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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References

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This article contains Loki episode 5 spoilers.

Marvel’s Loki episode 5 is a big one. Yes, we know…last week felt like that. And the one before it, too. But this one really IS, with the entire episode taking place (as DoG’s Kayti Burt put it) on top of a literal “trash pile of MCU and Marvel Comics Easter eggs.”

With that in mind, let’s have some fun with all the incredible Marvel references they managed to sneak into Loki episode 5.

Journey Into Mystery

You probably already know this, but Journey Into Mystery was the book that first introduced the Marvel Comics version of Thor, with Loki following shortly after. The title eventually was just renamed Thor since the Asgardians had become the primary focus of the book for years by that point. However, Journey Into Mystery was revived a few years back, with its primary focus being on the adventures of Kid Loki this time around.

Thanos Copter

The Lokis pass a helicopter with “THANOS” on the side. This is a reference to Spidey Super Stories #39 from 1979. The all-ages comic featured a story of Spider-Man and the Cat (Hellcat) taking on Thanos, who was on the hunt for the Cosmic Cube. He flew around New York City in his own helicopter with his name on the side. The reference comes up as a joke here and there, including an issue of Deadpool. Even Thanos’ giant two-sided blade weapon from Avengers: Endgame has been considered by many to be a sly reference to the Thanos Copter.

Ecto-Cooler

While the Lokis are all drinking wine, Kid Loki is shown drinking Hi-C Ecto Cooler. The Slimer-based citrus drink was a tie-in to The Real Ghostbusters cartoon of the 1980s and lasted into 2001 due to its popularity. Afterwards, it became a fondly-remembered relic to time. Ecto Cooler made a brief return in 2016 to coincide with the Ghostbusters reboot. Sadly, there’s no news of it coming back for the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie.

Speaking of Kid Loki…

Kid Loki

Kid Loki seems to be wielding a flaming sword, which looks an awful lot like Laevateinn, the sword he wielded in the Loki: Agent of Asgard comics.

Polybius

In the background of the Lokis’ lair, we see a Polybius arcade machine. Polybius is a long-running urban legend. Supposedly, back in 1981, an arcade machine was set up in Portland, Oregon, watched over by various men in black. The game was so addicting that it caused fights to break out and horrible side-effects to its players. We wrote more about the decades-old mystery of Polybius right here.

Pretty sure there’s an old Williams Space Pinball machine in there, too but that’s not as wild as Polybius.

The Void

Fittingly, the realm where all the pruned victims end up is called the Void. In the comics, the Void is a dark, inexplicable, and possibly biblical entity that acts as the evil side to the Sentry. During the storyline Siege, the Void murdered Loki, which facilitated his rebirth as Kid Loki.

Alioth

Alioth first appeared in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective #1, the same 1993 comic that also introduced Ravonna Renslayer to the world…and one that features Kang as its central villain. Hmmmm…

Oh, and Alioth was co-created by Mobius M. Mobius inspiration/model Mark Gruenwald, who gets another shout later in the episode.

Vote Loki

The “politician Loki” who we see leading (inasumuch as they can/want to be led) the loose coalition of Variant Lokis is modeled almost exactly on the version of Loki from Marvel’s Vote Loki story by Christopher Hastings, Langdon Foss, and Paul McCaffery. In it, Loki ends up running for President, with his ridiculous campaign built on the “honest” deception of openly lying to the American people inadvertently aided by a credulous news media. It’s a good read and you should check it out.

This episode also engages in the old MCU/Star Wars tradition of someone getting a hand cut off…in this case it’s our pal, “Vote Loki.”

Frog Thor

A frog resembling Thor is shown in a jar labeled “T365.” Wouldn’t you know it, Thor #365 is the issue where Loki transforms Thor into a frog. Yes, it was a whole thing. Walt Simonson’s run on the Thor comics is really spectacular.

“Frog Thor” also got a mention in Thor: Ragnarok, during the “play within the movie” seen as “Loki” apologized to “Thor” for turning him into a frog.

You know, there’s even an independent wrestler with a Thor Frog gimmick. Life is beautiful sometimes.

Classic Loki

So it appears that Classic Loki is basically what would have happened if “our” Loki survived the opening of Avengers: Infinity War, which he did by allowing Thanos to kill a duplicate while he disguised himself as some debris. Classic Loki went into hiding and developed a taste for brighter greens and yellows, and aged into Richard E. Grant, before he was pruned by the TVA and found himself here in the Void.

Classic Loki’s line about “the god of outcasts” comes from 2019’s Loki #5, by Daniel Kibblesmith and Andy McDonald:

“I am Loki. God of outcasts. They see themselves in me. And I in them. All of us, alone together. It’s why my stories always end with someone trying to put me in a box. And begin with my spectacular escape.”

Later in the episode, Classic Loki and Kid Loki literally “exit stage right,” in what feels like a very deliberately “stagey” moment that plays on the Shakespearean overtones of all of this.

The Living Tribunal

On the ground in the Void there’s a large severed head…and it’s that of The Living Tribunal, a cosmic entity created by Stan Lee and Marie Severin back in 1967. The presence of a Living Tribunal (even one who is dead at this present time), whose entire purpose for being is predicated on the existence of a multiverse, means that the TVA is trying very hard to cut all ties and any evidence of the fact that the multiverse is already out there.

U.S.S. Eldridge

The USS Eldridge was a real Cannon-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy in use from 1943 to 1992. It was supposedly sold for scrap after it was decommissioned but Loki posits that perhaps it was an unwanted Variant in the Sacred Timeline. Perhaps this is because the ship was rumored to be subjected to the “Philadelphia Experiment” that was supposed to render it invisible to the human eye. The story is sadly probably a hoax.

There’s a not exactly great 1984 movie called The Philadelphia Experiment which adds time travel to the equation, making this little callback even more Loki appropriate.

Is That Stan Lee?

At about 9:38 there’s a mural in the TVA headquarters. On the right there’s a guy in prescription shades, with a familiar moustache and salt-and-pepper hair. We’re not saying that’s Stan Lee, but…

The Castle

Yes, we know, that ominous castle sure looks like Doctor Doom’s home of Doomstadt, but…it’s probably not (or is it?). More likely, this is Castle Limbo, home of Kang the Conqueror (or…is it?).

We unpacked these possibilities some more here.

The Music

The “heroic Loki” theme at the end sounds like it’s about to break into Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Speaking of, the regular Loki theme is very similar to the part of the Delfonics “Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love)” that was sampled for Missy Elliott’s “Sock It To Me.” The original (also sampled for the Fugees’ “Ready or Not” and Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”) was about the inevitability of love, and Missy’s song was about sneaking into somebody’s house to get your back blown out, so basically the same thing. Could have some bearing on Loki and Sylvie’s story.

The music that plays during the “Loki brawl” is this show’s equivalent of Scooby-Doo chase music. That’s a good thing, by the way.

Pixar, is that you?

Was that the Pizza Planet truck? Mobius’s ride, a station wagon with a slice of pizza on top, immediately brought to mind the popular Pixar easter egg/elaborate timeline mcguffin that has appeared in every Pixar movie to date. Also, very nice touch having Lightning McQueen himself drive it.

An even nicer touch is the license plate on the car Mobius is driving: GRN W1D. As in “Gruenwald.” As in (say it with us, kids!) Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel writer and editor who Mobius is based on.

Ant-Man

At one point on the ground in the Void we can spot a gigantic Yellowjacket helmet. Yellowjacket is the codename for several size-shifting superheroes in the Marvel Comics, but is best known to MCU fans as Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross from the first Ant-Man flick.

Guardians of the Galaxy

There’s lots of crashed spacecraft, one of which kind of looks like the Dark Aster (Ronan the Accuser’s ship in Guardians of the Galaxy), and there may be a Helicarrier hanging around. There’s also a flying saucer that vaguely resembles the ship from John Carpenter’s The Thing, and a pirate ship that if Doctor Doom were actually the villain of this show (he isn’t…or…is he?) would make us think of that character’s very first appearance in Fantastic Four comics, where he sent Ben Grimm back in time to become Blackbeard. No, really.

Miscellaneous Time Variants

The fate of the Lokis is reminiscent of What If? #12, otherwise known as What If the X-Men Had Stayed in Asgard? At the end of the story, after tasting defeat yet again, Loki begged Those Who Sit Above in Shadow to allow him to rule Asgard. They agreed by sending him far into the future at the end of time. As reality started to break down, Loki went out laughing in the face of oblivion.

The bus ad at the beginning is for Calum Ross, who is an editor on the show.

The shot of all the Lokis walking as the camera swoops overhead is very much reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

Loki and Sylvie are cold in The Void. But wait a minute, aren’t they both Frost Giants? Why then would Loki conjure a green blanket? Unless he wants a convenient excuse to cuddle up with his Variant…

Loki is drinking “RoxxiWine” pinot noir…out of a box…which is a nice touch.

Is that weird, very large plant in the bowling alley hideout supposed to be a Variant Yggdrasil? Or wait…what if that’s Plant Loki?!? He’s green, isn’t he?

Next to Alligator Loki’s kiddie pool there’s a copy of The Mystery and Lore of Monsters, a 1930 book by Charles J.S. Thompson.

The tower we all keep thinking is Avengers Tower is in fact Qeng Tower, the headquarters of Qeng Enterprises, the company that Tony Stark (mistakenly) sold the old Avengers tower to in the comics.

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Spot anything we missed? (Probably, right?) Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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taggedmemes · 4 years

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SENTENCE MEME ⟶ THE GOOD PLACE / 4.08 –– 4.09 always feel free to tweak the sentence to fit your muse.

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#rp meme #roleplay meme #sentence meme #sentence starters #starter sentences #KIND / SENTENCE.#KIND / IN CHARACTER.#BASED ON / TV SHOW.

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bindingties · 6 years

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Ok, uhh, going from the events of Maya's trial from the first game and Misty Fey's involvement in the initial DL6 case, how do you think Phoenix and the Fey family overall fit into Fight Cat Verse? I've been thinking about this for the last few hours ngl, but I don't want to derail any plans that you might have.

(( under a cut bc lbr….. ))

Kurain Village and the Khura’in equivalents, I think I want to be tribes with the Kurain tribe having, obviously, come from the Khura’in tribe early on and moving close to the lake territory prior to the arrival of the Clans. I like the idea of Cat Spirit Channeling being a thing and it’s beneficial in that it kinda minimizes vague prophecies and omens, but the channeled cats, while far more specific, tend to not have as much knowledge now that they’re temporarily ‘disconnected’ from well I guess Twilight Realm is still a valid name for the Kurain and Khura’in tribes to use for Cat Afterlife.

The Kurain tribe, being small and having the ability to channel passing matrilineally, has to, as in canon, go outside itself to keep lines alive. They probably had some agreements with other tribes as far as taking mates and such. Once the Clans arrived, the Master came to negotiate and put the same question up. At a Gathering, leaders came to the unanimous decision to decide individually what they’d do. Exact terms became muddled as time went on and now the sight of a Kurain cat, particularly of the Master’s line, coming to socialize and scope out a mate is not particularly unexpected, though individual cats may get bristly. Notably, under Blazestar’s leadership, there was a thorough barring of those visits. In response, WindClan, mostly to be contrary after ThunderClan’s unjust assault, murder of their deputy, and kidnapping of a child, became even friendlier with the Kurain tribe.

Phoenix and Larry ( Ashfeather and Laureltail respectively ) are both WindClan cats and were apprenticed with Quailclaw before ThunderClan’s assault. Ultimately, as apprentices are wont to do, Ashpaw wanted to go out to retrieve Quailpaw fucking immediately after the battle and was 0.2s away from dragging Laurelpaw with him, but was stopped before anything could come of it. Ashpaw felt great guilt afterwards and resolved to be a great warrior to save Quailpaw from ThunderClan’s clutches. It’s a goal that gets muddled a bit as it does in canon, but WindClan’s close ties to the Kurain tribe do facilitate Mia and Ashfeather’s meeting.

There’s no super clear equivalent of Misty being disgraced? I mean, fucking everyone knows Stormthroat killed Dappleclaw and stole his son, but the Kurain tribe has the same internal upheaval as Kurain village does in canon. Morgan probably secretly sets something in motion to run off Misty or make her appear dead and gone sometime before or around the time of ThunderClan’s attack. Mia ends up leaving to work on what happened on her own and joins WindClan ( maybe Morgan made it look like Clans cats were involved? listen I’m essentially rewriting a lawyer game series but cats ). Mia drops a Tribe name I haven’t come up with and takes the name Sagepool and is “intellectually attracted ;)” to Poppysky. She mentors Ashpaw and keeps his life from totally imploding when some inevitable shitstorm with Dahlia’s cat equivalent happens.

( Maybe Ashpaw’s first mentor also dies in the battle and Sagepool takes the job having been there a while? Or she doesn’t officially mentor him at all and just serves as a mentor figure sometimes? These timelines are rough jashdgshdghg )

( Do I have to ax Sagepool because I totally don’t want to? Can I just fuck my own timeline & be like wow look at Poppysky and Sagepool having a very happy inter-Clan lesbian relationship shut your mouth )

Maya visits her sister a whole bunch. I may dial up the political intrigue approximately 100x by not having a Redd White murder and instead having Morgan realize Sagepool is getting Close As Shit to figuring out the Truth and sets up machinations to have her killed and it be pinned on Maya. Ashfeather is distraught, Maya is distraught, WindClan’s relationship with the Kurain tribe is growing tense ( if it blows into a full battle, WindClan could win but they’re terrified of ThunderClan swooping in again if they’re weakened ). Ashfeather steps in to investigate and ensure Maya is found innocent. Probably the murder was set up to look like a random snake/fox/badger attack but with y’know hints that Maya actually staged it, but it’s revealed Maya wasn’t involved at all. Unfortunately the depth of the setup isn’t found out because there’s the second game to do lmao.

Quailclaw and Ashfeather like... see each other on border patrols and at Gatherings and Quailclaw is a Huge Asshole and Ashfeather is like ‘:('

As my Turnabout Goodbyes equivalent is Stormthroat doing a coup but Bad, Ashfeather isn’t... super involved with the process. Maybe when RiverClan goes through disaster with Lightningstar and Poppysky, ThunderClan and WindClan both send groups to “help with the stabilization”. Ashfeather is certain things are going better with Quailclaw because working together is doing well for helping RiverClan not collapse from ousting both their leader & deputy, but Quailclaw is considering going rogue and taking a long swim in a turbulent, rocky river the whole time.

( Really ShadowClan is just out here like the fucking kermit tea meme just not getting involved At All )

#(( .... i love fight felines ))#(( also i love how you say plans like i know what the fuck im doing ))#just a witness | ooc #v { general }; grass beneath your paws | warrior cats au #death mention #suicide implied

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