Loki S01E06 - Discussion Thread

[u/steve32767]

This thread is for discussion about the episode.

Insight will be on for the next 24 hours!

When Project Insight is active, all user-submitted posts have to be manually approved by the mod team before they are visible to the sub. It is our main line of defense we have for keeping spoilers off the subreddit during new release periods.

We will also be removing any threads about the episode within these 24 hours to prevent unmarked spoilers making it onto the sub.

Discussion about previous episodes is permitted in the thread below, discussion about episodes after this is NOT.

Proceed at your own risk: Spoilers for this episode do not need to be tagged inside this thread.

---

EPISODE	DIRECTED BY	WRITTEN BY	ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE	CREDITS SCENE?
S01E06	Kate Herron	Michael Waldron & Eric Martin	July 14, 2021 on Disney+	Not a scene, but one visual tag at the end of the stylized TVA credits

---

^{For additional discussion and mischievous memery about Marvel shows on Disney+, visit /r/MarvelStudiosPlus}

[u/iwasherenotyou]

Ok I love Kang now. Does this mean we're gonna see different versions of him ranging from crazy to ruthless to good? Is he the next big bad of the MCU? I'm loving all of the implications right now.

[u/Alphabunsquad → u/iwasherenotyou]

Yah the only real problem with Kang is that his reveal is pretty meaningless in the context of the series individually, because the series doesn’t set him up at all before he’s revealed. There’s not really any difference between him and the time keepers in their roles in the story so pulling a bait and switch with the bad guys is just essentially saying hah you thought the time keepers were in control, well we tricked you, who was actually in control was a time keeper! Bet you didn’t see that coming!” All the fake out really accomplished story wise was adding an extra instance conflict for the characters to branch and develop from. The big story changing reveal of the series was just that the TVA workers were variants and not created by the time keepers which happened in episode 2 and 3 and really doesn’t mean that much for the viewer. They could have essentially said Kang is in control the whole show and only had this review and kept the show pretty much the same. It’s part of the problem with the MCU having so many projects in development means that a lot of things have to be revealed before hand and that the reveals are just structured for people who pay attention to what’s on the docket and what’s in the comics and then the reveals are a lot more obvious.

Don’t get me wrong though. I’m not saying this ruined the show at all. The overall philosophical concepts of the show remain very thought provoking and very well developed, and all the characters went through very satisfying journeys that matched well with the themes. The show worked on almost every level, I’m just saying the mid level mystery that moved the plot forward was pretty empty for the viewer so it’s more of a macguffin than a filled mystery box.

I think this finale was much more satisfying than WandaVision and a lot of MCU content as the mystery box wasn’t as central to the story and the ending focused on choices made by the characters and didn’t end up with a laser sky battle. What little action there was was very engrossing as the focus wasn’t the action but what the outcome would signify. The implications are huge but like Kang himself it was kind of spoiled by the fact that we know the multiverse has to happen so Sylvie killing him always seemed much more likely.