The first episode of Loki is here, and yes, I recommend it. Loki has always been an interesting character because, even though he does horrible things, every once in awhile he does something good. He often shows more emotion than most bad guys. There seems to be two sides to him. Loki is one of the most interesting characters in the MCU and especially the best villain.
From childhood, he wanted to be the King. However, he was lied to for years and taught to hate what he really was a - frost giant. Yet, he never appears in that form. Loki eventually finds out that he never had a chance to be King. Thor was Odin's real son. Loki was adopted and meant to be a political pawn, not for bad purposes, but to bring peace.
Still, this whole incident devastated Loki, and he turns into a villain. Over and over he just wants to be King of something. Instead, he causes death, suffering and destruction. He ends up locked up, beaten and banned for most of his adult life. One would think that these events would cause him to re-think his life, but Loki just can't keep the narcissist inside him down. He sees himself as superior to all types of humans that he longs to rule over. However, he also can be a sympathetic bad guy because there is a good side to him. He's also entertaining by his cleverness and sense of humor.
The first episode of Loki was a good set up for the series. Loki escapes the Avengers only to be captured by the Time Variance Authority for violating the time line. Of course he looks down on them, but they gain his respect because he can't escape them.
A time agent, Mobius, makes Loki look at his past. At first, like Scrooge, he doesn't want to talk about it, let alone look at it. However, he can't avoid it because he's trapped in a room with Mobius, who plays back the highlights of Loki's life. He sees it, and it's painful. It's full of disasters, failures and the deaths of loved ones. Loki finds that he can't look away. He even sees the moment Thanos kills him - just like the grim reaper coming for Scrooge.
Mobius points out that Loki caused the avengers to become better versions of themselves. It comes down to one thing. You can't have a great Hero without a great villain. It's not easy being the bad guy. I look forward to seeing more of the unpredictable Loki.
I'll probably wait until most of it is done to binge it over a few days instead of having to wait week-to-week for more. A lot of Marvel villains follow this trope of sometimes turning over a new leaf like Magneto, Dr. Doom, Venom, and even Dr. Octopus the time he was controlling Peter Parker's body as the Superior Spider-Man. It happens in DC too with Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Clayface, and Lex Luthor all sometimes being on the right side of the law and other times not.
ReplyDeleteProbably because they've been around for so long it can be hard to find something to do with the villain besides making them just scheme and blow stuff up.