Author Topic: Loki ***Spoilers***  (Read 4147 times)

Offline Chris

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Loki ***Spoilers***
« on: April 25, 2021, 05:40:38 PM »
Is it June 11th yet?

Offline Chris

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2021, 10:51:30 AM »
Next week!  Next week!  Next week!

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #2 on: Today at 02:47:25 PM »

Offline Jim Watari

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2021, 08:09:34 AM »
it starts on June 9th  :D
The more things change, the more they stay the same

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Offline Chris

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2021, 10:42:17 AM »
This week!  This week!

Offline Pyramid

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2021, 06:58:33 AM »
Just finished it.  Absolutely enjoyed it!  The TVA is an amazing addition to the Marvel Universe!  Such a tremendous character arch in the first episode that didn't feel forced!
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Offline perc2100

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2021, 04:22:57 PM »
Some minor spoilers here: I'll use spoiler barrier things when getting into legit story-oriented spoilers

Really fun start to this latest mini-series!  This ep is a reminder that:
1) Marvel Studios delivers its exposition REALLY well: entertaining, and in ways that might not feel like an exposition dump for most (and ep1 is probably, like, a good 85% exposition AT LEAST).
2) I don't know why it's taken this long for Marvel Studios to cast Owen Wilson in a role, but I'm glad to have him in the MCU now.  And casting him in a role that pairs him up signing dialogue back-and-forth with Hiddleston's Loki = *chefs kiss

The episode did a good job of its TREMENDOUS heavy lifting of both catching newbies up w/Loki's story (via pseudo-flashbacks of scenes from the 3 THOR films + footage from AVENGERS & INFINITY WAR) AND setting up the Time Variance Authority for viewers: all while doing a good job of balancing the tone with a bit of fun as well as the pseudo "murder mystery" at the heart of the story for the season (seemingly - the series seems to set up that TVA is trying to stop a 'variant' from murdering its field agents - it's early enough where that set-up may just be a starting point for the rest of the series).  The creatives do a good job as well "showing," and not just "telling" w/it's exposition.  For example, the
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is used as a sort of "short hand" way of showing the audience just how mischievous Loki's shenanigans are.  When I saw the bit in the commercials, I was excited wondering how that'd be used in the story and seeing it used in this way not only made me chuckle (for both the idea and the execution: "I lost a bet" indeed  ;D ).

There's not a ton to get into after this first episode other than it does its job incredibly well setting up the series.  Marvel Studios' approach to these Disney+ series seems to mostly be "we're approaching them as long movies" structurally and Marvel does their thing incredibly well.  The FX here are well-done: exactly what you'd expect.  The way they play around with the TVA environment/characters/technology is really wonderful, and
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(which felt almost certainly what was going to happen) was a nice touch.  I'm slightly familiar with the TVA from the comics, and of course Marvel nails the bureaucratic, mundane vibe well.  Reading some of the storylines of TVA in the comics I had an idea of kind of ironic fun of having such a massively important, cosmic entity as TVA and the Timekeepers presented like the average, run-of-the-mill pedantic office environment will never not be amusing to me.  This isn't "The Office" or OFFICE SPACE by any means, but feeling the bored TVA employees going through their daily routine (one employee comments that they've lived at their desk and in this realm I can easily believe they literally mean "live" at their desk).

Good series: feels like it may exist somewhere between the existential stuff at the heart of "WandaVision" and the straight action-oriented stuff of "Falcon and the Winter Solider."  I look forward to seeing what this series has to say, and already feels like it's headed in both a fun place (how can focusing on Loki for 6 45 min. eps NOT be a lot of fun?!) as well as a bit heavy (Loki's ruminations at the end of the ep regarding why he really does what he does points to a deeper, more meaningful comic book tale).  Obviously if you're an MCU fan I don't need to convince you to watch this; if you're not into the MCU, I don't know if this series has much to offer you.  It won't play as broadly interesting as 'WandaVision' did w/the old school sitcom stuff and feels like it would be like watching RETURN OF THE JEDI w/out having seen A NEW HOPE or EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - maybe incomprehensible if you're not caught up (at least w/the Thor films & Avenger films): it does a nice job of setting things up and rehashing things for newbies & vets a like, but a lot of the character nuance may be lost w/out the context of Loki through the years in the films.

Offline perc2100

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Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2021, 05:12:01 PM »
OK, for those of us comic nerds, lets dig into some things in the episode/series.  Pretty heavy spoilers here, though again the entire first episode is mainly an exposition dump and I'm not giving out any jaw-dropping twists here.
Anyway
.
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We're still here & OK with spoiler talk (it is in the title after all)?  Ok, let's talk about some of this fun stuff.
* The Time-Keepers.  WOW!  Episode 1 here quickly kind of up-ends the whole MCU, no?  I mean, THE ETERNALS looks to do similar, opening the audience up to another layer of 'cosmic' we haven't seen before, but the Time-Keepers are kind of another level of "cosmic."  In the TVA powers outside its compound (at least - who knows how deep this goes) are meaningless: Loki can't use his tricks/magic powers; the tesseract & other Infinity Stones are meaningless - jokingly said to be used as paperweights by some as they seem to be abundant in the TVA HQ (I didn't freeze-frame the shot in the drawer, but there were multiple of the Stones in there previously 'confiscated').  But how might the Time-Keepers come into play within the MCU further than just "Loki?" Well...
* Kang the Conquerer.  Kang is the villain of the next ANT-MAN AND THE WASP film.  Kang is a time-traveling bad guy who eventually 'matures' into Immortus: servant of the Time-Keepers.  Immortus also tried to control Scarlet Witch at one point, so maybe he'll also appear in the DOCTOR STRAGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, the next film Scarlet Witch is confirmed to appear.  Obviously Kang didn't appear in this ep, and maybe he won't feature at all in "Loki," but he IS connected to players of this story
*Sacred Timeline.  The explanation of the timeline 'branches' was nice, and obviously fit well with The Ancient One's explanation to Banner in END GAME.  The Time-Keepers created the Sacred Timeline to in order to bring piece to all the multi-verses that were warring w/each other previously.  The all-knowing cosmic ones are glimpsed only in low-tech animation form here (as well as the sculptures of their faces we see on a TVA wall).  In one story from the 90's the Time-Keepers pluck a bunch of Avengers out of various times in order to 'defend' humanity when humanity is deemed guilty of screwing things up too much/being deemed a legit threat to the sacred timeline.  Immortus comes into play in that story, and it's hard not to see parallels already between that 90's story and "Loki."  Heck, the TVA logo (glimpsed on a wall), _almost_ looks like a stylized drawing of Kang's face  :P (I know: MCU nerds dissect EVERYTHING and over-analyze/think literally all things in these movies/series)
* Nexus Events.  We were told Loki messing with time created a 'Nexus Event;' we were also told during "WandaVision" that Wanda is a 'Nexus Being' capable of connecting different dimensions.  Marvel: excelling at connecting its dots/setting up future events/stories/characters  ;)
* Loki Laufeyson.  We know Thor's last name is "Odinson" so I guess it makes sense that Loki's is "Laufeyson," after the king of the Frost Giants.  I hadn't thought about it before, but it did crack me up
* A Nightmare?  At one point Loki refers to the TVA as "this place is a nightmare" to witch Mobius responds, “That’s another department.”  While this could be a silly non-sequitur type joke/banter between the two characters, might it set up another MCU bad guy?  Nightmare is of course a Marvel comics villain, who rules over the Dream Dimension (sorry Freddy Kruger), and roles with the Fear Lords.  He's mostly connected w/Doctor Strange (and also Ghost Rider), and he kind of looks like the cartoonish face on the 'Kablooie' gum wrapper found at the scene of a TVA team murder (note - there is no 'Kablooie' brand known in the Marvel comics universe that I can think of/find reference to online).  Refer to the above "overanalyzes everything" maybe.  Or maybe this is a hint at villains-to-come: or maybe just a fun Easter egg
* Agent Coulson Lives...or...maybe not?  There felt like a missed opportunity to reference "Agents of SHIELD's biggest early development here when the Agent was shown in a 'flashback' hologram being 'killed' by Loki (and referred to as the catalyst for the Avengers...er...avenging his death to rally & defeat Loki).  "Loki" couldn't had a fun moment of Mobius making light of the situation and saying "you didn't even kill him, you know" or some such silliness.  I'm well aware that MCU Time-Keeper Kevin Feige is no fan of the Marvel TV-verse that was round for awhile (AoS + the Netflix shows & that "Inhumans" debacle), but I think if there was any doubt that none of those series exists in Feige's MCU 'head canon' that can likely be put to bed here.  Feige doesn't care about your fandom of those 'other' shows, and they almost certainly don't exist within his head
* Cat or flerken? When Loki arrives at TVA there’s a cat sitting there. Or maybe it’s a flerken; we may never know…

Fun stuff, as usual!!
« Last Edit: June 09, 2021, 05:34:02 PM by perc2100 »

Offline Chris

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2021, 07:45:48 PM »
Random thoughts:
--I'm liking the Disney+ release model in that it frees them up to be brave and try some more atypical/absurd story types
--Love the Douglas Adamesque humor.  Much better than the endless quip-fest that movies have devolved to
--Never really thought of this, but God of Mischief sounds like one of the better gods to be. Probably the only one better is God of Playing with Puppies
--The design/aesthetic of the show is great
--I'm glad that (if) Mephisto shows up here, I'm glad that he wasn't in Wandavision. That show didn't need a primary bad guy.
--"It only loops you, not the furniture"

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2021, 08:36:34 PM »
Very strong start.  Very strong.  Hopefully, finally, this is the Marvel TV series I've been hoping for.

Offline perc2100

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #9 on: June 10, 2021, 08:32:21 AM »
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--Love the Douglas Adamesque humor.  Much better than the endless quip-fest that movies have devolved to
Right?!  It's like a nice blend of Douglas Adams + Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL (which almost certainly was influenced by Douglas Adams)!

Offline Michaelnaut

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #10 on: June 10, 2021, 10:05:19 AM »
Did anybody catch/focus on
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Offline perc2100

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #11 on: June 10, 2021, 05:34:33 PM »
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Did anybody catch/focus on
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Ha, yes;
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Feels like "Loki" more than the other series so far will be doing the most heavy-lifting for Phase 4, perhaps.

Offline Michaelnaut

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #12 on: June 16, 2021, 05:40:06 PM »
Anyone notice/catch that Hiddleston is also credited as Executive Producer? Thought that quite interesting.
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Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #13 on: June 16, 2021, 08:38:45 PM »
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Anyone notice/catch that Hiddleston is also credited as Executive Producer? Thought that quite interesting.

Yes, I noticed that last week.  I watched the credits hoping for a post credit scene.

This week, I liked the second half of the episode more than the first half.  Loki was just too goofy and weaselly during the first half.  It didn't seem to me to be true to character.

Offline Pyramid

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Re: Loki ***Spoilers***
« Reply #14 on: June 17, 2021, 07:07:13 AM »
Really wondering if the female Loki is actually the Enchantress since her name is Sylvie.  That's the name of the second Enchantress.
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