Loki Episode 2 Thoughts (Finally)
I’m extremely late here but wanted to post this anyway - just some thoughts and reactions I had while watching episode 2.
I loved how playful he is when he's trying to hit Miss Minutes with the magazine - he does that look over his shoulder to make sure no one's watching, and I ADORE the little excited thing his eyes do when he's trying to swat her - there's something kind of cat-chasing-a-laser about it. Very, very cute.
Magic nerd Loki! Gotta love a confirmed headcanon.
And I like that this episode also confirmed my headcanons that Loki might slack off when he's not engaged or interested, or considers something unimportant (didn't watch all the propaganda training vids, wasn't interested in Miss Minutes' questions), but is an incredibly focused and hard worker when he's invested in what he's doing.
Tom has talked a lot in interviews about Loki's initial motivation being to find out what's going on, to understand the TVA and how it works, and just generally satisfy his curiosity. It was cool to see that play out and I love Loki's overall curious attitude.
I do like that they're being open about the fact that Mobius is using Loki, and not pretending that Mobius is some kind of perfect angel - Mobius talked about the two options for to explain why he's sticking his neck out for Loki (feeling sympathy for a scared little boy or saying whatever he needs to to get Loki to help him) and it absolutely seems like it's both. I like the way their relationship is developing so far.
Tears again! Not as much as in episode 1, but still good. Two episodes in and we've gotten tears in both - let's keep up this momentum guys (tears in every episode would be lovely, please and thank you)
Is...is someone going to tell Loki that he actually saved a whole bunch of Asgardians?? That his destroying Asgard was a heroic moment and not a villainous one? Did he read about that in the file or does he think he just up and destroyed his home planet a few years after he attacked New York? I just want him to know that that was a heroic moment for him and not a villainous one.
If Loki doesn't get to try candy and Mobius doesn't get to ride a jetski, I'm going to be very disappointed (I mean seriously the jetski thing did feel like foreshadowing, and I just NEED confirmation of Loki's sweet tooth. I NEED IT). And somebody please show Casey a fish.
Speaking of which, I was rather disappointed by the lack of Casey. As fun as the brief exchange was, I was really hoping for another actual scene with the two of them, even a short one. Maybe in a future episode?
Loki being an absolute dork while demonstrating with Mobius' salad was adorable. He’s so proud of himself and I love him.
Still not a fan of the “stabbed people in the back 50 times” line, but something I do really like comes a few seconds later - Mobius’ laugh. I get the feeling people aren't usually amused by Loki. If they're laughing during a conversation with him it's probably at him and not with him - but when Mobius laughs in this scene, it’s because he seemed to genuinely find Loki amusing and endearing.
At first I thought the way Loki acted in Pompeii was ooc, and while it is pretty over the top, I feel like that can be explained by a combination of it being a performance (he's trying to be as dramatic as possible in order to test his theory) and the fact that he's trying to distract himself from finding out about Ragnarok. And I loved Loki's frustration with Mobius’ suggestion to make bird noises. In terms of Loki’s behavior/attitude in that scene, a lot of how I feel was explained in this post by @iamanartichoke.
Sleeping Loki!!! Outstanding, beautiful, 10000/10
I loved how proud Loki was of doing a good job. Please give my boy all the validation.
And I love that this episode showcases how smart Loki is! Not just mentions it, but actually shows Loki being the one to figure things out and solve problems.
LET MY BOY HAVE HIS KNIVES
Multiple hair flips! Excellent!
I genuinely don't know what Loki's actual plans are at this point - obviously he wants to be free of the TVA and not get erased from existence, but I don’t know if he was telling Sylvie the truth about specifically wanting to overthrow the TVA, or he was lying, or if (most likely) it's some combination of those.
Sylvie seems cool but I’m really hoping she’s the enchantress and not Lady Loki, partly because I am just really really not into the idea of any version of Loki being blonde. Why.
It'll be really interesting to see what the tone of episode 3 is like. With the way this episode ended, I imagine the next one will be a little less lighthearted.
I think I’ll make a separate post about this, but I thought it was good that they verbally mentioned Loki being Jotun. This tells me they're at least not forgetting about it, but it also makes me worried that this is as far as they’re going to go. I’m going to be disappointed if they don't at least do a tiny bit to address Loki's internalized racism. Especially with the cast and crew talking about how the theme of the show is identity, it would fit incredibly well from a story perspective and would be a strange thing to leave out, considering how central it is to Loki's identity and how it’s one of the parts of him that has had the greatest impact on his life.
Tagging a few people since I’m posting this so long after the episode aired: @delyth88 @thelightofthingshopedfor @iamanartichoke
22 notes
·
View notes
It’s Okay, I Hate Me Too. (Langst)
I posted this on AO3, but I decided to post it on here too because I love it so much ahah (also this is OOC)~
Being overlooked wasn’t a foreign feeling for Lance.
Back at the Garrison, he often heard a plethora of insults directed towards him, said by students and instructors alike. A lot of them from Iverson, the dude who oversaw the cadets. Man, he hated Iverson.
He happened to be strolling past a group of his peers. They were looking at him from the wall they were propped up against.
“Did you hear about that one guy Lance? He just failed his simulation test for the fifth time in a row.”
“Yeah, I did. The dude’s pathetic. How’d he even get accepted into the Garrison in the first place?”
“He only got into the fighter pilot class because Keith dropped out. I’m shocked Lance wasn’t the one to get dropped.”
“He can’t even handle the shit in the cargo pilot class. He’s pathetic.”
Lance just smiled. It’s okay, I hate me too.
“We’re going to have to visit the Worbla planet for some supply negotiations,” Allura says, after shortly gathering all the paladins plus Coran for a meeting. “The Worblon are fairly nice aliens, so the negotiations should go fairly quickly. So be on your best behavior,” Her light tone disappears as her eyes land on Lance. The mood suddenly becomes more hostile. “Especially you, Lance. You stay in the back. I don’t want you messing this up.”
Lance lets out a nervous, breathy laugh. “Got it, princess.” Allura narrows her eyes even more. Great, she doesn’t trust me. I should’ve seen that coming, though.
The castle-ship lands on the planet. The Worblon gather around the paladins in awe, talking amongst themselves.
“Can you believe it?! It’s the paladins of Voltron!”
“Strong and mighty, strong and mighty.”
“Amazing!”
Allura gains a confident stature when the leader of the Worblon comes forward. They both go somewhere else to talk. Shiro and Keith have a private conversation. Pidge and Hunk had a ‘who can fit their fist into their mouth’ competition. Lance stood by himself until several aliens approached him.
“Excuse me,” The Worblon said, looking up at Lance. “Aren’t you the blue paladin of Voltron?”
Lance gave a soft smile. “Yeah, I am. I pilot one of the legs.” And I’m also the most overlooked member of Voltron…
“You’re not as uptight as the other members,” Another smiled. “I like that. You’re very lighthearted. I don’t think you get stressed in battle. The others are so serious, so scary. You’re, ah, cool.” Lance’s eyes lit up and he gave a genuine grin. This was the first compliment he’s ever received.
“Thank you.”
“LANCE!” A voice screeched from behind him. He turned around and saw the fuming face of Allura stomping towards him. Her fists were balled up, and she had gritted teeth. The Worblon he talked to slowly backed away. Lance gulped. What did I do now?
“I specifically told you to stay in the back! What are you even doing?!” She yelled, and the other paladins looked at Lance. They all had the expression of “Jeez Lance, you already messed up?”.
“You’re messing things up again, aren’t you?!”
She turned towards the Worblon. “I apologize for whatever he did. He doesn’t seem to have any seriousness in his body.” The Worblon looked at her, confused.
“He didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, we were just complimenting him. You should be more like him, he’s very lighthearted compared to the serious faces of you guys.”
Allura just gave a forced smile and commanded all of the paladins to go back onto the castle-ship.
“Did you trick the Worblon or something?” Allura asked him later, during a meeting. “We all know the real you. You’re not the one to be complimented on.” Ouch.
“Yeah,” Pidge piped up. “You don’t take anything seriously. You don’t do well in battle either. What’s there to compliment?” The others laughed. Lance just bit his lip and exited the room. It’s okay, I hate me too.
Well, at least the Worblon were nice enough to compliment him.
Lance and the other paladins were currently in a battle with the Galra. Ships surrounded them.
“Pidge, use your invisibility cloak to get us close to the main ship. Keith and I will cover while you and Hunk shut down their ion cannons. Hopefully Pidge will get the information they need,” Shiro speaks from the com, but pauses. “Oh, and Lance, just don’t do anything stupid. We don’t need you goofing off and jeopardizing the mission.”
Lance sighed. “Got it.”
They all split up, each lion tackling their own problem. Lance just wandered around, carefully aiming the giant energy rifle on his lion to blast random Galra ships in his line of vision. He wanted to be careful, because if he fucked something up, then Shiro was going to scold and berate him while the other paladins looked at him with no pity.
Suddenly, the ion cannon blasted Blue, and she went spiraling off into space. Lance got dislodged from his seat and was hitting nearly every wall inside of Blue.
A weird-looking sheet of metal got lodged into Lance’s side. He screamed in pain, and he widened his eyes at the sight of the blood. Another piece of metal punctured Lance’s right eye. He saw a flash of blindingly bright light, and then darkness. He screamed his heart out, and then blacked.
When he woke up, he discovered that the inside of Blue looked like a crime scene. Blood was everywhere. He looked down at his armor to find out that it was damaged severely.
“You okay, Blue?” He rasped, and Blue responded with a purr. She was alright. “Good. ‘Cause I’m going to need you to fly us back to the castle-ship. She started moving.
He reached for his helmet and put it on, hoping to communicate with his teammates to signal that he strayed. Instead, he heard more slander.
“Lance screwed up again. “ Pidge.
“We clearly gave him instructions, how hard is it to follow them?” Keith.
“They were simple orders. I’m honestly kind of shocked.” Hunk.
“Don’t be. When he gets back, I’ll make sure to reprimand him for the trouble he’s caused.” Allura.
“I second that. He needs to learn to take things seriously. We’re saving the universe, this isn’t a board game.” Shiro.
Lance threw his helmet to the other side of the area. He felt tears coming out of his eyes, and he released a shaky breath. He tried his best to huddle into a ball. It’s okay, I hate me too.
Lance put Blue into her hangar and slowly limped into the halls of the castle. He was forced to perform an impromptu stitching on his side with a random first-aid kit he found because the wound was starting to become worse. His eye, however, was a different story. It was still bleeding, and the area around it was slightly swollen.
He heard the voices of his teammates coming from the meeting hall. Holding his side, he limped over to the door. He stopped when he heard the topic the teammates were talking about.
“Honestly, Lance is quite pathetic. He can’t hold off very well on his own, judging by his performance in this battle.”
“He didn’t get his beauty sleep,” A chorus of laughs echoed. “You know how terrible he gets without his beauty sleep. Or manicure, whatever.”
“He acts so much like a kid. How did his parents even deal with him? He’s in his late teens. I’m sure his family was glad when they heard the news of him moving out.”
“He’s a walking, talking disaster.”
Lance slowly opened the door and limped into the room. His teammates, Allura, and Coran gasped at the sight they saw. That was the first time he saw the look of sympathy directed towards him on their faces. He coughed, and blood splattered onto the floor. He gave a weak smile.
“It’s okay, I hate me too.”
821 notes
·
View notes