Can someone please help me understand how the Multiverse/Sacred Timeline works in the MCU? I'm so confused PART 1
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It became so convoluted and I have so many questions, some things that sound like plot holes, etc. I'll try explain how I think it works so you guys can tell me if I got it right or wrong, and on the way I'll leave my questions and doubts about it. Full spoilers for Loki, Quantumania, Spiderverse, basically any MCU movie that features multiverse stuff. Alright I'll begin. Let's start with HWR's explanation. "Eons ago, before the TVA, a variant of myself lived on Earth in the 31st century. He was a scientist and he discovered that there were universes stacked on top of his own. At the same time, other versions of us were learning the same thing. Naturally they made contact, and for a while there was peace. Narcissistic self-congratulatory peace. [...] They shared technology and knowledge, using the best of their universes to improve the others. However, not every version of me was so... so pure of heart. For some of us, new worlds meant only one thing, new lands to be conquered. The peace between realities erupted, into all-out war. Each variant fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others. This was almost the end ladies and gentlemen, of everything and everyone." "That first variant encountered a creature [Alioth] created from all the tears in reality, capable of consuming time and space itself. I harnessed the beast's power, and begin experimenting on it. I weaponized Alioth and I ended, I ended the multiversal war. Once I isolated our timeline, all I had to do was manage the flow of time and prevent any further branches. Hence, the TVA." All of this makes sense to me, except for one thing. "Once I isolated our timeline". What does that mean exactly? From my understand, a timeline IS a universe. Multiple timelines, make a multiverse. a universe looks like a bubble from our perspective, but if you can see the "flow of time" it stretches out into a line, the timeline. Ok, but then if Kang "isolated our timeline", how can there be a multiverse? The way he says it makes it sound like there was once a multiverse, but then he isolated his universe from the rest, to protect it from Kang variants. But that clearly isn't the case. If there was just ONE universe/timeline, there wouldn't be so many Loki variants in the show. Where the hell are these guys coming from if there's only one "isolated timeline" ? One explanation I heard is that by timeline, Kang/HRW is talking about a "script" that all universes must follow, a sequence of events. For example, in every universe Steve Rogers must become captain america. In every universe, Thanos must seek the infinity stones. If a universe goes off-script, that is considered branching, and the ones responsible for causing this branch are removed from their universe. "What the avengers did was meant to happen, you escaping was not" - Renslayer. Loki broke the script, he was supposed to stay still, but he decided to pick up the Tesseract. Something to support this explanation is the Sacred Timeline itself, we see that it looks like a single line, but when you look "inside it" you see it is composed of a bunch of other lines. It's like a optic cable. Every color here is a different universe, and since they are all following the same script, they have the same shape, they are all lined up, creating the illusion of a single line. And then the purpose of the TVA, would be to look for universes that are going off-script, universes that could lead to the rise of a new Kang variant. Which is kinda weird because according to Miss Minutes, even arriving late for work can count as branching, i.e going off script. How the hell does me getting late to work increases the probability of a new Kang being born?? Anyway. TVA wants to prevent the birth of kang variants, because they lead to multiversal wars and incursions which can destroy the multiverse. So did I got it right so far? Moving on, I'm very confused as to what Pruning/Resetting actually does. When Loki is first captured in the Gobi desert, Hunter B-15 says "Reset the timeline." A Minute Man puts a "Reset Charge" and it starts letting out sparks, we don't see what it does. In later episodes it apparently erases objects from existence. But what does it actually do that universe? So Loki went off script, picked up the tesseract, ended up in Mongolia. Does "resetting the timeline" means everything he did off-script will be undone? His footsteps in the sand for example? But what about the people that saw him and interacted with him in the desert, are they getting pruned as well? OR do the reset charges just turn time backwards to before Loki went off script and allows time to flow as it should? But then this creates another question: They just removed Loki from that universe. And "reset the timeline". Wouldn't it make more sense for them put Loki back in New York, where he was before he decided to escape, since that was his Nexus event? During the intro of the first episode you can hear Thor screaming for Loki, wondering where he ended up. What the hell happened to this universe after Loki was taken? Wouldn't it remain as a branched timeline and the events keep changing since Loki was removed?? There's this explanation of the reset charges by Loki himself and it doesn't make it any less confusing "Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline allowing time to heal all its wounds" "Which by the way sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrate everything in its vicinity" In later episodes Renslayer gives her explanation for it: "When we prune a branched reality, it's impossible to destroy all its matter. So we move it to a place in the timeline where it won't continue growing. Basically the branched timeline isn't reset. It's transferred." "To where?" "A void at the end of time. Where every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply stops." "Why?" "I don't know." Once again, it just gets more confusing. So reset charges MOVE the branched timeline to the end of time. How? Why? It doesn't look like it when we see it in action. We just see the sparks engulfing things and making them vanish. If the entire timeline is being taken somewhere else, shouldn't the Reset Charges just consume everything around them? Like a blackhole that keeps growing, creating a endless void until the entire universe is consumed and thrown into the "The Void" ? And what even is The Void at the End of time? Why is there an end to Time, when we look at the sacred timeline it forms a circle, implying time is a endless loop? Why does "The Void" just looks like Iceland or something like that? Where did the ground they walk from came from, did the TVA pruned an entire planet Earth? Was that the first thing they ever pruned? What happens if you build a rocket and try to fly away from this place, is there just an endless void above the clouds?? How is there even sunlight in there?! I'm probably overthinking it but I can't help it when the show doesn't provide any answers. This imagery here is weird, again, why is it a circle from HWR's perspective, but then it's a line "still being written" or whatever, why does it even an end here? Why isn't it looping back? Sylvie points out it would be impossible to start a branching timeline in the void and I don't really understand why. Anyway. I'm gonna do a little TL;DR of my biggest questions so far: - What does He Who Remains is saying, when he says he "Isolated our timeline" ? How does that work in the multiverse? - How does pruning/resetting really works? Why do variants get removed from their timelines, instead of just being put at their proper place so they can follow the script established by HRW? - What exactly is The Void? Why does it just looks like Earth? Why is it said to be The End of Time when the Sacred Timeline is a circle? A small question I have is, why is the entrance to HRW's fortress in the sacred timeline, in Alioth? Loki and Sylvie have to walk THROUGH Alioth to reach the castle thing, so weird. Another small question is, if the sacred timeline is a multiverse, why does the TVA just inputs the year and location on their tempads? If there's multiple universes, shouldn't they specify where they want to go, by for example typing "Earth 616, year 1985" ? Since they don't do that, it's weird how they always end up in the right place. Like for example, imagine if the nexus event is happening in Earth-1055, in the year 2014. But since they don't specify the universe in the tempad, it just ends them to Earth 1060, 2014, since there's multiple universes that experience the year 2014. And here's another one, this time regarding the Episode 6 intro: Why the black holes? Why do we see two black holes during the intro and then we go through one of them before seeing HRW's castle? During the episode 6 intro we hear famous quotes from the MCU, combined with famous quotes from IRL, then the universe "condenses" or whatever, forming a sphere, which seems to me what a universe looks like from the outside But then this thing EXPLODES, and we see this explosion happened inside a black hole, so what is going on? Then we leave this black hole, and enter another, where we see another universe apparently, hear more quotes, and suddenly we are at HRW's fortress/castle, and we are able to see the sacred timeline, once again as a circle, not as a straight line with a beginning and end. So I just wanna know what all this imagery means, why two black holes, why are MCU quotes coming from one of them, why is the sacred timeline inside the other black hole. I'll stop this post here because i'm afraid it is getting too big, I'll make a part two about my questions regarding incursions and spider-verse. [link] [comments] |
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