#but how can mobius move on if he doesn't have anywhere to go? he's lost and he's hurt and he's confused

[tsuyoiqueen]

i just had the saddest thought and i need to share it. what upsets me the most about the finale is not the fact that mobius and loki are separated and alone as of now, because given that they're the only two who didn't get any semblance of a happy ending that only proves how much they need each other and the logical conclusion is that no matter how long it takes, they will meet again. it doesn't matter that they're worlds apart; it's like the legend of the sun and the moon, they're only ever together during eclipses but they are.

no, what upsets me is the fact that they parted the way they did, with mobius feeling like loki perceives him as a second option, as he's left him behind to follow sylvie and even that big declaration of "i know what kind of god i need to be... for you" was ambiguous. it's the fact that mobius probably feels like he doesn't have a place in this world because the one person he chose to spend his existence with couldn't choose him, couldn't stay for him in the end. it's the fact that he loved loki exactly as he was and supported him through everything for god knows how long. he watched him on a screen, saw his entire life unfold over and over again and then got to be a part of it, got to fight for the freedom of the multiverse by his side and they won but at what cost? at the cost of having the chance to go back to his old life or staying at the job he dedicated eons to and knowing none of these places will ever feel like home again. because it's not about where, when or why. it's about who.

[qwanderer]

Loki in the Hall of Mirrors

This story is complicated. Not, like, as a plot, not particularly, but philosophically and thematically. It's got that great play of hero against villain that I love about the Loki story in general and that makes it all so divisive and messy. And I love it even more than I did on first watch.

The first time I watched the desert landing scene, I was like, "Wait? What happened to Allspeak?" because the people who live there don't seem to understand him. But on the second watch, I realized it could be a lack of context, rather than a break in translation. These people probably have an even chance of knowing nothing about Norse myth. Like, what if an alien came up to you and said "I am Boogle of Bofgar, I carry a burden"? You would still have questions like "What the hell is a boogle and why are you carrying your shit here?" So the basic dynamic of Allspeak is probably still functioning, and Loki probably understood their questions, but he was still trying to figure out how to answer when he got distracted by the TVA people.

It could even be an innate psychic ability rather than a magical one, as he seems to understand everyone in the TVA, including the man who can't be fluent in all languages like the field agents because he has never heard of a fish and the seemingly nonverbal robot. (Which of course makes me want Loki talking with Dum-E and the other shop bots! But I digress.)

Okay. I want to start talking about the next-level manipulation shit the TVA are pulling on Loki here. Time, as they say, moves differently in the TVA, and one might even assume that they can avoid having to deal with more variants at once than they can handle. And yet we see them dealing with exactly two other troublemakers during Loki's onboarding.

The first, I'm going to call little echo man.

Little echo man is incredibly annoying to Loki, because he does and says everything Loki might find himself inclined to do and say if he wanted to be difficult. Little echo man does these things in little annoying undignified ways, making them look silly and petulant. Little echo man protests and questions and pushes back, in his business suit and his long dark hair and pale skin, and clearly thinks everyone should treat him as important even though every indication is that he is an annoyance and an afterthought.

Perhaps he's a plant, and perhaps he's just a variant of an annoying but predictable regular they see who they lined up at the same time on purpose. But he is on purpose. Everything he does screams directly at Loki, "Don't do this."

We'll get to the second convenient intersection later.

The most obvious layer of manipulation is simply the beraucracy. They put him up against a series of obstacles which he needs to deal with to get anywhere else, and nothing he does can get him past those obstacles except compliance. All of these obstacles have personality, but they are not personable. They treat Loki like a bag of trash they have been tasked with taking to the curb. Annoying, distasteful, but ultimately routine. His silver tongue isn't going to get him anywhere because these people simply don't care.

I think a lot of these he just goes along with to see where it gets him, since at this point he still believes he has his magic in reserve. But the fact that he steps through the robot fryer even though he thinks he might be a robot without knowing (as others have pointed out, he spent thousands of years as a frost giant without knowing it, and he's recently spent time in the control of the being who shaped Nebula) is a testament to how deep they've already got their hooks in him.

They treat the robot fryer like it's routine, but come the next obstacle, they kill little echo man like it's routine, too. Because he didn't comply.

Loki is slowly being ironed flat to thread into their compliance mill.

And then - I love this, because it reminds me of one of my favorites among the multiplicity of Lokis, GoS!Loki - they put this line in as punctuation between the impersonal, compliance, don't phase of their manipulation and everything that comes after it.

When he's set before the judge, someone actually paying some attention to him, this is his chance to use his silver tongue on someone who will listen. But, although the judge listens, she treats him the same as all the other obstacles have - like listening is a distasteful chore she would like to be done with.

So it seems like the perfect moment for a dramatic escape. Except his magic is gone.

"It's not your story," the judge says. "It never was."

That hammers in all the worst things Loki has ever believed about himself - that he stands in the shadows of others, that he will never have the central place he was raised to desire, that he is, and always will be, a villain to be vanquished rather than a person with choices and agency.

Enter Mobius.

Mobius is a big echo.

He draws all the attention in a room. He is everything that Loki wishes to be - he is powerful, informed, prepared, in control. Capable of charming the judge. And most importantly, he is actively interested in Loki.

At this point in Loki's journey - both in the show and in his life - that has to be irresistible.

So Mobius is in a perfect position to wrap Loki right around his pinky finger.

He listens to Loki without shutting him down, the way all the obstacles have. When Loki tells Mobius he's going to burn down the TVA, Mobius suggests a couple of places he might want to start. One concrete, small, mischievous. One an indication that he's open to Loki doing larger, more significant things here in the future.

He shows Loki his own past and future - but carefully edited, to paint a particular picture.

So many echoes, so many reflections - Loki is in a house of mirrors. Lost, disoriented. Distorted one way, then the other. Magnified and examined.

Loki snarks, and Mobius comments, "Makes you sound smart." Affirms Loki for that little mischievous bit of personality.

Mobius shows Loki some of the most terrible things he's done, and questions them. Pushes Loki away from them. Then changes direction before he can get too heavy-handed, to basically fangirl over the DB Cooper adventure. That's mischief. That's good. I like that.

Punishes him for a small infraction, just to remind him who is in control and that even looking threatening could be seen as a problem.

I think it was at about this point that I got hard reminded of the dynamics of the show White Collar. It's a buddy cop show on a basic level and sometimes the relationship can be very sweet, but sometimes Peter spends one too many times reminding Neal that he can send him back to prison any time he wants and the power dynamic shows its messed up edges.

Mobius is part of the machine, and the machine is doing terrible things to Loki, but I have at least a sliver of hope that the relationship could gain more balance - more genuine balance, not based on the faux freedom that Loki has gained by the end of the episode. There's something to be said for making changes to a system from within that system, but for that to be meaningful change, Mobius would have to change as a person.

Anyway, this current nastily powerful Mobius pushes Loki as hard as he can, and then is conveniently interrupted by the actions of another variant, leaving Loki alone with his remote.

It could easily have been on purpose. The only thing Loki learns by escaping that room is that the TVA is more powerful than any force in the universe, in his experience.

Let's talk about the other Loki variant for a minute. It took me until the second viewing to realize the symbolism of leaving a small child the only survivor in a place of worship, then giving her something to turn her blue.

Odin said he found Loki in a temple, in the aftermath of a battle.

It's actually frighteningly easy to imagine how a distraught Loki could get to a place where he feels the need to genuinely burn down the TVA, and kill every agent in it. Because the TVA put certain clips in his little future show, focusing on the death of his mother, the way his own actions affected it, and the futility and brutality of his own death at the hands of Thanos.

They don't show him the destruction of Asgard, his own role in helping save the evacuees, and the way Thanos decimated the population of that transport before it could even reach Earth. They don't show him the devastation of his home or his capacity to do good.

A Loki who knows that the power of the TVA exists and that he has the capacity to be Asgard's heroic savior would do anything to get that power and save his people.

But we haven't met that Loki yet. I'm sure we will, and it's going to be exhilarating.

This Loki is being taught the importance of control over little things, and so when he gets his collar off and onto that guard, he toys with her, just to see that he can. They have been toying with him and it's oh so satisfying to turn the tables. But it's still compliance in its own way, the petty little mischief that Mobius has been steering him towards.

Loki has been given just enough freedom, just enough choices, that it seems like his own choice to watch the rest of the slide show and come to the obvious conclusion - there's no "out" to go to. His life has gone on without him, and ended. And there's really no point in his trying to fix it. No putting things back the way they were.

So he admits to Mobius - the person who has listened hardest, probably, besides his mother - he admits that he is small and scared and lashing out. That he doesn't know what to do.

Of course, this is when Mobius introduces the task the TVA has for Loki - to take down his other self.

Oh, I can't wait for the next episode! I want to know where this is going.

(I've popped in some panels from Loki: Agent of Asgard because it's my favorite and the show is giving me feelings about it.)

[tsuyoiqueen]

‼️ SEASON 2 FINALE SPOILERS ‼️

i'm having trouble articulating my thoughts but it just hit me how much change loki has brought into mobius' life.

that conversation they had in the past, when mobius told him about how he spared a variant and his partner had to do the pruning instead, got high praise for it and became a judge... i don't know, you can tell he doesn't regret it but he's so resigned. he knows that he isn't as trustworthy in his co-workers' eyes since he made that "mistake" — that his empathy, his showing mercy, his "heart of gold" isn't appreciated at the TVA. it never was and it never will be. he was demoted from his job and transferred to the department of analysts, fated to get buried under paperwork and never really seeing his purpose as anything but a heavy burden.

and then loki shows up, someone that mobius already admires, someone that he has been watching in the sacred timeline for at least a while, and in spite of all the signs pointing to trouble he chooses to trust him. a decision that, at first, feels like another error in his judgement, another failure added to the list, when loki bails on him in season one, but turns out completely different from what he imagined.

loki isn't just mobius' friend, loki represents hope. he's the only living proof that mobius' kindness isn't a flaw because loki appreciates that in him! he trusts his leadership and listens to him unlike anyone else in the TVA has ever done. but more than that, loki doesn't expect anything in return, there's no hierarchy, no give or take, they just make sense together. it's the first relationship mobius has ever had where there's no stakes, he doesn't need to be anyone's favorite analysist to have a place in loki's heart. loki just likes to be around him, whether they're working on a case or simply eating pie and chatting. point is: they make each other happy.

so at the end of season two, after loki steps through that portal and doesn't look back, mobius is grieving. he hasn't just lost his best friend, someone he deeply cares about; he's also mourning the loss of his hope, his purpose. so much so that he's grasping at straws to keep himself afloat.

you see, in season one, if mobius could go anywhere he would've gone to find himself in his own timeline. but when loki asks him about it in season two, he says that he's not even curious about it because that isn't his life, the one he has at the TVA, with loki and the rest of his friends, is. that's why when he's starting to lose hope that loki will come back, left alone at his desk, he decides to look for his file and see that other life. everybody else is moving on, so why doesn't he?

that's when i realized how much he loves loki because even when he's there, faced with a life he could only dream about (he even tells sylvie that his house is the best in the block and he likes the front yard. please, he loved it) he still hesitates. he doesn't want to move on, he wants to wait, if there's even a small chance that loki might come back to him.

to me, that's where we're shown that they're equals. we start the season getting introduced to a loki that's desperately slipping through time in search of mobius, running straight to him as soon as he's finally recognized. then midway through, we understand how much mobius, the TVA and the other characters mean to him and just before the season finale, loki stares into mobius' eyes and tells him "it was about what i wanted."

now, we're watching the same exact scenario. mobius probably tried to look for loki but couldn't go far as he doesn't travel through time like him, so he resigned himself to wait until it got to the point where he was aware he needed to move on. and yet, he can't. it's not about what he should or need to do, it's about what he wants and that's beautiful. it's such a relief that loki finally found someone that perfectly matches his devotion, after all the heartache and loneliness. i can't wait to see what they do next, that ending was nothing like i expected but heartbreakingly beautiful nonetheless.