Yes. And it was cool. Trippy. But ... still doesn't quite explain anything. Even though Loki continues to say "trust me, this will make sense"
Anybody else having doubts that any of this will ever make sense or be clearly explained? I'm feeling like this is one of those shows that they have weird stuff happen just to be weird.
The last episode will just have to be one giant exposition dump. It will be like Chapter 5 of Trapped in the Closet, where he was just explaining how all the prior events were logically connected. And for the record, I probably would have preferred something different. Couldn't we have explored Kang more? Ravonna? Anything at all? I have to agree with Sarge that this season seems heavy on intentional weirdness and light on substantive story, either from the standpoint of characters' emotional journeys or making plot revelations. That's too bad.
I don't understand what's so difficult to understand or follow along with this? I'm being reminded of when Tenet came out and everyone was like "I'm so confused" and I was like "it's pretty easy to follow along." I'm not trying to sound smart or anything (god knows most people here think i'm stupid) but this isn't rocket science.
I mean, we can all follow what's happening onscreen. The meaning just isn't very clear. Why should we care about this? What are the stakes? How has Loki been changed by the events of this season (as opposed to last season)? Why did we actually need to see any of this happen?
This is essentially Loki's redemption story. When asked by OB why this is happening Loki says he misses his friends but I don't think he's being honest with himself yet. He's spent his whole life getting attention by being the trickster while big brother Thor received all the love and adulation of everyone Loki craved. Now for the first time in his life Loki has people who care about and need him. He is now in a situation that he has always wanted, to be the hero. What he wasn't counting on was how difficult it would be, to save people they must be put in peril and Loki doesn't have the stomach for it. This show works far better than a "somehow Loki returned".
What was there for it to explain any further? Spoiler We're seeing all of our main characters on their original timeline branches, as if they were never scooped up by the TVA and mindwiped by HWR/MM. And Loki figuring out how to control his time slipping (partially through finally admitting why he was doing what he was doing). The Loom exploded, which is why the branches are breaking down. He's now used his time slipping to go back to before it exploded, to prevent that somehow. Spoiler His controlled version does seem to replace his past self, vs being a separate instance like his previous slips. He also hasn't slipped into the same point in space and time before, which could be another factor.
Yeah, I haven’t had any trouble understanding what’s going on or what the stakes are. It’s all pretty clearly laid out. As for Loki we’re basically seeing the same growth he had in the films but I think it’s been executed better here.
There are some parallels with him wanting to fit in, but I think the growth is different. A large part of that is that Loki Green saw where the other path lead Loki Prime to, I think- but also showing him that reconciliation was possible for him. Green has managed to advance down these new roads much further than Prime ever was.
I don't get the importance of the loom. If it's required to stop the multiverses from disintegrating, why didn't everything fall apart before it was invented?
So, hear me out... Spoiler This entire thing is Tenet -- it's a whole, big, concentric circle time-loop, where He Who Remains always has Loki and Sylvie reboot the Loom to get it started, and then Sylvie kills him and restarts the loop over again -- with Loki taking multiple loops in the middle. Since time doesn't flow in the TVA or End of Time, HWR can do everything he needs to do in the time between when the Loom is started, and ends. So, ultimately, it totally undercuts all of the "free will" that Sylvie thinks she has -- because it's all a part of the overall Xanatos Gambit -- which is really bleak, but also on-brand for the show...
My take: Spoiler The Loom was invented to create the Sacred Timeline and power the TVA after the Multiversal War. So long as the TVA did its job pruning, the Loom would function. The TVA stopped pruning, leading to the overload- and it's the Loom exploding that is causing the branches to disintegrate. Whereas they would have otherwise been fine on their own, before the Loom was created. So the Loom basically created this potential problem when it was installed. Like a dam that could burst one day, Kang tried to harness the natural power of all realities- and this is the result.
Agreed. I liked the episode, but Spoiler I wish they explained why Loki is time-slipping again and how he's able to control it. I assume it is due to his love for Sylvie and his platonic love for his friends.
Because the last time there was multiverses, there was no loom. So here's how I see it. Spoiler There's a big multiverse. The Multiversal War occurs between all the Jonathan Majors. He Who Remains survives. He removes all the branches timelines and saves his one, the Sacred Timeline. He then hooks the timeline to the temporal loom, which turns raw time into the timeline, keeping it stable. Everything is good as long as all branches are pruned.
Okay, but what has actually happened this season? His "redemption" happened mostly in the first season, and mostly by watching a highlight reel of stuff that happened to an alternate version of him in another reality/timeline. His willingness to fight Sophie to preserve He Who Remains (or at least manage the TVA more responsibly) was already that moment of trying to reach for some higher responsibility. They try to push the idea in this episode that all those people were his "friends" but the only one he substantively interacted with was the jet ski guy. The other people he spent a few minutes with at best, and never in any interactions where they would form emotional bonds. It's such a strained, weak idea of what friendship is: "We work in the same building." The second season has added absolutely nothing to do this formulation, but has went in a bunch of circles for no reason. We would be in exactly the same place with a single season of Loki.
Was there an explanation why Loki was time slipping and I just forgot? Anyway the break down visual was fantastically creepy in a series that already has the fantastically creepy snap, now we got the tendrils?
The spaghettificaton, alongside the dusting, the inking and the twisting. They’re doing a good job of of distinguishing variety among dimensional effects.
And also a great film (perhaps the best in the series), Rogue One, a good one (Solo), and some very high quality TV shows, such as Andor, the first two Mando seasons, and I’d argue, Ahsoka, though I suppose it’s gotten a more mixed reaction. The MCU, on the other hand, has a well-defined strategy and the overall quality is much lower, IMO.
