Rant: Loki TV-Series by Marvel

In a recent argument a friend insisted that Marvel’s Loki was queer-coded and I looked at her – on the basis of having watched maybe 3 Marvel movies in the last 10 years – in astonishment. So I recently paid my poundage and tuned into the Loki TV-series, mostly to investigate a question that had started to burn my brain, how queer is this?
And the answer is, not as much as they tried to imply.

Lets be clear at the outset here. I’m looking at the movies and TV-series, not including the cartoon or the original myths, the former because that’s not something mainstream audiences are expected (by Marvel) to watch and the latter because I am firmly of the opinion that Marvel has changed too many fundamental things about the story to consider those part of the cannon. [Like shoehorning in a Western-style nuclear family]

Bisexuality

The show does tell us, through dialogue, that Loki is bisexual (interested in both men and women). Leading the queer community to collectively creaming their pants. But Marvel then immediately backpedaled it with a male-female romance between Loki and Sylvie. I don’t want to imply any kind of bi-erasure, but here was an opportunity for Marvel to commit to actual representation and they chickened out. I presume to avoid doing anything queer enough to offend the conservative elements of their movie viewership. Ironic as the target market for the series seems to be Gen-Z viewers.

What about Mobius? Well, its unclear. There are a few instances where body language suggests a deeper or more personal relationship. Their feet tangling together under the table in the cafeteria, or Mobius guiding Loki into the Roxxmart with a hand on his lower back. But I struggle to see that subtext in their interactions and dialogue, for me those physical actions were jarringly out of context. To my mind isolated actions cant be counted if they appear without other supporting evidence.

Ok, so Loki is bi, as along as nobody expects Marvel to actually have to show any gay action going on.

Gender Fluidity

But what about gender fluidity? The original myths do describe Loki as transforming into a mare and going on to birth the 8-legged colt Sleipnir. People have interpreted this and similar stories as indicative of gender fluidity. But again, Marvel’s characters bear little resemblance to the source material. In the show, there is a document, Loki’s case file, in which his sex is recorded as fluid. It is there is black and white. BUT the image appears for a split second towards the end of the very long end-credits sequence. Basically its a detail that would pass unnoticed by everyone except the sort of people who go through stuff like that frame-by-frame looking for Easter eggs. I’m sorry but it doesn’t count to hide things away where a reasonable person wont find them.

But further, the show does nothing to support the assertion of gender fluidity. Loki always presents as a man, with absolutely no feminine (or non-masculine) flairs anywhere. And no the long hair doesn’t count. Further he has never even disguised himself as a woman (and specifically never as a female version of himself).

If Loki is gender fluid then I would reasonably expect that at least a few of his variants would present as female (or non-binary). But the idea of a female Loki is presented as disgusting and shocking by all the other variants. How is an alligator Loki more probable than a female one? Hell even if he wasn’t fluid female variants should be more probable than the show makes out.

In the dialogue at the end of the Lamentis episode, Sylvie even suggests that the reason for her removal from the timeline could have been being born the Goddess of Mischief. Maybe she is wrong, the show never clarifies, but in the absence of another explanation it becomes cannon for the audience. None of this to my mind is consistent messaging for a character for whom gender is fluid. This is Marvel making the idea canon but in a way that only people specifically looking for it would find it. Having both sides of the cake at the same time.

All Plot and no Character

Now I could be wrong, maybe the writers were trying to convey a queer character, which leads me to my other big problem with the show, it’s all flashy footwork and no substance. Aka its all fast plot action with no real time to develop the characters and relationships.

Loki and Mobius’ friendship – 1.5 episodes, before he runs off with Sylvie.

Falling in love with Sylvie – a single conversation. Like there is no way two people this damaged would fall in love this quickly.

It was jarring to watch, even with some exceptional work by the actors.

And I’m not going to even try discuss the plot because I hate time-travel and the whole multiverse-bullshit is just Marvel writing themselves a diamond-studded get-out-of-jail, Deus-ex-Machina, free-pass to do whatever the fuck they like. Think this is the last you will see of Loki, stuck in the time-tree-thingy? Not a chance.

In the first season the story is simply rushed. Its sets up like a police procedural then takes a hard left turn in episode 2, and I have to wonder just how short Marvel thinks the audience’s attention span is. The procedural would have worked better in giving Loki time to develop actual friendships with his colleagues and for his character to develop away from the Loki at the end of the Avengers 1 movie (which remember is actually who this is). The show gets away with fast forwarding this because the audience is assumed to have seen the intervening movies.

The second season, gets even worse by not developing Loki at all until the last episode. Furthermore, the show is littered with, not so much Chekhov’s gun as Chekhov’s shooting range, there are so many plot threads that are just abandoned, nothing in the first 4 episodes seems to impact meaningfully on the ending.

When I complained about exactly this to a friend, she rather patronisingly pointed out that character exploration wasn’t what Marvel was about. I’m not asking for a deep show here, just that the show deals with the characters it has already introduced. The second season never addresses the massive quagmire of Loki and Sylvie’s relationship. We spent an entire season getting invested in this relationship, they breakup in the last episode and this is never resolved!

Im not saying they had to get back together, just that all that hanging emotion needed to be dealt with. People dont just magically get over things like this, there is anger and resentment and heartbreak and it needs to be talked out. I really cant understand why the writers never bother, its gold plated drama right there.

Now if you saw a different and more queer subtext in the show and it was exciting and meaningful for you, that is great. I’m not (despite how I sound) here to rain on your parade. I just don’t want to give Marvel social kudos for continuing to play the queer baiting game.