Loki Season 2 Ending Explained

Summary

• Loki becomes a brand-new god and is now integral to the stability of the entire Marvel multiverse, thanks to his sacrifice and new role as the God of Stories.
• The finale of Loki season 2 features a drastic change to the status quo, with Loki destroying the Temporal Loom and saving all the branched timelines, becoming a living Temporal Loom for the Sacred Timeline.
• The TVA’s new goal is to track down variants of He Who Remains, including the exiled Kang from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with Deadpool & Wolverine indicating that the TVA and its new status quo will continue to play a role in the MCU’s future.

Marvel’s Loki season 2 ended with a major finale with huge ramifications for the MCU and the titular God of Mischief himself, played by Tom Hiddleston. Case in point, Loki has become a brand-new god, one that has become integral to the stability of the entire Marvel multiverse. Furthermore, it seems Loki has finally discovered what his ultimate “glorious purpose” truly is.

The Loki season 2 cast grappled with the aftermath of He Who Remains’ death and the resulting influx of new branched timelines it created throughout the course of the story. This put intense strain on TVA’s Temporal Loom which was meant to weave the various branches together into the Sacred Timeline. Having gained control over his new affliction known as time-slipping, the ending of Loki season 2’s finale features a drastic change to the status quo in several different ways.

How Loki Saved The Multiverse

After spending literal centuries learning all he could and continually trying to use O.B. and Victor Timely’s Throughput Multiplier to stabilize the Temporal Loom, Loki discovered that the problem would persist no matter how many redos unless He Who Remains and the TVA were allowed to exist as they had been. However, Loki chose to break the loop and “change the equation”, intentionally destroying the Temporal Loom while using his powers to save all the branched timelines, becoming a new god as a new and living Temporal Loom for the timelines.

Loki’s New Role Explained

Wearing a brand-new horned crown and sitting upon a throne, Loki is risking the chance of a new multiversal war for the hope that something better can take the place of the Sacred Timeline. Likewise, Loki has become a new god in the MCU, and it’s heavily implied that Loki has now become the God of Stories, similar to his reinvention in the original comics from the God of Mischief he once was. As it stands, a significant portion of the MCU multiverse and all its branched timelines are now being held together and maintained by Loki himself.

“Glorious Purpose” Episode Title Explained

Loki season 2’s finale is entitled “Glorious Purpose”, calling back to the classic line from 2012’s Avengers which Loki claimed he was burned by during his attempt to claim both the Tesseract and Earth. However, this new episode sees Loki recognizing what the actual burden of a glorious purpose actually looks like.

This motivates Loki’s decision to give up his life and claim this new role, taking on the heavy burden of holding the entire multiverse together (a glorious purpose if there ever was one). As such, it’s an incredibly satisfying culmination of everything that has been seen from Loki in the MCU thus far.

What’s The Multiverse Tree?

Becoming the God of Stories, Loki is now a living Temporal Loom holding all the branches together. To that end, Loki has transformed the timelines into a true multiverse tree, complete with roots and actual branches with Loki himself at the center keeping it all growing and alive while sitting on a new throne.

Not only does this call back to the Asgardian tree Yggdrasil and the Nine Realms, but it may also be teasing Loki’s role in Avengers: Secret Wars as the comics’ version saw “God Emperor Doom” ruling what remained of the multiverse from his throne formed from the actual Yggdrasil tree of Asgard.

Where Is Ravonna Renslayer?

Loki season 2’s finale also revealed the fate of the former TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer. As seen in Loki season 2, episode 5, Ravonna was pruned following her attempt to take over the TVA and the brutal murder of those who refused to join her. Now, Ravonna is featured waking up in the Void at the End of Time in Loki season 2’s finale and is seemingly trapped there for the foreseeable future.

What Was That Purple Glow?

After Ravonna woke up, a large roar and purple glow was shown, coming from something off-screen. This is undoubtedly Alioth, the massive temporal guardian whose power He Who Remains had harnessed during the first Multiversal War as was revealed in Loki season 1. Given Alioth’s all-consuming nature of all that comes to the Void, his presence certainly doesn’t bode well for Ravonna’s MCU future.

The TVA’s New Goal Is Tracking Kang Variants

In the wake of Loki’s sacrifice, it seems the TVA’s new mission is now to be on the lookout for He Who Remains’ variants. This includes the exiled Kang seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania whom Mobius references in the Loki season 2 finale. Mobius also confirms that the primary MCU reality and timeline is indeed designated as Earth-616.

How The MCU Cutting Ties With Jonathan Majors Changes Loki’s TVA Goal

With the MCU having parted ways with Kang actor Jonathan Majors, it’s unclear if anything will now come from this storyline, as there is the possibility that the franchise will increasingly lean away from the character now when building its future. Deadpool & Wolverine shows a version of the TVA that doesn’t appear to be looking for Kang variants as a priority, which could well suggest that this goal has been altered in order to avoid any complications that have come from the MCU currently not having an official Kang actor in its cast roster.

However, this plot could be used to either justify the removal of all Kang variants from the multiverse, or otherwise be incorporated into a way to explain a potential recasting. This would make the TVA’s goal one of the Multiverse Saga’s most important current plot points should it be used to shed light on any major changes regarding this matter.

With Quantumania having revealed such a wide range of variants, some storyline will have to deal with what is happening to or with them, and using the TVA may well be the MCU’s best avenue to approach a potentially complicated in a way that still feels in line with the narrative put forward so far. Loki having had its own Kang variant with Victor Timely still presents some issues on this topic, though, as a return of the TVA team would also have to explain where their own variant of the villain has ended up.

Will The TVA Return In The MCU?

Deadpool & Wolverine has confirmed that the TVA will appear again in the MCU timeline, though it’s not clear if the group’s return in the upcoming Marvel movie will involve any of Loki‘s cast. One of the Deadpool & Wolverine trailers reveals that the Merc With A Mouth will be interacting with a new TVA agent known as Paradox, played by Matthew Macfadyen. While it’s not totally clear exactly what Paradox is attempting to recruit Deadpool for, it suggests the TVA may still be focused on some aims outside of hunting down Kang, as Wade is seemingly sent to try and retrieve a Wolverine variant.

This is especially promising in terms of the TVA continuing into the future of the MCU, as the movie makes the institution more important than ever by bringing it into the mainline movies, and raises more questions about what the group’s goals are now – though there is always the chance that temporal shenanigans mean that the TVA Wade Wilson interacts with in Deadpool & Wolverine is actually a version of the TVA that existed before the events of Loki season 2 somehow.

Whatever the case, this makes it increasingly likely that the TVA will also appear in follow-up movies and shows, especially with the Loki cast being primed to best explain what has been going on with the multiverse and its recent changes to the MCU’s heroes, and with Macfadyen being a notable casting who would be wise to similarly provide a longer storyline to. While main stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have been intentionally coy about what the future holds for their characters, the current significance of the movie bodes well for the TVA.

What Happens To Mobius After The Loki Season 2 Ending

Choosing to take a temporary hiatus from work at the TVA, Mobius finally visits and observes his original life on the Sacred Timeline. Choosing to let “time pass by”, Mobius wants to look at everything the TVA is working to protect in the multiverse. However, it would be fair to expect that Mobius will soon be back to work within the walls of the TVA very soon considering Owen Wilson’s reported role in 2024’s Deadpool 3, since he’d be the perfect character to help explain the nature of Marvel’s on-screen multiverse.

Where Is Sylvie Going After Loki Season 2?

At the same time, it’s also revealed at the end of the Loki season 2 finale that Sylvie is looking forward to enjoying her newfound freedom. This may mean that she does more than simply work at McDonald’s in Broxton, Oklahoma, as she had been. So long as she still has He Who Remains temporal device, she could easily go on a journey throughout the various timelines if she wished. Having told Mobius that she’s going to do “whatever she wants“, there are several possibilities for Sylive’s future now that she truly has freedom thanks to Loki’s sacrifice in the MCU show.