#i enjoy ke huy quan. he's doing the best he can

[dukethomas]

my little brother is making me watch loki with him and i have to say it's really impressive that they've done 2 episodes of a 6 episode season where nothing happens and i can't figure out what the plot of the season is with the most boring dialogue known to man. multiple scenes in which they just talk about what they're doing and/or what they're about to do and whispering for 3-4 minutes in the stalest sentences you've ever seen

[agentnico]

Loki - Season 2 (2023) Review

Ke Huy Quan is literally jumping from multiverse to multiverse. At this rate he should only be allowed to appear in projects about the multiverse, as one can never get enough of hearing him fast-talk sci-fi mumbo jumbo exposition. Ke Huy Quan - never change your wonderful weird self.

Plot: Season 2 of Loki follows the death of He Who Remains, with Loki desperately trying to figure out how to keep the multiverse from unraveling into another war and hold the TVA together.

I hear that the new The Marvels film is a turd. In fact, as of late all that Marvel has been doing is turd after turd, as if the entire studio had suffered a collective food poisoning and is now regurgitating and also releasing crap out of their bowels. Since Endgame they have really struggled, with of course some exceptions such as WandaVision, No Way Home, and Guardians Vol. 3 sticking the landing, but those are far few amongst a plethora of oversaturated dull superhero content. In this day it's all about quantity over quality, and the cracks are finally beginning to show with the negative critical response and diminishing box office returns.

So I am more than surprised to reveal that the new season of Loki that has just completed its run on Disney+ is actually really good. Great characters, solid storytelling, exciting twists and turns, well-done visual effects (another aspect lacking in other recent MCU projects), an exhilarating music score, and great production design - it's all there. I read somewhere that season 2 of Loki is the first MCU project to not undergo any reshoots, and it shows. The writers evidently had a solid plan from the beginning and stuck to it, and thus the results show. What a plan it must have been. I can only imagine what kind of Charlie Day-level board of post-it notes and interwoven lines they would have had to organize the time-dealing narrative. The writers really manage to deal with a big-scale multiversal time-traveling scope, yet at the same time succeed at keeping things grounded by focusing on the character development of its central cast.

I had mixed feelings about the first season of Loki. I enjoyed some ideas, the Tom Hiddleston/Owen Wilson pairing was enjoyable and the visual palette stood out. But there was plenty of useless filler, the character of Sylvie annoyed me to no end, and it only truly found its footing in the last couple of episodes. Oh, and Richard E. Grant's cameo was great, but when has Withnail not been good?? In comparison though Season 2 feels like a full-fledged pay-off to the events of the first season. So much so that it never really felt like any episodes had unnecessary junk in them. Each episode was filled with lots of stuff going on, with the show moving at a very fast pace. I'd say the first half of the season takes some time getting into, so the showrunners could have patched it up more, but the second half definitely balances it out. The production design also seems to have improved this season. The set pieces were all very well designed, and the detail put into the look of the TVA felt like this show had the budget of an HBO Max Game of Thrones-type series.

The cast are all great. Luckily there is less of Sylvie (no offense to the actress) and that weird Loki-to-Loki romance subplot is largely ignored thank the heavens. Also the writers must have taken on the feedback from the previous season and have now given us more buddy time between Hiddleston's Loki and Owen Wilson's Mobius. Those two together are hilarious, and share some of the best moments this season. Tara Strong gets more chance to lean into the creepy element as the eerily cheerful voice of Miss Minutes. Ke Huy Quan and Eugene Cordero manage to deliver the scientific exposition in an entertaining and breezy way, even if what they re saying doesn't always make sense, but like who's looking for logic in the MCU? Gugu Mbatha-Raw returns as Renslayer, and honestly, the season could have done without her. The writers seem to desperately want to include her, but her character has hardly anything to do. Rafael Casal as a rogue TVA agent also didn't work for me. The chap's acting was way too over the top and silly.

Naturally one must touch upon the Majors problem that Marvel is facing. They are really leaning into Kang as the Big Bad with more set-up than Thanos has ever had, yet the actor playing him is in some serious legal trouble. So will be interesting to see how Marvel gets out of that one should the court find Jonathan Majors guilty of the accusations, but nevertheless let's talk about Kang in this show. The essence of Kang is felt throughout the entire season, and naturally, some variants are involved. Primarily the character of Victor Timely, and look, I'm hearing many rave about Majors' performance as Kang but I'm not buying it. As Timely he's this blubbering awkward scientist who comes off way too over-the-top. At the end of the season Timely does find his groove and I actually began liking him, but as a Kang variant, he's not threatening at all. In Ant-Man as the Conqueror, he is just this macho man with a big mouth but not much else to him. And then all those variants in the Quantumania credits scene where they're all dressed up as if they are part of the circus, and then many of them screaming like apes.....like c'mon. He's supposed to be the Big Bad, but whatever Majors and the writers are doing, I don't get it. Except when it comes to the Loki season 2 finale...

So the finale of Loki season 2 is easily some of the best television work Marvel has done, at least in regards to the Disney+ shows. It brings not only the events of the entire Loki show to a satisfying close with a sense of finality that hasn't been felt since Avengers: Endgame, but also gives Tom Hiddleston's character such an incredible arc, from seeing how he started out back in the first Thor film, and how his intentions and persona have changed, yet the irony of life still plays its part and where his character ends up at the end of season 2 of Loki was really awesome. In fact, it's such perfect closure to his character that I don't believe we need to see him again. I get that the Marvel machine would naturally want to bring him back down the line, however… I don’t think it should happen. As much as I do love Tom Hiddleston as Loki, I think sometimes things need actual endings. And it was such a fitting yet tragic arc for Loki that I think adding anything else to the character, whether a multiversal variant or what have you, would only cheapen what they accomplished last night. As for the aforementioned comment about Kang, in this finale episode was the first time where we actually witnessed a Kang variant have some real power that could have big ramifications. Not the kind of cheap physical macho stuff they had in Quantumania - nope. In the Loki season 2 finale his power was more of knowledge and skill, which depending on how they take it from here could be really interesting.

Loki season 2 is a visual and narrative treat for any sci-fi time-travel pop culture fan and is very much a reminder that when the time and creative effort are put into a project, Marvel still has the potential to deliver. It is a shame then that these occurrences are happening less and less, but nonetheless, this show is worth celebrating. Also, we finally got to see Owen Wilson's Mobius on a jet-ski! That is what I call fan service done well!

Overall score: 7/10

Season finale score: 8/10

[waywardmillennial]

update on me

what I've been up to the past few months -- that'll end up being mostly a fandom update bc that is my life (no joke) and also some insights into what I'll be blogging about more now

✰ dan and phil games returned!

anyone who follows me on discord knows I love dnp and I was shocked when they made their dramatic comeback last October. that funeral video was so extra, in the most dnp way! I'm so happy that they're already making the channel whatever they want it to be, and can both be out and make so many gay jokes now

✰ ofmd s2

it was beautiful. it was sad. it was joyous. those first few eps were so much darker than we were used to, but I trusted Jenks and he did a great job (esp when you think of max cutting so much of their budget -- bugs bunny meme to those twats). but I was given so many Izzy feelings that I never asked for T_T doing what I can to help get s3 renewed and I have some hope

✰ loki s2

this one was also beautiful, and heartbreaking, but in a good hurt kind of way. this season was made with so much love and honestly one of the best things marvel has ever made. s2 also gave us O.B. (Ke Huy Quan I love you!) and it was even gayer than s1 which I didn't know was possible. I want more (kinda?) but also don't want them to mess up what was practically a perfect ending -- and the most canon lokius we could have hoped for. if they decide to let the old men kiss, then they can greenlight s3

✰ doctor who

the end of the year really kept given me more fandom content than I could keep up with -- but having Tennant and Tate back together again was such a joy! and following the trend of everything else I've been excited about recently, DW came back loudly declaring "gay rights!" I'm unsure if disney being so involved is a good thing (I'm inclined to say it's not) but I already love Ncuti and I can't wait for more of Fifteen & Ruby. and I'm still crying about Wilf tbh

✰ the marvels

solid movie. so much fun. Kamala and family stole the show! and god bless they made Carol gayer

✰ holiday times

I put more effort into celebrating halloween and christmas and enjoyed both of them more than I have in the past few years, so that was really nice.

✰ creative writing

I have only started to get back into doing anything creative but I have a few ideas. I'd like to finally post a stony fic this year. and maybe lokius. and probably skippypants (I have a few others that are very rare pair, so who knows)

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot a big one!

✰ gf live

what an amazing show! the boys are so good with a live audience and it was a treat to watch the show with a whole theatre full of people. it's the best way to watch it imo and I would do it again. and at my show Mari came up to wait in a line near me so I talked to her for a bit. I didn't ask for a photo or anything, just had a normal conversation. but I definitely melted into a puddle right after and she is even more beautiful in person!

[likealittleheartbeat]

Hey remember that time I had Aang and Zuko hold a conversation about Aang’s affection for the character Shorty in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in one of my fics? And now the actor who played him, Ke Huy Quan, has returned to acting in Everything Evrywhere All at Once, after twenty years away because he couldn’t find roles for Asian men. And not only is the relationship of his character, Waymond Wang, to his wife (Evelyn Wang, played by Michelle Yeoh) one of the best romance plots I’ve seen in YEARS—and god! I hope the kiddos of the fanfiction world can actually hop on shipping the middle-aged characters in this film which has so much potential for expansion. But but but! His character embodies so much of what Aang embodies in terms of East Asian masculinities (kindness, guidance, empathy, patience and humor in place of the forcefulness, strength, and competitiveness that characterize euro-American ideals of masculinity). Both ATLA and EEAAO also demonstrate how these eastern masculinities are interpreted, depicted, and demeaned in Western contexts. Those who attempt to embody them have to somehow persist and shine through the stereotype projected onto them, and, in popular culture and even their daily lives, they have to see through flattened characters to find models to enjoy and look up to. This kind of experience was one of the things I was hoping to get at with my mention of Shorty in the fic, so it’s so special to me to see Ke Huy Quan and EEAAO do such a fantastic job of showing it!!!

“Shorty’s in The Temple of Doom, Zuko!” Aang called back.

“Wait, is he the Chinese kid? Isn’t that character super racist?”

“Shorty’s not racist!” Aang snickered, “What did he do that was racist?”

Zuko followed Aang’s steps over and through the debris as they turned on their phone flashlights to explore. “I mean his DEPICTION was racist, wasn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought he was relatable? I liked him. ”

“Why? He was such a caricature.”

“Hey! I see something under here. Oh, oh, oh!” After jogging over toward Aang, Zuko helped him toss aside some bricks, revealing a blackened Buddha. Aang’s hands grabbed it gingerly. “I always liked that he was a good guy. No, actually he was like the best guy.”

“Gautama?” Zuko teased.

Aang chuckled while he rubbed away the soot from the little statue. “Also him.” Aang said, “The best guys, actually. Even if they weren’t one hundred percent perfect.”

For Day 7 of Zukaang Week 2020, prompt: Ruins

In a modern ATLA au, after the events of the show, Aang convinces Zuko to drive him after school to the remains of his childhood home at the edge of town.