Villain Profile: Kang the Conqueror

The Conqueror comes, and all of creation will tremble.

Hi everyone, let’s talk about Kang. Don’t worry, I’ll cover The Suicide Squad and Black Widow this week as well, I just wanted to start off doing a villain profile since Kang is kind of a big deal and it’s been a while since I’ve done a character profile.

 

Is he actually balancing the
dagger, or future tech? You
Decide.

Now, Kang’s history can be kind of confusing. He is Marvel’s most famous time traveler, and has used this power to meddle with the events of history on many occasions. Younger and older versions of the character have popped up as well. I’m going to try to present his history as straightforwardly as possible, but obviously that can be kind of hard as Kang has done some chicken-egg meddling in his own timeline. But I’ll get into that in a minute. Oh, and as a reminder, with some exceptions, time travel in the Marvel universe works on multiverse theory. Kang is able to go back and change things about the past, because he’s actually going to and creating a parallel universe. Huh, that’s kind of complicated… Oh, I know how I could keep it simple, stupid. Have you seen Loki? Kang’s arrival at any point in time is a Nexus Event. Keep in mind, in the comics Kang didn’t set up a TVA like in the series. Get it? Got it? Good! Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Our story begins in the 31^st century. The being who would become known as Kang the Conqueror was born Nathaniel Richards, named after the time traveling father of Reed Richards. The 30^th century is an idyllic time; peace has been achieved by Richards’ interventions and everyone has a Jet ski… Yes, that was a Loki reference. Nathaniel was a scientist and philosopher, living a life of peace and general contentment. Naturally, it was boring as hell, and Nathaniel jumps at trying to liven things up when he discovered a time machine. He used the time machine to travel to ancient Egypt, and used his advanced technology to set himself as Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He ruled for a time, and attempted to recruit a young bandit to become his minion and heir. The bandit being En Sabah Nur, the original Omega Level Mutant, Apocalypse. His attempts to recruit, or maybe more accurately enslave, Nur just lead to Nur leading a revolt against the cruel Rama-Tut. This revolt, and the inference by the time traveling Fantastic Four, caused Nathanial to retreat. I should also note that Tut’s hasty exit is how Apocalypse got his hands on the anachronistic technology that turned him from a powerful but finite problem in the grand scheme of things into the nigh immortal monster he is. Rather annoyed by this defeat, Nathanial tried to return to his present, but is forced to appear in the modern era of the main Marvel timeline due to a time storm. There he met and was inspired by Dr. Doom. Victor von Doom, as it turns out, MIGHT be Nathaniel’s ancestor. He’s also speculated to descend from Nathaniel Richards Sr, so regardless, the costumed villain thing was kind of in his DNA. But more on that later.

Yeah, he's beaten a LOT of Avengers

 

Nathaniel caused trouble in the modern era for a little bit, briefly taking on the title The Scarlet Centurion before going by Rama-Tut again. He attempts to return to the 31^st century, but he hit another… or perhaps the same, time storm and was thrown a thousand years farther into the future. Apparently, between when Nathaniel left the 31^st century and his return, a massive war/wars broke out, leading to the collapse of society and blasting the people that survived back to the stone age technology wise. A lot can change when you dip out for a thousand years, no? While the locals don’t know how to use the more advanced technology, Nathaniel was a scientist so it only took a bit of time for him to get things up and running. Using the tech, he made a new blue masked costume, and created his most iconic identity, Kang the Conqueror. Kang quickly conquered Earth and not too much time later began conquering nearby space. He created an empire that spanned much of the galaxy, but after having spent time in the “Heroic Age” as it is known in another series set in the future, he became somewhat obsessed with conquering that era as well.

 

After making a brief stop to Time Square circa 1939, an appearance that was written off as a hoax by the people at the time, Kang arrived at the Modern Washington, DC, blasting a landing strip for his ship. He easily dispatched the military force sent against him, as his soldiers had laser cannons, advanced tanks, and all the other nifty gadgets that Iron Man won’t make for the US government for ethical reasons. Which, you know, is fair. The Avengers are called in, but the time traveling despot easily dispatches them. He captures and begins processing the heroes. Captain America is able to break free and he and Kang battle. Part way through the fight, Kang realizes that Captain America is from the 1940s and uses his time traveling powers to send Steve back to 1945. Well… crap.

 

Wasp and friend of Hulk and Captain America Rick Jones are the only two to escape capture. They get in contact with Mr. Fantastic and the three come up with a plan to defeat Kang. They’re able to recover Captain America from the past, and working with the sidekick group The Teen Brigade, they’re able to free the Avengers and battle Kang. He is forced back this time, his suit even being damaged, and Iron Man was able to destroy his Neutrino Missile, his ace in the hole. He tries to kill the Avengers with a radiation blast, but Thor is able to refract the attack back at Kang. Kang is forced back to the future, but obviously this isn’t the last we see of him.

 

I honestly can't think of a greater hell for me than
having to work with other versions of me.

Oh, and I should point out, that (to use Loki Terminology) Kang’s travels to the past have caused multiple Nexus Events and multiple Variants of Kang to crop up. He has also gone back to his own pat to try to save himself from a past trauma, and to hopefully kickstart his path to evil that much sooner. Unfortunately, for Kang anyway, this Variant of Kang was horrified by the being he’ll become. He takes the armor that Kang offers, but uses his time travel powers to go to the modern era, and founds the Young Avengers as Iron Lad in the hope of turning himself from his dark future. The results are unsuccessful and he eventually becomes yet another iteration of Kang. But I’ll do an Iron Lad profile at some point and go into more detail. There is also a chronologically much older version of himself, Immortus, that has given up his dreams of conquest and instead tries to protect time and space. But I’ll get more into that in an Immortus profile.

 

Kang has made several attempts at conquering Earth, often battling and losing to the Avengers. He’s created Chronopolis, a city out of sync with time, where he rules his galactic and temporal spanning empire. The city as I said exists outside of time, which gives him access to the resources and technology from multiple timelines and realities. So yeah, it’s no shock that he keeps coming back. He also been searching for the Celestial Madonna, a woman prophesized to appear and eventually mother the most powerful being to ever exist. I assume this was a 60s plot because… well, the obvious sexism. The Madonna turns out to be the Guardian of the Galaxy member, Mantis, but he’s always foiled in his attempts to capture her and “sire” his heir. I felt gross just writing that.

 

Imagine being the kind of asshole that
makes YOURSELF Evil.

Kang is a genius even by his far future standard, being able to develop technologies like Time Travel and advanced robotics. He also has access to resources and technology across multiple timelines and the resources of several galaxy spanning empires. When Kang arrives, he usually comes with a small battalion of minions at the very least. And while he has a preference for fighting with guns and cannons when he does dirty his hands, he is a skilled hand to hand combatant and has fought Captain America to a standstill. After traveling to the 40^th century, he built his battle armor. His suit is made of a neuro-kinetic metal that lets him control it with his mind. The armor enhances his strength, speed, and endurance, has a built-in time travel device, is capable to shooting blasts of energy, summon his weaponry, and can keep him alive for 30 days. Oh, and future technology keeps him relatively young. Chronologically, he’s in his 70s, but his tech has kept him in his mid-40s in looks. The most iconic part of his costume is, of course, his bright blue mask.

 

Kang has been used a few times outside of the comics. He’s seen as on par with Thanos, Dr. Doom and Galactus, namely that it often takes not only the Avengers but allies like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to hold him off. This is both because he has highly advanced weaponry, a devious tactical mind, and usually brings a few thousand troops and tanks along with him.

 

The earliest appearance I personally saw of Kang was as a cameo in X-Men: Evolution. It’s an unspoken cameo, and he’s really only there as Rama-Tut to explain how the series ultimate antagonist, Apocalypse, got his hands on anachronistic technology. We really just see him slam his staff down and disappear into the time stream. Still, props for including Kang in Apocalypse’ origin.

 

Kang made an appearance as a recurring antagonist in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest heroes. He’s first introduced in the mini-sode “Meet Captain America” where he was researching the hero. His timeline has grown unstable and he has determined that Captain America, the man out of time is sthe cause. His reality starts to destabilize again. He rallies his troops to travel to the past, but his wife Ravanna is caught in the blast, putting her in a coma. His ship, Damocles base, finally returns as the full villain in “The Man Who Stole Tomorrow” the start of a three part story arc. Still furious at his time’s destabilization and Ravanna’s coma, he leads a massive offensive against Earth. He claims to the Avengers that he is going to conquer the planet and upgrade its technology in order to fend off the calamity that destroyed Earth and lead to his future being destroyed. The Avengers attack with a force of Ultrons and other allies to defeat him. Kang is arrested and taken to Prison 42 to be held. He’s held there and later transferred to Hydro-Base after Prison 42 shuts down. He’s freed from prison in “New Avengers” by the Council of Cross-Time Kang’s, Variants of him from alternate timelines. He attempts to use a temporal void trap to capture the Avengers. While that works, it triggers Tony’s contingency plan that sends messages to recruit a team of new Avengers. The group, consisting of Spider-Man, War Machine, Wolverine, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and the Thing, are able to defeat Kang’s forces and free the main Avengers. We finally learn the event that lead to the destruction of Earth that destroyed Kang’s future in “Operation Galactic Storm” where the Kree attempt to build a wormhole to connect our solar system to their empire. It’s explained that our area of space is pretty malleable, making it a desirable way-stop for cosmic forces. Cap is able to Not destroy earth, though, and the crew travel to the Kree homeworld in an attempt to finally stop their invasion attempts.

 

I should note, that while Kang has been shown to have a more normal skin tone in most of his appearances, Avengers: EMH depicted his blue mask as his natural face and skin tone. Cuz.

 

He'll be back.

He Who Remains, a variant of Kang the Conqueror, appears in the finale of Loki, portrayed by Jonathan Majors. He’s the power behind the thrown of the Time Variance Authority, having created the organization to police Time and Space to ensure that no Nexus Events occur that will eventually lead to the creation of more Variants of himself.  He claims that forcing time to follow his dictated path is the lesser of two evils, as his Variants had caused a cross-dimensional war between himselves. He Who Remains was the One that remained because he discovered Alioth, a monster beast that could eat space, time and matter. The TVA uses reset charges to send matter to the End of Time and have Alioth devour the leftover matter to destroy possible timelines utterly. He claims to be immensely old and offers to turn control over the TVA to Loki and Sylvie. Loki wants to take him up on it, but Sylvie, traumatized by ages of running from the TVA tries to murder him. The two Loki’s duel for a while, while He Who Remains watches weirdly gleefully. She sends Loki back to the TVA and then kills He Who Remains, whom ominously says “see you soon,” before croaking. Back at the TVA, Loki finds that his friend Mobius doesn’t recognize him, and a single statue of Kang replacing the fictitious Timekeepers. Loki is most definitely going to be dealing with the true Kang… A true Kang, in season 2.

 

Jonathan Majors is set to reprise this role as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and presumably in other projects. You don’t set up that there will be multiple versions of this guy and NOT give us multiple versions.

 

Oh, and he was the main villain of Lego Marvel Superhero’s 2. He uses time crystals to merge different eras of Manhattan, Asgard, Xandar, and an area of England together into Chronopolis. Using the Avengers, X-Men and other Marvel Heroes, the player battles Kang and attempts to return everyone to their proper space time. Kang pops up periodically and uses his almost comically depressed wife Ravanna as his hype man.

 

I enjoy Kang as a villain. While a lot of the Avenger’s biggest bads are alien or extradimensional in nature, it is kind of neat that Kang is a 100% human problem, albeit a far future one. Everything that this villain is within human nature, within us all. There’s no the self-delusion that no person is crazy as Thanos, he is who any sufficiently bored, intelligent mind can become. His design, a combination of blue mask, purple armor and a green robe, is visually impressive. He’s basically an all-Tech version of Doom. If one remembers Clarke’s 3^rd law, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Like his possible ancestor, he could do a lot for the world but refuses to due to his own hubris and pride. That said, I do wonder how much of what he is, is genetic. I mean, he’s potentially got Doom in his DNA and one meeting convinced him that he needed a metal suit and mask? There’s inspiration and then there’s possible genetic memory. His intense personality and weird charisma almost make you think that he’s right and should be in charge of all that is, was or will be. Jonathan Majors, I think, captured Kang’s weird intensity really well and that was as a very passive Kang. He has one moment when you can see how scary he can be when he shouts “Grow up, Sylvie!” when he gets tired of listening to the lady Loki’s sob story. I’m excited to see how good he is when he’s a very active Kang, presumably in Ant-Man and the Wasp 3, and/or Loki season 2, whichever comes first. And that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody.  

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Photos: By Marvel Comics - Lunapic, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48578439

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Nathaniel_Richards_(Kang)_(Earth-6311)?file=Nathaniel_Richards_%2528Kang%2529_%2528Earth-6311%2529_and_Avengers_%2528Earth-616%2529_from_Avengers_1_71_001.jpg

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Nathaniel_Richards_(Kang)_(Earth-6311)?file=Council_of_Kangs_%2528Multiverse%2529_from_Avengers_Vol_1_267_001.jpg

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Nathaniel_Richards_(Kang)_(Earth-6311)?file=Nathaniel_Richards_%2528Iron_Lad%2529_%2528Earth-6311%2529_and_Nathaniel_Richards_%2528Kang%2529_%2528Earth-6311%2529_from_Young_Avengers_Vol_1_2_001.jpg

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2570728/ant-man-3-jonathan-majors-kang-the-conqueror-epic-fan-art-loki-quantumania

Viewer Log: Loki ep 6

 Don't let him fool you, a monster hides behind the carefree façade. 

Last time on Loki, the titular character awoke at the End of Time and met himselves. He explored the end with Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki. They’re hounded by the monstrous cloud snake Alioth and by other Variants of themselves that Boastful Loki lead to them. The Loki quartet meet up with their fifth self, Sylvie, and Mobius. Sylvie had gotten to touch a piece of Alioth and saw a vision of a castle floating in the void. She wants to try to enchant it, which Loki begrudgingly agrees to help with. Mobius, meanwhile, is going to use the TemPad Sylvie brought back to return to the TVA and ‘burn it to the ground,” as Loki once said. Their plan doesn’t work out great, until Classic Loki steps up and shows them how powerful they can become. The oldest looking Loki is able to create a to-scale illusion of Asgard to draw Alioth’s attention. He sacrifices himself to give the other two Lokis the time they need to enchant the beast. Doing so opens up a gate to the castle floating in the void. They step through.

 

Episode 6: For All Time, Always

 

I don't know if the line is literal or metaphoric,
but it is impressive.

We begin with the top lines off all the Marvel Films played layered on top of each other, and shots of the solar system, pulling farther and farther out into the cosmos, splicing in the top soundbites of the last century, culminating in Loki and Sylvie standing on the asteroid where that castle sits in the void. The two walk across the alien landscape to the castle. They’re both clearly nervous about stepping through the door and meet the man behind the curtain. They dawdle for a few minutes before the door opens on its own. They walk inside and are greeted by… Miss Minutes? Huh, didn’t see that coming, but she is clearly the scariest thing that could be there. She welcomes them to the Citadel at the End of Time, and tells them that He Who Remains is eager to meet them. Miss Minutes offers them a deal, stating He Who Remains has made some adjustments to the timeline and is offering to reinsert them into it in a way that won’t disrupt history. The TVA can keep doing its work, they can live their lives, everyone wins. Miss Minutes offers to let Loki win in New York, kill Thanos, and claim the Infinity Gauntlet and the Throne of Asgard. And for Sylvie, a lifetime of happy memories and a home, both of them together on the timeline. Both realize that this is a major Faustian bargain and turn it down. Miss Minutes vanishes, saying “good luck with that,” to their desire to try to forge their own destiny.

 

Back at the TVA, Renslayer is downloading files off the TVA network, with Miss Minutes arriving a moment later. She’s vague about what she was doing, which feels odd for the possible AI. When Renslayer notes that the files on her TemPad aren’t the ones she was looking for, Miss Minutes claims “He” thinks they’ll be more helpful.

 

He Who Remains, and oh what an accurate title
that is.

The Lokis penetrate deeper into the Citadel. They enter another chamber and are greeted by He Who Remains… Well, shit. Okay, we all know who he is, but I’m going to keep referring to him as He Who Remains until the closing paragraph. Kay? Kay. He Who Remains seems like a pretty chill guy, and is just in general excited to see them. He mentions that he finds the name mildly creepy but Miss Minutes keeps using it, and he also still likes it. He leads them up to his office.

 

They have a super awkward elevator ride up where Sylvie tries to kill him repeatedly but he just loops around them until finally looping up to his office before them. He pours the two tea and offers them a seat.

 

Mobius meets up with Renslayer, who is packing up her office. He is pretty casual about his return, though does bring up a few times the whole pruning him thing. She tries to justify pruning him, and then calls in Hunters, but he tells her that’s not going to work out how she thinks it is, pulling out her pen as he does so. We jump to Fremont, Ohio in 2018, where B-15 leads the Hunters following her to the office of Renslayer. Or more accurately who Renslayer is a Variant of. Cats out of the bag, Judge. Maybe don’t keep the pen of your past life next time, ma’am.

 

Back at the Citadel, He Who Remains is impressed with his guests and is still acting pretty chill. He loops out of the way again when Sylvie tries to decapitate him. He pulls out a file and shows it to them, it’s the scene they’re in. Much like the print outs of everything Loki said in the first episode, it’s basically a screenplay of everything that they’ll say and do here. Loki thinks it’s a parlor trick, but He Who Remains claims to know how this is all going to go down and has preloaded his TemPad with the Loops necessary to dodge their attacks. He claims to know all the things they did on Lamentis, all the things the TVA doesn’t know, and even their moment by the lake at the Void. He claims that every step they took was arranged by him. He paved the road, they walked down it. He shows them the rest of how this will go, or at least getting out the pages. Sylvie wonders why they’re even doing this then, and He Who Remains gets all Meta and says they can’t get to the destination without being changed by the journey. It needs to happen, to get them in the right mindset.

 

Mobius tells Renslayer that it’s time to tell everyone the truth. She insists its for a reason, a greater good, but Mobius is definitely not buying that anymore. Seeing the Void makes being Pro-Void very hard. Renslayer insists that its to prevent chaos, death on a cosmic scale and that it is worth it. When Mobius brings up Freewill, she claims the only one who is allowed that is the one in charge. Renslayer is hurt by Mobius swapping teams for the Lokis. She opens a Time Door. Mobius thinks that maybe they can make the TVA something better. He goes to try to prune her, but she easily disarms him. She grabs her bag and walks off. Telling him she’s going in search of free will.

 

Meanwhile, He Who Remains does admit that he gets their moral objections to the TVA, that his methods are deceptive, but the reason behind their mission is a good one. Without it, without him, everything burns. When Loki asks what He Who Remains is so afraid of, he says its him. Or more accurately his Variants. He claims he’s been given many names by many people, that he’s been a ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains, and a jerk. But those are just names, he’s much more than the names he’s been given.

This was a really cool effect.

 

He activates the TemPad on his wrist and makes a liquid projection. He tells them a story from eons ago, when a scientist, let’s call him… something generic… oh, I know, Nathaniel Richards, lived on Earth in the 31^st century. He figured out the Multiverse is a thing, and so did other versions of himself. They used their technology to meet, shake each other’s hands and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. And for a time, there was peace. They shared technology and knowledge to improve all realities. But eventually, other versions of him saw new worlds as new places to conquer. War broke out, with each Nathaniel fighting to preserve themselves and their universe. I’m getting serious Highlander vibes here, there can be only One! He claims this was almost the end of everything. Sylvie guess that the Timekeepers came and saved them all. After making a mocking A-men, He Who Remains tells her the truth behind the dogma. He, the OG Nathaniel (at least in his own mind), discovered a creature that had been created by the tears in reality, something that could devour energy and matter and time. Alioth. He Who Remains experimented on and eventually weaponized Alioth. He used it to defeat his Variants, and then, after isolating his timeline, used it to make sure no new branches formed. He ends his presentation by saying that, if they think he’s evil, just wait till you meet his variants. He’s the devil, but he’s the devil they know. And this is their dilemma, order or chaos, one man dictating the flow of time, or a horde of Conquerors chopping up slices of time and space. He claims that, after living a million lifetimes and going over every scenario, this is the only way. And then he offers them a deal.

 

He offers them two options, they can either kill him and release the infinite evils that are waiting, or they can take over and run things as they see. When Loki calls bull and asks why he’d give up control, He Who Remains reveals that he’s tired, and far older than he looks. This is a game for the young and the hungry, and he can’t keep up anymore. He finally settled on letting the Lokis taking over for him. He’ll even let them be benevolent rulers, going back to the TVA and explaining to them who they are and why they do what they do. Sylvie is clearly not on board, pissing He Who Remains off. He calls her out, pointing out everyone here is a villain, that they’ve all done terrible, horrible, horrific things. Looking directly at Loki with every word. But now they can do them for a good reason. It’s at this moment that He Who Remains looks around, telling them they’ve crossed the threshold into the unknown. He doesn’t know what is going to happen after this moment. He drops a pen and looks weirded out about it. We get a wide shot from the Citadel, seeing branches already forming farther down the timeline from them.

 

They're going to need so many more reset charges.

Loki is confused by this, why he’s so carefree about not knowing. He shrugs and points out the obvious, either they take over for him and everything is fine, or they kill him and there shall be an infinite rain of Ka… Variants of him raining down. So, no skin off his nose there either. He claims there’s no lie, no manipulation, that that is the honest truth. He takes off his TemPad and admits he loves all this honesty. Sylvie goes to kill him, Loki stopping her. He wants to talk about their options. Loki believes him and is legitimately freaked out by the vision of the future that He Who Remains has painted. Sylvie, blinded by her anger, doesn’t believe He Who Remains and plans to kill him. Loki tries to convince Sylvie to work with him and run the TVA. She thinks he wants to rule. He swears that it’s not about a throne, but Sylvie doesn’t believe him. We come down to the philosophical problem here, she can’t trust, and he can’t be trusted. Loki tells her to wait, just wait and see, but they end up fighting. Magic and blades clash. Loki keeps trying to convince her this a decision that’s too important to rush into. She goes to kill He Who Remains, but Loki materializes in front of her, staying her blade. He tells her that he’s been where she has, feels what she feels, and that all he wants is for her to be okay. Sylvie drops her sword and kisses him… odd… but then says she’s not him, and shoves him through the Time Door she opened using He Who Remains TemPad.

 

She shoves his desk aside, and approaches him slowly. He doesn’t beg, or cry, or rage. He just takes the knife to his chest and tells her “See you soon,” laughing before he dies. Sylvie sits down in front of the corpse and watches out the window as the Sacred Timeline falls apart, branching into infinity. Let the Lord of Chaos Rule, I guess. Bonus points to you if you get that reference.

 

Kang is coming.

Back at the TVA, B-15 and Mobius see the infinitely branching timeline. He says there is no turning back, and she agrees. They say For All Time, Always, as the new branches cross the redline. Loki sits by himself looking heartbroken for a while. He gets up and rushes to find Mobius. The TVA is on high alert now, people rushing around to handle things. Loki rushes to the Archive and finds Mobius and B-15. They’re discussing the 63 new timelines that have branched in their unit and speculating if “He” wants them to just let them all branch. Loki goes up to them, to tell them what has happened, but Mobius doesn’t recognize him. B-15 calls in backup to handle the seemingly crazed analyst. As ominous music plays, Loki looks out on the statue in the center off the Archive. It’s no longer the three Timekeepers, He Who Remains puppet leaders… No. It’s someone far more terrible. He Who Remains. Nathaniel Richards. Rama-Tut. The Scarlet Centurion. Immortus. All of these have been his names, but the one he is known best as is… Kang. Kang the Conqueror. And then the credits roll. But they do promise Loki will return with a second season, which is neat.

 

I’ll start off by giving major props to Mr. Majors. When I first heard that Jonathan Majors was cast as Kang, I was a tad skeptical. But then I watched a few episodes of Lovecraft Country, and learned that he has significant acting chops. And, showing this version of Nathanial Richards as this kind of chill dude with sinister undertones will, I think, really highlight how scary he’ll be when we’re introduced to THE Kang. I think he’s going to be terrifying. I liked how he presented his backstory, with that liquid/liquid metal projection. The reveal that He Who Remains used Alioth to force reality into his image was brilliant. Making both Alioth the metaphorical Dragon of the story, as well as the McGuffin that allows the plot to happen was just great storytelling. Oh, and I should point out that I totally saw the Kang reveal coming. He is Marvel’s most famous Time Traveler, there were a number of visual ques like including a sword in the TVA Logo and pyramid/sphinx in the background, and Ravanna Renslayer. She’s his wife in Marvel comics. The sword is significant because is ship is called the Damocles. This was a really well-done episode even though the majority of the plot is just Jonathan Majors being menacing and expositing. I can’t pretend I was shocked by Sylvie’s betrayal, she made it pretty clear early on that vengeance was all that drives her. No, what hurt was Loki going up to Mobius and his literally only friend didn’t recognize him. I hope they get the team back together quickly in season 2, I’d be disappointed if it’s just Loki trying to get Mobius back while a Kang spreads his influence across all timelines. I think that Loki has set up an amazing big bad, and I can’t wait to see more of Kang, and how Loki will delay his ultimate attack on the Avengers until it’s time for them to assemble again. So, yeah, it was a solid finale. Have a good night!

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Loki ep 5

 Just Me, myself, and I. And like, three more mes. 

Last time on Loki, Loki and Sylvie had a moment on a dying world. This was apparently a hell of a moment, as it created a Nexus Event on an Apocalypse. The two were saved and arrested. Loki is put into a Time Loop where he’s repeatedly punched in the face by an angry Sif. He was able to let Mobius know an important tidbit he learned from Sylvie, that all the TVA Agents are Variants. Mobius, hurt by Loki’s betrayal, doesn’t believe, but the information eats at him until he has to accept it. Mobius frees Loki, but gets pruned by Renslayer. Loki and Sylvie are taken to the Timekeepers. They’re sentenced to death, but B-15 arrives and arms them. They’re able to defeat Renslayer and her guards. Sylvie decapitates one of the Timekeepers, where it’s revealed they’re Androids. While absorbing this information, and Loki attempting to admit his feelings for Sylvie, Loki is pruned by Renslayer. He wakes up in a ruined city and meets four more of himself, three human Loki’s and an alligator in a Loki helmet. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Episode 5: Journey Into Mystery

 

We open at the TVA, it’s a weird panning, twisting shot to the Timekeeper elevator, shifting into the floor of the Timekeeper chamber and showing the severed android head, and then to the ruin cityscape where we find Loki meeting himselves. There is a massive storm cloud behind them that seems to let out a bestial roar as Loki asks where he is, what that is and who they are. Classic Loki tells him this is the Void, the ominous monster cloud is Alioth, and they are his lunch, so come on. We see as they run a monstrous, serpentine head form in the storm cloud, it opening its maw and roaring.

 

Just alone at the end of time with himself.

For simplicities sake, I think I’ll refer to the Loki’s as CL (Classic Loki), KL (Kid Loki), BL (Boastful Loki) and AL (Alligator Loki).

 

Back at the TVA, Sylvie forces Judge Ravanna Renslayer to give her Renslayer’s TemPad and demand to know who is behind the TVA. Renslayer claims to no nothing, even after Sylvie steps on her wounded shoulder. Apparently, Sylvie somehow moved them from the chamber to the TVA courtroom, apparently for the symbolism of killing Renslayer there. The judge throws out the potentially life saving information that Loki might still be alive. Renslayer offers to tell Sylvie everything she does know, claiming that she wants to know who is at the top of her organization as well. Renslayer explains that while the Reset Charge is potent, it’s not powerful enough to destroy an entire branch realities matter. The matter that isn’t destroyed in the initial burst is moved to a place in the timeline where it won’t continue growing, the apparent End of Time. The Reset Charges really just shifts the matter there, not resets it. It’s the point where every instance of existence collides at the same point and stops. She explains that the dogma tells that the Timekeepers are still writing the end of time, trying to turn it into Utopia. Renslayer offers to help if Sylvie trusts her, which Sylvie seems to show by handing back the TemPad.

 

Alioth is the scariest cloud creature I've seen since
the cloud Rhino in James and the Giant Peach.

Loki and the Lokis march across the ruined landscape, which has everything from skyscrapers, to pirate ships, to a flying saucer just laying about. Loki demands to get answers, but his other selves main focus is simply on not dying. “Dying isn’t a plan, it’s a general demand of living,” Great observation, Loki. He freaks out and demands answer. He points out that it’s been a very trying… length of time since New York, and the last few minutes have been so strange that he is heartbroken to report that he didn’t find the alligator in the Loki helmet all that strange. His freak out is ended when KL pulls a knife on him and tells him to shut up before he calls Alioth. KL explains that The Void is where everything that gets pruned goes, and that Alioth makes sure it never comes back. BL elaborates that Alioth is a living tempest that devours matter and energy. And CL puts it the simplest, that they’re “in a Shark tank. Alioth is the Shark.” He also reveals that he can understand AL. It’s a Star Wars thing, where he can apparently just get snarls and grunts. Loki asks why so many of him are here, and CL just shrugs and says that Lokis survive. Loki tries to come up with a plan, but, as CL points out, they’ve all tried to do that and gone nowhere, so they’ve given up trying. They’ve no TemPad to get to another point in time, and because they’re at the end of time, they can’t create a Nexus Event to try to lure the TVA to them. KL decides they’re done talking and the other Lokis leave. Loki asks why KL seems to be in charge, and learning the youngest seeming of them’s Nexus Event was killing Thor.

 

The quintet march past a downed missile and a helicopter with Thanos across the side before entering a bunker. We get a neat shot of all the things buried atop their hidey hole as they pan down, including a Mjolnir and Throg, Thor magically transformed into a frog, in a jar trying to get at it. In the bunker, CL asks why Loki wants to get back to the TVA so bad, and BL jokingly asks “did you leave your Glorious Purpose there?” to which Loki replies “Something like that.”

 

Symbolic, I like it.

Back at the TVA, Renslayer asks Miss Minutes to give them access to restricted files, the beginning of time and the founding of the TVA. Sylvie asks about the Void and wonders if perhaps there is something beyond it. Renslayer has Miss Minutes pull up a representation of the Sacred Timeline, depicted as a solid white line, and the End of Time, a much thicker Rainbow of colors. Sylvie postulates that anything out past the Void is just a new Timeline. Much like hiding in Apocalypses, it renders a person undetectable beyond that point. Renslayer says it’s impossible to get passed the Void, as there’s no destination for the TemPad to lock onto. Sylvie decides to try to go through the Void, to which Renslayer says is impossible, and then Sylvie decides her usefulness is over. Miss Minutes steps in and suggests a Void Spacecraft, a prototype ship to go through the temporal void. Sylvie is willing to work with Renslayer, shaking her hand, but Sylvie doesn’t let her go, asking where the files are on this ship. Miss Minutes is clearly stalling for time, and then the doors burst open and TVA Agents come pouring in. Sylvie shoves Renslayer back and stealing her TemPad. They have a standoff, which ends with Sylvie pocketing the TemPad and then dramatically pruning herself. Renslayer thinks things are over and walks away.

 

He has maybe 5 minutes of screen time, but I swear
this is the variant that got the most advertisement time
after Loki himself.

In the Void, BL is telling a story about how he defeated Captain America and Iron Man before claiming all six Infinity Stones. Judging by Loki’s face, he’s not buying it. Neither is CL or AL, CL explaining AL’s growl is alligator for growling and saying liar at the same time. BL makes a crack about AL’s Nexus Event being eating the wrong neighbor’s cat and AL attacks him. Loki and CL separate them. And KL asks for CL to tell Loki his story, which Loki is super interested to hear, as CL is obviously significantly older than him. Given they were supposed to die at Thanos’ hands, that strikes him as odd. Keep in mind, Loki is over a thousand and still looks like he’s in his 30s-40s, so for CL to be visibly old, he’s got to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of years old. CL explains that he used his magic to create an illusion so perfect that it fooled even Thanos. He tells the others that he means no offense, but blades only make a Loki suck more at magic. He faked his death, hiding as debris, and spent years drifting through space. He realized that everywhere he went, he caused suffering, so he decided to remove himself from everything and hide out on a remote planet for millennia. He stayed there until he finally got lonely, as he actually started missing Thor, but was pruned right when he was starting to make plans to leave his planet. He dubs them the God of Outcasts, which the others agree. Loki decides he’s going, figuring that they’re as good at escaping as surviving so that gives him a decent chance. He tries to give them a rallying speech, talking about Sylvie. CL has a great line where when Loki asks if they’d met a female Variant of them and he says, “That sounds terrifying.” Loki tells them that SHE’s the different one, and that she needs them. He believes that if Alioth is alive, it can die. He’s going to kill the shark, and could use their help. All three human Lokis laugh at him, and AL makes a noise that sounds dismissive. He goes to leave, calling them monsters. He opens the hatch and is surrounded by a dozen or more Loki Variants, the lead one being also played by Tom Hiddleston. This one is wearing a suit and a “Loki” voting button and is thus dubbed President Loki (PL). PL asks “which one of us are you?” And Loki sighs and says “This is a nightmare.”

 

Meanwhile, Sylvie wakes up in a rusted-out bus in the Void. She breaks out of it, and is almost immediately attacked by Alioth. The great smoke serpent disintegrating the bus as she runs. While running, Sylvie touches a bit of Alioth’s form, tries to Enchant it, and gets a vision of a castle floating in the void of space. She keeps running and runs into a pizza car honking and driving toward her. She gets in when it pulls up, it’s being driven by Mobius. YESS! Mobius! They argue as they drive around the landscape avoiding Alioth’s smokey form and driving around a Sphinx and great Pyramid.

 

Back with the Loki’s, President Loki and his gang are inside. CL blames Loki for leading them to their hideout, just for BL to reveal he did it. Apparently, he made a deal to betray KL to the Loki gang, and in exchange he’d be in charge. But it turns out PL was lying about that, shocking, and is betraying BL too. Then the other Lokis betray President Loki. Huh, so apparently a… Pandemonium of Lokis work together about as well as a Fleet of Starscreams. Good to know some traits are universal. Loki just stands to the side and looks like he’s fighting a migraine. AL bites off PL’s hand, and pandemonium breaks out as the Pandemonium all fight each other, with CL using his illusions to add to the confusion, allowing him, KL, AL and Loki to escape. CL laments the fact that Loki’s are a bunch of savage, power hungry backstabbers, and KL adds to it by pointing out that any Loki that tries self-improvement is sent here to die. Loki tells them that that is why he needs to get back, as ending the TVA is the only way to end this. He trusts Sylvie and thinks she can end it. The others are willing to work with him, CL saying they’ll get him to Alioth, but that’s all they can do.

 

Sylvie and Mobius are driving around, looking for Loki. He laments realizing that he worked for the bad guys for eons, to which Sylvie does point out that that should have been a tad obvious. Sylvie thinks that Alioth probably got to Loki, and that the only thing that matters is getting out of there. She wants to go back to the angry cloud, which Mobius is hesitant to do, but agrees to.

 

CL asks if Loki has a plan, which is mostly just attack Alioth and try to kill it. KL says it’s a bad plan, as does CL. Loki thinks AL is on board, but CL explains he’s actually praying as the reptilian Variant thinks they’re going to die. At that moment, KL uses a device to bring a battleship to drop off in front of them. Loki think that in the time it takes Alioth to eat the ship, they can attack it. But then Alioth eats the ship and crew in about 15 seconds, ruining the plan. A moment later, a car pulls up. KL says that usually means either Cannibalistic Marauders or Cannibalistic Pirates. Thankfully, it’s just Mobius and Sylvie. He runs up to meet them, with the elder Loki not getting it and asking if “he’s being a coward or being brave?”

 

Loki introduces himselves to Sylvie and Mobius, the non-Loki saying that you could throw a rock around there and find a Loki. Which, ya know, isn’t wrong. He tells them the plan to kill Alioth, and she is unimpressed. She believes that Alioth is the “guard dog” protecting the leader of the TVA and whatever is beyond the void. Her plan is to Enchant Alioth. Which feels only slightly less suicidal than killing it. Loki isn’t sure of this plan, but Sylvie and Mobius are.

 

Back at the TVA, Renslayer enters a Time Cell and pulls out B-15. B-15 wants to know why she is in there. B-15 wants to know why she’s in there and being charge with disloyalty, as she points out, when the Timekeepers aren’t real. Renslayer tells her that that doesn’t change anything and that the TVA needs stability. She demands to know what B-15 knows. B-15 saying that revenge and killing the Timekeepers are what drives her. And since they aren’t real, she’ll go after who made them. B-15 deduces that it’s not about protecting the TVA, but about Renslayer wanting answers too. B-15 knows Renslayer won’t find them before she does, as Renslayer only wants it, while Sylvie needs it. Renslayer pulls up Miss Minutes and has her bring all the files on the TVA and founding of time.

 

Just some Loki bonding.

Back in the Void, Mobius is chatting with CL and KL. Apparently, while Mobius has arrested a lot of Lokis, he’s never seen an Alligator Variant. There’s a pretty funny line about how do they even know AL is a Loki, maybe he’s pulling a long con, but that would just make it more likely to be a Loki. He respects the fact it’s always the game within the game for Lokis. KL asks what Mobius is going to get himself into if he gets back to the TVA, and Mobius just says that he’s going to tell the people the truth. Meanwhile, Loki and Sylvie are having a private chat. She has decided Mobius isn’t so bad, and Loki agrees. Loki magics up a blanket for himself. Apparently, Sylvie knows about Mobius theory about their Nexus Event and they both agree awkwardly that it’s rubbish. They bond over not really having much beyond the mission, and Loki shares his blanket with her when she shivers. Sylvie asks how she can trust Loki won’t betray her at the last moment. He explains that he’s betrayed everyone that has ever loved him, his father, his brother, Asgard, and he knows why he did it, but he’s not like that anymore. He asks her what she’ll do when this is over and neither of them know. He suggests that they figure it out together and she seems to at lest entertain the idea.

 

The five gather on a hill and wait for Alioth. Sylvie explains that she caught a glimpse of something when she touched Alioth, and she thinks she can enchant it and it can bring her to who is behind this. Loki is staying to help her, even after she hands him the TemPad. Loki passes it Mobius. Mobius offers to let the Loki’s out, but they want to stay, as the Void is there home now. KL offers Loki his dagger, which he takes and makes a sheath for it. CL wishes them luck and the three Lokis leave as Mobius opens a Time Door. Mobius tells them he’ll burn the TVA to the ground. The two men hug, with Mobius looking at Sylvie and whispering you’re my favorite, before leaving. Sylvie and Loki prepare to battle Alioth.

 

GLORIOUS PURPOSE!

They’re going to wait for a branch to appear and then she’ll enchant Alioth. The three Loki’s make it a ways before CL looks back and clearly considers something. Alioth come down and starts coming for them. A branch isn’t appearing, so they might have to cause a distraction. Loki runs off to try to do so. He draws Alioth over, but Sylvie doesn’t seem to be strong enough to enchant it, and Alioth notices her. It goes to gobble her up, but then sees, in the distance, the Golden city of Asgard rising up. CL is standing in the middle, simultaneously conjuring their home from nothing, and showing the other Lokis that they’re stronger than they realize. CL yells at them to go. Sylvie and Loki grab hands, and she tells him they’re going to enchant it. Loki doesn’t know how, but she insists he does because they’re the same. CL keeps reconjuring Asgard as Alioth tries to eat it. They start to enchant Alioth. The illusion starts to crumble as CL does. He’s surrounded by Alioth as the creature charges. He gets up and shouts Glorious Purpose as Alioth devours him, leaving only his helmet. It comes back around for Sylvie and Loki, but they’re finally able to enchant it. A door in the smoke opens for them, leading them to the castle in the void.

 

I remember hearing that like the other two Marvel shows released this year, Loki was supposed to be longer, but had several episodes cut due to Covid. And that is disappointing, because I really wanted more of the different Lokis. The Variants are a neat concept, but they’d been kind of sidelined for most of this series, and then were just given a single episode. I remember that President Loki in particular was in a lot of promotional material, and he was really only in one scene. Also, why would the Loki’s preferred to be called Snakes than Wolves? You guys have fathered both! Yeah, remember that in the comics and the actual myths, Loki is the father of the colossal wolf Fenrir, and the titanic serpent Jormungandr. Why you showing favoritism to your kids, President Loki? A fun fact for you, it has since been revealed that Kid Loki, while being physically the youngest of the Loki’s, he was actually the oldest. Apparently, this is a side effect of being stuck at the end of time, he didn’t get to age. This was revealed by the director after the fact, and I wish it’d been included in the series. I really liked Richard E. Grant as Classic Loki. He’s believable as an older, wiser but definitely more jaded Loki. I liked his line that he’s the only Loki that is more of a fan of Magic than knives. And, him showing off his point by literally creating a true to life sized Asgard Illusion was beautiful. Shame he got gobbled up by Alioth… but then… he has survived supposed permanent death before. Just saying. Loki and Sylvie combining their powers to finally defeat Alioth was perfect. They’ve defeated the monstrous serpent, and are now on their way to see the man behind the curtain. But more on that next time. Have a goodnight, everyone.  

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Viewer Log: Loki ep 4

 Who rules Time? 

Last time on Loki, Loki followed his other self, the Variant calling herself Sylvie, through a Time Door into the heart of the TVA. Sylvie makes it to the Timekeeper’s elevator before Loki catches up to her, they fight, and then Judge Ravanna Renslayer and her guards catch up to them. Loki portals them away, but to Lamentis. Sylvie proclaims this the worst apocalypse her TemPad has on it, as this entire moon is destroyed. The two are stuck as well, as her TemPad’s battery is dead. The two make a long-distance trek to Lamentis’ capital in an attempt to recharge it and bond along the way. They get on a train to the Ark, the ship that will try to take survivors off the planet, but are found out when a drunken Loki draws too much attention to them. And the TemPad breaks when they’re thrown from the train. They decide to try to steal the Ark, rewrite history and escape. They make it to the city just in time to see the Ark get blown to smithereens. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Episode 4: Nexus Event

 

Poor little Sylvie has no idea what she's in for.

Opens with a very young Sylvie playing with her toys when then-Hunter Ravanna Renslayer comes in with her Minute Men and arrests her for Crimes Against the Sacred Timeline. She’s put through the same procedure as our Loki was, but when her trial came, she bit Renslayer and was able to break away and steal her TemPad. She was able to make a portal and escape. In the present, Renslayer takes the elevator up to the Timekeepers. Their… office(?) is shrouded in mist that peel back to show the Three Timekeepers sitting in their chairs, red eyes glowing ominously. We then cut to Mobius meeting up with Ravanna after said meeting. We get from her that the meeting didn’t go well. They blame her for the Loki’s getting so close to them. Mobius asks to speak with C-20 to get information out of her about the Loki’s, but he’s informed that C-20 is dead. She claims that C-20 had a rapid mental decline after being returned, but that sounds just a little too convenient given the information C-20 was wrestling with.

 

Back on Lamentis, Loki and Sylvie find a quite spot to sit. Loki apologizes for getting them into this. Sylvie talks about her Asgard, the little she remembers about it before her capture. She believes that the universe wants to break free and be chaotic, so it spawns chaos, like a Goddess of Mischief. The TVA was fine with that at first, but as soon as her being Loki caused enough differences to the timeline, they came and arrested her. Explains how she stole the TemPad, how she kept making Nexus Events as she wasn’t supposed to exist, before figuring out the Apocalypse trick. She grew up on dying worlds, and now she’ll die on one. Wow, that’s rough.

 

We cut back to Mobius and B-15 at the TVA observation room. They’re looking for the Lokis but aren’t detecting them, even with their scanners having been upgraded after they discovered where Sylvie was hiding. Mobius lies to her when she asks for any news on C-20.

 

Just waiting for the end of the world with your
gender swapped self. So a fairly average Wednesday
for Loki.

Lamentis is now starting to get bombarded by bigger meteorites. Sylvie predicts they don’t have much time left. She asks Loki if the thing that makes them Loki is the fact they’re destined to lose. Loki doesn’t think so, he thinks that it’s their ability to survive. He compliments Sylvie’s ability to survive and run rings around the TVA. Their conversation causes a major spike in the Sacred Timeline scanning equipment back at TVA headquarters and they get a lock on the Nexus Event. On Lamentis a massive meteorite hits and the two hold hands as the shockwave approaches them. Mobius figures out that this must be the Lokis. Their branch is approaching the redline at almost a completely vertical pace. The TVA opens doors and save the Lokis at the last moment.

 

Loki and Sylvie are brought in, Sylvie being taken by multiple guards to a separate local while Mobius takes Loki to another location. He’s miffed he only has the two guards and the two of them start arguing over whom betrayed whom. Loki is taken to the interrogation room again. Mobius quips that Loki isn’t really the God of Mischief, Loki loses his temper and asks the “folksie dope” if he’s the God of Self-Sabotage or the God of Backstabbing, to which Mobius says he’s “Just kind of an asshole and a bad friend.” They open a red bordered Time door and prepare to shove him in. Mobius let’s Loki say some last words, to hear the last desperate trick from the desperate trickster. Loki tells Mobius that the TVA is lying to him, but he doesn’t buy it, and Loki is imprisoned.

 

Inside, he’s in a courtyard on Asgard. A moment later, Sif comes in, her hair obviously cut. She walks up, punches Loki in the face and tells him “I hope you know you deserve to be alone and you always will be.” He makes a snide remark, and she knees him in the balls and punches him out, knocking him to the ground. He gets up and pretends that that interaction didn’t bother him at all, insisting it was just a bit of fun. And then she comes back and does it again, to Loki’s astonishment. And again. He tries to convince the construct to help him, but she just punches him out again.

 

Mobius visits Renslayer. He should be interrogating Loki, but says he’s “softening up” in the Time Cell. He asks to interview Sylvie, but Renslayer doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He needs to focus on his Variant and figure out what caused that massive Nexus Event spike. Mobius thinks it’d be faster to get info from both of them, but Renslayer refuses. Mobius walks out, grumbling about having to work his Loki. He goes to the “Time Theater” that is holding Sylvie, being guarded by B-15. They have some offhand chatter about how weird it is that the two orphan demi-gods are the biggest pain in the ass before trying to walk off. B-15 stops him and asks if Loki said anything when they were in there. He tells her about the “TVA is lying” tidbit. She seems tries to play it off as curiosity, but you can see something is up in her face.

 

The face you make when you're both angry at your
friend and judging their life choices.

We rejoin Loki in the Time Cell. Sif comes in for another beating. He tries to beg her for forgiveness, admitting he is a terrible person. He claims to crave attention because he’s a narcissist and because he’s scared of being alone. She helps him to his feet… but then just changes up her line about being alone before walking off. Then Mobius comes in, asking if Loki is ready to talk. They exit the Time Cell back to the office. Mobius asks about the TVA lies line, but when Loki doesn’t answer right away he rights it off as a lie. He tries to interrogate Loki, asking how long he’s been working with Sylvie, when he denies it and is a bit weird about it. Mobius is clearly hurt by Loki’s betrayal. It’s sad to see friend’s fight. Loki isn’t willing to tell him anything, though, as they’ll just prune him after. He threatens to put Loki back in the cell, and Loki agrees to talk. He claims that he was the one in charge, that Sylvie contacted him decades ago, they went to an apocalypse and hatched a vaguely evil plan. Mobius claims Sylvie was already pruned, claiming B-15 pruned her after she tried to escape. Loki pretends he’s not broken up about it, but its an obvious lie. Mobius jumps to the conclusion from his reaction that Loki has a thing for Sylvie… this is complicated, I’ll explain it at the end. He thinks that two Gods of Mischief, two incarnations of the same being developing a romantic connection could definitely break reality, as it’s already breaking his personal one. Loki demands to know if Sylvie is alive, which Mobius confirm. Loki and Mobius fight a bit before Loki loses it and just tells Mobius that he and the rest of the TVA are kidnapped Variants with altered memories. He tells Mobius that Sylvie can access their memories through enchantment. Mobius doesn’t believe him, though, and mocks Loki a little more. Again, he’s hurting. The guards grab Loki and put him back in the cell. Loki claims Mobius is the biggest liar in the TVA, for the lies he tells himself.

 

B-15 is having some kind of moment out in one of the hallways. She sees a motivational poster reminding her to verify Variant deaths by deletion and powers up her prune stick. She goes into Sylvie’s cell. B-15 powers down her stick, opens a portal and tells Sylvie to come with her. Ominous.

 

Mobius signs the paperwork closing the case in Renslayer’s office. They cheers the case being closed. She asks him where he’d go if he could, but Mobius isn’t in the mood for small talk. He asks why he couldn’t interrogate Sylvie. She’s deflective and circles back to the time question. Mobius claims he’d just like to stay there, doing the work. She tells him the Timekeepers want to personally prune the Lokis and that they want Mobius there. He’s clearly not jazzed about that, and asks about C-20. Renslayer deflects again. Renslayer claims she kept Mobius from interviewing Sylvie for fear of his sanity. She feeds him the propaganda about protecting the Sacred Timeline and that seems to placate Mobius a little. He asks what she’ll do with Sylvie’s sword trophy, and she goes to place it on her mantel. With her back turned, Mobius swaps their TemPads and then tries to bail quickly unsuspiciously. It seems to work.

 

They're getting a lot of use at this superstore parking
lot.

Sylvie and B-15 go to the Roxx-Cart parking lot. B-15 asks what Sylive showed her while she was being controlled. Sylvie tells her that it was from her life before the TVA. B-15 doesn’t believe her, but Sylvie insists she can only use what is there. B-15 asks to be shown again. We don’t see her memories, but whatever it is visibly shakes B-15. She says she looked happy when the connection is broke, and then asks what now.

 

Back at the office, Mobius goes to a filing area. He takes out Renslayer’s TemPad. He uses it to look up C-20’s information, confirming her death.  He opens her debriefing file and sees C-20 telling Renslayer that what she saw real. C-20 tells them all that they’re Variants, just before Renslayer ends the file.

 

Loki gets up after Sif hit him again. A frantic Mobius comes in and asks him if really believes deserves to be alone, and warns the two Loki Nexus Event could bring down the whole TVA. When Loki doesn’t get it, he makes Loki swear that Sylvie didn’t implant the memories in C-20. Mobius accepts the word from his friend and asks Loki to trust him to save them. The two head out, to find Renslayer and a bunch of Minute Men. She figured out he has her TemPad. She takes the TemPad and it’s clear the jig is up. Mobius says that if he could go anywhere, it’d be back to the life he had before the TVA, maybe riding on his Jet Ski. Renslayer has him pruned before their eyes. Noooo! Mobius!!!!

 

Loki is taken to the Elevator. Renslayer goes to collect Sylvie, and sees the Loki Variant is obviously drenched. She learns that B-15 was in there with her, and Renslayer puts a hit out on her. Sylvie is also taken to the Elevator, meeting up with Loki. The guards leave and Renslayer takes the Loki’s up. On the ride up, Sylvie confirms that Renslayer remembers her. She asks what her Nexus Event was. Renslayer smiles viciously as she claims not to remember. They enter the Timekeeper’s chambers. The trio are still there, seated in their weird triangle formation. They ask the Variants if they have anything to say for themselves, and the Loki’s get snide, as they tend to do. The Timekeepers order the Loki’s deleted. B-15 comes in, then, disabling their Loop collars and saying “For All Time, Always.” She throws Sylvie her sword before being knocked out. Loki and Sylvie battle the Timekeeper’s guards. Sylvie kills two and faces off against Renslayer. Loki fights the remaining two and keeps them on the ropes. Loki kills his two guards as Sylvie knocks out Renslayer. The Timekeepers claim that they could talk, and Sylvie beheads the blue one. The Timekeepers laugh maniacally before going silent. They examine the severed head and learn the Timekeepers are androids. It seems the mystery isn’t over just yet.

 

Loki goes to give Sylvie a peptalk and admit his feelings, but he ends up getting pruned by Renslayer before he can get a word out. Loki! Nooo! Sylvie gets the Prune stick from Renslayer. Renslayer tells her to do it, but Sylvie refuse, demanding Renslayer tell her everything she knows.

 

Loki, meet Loki, Loki, Loki, and this little fella is
Loki.

In a mid-credit scene, Loki wakes up in a field. He asks if this is Hel and if he’s dead. An offscreen voice tells him not yet, but he will be if he doesn’t come with them. Loki gets up and sees four Loki Variants. There is a tall Black version of Loki dressed in Asgardian furs with a golden hammer that’s later dubbed Boastful Loki, much older version of Loki in his classic Marvel Comics costume dubbed Classic Loki, a teenage boy Loki in a green suit with a gold headband they call Kid Loki, and an alligator wearing a Loki helmet. Yes, he’s a Loki too. What fun.

 

So… the Loki/Loki romance angle… I’m not exactly a fan of that for a number of reasons, but I do think I should explain a few things about that. The shows director Kate Herron has explained that while both Loki and Sylvie are Loki’s, they aren’t technically the same person. A Loki is a role, a job that a person is required to fulfill. A good percentage of the time, we’ll say like 90%, it’s filled by the runty Jotunn son of Laufey, adopted by Odin and Frigga and raised as the step-brother to Thor, whom he develops a grudge against and tries to overthrow. The other times, other infants are adopted by Odin and Frigga, filling in the role without being the same Loki. This also explains away how their can be a Black version of Loki, but I don’t think it explains the gator. So, from Herron’s perspective, the two falling in love isn’t exactly “self-cest” as they are two different people, that just grew up similarly. All that said, it still feels… ookie. But, what are you going to do? I think that the story could have still worked even if it was just the two Loki’s befriending each other, as two inherently untrustworthy, untrusting people bonding with anyone should cause disruptions in the flow of Time, but that’s just me. Oh, and I think I should explain how I think the “Sacred Timeline” works. The way they frame it in the show, it sounds like there is just the one timeline that is patrolled, occasionally fractured, and restored by the TVA. But… just given how long some of these radically different versions of history can last, Sylvie was clearly a decade or more old, and there’s an adult Loki of an entirely different Race and one significantly older than anyone else, I think that that is just the TVA’s Dogma. I think it’d be more accurate to say the “Sacred Timeline” is more like a script or scaffolding the TVA forces other realities into. A certain amount of ad-libbing is allowed, different Lokis, slightly different characters in specific roles, but so long as the Big Events, like the New York invasion, Thanos, and the like do occur, that’s all that matters. It’s just a hypothesis, but it feels like a strong one, as we’ll learn soon. I do like how Loki got Mobius onto his side, that he basically stuck a bug in Mobius’ ear that he kept fussing with until he discovered the truth. And seeing Jamie Alexander back as Sif. Fun fact, the hair cutting thing is based off of Norse Mythology. Though, MCU Sif might have gotten off a bit easier. In the old Norse tail, Loki shaved her lushes blonde locks clean off (he was drunk and drunk Loki apparently makes poor decisions) and when he was forced to fix it, replaced her blonde hair with black dwarven hair. An uneven cut doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Getting B-15 on their side was a nice twist, as was the reveal that the Timekeepers were just an illusion. Figureheads to hide whomever is really behind all this. I was legit shocked when Mobius got pruned, but obviously, if Loki is alive where he is, Mobius is probably too. Still, my heart stopped when I saw Owen Wilson of all people disappear and I was not expecting that. And I just loved the reveal of Loki’s variants. I liked the design of the Kid and Boastful Loki costumes, and seeing Richard E. Grant in something as ridiculous as the classic Loki costume was just great. More on them next time. So yeah, the timeline thing is confusing, the Loki/Loki love off putting but not exactly… horrible, and a lot of fun and heartbreaking stuff mixed in. Sums up this episode nicely. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Have a good night everybody.

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Viewer Log: Loki ep 3

 It's the end of the Moon as we know it, and I feel fine.

Last time on Loki, the Game’s afoot in the hunt for Loki’s variant. After a TVA Hunter is kidnapped and Loki makes an obvious attempt at squeezing the TVA for incentives that fails miserably, he’s put on research duty. The Fall of Asgard file time Loki off that his Variant is hiding in Apocalypses, setting up camp and laying low in places where the absolute destruction of sentient life makes the reaction of Nexus Events impossible. And thus, making the Variant invisible. After proving this theory to Mobius at Pompei, they then use the Gum to track the Variant to Haven Hills, Alabama, circa 2050. A massive Wal-Mart parody called Roxx-Cart is destroyed there, the supplies making it the perfect hiding spot. Loki and the team travel there and he meets his match. Eventually. The other Loki possesses several people, to set up their attack, before revealing themselves to Loki. And this Loki is a girl version. The plot thickens. Mobius finds the kidnapped Hunter, who reveals she told Lady Loki how to get to the Timekeepers while under control. Lady Loki then begins her plan, dropping the dozens of Reset Charges across the Sacred Timeline, bombing it and forcing nearly all of the TVA’s agents out to deal with Nexus Events. She opens a door to the TVA and runs through. Mobius catches up with Loki just in time to see Loki ditch them to follow his other self. This is going to be a hell of a work week, me thinks. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

Episode 3: Lamentis

 

The most dangerous illusions are the ones we
craft for ourselves. ... this has nothing to do with
this scene, but sounds cool.

We open with the Hunter from last episode, Hunter C-20, having a drink with the Lady Loki at some kind of Tiki bar or resort. They chatter a bit and Lady Loki makes it seem like they are a couple of girlfriends out having a drink, but it turns sinister when she starts asking C-20 about the Timekeepers. We eventually pull back to reveal Lady Loki putting her hand to C-20’s head in the Roxx-Cart security station. She’s using an enchantment to create an illusion in C-20’s mind to pump her for information. C-20 tells her the Timekeeper’s elevator is Gold, just as Loki and his team arrive.

 

Don't mind them, Loki is just fighting with themselves.

Lady Loki walks into the TVA and tries to enchant the first Minuteman she walks into, only to discover her powers don’t work. She instead starts fighting the Minutemen, using their sticks to prune them. Loki arrives a moment later. He goes to follow after her, but stops when he sees he arrived in the locker room. He busts into B-20’s locker and collects his knives. He follows after Lady Loki, seeing the downed Minutemen she didn’t prune. Lady Loki makes it to the elevator just before Loki catches her. The two fight with knifes as Loki tries to convince her to join him. Lady Loki isn’t interested, and keeps trying to get passed him. They end up evenly matched, until Renslayer arrives with her personal prune stick and extra guards. Lady Loki gets Loki into a hold and threatens to kill Loki. Renslayer doesn’t mind and tries to prune them both. Loki grabs Lady Loki’s TemPad and portals them away.

 

They land in a shack under purple light. Lady Loki gets up first and grabs the TemPad. She tries to escape, but her TemPad’s battery is dead. Loki gets up and the two fight some more, Loki dodging around using his illusions. He gets his hands on the TemPad and bluffs that he knows how to recharge it. It’s at this point that we learn that Lady Loki hates being called a Loki. Loki makes the TemPad vanish when she goes for it. They are about to fight some more, but then a meteorite crash between them. After asking if that was one off Lady Loki’s powers, we learn they landed on Lamentis-1, 2077, a moon that is in the process off crashing into the planet it orbits. Apparently, it’s the worst apocalypse that Lady Loki had saved. No survivors. To which I must ask, if it’s so bad, why the hell is it still on your TemPad? Lady Loki saves Loki from an impact, not for any noble reason, but because as Loki has the TemPad and if he blows up, it blows up, and therefor Lady Loki blows up.

 

I'm actually surprised Loki didn't shout "Heimdall
open the Bifrost!" on impulse.

They make a mad dash across the field they’re in, dodging meteorite impacts. To make it to a sturdy shelter. Once inside, Lady Loki tries to Enchant Loki to get the TemPad. It looks like it works for a moment, but he is apparently immune. They almost start fighting and after some fighting, they agree to work together to get off the moon. Lady Loki promises that once they get the TemPad recharged she’s going back to enact her plan, something she’s been working on for years by the way, and kill the Timekeepers and probably Loki. She goes to leave the shaft, rationalizing that there has to be power on the Moon, so she’s going to find enough of it to allow them to travel through time and space. They make there way across the surface, making towards the nearby town. Loki wants to chat, but apparently one of the differences he has with this Variant of himself is that she’s not a chatterbox. We do learn, after Loki calls her a faded photocopy, that she prefers to be called Sylvie.

 

She jabs at him to for working for the time cops, and he mocks her plan of killing the lords of time, creating the ultimate power vacuum and just walking away. They keep walking. They make it to the town, it’s already deserted. It won’t help, as the whole population dies. The conditions will only get worse as they get closer to the planet. They have about twelve hours to escape. Loki sees a neon sign and wonders if that has enough charge. Sylvie goes up to the sign and tries to trick Loki into giving her the TemPad to try charging. He doesn’t fall for it, and they move on.

 

They reach a house that is still occupied. Sylvie prepares her sword, but the Loki advices that brute force isn’t always the answer, and that maybe they should try diplomacy. Sylvie tries diplomacy, and by that, I mean she kicks down the door instead of slashing it and gets shot for her troubles. It’s a kinetic blast, so she’s fine. Loki, tries a bit of talking, but the owner isn’t in a very talkative mood. Loki spies a picture of her husband in the window, and takes on his form. The illusion works for a moment, but then he gets shot too. They ask her where everyone is, and she points them to the Ark, the evacuation vessel. It’ll take the train for them to reach it, but the owner is pretty confident they won’t get on board.

 

I blame Rick and Morty for the fact I spent this whole
scene expecting an unusually buff old man to come up
to them and say "Tickets, please."

They make it to the train. The line is long and it looks like a lot of people are going to be left behind. Sylvie wants to enchant a guard and have him lead them inside. And if they’re discovered and a fight breaks out, so be it. Loki, insists on doing it his way. His ways is playing his usual illusion games, transforms himself to look like a guard and lead Sylvie to the front. The guard they run into starts asking questions, but Sylvie enchants him really quick to get them on. Woo, teamwork. The two go to the train bar. They sit and Sylvie berates him for his simple plan. He advices her to get some sleep, but Sylvie claims to not be able to sleep around untrustworthy people. Sylvie tells him to nap, and promises to not search him for the TemPad, begrudgingly complimenting his magic. Loki credits his mother for his skill,, and Sylvie asks about her. Loki clearly still loves his mom, which leads into the two discussing their childhoods. A key difference in their upbringing being that Sylvie’s Odin and Frigga told her she was adopted. Wow, honesty, how weird. But on the flipside, Sylvie hasn’t seen her mother in ages and thus barely remembers her. He offers to do a little trick like his mother used to do for him, and makes fireworks in his hands. Loki asks about the Enchanments, and learns Sylvie is self-taught. Sylvie tries to use an offer to demonstrate to steal the TemPad, but Loki sees through it. He gets some champaign and cheers the end of the world. Loki wonders why the old woman wanted to stay at her house, and that leads to a discussion about love of all things. Sylvie thinks she stayed for love of her late husband, Loki thinks she hated him, maybe love is hate, blah blah. They talk relationships, revealing that both are bisexual, using bisexual lighting to demonstrate, and that neither has had a real relationship. They both agree to relax, as stealing the last hope for salvation from a people will probably be difficult.

 

Sylvie sleeps for a bit, and while she’s asleep, Loki gets real drunk and sings. It’s all in old Norse/Asgardian, except the chorus “When she sings, she sings come home,” but it’s real pretty. A passenger seemed to note Loki as odd and walks off. Sylvie pulls him aside and accuses him of being drunk. Apparently, Loki got drunk and decided that, because it’s the end of the world, no one will care if he acts out a bit. Which, obviously they did, see the suspicious passenger leaving above. Loki has thought of an answer to her question, Love is a dagger. He gives a solid metaphor, but then the guards show up asking for their tickets. The guard being the same one from the train entrance. Loki goes to make an illusionary pair of tickets but still is a bit drunk so makes fireworks instead. This leads to a brawl with the guards. The other passengers clear out and Sylvie and Loki beat up the guards. Ultimately, Loki is thrown from the train and Sylvie leaps out after him, as she needs the TemPad.

 

Sylvie pulls her sword on Loki and demands the TemPad. Loki summons it, and unfortunately, it’s broken. They get into a fight, Loki mocking Sylvie’s quite frankly insane plan and Sylvie calling Loki a clown. After a good, magically enhanced scream, the two sit quietly for a moment. Loki asks again about the moon killing everyone, and asks about the Ark, Sylvie revealing it too is destroyed. Loki proposes that they highjack it and use it to get off the moon. Not having really any other option, Sylvie agrees to go along.

 

They walk the rest of the way to town. Loki asks about Enchantment again, but Sylvie isn’t talking initially. Loki wants to know as a sign of trust between them. Sylvie finally relents, explaining that she has to physically touch the person and then grab hold of their mind. Weak minds are easy, and in order to keep the connection, she pulls something from their memories to use as a framing device for illusions. She reveals that C-20’s mind was pretty badly screwed up. She had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior, to before she was a TVA agent. This is where we learn that the TVA is entirely comprised of Variants. Renslayer, Mobius, B-15, C-20, Casey, they’re all Variants pulled out of the timeline and into service. Loki is shocked to earn this, but they have to get to the Ark as it’s ten minutes from lift off.

 

Just running with themself across a soon to be dead
world. I still think Loki has had weirder Wednesdays.

They run to the Ark, and get there just in time. They see a riot start to break out five minutes to the deadline. They try to run around as the city burns around them. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of rock breaks off from the planet below. It knocks everyone about, further confusing the situation. Loki and Sylvie battle more guards as they run for the Ark and the city shatters around them. Loki pulls a pretty sick magic move where he seems to rewind a pillar that almost crushes them back into place. They get within yards of the Ark, only to see it destroyed by debris. The episode ends with Sylvie walking away and Loki looking on in defeat.

 

Well, that was a downer ending. I’ll give this episode props for putting Loki and Sylvie into a situation where two untrusting and untrustworthy people to talk. Loki playing keep away with the thing is classic Loki. I really liked the scene on the train while Loki sang his little lament. I had no idea what the non-chorus lyrics are, but it sounds depressing as hell. Loki is clearly hurting and not handling it well. Maybe it’s seeing his death, maybe it’s the thought he might die in a few hours, maybe it’s his not-great Timekeeper plan going up in smoke. Who is to say? Their argument on how to infiltrate the train was fairly funny. Loki wanting to finesse their way in, Sylvie wanting to do like 40% finesse, 60% violence seems on brand for both of them. Despite Sylvie’s complaints, it took both of their half plans to get onto the train. It was a nice little character moment for them. The discussion about Love was a bit odd… but I’ll get more into that later. It was also a good idea to have the sign of trust between them being Sylvie explaining Enchantments to Loki. It seems a universal constant in Lokis are a love of magic, so learning about a type of magic like that will obviously earn big points with Loki. Oh, and the setting of this one was great. Seeing the meteorites fall from the sky and the planet above Lamentis growing ever closer as the episode progressed were neat visuals. And, obviously, ending the episode with the Ark being destroyed when they were feet from it was a nice, depressing touch. So yeah, this was a solid follow up. Next time, we’ll see how they escape the doomed world, and what happens when the TVA catches a Loki. See you then. 

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