# Loki TV series discussion (spoilers)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** disney-hulu\
**Created:** [January 27, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625 "2021-01-27T18:06:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 17

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/321 "2021-06-30T16:28:31Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> So, I guess Loki actually caring about someone other than himself was such a cosmic abnormality that it opened up a Nexus Point during an apocalypse.

I think it was less “caring for someone” and more “about to bone his alternate universe variant.”

> [@Smapti](#):
>
> I saw Richard E Grant listed in the credits right after the stinger - I’m guessing he was the variant in the Silver Age costume.

He was. I got spoiled that Grant was going to be in the show, but not the context. When they cut the head off that Time Keeper and the rest started laughing, I was totally expecting Grant to step out from behind a curtain as an Old Loki who had setup the TVA.

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**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/322 "2021-06-30T20:13:31Z")

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I’m guessing the variant gets sent to some sort of ‘Langoliers’ version of their time and they’ve got a very short amount of time to get out before it gets eaten away

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**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/323 "2021-06-30T20:39:36Z")

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Also they could have gone on with the Adventures of Sylvie…no Loki or, I presume, Mobieus down the line…and I would have been happy. I love them both but bringing them back lessens their ‘deaths’.

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**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/324 "2021-06-30T20:57:54Z")

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Loving this show! I’m seeing some online criticism about inconsistencies and such, but I’m just having a blast at all the craziness. Android timekeepers! A variant-agent rebellion! A Loki-world! _An alligator-Loki!_ So much fun so far.

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**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/325 "2021-06-30T21:16:12Z")

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> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Android timekeepers!

Ironic considering how careful they were to keep out robots.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/326 "2021-06-30T21:20:27Z")

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> [@Miller](#):
>
> > [@Smapti](#):
> >
> > So, I guess Loki actually caring about someone other than himself was such a cosmic abnormality that it opened up a Nexus Point during an apocalypse.
> 
> I think it was less “caring for someone” and more “about to bone his alternate universe variant.”

I’m reminded of this quote from a time-travel episode of Futurama:  
“Oh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. ‘I’m my own grandpa!’”

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**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/327 "2021-06-30T21:49:23Z")

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> [@Love\_Rhombus](#):
>
> > [@iiandyiiii](#):
> >
> > Android timekeepers!
> 
> Ironic considering how careful they were to keep out robots.

or maybe entirely the point.

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**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/328 "2021-06-30T22:16:48Z")

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I get that plotwise, it’s a big reveal that the “Timekeepers” are fake, and it’s supposed to be a clear declaration to the audience Someone Else is actually behind the TVA. But…I mean, they could just be Life Model Decoys. The fact that the specific physical bodies they interact with are androids doesn’t actually necessarily indicate that the Timekeepers aren’t real, and aren’t exactly who everyone in the TVA thinks they are. Again, I get the narrative short-cut, but…it just seems like it might occur to Loki, the God of Lies, who himself routinely uses duplicates of himself, that those androids are just duplicates of the real Timekeepers, used to keep them out of physical danger while interacting with dangerous Variants.

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/329 "2021-07-01T00:48:22Z")

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For that matter, just because they’re robots doesn’t mean they can’t be the ones responsible for creating the sacred time line.

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**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/330 "2021-07-01T06:21:53Z")

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And that’s how Asimov’s Foundation series ended up merging with the MCU…

(Man, I hope I didn’t give anyone any ideas with that.)

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**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/331 "2021-07-01T07:25:39Z")

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> [@duality72](#):
>
> And that’s how Asimov’s Foundation series ended up merging with the MCU…

So you’re saying the Timekeepers were definitely created by R. Daneel Olivaw, then.

Gotcha.

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**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/332 "2021-07-01T08:20:16Z")

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I just finished _The Umbrella Academy_. And the Commission is very much the same as the TVA. Security teams are sent out to eradicate anomalies…Seems that comics writers have a deep belief that there is some sort of “true” timeline that needs watching out for by some sort of organization. It’s a fascinating coincidence.

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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/333 "2021-07-01T09:41:57Z")

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> [@mikecurtis](#):
>
> Seems that comics writers have a deep belief that there is some sort of “true” timeline that needs watching out for by some sort of organization. It’s a fascinating coincidence.

Except that both those organizations are clearly evil, so maybe the writers believe the exact opposite.

It is a cool coincidence, though.

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**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/334 "2021-07-01T10:28:07Z")

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> [@Alessan](#):
>
> It is a cool coincidence, though.

More like shared ancestry than co-incidence maybe? Both are drawing from the common theme of order vs chaos, the system vs individuality, rules vs freedom. It’s a theme that goes a long way back, through Brazil and 1984 (both obviously influences on the design of the TVA) all the way to the Iliad, in which Achilles’ insistence that the rules shouldn’t apply to him is the inciting incident for all that follows. In this essay I will

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**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/335 "2021-07-01T12:23:21Z")

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> [@Smapti](#):
>
> So, I guess Loki actually caring about someone other than himself was such a cosmic abnormality that it opened up a Nexus Point during an apocalypse.

I didn’t really understand why that would create a nexus event. Without the intervention of the TVA, they would have been dead within the next few minutes.

The only thing I can think of is that, being gods (or godish, anyway), death of the body doesn’t necessarily mean the end of their existence, just a separation from their flesh. Having two disembodied Lokis running around, working together, may have caused problems.

But that brings up Loki’s death by Thanos in the “Sacred Timeline”. Does that mean that he’s not actually dead, and the spirit of Loki may turn up in a new body down the road in the MCU?

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**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/336 "2021-07-01T12:26:19Z")

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> [@mikecurtis](#):
>
> Seems that comics writers have a deep belief that there is some sort of “true” timeline that needs watching out for by some sort of organization.

I’d say it’s more a shared belief that if time travel becomes possible, that there will spring up an organization that tries to regulate it, for good or for ill.

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**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/337 "2021-07-01T13:18:55Z")

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> [@mikecurtis](#):
>
> Seems that comics writers have a deep belief that there is some sort of “true” timeline that needs watching out for by some sort of organization.

It’s a consequence of Stan Lee’s decision to combine all of Marvel’s characters into a shared universe. Problem was, some of those characters lived during WWII or the old West or the future. Time travel was essential for many team-ups and encounters. The more characters traveled through time, the more complicated the characters’ timelines became. Only one Marvel editor (Mark Gruenwald) had a memory capable of bringing order to that chaos. He was the inspiration for the TVA, in fact, in the comics TVA agents are literally Mark Gruenwald clones.

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**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/338 "2021-07-01T13:58:52Z")

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I found it interesting that the young Sylvie was played by Judith Grimes from _The Walking Dead_.

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**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/339 "2021-07-01T14:21:54Z")

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Unless I missed anything this is the third casual reference to vampires being real in the MCU.

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/loki-tv-series-discussion-spoilers/931625/340 "2021-07-01T14:25:04Z")

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Time for a MCU/Buffy crossover!

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