So Many Lokis, So Little Time?

Of all of the Disney+ shows they announced, Loki was the one I was looking forward to the most. For being a trickster character, I felt I knew where they were going to go with it. Who wouldn’t want to watch Tom Hiddleston bounce around being the mischievous scamp he is?

Well, I didn’t get that right. And I’m glad to be wrong.

When I was imagining what the show would look like, I didn’t consider Loki’s frame of mind.

He is not the Loki who stood shoulder to shoulder with Thor against Hela. He is not the man who sacrificed himself.

When he escapes with the Tesseract, Loki has just unleashed destruction on New York City. He is chaos embodied and happy to be so. And boy, doesn’t that qualify him for the best choice to play detective?

I think everyone’s answer a few weeks ago to that would have been, “No, that’s a terrible idea. What are you thinking?”

But damn it. He is a great choice for the rogue detective in a Sci-fi version of Lethal Weapon. Or any reluctant buddy cop movie of your choosing.

I’m not usually an Owen Wilson fan. I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but he is the perfect person to play the straight man to Loki’s trickster. Well, straight man might not be the best description. He seems to be playing the scamp of the TVA. Compared to Loki, though, he’s the straight man.

To anyone who didn’t know Loki was bisexual and is now upset about it, it’s always been there. Geez, in the Norse mythology source Loki didn’t even stop at being attracted to people.

I’d say these folks haven’t been paying attention, and maybe that’s half of it. I think it’s more a case of film bringing content to people who wouldn’t have sought out the source material to begin with.

The anger at the explicit call out, though, there’s nothing that justifies that. Loki unabashedly owned who he is. That should be enough for everyone watching to accept it without recrimination. Period.

On the note of sexuality or really sexual tension, the show has a black hole-sized void. At least it did until episode four. Although, was that sexual tension? As Mobius points out, that’s all sorts of weird.

I like a good romance as much as the next person, so why not have a fling with yourself? It’s a bit literal in this instance, but TV shows are nothing if not visual.

Sylvie asks Loki if the thing that makes a Loki a Loki is that they’re destined to lose. Loki brushes off the question, but I don’t think Lady Loki is far off. But I think it’s the self-loathing that makes a Loki a Loki. At the moment that triggered the super Nexus event, neither Loki hated themselves.

But I could be wrong there. That might be a bit too forward for this medium. All the same, I’ll hold on to that for another few days.