āYouāre just annoyed that your personal headcanon isnāt canon!ā
Or; my personal thoughts (ranting) about the Loki series and its surrounding toxic discourse.
First of all, Iām going to preface this with the following: whether you loved or hated the Loki series, or you fall somewhere in between, your opinion is valid and if anyone tells you that you canāt express that in a critical manner, then they need to kindly go away. I should also mention the obvious which most people understand ā death threats directed at anyone involved in making the series is disgusting and if you do so youāre fucking deluded.
Now that thatās out of the wayā¦
Iām someone who wasnāt overly fond of the series in the end. I went in surprisingly hopeful after enjoying Wandavision and TFATWS. For the most part I really enjoyed the first 3 episodes (episode 3 being the best imo) but I found myself quickly disillusioned by how the narrative seemed to fall apart in terms of cohesiveness. Keeping it short and sweet, I feel like a lot of the relationships (whether platonic or otherwise) were rushed. I found Lokiād dynamic with both Mobius and Sylvie to be confusing, unbelievable, and all around not earned. It feels as though they had a start point and an end point (ie. Loki needs a genuine friend) but we didnāt see any of the journey in between to show how the relationship developed. The quote āafter all this timeā¦ā in episode 6 sent me over. Like Loki pls youāve known this woman for max two days or somethingā¦ No, Iām not salty because he didnāt end up with Mobius. No, Iām not salty because of āselfcestā. Iām salty because I donāt think the relationships were done as well as they could have been. Also, even though no one asked, Loki x therapy is the only ship I give a rats about.
Other points include the following:
Loki felt more like a side character with little impact on the events in his own show.
Sylvie sometimes teeters into Mary-Sue territory, and at times appears to be valued only because she is a woman.
Mobiusā relationship with Loki seems inherently toxic and he is not his therapist. As someone who regularly attends therapy sessions, if your therapist ever talks to you like Mobius talks to Loki ā get a new goddamn therapist, Jesus Christā¦
In my opinion, the show explores very little of Lokiās character and what makes him tick, especially considering this is post-Avengers 2012 Loki. Iām aware there were only six episodes and Iām not expecting everything to be crammed in, but where Loki was in Thor 1 and the Avengers seems so disconnected from where he is in the series. It seems to portray him as someone hellbent on power and ruling, as opposed to someone desperate for respect and the love of his family/people.
But I digress, the real point of this post was to tell certain people to feck off. Obviously thereās going to be discourse around the series, but Iām starting to get really sick of one side telling the other āyou put your personal headcanons on Lokiā, āheās not your characterā, āyouāre just annoyed because canon didnāt go how you wantedā, āyouāre projecting your own abuse on himā, blah blah blah. And here was me thinking the discourse around Ragnarok was bad, but this is another level, lads.
Hereās an idea, how about people who liked the show stop acting like those who didnāt just pulled their opinion on Loki right out of their own ass? All I know is that every opinion Iāve ever formed on him was based on the first three films he appeared in. Thatās it ā nothing made up because I love to project as someone who went through similar shit to him.
Discuss the show, but donāt be a massive bellend about it.
In summary, Tom Hiddleston I am free next Saturday if you are free next Saturday and Iāll buy all the rounds of Jameson you need while we talk about Loki and how he ā no matter what happens to him within the MCU from here on out ā will always be one of favourite characters to grace the big screen.
(Anyway who cares what I think, people are just going to call me a whiny Loki apologist regardless.)
