MCU - This Thread Wasn’t Made For You

[Heartofice]

6 hours ago, JGP said:

I'm apparently in the minority that is actually enjoying Loki S2 lol 

Nobody talking about latest episode?

Such a weird show this season, mainly because I just can’t get my head around what the point of it is. The first episode of S2 was intriguing but it seems like the show really isn’t going to do very much more than it’s already doing.

As a low key sci fi show I think it would be quite good. But as a second season of a Loki show it seems.. out of place.

Loki could literally be anyone else in this show, he’s really just the lead character who moves the story forward and has to ‘do a thing’. There is almost no trace of Loki’s character left. Just this generic hero person.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Heartofice

[mormont]

13 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Really glad to see Kingpin back in Echo, that feels much more a true Kingpin than we saw in Hawkeye.

The version in Hawkeye is closer to the original Kingpin, who was around for fifteen years before Miller changed him to be more 'gritty', so really you can argue the version in Hawkeye is more the 'true' Kingpin.

Quote

Loki was entertaining … although I find I watch an episode, and am entertained, but then ponder afterwards that I’m not sure where it really gets us…? It’s a bit of a season for a seasons sake.

This is essentially the problem, yeah. Everything I'm enjoying about season 2 - the aesthetic, the characters, the actors - is a thing from season 1, and season 1 did them better. Season 2 hasn't really given us anything new that I care about. OB maybe? I certainly don't care about the Loom. It hasn't even developed the characters, though it looked for a minute that they might do something interesting with Loki by reminding him that he is, or used to be, a villain. But then that just went away.

Weirdly, everything in season 2 feels like a sub-plot, including the main plot. Nothing seems to get going. The pacing is weird too: we focus on one thing then drop it. Like, we got a lot of attention on Timley and Renslayer and Miss Minutes, but now they're dead/dropped for an entire episode.

It's the final episode next week and the show feels like it's just been messing about for the first five.

[Heartofice]

Insane that Loki’s last episode is next week. What have they actually been doing for 6 weeks? 
 

Seems like the only reason this show exists is as set up for Kang.. except he’s barely in it and they almost never build on his character. So what was the point??

Such a shame. The aesthetic of the show is great, it has a lot going for it but it feels like they started with a Disney directive to build anticipation for Kang and tried to make something out of that 

[sifth]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

Insane that Loki’s last episode is next week. What have they actually been doing for 6 weeks? 
 

Seems like the only reason this show exists is as set up for Kang.. except he’s barely in it and they almost never build on his character. So what was the point??

Such a shame. The aesthetic of the show is great, it has a lot going for it but it feels like they started with a Disney directive to build anticipation for Kang and tried to make something out of that 

Worse, they might soon drop the Kang plot, if things don't go well for Majors. So all the set up in this show, might be for noting in the end. The whole thing is one big mess.

[IlyaP]

22 hours ago, Rhom said:

I'll see it because I feel contractually obligated to see every MCU movie at this point...

Hot actress is hot. Q.E.D. 

[IlyaP]

36 minutes ago, sifth said:

Worse, they might soon drop the Kang plot, if things don't go well for Majors. So all the set up in this show, might be for noting in the end. The whole thing is one big mess.

Someone get John Boyega on the phone. Dude would make an interesting replacement as Kang.

[Rhom]

Yeah, I really don't understand the reason there seems to be discussion of dropping Kang.  Recasting always worked before and that was even prior to having a convenient multiverse excuse.

Now... if they want to drop him because they aren't seeing a good way to set him up as a threat, well that's different.

[Heartofice]

At this point I don’t really care if they recast Kang. Even though Majors blew my mind at his introduction in Loki, I’d never seen him before and he bursts with charisma.

But so far in Loki and Quantumania, Kang is just one more in a long line of nothing villains. The whole character has fallen flat and it’s very far from Thanos levels of threat. 

[karaddin]

I'm definitely enjoying Loki while I'm watching it but not so sure how I feel when sitting with it afterwards. I think it's probably the nature of the beast when you're dealing with a wrapped around time travel story, I need to see whether the finale pulls it together into a satisfying bow or just ends up an ugly knot of Kang strings.

[sifth]

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

I'm definitely enjoying Loki while I'm watching it but not so sure how I feel when sitting with it afterwards. I think it's probably the nature of the beast when you're dealing with a wrapped around time travel story, I need to see whether the finale pulls it together into a satisfying bow or just ends up an ugly knot of Kang strings.

Every time travel story has paradoxes and plot holes. Time travel by its very nature is paradoxical. Heck over the run of this show and Ms. Marvel, I've learned to even ignore that Marvel has been breaking it's own time travel rule set up in End Game, that events in the past can never be changed. I think Basil from Austin Powers 2 said it best.

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by sifth

[DaveSumm]

I think the problem is, the whole first season led to ‘the TVA is done, the multiverse is open!’

But then Season 2 said…

’…or at least, it would be if not for this loom we never mentioned.’

So the stakes are basically, either fix the loom and leave things as they were when Season 1 started, or don’t and leave things where Season 1 ended. Neither are that interesting given we’ve already contemplated those outcomes.

[Rhom]

17 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

I think the problem is, the whole first season led to ‘the TVA is done, the multiverse is open!’

But then Season 2 said…

’…or at least, it would be if not for this loom we never mentioned.’

So the stakes are basically, either fix the loom and leave things as they were when Season 1 started, or don’t and leave things where Season 1 ended. Neither are that interesting given we’ve already contemplated those outcomes.

That's the part that I don't fully understand.  Last season was about freeing the timelines... and even this season has really hit on the genocidal nature of pruning branches... but here and there Loki is more worried about stopping a multiverse war than he is about killing billions (how much worse can the war be???).  

So I've enjoyed the style of the season, I like the actors.  Mobius is fantastic as always.  OB has been a delight (I would love for him to have a punching glove on a spring fly out of his jacket at some point!).  But I can't spot the stakes.

And in some shape or fashion, I know that the multiverse does continue... because otherwise it would be the most boring multiversal war ever!   

[Jaxom 1974]

2 hours ago, Heartofice said:

At this point I don’t really care if they recast Kang. Even though Majors blew my mind at his introduction in Loki, I’d never seen him before and he bursts with charisma.

But so far in Loki and Quantumania, Kang is just one more in a long line of nothing villains. The whole character has fallen flat and it’s very far from Thanos levels of threat. 

Can you really say the character has fallen flat when the character in question has not been the same one in any subsequent appearances?  Thought I'd seen somewhere there was some sort of directive for Majors to NOT be playing things the same all the time...? Can't remember for certain. But that would actually make sense for it to be that way. He Who Remains was a strong representation who was about guile as much as power. Kang in Quantumania was more the despotic, mad villain of the early 80s Kang from the Stern "Avengers" run, while Victor Timely...that's something else entirely. I mean, whether you like the character or not, if you have followed the MCU through all of this and then suddenly the supposed big bad of the coming films seems bumbling and almost likable...makes you wonder what curtain is being pulled back at the end of the last episode of Loki to cement the nature of what we're supposed to expect from Kang going forward. 

One doesn't have to think that it's a plan that's gone smoothly, but it's easy to accept (for me) that they were trying to set something up to raise the stakes of supposed menace...let's see if that happens...

And then recast the character and move the eff forward.

[sifth]

26 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

Can you really say the character has fallen flat when the character in question has not been the same one in any subsequent appearances? 

That's sort of the problem though isn't it? How can we judge Kang as a villain, when for all intense and purposes he's been a different person, every time we've seen him? In fact, this is one of the main reasons I didn't enjoy End Game; Thanos is defeated in the first ten minutes with ease and then is suddenly replaced by a different variant of himself who doesn't know any of the characters and is a lot more kill crazy and boring, in the second half of the movie. Possibly one of the dumbest ideas in the history of the MCU.

Edited November 4, 2023 by sifth

[Martell Spy]

Well, they could change out OB for Kang. He did write the handbook after all. I don't know if he could be a villain though.

[DaveSumm]

I did see an interesting theory on Reddit that Loki is actually creating the TVA in episode 5, he’s getting variants together and giving them a new name before their home timeline is erased, and recruiting OB to create tempads, all in a room that could well be the same set as the room we first met OB in in episode 1. Loki could position himself as the leader from here on out.

[sifth]

15 minutes ago, DaveSumm said:

I did see an interesting theory on Reddit that Loki is actually creating the TVA in episode 5, he’s getting variants together and giving them a new name before their home timeline is erased, and recruiting OB to create tempads, all in a room that could well be the same set as the room we first met OB in in episode 1. Loki could position himself as the leader from here on out.

I've heard this theory as well. Though it would make the ending of season 1 make even less sense.

[Kalbear]

I did really like ep 5. First ep I've been engaged with since ep 1. It did the thing season 1 did well - having a relatively self-contained plot that was surprising and interesting in one ep, lots of loki being the main subject, and actual stakes for the characters involved. 

But that's like 2 of 5 eps, and this ep could have come right after ep 1 and I'm not sure I would have missed anything.

[Rhom]

6 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

I did see an interesting theory on Reddit that Loki is actually creating the TVA in episode 5, he’s getting variants together and giving them a new name before their home timeline is erased, and recruiting OB to create tempads, all in a room that could well be the same set as the room we first met OB in in episode 1. Loki could position himself as the leader from here on out.

Oooooh… and could it have been Loki wearing a glamour/illusion who is really He Who Remains?  Making the offer to have them simply replace him knowing that if they don’t, the loop just continues and he’ll be HWR anyways???

I know it won’t happen, but that does sound more interesting.

[IlyaP]

Today I learned that famed composer five-time Emmy-winning composer Laura Karpman, responsible for among other things, the music from EverQuest II, has taken over the scoring duties for The Marvels from Pinar Toprak. As a huge fan of Karpman's music, I am further invested in seeing this movie, if only to hear her music.