Loki, 'Glorious Purpose' - June 9

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the premiere of ‘Loki’ TV series instead.

The first episode, ‘Glorious Purpose’, is more of an introductory episode than of anything. It introduces Loki to the TVA, (especially agent Mobius and the hunter B-15), and it introduces the viewers to the TVA, to the greater multiverse, (even more so than the ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ series have done), and to Loki from the universe TRN732, rather than the mainline MCU, where he’d been killed by Thanos – not blipped, but killed literally, not unlike Vision.

In addition, not unlike ‘WandaVision’, and even more like ‘The Sam Wilson and Bucky show’, ‘Loki’…is building out the MCU, yes, by adding more layers to the previously streamlined Marvel Cinematic Universe – literally speaking, for the viewers get a literal depiction of the side-universes branching out from the central timeline – the ‘sacred timeline’ or whatever it is called; given how the live-action TVA is depicted as a rather secular place, the entire ‘sacred’ terminology doesn’t really appear to fit.

…And the same can be said about the titular glorious purpose. Getting back to the show’s titular character, the man’s- the god’s- the alien’s villainy stemmed from his selfishness, exacerbated by his arrogance and his identity crisis. In the original MCU timeline, Loki fancied himself the smartest there was, and then the events in the ‘sacred’ timeline unfolded and proved him wrong, and the original Loki learned compassion, understanding, self-sacrifice, so on - and then he died, killed by Thanos – but we repeat ourselves.

This brings us to the TRN732 Loki, who has found himself in the TVA, with his identity crisis made worse by the TVA, and who is getting to be angry with all of this. This Loki is still stuck in his selfish stage, and he is not pleased with the tough love treatment that his character is getting. Of course, there’s also the question as to why his character is getting this treatment, why not just put him back into his original timeline and move on? Yes, that would deride the show to begin with, but conversely, if ‘Loki’ will try to go deep, such questions will be raised.

…Yes, if we are to go back to the Meta, the TVA saved Loki in order for him to grow, (re-grow?) as a character, to confront his evil- well, eviller, counterpart and become an actual hero, or at least an anti-hero, rather than an outright villain. MCU tried to subvert this trope in AOS with Ward’s and Palamas’ story lines, and the result backfired in their face badly enough that they didn’t appear to have tried to do that anymore, and have outright replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with S.W.O.R.D. in Phase 4, but now they’re tried to do exactly the ‘forced repentance’ plotline with (the rebooted) Loki, for better or worse – and for the glorious purpose, of course, whatever that even means anymore. TVA has clearly deflated Loki for the moment, but the alien is resilient and vengeful, if nothing else. ‘Loki’ the TV series should really introduce the carrot to counter the stick, or else its’ titular character might just figure out how to turn onto the TVA and really mess them up – don’t forget, this is the Loki that led the invasion of NYC to do Thanos’ bidding, and tried to destroy Jotunheim with Bifrost as well. I.e., Loki may act suave and sophisticated, but he goes for some wide scale destruction as well, if he can achieve it, especially quickly.

…Yes, this might be somehow played out in the entire ‘Loki vs. Loki’ conflict/plot line of the ‘Loki’ S1, but for the moment, we don’t know that, not really, and we can only guess. What we do know, though, is that the new MCU show – i.e. ‘Loki’ is good, but not great, and whether or not it will succeed or fail is too early to tell.