The first episode of Loki dived right into the aftermath of the God of Mischief teleporting away in the Avengers: Endgame timeline. But his triumphant escape is cut short when the TVA arrives to take him into custody.
Standing for the Time Variance Authority, this organization hosts a group of individuals who protect the “Sacred Timeline” from anachronisms like Loki. But beyond that, the pilot spends a lot of time trying to explain the history behind the TVA via a shady advertisement similar to what we repeatedly saw on WandaVision.
Apparently, the MCU was originally a proper multiverse, but through a chain of unknown events, these different timelines started to fight each other. That’s when the seemingly omnipotent Time-Keepers intervened, creating a singular timeline to preserve creation itself. They also came up with the TVA, an organization dedicated to making sure that this timeline remains intact.
According to a new theory, however, the Time-Keepers aren’t what they preach, and there may be more to the true villain of the story than we currently know. For one thing, the three gods as depicted by the show are nowhere to be found, despite being all-powerful to the point of making the Infinity Stones as redundant as “paperweights.”
It stands to reason, then, that if such beings exist, their implications for the broader MCU would be catastrophic. Besides, how did they create the Sacred Timeline to begin with? What if they just won the timeline war and decided to make their reality the dominant one? After all, the TVA appears to uphold an overzealous regime due to many aesthetic and narrative cues throughout the episode.
This theory suggests that the Time-Keepers may actually be manipulating Loki into hunting someone that doesn’t have anything to do with him. Perhaps that’s also the reason the show is keeping the face of ‘evil’ Loki hidden for the time being. But who this real villain could be is anyone’s guess at this point.
Of course, the series also makes a reference to Mephisto when Mobius goes to investigate a time crime in 1549 France. And since Mephisto has been rumored to be one of the MCU’s main villains going forward, this could be a perfect setup for the overarching big bad. Not only that, but when the God of Mischief compares the TVA to a nightmare, Mobius jokes that they have a department for that, a possible hint at another rumored antagonist, Nightmare.
What do you make of this new Loki theory, though? Sound off below with your thoughts.
