The Sword and Laser discussion

Trailer 1: https://youtu.be/UlnufxrJlAk

Trailer 2: https://youtu.be/nW948Va-l10

Looks like a ton of fun.

Sliders + Time Tunnel + Quantum Leap + the god of mischief. 😎

June 11, 2021.

I feel old for getting your Time Tunnel reference.

I'm more excited for Loki than I originally was after watching the trailer.

I thought that was Howard Stark for a second until I recognised Owen Wilson's distinctive broken nose. Apparently he's someone called Mobius M. Mobius.

For the very first time in my MCU experience I am totally at sea with the TVA. I know nothing about them because I didn’t read Thor back in the day or their recent(ish) She-Hulk appearance.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_...

Apparently they were in Busiek’s Avengers Forever, but I have no recollection of them. So this is kind of exciting for me in a different way from usual.

Trike wrote: "For the very first time in my MCU experience I am totally at sea with the TVA. I know nothing about them because I didn’t read Thor back in the day or their recent(ish) She-Hulk appearance...."

I loved the Simonson run on Thor back in the day but I don't remember the TVA or much else about it, outside of Beta Ray Bill.

The show does look really good. Marvel is quickly getting the hang of this whole TV thing.

Tom has a message: Wednesdays are the new Fridays.

New premiere date, June 9th.

https://youtu.be/mNyLzc3MU_E

So Loki not only wants his dad's job, he wants his day as well 😏

TVA barely showed up in Thor. They were in Simonson's brilliant cross time caper in Fantastic Four... He does a brilliant Doom.

Loki is so good. So good. Must have more.

The design of the TVA is brilliant zeerust. Possibly perfect.

Agreed, we watched the first episode last night. The TVA design is definitely well done. From a logical perspective though, I had to chuckle at the incongruity of such a powerful entity being stuck with 60s technology. Not sure if has a deeper meaning or was just done for tongue-in-cheek design. Fun either way!

I enjoyed the first episode. The TVA world building is very good. Can't wait to see Loki in the field on missions.

I figured the clunky technology was a design choice of the TVA. That Pixelated-to-high-def bit using the "film reel" was much higher quality than could have been done with the materials if they were just as shown. So the TVA is having fun with itself, at least to the extent possible.

References: What did you catch? The reference to the Philip K. Dick story, about becoming a variant by being late to work, gave me a chuckle. I didn't spot any others tho.

Just watched it. Stars! Both the visual design and the sound design were absolutely gorgeous; coordinated, decisive, pleasingly consistent and comprehensive...

...for that alone I am sold. But seems like the plot, too, will be satisfyingly weaving through the existing storylines. Nothing like a well choreographed, canon-enriching narrative.

I'll be eagerly onboard.

I loved it. I hope it sticks the landing this time

Thoughts on the second episode? I was a little weirded out at the idea of Loki turning into a cubicle-dwelling crosstime Dilbert. Nice kicker at the end tho.

I thought it was amusing but nothing earth-shattering. I’m hopeful the stuff we saw will be built upon more as we go.

I think it was all the world building I liked in the first episode. This one was more character work, and it was good, but didn’t hold my interest as much as the first one did.

I'm liking it fine, but did notice that peeps ran to talk about the other Marvel shows. At least a dozen posts on the day of the show. This one, meanwhile, seems lagging in discussion. Not sure if that means lack of interest or just timing.

Part of it might be that WandaVision had people hungry for more MCU stuff, since it had been a good 18 months at least since Spider-Man: FFH, and the show was both brilliant and different out of the box. The ending was… fine, but it just didn’t have the same oomph as the rest of the series, which kind of took the wind out of its sails.

Then Falcon and Winter Soldier started super strong, but very quickly fizzled out episode by episode until it had that bad GoT-type ending. As reassessments have come in, it’s being viewed as weaker and weaker.

So I think people have taken the measure of Disney’s MCU shows and not been too enthused when all is said and done. Maybe this show will thwart that, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.

I suspect Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk are really going to feel the sting of diminished expectations unless they are ridiculously incredible shows. I kind of doubt anyone’s betting on that happening.

They need a Mandalorian season 1 type of breakout game-changer, but those are few and far between.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier had the feel of something that was being constantly changed and re-written (which it was) to the point that it was a hot mess.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Falcon and the Winter Soldier had the feel of something that was being constantly changed and re-written (which it was) to the point that it was a hot mess."

I agree, but I bet someone could fan-edit it down into a really good 2.5 hour movie.

I’m really enjoying this show quite a bit but I have a bone to pick about the visuals. There’s a heavy vignette in nearly every scene, taking up a whole lot of screen real estate. I’m watching in Dolby Vision but because of the vignette the overall image looks dimmer than SDR. I do not like this effect one bit and think it’s pretty arbitrary, I don’t think it adds anything to the show.

My wife thinks that Lady Loki isn't a Loki at all. Her first guess is that she's really The Enchantress. That's quite a pull, she's not near the Thor geek that I am and her main exposure to Amora and Skurge was an Avengers cartoon.

Anyhoo, I'm not sure I agree, but it's an interesting take.

I also felt Enchantress over female Loki.

Same. The few tidbits we know about her from episode 3 align with Enchantress. Which is actually interesting because Enchantress teams up with Zemo, Black Knight, and Kang (among others) to form the Masters of Evil, later rebranded as the Thunderbolts.

Zemo we’ve already seen. General Ross (aka Red Hulk) has been in the MCU since the beginning. Black Knight will be in The Eternals. Kang will be in Ant-Man 3. And Marvel has two mystery movies already slotted. Everyone assumes one of those is Fantastic Four, but the other is unknown. I suspect Thunderbolts.

I quite liked episode 3. That must’ve cost a fortune to make.

And that song! It’s as if they wrote the episode to match the lyrics. I really want to know more about that. Was it just serendipity or what?

No spoilers but it’s a 1957 tune by Bonnie Guitar called “Dark Moon”, and it is a nearly perfect thematic match for that episode.

https://youtu.be/QH9E-b2zUtg

🤭 WHAT 😱

😲😲😲😲😲😲😲

BTW - there’s a mid-credits scene. To which I say


WHAAAAAT?!?!?!

Ugh. This episode. So good.

The credits scene, indeed: haven't waited forward to the next one this badly yet.

(And dang, but the **soundtrack** on this show!)

Jemppu wrote: "Ugh. This episode. So good.

The credits scene, indeed: haven't waited forward to the next one this badly yet.

(And dang, but the **soundtrack** on this show!)"

My wife literally one second ago just complimented the score, talking about the doom-and-gloom music as they go to meet the Time Keepers. (She’s watching it right now.)

Haaa, last night we watched the final season 6 episode of Line of Duty. Finished around 11:30. I jokingly said to my wife if we waited another half hour we could see Loki.

Anyhoo, I haven't seen it yet. Glad to see some highly positive reactions after the tepid interest so far. See y'all later tonight!

*leaps out of thread*

I thought this week's episode was really good, and I'm looking forward to seeing next week's.

That mid credit scene was interesting and confusing.

So as for the mid credit scene (spoilers I suppose, altho who's in here but peeps who have already seen the episode)

(view spoiler)[
Going from right to left (my right) we've got first a pretty obvious early Marvel Loki. Middle, not completely sure but leaning towards "kid Loki" from the last decade or so of Marvel comics. Not sure about the guy on the far left. If it's all Lokis then I have no idea who he is. He kinda looks like an ersatz Thor tho. What he was holding looked like a stylized Mjolnir. (hide spoiler)]

It's the early one I was most delighted to see - so loyally campy. Much snark will be had, I trust.

(Rather hoping for ice-cream cars to get dropped in somewhere).

Re the mid credit scene:

(view spoiler)[according to Nerdist, the guy with the hammer is "Boastful" Loki.

Not being a comic reader I know nothing about any of these things, but I like the care they always put into easter eggs/details for the comic fans. (hide spoiler)]

Further to the line that Loki will die alone, my wife quipped that would never happen due to his big co-dependent brother. She's got a point, Thor is trying to redeem him no matter what. Well, MCU Thor anyway.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Further to the line that Loki will die alone, my wife quipped that would never happen due to his big co-dependent brother. She's got a point, Thor is trying to redeem him no matter what. Well, MCU ..."

Thor did redeem him, sort of, then watched him die at the hand of Thanos. Thor has no idea this version exists. Unless (until?) he pops up in the movies again.

Episode 5 was an obvious setup for the final episode. But it was also a good one. I had to laugh out loud at the fight in the middle.

John (Nevets) wrote: "Episode 5 was an obvious setup for the final episode. But it was also a good one. I had to laugh out loud at the fight in the middle."

Oh yes. I watched it twice in a row. It was so jam-packed it felt half as long as usual. So many Easter eggs. But the best one was Throg.

It’s amazing how epic this show is. They spent all the money.

Captain Hook Loki! "Ye'll not get the other hand!"

Perhaps two spinoffs from this show? Kid Loki is a natural for a Young Avengers show. And Crocodile LoKi (say it like "Dundee") for Pet Avengers. Throg will of course escape and Mjolnir is right there.

I loved "Classic Loki" resurrecting Asgard, even if only for a moment. Reminded me of this moment from Simonson Thor, where Loki turns on Surtur and fights him. "Why aspire to become the lord of all I survey, if all I survey is a burned out cinder?"

John (Taloni) wrote: "Perhaps two spinoffs from this show? Kid Loki is a natural for a Young Avengers show. And Crocodile LoKi (say it like "Dundee") for Pet Avengers. Throg will of course escape and Mjolnir is right th..."

Thank you for posting that. It's been a while since I read Simonson Thor. I forgot how awesome his capes are.

^ I thank you with a hearty CHUGGAH-RUMPH!

Aaaand the original Chugga-Rumph!

Well well well. That was something. I’d have preferred a definitive ending, but the possibilities of this… end of chapter?… are endless. Literally.

I almost can’t believe we live in a world where a version of Avengers: Forever was adapted into a TV show.

Well! That was unexpected. Dunno exactly what I expected of a finale, but a lengthy talkfest was not among the choices. Actually, if anything the fight-while-talking was the most amusing bit as it was so straight from comics.

As for the ending, at first (view spoiler)[I said "I have had enough of non ending endings. " (hide spoiler)] But then I thought about upcoming shows. (view spoiler)[This is a perfect setup to What If, starting in August. (hide spoiler)]

I loved the aesthetics of the citadel at the end of time (those windows! The kintsugi decorations!) and I thought the performances were superb, as throughout the whole series.
I am just... feeling a lot of MCU fatigue right now. I can’t sum up much, if any, enthusiasm for the upcoming slate of shows and movies. I kinda just want it to all come to a satisfying conclusion, which I appreciate is antithetical to the whole ethos of Marvel.
(view spoiler)[ I sympathise with He Who Remains and his multiverse-weariness. “Just stab me or, like, whatever....” (hide spoiler)]

I need to either re-watch or hunt down an explainer on YouTube, because we watched the episode and I literally couldn't explain what transpired if I tried!

WandaVision is still my favourite of the three recent shows.

I'm a bit conflicted by the finale. I enjoyed the performances and the ideas and hints of what's to come but the TVA portion felt under baked.

My wife looks at me this morning after reading recap articles and says "That was Kang?" I replied that it was implied and a lot of the things he talks about fit Kang. Plus his statement: "I've been called a lot of things. ...Conqueror." FWIW I would lean towards Immortus, a later version of Kang, especially due to the long quest to save a single woman-and what the heck IS going on with Judge Renslayer?

My wife says it would be nice if they would do things so that those in the audience who haven't spent the last 40 years reading comics could figure it out. Well, amen to that. Thing is, this isn't done. Likely we will get a lot more in Season 2. I think there may have been two endings and they went with the more open one when Season 2 got greenlit.

Colin wrote: "I need to either re-watch or hunt down an explainer on YouTube, because we watched the episode and I literally couldn't explain what transpired if I tried!

WandaVision is still my favourite of the..."

I agree. I think each show has been a little bit less for me. I find time travel typically being a cheat, so I knew Loki was going to be more of a miss for me. I'm most looking forward to Dr. Strange 2 and Spider-Man 3 from the MCU. Though, Shang Chi should be fun.