Marvel's Loki (D+ streaming series)

^([This post was inspired by a Youtube video critical of Loki, adapted from a reply I made to one of them])

Despite negative reviews from youtubers whose opinion I normally align with pretty closely, I find myself in strong disagreement with the "Fandom Menace" assessment of this show. To my mind, Loki was a total freaking gem.

I feel like many if not most of the reviewers must have watched only the first episode or three and interpreted it through the lens of the modern Hollywood "woker-than-thou" philosophy, and wrote it off as a result. And without seeing the series the whole way through and when taking some elements either out of their full context or without the later twists and developments that lead the overall plot in directions contrary to what the early setup might imply, it's an easy mistake to make. In fact I believe the show deliberately sets up some of those expectations for the purpose of later subverting them in quite interesting and satisfying ways.

It's not wrong to say that Loki starts the series in a very bad situation, and has him hit pretty much rock bottom. He's rendered helpless, powerless, up against overwhelming odds with no one on his side, no resources and very few options. His typical strategies only get him so far, and he fails more than a few times. It's also not wrong to say that the character is lectured and humiliated and punished in the early episodes --and let's face it, he's earned his lumps for a long list of wrongdoing over the course of centuries.

If that was all the story was about, dragging Loki through the mud, the criticism would be well-justified. But it isn't, that's only the beginning of the story arc. It's merely the setup phase of a classic "strong protagonist gets knocked down to less than zero, losing everything, and has to rebuild themself and come back stronger, learn from their mistakes, and eliminate key flaws and weaknesses so they can overcome the challenges that were too much for their relatively weaker former self and earn victory in the end" story. Much like Rocky III, Daredevil: Born Again, and any number of such stories that start out extremely bad for the protagonist and test them beyond their limits but in the end serves as a crucible that makes them stronger and better for having gone through hell and made it through.

More than that, though, the story is overall a redemption arc that teaches humility to an arrogant amoral trickster god and inspires him to find heroism in himself --much the same lesson Thor himself had to learn in his first film. Overall it's a "bad vs evil" story, where the villain finds themselves in the uncomfortable role of playing hero when it's not in their nature and has to both learn hard lessons and overcome their own flaws that led them to villainy in the first place and overcome the external threat / foe at the same time.

If you stick with the series beyond the first phase of the arc, you'll find that he does grow and he does become a better person and as he does so he starts scoring some victories and making real progress towards his goals. He faces a number of setbacks, yes, many that would be total defeat for someone without the sheer stubborn will to not give up, but he learns from his failures and adapts and does better with each successive attempt. Along the way, he turns several of his former enemies to his side and eventually, through hard work and sacrifice, courage and skill and determination, he attains his triumph. And he becomes a stronger, better, more admirable person over the course of earning that victory.

But in a twist that forms the cliffhanger for the upcoming season, defeating his enemy unleashes something potentially worse...

One scene, SPOILER ALERT, illustrates the the entire theme beautifully. >!An alternate Loki who is an old man dressed in the classic green and yellow comics costume gets a moment of crowning absolute badass as he sacrifices himself against an impossibly powerful monster to allow the others a chance to succeed, and does so in awesome and truly epic fashion. He goes out like a motherfucking BOSS, complete with display of amazing power and soaring music and a gleefully maniacal roar of "GLORIOUS PURPOSE!" as he makes a final stand worthy of legend. In that moment, the show subverts the living hell out of the modern "old white man is weak garbage" trend and shows the oldest whitest most villainous version of Loki redeeming himself with a courageous honorable death in battle worthy of high honors in the halls of Valhalla. The kind of warrior's death the poets of Asgard will write of and will be remembered with reverence for centuries on centuries to come.!<