Unpopular opinion, but The Nexus Event turned out to be the first episode in the Loki series I actually enjoyed. For the first time, the show didn't feel like endless meandering. But seeing the reaction of people makes me doubt whether I loved it for what it was or for what it could have been (I mean, what is watching Marvel if not feeding on crumbs lol).
I didn't mind the scene with Sif. Having Loki repeat her degrading words was not a bad way to show how little he thinks of himself, and the way he beamed at the praise from Mobius was such a sweet and sincere moment, you could tell he'd hardly ever got encouragement.
And still, I have to agree with the criticism of how the narrative framed the character moments. Was Loki believing the worst as the result of his captors' mind games, or was it 'being forced to admit the harsh truth' trope, that is, saying he was a 'narcissist'? While I want to believe in the former, I'm afraid the show was doing the latter, especially with Mobius mocking Loki for falling in love with a version of himself. And I'm really, really not a fan of the 'torture is actually helpful!' shtick.
Speaking about the framing of Loki's relationship with Mobius, it was the biggest issue for me. Surely, there is genuine kindness in there. Mobius is one of the very few people to see good in whom most see a villian, and say it. And it isn't even unfair of him to express disappointment, after all, Loki has already managed to deceive the TVA on a couple of occasions. But also, it's a nightmare totalitarian organization Loki is forced to work for under the threat of death, isn't going against it something to be expected at the very least?
There's this confusing mix of personal and impersonal in Mobius' treatment of Loki. At one moment, Mobius tells Loki how upset he is over betrayal of a friend, and the next moment he throws him into a mental torture chamber. It's comes a little to close to 'I'm hurting you for your own good' territory, like Ragnarok did with the electrocution scene, which makes me really uncomfortable. In the hands of a good writer, such a fucked-up relationship would be a fantastic subject to explore, but I'm afraid Marvel is going to leave it on the surface level. I'd love to be proved wrong, of course. Unfortunately, for now it looks like the writing almost touches upon datk topics, in the same ways the movies with Loki did (growing up in a culture that dehumanizes his people, being at least in some ways messed up by a very powerful creature), but never quite reaches there.
As for Loki/Sylvie suggestion, I find it hilarious that stuck up Disney is ok with self-cest, it makes me wanna root for their relationship, even though I don't ship them at all.
