***Spoilers for Loki episode one: Glorious Purpose***
When the Loki TV series was announced the only stipulation I had was that I wanted it to be weird. With the main character sporting a title like God of Mischief, I wanted to see things that would make me pause the episodes in an attempt to look for clues.
Well.
I got my wish.
The first episode of Loki was exactly what I wanted. We’re introduced to the idea of great and powerful overseers of time via Loki (Tom Hiddleston) having to take a number and watch an infomercial hosted by a Tara Strong-voiced anthropomorphic clock, Miss Minutes. It’s probably the most bizarre therapy session that Loki’s ever had—in the MCU, at least, the comics are a different story.
The first episode is a lot of Loki reflecting on his life—past, present, and future. He’s at a crossroads and trying to figure out what it is that he actually wants. What can I say, watching yourself team up with the brother you’re at odds with, only to have the moment ruined by a Kool-Aid stained tyrant who chokes you to death is a LOT to take in. Somehow, that’s not the biggest whammy of the episode, no, that comes at the end when Mobius (Owen Wilson) reveals who the Variant he wants Loki to help him track down is.
Loki.
As in, the Variant is Loki.
Mobius wants Loki to catch Loki.
Let me just say that I am THRILLED with this whole “Loki has to face himself” storyline, however, I don’t think Mobius is being entirely truthful here. I don’t think this is the first time Mobius, or even the TVA, has tried to recruit Loki to do this, which explains the desperation of Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) to NOT try this at home. To be honest, our main Loki isn’t all that threatening, at least not enough for the TVA to be so adamant about just straight-up “resetting” him instead of playing with the possibility of using him against himself.
I dunno, this seems like a group that doesn’t mind deceptive methods if it fixes a crack in the timeline, especially when they themselves can use time to their advantage.
Not only does Mobius attest that this Loki is great at losing, but this is an organization with the INFINITY STONES kept in a junk drawer like they belong next to paperclips and the soy sauce packs you didn’t use on the Chinese food you ordered. So I think Hunter B-15 is panicking because they’ve tried to use Loki against Loki before and it went straight to shit. There are different versions of Loki in the comics and he’s had instances of facing himself and, more importantly, his consciousness, so the idea of Loki literally having to face himself is right on track for the character.
(Or face herself, or his kid self, or… you get it.)
I also don’t quite buy Loki not being aware of the possibility of time travel or there being higher powers that make sure the flow of time stays on track. Sure, it’s a bit jaw-dropping that something so grand goes down in an office space where someone probably plays Galaga at lunch (ha ha, reference), but Loki not believing that something like this exists when he himself is a shape-shifting god who comes from a place with a bridge that can transport you anywhere? I think he’d be a bit more willing to believe what he’s seeing, unless, of course, he’s playing the long game of “clueless protagonist who needs information fed to him so he can use it to his advantage later” or this is Loki Variant Number 9 because Mobius keeps trying to stop Loki with Loki.
This leads me to my thoughts on this Loki Variant they’re tracking, namely, how did it reach a point where he became such a huge threat that Mobius is resorting to using Loki against him despite the TVA’s misgivings?
Here are my theories:
- This is a Loki who had a different outcome in his life. Maybe this is a Loki who actually won against the Avengers or one who managed to get away with the Tesseract instead of being caught by the TVA. Basically, this is a Loki who never “saw the light,” if you will, so he’s a full-on villain and what our Loki could’ve been if not for the other events that have transpired for him. We could even go so far as to say that this “villain” version of Loki has been separated from his consciousness in favor of our main Loki being a more nuanced character. There are moments in the comics where Loki will have legitimate conversations with his more “darker” thoughts, so that could be what this is.
- Flip everything I just said. Our main Loki is the actual full-on villain and the one the TVA is pursuing is trying to stop him. Our main Loki is just pretending to be a fish out of water for the sake of reaching his goal of complete domination of the world (and worlds). The Loki Variant who’s causing all that chaos is doing it on purpose, to get the TVA’s attention, and to get to his other-self in order to stop him. It’s destructive, but it’s the only way.
- The Loki Variant that Mobius wants to use our main Loki to track down is a creation of the TVA. Not on purpose, mind you, but their interference, and introducing him to divergent timelines, has caused him to act the way he’s acting now. Perhaps he saw that little video where he’s killed by Thanos and said, “LOL, no thanks,” and went off to do his own thing. Honestly, the TVA’s lucky that our main Loki, after getting loose, went back to that room instead of taking the Infinity Stones out of the junk drawer. They’re lucky it sent him into having an existential crisis instead of being like, “Well I’ll be damned, YOINK!”
I’m sure all of this is going to change by the time the second episode is released. Knowing Loki, all of this will become a moot point because he has something more theatrical in store for us. Whatever the case, I like what we’ve seen so far, and I can’t wait to see more.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
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