‘Loki’ and a Broken Love Story Hidden Within the TVA

With the title being Loki, all our focus has been on the God of Mischief’s journey. We explored the Time Variance Authority, but it’s time to take a step back. It’s time to explore what exactly the show is all about. Perhaps there is an answer to the events of the original multiverse and the subsequent creation of the Sacred Timeline. Let’s explore the camera’s obsession with a specific Time-Keeper and his potential connection to why the TVA consists of Variants. At the heart of it lie the Time-Keepers. They get described as almighty beings able to create a single timeline that somehow requires an entire organization to supervise. No high-ranking members seem to have met them outside of propaganda videos and stone statues. There may be one connection to the third episode’s storyline: it may all be about a broken love story.

Let’s take a short detour through comic history. Many fans instantly recognized the head judge of the TVA, Ravonna Renslayer. In the comics, she is none other than Kang the Conquerors’ love interest. She was the princess when she appeared in Avengers #23 in 1963. After refusing his advances, she would end up falling in love with him but lost hers when his commander Baltag tried to take down his former ally. Kang traveled through time to save her life but would end up splitting up in two diverging timelines. One where he manages to save her life and another where she ends up preserved in a cryo-tube.

What if a similar type of event transpired in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? At one point in time, the multiverse existed, but Ravonna always had the same fate. She would find an early end. As such, Kang’s multiversal counterparts tried to find a way to save her no matter what but ended up leading to the first Multiversal War. They are Nexus beings like Wanda that unraveled the multiverse for the same reasoning. The events would transpire until they uncovered one timeline where she lived. In reality, the Time-Keepers are a charade. In their wake, the man named Immortus supervises all and keeps an eye on the proper flow of time to secure her life. He is Kang but split from his original to lead the TVA and its true purpose.

Selfishly, he finally had a chance to keep her close when a Variant of Renslayer splintered off from the timeline. She would be the first TVA agent taken from the flow of time and become the foundation of how its members got added. This Variant was the only one chosen to keep her memories, and we see glimpses of that. There is a lot she knows that she is not letting on. Hell, she even hinted at her connection to the Time-Keepers during her sitting with Mobius. There is also the recurring visual of one particular Time-Keeper always hovering behind her head. We see it when she is judging Loki for his crimes and in her office. Marvel Studios mastered the use of complicated mythology through simple storytelling. Perhaps the story behind the founding of a single Sacred Timeline is one simple ulterior motive: love. The only question remains, was Loki right? Is the dagger that represents love truly real? Perhaps a dark and broken future awaits when Ravonna realizes the truth of the TVA that even she didn’t know. For now, it may all lead to Kang even if his future actor, Jonathan Majors, denies any involvement.

Source: Variety