Loki: 1893

 "And why'd they include Balder? No one's heard of him."

Oh Boy. This isa bloody brilliant, hugely exciting bit of television, with tension and excitements all the way, and so many twists and turns.

Yes, there's far too much CGI in the Chicago of 1868 and then 1893, but the historical setting is perfectly realised- the sets, the costumes, the social attitudes (sadly having to include some degree of racism directed at Victor Timely without which, unfortunately, the setting would not have been plausible) all perfect, and it being wisely decided that there's no need to include H.H. Holmes, unless one of Timeley's bidders was subtly meant to be him.

So many ideas here, though. Victor Timely is a Kang variant born in the mid-Nineteenth Century, not the Thirty-First. He has the genius of Kang but exists in an age where the necessary technology does not exist, so he is forced to be a con man, set up by Renslayer and Miss Minutes, acting at the behest of the late He Who Remains, who obviously planned all this, and much else, before his surely expected demise at the hands of Sylvie.

Speaking of whom... I love the debate/fight between her and Loki in the Ferris Wheel, but all the more I love her unexpected decision to spare Timely and allow him to be returned to the TVA. After all, who is Sylvie, of all people, to punish a variant for the crimes of another version of themselves?

Also cool is the love triangle, with both Renslayer and Miss Minutes(!) vying for Timely's affections. Miss Minutes is a delight here. But so does the whole damn thing. I've no idea where this is going, but it's clearly pivotal for the MCU. I'm so very here for the ride.

Loki: Journey into Mystery

 "Don't die isn't a plan. It's just a general demand of living."

Nice title. I love these subtle, or not so subtle, little nods.

Wow. This is a big, big episodes and I'm not even going to get started on all the hidden little artifacts around the void. We get loads of Lokis, one of which is Richard E. Grant in the original costime by King Kirby himself. The whole thing is enormous fun.

Then we get the simmering romance between Sylvie and Loki. More Miss Minutes, always a good thing. A frigging alligator Loki, one up on Walt Simonson's frog Thor. We get the revelation that the pruned aren't killed; they're sent to a bit of the far future beyond which we cannot see, and where a beast guards something beyond, something which may hold the secrets of the Time Keepers. Wow.

It's not just about the revelations, though, awesome though they are. The relationship between Loki and Sylvie is subtly and beautifully done, alongside the friendship between both of them and the relievingly not-dead Mobius, who will hopefully achieve what he sets out to do.

This is brilliant. So what lies behind the curtain...?

Loki: The Variant

 "Luckily, he believes in himself enough for both of us..."

This second episode has me fascinated. The whole concept of this limited series is suoerb. We take a variant Loki from an already-established divergent timeline and plonk him into the TVA, a concept of Walt Simonson's where everyone (just Owen Wilson here) looks just like the late Mark Gruenwald, which is so well-established here, as a 1960s office environment rather less glamorous than Mad Men.

Thus we have philosophical, timey-wimey issues of coolness. We get fascinating, abstracxt conversations between Loki and Mobius about predestination and free will. We, like Loki, are left wondering what is the bacstory behind the Time Keepersa. Even more, we non-Amewricans are left wondering about, like, what the hell is this Rennaissance Fayre insanity?

But it's all about the variant, a veraion of Loki who seems badass. And Loki's own mor=tives. What are they? Everybody's playing thirty-seven dimensional chess, and I love it.

Also, Loki is pretty damn good at paperwork!