Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘Loki’ instead. In this week’s episode, ‘Lamentis’, the show changes completely – it is no longer just about TVA, (well, about TVA and its’ interaction with Loki); rather, it is about Loki and Sylvie, who, in MCU, seems to be a conflation of a female Loki and the Enchantress.
Now, about the Enchantress. Yes, in the Marvel Comics, Sylvie is one of the characters who has this title;
but the main character who has been associated with this title is an Asgardian
magician/witch known as Amora instead. She also has a younger sister whose name
is Lorelei, who did appear in MCU – in AoS’ S1, and left such a poor memory in
the show’s fan community, that she vanished after about one and a bit of an
episode. It’s possible that this bad fallout had ricocheted over at Amora, or
perhaps she just got a bad stroke of luck, given that the ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ film
has largely rebooted the entire Asgardian plotline in MCU, if not outright
ended it, (Thor himself teamed-up with the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end
of the ‘Endgame’ film). Either way, it
looks as if the newcomer to MCU is named Sylvie, and she is a variant Loki
instead. What next?
Hard to say. Unlike the adventures of WV and Sam and Bucky, ‘Loki’
seems to be downplayed – officially; the nearest analogue is the 4th
episode of CAAWS, which was downplayed, in the news, because no one wanted to
associate it with Biden’s reign in the RL America, but unlike CAAWS, ‘Loki’ has
no connotations with America, real or otherwise, so what gives? Hard to say;
people say that it reminds them of the lack of shout-outs regarding AoS, which
began to be remade from S1, and whose plot had plenty of flaws – and so, to
avoid self-repetition, let me just tell you that ‘Loki’ doesn’t appear to be suffering from such flaws, but rather it is
more reminiscent of the Agent Carter
TV series at its’ best, including a tight cast. Where it differs from AC is in the fact that AC was focused around a single
city – NYC in S1, LA in S2 – whereas ‘Loki’ is all about jumping the different
times and places; here it is a planet called Lamentis, (cough, allegory, cough),
which is an obscure planet at the very edge of the Kree space. …So far, ‘Loki’ had
not shown at Kree, only a single Skrull, but that can always change, but that
isn’t important; what matters to us is that this episode is all about Sylvie
and Loki, as the two bond, show their similarities and differences, and for the
moment, TVA isn’t all that important for either of them, but getting off the
planet is, since – I assume – that at least Sylvie’s master plan isn’t about
her dying on Lamentis alongside Loki. The other/titular Loki, i.e.
…Well, maybe it is, but in this case, ‘Loki’ the series is
going to be one weird TV series from now on, and somehow I doubt that this is
what its’ cast and crew intended it to be. Rather, it is all about…well, this
titular character and how he fits-in
into the MCU, now that it is transitioning from what it was at the end of Phase
3 into whatever else it will become. So far, we already had Wanda and Vision
going their separate ways, (to put it lightly), we got to see Sam Wilson become
the new Captain America, Sharon Carter – the new MCU villain, and baron Zemo –
Marvel’s new Batman, (the previous one, in the Marvel Comics, was a character
called Night Hawk, but clearly MCU aren’t bringing in the Squadron Supreme just
yet – so what else is there?
Well, Loki, obviously – but so far, ‘Loki’ is taking time to
bring its’ titular character to his final destination, one hopes. Again, it is
always possible that in the show, Loki will die on Lamentis, now that the
fallen space debris has destroyed their ride off it, but this does go against
the show’s grain, from what it showed the audience so far. Yes, the final
season of GoT did do just that, but GoT also suffered from it, and while GoT did
this sort of thing only at the end of its’ long run, ‘Loki’ so far doesn’t
appear to be a one-season show as WV was, so this turn of events is unlikely,
but then again, ‘Loki’ appears to be a much more subdued show that either WV or
CAAWS were, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen there next. For now, let
us just accept the abrupt plot twist, from Loki’s stay and employment at the
TVA to his road trip with Sylvie and go on.
…More precisely, I had watched ‘Luca’ this weekend, and what
can I say? It was not as forgettable as ‘Over the Moon’ was, (remember that
film? It had a girl and her stepbrother going to the moon to cheer up a
despondent moon goddess – or something along those lines), but neither it is as
good as people thought it would be. The relationship between Luca, Alberto and
Giula, (and also Giulia’s father) is certainly good and realistic, but
everything else is secondary; the movie’s main villain, a liter version of
Gaston from B&B, is a jerk but little more, and the conflict itself is
deflated rather quickly, making one wonder just what the stakes there were. The overall stakes were quite clear – the friendship between Luca and
Alberto – but everything else was secondary; it was only the genuine feelings
in the core of the film that saved it. That, and the definitive lack of songs
as opposed to ‘Over the Moon’, where the abundance of music caused me – and probably
not just me – to hit the fast forward button as often as possible, until the movie’s
end credits were revealed. Bravo, the end, and ‘Luca’ wasn’t so bad even if it
was more circus than bread, you know? But still, nowhere as good as people
proclaimed it to be either – ah well, that is the way a cookie crumbles,
sometimes.
For now, though, this is the end. See you all soon, instead!
No comments:
Post a Comment