What is the Judge’s Council and War Room in ‘Loki’ season 2?

Ending on a major cliffhanger, Loki season 2 wastes no time getting to the meat of the story. In fact, the first episode uses its time economically – no pun intended. After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finally gets in contact with Mobius (Owen Wilson), who had no recollection of him last season, he realizes he is slipping through time. The main concern is getting to the Temporal Loom so they can stop Loki from slipping away altogether. But before they can do that, there is the little issue of the universe coming apart at the seams.

Unable to stop Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) from killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), it caused a cataclysm of events that resulted in a Kang supremacy and timelines branching off the Sacred Timeline. As Loki gets ripped through time, Mobius and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) get dragged before the Judge’s Council, a governing body that had not yet been seen in the Loki universe. General Dox (Kate Dickie) and Judge Gamble (Liz Carr) hold council in the War Room, sitting on the points of a triangular table as they decide what to do about the Loki situation.

They have just learned that every single person a part of the TVA was conscripted because they were Time Variants themselves. Pruning the branches was the only way to stop a wave of Kangs coming out of the woodwork, and now that is going unchecked, an army of diabolical variants is certain to arrive. Devastating information, Dox and Gamble argue about what is to be done. Pruning seems the best course of action to stop this course of events, but the branches are so far past red line, that it’s practically a moot point. Though largely shrouded in secrecy at this point, the Judge’s Council has deep roots in the comics and is sure to crop up again in the future.

Loki’s Judge’s Council has variations in the comics

Though Marvel has the habit of straying from the source material when it benefits the project, there is a version of the Judge’s Council in the comics, albeit slightly altered. In Marvel continuity, the TVA exists in what is known as the Null-Time Zone dimension, where it is far removed from any interference. One of Loki’s connections to the comics timeline is through the character, Dox. An obvious reference to Mr. Paradox from the comics, Dickie’s character in the series essentially fulfills the same role. Mr. Paradox is one of many administrators who oversee respective timelines to ensure no criminal activity occurs. They have intersected with known Marvel characters such as Jennifer Walters, who keeps her job as a lawyer when she’s not using her abilities as She-Hulk.

In one instance, Jennifer enlisted the use of the TVA in the murder trial of time traveler Charles Czarkowski, who killed someone who was destined to kill him in the future. To make the trial fair, all the jurors were people who were fated to die before this event. However, one of them was Clint Barton, and Jennifer warned him that his death was imminent. For this crime, the TVA investigated Jennifer herself where employees such as Mr. Paradox and Mr. Ouroboros were present. Unlike in the series where Ouroboros is portrayed with particular glee by Ke Huy Quan, the TVA administrators are all clones of each other. Mr. Paradox, Mr. Ouroboros, and even Mobius are all identical.

Additionally, the Council of Judges doesn’t appear in the comics per se, but there are inspirations found in its pages. In Marvel lore, the TVA is organized a bit differently. TVA employees are not time variants, but either robots or clones. And though there doesn’t appear to be a war room of sorts, there are characters who carry out the will of the TVA. Entitled Justices, these are time officers who lay down the law when the TVA requires it. Mobius utilized Justices Might, Truth, and Liberty to apprehend the Fantastic Four when they were in the Null-Time Zone. Loki gives these concepts and characters more emotional stakes than in the comics, which makes it a better viewing experience. Loki and Mobius are friends, and it becomes fraught with tension when they face the threat of losing each other. Adding the Judge’s Council to the series adds another level of authority that the two best friends can flout when they are on their way to save the universe.