Loki (Season 1) - Analysis?

analysis
#1

Have you seen it? Do you think it’s a GAS?
It seems to me that there is a potential for it, but I’m not sure, if it’s complete.
Here is my ideas (SPOILER):

  • OS seems like a typical mystery filled action story (OS: Activity, Understanding).
  • MC: Loki, the god of mischief. He is a “fish out of water” character in the TVA, with a suspicious backstory (MC: Situation, Past). The show’s theme about predeterminism vs. freewill could be the MC’s thematic conflict, something like Prediction vs. Interdiction, or vica-versa.
  • Mobius - the mind-wiped TVA agent (IC: Memory).
  • The RS could be the friendship between Loki and Mobius, and the romance between Loki and Sylvie.

The first season finale seems like a Success /Bad story (If the actual protagonist is Sylvie)

Aside from Storyform, I’m wondering if the writers changed something important in Loki’s character. However the acting was great, many reviewers noticed that the series Loki felt like a completely different personality compared to the original character from the movies. It’s a bit like Flanderization (Flanderization - TV Tropes). I wondering if the original Loki has some kind of unique combination of characteristics, which is lost in the series. Or is it a storytelling problem?

What do you think? :slight_smile:

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#2

Amazing show. I had felt it was a GAS for sure until the final episode, which really seemed to miss the mark for some reason. But I’m not sure if the problems in that episode were structural or something else. I agree on Success/Bad.

I had pegged the throughlines, Domains & Concerns the same as you. They sure did talk about trust a lot though, I wonder what element they were really talking about? :slight_smile: Sylvie might be a handoff IC when Mobius isn’t around (at least 1 whole episode IIRC).

Regarding Loki’s character, I thought it was super refreshing what they did – it felt like they were zooming in and showing things from his point of view (vs. say Thor’s) so that you could look on his past actions and so-called “personality” in a new light.

Despite the last episode, I really did love it. There was a Neil Gaiman sort of quality to the story and characters that I dug.

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#3

I felt the same.
Actually I also wondered, if Sylvie was an IC too. (She was continously bitter about her unjust past, her lost childhood etc., so I think, she fits into the Memory Concern quite well.) But in this case, the ending is somewhat schizophrenic. I mean, Mobius seems like a clear Changed IC (in the end of the fifth episode he decides to burn down the TVA), however Sylvie seems more like a Steadfast character (she sticks with her revenge at any price and refuses to trust Loki).

If the IC’s Concern is Memory, than it’s maybe the Issue of Suspicion? It makes me remember the Harry Potter series. The IC Issue was Suspicion - Harry always suspected that Snape was actually a bad guy, and he wasn’t able trust him untill the end. Maybe in this case it works backward, and the ICs mistrust the MC?

I liked Loki’s POV too, but in the other hand, I also felt his character a bit… simplified (?). I’m not sure, if I use the correct word. I mean, his emotional issues and backstory are the same, but he went from a morally ambigous trickster/anti-villain to a more classical hero. For some reason, it felt more like flanderization to me, rather than character development. But maybe I’m just too strict. :slight_smile: (Anyway Loki is still my favourite character from the MCU. :slight_smile: )

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#4

I like Sylvie for the protagonist, particularly when I saw a speculation on what Sylvie’s nexus event was, which was that Sylvie dared to picture herself and in that moment become a hero. If you’re interested in the whole theory let me know and I’ll post a link. Beyond that, I agree, Success Bad, but again, both of those are tied to her.

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