Loungin With LOKI - Episode 3 - Lamentis (Patreon)

Sorry for delay, next week will be at our regular bat time and bat channel! Now, Usually I have two or three main subjects that make up the backbone of a recap, but today? I just have five questions that pretty much have nothing to do with each other.

1. SOOOOOOOOO LOKI IS A CANON BISEXUAL?

Yes. But the the main reaction I have to this declaration is “I’m so tired.” I say this because I’ve been having a conversation for 16 years with the MCU (and even longer with comics). When it comes to gay representation, we’ve seen some circle the wagons like these properties are the last bastions of straight-dom (a mixed metaphor, but hint: they’re not). While big corpo Marvel has mostly played coy. A way of staying mum, well casually flirting with the LGBTQ+ fanbase they do not want to alienate. And now here, after all this time, they FINALLY had a main-ish character actually say the words. There was acknowledgement. Granted, of all the characters, he was probably the safest, most sensible choice (I mean look at the historical canon of villains / mischievous tricksters) - meaning there is very little that would rock an uber-straight dude’s conception of Loki here… but hey, in the very least it makes sense. Truth is I was first mostly curious what others thought. I scanned twitter and there was a lot of endlessly happy people and this felt important to them.

As for me? Isn’t it great to see Bisexual representation?!??!??! Yeah sure, but I feel a lot of ways about it. I chose the word “tired” above in a kind of existential sense. Because I wishing I had more stuff like this when I was in my teens and didn’t get it (I mean imagine going through puberty and then you finally see articles like this Newsweek which is mostly about your giant whoredom is to be feared ) I know what it means to THAT PERSON who is still somewhere inside me. But the same time, now, being older, it’s not exactly that it’s “too little too late.” It’s more like I spent so long caring about this and now I’m past this and it’s fair to want something so much more substantial. Especially given that Loki’s words are sort of this vague, flirtatious acknowledgement of a little bit of both in the past and that’s deffo going to be it. I can’t imagine there’s going to be some kind of meaningful relationship explored - and honestly, given the Disney shackles, the only thing that WOULD feel appropriately meaningful to me at this point is if Loki was running some kind bacchanalian orgy just to spite the mouse… I don’t realistically expect that, I just feel the arc of time and want something that FEELS big. Which I say with the full well understanding that when you’re young little thing likes this feel formative and important (I remember Ellen’s coming out episode too). But when older, you just feel the tired effects of incrementalism. It’s okay to both appreciate and yet want something so much more substantial because, really, you just want something more meaningful.

2. WHY DO I WORRY?

What’s funny about watching this show is that (generally-speaking) it always answers my rising concerns in pretty quick fashion. To wit, I was watching this episode which had Loki and Sylvie get in a couple of fisticuffs scenes and pretty far into the second fight I wrote the note: “every fight is the same - v the movies - thik of charcter moments” - which I kept verbatim to show you what my hastily scrawled notes look like - but what that alludes to is this: the fight scenes in a lot of the movies aren’t always amazing displays of tension and camerawork (it can often feel like a seemingly endless exchange of blows), but good character moments (Hulk punches Thor / Warmonger beating T’challa for Wakanda / Cap and The Hammer). And lo and behold, right as I wrote that note, Loki drunkenly missed them both wide left and then got kicked off the train. The fact that it came on cue is perhaps a testament to the competence of the show. They know where they genuinely need X or Y because they got the basics down. They can hit most of their beats down with skill and guile (though as I said last week, I wish there was a bit more tightness to the pace of overall direction, not edit). Heck, this episode even follows a basic tried and true narrative path of “two people disagree put in a situation where BOTH their lives are on the line and have to agree to work together more or less and find a way out.” For the most part, it delivers on that. But all this technical proficiency also leaves me with a question.

3. WHY AM I HAVING TROUBLE CARING?

So far the thing that keeps tripping me up is how little I can seem to get behind the show in a genuine “rooting interest” sense. Like what do I want out of Loki? It’s basically “the raison d’etre" stuff. In Wandavision, for all my harping, there WAS curiosity being driven in the world and I wanted to know more about these characters who were mostly on the sidelines. With Falco and Winty, there was a conflict-driven character dynamic between the duo at the start (which petered out sadly). But here, Loki is a character who has already had a whole arc. We’ve been on this journey with him and seen this arc and so this revisit like is like… I don’t know what I’m REALLY getting out of this? I’ve seen him change before and for really specific family-driven reasons. I feel like I’m going around in the same circle. Yes, it’s technically different and more existential. There’s different questions being asked of his grander purpose. It’s even smart enough to ask that question “why?” as well… But I keep coming back to that personal question of why in the here and now. For all the mechanics they get right, there’s this core dramatic impetus about whether or not I really truly car about Loki’s new time adventures so far and part of the overall problem is that I can’t get a handle on a dramatic base to start from. For each one has 1) been really trying to establish a new status quo and always ends with 2) that status quo gets rocked for something else. Mechanically, it’s sound. But in terms of baseline drive… all the good will in the world may not be enough when I feel like I’ve already done this arc in a more meaningful, character way? But at least it’s asking thematic questions like…

4. “WHAT MAKES A LOKI, A LOKI?”

A lot apparently. But so far the thing I’m missing in the “Loki as neutered force for good on Disney Plus show” is the lack of edge - even when he’s gone rogue in this episode. Like that’s sort of the thing that’s made Loki the one dangerous wild card in all these movies. He was the one murderous imp going around causing trouble and fanning his ego in a world full of forlorn do-gooders. And either you have fun with that (I mean this is technically phase 1 Loki still right?) OR you spend too much time putting him on his ass with failure, which this show seems to be doing quite a bit. (BTW I never understand the rules of where and how Loki can travel, he jokes about walking too much in this episode and I keep being like why is this happening? Doesn’t this guy need a magic jail in Asgard? What’s going on?) Anyway, so far Hiddleston’s getting to have fun in these textural, actorly ways. He’s speaking Latin! Singing! Falling on his butt! Interplaying with Sophia Di Martino! But I cant feel like I keep coming up short when it comes to the aspects of his full range of personality. Was all the glorious purpose sucked out by episode 1?

And more over, I feel like we got some good base in with Sylvie in this episode, but not quite something that felt substantial. Granted, I admit there is A LOT to live up when it comes to her character, who has to be “an instant equal” of an already beloved character. But so far, for all the purported aspects of episode about them supposedly coming together, it still feels a bit vague and certainly unresolved. But perhaps only for a certain plot decision at the end… Which brings us to…

5. WHY CUT IT SHORT?

So at the end of this episode they don’t actually make it to the Ark to save it and the last shot is Loki looking up hopeless as Sylvie turns and walks away, dejected. It’s supposed to be this big hopeless moment. But in screen-time-wise it’s like…. this is a plan they came up with like 6 minutes ago? So it’s hard for any of this to really feel like a big gut shot to us. Because we also certainly know they’re gonna get out of this somehow or it’s going to lead to some other solution so there’s no REAL feeling of loss to it. But more importantly it gets into the “learning to team up” arc in a way where it just ends up cutting us short from what we really wanted. And some of this is a little meta and perhaps oversensitive to overall season pacing, but I’m like “oh we’re ending the third of six episodes HERE?” I get the intention. It’s supposed to play as this big moment where their plan fails and they walk away in this hopeless moment halfway through the overall story, but I’m already wondering how this is going to fit into larger structural stuff and my essential question is “what is REALLY going to come from this hopeless moment? And would it have been better as end to THIS episode?”

Again, it’s not like it totally doesn’t work, I can see the rationale of the decision. I just keep having existential concerns about the “why” behind everything in this show.

Which, perhaps, is apt.

RANDOM THOUGHTS!

-A VFX friend was talking about the ways to “hide” cheaper VFX with particle effects and obscured cinematography and so naturally I was thinking about the clouded, milky, gray cinematography of the MCU - does it turn out the bad milky decision is just guided by good old budget tightening? I started asking around because I want to know what VFX experts think and got a range of nuanced answers. Of yes, atmosphereics can definitely help integration - but it’s also a piecemeal construction issue - everything is on greenscreen and put together in a way the lighting is often flatter to make combining actors easier in post. But really so much of it just comes down to “it’s a shitty color grade” on top of everything. May write more on this!

-Did anyone else feel a sigh of relief when seeing the 41 minute length? Not because the other lengths have been too much or anything, I just love stuff that appreciates my time these days.

-The two biggest problems of this episode: Gugu has been criminally underused so far and there was no Owen Wilson. Okay, you obviously don’t have to have him in this episode (you don’t HAVE to do anything), but I’m realizing how much his presence helps my general viewing enjoyment.

-The one teasing detail about variants not knowing they are variants and some sort of nefarious stuff at the TVA has me like “ooooh that’s interesting,” but now I’m TERRIFIED about the thematic implications they’re gonna get into with all that.

-I say this all the time with direction, but they absolutely did not need to do that fight scene as a oner and it just brought down the tension. I crave tension, y’all!

I crave it!

<3HULK