Lokiseason two concluded a 14-year journey for Tom Hiddleston and his titular character, putting him in an exclusive group of MCU characters who received a proper ending. It’s easily the best-received storyline Marvel released on Disney+, aside fromWandaVision. The directors of the final episode, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, demonstrated great care in how they delivered the finale and showed the audience how much it all meant to them. However, even the most beautiful gems come with a flaw or two.
Some threads will almost always fall by the wayside when trying to tie up every loose end. Writers and directors do the best that they can. None of these issues detract from all that the team achieved, or whereLoki ends up by the end. Unfortunately, Sylvie proves to be underdeveloped and less impactful. Meanwhile, Ravonna Renslayer’s threat falls flat, proving not to add much tension.
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Finale Date
July 30, 2025
Lokiseason two did more than give the titular character an ending he deserved. It also told a complete story, brought everything full circle, and set upthe future of the MCU. It did all this in only six episodes. It even managed to introduce a new character, Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), who fans fell in love with immediately. While it’s natural for fans to want more,Lokitold a near perfect story that shouldn’t continue unless the showrunners or some other creative can tell an equally compelling story.
But It Dropped the Ball on Renslayer
Near perfect, unfortunately, isn’t quite perfect. The second season of the miniseries did drop the ball with one or two of its characters. Not every character received a fully fleshed-out story like the God of Mischief. That’s to be expected when there’s such a large cast, especially when the writing team only has six episodes to work with.Loki’ssecond season built up Ravonna Renslayer as an antagonist of thesame caliber as Kang or He Who Remains, but undid all of that by episode four.
In season two ofLoki,Ravonna Renslayer goes through the following major story beats:
Renslayer left season one with the stated intention of exacting revenge upon Sylvie and Loki for what they did to He Who Remains. However, her return wasn’t as sinister as audiences had hoped. She teams up with Miss Minutes, but that partnership quickly falls apart when jealousy fills Miss Minutes after seeing Ravonna and Timely flirt with one another. The two team up again once Sylvie kicks Renslayer through a door to the Citadel at the End of Time. They see the decaying corpse of He Who Remains, and Miss Minutes informs Renslayer that she used to rule over theKang variant’s army. Renslayer and He Who Remains were going to run the TVA together before he had Miss Minutes wipe her memory.
Miss Minutes and Renslayer team up again and invade TVA headquarters, killing those whom Loki and Mobius captured, except for one of the hunters. However, the plan becomes a little muddled. They want Timely to become the new He Who Remains, but they never put much effort into executing their plan. By episode four, Loki prunes Renslayer, and O.B. disconnects Miss Minutes, ending their threat. There was never any real tension with Renslayer. She and Miss Minutes were just kind of there. Dox and her group of hunters proved to be more of a threat.
Loki Season 2 Also Let Sylvie Down
There’s no denying that the second season ofLokiunderutilized Sylvie. After building her up as a monstrous force within the multiverse, it didn’t do anything to develop her character. Loki saw a tremendous amount of development throughout his show. Meanwhile, Sylvie was exactly who she was at the start of the series.
The showrunners had a chance to explore more of Sylvie’s relationship with the titular character, and failed to do so. Granted, they only had six episodes to work with and needed to keep the story going. Dealing with her andLoki’s mutual romantic feelingswould have slammed the brakes on an otherwise fast-running season. However, that doesn’t excuse everything else.
The first season saw Sylvie accomplish her goal of killing He Who Remains, allowing the sacred timeline to branch. She just wanted to live a mundane life as a McDonald’s employee, at least for a short time. That would have been fine, except at no point did she show any kind of remorse for the consequences of her actions. In fact, she bounces back and forth with her feelings toward the ongoing events. She first tells Loki she wants nothing to do with him or his mission, and fails to believe everything he’s telling her at first. She finally helps Loki stop Dox from pruning the diverging timelines and immediately blames Loki and theTVA before leaving. She has no accountability for her actions.
That would be okay if the show spent a little time developing her, but Sylvie remains stubborn and isn’t really any different by the end of the series. She has a moment with Mobius in the finale where she shows relief that it’s all over and expresses that she’ll miss Loki, but nothing that shows she has evolved as a character. One can argue that it’s because she’s a Loki, and they’re stubborn in their ways. But as a protagonist, the show should have donemore to develop herrather than have her begrudgingly stand around in the background.
