Loki Episode Three Opinions
Honestly, I do not know what to say or where to start. I was pleased that we got to see Loki using magic in this episode as he has seemed incredibly weak and underpowered in the previous two. Also, he is extremely underpowered in the MCU as a whole. In this episode alone, we see Loki create illusions, throw power blasts, and stop a building from falling on top of him and Sylvie.
The question I have is: where was all this power in Infinity War or Ragnarok or any of the other films he was in? Arguably, he might not have known about some of his power in earlier films as he did not even know he was Jotunn, but he always had his magic. In Thor (2011), it was implied that his magic is looked down upon as “tricks”, so perhaps he is incredibly self-conscious about these powers as they are not as revered as physical prowess in Asgard. It is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Loki has not used his magic — or only used a fraction of it — in the films he has appeared in, though I am not sure if we are going to get an explanation for this.
To further this possible disappointment, I have personally felt the show to be very diminutive to Loki’s character thus far. If that perspective continues or is indicative of where the show will go, then I do not believe we will get an explanation about Loki’s lack of powers throughout the MCU or a introspective reflection on why this might have been.
I saw a Tumblr post where someone surmised that Loki’s out of character behavior might be a result of the trauma he experienced in Thor (2011), then the following torture he endured with Thanos and the battle with the Avengers that ultimately placed him at the TVA where he learns that everything is essentially pointless and there is no free will. Seemingly, this combination of horrifying revelations and experiences would make anyone lose their sense of reality and become unhinged, which is how this Loki feels comparatively. His calm, impenetrable façade no longer exists and it feels to me like he is overemoting in these various circumstances he has found himself in.
The very real truth of this situation is he has experienced so much trauma in such a short amount of time, which seems to be a very reasonable explanation for the way he is acting. Loki essentially has nothing and no one. His life and control has been revealed to be an illusion. I would certainly act differently, but it does not feel as if he is exaggerating or the show is going to reveal this to be a trauma response. I could be wrong, but I desperately hope for an explanation.
For me, the only thing of consequence to the plot in this episode was the revelation that the TVA agents are all variants. That has been a question I personally have had: where did these TVA agents come from? Especially because they all appear humanlike though we know from other MCU films that different species can have a different physicality. The agents being variants themselves does not explain why they all appear to be human, but it does give more insight into how they ended up at the TVA. Unfortunately, that would mean some memory wiping, imprisonment, and enslavement to the timekeepers, then these agents carry out the very same crimes committed against them against other variants.
I did enjoy that the TVA is beginning to be viewed in a negative light. Sylvie directly refers to them as “fascist” and this new information about the agents appears to be shifting the narrative to view the Time Variance Authority as the totalitarian regime it is. I have a lot of theories regarding the TVA that I am not going to bother going into, but I hope that this storyline and the implications of this institution are handled the way they should be and somehow Loki kills the timekeepers. (Which might sound a bit extreme, but I really, really hate the prospect of a predetermined timeline by three space lizards that essentially implies no free will.)
Other than this bit of information Loki learns about the TVA, I found much of what they did in this episode to be pointless to the story overall. Certainly, the reflection on Loki’s past was touching, but the discussion of love felt forced and unnatural as if they wanted to tell us about their characters rather than reveal them though actions and storytelling. The intimacy between the two characters did not feel earned as they had only just been fighting.
In other news, there is planet crashing into the moon, which seems to be a conflict for the sake of conflict rather than pertinent to the narrative as a whole. A civilization is going to be wiped out but I did not feel any need to pity or sympathize with the inhabitants of this moon. It is happening for there to be consequence to the escape of our protagonists.
Perhaps this indifference is a result of the sacred timeline and knowledge that there is a predetermined outcome for it all. These people are meant to die and audiences have no relation to them. This is a moment in infinite moments that could have been chosen and that have obviated their importance in their unpredictability and random generation, nullified even further by being an apocalyptic event. I did not care about the fate of this planet or much of what occurred in the episode as it felt like filler material and inconsequential actions.
Consequence is another idea I want to discuss. That is something the show seems to very blatantly lack. We are repeatedly told that “bad things” will happen if there is a nexus event and it gets to red line (or whatever, it is very confusing). Despite this, these “bad things” are never explained. It will apparently be the end of the timeline and throw everything into chaos, but there is no evidence of that except Miss Minutes saying that it is true. Everyone seems to accept this TVA propaganda for what it is without question. (Again, if they are being brainwashed then this blind acceptance would make sense.)
Essentially, I did not care for much of anything that happened in this episode and I think the show set itself up for audience indifference. To put it simply, I do not feel connected to the show or to the characters in the way I have with other Marvel projects. Even WandaVision followed events that were not entirely “real”, but the connection was still there. There is something false about what this show is doing that I cannot quite place, though that does work into a theory I have about the TVA, so perhaps this might be intentional.
To conclude, I suppose I am not very optimistic at this halfway mark of the Loki series, though I really hope to be proven wrong. There are many alternatives and possibilities I can see that would connect the narrative of the show to what the MCU has done previously and there are explanations to Loki’s characterization, both of which I think would make the show more satisfying. All we can do is speculate right now as it is only a matter of time before we see how the story will resolve itself.
