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Loki – Opinion

The lesson to be learned Loki is that even the most powerful cosmic demigod can be foiled by the even-more-powerful machinations of bureaucracy. The streaming-TV extension of Marvel Cinematic Universe, the series follows the interdimensional adventures the title character. This cinematic villain is so loved that Marvel’s top officials transformed him into an roguish hero.

More precise would be to say that the series follows the adventures described in the title CharactersBecause it is found in a universe with infinite timelines and infinite Lokis, Those timelines—and, eventually, those Lokis—are the raison d’etre for the Time Variance Authority (TVA), which regulates and restricts the timelines, forcing all those diverging paths to converge on what the TVA believes to be the one, true plan. According to the TV show, if there are choice, variety, or oddball plenitude it seems that some suit-and tie bureaucrats will emerge to run it. This is in the name of maintaining a uniform, nondivergent system.

So a version of Loki from the MCU joins up with a female version of himself named Sylvie to overthrow the time bureaucrats—but all doesn’t go according to plan. They succeed in removing the mysterious agency leader but they unleash something more wild, chaotic and possibly worse. It turns out that a beheaded bureaucracy doesn’t disappear. The bureaucracy just discovers a way of infinitely replicating itself.