the usual fandom nonsense

Goblin brain: “No!!! *Keep*.”

Me: “What?”

Goblin brain: “kEeP tHe JaR.”

Me: “…what for?”

I thought Loki was supposed to seize the narrative and prove the timekeepers and every other person wrong. Instead, Loki is the POV character and Sylvie is the protagonist. I thought "this story isn't about you" was something to refute, not the show's mission statement. Hugs to the Loki fandom, I think we really need it today 2/2 (sorry I keep forgetting those things)

The first episode wrote a check the rest couldn't deliver (and even the first episode was tepid at best). But wait, I have to give the whole show a go, right? Wait til everything is out to make my final judgement, right? That's what everyone's been saying!

Never in a million years did I think the show would be this bad. Joke's on me for expecting a Loki show to be about Loki and not some OCs who constantly beat him up and tell him how pathetic and worthless he is. And you know, I could even deal with that since that's what canon has been doing it to him all along, but until ragnarok (and IW to a lesser extent), the narrative wasn't on those character's sides. We still got to see Loki being badass and competent, even if he did eventually lose.

I thought "this story isn't about you" was something to refute, not the show's mission statement.

SAME, ANON, SAME!

This is supposed to be his show, yet Sylvie is the only one who drives the narrative forward. What the fuck has Loki done? Got Mobius on his side, who was immediately zapped? (And let's be real, more narrative weight was given to Mobius being suspicious about C-20 than Loki actually having anything to do with changing Mobius' mind. He just confirmed what Mobius was already suspecting.) Got himself killed again (as far as he was aware at the time)? Give me a fucking break. If they really had to do the fucking TVA narrative, why wasn't it about Loki in Sylvie's position? Why not have him escape, fight the TVA, work to bring them down, discover the TVA were all made up of variants?

Like fuck, imagine the narrative tension of Loki figuring out those people he has been fighting and killing were nothing but brainwashed slaves and the whole plot is so much bigger than even an organization that controls all of time? And not some reveal handed to us in dialogue about some people I, at least, don't give a fiddly fuck for.

And let's be clear, I don't give a fuck what people ship or don't. Sylvie/Loki, Loki/Mobius, Loki/whoever, I don't care.

But if they're really going for the selfcest, maybe don't speedrun it and present it as Loki being some fucking narcissist loser who only ever loved himself. Which, you know, was the actual framing the show put out. I know people are reinterpreting it as "Loki loving himself is literally breaking the timeline", but that feels so unearned and out of left field. It's just lazy, bad writing. And you just know it never would have happened had Sylvie been male.

Loki and Mobius' friendship is also unearned. Friends?!! Friends???!!!! The guy who kept berating you and torturing you and telling you you were worthless and manipulating you and calling you incompetent is who Loki considers a friend???? To the point of tears??????? GIVE ME A BREAK.

NO, IT'S SHITTY AND UNEARNED. Fucking hell, please gets some better standards for friendship, Loki. I hate it.

Loki’s tv series is about self-actualization, but it’s also a gift to the fanbase (which will hopefully soon show itself more deserving of that gift). That gift is a metaphysical exploration of the fandom’s engagement with and consumption of the character of Loki, “what makes a Loki a Loki” and why the contents of “A Loki” are so surprisingly resonant with so many people, when the character was originally meant to be a one-off minor villain.  

How is this achieved? THROUGH THE POV OF MOBIUS. 

Mobius IS the fandom. Yes he’s a minor extant Marvel comics character, but he has been transformed into MORE, just as the MCU Loki has been.  Mobius is the fanbase’s often conflicting components.  He is BOTH the people who interview Loki with genuine interest and respect, who say “you can be anything you want” AND the people who unkindly interrogate Loki, who have had doubts, who have pigeonholed and simplified Loki into a mere antagonist, the people who have felt betrayed by the character (and the many writers and directors at the helm of the character).  Mobius has, in getting to know Loki, become a symbol of our exploration of the character, and in that process of learning Loki as an inherently self-contradictory person, he is engaging in the myriad emotions we have felt in trying (and failing) to define him.

The Loki series operates both as a somewhat convoluted (but delightfully so) story, AND as a meta-narrative of the history of the audience’s relationship with and resonance with Loki. 

That means we must see Mobius himself as a changeable and somewhat unreliable narrator.  He is in the process of transformation, just as we are. He is learning.  And the process of learning involves making mistakes. 

What spurs these thoughts on? Well, I got an anon the other day: 

and my answer is YES, but not in the way the anon exactly suggests. Rather, it’s because of the goals I’ve tried to articulate above. 

thinking about how the majority of us, maybe Tom Hiddleston himself included, thought it was over for Loki but wow! look at him now, standing in front of a huge Loki logo of his own Loki show!