An ode to the tricks of the mischievous god
—— "Rocky" look and feel 1
text = empty language
Legend has it that the god of mischief used to be proud of his tricks, once thought that he had seen through mortals, once thought that bitterness and hatred were profound, and once thought that angrily belittling others would show his superiority... Only later did he find out that what he was after was Poor sense of identity, like a despised mortal. He attacks others, smears others, just to be recognized. However, it is always difficult for you to gain recognition through delusions. Time, he discovered, was the ultimate trick. Well, he's ready to mature and start to love the world and watch the comedy clips of the world...
Of course, the above are half-truths floating empty talk. This article mainly records the connotation and extension of some existing plots and settings.
1) Who is Loki? - From slaughter to trickery
Loki, the god of tricks, and Thor, the god of thunder, are drawn from Norse mythology. However, for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, their mythology is very weak. Dominion, or Asgard, appears to be an elevated Britain. Loki and Thor are like aliens. Their race colonizes or "governs" the "Nine Realms" including the earth, but keeps the earth "autonomous". When Loki tried to claim the throne on Earth in Avengers 1, he was treated as an evil invader, dubbed "Mussolini from Asgard".
Loki in the first season of "Loki" escaped from Avengers 1, while continuing his character in it. Obviously, the image of Loki at this time is not the god of tricks in the myth, but the sovereign in the "anti-Fascist myth" - or he tried to become that kind of person, but failed. The source of his slogans can be found in Mussolini. He exalted his own race and degraded that of others; he devalued liberty and admired obedience; he devalued trust among the governed, and he boasted as a "liberator."
His slogan is to the effect that freedom is a lie, that human beings are enslaved by the illusion of freedom; most people want to increase their power and go down the wrong path of shame and remorse. Then the plan he gave to "liberate mankind" is to give up personal freedom and obey absolutely. From then on, people don't need to make their own choices, and they don't need to take risks, and they will live very easily. This is basically a simplified description of fascism. Fascism strongly demeans freedom, demeans individuals; anti-American and anti-Soviet. The core of fascist thought is the supremacy of the state; individualism is ignoring the state for the sake of personal gain, which is sinful; individuals should realize that they live for the state; democracy is also a lie that leads to chaos. It is said that Mussolini's words - Fascism reaffirms the State as the true reality of the individual - can be used to generalize.
Abandon individual freedom and democracy, then people's lives will be "easy" - you see, life and death do not need to worry about the rich and the poor, they are fed and slaughtered like pigs, and all favors lead to the praise of the slaughterer, how nice. This is the plan of the Loki-Mussolinis. Loki, who dreamed of a lone slayer, failed. The value of this image has been used up, so next, it is estimated that the drama "Rocky" will show more of his "god of tricks" image.
Interestingly, Loki is Mephisto in a sense, a lie or a ruse is pretty much the same. In the trailer and the first episode of "Rocky", you can see the "devil" image on the glass of the church, which looks like Mephisto, but is actually Loki in the perspective of mortals. Of course, there is a huge gap between them. Mephisto is a demon like Dormammu, a demon with a cosmological identity and a dimension of his own. Loki in the MCU doesn't yet have this cosmological identity, but is more of a psychic "demon".
Loki's myth or "theological content" is still to be shaped and unearthed. In this regard, Loki is a very potential character, such as to express the sense of absurdity. Loki can be a "nihilist" and a "romantic" at the same time, and can flip. From the side view, Loki's declaration in "Avengers 1" and retelling in the first episode of "Loki" is not completely wrong, but half right. It can go to the other half.
2) Loki's Faults and Transformations - From Dusk to Carol
The first episode of "Rocky" is about Loki's transformation. From previous MCU storylines, we know that Loki's transformation took place in Thor: Ragnarok. The first episode of Loki shares many similarities with the scenes from Thor 3.
The Time Difference Authority (TVA), like Saka Star, is a place that seems to be governed very arbitrarily. The former is a place where time is abnormal, and the latter is a place where space is abnormal. Both places use "short videos" to explain the local management rules to you; both have demonstrations of executions; both have the same discipline as prisoners; both are governed by cosmic forces (Gao Tianzun and Time Elder).
The reason for Loki's transformation in previous plot lines. The reason is probably that, first of all, he achieved his goal and became the ruler of Asgard - albeit by impersonating Odin, at least he did experience that feeling. The second is that he lost the power and honor he wanted in the face of powerful forces.
In "Thor 3", we can see that Loki pretended to be Odin as the main god, built a huge statue for himself, and directed his own dramas to show off his own, so that his subjects could watch. At the same time, he ignored the chaos in the realm he ruled and did not manage the realm of Asgard seriously. So, what was Loki's motivation for becoming king? In trying to be king, the manifesto made was interesting. A self-proclaimed liberator, he ends up enjoying the praise of others.
In fact, all he wanted was a sad sense of identification, an empty and boring identification. He belittled the son of Odin, in order to make himself recognized by Odin, in order to seize the throne of Odin. He always emphasizes his origins as a king, but ignores the fact that he is "unmatched".
The problem with Loki is that he's exactly the kind of guy he demeans. As his adoptive mother Frigga said in "Thor 2", he always thought he could see through others, but he couldn't see himself. He said that human beings are enslaved by the lie of "free will", by the temptation to choose, by the blindness of the pursuit of power... These all apply to Loki himself. He is his own prison.
Loki, from the "Avengers 1" plot line, hasn't realized his fault yet. Agent Mobius in the first episode of "Rocky", trying to bring about Loki's transformation, did almost as much as he did face-to-face with the problems that Loki faced in "Thor 2" and "Thor 3." For example, Agent Mobius asked Loki: After you rule the world, what can you do? Doesn't what you say about "the lie of liberty" apply to you?
Loki needs to face himself. Mere words are almost ineffective, so his experience is shown. The plot is similar to Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Loki is like the cold, eerie protagonist in A Christmas Carol. The spirit of the past, the spirit of the present, and the spirit of the future visited him separately - he saw his past, present and future. The spirit of the future contributed to his transformation, and he saw his dark future, an ending that was obliterated by the strong.
As for what Loki's transformation means -- ostensibly conscious -- it's uncertain in the first episode. Roughly speaking, he wanted to liberate himself from his former "Fascist" romantic identity. In fact, in front of the Time Variation Authority (TVA), Loki's identity has been reversed. Before Loki wanted to be the oppressor, now he is the oppressed, his resistance from the "right" to the "left". Loki's "fluid gender" identity also helps shape this aspect.
3) The authority and duality of the Time Variation Authority
The Temporal Mutation Authority is shown as an authority in Loki. It is both rational and absurd, and time is the ultimate trick and therefore the ultimate intellectual decision. It's like the conspiracy of history, all kinds of sinful and absurd historical choices that will later be described as reasonable and beyond rebuttal.
It can be seen that in the premises of the Time Variation Administration, which maintains a stable time, the time is strange and can be adjusted according to the wishes of the authorities. Facing the trial of the Time Mutation Authority, Loki asked: Why am I considered a time criminal, and Iron Man who actively travels through time and space is not a time criminal? The judge replied: This bureau believes that they are reasonable, and your Loki is mutated, this is the basis.
Of course, this is to show the authoritarian nature of TVA. We can actually understand what kind of time travel is allowed from the existing settings. First of all, the time traveler itself has no subjective will to break the original timeline. Secondly, the time-travel mode itself has the nature of self-recovery.
For the latter, we can know from "Ant-Man 2" that people who pass through the quantum realm will have "quantum entanglement" with super-distance properties. When the Avengers members traveled through time and space through the quantum realm in "Avengers 4", they actually had "quantum entanglement" with their past selves. After the time-travel event is over, decoherence occurs and the timeline is restored without forks or contradictions. Obviously, Loki did not pass through the quantum realm, but escaped by using the space gem, which caused the fork of the timeline, which is an abnormal timeline.
The Time Variation Authority is totalitarian, a massive bureaucracy. Its image appears to have a distinct "1984" color. For example, the eye icon that can be seen everywhere, watching; the suppressed red light, the posters on the wall of the court; the secret police constantly monitoring the people... Its exclusive attitude to the development of time can also be reminiscent of the words in "1984": who Whoever controls the past controls the future; whoever controls the present controls the past.
The Time Variation Authority declares that its purpose is to guard the "sacred timeline", as if it had mastered the only historical reason, as if history could only develop into the future according to its regulations. Like Loki, it regards itself as "divine", but it is more advanced and stronger than Loki. Loki once compared the gap between himself and humans to the gap between humans and ants. Now, Loki is like an ant. Even so, the Time Administration is still a man-made product, not really "divine". But then again, "divine" is relative. It depends on whether you have the will to change it. If the reunion does not change the will of Thanos, then the actions of Thanos are "divine" and cannot be changed. Now, the will of the Time Administration is equally repressed, but in the absence of a higher will, it is "divine".
It remains to be seen, then, how the God of Mischief will deal with the Time Difference Authority, and how he will accomplish himself.
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