Lily S

Loki has been my favorite character in the MCU since the first Thor movie came out. I’ve been over the moon excited for this series since they announced it. And I honestly wish they had done ANYTHING else. From the very beginning, they have the Loki plucked from the very height of his power – the Loki who was in the process of destroying New York City – literally being slapped around by a bunch of ordinary humans. And he’s not even losing in a heroic, emotionally significant way, like his imprisonment during Thor: The Dark World. It’s condescending, almost slapstick; he’s a punch line for the TVA. Loki hardly felt like the protagonist at all. He has no superhero (or villain) costume, no moment of powerful where he defeats his adversary and actually gets to use his powers. He wasn’t done justice whatsoever. Not to mention the character continuity. I really like Sylvie as an idea, and I think she was really well-cast. That said, the idea of emotionally distant Loki falling for a CLEARLY untrustworthy person in the span of about twelve hours is pathetic. It took him until the events of Thor: Ragnarok to realize that he even had any sentimentality for his own brother, and now he’s making stupid decisions in the name of a crush. Loki’s power is supposed to be his trickiness. If he’s falling for himself, he should be aware that she can’t be trusted. But he lays it all on the table for her and gets EASILY shown up. He’s not just falling over himself for a woman, he’s trying to make something (???) work with someone who clearly doesn’t feel the same. Loki should be far too proud and self-important to do that. The whole show honestly just felt like a storyline for ANYONE else. Loki never got a chance to be Loki. Perhaps if it had been the vulnerable Loki from Infinity War, or even “Fat Thor”, who has already had his fall-from-grace storyline, things might have been different. But this was Avengers Loki, who was, at the time, utterly undefeated. And he’s shown to be a complete loser in his own show. I’ll give it a star for the gorgeous set design and special effects, though. And for Owen Wilson. As an afterthought: The MCU has already established that being shown your history doesn’t automatically bring your character development up to the point where it was. That already happened to Nebula at the end of Endgame. She had to actually take some time to process the knowledge that she was someone else in a different timeline, rather than immediately becoming that person. It has also established that Loki, a Jötunn frost giant, does not get cold. Which he does in the show. It just made me sad to see my favorite character turned into someone else entirely.