It happened, my friends. It finally happened! Loki is leveling up—and as a fan of Loki from Marvel comics, like Loki: Agent of Asgard, I couldn’t be happier.
Spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 5, “Science/Fiction,” ahead!
Season 2, episode 5 begins just after the explosion of the Temporal Loom. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself alone in the Time Variance Authority, which is slowly being spaghettified. Even worse, he’s time slipping again. Loki slips to half a dozen random points on the timeline, finding that each of his friends from the TVA is living their own lives and doesn’t recognize him. But when he gets to O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), who’s a physicist and a science fiction writer, O.B. tells him something interesting.
The solution to Loki’s problem, according to O.B., has more to do with fiction than science. Loki has to take control of the story.
Throughout the episode, character after character uses storytelling language to guide Loki in the right direction. Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) tells him it’s time to write his own story. At the end of the episode, when he succeeds in controlling his time slipping, he repeats the same phrase. The title of the episode is “Science/Fiction.” Over and over, the episode hints at a major development for Loki’s character.
Loki is becoming the God of Stories.
Who is the God of Stories, and why is he the best Loki ever?
In the comics series Loki: Agent of Asgard, Loki goes through a massive change. They (remember that Loki is genderfluid in the comics) stop being the God of Lies and the God of Evil, and become the God of Stories. This means that they harness the power of narrative to work magic and change reality. It’s a beautifully written character arc, and a new title befitting a beloved trickster god.
Is that where Loki season 2 is headed? Is Loki going to evolve from the God of Mischief to the God of Stories? Judging from the many references to fiction, writing, and storytelling in episode 5, it definitely seems that way.
And, just like in the comics, it’s a beautiful direction for Loki’s character. After years of being the heel to other, more noble characters—and then finding out that his entire existence was engineered by He Who Remains to keep the Sacred Timeline on track and eventually guide him to the Citadel at the End of Time—Loki can finally become the storyteller. Not just for himself, but for the better world he wants to create.
What lies ahead in episode 6? We’ll certainly see a return to the TVA to fix the loom, but I’m hoping we’ll get that long-awaited suit-up, too. After all, Loki needs an outfit befitting a god.
(featured image: Disney+)
