Loki Was Good Even Though Loki Didn't Really Matter

Like the other two Disney+ Marvel series, I didn't rush to watch Loki.  I waited until all the episodes were up and then binged it.  I planned to spread it out over a few days like Captain America Falcon and the Winter Soldier but I wound up doing it all in one night instead.  In part because I was bored but also because the show was really intriguing.

The thing is, I'm not really a big fan of Loki, not like my sister, who even named a cat after him.  I will say he's the best villain in the MCU if only because Marvel sucks at creating villains with any depth, mostly because they get bumped off after one movie.  By default Thanos is the second-best villain because he didn't get killed right away.  It just annoys me that like with Magneto in the Fox Marvelverse, they're always trying to make Loki seem like a good guy despite that he's killed thousands or maybe even millions of people by now.  I don't need villains to be mustache-twirling clichés but it sucks when they're wishy-washy.

This show is the latest attempt to redeem Loki.  During Endgame, a Loki from 2012 (during the first Avengers movie) escapes, but he's quickly apprehended by the mysterious Time Variance Authority or TVA.  While most "variants" like him are "pruned" (ie beamed to a desolate wasteland at the end of the universe) he's recruited to help find another variant Loki in sort of a Silence of the Lambs arrangement.

Soon Loki finds out that this other Loki is hiding in natural disasters throughout time and they're able to find her.  Yes, her.  It's a lady Loki who calls herself Sylvie.  The TVA tried to prune her when she was a child but she escaped and has been killing TVA agents and stealing their "reset" bombs to get to the "Time Keepers" who supposedly control all time.

The 2012 Loki and Sylvie wind up stranded on a planet about to be destroyed by a rogue moon but when they're about to get romantic it creates enough of a variance or whatever that they can be rescued.  Soon Loki and Sylvie uncover that the Time Keepers aren't real and there's a man behind the curtain who's called "He Who Remains" but comic fans would know better as Kang the Conqueror, a villain from the future who repeatedly tries to take over the universe and is repeatedly stopped by the Avengers.

Anyway, he offers Loki and Sylvie the choice of death or taking over the TVA to carry on his work.  Loki would gladly take over the TVA to use it as a stepping stone to ultimate power but Sylvie would rather just kill Kang, which she does.  Loki ends up back at the TVA base but now no one remembers him and instead of the "Time Keepers" there's one Kang in charge of everything.

To Be Continued...[ominous music]

I already knew some of the stuff that would happen just from people's spoilers, but it still drew me in to see what exactly was going to happen.  In that sense it was a success.  What really keeps bugging me though is that Loki--the Tom Hiddleston version--is one of the least important characters in a show named for him.  Sylvie is the one who really stirs the drink here.  Her and Kang are the two most important characters to the plot as the central conflict really revolves around them.  The Loki we're familiar with finds Sylvie and then accompanies her but the show could easily have been the same without him.  The only real reason he's there is they needed a familiar face to sell the show to the public.

In that sense it's appropriate because Loki is the god of mischief and lies, so why shouldn't his show be one big convoluted lie or misdirection?  There were a few moments where Loki was allowed to shine, like when he finds out what happened to his original self and the destruction of Asgard and death of his adopted mother and his sorta creepy relationship with Sylvie.  There's not enough to where I'd say this is a great show, but it was decent and it helps set up all the multiverse crap that's going to happen with Dr. Strange 2, Spider-Man 3, and Ant-Man 3, the latter featuring Kang as a villain.  It probably could have been even better if it had tried a little harder to focus on its main character and give him a real character arc instead of making him a sidekick in his own series.

For comics fans there were plenty of Easter eggs, especially in the 5th episode when they go to the TVA's dump for all the shit that got "pruned."  There are other variant Lokis like the classic one (I have an action figure of that one), a child one, a black one, an alligator one, and another Tom Hiddleston one who was running for mayor or something.  At one point you can also see the infamous frog Thor and there's a helicopter with "Thanos" written on it from some ridiculous old comic book story.  And probably more shit I wouldn't know about because I haven't read that many Thor/Loki comics.  

Other than Lady Sif appearing in a cameo there aren't really any other MCU guest stars except in footage of previous movies.

Much was made about Loki being DB Cooper but it was kind of a fake-out that didn't make much sense.  Apparently it was just a prank Loki pulled.  He came to Earth and somehow flawlessly impersonated a normal human to hijack a plane and steal a bunch of money and then jump out and get beamed up by the Bifrost?  It didn't really make any sense and contributed nothing to the plot.  Really if Asgardians were hanging around Earth or "Midgard" back in the 70s why didn't Thor know much about our customs in the first movie?

Anyway, this show didn't really make me want another season about Loki so much as it made me want a series focusing on Sylvie.  Which is good in a way but also not good if your title character is less interesting than someone else.