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| He Who Remains in the middle of his villainous monologue |
Spoiler Alert: We are talking about Loki today. Proceed at your own peril.
Loki season 1 (there will be a season 2 according to the stinger embedded after the credits sequence of the season finale) ended by introducing us to a character called "He Who Remains." Played by Jonathan Majors from HBO's now canceled Lovecraft Country, he was a monologuing villain. However, his monologue wasn't boring, as he spoke to both Loki and Sylvie in the house at the end of time.
Who "He Who Remains" actually is...has yet to be revealed. But most sources who have read comic books say that this is Nathaniel Richards. They also say that Kang the Conqueror is one of many versions of Richards, which echoes a sentiment shared by He Who Remains when he referred to one of his variants as a "conqueror." This particular version of Kang was just a nerd who became a tyrant kind of accidentally. Not because he actually wanted to rule, but because he thought he knew what was best and had the means to achieve it.
As a villain, I found this character of He Who Remains to be affably evil with his pseudo arguments of, "What would you do in my place? All of your lives were necessary collateral damage...a sacrifice to keep the timeline pure. If you think you can do better, then you should and just take over." I also liked the line, "We're all villains here." It seemed appropriate given the circumstance that Sylvie and Loki had somehow managed to achieve the high ground of morality despite their storied history of death and destruction. The difference then seemed to be in the growth of the Loki character played by Hiddleston, who learnt to consider what if he is wrong and how that can affect others. This was unique, as Sylvie (to the very bitter end) was consumed by revenge for the wrongs that had been done to her.
In watching these six episodes of the first season, I've got to say that none of this went in the direction that I thought it would. Loki was singularly the most baffling of the Disney + series that include WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was also the most revealing into the MCU's future, by giving us a glimpse of all the time travel quackery that is going to consume the multiverse. I wonder how the writers are even going to keep track of all the timelines that are going to explode, and all the various iterations of the characters we know and how they will face the threat of Kang the Conqueror. I worry that it will become confusing in the same way that Dark on Netflix got really confusing and not at all enjoyable. I also wonder if Kang will fall short of the impressiveness of Thanos. I don't really know much about him, so I'm excited to learn. I definitely think that Marvel is trying to go in a different direction, and try out a completely polar opposite of Thanos by recognizing that you can't capture lightning in a bottle more than once.
And I had a parting thought I wanted to share sparked by the Loki mini-series. Maybe the common thread of the future movies is going to be the TVA (Time Variance Authority), and how everyone is going to try for a better version of the TVA. In other words, stopping Kangs from warring across multiverses seems necessary, but not if the cost is free will and the destruction of so many other lives. I also wonder if the timelines diverging means that there are now multiple instances of the TVA. Loki landed in a very different version--one with Kang's statues and no one remembering him. So what exactly does that mean if the TVA itself has been rewritten other than to send the basic message that nothing that has happened thus far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe accounts for anything. It seems like a weird place to go with these stories, but maybe a great reset is what they needed to break away from the comic book peak that they reached with the Infinity Gauntlet story.
Do any of you have any thoughts or considerations regarding the Loki mini-series?
I thought it went in a great direction although the cliffhanger ending bugged me. How all of it ties in with the rest of the Marvel universe will be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watching it yet but I probably will binge it all sometime soon like I did with the other two series.
ReplyDeleteI like how the MCU was this thing building towards a finale, and now we're kind of in a season 2 with a new big bad. But where they're going? No idea.
ReplyDeleteHaving watched it last night, I liked it but it was kind of odd that Loki is one of the least important characters in a show called Loki. Marvel and DC have both been going into this multiverse direction and I suppose it's appealing because it makes your universe far more flexible. Besides setting up a lot of cameos like the Crisis on Infinite Earths on the CW, Michael Keaton in the upcoming Flash movie, former Spider-Men in the next Spider-Man movie, etc. it makes it easy to replace the next ones who follow Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans out the door. If they don't agree with Tom Holland on a new contract, they can just hire someone else and say he's the Spider-Man of Earth 7000 or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI've read a few comics with Kang in them. I gather he's one of those long-running villains in the comics. A young version of him was part of the Young Avengers for a while.