Spoilers beneath for anybody who hasn’t but watched Loki’s Season 2 finale, so be warned!
One of many components I loved essentially the most about Loki’s second season finale was that its title, “Wonderful Function,” is the title shared by the collection’ very first episode, making a loop that’s fairly relevant for a present that leans so closely into time, cycles, and superb functions. After all, there have been loads of different highlights to have a good time, from the psychedelic gorgeousness of the Temporal Loom and its branches to that twinge of happiness in Mobius’ eye upon seeing his variant’s residence life. However I’d be mendacity if I stated I fully understood all the timeline shifts and shenanigans on show.
Whereas I can clearly grasp that Loki saved the day by sacrificing his common freedom to take over the timekeeping throne left empty after He Who Stays’ loss of life, I’m greater than just a little befuddled by a number of the moments that led as much as Tom Hiddleston’s last smirky-poo face. I can often grin and bear it after I’m not 100% clued-in on sure plotlines, however can solely throw my arms up helplessly whereas ready to hear extra about Season 3’s probabilities. So listed here are a number of the largest factors of confusion I used to be left with, with out even stepping into how issues play into the general MCU multiverse in any and all upcoming Marvel motion pictures and reveals. Gotta hold it restricted in some way.
Why Did Younger Victor Well timed No Longer Get The TVA Guidebook?
Per He Who Stays’ needs, Ravonna and Miss Minutes went again to the latter half of the nineteenth century to jump-start younger Victor Well timed’s experience in time-related science by giving him a duplicate of the TVA guidebook. Nevertheless, the finale’s epilogue revealed that the timeline modified in order that the ebook was by no means dropped by means of his window. Which, in a method, maybe means issues reverted again to how issues went down “initially,” with out Victor changing into an integral a part of the TVA’s existence. Solely the other occurred. (See beneath query.)
So why did the timeline change? That sequence was edited in order that viewers subsequent noticed Ravonna within the Void, making it appear to be her presence there had one thing to do with Victor not getting the guidebook. However the former TVA choose was pruned nicely after her journey again to 1868, and thus wouldn’t have performed into that journey. Are we meant to consider Loki’s tampering and timeline-repetition brought about He Who Stays to alter ways in order that there wasn’t ever a play for Miss Minutes to get Ravonna’s assist with?
How Did Victor Co-Write The TVA Guidebook With OB?
I didn’t have any points when Loki launched the ontological paradox of Victor Well timed studying from the TVA guidebook that OB wrote partly from Victor’s personal information. Even when it doesn’t make full sense, there’s a way to the insanity. But when Ravonna by no means went again to offer Victor the unique model, then are we meant to consider that he simply naturally developed the majority of the concepts that went on to encourage OB?
Maybe it is a case the place OB nonetheless remembers his experiences as they had been, even when timeline adjustments made his reminiscences irrelevant, and needed to offer Victor credit score the place credit score was due as a co-author, even when the younger boy won’t develop as much as grow to be the identical model of the sensible variant. However with out realizing WHY the child didn’t get the ebook, it’s more durable to justify the TVA getting a second guidebook in any respect.
Was He Who Stays Time-Slipping Into Victor Well timed?
At a number of factors throughout Victor Well timed’s…time…on-screen, I had a rising feeling that he at occasions knew greater than he was letting on, which occurred within the finale as nicely. (Significantly when he spoke of infinite timelines and completed Loki’s sentences.) However since he appeared so buffoonishly clumsy and clueless at different occasions, I sorta chalked it as much as the character’s quirks.
However when Loki went again to the occasions of Season 1’s finale, wherein he tried again and again to cease Sylvie, He Who Stays very deliberately stuttered in the way in which that Victor was recognized to do, and he additionally bragged to the trickster god about how superb he’s at time-slipping. So regardless that it hasn’t been confirmed that characters can time-slip into their variants’ our bodies, is that type of energy one thing that He Who Stays is able to? Or, alternately, might he have used different powers to return and change Victor at sure occasions with out really changing the variant fully?
Why Was There A TVA Brand In The Void?
Simply after Ravonna awoke in The Void, the digital camera swooped all the way down to reveal she was close to a chunk of wall or flooring that featured the TVA’s brand. However how on the earth (or exterior of it) would which have occurred? If every thing inside The Void was pruned from alternate timelines, that presumably signifies that the TVA viewers noticed on the finish of the Season 2 finale is a essentially totally different institution than the one we had been launched to within the first season.
Or, since The Void exists on the finish of time, maybe it signifies that the TVA will finally dissolve/collapse/and so on. in a method that will enable it to get pruned from no matter timeline-adjacent capability it exists in. However how does that even occur?
Why Did not Alioth Eat That Pyramid But?
The Void that we see Ravonna in is fairly empty in comparison with the setting we witnessed in Season 1, the place it was stuffed with Marvel easter eggs and references. Maybe that was an indication of adjustments in pruning following He Who Stays’ loss of life, regardless that complete timelines had been going away left and proper. However one of many solely issues that was proven was a bigass pyramid, which is presumably the identical construction that appeared beforehand, even with the Sphinx-with-nose nonetheless subsequent to it. (And if it in some way wasn’t the identical, then why not use one other immediately recognizable constructing from Earth’s historical past?)
But when Ravonna wasn’t even there for 90 seconds earlier than Alioth arrived to gobble her up, how is that pyramid nonetheless standing? Are pyramids onerous for Alioth to chew, with the corners going proper into his gums? Or is he saving it for final as a sandy delicacy?
Each of Loki’s full seasons can be found to stream with a Disney+ subscription, with the making-of particular set to debut on Wednesday, November 29.
