Loki and the fight against diversity

Loki’s season finale brought some answers but even more questions, making the fans really excited for season 2 and the future of the MCU at large. But while we wait for the next season, there are many aspects of the series to be analyzed, and one I particularly like is the idea that Loki’s plot represents the fight against diversity, which can be connected to our real-world issues.

At this point, maybe I got your interest or maybe you think I’m a little crazy, but either way bear with me for a moment and maybe I’ll blow your mind.

1-No Branches, No diversity

Following the events of Avengers Endgame, the Loki from the alternate timeline manages to escape right at the ending of the first Avengers movie. Loki runs away for a while until he is found and taken to what he then discovers to be the Time Variance Authority, or TVA for short, a place outside of time responsible for keeping the main timeline intact.

The TVA accomplishes their objective by preventing what they call Nexus events, occurrences which cause the timeline to branch out into other realities causing chaos and destruction, as well as by pursuing the individuals responsible for these actions, which they call variants.

Even though the discourse seems to be for the greater good, it is in stark contrast to the way things are handled when the Loki variant is captured without even knowing what he’s done and has no chance of defending himself. The TVA is judge, jury and executioner and there is no questioning its rightness.

But where does the diversity issue come from?

It is represented by the timeline. For the TVA there is ONE way things are allowed to happen, any deviation from that is a serious crime punishable by death. As a result, any form of diversity is punished without even a real justification or chance for the variant to atone. No matter if the cost is whole worlds and billions of lives, straying away from the path that works (at least in their vision) is too dangerous and justifies everything.

No Branches = No diversity

And if that statement doesn’t make you sad, try to think of this series without Alligator Loki.

This fight against diversity can be also seen as a fight against the future, since in the real world, new modes of living have emerged throughout the years enabling conversation about topics which were restricted. Hence the TVA’s retro -futuristic 60’s inspired style in its physical space and wardrobe. It is paradoxical that an organization with such futuristic power has a mode of work akin to 9 to 5 offices, which have long been criticized for its backward modus operandi. The TVA aims for the future with the ways of the past.

And let me tell you something: that is the worst way someone can do that.

But the visual style is just one way the show displays the TVA’s fixed mindset, there are many others…

2- Make believe is the way to control

In the beginning episodes we are told, in a very fairytale like way, about the Time Keepers, the three entities that created the TVA and everyone who works in it. The belief in the Time Keepers gives people purpose and their supposed status of being created specifically for the job gives them meaning while keeping them from questioning whatever they must do in work.

It’s all for the greater good, right? And they were created for that, they are special in the whole scheme of things.

But episode three dismisses all that by revealing that actually, everyone who works at the TVA is a variant, and as such they are exactly the same as the criminals they pursue and erase. This raises some interesting thoughts about when people tend to think they are above everyone else, it is easy to believe everything that vilifies the other.

If they’re told someone different is evil, it is easy to believe that because if they are special, they’re the model of goodness, and everything different must be bad. Focusing on the difference as something evil, makes us unaware of all the ways we and what we see as the other are the same. In a way, we’re all variants.

To make matters even worse we find out in later episodes that the Time Keepers are a farse. Everything the TVA workers believed and stood for was only a symbol, a fabrication. In this manner the show points how blind people can be in relation to ideals, and how easy it is to justify horrible actions when we are striving towards the greater good.

And now there’s the question.

If the establishment is just a farse, is there any reason to keep things the same?

3 – To keep or to destroy

In the Last episode when Mobius confronts judge Renslayer about the TVA, telling her it is all a lie and everything is falling apart, but that they can transform the organization into something new she replies with this:

“But what if it’s a necessary one(lie)? Someone created the Time Keepers. They create this whole place. They gave us all purpose. I have to believe they had a reason.”

It is very hard for people to let go of what they believed their whole lives, that’s why when everything is changing it is still very tempting to think there’s a reason for it all. Especially when the system which is crumbling down benefited you your whole life, as it did for judge Renslayer. Sylvie, on the other hand, had this same system ruin her world and hunt her down for years. Seeking its destruction is the only logical thing.

Loki is somewhat in the middle of all that. In the beginning he was adamant about destroying everything, giving everyone free will and allowing the formation of branches in reality, therefore avoiding the destruction of variants who caused the Nexus events. But after “He who remains” explains what’s at stake, a multiverse war, he starts to hesitate about his prior goal.

This leads to a confrontation between Loki and Sylvie which is a reflection of their lives up until this point. Even though Loki was played with and abused by the TVA, the timespan of this ordeal is very short. He didn’t have years of resentment or restriction of his freedom prior to this moment. He lived free to do as he pleased, which included such mischiefs as cutting Lady Sif’s hair and making up the D.B Cooper Heist.

At least he didn’t get away with the first one…

All the while Sylvie was hiding in apocalypses from heir childhood up to adulthood planning a way to have revenge for the destruction of her reality. I mean, can you really blame her for just wanting to end all of that?

The point is, for those who had somewhat cozy lives, destroying their comfortable reality is a great ordeal not worth the risk of bringing about a liberated future. But for those who had nothing at all, liberation, no matter the risk is the greatest thing of all.

These two perspectives are the core of many conflicts and maybe there will never be a resolution. Maybe keeping what works, despite it being a source of pain and sorrow for some people is a lesser evil. Maybe bringing down the system will cause chaos and destruction and maybe it will be the end.

Or perhaps, this chaos is temporary, and the results that will come after will be unimaginable freedom, happiness and dignity for all.

Whether we’re talking about the next season of Loki or life, we’ll just have to wait have and see. But in life we have the means to make a change and fight for what we believe in. And maybe thinking about it is the first step.

So, what do you think?

PS: Yeah, I managed to go through this big text without mentioning Loki’s bisexuality. I was keeping things general, but I can’t leave without saying

BI PRIDE!!!!