am I complaining? Sylvie, who also attacked and belittled him, was much better as she didn’t go and called herself his friend at least. She was more honest than Mobius so congratulation Mobius, you beat the Goddess of Mischief.

On a sidenote the lines red and grey on the wall give me the feeling they’re in a circus tent. So yeah

Loki: The Time-Keepers have built quite the circus, and I see the clowns are playing their parts to perfection.

Anyway Loki is dragged away to be tortured by Sif again. Because Mobius hadn’t had him beaten up into submission enough before killing him. This is just sadistic.

This time Loki though is so angry he’s calm.

Loki: You know, of all the liars in this place, and there are a great many, you're the biggest.

Mobius: Why? 'Cause I lied about your girlfriend?

Loki: Oh, no. That I can respect. I mean, the lies you tell yourself.

Honestly I hate how Mobius continues to call Sylvie ‘his girlfriend’, not because I don’t like the idea of them paired together but because I get it’s Mobius’ way to belittle them both. She’s not her own person, not Sylvie, she’s Loki’s female self that he has some demented crush on. That’s all he makes her to be.

I don’t know what happened to Mobius in this episode. He seemed to have moral standards in Ep 1 & 2. He didn’t seem to enjoy hurting others for no reason. Now he does.

Well, at least Loki gets to call him on the lies he tells himself.

So, a break here. Great acting from both, good direction from Kate Herron, dumb plot.

The idea is that Mobius is questioning Loki to know what caused the Nexus event, right? But instead than his intelligence he uses physical torture. Now it would be fine if he needed to get a confession and didn’t care about the truth but he cares about the truth, he needs it to prevent future nexus events. Only no, he doesn’t care. Whatever.

Then he tries to see if Loki has feelings about Sylvie, which he does and jumps to the idea that Loki must love her because since they’re a male and a female there’s no other way to care for each other if not romantic love. He can’t view her as a sister or have pity of her, no it has to be romantic love and Waldron backs him up so it is and so this has to be what broke the timeline because… the timeline can tolerate any sort of crime but not selfcest committed by chaotic beings?

It must be this because if Mobius find something demented the timeline would as well, we’ve proofs… no we don’t have it is just speculation but Mobius read Waldron’s interview so he knows it’s true.

So Mobius has his answer, the timeline is against selfcest. Case closed. Logic thrown out of the window notwithstanding.

But then Loki really tells him the truth but Mobius doesn’t like it so let’s torture Loki some more. Because Mobius is so intelligent he can tell when Loki is lying, the series has already established it, so this has to be Loki lying right? And Mobius let him be tortured despite claiming he’s Loki’s friend and having tons of doubts about what C-20 saw and how Rendlayer is acting oddly because that’s what friends do. It has Thanos’ seal of approbation after all.

Whatever, let’s go on.

So we move to Hunter B-15 doing calming breaths as she’s clearly very upset. It’s worth to remember she was depicted as hating Variants the most. Her gaze falls on a poster recommending to capture all the variants and make sure to delete them all.

The fun part is that the guy on that poster remind me of the Mobius of the comics… but maybe it’s just me.

After this B-15 turns on her weapon and orders the ones guarding the entrance of the theatre in which they had put Sylvie to let her in. They don’t even discuss or hesitate, they just let her in.

Sylvie acts in the confident manner Loki used to act in “The Avengers” when he was prisoner of the Avengers.

Sylvie: Hello... Oh, I don't know. Your name's a number. Can't read it from here.

As she says so she moves closer. B-15 though put away her weapon, opens a timedoor and tells her to come with her.

Why they go away through a timedoor? Couldn’t they talk there? Isn’t it more risky as not only Sylvie could use this to escape but they might risk altering the oh so sacred timeline? Are there hearing devices in the theatre? Does the guards outside eavesdrop?

Whatever, we’re back to Renslayer’s office.

Mobius is thoughtful, Renslayer is happy because the case is closed. So Mobius really presented as excuse for the branch the fact that Loki and Sylvie supposedly fell in love? Because if Loki cares for someone is romantic love? He cried for Frigga too, for Asgard? Why it has to be romantic love for Mobius? Because Sylvie is a woman and Loki is a man and God forbid a man could care for a female in any other way that’s not romantic? Because the script said so? Couldn’t he care for her like a twin sister? She even acts like Thor here and there but she’s smarter than him. Would the timeline branch anyway?

Whatever, I guess I’m not meant to make questions but if the case is closed why he had to stuck Loki again in that timeloop to be beaten and humiliated? It’s not like Renslayer is checking him and even if she were or the Time-Keepers were which would have been the harm in letting him sit there like Sylvie is?

For which reason Mobius is trying so hard to break him? Revenge? He didn’t seem such a jerk in Ep 1 & 2 and now… why has he changed?

Anyway Mobius is beyond obvious acting weird despite Renslayer being all happy for the case closed and asking him

Renslayer: If you could go anywhere, anytime, where would it be?

She clearly mean for personal pleasure, maybe she plans on letting him have a holiday anywere he’d like but Mobius doesn’t seem to get it.

Mobius: I can go anywhere, anytime.

His reply hints he reduces everything to work, to going anywhere, anytime for work and while Renslayer tries to get him to open up he asks again why she didn’t let him interrogate ‘Sylvie’, which is a mistake as when in Renslayer’s office he usually calls the Variants just Variants, not by name, unless it’s necessary. Besides Renslayer doesn’t know the Variant’s chosen alias so she’s twice as confused.

Mobius has to explain ‘Sylvie’ is how Loki calls the Variant and Renslayer tells him it wasn’t so as to make sure it wouldn’t escape, and when Mobius says she wouldn’t have escaped (because Mobius is so good at keeping the Loki Variants close) she reminds him the other Variant did escape while in his care (yeah, twice, Mobius you aren’t as good as you like to present yourself).

Renslayer tries again to get him to answer her on where he’s like to go and he replies

Mobius: I like being here now, with you, doing the work.

Which is solely because he’s deadly scared of admitting he’d like to be some other place. He doesn’t like his life there, he loves jet ski and would like to ride one but he’s just scared to do so and finds comfort in the monotony of his own life. Which is beyond depressing and is part of the lies he tells himself.

Renslayer gives up and informs him she’d heard the Time-Keepers and they will personally oversee the Variant's pruning and they want Mobius to be there as well. I take that with ‘the Variant’ they mean Sylvie but later we’ll see Loki too is carried in front of them.

Why they want Mobius too though? To make sure he’ll stay put? To prune him as well because he’s being as suspicious as possible?

Mobius seems pleased he’ll finally met the Time-Keeper then oh so discreetly goes back on questioning Renslayer. On C-20 this time. Which obviously makes Renslayer even more suspicious.

She tries to deflect his question by pointing out how everything went well, the Time-Keepers are happy and yadda, yadda and Mobius insists again on wanting to know about C-20… because this was totally smooth and not suspicious at all.

And this is bad because this guy is the one who’s supposed to be at Loki’s same level if not above. If he’s so incompetent it reflects poorly on Loki too.

Yeah, he was very upset by C-20’s death so maybe this is messing him up but still he couldn’t be more obvious, insisting over and over when Renslayer clearly doesn’t want to tell him more. What does he expect, her to admit she lied? She’s not a Variant he can torture, or keep there until he gets the answers he wants, she’s basically his boss.

Anyway Renslayer, probably due to her fondness for him, confirms her previous version and tells him if he’s not allowed to meet the Variant that’s because she’s protecting him from facing the horrible fate C-20 went through.

I think this requires a bit of appropriate singing from another movie:

Shhh.. Trust me Mobius, Ravonna, knows best. Ravonna knows best. Listen to your Ravonna. She's a scary Variant that Sylvie. Ravonna knows best. One way or another. Something will go wrong, I swear. Stabbing, kicking, poison, punching. Stealing, and humiliating, the lies. Also large sword, a woman with pointy teeth. And stop, no more, you'll just upset me. Ravonna's right here. Ravonna will protect you. Darling here's what I suggest. Skip the drama, stay with Ravonna. RAVONNA!! Knows best! Ravonna knows best. Take it from your Ravonna. On your own, you won't survive. Sloppy underdressed, immature, clumsy, Please, they'll eat you up, alive. Gullible, nave, positively grubby. Ditzy and a bit, well, hmm vague. Plus I believe, getting kinda chubby. I'm just saying, 'Cause I wuv you. Ravonna understands, Ravonnas here to help you. All I have is one request. (singing ends) Mobius? Don't ever ask to see the Variant, again.

Evidently Mother Gothel… pardon Renslayer’s performance doesn’t fully win Mobius over.

Mobius: Yeah, if it's the truth.

Intelligence? Or, like with Loki he has already decided with answer he needs to get?

Renslayer now tries to distract him blaming everything on the time Mobius spent with the Lokis, implying that because they lie he came up to think she would lie too and then she gives him an inspirational speech about how their work matter and how they’re special friends.

Renslayer: When we're out there fighting for the fate of the Sacred Timeline we're also fighting for this. For us. Friends against time, allies to the end. You've seen all of existence, same as me. So, you know, friendship like ours is uncommon. And worth fighting for. Same as the Sacred Timeline.

So Mobius has friends.

Or at least he has Renslayer.

Does he plan to close her too in a timeloop for lying to him? Or, since she was used to always humour him (this is apparently the first time she told him ‘no’) he expected Loki too had to play on his tune, especially considering Loki isn’t his boss, and got upset when Loki showed a mind of his own?

Or is Renslayer who taught him who disappoint gets closed in a timeloop where he’s punched and insulted by doing this to Mobius?

I’d like to know.

Whatever, this speech persuaded Mobius so much he distract Renslayer suggesting to find a place for her new trophy only to swap the Tempads behind her back… and then oh so discreetly try to run away because this wouldn’t be suspicious at all.

Smooth, Mobius, smooth.

 Okay, so B-15 took Sylvie to the Roxxcart apocalypse since now she knows the TVA can’t detect changes if they happen in an apocalypse.

Sylvie thinks she wants a fight but B-15 is instead tormented by what Sylvie had shown her when she possessed her.

Now, everyone, let’s refresh our memory on how enchantment works.

Sylvie: It depends on the mind. Most are easy and I can overtake them instantly. Others, the stronger ones, it gets tricky. I'm in control, but they're there, too. In order to preserve the connection, I have to create a fantasy from their memories.

B-15 was overtaken very easily with Sylvie fully in control of her as she moved her like a puppet and had her say what she wanted. So why in the world she needed to show her a memory? We saw how things worked with C-20, she used the memory to answer in kind to her questions believing she was with a friend. What she did to B-15 to make her move and say what she wanted, did she had a memory in which she was an actress and Sylvie read her the script?

I’ve no words, they gave the rule 1 episode ago, don’t they remember them anymore?

So anyway Sylvie tells B-15 the truth and B-15, the one who believes talking to Variant is a mistake and they should all be pruned as they’re cosmic mistakes immediately swallows what the Variant who’d been killing TVA agents non-stop tells her and volunteers to let herself be possessed again.

Because this wouldn’t be dangerous at all, I mean, surely Sylvie who has a grudge against the TVA and has been killing TVA agents won’t lie to her and wouldn’t just possess her to steal her tempad and escape leaving her to die in the apocalypse.

Yeah, surely because Sylvie, instead than possessing her, does as she request and shows her those memories and B-15 can be sure they’re true and not a trick because… she too read the script and know they’re true.

So B-15, who had been pruning, abusing and belittling other Variants like her, once knowing she’s a Variant says:

Hunter B-15: I looked happy.

With tears in her voice. Okay, so she also sides with Sylvie but… don’t take me wrong, different people react differently but let’s look for a moment B-15’s reaction at discovering she’s a Variant, a cosmic mistake.

B-15 was the one who hated Variants the most… but knowing she was one all she cares was she looked happy. What’s her problem she was miserable at the TVA? I didn’t notice. She just accepted she’s a Variant so easily… everyone else, even people who didn’t hate Variants will have more problems with it. C-20 was in shock, Mobius goes in denial, Loki basically went mad with grief when he discovered he was a Frost Giant.

B-15 mourns that she was happy and then asks for instructions to Sylvie.

I wonder if she’s the sort of person who can’t think on her own. She did what the TVA propaganda said because she never stopped to think about it, she got an easy to posses mind, and now she’s willing to do what Sylvie says because she can’t think at it on her own.

To be honest… although I feel what the TVA did to the people working there was pretty disgusting, I find hard on an intellectual level to empathize with someone who had been enjoying pruning and abusing Variants and now that she has discovered she’s one she doesn’t regret what she did to the others like her but mourn her old happiness.

Anyway I compliment Wunmi Mosaku for this scene. I’m not persuaded by how they decided she would just swallow she’s a Variant so easily, but still she played well the part.

Empathically, to see another being so grief stricken, causes me to react emotionally, even though logically I feel I shouldn’t care because they didn’t give me reasons to feel sorry for someone who was so happy to be an abuser and doesn’t regret having been one, she still managed to make me feel sorry for her character because her sadness was emotionally involving.

Really, good job, and good job to Kate Herron who played that scene well.

We switch to Mobius who hides among bookshelves to check Renslayer’s tempad.

I love the visual here, how it seems we’re pecking on Mobius by a hole but whatever, might be just me.

Renslayer’s tempad confirms C-20 died so Mobius is about to close it when he decides to check the classified report of the mission on Renslayer’s tempad. Renslayer conveniently recorded C-20 saying:

Hunter C-20: You're not hearing me. I was there. This was real, what I saw. This is a place that I've been. This wasn't the TVA. This was a memory. I lived down there. I went to that bar. I had friends. I had a whole life on the Sacred Timeline.

Interrogator: Calm down.

Hunter C-20: "Calm down"? I'm a Variant. So are you. So is every single person in this place. I'm ending this.

So yeah, Mobius, Loki didn’t lie to you, you moron, that excuse was way too dumb to be a lie.

Also C-20 never went mad as Renslayer said. Because it was Renslayer who lied to you, Mobius. Because in the real world people are awful to get what we want and maybe you should take lessons from a prince.

Just as to remark Renslayer knew this and not just because it’s on her tempad, she also appear on the screen, proof she was listening. To do what I don’t know.

We go back to Loki who’s just being beaten by Sif again because Mobius, his friend, couldn’t let him sit on a chair while he checked if Loki told him the truth. We also see how all this beating isn’t really breaking Loki.

Although he has previously apologized to Sif and accepted his fault, now he’s just annoyed he has to hear her saying such things over and over and beating him.

Because beating people doesn’t make them better.

On another side, since Loki knew what he had to tell to Sif to make her stop I wonder why he didn’t repeat it… or why he didn’t try to think of a plan. Whatever.

Mobius drops there with the dumbest question of the year:

Mobius: What are you doing?

Loki has a sarcastic reply for his idiotic question:

Loki: Passing the time.

No, really, Mobius trapped him there, what was he thinking Loki was doing, playing poker with Sif?

So now is Mobius’ time for another dumb question:

Mobius: Do you care about her?

I mean, after you called her his female self that he, a seismic narcissist, have some demented crush on, of course Loki wants to open his heart to you. Who wouldn’t?

Mobius tells him to shut up and then asks if he really think you deserve to be alone… as if this was Loki’s idea and not something Mobius’ tried to brainwash him into believing. Loki doesn’t reply which upset Mobius as when Mobius says ‘jump’ Loki should only say ‘how high?’, so Loki point out how MOBIUS TOLD HIM TO SHUT UP. Because Mobius is not making any sense and Loki needs to lampshade this.

Mobius asks him if he thinks he deserves to be alone.

Loki replies he doesn’t know which means his pretty words to Sif were all pretty words. He didn’t believe them, not fully. Thanks God.

So now the conversation starts to get surreal.

Mobius: You better figure it out quick, because the nexus event the two of you caused, whatever that connection is, can bring this whole place down.

Okay, I’m not following this, after belittling Loki’s relation with Sylvie now he’s trying to tell him he has to get together with her for the sake of bringing down the TVA? That’s why Loki has to get with Sylvie? Why he doesn’t have to believe he deserves to be alone? So now Loki’s crush is no more demented but a key to throw down the TVA?

What was sticking him with Sif then, an attempt at manipulating him into not getting in relationship with other Lokis? So Mobius knew already he and Sylvie had a crush on each other? Because it looked like he stuck Loki with Sif PRIOR to knowing it.

I’m lost but whatever, Mobius decide THEY have to do something so Loki remarks on the use of plural.

Mobius asks him to swear Sylvie didn’t implant whose memories in C-20.

It’s a dumb question as not only Loki could lie but Sylvie could have lied to him and anyway Renslayer lied so it’s not like she’s safe to trust either.

Loki vouches for Sylvie and Mobius asks:

Mobius: So, I just have to trust the word of two Lokis?

No, please, Mobius, don’t. You’ve wasted everyone’s time questioning Loki when you don’t believe him. Really, I don’t get why you wanted to use someone you don’t trust. What did you come there for if you can’t believe him?

At this Loki, who’s at first hurt, replies:

Loki: How about the word of a friend?

And okay, it has to be Stockholm Syndrome talking. That or masochism. Because friends don’t close you in a timeloop in which you get beaten and humiliated for all that time so really Loki, don’t be Mobius’ friend.

So now Mobius admits Loki was right about the TVA from the beginning, which was damn time and would have realized it sooner had he spared 5 minutes of his time on this and tells him if Loki wants to save Sylvie he has to trust him. Because Mobius never lied and manipulated him, no, really. You’re lucky Loki has Stockholm Syndrome so of course he’ll trust you.

So Mobius goes:

Mobius: Okay. You could be whoever, whatever you wanna be, even someone good. I mean, just in case anyone ever told you different.

Yeah, someone did. Should I refresh you, your memory Mobius?

Mobius: You weren't born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That's how it is, that's how it was, that's how it will be. All so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves.

Or maybe you prefer this, which includes Sylvie too?

Mobius: You two, what a pair! Gosh! Unbelievable. Wherever you go, it's just death, destruction, the literal ends of worlds.

I mean, if this is Mobius’ way to apologize for all the things it tossed at Loki, it honestly sucks, and it gets worse because he’s merely doing because he needs him to cooperate with him because, guess what? As Loki told him from the start the TVA sucks and had been lying to him and he just didn’t want to see and has exchanged his own belief in the TVA for ‘truth’.

I mean, he’s probably being as sincere as he can be, as we know he has wondered if Loki could be good, but he has been so manipulative with Loki up until now that really, him saying Loki this when he needs Loki to trust him, only feels like him being manipulative.

Are we sure Mobius isn’t another Loki variant, one Renslayer wanted to keep as her pet?

Still I think Loki understood this was Mobius’ way to apologize as he smiles and follows him.

The moment they leave the Timeloop they find themselves face to face with Renslayer and four hunters.

And here it’s where the writer forgot Mobius too is supposed to be smart. For start because it didn’t dawn on him to remove Loki’s collar from him, to continue because when Renslayer points out she has something of hers he returns the Tempad, their only way to leave the place, to her.

I can explain this merely by going under the idea that Mobius still think that the fact they’re friends would push Renslayer to cover up for him, which clearly means he doesn’t know/understand her as much as he thinks.

Mbatha-Raw:

“She’s really worked hard to get where she is, so she’s not going to be reckless with the power that has been hard-earned for her. She, in some ways, is deeply indoctrinated with the ways of the TVA. She’s completely conditioned by their thinking and the idea of the Sacred Timeline, and the concept of free will is quite alien to her. She’s a believer. She believes in law and order, and it’s done quite well for her so far in terms of getting her to where she is. She’s not going to abandon her philosophy lightly.”

[‘Loki’: Owen Wilson Says Renslayer’s Betrayal of Mobius in Episode 4 Was ‘Pretty Shocking’

]

And in a way the situation we’re facing is really funny because Mobius believes Renslayer betrayed him… but she believes he’s the one who betrayed her. And this in a way mirrors Mobius’ relation with Loki.

To Renslayer Mobius had no right to doubt her, to question her decisions, to doubt the TVA even if the TVA is lying and she knows it. To her, Mobius is the dog who peed on the carpet.

Mobius instead somehow believed to be an equal friend, to whom she owed the truth, so he’s hurt by her acting as if he was just her disobedient dog.

She lied to him, manipulated him, demanded from him to be a loyal TVA supporter who only seek for her approbation and when he goes and doesn’t do this, she punishes him by pruning him. She doesn’t even try to beat him into submission again, she just get rid of him because her faith in her cult is more important than their ‘friendship’.

She’s a real Nazi in a way.

But the irony is that Mobius was the same with Loki and now he experiences what it means to be on the other side.

His emotional speech:

Mobius: What's the problem, Ravonna? You know where I'd go if I could go anywhere? Wherever it is I'm really from. Yeah, wherever I had a life before the TVA came along. Maybe I had a jet ski. That's what I'd like to do. Just riding around on my jet ski.

…it changes nothing in Renslayer’s mind, she’s like him, she doesn’t want the truth, the honesty, she wants submission but she’s not even going to waste time to work him into submission again. She probably plans to replace him with another Mobius Variant who’ll be more obedient this time.

Note that pruning him hurts her… but she has it done anyway, the way Mobius had oh so many branches pruned. Because that’s what they did at the TVA.

It’s a damn case of “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party”.

Mobius never thought he would be the one ending up pruned, being a Variant and ending up pruned was other people’s problem, Loki’s problem, not Mobius’, Mobius was one of the good guys, he was created by the TVA so such things wouldn’t happen to him.

Now… this is the same problem I had with B-15.

We are supposed to feel sorry for Mobius and I probably would feel very sorry for him if he hadn’t been a complete asshole to Loki up till 5 minutes ago. I get maybe they were aiming to take advantage of Owen Wilson’s fans, who loved Mobius no matter what they do or to how Loki and Renslayer still mourn him because Stockholm syndrome pushes you to do this and your pet dog is always your pet dog even if you decide to shoot him down because, to you, he’s rabid but all I felt was that Mobius had got what he deserved, what he did to Loki was done to him.

And this is a goddamn shame because I would have been a lot sadder if Mobius hadn’t act in such a way in this episode.

I mean, yes, in episode 1 & 2 he was still manipulative but he had genuine moments in which he was sympathetic and didn’t want to gratuitously hurt people.

Mobius: What are you doing? Hey! These people are scared.

Hunter D-90: They're about to die. They should be scared.

Mobius: Okay. Not of us.

I love this scene because he just stood up for those people even if he had nothing to gain, just because he didn’t want the TVA to scare them even if they were about to die and would have been rest if they weren’t to die. This wasn’t manipulation, this was Mobius being a decent being and… and this episode just tossed it away.

His whole interrogation scene with Loki, from the moment he just had him beaten and belittled to ‘soften him’ to how he ends by having him beaten and belittled again even though the case is closed is nonsense and disgusting. That’s not what a decent human being would do.

On a positive note Mbatha-Raw is very good in the scene. It’s clear a part of her is suffering, yet another remains hard. She turns her face away because she can’t watch when Mobius is pruned, even the way she squeezed her eyes shut and then relaxed them but kept them closed is a nice detail and so is the way she looks at Loki, still hurt by Mobius’ disappearance but firm, how she takes long breaths after saying they’ve to wait for her, how she first looks down, as if ashamed then up, as if to ask the moral support of her gods or whatever and then closes her eyes and mouth as if to swallow it all and go on.

She’s good.

Mind you, I loved how Owen Wilson gave his speech and I love Tom Hiddleston’s reacting to him being pruned which interestingly opposes to Mbatha-Raw’s as he keeps his eyes wide open and he tries to reach for him where she instead close them and kind of tries to ‘hold away’ from him, her body posture close where Tom Hiddleston’s is open and then he closes his eyes, calm down and straighten up before facing her in a ‘it was your doing’ way. He let himself be carried away but he turns to look at her so as to keep eye contact with her and she’s the one who has to lower her gaze.

Now, I personally wish Loki wouldn’t mourn Mobius because really, Mobius wasn’t good to him, but since he’s supposed to do it, I can only say Tom Hiddleston’s performance here is good as well.

Very fitting also the background music, especially when Loki is escorted through the corridor and now he seems to be worn out as he waves a little as he walks and then… he stops, and I’m not sure if there’s a reason or he just waves a little for the sake of him being emotionally hurt and the guards have to steady him and then force him to resume walking. In itself that pause was good to animate a walking scene who otherwise would have been pretty boring… but I don’t know if there’s a reason for it beyond that. But well, Loki had been beaten up till now so maybe he has a right at also being physically worn out.

So anyway Renslayer go to see Sylvie and as soon as she does she claims someone was there with her and wants to know who. Well, I guess the fact Sylvie is soaked was a dead giveaway so really, they should have found her a hairdryer before sending her back there. Besides why not to get inside the Roxxcart where it’s dry, instead than outside?

I get that outside, under the rain, the scene came a lot more dramatic and so technically better but logic is king of important as well. Giving away that Sylvie was taken outside to chat, as Sylvie has no bruises on herself, is dumb. I mean, had B-15 given her a black eye they could have at least pass if for B-15 taking her revenge on her but like this… it’s so dumb…

In fact as soon as Renslayer discovers it was B-15, she decides she too had been compromised and people has to search for her. Not that it matters as they won’t find her. After all she has a Tempad and has learnt she can hide in apocalypses.

Sylvie smiles at her smugly because she is enjoying seeing Renslayer under pressure and how could she not? It was Renslayer who captured her.

Sylvie is then taken away but this time only by two guards because they’ve decided giving her more when the last time she managed to punch one is useless. No, actually Renslayer might have figured if Sylvie has remained in her ‘theater’ (yeah, she and Loki were put into rooms called ‘time theaters’) instead than escaping with B-15, she’s willing to let herself be dragged to meet the Time-Keepers.

Or not, the plot had the characters act in dumb or irrational ways way too often so I don’t know.

Sylvie is anyway taken in front of the same door in front of which Loki is waiting. I love how she whispers to him an ‘You okay?’ even if I would prefer it wasn’t because she’s also crushing on him but because she was touched by how he gave her appreciation and validation. Loki nods once, deeply, but doesn’t verbally replies which is kind of worrisome per se.

Renslayer says she’ll handle things from there and open the door of the golden elevator with her ‘electronic key’ meaning when Sylvie got there the first time, as she was without key, she wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Loki and Sylvie follow Renslayer while the guards remain behind.

Sylvie asks Renslayer is she remembers her and when she answers affirmatively, always calling her Variant, she asks her which was her Nexus event. To Renslayer who asks her what does it matter she replies:

Sylvie: It was enough to take my life from me, lead to all of this. Must have been important. So, what was it?

I feel bad for Sylvie because maybe she doesn’t remember Miss Minute’s video (by the way did Miss Minute had a reason to exist or we’re meant to forget about her?) in which they said to create a Nexus even it’s enough to be late for work. Maybe Sylvie wasn’t meant to be there to play but should have been in the Vault with Thor and Odin learning about how glorious was Asgard for having beaten the Frost Giants. Maybe she was just meant to play ball instead than dolls but in short, what destroyed her life didn’t have to be important because that’s the kind of jerks the TVA is.

They punish someone for doing something completely innocent without having any idea it was the ‘wrong’ thing, ‘wrong’ being a matter of perspective because I bet they pruned all the Lokis who didn’t sent the Frost Giants in the Vault or didn’t try to kill Thor or didn’t attack New York because THOSE WERE THINGS MEANT TO HAPPEN.

The TVA is not about morality, I wonder if it’s about the entertainment of the Time-Keepers.

Anyway Renslayer smirks and then tells Sylvie she doesn’t remember. Honestly I doubt she doesn’t remember and even if she did, she could have made up something but she just prefers to hurt Sylvie by implying her Nexus event was so unimportant it wasn’t even worth remembering.

The door open and they are in a bluish, foggy place. There are two guards giving them their back and two instead facing them and, in front of them there are the three space lizards known as the Time-Keepers. Hum… the impression I get is that the place is foggy because it’s freezing cold since there are white bits that seem ice but… I’m not sure as nobody seems to be feeling cold.

Renslayer announces to the Time-Keeper she had brought them the Variants.

Now I was thinking it was poor effects, as the space lizard talk in a mechanical way and are so still they seem robot and even when their face move as they speak they seem mechanical… but no, it’ll turn out they’re robot. Whatever, I’m running ahead.

The lizards ask them what they have to say before being killed.

Okay, so Loki says and I quote:

Loki: Is that the only reason you brought us here? To kill us? I've lost track of the number of times I've been killed, so go ahead. Do your worst.

And I am WAIT, YOU’VE BEEN KILLED BEFORE? EVEN IF YOU’RE STILL UNDER THE WRONG BELIEF THOR TOSSED YOU INTO AN ABYSS, WHICH HE DIDN’T AS HE WANTED TO SAVE YOU AND YOU LET GO DUE TO ODIN’S HIGHLY MOTIVATIONAL WORDS (really, Odin should write demotivational posters quote along with Mobius) THAT COUNTS ONLY AS ONE. YOU DIDN’T DIE IN “THE AVENGERS”. CAN WE HOPE THIS MEANS WE’LL BE REVEALED WHAT HAPPENED IN THE YEAR IN BETWEEN “THOR” AND “THE AVENGERS”? OR IT’S JUST TO BE MEANT RANDOM BABBLING? PLEASE, LET ME KNOW!

Anyway okay, back to normal.

The Time-keepers tell them they’re no threat to them and Sylvie counters she believes they’re scared. She tries to get closer but Renslayer uses the Time Twister so she can’t.

The Time-Keepers complains they’re just a ‘cosmic disappointment’ why I’ve no idea as it’s not like they created the Variants so the Variants aren’t supposed to please them, and tell to delete them.

Sylvie tries to protest she’s not done with them but Renslayer tries to use the Time Twister and only manages to stop her because B-15 all of sudden comes to rescue because the TVA did a horrible job at tracking her apparently. B-15 disables Loki and Sylvie’s collars, then she mockingly repeats the TVA motto ‘For all time. Always’, before handing Sylvie her sword that originally had been put as a trophy in Renslayer’s office.

The two guards behind immediately knock down B-15 who didn’t even bother bring her weapon or, if she had, didn’t pull it out. Renslayer orders to the four guards to protect the Time-Keepers, so now it’s Renslayers and 4 guards against Loki and Sylvie. Renslayer decides not to fight, to be honest because the guards evidently had been given a better version of the Supersoldier serum and can comfortably stand against Loki and Sylvie with no problems whatsoever.

Really, if I don’t get an explanation on why human Variants are all of sudden strong enough they can stand against Loki I’ll think those guys have never seen “The Avengers”.

In fact the 2 guards fighting Loki are about to overpower Loki who asks for Sylvie’s help as she’s holding against her 2 guards just fine and she hands him her sword. Meanwhile, despite being weaponless, Sylvie… kicks to unconsciousness? Is that what she did? a guard, steals his weapon and instead than prune his companion with it, she stabs her. Because, you know, this is cooler and rule of cool always win.

All while Renslayer watches because whoever rules at the TVA has never read the ‘Evil Overlord list’ rule 75 “I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.”

Actually there’s a huge list of rules the TVA ignored but this is the most important at the moment.

Anyway while the camera ignores Loki fighting with two guards in the background, we’re supposed to focus on Sylvie and Renslayer. Sylvie gives Renslayer a sporting chance letting her pick up a weapon. No idea why, really. Who cares about sport when you’re there to kill the Time-Keepers?

Besides, who cares about Loki? This is Sylvie’s moment to look cool.

Anyway Renslayer tells her this time she’ll finish the job, they fight, she ends on the ground, manages to turn their positions and punches Renslayer into unconsciousness, just in time for Loki to finish killing his guards. Why she didn’t kill Renslayer? Because the plot needs Renslayer to make troubles afterward so Sylvie, despite having a weapon and having used it to kill a guard, only punches Renslayer, which she should hate as much as the Time-Keepers, into unconsciousness.

Let me facepalm, please.

Now the Time-Keepers go:

Time-Keeper 1: You're a child of the Time-Keepers too, Sylvie. We can talk.

And okay, I’m not following this. Are they implying they created the Variants? Are they trying to pass themselves for Gods? Or it’s just Sylvie they created?

Sylvie tosses against one of the sword Loki gave her back, decapitating him. The Time-Keepers starts laughing as it turns out the Time-Keeper she decapitate was a robot.

I get “Wizard of Oz” feelings and I swear if it turn out this was created by an evil Loki Variant I’m gonna scream.

The Time-Keepers somehow deactivates, not sure if someone did it, or it was Sylvie pointing a weapon at them.

Sylvie picks up the head and, seeing it’s a robotic one and never having heard of Ultron and Vision, decides since they had robotic head they’re fake, mindless androids. Which yes, they have to be because we’re missing 2 episodes and they were beaten too easily but she’s not supposed to be aware of the episode count.

Whatever, Loki decides, I think, this would probably be a good moment to declare his love only they forget Renslayer is alive and she prunes Loki in front of Sylvie. At this point Renslayer forgets her warrior skills and Sylvie easily rips her weapon from her but, instead than pruning Renslayer as she asks, she informs her she’ll tell her everything. Meaning she will use her powers to force Renslayer to be cooperative.

The episode apparently ends, with the ending credit replaced by a love song, “If you love me” by Brenda Lee. Just in case you didn’t get Loki was about to make a Love confession.

When the ending… well, ends though, we see Loki opening his eyes and wondering if he’s dead and in Hel.

He’s told:

“Not yet. But you will be unless you come with us.”

As he looks up he sees four version of himself, a child, an old man, a POC and an alligator.

I can’t help but point out the costume the old Loki is wearing, despite being based on the one old Loki wears in the comics somehow feels like a poor cosplay.

Behind them the ruins of a city which, I bet, is New York. I wonder if they’re in an apocalypse created by the attack of New York succeeding.

And so the episode ends.

Now… this episode is, plotwise, better than the previous, as the previous was basically an excuse to get Loki and Sylvie to spend time together so as for them to fall in love. Oh and the revelation everyone in the TVA is a variant but really, Sylvie could have told Loki that in Ep 2 and we wouldn’t have missed anything big.

This one episode as, instead, a plot… but there are some things that just don’t add up and felt tossed there at random. I mostly mourn how the ruined Mobius’ character because this episode seriously damaged the sympathy I had for him, with that useless decision to have Loki belittled and beaten for… fundamentally nothing since he doesn’t believe him. Then he further insults him for falling for Sylvie before he decides to switch sides and no, Loki shouldn’t believe all the cruel things he told him because… hum… they weren’t true because Mobius is his friend. Not like how he said he was before, this time he’s really his friend the fact he needs him doesn’t matter, he’s not like Loki who uses people he’s one of the good guys of the TVA, you know, the ones who belittle and prune Variants unaware they’re Variants too.

Okay, I’m still very salty on this bit but I just didn’t enjoy the useless abuse of Loki.

It wasn’t funny, it had no purpose and it also ruined Mobius as a character.

It even impacted negatively on Sif which was fundamentally used to beat Loki up over and over when she already had, just for Mobius’ purposes, whatever they were.

Honestly I’m sick and tired of Marvel thinking that abusing of someone is a funny joke, especially if the one doing the beating is a girl.

The only thing it serves was to remark Sif had no love for Loki, which everyone seeing the movie could have guessed already.

Another thing I didn’t quite enjoy was how this is turning into Sylvie’s story. Is the purpose of this series pass the Loki baton to Sylvie?

We have the guards of the TVA being as strong as supersoldiers so far without explanation whatsoever, with Loki, who, in Asgard was trained to fight, in “Thor” could hold his ground against Frost Giants and even fight with Thor and who, in “The Avengers” gets punched by Cap and merely turns his face before he hits Cap with the sceptre and sent him flying and this not with magical powers but merely with his strength. And he does so TWICE, completely able to avoid Caps’ blows. Caps kicks him in the face and Loki remains standing and tosses him on the ground again.

Loki lets himself be arrested because:

a) Iron Man joins and he manages to send him on the ground by shooting at him and

b) because this was part of the plan.

Coulson shot him with a super powerful weapon and still Loki got up and left the Helicarrier on his feet. When Thor tried to hit Loki with his hammer, Loki could stop the blow by having it hit his sceptre without him even wavering on his feet.

And then okay, this Loki hadn’t lived through them but in “Thor: The Dark World” he could hold his ground against elves while in “Thor: Ragnarok” against Hela’s undead Asgardian soldiers.

And now we’ve those Variants of humans who can give him problems? Sylvie even gives him his weapon!

And all this while Sylvie, who had to learn to fight on her own, can hold her ground weaponless against two of them and save time to fight and beat Renslayer too?

Whatever, let’s hope we’ll get an explanation.

And then there’s the romance between Sylvie and Loki, which is useless or the whole idea Sylvie is Loki and all those other guys plus the alligator are Loki and I’d like to know what decides they’re Loki variants since they’re clearly genetically different from him… never mention one of them managed to get old when Loki supposedly died ‘young’ in the sacred timeline so what? The truth is he didn’t die in “Avengers: Infinity War” and grew old?

And why genetically different Variants of Loki were allowed to exist? How come this didn’t cause a Nexus event?

But whatever, let’s put aside my complains about the plot holes or the messed characterization and the nonsense dialogues and talk of the good stuff, like the acting or the director’s job or the music which really fit some scenes. There’s some really good stuff here.

And well, let’s mention the plot is not all to waste.

There were some good ideas in this.

To have the TVA agents discover they’re also Variants like the people they discriminated and pruned could have been great, I mean, one of the best scenes of “Thor” is Loki discovering he’s a Frost Giant so this could have been SO VERY COOL.

The Lokis forming a bond also had potential as idea on paper. If they were the same this could have pushed them to learn to appreciate themselves, if they were different, this could have pushed them to appreciate others. They didn’t need the romantic story and the idea they’re the same only they’re completely different so the fact they’re the same seems an idiocy.

Really, from a series who give space to a lot of female characters, who don’t just talk among them about men but about plot related issues, I don’t see why we need to pair together the two Lokis.

Mobius being Loki’s friend could have been great if he had acted as such and not as an abusive pet owner whose dog has peed on the carpet. But whatever, it could have been great to have Renslayer do the same to him, if this were to be acknowledged, if it were to be acknowledged how they both are poor friends.

Also Mobius’ death could have been a lot more moving if they hadn’t ruined him in this very same episode.

Seeing Sif again and learning of Loki’s past mischief? Could have been great if it wasn’t used for what turned into a torture scene or ‘police brutality’ who however wasn’t meant to be seen as bad as it was because it’s a woman who beat Loki.

Even the police brutality or the fascist agency could have been great plot point if it wasn’t they’re barely brushed over.

Loki reflecting on his behaviour could have been good if it wasn’t inserted into what was basically a torture scene.

Little Sylvie’s backstory could have been awesome if it had been realist, if this little escaping child had had knowledge of a Tempad and had had someone to help her.

I mean, there are some genuine good things in this plot… but then they got ruined by poor planning or poor explanation or abrupt character OOC.

It’s a pity.

We’ll see if episode 5 will redeem himself.