Unveiling Loki's Journey: From Villain to Savior in Marvel's Multiverse

Discover the metamorphosis of Marvel's most enigmatic trickster as we unravel Loki's struggle for identity and meaning in the second season of his saga. With our special guest Emily, we analyze how Loki's ambitions evolve from dominion to validation, showcasing key moments where the god of mischief transforms from notorious villain to an unexpected savior. Amid the mayhem of the multiverse, we dissect scenes that exemplify his character development, such as his unnerving encounters with time and his unwavering determination to protect his allies. This episode peels back the layers of Loki's psyche, revealing how his poignant journey through self-discovery and the influence of varied selves lead to profound personal growth.

Embark with us on a narrative odyssey that spotlights the intricacies of free will and the significance of choices in shaping an individual's destiny. The episode not only celebrates the high caliber of storytelling and performances in "Loki" but also delves into the weighty themes the series tackles, such as the quest for a "glorious purpose" and the evolution of a character's motivations from fear to love. Join the discussion as we rate the series with an enthusiastic nine out of ten, and prepare to have your appreciation of character-driven narratives within the Marvel universe deeply enriched.

Want more of Second Emulation? Stay connected with us by following our social media channels! By clicking the link below to stay up to date with us on our socials and Game review streaming channel.

https://solo.to/arc_veritas31

Chapters

• 0:00 Loki Season 2 Discussion
• 20:25 Character Progression in Loki Series

Transcript

  📍 Welcome to Second Emulation, the podcast that explores all things pop culture, from movies and TV shows to the latest anime releases. Join us as we dive into the world of entertainment, sharing our thoughts, opinions, and insights on the latest trends and releases. With a focus on what's hot and what's not, we're your go-to source for all things pop culture. So sit back, relax, and let's get started

I'd like to thank Emily for that intro and welcome everyone back for another episode. And I feel like the tagline for this episode is glorious purpose. For those who don't know, this episode is going to be about  Loki season two and  I feel like  this and the previous season kind of was the biggest character piece that we needed for Loki by far. 

Because how things ended after Endgame and Infinity War, you know,  kind of felt open ended.  So  let's get into the episode.  Now,  this season just picks up right where the first season ends up. You know,  he gets kicked through the door and he ends up in an alternate timeline.  Now,  it's very interesting because  he who  remains or the,  the King variant is dead at this point. 

And  things are just essentially going haywire at this. They're just essentially what we call shit has hit the fan.  But what's really interesting about this is that we actually get  the flip, the flip side because throughout the first season and throughout the multiverse or Marvel, there was always this This mention that there are alternate timelines, the multiverse, there's different versions.

Here we actually get it, you know, put on display,  you know, that here's Loki,  in an actual different timeline, you know, trying to interact with, you know, individuals that he has memories of, or he has a connection with and they don't know who he is.  And so  he is like pretty evident that, you know, Things are different.

He's ultimately in a new timeline and  He's afraid because he fears that the  Prophecy that  He who shall or he who remains Predicted is coming true. So  He's scrambling  and we see that a lot throughout this whole episode is that or not the whole episode but the whole season we see Loki  first in the previous season fighting against what we call glorious purpose  and that's that is actually not only the tagline for this episode but the tagline for  The whole season is  finding the thing that defines oneself and throughout both seasons Loki didn't  know what his purpose was.

He thought it was  to be a king, a ruler of the world of the multiverse of earth. He wanted to be a conqueror because he assumed that's what it was. And he later realized that he was just a cog in  a gear in someone else's plan. And they used him, his anger to achieve their own goal.  Like HIS goal, like he was always meant to die,  was what he later found out.

That HIS, HIS PURPOSE was always to meet that fate.  Through Thanos.  That there was no,  you know,  silver lining for him. for your time. 

And that was like the realization for him is that  when he came to terms to that and understanding that  his decision, wanting this, wanting to be recognized by not only his brother and his peers, but by people who didn't know who he was,  he started to understand.  And I felt like that was a key moment. It. 

You know, when you take away the bravado from Loki from, you know, in the films  to now, it's a very big, you know, pivotal change.  And just how Loki was stuck in his own  self induced loop.  So was selfie, his variant.  She was hell bent on killing he remains and once done,  you know,  everything essentially just  went off the rails  and the consequences of that were she sought, you know, freedom from time itself, you know, free will,  or. 

delusion of free will by destroying the so called  architect of  everything that she thought she was making decisions on her own. And once he was gone, she felt, okay,  I'm able to do everything on my own, not knowing that her choice  had a consequence.  And then Loki  Understanding  that  there is a consequence  and trying to prevent that consequence from happening, 

which is very different.  I think my favorite scene in this season would have to be the time slipping where it's just him,  looks like he's just going through the shredder and just ending up on different timelines at any given moment, like he's just being ripped through dimensions. Because it seems painful, but the way, you know,  Tom Hiddleston is just handling it like his body, it makes it believable that this,  this could happen, you know,  Happening to anyone else would just, they'd be ripped to shreds, but the fact that it's happening to a God and he's like, you know, still in one piece,  makes it believable and it's just  funny as, like, each time it happens, he's still able to, like, crack a joke, you know?

Make light of the situation, even though it's very serious that he's just, And it's essentially, you know, slipping through the time between past, present and future.  And so  that is one of my other favorite scenes,  a second would be

would be later in the season when  loki figures out what they need to do. and he's taking  he asked  O. B. or Boris, how long he needs to learn something, and he takes a thousand years.  And he takes Kang's variant, timely, and he's explaining the plan that you just have to go through it really fast, and you should be fine. 

And  He explains the plan and they execute it and they keep executing it and they keep executing it and it fails every time and  Loki has to reset and every time he resets you can see he makes an adjustment he makes an adjustment and you can see that he's getting frustrated because  every adjustment he makes he it just doesn't seem to work and the The acting for Tom Hiddleston for Loki just like he wants it to work.

He wants it to work. He wants to save his friends. And just like the peril of like how sad  he feels in these moments that he's putting  all his effort.  He's willing to like sacrifice  Essentially himself to save these individuals  Which is something  we have not seen from Loki  at all. 

I think some of the worst scenes were the ones with miss minutes because they had her traveling with Renslayer who was like on this secret mission but once she was only  in maybe a few episodes and then she was gone. Like, she was there to help move the plot along and then that was it and then Renslayer was gone.

But While she was there she Didn't seem Hmm. That important because they made it,  they built her up to be like this very powerful entity, which she was, but once he  who remains was gone, she didn't really have a purpose other than her objective. And then once that objective was kind of complete,  it, she  didn't know what to do.

Ooh. 

She came off as like  they tried to give her and maybe that's the way it was written like she was trying to be sentient and trying to evolve saying that you know  he who remains or  Timely, who was King's Variant. Didn't need other people were, you know, because he has her and she can be a real person. She grew attachments  and  it, it did seem kind of weird. 

Another kind of like not great  moment is that  I said, well,  is that. 

Is Renslayer and Timely as interactions as well? It seemed Force.  Because while she was with Ms. Minutes, her objective was also to like reincarnation, bringing the loop of you know, he remains back by providing him the information, the book, so he can know about time and everything.  So  her purpose  was just to make sure to move things along. 

Other than that, she didn't really have anything,  you know, she didn't have any weight in the game, she was just an errand boy. And when she was dealt with it pretty much was like, you know,  Nothing they they didn't serve a real threat Which is kind of interesting like even though the previous season may it seem like you know what they were doing was  very  Dangerous and threatened everything but when you really look back on it  it wasn't  You know it was very you know dealing with a man who could be easily you know persuadable and you know if he dies he dies It. 

It's just those moments make it seem like okay Grad Slayer mints minute Didn't really. Have a great role to play in this they were just used as you know tools to advance you know to help timely but once they were both just removed from the season which happened pretty quickly that was it they you know it  pretty much pivot back to you know the real essential thread of like selfish consequences because they have to worry about about Cain or, you know  The reincarnation of him.

I mean they still did but it wasn't more like okay take him off and hide him somewhere  which I think that was the end goal but yeah they didn't do much so much planning as they thought they were would.  And you would think for like something that this artificial intelligence created that they would have all these contingency plans in place to prepare for every scenario and Ms.

Minutes didn't. So  that's I felt like was kind of like  a bad scene, which is any interaction Bismuth has had with Timely and then also with Renslayer. It just seemed out of place and  didn't even necessary. It felt like it was just a waste of having those characters in there. They could have used them for something else. 

I think another weak area of the show is that at the same time, they also try to use like a coup. I know that was kind of like, create like a new fashion. Those who were loyalists to he who remains wanted to keep the status quo which didn't really seem necessary because,  They were just ignorant to the fact that they were all just gonna die anyways.

Your so called leader was gone. There's no way he was coming back. And I felt like  having them trying to like destroy or interfere or keep their mission  was a few was a fuel to It  was a futile attempt. At them trying to like, you know, Grasp at the only  semblance of normalcy that they had. And so, I felt like those loyalists that were still loyal to He Who Remains or The Time Keepers  They once thought The reality of the threat that was real, I felt like that was a week area, even though Loki,  Mobius and Beat were trying to get everyone to join their cause. 

it was one of those areas like, why have this internal struggle? You already know they're not going to help you. You already know they're against you. Just lock them up. Which they did. It's just, why waste your breath on these individuals? You know what they're going to do. Let them see with their own eyes. 

So, I feel like that was a weak area. Because again,  you know, a lot of them  Are variants. They've been brainwashed to believe that this is their, you know, day in day out.  You know destroying timelines for the greater good. That's what they've been reprogrammed to do And so some of them can't break out from that and the ones that have you know can see You know the greater picture and some who are so stuck with that program and can't so I feel like that was kind of like,  you know  Kind of hard or a weak area to have this in fighting because it did distract even though  It was used as a plot point for the series. 

To move it along to kind of see like, Hey, even though these people are so loyalist to like he who remains and they are aware, or maybe they know about the dangers, they're still going to carry out their mission, even though it is futile, but they don't just, they don't care. I mean, what else do they have left?

Like, this is all they know. So like, you know, they'd rather just go down with the ship. think of it like the titanic, they don't have any or any place to go and you know they rather just stay on the ship and just go down with it  so  there's that.  I think my other final week area of  the show was just establishing how selfie was, you know, living her life, you know. 

Once she committed the murder of He Who Remains, like she felt like she was done. And  she wanted to live normal. So it showed her going to a world and just,  you know, working at McDonald's.  And yet she still obtained the technology from He Who Remains, which was kind of like a contradictory.  You know, I'm going to murder you and everything you stand for.

Like, you know,  I don't want anything to do with you. I'm going to murder you and everything you stand for. But here I'm still gonna, you know, take the things that you have  and.  Kind of like peruse around. Cause we don't know actually what would occur? Like it? Did she travel? Did she get around  and she stay in one spot?

Bye for now. You know, cuz she is a god, she has her abilities. So there's something like, did she go to other timelines? Cause she, the bar that she had, or the technology that she took  from he who remains  does allow for him to do inter inter dimensional travel. So at some point she did have to,  you know, get curious and have to travel.

So. To see about the if the claims were true  which I doubt she did  because I just don't believe you know you she kills them and then that's it you go,  I Mean, I know there are individuals or characters who are like that. We're like I've done it and I'm just I'm on  Taking a break  They just made it they made it similar to like Thanos in a way where he snapped his fingers and then he was like I'm gonna go farming  I've done my my mission and I'm gonna go farming It was like similar to that.

She had a mission she did it and she's like now I'm just gonna go workout at McDonald's, you know giving you  You know, a quarter pounder with cheese or a Big Mac or McDouble or fries,  you know, and who knows if she was even making money.  Well, I just thought for me, I felt like that was a weak area that they built it up only to figure out like  she felt nothing. 

You know, here was Loki feeling like all the emotion and repercussions of the murder and here she was nothing straight face clean slate like  prior to it she had all these emotions leading up like how she you know was so against you know  He remains being there, being at the top, controlling people's, you know, lives, free will.

And then, you know, once it was done, just emotionless, didn't care.  Saying that there was the option of them having free will was better. And then Loki on the other, on the other side was just like dealing with the aftermath of the emotions of like what was done. 

My overview of this entire season of  Loki is that we got to see the progression from a character that  was selfish. He was greedy. He sought power and his ambitions were only for himself. And we saw.  The progression from  the character Loki from  a pivotal point  prior to his death,  and we had to put him through the fire. 

Him actually acknowledging or being told by Mobius in the previous season that He had no future. The only future he had was death, his neck being snapped.  Imagine being told that that he wasn't  He was never going to get a kingdom. He was never going to get power or the things that he was promised by Thanos,  that his outcome was death.

He, that was it, that all the decisions that he had made  led to that one outcome.  And that was the moment that we saw, you know, things change for Loki. throughout each episode of the previous season and each episode of this season that we saw the progression of him slowly shedding  those traits of him old  of his old self and not just thinking about himself which he's And I've mentioned many times in the series,  that it's not about him, and he acknowledges that.

It's not about, you know, the things that he wants.  That he had to look at himself and realize, That what he thought he wanted in the beginning, those are not the things that he needs. And what type of God does he want to be? Because in the beginning he thought that he only wanted was a throne. He wanted to seek power, he wanted acknowledgment  and  Gods,  true gods are acknowledged out of fear  Gods are acknowledged by those who love them and respect them, which is why, you know, Thor's, you know, respected and loved, you know, and other gods. 

And no one loves and respects him. They all fear him.  And so he started seeing those things.  And so we see that overall. And we also see that in the sense when he sees his variant. A different version of, of himself, a female.  But what's even better is that  because he's blind to see these traits and attributes in himself, but when he sees it in a variant, a female variant, and he can. 

you know, bear eye witness to those things that other individuals see and he can see them firsthand.  It makes him think and contemplate  and actually do self reflection. And so that's like, you know,  having the ability to go and see a different version of yourself.  You know, be in the same room and see a different version of yourself and that's made different choices,  you know, and talk to that person, that different version of yourself. 

Loki was able to do that, like he was able to not only like interact  and talk to a version of himself that had different ideals, a different outlook on life, a different upbringing, and brought different views and was so, you know, who sought revenge. 

And he realized he had those same attributes in the beginning. And so overall we see this  character progression of Loki by everyone he interacts with. It sheds a layer and overall the show, you know, We see the transformation from who he once was to who he is now. And as I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, you know, the tagline for this episode, and I think for Loki series is glorious purpose because  from season one to season two, that's all Loki is looking for.

He's looking for glorious purpose. He's looking for a purpose for himself. And by the end of season two, he gets it.  He doesn't obtain it by, you know,  by putting the,  by putting down others by greed, by seeking power, by, you know,  any of the attributes that he had prior.  He gains it by being selfless, honorable, and thinking about individuals outside of himself. 

And when he has it, he comes to the realization that this is what,  you know, he wanted. It wasn't at the beginning, but it is something that he needs.  And so  the show itself, you know, had its ups and downs. It was a giant roller coaster ride. You know, I would give this show,  even though there's not going to be a third season, which it  doesn't need to be. 

I give this series a, a nine out of 10.  Though there were some, you know, not some weak areas  Which it's a limited series, you know, I think a few episodes  Can't really make it much. I mean if they had longer episodes probably would have been better but the show is written very well and No Filmed very well, and I think you know You If they had chosen a different narrative, it probably wouldn't have done very well,  in my opinion. 

But  overall, my review,  9 out of 10. This is a good watch. I feel like they made a steelbook DVD version, a physical copy of Loki 1 and they will probably make a you know, physical copy for season two. I probably will end up picking those up because I feel like the show itself is that good to have them part of your collection along with your, the Marvel movies as well. 

and it's just unfortunate that we might not get any more Loki as of right now. But I will say that this is a good rewatch. So this is rewatchable, you know, just because of How great Tom Hiddleston is like he makes Loki Loki is his character And I'm glad that he was cast as that character because I don't think I could see anyone else pull that off but  again  9 out of 10 grade a show and It shows like that that you're able to watch with your family you get invested in  And it kinda just time flies.

And then when it's done, you're like, man, is there more? And you're just sad when there isn't.  So,  this brings us to the end of this episode.  I'll hopefully catch you guys in the next one.  We'll probably be doing more reviews of shows.  Possibly some Disney shows. We'll see, but I'll catch you guys later. All right.   📍  Bye

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of  Second Emulation , where we explore the latest in pop culture, movies, TV shows, video games, books, and anime. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple , Spotify, or your favorite podcast app, and leave us a rating and review to help us reach more listeners.  

Don't forget to follow us on social media for even more pop culture content and to stay up - to - date on all the latest news and releases.  The links will be on the episode footer of the episode description.  As  always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions for future episodes and to improve the podcast. 

So until next time, keep on Emulating and stay tuned for more exciting content.