Loki

I just finished season two of Loki last night and I really enjoyed it. As with many popular franchises, there were many spoilers online when the final episode came out so I had a general idea of how things ended up, but not how they reached that point. I'm really happy and still surprised with how things concluded. I'd say that Loki is on the same level as WandaVision for me, but for completely different reasons. Just a warning, I go on a bit of a tangent for three paragraphs. The whole Multiverse Saga within the MCU has been a little messy to say the least. It's obviously very enticing from a monetary perspective, but it also creates a lot of opportunities to please fans. Marvel Studios may not open all of those doors which can be infuriating to the fans who have been following them for 16 years, but that could just be due to a lot of false hope manifested by the community over social media. I will say, however, that Marvel has earned the reputation of teasing greatness and delivering mediocrity post Avengers: Endgame. I'm sure from the show writers point of view they have all the time in the world to do whatever they want given the infinite size of the marvel universe and they'd be absolutely right to think so. One of the things that made the MCU so successful was the feeling of progression. With every new release since 2008's Iron Man there was the sense that we were building to an enormous payoff. The Avengers was the first "checkpoint", if you will, that gave us a hint of the future. Everyone was looking forward to the next Marvel film no matter what it was. Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain America, all extremely different films, but they still manage to feel like they're part of a continuing story that must be watched to understand the movies yet to come. Again, a financial play to be sure, but a smart one. For some reason once the Infinity Saga ended the cohesion up and left with it. Star Wars sort of has the same problem right now, but not to the same extent: trying to fill gaps, but also introduce some new content. There are some enjoyable newer projects that Marvel has released, but there are very few connecting threads between them. Every film, and some of the series even, feels like a stand alone project. Stand alone projects are fine, but given the fluctuating quality it feels like Kevin Feige himself doesn't know where we're headed. Even with the roadmap that came out, I was wondering how they were going make some sense of the chaos. ///---///---///---///---///---///---///---///---/// Minor spoilers ahead. ///---///---///---///---///---///---///---///---/// The first season of Loki was good. It was the only show that I felt, even as a season one, started and ended cohesively while also maintaining good pacing (including WandaVision). There are a couple of plot holes, but with the Multiverse that's nearly impossible to avoid. It was a good season of television that brought a fun, fresh story for a preexisting character in a tired franchise. Talking about Loki himself, he's easily one of my favorite characters in the entire MCU. Ever since his introduction in Thor, he's been one of the more fascinating and complex characters in the franchise. His conflicted moral compass and questionable decision making is why fans love him. That, and the fact that he's played by Tom Hiddleston. He's perfectly casted even if he did want to play Thor originally. Loki makes an already awesome character, a former villain, into one that no one could have expected given everything before it. I would have loved to hear the thought process for why they chose to take him down this path because it's genuinely captivating. Intertwining time travel with the multiverse was a bold choice to say the least. Not every choice they make is coherent, but they are interesting. That's one thing anyone could say about Loki: it is certainly an unusual show. The tone, music, cinematography is unlike anything else from the franchise. The tone in particular feels a lot darker and more adult oriented. There are some surprisingly violent moments sprinkled throughout this season. The bizarre, brutalist architecture was the perfect choice for the TVA. Along with the bombastic score, some inventive editing choices, and wild VFX it makes for one of the coolest settings in all of the MCU. This second season had some strange inconsistent pacing and was a little convoluted at times, but the culmination was well worth it. Loki's character arc feels well deserved and necessary for the sake of the plot. He's a driving force for the show and, more so than season one, takes action to make the conclusion possible. The other members of the TVA are all fun, even if they are a one-dimensional at times. Sylvie was a bit wasted in this season. She was an interesting element of last season and her connection to Loki was an engaging watch. While she was important to the plot this time around, it didn't feel like she had much screen time. Let's talk about "He Who Remains". I really like Jonathan Majors in this role. He's had the opportunity to play several different versions of this character and I think he's done an excellent job making each of them feel unique. Vincent Timely, Kang the Conqueror, and He Who Remains are all very different but feel like pieces of the same character. He was meant to be the next Thanos and it's unfortunate that we'll likely never see that due to Jonathan Majors being fired. I'm sure Kang would have been one of the MCU's best villains. I really enjoyed this season and while it left me wanting more I hope they decide to stop here. This absolutely feels like a series finale. The conclusion for Loki was the perfect bow to tie on this series while also clearing up some of the confusion surrounding the multiverse. Making a season three would feel forced and lessen the impact of Loki's choice and his "victory". I was very satisfied with the last episode even if things were bittersweet. The first couple episodes were kind of dull, but there are some undeniably cool concepts that I'm glad we got to explore with this show. Lists: *Marvel Ranked & 2021 Ranked* Last Review: *The Watchers*