Warning: spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 1

Summary

• He Who Remains, the creator of the TVA, played a crucial role in the first multiversal war centuries ago.
• He erased the memories of TVA employees and created the Time-Keepers to hide his true identity.
• Ravonna Renslayer was revealed to be an ally of He Who Remains in the first multiversal war, but her exact role remains a mystery.

The first season of Loki introduced He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the creator of the Time Variance Authority, and though he’s now dead, he’s an important presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse, as he also ended a multiversal war centuries ago. The TV series Loki has been key in the exploration of the MCU’s multiverse thanks to it being mostly set at the TVA, thus taking a deep look at what this organization does and the dark secrets it had been hiding for centuries.

At Loki season 2, and here’s the story of He Who Remains’ role in the multiversal war and how and why he created the TVA.

When The First Multiverse War Happened

The multiversal war in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars isn’t the first in the MCU’s history. Centuries into the future, scientist Nathaniel Richards discovered the multiverse, and with that, its different universes and his variants. Nathaniel and his variants met with the purpose of sharing their knowledge and technology with one another, but some of those variants had bigger plans. These variants saw the multiverse’s alternate timelines as places to rule over, and this is what triggered the MCU’s first multiversal war.

However, an exact date of when the MCU’s first multiversal war happened hasn’t been given, but Loki season 2 has offered a couple of hints. Loki season 2’s newest character, Ouroboros a.k.a. O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), mentions that the last time he had a visitor was 400 years ago, when Loki time-slipped to the past, meaning the TVA was already up and running at that point. The first multiversal war, then, happened more than 400 years ago (in of linear time), and though it’s unknown the exact date when it began, season 2 might have already revealed the date when it ended.

When Loki followed Mobius (Owen Wilson) and B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) to the War Room, he time-slipped again to the past, where a wall in the War Room was engraved with He Who Remains’ face. There, Loki found some recordings and listened to one that had a conversation between He Who Remains and Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), where the former thanked the latter for being instrumental in ending the war. The recording has the date June 12th, 2321, and that’s the only date there is about the first multiversal war.

He Who Remains Set Up The Time Keepers Lie Around 400 Years Ago

At the beginning of the TVA, everyone working there was aware that He Who Remains was the leader of the organization, but at some point, he made a complete reset of the TVA. He Who Remains erased the memories of every single employee and created the Time-Keepers, three androids who would pose as the leaders of creators of the TVA, serving as He Who Remains’ mask. He Who Remains also created Miss Minutes, artificial intelligence that would provide aid to the TVA while also being He Who Remains’ assistant. As the TVA’s mascot, Miss Minutes spread the organization’s propaganda to its workers and captured variants, and told them the fake story of the Time-Keepers.

Following the same hints given so far in Loki season 2, and again in of linear time as the MCU’s time rules get more and more confusing, the Time-Keepers’ lie was set up around 400 years ago. What remains a mystery, however, is why He Who Remains decided to reset the TVA and create the Time-Keepers while he hid at a place at the end of time.

Ravonna Renslayer Was He Who Remains' Key Ally In The First Multiversal War

In Loki season 1, Ravonna Renslayer was a TVA operative known as Hunter A-23, and she was later promoted to preside as a judge. It was Ravonna who sentenced the current Loki to be pruned, and she ultimately sent both Mobius and Loki to the Void. Ravonna ended up escaping from the TVA through a Timedoor with the purpose of searching for free will, but it’s unknown where she went. After Loki season 1 came to an end, theories emerged about Ravonna and He Who Remains having a close relationship, which was confirmed in the above-mentioned tape. Ravonna has now been revealed to have been an ally of He Who Remains in the first multiversal war, though what exactly was her role and how she helped end the war is still a mystery.

Alioth Was Key To Ending The Multiversal War

When Mobius, Loki, and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) were in the Void, they came across Alioth, a trans-temporal entity guarding this place. In the finale of Loki season 1, He Who Remains explained to Loki and Sylvie that Alioth was created by the rifts in time and space created by his variants during the multiversal war, and so He Who Remains saw its potential. He Who Remains harnessed and experimented on Alioth’s power, becoming his master, with the creature’s power being key to ending the multiversal war.

Following the creation of the TVA, Alioth was tasked with guarding the Void and the entrance to the Citadel at the End of Time. Alioth would consume any living being in the Void, though some variants had been able to successfully avoid it. Sylvie and Loki managed to enchant Alioth in order to cross into the Citadel, where they met He Who Remains.

He Who Remains Betrayed The TVA

The more that is revealed about the TVA, the clearer it becomes that He Who Remains omitted various details about the multiversal war, his own story, and the creation of the TVA, and that he did a lot more harm than good to this organization. He Who Remains wasn’t honest with those working at the TVA and used them to his benefit, kidnapping variants and constantly erasing their memories in order to get them to work as he wanted. He Who Remains’ purpose through the TVA wasn’t as noble as he presented it, and he constantly betrayed the organization and everyone working there.

He Who Remains Built The Citadel At The End Of Time

After resetting the TVA, erasing the memories of every single employee, and creating the Time-Keepers, He Who Remains built the Citadel at the End of Time. He Who Remains found an asteroid at the end of time and built his new residence there, from which he oversaw the Sacred Timeline. The Citadel at the End of Time was guarded by Alioth, and Sylvie and Loki were greeted by Miss Minutes when they entered, but it’s now unknown what happened to the Citadel after He Who Remains’ death.

Why The Multiversal War Makes The TVA Prune Branches

He Who Remains isolated a group of realities with the same baseline and created the Sacred Timeline, with the TVA then built to govern and protect it from being invaded by his variants. In order to preserve multiversal peace, He Who Remains made sure that every event happened as it had to and that no variants were created, and if the Sacred Timeline branched out and variants emerged, they would be pruned. He Who Remains claimed that pruning branches was in order to prevent his surviving variants from taking over the multiverse again, but through that and his control of the TVA, he was doing exactly what he didn’t want his variants to do.