Loki Season 2 - the BEST of the MCU

glorious purpose we all search for it we all spend our lives in one way or another figuring out exactly why we're here and asking ourselves a simple question in the words of the great Billy ish what was I made for for some it's as simple as I'm here to help people and for others it can be a bit more complicated I'm here to run the fastest mile in human history or I'm here to change the way we think about the cosmos or even I'm going to build the world's highest Jenga Tower I'm so close by the way the point is we all wander Through Time seeking purpose and while some find it faster than others perhaps no one has wandered as long as our favorite adopted as guardian God turned villain turned reluctant anti-hero turned time cop Loki son of Odin season two of perhaps Marvel's most successful show not even Perhaps it is Marvel's most successful show I mean at least from a quality standpoint finds our Misfit God dealing with the Fallout of the first season and decisions made by our favorite daugh of Mischief Sylvie with he who remains now gone in the fate of a reborn Multiverse falling into chaos Loki Mobius B15 Casey and newcomer or aoris or as we're just going to call him OB played by the amazing kiho Kuan must quickly work to fix a failing temporal Loom and save the lives of these newly forming branched timelines of course not everyone is so keen on reform though as many opposing forces including a now dethroned ravona Ren Slayer aided by Miss minutes with a newly found in disturbing sex drive I might add fight our heroes to return the TVA to the way it was it's important to look at the TVA as a now crumbling institution whether it be religious political commercial whatever it's a group that had a lot of power and influence and with its toppling emerges three main ideologies we should reform this place we should restore this place and we should burn this place to the ground if I so much as smell the atoms of its wreckage I swear to God I'm going to lose it the uh the last one is Sylvie these three responses are incredibly accurate to situations we see developing in our own world one of the many wonderful things about this show is that it explores all three of these ideologies and while the role people against change is generally assigned to the antagonists of the Season it does give some really compelling arguments on either side of Reform or destroy leading the mess of Reform is the god of Mischief as he fights to not only clean up sylv's mess but to maintain the new structure and family he has found in his life despite its corruption and misguided teachings the TVA has given Loki two things he never truly had before friends that understand him and real meaningful purpose because of that he believes in the best version of what the TVA could be and will fight to make it so he's just going to have to stop it from exploding first growing up under the golden umbrella that holds the name Thor odinson God of Thunder Loki became the outcast of the family and knowing what we now know following the events of Thor Ragnarok it's likely that Odin feared Loki might end up like his older adopted sister Hela if he were to gain too much power while Glory was bestowed upon Thor from birth Loki was left to find his own purpose Thor's purpose from the day he came into existence was to one day inherit the throne from his father and is the case with many favored siblings out there he doesn't feel the need to work toward that purpose I mean why should he if you were told you would win gold at the beginning of a race no matter how well you actually did would you still run as fast as you could probably not you get what I'm saying though right for his entire life Loki has had to fight for purpose and meaning no one has ever told him what he is meant to do or really even encouraged him to find it he lacked structure and so it makes sense that he not only seeks it out but wholeheartedly believes that without it others will fall to chaos just as he did this ideology leads him down dark paths giving his Allegiance really to the first figures of power and authority to see anything in him which leads us to New York while the first Thor movie May Show us the beginning of Loki's lashing out it really isn't until 2012's The Avengers that we see him acting with purpose forged in the repressed anger towards his father and burning jealousy towards his brother Loki finds meaning in serving under Thanos you see space Grimes promises Loki what he never had before Power Authority and of course glorious purpose but he so blinded by his need for a higher calling he can't see that it's not even his glorious purpose that he's carrying out Thanos and his mission are just another institution that Loki puts his faith in truly believing in the cause and dedicating himself to its success flash forward to the events of Loki season 1 where an imprisoned Loki is shown the life and death he was supposed to carry out on the sacred timeline he shown that even in its finest Hour his last Act is still in the name of someone else's purpose his sacrifice ultimately leads to Thor's survival and the eventual defeat of Thanos while it is a selfless act and a true show of growth even in death his reason for being is tied to his brother and then something changes slowly Loki begins to to realize that his fate is to fail it's How the Universe has written his story and no matter who or what he puts his faith in the ending never changes he fails at creating an Asgardian coup he fails at serving Thanos and defeating the Avengers he fails at killing Thanos and by the end of season 1 he fails at stopping Sylvie from killing he who remains the best part about this tragic character trait that the celestial writers have bestowed upon him is that even Sylvie another version of Loki succeeds in the moment and still ultimately fails I think season 1 is Loki recognizing he has a choice season two is him coming to understand what to do with that choice and what it means especially when faced with impossible odds Loki even meets an older version of himself played by Richard E Grant who killed that role by the way even he the Loki that won the Loki that achieved his glorious purpose and up alone and insignificant Loki fails because he commits himself to ideologies that aren't his he's destined to fail as long as he walks Paths of life because he feels he must rather than because he wants to even in nobility as a prince of Asgard he serves an institution that isn't his own from trying to rule a kingdom that wasn't meant for him to serving a tyrant with a goal only slightly aligned with his own to even joining in helping the TVA without fully understanding understanding what it originally stood for Loki travels from path to path believing he must walk down them so why is that why is it that even when he tries to do something different something selfless he still fails for a character trying to escape his own fate this is deeply frustrating to Loki his goals and the actions he carries out to reach them this season are most likely some of the least selfish things he's ever done in his adult life and yet nothing changes well part of the problem might be that he's doing the right thing for the wrong reasons or that his intentions aren't exactly selfless in episode 5 during a wonderful debate on morality between Loki and Sylvie the latter peels apart the layers of the former's motives while his intentions are good at the core of it Loki's just trying to claw his way back to a place where he finally feels accepted he's finally found friends and allies who value him for who he is and after thousands of years of yearning for it the second he finds it it blows up in his face Loki's essentially the Marvel version of a modern theist who has found comfort and friendship in the institution he is a part of but also recognizes that there's work to be done to fix the problems with that same institution as a whole this season really lets it sink in for us the audience how brainwashed every member of the TVA was Ren Slayer included every single person at this institution worked toward a single goal their entire lives as far as they knew at least and then all of a sudden the institution is destroyed and their goal is revealed to be a moral quandry at best every character deals with it in their own ways General docs for example represents part of the rebuild school of thought to her as soon as things go to the correct response is to get them back to how they were as quickly as possible other characters grapple with their Newfound knowledge of having a life on the timeline before they were abducted into this cult some crave returning to it like Brad who sees his life as a successful actor and goes awall to get back to it but others namely Mobius don't want to know I get it you know he might think twice in case it's something bad or something good something bad I can handle what if it's something good you do you think I want to have that rattling around in here that right there is the tough question isn't it suppressing human curiosity and dwelling on what could have been or just moving on from it accepting your life as it is right now and making the most of it making it better it's a moral and personal dilemma that clearly rattles Mobius deeply throughout the season we see it as early as episode 2 the internal frustration with some help from Brad's prodding leads to a rare moment where we see an incredibly composed character lose his cool that's how you know this conundrum has done nuget Roots into his head and the way Loki handles this Outburst is beautiful I think it actually makes him an even better friend to Mobius and the people suffering from the same thing because they're not where he once was they're lost and treading water without an identity Loki is not judgmental he sympathizes with the need to let rage out and lose control remember that time I was so angry with my father and my brother I went down to earth and I held the whole of New York City hostage with an alien Army tried to use the mindstone on Tony St it didn't work so I threw him off the building I mean let me tell you something wasn't tactical I love how this conversation recontextualizes Loki's actions in the Avengers too I mean we all sort of knew that it was out of spite but it's nice to see the character have this sort of self-reflective moment where he acknowledges it it's almost ironic that the Lord of chaos and Mischief would find comfort in such an orderly place but in a way it's incredibly fitting by redesigning the TVA by finding all of the people he cares about in order to rebuild it and equipping the temporal Loom to be able to handle infinite branching timelines Loki steps into a position as the master of chaos and change he has found structure in the shapeless Clairvoyance in the unpredictable and meaning in his glorious purpose the finale is beautifully poetic in so many ways giving some characters incredibly fitting ends while leaving others a bit more Ambiguously open as to what's next for them sylv is free to explore pretty much all of space and time able to go and do whatever she pleases whenever she pleases she's finally able to try everything B15 takes a seat in the new war room setting up more of a council democracy that will lead the TVA into to a new era and Mobius oh Mobius you broke my heart here man he just H he gets to see what he's been protecting all this time I might just wait here for a little bit let time pass God this moment was so good but of course the best ending goes to our titular hero Loki who more or less sacrifices his personal life to take the place of he who remains but to do it better the man who once aimed for a throne because he felt it belonged to him now reluctantly takes one because he has to there's something so beautiful about the same person who once said this I come with Glad Tidings of a world made free free from what freedom freedom is life's great lie now has given up his own so that every other person in the Multiverse can have it I mean it's oh it's beautiful poetry I just I can't believe they managed to do this for a character like Loki not to mention the whole idea of an orse God turning the restrictive Loom of time into a literal Norse Tree of Life the tva's job has now changed from protecting the sacred timeline by trimming its branches to being responsible for tending to it while those branches grow into a beautiful tree it's interesting to look at he who remains as a man that shares the ideals of Loki earlier in his life in the end under different circumstances it is very possible that Loki could have ended up just like him the idea that freedom is a lie and the only way to keep people safe is by more or less taking away free will is one that a Loki from not too long ago could absolutely get behind it's the love for his friends and a genuine appreciation for Humanity that has transformed Loki into the God that he is at the end of this season he comes to understand what being a king is it's not something he should want it's not something anyone really should want but it is something he was born to do just by virtue of the fact that he is Loki a god a true king a true God does not take as he doesn't kill Sylvie even though killing her would solve all of the problems a true figure in a position of power gives back to his subjects his people their life is honestly a tragedy it's forfeit by nature of their existence now that Loki has spent time among his subjects the people he considers friends he's learned to love and care for them and understands his purpose is to sacrifice his life so they can have all the time in the world he becomes the god of stories In The End by allowing everyone to write their own even Mobius who was so caught up in not knowing the life and time he wasted away from it that all stems from Roots planted by Loki Loki has control over all of this which is ultimately what he's wanted it's what he's needed and so tragically he gets that he gets the structure and direction his wandering Soul always wanted without forcing it upon everyone else in so doing he manages to reform everything even the image of what a God should be if we think back to that original Thor film when Odin said that Loki's Birthright was to die but was saved by Odin and placed on A New Path it took time but he eventually understood what to do with that second chance his life would eventually become in service of others because he knows what it's like to be unwanted discarded left for dead his purpose is to ensure that never happens to anyone else or at least that they don't succumb to a similar fate as him the highlight of this season is the philosophical conversations between both friends and adversaries Sylvia and Loki's conversation about the difference between freedom and structure is an amazing example of this are we truly free if someone or a bunch of someone's tells us how we can and can't live our life the answer isn't all a simple one and their opposing views on the topic make this discussion so interesting to listen to and while the future of the series and the MCU in general may be up in the air Loki continues to be a grounded show filled with relatable characters dealing with very real internal struggles and the clashing ideologies between them the frighteningly human mistakes and decisions made by the show's band of protagonists reminds us that that even those that seem set in their beliefs might not even fully grasp what they stand for it's sort of like the same concept that we touched on in Captain America the Winter Soldier if we punish people for crimes before they've even committed them simply because they might we are robbing them of their freedom the same Freedom that Sylvie fought so hard to gain not only for herself but for the entire Multiverse seems to not matter in the case of Victor timley timely is a variant of he who remains putting the crime of a different version of himself on his shoulders doesn't really seem fair Sylvie eventually realizes this but it's hard for her to grasp the concept that even her ideology may have flaws because it's kind of inconsistent while he who remains is no longer around perhaps even he could have changed his beliefs after seeing Victor a version of himself with no interest in ruling only in creating Victor is a victim of others imposing their beliefs upon him his daunting variant and the leadership of the old TBA try to force him to walk down the path of greatness to a predetermined Destiny at the same time Sylvia assigns him a destiny before he even has a chance to choose his own and I think that speaks volumes on the subject of powerful establishments forcing their views onto others simply because they believe that everyone should think and behave the same way as they do in most cases it's not until the institution begins to crumble and their Ironclad grip on society begins to loosen that we become removed enough to part the curtain and see The Man Behind The Wizard anyways looking ahead who knows what might be in store for the god of Mischief with rumors of a possible appearance in Deadpool 3 and uncertainties of Kang's involvement in the MCU moving forward it's hard to say what future Loki in the gang have moving forward but in a weird poetic way isn't that the point the future isn't set in stone and it can very much be changed a note that Marvel executive Ives might want to take to heart while moving forward with future MCU plans I might stand alone with this next statement but I don't think Marvel Studios should be announcing their future projects so far in advance first off it's revealing intentions far too early for anything to be a surprise anymore I want to be genuinely shocked when it seems we might be headed in a direction that I wasn't expecting but as it stands now we have movies lined up for the next few years and nothing is surpris ring anymore the future as it currently stands for Marvel is looking well messy at best there are a lot of problems we've seen emerge from the dust of endgame with the studio from rushed projects to rewrites that don't make sense to Studios having too firm of a hand on the wheel of new and blossoming storylines but it's not too late to change things much like Loki it feels like Marvel is setting itself in this cycle of failure slowly but but surely projects are becoming more bland and forgettable than ever in an effort to expand this universe as quickly as possible it feels like Disney execs have forgotten what made their Universe great in the first place every movie had its own voice Guardians felt different than Captain America Iron Man felt different than Thor but now it feels like outside of Loki we've gotten to the point where exec know what has worked in the past and are determined to recreate it based on the formula for success rather than letting creat make their version of the characters and cementing them in the universe before throwing them into another crossover it's very possible that the TVA may be used as a sort of glue to hold together this multiversal storyline going forward meaning that we might see more of it on the big screen before it has another Standalone season truthfully a lot of it depends on Marvel figuring out what it wants its Multiverse to be much like Loki and the TVA Marvel needs to figure out how to master Controlled Chaos meaning that they need to set up the sandbox and then let creators play in it if they pre-establish rules about what is and isn't true with their concept of the Multiverse filmmakers can take that and run with it always come up with your own rules and boundaries first for any Fantastical world you are creating once that's established whether a film includes multiversal Concepts or not moving forward the folks working on the project will and should know what they can and can't do and they can focus instead on creating substantial characters that stand on their own before they stand amongst a forest of other superheroes and become just another tree Marvel I'm begging you to understand your own message in this series the future is not written and only you have the power to change the ending [Music]

Channel: FilmSpeak

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Id: RCbj39-CPcQ

Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2023