LØkI - see ya later, LØkIgator (Spoilers)

[WarGalley]

It's never been confirmed or anything if Kang is going to be a villain beyond Ant Man right? I assume he's not in Dr. Strange since Jonathan Majors isn't listed on the IMDB page. Seems almost a shame they don't set Kang up to be the master villain across movies leading up to a future Avengers film (and pretty much re-doing Thanos's leadup but better and more fleshed out).

[RumHam]

20 minutes ago, WarGalley said:

 I assume he's not in Dr. Strange since Jonathan Majors isn't listed on the IMDB page. 

He wasn't officially announced for anything before appearing. the Kang thing leaked:

Quote

The studio had no comment, but sources close to the project say he is likely to play the super-villain Kang the Conqueror.

I doubt he was on the Loki IMBD page before the episode aired. We really have no idea where he'll turn up next yet. Especially because Marvel will do reshoots and post credit scenes whenever they can. 

[WarGalley]

Hmm ok. I suppose they could kill him off as well and bring back a Kang variant as a surprise to the audience (sort of like Thanos dying and being replaced by past-Thanos but not within the same movie).

Alright one more question: have there been any hints of anything toward the Fantastic 4 in any of the Disney+ shows? I have not seen any of them including Loki (the Kang thing was too juicy for me to resist spoilers).

[RumHam]

21 minutes ago, WarGalley said:

Alright one more question: have there been any hints of anything toward the Fantastic 4 in any of the Disney+ shows? I have not seen any of them including Loki (the Kang thing was too juicy for me to resist spoilers).

Nope. Pretty sure the only possible hint toward the Fantastic Four so far is the mystery of who bought and is remodeling Stark/Avengers tower. 

[JGP]

21 minutes ago, WarGalley said:

Hmm ok. I suppose they could kill him off as well and bring back a Kang variant as a surprise to the audience (sort of like Thanos dying and being replaced by past-Thanos but not within the same movie).

Not that I noticed. A director has been attached to the upcoming FF film though.

[Rippounet]

5 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

What’s everyone’s interpretation of the ending? It looks like Loki has found himself in a TVA where Kang was upfront about his running things and hence there’s a statue of him. But Mobius is discussing the branches like they’ve just happened and he’s been instructed to leave them be.

I'd say the "branching" actually happened before Loki even arrived. Logically speaking, it would have started happening the moment Sylvie made up her mind, which is why Loki arrived in another timeline.

5 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

So what’s happened in this timeline? What does this TVA work toward? And why the change of plan?

Questions to be answered in season 2. But if I had to guess, the TVA's job is still to eliminate other timelines. Why Kang is upfront about it is what's odd, but for all we know that was mainly a way to tell us that the timeline Loki arrived in is in fact different - he may not even remain there. Maybe this Kang is actually a good guy and only seeks to eliminate timelines that threaten other timelines (because of their Kang), or maybe he pretends to be dead and the statue is in his honor, or maybe he's got even more of an ego than the Kang we met...

Anyway... It was a decent little show, but somehow I feel that it could/should have been much better. I think part of me was hoping that Loki would, eh, trick everybody, instead of trying to, uh, improve himself? The show quickly ridiculed Loki's trickster abilities and turned him into a pretty vanilla hero imho. I kinda kept hoping that Hiddelston-Loki would turn out to be the lokiest Loki, tricking at least some bad guys in every episode or so (though not necessarily the bad guy in the finale - what they did there works).
The whole thing could/should have been more fun.

[Jaxom 1974]

39 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Nope. Pretty sure the only possible hint toward the Fantastic Four so far is the mystery of who bought and is remodeling Stark/Avengers tower. 

People really wanted the rumor of whom was helping Monica in WandaVision to break through the barrier to really be Reed Richards. It wasn't. But there was a lot of speculation...

[RumHam]

I was just reminded of Boseman's death in another thread.

I know someone at Marvel swore they weren't recasting. But the replacement Black Panther is probably a T'Challa or Killmonger variant panther, no? 

[Rhom]

12 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I was just reminded of Boseman's death in another thread.

I know someone at Marvel swore they weren't recasting. But the replacement Black Panther is probably a T'Challa or Killmonger variant panther, no? 

Hadn’t thought about it… but a variant played by Michael B Jordan might be the best possible solution.

[DaveSumm]

5 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Questions to be answered in season 2. But if I had to guess, the TVA's job is still to eliminate other timelines. Why Kang is upfront about it is what's odd, but for all we know that was mainly a way to tell us that the timeline Loki arrived in is in fact different - he may not even remain there. Maybe this Kang is actually a good guy and only seeks to eliminate timelines that threaten other timelines (because of their Kang), or maybe he pretends to be dead and the statue is in his honor, or maybe he's got even more of an ego than the Kang we met...

I’m assuming we’re at least a year away from season 2, so it’s a bit weird to leave things like this - a cliffhanger where we don’t know what’s happened to the timeline, then Shang-Chi like everything’s fine, and then whatever’s going on in No Way Home and Doctor Strange 2. Either our questions will be answered early by those films, or they won’t mention it and it’ll seem a little pointless.

5 hours ago, Rippounet said:

Anyway... It was a decent little show, but somehow I feel that it could/should have been much better. …

The whole thing could/should have been more fun.

Episode 2 was the only one that felt like the show had found a nice setting and set of characters, but the show was too busy distracting itself from it all. I like Loki going out on missions with the TVA and the trust issues that ensue, and it looks like they’ve engineered things to start back there for Season 2. But Season 1 spent so little time with it.

1. Set-up

2. OK this is cool

3. We’ve got money to spend so here’s an episode of Doctor Who where the plot doesn’t move forward at all

4. OK this is a bit better

5. Another set piece that ultimately just puts a big cloud in our way to stall the finale

6. Awesome Jonathan Majors monologue

 

[Maltaran]

2 hours ago, RumHam said:

I was just reminded of Boseman's death in another thread.

I know someone at Marvel swore they weren't recasting. But the replacement Black Panther is probably a T'Challa or Killmonger variant panther, no? 

I thought the new Black Panther was going to be Shuri

[Ghostlydragon]

4 minutes ago, Maltaran said:

I thought the new Black Panther was going to be Shuri

I'm surprised they aren't just setting it during the blip where 'Michonne' or Baku can rule.

[DaveSumm]

I forgot that we never really got an explanation as to why Loki and Sylvie suddenly caused a huge branch when they should have died on Lamentis. Regardless of what they went on to do, the whole point of hiding in an apocalypse is that it doesn’t matter. 

[mormont]

1 hour ago, DaveSumm said:

I forgot that we never really got an explanation as to why Loki and Sylvie suddenly caused a huge branch when they should have died on Lamentis. Regardless of what they went on to do, the whole point of hiding in an apocalypse is that it doesn’t matter. 

If the sacred timeline is supposed to lead to Sylvie and Loki at the end of time, then the prospect of them dying on Lamentis would surely be a huge branch? And the branch appears only when their potential avenue of escape is ended - and it is fixed by the TVA rescuing them.

[DMC]

Well, He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie that he brought them to him.  That's a pretty convenient and efficient way to explain a lot of questionable things beforehand - like why the TVA didn't just kill/prune both Loki and Sylvie upon capture.

[RumHam]

8 hours ago, Maltaran said:

I thought the new Black Panther was going to be Shuri

Could be, they haven't said anything other than that they won't recast or use CGI to recreate Boseman's likeness. 

[Kalbear]

9 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

I forgot that we never really got an explanation as to why Loki and Sylvie suddenly caused a huge branch when they should have died on Lamentis. Regardless of what they went on to do, the whole point of hiding in an apocalypse is that it doesn’t matter. 

Because it clearly was the precursor to them killing HWR - Loki willing to do something other for someone else and willing to serve instead of rule. 

[DaveSumm]

7 hours ago, mormont said:

If the sacred timeline is supposed to lead to Sylvie and Loki at the end of time, then the prospect of them dying on Lamentis would surely be a huge branch? And the branch appears only when their potential avenue of escape is ended - and it is fixed by the TVA rescuing them.

This kinda makes sense, although it seems to open the door to all kinds of deus ex machina plot shenanigans … basically Loki and Sylvie needed to end up with Kang so everything that happened in the entire series just had to happen. It’s also not really clear why all the hoops; Kang was perfectly capable of opening a portal that led right to him from day one, and the outcome would’ve been the same; Sylvie was always dead set on killing him.

The branch started long after the ship blew up though, and was clearly implied to tie in with them staring all gooey eyed at one another.

[Rhom]

I dunno.  My interpretation was that HWR was waiting for someone to breakthrough and get to him.  Not that everything was set up for it, but that he knew there would come a time when someone would make it to him but that Team Loki were the only ones successful to make it through.

[Kalbear]

Just now, Rhom said:

I dunno.  My interpretation was that HWR was waiting for someone to breakthrough and get to him.  Not that everything was set up for it, but that he knew there would come a time when someone would make it to him but that Team Loki were the only ones successful to make it through.

He literally knew every single thing Loki and Sylvie were going to do. Everything that happened was set up to get them there. What he said he didn't know is whether or not they'd make that choice to kill him or rule, though I personally think given what he did with Renslayer means that that was garbage; he knew that Sylvie would kill him, and Loki would leave, and he knew that that + Renslayer's decision would lead to Kang taking over the TVA. 

So yeah, them dying on Lamentis would be a massive change to the sacred timeline, because all of that had already been, ya know, done. Over and over again.