Loki thoughts: Lamentis
Well, I cried multiple times.
So, how great is it that they started an episode where Loki – casually, delightfully – mentions his queerness with a Hayley Kiyoko song? Because I did indeed, as a bi on the internet, chuckle and mutter ‘this is the gayest thing the MCU have done’ when I realised who the singer was.
Which got even funnier in retrospect. Somewhere on the crew of the Loki team, there’s someone who lived through 2016 Tumblr and knew exactly what they were doing.
But, yes, that whole scene is the one that stuck with me the most, so starting there. The premise of the episode – two people antagonistic to each other having to work together in the literal, cosmic end of a world, with high snark levels – is basically as close as ‘entirely made for me’ as shows can get*.
But the scene with Loki and Sylvie sitting on a train that felt like a cross between the front carriages in Snowpiercer and Canto Bight, and talking, was just everything to me. Forced to sit and communicate, rather than fight and double cross, the differences in their stories, and the quiet understanding they shared – it was magnetic. And there’s few quicker ways that the MCU can make me cry than have Loki talk about Frigga. Oh, the tears I shed. We get so few moments of Loki being happy, that even having Loki melancholically (yet joyfully) remember his childhood happiness, it got to me.
And we’ve never really had any mention of Loki’s personal life beyond his family, have we? Sure, there’s a wink-wink, there if you want it to be implication between Loki and the Grandmaster in Ragnarok, but beyond that. So even just mentioning that would be interesting to me, finding out about what Loki does in his off time is inherently interesting to me. But finding out that Loki is – as so very many of us have headcanoned over the years – queer, well.
From a writing point of view, it’s a lovely insight into some of the vulnerabilities of a character with so many walls up, and a really interesting way to do it – having Loki be that open, but only with a version of themself, says a lot about his comfort level with emotion.
From a personal point of view, as a bi person who’s been deeply attached to and invested in Loki since 2012, it got to a very personal part of my heart, and so yes. Many joyful tears.
Oh, and a bonus – the scene ends with Loki’s self-destructive tendencies (even if here they manifest through him having fun) being literally destructive, that’s some nice metaphor.
In non-train related stuff, an actual confirmation that the TVA is shadier than it purports is nice, given that we all guessed that pretty early on. It also probably explains why Mobius loves jet skis – back when he was on Earth it was the 90s! Or maybe he genuinely does just love jet skis. I could see the revelation of Mobius being a variant be what makes him turn against the TVA – they’ve spent way too long making him sympathetic to turn him into the big bad guy**. Though that of course doesn’t preclude him being at odds with Loki(s).
The glimpses we got of Sylvie’s backstory were great, too. It’s easy to see how that, and being on the run from the TVA, have moulded her into an even more guarded, dangerous version of the character we know. Very excited to see more of her. And this is me setting myself up for disappointment, but it is so easy to read her as trans. Seeing how her mind control works was an interesting take on the trope, if super creepy. And now I’m a wee bit worried she’ll do the same to our Loki, locking him in that memory he had of Frigga. Now that would be a betrayal. (Speaking of, not too sure what was up with that scene with the neon light. Was Sylvie playing along to try and get the remote back? Did Loki just not realise how much power it needed? Minor quibble but bugged me a little.)
The world of Lamentis (great name, by the way) was one of implications – I made the Snowpiercer comparison earlier, but it really did remind me of that. Much like Roxxmart last week, the whole town being run by Roxxon, here we have a moon where the rich are the ones saved from the apocalypse, rather than those who, probably, did much of the actual mining. At least Loki seemed to be uncomfortable with it. It’s not to say the MCU has become radicalised, but hey, nice to have some undercurrents. No idea how they’re going to solve that cliff-hanger, though – which is great, can’t wait to see how.
And one final theory: what if the Timekeepers turn out to be one person? And that’s a Loki variant? We’ve had rumours of Richard E. Grant showing up – what if he’s an old Loki who did exactly what this Loki is talking about, and took over centuries ago? That could be fun.
Can’t wait for next week. BI LOKI!
