butterflykiki

I love using Kenzi as my icon. She is the embodiment of mischief-face, and very appropriate when talking about Loki.

Soooooo. A lot of questions got asked at the beginning of the series, and a lot still haven't been answered. And a lot were implied, and I think, have gotten a fair shake by now.

Some questions we can merrily skate by, because it's the MCU: how do those pruning batons work? How does the reset charge work? How do they negate magic inside the TVA? How come the Infinity Stones turn into paper-weights there? How did all the Variants at the TVA wind up there? And so on. Because, really, the answers all come back to: doesn't matter. It's Plot-ium, just roll with it.

What's going to happen next? I suspect a Loki - or some embodiment of Order - established the TVA in a 'desperate bid for control'. I hope like heck that Sylvie doesn't die-for-real in our upcoming final battle tomorrow. I know that Miss Minutes is involved, but not to what extent. I wanna know why Our Villain set the TVA up; but otherwise, it's not as important as the answers to other questions.... Which, like any good fan, I have been overly obsessively analyzing the show to find.

Like:

What is your glorious purpose? (Possibilities: Power. Survival. Victory. Revenge. The Truth. Being superior (and tricking all the other versions of yourself to prove it!) ... or maybe just having a purpose at all?)

If there's only one person you can trust -- who is it? (Yourself? Or somebody who accepts you for who you are?)

Loki: "What is this place [the Time Variance Authority]?"
(Possible answers given: Hell, the end of time, a nightmare, a circus (circle), an illusion - Basically, the show does a good job of putting Loki through the stages of the Afterlife, as well as grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, yadda yadda. But also, most importantly: acceptance. And an attempt at atonement. In the sense of changing. )

Sylvie: "So what exactly makes a Loki, a Loki?"
(Answers given: independence, authority, style; resistance to authority; losing; being outcast; surviving.

Answers not given, but present throughout the series: magic; self-love or narcissism, double-dealing, a certain blindness, insane determination-- and the color green. Emblematic of Life, freedom, chaos. The god(s) of mischief are there to upset the expected, so they (and we) can branch out (like the timeline) and grow.)

Supporting points:
Mobius: "Do you enjoy hurting people?"
Loki: "No. I don't. I don't enjoy. Hurting people... It's an illusion. It is the cruel, elaborate trick played by the weak, upon the strong, conjured to inspire fear."
Mobius: "The desperate bid for control."
[And once Loki says this out loud, and can't hide from what he's lost (mother, father, world, his own life), he starts changing.]

Interestingly:
Mobius: "I can't offer you salvation, but maybe I can offer you something better." [Note: he never does say what that is! As it turns out, that something is, well. Glorious Purpose.]

Various times and people to Loki and Sylvie: "What are you going to do (next)?"
(Enchant them. Kill them. Take over. Finish what I started. Become king. Survive. Burn it all down. )

Mobius: "Then what? Happily ever after? King of Space?"
Loki (at some point later, same question, more detailed answer): but with extreme sarcasm: "Because then I'll be truly happy."

Loki to Sylvie, same topic, of After: "Maybe we can figure it out. Together."

(No answers, just maybe someone to search for them with.)

Last: On trusting yourself, again:
Loki, on his mom Freya: "She was a queen of Asgard. Truly decent. She made you believe you could do anything."

Very early on, Loki says, "The first lie is the song of freedom. Choice breeds shame, uncertainty and regret. For every fork, the wrong path is taken."

And now, in the next to the last ep, we have these rebuttals:

Loki & Sylvie: "What is love?" (Hate. Mischief. An invisible dagger. A terrible metaphor. And possibly: Acceptance? Endurance? Change? Sacrifice. (see: Classic Loki.) Risk. Loss. Vulnerability. And truth.)

Finally: Who is the superior Loki?
(Suggested thoughts to help you figure it out:
Endgame-Loki to Thanos: "You will never be a god."
Memory-Sif to Loki: "You will always be alone."
Mobius to Loki: "You can be anything you want. No matter what anyone told you. Even someone good."
Loki to Sylvie: "You are amazing.")

To go from being the god of Mischief to a god of Chaos, you have to answer the question: who is being harmed by the trouble and mischief being caused? One of the Others in the first Avengers movie said of the people of Earth: "They are unruly, and therefore they can not be ruled." Maybe the answer is only: the idea of being ruled, ordered, commanded, destined is what needs to sometimes be destroyed.

And accepting and facing his many, many, many messed-up selves and messed-up choices is hopefully gonna allow Loki to change from Mischief to Chaos.

So yeah. I think the series has come full circle, and answered all the implied questions they brought up. I hope to heck that none of the character development is lost, and that we don't just wind up with Loki having Leveled Up his Magic; but with Loki having truly changed. And I hope, hope, hope, we see Mobius and Sylvie again, because they are also Agents of Change :D and they deserve to keep going into the next multi-verse.