Warning: The article contains spoilers and some nifty investigation for Loki season 2, episode 4.
Wait, what?! Here we were, expecting Victor Timely to drop the bombshell revelation that he has been pretending to be all innocent and clueless in Loki this whole time — because if not, it was all just really bad acting – but instead, we got the spaghettified version of the Kang variant.
But is he really dead?
As someone who a. has strongly detested Marvel’s representation of Kang in the MCU and b. has been suggesting ways to roll back his reign as the prime villain since He Who Remains debuted in Loki season one, I am all for the idea of killing off all his variants one by one. But we are in Marvel land, and the studio is standing by its decision to make the so-called Time Conqueror the focus of Phase 4 and Phase 5. So, alas, logic must prevail…
… and it says there is no way in hell — because TVA only offering key lime pies is hell — that Victor Timely could perish that easily.
Unless Marvel’s idea of making the upcoming Kangs look evil is by offing all their variants with ease, Timely is still very much alive. Why? Well, the man technically inspired the TVA guidebook; his ideas led to the creation of the Temporal Loom. It is hard to believe that he didn’t know precisely what would happen if he was exposed to too much Temporal radiation. In fact, it was never tested in real life; the adverse effects were mentioned in the guidebook by O.B., based on what he learned from Timely’s creations. What if turning into a human spaghetti isn’t really death, but another way of time-travelling?
Sound too far-fetched? Okay, what did you think about Timely having the exact device that would make the Throughput Multipler work? He just happens to have the exact thing that Loki and the rest of the TVA needed in that moment? I am all for coincidences, people, but accept it, this was way too shady and strangely right-place-right-time.
What if that device was not to fix the Loom, but to ensure that Timely lands at the cathedral at the end of time, becoming the new He Who Remains, or to get him to the place where the rest of the Kang variants were at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Or, what if the device exploding along with the Loom was all his plan to reboot the TVA?
So, for the sake of presentation, Timely appears to be dead, but don’t gasp in surprise when you turn a corner and find him leaning against a pillar, all sauve, with none of his trademark stutter.
