How The Loki Finale Rewrites Loki’s Destiny

Loki Season 2 came to an epic and exciting ending, as Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Mobius (Owen Wilson), Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), and their friends desperately sought to save the multiverse from complete and utter destruction. In what has already proven to be the most important installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s Multiverse Saga so far, Loki and his friends were at the center of a brand-new multiverse’s birth. In so doing, the beloved god of mischief managed to rewrite his own destiny and change his life—and the universe–forever.

In the riveting season finale of Loki, the eponymous Norse god finally learns the endgame of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Seeing that the multiverse is doomed to continually fall into the Kang variant’s hands, Loki decides to tell a different story altogether. Using his new time-slipping powers to brave the devastating power of the exploding Time Loom, Loki creates a brand-new multiverse. No longer a chaotic string of alternate realities crashing into one another, the multiverse is now drawn together into a cohesive World Tree with Loki at its center, serving as the new He Who Remains. In finally achieving the burden of his glorious purpose, Loki actively rewrites his destiny, both in mythology and the MCU itself.

Loki Was Always Fated To Destroy The Multiverse

In Norse Mythology, Loki Is Destined To Begin Ragnarok

Loki Connects to Another Real-Life Historical Mystery

Now the MCU’s most powerful character, Loki has completely changed his fate, taking his destiny into his own hands for the first time in his long and tragic life. In most stories, Loki is a character who has always been fated for destruction. Even in the original Norse myths in which the character originates, Loki was at the very center of Ragnarok—the end of the universe and the death of the Asgardian gods. In these stories, it was prophesied that Loki would break free from his chains and trigger the onset of Ragnarok. He, Surtr, and their allies would then battle against the Asgardian gods in an epic battle that would lead to the destruction of the universe. The cycle would then begin anew, with the universe and the gods reborn once more.

Loki was at the center of the MCU’s version of Ragnarok as well. During the events of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki and his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth) teamed up against their villainous sister Hela (Cate Blanchett), whose power came from Asgard’s core. In order to defeat her, the brothers were forced to destroy Asgard itself. In a brilliant allusion to Norse mythology, the film has Loki start Ragnarok by placing the crown of Surtur in the eternal flame. While this was ultimately a heroic and necessary move, Loki is still associated with death and destruction. Shortly thereafter, Loki is killed during the events of Avengers: Infinity War, a tragic ending for a character doomed to a fate of loss and failure.

Disney+’s Loki variant has more freedom to choose his destiny than his Earth-616 counterpart. Having been shown the truth of the multiverse, Loki learns of his fate on the Sacred Timeline, where he would bring about the destruction of Asgard before finally being murdered by the Mad Titan Thanos. Determined not to meet the same fate as the original variant, Loki makes a new path forward for himself. In so doing, he changes his own destiny–and the destiny of the entire multiverse–forever.

How Loki Changed His Destiny

Instead Of Becoming A World-Destroyer, Loki Becomes A World-Builder

Loki Season 2 Finale Reveals What Happened to Quantumania’s Kang

The events of Loki Season 2 give its eponymous main character more agency than ever before, helping him change his fate of destruction into one of creation. Loki gains impressive new powers in Season 2, gaining control of his time-slipping abilities and learning how to jump back and forth along the timeline. While he initially uses these powers to make various attempts at repairing the Time Loom, he eventually learns that this plan will never work. Always scheming ahead, He Who Remains had specifically rigged things to ensure that Loki would be forced to choose between the death of the entire multiverse or maintaining the Sacred Timeline alone. Once more boxed into a destiny of death and destruction, Loki decides to take matters into his own hands, coming up with a far superior third option.

In one of the MCU’s most emotional endings on Disney+ yet, Loki resolves not to sacrifice anyone else’s life but his own. Taking Victor Timely’s place, Loki steps out toward the Time Loom, enduring its destructive forces thanks to his time-slipping abilities. Growing in power as he gets closer, Loki uses his strength to destroy the Time Loom, which had been preventing the creation of a true multiverse. Surrounded by branching but dying timelines, Loki uses his power to inject new life into each and every alternate reality, tying them together into one giant World Tree, in the style of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. Sitting at the center of the tree, Loki becomes a new and better version of He Who Remains, preserving each and every timeline by his mere presence alone. Rather than being a force of death and destruction, as every story claimed he would be, Loki becomes a sustainer of life, having finally achieved his glorious purpose.

What Loki’s World Tree Means For The Future Of The Multiverse

Loki Builds A New Multiverse As The New He Who Remains

The TVA’s Full Timeline In The MCU, Explained

Loki‘s twist ending changes the multiverse forever. Most importantly, Loki’s actions in the finale make it possible for a multiverse to exist in the first place. Prior to the events of Loki, the multiverse had been destroyed by the Time War, leading He Who Remains to use the Time Variance Authority to keep alternate realities from existing at all. Designating Earth-616 as the Sacred Timeline, He Who Remains and the TVA kept a multiverse from existing by pruning any branching timeline, especially those that would lead to the birth of another Kang variant. When Sylvie killed He Who Remains the Sacred Timeline began to rupture and give birth to countless branching timelines. Even this, however, was not a sustainable multiverse, as Loki Season 2 proves. Sylvie’s multiverse was one of chaos, doomed for destruction from the moment it began.

Loki finally sets the multiverse right, weaving countless timelines together into one cohesive body, blooming in the shape of a beautiful and fruitful tree. While it was once considered impossible for a multiverse to exist after He Who Remains’s efforts to the contrary, Loki proved the opposite true. Now, countless universes outside of the Sacred Timeline can exist harmoniously alongside Earth-616. Universes like those of Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, Fox’s X-Men, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, Sony’s Spider-Man universe, and many more can all live alongside the MCU in harmony— at least for the time being. Unfortunately for Loki, his new creation isn’t the final word in the ongoing storyline of the Multiverse Saga.

There are many more villains hiding out in the multiverse, including the variants of Kang the Conqueror. The entire reason that He Who Remains limited the multiverse in the first place was to ensure that no more Kang variants could exist. However, by expanding the multiverse in a World Tree, Loki invited the creation of more Kang variants in each and every one of the alternate universes he’d sustained. Kang variants like Immortus, Rama-Tut, and the Scarlet Centurion are now ushered back into existence, putting Loki’s new multiverse on a path toward another massive Time War. The Council of Kangs will return to menace the MCU in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes struggle to keep them from conquering the multiverse. And, with Avengers: Secret Wars following a year later, the multiverse may find itself on the verge of destruction once more, forcing Loki to fight to preserve his greatest creation.

The future of the MCU’s multiverse is in Loki’s hands as he works to be a more benevolent ruler than He Who Remains. Once a being who seemed doomed to an endless cycle of pain, loss, and destruction, Loki has now taken his fate into his own hands. By creating a new multiverse in the finale of Loki Season 2, the god of mischief has made himself the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe–and one who will forever be known for the infinite lives he saved through his selfless actions.

Loki

The mercurial villain Loki resumes his role as the God of Mischief in a new series that takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Release Date

June 9, 2021

Cast

Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Tara Strong, Eugene Cordero

Main Genre

Superhero

Genres

Superhero

Rating

TV-14

Seasons

2