Loki Season 2 Review

1 00:00:00,930 --> 00:00:07,573 This is a Dynamike Network podcast. Hey everyone, Johnny DC here at the top of the episode. With 2 00:00:07,593 --> 00:00:11,895 the approaching holiday season, we're officially underway with this year's holiday charity drive 3 00:00:12,255 --> 00:00:17,677 and lead up to our charity duel episode in December, which is going to be Alfred Pennyworth versus 4 00:00:17,777 --> 00:00:23,140 Edwin Jarvis. This year, all donations will be going once again to Pop Culture Classroom, 5 00:00:23,500 --> 00:00:28,703 a nonprofit organization that delivers high quality. educational resources to school districts, 6 00:00:28,743 --> 00:00:34,366 teachers, and community organizations using comics, graphic novels, and related pop culture 7 00:00:34,386 --> 00:00:40,530 media. Their mission is to inspire a love of learning, increase literacy, and build community 8 00:00:40,570 --> 00:00:45,573 through the tools of popular culture and the power of self-expression. To donate, visit 9 00:00:45,613 --> 00:00:51,056 our official store through dynamicduel.com where you'll find two donation options. One if you're 10 00:00:51,096 --> 00:00:57,711 Team DC, and one if you're Team Marvel. or go directly to dynamicduel.com slash donate DC, 11 00:00:58,011 --> 00:01:04,132 one word, or dynamicduel.com slash donate Marvel, which are linked in our show notes. We're making 12 00:01:04,172 --> 00:01:09,694 the charity drive a competitive duel this year, except the only stat is which side can donate 13 00:01:09,734 --> 00:01:14,475 the most. Everyone who donates will receive a digital poster featuring original art of 14 00:01:14,615 --> 00:01:20,297 Alfred and Jarvis drawn New Yorker style by me. One lucky random donor will win a framed 15 00:01:20,377 --> 00:01:25,287 print of the Alfred versus Jarvis art. that I will announce during that December duel episode. 16 00:01:25,748 --> 00:01:30,818 Which fan base will be the most charitable? So far it's Marvel. DC guys, let's step up 17 00:01:30,858 --> 00:01:33,804 our game. But with that out of the way, on with the show. 18 00:01:54,262 --> 00:01:59,266 Hi, welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate 19 00:01:59,306 --> 00:02:04,871 the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters and stat-based battle simulations. 20 00:02:05,351 --> 00:02:11,136 I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing 21 00:02:11,516 --> 00:02:17,021 Season 2 of the Disney Plus series, Loki. It was only six episodes, but they were actually 22 00:02:17,161 --> 00:02:22,938 pretty good episodes. Yeah, for my money's worth, this season was actually the best season. that 23 00:02:22,958 --> 00:02:27,420 Marvel Studios has to offer on the Disney Plus platform. So stay tuned for that review later 24 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:32,923 on in this episode. Before that, we have a ton of news to go over, considering that we didn't 25 00:02:32,943 --> 00:02:37,546 break down any news from last week due to my business trip. But in this episode, we're going 26 00:02:37,566 --> 00:02:43,108 to be talking about how Superman Legacy has cast Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, Eve Tesmacher, 27 00:02:43,229 --> 00:02:47,771 and the Engineer. We'll be talking about a bunch of trailers, including Aquaman and the Lost 28 00:02:47,811 --> 00:02:54,166 Kingdom, Madame Web, Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Marry Little Batman as 29 00:02:54,226 --> 00:02:58,308 well. Yeah, we're gonna have to speak in our chipmunk voices, just like speed through it 30 00:02:58,328 --> 00:03:03,630 because this is gonna be a long episode, I feel. Yeah, as always, we list our segment times 31 00:03:03,650 --> 00:03:07,111 in our episode description, so feel free to check out our show notes if you wanna skip 32 00:03:07,151 --> 00:03:11,553 ahead to a particular topic. As our listeners may know, our duel simulator is so advanced 33 00:03:11,573 --> 00:03:16,155 that it's gained sentience and has named itself the Artificial Lifeform for running extensive 34 00:03:16,195 --> 00:03:22,788 duels, just a rather very intelligent simulator 9000, or Alfred Jarvis 9000. He has a quick 35 00:03:22,808 --> 00:03:29,427 message for our listeners, so listen up. Why hello there. Do you love listening and chatting 36 00:03:29,447 --> 00:03:34,609 about Marvel and DC? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon, where you 37 00:03:34,649 --> 00:03:39,931 can choose from three tiers. The dynamic 2-0 tier lets you listen to this podcast without 38 00:03:40,031 --> 00:03:44,773 ads and gives you access to its Discord chat group, where you can chat with Johnny DC and 39 00:03:44,813 --> 00:03:49,735 Marvelous Joe. The fantastic four tier gives you that and more with two bonus episodes each 40 00:03:49,775 --> 00:03:54,537 month, including bloopers and top 10 shows where Johnny and Joe count down your favorite Marvel 41 00:03:54,557 --> 00:03:59,771 and DC subjects. The X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of Dynamic Duel, where 42 00:03:59,871 --> 00:04:03,793 every month you help the host choose what to review and who to fight against each other. 43 00:04:04,333 --> 00:04:09,536 And finally, the Dynamite Podcast Network tier allows aspiring podcasters to create their 44 00:04:09,676 --> 00:04:14,718 own battle-focused show using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop 45 00:04:14,738 --> 00:04:19,621 your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results to announce 46 00:04:19,661 --> 00:04:26,044 on your show. Pitch the twins your show via email at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com them 47 00:04:26,084 --> 00:04:30,887 on social media. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic duel. Pip pip cheerio. 48 00:04:54,122 --> 00:04:59,203 Also tune into the Senjou World podcast this Thursday to find out who would win in an anime 49 00:04:59,243 --> 00:05:07,005 battle between Madura Uchiha from Naruto and Ryōmen Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen. This will 50 00:05:07,025 --> 00:05:11,826 be the last episode of the season as Zack is going to take a break for the month of December. 51 00:05:12,287 --> 00:05:17,028 But debuting in December will be the newest addition to the Dynamite Podcast Network, a 52 00:05:17,068 --> 00:05:23,570 show coming out called Console Combat hosted by executive producer of this show, John He 53 00:05:23,610 --> 00:05:27,752 and his co-host Dean are going to let you guys know who'd win in matchups between your favorite 54 00:05:28,052 --> 00:05:34,255 video game characters. Stay tuned for a trailer of that upcoming show at the end of this podcast. 55 00:05:34,415 --> 00:05:39,877 Yeah, I can't wait for that one. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen 56 00:05:39,917 --> 00:05:43,879 to all of the shows in the Dynamike Podcast Network. Real quick, we wanna give a shout 57 00:05:43,899 --> 00:05:48,281 out to patrons Lizzie Dyer Arnie and the Kamacho Twins. All three of them had their birthdays 58 00:05:48,321 --> 00:05:52,284 this past week. Lizzie, if I could give you anything from Marvel, it would be the ability 59 00:05:52,344 --> 00:05:57,788 to time slip, because getting older just sucks. And I think it would be cool to travel through 60 00:05:57,828 --> 00:06:02,792 time that way, just like Loki. And I would give you Wesley Dodd's dreaming power. That way 61 00:06:02,812 --> 00:06:06,995 you can tell the future and see if you want to travel there. And for the Kamacho twins, 62 00:06:07,035 --> 00:06:09,677 if I could give you anything from the world of Marvel, I'm trying to think of the most 63 00:06:09,717 --> 00:06:15,201 prominent twins in Marvel. Probably Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. So one of you gets reality 64 00:06:15,241 --> 00:06:19,355 warping powers. and one of you gets super speed. I'll let you guys pick which one gets which. 65 00:06:19,975 --> 00:06:25,258 And in honor of the Wonder Twins, I would give you, Scott, the power to turn into any animal 66 00:06:25,578 --> 00:06:32,581 and Gilly, you get the ability to turn into a bucket of water. Cause you like Marvel. The 67 00:06:32,601 --> 00:06:37,783 Marvel powers are just so much better. Happy birthday guys, thanks for being patrons. Happy 68 00:06:37,803 --> 00:06:44,858 birthday. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize. The No Prize is an award Marvel 69 00:06:44,898 --> 00:06:49,799 used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award that we post 70 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,301 on Instagram and in our email newsletter for the person that we feel gave the best answer 71 00:06:54,341 --> 00:07:00,122 to our question of the week. So two weeks ago, we asked what other characters from the Sandman 72 00:07:00,222 --> 00:07:05,304 universe do you hope get their own series on Netflix? And this was a tie in to the first 73 00:07:05,424 --> 00:07:10,665 trailer that we got for the Dead Boy Detective's Netflix series, which itself is a supposed 74 00:07:10,705 --> 00:07:15,372 tie in. to the Sandman universe that they've established on that streaming platform. You 75 00:07:15,392 --> 00:07:21,997 guys had two weeks to answer and we got two answers. That just means it wasn't a great 76 00:07:22,037 --> 00:07:27,700 question. I will say that one of the answers was unusable because whoever called it in whispered 77 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:33,204 the entire time pretending to be Batman and it just could not be understood. But between 78 00:07:33,504 --> 00:07:36,626 the two answers that were understandable, one of them gets an honorable mention and the other 79 00:07:36,686 --> 00:07:42,718 one gets no prize win. So our honorable mention goes to Lizzie Dyer Arnie. Who said? Hey, it's 80 00:07:42,758 --> 00:07:47,220 Lizzie. No contest here. If Sandman character gets her own spinoff, it's gotta be my boy 81 00:07:47,260 --> 00:07:52,782 Wesley Dodds, aka Sandman Mystery Theater. It's the greatest comic you've never read. I like 82 00:07:52,802 --> 00:07:59,505 to describe it as Batman meets SVU. It's set in the 1930s. I think it would attract fans 83 00:07:59,545 --> 00:08:05,667 of shows like Boardwalk Empire and the now canceled Perry Mason. You know, what's HBO's loss could 84 00:08:05,687 --> 00:08:11,662 be Netflix's gain. Yeah. So Sandman Mystery Theater was a vertigo comic book. It was the 85 00:08:11,722 --> 00:08:17,024 same imprint that also published the Sandman comics, and it was established that Wesley 86 00:08:17,064 --> 00:08:23,226 Dodds, the original Golden Age Sandman, received dreams from Morpheus. The comic was very, very 87 00:08:23,267 --> 00:08:28,129 detective noir, and I think it would translate fantastically into a show, especially the way 88 00:08:28,209 --> 00:08:32,951 Lizzie described it. Yeah, I always liked the JSA character of Sandman. A lot of people kind 89 00:08:32,991 --> 00:08:38,933 of maybe write him off as just a guy with a sleeping gas gun and a gas mask, but kind of 90 00:08:38,973 --> 00:08:43,915 similar to the question. there's a lot more going on there than first impressions may imply. 91 00:08:44,035 --> 00:08:47,936 I think he's a fascinating character. Yeah, he's a great like pulpy character, sort of 92 00:08:47,976 --> 00:08:51,677 like the green hornet or the shadow. I feel like there's a lot that they could do with 93 00:08:51,697 --> 00:08:56,318 the character on screen that they just haven't done yet. Yeah, especially as a period piece 94 00:08:56,539 --> 00:09:01,540 as Lizzie described it. For sure. So great answer Lizzie, but the winner of this week's No Prize 95 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:07,682 is Luke Tucker, who said, Hey guys, this is Luke. I think they should make a death spinoff 96 00:09:07,702 --> 00:09:12,605 series with the premise being based on the line that she tells Dream in the comics about how 97 00:09:12,645 --> 00:09:16,427 she'll put the chairs on the table, turn off the lights, and lock the door to the universe 98 00:09:16,487 --> 00:09:20,810 once the last living thing dies. The series could follow her through time, witnessing the 99 00:09:20,870 --> 00:09:25,513 past, present, and the future, with the ending of the series being her witnessing the last 100 00:09:25,553 --> 00:09:30,355 living thing die and locking the door to the universe as everything passes on. Thanks, guys. 101 00:09:30,896 --> 00:09:37,143 So if you had the chance to listen to my guest spot, on the Mad Trivia podcast. You know that 102 00:09:37,283 --> 00:09:42,306 I love existential film. And this sounds like the most existential series that could ever 103 00:09:42,346 --> 00:09:47,049 be made. Yeah, especially how Luke describes it where we witness her travel through time. 104 00:09:47,269 --> 00:09:52,472 You know, the episode that involved death in the Sandman Netflix series was one of my favorite 105 00:09:52,492 --> 00:09:55,814 episodes because we got to see Dream, like, you know, travel through time, through the 106 00:09:55,834 --> 00:09:59,656 centuries, and I just thought that was fascinating. Yeah, honestly, I don't even know if you need 107 00:09:59,696 --> 00:10:04,127 to necessarily follow death. Like she's obviously like a recurring character, but I think it 108 00:10:04,167 --> 00:10:08,311 could be almost like an anthology series just telling stories about these people on their 109 00:10:08,371 --> 00:10:13,615 last days, you know, before they die. Sort of like the animated short that we got for death. 110 00:10:13,795 --> 00:10:17,638 It just told the last day of this artist. Yeah, of course she would show up at the end of every 111 00:10:17,678 --> 00:10:22,722 episode. Exactly. Yeah, that sounds perfect. So fantastic answer, Luke Tucker. You win this 112 00:10:22,762 --> 00:10:26,946 week's No Prize. If listeners want a shot at winning their own No Prize, stay tuned to later 113 00:10:27,006 --> 00:10:31,469 on in this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done... 114 00:10:32,131 --> 00:10:32,957 On to the news! 115 00:10:38,542 --> 00:10:44,926 Okay, so these past two weeks we've gotten a slew of casting news for Superman Legacy thanks 116 00:10:44,966 --> 00:10:49,990 to The Actor's Strike, which ended a few weeks earlier. We've been expecting this for quite 117 00:10:50,010 --> 00:10:56,294 a few films and I'm really excited to say that it looks like, according to Deadline, Nicholas 118 00:10:56,354 --> 00:11:03,139 Holt has been cast as Lex Luthor for the movie. Of course, he was up for the role of Superman, 119 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:09,131 but he lost out on that role to David Cornsweat. A lot of people were fan-casting him as a potential 120 00:11:09,151 --> 00:11:14,293 Lex Luthor because he has this great sort of like villainous look to him, I think. But I'm 121 00:11:14,333 --> 00:11:19,155 super excited about this news. Oh, it's fantastic casting. He's had some villainous turns in 122 00:11:19,295 --> 00:11:24,957 other movies, like the menu. He wasn't really a villain so much as a weirdo in that movie. 123 00:11:24,997 --> 00:11:30,979 But yeah, he can play a fantastic Dastardly character and especially opposite David Cornsweat. 124 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:35,281 I think this is brilliant. I really can't wait to see it. I think he'll be the best Lex Luthor 125 00:11:35,301 --> 00:11:40,171 we've gotten. since Gene Hackman. Oh yeah, I think he's gonna be the best Lex Luthor we've 126 00:11:40,191 --> 00:11:45,073 ever had. And I said the same thing for Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. The casting choices 127 00:11:45,113 --> 00:11:51,516 that they're making for this film are just absolutely perfect. Including the news that Skyler Gazzando 128 00:11:51,796 --> 00:11:59,660 is playing Jimmy Olsen. He looks the role to a T. Holy crap. I saw him in the vacation reboot, 129 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:04,102 sequel, recue. He was pretty good in that one. I could totally see him in this role. Great 130 00:12:04,122 --> 00:12:08,864 comedic actor, I hope they make Jamie Olsen a comedic character. And since it's a James 131 00:12:08,904 --> 00:12:12,966 Gunn film and he tends to be, you know, more comedic with his films like Guardians of the 132 00:12:12,986 --> 00:12:16,587 Galaxy, I bet that's what the role is going to be. And I bet Skyler is going to knock it 133 00:12:16,607 --> 00:12:21,990 out of the park because he's great. We also got news that Sarah Sampayo is going to be 134 00:12:22,170 --> 00:12:27,812 Eve Tessmacher, who anyone who's seen the Superman film directed by Richard Donner in the 70s 135 00:12:27,973 --> 00:12:32,342 knows that she's Lex Luthor's girlfriend. I'm actually kind of surprised she's in this movie 136 00:12:32,502 --> 00:12:35,604 and I'm not quite sure what route they're gonna take with the character. Like, are they gonna 137 00:12:35,624 --> 00:12:39,745 make her like a badass, like Mercy Graves or something like that? Or are they gonna make 138 00:12:39,786 --> 00:12:44,468 her more comedic, sort of like that first Superman movie? It's almost like the Superman legacy 139 00:12:44,488 --> 00:12:49,290 movie is going to pay homage to Superman, the movie from the 70s. Yeah, that is interesting. 140 00:12:49,510 --> 00:12:55,132 In our last bit of casting news, we also learned that Maria Gabriella de Feria, a Venezuelan 141 00:12:55,212 --> 00:13:01,604 actress, is going to play the role of the engineer. Now the Engineer is a character who is a member 142 00:13:01,644 --> 00:13:06,708 of the Authority from the Wildstorm comics. She is a robotic type character. Her body is 143 00:13:06,748 --> 00:13:12,753 made up of nanobots and it's rumored that she's actually like a sub-villain for the larger 144 00:13:12,793 --> 00:13:18,718 threat that will be posed by Brainiac. Hopefully that's the case because I think a lot of people 145 00:13:18,738 --> 00:13:22,481 are rooting for Brainiac to be the villain of this movie considering he's like probably the 146 00:13:22,541 --> 00:13:29,163 biggest Superman villain that has yet to appear in a Superman live-action movie. early stories 147 00:13:29,203 --> 00:13:32,891 and his origin and stuff like that, it seems almost like a no-brainer to go with him. Yeah, 148 00:13:32,951 --> 00:13:38,021 definitely low-hanging fruit there. I really hope Brainiac is in the movie. And that brings 149 00:13:38,082 --> 00:13:39,384 us to our question of the week. 150 00:13:43,762 --> 00:13:49,686 If Brainiac is the villain in Superman Legacy, who would you cast as the character, and why? 151 00:13:50,206 --> 00:13:53,969 Record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom 152 00:13:53,989 --> 00:13:58,172 right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message 153 00:13:58,192 --> 00:14:02,135 could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on 154 00:14:02,175 --> 00:14:06,818 the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer, and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize 155 00:14:07,158 --> 00:14:12,950 that we'll post to Instagram and our email newsletter. Be sure to answer before- December 2nd. Again, 156 00:14:13,010 --> 00:14:17,651 great casting choices, perfect casting choices. In my opinion, I can't wait to see what James 157 00:14:17,671 --> 00:14:24,413 Gunn is going to do with Superman Legacy, which comes out July 11th, 2025. Before that, we've 158 00:14:24,433 --> 00:14:29,415 got Aquaman coming out this December, for which tickets just went on sale and Warner Brothers 159 00:14:29,675 --> 00:14:34,616 has released a trailer to coincide with that. It's a short trailer. It's only a minute and 160 00:14:34,656 --> 00:14:39,718 30 seconds long, but there's a lot of new footage that we haven't seen in prior trailers. It 161 00:14:39,758 --> 00:14:44,860 starts off with Aquaman talking to his infant son, who's communicating with Goldfish in a 162 00:14:44,900 --> 00:14:49,302 tank. It's pretty adorable, honestly. But we learned through the course of this trailer 163 00:14:49,442 --> 00:14:55,865 that the key to Black Manta accessing this super powerful army to fight against Aquaman and 164 00:14:55,905 --> 00:15:03,348 Atlantis is the royal bloodline, of which Aquababy is the last member. Right, so it looks like 165 00:15:03,468 --> 00:15:09,084 Black Manta kidnaps Aquababy. from Aquaman's father's lighthouse and I think they can't 166 00:15:09,124 --> 00:15:13,008 be more blatant that this baby is gonna die. Which would be super tragic because it's a 167 00:15:13,068 --> 00:15:18,592 cute baby. We know that James Wan doesn't really hold back when it comes to, you know, violence. 168 00:15:18,733 --> 00:15:23,917 Yeah, I mean the movie looks amazing. You know, everything from the Dead King to Black Manta 169 00:15:24,317 --> 00:15:28,581 to all the Underwater battles between Aquaman and Black Manta that we're gonna see. It looks 170 00:15:28,661 --> 00:15:34,250 breathtaking as usual. I'm not surprised there and I really can't wait to see the movie. December 171 00:15:34,270 --> 00:15:41,133 22nd. I already have my tickets. Do you? No. Well, get them. It's the end of an era, people. 172 00:15:41,373 --> 00:15:46,655 This is the last film in the DCEU. Allegedly. I don't know. According to Jason Momoa, it 173 00:15:46,715 --> 00:15:50,037 is. Yeah, the trailer's pretty good. It looks like it's gonna be a good movie. You know what 174 00:15:50,057 --> 00:15:56,540 it looks like is not gonna be a good movie and was a shitty trailer? Madame Webb? How do you 175 00:15:56,580 --> 00:16:02,686 like that transition? I liked it a lot. God, this... Sony does not know what the hell they're 176 00:16:02,726 --> 00:16:08,888 doing. This past week, we got the first official trailer for Madame Web, and it looks about 177 00:16:08,928 --> 00:16:15,530 as bad as we were all thinking it would be. Dakota Johnson plays apparently Cassandra Webb. 178 00:16:15,870 --> 00:16:19,431 We thought she was playing Julia Carpenter, because her version of Madame Web looks exactly 179 00:16:19,451 --> 00:16:24,292 like the Julia Carpenter version from the comics. But Sydney Sweeney, one of the actresses in 180 00:16:24,312 --> 00:16:29,282 this movie, is actually playing Julia Carpenter, one of the Spider Women. So... Yeah, I think 181 00:16:29,442 --> 00:16:33,225 Dakota Johnson is playing Cassandra Webb. She, of course, has the power of premonition like 182 00:16:33,245 --> 00:16:37,768 she does in the comics, but it plays out in the course of this trailer, like an iteration 183 00:16:37,809 --> 00:16:42,432 of the Final Destination franchise, where she sees all this horrible stuff happen and then 184 00:16:42,452 --> 00:16:47,776 she's able to prevent it from happening through her powers. It's like Final Destination with 185 00:16:47,856 --> 00:16:53,360 a little bit of crime talk day. Yeah, a little bit. We learned that Madam Webb was a paramedic 186 00:16:53,501 --> 00:16:58,220 alongside Uncle Ben. who's played by Adam Scott in this movie. She has a near-death experience, 187 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:02,704 which I guess ties her into the web of life and destiny, where she can see the future. 188 00:17:03,324 --> 00:17:09,029 And she basically witnesses this crazy guy with spider powers kill these three girls who also 189 00:17:09,069 --> 00:17:14,454 have spider powers. Now, the villain of this movie is going to be a character named Ezekiel, 190 00:17:14,474 --> 00:17:19,998 who was introduced in the J. Michael Straczynski run in the Spider-Man comics. He is basically 191 00:17:20,118 --> 00:17:25,410 a guy with spider powers that he received in a ritual in the jungle. and he tells Peter 192 00:17:25,450 --> 00:17:31,194 Parker Spider-Man all about the spider totem and how every character that has an animal-based 193 00:17:31,214 --> 00:17:36,657 ability is tied into the animalistic totem and some totems feed on others and there's also 194 00:17:36,937 --> 00:17:42,501 this vampiric race of beings known as the Inheritors of which a character called Moralune is a part 195 00:17:42,561 --> 00:17:48,644 of that feeds off of these totems. It makes no sense for the character of Ezekiel to be 196 00:17:48,684 --> 00:17:53,800 attacking these women as he is. It also makes no sense for him to dress up in this dark Spider-Man 197 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:58,503 outfit. Uh, what the fuck is that? I mean, is that Ezekiel in the Spider-Man outfit? I don't 198 00:17:58,523 --> 00:18:04,407 know. Or is the black Spider-Man guy a version of Morlun, the inheritor? I don't know what's 199 00:18:04,427 --> 00:18:09,391 going on here, but it all looks really bad and a horrible way to introduce elements from the 200 00:18:09,431 --> 00:18:15,695 Spider-Man universe into a film. I mean, yeah, the movie looks bad, but also doesn't look 201 00:18:15,915 --> 00:18:21,519 bad regarding the cinematography. I actually liked that. Well, you are the only one in that. 202 00:18:21,539 --> 00:18:25,743 Really? Sure. I mean, like the cinematography is fine. It looks like a movie, right? What 203 00:18:25,843 --> 00:18:31,348 what's special about the cinematography here, Jonathan? The women look good and well lit 204 00:18:31,368 --> 00:18:37,273 in their costumes. I actually thought the girls look a little bit silly in their costumes. 205 00:18:37,433 --> 00:18:42,157 So we have here Julia Carpenter, who was a character called Spider Woman in the comics. She was 206 00:18:42,177 --> 00:18:46,741 actually the Spider Woman in the Secret Wars event, who eventually in the comics became. 207 00:18:47,202 --> 00:18:51,648 her own version of Madame Web after Cassandra Web died. She's played by Sydney Sweeney. We 208 00:18:51,688 --> 00:18:56,736 also have Anya Corazon here. She got her powers from the Spider Society, which was founded 209 00:18:56,876 --> 00:19:01,663 by Ezekiel as a- I didn't know she was in the movie, actually. I saw her and I was like, 210 00:19:01,703 --> 00:19:08,415 what is Hawk Girl doing in this movie? That's right. Yeah. Because Isabella Mercer, it was 211 00:19:08,475 --> 00:19:12,676 also cast in Superman Legacy as Hawk Girl. So it looks like she is pulling double duty for 212 00:19:12,696 --> 00:19:18,039 both Marvel and DC. Yeah. And the third lady is Maddie Franklin. She's also Spider Woman 213 00:19:18,299 --> 00:19:22,620 and she has the spider legs that sprout from her back, just like in the comic books. It's 214 00:19:22,740 --> 00:19:28,843 all very strange to see these essentially D-less characters in this film. I hope it doesn't 215 00:19:28,863 --> 00:19:34,045 really dilute the brand or confuse audiences as to what the hell is going on regarding the 216 00:19:34,065 --> 00:19:38,868 character of Spider-Man. This whole string of movies that plays within the Spider-Man universe 217 00:19:38,888 --> 00:19:43,552 without actually showing the character of Spider-Man is just getting ridiculous now. And I think 218 00:19:44,113 --> 00:19:48,496 seeing these Spider-Women characters within this trailer serves to highlight that. It's 219 00:19:48,536 --> 00:19:52,880 weird having them without actually Spider-Man showing up. And especially when you have the 220 00:19:52,900 --> 00:19:57,104 villain dressing up like Spider-Man. That's so weird. Yeah, that was weird. But I mean, 221 00:19:57,624 --> 00:20:02,708 honestly, Spider-Man could show up in this movie. It's not out of the realm of possibility, but 222 00:20:02,748 --> 00:20:07,631 I bet you he's not gonna. At the very best you'll get like a cameo from Morbius or Venom or something 223 00:20:07,651 --> 00:20:13,975 like that. It's Morbin time. The trailer does show some of the action, which looks pretty 224 00:20:13,995 --> 00:20:18,157 good. To me, it just looks very much like Final Destination where essentially we'll see an 225 00:20:18,197 --> 00:20:22,199 entire scene play out and then it turns out, oh, that entire thing that just happened was 226 00:20:22,239 --> 00:20:26,822 a premonition. This is how it's really going to play out. I recently saw the film Suspiria 227 00:20:27,002 --> 00:20:30,984 over Halloween. I was watching a bunch of scary movies and that was actually the first time 228 00:20:31,024 --> 00:20:34,966 I've ever seen Dakota Johnson in a role because I never saw. 50 Shades of Grey. Gosh, she's 229 00:20:35,066 --> 00:20:39,268 not that great of an actress. If you thought her line delivery within this trailer was a 230 00:20:39,308 --> 00:20:44,731 little bit stiff, expect more, I'll say, when the movie actually comes out. Yeah, I mean, 231 00:20:44,971 --> 00:20:50,654 I'm not expecting any Oscars for this film, except for maybe costume design. I doubt that. 232 00:20:51,135 --> 00:20:56,417 But we'll find out when the movie comes out in February. Moving on to the animated trailers. 233 00:20:56,810 --> 00:21:01,934 We got the first Justice League Crisis on Infinite Earths trailer, which apparently is going to 234 00:21:01,954 --> 00:21:06,819 kick off a trilogy of films that are coming out next year. Now, the trailer is titled the 235 00:21:06,859 --> 00:21:11,583 official trilogy trailer, so I'm not sure how much of the footage from it comes from just 236 00:21:11,723 --> 00:21:16,728 part one of the trilogy, or if it spans more than that. Crisis on Infinite Earths part one, 237 00:21:17,048 --> 00:21:21,752 of course, takes place immediately following the events of Justice League Warworld, which 238 00:21:21,812 --> 00:21:27,487 we reviewed recently. and which was not great. Actually a lot of the recent movies set in 239 00:21:27,507 --> 00:21:33,848 the animated Tomorrow vs Universe, which this trilogy will take place, are not good I would 240 00:21:33,908 --> 00:21:38,550 say. So I can't say that I'm looking forward to it and I can't really say that this trailer 241 00:21:38,870 --> 00:21:42,911 did anything for me. Honestly, I'm probably looking forward to it even less because of 242 00:21:42,951 --> 00:21:48,252 this trailer. Particularly because there was an issue we mentioned in Justice Society World 243 00:21:48,292 --> 00:21:57,715 War 2 that also appears to be happening in Barry Allen has no nose when he's in profile It just 244 00:21:57,735 --> 00:22:04,057 bothers me That's just nitpicking. I think really the reason why this trailer did nothing for 245 00:22:04,077 --> 00:22:08,078 you is because it doesn't give a clear idea Of what the story is actually we see a lot 246 00:22:08,118 --> 00:22:13,340 of shots of dramatic things happening such as worlds disappearing and stuff But without the 247 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:18,241 stories context, it feels like there's no real emotional stakes tied to any of this. Hopefully 248 00:22:18,301 --> 00:22:24,809 we get a true trailer for part one of this trilogy that'll shed some light on exactly what's going 249 00:22:24,889 --> 00:22:29,252 on here. Yeah, it does look like Barry Allen and Supergirl are going to be playing large 250 00:22:29,292 --> 00:22:33,515 roles in this trilogy, which makes sense considering, you know, they had major roles in the comic 251 00:22:33,555 --> 00:22:38,338 book version. We don't have a release date yet for any of the three films, though we do know 252 00:22:38,358 --> 00:22:43,321 that all three will be coming out next year. And you know, we'll be reviewing them once 253 00:22:43,341 --> 00:22:48,351 they do come out. This past week we also got a trailer for What If Season 2 which features 254 00:22:48,431 --> 00:22:54,273 a very different style of animation. Some would say better and they would be correct. Especially 255 00:22:54,293 --> 00:22:59,954 when you watch the two trailers for DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and What If Season 2, you 256 00:22:59,975 --> 00:23:03,416 can tell right off the bat that Disney's bringing their A-game when it comes to the animation. 257 00:23:03,896 --> 00:23:10,546 Uh, okay. I loved this What If Season 2 trailer. I thought it looked really good. Visually at 258 00:23:10,586 --> 00:23:14,788 least, I don't know if the stories that it tells are going to be any better than season one 259 00:23:15,249 --> 00:23:20,311 But we're gonna get some pretty cool concepts here at the very least including a early version 260 00:23:20,451 --> 00:23:27,575 of the Avengers Which seems to include Captain Mar-Vell, the Winter Soldier, Ant-Man and T'Chaka, 261 00:23:27,915 --> 00:23:33,038 Black Panther's father That looks like it'll be pretty cool But we also get a scene of Hela 262 00:23:33,418 --> 00:23:39,842 and the Asgardians going up against Wenwu and his ten rings We see strange Supreme make a 263 00:23:39,882 --> 00:23:45,886 return from season one as well as Captain Carter. They're gonna continue those stories, those 264 00:23:45,926 --> 00:23:50,329 being some of the better episodes from season one. But most importantly, and the thing I'm 265 00:23:50,369 --> 00:23:55,433 most excited to see, is that there appears to be an episode that focuses on a race on the 266 00:23:55,453 --> 00:24:02,437 planet of Sakaar that involves Iron Man in some kind of like Hulkbuster racing car, Gamora, 267 00:24:02,938 --> 00:24:07,901 Valkyrie. It looks like something straight out of Mad Max, and it's gonna be an absolute blast, 268 00:24:07,941 --> 00:24:13,513 it seems. The action looks incredible. Yeah, that episode looks like it's gonna be pretty 269 00:24:13,533 --> 00:24:18,418 good, not gonna lie. It looks like some of the episodes rehash the events from Infinity War, 270 00:24:18,938 --> 00:24:25,584 and one of them is going to be about Happy Hogan in a die-hard Christmas-type situation, which 271 00:24:25,624 --> 00:24:29,667 is gonna be a lot of fun. That episode is actually gonna drop on Christmas Day. What's really 272 00:24:29,687 --> 00:24:34,471 interesting is that, actually, the first episode of season two is gonna drop on December 22nd, 273 00:24:34,851 --> 00:24:39,619 and then we're gonna get one episode a day every day. until the end of the year, which is a 274 00:24:39,779 --> 00:24:43,843 new method of releasing episodes for Disney Plus, but I'm looking forward to it. I think 275 00:24:43,863 --> 00:24:48,686 it'll be a fun kind of holiday break where it's like we get to unwrap a new What If present 276 00:24:48,747 --> 00:24:54,051 every day. Yeah, it's like a advent calendar in a way. Yeah. Of course, our review for What 277 00:24:54,071 --> 00:24:59,996 If Season Two isn't going to drop until early 2024. Yeah, in January, but What If Season 278 00:25:00,036 --> 00:25:05,780 Two will be incorporated into our 2023 Brothers Awards. It will be in consideration for those 279 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:11,507 awards. As will... Merry Little Batman, which is an animated film that will be premiering 280 00:25:11,707 --> 00:25:17,469 on Amazon Prime on December 8th. I wasn't sure if we were going to review this, but after 281 00:25:17,489 --> 00:25:22,630 seeing this trailer, I'm like, we got it, because this just looks like the cutest, most fun holiday 282 00:25:22,770 --> 00:25:29,072 Batman film ever. The thing that actually appeals to me the most is the animation style. Again, 283 00:25:29,612 --> 00:25:34,013 all three of these animated trailers that we're discussing have very different animation styles. 284 00:25:34,538 --> 00:25:41,080 But Merry Little Batman is definitely the most unique and the most cartoony, and very much 285 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,742 in keeping with the kind of lighthearted style of the story that is trying to tell it seems. 286 00:25:46,243 --> 00:25:50,585 Yeah, it's a kid's story that centers around Damien Wayne, who tries to take up the mantle 287 00:25:50,625 --> 00:25:56,147 of Batman while his father is away during Christmas. The fact that the Joker is trying to steal 288 00:25:56,207 --> 00:26:02,614 Christmas in Gotham is fantastic. Like, I know they stole that from The Grinch. But I can't 289 00:26:02,654 --> 00:26:07,215 wait to see that play out on screen, because the Joker is, you know, pretty much a Grinch. 290 00:26:09,836 --> 00:26:13,257 It looks like the film is going to be filled with a ton of cute jokes. You know, whether 291 00:26:13,297 --> 00:26:18,158 they're talking about donut crumbs and Batman's beard, or the Joker asking who gave the little 292 00:26:18,178 --> 00:26:22,899 kid explosives. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie with my own children. 293 00:26:23,339 --> 00:26:30,841 Yeah, it kind of looks like the Grinch meets Home Alone meets Batman. What? Sold. Cannot 294 00:26:30,881 --> 00:26:35,383 be more sold. Honestly I don't want to like this trailer because it's DC but every time 295 00:26:35,463 --> 00:26:39,831 I watch it puts a smile on my face so I think it'll be a great time this holiday season. 296 00:26:40,271 --> 00:26:44,258 If you guys have Amazon Prime definitely check it out and definitely check out a review of 297 00:26:44,318 --> 00:26:46,421 it after it drops December 8th. 298 00:26:53,806 --> 00:26:57,893 But I think that does it for all the news for this episode. Holy cow, that was a lot. Now 299 00:26:57,913 --> 00:27:03,323 let's move on to the main event, where we review season two of the Marvel Studios television 300 00:27:03,363 --> 00:27:04,545 series, Loki. 301 00:27:19,882 --> 00:27:25,607 Okay, Loki Season 2 was directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and stars Tom Hiddleston, 302 00:27:25,827 --> 00:27:31,372 Owen Wilson, Sofia DiMartino, and Jonathan Majors. The season immediately continues the story 303 00:27:31,392 --> 00:27:36,977 of Loki Season 1, so right up top, I'm gonna give you guys your spoiler warning. Don't hurt 304 00:27:37,017 --> 00:27:42,882 yourself by listening to this review before watching Loki Season 2, which is incredible, 305 00:27:43,263 --> 00:27:48,603 I highly recommend it, and don't skip Loki Season 1 either. So spoiler warning for that season 306 00:27:48,823 --> 00:27:54,086 in this review as well. Yeah, if you haven't seen Loki season one, definitely do so. It's 307 00:27:54,127 --> 00:27:59,830 fantastic. This is coming from a DC guy. In my opinion, Loki is the best thing that Marvel's 308 00:27:59,870 --> 00:28:06,975 put out on the Disney Plus platform. I don't disagree for sure. In season one, the Loki 309 00:28:07,015 --> 00:28:12,119 variant from Avengers Endgame was arrested by the Time Variance Authority whose job it is 310 00:28:12,179 --> 00:28:17,430 to eliminate branches to what they refer to as the Sacred Timeline. Along the way, he met 311 00:28:17,510 --> 00:28:21,713 another Loki variant named Sylvie, and the two worked together to uncover the mystery behind 312 00:28:21,733 --> 00:28:28,758 the TVA and the man who created it, a Kang variant named He Who Remains. Sylvie killed He Who 313 00:28:28,798 --> 00:28:35,142 Remains, resulting in a branching Marvel multiverse, and sent Loki back to the TVA. That's the most 314 00:28:35,222 --> 00:28:41,198 basic of recaps for season 1. We rated it 4 stars on this podcast when it came out. Basically, 315 00:28:41,438 --> 00:28:45,301 I remember saying everything about that season was amazing, the only thing I didn't like was 316 00:28:45,321 --> 00:28:49,724 that I felt the character of Loki lost some of his agency to Sylvie, who it seemed really 317 00:28:49,744 --> 00:28:55,428 took on the protagonist role. But the same could not be said of this season too, where Loki 318 00:28:55,568 --> 00:29:01,393 is front and center, supported by a strong cast of characters, including Sylvie and Mobius, 319 00:29:01,633 --> 00:29:06,416 and a great new addition named Ouroboros played by Kei-Hui Kuan. I really like this season. 320 00:29:06,676 --> 00:29:11,304 Even more than I liked the first season. And I agree, I think this is unequivocally Marvel 321 00:29:11,324 --> 00:29:16,008 Studios best series to date. I'm not sure if I liked this season more than last season, 322 00:29:16,348 --> 00:29:21,413 but I think it's a worthy successor, I guess you could say, to season one, which I think 323 00:29:21,433 --> 00:29:27,338 is probably the most important thing that Marvel Studios has put out story-wise after Avengers 324 00:29:27,438 --> 00:29:32,562 Endgame. Yeah, for sure. It really kicked off the multiversal saga, at least like the reasoning 325 00:29:32,622 --> 00:29:37,883 behind the Marvel multiverse, right? Season one was great. this season, yeah, I think is 326 00:29:38,083 --> 00:29:41,847 a worthy successor. I think it does a great job of picking up the pieces where the story 327 00:29:41,887 --> 00:29:48,133 left off. And plus the show is just an audio visual masterpiece, I think. Holy cow. The 328 00:29:48,193 --> 00:29:53,558 cinematography, the art direction and the production design is all top tier. It's phenomenal, just 329 00:29:53,598 --> 00:29:58,102 like it was in season one where everything is gorgeous and often even better looking than 330 00:29:58,162 --> 00:30:03,979 the theatrical films that Marvel Studios produces. No, I agree. Sometimes I think that the Marvel 331 00:30:04,019 --> 00:30:09,504 films get a little too candy-coated in terms of the cinematography. Loki is something that 332 00:30:09,584 --> 00:30:14,388 definitely shines in terms of cinematography in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yeah, if 333 00:30:14,408 --> 00:30:19,372 you describe the Marvel Studios theatrical films as being kind of candy-coated, like the Marvels, 334 00:30:19,513 --> 00:30:24,637 like Guardians of the Galaxy 3, like Ant-Man Quantumania, I would describe the Loki television 335 00:30:24,657 --> 00:30:29,741 series as being like antique bronze-coated. It just has that feel. Yeah, yeah, I can see 336 00:30:29,781 --> 00:30:36,394 that. Or like a rich leather and mahogany finish. Yeah, it just looks different from everything 337 00:30:36,474 --> 00:30:41,517 else. They did a fantastic job of sticking to a very specific color palette throughout the 338 00:30:41,557 --> 00:30:46,140 show. And I just couldn't take my eyes off the screen the whole time. It was just gorgeous. 339 00:30:46,821 --> 00:30:51,003 The show sounds great, too, with one of the most unique and atmospheric scores out of any 340 00:30:51,124 --> 00:30:56,988 media, honestly, film or television series masterfully composed by Natalie Holt, who I kind of feel 341 00:30:57,008 --> 00:31:00,854 like came out of nowhere, starting with Loki season one a few years ago. to become one of 342 00:31:00,894 --> 00:31:06,858 the most compelling artists in her craft currently. Oh yeah, I love the synthetic score that they 343 00:31:06,878 --> 00:31:11,381 have for Loki. It's so damn good. I think we mentioned in our review of season one that 344 00:31:11,421 --> 00:31:14,944 it just reminds me of something from, I don't know, like Clockwork Orange or something like 345 00:31:14,984 --> 00:31:19,807 that. Yeah. There's something dated, but it works really well with the tone of the show. 346 00:31:20,247 --> 00:31:25,111 Yeah, it's atmospheric, it's slightly eerie, but above all things, it's interesting. So 347 00:31:25,131 --> 00:31:29,786 you have the audio, you have the visuals, and the direction by Benson and Moorhead. really 348 00:31:29,826 --> 00:31:34,607 well done here. They didn't work on the first season of Loki, but they did direct some of 349 00:31:34,627 --> 00:31:38,928 the episodes of Moon Knight, which is also one of Marvel Studios' most cinematic feeling shows. 350 00:31:39,449 --> 00:31:43,850 And I think they have a great command of the camera and storytelling sense to pull the most 351 00:31:43,910 --> 00:31:49,592 emotion and shock and coolness from a scene. We know Matt Shackman is going to direct the 352 00:31:49,652 --> 00:31:54,813 Fantastic Four film for Marvel Studios. He was hired for that based on his work on the WandaVision 353 00:31:54,853 --> 00:31:59,028 television series. And I think Benson and Moorhead also deserve to be tapped for a full length 354 00:31:59,068 --> 00:32:03,411 feature film in the future, because if Moon Knight and Loki are anything to go by, they 355 00:32:03,431 --> 00:32:08,975 would do fantastic. Yeah, I mean, Destin Daniel Cretton is no longer going to direct Avengers 356 00:32:09,015 --> 00:32:15,419 the Kang Dynasty. So why not tap these guys for that film? I would love that, honestly. 357 00:32:15,559 --> 00:32:20,703 I would love that. Especially since it's just continuing Kang's story. Right, exactly. And 358 00:32:20,723 --> 00:32:25,026 they did a great job with Victor Timely in this season. I could totally see that. With how 359 00:32:25,066 --> 00:32:30,649 great everything looks and feels with this show, I just wish Marvel would take a more artistic 360 00:32:30,669 --> 00:32:35,212 approach like this to their other projects. And if Vincent and Moorhead were tapped for 361 00:32:35,252 --> 00:32:39,735 the King dynasty, I think they might bring that more artistic approach to the film. The story 362 00:32:39,775 --> 00:32:45,459 of the Loki series is such that I'm not really surprised wherever it goes because the nature 363 00:32:45,699 --> 00:32:50,182 of the TVA is that you can kind of take the story to any time or place imaginable. But 364 00:32:50,202 --> 00:32:55,184 in the first season, you know, we went to first century Pompeii, alien planets like Lomantis 365 00:32:55,344 --> 00:33:00,886 1. We went to the void at the end of time. Whereas in season two, we went to such exciting places 366 00:33:00,906 --> 00:33:07,329 like Oklahoma in the 80s, London in the 70s, and 19th century Chicago. Although I'll admit 367 00:33:07,429 --> 00:33:12,751 that Chicago was an impressive period setting. But the story really scales back from all the 368 00:33:12,791 --> 00:33:18,113 time hopping to focus more on the TVA and the ramifications that a multiverse has on that 369 00:33:18,173 --> 00:33:23,012 organization. It was kind of a bit more of a smaller scale story in that regard, but with 370 00:33:23,072 --> 00:33:27,574 more focus on this primary group of characters. And I actually really enjoyed the time that 371 00:33:27,594 --> 00:33:31,857 we got to spend at the TVA with Ouroboros and the gang as they tried to solve the problem 372 00:33:31,897 --> 00:33:36,540 of the temporal loom. Yeah, I didn't mind the scaled back nature of the series. I thought 373 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:42,623 six episodes was perfect. I thought they did enough interesting things with the story that 374 00:33:42,843 --> 00:33:46,245 it didn't really matter that it didn't have much action or set pieces or something like 375 00:33:46,265 --> 00:33:50,149 that. I just enjoyed where the story took me. You mentioned that the show doesn't really 376 00:33:50,309 --> 00:33:55,694 surprise you. I was surprised so many times during this season, and I think that's one 377 00:33:55,714 --> 00:34:00,598 of the reasons I really enjoyed it. Yeah, there were several cliffhangers at the end of the 378 00:34:00,658 --> 00:34:05,903 episodes that just left me with my jaw open, you know, like really ready to just binge the 379 00:34:05,923 --> 00:34:10,087 next episode and see what the heck is going on. Did you binge the series or did you watch 380 00:34:10,107 --> 00:34:15,703 it week to week? I watched the first two episodes. as they came out and then I watched the last 381 00:34:15,783 --> 00:34:20,227 four episodes. I binged them before I wrote the review. Okay, yeah, see this series, if 382 00:34:20,327 --> 00:34:24,070 I was watching it week to week, I feel like I would have just hated that. Cause I would 383 00:34:24,090 --> 00:34:28,814 have just been thinking like the whole week, like what the hell is happening? For sure, 384 00:34:28,974 --> 00:34:33,939 yeah, it could be infuriating, but also infuriating is, you know, getting spoiled ahead of time 385 00:34:34,059 --> 00:34:37,462 on what's gonna happen on the show. So I was at least glad that even though I waited to 386 00:34:37,542 --> 00:34:41,945 binge the series, I wasn't really spoiled on anything major that happens at the end. Well, 387 00:34:42,566 --> 00:34:48,130 I was spoiled on a few things but I had no context for them, so it ended up not being too much 388 00:34:48,170 --> 00:34:52,975 of a spoiler. Yeah, I will say that watching the first two episodes as they came out, my 389 00:34:52,995 --> 00:34:57,458 impression of the show was that it was fine, you know? I didn't think we really were getting 390 00:34:57,519 --> 00:35:02,663 into the meat of the story until I binged the last four and those last four episodes starting 391 00:35:02,723 --> 00:35:07,450 with Chicago and Victor Timely leading up into the- final two episodes, which I thought were 392 00:35:07,550 --> 00:35:12,131 absolutely fantastic in movie quality, there was like a vast difference in the quality of 393 00:35:12,171 --> 00:35:18,013 the show, where the first two episodes weren't bad, but the last two episodes were just sublime. 394 00:35:18,153 --> 00:35:22,594 Oh man, yeah, the last two episodes took the show to a whole other level. I would agree 395 00:35:22,694 --> 00:35:27,215 that the first couple of episodes, I thought they were okay, I agree with you, but the last 396 00:35:27,235 --> 00:35:32,157 two episodes does things that I never thought Marvel Studios would ever do in terms of like 397 00:35:32,617 --> 00:35:37,506 artistic quality for a series based on a comic book. Yeah, or what Marvel Studios would do 398 00:35:37,646 --> 00:35:43,868 for the character of Loki. You know, where he goes in this story is such fascinating character 399 00:35:43,908 --> 00:35:49,090 growth based on where he came from. Oh, yeah. And honestly, like, I still don't even fully 400 00:35:49,130 --> 00:35:54,791 understand what happened. All I know is that it was beautiful. Well, we'll dive into it 401 00:35:54,951 --> 00:36:00,433 in our character breakdown, starting with Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. Now, Tom Hiddleston's 402 00:36:00,573 --> 00:36:06,240 portrayal of Loki. by this time has transcended his peers and become something more than a 403 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:11,642 simple supervillain role, something that feels significant and mythic in a way that no singular 404 00:36:11,702 --> 00:36:16,365 Marvel role has before, something that only Hiddleston himself could inhabit as one of 405 00:36:16,405 --> 00:36:20,887 the very best actors of his generation. I think he outdid himself here, and while I can only 406 00:36:20,947 --> 00:36:25,029 hope we see this character again, the ending of this season would be one hell of a send 407 00:36:25,089 --> 00:36:30,479 off for Loki. Oh yeah, I definitely agree. What they're doing with this character is so much 408 00:36:30,559 --> 00:36:35,321 better than what they're doing with his brother Thor in movies like Love and Thunder. It's 409 00:36:35,341 --> 00:36:41,164 like no comparison. Yeah, Thor should be ashamed. Like I hope Chris Hemsworth watches Loki season 410 00:36:41,184 --> 00:36:45,585 two and goes to Marvel Studios and says, I want to do something like that. I'm sick of the 411 00:36:45,625 --> 00:36:50,187 dick and fart jokes and fucking bow the God of Dumplings. Let's do something real with 412 00:36:50,207 --> 00:36:55,629 the character of Thor and give him his proper send off if Chris Hemsworth returns to the 413 00:36:55,669 --> 00:37:00,880 role. which you probably will. Loki's arc this season had less to do with Sylvie, which I 414 00:37:00,901 --> 00:37:07,165 was happy with. Here, it was more about stopping He Who Remains, then about saving the TVA, 415 00:37:07,305 --> 00:37:13,088 and then saving time itself. All because, after being humbled by the TVA in season 1, he made 416 00:37:13,208 --> 00:37:18,472 friends who he felt were worth saving. You know, he transformed over the course of all his on-screen 417 00:37:18,492 --> 00:37:23,784 appearances from the most selfish being ever. with simple aspirations of a throne to actually 418 00:37:23,944 --> 00:37:29,249 achieving a throne through the most selfless act of eternal sacrifice. It's a beautiful 419 00:37:29,309 --> 00:37:35,495 story. Oh man, yeah. To go from the first Avengers movie where he's saying that he's Loki and 420 00:37:35,535 --> 00:37:41,961 he's burdened with glorious purpose to learn in this show that purpose is more burden than 421 00:37:42,001 --> 00:37:48,926 glory, the arc from one to the other is incredibly profound. Yeah, especially since he's doing 422 00:37:48,966 --> 00:37:54,248 it for his friends, you know, and his role is so lonely now perched atop that throne all 423 00:37:54,288 --> 00:37:58,450 by himself outside of time. But, you know, it's something he's willing to do to ensure the 424 00:37:58,490 --> 00:38:02,952 survival of those he loves, which is not something that you ever could have conceived of the character 425 00:38:03,312 --> 00:38:08,694 based on his actions in the first Avengers film. I liken his arc, particularly in this season, 426 00:38:09,174 --> 00:38:15,317 to Bill Murray's arc in Groundhog Day. You know, they're very similar. He sort of attains enlightenment 427 00:38:15,477 --> 00:38:22,581 over the course of. living many lives as it were and again profound it's very interesting 428 00:38:22,621 --> 00:38:28,163 to see a character who was a villain become so unbelievably selfless yeah to see real change 429 00:38:28,424 --> 00:38:34,767 believable change is always thought-provoking it's cathartic yeah let's move on to mobius 430 00:38:34,827 --> 00:38:39,809 who's played by owen wilson i gotta say owen wilson is the most likable actor on the planet 431 00:38:40,278 --> 00:38:44,739 Like, I love seeing him in this role. He's fantastic as Mobius, especially later on in the season 432 00:38:44,759 --> 00:38:49,421 when you got to see the TVA agents in their lives on the Timeline branches. And we got 433 00:38:49,441 --> 00:38:55,464 to see that Mobius was a jet ski dealer named Don, which kind of went full circle with Mobius's 434 00:38:55,484 --> 00:39:01,207 fascination with jet skis in the TVA. Yeah, I think his story really sold the notion of 435 00:39:01,247 --> 00:39:06,869 how tragic it was that these characters in the TVA lost lives that they could have lived on 436 00:39:06,929 --> 00:39:11,439 Timeline branches. Yeah, what did you think of him retiring from the TVA at the end of 437 00:39:11,459 --> 00:39:15,202 the show? I mean, I'm really happy for him. I don't know quite how that's going to work 438 00:39:15,242 --> 00:39:19,064 out with a Deadpool movie because he's supposed to make a cameo in that or something like that. 439 00:39:19,324 --> 00:39:24,647 But I was happy to see the character kind of get what he always wanted. Yeah, it was kind 440 00:39:24,667 --> 00:39:30,691 of bittersweet watching him watch his variant take care of his kids. You know, we know that 441 00:39:30,791 --> 00:39:36,234 he can actually resume his life since that other Don already exists. But I like to think that 442 00:39:36,294 --> 00:39:40,916 Mobius kind of spends his days out on the water on his jet ski or something. It was quite a 443 00:39:40,956 --> 00:39:45,798 touching moment though at the very end there. Yeah, absolutely. Let's move on to Ouroboros 444 00:39:45,838 --> 00:39:51,620 who is played by Keihei Kuan. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. But he was such a fantastic addition 445 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:57,283 to the Loki cast. He fits so perfectly in with the show's atmosphere and sensibilities. It's 446 00:39:57,323 --> 00:40:01,184 almost like he was always a part of the show from the beginning. You know, it was just incredible 447 00:40:01,204 --> 00:40:06,218 casting. And I hope that the actor blows up Hollywood. and shows up in everything because 448 00:40:06,238 --> 00:40:10,761 he's just so enjoyable to watch that it's impossible for him to be overexposed in my opinion. Haha, 449 00:40:11,541 --> 00:40:15,703 I would agree. I mean, this is the first we're seeing Kim after his Oscar win, I believe. 450 00:40:15,723 --> 00:40:19,725 I don't know, I haven't seen the new Indiana Jones movie. I think he's actually in that. 451 00:40:20,205 --> 00:40:23,847 But it was great to see him again after, you know, watching everything everywhere all at 452 00:40:23,967 --> 00:40:28,849 once. And you're right, he fit in perfectly into this world, which itself is fairly quirky. 453 00:40:29,426 --> 00:40:35,030 Yeah, he could get a very quirky yet endearing type vibe as the technician behind the TVA, 454 00:40:35,490 --> 00:40:38,813 but I also thought it was kind of funny when he turned out to be this physics teacher and 455 00:40:38,933 --> 00:40:44,257 failed science fiction writer. Yeah, that was a great choice. Much like Owen Wilson as Mobius, 456 00:40:44,558 --> 00:40:50,342 I think the casting director should be commended for getting actors that are just very enjoyable 457 00:40:50,362 --> 00:40:55,182 to watch, very endearing, and inhabit the roles and the world of Loki so well. Let's move on 458 00:40:55,222 --> 00:41:00,085 to Sylvie, who's played by Sofia DiMartino, reprising her role from season one. She did 459 00:41:00,105 --> 00:41:04,328 have a smaller role here, a more supporting character to Loki's main narrative, which I 460 00:41:04,348 --> 00:41:09,451 thought was nice. She did have a worse haircut. I hated her haircut in this season. Like, I 461 00:41:09,491 --> 00:41:13,694 don't usually comment on characters' hair, but the fact that it was like a mullet just kind 462 00:41:13,754 --> 00:41:19,502 of threw me. I liked her hair last season, but no, I agree. It was a choice. wrong one. I 463 00:41:19,542 --> 00:41:24,867 like that the show completely ditched the whole awkward romantic subplot between the two Loki's 464 00:41:25,267 --> 00:41:30,051 because I think a lot of critics rightfully so felt that it was just kind of like incestuous 465 00:41:30,091 --> 00:41:36,076 and creepy. Here Sylvie was mainly just someone who wanted everyone to have free will and the 466 00:41:36,136 --> 00:41:40,239 right to existence. So she's kind of like a freedom fighter in that regard. Less extreme 467 00:41:40,279 --> 00:41:44,563 than she was in season one but more likeable. I did find it interesting that like immediately 468 00:41:44,703 --> 00:41:50,838 after killing He Who Remains she decided to go live her life working at McDonald's. There 469 00:41:50,858 --> 00:41:55,340 was like a huge product placement for McDonald's. I was like, what the heck? Absolutely, I don't 470 00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:59,621 know how I feel about that. But like you think about like one of the most mundane scenarios 471 00:41:59,661 --> 00:42:03,882 for her. I think that's what she wanted for herself. You know, she had spent her entire 472 00:42:03,922 --> 00:42:09,184 life living in apocalypses and living on the run that the ideal existence for her was the 473 00:42:09,224 --> 00:42:14,294 exact opposite. You know, routine, a lack of excitement, things like that. It made sense 474 00:42:14,334 --> 00:42:18,755 for the character and despite the fact that, you know, she killed He-He Remains and kind 475 00:42:18,815 --> 00:42:23,356 of caused this whole mess, you still felt for her. True, yeah. And she ended up going right 476 00:42:23,396 --> 00:42:27,558 back to the very same spot at the end of the show. Which I thought was great. You know, 477 00:42:27,658 --> 00:42:32,059 she had already found where she wanted to end up. Her happy ending, as it were. Yeah, but 478 00:42:32,099 --> 00:42:35,960 considering Asgardians live for about 10,000 years, I wonder how long that'll stick. Before 479 00:42:35,980 --> 00:42:40,921 she's moving on beyond McDonald's and getting back into the action, as it were. Who knows? 480 00:42:41,446 --> 00:42:45,467 But if this is the last we ever see of Sylvie, I thought it was fantastic. I think her whole 481 00:42:45,487 --> 00:42:50,388 character arc was quite brilliant as well. Honestly, I hope it's not the last we see of Sylvie. 482 00:42:50,728 --> 00:42:55,990 I definitely think there is potential for her to go on to become a mainstay in the MCU, whether 483 00:42:56,050 --> 00:43:01,111 it's as a hero or a villain. How would you feel about that? Well, I mean, honestly, I hope 484 00:43:01,131 --> 00:43:04,532 this isn't the last we see of any of the characters. I hope we get a Loki season three, you know, 485 00:43:04,632 --> 00:43:09,353 so. Well, the showrunner said that that's not going to happen, I believe. Yeah, I heard that 486 00:43:09,393 --> 00:43:14,244 too, which is a shame. But I also heard rumors that Loki will appear in Secret Wars, but you 487 00:43:14,264 --> 00:43:17,507 know, rumors say that everybody's going to appear in Secret Wars, so who knows? Who the hell 488 00:43:17,567 --> 00:43:23,592 is it? I'm going to be in Secret Wars. Let's go ahead and move on to Victor Timely, played 489 00:43:23,632 --> 00:43:29,017 by Jonathan Majors. God, I hope Jonathan Majors didn't do that shit that they said he did to 490 00:43:29,037 --> 00:43:33,180 his girlfriend. I hope he doesn't get convicted with criminal charges. And I hope Marvel Studios 491 00:43:33,220 --> 00:43:37,323 sticks with him, because if this season showed anything, it shows that he's a really talented 492 00:43:37,343 --> 00:43:41,719 guy, you know, is meek and stuttering Victor Timely. is so different from his cocky and 493 00:43:41,759 --> 00:43:46,565 eccentric he-who-remains, who is also so different from his angry and menacing king of the conqueror 494 00:43:46,585 --> 00:43:52,831 from quantumania. I was impressed with his performance here, especially at his ability to elicit sympathy 495 00:43:52,992 --> 00:43:58,558 in the scene where Sylvie was gonna kill him. Oh yeah, totally. I mean, for an actor that 496 00:43:58,618 --> 00:44:03,819 people know is probably not so sympathetic in real life, to elicit sympathy on screen and 497 00:44:03,839 --> 00:44:09,924 still have the viewer experience that emotion is evidence that he's a fantastic actor. I 498 00:44:09,964 --> 00:44:14,549 agree with you, I hope we get to see more of him. I know a lot of people are angry with 499 00:44:14,609 --> 00:44:21,695 him and want to cancel him, and maybe rightfully so, but people make mistakes and I think, you 500 00:44:21,715 --> 00:44:27,100 know, as long as you leave room for redemption, hopefully he takes that opportunity and maybe 501 00:44:27,140 --> 00:44:31,804 hopefully is able to come back. There were other major characters in the series including Hunter 502 00:44:31,824 --> 00:44:36,869 B-15, Casey, Ravonna Renslayer, and Miss Minutes, but there wasn't too much going on arc wise 503 00:44:36,889 --> 00:44:41,413 with them that I think merits discussion. So let's go ahead and move on to the story highlights. 504 00:44:47,190 --> 00:44:51,053 Hey guys, Marvelous Joe here to tell all of you that if you're going to buy Marvel and 505 00:44:51,073 --> 00:44:56,538 DC stuff for the holidays this year, do it for 20% off. 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You can pair them with the Loki cufflinks to really 513 00:45:35,950 --> 00:45:40,932 pay tribute to the God of Mischief, or maybe rock them with the Thor hammer man's tie to 514 00:45:40,972 --> 00:45:45,694 rep the God of Thunder. No matter your choice, You can't go wrong with any of the great gifts 515 00:45:45,834 --> 00:45:52,536 at cufflinks.com where again, you can get 20% off anything at the site with code dual20. 516 00:45:52,576 --> 00:45:59,918 Thanks guys! Alright, episode 1 was titled Ouroboros. After Loki gets sent to the Time Variance Authority 517 00:45:59,938 --> 00:46:05,299 by Sylvie at the Citadel at the end of time, he begins slipping between the past and present. 518 00:46:05,820 --> 00:46:13,006 While trying to warn the TVA of the threat of he who remains and his variance, Loki and with 519 00:46:13,046 --> 00:46:18,048 help from the technician named Ouroboros, who deduces that the issue is the result of an 520 00:46:18,168 --> 00:46:24,890 overloaded temporal loom, a device that refines raw time into physical timelines. Ouroboros 521 00:46:24,910 --> 00:46:30,032 constructs a temporal aura extractor device that pulls Loki from the time stream into the 522 00:46:30,072 --> 00:46:35,715 present TVA. General Dox, after receiving orders not to prune the new timelines from Judge Gamble, 523 00:46:35,935 --> 00:46:40,737 rallies a group of hunters to allegedly find Sylvie, who is in hiding at a McDonald's in 524 00:46:40,797 --> 00:46:47,288 1982 Oklahoma. There was some good setup here that got pay off in later episodes such as 525 00:46:47,348 --> 00:46:51,630 Loki pruning himself from the future into the past. I thought it was clever when they paid 526 00:46:51,650 --> 00:46:55,852 that off later in the season. Yeah, that was sort of a mystery that was running for a while. 527 00:46:56,072 --> 00:47:00,574 Like, who pruned him at that moment? Yeah, and why was Sylvie there and all that stuff? It 528 00:47:00,614 --> 00:47:06,017 was a good mystery. What was really interesting was the answer that we had at the end of Loki 529 00:47:06,037 --> 00:47:11,913 season one, which was... Where is Loki or when is Loki when he's talking to Mobius and Mobius 530 00:47:11,933 --> 00:47:16,698 has no idea who he is and we see the statue of Kink. We theorized that maybe Loki was sent 531 00:47:16,738 --> 00:47:22,043 to an alternate version of the TVA, but as we learned here, there's only one version of the 532 00:47:22,083 --> 00:47:27,367 TVA no matter how many branching timelines there are, and Loki was merely sent into the distant 533 00:47:27,447 --> 00:47:33,953 past of the TVA. Which is actually pretty trippy knowing that time runs differently at the TVA. 534 00:47:34,590 --> 00:47:38,893 Right, there's a past, present, future, even though it technically exists outside of the 535 00:47:38,933 --> 00:47:42,896 timelines, right? That's pretty interesting. But we saw him go back and forth in time at 536 00:47:42,936 --> 00:47:48,221 the TVA, from a point to where he remains was in charge of the organization, to later on 537 00:47:48,261 --> 00:47:53,085 where he kind of removed himself and put in those figureheads, as it were. The timekeepers. 538 00:47:53,445 --> 00:47:58,649 Exactly. Let's go to move on to episode two, which was called Breaking Brad. Trying to find 539 00:47:58,729 --> 00:48:05,582 Sylvie, Loki and Mobius track down X-5 in 1977 London. believing that this TVA hunter found 540 00:48:05,622 --> 00:48:11,765 her due to his Tempad going dark. They discover that X-Five is hiding and living on the sacred 541 00:48:11,805 --> 00:48:17,047 timeline as a famous actor named Brad Wolf. They apprehend him and bring him back to the 542 00:48:17,087 --> 00:48:21,829 TVA where they learn through interrogation that X-Five learned of Sylvie's whereabouts before 543 00:48:21,869 --> 00:48:28,032 abandoning his mission. TVA clerk Casey deduces that former head judge Ravonna Renslayer received 544 00:48:28,072 --> 00:48:33,026 a message from the artificial intelligence Miss Minutes before both disappeared. and Ouroboros 545 00:48:33,046 --> 00:48:38,170 warns that he cannot fix the temporal loom from meltdown without the temporal aura of He Who 546 00:48:38,210 --> 00:48:44,594 Remains to open the containment doors. Loki, Mobius, and X-Five travel to 1982 to meet with 547 00:48:44,634 --> 00:48:49,598 Sylvie, where X-Five reveals that General Dox and her group are secretly pruning the new 548 00:48:49,638 --> 00:48:55,081 timelines. They fight and capture her to prevent any further pruning. This was I think maybe 549 00:48:55,121 --> 00:48:59,184 the most inconsequential episode of the season. I just wasn't really interested in the character 550 00:48:59,264 --> 00:49:04,787 of Brad Wolf or X-Five. that he was kind of an unnecessary addition to the cast of characters. 551 00:49:05,327 --> 00:49:10,209 Yeah, no, I agree. It took me a while to realize that Brad and X5 were the same person, even 552 00:49:10,269 --> 00:49:15,652 though they were saying that they were looking for X5. Like, I didn't I didn't quite catch 553 00:49:15,792 --> 00:49:22,094 who X5 even was until later on, considering the fact that Brad and X5 looked fairly different. 554 00:49:22,134 --> 00:49:28,597 Like X5 had a beard. Brad didn't. It was confusing for a while. Yeah, the hair thing kind of threw 555 00:49:28,617 --> 00:49:33,348 me right. If this season had any missteps, I think the biggest one was probably around the 556 00:49:33,388 --> 00:49:39,413 character of Brad. Let's go ahead and move on to episode 3, which was called 1893. In 1868 557 00:49:40,133 --> 00:49:44,737 Chicago, Miss Minutes has Ravonna Renslayer leave a copy of the TVA guidebook for young 558 00:49:44,817 --> 00:49:50,421 Victor Timely, a variant of He Who Remains, to find. In the present, Ouroboros deduces 559 00:49:50,461 --> 00:49:54,644 that without He Who Remains temporal aura to open the blast doors, they could still use 560 00:49:54,704 --> 00:50:00,247 Miss Minutes to override the controls. Locine Mobius track her to 1893 Chicago where they 561 00:50:00,287 --> 00:50:05,529 find her and Renslayer observing Victor Timely who has built TVA prototypes as well as fake 562 00:50:05,569 --> 00:50:11,372 inventions as scams for money. Sylvie interrupts in an attempt to kill Timely but he escapes 563 00:50:11,392 --> 00:50:16,534 with Renslayer and Miss Minnitz who want him to take He Who Remains Place running the TVA 564 00:50:16,694 --> 00:50:21,496 at the Citadel at the end of time alongside them. Miss Minnitz gets shut off after coming 565 00:50:21,736 --> 00:50:27,139 onto Timely and Sylvie appears. only to spare Victor and have Loki and Mobius take him to 566 00:50:27,159 --> 00:50:32,723 the TVA. She sends Renslayer to the Citadel at the end of time with Miss Minutes. I didn't 567 00:50:32,763 --> 00:50:36,926 love what they did with Miss Minutes here. I thought it was really weird that she was in 568 00:50:37,006 --> 00:50:42,450 love with Victor Timely. Yeah, it kinda seemed unnecessary to me as well, especially considering 569 00:50:42,610 --> 00:50:46,573 that it didn't really go anywhere. But Miss Minutes was incredibly uncomfortable during 570 00:50:46,613 --> 00:50:50,155 this whole season, I thought. Like, especially in the later episode when they're killing all 571 00:50:50,175 --> 00:50:55,883 those TVA hunters and she's like smiling that creepy cartoon smile as they're all being crushed 572 00:50:55,903 --> 00:51:02,148 to death. It was effectively creepy, but was it a necessary creep factor? I almost wish 573 00:51:02,168 --> 00:51:07,511 that they used Miss Minutes more perhaps as the main villain at the end. With how creepy 574 00:51:07,531 --> 00:51:12,695 she was, I think she deserved a better send-off than merely just being shut off by Ouroboros. 575 00:51:13,276 --> 00:51:18,600 I agree, I didn't love how Miss Minutes and Rentslayer's arcs were just kind of dropped 576 00:51:18,660 --> 00:51:22,975 at the very end. There were a few things that kind of just became irrelevant as the show 577 00:51:22,995 --> 00:51:27,558 decided to kind of explore a little bit more of like Loki's psyche and what he's going through 578 00:51:27,618 --> 00:51:32,662 personally. Yeah, Ramona Renslayer was merely pruned and sent to the void at the end of time 579 00:51:32,682 --> 00:51:37,265 where she was I think devoured by Eliath. Although that being said, you know, Miss Minence and 580 00:51:37,325 --> 00:51:42,309 Renslayer weren't really in the season until this episode, so they were really merely side 581 00:51:42,329 --> 00:51:48,033 plots. Yeah, absolutely. I really liked the setting of late 19th century Chicago. I thought 582 00:51:48,053 --> 00:51:52,795 they did really well. with the cinematography, with the costuming, with the set design. Yeah, 583 00:51:52,815 --> 00:51:56,777 that carnival seemed pretty interesting. What did you think of the idea of Victor Timely 584 00:51:56,817 --> 00:52:01,419 as a scam artist? That threw me. I didn't see that coming. That was a surprise. I thought 585 00:52:01,459 --> 00:52:07,221 he was a legit scientific inventor. And I didn't know if it was just because he was a variant 586 00:52:07,321 --> 00:52:12,403 in this universe that he wasn't like the scientific genius or whatever. I guess he still was. He 587 00:52:12,444 --> 00:52:17,954 just didn't have the technology to create what he really wanted to. Exactly. Yeah, he was 588 00:52:17,994 --> 00:52:23,278 limited by the technology of his time. He was a genius, he was also running scams, so it 589 00:52:23,298 --> 00:52:27,522 was a little bit vague for a minute there as to whether or not he was just a loony variant 590 00:52:27,682 --> 00:52:31,225 or if he actually was smart. I'm glad it was the latter. Let's go ahead and move on to episode 591 00:52:31,265 --> 00:52:36,969 4 which is called Heart of the TVA. Miss Minutes reveals to Renslayer that she was once a commander 592 00:52:37,029 --> 00:52:42,674 of He Who Remains Army and co-leader at the end of time before he had her memories erased. 593 00:52:47,062 --> 00:52:51,925 that will prevent the Temporal Loom from melting down and allow it to accommodate more timelines. 594 00:52:52,465 --> 00:52:57,229 Meanwhile, Renslayer and Miss Minutes attempt to overtake the TVA by recruiting General Docs 595 00:52:57,289 --> 00:53:02,732 and her group of hunters in custody. All but X5 reject Renslayer's offer and are killed. 596 00:53:03,353 --> 00:53:10,097 X5 kidnaps Timely, forcing Goroboros to shut off Miss Minutes. Sylvie enchants X5, forcing 597 00:53:10,137 --> 00:53:15,841 him to prune Ribona. With Timely saved, he opens the containment doors with his Temporal Aura. 598 00:53:16,234 --> 00:53:21,398 and volunteers to activate the throughput multiplier. However, they're too late and the temporal 599 00:53:21,418 --> 00:53:26,402 radiation turns him into spaghetti as he approaches the temporal loom. I liked this episode. I 600 00:53:26,442 --> 00:53:31,286 thought there was like a lot of tension, you know, back and forth where you are riddled 601 00:53:31,306 --> 00:53:36,330 with anxiety as the clock is ticking and Victor Timely is kidnapped. And then you're relieved 602 00:53:36,570 --> 00:53:41,575 when he's rescued. And then you're shocked when he is spaghettified in the temporal radiation. 603 00:53:41,595 --> 00:53:46,158 I thought there was a lot of great like emotion pulling in this episode. Yeah, that was pretty 604 00:53:46,198 --> 00:53:51,241 wild when he just straight up was like disintegrated like that, like spaghetti. Did not see that 605 00:53:51,301 --> 00:53:57,864 coming. But also I kind of felt overall with this main conflict of the whole temporal loom 606 00:53:58,064 --> 00:54:04,208 overloading, it was a little vague as to what exactly the consequences were going to be until 607 00:54:04,368 --> 00:54:08,990 you saw Victor Tynely spaghettified. Yeah, and then as you saw the temporal loom explode and 608 00:54:09,010 --> 00:54:14,373 everybody's just standing there like, what the fuck do we do? That was the season's best cliffhanger, 609 00:54:14,573 --> 00:54:20,088 I think. Absolutely. Where you just saw Loki's face and then end credits. I'm like what the 610 00:54:20,248 --> 00:54:24,551 heck is gonna happen now? Exactly. I was like is this the season finale? What's going on? 611 00:54:25,811 --> 00:54:30,594 Let's go to move on to episode 5 which is called science fiction Loki escapes the meltdown by 612 00:54:30,674 --> 00:54:35,737 time-slipping to the branch timelines where his friends from the TVA are from Discovering 613 00:54:35,897 --> 00:54:42,360 that they were reset to their original lives He finds Ouroboros aka Doug who is a theoretical 614 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:48,135 physics teacher and failed science fiction writer and enlists his help in building a Tempad to 615 00:54:48,315 --> 00:54:53,297 use to recruit the others to go back in time to the TVA and succeed where they had previously 616 00:54:53,357 --> 00:54:58,899 failed. Loki convinces everyone but Sylvie, who gets him to admit that his true motivation 617 00:54:59,039 --> 00:55:04,762 is to keep from losing his friends, and concedes that their lives outside the TVA may be better 618 00:55:04,782 --> 00:55:10,544 for them. Nonetheless, as the Temporal Loom can't sustain the branches, everything spaghettifies 619 00:55:10,644 --> 00:55:15,722 anyway, forcing Loki to gain control of his time slipping. and allowing him to travel to 620 00:55:15,782 --> 00:55:22,865 any point in time and space. The scene where Loki apparently abandons the mission for the 621 00:55:22,905 --> 00:55:27,707 betterment of his friends, and we see Sylvie visiting that record store and just listen 622 00:55:27,727 --> 00:55:33,990 to an album as everything starts going to shit was nightmare fuel. It was so surreal. Oh, 623 00:55:34,050 --> 00:55:38,532 absolutely. Yeah, it's terrifying. After seeing what happened to Victor Timely in the previous 624 00:55:38,592 --> 00:55:43,815 episode, and then seeing everything spaghettify, It turned out to be quite the horrifying effect. 625 00:55:43,915 --> 00:55:48,397 Like every time it would happen, I actually felt this sense of dread. Especially as they're 626 00:55:48,417 --> 00:55:52,880 like running from it in slow motion and you know there's just like no escape. You just 627 00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:57,583 wait for it to hit you. Yeah, exactly, nightmare fuel. The effect itself kind of reminded me 628 00:55:57,663 --> 00:56:02,706 of string theory, which essentially states that particles are strings that move through time 629 00:56:02,746 --> 00:56:07,508 and space, and those were all just kind of like disappearing, those strings. Yeah, exactly. 630 00:56:07,949 --> 00:56:14,451 Moving on to the final episode. episode 6 called Glorious Purpose. In it, Loki travels to before 631 00:56:14,471 --> 00:56:19,672 the loom's meltdown and fails repeatedly to get the throughput multiplier to work. After 632 00:56:19,712 --> 00:56:24,574 successfully activating it, he learns it's all pointless as the loom will never be able to 633 00:56:24,614 --> 00:56:30,175 accommodate infinitely growing branches. Loki then has to travel back to before Sylvie killed 634 00:56:30,215 --> 00:56:35,397 He Who Remains where he learns that the loom is a failsafe that will protect the sacred 635 00:56:35,437 --> 00:56:40,434 timeline by deleting all the branches along with the TVA. and that destroying the loom 636 00:56:40,574 --> 00:56:45,775 would lead to infinite realities and the multiversal war. He Who Remains states the only way to 637 00:56:45,816 --> 00:56:50,857 save the loom is to kill Sylvie, which Loki rejects. Loki travels through time to confer 638 00:56:50,877 --> 00:56:56,239 with Mobius, who tells him that purpose is more about burden than glory, but the hard thing 639 00:56:56,259 --> 00:57:02,060 to do is the thing that has to be done. He then travels to visit Sylvie, who tells him, sometimes 640 00:57:02,100 --> 00:57:07,022 it's okay to destroy something if there's hope you can replace it with something better. With 641 00:57:07,042 --> 00:57:11,684 that in mind, Loki travels to the time of the meltdown and destroys the loom, giving the 642 00:57:11,704 --> 00:57:16,606 multiverse a chance to exist by replacing the device and overseeing the timelines from a 643 00:57:16,646 --> 00:57:22,708 throne at the center of the timelines that become Yggdrasil, the world tree. Mobius retires from 644 00:57:22,728 --> 00:57:28,711 the TVA, who now tracks the variants of he who remains. Uh, brilliant episode, brilliant episode, 645 00:57:28,831 --> 00:57:34,753 incredible. Wait, so Loki doesn't become a new loom, transferring chaotic time into solidified 646 00:57:34,793 --> 00:57:39,484 time? Yeah, he essentially replaces the loom. He becomes his own loom, preventing the multiversal 647 00:57:39,504 --> 00:57:43,327 war. Okay, that's what I thought. You know, the start of the episode is really about him 648 00:57:43,367 --> 00:57:49,731 trying to get the throughput multiplier to work. And it's so tragic that he had to spend centuries 649 00:57:49,872 --> 00:57:54,315 learning everything he could from Ouroboros about theoretical physics, only for it to all 650 00:57:54,335 --> 00:57:59,378 be moot because the loom could never be upgraded enough to accommodate infinite branches, you 651 00:57:59,398 --> 00:58:04,622 know? That was tragic. And then the big reveal from He Who Remains stating that The loom is 652 00:58:04,662 --> 00:58:09,586 just a fail safe to protect the sacred timeline. That was a big jaw drop moment. Just so many 653 00:58:09,606 --> 00:58:16,171 good scenes all leading up into the end, which felt so poignant. The final shot of Loki sitting 654 00:58:16,231 --> 00:58:21,856 on his throne, accepting his role was a brilliant bit of acting from Tom Hiddleston for one, 655 00:58:21,956 --> 00:58:26,460 but such a fascinating way to end the series. It was a fantastic ending, such a good ending. 656 00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:31,784 I'm kind of glad there wasn't any kind of after credit scenes because it didn't need it. Like 657 00:58:31,824 --> 00:58:37,104 just end with that mic drop. Boom, there you go. Yeah, you know, I definitely, of course, 658 00:58:37,264 --> 00:58:43,168 poured over the end credits looking for a scene, but when that ended up being it, you settle 659 00:58:43,228 --> 00:58:48,151 in with the closure of what you just saw. And on my part, I felt really pleased with the 660 00:58:48,171 --> 00:58:53,735 way the season had gone. Really pleased, but also really sad. It's a great mixture of emotions 661 00:58:53,755 --> 00:58:58,319 that I think just are a testament to how good this season was. For sure, yeah. Every time 662 00:58:58,339 --> 00:59:02,121 you watch a good show that ends, doesn't that usually come with a bit of sadness? Because 663 00:59:02,161 --> 00:59:06,683 it's over? I mean, it depends on the show. Some shows have terrible endings like Game of Thrones, 664 00:59:07,123 --> 00:59:11,965 and some like this have very great endings where you're sad that you won't get to be with these 665 00:59:12,005 --> 00:59:16,647 characters again, but you're also happy with their lives the way they turned out and you 666 00:59:16,667 --> 00:59:22,389 don't really want to see any of that unravel. Yeah. But that does a further review for Loki 667 00:59:22,409 --> 00:59:28,224 Season 2. God, it is a shame that it is over. And I feel like we'll have similar sentiments 668 00:59:28,344 --> 00:59:33,768 about Doom Patrol season four in our next episode when we review that. Just a great bit of long 669 00:59:33,788 --> 00:59:38,371 form television storytelling from Marvel and DC. That'll be bittersweet saying goodbye to 670 00:59:38,391 --> 00:59:43,695 this year. Yeah, with MCU, you know, kind of sending off Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, this 671 00:59:43,775 --> 00:59:50,879 is another hit, I think to the fandom, but like in the best way. So kudos to Marvel Studios 672 00:59:50,919 --> 00:59:56,003 for getting something right, which I feel like they haven't done in a while, because I enjoyed 673 00:59:56,043 --> 01:00:02,648 it a lot. Yeah, absolutely. With gorgeous cinematography, extraordinary music score, and a matchless 674 01:00:02,688 --> 01:00:08,953 cast of characters, Loki season two to date offers the best that Marvel Studios television 675 01:00:08,973 --> 01:00:14,437 has to offer. I'm giving this season four and a half stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 676 01:00:15,946 --> 01:00:20,668 And I think that makes sense, especially with how profound the season was in particular. 677 01:00:20,988 --> 01:00:25,490 It was very different from what I thought it was going to be. In a way, it defied my expectations 678 01:00:25,570 --> 01:00:31,372 for the better, just in how many shocks and surprises there ended up being, and how great 679 01:00:31,472 --> 01:00:38,515 the ending was. I agree. I actually also rated season one 4.5 stars. You disagreed with me 680 01:00:38,795 --> 01:00:43,077 because you said that Loki was out of character, but no, I've always been a fan of the show, 681 01:00:43,117 --> 01:00:48,685 and you're just a fake fan. Shut up. No, go back and listen to our review of season one 682 01:00:48,705 --> 01:00:53,549 and I think you'll find that my gripes with that season still hold up. But no, season two 683 01:00:53,569 --> 01:00:57,492 was fantastic. I liked it more than season one. Four and a half stars. But that does it for 684 01:00:57,532 --> 01:01:01,395 this review. Let us know what you guys thought about the show by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com 685 01:01:02,596 --> 01:01:07,140 or by visiting us on Instagram or X. You can find links to all of our accounts by checking 686 01:01:07,200 --> 01:01:11,924 out our show notes or visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you can also 687 01:01:11,944 --> 01:01:16,404 find a link to our Patreon page. where you could join our Dynamic 2.0 tier and chat with us 688 01:01:16,444 --> 01:01:21,929 and fellow listeners, our Fantastic Four tier, which gets you bonus content each month, our 689 01:01:22,129 --> 01:01:27,815 X-Force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast, or our newest tier that lets 690 01:01:27,835 --> 01:01:33,160 you join our Dynamike Podcast Network. If you can't join Patreon, you can still support the 691 01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:38,505 show by signing up for our e-newsletter, also at dynamicdoll.com, so you'll never miss an 692 01:01:38,545 --> 01:01:42,530 episode. And don't forget guys to visit our website to leave a donation for Pop Culture 693 01:01:42,550 --> 01:01:47,132 Classroom which will get you a digital poster of our upcoming charity duel episode in December, 694 01:01:47,672 --> 01:01:53,153 Alfred Pennyworth vs Edwin Jarvis. As I mentioned earlier, our next episode is going to be another 695 01:01:53,193 --> 01:01:59,615 review where we discuss season 4 of Doom Patrol. Now this is a little bit late this episode. 696 01:01:59,715 --> 01:02:05,937 I think the series ended on November 9th I want to say. Yes. But to save face, I blame Jonathan. 697 01:02:06,457 --> 01:02:13,390 I blame myself. I started a new job recently, so it's been hard just, you know, not only 698 01:02:13,430 --> 01:02:17,454 finishing the season, but reviewing it as well. But yeah, we're going to talk all about the 699 01:02:17,474 --> 01:02:22,078 show next week. Doom Patrol is fantastic. I'm expecting great things from it. But that does 700 01:02:22,098 --> 01:02:26,658 it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers. Ken Johnson, John 701 01:02:26,678 --> 01:02:31,242 Strausky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcombe, Mickey Mathengian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel 702 01:02:31,262 --> 01:02:37,647 Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Nick Ibbonto, Austin Wiselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Adam Spies, and 703 01:02:37,807 --> 01:02:42,091 Andrew Schunk for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. 704 01:02:42,531 --> 01:02:47,996 Up up and away, true believers. Eat spaghetti no regretty. Hello gamers, are you ready to 705 01:02:48,056 --> 01:02:55,161 dive into a video game podcast unlike any other? Then look no further. Welcome to Console Combat. 706 01:02:55,506 --> 01:03:00,549 I'm John. And I'm Dean. We're here to give you the info on the latest releases, upcoming titles, 707 01:03:00,589 --> 01:03:04,531 and everything else that's making waves in the gaming universe. That's right Dean, but that's 708 01:03:04,591 --> 01:03:09,574 not all we do here at Console Combat. Each week we'll put two video game characters against 709 01:03:09,594 --> 01:03:15,418 each other in our epic battle simulator Cortex. After a brief speculation, Cortex ultimately 710 01:03:15,458 --> 01:03:21,221 determines who would emerge victorious by running 1,000 battles in its adopted Monte Carlo simulator. 711 01:03:21,858 --> 01:03:26,603 Who has the mightiest punch, the fastest speed, or the most cunning strategy? On Console Combat, 712 01:03:26,763 --> 01:03:31,770 we'll put that to the test. Essentially, we're a multiversal Super Smash Bros. style podcast. 713 01:03:31,990 --> 01:03:36,575 So whether you're a casual player or a hardcore gaming enthusiast, there's something for everyone 714 01:03:36,615 --> 01:03:41,822 here at Console Combat. So grab your controllers, strap in, and let's get ready for some action.