Making sense of it all… (Loki: Episode One Spoiler Review & Discussion)

[geektalk]

Thor Skywalker

---

now just a little warning here at the

start that there will be some major

spoilers in this video for the first

episode of

loki so if you have not seen it yet and

you don’t want anything ruined

it’s a really good time to click away

okay so first of all here let me say

that this was very

different though not in a bad way or

anything i did enjoy it and i’m

certainly intrigued and looking forward

to more

it’s just that and i’ve brought this up

before especially during one division

but slowly but surely the mcu has been

embracing more and more of the

shall we say unique and or unusual

aspects from the comic books things like

the tva or the time variance authority

for example

they’ve been easing us into some really

strange or weird stuff from the comics

or what might feel weird if you don’t

read or know much about what goes on

there how crazy or unusual things

oftentimes get with all the time travel

magic different dimensions universes

gods other powerful beings and so on i

mean if we go back to where it all

started for the mcu back to that very

first iron man movie and i just

put up a poll asking people to rank and

comment on it a link to which will be in

the description below if it didn’t pop

up in your feed or anything and if

you’re interested in participating

but anyway if we go back to that first

iron man movie everything there

though a bit on the fantastical side

with the level of technology tony stark

is able to create even though he is

yes a genius well it still feels very

grounded

in reality our reality there’s nothing

really strange

about that movie in fact tony stark in

that movie would have laughed or scoffed

at the idea of magic

and time travel and all this other stuff

as would many in the audience watching

it because again that movie felt pretty

grounded in reality

even when we first get to thor and

asgard and all of that

they went out of their way to explain it

scientifically to show us this is not

magic it just seems like magic to the

uninformed mind

just like how arthur c clark said that

any sufficiently advanced technology is

indistinguishable from magic

though yes the asgardians did see

themselves as gods

and in the comics they basically are

gods

but anyway my point is there’s been a

gradual build to get here to get to a

show like loki where most are now going

to watch it and take it all in stride

and not think to themselves this has

gone off the rails and or has gotten

too strange and crazy or just is too

much to keep up with and to try and

understand anymore

instead of confused and disinterested

people are intrigued and

want to understand it all basically

marvel has

slowly but surely indoctrinated people

into this weird world of marvel comics

to the point where i now get asked by

friends and family and others who know

my love of comics

people who 15 years ago didn’t know or

care

who or what an iron man was questions

about

what exactly is the tva and how do they

fit into everything

or they want to tell me their current

wand division theory about how mephisto

was behind it all

which sometimes makes me feel like i’ve

slipped into an alternate reality

where the once taboo world of comics has

gone completely mainstream

which it has but to get back to it here

to get to the show itself actually

well we’ve basically been promised that

we were going to get an airtight

explanation for time travel and the

multiverse in this series

that everything we saw in endgame and

elsewhere will make complete sense

and the first episode is certainly

trying to do just that by telling us

that there was

once a multiverse a long time ago but

that a war happened between the

timelines that nearly destroyed

everything

so they were all merged into one

timeline the sacred timeline

and that the tva now guards that one

timeline and make sure

nexus events don’t happen or are

corrected when they do happen

and that variants those who cause these

new timelines are basically rounded up

and dealt with

and of course loki has become one of

these variants or the loki from the

first avengers movie

when he picks up the tesseract during

the events of end game

and disappears with it in fact the

series even starts with those events

again and continues

right on after them we’re basically

dealing with loki from that first

avengers movie and i think tom

hiddleston

does a really good job of bringing back

that loki of making it feel like he

hasn’t gone through everything else

we’ve seen in the mcu

though now he has seen everything that’s

going to happen to him in the future of

the mcu

which i thought was one of the best

parts of the episode maybe the best as

loki first

sees the death of his mother learns he

is going to be responsible for it

and then later sees himself start to

change and become better

perhaps he sees his father tell him that

he loves him he sees himself fighting

side by

side with his brother thor again and

then he sees himself killed by thanos

and though loki doesn’t say anything

through it all as he watches

hiddleston knocks it out of the park

with just the expressions and the

emotions on his face you can see

the hope start to build that he’s going

to become a better person in the future

and deep down i do think loki wants to

be better in fact the two main things

this first episode does is

world built like crazy but it also digs

deep into the psyche of loki

but anyway though you see this kind of

hope growing in loki’s eyes and on his

face

as he learns maybe he can or will yet

turn things around in the future

there’s then this sort of turn back when

he sees his own death

we see this awful pain and perhaps some

bitterness about dying the way he does

to

thanos who is really kind of like a god

more so than him

and it’s almost like he doesn’t care

about that good he’ll do anymore

that the selfish and scared part of him

reemerges and he just doesn’t want to

die like that

as i said it was probably the best part

of the whole episode

something else we sort of learned during

all this is that everything in the

sacred timeline is predetermined that

the tva only makes sure what’s supposed

to happen

actually happens which i find

interesting because

at one point loki talks about taking

away choice from people

that people don’t want to be free

essentially that he makes life easier

for them in a way

that he has this glorious purpose to

lead them and rule them all

but in a lot of ways that’s exactly what

the tva does they don’t allow people to

actually make choices to have free will

they make sure they live their life the

way they’re supposed to

and though i think it’s intentional you

can’t help but feel like the tva

are being hypocrites here and probably

in an effort to make loki appear more

sympathetic

they’re trying to tell loki he’s wrong

for wanting to take away choice from

people

when that’s exactly what they exist to

do

and so then in a twist of irony you

could say i think what the other variant

loki is trying to do the one the tva is

hunting

well i think he’s trying to destroy the

tva so that people get to have

choice again he’s trying to bring back

the multiverse

and infinite possibilities though mainly

he’s

probably doing it in an effort to avoid

the fate that he saw

where he is of course killed by thanos i

also think the other variant of loki

is somehow the same variant of loki

we’re currently following

or that he brings him about somehow how

that all will play out though

i’m not exactly sure it’s just a theory

one way or another though i think it’s

pretty clear this series will end with a

creation of a new multiverse since we

know there’s a movie called doctor

strange

into the multiverse of madness coming

not to mention spider-man no way home is

supposed to deal with it as well

another question all this sort of brings

up or brings up again

is the mystery around captain america in

endgame how he goes back and after

returning all the infinity stones

he ends up living out a life with peggy

carter in the past and ends up

on a park bench to give the shield to

sam in the present time

of the story there’s been a lot of

debate and confusion about just what

timeline he goes back to

or how it all works out and while in

this episode of loki we learn everything

the avengers did in endgame was supposed

to happen that way hence the tva

didn’t interfere the one thing that

wasn’t was of course loki picking up the

tesseract and using it to escape

this also then means i’d assume whatever

captain america did wherever he went and

how he lived out his life

was how it was supposed to happen and

then when you factor in that we

now have learned that a timeline or a

new branch when it’s created

runs the risk of more being created and

then chaos ensuing

well i highly doubt steve rogers was

allowed to live out his life in one of

these alternate or branching timelines i

think he almost certainly

somehow someway lived out his days in

the

main timeline in the sacred timeline and

just kept himself hidden the whole time

which i know some people don’t like

because then we have to believe that

captain america would sit back and let

all these horrible things happen in the

world

but for all we know when returning the

infinity stones he encountered the tva

and they told him this was what he had

to do in order for everything to work

out in the end

the way it should that it was

essentially his destiny to live out his

days in the past

and in secret with peggy carter and to

do nothing to interfere

in order for him to one day then give

the shield to sam and for things to

continue to play out as they should at

least that’s my guess here and so

overall here this was certainly

different but not in a bad way as i was

saying before

it’s amazing how the mcu just keeps

expanding and doing it in ways that feel

i don’t know natural somehow even though

it just keeps getting crazier

but it’s that expansion that keeps it

interesting at the same time

that keeps them from telling the exact

same story over and over again

in very similar ways and becoming way

too repetitive

sort of embracing different genres along

with the weirdness of the comic books

keeping things ever evolving has been

the secret to the success of the mcu i

think

and this show is certainly doing just

that

well that’s all i’ve got for you this

time now it’s your turn to tell me what

you thought of the first episode of loki

did you like

it did you not like it were you

somewhere in between whatever the case

may be

leave a comment below and let’s talk

some marvel and until next time

thanks for watching

you

[Author]

Posts