I wasn’t sure I was going to write a personal blog post about Loki. I didn’t about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, mostly because the articles I wrote for CBR summed up my important thoughts, and my WandaVision piece had a pretty specific focus even though I had other thoughts (most of them along the lines of “I love Darcy/Monica/Jimmy!” and “gosh Kathryn Hahn is a fun villain”). I guess this one has a focus too, though, if a broader one.
I’m not and never have been a Loki stan. Being in the periphery of MCU fandom since The Avengers, I got pretty burned out on him; this is not a knock on Hiddles, but the Loki stans themselves. Because he was a pretty white boy with a sad backstory, his following bent over backwards to excuse his bad behavior and turn him into the softest, saddest boy who just needed a hug, and I was not amused by this.
It got worse, of course, and by the time the #StandWithWard crowd rolled in I, and drift partner for that matter, were begging to go back to the Loki apologist days. Subsequent films made Loki more of a Spike from Buffy figure, a former villain with vague intentions who just kept being there, and that mellowed me out too. (Honestly, so did other characters dragging and/or annoying Loki; don’t be mean to people, but also the best thing Doctor Strange ever did was make Loki fall in a void for half an hour. That’s just funny.)
Loki the show was initially pitched as a series about Loki having dumb adventures doing minor time crimes throughout history, and I do sort of wish that had been the case despite the fact that I enjoyed the show overall. Time crimes are whimsical if they’re one-offs (see also: Legends of Tomorrow, the most valid DC show) and I like whimsy.
Full story here.
