Is the TVA the True Villain of Loki?

is the TVA the real villain of Loki welcome back to Nerdist news I'm Dan Casey and today we're breaking down the latest episode of Loki episode 2 finds the god of Mischief grappling with Rogue TVA agents and existential questions in equal measure and it's hard to say which could be more dangerous at this point we're going to break it all down for you though in just a moment including what it could mean for the rest of the series in order to do so we have to spoil what happens so if you haven't seen the latest episode of Loki yet and you're worried about that sort of thing leave now before it's too late look why don't we just get this to go how about that it it packs right up let's just get it to go and we get up and we get out of here how about that okay let's get into it shall we the title of Loki episode 2 breaking Brad is an obvious Riff on AMC's Breaking Bad here though it refers to the exploits of the hunter formerly known as X5 it's Brad Bradley after General doc raid the Armory as part of her Plot to Bomb the sacred Timeline under the cover of hunting Sylvie X5 went off on a side quest this former lap dog fell into the lap of luxury in London Circa 1977 Hunter X5 it's Brad Sorry Brad began a new life on the sacred timeline as a Bonafide movie star faced with the Revelation that his life was a lie and he had a real life out there somewhere X5 I mean Brad chose to take his Destiny in his own hands one red carpet at a time making movies Brad's latest picture zaniac is facing some stiff competition at the box office in addition to a poster for Herby Rides Again is a poster for saraj kutra starring the great Kingo we previously saw this poster in kingo's playing back in the eternals there's another Marvel deep cut here too a movie poster for the phone Ranger he's a character that doctor strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael walren told neris nearly made it into that movie and nearly met a brutal end now as for zaniac he's straight out of Thor 319 tell me about zaniac in the comics the zaniac was a horror movie mov monster played by an actor named Brad wolf until he was caught in a nuclear explosion which drove wol to act out as the monster itself here though is just kind of an assho especially when his back is up against the wall but breaking Brad is also about Loki and Mobius attempting to break Brad's will in the interrogation chamber back at the TVA Brad may not want to be typ cast as an actor but he's certainly Boxed In by the episodes end inside the interrogation room raises some of the episode's many deeply uncomfortable questions Chief among them is Loki really the root of everyone's problems is Loki's glorious purpose to just bring pain and suffering wherever he goes when Loki tries to reason with Brad explaining there are lives at stake Brad scoffs he says you're just trying to make up for all the terrible awful you've done in your life you pathetic little man and he's not wrong Loki is trying to finally do some good after hurting so many people in his ego-driven quest for self-actualization and it's fitting that Loki's been recast as an anti-hero because Brad basically quotes Taylor Swift in his dressing down of the god of Mischief it's you you're the problem it's you you're the problem every time we've ever found a you the problem is you think you're special but you're not Brad really twists the knife by telling Loki that even if he dresses like a TVA agent or tries to convince himself that he can be better he's just going to wind up making everything worse you're a villain you're good got it do that in a word it's brutal but as Guardians have thick skin unlike certain Mobius as I could name because when Brad turns his acid tongue on Mobius he doesn't hold back one of the core questions behind Loki this season is what happens when you suddenly give everyone free will and no direction will Humanity make good choices and rise to the occasion will they descend into utter chaos as the universe slides into entropy or do some people actually create Brave subjugation like Loki insisted in his villainous speech in dorf way back in the Avengers it's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation when it comes to Mobius he just might despite being fully aware of the fact that the TVA is an elaborate lie and he has a life out there somewhere on the timeline Mobius has not demonstrated a single iota of curiosity about it Brad tells him you're not an analyst I'm not a hunter none of this is real I mean who even are you on the timeline do you know doesn't matter or maybe Mobius just doesn't want to reckon with the fact that he's most likely a jet ski salesman in real life he probably works at that personal watercraft store we saw in the trailers you know the funny thing about jet ski is everyone thinks that it's a personal watercraft I don't care Brad's assertion that Mobius is nothing until he has the courage to examine the truth flips a switch inside of him and unfortunately for Brad it's a violent switch and there is no Sol to call and that proves to be a tactical mistake no man you're okay maybe tactical is the wrong word that wasn't tactical I lost it Mobi is's response is understandable in a sense there's an impotent rage at work here he's a man who spent a minimum of 400 years existing for one single purpose to preserve the sacred timeline finding out that not only is your life's work a lie but your whole identity as an elaborate construct is a horrifying Revelation while Brad chose flight Mobius chose fight and the only thing that can take the edge off is some key lime pie how about a slice of pie keine now this also leads to a moment of long overdue self-reflection from Loki he identifies the root of his villainous behavior in The Avengers as something born from Rage a deep-seated anger at his father and brother and a feeling like he was out of control let me tell you something wasn't tactical while Loki may not agree with Brad deep down he also knows when to apply app a little pressure and that pressure comes from lowkey compressing the magical murder box in which this wouldbe actor is trapped okay okay and this finally lets them track down Sylvie which in turn raises even more existential questions as Michael Walsh noted in his article on Nerdist this episode asks some interesting questions about how Time and Time Travel work inside the TVA season 1 did a great job at establishing that the TVA exists outside of time and space as we know it you know time passes differently here in the TVA but so far this season has highlighted a major time discrepancy between time inside the TVA and back on the sacred timeline for example Mobius has theoretically been in the TVA for centuries or over time actually works there it's unclear we don't even know how long Loki's been outside of time and space either he speaks with such a cleare eyed self-awareness about the Battle of New York and it sounds like it happened for him over a decade ago like it did for us in real life for this version of Loki though it's only been like what 2 weeks meanwhile we see that Sylvie was able to establish a comfortable life and routine for herself at the McDonald's in Broxton Oklahoma Circa 1982 that's long enough for her to settle into a routine where she was clearly part of the community for an entire mcmin more unsettling though is x5's evolution into Brad wolf a movie star with a considerable body of work based on how much longer Brad's hair is and the fact that he's made multiple Motion Pictures it feels like he's been gone for a long long time and the implications of this time discrepancy are scary it's not scary it's elevated Thriller all right someone could theoretically leave the TVA live an entire life on a branch for years and years and then return to the TVA mere moments after they originally left what kind of damage could someone do to the sacred timeline if they could do what they wanted for decades on end before the TVA even knew they were gone um I need to catch you guys up but sylv's the last person person who's concerned with the sacred timeline or what the TVA thinks in fact the Newfound sense of Freedom that she feels from no longer being chased Across the Universe by Ren Slayer in her Jack booted thugs makes her happier than any meal ever could sylv's decision to murder he who remains and stop the TVA from actively pruning the sacred timeline raises the show's toughest moral quandry yet the darkest question of all would you prune a timeline to prevent a multiversal war between a legion of murderous tyrants at the cost of billions of lives it's an impossible choice because no matter what you do There Will Be Blood On Your Hands docs and her loyalists managed to wipe out 30% of all Branch timelines that erupted from the sacred timeline and as Hunter B15 so mournfully put it those are people those are lives billions and billions of lives lost far more than Thanos ever snapped out of existence but still not as many as he who remains had pruned over the years and probably not as many if Legions of Kang variants were allowed to Duke it out for control of the Multiverse it's a hard pill to swallow for Loki and Sylvie as Loki says in episode 1 we got to the man at the end of time and he made sense Loki understands the cruel logic behind he who remains using an army of fascistic time cops to prevent dozens of other wouldbe temporal dictators from plunging the entire Multiverse into war at the expense of free will but Sylvie doesn't believe in that kind of determinism and want and Slaughter in the name of preserving order when Loki to explain that he saw her in the tva's future so it's destined to happen she rejects the premise outright because that sounds a lot like the future's already been written and we both know that it hasn't not anymore I made sure of that he who remains his Twisted logic feels even thinner by the episode's end the TVA is left to reckon with their failure to stop General docs and the countless dead left in her wake so it's no wonder that Sylvie takes them to task over it s is this the best you can do but was there really nothing they could do as Loki tells Sylvie was Brad right or the god of Mischief in the TVA doomed to cause suffering in their attempt to help people well in the tva's current form perhaps Sylvie is correct it's a rotten broken institution still reeling from the Revelation that its guiding principles were a total lie the TVA can and should be reformed to act as temporal safeguard for the Multiverse itself rather than just the sacred timeline but that change will take time and as we learned in episode one time is the one thing they don't have you've got about 5 minutes they do have pie though how about a slice of pie key lime okay great anyway folks there you have it that's everything you need to know about Loki episode 2 but in the meantime if you want to know more about Loki's true glorious purpose in the MCU and why he's basically just Mr bright side make sure you check out our recent expc episode or if you want a deeper look into the Unspeakable horrors of time slipping check out our breakdown Loki episode 1 for now though tell us did you spot anything that we missed what did you think of this episode it's really good it is let us know in the comments below and for the latest and greatest in the world of Pop Culture make sure you stay tuned to nerdist.com

Channel: Nerdist

Views: 28,668

Keywords: Nerdist, Nerdist News, Dan Casey, Loki, Marvel, MCU, Season Two, Kang the Conqueror, Mobius, Renslayer, Avengers, TVA, Time Variance Authority, Fan Theories, Theory, Comics, Loki Season 2, Disney+, Video Essay, Analysis, villain, character theory

Id: OKBLgUuhu-Q

Length: 11min 21sec (681 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 16 2023