Jet-Skiing through Identity: a deep dive into Mobius M. Mobius (part 1) 🚤
The story started when you said hello.
Our first interaction with this character dates back almost three years now, on the 9th of June 2021. That was when the first episode of the Loki series was released.
So it goes: we see Mobius at the guiding side character, someone to follow in this vast new space the main character is suddenly thrown in. He is a calm, steady figure. However, his serious status as an analyst not cancelling a friendly character. The first ever shot in the series introduces Mobius under the sunlight. The following scenes show him speaking French to a little girl, proving a soothing behavior despite the tight situation they were in.
For someone who works at the TVA, he shows to be quite open minded. He, of course, has a very analytical mind - while still considerating he could think outside the box, whereas other of his colleagues wouldn't accept that a box exists. Even having studied variants, having a focus point is Loki, and knowing the danger it would bring to have to trust one, he still gives this variant a chance. More than that, he takes full responsability for it: when Ravonna says: "If anything goes sideways, it's on you" he responds with a relaxed "Okay".
The first impression Mobius leaves is, therefore, one of a relaxed, almost joyful one.
Although meant to be playful, his response to Loki's threat to "burn this place to the ground" with a flippant "I'll show you my office, you can start there" hints at a potential underlying dissatisfaction with his own situation within the TVA.
But that's not all, and when the easygoing dialogue doesn't work to get under Loki's skin (which couldn't have happened so easily anyway) we get to see where studying variants brought Mobius: to knowing how to manipulate through emotions, using the information at his hands. The only way to get Loki talking was to shatter the illusion he was maintaining, and Mobius knew that. Being able to see this variant for what they truly are proves his smartness, but "lack" of empathy. However, it is more of a block than a lack- for the sake of efficiency- as a consequence of not only working, but living your entire life in the TVA. As a consequence to this, great strenght is also required to keep your true nature instead of just letting it be erased by time and the utter dedication to the time keepers- the only beings allowed to tell right from wrong. Mobius proves that strenght too.
Then, in the second episode of the series, the frame narrows down: from the big scheme to a lower one. Now, a more comfortable theme seems to be growing in the atmosphere between these two characters. We can see Loki sitting with his feet on a desk, magazine in hand, having a small quarrel with Miss Minutes. This is when we find out that Mobius still has more to introduce about himself. There is something that gets him closer to the viewers: having a personal interest with no specific corrrelation with the rest of the story: jet skis.
Going on the first mission of finding the rogue Loki variant (Sylvie, as she is later called) Mobius doesn't let himself be fooled away by Loki's silver tongue, even if in attempt to give him the chance he brought him in for, he almost gets into his play. "You almost had me for a second. My ears are sharp too" Therefore, this character with a first impression of a calm guide and a comic relief isn't to be underestimated. Just because he believes in his cause (collaborating with Loki to fin his variant) it doesn't make him a fool. -> If you have to courage to believe in something impossible, you also have the strength to make it possible.
There is also a soft jelaousy in his character; and seen not only in his attitude towards Loki finding an ally in Sylvie. It's there when talking to Ravonna Renslayer about "other analysts", and the traces left by them in her office.
This might appear as a personal pride, when for Mobius, it is more like a fear: he's afraid of being abandoned or replaced. (Remember the "Who's gonna miss an old analyst with a heart of gold" from season 2?) This internalized feeling therefore translates to the jelaousy we see on screen (or the blocking of emotions once again, but we'll get to that later).
Ravonna's "I know you have a soft spot for broken things" reveales how this character always cared, maybe more than he should have. This desire to help Loki get better (spoiler: he succeeds) is rooted in his own heart, in need of the same care he is giving away. -> Look at you comforting others with the words you wish to hear.
It also grows quickly into something more, that strictly has to do with this variant, a sympathy that is not put into words, but is seen in actions.
He once again proves to be gentle with Loki, despite the latest mission not going the way he was supposed to. He's stubborn, still wanting to go his way even when there are so many others: safer, and that conform to the TVA. He wants to give Loki his daggers back (LOVE IS A DAGGER WHO?!?), clear proof that he is confident in what he is doing. While the potential consequences outweigh his previous actions , Mobius's determination stays the same.
The one unforeseen factor that disrupts his meticulously ordered plan is Loki's escape through the time door after Sylvie bombed the sacred timeline. For the first time, we see Mobius's cool crack, his frantic calls of "Loki!" echoing in vain.
*If he didn’t let the Frost Giants into Asgard to interrupt Thor’s coronation, Thor wouldn’t have come to Earth and met Selvig who then later helped Loki create the ‘space portal machine’ in the Avengers.
*If he didn’t try to destroy Jotunheim then he would never have fallen into the black hole, gotten the Space and Mind stone and got the Avengers to assemble and ‘deliver’ these Infinity Stones to them. He let himself get caught by the Avengers because he WANTED to LOSE!
*If he hadn’t of killed Coulson, we wouldn’t have Agents of SHIELD.
*If he hadn’t got the sceptre, Wanda wouldn’t have gotten her amplified powers nor would Vision or Ultron ever have existed. Thor & Tony wouldn’t have had their prophesying visions about what would likely happen in IW
*If he didn’t let Thanos kill him in Infinity War, Thor would have been snapped out of existence and Thanos would have succeeded in erasing half
of the universe
*In Thor The Dark World, he saved Jane in order to prevent the Aether (the Reality Stone) from disappearing into the void
*He accidentally got his mother killed & therefore banished Odin which caused to age faster which resulted in him dying and Hela to be released.
*He also called for Skurge to take them back to Asgard via the Bifrost but Hela caught the ride with them which resulted in he and Thor to be sent to Sakaar where Thor reunited with the Hulk and met Valkyrie and Ragnarok to be caused.
*If he didn’t take the Tesseract from Odin’s vault in Thor Ragnarok, Thanos wouldn’t have been able to find it therefore the snap either wouldn’t have happened or been delayed.
*If he didn’t use the Tesseract to escape in Endgame, we wouldn’t have the multiverse since he wouldn’t have become the ‘God of Stories’ or create the TVA.
*Sylvie Killing Kang at the end of ‘Loki S1’ made the next big villain for the Avengers to face in Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
*In ‘Loki S2,’ he has to save the multiverse from being destroyed.
*Loki has to recruit heroes from across the multiverse in order to eliminate the ‘Kang Threat.’
*He can manipulate and re write time now that he is the ‘God of Stories.’
He is a catalyst.
So there. Loki is indeed more important to the Marvel Universe than we all realised. 😌
Doctor Strange saw that the only way it would all work was if Tony sacrificed himself. He saw what Loki was doing behind the scenes. Loki recruited HIMSELF into the TVA after recruiting Mobius and other underdogs in order
to humble him. He even created Sylvie so that he could see from the outside what he had once been like and learn to ‘love himself.’ He has to tell her and his past self to not be selfish and power hungry (akin to Charles telling Logan to ‘guide his younger self’ in X-Men: Days of Future Past. He was ‘acting’ bad in the Avengers!! Loki admired Tony because of what he was doing. His purpose was to save the universe! 😭 He told Thor that the ‘Sun would shine on them again’ because he KNEW that they would reunite again eventually and told Thanos ‘You will never be a God.’ Because Loki was always that many steps ahead in the grand scheme of things. . He was guiding himself and everyone else the ENTIRE time!😌💚
Btw: Loki called Don ‘Mobius’ due to Tony discovering the ‘Mobius’ strip’ in Endgame. He always admired Tony’s ‘glorious purpose’ and that’s why he keeps referring to him in the ‘Loki’ series and Mobius knows ALL about Loki because HE, Loki as the ‘God of Stories’ MADE him that way!😉🧬
Loki’s Impact on the Marvel Universe So Far
He deliberately got caught by the Avengers so that the respective items got delivered and he WANTED to LOSE!
*If he didn’t let the Frost Giants into Asgard to interrupt Thor’s coronation, Thor wouldn’t have come to Earth and met Selvig who then later helped Loki create the ‘space portal machine’ in the Avengers.
*If he didn’t try to destroy Jotunheim then he would never have fallen into the black hole, gotten the Space and Mind stone and got the Avengers to assemble and ‘deliver’ these Infinity Stones to them. He let himself get caught by the Avengers because he WANTED to LOSE!
*If he hadn’t of killed Coulson, we wouldn’t have Agents of SHIELD.
*If he hadn’t got the sceptre, Wanda wouldn’t have gotten her amplified powers nor would Vision or Ultron ever have existed. Thor & Tony wouldn’t have had their prophesying visions about what would likely happen in IW..
*If he didn’t let Thanos kill him in Infinity War, Thor would have been snapped out of existence and Thanos would have succeeded in erasing half of the universe..
*In Thor The Dark World, he saved Jane in order to prevent the Aether (the Reality Stone) from disappearing into the void..
*He accidentally got his mother killed & therefore banished Odin which caused to age faster which resulted in him dying and Hela to be released.
*He also called for Skurge to take them back to Asgard via the Bifrost but Hela caught the ride with them which resulted in he and Thor to be sent to Sakaar where Thor reunited with the Hulk and met Valkyrie and Ragnarok to be caused.
*If he didn’t take the Tesseract from Odin’s vault in Thor Ragnarok, Thanos wouldn’t have been able to find it therefore the snap either wouldn’t have happened or been delayed.
*If he didn’t use the Tesseract to escape in Endgame, we wouldn’t have the multiverse since he wouldn’t have become the ‘God of Stories’ or create the TVA.
*Sylvie Killing Kang at the end of ‘Loki S1’ made the next big villain for the Avengers to face in Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.
*In ‘Loki S2,’ he has to save the multiverse from being destroyed.
*Loki has to recruit heroes from across the multiverse in order to eliminate the ‘Kang Threat.’
*He can manipulate and re write time now that he is the ‘God of Stories.’
He is a catalyst.
Doctor Strange saw that the only way it would all work was if Tony sacrificed himself. He saw what Loki was doing behind the scenes. Loki recruited HIMSELF into the TVA after recruiting Mobius and other underdogs in order
to humble him. He even created Sylvie so that he could see from the outside what he had once been like and learn to ‘love himself.’ He has to tell her and his past self to not be selfish and power hungry (akin to Charles telling Logan to ‘guide his younger self’ in X-Men: Days of Future Past. He was ‘acting’ bad in the Avengers!! Loki admired Tony because of what he was doing. His purpose was to save the universe! 😭 He told Thor that the ‘Sun would shine on them again’ because he KNEW that they would reunite again eventually and told Thanos ‘You will never be a God.’ Because Loki was always that many steps ahead in the grand scheme of things. He was guiding himself and everyone else the ENTIRE time!😌💚
Btw: Loki called Don ‘Mobius’ due to Tony discovering the ‘Mobius’ strip’ in Endgame. He always admired Tony’s ‘glorious purpose’ and that’s why he keeps referring to him in the ‘Loki’ series and Mobius knows ALL about Loki because HE, Loki MADE him that way!😉🧬
He actually planned to get killed by Thanos in order to save Thor from being snapped and he knew that he would come back one way or another. He said these things for a reason! “I assure you brother, the sun will shine on us again” and “You’ll never be a God!”
Despite Frigga saying: ‘You’re so perceptive about everyone but yourself,’ the older, wiser Loki knows himself well enough in order to change the other, younger version of himself. He knows EVERYTHING about the Avengers members in the first Avengers movie for a REASON! 😉
So there. Loki is indeed more important to the Marvel Universe than we all realised. 😌💚
Thor, Hulk and Loki about the ‘Sun.’ God of Stories Loki made it so that the phrase the ‘sun is going down’ to calm the Hulk down and subdue him and the ‘sun shining on him and Thor again’ was to inspire hope and energy.
The Time Stone is green because of Loki. Did he create it? Did he some how get it to Sanctum Sanctorum?
Did Loki make Heimdall send Bruce to the Sanctum in Infinity War since Loki had been there before (in Ragnarok?) Is that why Bruce mentions ‘Loki’ to Tony, Stephen and Wong informing and warning them about Thanos?
He created the World Tree Yggdrasil and quite literally erased, reset and rebooted the MCU! 🤯
When I was watching Avengers End Game in theaters, 5 years felt so long from then. But today is October 17th 2023, the day after Natasha dies and the day Tony snaps and says "I am Ironman" 🫠
Honestly I always just assumed that it was only the power stone that could vaporize you by touch (because it’s the *power stone*) but everyone always says that it’s all the stones. So I’m wondering if there’s any time where another stone hurts someone just by touching it? I haven’t been watching any mcu recently, especially not the newer stuff, so maybe that’s why I didn’t know?
no worries! When Fury touches the outer casing of the Tesseract in Avengers 1, he is visibly in pain and he has to shake his hand to get rid of the numbness.
(do not have gif of this, but it's when he's putting the Tesseract in the suitcase before Clint shoots him in the chest and Loki says "please don't, I still need that")
^ Red Skull is vaporized when he tries to break the Tesseract in Cap 1:
^ just lightly touching the mind stone activates Wanda's innate magic 3000 + gave Pietro his powers
^ ULTRON won't touch the mind stone
^ Raw energy of the tesseract gives Carol her powers
^ CONTACT ALONE with the power stone is enough to make Thor scream
+ the scene you were talking about from gotg1 with the power stone
^ an enormous plot point of TDW is that hours after getting possessed by the infinity stone, Jane is on the brink of death. Is it instant vaporization, no, but I think that's only because it's not in one go, she's taking it in her body like a fluid, so there's more skin to absorb the power, if that makes sense?
+ other examples I'm too tired to think of. Like vaporization is only shown with the Power Stone on screen, but all of them clearly have an adverse effect when you touch them and we know that even though they don't state it explicitly because of the WAY the infinity stones are presented to us. ALL of them (except the soul stone) are encased in something to make it easier to touch. That was done on purpose, not just convenience. if you watch mcu infinity saga closely, you'll notice just how much care was put into making the infinity stones visibly powerful without ever having to say anything about it. People use the magic from them, but they rarely, if ever, actually touch the stone.
i.g.
the scepter ^
^ an entire magic spell has to be cast in order to OPEN the necklace that holds the time stone, let alone USE it. it's dangerous to touch, so they have it locked away
^ he's USING the time stone, but look how much effort was made into NOT touching it
when he gives Thanos the time stone he makes an effort NOT to touch it
^ the reality stone is consumed by Jane, but any time anything tries to touch her, a magic shield appears that protects it from threats (Also couldn't find a gif of this, but again, massive plot point of TDW is that they can't get the aether out without Malekith's help)
HOWEVER. you are right. People do touch the Infinity Stones with what is basically bare hands a lot, but not really until Endgame/Infinity War
So...rules are fluid? I guess? Personally, I just don't understand why so many infinity stones would be encased in such powerful objects for protection unless it WAS dangerous to touch them
The Tesseract was put in shatter-proof glass that survived centuries, the Soul Stone is...under some sort of spell via God(?)(unclear), the aether was broken into pieces so it's evil kool aid (which is a protectio device because you can touch the bits of the aether without it killing you, rather than the entire infinity stone), the time stone is in a necklace you have to use magic to open, the power stone was hidden in an unbreakable orb and the mind stone was encased in the scepter (Thanos might have done this himself, also unclear)
The point is that I think MCU didn't really decide one way or the other, and even if they DID, thanos is intended to be a bit sturdier than the average human, so him making contact wouldn't vaporize him instantly, I think.
okay, i don’t know a whole lot about the marvel universe. i like spider-man, and i know the general premise of the movies with the infinity stones and the blip, but not much more than that. but my sister convinced me to watch loki bc tom hiddleston and even i was like PAPER WEIGHTS? all that, all those lives, all those movies, all that work for loki to go to that office building and discover they’ve been using the infinity stones for PAPER WEIGHTS? i’m flabbergasted.