Transcript

Katie: Listeners, welcome back to Sisters Assembled, and if it’s not very clear, it better be now. This clearly isn’t Taylor and it’s not because Taylor is not here with me, but it’s simply because we just finished Loki, and I think she needs a second so I’m starting this episode. We’re changing it up and, you know, this is like a raw reaction guys. This is so raw, we finished this 10 minutes ago. We watched it on FaceTime with each other. If you just listened to our last episode, that episode was recorded about an hour and a half ago and you guys, you could hear our energy through that one. If you can’t tell our energy through this one, well, Loki has greatly changed, greatly changed our vibe. So, Taylor, I gave you a little bit of time. I gave you a little bit more time because we did have to take a break. We had to just sit for a second. What did you think of the Loki Season Two finale which seems like the Loki series finale?

Taylor: I feel pain. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like and I think you mention this the vibe switch between how I felt walking out of The Marvels and how I feel after watching Loki Episode Six from Season Two. It’s like the wind was taken out of my sails. It is just devastating. I don’t know how else to explain it. We very rarely watched the shows at the same time. We watch them kind of on our own and then we obviously find a time to record just based on our own schedules but obviously, you all know the night that it’s been tonight, we had the opportunity to actually do things a lot in the same time. So we got the chance to Facetime, which for us is about as good as being in the same room because we very rarely get the chance to do that. So, you know, the whole time we were watching it together, I just kept waiting for the shoe to drop, and then it dropped and I just don’t know, it just did not land for me. We both went on Twitter after to see, like, what the general vibe was. It has mixed reviews. I’m not in the happy camp. I just feel like look like I didn’t find the episode that- visually beautiful- I do want to say that, I don’t mean to like crap on it 100%. I think it was visually stunning. I mean, there are some shots of Hiddleston in this episode that are just going to live in my mind rent-free forever, but I just didn’t find the episode itself that compelling. I don’t like where they left Loki because it’s very ambiguous and we were talking about it’s like kind of like you killed the character without killing the character because he’s now essentially exiled and we’ll get into that in a minute. But I mean, my initial gut reaction was just you couldn’t let me have one good day, Marvel like just one day where I could just be really, really happy? You took it. I was really there. I was like, you know what? It’s like 9:45 and I feel really, really good and then we started the episode just before ten, and by 11:00 I was like, I just want to sit on my toilet for the rest of the evening and cry a little bit because I don’t feel good anymore. That’s pretty much the vibe switch that happened between starting the episode and finishing the episode. That’s where we are.

Katie: I mean, any of you guys who just came from our The Marvel’s reactions can hear it. We were pretty much screaming on that reactions episode because it was just so crazy and now I somehow feel like I’m at a funeral.

Taylor: Literally, it’s like my happiness died.

Katie: Right and I feel that I now need to be calm and there’s no excitement coming out of me. I have to go back to what you were saying and I have to say, I don’t disagree. I find the irony in how much I ended up hating Season One and I’m not saying you hate Season Two. I don’t know. We’ll give you a few days to think about that. But I do find the irony in how, as I slept further on Loki Season One, I ended up despising it and I almost wonder what your fate will be now with Season Two, the longer that you can sleep on it and really feel your emotions. I can’t say I fully disagree with some of the points you’ve made. I do think it was a beautiful, beautiful episode. The shots to your point were stunning. I think a lot of it I was confused and then when I wasn’t confused, I was kind of just disappointed. 

Taylor: I just feel like I don’t really understand the point of the season. I don’t really understand why we went through all of this. I guess, it just feels like alright great, this whole thing about the loom and now he’s just going to destroy it and become the God of Stories and that is something that we will talk about throughout this episode. That’s not the only time we’re going to address that. But it just feels like very you know, what it feels like, Kate? It feels like the WandaVision season finale or series finale when all we could say was that it was underwhelming. That’s exactly how I feel. That same pit in my stomach where they just couldn’t land a finale. That is how I feel and the fact that then we’re coming off of Episode Five I felt like they couldn’t land either and I was really hoping that they would get me back in Episode Six. I think it’s just like we were so good through Four and then they just slid off the side of a cliff for me. Five and Six.

Katie: Are you saying that Loki Season Two once again couldn’t nail the last few episodes?

Taylor: I know it’s shocking given their stellar track record of nailing six episodes.

Katie: Dude, I was doing the predictions transcript not too long ago and I was reading through our predictions and there was a lot of me saying, I didn’t like Season One, I’m nervous about Season Two. And I mean, I kept saying it, I don’t know what to expect. I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt, but I’m nervous after what happened, in my opinion, in Season One that fell apart and now here we are again and yet I’m still unfulfilled by this show and I’m, you know, really torn because I think it had some really solid episodes. You made such a great point by saying what was the point of the season? And quite frankly, I’m not sure because we start off with finding out the loom can’t handle the branches. We go through and I think we even said it Episodes One through Three, you really didn’t know the full direction that we were going to go with the show. We were all over the place and that was fine. I mean, One through Three could set up anything. Four to Six are where the big hitters come in right? Now we’re here and now I just don’t really understand where we got from or where we came from to where we got. I do, but I don’t and this entire episode, I was just stressed and I’m all for the whole God of Stories. We will talk about that more in depth and that was something a lot of people predicted coming into this episode. Beyond that, honestly, you could have given me the last maybe 10 minutes as a short film and thrown out the rest of it. I get the rest was trying to prove that you couldn’t do anything differently, but really you could’ve given me the last 10 minutes. I would have been still unfulfilled. I would have been underwhelmed, if you will, but at least I would have cut to the BS. That’s how I feel. 

Taylor: Yeah. I think for me, it really started to hit that the season was unnecessary when they took us all the way back to the Season One finale and basically was like, yeah, you can’t fix anything because as long as she does this, it’s all going to go to poo. And so it’s like, all right, so then why did I just watch five episodes if basically, we need to go back to the end of Season One to fix this? That to me was my first red flag where I was like, then why did I just invest 5 hours of watching this, only for you to be like, yeah, everything you do here is useless because you either got to kill Sylvie or whatever and I know he found another way, but like, that’s the part where I was like, oh really? We’re going to go all the way back here.

Katie: Yeah, that’s a fair take. I also think I guess this is more of a level of confusion because there were a lot of these for me duing in this episode. But how did he actually figure out how to not have the loom explode or how to do the ending, essentially? How did he actually end up putting that together?

Taylor: I don’t know. He just walked up and he was like, I know how to fix it now. It was very weird.

Katie: Well, that’s what I mean. Unless we both were just not paying attention at that point, I did not understand how he knew that that was going to work. But what you were saying, yeah, as soon as we went back to the battle in Season One, I mean, I will say my hopes went higher because I thought, well, Marvel’s been very sus on their pages lately. So I was like, maybe, just maybe we need to go way back. Maybe there is more lore behind here that we need to really change something so I know Taylor even said while we were watching it, like, is Hemsworth just going to appear like, what’s going to happen? Because we were moving back, moving back, and then we didn’t go further beyond him and Mobius when Mobius first brings him in and kind of talks to him and everything and that’s fine. I mean, no, it’s not, because there’s a piece of me that’s very upset about that because I feel like they were really hinting at a lot, although now, in retrospect, they weren’t hinting at anything more than saying, you know, it all leads to his glorious purpose and he is a god. They were confirming that again and again, again, you are a god and now he’s the God of Stories. So I’m all cool with good character development. I think that’s what saved some of this for me, my bigger complaint in Season One was the lack of focus on Loki himself, and I think this season actually did focus on the character so I’m happier with it in that sense and he did have massive character growth. I’m just not really sure I’m content with it and maybe that’s just because I don’t want this character to be done and we’ll get to a little bit of the theories or thoughts that can go behind that, but I just I’m not sure this is where I thought he was going to go. I’m trying to figure out and balance, what was my expectation and what is just genuine disappointment.

Taylor: And I think when you were saying the character development, I agree but I think one of the things that that statement helped me crystallize and why I have a pit in my stomach right now is that one of the important things that Loki realizes is he doesn’t want to be alone, but he ended up alone anyway. It’s this is going to sound so childish and so simple, but it’s not fair that he has to be alone now after he realizes that he needs people and that he can’t, he no longer has access to his family in Thor and Odin and Frigga. But he had found this found family, this chosen family, and he couldn’t be with them either. It just doesn’t seem and that’s so dumb because obviously, like, not everybody gets a happy ending. I get it, whatever but at the same time, for you to emphasize in Episode Five that it’s important for him to be with the people he wants to be with, his friends, he wants to bring them back. He wants to not be alone, and then he ends up alone anyway. It’s like, well, why did he have that realization? Why can’t he just live his life? It’s like goes back to the whole idea of, well, the definition of a Loki is a Loki always loses. Well, this Loki just keeps losing. He’s now the God of Stories, but only after he doesn’t want the power, he just wants the community and so that I think too, is another part, though really bothers me is that he didn’t get the ending that I think this Loki deserves because he’s fully recognized that he needs to be with other people and that was a major part of his growth this season.

Katie: I don’t disagree with that but I do think you could also argue that a Loki in general, look at our Loki from 616, the OG, lives through the Sacred Timeline. His whole character arc is I think we talked about this in one of the other episodes relating to Iron Man actually. The whole idea of self-preservation, it’s me over everybody else regardless of who it hurts, who I stomp on, not because they’re necessarily a bad person, but because they’ve been through crap and they just are going to make sure they make it out on top no matter what the situation is. I think Loki especially the one that we saw go through his arc through Infinity War, very much had that mentality. Odin, the world’s worst father, did some great damage and he was focused always on self-preservation, our Loki. I think that’s a big thing that we see grow through this Loki during this season especially, is he no longer is trying to and I can’t speak so much for Season One because I think there was just a very different storyline going on. But I think in this season he no longer was allowing himself to put his feelings and what was best for him. He was doing what was best for his friends and the greater universe. He knew he couldn’t kill Sylvie. Do I agree with that? No, not at all but that’s really not important. How I feel about that is not important. But he knew he couldn’t and his whole conversation was He Who Remains confirms that at the end of the day, if he can’t kill her, then nothing’s going to change. The loom will always explode as He Who Remains explained it. It’s a failsafe. It was meant to do that, which makes sense. Does check out to me.

Taylor: It also answers our question about what the failsafe was in the last episode.

Katie: Yeah, it was the loom itself. But Loki went through all of this, understanding it all, and realized the only way to save everybody would be to not preserve himself almost and to take himself out of the equation. Again, how he figured out that he was going to be able to go out into the temporal energy and nothing happened to him. I think some of that goes back to what we learned in Episode Five where he just I mean, I even talk about in the blog post, he sticks out, right? He’s always the odd man out. He doesn’t go back to his branched timeline. He’s the only one who doesn’t noodle when everybody else noodles. I’m sure there’s probably a better word for that, but I like the word noodles so we’re going to stick with it.

Taylor: On this show, we’re calling it noodling.

Katie: Yeah, who cares? Who cares what other people say? This show is going to call it noodling.

Taylor: We have created our own set of vocabularies, so y’all need to just stick to it.

Katie: Exactly but I think we were getting those hints that he’s different and we were talking about it. We were talking, is he a Nexus being? I guess technically now yes, he is.

Taylor: I mean, he’s the God of Stories but isn’t he also, like low key, high key, the God of-.

Katie: Is he Loki? Yeah.

Taylor: Yes.

Katie: Sorry. 

Taylor: Also, isn’t he also like the God of the Multiverse, essentially like he is the Multiverse. His cave is literally made of timelines.

Katie: So I would have to say, because every other Loki is the God of Mischief, I would have to say, does that not make him now a Nexus being? Is that not any different than there being infinite Wandas but then there’s only one Scarlet Witch?

Taylor: I mean, I don’t see a difference.

Katie: So maybe we were right about that, that’s kind of cool. That was kind of a semi-left-field theory that came out of Episode Five. But either way, I mean, like I said, I’m cool with the character growth of where it went and I see your point about him being alone. I don’t agree with him being alone, but I see why we ended up there. I wish he wasn’t. I saw somebody on Twitter who said it kind of just feels like a prison, what they set him up in and I don’t disagree because I got the impression he can’t really leave.

Taylor: Yeah, a couple of things to that. I do agree with you that, like, it does make sense that he’s less self-focused and more thinking about others. I think where I’m struggling when it comes to that is then why have him even go through the process of realizing he needs other people? Do you know what I’m saying? He had that whole self-realization and then wasn’t even able to act on it because he had to self-sacrifice and so that’s where I got a little frustrated because I was like, you just spent an entire episode for this guy to realize he wants to be around people. He doesn’t want to be alone. He’s not all in it for himself all the time and then he has to make that decision. And so that’s where I was like it, to me, it just seems like a wasted, like self-realization moment, you know?

Katie: I see your point, but I would have to argue that the self-realization is what allowed him to make that decision because he knew he wanted to be around people. He no longer was preserving himself, putting himself first. He realized he wanted to be around others, and that meant he thought others needed to be around him. You know what I mean? Like it was now this idea of it’s bigger than myself. It’s not just me and so I think that flipped his head when realizing, in order to allow this to continue, I have to be removed from the equation. It’s almost like the worst Catch-22 ever.

Taylor: Yeah, I mean, that’s fair. I definitely think it is. I like the Catch-22 kind of analysis of it. I think that’s exactly what it is. It’s in realizing that you need other people, that you have to make the sacrifice to give those people a chance and you have to be alone to do that. 

Katie: I also think too, keep in mind the loom exploding, if he was not ever able to kill Sylvie, if that was just he knew he’d never be able to do that. The loom was always going to explode and Loki was always going to end up alone. At least this way he could now end up alone, knowing everybody else still got to live a life.

Taylor: That is true. He gave them their fighting chance like Sylvie said.

Katie: Yeah, exactly because at the end of the day, that is what Episode Five, we were talking about what did this really teach us if we were just going back in time? And I think the argument almost hit us a little bit with Episode Six as well but now we can see in retrospect, Episode Five was teaching us Loki no matter what was going to be alone because there’s no place for him on the Sacred Timeline and the Loom was going to destroy the TVA and all the branches that went along with it. He would have been alone. So now realizing that and marrying it with everything we learned in this episode, he gave everybody else a fighting chance.

Taylor: Yeah. I want to circle back on your prison statement and what you were saying that you saw on Twitter. I do think that too, doesn’t sit right with me, honestly, because I also got the vibe that he pretty much has to be there. He is, I mean, we talked about it when we were watching the episode, like what does that final image, you zoom out from Loki and you see what used to be the Sacred Timeline, and the loom actually looks like Yggdrasil, the tree of life that we learn about in the Thor movies. And you get the impression that he has to be there to sustain it all, to be kind of the life support for all of the branches and if that means that he can’t leave, that means he is trapped. He essentially traded one prison of being the only person alive in the whole Multiverse to being the king, essentially of the Multiverse or the God of the Multiverse, who has to be alone, trapped inside the tree of life, essentially maintaining it. And I don’t know, I guess I really thought that he was going to be able to join the main continuity, I mean, he is in the main continuity, but join kind of the more mainstream heroes again and join some of those stories that were not necessarily directly just related to like the TVA and kind of get back into it. And now it seems almost like they’ve killed him without killing him, you know like they’ve taken him off the board, essentially, because God only knows what happens if he leaves. And then the question becomes, okay, we’re looking at a Kang dynasty, that’s all well and good, but, they are clearly after Kang variants, they mentioned it in the last few episodes of the or sorry, the last few minutes of the episode, but there are obviously other Kang variants. We’ve seen them. They even say, do they know that we exist? Like that’s a whole thing. They say, no, the members of the TVA, B-15, and Mobius, they’re like, no, we don’t think so, but they do. That’s the whole point of the end of Quantumania, which they do actually reference as well, that one of them is doing something in a world adjacent to 616, another confirmation that we’re 616 so just wanted to point that out as well. But I say all that to say like we’re getting into that Kang Dynasty. I mean, I would have to think now that Loki has to be a major player because he is literally the center of the Multiverse. So if you’re looking at a potential Multiversal war where you’ve got multiple Kang variants out there, how can you have that without Loki? Does that free him from his prison? Because otherwise, how else do we get our guy out of there and actually telling stories or being included in stories again, without sidelining the character, which would be incredibly frustrating.

Katie: I’m not sure I’m confident in saying he’s forever stuck there, especially with the storylines coming up that you pointed out. So I’m not confident in saying that at all but I do think it’s an interesting dynamic they created because I’m not sure, and I think this is kind of what you were saying, I’m not sure how one exists without the other anymore. Loki is the center of it. He’s holding it all together. He’s making sure everything stays alive because O.B. even says the branches are dying and then Loki starts grabbing them all and suddenly they’re living, so he’s keeping it all together. As Kang Dynasty comes around, I don’t know and I think this goes to the bigger question that we’ve always been asking since Phase Four started and we officially got the name of the next few phases, this era and honestly, I think since when Loki Season Two started coming around, the question of do we keep the Multiverse open after something like Secret Wars? And that, in my opinion, might come down to the fate of this Loki, the way that they set this up. I mean, if they are implying that I’m not even trying to say the name because when I read Magnus Chase, I couldn’t say the name but the tree, if the tree is single-handedly being kept alive and all the branches which I do like that continuity that now the branches and it being a tree, I’m like, okay, thank you for that.

Taylor: We love a good I guess is it a metaphor?

Katie: I don’t know but that just makes me feel good because I’m like, okay, now they’re not just branches, they’re like literally branches so I feel better about that. But if it’s all being kept alive by Loki, I would have to think, you know, to stop the Kangs, well, guess what? You kind of got to take the Multiverse out of the equation. And then, like I said, when you have Secret Wars, come onto the board, now we don’t have anything. We have all these universes clashing. You have Battleworld. So I don’t know, I really don’t. Like I said, I was confused 90% of this episode. 

Taylor: Yeah, I think you bring up some good points when it comes to Battleworld especially. I just don’t know how you marry this current iteration of the Multiverse with what we know is going to happen and what we know is already in motion, right? We know that incursions are happening, and that was made very clear in MoM and there’s a reason they chose that word. It’s because the word incursion was a direct clue to Secret Wars. It wasn’t a coincidence that within a few what was it, weeks, of MoM coming out that Secret Wars was announced as the name of the big team-up movie. So I just don’t know how you go from Loki benevolently looking after the Multiverse to how he then allows incursions to happen if he’s literally the God of Stories, literally the God of the Multiverse, well I don’t want to say literally the God of the Multiverse, but essentially the God of the Multiverse, how is he allowing that to happen? Because now you have a being who is more altruistic than He Who Remains. All He Who Remains cared about was the Sacred Timeline. 

Katie: And himself and protecting himself. There’s a difference between the two of them.

Taylor: Well, right and realistically, like the Sacred Timeline is an extension of He Who Remains, they’re so intertwined. With Loki, he’s looking after not just one timeline, but the entire Multiverse, and I really have a lot of trouble rectifying the idea of Loki being the benevolent atcher over the Multiverse and allowing Doctor Strange to create an incursion and not only creating an incursion, but allow it to happen to the point where we get into Battleworld. That doesn’t make sense to me.

Katie: Unless there’s a difference between him and He Who Remains as far as their jobs and everything, what they’re doing, because He Who Remains actively was using the TVA to prune branches to keep the Sacred Timeline, the only timeline that was there, and he was making sure that everything went a certain way. That was what his job was and everything he wanted to go a certain way in some way, shape or form helped him. That was just how he was. I wonder if Loki can’t inherently interfere. You actually by accident said about the Watcher, that’s the Watcher’s whole thing, he can’t interfere. He’s literally just watching. Well, and then obviously things happen because UltronVision gets scary and whatever and becomes way too self-aware. Again, an interesting AI dynamic and test for those who want to talk about AI, but the Watchers’ whole thing is he’s just there to watch. He’s watching everything unfold in the Multiverse and I wonder if that’s what Loki is doing at this point. He’s breathing life into the Multiverse. That is what he is doing, he’s keeping it alive, but it is not his job to control it.

Taylor: I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t mean for him to control it. I think, though his job and his perspective on his job is that he wants to protect it. To me, you’ve got to protect it from an incursion. If that means you have to take out a Doctor Strange here or there who gets a little too close to being a dummy or really is a dummy, whatever, love you, guy but like, you’re stupid. But, you know, if you have to take out a Doctor Strange, don’t laugh at me.

Katie: Tell me how you really feel about Stephen Strange.

Taylor: No, I love Stephen Strange, but sometimes he’s just a pigheaded, stupid fart.

Katie: It’s getting late guys and mean, over here.

Taylor: I’m not in the mood to mince words tonight. We’ve watched a lot of Marvel, and the second one didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth. So sometimes you got to and I know this is what he didn’t want to do is Sylvie but like, when it comes to the fate of the Multiverse, and I’m not even saying you need to take out Doctor Strange. If you have to put him on a different path, if you have to, you know, find a way to make him make a different choice, whatever it is, there’s a different way to do it than necessarily how He Who Remains did it with the pruning and that’s fine. 

Katie: I mean, I hear you, but I do wonder if it like I said, it’s just his job to breathe life into it. And unfortunately, incursions are probably very natural in a Multiverse, like it’s just a natural thing. So I wonder if it’s almost because, come on, you’re always going to have people who meddle. It’s just what happens and on top of that, who’s to say incursions can’t sometimes start to happen by themselves, depending on, listen, the whole tree of life thing has only confused my actual visible way of looking at the Multiverse. I’m almost now more confused than when it was a line with a bunch of branches. So who knows my thought process there, I’m going to have to sleep on that one. But maybe it’s just a natural thing. A couple of branches die off because of it. Okay, it happens because don’t branches die on a tree? Yeah. 

Taylor: Yeah okay, here’s my thing, though. Two things. One, Loki’s basically the dad of the Multiverse, right? He gives it life but I also think then that means he has to protect it and by protecting it it means, he wants to preserve the branches and incursion is a direct threat. And I think that could be the one case where he should and could interfere to protect the people on those branches.

Katie: Maybe we will, and that’s how this Loki makes his next appearance.

Taylor: And I’m okay with that. I just you know, I wanted to point out that it’s hard for me to think that he would let that happen and let an incursion happen, knowing that it is a direct threat to a timeline. The other thing I want to say is not only are we looking at an incursion in MoM, but this particular incursion is not just one, it is the literal collapse of multiple timelines. Battleworld isn’t just two worlds colliding. Yes, we joined Battleworld in the comics after 616 and another universe collided but there are multiple other universes that had already collided. It’s just these were the last two. I think we need to also put Secret Wars into perspective, knowing that it’s not just, here’s one singular incursion. It’s a series of incursions that is marked by one final one in which 616 is involved but it is essentially like a collapse of the Multiverse. That’s, I think, something that the dad of the Multiverse needs to keep an eye on. 

Katie: Yeah, I mean, again, I don’t disagree. I think that might be how you can explain bringing him into something else in the future. Honestly and maybe it’s because of Episodes One through Five, I find the ending so disappointing for his character in general because I don’t really feel like Episodes One through Five led us here.

Taylor: I agree.

Katie: Yeah and at least in a way that I think we deserve. If it was leading us fully, I think it was in some ways, but I’m not sure it was leading us to this. Say we never saw Loki again. I think you did a huge injustice to the fans. At that point, I would be like, you remember that really awful way you killed him in Infinity War, you should have left him there. And that’s a lot coming from me.

Taylor: Well, it’s so frustrating because they shortchanged him there. Obviously, we all know that he died stupidly but then if you leave him here, you resurrected him only to take him off the board. You can’t kill him because the fandom rioted, well, certain corners of the fandom rioted and then we went deep, deep, deep into conspiracy theory territory, which is like not a safe place for anybody ever. And so it was not a good turn or look, especially because a lot of people, these hosts included, still live in many of those conspiracy theories. So like, it was not a good look for any of us so they know they can’t kill him but this is just like a cheap way of taking you off the board, knowing that people are going to riot if they kill him. But if they never bring him back, this is just the stupidest sunset of a character ever. I’m sorry, I get it but you also just up-leveled the character, he’s the God of Stories. This is beyond the God of Mischief. This is beyond anything we’ve ever seen. You made him so much more powerful. It’s like what they did to Wanda. They made her so powerful, and then they took her off the board. They don’t know how to handle powerful characters, so they’re like, ooh, you are too much for me, let me put you in a drawer and make you useless, like those stones that we spent ten years looking after but that’s fine.

Katie: Girl, you are preaching to the freaking choir. Because as the O.G. Loki girl in this chat right now, I get it and as the Scarlet Witch girl, I really get it because that has been my narrative forever. The fact that they don’t know what to do with superpowered beings, totally couldn’t agree more. I think it’s just frustrating because, as you said, he’s been upgraded to this really awesome being and if I never see him again, that is one of the biggest Ls I think Marvel can take because it’s just again, why’d we even do it to be quite honest? What to open the Multiverse? Was that all this was for at the end of the day? And I think it was beautiful. I think he did have character growth. If I don’t get to see anything past that, that’s disappointing. I deserve to see something with this character rather than just watching him transform and sit on a throne. That’s not fair. I need to see more. I need to actually see I want to see this character growth in full, you know, whatever I want to see at all. So I don’t think it’s fair to sit there and be like, that’s it. Now, there have been people talking about, could there be other variants. Sure.

Taylor: Screw that. I’m sorry. I just, no.

Katie: Well, you cut me off. I was going to say sure, there could be, but it’d be stupid.

Taylor: No, no, no I knew you were going to agree with me I just needed to get that out because I was angry. And look, look, the Multiverse opens up opportunity, but it also is a dangerous, slippery slope if you’re just going to bring back characters like all of this stuff that they’re talking about bringing back the OG six. The rumors and potential confirmation that RDJ is coming back.

Katie: Which is just weird because I’m sorry but Chris Evans was very adamant he was done but go off Marvel.

Taylor: I mean mans is talking about not even acting anymore but like that’s fine but like, look, here’s my thing. Do you not use the Multiverse to cheapen stories and to cheapen characters. I don’t want another Loki to go hang out with Thor. That’s not what I’m asking for. I’m asking for the Loki that I just watched for two seasons who had incredible character growth, who has now up-leveled into a new God, into a new version. That’s the version that I care about now, and that’s the version that I want to see reunite with his brother, not some stupid, cheap version of the character that you just brought back for fan service. That’s where the Multiverse can be frustrating and slippery because it’s a way for stupid stuff to be brought alive. I need everything to have a reason and to have a narrative. Same thing as I said with the OG six. If you’re going to bring them back, you’d better be for a darn good reason. Don’t just do it because you can’t figure out how to live a life beyond them because then you’re just rehashing stupid crap and so, that is so concerning to me on so many levels. I just can’t even verbalize mostly because I’m exhausted, but also because I’m angry, I can’t even verbalize how disappointed I would be if any of that comes to fruition because that is just cheap and dumb.

Katie: I will say, after that, I will say we aren’t confirmed that this is it. We aren’t confirmed with anything. Obviously, we didn’t get the Season Three. I would have been shocked if we did with that ending but, you know, this might not be the end. I will say doomsday planning if it is, I fully understand your reaction. I get it because it would be kind of ridiculous, in my opinion, to make us care about a different version of Loki after I already I can’t even say I mourned the other one because I’m still hard in denial after I still had to deal with some sort of grief over the original Loki. You made me want to like another one, to follow another one just to what? And so I get it. If we take away the doomsday planning, again, this might not be it. He could make more appearances. He’s a very important member now of the Multiverse in general and this is the Multiverse Saga so I have to think that that keeps the doors pretty wide open. Again, kind of goes back to that question, though. Are we going to have the Multiverse open forever? I don’t know, I don’t know. Maybe we’re going to get some cheap shot of a Kang variant killing this Loki because Marvel loves their full-circle moments, so who knows?

Taylor: I will walk out of a theater, I swear to God I will walk out.

Katie: Listen, you never know and I think that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make, at the end, it was a beautifully shot episode, especially those last 15 minutes, roughly. I mean, the beginning was so much fun with him going back and going back. Obviously, we got into some very serious territory during the middle of it and I think, you know, we saw great character growth. I’m not going to rule out this Loki. I’m not hopeful, but I’m not going to rule him out and I think that’s what I got to say about that. Moving forward, we know Mobius and Miss Minutes are supposed to be in Deadpool 3. That has me wondering if Loki going to appear there and sorry not, Loki, is Mobius going to appear there? Is he already there? Is his OG timeline branch Deadpool’s? That was my first thought when I saw it. I was like, maybe he’s already there. Beyond that, I guess the TVA is just chugging along and that’s that.

Taylor: I don’t even know what else to say. I just this is one of those things where I need a few days to just process how deeply sad I feel. 

Katie: I just think there was a lot that happened as far as explaining things just like in Season One, Episode Six. I think there was a lot of information thrown at us in different ways and it just takes time to be like, what did I actually fully just watch?

Taylor: Well, not even just that, but it is like, look, I think in my heart of hearts I don’t think we’re getting a Season Three because this definitely felt like a series finale. Like even you and I said like the way that they went through all the characters and showed us exactly where they are and exactly what their next steps are, but their next steps aren’t together. The gang is broken up, they’re not together anymore. They’re each doing what they feel is right in their own way and what, you know, feels right to them. And knowing that, I think there is part of it is just some sadness that we’re not going to revisit these characters as a group ever again, especially, which is weird coming off of Episode Five and the emphasis on them as a group, which I think again, there’s a dissonance between the themes that we had in Episode Five and where we actually ended up in Episode Six. So I think that’s something that I’m trying to work through. Then there’s the sadness of knowing the series is probably over, and then there’s just the sadness that they couldn’t nail. And as disappointed as I was in Episode Five, thinking that they would kind of pick me back up in Episode Six, to feel like they kind of fell even further down the cliff, it’s like, so you actually only got four out of six? That’s a bummer. And so there’s just like a lot of like deep, big, sad happening right now and I need to like, work through it. And by working through it, I mean just avoiding my feelings for a while until I know how to verbalize them.

Katie: Yeah, I think that’s all a fair take. I think at the end of the day, it’s going to be just as much of a surprise to us if there’s an extra Loki episode in the next few weeks or not because we left room for one. I have also not yet digested it enough to feel I don’t know, I don’t know to feel everything I need to feel, to know what we might want to talk further into because at this point I feel like I also need to watch it again, but I don’t want to. So that’s a weird feeling for me right now. It was different. Again, this goes back to my expectation cause expectations can screw you over. We’ve learned that again and again so I’m trying to differentiate. 

Taylor: Hello, MoM. 

Katie: I know. Okay well, to be fair, don’t tell me it will be about the Multiverse of Madness and then we visit two, like, come on. That was not it.

Taylor: There was so much wrong with that film.

Katie: I mean, there was, but from the get-go, don’t tell me that it’s going to be all about the Multiverse of Madness and we literally are in two universes in the Multiverse. That’s just bad PR and bad marketing. Anyway, I will say we’re going to take a rest on this and we will let you know in an upcoming episode because we have The Marvels still to love. So we will be doing The Marvels episodes that we promised before and we will let you guys know if we’re going to be doing another Loki Season Two episode, or if we’re just going to pretend it didn’t happen for a little bit and walk away.

Taylor: I think I’m in a place where I just need to go live in my happy place, which right now is the land of The Marvels and things that make me feel good and happy about the way that Marvel is doing content and Loki just isn’t it for me right now. So full disclosure, I do a lot of the scheduling for this show, and with my scheduling power, I don’t really want to talk about Loki for a few weeks. I need some time to level out and get a little more clear-headed and I just want to talk about things that make me happy.

Katie: Well, we might realize we have nothing we want to talk about anyway, so we’ll keep you guys updated. Again, as I said, we have two different The Marvels episodes that are going to be coming up. If you listen to our reactions episodes, we talked about them, you’ll know which ones they are.

Taylor: And maybe a third.

Katie: Maybe a third. We love The Marvels and there’s a lot to dig into there. I think we need to sit on Loki. We need some space, we need to read some articles, we need to read some other theories, maybe give us some hope for the future, and maybe we’ll come back with a completely different point of view. Who knows?

Taylor: Honestly, you know what I really want to see right now? What I want to understand is why people thought this episode was good. I just truly can’t understand that perspective. People are like, Loki is the best that Marvel can do and I’m like, but did you watch The Marvels? Like, actually watch the movie?

Katie: Hey, everybody has their own opinion.

Taylor: No, and that’s fine and that’s what I’m saying. I want to understand why people have that take.

Katie: That’s fair. I mean, I had that same feeling with Loki Season One. To this day before Loki Season Two came out, everybody was still praising Loki Season One. Well, not everybody, because my niche group of people who also understand why I didn’t like it were with me and standing with me and I appreciate them. I will say I sat there and I was like, I don’t get it. Whenever we do our ratings for shows, everybody is always putting it still like pretty much top three, top five cause at this point, we have quite a few. And I was like, how? That thing goes dead last every single time. I’m sorry.

Taylor: Well and I personally, I wanted to like this season.

Katie: Didn’t we all?

Taylor: Well right but I think you influenced me a little bit because you hate Loki Season One so much that you’ve kind of gotten it into my head that even though I probably didn’t, I didn’t love it, I also didn’t think it was like the worst thing in the entire world.

Katie: I don’t think it’s the worst. Hold on.

Taylor: Do you though, like, come on.

Katie: No, I mean, I will say like the first two episodes were good, and then Three and Four got weird, and then Five and Six just got to a point where I was like, oh okay and I wanted to want to like it, you know? But I just didn’t.

Taylor: But here’s my thing. I wanted to like Season Two so much and so I want to understand why people really liked Episodes Five and Six because that’s where I got off the ship. You all know you’ve heard the episodes One through Four, I was singing the praises, raising the Loki banner. I was ready to go to bat for this season. Then Five and Six, you lost me and I want to understand, like, is there a way that by understanding other’s perspectives on Five and Six, I can like not feel how I currently feel. My raw reaction is just sadness. I’m going to go lie in my bed and maybe cry a little bit because I really wanted this to be good. And so I’m hoping that, over time, reading some other takes, listening to some other takes, whatever I can understand like maybe there was some merit and that’s what I’m hoping for.

Katie: I think that in itself stands the point of we’re going to take a break from Loki, we’re going to give it some time. We’re going to talk about The Marvels for a few weeks and we’ll let you guys know. I think more specifically, Taylor will have to let you all know, because I’m not on the same level she is, which is again, my favorite new comparison compared to how we ended Season One and how we ended Season Two. We will have to see. We will keep you guys posted on how we’re feeling about the end of Loki.

Taylor: And with all of that in mind as we go back to The Marvels and my personal happy place in the MCU, make sure that you are subscribed on your podcast platform of choice so you don’t miss any of those episodes where I actually sound like I like the MCU because usually I do but today I’m angry. Or I should say after this I’m angry. So make sure you’re checking that out and following, subscribing to all that good stuff. Also, like I said, in past episodes, we have our schedule on the website. Once we solidify what that looks like for the next few weeks, you can definitely check that out to know what’s upcoming. Last but not least, if you are interested in supporting the show, you can check out our affiliate links on the home page, which we would greatly appreciate because it helps us make the show better for you.

Katie: Make sure you guys are also keeping up with the show on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads as SistersAssembled. You know, I said it already. We’ve got a couple The Marvels episodes coming up next so get ready for that. If you guys haven’t seen the movie, do it. Go see it 100%. I’m telling you, it’s worth it. Even if you don’t want to see it, at least watch it for the ending. For the end and the end credit scene so go see this movie. It’s great. And we’re going to be doing all sorts of deep dives coming up in the next few weeks, so get ready for that. Marvel may have just blown your mind or they may not have, we’re going to have to decide on that one. The jury’s out over here, too but either way, let’s talk about it.